'I am sure we shall be very glad,' he said. 'At half-past six? Thank you so very much.'
'"For my voice has been tuned to the note of the gun
That startles the deep when the combat's begun,"'
quoted Attwater, with a smile, which instantly gave way to an air of funereal solemnity. 'I shall particularly expect Mr Whish,' he continued. 'Mr Whish, I trust you understand the invitation?'
'I believe you, my boy!' replied the genial Huish.
'That is right then; and quite understood, is it not?' said Attwater. 'Mr Whish and Captain Brown at six-thirty without fault--and you, Hay, at four sharp.'
And he called his boat.
During all this talk, a load of thought or anxiety had weighed upon the captain. There was no part for which nature had so liberally endowed him as that of the genial ship captain. But today he was silent and abstracted. Those who knew him could see that he hearkened close to every syllable, and seemed to ponder and try it in balances. It would have been hard to say what look there was, cold, attentive, and sinister, as of a man maturing plans, which still brooded over the unconscious guest; it was here, it was there, it was nowhere; it was now so little that Herrick chid himself for an idle fancy; and anon it was so gross and palpable that you could say every hair on the man's head talked mischief.
He woke up now, as with a start. 'You were talking of a charter,' said he.
'Was I?' said Attwater. 'Well, let's talk of it no more at present.'
'Your own schooner is overdue, I understand?' continued the captain.
'You understand perfectly, Captain Brown,' said Attwater; 'thirty-three days overdue at noon today.'
'She comes and goes, eh? plies between here and . . . ?' hinted the captain.
'Exactly; every four months; three trips in the year,' said Attwater.
'You go in her, ever?' asked Davis.
'No, one stops here,' said Attwater, 'one has plenty to attend to.'
'Stop here, do you?' cried Davis. 'Say, how long?'
'How long, O Lord,' said Attwater with perfect, stern gravity. 'But it does not seem so,' he added, with a smile.
'No, I dare say not,' said Davis. 'No, I suppose not. Not with all your gods about you, and in as snug a berth as this. For it is a pretty snug berth,' said he, with a sweeping look.
'The spot, as you are good enough to indicate, is not entirely intolerable,' was the reply.
'Shell, I suppose?' said Davis.
'Yes, there was shell,' said Attwater.
'This is a considerable big beast of a lagoon, sir,' said the captain. 'Was there a--was the fishing--would you call the fishing anyways GOOD?'
'I don't know that I would call it anyways anything,' said Attwater, 'if you put it to me direct.'
'There were pearls too?' said Davis.
'Pearls, too,' said Attwater.
'Well, I give out!' laughed Davis, and his laughter rang cracked like a false piece. 'If you're not going to tell, you're not going to tell, and there's an end to it.'
'There can be no reason why I should affect the least degree of secrecy about my island,' returned Attwater; 'that came wholly to an end with your arrival; and I am sure, at any rate, that gentlemen like you and Mr Whish, I should have always been charmed to make perfectly at home. The point on which we are now differing--if you can call it a difference--is one of times and seasons. I have some information which you think I might impart, and I think not. Well, we'll see tonight! By-by, Whish!' He stepped into his boat and shoved off. 'All understood, then?' said he. 'The captain and Mr Whish at six-thirty, and you, Hay, at four precise. You understand that, Hay? Mind, I take no denial. If you're not there by the time named, there will be no banquet; no song, no supper, Mr Whish!'
White birds whisked in the air above, a shoal of parti-coloured fishes in the scarce denser medium below; between, like Mahomet's coffin, the boat drew away briskly on the surface, and its shadow followed it over the glittering floor of the lagoon. Attwater looked steadily back over his shoulders as he sat; he did not once remove his eyes from the Farallone and the group on her quarter-deck beside the house, till his boat ground upon the pier.