Madame released my arm and walked slowly toward the house of death. At the door she turned and looked back at us as if she feared to go in. Her left hand fumbled for the latch; her right waved our dismissal. “Adieu, monsieur, adieu,” she called in a strained, unhappy tone. And we drove quietly away and left her under the placid moon.
II
LOVE IN A BARGE
A little Spitz ran back and forth on the deck of the lighter Cornelis de Vriendt, barking defiance at all the world and especially at me for my efforts to come aboard. Two fat Flemish babies clad only in shirts and no underclothes sat in the bow watching him.
“Hay, skipper,” I shouted, “where are you? Call off your dog!”
A gigantic shock of red hair appeared from the cabin, followed by a long face, prodigiously wrinkled, and a thin body in blue shirt and nondescript trousers, from which protruded broad red hands and naked feet. Like the babies, the captain stared at me in silence and made no move to come nearer.
“Are you the skipper?” I demanded, losing patience.
“Ja, mynheer.”