第11章

"My dear Yoto," said Senor Perkins softly, "I scarcely think that this question of personal damage can be referred to the State.Iwill, however, look into it.Meantime, let me advise you to control your enthusiasm.Too much zeal in a subordinate is even more fatal than laxity.For the rest, son, be vigilant--and peaceful.Thou hast meant well, much shall be--forgiven thee.For the present, vamos!"He turned on his heel, and ascended to the upper deck.Here he found the passengers thrilling with a vague excitement.A few brief orders, a few briefer explanations, dropped by the officers, had already whetted curiosity to the keenest point.The Senor was instantly beset with interrogations.Gentle, compassionate, with well-rounded periods, he related the singular accident that had befallen Mr.Hurlstone, and his providential escape from almost certain death."At the most, he has now only the exhaustion of the shock, from which a day of perfect rest will recover him; but," he added deprecatingly, "at present he ought not to be disturbed or excited."The story was received by those fellow-passengers who had been strongest in their suspicions of Hurlstone's suicide or flight, with a keen sense of discomfiture, only mitigated by a humorous perception of the cause of the accident.It was agreed that a man whose ludicrous infirmity had been the cause of putting the ship out of her course, and the passengers out of their comfortable security, could not be wronged by attributing to him manlier and more criminal motives.A somnambulist on shipboard was clearly a humorous object, who might, however, become a bore."It all accounts for his being so deuced quiet and reserved in the daytime," said Crosby facetiously; "he couldn't keep it up the whole twenty-four hours.If he'd only given us a little more of his company when he was awake, he wouldn't have gallivanted round at night, and we'd have been thirty miles nearer port." Equal amusement was created by the humorous suggestion that the unfortunate man had never been entirely awake during the voyage, and that he would now, probably for the first time, really make the acquaintance of his fellow-voyagers.Listening to this badinage with bland tolerance, Senor Perkins no doubt felt that, for the maintenance of that perfect amity he so ardently apostrophized, it was just as well that Hurlstone was in his state-room, and out of hearing.

He would have been more satisfied, however, had he been permitted to hear the feminine comments on this incident.In the eyes of the lady passengers Mr.Hurlstone was more a hero than ever; his mysterious malady invested him with a vague and spiritual interest;his escape from the awful fate reserved to him, in their excited fancy, gave him the eclat of having ACTUALLY survived it; while the supposed real incident of his fall through the hatchway lent him the additional lustre of a wounded and crippled man.That prostrate condition of active humanity, which so irresistibly appeals to the feminine imagination as segregating their victim from the distractions of his own sex, and, as it were, delivering him helpless into their hands, was at once their opportunity, and his.All the ladies volunteered to nurse him; it was with difficulty that Mrs.Brimmer and Mrs.Markham, reinforced with bandages, flannels, and liniments, and supported by different theories, could be kept from the door of his state-room.Jellies, potted meats, and delicacies from their private stores appeared on trays at his bedside, to be courteously declined by the Senor Perkins, in his new functions of a benevolent type of Sancho Panza physician.To say that this pleased the gentle optimism of the Senor is unnecessary.Even while his companion writhed under the sting of this enforced compassion, the good man beamed philosophically upon him.

"Take care, or I shall end this cursed farce in my own way," said Hurlstone ominously, his eyes again filming with a vague desperation.