If the cargo should be delayed, they would set sail merely with ballast.

More than anything else, he wished to renew his trips.
Boats were scarcer and more in demand all the time.

It was high time to stop this enforced inertia.
"Yes, it's high time," responded Toni who, during the entire month, had only gone ashore twice.
The _Mare Nostrum_ left the repair dock coming to anchor opposite the commercial wharf, shining and rejuvenated, with no imperfections recalling her recent injuries.
One morning when the captain and his second were in the saloon under the poop undecided whether to start that night--or wait four days longer, as the owners of the cargo were requesting,--the third officer, a young Andalusian, presented himself greatly excited by the piece of news of which he was the bearer.

A most beautiful and elegant lady (the young man emphasized his admiration with these details) had just arrived in a launch and, without asking permission, had climbed the ladder, entering the vessel as though it were her own dwelling.
Toni felt his heart thump.

His swarthy countenance became ashy pale.
"_Cristo!_...