"Please yourself," answered Calamity carelessly.
After this, although their relationship remained superficially much the same as it had always been, the Captain taciturn and abrupt, the girl quiet and self-possessed, there was a subtle change in the attitude of each towards the other. Calamity had come to rely on the girl, and now accepted at her hands many little services which tended towards his greater comfort, services which he would have rejected with curt imperiousness less than a fortnight ago.
One day he sent for McPhulach, and in due course the engineer appeared, clad as usual, in soiled dungarees, and clasping a piece of oily cotton-waste in his hand.
"Ye're wishfu' tae see me, sir?" he inquired.
"Yes; sit down."
The engineer perched himself on the cabin skylight, and began mechanically to rub the brass rails with his cotton-waste.
"Would you care to go to England after this trip, McPhulach?" asked the Captain abruptly.
McPhulach ceased rubbing the brass rails, and stared at Calamity in astonishment.
"Tae England?" he repeated.
"Yes. I may want you in connection with that document you signed, and quite possibly I shall be able to give you a good shore job."