The cool night-wind fanned her hot cheeks and she made an effort to compose herself and reduce the chaos of her thoughts to some sort of order. Unfortunately for her efforts in this direction the door of the little deck-house above the companion-way opened, and turning, she saw the Captain himself.
"Good evening," she said, but for some reason her voice was half-choked and utterly unlike her own.
Something about her, perhaps the unconscious appeal of her graceful figure or the unusual note in her voice, arrested him as he was about to pass on.
"Good evening," he answered, a little less curtly than was his wont.
She hoped he would go on, but, as if recollecting something, he paused.
"I suppose you know we are bound for Singapore?" he said.
"Yes."
"Have you, by any chance, friends there?"
"No."
"I gathered from the papers you placed in my charge that your home is in England."