At this moment Captain Whalley, bolt upright, the deep cavities of the eyes overhung by a bushy frown, and one large brown hand resting on each side of his empty plate, spoke across the tablecloth abruptly—­“Mr. Van Wyk, you’ve always treated me with the most humane consideration.”

“My dear captain, you make too much of a simple fact that I am not a savage.”  Mr. Van Wyk, utterly revolted by the thought of Sterne’s obscure attempt, raised his voice incisively, as if the mate had been hiding somewhere within earshot.  “Any consideration I have been able to show was no more than the rightful due of a character I’ve learned to regard by this time with an esteem that nothing can shake.”

A slight ring of glass made him lift his eyes from the slice of pine-apple he was cutting into small pieces on his plate.  In changing his position Captain Whalley had contrived to upset an empty tumbler.

Without looking that way, leaning sideways on his elbow, his other hand shading his brow, he groped shakily for it, then desisted.  Van Wyk stared blankly, as if something momentous had happened all at once.  He did not know why he should feel so startled; but he forgot Sterne utterly for the moment.

“Why, what’s the matter?”

And Captain Whalley, half-averted, in a deadened, agitated voice, muttered—­

“Esteem!”

“And I may add something more,” Mr. Van Wyk, very steady-eyed, pronounced slowly.

“Hold!  Enough!” Captain Whalley did not change his attitude or raise his voice.  “Say no more!  I can make you no return.  I am too poor even for that now.  Your esteem is worth having.  You are not a man that would stoop to deceive the poorest sort of devil on earth, or make a ship unseaworthy every time he takes her to sea.”

Mr. Van Wyk, leaning forward, his face gone pink all over, with the starched table-napkin over his knees, was inclined to mistrust his senses, his power of comprehension, the sanity of his guest.

“Where?  Why?  In the name of God!—­what’s this?  What ship?  I don’t understand who . . .”

“Then, in the name of God, it is I!  A ship’s unseaworthy when her captain can’t see.  I am going blind.”

Mr. Van Wyk made a slight movement, and sat very still afterwards for a few seconds; then, with the thought of Sterne’s “The game’s up,” he ducked under the table to pick up the napkin which had slipped off his knees.  This was the game that was up.  And at the same time the muffled voice of Captain Whalley passed over him—­

“I’ve deceived them all.  Nobody knows.”

He emerged flushed to the eyes.  Captain Whalley, motionless under the full blaze of the lamp, shaded his face with his hand.

“And you had that courage?”

“Call it by what name you like.  But you are a humane man—­a—­a—­gentleman, Mr. Van Wyk.  You may have asked me what I had done with my conscience.”

He seemed to muse, profoundly silent, very still in his mournful pose.