"Well, that skunk is here to try some devilment, that's sure," observed Norris.
We kept a sharp eye on the Orion. Within the hour we saw a small boat from the city boarding her. In twenty minutes that boat came to the Pearl. The port doctor came over the rail. He was a Spaniard, but with a good command of English. He asked the usual questions of Captain Marat.
"Well," he said, when he had his answers, "I am afraid we'll have to hold you in quarantine. I learn there is yellow fever in the port from which you came."
"I believe there is some mistake," said Marat, "we heard of no yellow fever there."
"Pardon me," I interposed, "but did you get your information from the Orion?"
"Yes," admitted the doctor, "from Monsieur Duran."
"And is the Orion to be quarantined?" I asked.
"No," he said, "the Orion has not been in that port for months. The outbreak of yellow fever is less than three weeks old. Duran was hailed by a ship that gave him the news."
"We know," I told him, "that that man Duran was in the port on the day preceding that on which we sailed."
There was a dubious look in the official's face. And now he had come to dividing his attention between myself and a steamer that was just moving in. He put his binoculars to his eyes. Some moments he looked, and then he turned to us.