"Don't say any more, doctor," laughed Hammer, with an amused glance at the wondering Harcourt, who knew nothing of the occurrence. "It's really not worth bothering about, I assure you, and if anyone needs to be forgiven it is I."
"Not at all," beamed the other, but the muscle over his temple was beating hard. "By the way, you found no papers on the deck, yess?"
"I didn't notice any," returned the surprised American. "Why, did you lose something?"
"A paper, yess. Adolf believed me to have had it when I left the cabin. But no matter, my friend. We——"
"Hold on there!" cried Hammer quickly. "If you lost something, we'll look into it. Roberts! Was anyone else on the after-deck?"
"I saw no one, Mr. Hammer," returned the steward. "I called the two men, as you ordered."
Hammer frowned, but Krausz waved a hand and insisted that nothing mattered; and so the dinner proceeded, with a brief but frank explanation on the part of the scientist to Harcourt and John Solomon, Schlak still being on the bridge.
Hammer was about to relieve him when Krausz asked him to wait, as he wished to explain the purpose of his expedition.
This proved to be of little interest to the American, however. The doctor had discovered, some time before, a number of old manuscripts dealing with the Portuguese occupation of the Mombasa coast.
According to these, there was a place not far from Melindi where a fort had been established, and where, afterward, a number of vessels had been wrecked on their way from Goa to Lisbon.