"But I soon gave it up. You didn't
seem to pay any attention to what I was saying. I thought you wanted to
be left alone for a bit. What can I know of your ways, yet, sir? Are you
aware, Captain Lingard, that since this morning I have been down five
times at the cabin door to look at you? There you sat. . . ."
He paused and Lingard said: "You have been five times down in the
cabin?"
"Yes. And the sixth time I made up my mind to make you take some notice
of me. I can't be left without orders. There are two ships to look
after, a lot of things to be done. . . ."
"There is nothing to be done," Lingard interrupted with a mere murmur
but in a tone which made Carter keep silent for a while.
"Even to know that much would have been something to go by," he ventured
at last. "I couldn't let you sit there with the sun getting pretty low
and a long night before us."
"I feel stunned yet," said Lingard, looking Carter straight in the face,
as if to watch the effect of that confession.
"Were you very near that explosion?" asked the young man with
sympathetic curiosity and seeking for some sign on Lingard's person.
But there was nothing. Not a single hair of the Captain's head seemed to
have been singed.
"Near," muttered Lingard. "It might have been my head." He pressed it
with both hands, then let them fall.
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