Dick, however, dismissed the matter. He was tired in mind and body, and did not mean to think of anything important until he met Kenwardine. By and by his head grew heavy, and resting it on the back of his chair, he closed his eyes. When Jake came up, followed by a steward carrying two tall glasses of frothing liquor, he saw that his comrade was fast asleep.
“You can put them down,” he told the steward. “I’m thirsty enough to empty both, but you can bring some more along when my partner wakes.”
After this he took a black seaman, who was making some noise as he swept the poop, by the arm and firmly led him to the other side of the deck. Then he drained the glasses with a sigh of satisfaction, and lighting a cigarette, sat down near Dick’s feet. He did not mean to sleep, but when he got up with a jerk as the lunch bell rang he saw Dick smiling.
“Have I been sitting there all this time?” he asked.
“No,” said Dick. “You were lying flat on deck when I woke up an hour ago.” Then he indicated the two glasses, which had rolled into the scupper channel. “I shouldn’t be surprised if those accounted for it.”
“Perhaps they did,” Jake owned, grinning. “Anyhow, we’ll have some more, with a lump of ice in it, before we go down to lunch.”
The Danish boat met fine weather as she leisurely made her way across the Caribbean, and after an uneventful voyage, Dick and Jake landed at a port in Cuba. The British steamer from Santa Brigida had not arrived, but the agent expected her in the evening, and they found Don Sebastian waiting them at a hotel he had named. When it was getting dark they walked to the end of the harbor mole and sat down to watch for the vessel.
Rows of the lights began to twinkle, one behind the other, at the head of the bay, and music drifted across the water. A bright glow marked the plaza, where a band was playing, but the harbor was dark except for the glimmer of anchor-lights on the oily swell. The occasional rattle of a winch, jarring harshly on the music, told that the Danish boat was working cargo. A faint, warm breeze blew off the land, and there was a flicker of green and blue phosphorescence as the sea washed about the end of the mole.
“I wonder how you’ll feel if Kenwardine doesn’t come,” Jake said presently, looking at Dick, who did not answer.
“He will come,” Don Sebastian rejoined with quiet confidence.