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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pirate of Panama, by William MacLeod Raine
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Pirate of Panama
+       A Tale of the Fight for Buried Treasure
+
+Author: William MacLeod Raine
+
+Release Date: September 24, 2007 [EBook #22752]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE OF PANAMA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The author refers to George Fleming's brother as
+both "Harry" and "Henry" in this story. The original naming has been
+retained.]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Illustration: "PERHAPS I COULD DRESS THE HURT." SUGGESTED MISS WALLACE
+A LITTLE SHYLY. Frontispiece. p. 109]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE PIRATE OF PANAMA
+
+A Tale of the Fight for Buried Treasure
+
+By
+WILLIAM MacLEOD RAINE
+
+Author of "Wyoming," "A Texas Ranger," "Bucky O'Connor,"
+"Brand Blotters," "Mavericks," Etc.
+
+G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Copyright, 1914, by
+G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
+
+The Pirate of Panama
+
+Press of
+J. J. Little & Ives Co.
+New York
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+TO
+CAPTAIN FORRESTER
+
+FIRST MATE ROBERT, QUARTERMASTER WILLIAM
+AND BO'SUN KENNETH
+
+THIS VOYAGE OF THE _ARGOS_ IS DEDICATED
+
+Ho, gallant tars and true, fall to!
+Up anchor, lads, and sheets unfurl.
+Let engines throb a low tattoo;
+It's "All aboard for Panama."
+
+The snell wind whistles shrill o'erhead,
+The bullets spatter thick below,
+By candle light we count our dead,
+While we are bound for Panama.
+
+For all true men waits hidden gold,
+'Gainst all true hearts fight pirate foes,
+Who bears him with a courage bold
+Will land with us at Panama.
+
+Into the deep drive strong and sure,
+Straight as an arrow for the goal,
+From off the course let nothing lure,
+The breeze is fair for Panama.
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+         I. A Scrap of Paper                                   7
+        II. Captain Bothwell Interrupts                       22
+       III. Concerning Doubloon Spit                          39
+        IV. The Man With the Secret                           51
+         V. We Find a Ship                                    61
+        VI. The Missing Corner                                72
+       VII. In the Fog                                        84
+      VIII. Aboard the Argos                                  91
+        IX. Bothwell Makes a Move                            101
+         X. Another Stowaway                                 110
+        XI. Taking Stock                                     123
+       XII. My Unexpected Guest                              137
+      XIII. Mutiny                                           147
+       XIV. The Battle                                       161
+        XV. The Morning After                                168
+       XVI. The Night Attack                                 178
+      XVII. A Taste of the Inquisition                       189
+     XVIII. Anchored Hearts                                  207
+       XIX. Sense and Nonsense                               214
+        XX. The Big Ditch                                    225
+       XXI. A Message from Bucks                             237
+      XXII. Treasure-trove                                   250
+     XXIII. Aboard the Schooner                              266
+      XXIV. A Rat in a Trap                                  280
+       XXV. A Rescue                                         292
+      XXVI. The Last Brush                                   299
+     XXVII. In Harbor                                        312
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+"Perhaps I could dress the hurt," suggested Miss Wallace a
+little shyly                                  _Frontispiece_ 109
+
+"Crikey! I didn't know that was there," Jimmie cried         240
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+THE PIRATE OF PANAMA
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A SCRAP OF PAPER
+
+
+It was a dismal, sodden morning, with heavy clouds banked in the western
+sky. Rain had sloshed down since midnight so that the gutter in front of
+me was a turbid little river.
+
+A chill wind swept across the city and penetrated to the marrow. From
+the summit of the hill, three blocks above me, my car was sliding down,
+but I clung to the curb to postpone until the last moment a plunge into
+the flowing street.
+
+Since I was five-and-twenty, in tip-top health, and Irish by descent, I
+whistled while the windswept drops splashed the shine from my shoes.
+Rain or sun, 'twas a good little old world, though, faith! I could have
+wished it a less humdrum one.
+
+For every morning I waited at that same time and place for the same car
+to take me to my desk in the offices of Kester & Wilcox, and every day I
+did the same sort of routine grubbing in preparation of cases for more
+experienced lawyers to handle.
+
+Sometimes it flashed across me that I was a misfit. Nature had cast me
+for the part of a soldier of fortune, and instead I was giving my
+services to help a big corporation escape the payment of damages for
+accidents caused by its cars. I had turned my back on the romance of
+life. Well, it was the penalty one must pay to win success.
+
+And while I stood on the curb there fluttered down to me from the dun
+heavens an invitation to the great adventure my soul longed for. It came
+on a gust of wind and lay on the sidewalk at my feet, a torn sheet of
+paper yellowed with age.
+
+I had no premonition of what that faded bit of parchment meant, no
+picture of men in deadly battle, of the flash of knives or the gleam of
+revolvers, of lusty seamen lying curled on the deck where they had
+fallen at the call of sudden death. The only feeling that stirred in me
+was a faint curiosity at the odd markings on the sheet.
+
+My foot moved forward and pinned the paper to the cement walk. Should I
+pick it up? Of what use? It would turn out to be only some Chinese
+laundry bill. Already the gong of the street-car was not more than a
+block away as it swept down the hill.
+
+Was it some faint sound that drew my eyes up? Or was I answering the
+call of my destiny when my lifted gaze met the figure of a young woman
+framed in a second-story window? She was leaning far out, with arm
+stretched down and fingers opened wide.
+
+Behind her stood a man, also out of the window to his waist. One of his
+hands clutched her wrist, the other reached toward hers. That he had
+been trying to take from her the paper she had flung away was an easy
+guess.
+
+I had but the fraction of a second before my car was slowing for the
+crossing, but it was long enough to read in his dark face a malignant
+rage, in her fair, flushed one a defiant triumph. Stooping, I gathered
+the document that lay under my foot, then ran forward and swung to the
+platform of the car.
+
+If there had been time for second thought I might have stayed to see the
+drama out, or I might have left the cause of quarrel where it lay. As it
+was I had done neither one thing nor the other. Having yielded to
+impulse so far as to pick up the paper, I had then done the conventional
+thing and ignored the little scene above.
+
+But when I glanced back up the hill I glimpsed a man flying bareheaded
+from a doorway and pursuing the car with gestures of impotent fury.
+
+All the way down to the business quarter the odd affair challenged my
+interest. What did it mean? The picture in the window was no laughing
+romp meant to end in kisses. So much I was willing to swear. There was
+passion in both the faces.
+
+Out of those two lives I had snatched a vivid moment, perhaps one of
+many common to them, perhaps the first their intersecting life-lines had
+developed.
+
+Was the man her husband? I was not willing to think so. More likely a
+brother, I persuaded myself. For it was already being borne in upon me
+that freakish chance had swept me into the orbit of the thing we spell
+Romance.
+
+A petty domestic quarrel suggested itself as the obvious solution, but
+the buoyant youth in me refused any such tame explanation. For the girl
+was amazingly pretty.
+
+After a glance at it I put the crumpled paper in my pocketbook. In that
+crowded car, hanging to a strap, I could make nothing of it. At the
+office my time belonged to Kester & Wilcox until noon, for I was still
+in that preliminary stage of my legal career during which I found it
+convenient to exchange my inexperience for fifteen dollars a week. A
+clouded real-estate title was presumably engaging my attention, but
+between my mind and the abstract kept jumping a map with the legend
+"Doubloon Spit" above it.
+
+Faith, the blood sang in my veins. The scent of adventure was in my
+nostrils. A fool you may think me, but I was already on the hunt for
+buried treasure. Half a dozen times I had the paper out furtively, and
+as soon as my hour of release came I cleared the desk and spread the
+yellow, tattered document upon it.
