"There was a man in her who didn't look quite like an Indian," he said.
"Well," said the skipper dryly, "if he's drowned it won't matter. Anyway, I'm not going to worry."
The _Shasta_ lay safely tied up to a buoy in Vancouver Inlet, and a quartermaster stood at her gangway with instructions to see that no stranger got on board, when Jimmy sat talking to his sister and Jordan in the room beneath her bridge. It was an hour since she had steamed in, and except for an occasional clinking in her engine-room, where Fleming was still busy, there was silence on board her, though the scream of saws and the rattle of freight-car wheels came off faintly across the still water. The two ports were open wide, but none of those who sat in the little room noticed that the light was fading. Jordan and Eleanor were listening with close attention while Jimmy concisely related how he had fallen in with and towed Merril's steamer. At last he broke off with an abrupt movement when a splash of oars grew louder.
"Another boat!" he said. "We'll have every curious loafer in the city pulling off by and by."
Then the voice of the quartermaster reached them as he answered somebody who called to him from the approaching boat.
"No," he said, "you can't see Captain Wheelock--he's busy. Keep her off that ladder."
There was evidently another question asked, and the man answered impatiently: "I can't tell you anything about the _Adelaide_ 'cept that she's coming along under easy steam. Should be here in a day or two."
Jordan glanced at Jimmy. "The men you brought down are talking already, and we haven't much time for fixing our program. When do you expect her?"
"I don't exactly know. We came away before she did when the breeze fell, but her second engineer seemed quite confident he could bring her along at seven or eight knots. He wasn't sure whether his high-pressure engine would stand anything more."
Then it was significant that both of them looked at Eleanor, who had insisted on coming with Jordan, and who was apparently waiting to take her part in the discussion. One could have fancied from their faces that they would have preferred to be alone just then and were a trifle uneasy concerning the course their companion might think fit to pursue. She leaned back in her chair watching them, with a little hard smile which seemed to suggest that she knew what they were thinking. Still, she said nothing, and Jordan spoke again.