Page:The Popular Magazine v72 n1 (1924-04-20).djvu/151

 How are we to get it, and where are we to apply for it?”

“I'm blest if I know,” said Dicky. “James talked of it as if he knew all about it, and now we're cut off from him and cut off from the yacht.”

Sheila, sitting at the opposite side of the table, rested her brow on her hands. Yes, James had talked glibly of concessions and permits as though he knew all about them; possibly he did, probably he didn't. There was one thing certain, he knew Havana, and his position as a millionaire and owner of a fine yacht would have helped them a lot. But there was not the least use in grumbling; they were up against it with only their own wits to help them. Then at last she spoke:

“I don't know. If we go straight to the authorities here and ask for a concession to dig, we'll surely have to give them something, either a share in the business or money down—people don't give things for nothing. Then, even if we get the concession, are we sure they will keep their word? You know what foreigners are and we have no position or standing and the poor old Baltrum isn't a certificate of respectability. You are right. James has let us down—he didn't mean to, I'm sure; he didn't think—oh, we've made a mistake!”

“How?”

“We shouldn't have quarreled with Captain Shortt. I know you couldn't help it, he was so insulting, but he wouldn't have been if he'd known all; we should have told him.”

“Well, it's done,” said Dicky.

“Yes, and we can't make it up with him now.”

“I'd sooner cut my hand off”

“I know—all the same if we could, I'd do it. But we can't. He had orders to put the yacht at our disposal and that evidently irritated him, then we definitely refused the yacht, refused James' check, refused to have anything to do with him, told him James was a quitter—and there we are. Captain Shortt dislikes us. He is an obstinate, pig-headed man and he's in a strong position—that's all.”

“It's a most awful mix-up,” said Dicky. “Seems as if fate or something was working against us—and still we've got on all right up to now. We've done a lot.”

“Yes, we have,” said the girl, her spirit suddenly lighting up, “and we'll do more. I know it—we'll come out all right yet. I feel it, and we'll just go ahead and trust in Providence. There's a huge fortune to be saved with all our future tied to it—where on earth would we be, you and I and Larry, if we failed?”

“We won't.”

“No, we won't. The thing we have to do now is to go ashore; we can stay at that hotel James told us of—the Mercedes—and look about us and see how the ground lies. I—I” She stopped. Something had risen in her mind. If she had been a man she would have said, “Oh, damn James!” Maybe she said it to herself in the moment when she recognized that this rotten James had let them down again.

With James everything would have been all right; staying at a hotel they would have been a “party.” How could she stay alone with Dicky at a hotel, and without Larry?

Sheila was old-fashioned—but sensible.

“I'll just have to go as your sister,” said she.

“Of course,” said Dicky. Before he could say anything more, Larry's voice came, answering voices from overside. It was the port authorities.

HEILA who was used to dealing with port officials did the business with them, and the Baltrum having received pratique, they departed after expressing their surprise that such a small boat should have come all the way from Teneriffe; but it was an English boat and the mad English had a reputation for doing things of this sort for fun.

“Damn' onion peddlers,” said Larry, as he watched the launch go off rocking on the blue. “Them and their coffeepot. What's your orders, now, Miss Shaila?”

Sheila gave orders for the boat to be ready to take them ashore and an hour later, having packed some things, they got in and started.

Larry rowed them. Longley had gone back to the Dulcinea, so Larry would be alone on board. Sheila, before starting, had given him the whole position in a few words and arranged that Dicky should return on board next morning to see that everything was going on all right.

Landing them at the boat slip by the