“No,” said Henninger, in a tone that closed the question. “The rest of us sleep on blankets spread on the deck because it’s so hot, Miss Laurie, but you can have the cabin, or we’ll swing you a hammock amidships. But you’d suffocate in the cabin, I’m afraid. You said you didn’t want any favours, and we can’t give you any.”
Margaret chose the hammock, which an Arab seaman was ordered to sling for her. But no one turned in for two more hours; there was too much excitement in the actual, long-delayed start. But the cool sea-wind brought quiet, and excitement gave place at last to intense weariness.
Elliott spread his blanket beside the rail only a couple of yards from Margaret’s hammock.
“If anything should frighten you in the night, just speak to me and I’ll hear you instantly,” he remarked, as he lay down.
“All right,” she replied; but he felt more than certain that whatever the alarm, she would sooner have bitten off the end of her tongue than have appealed to him for help.
Elliott awoke several times during the night. The dhow was rushing forward at, it seemed to him, tremendous speed, and he was spattered occasionally by smart splashes of foam from over-side. Margaret’s hammock was swaying heavily in the roll, but she appeared to be asleep, and all was quiet on deck. At the stern he could see the white figure of the steersman leaning hard against the tiller, and there was a dark form beside the rail, undoubtedly one of his friends on the watch.
At last he awoke again with a start, to find it broad day. The dhow’s decks were wet; there was a cloudy sky, and a fresh wet wind blowing from the southeast. No land was anywhere in sight; the sea, gray as iron, was covered with racing whitecaps. Looking at his watch, he found that it was half-past five, and he arose and walked aft, feeling a trifle cramped and stiff, to where Sullivan was lounging out the last hour of his duty. Margaret still slept profoundly in her hammock.
“What do you think of our clipper? I picked her out,” said Sullivan, walking forward to meet him.
Elliott was now able for the first time to get a clear view of the craft upon which he had embarked. The dhow was about ninety feet long and rather broad in the beam, with two masts stepped with an extravagant rake forward, each bearing a great lateen sail. There was a long, knifelike sheer to her cutwater, and a great overhang to her stern, and she was decked completely over, with forward and aft companion ladders leading below.
“She seems to be able to sail,” replied Elliott, glancing at the racing water alongside.