“I haven’t any idea.”
“Well, young man, this is one of the Azores. They call it Pico, and that mountain rising right out of the sea is one of the most wonderful things in the world.”
I wanted to ask why we were there, but I knew that that was none of my business. Lakeum helped me out.
“There are two reasons why we are here. You’ve noticed that we’ve had no second mate. We are going to have one in a few minutes. It is no uncommon thing now for a Portuguese to ship in New Bedford sometime ahead, and then go over to the Azores in the packet to see the folks and wait for the ship. This is our case. Mr. Silva’s his name and he must live pretty near here, for our captain had his instructions just where to put the ship in stays. Now then, don’t you see how Mr. Silva’s helped us out?”
Lakeum, usually rather serious, laughed heartily.
“Puzzled again? Well, just hear me. Don’t you see this is the way to get rid of Jake?”
“He’ll come back, won’t he?”
“Come back? We’ll never see him again, and we never want to. As a rule we don’t want a man who’s in debt to the ship to desert, but this man is dangerous, and nobody’s safe when he’s around. We are only too glad to get rid of him. We’ve given him a chance, and he’s taken it already.”
“Why didn’t the captain put back to New Bedford when the fracas was over and have Jake arrested?”
Again Lakeum laughed.