+
+The ink had been originally red, but in places it was faded almost to
+illegibility. The worn edges at the folds showed how often it had been
+opened and scanned. One lower corner had been torn away, leaving perhaps
+seven-eighths of the original manuscript. Yet in spite of its imperfect
+state of preservation I found this relic of a dead and forgotten past
+pulse-stirring.
+
+Before me lay the map of a peninsula, the upper part sketched in vaguely
+but the toe marked apparently with the greatest care. The first detail
+that caught my eye was a sketch of a brig in the bay, beneath which was
+written:
+
+"Here _Santa Theresa_ went to Hell."
+
+It was plain that the coast line was charted accurately so as to show
+the precise location of the inlets. It was a contour map, giving the
+hills, sand reaches, and groves. At the nearest one of these last was
+jotted down the words: "Umbrela Tree."
+
+A little cross had been drawn near the foot of a hill. From this a long
+line ran into the bay with a loop at the end in which had been printed
+neatly: "Where Lobardi croked. Good riddance."
+
+Not far from this were three little circles, beneath which was one word
+in capitals, "ITTE."
+
+My heart leaped like an unleashed foxhound taking the trail. What could
+it mean but treasure? What had happened to the _Santa Theresa_? Had some
+one helped Lobardi to "croke" by cracking his skull? Could that dim, red
+ink once have been, the life blood in a man's veins?
+
+Here was food enough to fire the blood of a cool-headed Yankee, let
+alone that of a mad Irishman. I caught a vision of a boatload of
+red-turbaned buccaneers swarming up the side of a brig; saw the swish of
+cutlases and the bellying smoke of pistols; beheld the strangely garbed
+seadogs gathered around an open chest of yellow gold bars shining in the
+sun.
+
+For an eyebeat it was all clear to me as day. Then I laughed aloud at
+myself in returning sanity. I was in the twentieth century, not the
+eighteenth. An imagination so vivid that it read all this from a scrap
+of paper picked from the gutter needed curbing. I repocketed the chart
+and went to lunch.
+
+But I found I could not laugh myself out of my interest. The mystery of
+it drew me, despite myself. While I waited for my chop I had the map out
+again, studying it as a schoolboy does a paper-backed novel behind his
+geography.
+
+Beneath the map were some closely written lines of directions for
+finding "itte," whatever that might be. As to that my guess never
+wavered.
+
+Whoever had drawn the map had called the peninsula "Doubloon Spit." Why?
+Clearly because he and his fellow buccaneers had buried there the
+ill-gotten treasure they had gained from piracy. No doubt the _Santa
+Theresa_ was a gold ship they had waylaid and sunk.
+
+At my entrance I had taken a little side table, but the restaurant was
+filling rapidly. A man stopped beside my table and took off a frogged
+overcoat with astrakhan trimmings. He hung this and his hat on a rack
+and sat down in the chair opposite me.
+
+Instinctively I had covered the map with a newspaper. With amazement I
+now discovered that my _vis-à-vis_ was the villain of the Adventure of
+the Young Lady and the Chart, as the author of the "New Arabian Nights"
+would have phrased it.
+
+The man was in a vile humor, so much could be seen at a glance. Without
+doing me the honor of a single glance he stared moodily in front of him,
+his heavy black brows knit to a grim frown.
+
+He was a splendid specimen of physical manhood, big and well-muscled,
+with a broad, flat back and soldierly carriage. That he was a leader of
+men was an easy deduction, though the thin, straight mouth and the hard
+glitter in the black eyes made the claim that he would never lead toward
+altruism.
+
+In quick, short puffs he smoked a cigarette, and as soon as he had
+finished it he lit a second. Men all around us were waiting their turn,
+but I observed that the first lift of his finger brought an attendant.
+
+"Tenderloin with mushrooms--asparagus tips--strong black
+coffee--cognac," he ordered with the curtness of an army officer
+snapping commands at a trooper. His voice was rich and cultivated, but
+had a very distinctly foreign quality in spite of the fact that his
+English was faultless.
+
+I took advantage of the distraction of the waiter's presence to slip the
+map from the table into my pocket. After this I breathed freer, for it
+is scarcely necessary to say that in the struggle for the map--and by
+this time I had quite made up my mind that there would be fought out a
+campaign for its possession--I was wholly on the side of the young
+woman.
+
+But as yet I knew none of the facts, and so was not in a position to
+engage with him to advantage. I called for the check and took my coat
+and hat from the rack.
+
+Then I made my first mistake. I should have carried my raincoat to the
+door before putting it on. As I buttoned it recognition began to
+struggle faintly into his eyes. I waited for no further developments.
+
+But as I went out of the door I could see him hurrying forward.
+Instantly I turned to the right, dodged into a tobacco shop, ran swiftly
+through it to the surprise of the proprietor, and found myself in an
+alley. I took this in double-quick time and presently had lost myself in
+the hurrying crowds on Kearney Street. Five minutes later I was in the
+elevator on the way to our office.
+
+I set to work resolutely, but my drifting thoughts went back to the
+military man with the frogged coat, to the distractingly pretty girl who
+did not want him to have the map, and to that spit of land lapped by
+Pacific waves in a latitude and longitude that shall be nameless for
+reasons that will hereafter appear.
+
+It must have been fifteen minutes after my return that our office boy,
+Jimmie, came in to tell me that a lady wanted to see me.
+
+"She's a peach, too," he volunteered with the genial impudence that
+characterized him.
+
+This brought me back to earth, a lawyer instead of a treasure seeker,
+and when my first client crossed the threshold she found me deep in a
+volume on contracts, eight other large and bulky reference books piled
+on the table.
+
+The name on the card Jimmie had handed me was Miss Evelyn Wallace. I
+rose at once to meet her.
+
+"You are Mr. John Sedgwick?" asked a soft, Southern voice that fell on
+my ears like music.
+
+"I am."
+
+My bow stopped abruptly. I stifled an exclamation. The young woman was
+the one I had seen framed in a second-story window some hours earlier.
+
+"I think you know me by sight," she said, not smiling exactly, but
+little dimples lurking in her cheeks ready to pounce out at the first
+opportunity. "That is, unless you have forgotten?"
+
+Forgotten! I might have told her it would be hard to forget that
+piquant, oval face of exquisite coloring, and those blue eyes in which
+the sunshine danced like gold. I might have, but I did not. Instead, I
+murmured that my memory served me well enough.
+
+"I have come for the paper you were good enough to take care of for me,
+Mr. Sedgwick. It belongs to me--the paper you picked up this morning."
+
+From my pocket I took the document and handed it to her.
+
+"May I ask how you found out who I was, Miss Wallace?"
+
+You might have thought that roses had brushed her cheeks and left their
+color there.
+
+"I asked a policeman," she confessed, just a little embarrassed.
+
+"To find you a man in a gray ulster, medium height, weight, and
+complexion," I laughed.
+
+"I had seen you come from the Graymount once or twice, and by describing
+you to the landlady he discovered who you were and where you worked,"
+she explained.
+
+Her touch of shyness had infected me, too. It was as if unwittingly I
+had intruded on her private affairs, had seen that morning an incident
+not meant for the eyes of a stranger. We avoided the common interest
+between us, though both of us were thinking of it.
+
+Later I was to learn that she had been as eager to approach the subject
+as I. But she could not very well invite a stranger into her difficulty
+any more than I could push myself into her confidence.
+
+"I hope you find the paper exactly as you left it, or rather as it left
+you," I stammered at last.
+
+She had put the map in her hand-bag, but at my words she took it out,
+not to verify my suggestion but to prolong for a moment her stay in
+order to find courage to broach the difficulty. For she had come to the
+office in desperation, determined to confide in me if she liked my face
+and felt I was to be trusted.
+
+"Yes. It was torn at the moment I threw it away. My cousin has the other
+part. It is a map."
+
+"So I noticed. My impression was that the paper was yours. I examined it
+to see whether it held your name and address."
+
+Her blue eyes met mine shyly.
+
+"Did it--interest you at all?"
