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"As for my status, I expect to be Captain Simms' son-in-law as soon as the trip is over." "All right," said Rainey. Carlsen's announcement surprised him. Somehow he could not place the girl as the doctor's fiancée. "I suppose the captain may mention this matter," he queried, "to cement it?" "He may," replied Carlsen enigmatically. "Feel like getting up?" Rainey rose and bathed face and hands.
It was Carlsen, now swiftly advancing toward him, his face livid, his mouth snarling, and his black eyes devilish with mischief. "I'll attend to this end of it," he said. "Peggy, you had better go in to your father. I'll be in there in a minute. He's a pretty sick man," he added. His snarl had changed to a smile, and he seemed to have swiftly controlled himself.
A good deal of this was enigmatical to Rainey, but there was no mistaking Lund's tremendous seriousness and, duly impressed, Rainey promised to carry out his suggestions. As he crossed the main cabin to go to his own room, Carlsen came out of the skipper's. He did not see Rainey at first and was humming a little air under his breath as he slipped a small article into his pocket.
Rainey would rather have taken it from any one else, but the whiff of burning tobacco, as Carlsen lit up, gave him an irresistible craving for a smoke. Besides, it wouldn't do for the doctor to know he mistrusted him. If he was to be a part of the ship's life, there was small sense in acting pettishly. He took the cigarette, accepted the light, and inhaled gratefully.
"No, you can't do a thing for me," he was saying. "It's this sciatica. I've got to get Carlsen." As Rainey passed through to his own little stateroom neither of them noticed him, but he saw that the captain was shivering, his hands picking almost convulsively at the table-cloth. "Where's Carlsen, curse him!" Rainey heard through his cabin partition. "Tell him I can't stand this any longer.
That was how it happened he was able to go along. Of course, father promised him a certain share in the venture. And he was a friend." She trailed off in her speech, looking uncertainly at Rainey. The latter came to a decision. "Miss Simms," he said, "are you going to marry Doctor Carlsen?" Suddenly Rainey was aware that some one had come into the cabin.
No one would have suspected anything, so quiet and shy, almost awkward. Isn't it so? You did not suspect anything?" "About the sickness! How can you ask such a question! Oh, you mean I did not quite understand you you mean it was in the blood, something hereditary? Oh, yes, I remember there was something like that, they took his father to Aarhus. Wasn't it so, Mr. Carlsen?" "No!
The skipper had been a veritable slave to the drug. Carlsen had administered it, prescribed it, used it as a means to bring Simms under his subjection. The girl looked strangely at Tamada. "Would he have taken that for sciatica?" she asked. "I think, perhaps, yes. Injection over muscle gives relief. Sometimes makes cure. But Captain Simms take too much.
If I made the sacrifice how can I tell that Doctor Carlsen could would save him? What shall I do?" She was in an agony of self-questioning, of doubt. "To see him lie there like that. I can not bear it." "Miss Simms," said Rainey, "your father is not in his right mind or he would see Carlsen as you do, as I do. Carlsen's brain is turned with the lure of the gold.
I don't see as we can help the skipper much 'less we try reverse treatment of what Carlsen did. If we knew what that was? If he gits worse she'll let us know, I reckon. Mebbe you can suggest somethin'?" Rainey shook his head. "I suppose she can do more than any of us," he said. Lund nodded, then whistled to Tamada, leaving the cabin.
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