Eveline

'Yes, so I am, miss, and to find him so well and hearty. You see, miss, he's getting on now. It ain't as I'm so awful strong-it's that my old dad is a gettin' a bit shaky in his timbers, miss.'

There was something charming in the kindly smile and the rough yet tender manner of the blunt young sailor towards the old man which made me look him over more attentively. He was certainly a superbly built young fellow. His bare arms and legs were furnished with a muscular development, which is rare in these days of effeminacy. A vigorous, healthy life upon the ocean had served to enhance all his natural advantages. He was a man to my mind. My headache increased-I wanted him badly to cure it.

Between them, they turned the boat over again. It was a good substantial skiff. I had been used to boating with Percy as a child. I knew something about rowing. I used to astonish the girls at the pensionnat near Paris when we all went in a formal party down the Seine from Suresnes. It suited me now to pretend ignorance.

'I hope you will stop with your dad, and-and be a good boy. He tells me you are too fond of… of pleasure.'

My manner was demure. I flashed him one of my glances. He seemed struck. There is-they say-a Freemasonry in love. I say there is more. There is a magnetism in love which is conveyed from mind to mind-from brain to brain-from heart to heart, if you will- but there is a power, subtle and irresistible, which speaks more powerfully than words. 'I love you, I want you.' Such was the influence which flashed between us now.

'We sailors don't get too much pleasuring, miss-but I've been ten months at sea, shut up in an old box of a ship all the time, four hours out and four hours in-and that's about the size of it. My dad ain't the man to deny me a fair run ashore, now I'm home again. I know how to take care of the rhino all the same, but I mean to stay some time with him now and I shan't trouble about shipping again yet awhile.'

There was a half-serious, half-comical air about the young fellow which showed he only partly believed in me. His keen blue eye followed me. He was noting me well from head to foot. He was distinctly struck with my appearance. Admiration was plainly, visibly written in his look. I read him like a book. I was a revelation to the young sailor. No doubt his appetite was sharp after ten long months at sea. I inwardly rejoiced. Meanwhile the boat was ready, the cushions in their places.

'If you've a mind for a row, miss, my son Bill will go with you and pull you about anywhere you likes.'

I got into the boat. They launched her down. Bill swung himself in over the bow. He backed her out from the smooth beach. Then he sat himself down facing me and began to row steadily away from the shore.

'I really don't know if I ought to trust myself all alone with such a gay young man as your dad describes you, Mr. William, but after all, he does not give you a bad character, though he does say you are somewhat-somewhat- what shall I say?'

'Oh, I know, he's a larky old customer, is my dad, and he thinks I'm not much steadier than he was when he was a young 'un. Which course shall we steer, miss-go along the Pevensey shore, or keep on out of the Bay a bit?'

'Let us get into deep water and right away from the sound of the noisy people ashore. How fast you row!'

He was pulling as if for a wager. We were already half a mile away, heading straight out to sea. He slacked a little as I spoke. All this time his gaze never left my person or my face. He was trying to sum me up. Speculating, probably, as to what sort of bedfellow I should make. He was very good-looking certainly. As he bent forward to his paddles, his loose shirt disclosed his broad chest covered with a fine sandy down. I felt impatient as I sat on the broad seat with a back to it. I faced him all the time. I sat cross-legged, my right knee over the left. As Bill pulled away at the paddles, my leg was jerked backwards and forwards. I took care he should have a good view of my feet and my stockings as well. I soon fascinated him. The black silk seemed a new sensation. He commenced to row still more unevenly. My leg moved in cadence. He could see at times up to my knee as the light breeze assisted his design. He was evidently getting excited. A strong lascivious expression extended itself over his features.

'So you have been shut up ten months on board ship, Bill? That must have been trying to a fine young man like you?'

I could not beat about the bush. I wanted him. I meant to indulge my inclination-to have him. It was no time to waste in mere sentiment-in childish trifling.

'I guess it was, miss. Never saw a petticoat for over four months. We were not allowed ashore at Valparaiso, only in the daytime. It's a queer hole for British seamen, miss; nothing but rows and robbery.'

'Poor fellow! But of course you have a sweetheart here?'

'Not I, miss. I only came home last night, or rather early this morning. I couldn't stop in London with the poor old dad here and he so old and feeble-like, so I jumped into the first train I could.'

'You are a good fellow, Bill. I like you very much. What a long way we are from the shore now! I can't see the pier anymore.'

'We're over two miles from Eastbourne now. See that light-ship there-that's the Royal Sovereign shoal.'

'How lovely it seems-how calm the sea is! We need not go any further out. You might not be able to get back, Bill.'

'I only wish I couldn't.'

'Why so, Bill?'

'Because I haven't had the chance to see a face like yours in all my life, miss! There-now it's out!'

'Oh, Bill! You don't mean that? Come and sit here and tell me all about it.'

I made room for him beside me on the broad seat with the backboard. Bill took up a rope and began undoing the end into four separate cords. Then he got the other end of the same rope, and served it the same. I watched him. Then he put to ends together, the four cords of each end interlacing.

'Why Bill! What do you call that?'

'That's what we sailors call making a splice, miss-when it's done.'

'Do you ever think of being spliced yourself, Bill?'

'Sometimes, but sailors ought never to be properly spliced up, miss. There ought to be a slippery hitch somewhere. They're awfully true when spliced, but the gals ain't. They can't stand the long absences.'

'Can you make a slippery hitch, Bill?' He laughed. We both laughed. I looked into his eyes. He returned my gaze. I put my hand on his thigh. He slipped his left arm round my waist. He had dropped the rope now. We sat quiet a moment. The only sound we could hear was the low gurgling of the placid sea under the boat's bows and sides, as she lay idly rolling on the gentle swell.

'We are quite alone here, Bill-not a boat anywhere.'

He had white canvas trousers on, turned up to his knees. My hand stole along until it was suddenly arrested by something hard and solid between his legs which lay along the inside of his left thigh. I lifted my face up close to his. Instantly he kissed me on the mouth.

'Oh, Bill! Oh, you bad boy!'

He seized me tightly in his arms. He covered me with kisses. He pressed my bosom with his great sailor hand. I closed my eyes and suffered all.

'Make me a slippery hitch, Bill, dear!'

He pressed me again tighter than ever. My fingers pressed his limb. It seemed tremendously thick and stiff.

'Ten months! Only think, Bill, how bad you must feel!'

His hand was already on my leg. As I spoke it moved further up. I opened my legs and let it pass. Meanwhile I deliberately unbuttoned his canvas flap.

'I want to look at it, Bill.'

'So you shall, my dear. It's a whopper.'

A moment later, a huge naked limb, stiffly erect and throbbing with eagerness for enjoyment, was in my grasp. His hand had already taken possession of the center of my desires. His fingers maddened me. Without more ado, I pulled the big member into the warm daylight. It was a beauty! White and red, with a large soft top and hard sides- very long and awfully stiff. We rolled about together in the position as the boat answered to the undulations of the sea. It could not last so, however, and so it came to pass that I slipped, cushion and all, off the seat. Bill and I found ourselves on the floor-boards of the skiff with the cushion under us. I still retained my hold on his limb. He reached out and secured another cushion which he placed under my loins. Then he tilted me back. He pulled up my clothes. I am afraid I helped him. He took one look at my exposed legs-at my white belly. I saw for a second his big truncheon menacing me within a few inches of my thighs. Then he threw himself upon me. I was quite as eager as