“Ye hope nothing of the kind, man. ’Tis lurking in yer heart the thought that ye will see and save her. I honour ye for it. I would not turn ye from your purpose for a fortune upon the table, poor divil of a man that I am. Go where ye will, Ean Fabos, there’s one that will go with ye to the world’s end and back again and say that friendship sent him.” “Then I am not to put you on a liner, Timothy?” “May that same ship rot on verdurous reefs.” “But you are risking your life, man.” He stood up and flicked the ash of his cigar into the sea. “Yon is life,” he said, “a little red light in the houses of our pleasure, and then the ashes on the waters. Ean, me bhoy, I go with you to Santa Maria——” We smoked awhile in silence. Presently he asked me how I came to think of the Azores at all, and why I expected to find Joan Fordibras upon the island of Santa Maria. “Did she speak of it at Dieppe, by any chance?” he asked me. “Not a word,” said I. “General Fordibras would have let it slip?” “Nothing of the kind.” “Then, how the blazes——?” “Timothy,” I said, “when we dined with Joan Fordibras at Dieppe, her chaperone, the elderly but engaging Miss Aston, carried a letter in her hand.” “Indade, and she did.” “I saw the stamp upon it, Timothy.” He raised his eyes to heaven. “God save all wicked men from Ean Fabos,” he exclaimed. But I had only told him the truth, and but for that letter the lady carried, the high seas might yet embosom the secret of the Diamond Ship. CHAPTER XI. DEAD MAN’S RAFT. _The Voyage to the Azores and an Episode._ So the desire of every man on board the _White Wings_ became that of making the port of Santa Maria without the loss of a single day. When our prudent Captain insisted that we must call at Porto Grande to coal, I believe that we regarded him as guilty of an offence against our earnestness. The fever of the quest had infected the very firemen in the stoke-hold. My men spent the sunny days peering Northward as though the sea would disclose to them sights and sounds beyond all belief wonderful. They would have burned their beds if by such an act the course had been held.