Dick did not answer, but when the vessel faded into a hazy mass ahead he started the engine and steered into her eddying wake, which ran far back into the dark. Then after a glance at the compass, he beckoned Jake. “Look how she’s heading.”
Jake told him and he nodded. “I made it half a point more to port, but this compass swivels rather wildly. Where do you think she’s bound?”
“To Santa Brigida; but, as you can see, not direct. I expect her skipper wants to take a bearing from the Adexe lights. You are going there and her course is the same as ours.”
“No,” said Dick; “I’m edging in towards the land rather short of Adexe. As we have the current on our bow, I want to get hold of the beach as soon as I can, for the sake of slacker water. Anyway, a big boat would keep well clear of the shore until she passed the Tajada reef.”
“Then she may be going into Adexe for coal.”
“That vessel wouldn’t float alongside the wharf, and her skipper would sooner fill his bunkers where he’d get passengers and freight.”
“Well, I expect we’ll find her at Santa Brigida when we arrive.”
They looked round, but the sea was now dark and empty and they let the matter drop. When they crossed the Adexe bight no steamer was anchored near, but a cluster of lights on the dusky beach marked the coaling wharf.
“They’re working late,” Dick said. “Can you see the tug?”
“You’d have to run close in before you could do so,” Jake replied. “I expect they’re trimming the coal the collier landed into the sheds.”