To-day something was a little wrong. Crow frowned at the hooks and
racks, as she pinned her hair up under a rubber cap--this and that
seemed to have changed places--or she thought so. The cushions on the
settees in the saloon were certainly wrong--all on one side. Adrian
must have been right about the door; that was perhaps part of the
invasion. She thought of calling out to her brother and then decided
not to, because if she said anything Addie would make a point of locking
up the yawl every night, and the result would be that peculiar something
in the stuffiness that always made her feel sick.
Christobel was not a perfect sailor like Adrian and Hughie--neither of
them could be swept off their balance, but Christobel could. So much
so, that she had at times borne agonies in silence rather than spoil
Adrian’s day. She was seldom actually sick, but she felt a horrible
nausea and faintness, and the one thing that would precipitate this
condition was that mixture of paraffin, varnish, cushion stuffing, and
station-waiting-room-stale-sandwich smell, that came up from the saloon
when the closed doors were opened; for once locked up there could be no
ventilation naturally--without water getting in also; not in so small a
boat, for the fore-hatch must be battened down and bolted inside before
the companion door was locked outside.
All this occurred to Crow in time to stop her making remarks on her
suspicions. After all, she could not remember who came out of the cabin
last. Again Penberthy might have gone on board--he might even have
taken Major Fraser with him, which would account for the gravel and dirt
marks on the dinghy.
Just as she came to this conclusion she heard Adrian’s dive and a few
seconds after his shout for her, so she ran up, and went over the side
with the clean sweep of a first-rate swimmer. That was the end of
questionings--for the time.
*CHAPTER XV*
*In which Hughie takes Action*
It has been said, even in this story, that important situations often
arise from ridiculously small happenings. Everybody knows it so well
that one apologizes for such a stale reflection.
However, in the present instance the thing that led up to the very small
happening was tea at Fuchsia Cottage, to which all four were invited,
and all four went. The Little Pilgrim’s teas were "things of beauty,
and joys for ever", the pleasure never palled, because she had
particular scones, buns, cakes and jams that other people knew not of,
and her table decorations were as original as they were lovely. She
held a theory that people ought to eat a great deal at tea, which was
delightful when it fell in with the idea of the guests. There was no
"company" about it, from first to last it was sheer satisfaction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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