hink? I fell back. I would have gone up on board at once
and left them on the quay to come up or stay there till next week, only
they were blocking the way. I couldn't very well shove them on one
side. Devil only knows what was up between them. There she was, pale
as death, talking to him very fast. He got as red as a turkey-cock--
dash me if he didn't. A bad-tempered old bloke, I can tell you. And a
bad lot, too. Never mind. I couldn't hear what she was saying to him,
but she put force enough into it to shake her. It seemed--it seemed,
mind!--that he didn't want to go on board. Of course it couldn't have
been that. I know better. Well, she took him by the arm, above the
elbow, as if to lead him, or push him rather. I was standing not quite
ten feet off. Why should I have gone away? I was anxious to get back
on board as soon as they would let me. I didn't want to overhear her
blamed whispering either. But I couldn't stay there for ever, so I made
a move to get past them if I could. And that's how I heard a few words.
It was the old chap--something nasty about being "under the heel" of
somebody or other. Then he says, "I don't want this sacrifice." What
it meant I can't tell. It was a quarrel--of that I am certain. She
looks over her shoulder, and sees me pretty close to them. I don't know
what she found to say into his ear, but he gave way suddenly. He looked
round at me too, and they went up together so quickly then that when I
got on the quarter-deck I was only in time to see the inner door of the
passage close after them. Queer--eh? But if it were only queerness one
wouldn't mind. Some luggage in new trunks came on board in the
afternoon. We undocked at midnight. And may I be hanged if I know who
or what he was or is. I haven't been able to find out. No, I don't
know. He may have been anything. All I know is that once, years ago
when I went to see the Derby with a friend, I saw a pea-and-thimble chap
who looked just like that old mystery father out of a cab.

All this the goggle-eyed mate had said in a resentful and melancholy
voice, with pauses, to the gentle murmur of the sea. It was for him a
bitter sort of pleasure to have a fresh pair of ears, a newcomer, to
whom he could repeat all these matters of grief and suspicion talked
over endlessly by the band of Captain Anthony's faithful subordinates.
It was evidently so refreshing to his worried spirit that it made him
forget the ad