"Helmuth!" The word broke from Krausz and found echo in Hammer's mind. The heavy-lidded black eyes of the German were bent suddenly on Solomon. "The Herr Professor George Helmuth, yess, of the University of California?"
"That's 'im, sir!" Solomon's eyes sparkled. "American 'e was."
"H-m!" For some reason the doctor's face darkened. "Hiss daughter she iss my assistant, Mr. Solomon. She wass assistant curator at the Dresden Library. Well, my friends, I bid you good evening."
Hammer also departed to the bridge, pondering over the coincidence brought out by Solomon's words; and when Harcourt joined him for a smoke they chuckled over it together. The captain had already decided to let Solomon go at Mombasa, as there would be little need of his services for a time.
"Funny thing, that," remarked the Englishman. "Fancy a woman doing such work out here in Africa!"
"Oh, shucks!" laughed Hammer carelessly. "The kind of woman who goes in for that work—well, you know. Spectacles and Bibles and a blue pagari* on her sun-helmet."
* This is the correct spelling of the word, which is bastardized into puggaree or pugree, and other forms. The "Standard" will probably give pugaree, or some such spelling—Author.
So the matter passed, and for the time he forgot it. Indeed, Hammer was busier than he had been for many a day. Besides lessons in navigation from Harcourt, he was learning a smattering of Arabic from Solomon, and already could swear fluently at the four Arab sailors, who took a cheerful delight in adding to his vocabulary.
Also, he was rather surprised to find that he and Harcourt were drawing closer together with every day; that he was keenly interested in his new environment, and was looking forward to newer seas and lands with unalloyed anticipation.
In fact, he was beginning to see the falsity of his old attitude toward life, while the taste of authority was sweet to him. Already the past had faded out in his mind, save for occasional twinges of bitterness, at which times he plunged into his work and was astonished at the ease with which the mood passed.