Rosa did agree. When her husband put the question fairly to her she showed by the pallor of her cheeks and by the rekindling light of terror in her eyes how desperately she feared remaining longer in this land of hate and persecution. "Don't turn back," she cried. "I'm not the girl I was. I've endured so much here that—I'm always in fear. Anything would be better than going back."
When morning came O'Reilly made a closer examination of the abandoned boat. The result was not encouraging, and when he told Leslie of his intention to make use of it the latter stared at him in open amazement.
"Why, we'll all be drowned!" Branch declared.
"You can return to Cubitas if you wish."
"Yes, and fight some more! No, thank you! I've got a hunch that I'll be killed by the very next gun I see."
"Then you'd better risk the sharks."
Jacket, who was conducting an independent examination of the craft, made an encouraging report. "Ho! I'd go 'round the world in this boat," said he. "She's rotten, and you can stick your finger through her, but fish have no fingers. When the water comes in we'll dip it out."
"Do you want to go with us?" Johnnie eyed the newspaper man curiously.
"I—Y—yes!" Branch gasped. "I'll go, but it's a shame to lose all of
Rosa's diamonds."
O'Reilly and one of the guides rode away to the farmhouse discovered on the previous afternoon, and returned in a few hours with all the tools they could find, together with a bucket of tar and a coil of galvanized wire. Then work began.