It was not in the mate's province to go out in the boats, and though I manoeuvred cunningly for it, Wolf Larsen never granted me the privilege.

Had he done so, I should have managed somehow to carry Miss Brewster away with me.

As it was, the situation was approaching a stage which I was afraid to consider.

I involuntarily shunned the thought of it, and yet the thought continually arose in my mind like a haunting spectre.
I had read sea-romances in my time, wherein figured, as a matter of course, the lone woman in the midst of a shipload of men; but I learned, now, that I had never comprehended the deeper significance of such a situation--the thing the writers harped upon and exploited so thoroughly.
And here it was, now, and I was face to face with it.

That it should be as vital as possible, it required no more than that the woman should be Maud Brewster, who now charmed me in person as she had long charmed me through her work.
No one more out of environment could be imagined.