+
+"Indeed, and it did. Nothing in a long time has interested me more."
+
+I might have made an exception in favor of the owner of the document,
+but once more I decided to move with discretion.
+
+"You understood it?" Her soft voice trailed upward so that her
+declaration was in essence a question.
+
+"I am thinking it was only a wild guess I made."
+
+"I'd like right well to hear it."
+
+My eyes met hers.
+
+"Buried treasure."
+
+With eager little nods she assented.
+
+"Right, sir; treasure buried by pirates early in the nineteenth century.
+We have reason to think it has never been lifted."
+
+"Good reason?"
+
+"The best. Except the copy I have, this map is the only one in
+existence. Only four men saw the gold hidden. Two of them were killed by
+the others within the hour. The third was murdered by his companion some
+weeks later. The fourth--but it is a long story. I must not weary you
+with it."
+
+"Weary me," I cried, and I dare swear my eyes were shining. But there I
+pulled myself up. "You're right. I had forgotten. You don't know me.
+There is no reason why you should tell me the story."
+
+"That is true," she asserted. "It is of no concern to you."
+
+That she was a little rebuffed by my words was plain. I made haste to
+explain them.
+
+"I am meaning that there is no reason why you should trust me."
+
+"Except your face," she answered impulsively. "Sir, you are an honest
+gentleman. Chance, or fate, has thrown you in my way. I must go to
+somebody for advice. I have no friends in San Francisco that can help
+me--none nearer than Tennessee. You are a lawyer. Isn't it your business
+to advise?"
+
+"If you put it that way. But it is only fair to say that I am a very
+inexperienced one. To be frank, I've never had a client of my own."
+
+Faith, her smile was warm as summer sunshine.
+
+"Then I'll be your first, unless you refuse the case. But it may turn
+out dangerous. I have no right to ask you to take a risk for me"--she
+blushed divinely--"especially since I am able to pay so small a fee."
+
+"My fee shall be commensurate with my inexperience," I smiled. "And are
+you thinking for a moment that I would let my first case get away from
+me at all? As for the danger--well, I'm an Irishman."
+
+"But it isn't really a law case at all."
+
+"So much the better. I'll have a chance of winning it then."
+
+"It will be only a chance."
+
+"We'll turn the chance into a certainty."
+
+"You seem very sure, sir."
+
+"I must, for confidence is all the stock in trade I have," was my gay
+answer.
+
+From her bag Miss Wallace took the map and handed it to me.
+
+"First, then, you must have this put in a safety-deposit vault until we
+need it. I'm sure attempts will be made to get it."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"By my cousin. He'll stick at nothing. If you had met him you would
+understand. He is a wonder. I'm afraid of him. His name is Boris
+Bothwell--Captain Bothwell, lately cashiered from the British army for
+conduct unbecoming a gentleman. In one of his rages he nearly killed a
+servant."
+
+"But you are not English, are you?"
+
+"He is my second cousin. He isn't English, either. His father was a
+Scotchman, his mother a Russian."
+
+"That explains the name--Boris Bothwell."
+
+Like an echo the words came back to me from over my shoulder.
+
+"Capt. Boris Bothwell to see you, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+In surprise I swung around. The office boy had come in quietly, and hard
+on his heels was a man in a frogged overcoat with astrakhan trimmings.
+Not half an hour earlier I had sat opposite him at luncheon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+CAPTAIN BOTHWELL INTERRUPTS
+
+
+As he moved into the room with his easy, vigorous stride, one could not
+miss the impression, of his extraordinary physical power.
+
+I am an outdoor man myself, but I have never seen the day when I was a
+match for Boris Bothwell at feats of strength. Unusually deep in the
+chest and wide of shoulder, with long, well-packed arms that gave his
+big, sinewy hands a tremendous grip, he was not in the least
+muscle-bound.
+
+In my junior year I was the champion intercollegiate sprinter of the
+Pacific coast, but I have done a fifty with Bothwell for no less a stake
+than my life, and not gained two feet on the man.
+
+At sight of his cousin he bowed ironically, with the most genial of
+mocking smiles. To that smile I despair of doing justice. It was not
+from the lips merely, nor yet was it from the good will in him, but had
+its birth apparently of some whimsical thought that for the moment lent
+his face a rare charm. A second bow was for me.
+
+"Mr. John Sedgwick, I presume?"
+
+"At your service, sir."
+
+He removed his coat leisurely and hung it on the back of a chair.
+
+"Just so. I've had the devil of a time running you down, but here we are
+at last. And all's well that ends well."
+
+"You have business with me?" I asked curtly.
+
+"Even at the risk of interrupting a _tête-à-tête_ with the most charming
+young lady under heaven." His head dipped again with derisive courtesy
+toward Miss Wallace. "But I need detain you scarce a moment. You found
+this morning a paper I had the misfortune to lose. You will allow me to
+offer a thousand thanks for the very good care you have doubtless taken
+of it and will permit me to relieve you of it."
+
+He was the very letter of urbanity, but beneath the velvet of his voice
+I felt the steel. It lay, too, in the glitter of the cold eyes that
+gimleted mine sharply.
+
+Be sure I gave him back his smile and his insolent _aplomb_.
+
+"Surely you are mistaken, Captain Bothwell. I recollect finding nothing
+that belongs to you."
+
+"We'll waive that point. You found a paper," he answered quietly,
+drawing up a chair and seating himself astride it with his face to the
+back.
+
+"I picked up a paper that fell from the hand of Miss Wallace."
+
+"Exactly. I speak, of course, in the interest of my cousin. If you have
+returned it to her my purpose is served."
+
+Impatient at our fencing, or afraid, perhaps, that I might be deceived
+by his suavity, the girl cut in tartly:
+
+"You think you could rob me more successfully next time, Boris?"
+
+His kindly toleration was a lesson in diplomacy.
+
+"Fie, fie, Evie! A family difference of opinion. I think we must not
+trouble Mr. Sedgwick with our little diversions _entre nous_."
+
+"Unfortunately, you are a day after the fair, Captain Bothwell. Miss
+Wallace has already done me the honor to consult me in an advisory
+capacity."
+
+I let him have my declaration of war with the airiest manner in the
+world. My spirits were rising with the nearness of the battle, and I
+thought it would do our cause not the least harm in the world to let him
+see I was not a whit afraid to cross blades.
+
+"Indeed! Then for the matter in hand I may consider you one of the
+family. I congratulate you, Evie. Shall we say a brother--or a
+cousin--or----"
+
+"It isn't necessary to be a cad, Boris," she flung back hotly.
+
+"Pardon me. You are right--neither necessary nor desirable. I offer
+regrets." Then of a sudden the apology went out of his face like the
+flame from a blown candle. He swung curtly around upon me. "Mr.
+Sedgwick, I must trouble you for the map."
+
+I will be the last to deny that there was something compelling about the
+man. He sat there stroking his imperial, while the black eyes of the man
+held mine with a grip of steel. Masterful he looked, and masterful I
+found him to the last day of that deadly duel we fought out to a finish.
+
+In that long moment of suspended animation when only our eyes
+lived--crossed and felt the temper of each other as with the edge of
+grinding rapiers--we took each the measure of his foe pretty accurately.
+If I held my own it was but barely. The best I could claim was a drawn
+battle.
+
+"Regretfully I am compelled to decline your request."
+
+"It is not a request but a demand. Come, sir, the map!" he repeated more
+harshly.
+
+That he would somehow back his demand I did not for an instant doubt,
+though as to how I was still in the dark.
+
+"Let _me_ set you right, Captain Bothwell. This is a law office, in the
+city of San Francisco, United States of America. I am neither Tommy
+Atkins nor a Russian serf. Therefore, I again decline."
+
+Coals of fire lay in his eyes.
+
+"I--want--that--map!"
+
+"So I gather, and as a child you often wanted the moon. But did you get
+it?" I inquired pleasantly.
