"Discipline! Are you trying to discipline me?"

"Miss Lee, you do not seem to understand," I said, as patiently as
I could. "Just now I am in charge of the Ella. It does not matter
how unfit I am--the fact remains. Nor does it concern me that your
brother-in-law owns the ship. I am in charge of it, and, God willing,
there will be no more crimes on it. You will go back to the part of
the deck that is reserved for you, or you will go below and stay
there."

She flushed with anger, and stood there with her head thrown back,
eyeing me with a contempt that cut me to the quick. The next moment
she wheeled and, raising her hand, flung toward the rail the key to
the storeroom door. I caught her hand--too late.

But fate was on my side, after all. As I stood, still gripping her
wrist, the key fell ringing almost at my feet. It had struck one of
the lower yard braces. I stooped, and, picking it up, pocketed it.

She was dazed, I think. She made no effort to free her arm, but she
put her other hand to her heart unexpectedly, and I saw that she was
profoundly shocked. I led her, unprotesting, to a deck-chair, and
put her down in it; and still she had not spoken: She lay back and
closed her eyes. She was too strong to faint; she was superbly
healthy. But she knew as well as I did what that key meant, and she
had delivered it into my hands. As for me, I was driven hard that
night; for, as I stood there looking down at her, she held out her
hand to me, palm up.