I put my arm across her shoulders and petted her awkwardly. Presently she crowded back the sobs and whispered brokenly, not to me, but as a relief to her surcharged feelings.
"This dreadful ship of death! This dreadful ship! Why did I ever lead true men to their deaths for that wicked treasure?"
I do not know how it happened, but in her wretchedness the girl swayed toward me ever so slightly. My arms went round her protectingly. For an instant her body came to me in sweet surrender, the soft curves of her supple figure relaxed in weariness. Then she pushed me from her gently.
"Not now—not now."
I faced a closed door, but as I went up the companionway with elastic heels my heart sang jubilantly.
CHAPTER XVII
A TASTE OF THE INQUISITION
It could have been no more than five minutes after I left her that Evelyn followed me to the upper deck saloon. Yet in the interval her nimble fingers had found time to garb her in a simple blue princess dress she had found near to her hand.