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He declared that his sense of touch, and the descriptions given to him by others, had enabled him to form, in his own mind, the most complete and faithful image of his wife's face. Nothing that Mr. Sebright could say would induce him to believe that it was physically impossible for him to form a really correct idea of any object, animate or inanimate, which he had never seen.
Sebright and I accordingly arranged to take my walk alone, towards eight o'clock that evening, on the road that led to the distant railway station. The second incident of the day may be described as a confidential conversation between Lucilla and myself, on the subject which now equally absorbed us both the momentous subject of her restoration to the blessing of sight.
Manuel, as if struggling with the waves, managed to free his lips. "Excellency, help!" he spluttered, like a drowning man. "I will give the young lady every care," Mrs. Williams said, "until light shall be vouchsafed." She shut the door. "You will go too far, Sebright," Williams remonstrated; "and I'll have to give you the sack." "It's all right, captain.
"He turned fairly sulky, and tried constantly to break out against you, till Dona Seraphina here gave him a good talking to," Sebright said. Otherwise it was most satisfactory. The place was accessible from the sea through a narrow inlet, opening into a small, perfectly sheltered basin at the back of the sand-dunes. The little river watering the estate emptied itself into that basin.
Had been in and out several times. Yes. At night, too. Sebright then turned to me. After all, it was not so difficult. The inlet bore due south from us, and the wind would come true from the north. Always did in these bursts. I had only to keep dead before it. "The clouds will light you in at the last," he added meaningly, glancing upwards.
There she was, lying careened on the deck, with patched sides, in a belt of chips, shavings, and sawdust; a few pensive sailors stood about, gazing down at her with serious eyes. Sebright, bent double, circled slowly on a prowl of minute inspection. Suddenly straightening himself up, he pronounced a curt "She'll do"; and, without looking at us at all, went off busily with his rapid stride.
It was certainly some one I had seen, and seen recently; but who or where I knew not. A porter standing hard by gave me the necessary hint. The stranger was an English navy man invalided home from Honolulu, where he had left his ship; indeed, it was only from the change of clothes and the effects of sickness that I had not immediately recognised my friend and correspondent, Lieutenant Sebright.
I begged her to believe I was acting for the best, and only from my great love, that could not support the thought of her being so near O'Brien, the arch-enemy of our union. There was no separation on the sea. Sebright came in brusquely. "Come along." His own were hoisted, he explained, and there were no boatmen plying for hire. His request was granted.
One thing was plain: as long as the Tempest was in reach, I must make the acquaintance of both Sebright and the doctor. To this end, I excused myself with Mr. Fowler, returned to Honolulu, and passed the remainder of the day hanging vainly round the cool verandahs of the hotel. It was near nine o'clock at night before I was rewarded. "That is the gentleman you were asking for," said the clerk.
"On the twenty-fifth of August last I was close in with the Cuban coast.... The mate, Sebright, got boiling water for them.... Afterwards a heavy fog. They boarded us in many boats...." He was giving all the old evidence over again, fastening another stone around my neck. But suddenly he said: "This gentleman came alongside in a leaky dinghy. A dead shot. He saved all our lives."
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