Wallis, affected almost as much as she was, could no longer delay telling her.
'Yes, it was his voice. Stay here; I will bring him to you.'
He sprang up the companion way. Casalle, with Nita's hand held tightly in his own, was waiting. They went below.
And as Wallis passed by the open skylight to join Tom and Jack, he heard the woman's voice--
'Ramon! Ramon! My husband, my husband! My child, my child!'
CHAPTER XIX
OUTWARD BOUND
Once more the white Malolo lay under Garden Island in fair Sydney Harbour, with but three hands aboard to keep anchor watch, for there were great doings at Mr. Biffen's house, which was lit up below and aloft, and every hand who could be spared had gone ashore.
Two months had come and gone since the Adventurer and Malolo parted company off the verdured hills of Fotuna Island, with cheer after cheer from the crews, as the barque headed north-westward for the whaling grounds, and the schooner stood southward for Sydney.
In the grounds of the merchant's house, which overlooked the Harbour, Mr. Wallis was entertaining not only the crew of the Malolo, but that of the Lady Alicia as well, for in the morning there had been a wedding--Mr. William Henry Chester to Miss Solepa Tuisila. The ceremony had been attended with what Mr. Brooker called 'tremendous fixins,' Mr. Wallis giving the bride away, and Captain Samuel Hawkins acting as best man to 'William Henry.' Among the guests, too, were old Foster and Kate Gorman, who had come up to Sydney in the asthmatic old 'Puffing Billy' to see Tom--only to bid him farewell again, for he was not returning to Port Kooringa with his father and Jack. He had won his father's consent, and was bound to Samoa in the Malolo as supercargo--much to the delight of Maori Bill, who, to old Sam's sorrow, was also leaving in the schooner, to become overseer on Captain Casalle's station at Leone Bay. Charlie also had shipped on the Malolo, declaring that wherever Tom and Bill went he would go too.