He laughed as he asked the question, and Schumer laughed as he replied in the affirmative.
"The strange thing is," said Floyd gravely, "that I left Sydney, came straight down here, and here I find the Domain, who has missed Upolo, which is a good way out of the line, been blown out of her course, and yet has arrived here only a day before me."
"And how is that strange?" asked Luckman.
"In this way: I saw the Domain in Sydney harbor two days before I left, riding at her anchor. How the deuce has she managed to go through all those experiences you speak of and yet arrive here only the day before me?"
"And what date was it when you left Sydney?" asked Luckman.
Floyd gave the date.
"Well, all I can say," said Luckman, "is that the Domain left ten days before that. You must be thinking of the Dominion, which is also owned by Hakluyt. She's a sister of the Domain, built on the same slip, owned by Shuster, she was, till he went bankrupt and Hakluyt picked her up for an old song. That's the vessel that's in your head. I left her anchored in Sydney harbor when I left." Floyd said nothing. Luckman's manner was so assured and plausible that had he not overheard that fatal conversation in Hakluyt's office he would have been entirely taken in. He turned to Schumer as if to change the subject.
"Well," said he, "how has the luck been going?"
Schumer took him by the arm and led him away a bit along the water edge.
"I'm glad you are back," said he, "before that man Luckman leaves. It's a nuisance, his coming. Of course he's one of Hakluyt's men, else I'd have made him clear out of the lagoon when he'd taken his water on board. As it is he knows all about the pearling. He scented it at once, and spoke to me of it. You see, he's an old island hand, so I just told him, and, what's more, took him right over the grounds. I did a bit of trade with him, too. He had some timber and corrugated iron on board, and I bought it of him, and we've been rafting it over all yesterday and to-day. I'm going to put up huts over at the fishing camp. The rains will be here soon, now, and I want to get the fellows under cover."