He fell asleep, only to dream of gold, and he awoke shortly before dawn with a dry mouth and a burning forehead.
He came on deck. Sagesse had relieved Jules and was standing by the man at the wheel. The moon, in her last quarter, held the sea; she was low down on the horizon and the stars above were bright and huge; the wind had fallen to a gentle breathing, just filling the sails which slatted now and then with a sound like the wing of a great bird.
Gaspard spoke a word to Sagesse, and then went forward a bit and leaned on the starboard bulwarks. He lit a pipe. The slow way on the vessel irritated him. What if the wind fell to a dead calm? It seemed almost impossible that this was the man who had fled from the place that he was now so anxious to reach, the man who had tried to dissuade Sagesse from the venture which now filled his being with fire and anxiety.
He leaned for a while smoking, motionless, in a reverie; then, as if suddenly awakened to some disagreeable fact, he started and smacked his hand on the bulwark.
“Fifteen per cent.! Fifteen francs out of every hundred francs! Coquin de sort! never! He thought he had me tied up with Yves in fear of the law. Well, how about Pedro? It seems to me if he threatens me with Yves, I can threaten him with Pedro, and a ship’s company to bear witness! Fifty per cent.! I will stick to that. But I will say nothing yet.”
Now in the sky to eastward the darkness was paling and stars that were there shining brightly a moment ago had vanished.
Some atmospheric influence had caught the first faintest sunrays and held them from spreading in a fan-shaped haze, grey, then spreading to blue, luminous with fire. Almost before one could say, “It is no longer night,” day was coming over the sea like a golden breeze.
“Land ho! Ahoy! Ahee! Land ho!”
Thin, in the French of the colonies, came the cry from the maintop, where Sagesse had stationed a hand.
Gaspard sprang on the bulwark and, clinging with one hand to the ratlines of the mainmast, shaded his eyes with the other hand and looked.