They started apart, and it was
not Elsie alone who blushed. Courtenay crimsoned beneath the tan on
his face, and pretended a mighty interest in the doings of the savages.
The girl recovered her self-control more rapidly. She half whispered
the meaning of the miner's cry, whereon Courtenay tried to laugh.
"They will be singing a dirge next," said he with a jaunty confidence.
"Now, Elsie, off with you! Be sure I shall come and tell you when you
may appear on deck."
She hurried away. She recked naught of the Alaculof challenge. Though
the raucous notes of the tuneless lay could be heard plainly enough,
they did not reach her ears. When she raced down the saloon companion
she found Christobal bending over the small case of instruments he
always carried. He straightened himself in his peculiarly stiff way.
"What did the captain want?" he asked, with a suspicious peevishness
which, for once, detracted from his habitual courtesy. The note of
distrust jarred Elsie back into her senses.
"He wished me to translate Senor Suarez's explanation of another smoke
signal," she answered.
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