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Page 15
"Give him up to his professional duties for one minute, Mrs.
Crayford, and you shall have him back again for half an hour. The
Arctic expedition is to blame, my dear lady--not the captain--for
parting man and wife. In Crayford's place, I should have left it
to the bachelors to find the Northwest Passage, and have stopped
at home with you!"
Excusing himself in those bluntly complimentary terms, Captain
Helding drew the lieutenant aside a few steps, accidentally
taking a direction that led the two officers close to the place
at which Clara was standing. Both the captain and the lieutenant
were too completely absorbed in their professional business to
notice her. Neither the one nor the other had the faintest
suspicion that she could and did hear every word of the talk that
passed between them.
"You received my note this morning?" the captain began.
"Certainly, Captain Helding, or I should have been on board the
ship before this."
"I am going on board myself at once," the captain proceeded, "but
I must ask you to keep your boat waiting for half an hour more.
You will be all the longer with your wife, you know. I thought of
that, Crayford."
"I am much obliged to you, Captain Helding. I suppose there is
some other reason for inverting the customary order of things,
and keeping the lieutenant on shore after the captain is on
board?"
"Quite true! there _is_ another reason. I want you to wait for a
volunteer who has just joined us."
"A volunteer!"
"Yes. He has his outfit to get in a hurry, and he may be half an
hour late."
"It's rather a sudden appointment, isn't it?"
"No doubt. Very sudden."
"And--pardon me--it's rather a long time (as we are situated) to
keep the ships waiting for one man?"
"Quite true, again. But a man who is worth having is worth
waiting for. This man is worth having; this man is worth his
weight in gold to such an expedition as ours. Seasoned to all
climates and all fatigues--a strong fellow, a brave fellow, a
clever fellow--in short, an excellent officer. I know him well,
or I should never have taken him. The country gets plenty of work
out of my new volunteer, Crayford. He only returned yesterday
from foreign service."
"He only returned yesterday from foreign service! And he
volunteers this morning to join the Arctic expedition? You
astonish me."
"I dare say I do! You can't be more astonished than I was, when
he presented himself at my hotel and told me what he wanted.
'Why, my good fellow, you have just got home,' I said. 'Are you
weary of your freedom, after only a few hours' experience of it?'
His answer rather startled me. He said, 'I am weary of my life,
sir. I have come home and found a trouble to welcome me, which
goes near to break my heart. If I don't take refuge in absence
and hard work, I am a lost man. Will you give me a refuge?'
That's what he said, Crayford, word for word."
"Did you ask him to explain himself further?"
"Not I! I knew his value, and I took the poor devil on the spot,
without pestering him with any more questions. No need to ask him
to explain himself. The facts speak for themselves in these
cases. The old story, my good friend! There's a woman at the
bottom of it, of course."
Mrs. Crayford, waiting for the return of her husband as patiently
as she could, was startled by feeling a hand suddenly laid on her
shoulder. She looked round, and confronted Clara. Her first
feeling of surprise changed instantly to alarm. Clara was
trembling from head to foot.
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