She had heard
the shooting, bellowing, and tramping on deck, and she knew that some
terrible scene was being enacted there, while the mere fact that the
captain himself placed the female passengers in his cabin proved that
he was doing his best for all.
"I do not believe for one instant that Captain Courtenay was acting
otherwise than as a brave and honorable gentleman," she said; and then
the fantastic folly of such a dispute at such a moment overcame her.
She drew apart from Isobel, leaned against the wall of the cabin, and
wept unrestrainedly.
Her companions in misfortune did not realize how greatly her calm
self-reliance had comforted them until they witnessed this unlooked-for
collapse. The Spanish maid slipped to her knees, Mrs. Somerville began
to rock in her chair in a new agony, and Isobel, to whom a turbulent
spirit denied the relief of tears when they were most needed, buried
her face in a curtain which draped one of the windows.
It was thus that Courtenay found them, when he appeared at the door
after a lapse of time which none of them could measure.
"Now, Miss Maxwell, you first," he said with an air of authority which
betokened some new move of utmost importance.
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