I gazed at her earnestly; a single glance would have enabled her to witness something of passion in my regard at that instant: I bit my lip to check what my instincts assured me would then have been said all too soon, and looking at my watch exclaimed: ‘Hard upon half-past eleven.’
She rose, and together we descended to our inhospitable steerage quarters.
CHAPTER XXXII
A TRAGEDY
How long it was before I fell asleep I cannot say. The humming of the wake racing away close outside was noisy; the light cargo in the steerage creaked and strained, and the thump of the rudder was frequent, and sometimes startling. I was aroused by a continuous knocking on the bulkhead. It was pitch-dark, despite a small sliding dance of stars in the porthole glass. I thought the knocking was upon my door, and cried out, ‘What is it?’ It did not cease; and gathering by this time that it proceeded from the bulkhead that divided the cabins, I jumped out of my bunk and beat upon the boards to let Miss Temple know I heard her.
I called; but though I caught her voice, I could not distinguish her utterance. I had turned in partially clothed, and groping my way to the door, stepped forth and knocked upon her cabin. The handle was touched and I was sensible that the girl’s door was ajar.
‘Are you there, Mr. Dugdale?’
‘Yes. What is the matter?’
‘Did not you hear a pistol-shot?’
‘No,’ I cried.
‘I am certain a firearm has been discharged,’ she exclaimed.