“You say it will be six days before the Henlopen leaves for New York?” she asked.

“Yes, and no Pleiad for you, Miss Mallory.  There will be changes and disorder down in the city....  I’ll make you comfortable as I can.”

“Oh, I’ll like that!  It’s so still and restful—­and—­from here—­last night seems ages behind....  It would have been unbearable, but for what you said about the other men’s lives saved.  Then the Glow-worm had told me so much!  He was unspeakable....  As for Sorenson, I just couldn’t have done that had I thought of sharks first!...  I wonder what Rey meant to do—­just before ... yes, yes, let’s forget him!...  When you are rested, there is something I have to tell you.”

“And there is something for me to say—­but now?” he questioned.

“I want you to let me take care of you—­during the six days——­”

The old feminine magnetism thrilled him again.  It was so strange and unexpected from Miss Mallory—­a breath from the old Dream Ranges.  It quickened him to the race of women, even to the great work, as he had not been quickened since the night he looked back at the empty open door....  He did not speak, but held out both hands to her.

“I think you are living and moving at this moment,” she went on fervently, “upon some strange force that other people do not have.  Since we left New York, I have watched you—­seen you almost every day.  You are like a traveler who has crossed some terrible and forbidden land.  You do not eat nor sleep.  I must help you.  Please let me....  Oh, it isn’t as if I were a girl!  I’ve worked with men—­done a man’s work among the newspapers.  I’d call it bigger than all that has happened for the good fortune of Equatoria—­if I could make you look as——­”

She checked the tumult of words.  There was a misty look in her eyes—­and his.  He smiled and held himself hard, to say steadily: 

“A man doesn’t often win so dear a friend——­”

“You have found about me so much of humor and scheming,” she said pathetically, “but since I came to understand a little, I’ve wanted to show you other things——­”

“I could not have relished your humor, nor used your plans, had I not felt so much besides.”  He pointed over the shining lands.  “Great good can come from all this—­perhaps you’ll help me—­where the suffering is blackest in New York.  With that big tramp steamer in The Pleiad, and Celestino in command, it would have been hard to save this.  You did it——­”

“If I did, it’s not vital to you.  It does not bring you rest.  How clearly I see that!”

Bedient turned aside from her tearful searching eyes.  He was facing the old battle; and yet a certain uplift came from her brave spirit.  It was one of the big intimate warmths of the world, one of the fine moments of life in the world.  Her giving was true.  He could think of no other who could have helped him in this way, save Vina Nettleton.  These two had not entered his mind together before.  And they were unlike in every way, except in their pure quality of giving.