CHAPTER XXIX
SATAN IN PARADISE
He had divided Ratcliffe and Jude into watches, port and starboard.
Jude turned in first, relieving him somewhere about two in the morning. At six, when Ratcliffe turned out and came on deck, he found Satan at the wheel, relinquished by Jude, and day pursuing the Sarah across a wrinkled sea of tourmaline and hinted blue. Away ahead somewhere to the south lay Cormorant Cay, the true tomb, if the chart indications were correct, of the Nombre de Dios.
A strong sailing wind was blowing, and Satan gave their speed at seven knots. He refused to hand over the wheel.
“I’ve had a snooze on deck,” said he, “while the kid took charge. We’re nearly sixty miles south of Lone, and if this wind holds will be on to Cormorant somewhere about eight bells.”
“Not a sign of those chaps,” said Ratcliffe, looking back over the sea, clear of Cleary and Sellers and their dirty crowd.
“Naw; they’ll be just about rousin’ up now and rubbin’ their eyes.”
“You don’t think they’ll try to follow us?”
“Not likely, I don’t think. They’re wastin’ time and money if they cruise after us. Cark’s got his business in Havana to attend to, and Cleary’s the same. What’s gettin’ me is the fac’ that Sellers has spotted the kid for what she is. It’ll be all over Havana, and she knows it.”
“Well, it had to come out some time.”