The captain quitted her for a moment in order to dispatch a Chilean
sailor for a lantern and a long cord. He wished to investigate the
captured canoe.
Christobal, who had made the round of the promenade deck, came up.
"Oh, were you here, too?" he asked, on seeing the girl.
"I _am_ here, if that is what you mean," she cried. "I heard Joey
barking, and the shots that followed. Naturally, I wished to find out
what had happened."
"Sorry. I imagined you were sleepless, like myself, and had joined
Courtenay during his watch. That explanation must have sufficed. In
any case, we have other things to trouble us at present."
Elsie had never before heard the Spaniard speaking so offhandedly. She
gave small heed to his petulance; aroused from sound slumber by the
alarm of an Indian attack--thrilled by the horror of the thought that
she might fall into the clutches of the callous man-apes which infest
the islands of southwest America--she was in no mood to disentangle
subtleties of speech.
"Do you think they have left us?" she murmured, shrinking nearer to the
iron shield which Courtenay seemed to think would protect her.
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