"Of course, it is I—who else?" she asked. "Did not Captain Coke tell you to expect me?"
"No."
"How odd! That is what he arranged. A man came and rapped at my door."
"Pardon me one moment."
He leaned over the bridge and hailed the watch. The same hoarse voice that had roused Iris answered his questions, and, in the faint light that came from the binnacle, she caught a flicker of amusement on his face.
"Our excellent skipper's intentions have been defeated," he said. "He told one of the men to call him at seven bells, but not to wake you until the Cross was visible. His orders have been obeyed quite literally. He will be summoned in another hour, and you have been dragged from bed to gaze at the False Cross, which every foremast hand persists in regarding as the real article. The true Cross, of which Alpha Crucis is the Southern Pole star, comes up over the horizon an hour after the false one."
"But Captain Coke said he would see you and warn you of my visit."
"I can only assure you that he did not. Perhaps he thought it unnecessary—meaning to be on deck himself."
"Must I wait here a whole hour, then?"
Hozier laughed. It was amusing to find how Coke's marked effort to keep the girl and him apart had been defeated by a sailor's blunder.