"Wake Mr. Stedman, will you?" said he, "and we will go and take a look
at her."
"You can see nothing but the lights," said Bradley, as he left the
room; "it's a black night, sir."
Stedman was not new from the sight of men and ships of war, and came
in half dressed and eager.
"Do you suppose it's the big canoe Messenwah spoke of?" he said.
"I thought of that," said Gordon.
The three men fumbled their way down the road to the plaza, and saw,
as soon as they turned into it, the great outlines and the brilliant
lights of an immense vessel, still more immense in the darkness, and
glowing like a strange monster of the sea, with just a suggestion here
and there, where the lights spread, of her cabins and bridges. As they
stood on the shore, shivering in the cool night-wind, they heard the
bells strike over the water.
"It's two o'clock," said Bradley, counting.
"Well, we can do nothing, and they cannot mean to do much to-night,"
Albert said. "We had better get some more sleep, and, Bradley, you
keep watch and tell us as soon as day breaks."
"Ay, ay, sir," said the sailor.
"If that's the man-of-war that made the treaty with Messenwah, and
Messenwah turns up to-morrow, it looks as if our day would be pretty
well filled up," said Albert, as they felt their way back to the
darkness.
"What do you intend to do?" asked his secretary, with a voice of some
concern.
"I don't know," Albert answered gravely, from the blackness of the
night.
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