“Yes, Harvey”—this in the faintest whisper.
“Could you care for me at all, Tessa? I do not mean as a friend. I am only a poor trader, but if I thought you could love-me, I——”
She took a quick glance around the deck, and bent towards him. “I have always loved you, Harvey; always, always.” Then she pressed her lips to his, and in another moment was gone.
Harvey, with a sense of elation in his heart, walked for'ard to where Morrison was standing in the waist.
“Why, man, ye look as if ye could take the best man aboard on for four rounds,” said the engineer, with a smile.
“I do feel pretty fit, Morrison,” laughed the trader; “have you anything to drink in your cabin?”
“Some real Loch Dhu, not made in Sydney. Man, your eye is as bright as a boy's.”
Just before eight bells were struck Chard came on deck. He was carefully dressed in shining, well-starched white duck, and his dark, coarsely-handsome face was aglow with satisfaction; he meant to “rub it in” to Carr, and was only awaiting till Tessa Remington and Captain Hendry were present to hear him do it. He knew she would be on deck in a minute or so, and Hendry he could see was sitting at his cabin table with his chart before him. Harvey was strolling about on the main deck, smoking his first pipe for many weeks.