"Sometimes she's a thousand feet tall," he said to Drew; "and then again—"
"No taller than your heart," suggested Drew as he hesitated.
"That's about it, I guess," said the captain.
The wind freshened as night came on, and had a touch of winter in its sting. They were now running fast by the coast, the high cliffs of which rose dark and desolate on the starboard. The water was black, save where it ran hissing along the sides in a ragged gray ribbon of foam. Behind them, in the west, a crimson flush lingered in the sky. Drew stood at the break in the poop-deck, watching the shadowy forms of the crew moving about the deck forward as they made the royal snug for the night; far overhead he could hear the pennant halyards slatting against the topmast in the dark. Every taut line and halyard sang in the breeze, and there was a dull, humming roar in the canvas; under the lower sails, across the deck, the wind swept crackling and keen.
He heard the mate's last "That's well; belay!" and watched him come aft. He passed without speaking, then hesitated and came back.
"After we get through the Race," he said, "we'll begin to get the swell." He spoke absent-mindedly, as if he were thinking of something quite different; then he walked to the rail and sat down. Drew followed him.
Leaning his elbows on his knees, Medbury sat for a long time without speaking; at last he looked up with a little laugh.
"I'd give something to be out of this," he said. "I was a fool to come. I might have known better. It's funny, but a man may know a woman all his life, and at the end of the time know as little about her as if he'd never seen her—that is, really know her—how she'll take things. Now, I suppose this was the very worst thing I could have done. All that I've got to do is to wait till she gets ready and she'll tell me so. Oh, I can see just how she'll look and what she'll say! I don't need to have her tell me. 'You might have thought of my feelings!'"—he changed his voice,—"that's what she'll say. And I—" he broke off impatiently.
Drew looked at him in bewilderment.
"I don't think I understand," he said.