Folding the paper slowly in the old creases, Lingard said—“I am not going to Anjer—nor anywhere near.”
“Any place will do, I fancy,” said Carter.
“Not the place where I am bound to,” answered Lingard, opening the letter again and glancing at it uneasily. “He does not describe very well the coast, and his latitude is very uncertain,” he went on. “I am not clear in my mind where exactly you are stranded. And yet I know every inch of that land—over there.”
Carter cleared his throat and began to talk in his slow drawl. He seemed to dole out facts, to disclose with sparing words the features of the coast, but every word showed the minuteness of his observation, the clear vision of a seaman able to master quickly the aspect of a strange land and of a strange sea. He presented, with concise lucidity, the picture of the tangle of reefs and sandbanks, through which the yacht had miraculously blundered in the dark before she took the ground.
“The weather seems clear enough at sea,” he observed, finally, and stopped to drink a long draught. Lingard, bending over the table, had been listening with eager attention. Carter went on in his curt and deliberate manner:
“I noticed some high trees on what I take to be the mainland to the south—and whoever has business in that bight was smart enough to whitewash two of them: one on the point, and another farther in. Landmarks, I guess. … What’s the matter, Captain?”
Lingard had jumped to his feet, but Carter’s exclamation caused him to sit down again.
“Nothing, nothing … Tell me, how many men have you in that yacht?”
“Twenty-three, besides the gentry, the owner, his wife and a Spanish gentleman—a friend they picked up in Manila.”
“So you were coming from Manila?”
“Aye. Bound for Batavia. The owner wishes to study the Dutch colonial system. Wants to expose it, he says. One can’t help hearing a lot when keeping watch aft—you know how it is. Then we are going to Ceylon to meet the mail-boat there. The owner is going home as he came out, overland through Egypt. The yacht would return round the Cape, of course.”
“A lady?” said Lingard. “You say there is a lady on board. Are you armed?”
“Not much,” replied Carter, negligently. “There are a few muskets and two sporting guns aft; that’s about all—I fancy it’s too much, or not enough,” he added with a faint smile.
Lingard looked at him narrowly.
“Did you come out from home in that craft?” he asked.
“Not I! I am not one of them regular yacht hands. I came out of the hospital in Hong Kong. I’ve been two years on the China coast.”
He stopped, then added in an explanatory murmur:
“Opium clippers—you know. Nothing of brass buttons about me. My ship left me behind, and I was in want of work. I took this job but I didn’t want to go home particularly. It’s slow work after sailing with old Robinson in the Ly-E-Moon. That was my ship. Heard of her, Captain?”
“Yes, yes,” said Lingard, hastily. “Look here, Mr. Carter, which way was your chief officer trying for Singapore? Through the Straits of Rhio?”
“I suppose so,” answered Carter in a slightly surprised tone; “why do you ask?”
“Just to know … What is it, Mr. Shaw?”
“There’s a black cloud rising to the northward, sir, and we shall get a breeze directly,” said Shaw from the doorway.
He lingered there with his eyes fixed on the decanters.
“Will you have a glass?” said Lingard, leaving his seat. “I will go up and have a look.”
He went on deck. Shaw approached the table and began to help himself, handling the bottles in profound silence and with exaggerated caution, as if he had been measuring out of fragile vessels a dose of some deadly poison. Carter, his hands in his pockets, and leaning back, examined him from head to foot with a cool stare. The mate of the brig raised the glass to his lips, and glaring above the rim at the stranger, drained the contents slowly.
“You have a fine nose for finding ships in the dark, Mister,” he said, distinctly, putting the glass on the table with extreme gentleness.
“Eh? What’s that? I sighted you just after sunset.”
“And you knew where to look, too,” said Shaw, staring hard.
“I looked to the westward where there was still some light, as any sensible man would do,” retorted the other a little impatiently. “What are you trying to get at?”
“And you have a ready tongue to blow about yourself—haven’t you?”
“Never saw such a man in my life,” declared Carter, with a return of his nonchalant manner. “You seem to be troubled about something.”
“I don’t like boats to come sneaking up from nowhere in particular, alongside a ship when I am in charge of the deck. I can keep a lookout as well as any man out of home ports, but I hate to be circumvented by muffled oars and such ungentlemanlike tricks. Yacht officer—indeed. These seas must be full of such yachtsmen. I consider you played a mean trick on me. I told my old
