Then he pointed to a large palmetto bale that stood on the waist-deck
near the mainmast about which the powder barrels were stacked.
"That pannier," he said, "seems to me oddly in the way yonder. Were it
not better to bestow it in the hold, where it will cease to be an
encumbrance in case of action?"
Sakr-el-Bahr experienced a slight tightening at the heart. He knew that
Marzak had heard him command that bale to be borne into the poop-cabin,
and that anon he had ordered it to be fetched thence when Asad had
announced his intention of sailing with him. He realized that this in
itself might be a suspicious circumstance; or, rather, knowing what the
bale contained, he was too ready to fear suspicion. Nevertheless he
turned to Marzak with a smile of some disdain.
"I understood, Marzak, that thou art sailing with us as apprentice."
"What then?" quoth Marzak.
"Why merely that it might become thee better to be content to observe and
learn. Thou'lt soon be telling me how grapnels should be slung, and how
an action should be fought." Then he pointed ahead to what seemed to be
no more than a low cloud-bank towards which they were rapidly skimming
before that friendly wind. "Yonder," he said, "are the Balearics. We
are making good speed."
Although he said it without any object other than that of turning the
conversation, yet the fact itself was sufficiently remarkable to be worth
a comment.
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