The sound of oars came to me and presently a ship's boat emerged from the night, a white figure in the stern. A few minutes later Marjorie Garth, wrapped in a white blanket coat, stepped out of the boat that rocked in the swell at the foot of the Cristobal's companion and mounted to the deck.
"You would have left me like this?" she said, and stood close by my side.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"It was not a friendly thing to do.... partner," she added in a breathless sort of way.
"Your father...." I began.
"Oh!" she cried in a low voice, "I was ashamed of him. After what you risked to save me. But you must make allowances. I am all he has, you know. He'll be all right in a day or two. We're going back to Panama and home by way of America. And I've come to fetch you back to the Naomi!...."
I shook my head.
"No!" I said.
"If I ask you to come. And I'll make Daddy apologise, if you like...."
She laid her hand on my arm.