…Plainly at this moment they both heard the sound of a steamer's screw—ahead. But there were no lights. Bedient took the wheel and brought the Savonarola sheering away to the south of the sound, which had stopped abruptly.
Nothing was seen, not even a denser shadow in the moonless dark. Framtree joined them, and they waited expectantly for Jaffier's index of light to pick up the mystery. Ten minutes passed before the gunboat, following doggedly, and whipping her light over sea, suddenly uncovered the dark from a big tramp steamer, aimed at the Inlet. For an instant it was lost again, but the searchlight swept back, groped until the tramp was caught, and this time held—in all her unlit wickedness.
"Framtree," said Bedient, "I believe we are about to lose our convoy——"
"Looks that way," Framtree replied. "Miss Mallory has steered——"
"Miss Mallory has steered—Equatoria off a revolutionary shoal,"
Bedient finished.
"You mean the Señora——?" Miss Mallory intervened.
"No."
"I'm very tired and stupid; please tell me in little words," she pleaded.
"You changed the ship's course?"
"I didn't. It changed itself. I didn't dare to change back, because of the reefs," she added hastily. "Didn't the Señor mean to run the convoy aground if they didn't give up the chase?"