Our other boat is gone to the Straits
and effective help is sure to come very soon."
"Affect me! Is that precious watchman of yours coming aft? I don't want
anybody to know I came here again begging, even of you. Is he coming
aft? . . . Listen! I've stopped your other boat."
His head and shoulders disappeared as though he had dived into a denser
layer of obscurity floating on the water. The watchman, who had the
intention to stretch himself in one of the deck chairs, catching sight
of the owner's wife, walked straight to the lamp that hung under the
ridge pole of the awning, and after fumbling with it for a time went
away forward with an indolent gait.
"You dared!" Mrs. Travers whispered down in an intense tone; and
directly, Lingard's head emerged again below her with an upturned face.
"It was dare--or give up. The help from the Straits would have been too
late anyhow if I hadn't the power to keep you safe; and if I had the
power I could see you through it--alone. I expected to find a reasonable
man to talk to. I ought to have known better. You come from too far to
understand these things. Well, I dared; I've sent after your other boat
a fellow who, with me at his back, would try to stop the governor of
the Straits himself. He will do it. Perhaps it's done already.
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