“We must make better time,” I urged. “Can’t we crowd on more sail or do something nautical?”
“Crowd on nothin’,” said Triplett. “Wind’s dead agin us.” He spat sourly as was his wont and I knew from the glint of his one useful eye that what man could do he would do. Foot by foot we crept up on the slender Undine out of whose buff funnel smoke poured with increasing volume. We could now see the glint of her brass work and read the name under her stern. The squeak of the davit-blocks reached us as the tiny launch was hauled up and swung in-board; then came the clink, clink of the capstan. It was up-anchor now and no mistake.
At that moment Swank made one of the greatest blunders of his life and that is saying a lot. Overcome by excitement he seized a large megaphone and before I could stop him raised it and howled “Undine a-hoy!”
“Fool!” I shouted striking the instrument from his grasp.
It was the very thing which he should not have done. In quiet we might have slipped alongside. Now all was activity aboard the yacht. Sailors ran to and fro, bells rang sharply, the anchor swung dripping over the bow and a lather of white foam bubbled up from the obedient screws.
We were not over a hundred yards away. In desperation I seized the megaphone. “Stop, in the name of the law,” I shouted; it was all I could think of at the time.
A harsh laugh was my answer followed by a shriek, the well-known shriek of my beloved, which tore my heart strings. In the salon I caught a glimpse of two struggling figures; then, just as other bulky forms intervened, a bright object flew through the open porthole. At that moment the Undine’s stern swung toward us and gathering headway she shrank rapidly to a tiny speck on the distant horizon.
We hove-to. “Lower the dingy,” I ordered. Alone I rowed toward the bright object which I had seen fly from the cabin window. If it were what I hoped ... yes ... a bottle. Within was the briefest sort of message, merely the word ... “Ritz.”
Back in my cabin I pondered in bitter perplexity. “Ritz?” It was a call to follow her ... it was a meeting place ... but which Ritz? There are so many.
I am not one to give up easily. Gradually a scheme formed in my mind. I would establish an inter-Ritz communication system with agents in all branches. Triplett’s appearance in the doorway interrupted my ruminations.