“Where’s Mr. Smith going?” inquired Wally.
“Oh, to London, I think! He isn’t communicative about himself, and I don’t know what his business is; he has travelled a lot, and knows Europe pretty well. Quite an interesting animal to talk to. But I haven’t run across any one with so little interest in the war—he says he’s lost heavily by it, and that seems to have soured him—he won’t talk war, except for his beloved nephew. Must be a pretty decent sort of uncle, I should think.”
“That sort of person might be all right as an uncle, but I don’t seem to hanker after him as anything at all, myself,” said Wally. “But you always used to find some decency in the most hopeless little beggars at school, Jim.”
“Oh, well, most people are pretty decent when you come to know ’em a bit!” said Jim, carelessly. “Anyhow, I believe in thinking they are; life wouldn’t be worth living if one went round expecting to find the other fellow a beast. And old Smith isn’t really half bad. Here’s Dad.”
“Where have you been hiding yourself, Dad?” Norah asked, turning to meet her father. “We hunted everywhere for you a while ago.”
“I’ve been up in the captain’s quarters,” explained her father. “He has very comfortable rooms; we have been smoking and talking. It’s an anxious position to hold; I wouldn’t care to be captain of a big liner in the present state of affairs, but it seems to sit lightly enough on him. At any rate, he doesn’t wear his heart upon his sleeve, and if he’s worried, his passengers are the last people likely to find it out.”
“The voyage out must have been exciting,” Wally remarked. “They had a huge passenger-list, and German cruisers were very plentiful—one only missed them by a few miles in the dark.”
“We’re to have boat-drill every week,” said Mr. Linton. “After the drill for the crew, a double whistle is to summon the passengers; every one has been allotted a boat-station, under the command of an officer, and we’re supposed to tumble up pretty sharply and answer to our names. Not much in it, but it will teach us where to go in case of emergency, and to know under which officer we should be. Otherwise we should be like a mob of sheep.”
The captain, cheery-faced and alert, bore down upon the little group.
“Has your father been telling you my plans for disturbing your leisure, Miss Norah?” he asked. At home the captain had small girls of his own; Norah and he were already great friends. “I hope you won’t find it a bore; some passengers on the way out considered it beneath their dignity to turn up to boat-drill, but on the whole they are very good about it.”