This surprise lasted but an instant. “Oh! I forgot. There was a parade of ships on the lake to-day. Byrd’s ship was in that parade. It will be tied up outside the bridge. The mast must come down before she’ll go under the bridge.
“That’s fine!” she exulted. “I’ll have a good rest on the old ship with no one about but old Peter Nordsen smoking his pipe. If Jeanne doesn’t show up I’ll go to the little theatre at midnight.”
She found the ship readily enough, gave Peter a smile and a “Good evening,” then went forward to a seat well up in the prow.
“Sturdy old ship!” she murmured as she sank into the chair. Then she relaxed in a fit attitude for dreaming.
She had learned to love this old ship. It was easy to imagine it in motion, booming along with all sails set before a nor’west wind.
“Good old ship!” she murmured again. “If only I could sail with you over the seven seas. Australia, the South Sea Islands, Japan, China and—” She drew a deep breath. “That mysterious land, China.”
She thought quite suddenly of the jewel-hilted knife. “I should hunt up Erik Nord and give it to him at once,” she told herself. “But then, I have no notion where he is; he went off duty an hour ago.”
She laughed a little low laugh as she thought of the Chinaman splashing in the water of the lagoon. Then, of a sudden there came a thought that puzzled her. “He said we had the bell and the banners. How absurd! The chest was empty. They were gone. Who could have taken them if he did not?”
The thought did not remain with her. No thought did. This was an hour for relaxation and dreaming. But she must not dream too long. This was Jeanne’s big night. She must not miss it. “Jeanne’s big night,” she murmured.
She allowed her eyes to wander once more over the magnificent spectacle that lay before her. What a sight! Fountains playing amid golden walls, a hundred lights gleaming as white as diamonds from a lofty tower, trees turning red and gold under the touch of many-hued lamps, and a ladder of light towering skyward. All this exercised upon this impressionable girl a semi-hypnotic spell.