“Ah!” and Clemmons started, and quickly asked:
“I do not, for I overheard the affair being talked about, and as neither Merrill nor myself referred to it, and you doubtless did not, some of our fellows must have seen it, though unseen by us. If the affair is called up we will doubtless know who they are.”
Scott Clemmons looked uneasy, for he felt that his version would differ from what all others had, or might tell of the occurrence.
But he hoped that as he was already under punishment he would hear no more of it, so he said coldly:
“Yes, I wished to return to you a paper which you left on the dining table at the Astor House yesterday--the waiter gave it to me.”
He handed over the telltale paper as he spoke, and after a glance at it the face of Scott Clemmons crimsoned to a painful extent, and then so suddenly grew white that he seemed as though about to faint.
But he rallied quickly, and with a reckless laugh said:
“Oh, yes, I had not missed it. It is the pledged word of that scamp Breslin never to come near me again, as I suppose you know?”
“Yes, I read it, I frankly confess, for it was handed to me open; but you pay high for the loss of Breslin’s society, Clemmons, and one would almost think he blackmailed you. That was all I wished to see you about,” and Perry walked away, leaving Scott Clemmons in a very unenviable humor.
After a few days passed in the harbor of the metropolis the good ship set sail and headed across the seas for a run to English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Egyptian ports, that the young sailors might have a glance at other lands and also enjoy to its full extent
“A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep.”
The cruiser is in midocean, bowling merrily along over a dark sea, growing darker and rougher under the approach of a storm and increasing wind.
As the breeze freshens a strong swell causes the ship to roll heavily, and the barometer steadily going down, causes the officer of the deck to keep his weather eye to windward alow and aloft.
“Knowing ones,” old salts who have sailed the seas over for a generation or more, also cock an eye to windward now and then, but of course, feel only confidence in their officers and the man who happens just at that time to hold the ship’s destiny in his keeping.