+
+"The map--the map!" He had not raised his voice a note, but I give you
+my word his eyes were devilish. He was a dangerous man in an ugly frame
+of mind.
+
+"Certainly you are a man of one idea, captain. Show proof of ownership
+and I shall be glad to comply with your request."
+
+"But certainly."
+
+So quick was his motion that the revolver seemed to have leaped to his
+hand of its own accord.
+
+"I give you my word, Mr. John Sedgwick of San Francisco, United States
+of America, that in the event you do not at once hand me that map I
+shall blow the top of your head off!"
+
+In a measure I was prepared for this. I told myself that we were in the
+heart of a great city, in daylight, with the twentieth century setting
+of a fifteen-story office building. Were I to put my head out of the
+window a thousand hurrying people on Market Street would hear my call.
+
+Yet I knew that I might as well be alone with him on a desert island for
+all the help that could reach me. I knew, too, that he was not bluffing.
+What he said he would do, that he would do.
+
+My face can on occasion be wooden.
+
+"Interesting, if true," I retorted coolly.
+
+"And absolutely true. Make no mistake about that, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+His hand rested on the back of the chair for a support. My eyes looked
+straight into the blue barrel of his weapon. It was a ticklish moment. I
+congratulate myself that my nerves were in good condition. My fingers
+played a tattoo upon a sheet of paper on my desk. Beneath that page of
+office stationery lay the map he wanted.
+
+"One moment, captain. This is not Russia. Have you considered that the
+freedom of my country carries with it disadvantages? You would probably
+be hanged by the neck till you were dead."
+
+His mood had changed, but I knew he was not a whit less dangerous
+because the veneer of suave mockery masked the savagery of the Slav.
+
+"Not at all. The unwritten law, my friend. I find you insulting my
+cousin and the hot blood in me boils. I avenge her. Regrettable, of
+course. Too hasty, perhaps. But--oh well, let bygones be bygones."
+
+In one breath he had tried and acquitted himself.
+
+"And do you think that I would agree to your accursed lies?" his cousin
+asked, white as new-fallen snow.
+
+"Let us hope so. Otherwise I should have to base my action upon a
+construction less creditable to you. The point is that I shall not
+hesitate to carry out my promise. We can arrange the details later, my
+dear. Come, Mr. Sedgwick! Choose!"
+
+"You coward!" flashed his cousin in a blaze of scorn.
+
+"Not at all, dear Evie. All point of view, I assure you. Mr. Sedgwick
+has told you that I take a sporting chance of being scragged. I haven't
+the slightest ill feeling, but--I want what I want. Have you decided,
+sir?"
+
+He was scarcely two yards from me, but neither his keen gaze nor the
+point of the automatic revolver wandered for a fraction of a second from
+me. There was not a single chance to close with him. I was considering
+ignominious surrender when Miss Wallace saved my face.
+
+"Can he give you what he hasn't got?" she cried out, her natural courage
+and her contempt struggling with her fear for me.
+
+"So he hasn't it, eh?" There was a silence before he went on: "But it is
+in this room somewhere. You have it or he has it. Now, I wonder which?"
+He spoke softly, as if to himself, without the least trace of
+nervousness or passion. "Yes, that's the riddle. Which of you?"
+
+His eyes released me long enough to shoot a questioning glance at her,
+for from my face he could read nothing.
+
+"If you have it, Evie, my cousin, you will perhaps desire to turn it
+over to me for safe keeping. It will be better, I think."
+
+"For you or for me?"
+
+He laughed noiselessly, with the manner peculiar to him of having some
+private source of amusement within.
+
+"Would you shoot me if I didn't agree with you?" she continued.
+
+"My dear cousin," he reproved. From his air one might have judged him a
+pained and loving father.
+
+"Then what will you do?"
+
+"Yes, I really think it will be better," he murmured with his strange
+smile.
+
+"And I ask again, better for whom?"
+
+"For Mr. Sedgwick, my dear," he cut back.
+
+She was plainly taken aback.
+
+"But--since he hasn't the paper----"
+
+"We'll assume he has it. At least he knows where it is."
+
+His manner dismissed her definitely from the business in hand. "I must
+apologize for my brusqueness, Mr. Sedgwick, but I'm sure you'll
+understand that with a busy man time is money. Believe me, it is with
+great regret I am forced to cut short so promising a career. You're a
+man after my own heart. I see quite unusual qualities in you that I
+would have found pleasure in cultivating. But I mustn't let my selfish
+regret interfere with what is for the good of the greatest number. At
+best it's an unsatisfactory world. You're well rid of it. Any last
+messages, by the way?"
+
+He purred out his atrocious mockery as a great cat gifted with speech
+might have done while playing with the mouse it meant to destroy.
+
+"I'd like to make it clear to you what a villain you are--but I despair
+of finding words to do justice to the subject. As for your threat, it
+is absurd. You'd hang, to a certainty, on the testimony of Miss
+Wallace."
+
+He shrugged his broad shoulders.
+
+"Life is full of risks. We all have to take them, and for my part it
+lends a zest. Unfortunately, if you take this risk you will not be in a
+position later to realize that your judgment was at fault. That,
+however, is your business and not mine," he concluded cheerfully,
+lifting his weapon slightly and taking aim.
+
+"For the last time---- Do you give me the map, or do I give you a pass
+to kingdom come?"
+
+The girl moved forward so that she stood directly between me and the
+weapon. She was taking a paper from her hand-bag, but she did not lower
+her eyes to direct her hands in their search.
+
+"I reckon I couldn't make you understand how I despise you--and hate
+you! I'd rather be kin to the poorest beggar who sweeps the streets down
+there than to you," she flamed, flinging before him a paper.
+
+Warily he picked it up and glanced at it, still covering me carefully.
+
+"This is the map, is it?"
+
+"You may see for yourself," she blazed.
+
+"It is really very good of you to ask me to keep it for you, Evie. I'll
+take good care of it--not a doubt of that. It's far better in my hands
+than yours, for of course you might be robbed."
+
+His impudent smile derided her contempt. For me--I wouldn't have faced
+that look of hers for twenty maps.
+
+"We're not through with you yet," I told him.
+
+In gay reproof he shook a finger at me.
+
+"Ah! There speaks the lawyer. You'll bring an action, will you?"
+
+It annoyed me to be playing so poor a part before Miss Wallace.
+
+"You're an infernal scoundrel!"
+
+"I could argue you out of that uncharitable opinion if I had time, Mr.
+Sedgwick. But I'm devilishly _de trop_--the superfluous third, you know.
+My dear cousin frowns at me. 'Pon my word, I don't blame her. But you'll
+excuse me for intruding, won't you? I plead the importance of my
+business. And I'm very glad of an excuse for meeting you formally, Mr.
+Sedgwick. The occasion has been enjoyable and will, I trust, prove
+profitable. I'll not say good-bye--hang me if I do. We'll make it _au
+revoir_. Eh?"
+
+An imp of malicious deviltry danced in his eyes. It was not necessary to
+tell me that he was having a pleasant time.
+
+"_Au revoir_ be it," I nodded, swallowing my bad temper.
+
+Once more he gave us his bland smile, a bow of audacious effrontery,
+then whipped open the door and was gone.
+
+It may be guessed he left me in no exultant mood. From the first the
+fellow had taken and held the upper hand. I had come through with no
+distinction at all and had let him walk off with the booty. But if there
+be those who think my spirit small I ask them to remember that a
+revolver staring one in the eye is a potent persuader.
+
+Miss Wallace was the first to speak.
+
+"You know now why I think him a dreadful man," she said, taking a deep
+breath of relief.
+
+"Just a moment," I excused myself, and ran into the outer office.
+
+Our office Cerberus was sitting at the gate of entry reading the
+enthralling story of "Hal Hiccup, the Boy Demon." From my pocket I
+fished one of the few dollars it held.
