'
The captain arched his eyebrows in surprise.
'My dear madam,' he said, 'you make a very serious charge. Miss Longworth
has crossed several times with me, and I am bound to say that a
better-behaved young lady I never had on board my ship.'
'Extremely well behaved she is!' cried the correspondent angrily, 'she
stood against my door and prevented me from going out. I screamed for
help, but my screams were drowned in the cheers of the passengers when
the boat left.'
'Why did you not ring your bell?'
'I couldn't ring my bell because she prevented me. Besides, if I had
reached the bell, it is not likely anybody would have answered it;
everybody seemed to be bawling after the boat that was leaving.'
'You can hardly blame them for that. A great deal depends on the safety
of that boat. In fact, if you come to think about it, you will see that
whatever grievance you may have, it is, after all, a very trivial one
compared with the burden that weighs on me just now, and I should much
prefer not to have anything to do with disputes between the passengers
until we are out of our present predicament.'
'The predicament has nothing whatever to do with it. I tell you a fact.
I tell you that one of your passengers came and imprisoned me in my
state-room. I come to you for redress. Now, there must be some law on
shipboard that takes the place of ordinary law on land. I make this
demand officially to you. If you decline to hear me, and refuse to
redress my wrong, then I have public opinion, to which I can appeal
through my paper, and perhaps there will also be a chance of obtaining
justice through the law of the land to which I am going.
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