“Yes. I want to dine with a friend.”
The skipper raised his eyebrows and stared.
“Want to dine with a friend? Why—oh, well, I’m not going to imitate that Yankee and ask questions about what doesn’t concern me. I was going to ask you to join us in the cabin, to meet the gentlemen; but that will do another time. Yes, of course, Lynton, and I wish you a pleasant evening; but no nonsense: I sail at the time I told you.”
“And if I’m not back you’ll sail without me?”
“That’s right.”
“No fear, sir,” said the mate.
“I know there isn’t, my lad, or I should have said no. I’ll tell Dellow to send a boat ashore for you at ten.”
The skipper walked off leaving the mate looking after him and frowning.
“He needn’t have been so nasty about it. But he wouldn’t sail without me if I were not back.”
The mate did not stir till he had seen Captain Banes on board. Then and then only he went in search of the American, but did not find him, and after a certain amount of search and enquiry he was walking along with overcast brow, thinking that there was some cause for the skipper’s dislike to his host in prospective, and that the American was a bit of an impostor, when he came suddenly upon Sir Humphrey and his brother, followed by one of the men from the hotel carrying a portmanteau, and on their way to the brig.