“What was that?” Jack demanded alertly.
“It looked like the missing parchment to me!”
“I thought so too! But why would she have snatched it for Captain Carter? He couldn’t have told her to do it, because he only now made port.”
“You got me,” Ken responded. “But she certainly slipped him something. Shall we buzz ’em?”
“Let’s wait,” Jack decided after a moment of thought. “No use tipping our hand.”
Unnoticed, they watched the two talk together for a few minutes longer. Captain Carter took money from his billfold, giving it to the parrot woman. She then slipped away behind the vegetable stall.
Ken and Jack made no attempt to intercept the Captain until he had started on. As they came up behind him, he whirled suddenly and reached toward his hip as if for a weapon.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said relaxing. “Well! Well! I just came ashore to tell Livingston his cargo is here safe and sound.”
“Six days late,” Jack remarked.
“We were delayed by a gale. Where’s Livingston?”