Sir Frederic made many attempts to gain more information regarding the unfortunate woman and her child from Sam Hop Lee, but his limited English so confused and muddled him that there was little satisfaction to be gained.
The young officer succeeded better through a slight knowledge of the Chinese tongue, but whether Sam Lee did not sufficiently understand or whether he had some reason for remaining silent it was difficult to determine.
However it was, nothing definite was learned through repeated conversations with him, and he gradually slipped back to his position in the steerage and the ladies saw no more of him during the voyage. The woman was suffering, not only from an incisive cut in the side, just over the lower rib, but also from an obstinate attack of pleurisy from exposure and lack of care, so that conversation with her was, at the time, impossible.
The little girl was sweet and affectionate and soon made friends with all on deck, much to the satisfaction of the young officer who, apparently, looked upon her as a sort of protégé.
Little did Stella and Mrs. Sinclair dream of the disclosures that time was destined to reveal regarding this innocent child and her unhappy young mother.
But before another day had passed, a story was brought to their wondering ears that made them forget for a time the sorrows of others in the extraordinary development of their own life tragedy.
The sky is dark with storm and cloud-- The ocean's face is cold and drear-- But deep within two loving hearts The light of faith burns ever clear.
The steamer was now about half way across the Atlantic, and this was the first disagreeable weather she had encountered. To-night the wind blew heavily; the waves rolled high and few of the many passengers remained on deck after the "dog watch" was set.
Mrs. Sinclair felt a slight sensation of that much dreaded and truly awful malady which bears the mild, delusive name of sea-sickness, and remained quietly in her berth, but Stella, clinging to her husband's arm, reached a somewhat sheltered spot on deck, and there, with his arm about her, Sir Frederic sat and looked about over the fast darkening ocean.
Clouds, black and threatening, were rolling heavily across the sky, while the winds howled angrily through the rigging, and the white capped waves threw themselves against the steamer's sides as though enraged at her stubborn resistance of their destroying wills. Truly, sky and ocean, air and space, seemed joining powers in a mighty effort to overthrow the universe, and were only lashed into greater fury at the defiance cast in their very teeth by the handiwork of man. Yet the steamer advanced steadily forward, coquetting with the gentler waves and breasting the more determined ones with dogged persistence.