For a moment Stern stared, speechless with amazement, at the old man, as though to determine whether or not he had gone mad. But the commotion, the mingled fear and anger of the boat crews convinced him the danger, though unknown, was very real.
And, flaring into sudden rage at this untimely interruption just in the very moment of success, he jerked his pistol from its holster, and stood up in the boat.
"I'll have no butting in here!" he cried in a loud, harsh voice. "Who the devil is Kamrou, I'd like to know? Go on, on, to shore!"
"My son--"
"You order these men to grab those ropes again and go ashore or I warn you there's going to be a whole big heap of trouble!"
Over the waters drifted another hail, and the strange long boat, under the urge of vigorous arms, now began to move toward Stern's fleet. At the same time, mingled cries arose on shore. Stern could see lights moving back and forth; some confusion was under way there, though what, he could not imagine.
"Well," he cried, "are you going to order these men to go forward? Or shall I--with this?"
And menacingly he raised the grim and ugly gun.
"Oh my son!" exclaimed the patriarch, his lips twitching, his hands outstretched--while in the boats a babel of conflicting voices rose--"O my son, if I have sinned in keeping this from you, now let me die! I hid it from your knowledge, verily, to save my people--to keep you with us till this thing should be accomplished! My reckoning was that Kamrou and his men would stay beyond the Great Vortex, at their labor, until after--"
"Kamrou?" shouted Stern again. "What the deuce do I care about him? Who is he, anyhow? A Lanskaarn, or--"
The girl seized Allan's hand.
"Oh, listen, listen!" she implored. "I--"
"Did you know about this? And never told me?"
"Allan, he said our work could all be done before they--"
"So you did know, eh?"
"He said I must not tell you. Otherwise--"
"Oh, hang that! See here, Beatrice, what's the matter, anyhow? These people have all gone crazy, just in a second, the old man and all! If you know anything about it, for God's sake tell me! I can't stand much more!
"I've got to get this machine to land before they go entirely nutty and drop it, and we lose all our work for nothing. What's up? Who's this Kamrou they're talking about? For Heaven's sake, tell me!"
"He's their chief. Allan--their chief! He's been gone a long time, he and his men. And--"