The girl, however, always appeared more interested in the third mate than in anything else.
Of course, I didn’t resent this, but it somehow made me feel conscious of my rough appearance, and convinced me that my sailor manners were out of place at the cabin table while she sat there. Her deep blue eyes had a roguish look in them as she glanced across at me this morning.
I saw that she intended to say something to me, and I felt my cheeks burn at the fear of some allusion to the unfortunate incident of the evening before.
“Well, Mr. Gore,” she broke forth, “I suppose you are not going to forgive me for wishing for that storm? You can’t be so superstitious as to believe that my wishing had anything to do with the state of the weather. You need never fear that I’ll wish for another, though, for I never was so frightened before in all my life.”
“I suppose you know that we lost two men and that another was badly injured?” I answered, quickly, and then immediately felt what a fool I was to throw such a shadow over the young girl’s spirits.
“Why, no, indeed, I knew nothing of the kind,” she answered, and her laugh was gone, and her face grew pale.
“Where is the injured man?”
“In the fo’castle,” I answered, and, as I did so, the skipper gave me a warning frown.
“Uncle David, I want you to let me go with Mr. Gore to see the poor man,” she said, quietly. “I had no idea anything so dreadful happened.”
The old skipper scowled at me and grunted out some reply, and I could see that he was anything but pleased at my reference to the accident.