"Very like," agreed Ching, and then flung forth a speech which astonished Madame with its sharp sailor wit. Hitherto she had rated the Skipper as a dull dog. "Willatopy will not have sailed for England because that would mean leaving his yawl at Thursday Island. Nothing would induce him to risk the safety of his yawl."
"You are right, Captain," cried she. "That is final. The sailor, and Willatopy is a sailor born and bred, will cast off his mistress, but never his ship. He will return to us with his yawl. If later on he sails for England he will leave the yawl here in safety at her moorings. Why didn't you think of that, my circumspectious man, Sandy?"
"I am an Engineer, not a sailor. It is engines I think of, not ships. They are nothing to me but the case for the bonny engines."
"Exactly," said Madame. "That is just the difference between an engineer and a sailor, between Devon and Glasgow. You are clever, Sandy, and as a man of business, you soar far beyond our poor comprehension. But Captain Ching here is the wiser man."
It was not very subtle, perhaps, but in this fashion Madame Gilbert put down the talkative Ewing, and exalted the silent Ching, and bound the hearts of both men to her. More than ever she felt assured that if she needed help—and the fracture of the laws of God and man at her behests—Ching and Ewing would stand immovably with her.
"Madame," said Ching, and it was to be observed that when he spoke of the sea and his own craft, his tongue instantly loosened. "Can you tell me when you propose that the Humming Top should cast off and sail for England?"
"I had not considered leaving. There is no hurry, is there?"
"There is no immediate urgency. But it is my duty as Captain to make certain representations to my owner. We sailed in the middle of March, and we arrived here after a voyage of two months, most of it in warm weather. We have now lain for five weeks in a tropical tidal bay. The yacht is foul, very foul. The brown boys who dive under her for bits of silver thrown from the rail say that she trails weed four feet long. The teak sheathing which runs from bilge to bilge, and stretches from near the forefoot to the stern post, is uncoppered. It was attached rather hastily, and copper was still scarce after the war. The wood is proof against worm, but it collects weed. When we do sail—it is now near the end of June—we must make for Singapore, and go into dock for a clean. The Chief will tell you that though we do not lack for fuel, the foul bottom will grievously increase our consumption."
"That is so," explained Ewing. "I have dived down myself, and seen the blooming garden which flourishes under our bottom. We are a tropical curiosity. We attract every kind of growth except coral. If we linger much longer we shall become fir-r-mly attached to the sea floor. We lie in six fathoms, but the weeds grow like bananas. At the consumption which brought us here steaming eleven knots, we should not now make eight. And if we get much more foul we shall not make six. Sir John's dollars will bur-r-n in grand volumes when we put out to sea. It goes against my conscience, Madame, to waste good oil on a foul ship."
Madame knitted her brows. "Both of you know now how I am placed. I am a woman and curious; I want to see the drama of Willatopy unfold itself before me."