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 Hongkong. 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.
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