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"Is monsieur the captain?" he asked. "No, monsieur the captain comes now. Here he is." "Mademoiselle, without doubt, is the daughter of monsieur the captain?" "No," said Hozier, rather curtly, turning to ascertain how Iris had disposed of herself in the interior of the cavern.
"Even that is better'n tearin' one another like mad dogs," he growled. "I know wot's comin'. I've seen it wonst." Hozier made for the exit, where Marcel stood, irresolute, apparently waiting for orders. "Where are you going?" demanded De Sylva. "To see what is becoming of the lifeboat." "Better not.
Before she could frame a reply, however, Hozier seemed to recover his faculties. He stood up, walked unaided to the side of the ship, and glanced ahead. "Shouldn't we try to lower a boat, sir?" he asked instantly. "Wot's the use?" growled Coke. "Oo's goin' to lower boats while them blighters on the island are pumpin' lead into us? And wot good are the boats w'en they're lowered?
Steady now; you ain't a-goin' to faint, are you?" Coke's amiability came too late. His squat figure and red face suddenly loomed into a gigantic indistinctness in the girl's eyes. She would have fallen to the deck had not the captain's strong hands clutched her by the shoulders. "Hi! Below there!" he yelled. "Tumble up, some of you!" Hozier was the first to gain the bridge.
It need hardly be said that, under these circumstances, Hozier was the one man in whose company she would feel reasonably safe. But she could not see him anywhere. Coke and Watts, with the Brazilians and a couple of Germans, were on the bridge, but Hozier was not to be found. At last she hailed one of the Andromeda's men whom she met in a gangway. "Mr. Hozier, miss?" said he.
I suppose that the finding of the ship's booty by that huge creature has given a new span of life to some weaker fish." Hozier did not know whether or not she had realized the shark's real quest. Her next words enlightened him. "If we follow the others, will the soldiers throw our dead bodies into the sea?" she asked.
She brushed back the strands of damp hair from her face, and with deft hands made a rough-and-ready coil of her abundant tresses. "Are you planning to send me with two others adrift in a boat, while seventeen men are left here?" she asked. The Brazilian ceased speaking. There was another uneasy pause. Hozier felt that the question was addressed to him, but he was tongue-tied, almost shame-faced.
It was precisely that question of a port which had engaged Coke in earnest consultation with De Sylva and San Benavides on the bridge while Iris and Hozier were lacerating each other's feelings on the poop. Apparently, the point was settled when Hozier joined the triumvirate.
Hozier was now lying sideways on the raised deck of the forecastle; he partly supported himself on his right arm; his left hand was pressed to his forehead; he was trying to rise. With an intuition that was phenomenal under the circumstances, Iris realized that he was screened from observation for the moment by the windlass and the corpse that lay across it.
Philip took the cue she offered. "Sirius, and Orion, and Ursa Major. I shall write the names and particulars for you after breakfast," he said with a smile. "Reg'lar 'umbug the Southern Cross," grunted Coke; "it ain't a patch on the Bear." "Mr. Hozier said something like that," put in Iris mischievously. "Did 'e? Well 'e's right for once. But don't you go an' take as Gospel most things 'e says.
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