“Don't you, Tex?”
“When I go ashore, you're to stay here—right here on this deck—where you are now.”
“What's the big idea, Tex?”
“There'll be men to see that you do stay here. I want you to get this straight.”
“Of course,” said she musingly, “you won't be able to rob me outright. You'll have to give me enough of a share to keep me quiet afterward.”
He said nothing.
“But what's to prevent the crew from getting away with the junk. I'm not very keen about being carried off that way.”
“You needn't worry. I'm taking the master along with me.”
He stood then; looked meaningly at her; then went forward. She noted that his two hip pockets bulged.
Slowly the long narrow craft was worked in toward the land. Trackers sculled ashore in sampans and made the great hawsers fast to stakes. Then the crew, with a deal of shouting and many casual blows, were assembled in the long well forward of the mast, where they huddled abjectly.