That would be too merciful.”
He resumed his way then, nodding at them as he passed. But he had scarcely gone out of their vision when quick footsteps pattered behind him, and the girl's hand touched his arm lightly.
“Mr. Holt, please—”
He stopped, sensing the fact that the soft pressure of her fingers was not altogether unpleasant. She hesitated, and when she spoke again, only her finger-tips touched his arm. She was looking shoreward, so that for a moment he could see only the lustrous richness of her smooth hair. Then she was meeting his eyes squarely, a flash of challenge in the gray depths of her own.
“I am alone on the ship,” she said. “I have no friends here. I want to see things and ask questions. Will you ... help me a little?”
“You mean ... escort you?”
“Yes, if you will. I should feel more comfortable.”
Nettled at first, the humor of the situation began to appeal to him, and he wondered at the intense seriousness of the girl. She did not smile. Her eyes were very steady and very businesslike, and at the same time very lovely.
“The way you put it, I don't see how I can refuse,” he said. “As for the questions—probably Captain Rifle can answer them better than I.”
“I don't like to trouble him,” she replied. “He has much to think about. And you are alone.”
“Yes, quite alone. And with very little to think about.”
“You know what I mean, Mr. Holt. Possibly you can not understand me, or won't try. But I'm going into a new country, and I have a passionate desire to learn as much about that country as I can before I get there. I want to know about many things. For instance—”
“Yes.”
“Why did you say what you did about John Graham? What did the other man mean when he said he should be hung?”
There was an intense directness in her question which for a moment astonished him. She had withdrawn her fingers from his arm, and her slim figure seemed possessed of a sudden throbbing suspense as she waited for an answer. They had turned a little, so that in the light of the moon the almost flowerlike whiteness of her face was clear to him. With her smooth, shining hair, the pallor of her face under its lustrous darkness, and the clearness of her eyes she held Alan speechless for a moment, while his brain struggled to seize upon and understand the something about her which made him interested in spite of himself. Then he smiled and there was a sudden glitter in his eyes.