"Right you are! Off you go! I don't fancy that there is anything serious. If there is you can telegraph for me and I will bring the Intrepid along. Good-bye! Good luck!"
What a grand chap he was! I left his cabin feeling that he had not hampered me with any restrictions whatsoever, and had placed entire confidence in my judgment. If only senior officers would always treat their juniors in that way they would not so often have to grumble at the way they are served—and, what is more important still—they would make more efficient officers of them.
I met Popple Opstein outside. For once he had shipped a long face.
"Did the skipper tell you who has been killed?" he asked. "I'm afraid it's our poor little friend's brother. What rotten hard luck on her if it's true!"
In my excitement at getting this job I had never thought. Of course it must be Borsen; he was the only other European there. Poor fellow! Poor little sad-eyed slip of a girl, she would be weeping her heart out.
I had a burning feeling inside me, and I wished that I could have started off then and there to blow a dozen or more of those cowardly treacherous Baluchis to atoms.
"I wish I could come along with you," my chum said wistfully. "I'd love to have a 'go' at them!"
He tried to get leave, but without success, so back I went to the "B.A.", angry, and impatient to get away.
"Good-bye, old chap! Tell her how very sorry I am," he called after me.
"Right you are!" I shouted back, but had an uneasy thought that perhaps she was still too angry to allow me to speak to her.