+
+"Jimmie, follow that man who has just gone out. Find out where he goes
+and whom he meets. If he stops anywhere keep a note of the place."
+
+The eyes of Young America grew big and round with astonishment, then
+lit with ecstatic delight. He was going to be a real detective.
+
+"The boss?" He jerked a dirty thumb in the direction of the chief clerk.
+
+"I'll make it right with him. Hurry!"
+
+"You bet I'll keep a peeper on him," he bragged, reaching for his hat.
+
+He was gone.
+
+I returned to my client.
+
+"Excuse me. I wanted to put a spy on your cousin. If he takes the map to
+a safe-deposit vault we ought to know where. And that reminds me----
+What was it you gave him? I thought the map was on my table here?"
+
+"I gave him a copy of it, one my father took years ago."
+
+"But had it a corner torn off just like this one?"
+
+From her hand-bag she drew a scrap of paper. "I was tearing it off just
+before I took it out."
+
+My admiration was genuine enough.
+
+"You're a cool hand, Miss Wallace. My hat is off to you."
+
+The color deepened slightly in her cheeks. "That was nothing. I just
+happened to think of it."
+
+"You saved the day, anyhow. He stands only an equal chance with us."
+
+"But he doesn't. My father purposely made an error in the details in
+case the map happened to fall into the wrong hands. And the latitude and
+longitude aren't marked."
+
+I could have shouted my delight.
+
+"But he has heard the diary read," she added. "In that the right
+latitude was given. If he happens to remember----"
+
+"A hundred to one he doesn't, and even at the worst he's no better off
+than we are."
+
+"Except that he has money and can finance an expedition in search of the
+treasure."
+
+I came to earth as promptly as Darius Green.
+
+"By Jove! that's true."
+
+For the humiliating fact was that I had not a hundred dollars with which
+to bless myself, having just lost my small inheritance in a wildcat
+mining venture.
+
+"I suppose it would take a lot of money?" she said timidly.
+
+"Where is the treasure hidden?"
+
+"On the coast of Panama."
+
+"Near the canal zone?"
+
+"I don't know. The latitude and the longitude are exactly marked, but I
+haven't looked them up."
+
+"We'll have to outfit a ship here, or make our start from Panama. Yes,
+it's going to take money."
+
+"Then we can't go any farther with it. I have no means," she said
+quietly.
+
+The lawyer in me came reluctantly to the fore.
+
+"I suppose I ought to advise you to compromise with Captain Bothwell."
+
+Resolution flashed in the eyes that looked straight into mine.
+
+"I'd rather lose it all! He wouldn't stick to any bargain he made
+because--well, he would use the treasure as a lever to--get something
+else he wants."
+
+The flush in her cheeks told me what else it was he wanted, and my heart
+was lifted within me. Bothwell intended to marry her, and she did not
+intend that he should. My wishes ran pat with hers.
+
+"That is final, is it?"
+
+"Quite. If you don't want to go on with it you can drop out, Mr.
+Sedgwick. I thank you for your kindness----"
+
+"And who's talking of dropping out? I suggested compromise because I
+thought I ought, but I'm the pleased man that you won't listen to my
+good advice. No, no! I'm in to stay, and here's my hand on it."
+
+"You're just spoiling for the fight," she smiled, her little hand in
+mine.
+
+"Indeed, and that's a guess which rings the bell. I'll not be satisfied
+till I try another fall with Mr. Bothwell."
+
+"You're a right funny lawyer."
+
+"I'll tell you a secret. My father was an Irish filibuster in Cuba. He
+died with his back to a wall when I was five."
+
+"Then it's in the blood."
+
+"He had a chance to slip away by leaving his men, but Barry Sedgwick
+wasn't the man to take that kind of an opportunity."
+
+"The dear hero! How proud you must be of him," she said in the softest
+of voices.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"He's the best reference I can give you. Now, Miss Wallace, I'll have to
+tell this story--or part of it--before I can interest capital in the
+venture. You are willing that I should?"
+
+"Do whatever you must. It's in your hands."
+
+"First, we'll make sure of the map, then; and after that you can tell me
+the story of Doubloon Spit."
+
+Together we went to the International Safe Deposit vaults, rented a box,
+and put in it the map. Afterward we took a car for Golden Gate Park.
+There she told me the story, in substance if not in the same words, to
+be found in the next two chapters.
+
+Those who find interest only in the conventional had better read no
+farther. For this true tale runs red with the primal emotions of the old
+buccaneers. It is a story of love and hate, of heroism and cowardice, of
+treasure-trove and piracy on the high seas, of gaping wounds and foul
+murder. If this is not to your taste, fall out. My story is not for
+you.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+CONCERNING DOUBLOON SPIT
+
+
+Robert Wallace, the father of Evelyn, was not one of the forty-niners,
+but he had come to California by way of the Isthmus not very many years
+later. Always of an adventurous turn, it was on his fourteenth birthday
+that he ran away from his home in Baltimore to become a stowaway on
+board a south-bound vessel.
+
+It was a day of privations, and the boy endured more than his share of
+them without complaint. Somehow he got along, knocking about from one
+point to another, now at the gold diggings, now on the San Francisco
+wharfs, and again as a deck hand on the coasters that plied from port to
+port.
+
+When he was eighteen, but well grown for his age, he fell in with an old
+salt named Nat Quinn. Quinn was an old man, close to seventy, a survival
+of a type of sailor which even then had all but passed away.
+
+The sea and the wind had given Quinn a face of wrinkled leather. It was
+his custom to wear rings in his ears, to carry a murderous dirk, and to
+wrap around his bald head a red bandanna after the fashion of the
+buccaneers of old.
+
+He was a surly old ruffian, quick to take offense, and absolutely
+fearless. When the old fellow was in drink it was as much as one's life
+was worth to cross his whim.
+
+Nat Quinn was second mate of the _Porto Rico_ when young Wallace shipped
+before the mast at San Francisco for a cruise to Lima. The crew were
+probably rough specimens, but there can be no doubt that Quinn hazed
+them mercilessly.
+
+Soon the whole forecastle was simmering with talk about revenge. Off
+Guayaquil one night three of the crew found him alone on the deck and
+rushed him overboard. The old man was no swimmer. No doubt this would
+have been the end of him if young Wallace, hearing his cry for help, had
+not dived from the rail and kept him afloat until a boat reached them.
+
+From that night Nat Quinn took a great fancy to the young man and often
+hinted that he was going to make his fortune. He told of hidden
+treasure, but never definitely; spoke of a great fortune to be had for
+the lifting, and promised Wallace that he should go halves.
+
+No doubt he trusted the boy, but the habit of secrecy had grown too
+strong easily to be broken. Several times he approached the subject, but
+usually sheered off before he had gone far. Of shrugs and winks he
+offered plenty, enough to keep the youngster tantalized almost beyond
+endurance. Nor was it possible to force his confidence, for he was of a
+surly, taciturn disposition, given to brooding suspicions.
+
+But at last the story came out. Quinn had been in his early days a
+seaman on board the ship _Mary Ann_ of Bristol, which in the year 1817
+was wrecked off the coast of Peru and cast upon the rocks. Most of the
+crew were saved, including the captain, one Thomas Rogers, the first
+mate, "Bully" Evans, and the boatswain, Pablo Lobardi, a quarrelsome
+fellow with whom Quinn had had a difficulty.
+
+The rescued seamen were treated with the greatest kindness by the
+simple-hearted natives. To Cerro Blanco, the nearest town, they were
+taken and given work. Most of them found employment in the rich mines of
+the neighborhood, pending the arrival of some ship to take them back to
+Europe.
+
+Lobardi was the only one of the crew who could talk Spanish, so that in
+his capacity of interpreter he acquired much influence with the men. It
+was he that hatched the vile plot to rob the mines, loot the rich
+churches and the banks of Cerro Blanco, and make their escape on the
+ship which put in twice a year to carry the gold to Lima.
