He could not leave this trail where the scent was so illusive and where his mind ran so sure and rapidly. He could not leave it, even for her. She would suffer for it presently, and so would he; and he would watch the struggles of both with a vivisecting eye because this great curious problem of life, swayed by emotion, and trapped by circumstance, and controlled by some undiscernible power had its grip on him and it would not let go. It possessed him, side by side, with his love, and it made his face grow cruel as he walked.
"She is better without him," he said. "And she'll love me in spite of this. By , she shall." Then his eyes narrowed, and he smiled slowly. "But it is more than possible that I'll pay heavily all the same," he added.
In the following days he told stories and sang songs and sketched sketches of the whole ship's company, until men talked apart of the suggestion of fear which he had flung into the bluff mask of Ducane's face, and the hint of tragedy in the soft features of the little "fur-pup." Jennifer spoke of this to Dick one evening when chance had left them alone on the upper deck with a breed at the wheel to hold the "Northern Light" on her clear course of scarlet where the dying sun lay bleeding.
"He wants it to send to his mother, poor little boy," she said. "Don't let him have it. You had no right to put that look in his face."
"I'm sorry. But I saw it. People say that I see too much, you know."
He smiled down at her with that hint of mockery which she saw seldom, and her lips quivered.
"If you have that power you will be held very responsible, some day," she said.
"I shall be very willing to meet my creditors. They have added much to the interest of life for me, and I hope they won't find me ungrateful. What do you think of the French Brother? The man who never speaks—even to you?"
"How can I think anything? At table he pokes me and points to what he wants, and he won't look at me. Oh" She took the sketch Dick put into her hands.
