‘By what?’
‘Well, what think you of the suspicion which grows in me that this yacht carries along with her, in the atmosphere that enfolds her, some sort of Ariel, whose mission it is to bewilder out of its invisibility the sober senses of men of plain, practical judgment, like your humble servant?’
‘You want to frighten me by pretending that you are falling a little crazy.’
‘No!’
‘Or are you creating an excuse to return home.’
‘No again. How can I return home?’
‘Why, by the first convenient ship we happen to sight and speak. Is this some stratagem to prepare Wilfrid’s mind for your bidding us farewell when the chance happens?’
She spoke with a subdued note and a tremble of fretfulness in it.
‘Suffer me to justify myself,’ said I, and with that I led her to the captain, who stood with folded arms leaning against the rail near the main rigging. ‘Finn!’ He dropped his hands and stood bold upright. ‘Be so good as to tell Miss Jennings what the men are talking about forward.’
‘You mean the woice, sir?’