Tessa

The supercargo and Hendry went up on the bridge together, where they could talk freely. The man at the wheel was a thick-set, rather stupid-looking native from Niué (Savage Island), who took no notice of their remarks, or at least appeared not to do so. But Huka was not such a fool as he looked.

“You’ll stand little chance with her,” said Hendry presently, in his usual low but sneering tones as he tugged viciously at his beard.

The supercargo’s black eyes contracted, “Wait and see, before you talk. I tell you that I mean to make that girl marry me.”

“Marry you!”

“Yes, marry me. The old man will leave her pretty well everything he has, and he has a lot. I’ve been making inquiries, and am quite satisfied.”

“How are you going to do it?”

“Don’t know just yet. Must think it out. But I never yet knew the woman whom I could not work my own way with—by fair means or foul, as the penny novelists say.”

“It strikes me that she likes that damned fellow. Look round presently and see for yourself. She’s reading to him.”

“Bah! That’s nothing. He used to sail one of the old man’s schooners, and of course they have a good deal to talk about. I’ll settle him as far as she is concerned. Wait till I get a chance to talk to her a bit,” and taking off his cap the supercargo passed his brawny hand through his curly hair with a smile of satisfaction. “She’ll be tired of talking to him before the day is out.”

“Where is he going to land? Has he told you?”

“Yes. He wants to be put ashore at the Mortlocks Islands. We have no trader there, and he has lived there before.”

“I’d like to see him go over the side in some new canvas, with a couple of fire bars slung to his heels,” snarled Hendry viciously.

“So would I,” said Chard meditatively.

At four bells the wheel was relieved, and Huka the Niué native trotted off, and immediately sent a message to Carr’s servant Malua to come for’ard. The boy did as requested, and remained away for about ten minutes. When he returned he seated himself as usual near his master. Hendry was in his cabin on deck, Chard was below in the trade room, and only Tessa, Harvey, and himself were on the after-deck.

“Master,” he said in Fijian, to Harvey, “listen to what Huka, the man of Niué, has told me. The captain and the supercargo have been talking about thee and the lady.” Then he repeated all that which Huka had heard.

“The infernal scoundrels!” Harvey could not help exclaiming. “But they won’t get rid of me as easily as they think.”

“What is it, Harvey?” asked Tessa, anxiously bending forward to him.

The trader thought a moment or two before speaking. Then he decided to tell her what he had just heard.

She laughed contemptuously. “His wife! His wife!” she repeated scornfully. “If he knew what my father knows of him, and how I hate and despise him, he would not have said that. Does he think that because my mother was a Portuguese, I am no better than some native slave girl whom he could buy from her master?”

Harvey smiled gravely as he looked into her flashing eyes, and saw her clench her hands angrily. Then he said—

“He is a dangerous man though, Tessa. And now listen to me. When I came on board this steamer I intended to land at the Mortlocks Islands. But I think now that I will go on to Ponapé.”

“Do not change your plans, Harvey, on my account. I am not afraid of this man. He dare not insult me, for fear my father would hear of it.”

“I know him too well, Tessa. He and the skipper are, I fear, a pair of cunning, treacherous villains. And so I am going on to Ponapé. And I will stay there until your father returns. I daresay,” he added with a smile, “that he will give me a berth as a trader somewhere.”

A sudden joy illumined the girl’s face. “I am so glad, Harvey. And mother, too, will be overjoyed to see you again; father has never ceased to talk about you since you left him. Oh, Harvey, we shall have all the old, old delightful days over again. But,” she added artlessly, “there will be but you and I now to go fishing and shooting together. Carmela and her husband are living in the Ladrones, and Librada and her husband, though they are still on Ponapé, are ten miles away from mother and I. Then Jack is in California, and Ned is away on a whaling cruise.”

A quick emotion stirred his bosom as he looked into her now joyous face. “I don’t think you and I can go out shooting and fishing together, Tessa, as we did in what you call ‘the old, old days.’”

“Can’t we, Harvey?” she asked wonderingly.

He shook his head, and then mused.

“Tessa, I wish you could meet my sisters.”

She clasped her hands together. “Ah, so do I, Harvey. I should love to meet them. Do you think they would like me?”

“I am sure they would.”

They were silent for a while, the girl with her head bent and her long lashes hiding her eyes from him as she sat in the deck-chair, and he thinking of what his sisters would really say if he wrote and told them that he thought he had at last found a woman he would wish to make his wife.

“Tessa.”

“Yes, Harvey.”

She did not look at him, only bent her head still lower.

“Tessa!”

“Yes, Harvey.”

Her hands were trembling, and her courage was gone, for there was something in his voice that filled her with delight.

“Tessa,” he said, speaking softly, as he drew nearer to her, and tried to make her look at him; “do you know that you are a very beautiful woman?”

“I am glad you think so, Harvey,” she whispered. “You used to tell father that Carmela and Librada were the most beautiful women you had ever seen.”

“So they were. But you are quite as beautiful. And, Tessa–”

“Yes, Harvey”—this in the faintest whisper.

“Could you care for me at all, Tessa? I do not mean as a friend. I am only a poor trader, but if I thought you could love-me, I–”

She took a quick glance around the deck, and bent towards him. “I have always loved you, Harvey; always, always.” Then she pressed her lips to his, and in another moment was gone.

Harvey, with a sense of elation in his heart, walked for’ard to where Morrison was standing in the waist.

“Why, man, ye look as if ye could take the best man aboard on for four rounds,” said the engineer, with a smile.

“I do feel pretty fit, Morrison,” laughed the trader; “have you anything to drink in your cabin?”

“Some real Loch Dhu, not made in Sydney. Man, your eye is as bright as a boy’s.”

Just before eight bells were struck Chard came on deck. He was carefully dressed in shining, well-starched white duck, and his dark, coarsely-handsome face was aglow with satisfaction; he meant to “rub it in” to Carr, and was only awaiting till Tessa Remington and Captain Hendry were present to hear him do it. He knew she would be on deck in a minute or so, and Hendry he could see was sitting at his cabin table with his chart before him. Harvey was strolling about on the main deck, smoking his first pipe for many weeks.

Presently Tessa appeared with her woman attendant. She, too, had dressed in white, and for the time had discarded the wide Panama hat she usually wore. Her face was radiant with happiness as she took the deck-chair which Chard brought, and disposed herself comfortably, book in hand. She had seen Harvey on the main deck, and knew she would at least have him with her for a few minutes before dinner.

Hendry stepped out from his cabin.