“Well,” said Dick, who believed he had admitted enough to disarm any suspicion the other might have entertained, “doesn’t coal that’s kept exposed to the air lose some of its heating properties?”
“It does not suffer much damage. But we will drink a glass of wine, and then I will show you how we keep our coal.”
“Thanks. These things interest me, but I looked into the sheds as I passed,” Dick answered as he drank his wine.
They went out and when they entered the first shed the Spaniard called a peon and gave him an order Dick did not catch. Then he showed Dick the cranes, and the trucks that ran along the wharf on rails, and how they weighed the bags of coal. After a time they went into a shed that was nearly empty and Dick carefully looked about. Several peons were at work upon the bags, but Oliva was not there. Dick wondered whether he had been warned to keep out of sight.
As they went back to the office, his companion looked over the edge of the wharf and spoke to a seaman on the tug below. Her fires were out and the hammering that came up through the open skylights indicated that work was being done in her engine-room. Then one of the workmen seemed to object to something another said, for Dick heard “No; it must be tightened. It knocked last night.”
He knew enough Castilian to feel sure he had not been mistaken, and the meaning of what he had heard was plain. A shaft-journal knocks when the bearings it revolves in have worn or shaken loose, and the machinery must have been running when the engineer heard the noise. Dick thought it better to light a cigarette, and was occupied shielding the match with his hands when the manager turned round. A few minutes later he stated that as it was a long way to Santa Brigida he must start soon and after some Spanish compliments the other let him go.
He followed the hill road slowly in a thoughtful mood. The manager had been frank, but Dick suspected him of trying to show that he had nothing to hide. Then he imagined that a quantity of coal had been shipped since the previous day, and if the tug had been at sea at night, she must have been used for towing lighters. The large vessel he had seen was obviously a passenger boat, but fast liners could be converted into auxiliary cruisers. There were, however, so far as he knew, no enemy cruisers in the neighborhood; indeed, it was supposed that they had been chased off the seas. Still, there was something mysterious about the matter, and he meant to watch the coaling company and Kenwardine.