nder a heavy tread; he swung half round on the music-stool,
listening with his fingertips at rest on the keyboard. His little
terrier barked violently, backing in from the veranda. A deep voice
apologized gravely for "this intrusion." He walked out quickly.

At the head of the steps the patriarchal figure, who was the new captain
of the Sofala apparently (he had seen a round dozen of them, but not
one of that sort), towered without advancing. The little dog barked
unceasingly, till a flick of Mr. Van Wyk's handkerchief made him spring
aside into silence. Captain Whalley, opening the matter, was met by a
punctiliously polite but determined opposition.

They carried on their discussion standing where they had come face to
face. Mr. Van Wyk observed his visitor with attention. Then at last, as
if forced out of his reserve--

"I am surprised that you should intercede for such a confounded fool."

This outbreak was almost complimentary, as if its meaning had been,
"That such a man as you should intercede!" Captain Whalley let it pass
by without flinching. One would have thought he had heard nothing. He
simply went on to state that he was personally interested in putting
things straight between them. Personally . . .

But Mr. Van Wyk, really carried away by his disgust with Massy, became
very incisive--

"Indeed--if I am to be frank with you--his whole character does not seem
to me particularly estimable or trustworthy . . ."

Captain Whalley, always straight, seemed to grow an inch taller and
broader, as if the girth of his chest had suddenly expanded under his
beard.

"My dear sir, you don't think I came here to discuss a man with whom I
am--I am--h'm--closely associated."

A sort of solemn silence lasted for a moment. He was not used to asking
favors, but the importance he attached to this affair had made him
willing to try. . . . Mr. Van Wyk, favorably impressed, and suddenly
mollified by a desire to laugh, interrupted--

"That's all right if you make it a personal matter; but you can do no
less than sit down and smoke a cigar with me."

A slight pause, then Captain Whalley stepped forward heavily. As to the
regularity of the service, for the future he made himself responsible
for it; and his name was Whalley--perhaps to a sailor (he was speaking
to a sailor, was he not?) not altogether unfamiliar. There was a
lighthouse now, on an island. Maybe Mr. Van Wyk himself . . .

"Oh yes. Oh indeed." Mr. Van Wyk cau