When the captain raised his head the pilot had already disappeared and solitude, with its deadly burden, soon weighed upon his thoughts. He felt afraid to carry out his plans without Toni's aid. It appeared to him that the chain of authority which united him to his men had been broken. The mate was carrying away a part of the prestige that Ferragut exercised over the crew. How could he explain his disappearance on the eve of an illegal voyage which exacted such great secrecy? How could he rely upon the silence of everybody?… He remained pensive a long time, then suddenly leaping up from his armchair, he went out on deck, shouting to the seamen:
"Where is Don Antonio? Go find him. Call him for me."
"Don Antoni!… Don Antoni!…" replied a string of voices from poop to prow, while Uncle Caragol's head poked itself out of the door of his dominions.
"Don Antoni" appeared through the hatchway. He had been going all over the boat, after taking leave of his captain. Ferragut received him with averted face, avoiding his glance, and with a complex and contradictory gesture. He felt angry at being vanquished and the shame of weakness yet, allied to these sensations, was the instinctive gratitude which one experiences upon being freed from an unwise step by a violent hand which mistreats and saves.
"You are to remain, Toni!" he said in a dull voice. "There is nothing to say. I will redeem my word as best I can…. To-morrow you shall know certainly what we are going to do."
The solar face of Caragol was beaming beatifically without seeing anything, without hearing anything. He had suspected something serious in the captain's arrival, his long interview alone with the mate, and the departure of the latter passing silent and scowling before the door of his galley. Now the same presentiment advised him that a reconciliation between the two men whose figures he could only distinguish confusedly, must have taken place. Blessed be the Christ of the Grao!… And upon learning that the captain would remain aboard until afternoon, he set himself to the confection of one of his masterly rice-dishes in order to solemnize the return of peace.
A little before sunset Ulysses again found himself with his mistress in the hotel. He had returned to land, nervous and uneasy. His uneasiness made him fear this interview while at the same time he wished it.
"Out with it! I am not a child to feel such fears," he said to himself upon entering his room and finding Freya awaiting him.
He spoke to her with the brusqueness of one who wishes to conclude everything quickly…. "I could not undertake the service that the doctor asked. I take back my word. The mate on board would not consent to it."
Her wrath burst forth without any finesse, with the frankness of intimacy. She always hated Toni. "Hideous old faun!…" From the very first moment she had suspected that he would prove an enemy.