`Try again, my love!' she said cheerily. `Let us vary the experiment. We will start as we did before, but not begin counting till our trains meet. When we see each other, we will say "One!" and so count on till we come here again.'
Clara brightened up. `I shall win that,' she exclaimed eagerly, `if I may choose my train!'
Another shriek of engine whistles, another upheaving of spring-boards, another living avalanche plunging into two trains as they flashed by and the travelers were off again.
Each gazed eagerly from her carriage window, holding up her handkerchief as a signal to her friend. A rush and a roar. Two trains shot past each other in a tunnel, and two travelers leaned back in their corners with a sigh -- or rather with two sighs -- of relief `One!' Clara murmured to herself. `Won! It's a word of good omen. This time, at any rate, the victory will be mine!'
But was it?
NOONDAY on the open sea within a few degrees of the Equator is apt to be oppressively warm; and our two travelers were now airily clad in suits of dazzling white linen, having laid aside the chain-armour which they had found not only endurable in the cold mountain air they had lately been breathing, but a necessary precaution against the daggers of the banditti who infested the heights. Their holiday-trip was over, and they were now on their way home, in the monthly packet which plied between the two great ports of the island they had been exploring.
Along with their armour, the tourists had laid aside the antiquated speech it had pleased them to affect while in knightly disguise, and had returned to the ordinary style of two country gentlemen of the twentieth century.
Stretched on a pile of cushions, under the shade of a huge umbrella, they were lazily watching some native fishermen, who had come on board at the last landing-place, each carrying over his shoulder a small but heavy sack. A large weighing-machine, that had been used for cargo at the last port, stood on the deck; and round this the fishermen had gathered, and, with much unintelligible jabber, seemed to be weighing their sacks.
`More like sparrows in a tree than human talk, isn't it?' the elder tourist remarked to his son, who smiled feebly, but would not exert himself so far as to speak. The old man tried another listener.
`What have they got in those sacks, Captain?' he enquired, as that great being passed them in his never- ending parade to and fro on the deck.
The Captain paused in his march, and towered over the travelers -- tall, grave, and serenely self-satisfied.
`Fishermen,' he explained, `are often passengers in My ship. These five are from Mhruxi -- the place we last touched at -- and that's the way they carry their money. The money of this island is heavy, gentlemen, but it costs little, as you may guess. We buy it from them by weight -- about five shillings a pound. I fancy a ten-pound note would buy all those sacks.'
By this time the old man had closed his eyes -- in order, no doubt, to concentrate his thoughts on these interesting facts; but the Captain failed to realize his motive, and with a grunt resumed his monotonous march.