“Poor fellow!” she breathed, “I am glad he knows how to enjoy himself. Far better this than to find him alone sighing for something he cannot get.”
Then she frowned. Would those men ever stop laughing? Such continued frivolity was childish and unbecoming in grown men. Now if they were boys—
“Come now!—none of that, Miss Petticoats,” ejaculated some one behind her. “The captain don’t allow lady folks about the ship.”
Nina turned and saw Merdyce. Merdyce, so very subservient in the presence of his master, so very important when in the presence of his equals. She drew her wrap closer about her and vouchsafed no answer.
“Move out of that, please,” he exclaimed, with a flourish of his arm. “I want to pass.”
He was carrying a solitary bottle. Nina stood back, and he dashed by with a farewell injunction to her to take herself off.
As he entered the saloon, Nina thrust her head after him. The peals of laughter had died away, and Captain Fordyce was his usual reserved self. He was never familiar for any length of time with his subordinates. Just now, though no one addressed him, he perceived by the faces about him that there was some special attraction at the door, and he, too, glanced in that direction.
The intruding head had been withdrawn, so he turned to Merdyce. “Is there any one out there?”
“Yes, sir, a young person,” the officious youth explained; “she’s hanging about the ship.”
Captain Fordyce’s brows contracted. “And she’s been spying at you, sir, through the door.”