I withdrew my hand promptly. The flesh was swollen and discolored from the attentions of Boris Bothwell.
"I had a little accident—nothing of importance," was my inadequate answer.
Her gaze circled the table, passed from Sam's face to that of Jimmie and from Jimmie to Higgins, who was waiting on us. She must have read a confirmation of her intuition of a secret, for she dropped the subject at once.
"Jack crushed his hand against a piece of iron," explained the captain.
At which Miss Evelyn murmured. "Oh!" and inquired how long it would probably be before we reached the Bay of Panama.
"Using only our canvas we may reach there to-morrow night, and we may not. We can't make very good time till we start the engines again," Blythe said.
"And when are you going to start them?" Miss Berry asked.
"Don't quite know. I'm shy of engineers. The only ones I have are on a vacation," Sam answered with a smile.
They were not to enjoy one very long, however. About sunset the Argos began to rock gently on a sea no longer glassy.
"Cap says we're going to have trouble," Yeager informed me. "When you get this sultry smell in the air and that queer look in the sky there is going to be something doing. She's going to begin to buck for fair."