CHAPTER IV.
MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS.
From a distance a man had been watching us steadily—I had observed him before—and now he came quickly and with an air of bravado to where we stood. He was about my own age, but a little shorter and slighter, clean-shaven, with dark eyes and thick, black hair. Though handsome in a way, the stamp of an evil and unscrupulous nature was on his bronzed features. His dress was that of a gentleman.
“Can I be of any service to you, Miss Hatherton?” the fellow began, darting an impertinent glance at the captain and myself.
The girl shrank from him with aversion in her eyes.
“I need no assistance,” she replied. “And I thought we had spoken the last word on the ship, Mr. Mackenzie.”
“I was no party to that agreement, you will remember,” the man answered, looking at her with fierce admiration. “I have been searching for you, and when I caught sight of you but a moment ago, I judged that these gentlemen were paying you unwelcome attentions. Certainly they were on the point of an altercation.”
I looked to Captain Rudstone to take the matter up, but to my amazement he bowed and walked away, whispering at my ear as he passed me:
“Be prudent. I will join you at the Silver Lily.”