“Thank you. Good-bye for the present. I must get back to my wounded.”
“Keep your spirits up,” he said. “That's the principal job now, Miss Clinton. Good-bye,—and thank you.”
He watched her as she moved off down the deck. He could not help noticing that her figure drooped perceptibly. In his mind's eye he saw her as she was but two days before, straight, graceful, full of the joy of living, with a stride that was free and swinging. He recalled her lovely, inquiring grey eyes as she stared at him on that ignominious afternoon, the parted red lips and the smile that came to them, the smartly dressed hair, the jaunty hat, the trim sport suit of tan-coloured jersey—he recalled the alluring picture she made that day, and sadly shook his head.
“Poor girl,” he said to himself, and walked slowly in the opposite direction, favouring his left leg.
He went down to see the Captain. The old seadog was stretched out in his berth, a look of pain and utter despair in his eyes. One of the Russian dancers, a rather pretty girl of a distinctly Slavic type, was cleaning up the room. The ship's doctor had just left.
“Feeling a bit more comfortable, sir?” inquired the young man.
“I wish you'd get this girl out of here,” growled Captain Trigger with difficulty. “I want to swear.”
“I think it would be all right to go ahead with it, sir,” said Percival. “She doesn't understand a word of English.”
The Captain shook his head. “I'll let it wait.” Then, looking at his visitor's bandaged hands: “How are your hands, my lad?”
“Fairly easy. The doctor says the burns are not deep. Mr. Mott asked me to step in and see you, sir, and give you my opinion as to the bombs. You see, I've had a great deal of experience with high explosives. There isn't the slightest doubt in my mind that you found and got rid of the worst of them. The officer in charge of the gun-crew agrees with me. They planted the big ones, the ones that were to destroy the ship, down in the hold, where there was less chance of discovery. The others, I am convinced, were much smaller. It would have been impossible to hide a bomb of any noticeable size in any of the places where the explosions occurred. They went about it very cunningly, very systematically. Of course, no one saw the bombs that exploded, but judging by the actual results, they could not have been very powerful.”