The interpreter conferred with Lieutenant Porter and turned to Ali. "There are no Moslems."
Ali indicated Ben Akbar, silhouetted on top of the ledge. "May my dalul come, too?"
"He may," the interpreter assured him.
Ali said joyously, "Then we will go."
He didn't know where America was or what he might find on arrival, but he was sure that he and Ben Akbar, together, could make their own way anywhere at all.
7. Another Pilgrimage
Beginning at her stern and bearing to the starboard side, Ali set out to become more intimately acquainted with the ship. Almost every step brought to light a fresh marvel. As a camel driver who traveled with caravans, at one time or another he had been in every port that a caravan can visit, and he was not unfamiliar with ships. But never before had he seen anything to compare with the Supply.
A hundred and forty-one feet over all, the wooden three-master had a main and a quarterdeck. An official United States Navy ship, she was armed with a battery of four twenty-four pounders. One glance revealed that her crew of forty officers and men believed in and strictly adhered to the rules of first-class seamanship; the Supply was as spotlessly clean as she was trim.