"That's foolish," he remonstrated.
"Of course it is. But it's the sort of foolishness I've been aching for
all my life. I knew something was going to happen. I broke my hand mirror
night before last. Two times seven years' bad luck. Now he has me, I'll
wager he's half frightened out of his wits. But what made you think of the
yacht?"
"We forced the door of your room, and I found the note. Has he told you
what makes those infernal beads so precious?"
"No. I can't figure that out."
"No more can I. Did he threaten you?"
"Yes. Would I enter the launch peacefully, or would he have to carry me? I
didn't want my gown spoiled--it's the only decent one I have. I'm not
afraid. It isn't as though he were a stranger. Being your father, he would
never stoop to any indignity. But he'll find he has caught a tartar. I
had an idea you'd find me."
"Well, I have. But you won't get to Hong-Kong. The minute he liberates me
I'll sneak into the wireless room and bring the destroyers. I didn't
notify the police from a bit of foolish sentiment. I didn't quite want you
mixed up in the story. I had your things conveyed to the consulate."
"My story--which few men would believe. I've thought of that. Are you
smoking?"
"Smoking, with my hands tied behind my back? Not so you'd notice it."
"I smell tobacco smoke--a good cigar, too."
"Then someone is in the passage listening."
Silence. Anthony Cleigh eyed his perfecto rather ruefully and tiptoed back
to the salon. Hoist by his own petard. He was beginning to wonder. Cleigh
was a man who rarely regretted an act, but in the clear light of day he
was beginning to have his doubts regarding this one. A mere feather on the
wrong side of the scale, and the British destroyers would be atop of him
like a flock of kites. Abduction! Cut down to bedrock, he had laid himself
open to that. He ran his fingers through his cowlicks. But drat the woman!
why had she accepted the situation so docilely? Since midnight not a sound
out of her, not a wail, not a sob. Now he had her, he couldn't let her
go. She was right there.
There was one man in the crew Cleigh had begun to dislike intensely, and
he had been manoeuvring ever since Honolulu to find a legitimate excuse to
give the man his papers. Something about the fellow suggested covert
insolence; he had the air of a beachcomber who had unexpectedly fallen
into a soft berth, and it had gone to his head. He had been standing watch
at the ladder head, and against positive orders he had permitted a visitor
to pass him. To Cleigh this was the handle he had been hunting for. He
summoned the man.