+
+It looked a desperate enough adventure, this plan to seize an armed
+transport and escape with a great treasure, but these ruffians were the
+very men to carry through such an attempt. In its apparent hopelessness
+lay one prime factor of success, for none could expect a score of
+unarmed men to try so forlorn a hope. The transport carried twice as
+many soldiers, and these could call upon the town for aid in case of
+need.
+
+Everything went as well for the rascally buccaneers as they could
+desire. As the treasure wagons from the mines filed through a narrow
+gorge the sailors fell upon them. By means of three stolen rifles they
+drove away the guard. In their wild flight for safety the men who
+composed this body flung away their weapons in panic.
+
+Bully Evans, captain in fact though not in name, now had eleven rifles
+and three pistols to distribute among his men. Leaving an escort with
+the gold, he pushed to Cerro Blanco with the main body of robbers. At
+the outskirts of the town he again divided his forces. One party
+hastened to the banks and another looted the cathedral. Within an hour
+the town had been stripped clean of its gold and jewels and the
+scoundrels had again joined forces at the wharves. Only the need of
+absolute silence saved the town from a carnival of fire and murder.
+
+It was by this time in the small hours of a dark, moonless night. The
+pirates loaded the treasure into boats and pulled quietly for the _Santa
+Theresa_, a transport which lay like a black hulk in the harbor.
+
+The first boat was challenged by a sentinel on board, but Lobardi gave
+the countersign which they had forced from the leader of the treasure
+convoy.
+
+"_Muy bien_," answered the sentry, and he at once moved away to call the
+captain of the marines.
+
+As that officer came sleepily to the deck a half dozen figures swarmed
+over the side of the ship. He gave a cry, the last he ever uttered. A
+knife hurtling through the dark was buried to the hilt in his throat.
+Simultaneously one of the men on guard let out his death shriek and the
+other fled down the hatchway to the quarters of the men.
+
+The first rush of the troopers to the deck was met by a volley that
+mowed them down. Before they could recover, the pirates were upon them
+with cutlases. Taken by surprise, hemmed in by the narrow hatchway, the
+soldiers made a poor defense. Some were pursued and cut down, others
+escaped by swimming to the wharves. Those who surrendered were flung
+into a boat and ordered ashore.
+
+Captain Rogers worked the brig out of the harbor and set her nose to the
+north. There was need of haste, for the ship's consort was expected in a
+day or two. That there would be a pursuit nobody doubted.
+
+Now occurred a state of affairs to be accounted the most strange were it
+not the most natural in the world. While the plot had been fomenting,
+and during its execution, these scurvy fellows had been of one mind,
+amenable to discipline, and entirely loyal to each other.
+
+The thing had been in the wind a month, yet not one of them had breathed
+a word in betrayal. But no sooner had they won success than dissensions
+broke out. They were jealous of their officers, suspicious of each
+other.
+
+Men whispered together in corners, and others scowled at them in
+distrust. They grew unruly, were soon ripe for mutiny.
+
+To make matters worse, the wines and liquors aboard were made too free.
+It was not long before the cutthroats were in a debauch that threatened
+to last as long as the rum. Fights grew frequent. Within a week one man
+was buried and another lay in his bunk cut to ribbons.
+
+At this juncture Rogers, Evans, and Lobardi put their heads together and
+quietly dumped overboard the liquor supply. Captain Rogers was the
+ablest seaman among the officers, and he it was that worked the brig.
+But Bully Evans was the real leader of the pirates. He was a big man, of
+tremendous vitality and strength, and he ruled like a czar, hazing his
+men into submission by sheer brutality.
+
+One specimen of his methods must serve to illustrate a week of battle,
+every hour filled with disorder. The brig _Truxillo_, consort of the
+_Santa Theresa_, had appeared in the offing one morning and hung on in
+chase with all sail set. All day and night the two ships raced, the one
+to escape, the other to capture the pirates.
+
+Next morning there came up a heavy fog. Orders were given to about ship.
+Nothing could have amazed the crew more, and mutiny was instantly in the
+air. The malcontents whispered together and sent forward a committee of
+three to voice their refusal to comply with the order.
+
+Before a dozen words had been spoken Evans stepped forward and flung the
+spokesman from the quarterdeck. While the other two hesitated he was
+upon them, had cracked their heads together, and hammered them down the
+steps to the waist.
+
+From his belt he whipped two pistols and leveled them at the grumblers.
+
+"Avast, you lubbers!" he bellowed. "By the powers, I'll learn you to
+play horse with Bully Evans! Pipe up your complaint or foot it, you
+flabby seacocks what call yourselves gentlemen of fortune! Stow my quid,
+but I'll send some of you to feed the fishes if you try to make the
+f'c'sle rule the quarterdeck. Come, pipe up!"
+
+They did not say much of what was in their minds, for he took the words
+out of their mouths, berating them for meddlesome fools and explaining
+how their sole chance of escaping was to slip past the _Truxillo_ in the
+fog and shake off the pursuit. All this he roared with the foulest of
+accompanying oaths, treating the crew like dogs so effectively that they
+turned tail and gave up without a blow.
+
+On the morning of the third day after this the _Santa Theresa_ poked her
+nose into San Miguel Gulf on the southern coast of Panama. The captain
+took her across the gulf into Darien Harbor, then followed the southern
+branch practically to the head of the bay, at which point he anchored.
+
+Tired of being confined aboard the ship, the crew were eager to get
+ashore. This suited the plans of Evans. As soon as the long boat had
+gone with the shore party he packed the treasure in boxes and lowered
+them into a boat. Late in the afternoon the tired sailors returned to
+the ship.
+
+Evans ordered the boatswain to pipe all hands on deck. To the assembled
+crew he made a speech, pointing out the need of getting the treasure to
+some safer place than aboard a ship which might any day fall into the
+hands of the enemy. He intended, he said, to take three men with him and
+bury the chests on the sand spit within sight of them all.
+
+But at this proposal the men broke into flat rebellion. Not one of them
+was willing to trust the gold out of his reach. Things in fact had come
+to such a pass that, though there was plenty for all, each was plotting
+how he might increase his share by robbing his neighbor.
+
+Evans had made his preparations. The officers, Lobardi, Quinn, and two
+other sailors who sided with the chief villains were grouped together,
+all of them heavily armed. In the struggle that followed the victory
+lay with the organized party. The mutineers were defeated and disarmed.
+
+Evans selected Quinn, Lobardi, and a sailor named Wall to go with him
+ashore to bury the gold. Those on board watched the boat pull away with
+the gold that had cost so many lives. To the fury and amazement of all
+of them the boat rounded a point of land and disappeared from sight.
+
+Evans had broken his agreement to bury the treasure in the sight of all.
+Even Captain Rogers joined in the imprecations of the men. He ordered
+the long boat lowered for a pursuit, but hardly had this started when a
+shot plumped into the water in front of it.
+
+Unobserved in the excitement, the _Truxillo_ had slipped into the bay.
+Its second shot fell short, its third wide, but the fourth caught the
+boat amidship and crumpled it as the tap of a spoon does an empty
+eggshell. Of the eight men aboard two were killed outright and the rest
+thrown into the sea. One of them--a man named Bucks, as we were to learn
+in a most surprising way--clung to the wreckage and succeeded in
+reaching shore. The rest were drowned or fell a prey to sharks.
+
+The long boat disposed of, the _Truxillo_ turned her guns upon the
+_Santa Theresa_. Those left on board made a desperate defense, but the
+captain, seeing that escape was impossible, chose to blow up the ship
+rather than be hanged as a pirate from the yardarm.
+
+Meanwhile, the boat with the treasure, which had rounded the point
+before the _Truxillo_ had appeared, had been beached on the spit and the
+chests dragged ashore. Evans was burying the boxes when the first shot
+of the _Truxillo_ fell upon his ears. Naturally he concluded that it was
+from the _Santa Theresa_ as a warning of what he might expect.
