“I haven’t yet met a genial Dutchman out here,” I interrupted.  “Geniality, after all, is not of much consequence, but don’t you see—­”

Nelson looked suddenly so frightened at what I was going to say that I hadn’t the heart to go on.  Of course, I was going to tell him that the fellow was after his girl.  That just describes it exactly.  What Heemskirk might have expected or what he thought he could do, I don’t know.  For all I can tell, he might have imagined himself irresistible, or have taken Freya for what she was not, on account of her lively, assured, unconstrained manner.  But there it is.  He was after that girl.  Nelson could see it well enough.  Only he preferred to ignore it.  He did not want to be told of it.

“All I want is to live in peace and quietness with the Dutch authorities,” he mumbled shamefacedly.

He was incurable.  I was sorry for him, and I really think Miss Freya was sorry for her father, too.  She restrained herself for his sake, and as everything she did she did it simply, unaffectedly, and even good humouredly.  No small effort that, because in Heemskirk’s attentions there was an insolent touch of scorn, hard to put up with.  Dutchmen of that sort are over-bearing to their inferiors, and that officer of the king looked upon old Nelson and Freya as quite beneath him in every way.

I can’t say I felt sorry for Freya.  She was not the sort of girl to take anything tragically.  One could feel for her and sympathise with her difficulty, but she seemed equal to any situation.  It was rather admiration she extorted by her competent serenity.  It was only when Jasper and Heemskirk were together at the bungalow, as it happened now and then, that she felt the strain, and even then it was not for everybody to see.  My eyes alone could detect a faint shadow on the radiance of her personality.  Once I could not help saying to her appreciatively: 

“Upon my word you are wonderful.”

She let it pass with a faint smile.

“The great thing is to prevent Jasper becoming unreasonable,” she said; and I could see real concern lurking in the quiet depths of her frank eyes gazing straight at me.  “You will help to keep him quiet, won’t you?”

“Of course, we must keep him quiet,” I declared, understanding very well the nature of her anxiety.  “He’s such a lunatic, too, when he’s roused.”

“He is!” she assented, in a soft tone; for it was our joke to speak of Jasper abusively.  “But I have tamed him a bit.  He’s quite a good boy now.”

“He would squash Heemskirk like a blackbeetle all the same,” I remarked.

“Rather!” she murmured.  “And that wouldn’t do,” she added quickly.  “Imagine the state poor papa would get into.  Besides, I mean to be mistress of the dear brig and sail about these seas, not go off wandering ten thousand miles away from here.”

“The sooner you are on board to look after the man and the brig the better,” I said seriously.  “They need you to steady them both a bit.  I don’t think Jasper will ever get sobered down till he has carried you off from this island.  You don’t see him when he is away from you, as I do.  He’s in a state of perpetual elation which almost frightens me.”