“I wonder if they will dare to keep up a fusillade?” he presently said, watching the deck of the drab boat in the glare of light that Halstead now held steadily on it.
“If they fire another shot at us,” replied Powell Seaton, “then Hepton and I will crouch over the forward deck-house, rifles ready, and fire at the flash of the third shot. We’ll keep within the law, but we won’t stand for any determined 146 piracy that we have the power to resist.”
“Take the wheel, Hank,” called Tom, presently. Then the young skipper signed to his employer that he wanted to speak with him aft.
“Mr. Seaton,” began Tom, “I want to ask you a few questions, with a view to making a suggestion that may be worth while.”
“Go ahead, Halstead.”
“You trust me now, fully? Have you gotten wholly over your suspicions of early this afternoon?”
“Halstead,” replied the charter-man, in a tone uneasy with emotion, “I’m wholly ashamed of anything that I may have said or thought. You’ve shown me, since, how perfectly brave you are. I don’t believe a young man with your cool, resolute grit, and your clear head, could be anything but absolutely honest.”
“Thank you,” acknowledged the young motor boat captain. “Now, Mr. Seaton, though the two sets of papers describing and locating your diamond field are out of your hands, don’t you remember the contents of the papers well enough to sit down at a desk and duplicate them?”
“Yes; surely,” nodded Mr. Seaton, slowly.
“You feel certain that you can seat yourself and write out a set of papers that would tell a 147 man down in Brazil just how to locate the diamond field?”