"To be sure!
The person--whose life I saved! What of that person, Dr. Hurst?"
"Had you a passenger?" interrupted the captain. "I understood you saved a
cabin-boy."
"Pray continue!" he said lightly. "What of the cabin-boy? None the worse,
I hope?"
The doctor's lank figure drew together with a stiff movement of distaste.
"I see," he said, "that you are aware of a certain fact which I must
admit has given me a somewhat unpleasant surprise."
Saltash turned abruptly to the captain. "You ask me if I had a
passenger," he said, speaking briefly, with a hint of hauteur. "Before
you also begin to be unpleasantly surprised, let me explain that I had a
child on board who did not belong to the ship's company."
"A child?" Captain Beaumont looked at him in astonishment. "I thought--I
understood--Do you mean the boy?"
"Not a boy, no,--a girl!" Saltash's voice was suddenly very suave; he was
smiling still, but there was something rather formidable about his smile.
"A young girl, Captain Beaumont, but amply protected, I assure you. It
was our last night on board. She was masquerading in the state-cabin in a
page's livery when you struck us. But for Larpent we should have been
trapped there like rats when the yacht went down.
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