The Captain picked up the glass he had been using, and turned it on the figure in the veranda.
“That’s him,” said he. “That’s the chap right enough. Take a look.”
Harman put the glass to his eye, and the veranda and the man leaped within ten feet of him.
The man was short, stout, bull-necked, bullet-headed, wearing a close, clipped beard and with his hair cut to the bone.
“He ain’t a beauty,” said Harman. “Look, he’s going into the house, and here he comes out again.”
Sprengel had brought out a pair of marine glasses and was observing the ship through them.
“Wonder if he recognises me,” said the Captain.
Then he stood silent, whistling now and then, and now and then giving an order to the fellow at the wheel.
One of the hands was heaving the lead; his hard, thin voice came up to the bridge in a snarl:
“Mark four! Mark four! Quarter less four!”
The Captain rang the engines to half speed, then to dead slow. The _Penguin_ passed the opening in the reef. The water she rode on was like blue satin billowed under by wind; then, in the glassy smooth beyond, Harman, who was forward attending to the anchor, glancing over the side, saw the coral floor beneath them clearly as though he were looking at it through air.
The Captain rang the engines off, the wheel flew to starboard, and the rumble-tumble of the anchor chain through the hawse pipe came back in moist echoes from the woods and cliffs.
Then, the ship safely berthed, the Captain had time to turn his attention to the shore.
Sprengel had vanished into the house, and the few natives on the shore were still standing about in attitudes of indifference. One had taken his seat on the sand, and though there were several canoes on the beach there was no evidence of any thought of launching them.
“It’s a good job we scoffed that Pilsener,” said Harman, who had come up on the bridge. “It wouldn’t have been no use for this chap. You won’t get this chap on board without a windlass and a derrick. No, sir! He’s one of the retirin’ kind. He won’t trade, and he won’t be civil. I reckon you’d better get that spar gun trained on the beach and some of our chaps ready for a landin’ with the rifles, scoop all the money and valuables we can find, and cut stick.”