+
+Bully Evans showed his yellow teeth in a grin.
+
+"Compliments of the old man," he said, no whit disturbed at his double
+treachery.
+
+But at the sound of the final explosion the desperadoes looked at each
+other.
+
+They ran to the nearest hill and saw the destruction of their
+companions.
+
+The Portuguese boatswain was the first to recover.
+
+"There ees now fewer to share," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+Evans looked at Quinn and gave a signal. The double murder was done with
+knives. Where there had been four, now only two remained.
+
+Evans and Quinn finished burying the treasure and removed all trace of
+their work. A map was drawn by Quinn, showing the exact location of the
+cache. The murderers slipped back to their boat and, under cover of
+darkness, crept up the harbor till they came to the mouth of a large
+river. Up this they pulled and disappeared into the interior. Neither of
+them was aware that Bucks had seen the treacherous killing and the
+disposal of the treasure.
+
+Six weeks later a living skeleton crawled out of the fever-laden swamps
+of Panama and staggered down to a little village on the Gulf of Uraba.
+The man was Nat Quinn. He had followed the Rio Tuyra, zigzagged across
+the Isthmus, and reached the northern coast.
+
+Somewhere in the dark tangle of forest behind him, where daylight never
+penetrates the thick tropical growth, lay the body of Bully Evans. It
+was lying face down in the underbrush, a little round hole in the back
+of the head. Quinn's treachery had anticipated that of the mate.
+
+As the survivor lurched down to the settlement his voice rose in a high
+cackle of delirious song. These were the words of his chant:
+
+    It's bully boys, ho! and a deck splashed red--
+       The devil is paid, quo' he, quo' he,
+    A knife in the back and a mate swift sped!
+       Heave yo ho! and away with me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE MAN WITH THE SECRET
+
+
+This was the terrible story old Cap Nat, as he was commonly called, told
+to Robert Wallace one night in a grog shop at San Francisco nearly forty
+years after the events had taken place. Only one point he omitted--the
+fact that Bucks had escaped from the long boat and witnessed the caching
+of the plunder--and this only because he was not aware of it.
+
+During all those forty years Quinn had kept it as a fixed purpose to
+return to the scene of his crime and possess himself of the wealth he
+had lost his soul to gain.
+
+But to outfit an expedition of the necessary proportions took much
+money. On this rock the man's purpose had always split. Periodically he
+was a hard drinker. He would live hard and close for a year, saving
+every cent he could, and then spend the whole amount in one grand
+debauch.
+
+Had he been willing to confide his story to some capitalist of
+California it is likely he might have raised the needed funds, but the
+nature of the man was both suspicious and secretive and he had guarded
+his knowledge all these years with jealousy.
+
+Wallace was acquainted with the owner and master of a tramp schooner
+which had a doubtful reputation along the water front. Jim Slack had
+been an opium smuggler and was watched so closely by the revenue
+officers that he jumped at the chance of a trip to parts where no
+government officials could reach him.
+
+Cautiously Wallace broached the subject to him, hinting at treasure but
+leaving the details dark. He drew a map which was a facsimile of the one
+made by Quinn, except that the latitude and longitude were omitted, and
+one or two details altered.
+
+The result was that two weeks later the three men, together with a crew
+of five, were beating their way along the coast of Lower California in
+the notorious _Jennie Slack_. A bargain had been struck by which the
+owner of the vessel was to get one-third of the gold, out of which share
+he was to pay all the expenses of the cruise.
+
+Each of the three leaders of the expedition was pledged to secrecy, but
+before they had been a week out of the Golden Gate Wallace discovered by
+accident not only that the crew knew the story, but that they were
+implicated with the master of the boat in a plot to obtain the whole
+treasure for themselves.
+
+He told what he had learned to Quinn under cover of an evening smoke on
+deck. The old pirate took it without winking an eyelash, for he could
+see Slack and one of his men watching them.
+
+"Six to two. Long odds, boy," he said, knocking the ashes from his pipe.
+
+To keep up appearances Bob Wallace laughed.
+
+"I'm to be got rid of just before we land. It is to be made to look like
+an accident. You're safe until you have uncovered the treasure. Then
+it's good-by Cap Nat, too."
+
+Quinn's laugh rang loudly, for the old man could play the game with any
+of them.
+
+"We can't go back. If we suggested that the row would begin at once. No,
+we must choose our time instead of letting them choose theirs. And we
+can't wait too long, because they would see we were taking precautions
+against being surprised. We'll strike to-night--and hard."
+
+No doubt Cap Nat was right in his strategy, but the scruples of the
+boy's conscience lost them the advantage of a sudden attack. He would
+fight to save his life, but he would not take advantage of his enemies.
+
+Perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that he could not.
+Something stuck in his throat at the thought of falling upon men
+unexpectedly and dealing murder broadcast. Nor could the arguments of
+the old man shake him.
+
+Dreadfully frightened though he was, the boy stuck doggedly to his
+position. He would die before he would do such a thing. And indeed he
+counted himself as no better than dead.
+
+The two shared the same cabin, so that they were able to see each other
+alone several times during the day. Neither of them went out without
+being armed with a brace of pistols and a dirk, though these they kept
+hidden under their rough coats.
+
+During Slack's watch that evening Quinn and his friend made their final
+preparation for defense. The captain's cabin was larger than theirs, and
+offered better points of defense. Furthermore, here were kept the arms
+and the ammunition of the ship. Quinn volunteered to get food and water
+into it while Wallace held the cabin.
+
+Three trips were made by the old salt to the cook's gallery. The first
+time he brought back a keg of water, the second time a large tin into
+which he had crammed a varied assortment of food. It was while he was
+away on the third journey that a scream rang out in the stillness.
+
+The boy heard a rush of feet, followed by a shot. Bob ran out of the
+cabin toward the galley. Up the steps from the lower deck came Quinn,
+blood streaming from his head. In one hand he carried a knife, in the
+other a copper kettle full of beans still steaming.
+
+"Back, lad, back! Hell's broke loose," the old man cried.
+
+"What happened? Are you badly hurt?"
+
+"I killed cookie. Caught me in the galley and I knifed him," panted the
+old man.
+
+A bullet whistled past. Wallace turned, caught sight of Slack's head
+above the hatchway, and fired. The head disappeared. A few moments and
+they were safe in the cabin.
+
+"You are wounded," Bob cried.
+
+Quinn shrugged.
+
+"A bullet grazed my head. Get ready for them. Never mind me."
+
+He tied a bandanna over the wound while the young man arranged on the
+bunk cutlases, their spare pistol, and the musket.
+
+Slack was the first of the enemy to appear. He carried with him a white
+napkin for a flag. Ostensibly he had come to find out the cause of this
+outbreak, really to learn how well prepared the defenders were.
+
+Cap Nat sent him to the right about briskly. "Get out, traitor! Step
+lively now, or I'll pepper you!"
+
+From his breast Slack whipped a pistol and fired at the bald head of the
+old buccaneer. A shot from Wallace rang-out in answer. Slack ran for
+cover, but at the stairs waved a derisive gesture.
+
+For half an hour everything was quiet. Then came the sound of stealthy
+whispers and softly padding feet.
+
+Quinn swung his cutlas to test it.
+
+"Stand by for a rush. They're coming," he said.
+
+Almost before he had finished speaking feet pattered swiftly along the
+deck. The night was suddenly broken with shouts and curses. The stars
+that had been shining through the window were blotted out with smoke.
+
+The door crashed in and men poured pell-mell through the opening. The
+details of what followed were always blurred into a medley of carnage in
+the mind of Wallace. He knew that both he and Quinn fired, and that the
+cabin filled with smoke.
