This was so exactly in accordance with Mr. Dainopoulos's views and so exactly what Mr. Spokesly ought to say supposing he knew everything, that the former looked hard at the mate and uttered a cackling snarl of astonished satisfaction.
"Why, that's just it. You let him settle everything."
"Ah-h!" Mr. Dainopoulos was not lying awake at night worrying about the condition of the deck of the _Kalkis_. But he said nothing more than his guttural "Ah!"
"And the accommodation has got to be kept clean while I'm there," babbled Mr. Spokesly.
"Why, certainly, certainly," assented Mr. Dainopoulos.
"I ought to tell you I tried to get a passport for Miss Solaris," said Mr. Spokesly in a low tone. "They wouldn't hear of it."
"I told her three or four times it was no good," said Mr. Dainopoulos irritably. "What does she think she is?"
"Well, she's got the idea she wants to go to Athens and...."
"Well, I done the best I could for her. She could have my cabin, and I'd sleep in the chart-room."
"How can she get on board?" asked Mr. Dainopoulos. "Does she think I'm goin' to get myself into a lotta trouble for her? Why, let me say to you, Mister, I do plenty business with these peoples, but I could not get a passport now for Mrs. Dainopoulos. No! How can I get one for a girl who nobody knows nothing about? Such foolishness!"
"Just what I told her and she laughed at me and told me she'd manage it."
"She may do that. She can get one of these officers to fix it, very likely. You know how they are, these French officers. Anything for a pretty young lady."
"She wouldn't do that," said Mr. Spokesly with a troubled air. "She's a friend of Mrs. Dainopoulos, remember."
"I remember all right. But plenty of women do that sort of business all the time in war. Every war the same. Something, I dunno what you call it, gets 'em. They go crazy, a little. They like the uniforms and the tom-te-tom-tom-tom of the music. You know what I mean. I tell her she oughta get a job in Stein's. But she don't like anybody to tell her anything. She ain't nothin' to me. Her mother...! Humph!" And Mr. Dainopoulos flicked his thumbs outward.
"What I told her was, if she did get aboard, she'd have a trip down to the Islands and back. But she don't understand."