The two men looked each other in the face for a moment, then the captain silently took his departure.
On leaving the lawyer’s office, Captain Beauchamp went at once to the office of Samson & Co., where, on presentation of the order, the Marjorie was turned over to him. Thence to the Barbary coast, where he had little difficulty in picking up the crew he needed, including a man of his own type as mate. These he sent on board at once. The engineer was ordered to get everything in readiness for immediate departure. To the mate he gave directions that on the following afternoon he should set out for Playys, a small harbor near San Matteo Bay, and there await his coming.
Selecting two of the crew upon whom he could rely, the captain hired a team of horses and a driver and set out upon the road to San Matteo. They traveled without incident, stopping over night at a hotel on the way, until they came within about a mile of San Matteo. Here the driver with his horses was sent back, they proceeding the rest of the way on foot.
San Matteo Bay is a point at which it will be seen many interests are centering.
CHAPTER X.
AT SAN MATTEO BAY.
“I thought you said that the rendezvous was somewhere in the South,” drawled Berwick.
He was standing with Jim and the professor on the afterdeck of the Storm King, watching away in the north the fast disappearing Sea Eagle.