"Then can you indicate nearly or remotely what possible adventure I can fall into in this excursion?"
"I give up the conundrum; I cannot guess as to how it is to come about; but if I were a sporting man, I should be willing to wager that you will have an adventure of some kind; but I should wish to wager at the same time that you would come out of it unscathed, and with the head of the enemy under your arm," answered the captain, resuming his mirthful rallying.
"I cannot see for the life of me where the adventure is to come in. John Scoble is hard at work in Sing Sing prison, and"—
"He may have been pardoned, or escaped from the stone walls that held him," interposed the commander, very cheerfully, as though he did not anticipate either of these events.
"Mr. Fobbington, alias Wilson Frinks, is mending roads with his ankles chained together in Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe; these two were the most virulent enemies I ever had, and I do not know where to look for any others," replied Louis, as he saw his mother with the rest of the party come out of the boudoir.
Captain Ringgold told her all about the proposed excursion of the big four; but Mrs. Belgrave did not offer a single objection. She asked her son some questions about it, and then joined Mrs. Sharp in a walk on the deck.
"But which of the big four is to be the engineer of the Salihé?" asked the commander.
"No one of them, Captain; and that reminds me that I wish to borrow Felipe Garcias, the oiler, for that office," replied Louis.
The commander sent the middy to summon Felipe; and both of them soon returned together. The young Spaniard was very willing to undertake the duty, as he was anything that was for Louis, to whom he was fully devoted. The dinner in the cabin, complimentary to Captain and Mrs. Sharp, was served at five o'clock in Monsieur Odervie's best style. The boys retired early, and were at the gangway when the steam-yacht came alongside.
Giles Chickworth was in the pilot-house, and the same engineer as when they had seen the craft before was at the door of the engine-room. Felipe was in readiness to take the place of the latter, as Scott was that of the former. But the young engineer did not appear to be in a very cheerful mood, and looked furtively about the vicinity of the ship as if in search of somebody or something.