Apparently, the point was settled when Hozier joined the triumvirate. Coke glanced at the compass, and placed the engine-room telegraph at "Full Speed Ahead," for the Unser Fritz had once been a British ship, and still retained her English appliances.
"Keep 'er edgin' south a bit," said he to Hozier. "There's no knowin' w'en that crimson cruiser will show up again, but we must try and steal a knot or two afore sundown."
The order roused Hozier from his stupor of wrathful bewilderment.
"Why south?" he asked. "If anything, Pernambuco lies north of our present course."
"We're givin' Pernambuco the go-by. It's Maceio for us, quick as we can get there."
Hozier was in no humor for conciliatory methods. He turned on his heel, and walked straight to where De Sylva was leaning against the rails.
"Captain Coke tells me that we are not making for Pernambuco," he said, meeting the older man's penetrating gaze with a glance as firm and self-contained.
"That is what we have arranged," said Dom Corria.
"It does not seem to have occurred to you that there is one person on board this ship whose interests are vastly more important than yours, senhor."
"Meaning Miss Yorke?" asked the other, who did not require to look twice at this stern-visaged man to grasp the futility of any words but the plainest.