The count deftly interposed himself between the girl and the sea.
"You can repay me," he said slowly, "by returning at once with me to your father's stateroom, and promising to remain there until I come or send some one for you."
She looked up at him, startled, and the blood ebbed from her cheeks, leaving them ashen, but she asked no question, and he escorted her gravely to her father's cabin.
When he came again on deck, Baggin pointed triumphantly toward the north. "We make our final appeal to the world!" he cried.
It came reluctantly into view, a big grey-painted steamer with red-and-black funnels, a great, lumbering ocean beast.
Through their glasses the three men watched her, a puzzled frown upon the captain's face.
"I do not recognise her," he said, "but she looks like a gigantic cargo steamer."
"Her decks are crowded with passengers," said Baggin. "I can see women's hats and men in white; what is that structure forward?" He indicated a long superstructure before the steamer's bridge.
"There goes her flag."
A little ball crept up to the mainmast.