He sighed, and I saw his delicate fingers forsake the cigarette
they were rolling to make the sacred sign upon his breast. He was
always smoking one cigarette and making another; as he lit the new
one the glow fell upon a strange pin that he wore, a pin with a
tiny crucifix inlaid in mosaic. So the religious cast of Senhor
Santos was brought twice home to me in the same moment, though, to
be sure, I had often been struck by it before. And it depressed me
to think that so sweet a child as Eva Denison should have spoken
harshly of so good a man as her step-father, simply because he had
breadth enough to sympathize with a coarse old salt like Captain
Harris.

I turned in, however, and I cannot say the matter kept me awake in
the separate state-room which was one luxury of our empty saloon.
Alas? I was a heavy sleeper then.




CHAPTER II

THE MYSTERIOUS CARGO


"Wake up, Cole! The ship's on fire!"

It was young Ready's hollow voice, as cool, however, as though he
were telling me I was late for breakfast. I started up and sought
him wildly in the darkness.