He turned to ring the engines "Ahead" and did not see Emberi's hand go up to cover a smile.
CHAPTER XIII
GUNS IN THE AKASAVA
"Thank God!" said the Houssa captain fervently, "there is no war in this country."
"Touch wood!" said Sanders, and the two men simultaneously reached out and laid solemn hands upon the handle of the coffee-pot, which was vulcanite.
If they had touched wood who knows what might have happened in the first place to Ofesi the chief of Mc-Canti?
Who knows what might have happened to the two smugglers of gold from the French territory?
The wife of Bikilini might have gone off with her lover, and Bikilini resigned and patient taken another to wife, and the death men of the Ofesi might never have gone forth upon their unamiable missions, or going forth have been drowned, or grown faint-hearted.
Anyway it is an indisputable fact that neither Sanders nor Captain Hamilton touched wood on the occasion.
And as to Bannister Fish——?