How good it was to feel the
steady thrust of the pistons, the long roll of the ship over the swell!
And then, when Elsie brought him his breakfast, and stood by his side
as he watched the set of the tide with unwavering eyes, what a joy that
was, to listen to her story of the night's wanderings, and to know
that, with God's help, their Odyssey was nearing its end!
For every sailor is a fatalist, and in the unwritten code of the sea
the law runs that once a ship has undergone her supreme trial she has
the freedom of the great highway for that voyage, though she girdle the
earth ere the dock gates open.
But best of all was it to hear Elsie tell how Dr. Christobal had handed
her a bulky packet, in which she found Courtenay's words of farewell,
together with those wonderful letters which fate had held back from her
twice already. They were only glowing epistles from the hundreds of
passengers on the _Florida_, but six of them were proposals from
enthusiastic ladies, all well dowered, and eager to give their charms
and their cash to the safe keeping of the man who had saved their
lives.
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