The only thing he could think of to bring her was the power of curiosity. Perhaps if he stayed where he was she would be forced in the end to come see what had happened to him. He determined to try it anyhow.
"But as soon as she looks out of the door and sees me safe, she'll fly back," he thought. He moved his stool around to the very stern of the _Ernestina_. Here he was invisible unless one came all the way round to see.
Here his patience was indeed put to a test. He had nothing to read--he could not have applied his mind to it, if he had had, and he dared not smoke for fear of betraying himself. All he could do was to sit and study the scenery. The _Ernestina_ went back through Buttermilk channel, and rounded Red Hook. She passed the Erie basin where upon the boundary fence Evan had the edification of reading a sign half a mile long extolling the virtues of a certain English condiment. And they say the English are not enterprising! She crossed the mouth of Gowanus bay and passed the villas of Bay Ridge, and still nothing happened.
But as she approached the Narrows, Evan thought he heard one of the sliding doors squeak, and his heart leaped. Jumping up he flattened himself against the deck house. There was an agonising pause. If only he dared peep around the side. Then Corinna came plump into view.
At sight of him a sharp exclamation escaped her. She hung motionless for a moment, her face fixed in a comical mask of surprise and indignation, like a child's, then she turned to run.
She saw that he could seize her before she gained the door. She had learned the folly of running from him. So she stood still. Drawing herself up she said:
"I have nothing to say to you. I only wished to make sure that you had not done anything foolish."
Evan glanced at the shores. Staten Island was the nearer--less than half a mile. "It is not too late," he said.
"Overboard I go," said Evan, "unless you stop here and talk to me as if I were a Christian."
"I shall not be fooled a second time," she said.
"You were not fooled the first time," he said quietly. He bent down and started to unlace his shoes.
"Can't swim with my shoes on," Evan said without looking up.
He heard her catch her breath, but her voice was still inflexible. "Do you think me so simple!"