"They're working late," Dick said. "Can you see the tug?"
"You'd have to run close in before you could do so," Jake replied. "I
expect they're trimming the coal the collier landed into the sheds."
"It's possible," Dick agreed, and after hesitating for a few moments held
on his course. He remembered that one can hear a launch's engines and the
splash of torn-up water for some distance on a calm night.
After a time, the lights of Santa Brigida twinkled ahead, and when they
steamed up to the harbor both looked about. The American collier and a
big cargo-boat lay with the reflections of their anchor-lights quivering
on the swell, but there was no passenger liner to be seen. A man came to
moor the launch when they landed, and Jake asked if the vessel he
described had called.
"No, señor," said the man. "The only boats I know like that are the
Cadiz liners, and the next is not due for a fortnight."
"Her model's a pretty common one for big passenger craft," Jake remarked
to Dick as they went up the mole. "Still, the thing's curious. She wasn't
at Adexe and she hasn't been here. She certainly passed us, steering for
the land, and I don't see where she could have gone."
Dick began to talk about something else, but next morning asked
Stuyvesant for a day's leave. Stuyvesant granted it and Dick resumed: "Do
you mind giving me a blank order form? I'm going to Adexe, and the
storekeeper wants a few things we can't get in Santa Brigida."
Stuyvesant signed the form. "There it is. The new coaling people seem an
enterprising crowd, and you can order anything they can supply."
Dick hired a mule and took the steep inland road; but on reaching Adexe
went first to the sugar mill and spent an hour with the American
engineer, whose acquaintance he had made. Then, having, as he thought,
accounted for his visit, he went to the wharf and carefully looked about
as he made his way to the manager's office.
A few grimy peons were brushing coal-dust off the planks, their
thinly-clad forms silhouetted against the shining sea. Their movements
were languid, and Dick wondered whether this was due to the heat or if it
was accounted for by forced activity on the previous night. A neatly
built stack of coal stood beside the whitewashed sheds, but nothing
suggested that it had been recently broken into. Passing it carelessly
Dick glanced into the nearest shed, which was almost full, though its
proximity to deep water indicated that supplies would be drawn from it
before the other. Feeling rather puzzled, he stopped in front of the next
shed and noted that there was much less coal in this. Moreover, a large
number of empty bags lay near the entrance, as if they had been used
recently and the storekeeper had not had time to put them away.