“Couldn’t that old lady be moved,” asked Miss Chain.
“Sans doubt,” said the captain.
“Very well, then,” said the stewardess, “I’ll put the old lady into the large cabin with these ladies, i.e., if they don’t object.”
“Why, certainly not, we should be glad to have her company.”
The question then arose as to what they were going to do. Captain Ami said,—
“Ve must go ahead stead-dy till daylight come—den pere-haps ve see some ship or get doctere from Cherbourg if he live. Aftere dat ve go back to Eengland.”
Naturally it was with unspeakable delight that the ladies heard the captain say, “Ve must go back to Eengland.” Then they recollected his own words to them, which were, “To have faith in him.” Yet the thought would obtrude itself on their minds that Falcon’s fall down the ladder might not have been quite such an accident as they had at first judged it to be.
CHAPTER XXIV
A DISAPPEARANCE AND A REAPPEARANCE
Directly Edith and Miss Chain were on board the Panther, the Doves’ carriage put up at the Bridge Hotel in Newhaven, in compliance with an order from the mate of the yacht Panther, who further instructed the coachman where to wait with the carriage after the horses had been baited.
When two full hours had elapsed, the coachman felt so anxious about his ladies that he returned to the wharf to look after them, and was, of course, astonished to notice that the vessel had vanished, but, observing a wharfinger, he asked if he knew where the steamer had gone.