Ben got to his feet, his hand feeling at his damaged jaw, and rejoined Dare, rage eating at his heart.
They did not make the mistake of asking for leave again, but waited their opportunity to go ashore without leave. The opportunity did not arrive, however. They found themselves kept under close surveillance. The mate or one of the crew unostentatiously shadowed their every movement.
When two days passed and they failed to escape the vigilance of the crew even for sufficient time to hail a passing boat, they began to get anxious. Captain Stanley, they knew, if he did not receive a cable in another day or so, would become alarmed and might make inquiries in St. Pierre which would wreck their plans and might very conceivably endanger their position.
On the fourth day in port they began to load again, and the talk for'ard was that they would be leaving on the night of the sixth. There had been no confidential exchanges between Ben and Dare and the rest of the crew. Evidently the latter had been warned, for whenever Ben or Dare endeavoured casually to bring the conversation round to the subject of the Mary's activities, an uncompromising silence settled down.
They finished loading on the day they began taking cargo. After supper that evening Ben, smoking a pipe on deck, admitted to himself the hopelessness of trying to get into communication with Captain Stanley.
At that time of day the harbour was dotted with row-boats pulling to the quays, containing ships' crews bound ashore for a night's jollification. One such passed close to the Mary, where Ben was in sole possession of the deck, though a wisp of tobacco smoke, rising above the cabin shutter, showed that the vigilant mate was not far away.
Ben eyed the boat as he had eyed every boat which had passed the ship for days, in the hope that it might contain some person known to him and that some way would be found to get a message sent to the captain. As before he was disappointed. He knew no one in the boat, and therefore had no reason to hail her except for the purpose of asking for a lift ashore, and that was not possible while the mate was within earshot. To his surprise, however, he was hailed by one of the men in the boat, which contained four persons.
"That you, Ben? How goes it?"
At the sound of voices the mate came running on deck. He approached near enough to Ben to hear all that passed between him and the men in the boat. Ben, ignoring his presence, singled out the man who had hailed him and after a few seconds remembered him as an old shipmate.
"You Ames?" he called out. "What you doin' here?"