“If he misses this boat, it will be a terrible thing for him. All his clothes are aboard and I have his money in my note,” Manuel said.
“Oh, he will have time to go and return,” spoke up João Mello, who was Gabriel’s friend. “Gabriel is a fast walker and could go much further than that in the same time.”
“It isn’t that,” returned Maria, “suppose the boat should leave earlier than we were told it would?”
“I hadn’t thought of that. If I had,” he added thoughtfully, “I wouldn’t have let him go. But let us hope for the best,” he added cheerfully, seeing that Maria was about to cry.
III.
“Captain,” said the first mate of the Suveric to his superior officer a few hours later, “the tide is going out. Hadn’t we better take advantage of it, and leave this morning instead of tonight?”
“What do you say?” asked the captain of the Americano.
“Well, the people are all here, so I don’t see any objection to sailing now, if you want to. I’ll pass along the word. Here, Francisco, tell these people to get on board. We leave pretty soon.”
“Pretty soon?” cried Maria as she heard the order, “why, Gabriel will not be here until night. Oh, why did I let him go!” And the unhappy girl indulged her grief in shrieks of the most heart-rending nature.
“Oh, never mind,” said the Americano, when he heard the reason for her shrieks. “He can come later. She will have learned some English words by that time, and will have an advantage over him in that she will be able to teach him what she knows.”