"It is not like tinto granadilla and snow from the Peak when one has eaten much salt fish," he said. "However, to a seaman, all wine is good, and if Don Pedro were with us we would dance. But let us be happy, and if I go to sleep you will carry me on board."
Kit was satisfied Macallister had not joined them. He was strenuously occupied scaling the boilers, and when Kit left Mossamedes strange bi-lingual threats and exclamations echoed about her stokehold. By and by Don Erminio began to glance about.
"Vaya!" he said. "Look at him! Now perhaps we can amuse ourselves. I will talk to the animal."
He got up, and carrying the bowl of wine, crossed the pavement. A man in white clothes occupied a chair at another table, and when he looked up Kit saw it was Captain Revillon. Kit had noted a small French cruiser at anchor in the roads.
"Ola, señor! All sailors are friends," said Don Erminio. "Besides, this bowl is large and my companion is sober and very dull. The wine is not Spanish, but it will go, and when I drink your wormwood, in the morning my throat is bad."
Revillon bowed and let him fill his glass, and Don Erminio resumed in uncouth French: "We took you, my friend, that time on the Morocco coast!"
"It looks like that," Revillon replied, with a touch of dryness. "Still I do not see why you risked crossing the shoals. You had, no doubt, thrown the guns overboard."
Don Erminio indicated Kit, who had joined him. "He is a boy, but very obstinate. The English are obstinate and the Scots are worse. Me, I know. Well, his bargain was to land the guns, and they were landed."
"Then, I think you did take me," Revillon remarked with a quick, surprised glance. "Had I known——"
Kit was intrigued. He had sometimes wondered why Revillon had not looked for Mossamedes in the morning. The coast was dangerous and the gale was fresh, but he had thought this did not account for all.