She laid her head beside his on the pillow.
"I am looking queer", she said, "because I suspect Con of making up to that little Cameron girl. That’s why I sent him away-so I could ask you. Sholto, tell me, has he been telling her she’s pretty? Has he been making up to her?"
Sholto’s green eyes were bright. "Indeed he has! We are never alone but he is up to his tricks. ’Oh, but you’re the pretty thing!’ he says. ’Oh, the lovely little neck on you!’ he says. ’Oh, the long fair eyelashes! Come close and touch my cheek with them!’"
"And did she?"
"She did. And he laid his hand on her breast".
"And did she mind?"
"Not she. She arched her neck like a filly you are stroking. And she made her eyes large at him like a filly. But she’s innocent and Conway is not. He could tell those boys at the English school a thing or two".
Adeline bent her brows into a sombre line. "I shall tell Mary’s mother", she said, "to keep her away from that rascal".
"Well, if the ship is going down, Adeline, they might as well be enjoying themselves".
"The ship is not going down!"
The door opened and Conway, clinging to it, looked in. He said:
"Philip has gone to your cabin. He’s as wet as a rat".
"Con-come in and shut that door!" He did and stood pale and smiling before her.
"Now", she said, "no more hanky-panky with Mary Cameron! If I hear of it I shall tell Philip and he’ll give you a shaking to make your teeth rattle. Oh, you ought to be ashamed of yourself-making love to a child!"
"What has that little twister been telling you?" he demanded, his cold eyes on his brother.
Sholto began to shiver as fear produced a fresh wave of sea-sickness.
"I did not need to hear it from him", said Adeline. "She told me herself that she’d just discovered she was pretty and I’ve been watching you. Now, I say, no more of it!"
He tried to open the door and bow her out with a grand supercilious air, but a sudden roll of the ship flung them staggering together. They clung so a moment and then she said, holding him close:
"You will be good, won’t you, Con, dear?"
"Yes-I promise you".
He saw her out, then, bending over his brother, he gave him half a dozen thumps, each one harder than the one before. Miraculously those, instead of bringing his sickness back, seemed to do him good, for in half an hour they were back on deck, watching the sailors raising what canvas they dared, and feeling new hope as the sun came out bright and the foam-crowned waves harassed the ship less cruelly. When they saw Mary they looked the other way. She, on her part, seemed occupied by her own thoughts. Her mother kept her at her side. Mrs. Cameron’s intense spirit went out in a fierce strengthening of the ship so that, made inviolate by her spiritual aid, it might reach land and set Mary’s feet in safety there.
Adeline found Philip standing in the middle of their cabin waiting for her. His clothes were wet and crumpled, his fair hair plastered in a fringe on his forehead. He looked so ridiculous that she would have laughed but she saw the frown on his face. He asked curtly:
"Why did you send for me?"
"I was anxious about you".
"I’ve been standing here waiting for you".
"Only a few moments! I have been with Sholto. He’s sick".
"So is everyone. I brought up my own breakfast. What do you want of me?"
"I want you to change into dry things".
He turned toward the door. "If that’s all-"
She caught his arm. "Philip, you are not to go! You’ll get your death!"
"I should make a poor soldier if this would kill me".
"But what can you do?"
"For one thing, I can put some courage and order into the steerage passengers. They are on the verge of panic. As for you, you might tidy up this cabin. It’s vile!"
"What do you expect!" she cried. "I have a sick baby! I have an ayah who is half dead! I have Mrs. Cameron to visit! I have my young brother to look after! I worry myself ill about you. The stewardess is useless except to gossip. The ship is leaking! And you ask me to tidy up the cabin!"
In a fury she began to snatch up garments and to thrust them into boxes or on pegs.
"I didn’t ask you to get in a temper", he said.
"Oh, no, I’m not to get in a temper! I’m to keep perfectly calm. And as neat as a pin!"
"Then why don’t you?"
Before she could answer, the parrot, which had been sitting muffled on the top of his swaying cage, uttered a scream of the purest excitement as he became conscious of Adeline’s agitation, and flew violently about the cabin. The disturbance caused by his wings was startling to nerves already tense. He came to rest on a brass bracket, turned himself over so that he hung head down and, in that posture, sent out a torrent of curses in Hindu:
"Haramzada!" he screamed. "Haramzada! Chore! Iflatoon! Iflatoon!"
"I sometimes wish", said Philip, "that we had never brought that bird".
"I dare say you do", retorted Adeline. "I dare say you wish you had never brought me. Then you might have had your old shipwreck in the most perfect order! You might-"
Philip’s face relaxed. "Adeline", he said, "you make any situation ridiculous. Come, my pet, don’t let us quarrel". He put his arms about her and his lips to her hair. "Do find me a pair of gloves, for I’ve blistered my palms at the pump".
She was instantly solicitous for him. First she kissed the blistered palms, then she bathed them, applied a soothing ointment, a bandage, and found a pair of loose gloves for him. So administered to he became quite meek and changed into dry clothes and brushed his hair. All this while Boney regarded them quizzically, hanging for the greater part of the time head down.
"Philip", she asked as she coiled her hair, "is everything as simple as the Captain says? Are we in danger? Will the ship carry us safely to Newfoundland? He says he will stop there for repairs, doesn’t he?"
"We can cope with the leak", he answered gravely. "And if only this damned head wind would fall and a favourable wind spring up we should do very well".
They did keep the leak under control, the sun came out fitfully; a kind of order was created on the ship, the wind promised to fall. Regular shifts at the pumps were arranged and, when the time of changing came, the cry of "Spell ho!" rang out from Grigg’s enormous mouth. The Captain looked determinedly cheerful. The Alanna pushed on through the buffeting of the waves. She seemed running straight into the ruddy sunset. A sailor came bounding up to the Captain who was talking with Philip and Mr. Wilmott.
"The cargo has shifted!" he said, out of breath.
Philip went to where Adeline and her brothers had found a sheltered corner on the deck. The boys were tired and had stretched themselves in complete abandon on either side of her. Conway’s head lay against her shoulder, Sholto’s on her lap. Upon my word, thought Philip, they look no better than the emigrants. Adeline raised her eyes from the pages of Pendennis. His stern expression startled her.
She sat upright. "What is it now?" she demanded.
Conway woke and sprang to his feet. He looked dazed. He stammered:
"Why-Philip-why-Adeline-the deck! Look at the deck!"
"Yes", said Philip. "The ballast has shifted. She’s listing badly. The Captain says there’s nothing for it but to go back to Galway for repairs".
"Back to Galway for repairs!" repeated Adeline and Conway in one voice. Then he laughed. "What a joke on us!" He shook his brother by the shoulder. "Wake up, Sholto! You’re going to see dear old Ireland again!"
"How long will it take?" asked Adeline.
"With this wind behind us we’ll do it in a few days".
"We must not let my mother know we are there. It would upset her. She’d be bound to come all the way to Galway to see us, and the good-byes to say all over again!"