He left them, and Jake looked at Dick. “It’s unthinkable! I can’t stand for it!”
“No,” said Dick very quietly; “he mustn’t be pushed too far. For all that, his friends can’t be allowed to go on sinking British ships.”
CHAPTER XXX
THE LAST ENCOUNTER
Dick awoke next morning with a feeling of nervous strain that got worse as the day wore on. By going down to the saloon immediately the breakfast-bell rang and making a hurried meal, he and his companions avoided meeting Kenwardine, and, after bribing a steward, were given lunch with the second-class passengers. Two difficulties were thus got over, but the time passed heavily while they kept out of sight in quiet corners of the after well, and Dick found it a relief when a friendly engineer invited him below. Here he spent some hours, smoking and watching the machinery, while the fingers of the clock on the bulkhead crawled with painful slowness round the dial.
When he went up on deck the bold ridge of the Blue Mountains rose above the dazzling sea, but the lower slopes were veiled in haze and he could not tell how far the land was off. A mate informed him that they would have the coast close aboard at dusk, but did not think anybody would be allowed to land until the morning. Struck by a thought, Dick asked if any passenger boats were likely to be in port, and the mate replied that a Spanish liner would leave for Brazil soon after they arrived, but he knew of no vessel going north for the next few days. Then, after giving Dick some advice about the choice of a hotel, he went away.
Towards sunset the sea-breeze dropped and the mist gathered thicker about the hills. Faint puffs of hot wind began to blow off the land, which faded suddenly as darkness rolled down. A thin haze drifted out across the water and the speed slackened as the vessel closed with the shore. Then dim lights blinked out ahead, the engines stopped, and a detonating rocket burst high up in the sky. Soon afterwards a steam launch came off, and the purser stopped near Dick on his way to his room.
“We are going in, but will have to wait until the agent gets formal permission from the guardship’s commander, who must see our papers first,” he said. “As this may take some time, perhaps you had better dine on board.”