"Why, where is Ramesh Babu ?" he exclaimed in surprise ; "What more important has he got now than staying with the frightened girl here desperately requiring a companion in this dreadful weather ?"
"Hello, is that you, uncle ? I'm in here, next door."
Chakrabartti peeped into the adjoining cabin and saw Ramesh lying propped up in bed reading a book in the lamp light.
"Your good lady is nervous, all by herself," he remarked, "you had better put away your book seeing that you can't frighten the storm away with it ! Come along in here."
An uncontrollable instinct deprived Kamala of her self-command. "No, no, Uncle !" she ejaculated in a half-stifled voice, seizing him by the hand. In that howling tempest her voice did not penetrate to Ramesh's ears, but Chakrabartti heard and turned back in dismay.
Ramesh laid down his book and entered the other cabin. "What's the matter, Uncle ?" he asked ; "Kamala and you seem to be-"
"No, no !" interjected Kamala, without looking up at Ramesh ; "I just asked him to come in for a chat ." What she was negating when she exclaimed, "No, no !" she did not herself know, but the meaning behind the words was, "If you think I need some one to allay my fears you're mistaken ; I don't ! If you imagine that I require company you're wrong ; I do not !"
"It's getting late, Uncle," she went on, "you had better go to bed ; you might just see if Umesh is all right. I'm afraid he may be frightened at the storm."
"Shall I talk to you till you go to sleep ?" Ramesh asked Kamala.
"No, thank you. I'm very sleepy."
Ramesh fully understood the current of Kamala's thoughts, but he did not attempt to gainsay her. He saw at a glance the injured pride in her expression and slunk away to his cabin.
Kamala was far too agitated to compose herself to sleep, but she forced herself to lie down. The waves were now running high as the storm increased in violence. The deck- hands were astir and at intervals the ting-ting of the telegraph conveyed some order from the master to the engine-room. The anchor alone did not suffice to hold the steamer in the teeth of the gale and the engines were now working slowly.
Kamala threw off her bedclothes and stepped out on to the deck. The rain had ceased for the moment, but the wind roared like a stricken creature as it veered from one quarter to another. She could not define the emotion that stirred in her breast as she gazed upon the wild sky and the turmoil of the night ; it may have been fear and it may have been joy. The violence of Nature's revolt fascinated her .
It was "No,no !" simply a blank refusal that the whirlwind vociferated as it swept from the uttermost confines of trackless space across the blackness of the night. What, then, was it refusing ? There could be no certain answer, but it was emphatically a "No, no, never ; no, no, no !"
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