"At the striking of two bells in the next watch."
"It shall be done. Who is to command, after that?"
"The supercargo, Lim Tock," answered the serang. "He is very clever. A friend of his, also a member of the Lim family, is to meet us near Bunju Island with a junk of which he is cap'n. Since the arrangement is all Lim Tock's, he deserves to command. It was he who got the opium put aboard at Macao."
"One thing," put in the third, his dark and muddy eyes gleaming. "The two white women! Surely they are not to be killed?"
"One does not waste the gifts of Allah," said Gajah sententiously. "The one with yellow hair goes to me; the other, who blushes often and whose figure is that of the willow, will comfort Lim Tock for the loss of his eldest son, who was hanged by the English last month for killing a white tuan. After a little while we shall sell them to chiefs along the coast, and so be rid of them. Wallah! It is hot down here."
He arose, knotted his fine silk sarong more closely about his waist, loosened his shagreen-hilted kris in its sheath, and departed. They two engineers looked at each other, and a slow smile passed between them.
"She of the yellow hair," said the third reflectively, "is tall and strong, of high spirit, and a fitting mate for me, whose veins run with the proud blood of the da Soussas!"
"And she of the lissome body," said the second engineer, rubbing his bristly chin, "has ere now smiled very sweetly upon me. It is not proper that yellow and brown island scum should have precedence before us, men descended from the conquistadors!"
"I agree with you," responded the other. "But what are we to do?"
"First secure the ship," said the second promptly. "Then secure—what we want."