26
“Lady refuses to go below, sir,” he
once at the bridge, her eyes flashing
reported to the mate.
angry—but Connor was calmly gazing
“You have your orders!” Connor’s
through his glass at the imaginary spot on
lips were twitching; he did not dare turn
the horizon.
and look at them. Through his glass he
Morgan and his comrade followed
regarded another spot on the horizon. her below, ushered her into her cabin, Morgan scratched his head a moment, then
locked the door, and carried the key up to
faced Norene again.
the mate. In the ears of Wild Norene rang
“Mate’s orders must be obeyed, the chuckle she had heard Morgan give as miss,” he said. “Officer says you must go
he locked the door:
below.”
“Great Salt Lake! Cap’n’s niece!
Norene realized the man’s And it’ll be in th’ log!”
predicament and did not care to cause him
Her head held high, her hands
trouble. It was Connor she wanted to clenched, and her arms held rigid at her outwit.
sides, she stood for a moment and regarded
“Tell your officer,” she replied, the door they had locked. Then the storm
“that I was just going. There is much better
broke.
company in the forecastle.”
She was Wild Norene Adams in
She started to descend, and Morgan
earnest now. She pounded against the door
and the other sailor followed her at a in her fury, shrieked and screeched, hurled respectful distance. On the deck they to the floor or against the walls everything stopped, while Norene walked across to the
movable.
rail, leaning against it and kicking out her
In another woman it would have
heels like a girl of ten.
been old-fashioned hysterics, but in Wild
“What th’ dev—” Morgan was Norene it was anger, pure and simple, rage muttering to himself.
at herself for having been conquered, not at
“Morgan!” came the hail from the
the man who had conquered her.
bridge.
The slumbering skipper in the
“Aye,
sir!”
adjoining cabin was awakened when a
“I told you to conduct the young
lamp-bracket crashed against the wall. He
lady to her cabin and lock her in. Do so
sprang to his feet and began pulling on his
instantly, and fetch me the key.”
clothes, his ears assailed by shrieks and
“Aye, aye, sir!”
cries.
Morgan and his messmate started
He knew it was Norene’s voice.
slowly across the deck toward her. Orders
What had happened? What in the name of
were orders; if they had been told to throw
Neptune, he asked himself, could have
the Chinese cook overboard they might happened?
have done it, and stopped to think of it
He ran out and pounded on
afterward.
Norene’s door. He saw that Senor Guerrero
Norene whirled upon them as they
was standing near, aghast at such an
advanced, and held out her hands.
outburst. Farther away, Sally Wood had
“Do as your officer ordered!” she
opened a door and was peering out, fright
said. “Lock me in my cabin, then take him
in her face.
the key.”
“Norene! Girl!” the skipper cried.
Her face was fiery red; she looked
“What is it? Open the door!”
Wild Norene
27
Another shriek of anger answered
“What’s been goin’ on here?”
him.
“I beg your pardon, sir?”
“What’s the matter? Open the door,
“My niece is down in her cabin
girl!”
shrieking to wake the dead. She woke me,
Another chorus of hysterical all right! I asked her what was the matter screams. Captain Bill stepped back. and she said to ask the mate. If you’ve Another instant and his gigantic bulk gone too far—”
crashed against the door’s panels and burst
“Oh!” Sudden recollection seemed
them in. He half fell into the tiny cabin.
to come to Connor. “She came up here on
Norene was standing near a port-
the bridge, sir. I informed her, courteously,
hole, her back toward him, stamping her
that passengers were not allowed on the
feet, pounding against the thick glass with
bridge.”
her tiny fists.
“Passengers—”
“Norene! What is it, girl?”
“And asked her politely to leave.
She turned as he approached, and
She answered me, and I informed her it
he tried to take her in his arms, sudden
was against the rules to talk to the bridge
alarm in his face, for never had he seen
officer.”
Norene in quite such a state before.
Connor’s eyes were twinkling and a
But she pushed him away and smile lurked on his lips as he faced his confronted him, wild anger in her eyes.
superior.
“Girl—girl! What is it?” he asked.
