His letters were brought in then, and he nodded for me to leave.
However, I was so fearfully keen to learn more that I blurted out:
"Any chance of picking up a dhow or anything like that, sir?"
"Of course there is always a chance," he said energetically. "Wilson
will tell you all about everything: good morning!"
I went away to the ward-room, hoping to get more information there; but
the place was a litter of newspapers, and everybody was busy reading
letters and paid little attention to me.
"_Bunder Abbas_. What size is she?"
"Oh, about as big as that table!" was all that I could get out of them.
The Baron and I parted company that afternoon, when I went aboard the
little steamer--the _Ras-al-Musat_. I found the gunner already there,
and also that solitary little lady, with the yellow hair and humorous
grey eyes--the little lady who had snubbed the fussy major--and me. She
also was bound for Jask, of all places in the world, and, as at meal
times she sat on the captain's right and I on his left hand, we had to
talk. However, she was much more interested in Mr. Scarlett and his
stories of Arabian life than in me.
At daybreak of the fifth morning we dropped anchor two miles off Jask,
and I strained my eyes to catch a first glimpse of the _Bunder Abbas_,
though in the hazy light I could not distinguish her amongst a cluster
of dhows, anchored close inshore. All I could see was a wide sweep of
yellow sand and a low-lying peninsula, jutting out into the sea, with
some glaring white square buildings at its end.
The place--if it really was an inhabited place--seemed absolutely
asleep, until, presently, some small, crazy lighters, full of jabbering
natives, came slowly off to unload whatever cargo we had for them.
Half an hour later I spied a tiny little tub of a dinghy pulling our
way. As she drew closer I saw that Wilson was in it. I had known him
when he was a sub-lieutenant, and I met him at the gangway.
"Jolly glad to see you," he burst out. "Everything's all right aboard
the _B.A_. I've ordered a chunk of goat for your breakfast--couldn't
get anything else. I told the political chap, up at the telegraph
station, that you'll be coming to see him. He will tell you anything you
want to know. Here's the 'signal book' and the 'cruising order book'.
Sign your 'tally' there. There are no more confidential books to hand
over."