"He won"t go," said Jarrow. "We"ve all tried to send him home. I offered to buy his ticket some time back, but he"s got this island on the brain."
"Where is the island?" asked Trask. "I understand it isn"t far."
"Oh, up the coast a piece," said Jarrow. "Take a week, say, to go and come back."
"A week!" said Locke. "I had an idea it was a long way off."
"Shucks!" said Jarrow. "No great shakes of a ways. With favourin"
winds, a week would do it easy. Of course, if a man wanted to spend a lot of time there, diggin" around, that"s a cat of another colour. But with a couple of days to look the place over in good shape, ten days would do it easy."
"Dad, why can"t we go?" asked Marjorie. "Just to make Dinshaw happy! You said I might go any place I wanted to on this trip."
"You mean to tell me you want to go schoonering around out in this country, Marge?" Locke was astounded.
"It would be great fun."
"Great guns!" said Locke. "Don"t you know a schooner isn"t what a liner is? You can"t have suites and stewards and fancy things to eat."
"You"ll find it comfortable enough on the _Nuestra_," said Jarrow, his hopes rising. "A good c.h.i.n.k cook, a coloured steward, all hands a room to theirselves. All Cap"n Dinshaw needs is a mouthful of sea-air an" a deck under his feet. There"s a whallopin" lot of gold there, too, or I miss stays. I know n.o.body believes him, but they didn"t believe Columbus. I can"t guarantee----"
"I"ll go," said Trask, "if we can make the right sort of a deal."
"If you go, I"m in on it," declared Locke.
"Oh, Dad, you"re a brick! I knew you"d go!"
Trask took Locke aside, to confer privately. "I want you to come, Mr. Locke," he said, "but I don"t want to have you stand an expense which may be a dead loss----"
"I won"t go unless I can stand half," said Locke.
"Very well, but I"d rather not appear in the matter as the leader, because if I did, the newspapers would find out who I am and make it appear that my company was backing Dinshaw. I haven"t authority to go on this trip, and if it turned out badly, a failure would be credited against the Consolidated, and it"s a very conservative company. Here"s a thousand dollars. Will you draw checks against it at your bank? And I"ll go as your guest?"
"Certainly," said Locke. "I have an account current at the Chinese bank, which was to be transferred to Hong Kong, but I"ll hold it here."
"All right. You give Jarrow a check as an advance and to buy supplies. We"ll close the deal right now."
CHAPTER V
JARROW DOES AND SAYS QUEER THINGS
Mr. Peth was slinking about the bar like a leopard on a still hunt when Captain Jarrow returned from his conference which resulted in a tentative charter of the _Nuestra Senora del Rosario_, with himself as master and Peth as mate.
Jarrow was in a state bordering between exhaltation at his success and collapse over the narrow margin by which he had put through a deal which at one time appeared as elusive as a chimera.
"Give me a Picon, and make it strong," said Jarrow to the bar-boy, disregarding Peth, while he scrubbed his face with a handkerchief.
"Hook up?" asked Peth, edging along the bar until he had an elbow against Jarrow"s side.
"Mighty Nelson!" whispered Jarrow. "It was a lee sh.o.r.e, and no mistake. Looney lied."
"Lied!" whispered Peth.
"They never told him they wanted us," continued Jarrow, with due caution, glancing about the deserted bar. "But I put it through.
They"re swells and no mistake."
"Then it"s a go, skipper?"
"We get out in the morning. It"s to be quiet. We clear for Vigan with pa.s.sengers. Take rock ballast this afternoon, and git stores aboard. Locke give me free rein for everything needed, and I"m to draw on him at the Hong Kong-Shanghai bank. We ought to clean up.
Pipe down, here"s the dude clerk."
"You saw Mr. Locke?" asked Wilkins, with a genial air, as he came in from the office, consumed with curiosity.
"Oh, yes," said Jarrow. "He"s a nice man."
"Raw-ther," said Wilkins.
"I hear he"s rich," said Jarrow.
Wilkins smiled knowingly. "Millions," he said.
Peth looked at Jarrow quickly, and whistled faintly through his teeth.
"I guess you know me," said Jarrow. "I been up here a few times now and then on business."
"You"re a Manila man, aren"t you?" asked Wilkins. "I don"t place your name but your face is familiar."
"I"m Captain Jarrow, head of the Inter-Island Wreckin" Company. I got a big business, in a way. Everybody knows me in my line. I"m the man who done the divin" for the gover"ment."
"Oh, yes," said Wilkins.
"I"d like for you to say a good word for me, if it falls your way, to this Mr. Locke--and Trask."
"Sure," said Wilkins.
"Who does this Mr. Trask happen to be?" asked Jarrow.
"Mining man," said Wilkins.
"Oh."
"Yes, he was talking with Looney Dinshaw. Seems he came out here from China to look after the island. I knew him down in Colombo, when I managed a hotel."
"Lookin" for the island!" exclaimed Jarrow. "That"s news to me."
"I thought maybe that"s why you called," said Wilkins.