All this is d--d unfair to me."
"You have my sympathy, friend, but you can't leave the ship. Now, Miss
Maxwell, come alongside. Boyle is going to be good. He doesn't mean
half he says, anyhow."
As the canoe slipped out of the dense gloom of the ship's shadow, Elsie
heard the wrathful chief officer interviewing the Chilean sailors on
watch on the main deck fore and aft. That is to say, he stirred them
up from the bridge with a ritual laid down for such extreme cases. Not
yet had he realized the exceeding artifice which the girl displayed in
throwing him and all the others off their guard. She had maneuvered
Suarez into the canoe with the fierce and silent strategy of a Red
Indian.
The Argentine squatted on his knees in the bows, Gray placed himself
amidships, and Elsie sat aft, holding the revolver in her right hand
and the dog's collar in her left. The American groped for and found a
paddle, which he plied vigorously.
"Guess you'd better discourse," said he over his shoulder, when the
light craft was well clear of the ship.
"You understand Spanish, I think?"
"Yes.
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