At all times slow of thought and slower of speech, he was galvanized into a sudden rigidity that differed only in degree from the symptoms displayed by his chief officer.

Certainly he could not have been more stupefied had he seen the ghost reported overnight.
"They told me I should find you here, Captain," said she.

"I must apologize for thrusting my company on you for a long voyage, but--circumstances--were--too much for me--and----" Face to face with the commander of the ship, and startled anew by his expression of blank incredulity, the glib flow of words conned so often during the steadfast but dreadful hours spent in the lazarette failed her.
"You know me," she faltered.

"I am Iris Yorke." Not a syllable came from the irate and astonished man gazing at her with such a bovine stolidity.

His shoulders had not abated a fraction of their stubborn thrust against the frame of the chart-house.