“Well?” the captain demanded.
“Ask—your
mate!”
she
gasped.
“She refused to go, sir. Mutiny of
“My mate!” Captain Bill turned and
passenger against rules! I called two of the
dashed from the cabin and to the deck. He
men and had them lock her in her cabin and
had been aroused from a deep sleep, he had
fetch me the key.”
heard Norene screeching as if in fear and
“You—You
what?”
anger, he had demanded the reason, and
“Yes,
sir.”
had been told to ask his mate. Had Connor
“You did that—to Norene?”
overstepped the bounds of courtesy? Had
“Yes, sir—fully within my rights,
he dared insult Norene?
of course, and in a polite and courteous
Captain Bill’s fists were clenched
manner. Here is the key, sir.”
and his breath was coming in angry gasps
Captain Bill Adams took the key,
as he hurried across the deck and mounted
but did not take his eyes from the mate’s
to the bridged.
face. Slowly the expression of his own face
He stopped in astonishment as he
relaxed, his mouth twitched, then he threw
reached it. Jack Connor was looking back his head and roared.
through his glass at the imaginary spot on
“For the love of Neptune!” he cried,
the horizon. He did not present the and laughed again. “Sent her to her cabin—
appearance of a man who had just locked her in—Wild Norene! Great quarreled with a woman or insulted her. He
Heaven, how she’ll hate you now! Fully
was the typical, cool, calm and collected
within your rights and in a polite and
officer on the bridge.
courteous manner, eh? That’s good! By
Captain Bill began to feel rid
iculous
Heaven, it’s good! Wild Norene! So that’s
as Connor turned and faced him.
the way you start in to tame her, eh?”
“Up so soon, cap’n?” he asked.
Captain Bill laughed again; Connor
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28
searched the horizon once more. A voice
put a man on guard if you think it
behind them—Norene’s voice—made them
necessary.”
both turn.
“Uncle Bill!” she shrieked.
“Funny, is it?” she demanded. She
But the captain had turned his back
had followed her uncle and made her way
upon her, for no longer could he keep back
to the bridge. “Well, are you going to the chuckles that bubbled to his lips.
thrash this fine mate of yours? The men
“At least,” she said, recovering
could not help it—they had to carry out his
some of her dignity, “take me back
orders!”
yourself, or let me go alone. I do not care to
The captain laughed again, while
walk across the deck with a man of Mr.
she stood before him angrily, tapping the
Connor’s stamp.”
floor of the bridge with the toe of one shoe.
Connor’s face grew red, and there
The captain’s laugh died down, and as was an expression of pain in it.
Norene looked away an instant he winked
“Miss Adams,” he said, “I do not
at Connor.
care to accompany you if you think I am
“Mr. Connor tells me he ordered
unworthy. I see you are bound not to be
you to leave the bridge and you refused to
friends with me. I explained honestly to
go.”
you once. I spoke lightly of Wild Norene in
“He did—and I did.”
a low resort, because I did not know you
“And he called a couple of men and
personally then, I thought. But I did know
had you locked in your cabin?”
you, only not by name, and a few minutes
“He did! And it’ll be in the log. I
before I had prohibited mention of you in
went because of the men—they were the same place—because I had met you and forced to obey orders. Now thrash this man
admired you, because I loved you from the
for me because of his impudence!”
first—and I’m not ashamed to tell you
Captain
Bill
pulled at his mustache.
now, in your uncle’s presence.”
“My dear Norene,” he said, “my
“This is a part of the taming
officer acted fully within his rights. He
process, I suppose,” she sneered. “Do you
wasn’t insolent, was he?”
think I believe in your love merely because
“He was polite enough,” she you say you love me? Are you not saying it admitted.
to escape the punishment my uncle has
“You should have left the bridge
promised you? Do you think I am that
when he ordered it,” said the captain, trying
weak-minded?”
hard not to laugh. “I cannot punish my
“I have told you the truth,” he
mate for abiding by the rules of the sea.
