CHAPTER X

VERNON'S CURIOSITY

Silky blue lines streaked the long undulations that ran back to the
horizon and the _Flaminian_ rolled with a measured swing. When her bows
went down the shining swell broke with a dull roar and rainbows
flickered in the spray about her forecastle; then, while the long deck
got level, one heard the beat of engines and the grinding of screws. A
wake like an angry torrent foamed astern, and in the distance, where the
dingy smoke-cloud melted, the crags of Labrador ran in faint, broken
line. Ahead an ice-floe glittered in the sun. The liner had left Belle
Isle Strait and was steaming towards Greenland on the northern Atlantic
course.

Harry Vernon occupied a chair on the saloon-deck and read the _Montreal
Star_ which had been sent on board at Rimouski. The light reflected by
the white boats and deck was strong; he was not much interested, and put
down the newspaper when Lister joined him. They had met on the journey
from Winnipeg to Montreal, and on boarding the _Flaminian_ Lister was
given the second berth in Vernon's room. Vernon liked Lister.

"Take a smoke," he said, indicating a packet of cigarettes. "Nothing
fresh in the newspapers. They've caught the fellow Porteous; he was
trying to steal across to Detroit."

Lister sat down and lighted a cigarette. Porteous was a clerk who had
not long since gone off with a large sum of his employer's money.