CHAPTER IV
I DRINK COCOANUT MILK AND GO FISHING FOR PEARLS
fancy I have just fallen asleep when I am roused by hearing someone speaking at the port hole. I open my eyes to find it is the peep o' day, and out of the dull, grey dawn a Mexican's face looks in at my window.
"What do you want?" I demand, and in the same breath, "Go away! Mrs. Steele! Mrs. Steele!" To my amazement Mrs. Steele appears in the doorway all dressed.
"That's only the Baron's boatman, my dear, come to call you. I've had a raging headache, and the place was so hot I dressed and went up on deck, and there was the Baron de Bach pacing up and down—he couldn't sleep, either. He suggests we take a boat and go out to catch the early breeze and see the sun rise from the other side of the bay. Will you come?"
"Of course I will," I say sleepily, and not in the best of tempers. "There was no need to send that evil-looking brigand to wake me! My nerves are in a continual tremor in this blessed place. Do you know, Mrs. Steele," I say, fishing under the berth for a renegade stocking, "I've a sort of presentiment I shan't leave the shores of the Pacific without some kind of misfortune or hair-breadth escape."
"Nonsense!" says my practical friend, "you've eaten something that has disagreed with you. Hurry as fast as you can; the Captain says we weigh anchor at eight o'clock."