replied, “believe it or not. I’ll never
And now you’ve gotten yourself in worse
mention the subject again—and I’ll take
than ever— you’ve broken your arrest and
whatever punishment your uncle sees fit to
come up here on deck.”
give me. But do not say I am unworthy to
“Uncle!”
walk across the deck with you, for I have
“Must have discipline!” said not lied. I’m a rough sailor, but I’ve kept Captain Bill. “You’ll have to go back in
myself measurably clean, and what bad
your cabin until I have time to consider
habits I have can be corrected easily.
your case. Mr. Connor, I’ll take the bridge
“However, you do not see fit to
until you return. Conduct Miss Adams to
give me a square deal. I’ll not bother you
her cabin. I smashed the door, but you can
further, Miss Adams. Regarding the present
Wild Norene
29
matter, with the captain’s permission we’ll
and she has the right to be.”
consider your arrest at an end.”
“But a woman of that sort—” she
He bowed to her and turned away.
began again.
The look in his eyes haunted her.
“A woman that is good and honest,
She fought against feeling that his words
and whom any other woman ought to
were true. She wanted to feel that she could
help,” he said. “Why not ask your uncle to
condemn this man to his face. Ah—
set you right—to tell you the story? I don’t
“A worthy man—you!” she blame you for blaming me if Cap’n Bill led exclaimed. “And just how worthy? Do you
you to believe some things that are not
know one reason I won’t believe you? Do
true.”
you want to know one reason why I think
She demanded the story, and
you are unworthy? What about the girl who
Captain Adams told it in a manner that
became a stowaway? What about the girl
showed he was somewhat ashamed.
who played the piano in that low resort you
Norene said nothing as he
made your headquarters? Why did she concluded, but there was a bit of contempt become a stowaway? ‘Interested in the in her face as she watched her uncle mate,’ my uncle says. A woman like that—
descend to the deck and start toward the
a vile creature like that un-sexes herself to
cabin to continue his interrupted sleep.
follow you when you sail, yet you say you
But Captain Adams turned,
are a worthy man. And you fought with
grinning, and called back at her, sending a
Riney for her—not because I asked you to
parting shot in revenge.
avenge his insult to me!”
“Better get off that bridge, Norene,
“Stop!” Connor almost yelled the
or the mate will have you in irons!” he
word. “You do not know what you are
cried.
saying! Sally Wood is a woman in a
Her face grew red, and she started
thousand—a good woman—”
to descend without looking at Connor.
“A good woman—playing the
“Miss Adams,” he called softly as
piano there?” she cried, laughing.
she started, “I meant what I said. I’ll bother
“Yes—a good woman!” Connor’s
you no more. I love you— I meant that,
eyes blazed at the captain, then he faced
too. I’ve corrected one false idea you had
Norene again. “Evidently your uncle hasn’t
of me, but I shall go no farther. I just
been fair. Evidently he didn’t tell you this
wanted you to know I’m perhaps not as bad
woman’s story! It’s one to make an honest
as you thought, and that Sally Wood was a
woman’s heart bleed with
sympathy for
decent woman, deserving of kindness and
her. ‘Interested in the mate,’ eh? Cap’n Bill
sympathy. You’re the one woman I’ve ever
didn’t happen to mention which mate, did
looked at a second time—”
he?”
She hesitated, then ran swiftly
“What do you mean?” she asked.
down to the deck, as if afraid to hear more.
There was an expression of guilt in
She did not ask his pardon; did not by word
the captain’s face, and she had been quick
or look express penitence.
to notice it.
But that evening in the moonlight
“I wasn’t the mate meant,” said Jack Connor saw her walking the deck with Connor. “It was Riney, the old mate, she
Sally Wood, and Wild Norene had her arm
followed aboard, or thought she was around the other woman’s waist.
following him. She is interested in Riney—
He did not know how Wild
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30
Norene’s pride had suffered that day.
“She hangs on pretty well, doesn’t
she?” Connor said.
“I’ll shake her off when I am
CHAPTER VI.
ready.”
The Truth Comes Out.
“Do we put into Mazatlan first, then
out again and land the arms, or do we land
Wild Norene by Johnston McCulley Page 7