He set to sand and canvassing the rail he had been working on when Cleary appeared, Jude and Ratcliffe took up their jobs, and the ordinary life of the Sarah resumed as though the rum incident had never been.
All the same, work could not prevent Ratcliffe from pondering the dark problem of Satan and his doings.
Why had he not put out an anchor light last night? Why had he pretended to Sellers that he was short of oil? Why had he swallowed a glass of rum only to unswallow it again?
Then in the monotony of work his mind passed from these considerations to a state of pleasant expectancy. What would they find in the wreck, and the explosion of the barrel of powder, how would it come off?
He felt as pleased as a boy about to fire a brass cannon and not sure whether it will burst or not.
CHAPTER XXV
THEY FIRE THE FUSE
Satan used a modification of the deck bear for cleaning his decks; that is to say, a box filled with stones having a rough mat nailed under it. The deck having been sprinkled with sand, the bear had to be pulled backward and forward after the fashion of a carpet sweeper. This was Ratcliffe’s job, and he was not sorry when it was over.
Dinner was served at eight bells, and getting along toward one o’clock the Natchez and Juan were flying all sorts of flags on the tepid breeze as a signal, evidently, that it was time to get to business.