"I--don't--think so."
"Oh, please be more positive than that. You send a cold shiver down my
back."
"Several members of the _Andromeda's_ crew also indulged in a prolonged
siesta," he said. "I assure you it was almost out of the question to
divide the sleepers into snorers and non-snorers."
A man will talk harmless nonsense of that sort when he is at his wit's
end to wriggle out of a perplexing situation. Hozier was deputed to
obtain the girl's consent to the proposal he had already put before
her. He feared that she would refuse compliance, for he understood her
fine temper better than the others. He was a young man--one but little
versed in the ways of women--yet some instinct warned him that there
was a nobility in Iris Yorke's nature that might set self at naught and
urge her to share her companions' lot, even though certain death were
the outcome.
They passed together through the cavern. Watts, sound asleep, was
lying there. The majority of the men were seated on the rocks without,
or lounging near the entrance. They were smoking now freely, the only
stipulation being that matches were not to be struck in the open.
Their whispered talk ceased when they saw the girl. Absorbed in the
prospect of a fight for life, for the moment they had forgotten her,
but a murmured tribute of sympathy and recognition greeted her
appearance.
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