Roy Norton

“ And again I bowed and followed her, aware, without seeing, that her crew, all hardened salvagers, immediately dismissed us from mind, and gathered at the rail of their ship, from which vantage-point they might look down upon the submarine. We mounted the bridge, and then went back to the superstructure that I had previously noted, and into something like a tiny little reception-room, made delicate by her touch and taste, as if wherever she went she surrounded herself with refinement. ”

“ Hale's work, you will have not only, him but the men of the Storthing also to fight. Common sense will warn you that you can hope for nothing but defeat. If you have any knowledge of decency left, you will go immediately from a place where you are not welcome, and—I hope to forget you!"
She stepped swiftly to the door and called, "Mr. Marvin," will you see Captain Vennemann to his boat?"
A man's voice, heavy and deep from long sea command, responded, "Aye! Aye! Miss Sterritt." And before the echoes had dwindled away one of the men I had seen on the bridge loomed hugely in the door. ”

“ I looked around to face one of the twisted old men of her crew.
"Young Tom Hale," he said, with a wry grin, as he massaged a swollen spot on his face, "your dad was a bad man to handle when he was riled, but he had nothing on you!"
Vennemann was now on his feet, upheld by a man from the bridge. He rubbed his throat with his fingers and glared sullenly at me. He straightened his disordered cravat, pulled down the ends of his collar, that I had torn loose in my first rush, and muttered, "Ach! Was ein verrückt Mann!"
"Madman or not," I retorted, "you're lucky to be alive. ”

“ But he came because he wished to have a part in the success of my father's only child. I've known them all—every man aboard this boat—since I was in pinafores and getting in the way when something was being done. They're not polite, these men, and would be bewildered and lost in places where you and I have been; but at heart they need feel no shame in the presence of the so-called great, who are, after all, less than they. ”

“ A man my father trusted had gambled. The company my father made was nearly bankrupt. I was well advised—and—I saved something—just a little. Enough to make my own fight. Friends of my father's and mine stood loyally behind me: those men you saw out there when you came aboard. It's hard for a woman to fight. Very hard! But they stood by, and I got this outfit together, and they came, most of them, as volunteers. They are men of the sort that my father employed, and seamen, all! One of them, the man you were talking to when I came down, could buy this boat, and for ten years has left the sea. ”

“ We lost all our cylinders but two, and the barge had to be patched up as best we could."
"Then," she said quietly, "you are not outfitted at this moment to accomplish much, even though you find the Esperanza?"
"No, we are not," I admitted with some reluctance. "But we have this advantage over any other comers—you, for instance. We have already located and inspected the wreck. By any other means than those at our disposal—that is, so far as I know of any other wrecking outfit than ours—the chances are all in our favor. The Esperanza lies in more than sixty fathoms of water!" ”

“ You got the best of it when you disabled the Gretchen; but it didn't last, because you were too soft! You thought you had us fast when you left us in those cursed keys; but you hadn't! The storm lifted us off, and we got a tow and were repaired in the nearest port. I came back here, hoping to find you and your rotten little outfit. Do you know why? Because I wanted to sink you, and drown the lot of you, more than I ever wished to do anything in my life. I'd have shown you what a fight means, you big, ugly—"
"Marty!" ”

“ I started to speak; to tell her that I had nor challenged the worth of those under her command; that I understood; but she raised her hand in an appeal for continuation, as if she had set for herself the task of explanation that must be gone through with uninterrupted. ”

“ To me it is a great privilege. To you it is an opportunity to defend yourself, if you can conceive of anything to say."
He seemed to have forgotten my presence as he fixed his look upon her, and there were misery, shame, and yearning all portrayed. In a less profound silence his voice would have been inaudible; but now it carried with it a note of despair and appeal.
"I can say nothing, save that I loved you; that I wanted you more than anything in the world; and that when one is hopeless and desperate enough, he will stop at no means. You loved Tom Hale, and—"
"Stop!" ”