There was evidently another question asked, and the man answered impatiently: "I can't tell you anything about the Adelaide 'cept that she's coming along under easy steam. Should be here in a day or two."
Jordan glanced at Jimmy. "The men you brought down are talking already, and we haven't much time for fixing our program. When do you expect her?"
"I don't exactly know. We came away before she did when the breeze fell, but her second engineer seemed quite confident he could bring her along at seven or eight knots. He wasn't sure whether his high-pressure engine would stand anything more."
Then it was significant that both of them looked at Eleanor, who had insisted on coming with Jordan, and who was apparently waiting to take her part in the discussion. One could have fancied from their faces that they would have preferred to be alone just then and were a trifle uneasy concerning the course their companion might think fit to pursue. She leaned back in her chair watching them, with a little hard smile which seemed to suggest that she knew what they were thinking. Still, she said nothing, and Jordan spoke again.
"You are sure of the Adelaide's skipper and that miner fellow?" he asked. "They wouldn't go back on you if Merril tried to buy them off?"
"I think I can be sure of them," said Jimmy reflectively. "The skipper is not the kind of man I would take to, but, in some respects, at least, he's straight; and, anyway, he's bitter enough against Merril to back us in anything we may decide to do. You see, the man who gets his boat ashore is practically done for nowadays, whether it's his own fault or not; and I fancy we can count on the miner, too. After what those fellows had to go through to get the gold they were bringing home, they're not likely to have much sympathy with Merril. In fact, if the others understood how near they came to seeing it go down in the Adelaide, it would be a little difficult to keep them from laying hands on him. In any case, there's the engineer's statement—one can't get over that."
Eleanor stretched out her hand for the paper, and there was a vindictive sparkle in her eyes as she glanced at it.
"Charley," she said with portentous quietness, "it seems to me that the possession of this document places Merril absolutely in your hands. You are not afraid to make the utmost use of it?"
Jordan glanced at Jimmy in a fashion the latter understood. There was something deprecatory in it, and it appeared to suggest that he wished his comrade to realize that he was under compulsion and could not help himself. Then he turned to the girl with a certain air of resolution.
"No," he said, "I don't think I am afraid, but I want you to understand that I am manager of the Shasta Company, and have first of all to consider the interests of my associates, the men who put their money into the concern. There is Jimmy, too."