“That’s no lie. The skipper says she can do fourteen knots with the right kind of a wind. Her name’s the Omeyyah, or words to that effect. She’d make a sensation in the New York Yacht Club, wouldn’t she?”
“What’s your crew like? Are they really the tough gang that Henninger said?”
“Oh, I fancy he was piling it on to frighten that girl. She’s dead game, isn’t she? No, the men are all coast Arabs—pretty peaceable lot, I reckon. You see, they’re all of the same tribe as the reis, and he’s guaranteed good behaviour from them. Besides, we’re well armed. There’s a big revolver apiece and a dozen Mauser rifles down below, with a thousand cartridges. Second-hand military rifles can be bought at bargain prices in Lorenzo Marques just now.”
Henninger came aft at that moment, looked earnestly at sea and sky, and drew a bucket of water from over the side for his ablutions. Elliott and Sullivan followed his example; and when Margaret appeared a few minutes later from behind the mizzen-sail, she, too, was served with a bucket of salt water and a towel.
“I’m going to braid my hair as I used when I was at school,” she exclaimed, laughing, after an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the curls to order. Her eyes shone; her cheeks glowed after the salt water, and her voice had a gay ring. For the first time an unwilling conviction began to invade Elliott that perhaps after all this expedition was better for her than to remain in America, brooding and waiting.
“We’ll have the cabin fixed up a little for you, with a wash-stand and a bit of a mirror,” said Henninger. “You can sleep in that hammock, if you like, but you’ll want some corner of your own. No one else will want to go into the cabin; it’s too hot. We live on deck.”
“What else do we live on?” demanded Elliott “Isn’t it nearly time for breakfast?”
“Not for half an hour. And while we’re waiting, perhaps Miss Laurie will—”
Margaret understood, and she silently produced from inside her blouse the folded paper which Elliott had seen at San Francisco.
“This is the map my father made,” she said, opening it and handing it to the chief.