“Well, will you let my uncle and myself sit up in your wireless room and wait any word you happen to catch?”
“That, too, I am afraid I shall have to refuse to do,” said Jack. “Such a procedure would also be against the rules; and especially after something that happened last night, I am determined to enforce the order to the letter.”
“What happened last night?” she asked, quizzically eying him through narrowed lids.
“I am afraid you will have to ask your uncle about that, Miss Jarrold. No doubt he will tell you.”
Eight bells rang out, and Jack, raising his cap, said:
“That’s my signal to go on duty. Depend upon it, though, Miss Jarrold, if I get any word from the Endymion which I can give you without violation of the rules, or if any message comes for either yourself or your uncle, you will be the first to get it.”
She made a gesture of impatience and turned to meet her uncle, who was just emerging from the companionway. Jarrold glared at Jack with an antagonism he did not take much trouble to conceal.
“Any news of the Endymion?” he growled out in his deep, rumbling bass.
“As I just told Miss Jarrold, there isn’t,” said Jack. “And, by the way, I hope you had a pleasant evening in my cabin last night.”
“I left there as soon as you did, right after the short circuit,” said Jarrold, turning red under Jack’s direct gaze.