Blix shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. Then:
"What a pretty boat that is up there, that picture on the wall. See over there, on the wall opposite? Do you notice it? Isn't she pretty? Condy, tell me what kind of a boat is that?"
Condy turned about in his place with great deliberation, fixed the picture with a judicial eye, and announced decisively:
"That?—why, that's a BARKENTINE."
Condy had no need to wait for Blix's report. The demonstration came far too quickly for that. The red-headed man at his loud declaration merely glanced in the direction of the chromo and returned to his enchellados. But he of the black mustache followed Condy's glance, noted the picture of which he spoke, and snorted contemptuously. They even heard him mutter beneath his mustache:
"BARKENTINE your eye!"
"No doubt as to which is the captain now," whispered Condy so soon as the other had removed from him a glance of withering scorn.
They could hardly restrain their gayety; but their gravity promptly returned when Blix kicked Condy's foot under the table and murmured: "He's looking at his watch, the captain is. K. D. B. isn't here yet, and the red-headed man, the coincidence, is. We MUST get rid of him. Condy, can't you think of something?"
"Well, he won't go till he's through his supper, you can depend upon that. If he's here when K. D. B. arrives, it will spoil everything. She wouldn't stay a moment. She wouldn't even come in."
"Isn't it disappointing? And I had so counted upon bringing these two together! And Captain Jack is a nice man!"