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"She took no notice, but held up the gold coin before the eyes of the boy of the swan dive. "'Don't, said Captain Bentley. 'I wouldn't throw a sick cat overside with a shark around. "But she laughed, bent on her purpose, and continued to dazzle the boy. "'Don't tempt him, Dennitson urged. 'It is a fortune to him, and he might go over after it. "'Wouldn't YOU? she flared at him.
Again she held the coin before his eyes, dazzling him with the vastness of its value. Then she made as to toss it out, and, involuntarily, he made a half-movement toward the rail, but was checked by sharp cries of reproof from his companions. There was anger in their voices as well. "'I know it is only fooling, Dennitson said. 'Carry it as far as you like, but for heaven's sake don't throw it.
"'I never dreamed, she said, and laughed a short, hysterical laugh. "All her pride was at work to give her control. She turned weakly toward Dennitson, and then, on from one to another of us. In her eyes was a terrible sickness, and her lips were trembling. We were brutes oh, I know it, now that I look back upon it. But we did nothing. "'Mr. Dennitson, she said, 'Tom, won't you take me below!
She offered the coin to each one individually, and each, as his turn came, rubbed his foot against his calf, shook his head, and grinned. Then she tossed the half-crown overboard. With wistful, regretful faces they watched its silver flight through the air, but not one moved to follow it. "'Don't do it with the sovereign, Dennitson said to her in a low voice.
And yet, to see her swimming the sharp quick English overhand stroke, and getting somewhere with it, too, was well, I understand anatomy and athletics and such things, and yet it was a mystery to me how she could do it. "She could stay under water for two minutes. I have timed her. No man on board, except Dennitson, could capture as many coins as she with a single dive.
'If I threw it?" This last more softly. Dennitson shook his head. "'Your price is high, she said. 'For how many sovereigns would you go? "'There are not enough coined to get me overside, was his answer. "She debated a moment, the boy forgotten in her tilt with Dennitson. "'For me? she said very softly. "'To save your life yes. But not otherwise. "She turned back to the boy.
I am certain that she looked on him with kinder eyes than she had ever looked with on man before. We still worshiped, and were always hanging about waiting to be whistled up, though we knew that Dennitson was laps and laps ahead of us. What might have happened we shall never know, for we came to Colombo and something else happened.
Pride of race, pride of caste, pride of sex, pride of power she had it all, a pride strange and wilful and terrible. "She ran the ship, she ran the voyage, she ran everything, and she ran Dennitson. That he had outdistanced the pack even the least wise of us admitted. That she liked him, and that this feeling was growing, there was not a doubt.
Dennitson, a quiet young Englishman, never exceeded her in this, though he made it a point always to tie her score. "She was a sea-woman, true. But she was a land-woman, a horsewoman a she was the universal woman.
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