"Good-bye, my dear, and God bring you back safely," said Florence softly, as she kissed him good-bye.
Dennis answered with a reassuring smile. "You've got my little flash-light, haven't you?"
"Everything as planned, my heart. Good-bye!"
Dennis climbed down into the boat which swept around and headed back to the brig. Florence stood on the dock, watching. She exchanged a final wave of the hand before the boat swept out of sight under the counter of the Pelican; then she turned and slowly walked in to the shore.
There, however, she remained, in the shadow of the long warehouses already piled high with bone from other whaling ships. Darkness closed down upon the bay, and the lights of the little town began to glimmer and gleam under the hills. Out on the water the lamps of the Pelican showed red and white in the gloom.
Had the cook, Frenchy, come aboard? Florence did not know. She knew that Tom Dennis was there, among men who indubitably meant him no good; whether his would-be assassin had reached Unalaska in time to join the ship, she knew not. She waited, shivering a little, until by degrees the red side-light vanished. Presently the lights showed green and white—and she knew that the tide was on the ebb, that the ship had swung about to her cable. There was a light breeze, but strong enough to carry the brig to sea.
Suddenly a flare lighted up the forward deck of the whaler. The voice of Bo'sun Joe drifted over the water with strange sweetness, joined by the voices of other men and interjected by the guttural utterances of Kanakas trying to keep tune; while the clicking pawls and the slowly shifting lights betrayed that the anchor was coming up:
"We cracked it on, on a big skiute,
To me hoodah, to me hoodah!
We cracked it on, on a big skiute,
Hurrah for the Black Ball line!
Blow, my bullies, blow,
For California oh!
There's plenty of gold
As I've been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento-o!"
Meantime, the capstan chantey was being drowned by other voices—the steely ring of Pontifex, the roar of Manuel Mendez, the shriller tones of Corny and others as orders were repeated and the topsails were set. The confusion of voices became more pronounced.
"Hurry up with that royal!" came the voice of Pontifex. "Leggo that lee-brace and trim—hurry up!"