It was borne in on the girl, while she worked, that the chiefest marvel in her present condition was the triumph of science over nature in its most hostile mood. The Kansas boasted all the comforts and luxuries of a well-equipped hotel. Seated at the same table as herself was a skilful sailor, using logarithms, secants and cosecants, polar distances and hour angles, as if he were in some university class-room. Near the door, enjoying the warm sun, Boyle was stretched on a deck-chair, while Christobal was offering a half-hearted protest against his patient’s manifest enjoyment of the first cigar he had been able to smoke since a Chilean knife disturbed certain sensory nerves between his shoulder-blades. The every sociableness of the gathering was a paradox: the truth lay with the ice-capped hills and the ape-like nomads who infested the humid forests of the lower slopes.
She stole a glance at Courtenay. He was so keenly engaged on the business in hand, so bent on achieving accuracy in his figures, that she chided herself for her morbid reverie. Then she wondered if he ever gave a thought to that promised wife of his, who must soon suffer the agony of knowing that the Kansas was overdue.
Elsie was sufficiently well acquainted with shipping to realize the sensation that would be created by the first cablegram from Coronel anouncing the non-appearance of the steamer in the Straits. The Valparaiso newspapers would be full of surmises as to the vessel’s fate. They would publish full details of the valuable cargo—and give a list of the passengers and officers. Ah! Ventana would learn then, if he had not heard of it earlier, that she was on board. And he alone would understand the true reason of her flight from Chile. Her cheeks flushed, and she applied herself more closely to the chart she was copying. She had left a good deal unsaid in her brief statement that morning. How strange, how utterly unexpected it was, that Ventana’s name should fall from Courtenay’s lips—Courtenay, of all men living! And what did Isobel mean, during that last dreadful scene ere she was carried away to the boat, by screaming in her frenzy that Ventana had taken “an ample vengeance.” Vengeance for what? Had the half-breed dared to make the same proposal to the rich and highly placed Isobel Baring that he did not scruple to put before the needy governess? Surely that was impossible. There were limits even to his audacity—
“Well, how is my chief hydrographer progressing?”
Courtenay’s cheery voice banished the unwelcome specter of Ventana. Elsie started.
“I do believe you were day-dreaming,” said the captain with a surprised smile. “A penny for your thoughts?”
“I don’t think you can pay me,” she retorted, hoping to cover her confusion.
“Won’t you accept Chilean currency?”
“Not on the high seas.”
“But you are on dry land. Please make a dot on your map at 51° 14′ 9″ South, and 74° 59′ 3″ West. That is the present position of the ship. Are you listening, Boyle? According to the chart, the ship is high and dry, four miles inland.”