"Has he been pestering you too?" he demanded, as if aggrieved himself, "the bankrupt crook! Never mind him, Sallie. I'm going to kick him off the ship first thing to-morrow morning. He hasn't a cent to bless himself with, and—no man will ever marry you without money to burn, believe me."
Sallie drew a deep breath of belated relief. That load at least had been lifted from her mind. She was at last free of the fear which had been growing day by day as the Olive Branch neared port.
A head and shoulders emerged from the engine-room skylight and she went that way. It was Brasse, the chief engineer, come up for a mouthful or two of fresh air. He nodded to Sallie.
"Your friend's all right," he told her in a low tone. "The old man left him alone in the mate's room till an hour ago and then told me to take him back to the stokehold. He's going to swim for it now. I must get a line let down—"
"I'll do that," she said swiftly, "there—between the two boats. Tell him where to look for it. And oh! Mr. Brasse—"
He would not wait to be thanked. "I'll send him up right away, then. The sooner he's over the side the better," said he, and so disappeared.
Sallie climbed the rail, and, having found a coil of rope within one of the two life-boats there, was letting that gently overside when another shadow joined her.
"How are you going to manage after you get ashore?" she asked hurriedly as she was making the rope fast.
"I have my own kit in this water-tight bundle," he told her. "I'll make for the steps below those bathing-houses on the breakwater. It's only a short swim."
"But afterwards? You'll need money."