"Here he comes, we will ask him," and he
did.
"Sock and boot," replied Jeekie, with a surprised air, "why, Mrs. Major,
if that good lord go mad and cut off into forest leaving them behind,
of course I put them on, as they no more use to him, and I just burn my
dirty old Asiki dress and sandal and got nothing to keep jigger out of
toe. Don't you sit up here in this damp, cold, Mrs. Major, else you
get more fever. You go down and dress dinner, which at half-past six
to-night. I just come tell you that."
So Barbara went, leaving the other two talking about various matters,
for they were alone together on the deck, all the passengers, of whom
there were but few, having gone below.
The short African twilight had come, a kind of soft blue haze that made
the ship look mysterious and unnatural. By degrees their conversation
died away. They lapsed into a silence, which Alan was the first to
break.
"What are you thinking of, Jeekie?" he asked nervously.
"Thinking of Asika, Major," he answered in a scared whisper. "Seem to me
that she about somewhere, just as she use pop up in room in Gold House;
seem to me I feel her all down my back, likewise in head wool, which
stand up.
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