"We can furnish anything and everything you may desire in this line; in fact, we can fit out your ship as a man-of-war. But do you need only two such guns as you describe, Captain Ringgold?" asked the business-driving Mr. Gaskill. "We have a lot of four of them, and we should like to dispose of them together."
"I will see the guns before I say anything more about the matter. When can you fill our water-tanks and coal-bunkers?" inquired the commander.
"We are very busy to-day, for we have several steamers to supply; but it shall be done before to-morrow noon."
"Now I will introduce you to our chief steward."
Mr. Sage insisted upon seeing his supplies before he named the quantity needed, and made an appointment on shore.
CHAPTER XXXIII
A DISAPPOINTMENT TO CAPTAIN SCOTT
Captain Ringgold knew something about Aden before he decided to make a stopping-place of it, and it was certainly a more agreeable location than Perim. The town—or towns, for there appear to be several of them—is described by a former resident as a sort of crater like that of a volcano, formed by a circular chain of steep hills, the highest of which is 1,775 feet above the sea level. The slope outside of them reaching to the waters of the Arabian Gulf, or the Gulf of Aden as it is now called, has several strings of hills in that direction, with valleys between them, radiating from the group to the shore.