He rose smiling. From where he stood, the man in the mainmast was visible. He was shouting to somebody on the bridge, and pointing northward.
The count deftly interposed himself between the girl and the sea.
"You can repay me," he said slowly, "by returning at once with me to your father's stateroom, and promising to remain there until I come or send some one for you."
She looked up at him, startled, and the blood ebbed from her cheeks, leaving them ashen, but she asked no question, and he escorted her gravely to her father's cabin.
When he came again on deck, Baggin pointed triumphantly toward the north. "We make our final appeal to the world!" he cried.
It came reluctantly into view, a big grey-painted steamer with red-and-black funnels, a great, lumbering ocean beast.
Through their glasses the three men watched her, a puzzled frown upon the captain's face.
"I do not recognise her," he said, "but she looks like a gigantic cargo steamer."
"Her decks are crowded with passengers," said Baggin. "I can see women's hats and men in white; what is that structure forward?" He indicated a long superstructure before the steamer's bridge.
"We will show her ours," said the captain pleasantly, and pushed a button.
Instantly, with a crash that shook the ship, the forward gun of the _Maria Braganza_ sent a shell whizzing through the air.
The captain turned to Poltavo, as for instructions.
The little ball that hung at the main suddenly broke, and out to the breeze there floated not the red ensign of the merchant service, but the Stars and Stripes of America--more, on the little flagstaff at the bow of the ship fluttered a tiny blue flag spangled with stars.
Livid of face, Captain Lombrosa sprang to the wheel.
"It's a Yankee man-o'-war!" he cried, and his voice was cracked. "We've----"
As he spoke the superstructure on the "intermediate," which had excited the count's curiosity, fell apart like a house of canvas--as it was--and the long slim barrel of a nine-inch gun swung round.
The shell carried away a boat and a part of the wireless cabin.
"Every gun!" yelled Lombrosa, frantically pressing the buttons on the bridge before him. "We must run for it!"
Instantly, with an ear-splitting succession of crashes, the guns of the _Maria Braganza_ came into action.