"What ails the man? Can't you keep still for
five minutes?"
The ex-pilot stopped and eyed her solemnly, but, ere he could reply, his
heart gave a great bound, for, from behind the geraniums which filled
the window, he saw the face of Captain Crippen slowly rise and peer
cautiously into the room. Before his wife could follow the direction of
her husband's eyes it had disappeared.
"Somebody looking in at the window," said Pepper, with forced calmness,
in reply to his wife's eyebrows.
"Like their impudence!" said the unconscious woman, resuming her
knitting, while her husband waited in vain for the captain to enter.
He waited some time, and then, half dead with excitement, sat down, and
with shaking fingers lit his pipe. As he looked up the stalwart figure
of the captain passed the window. During the next twenty minutes it
passed seven times, and Pepper, coming to the not unnatural conclusion
that his friend intended to pass the afternoon in the same unprofitable
fashion, resolved to force his hand.
"Must be a tramp," he said aloud.
"Who?" inquired his wife. "Man keeps looking in at the window," said
Pepper desperately. "Keeps looking in till he meets my eye, then he
disappears. Looks like an old sea-captain, something."
"Old sea-captain?" said his wife, putting down her work and turning
round.
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