+
+Fierce arms gripped him. He hacked into the smoke with his knife. Twice
+bodies thudded to the floor. A cutlas slashed his left arm. He was
+dragged from the cabin to the open deck and found himself struggling
+with a red-bearded giant who tossed him about as if he had been a child.
+
+The fellow had a knife in his belt which he was trying to draw. Robert
+fought to the last ounce of strength in him to prevent this. But the
+sailor was too strong for him. Inch by inch he went down. The other's
+knee drove into his chest, his sinewy hand closed on the lad's throat.
+Wallace saw the knife flash and for the moment lost his senses.
+
+When his eyes opened again the vise at his throat had withdrawn, the
+knee on his chest was relaxing. The giant was dropping like a log. Above
+him stood Quinn, a ghastly sight, in his hand a streaming cutlas.
+
+Wallace rose and looked about him. Two men lay huddled in the cabin, a
+third was staggering away with both hands clapped to his head. The giant
+made four, the cook five. This left only Captain Slack against them.
+
+"By Heaven, we've beat them," the boy cried.
+
+"Yes, lad, we've beat them," grinned Quinn, leaning heavily against the
+door. "But it's Nat's last fight. I've got a bellyful--more than I can
+carry. The old man is bound for Davy Jones's locker."
+
+Slowly he slid to the deck.
+
+Robert carried him into the cabin, bleeding from a dozen wounds. He was
+badly hacked, and from a gunshot wound in the vitals he was bleeding to
+death.
+
+His comrade forced liquor between his teeth and offered to examine his
+wounds. Old Nat waved him aside.
+
+"No use. I'm for hell." He smiled and began to sing in a quavering voice
+the chorus of the grim old buccaneers' song.
+
+It's bully boys, ho! and a deck splashed red--
+   The devil is paid, quo' he, quo' he,
+A knife in the back and a mate swift sped!
+   Heave yo ho! and away with me.
+
+It must have been weird to hear the man, after so wicked and turbulent a
+life, troll from ashen lips the godless song of the old seadogs with
+whom he had broken all the commandments.
+
+Only once after this did his mind come back to the present. A few
+minutes before the end the old pirate's eyes opened. He tried to whisper
+something, but could not. Feebly his hand tapped at something hard above
+his heart. Robert took from next the skin a package wrapped in oilcloth.
+Quinn's eyes lit.
+
+In this was the map of Doubloon Spit.
+
+Imagine now the situation on this ship of death. Three men only were
+left alive, and one of these so badly wounded that he leaped overboard
+in madness before morning. Of the remaining two, neither could sleep
+without the fear of murder in his heart.
+
+Two days wore away, one holding the upper and the other the lower deck.
+Meanwhile the ship drifted, a derelict on the face of the Pacific.
+
+At length an agreement was patched up. Slack and Wallace sailed the ship
+together, each with one eye on the other. It is certain that neither
+slept without locked and bolted doors.
+
+On the fourth day after truce had been declared, land was sighted. While
+it was the boy's watch and the captain was asleep Wallace managed to
+lower a boat and paddle to the shore. He had scarcely reached the beach
+when a tropical storm swept across the waters. At daybreak the _Jennie
+Slack_ was no longer in sight. Neither schooner nor owner was ever seen
+again.
+
+Robert Wallace was picked up several days later by a Mexican
+sheepherder. In time he worked his way back to San Francisco. At the
+completion of the Union Pacific Railroad he left California for the
+South.
+
+Here he engaged in business, forsook his vagabond habits, and in course
+of time married. No doubt it was always in his mind to have another try
+at the treasure, but time slipped away without his doing so. His happy
+marriage fettered him. Before he realized it, he was an old man. The
+most he could do was to leave the secret for his daughter.
+
+The package was found by his executor sealed in a safety deposit box. He
+left instruction that it was to be opened by his daughter upon her
+twenty-first birthday.
+
+A week before the events told in the first chapter she had reached her
+majority. In the presence of Boris Bothwell, whom she had lately met for
+the first time, the oilcloth package had been opened.
+
+He had agreed to finance the expedition to Doubloon Spit and she had
+come to San Francisco with her aunt to make the voyage with him.
+Meanwhile, letters had reached her from Scotland which made clear the
+true character of Bothwell.
+
+He had attempted twice to get possession of the map. His personal
+attention displeased her. They had quarreled, finally, on the morning of
+the episode of the second-story window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WE FIND A SHIP
+
+
+Partly from the diary of Robert Wallace and partly from the lips of his
+daughter I gathered the story set down in the two preceding chapters.
+
+If I have given it with some detail, believe me, it is not because I
+care to linger over the shadow of tragedy that from the first hung about
+the ill-gathered treasure, but rather that you may understand clearly
+the issue facing us.
+
+Some men would have turned their back upon the adventure and voted the
+gold well lost. I wanted to see the thing out to a finish.
+
+I shall never deny that the personality of her who was to be my partner
+in the enterprise had something to do with the decision to which I came.
+The low, sweet voice of the Southland, the gay, friendly eyes, the
+piquant face, all young, all irresistibly eager and buoyant, would have
+won a less emotional man than Jack Sedgwick.
+
+But why make apologies? After all, every man that lives has his great
+adventure, whether it come garbed in drab or radiant with the glow of
+the sunrise. A prosaic, money-grubbing age we call this, but by the
+gods! romance hammers once in a lifetime at the door of every mother's
+son of us. There be those too niggardly to let her in, there be those to
+whom the knock comes faintly; and there be a happy few who fling wide
+the door and embrace her like a lover.
+
+For me, I am Irish, as I have said. I cried "Aye!" and shook hands on
+the bargain. We would show Captain Boris Bothwell a thing or two. It
+would be odds but we would beat him to those chests hidden in the sand.
+
+This was all very well, but one cannot charter and outfit a ship for a
+long cruise upon day-dreams. The moneyed men that I approached smiled
+and shook their wise gray heads. To them the whole story was no more
+than a castle in Spain. For two days I tramped the streets of San
+Francisco and haunted the offices of capitalists without profit to our
+enterprise.
+
+On the afternoon of the third I retired, temporarily defeated, to my
+club, the Golden Gate. On my salary I had no business belonging to so
+expensive a club, but I had inherited from my college days a taste for
+good society and I gratified it at the expense of other desires.
+
+In the billiard-room I ran across an acquaintance I had met for the
+first time on the Valdez trail some years earlier. His name was Samuel
+Blythe. By birth he was English, by choice cosmopolitan. Possessed of
+more money than he knew what to do with, he spent a great deal of time
+exploring unknown corners of the earth. He was as well known at
+Hong-Kong and Simla as in Paris and Vienna. Within the week he had
+returned to San Francisco, from an attempt to reach the summit of Mount
+McKinley.
+
+He was knocking balls about aimlessly.
+
+"Shoot you a game of pool, Sedgwick," he proposed.
+
+Then I had an inspiration.
+
+"I can give you more fun for your money another way. Come into the
+library, Blythe."
+
+There I told him the whole story. He heard me out without a smile. For
+that alone I could have thanked him. When I had finished he looked for a
+minute out of the window with a far-away expression in his eyes.
+
+"It's a queer yarn," he said at last.
+
+"And of course you don't believe a word of it?" I challenged.
+
+"Don't I? Let me tell you this, old man. There are a number of rum
+things in this old world. I've bucked up against two or three of them.
+Let me see your map."
+
+I had made another copy of it, with the latitude and longitude omitted.
+This I handed to him.
+
+While he examined it his eyes shone.
+
+"By Jove, this _is_ a lark. You can have the old tub if you want it."
+
+He was referring to his splendid steam yacht the _Argos_, in which he
+had made the trip to Alaska.
+
+"I haven't the price to outfit her and pay your crew," I explained.
+
+"I have. You'll have to let me be your bank. But I say, Sedgwick, you'll
+need a sailing master. You're not a seaman."
+
+Our eyes met.
+
+"Could Sam Blythe be persuaded to take the place?"
+
+"Could I?" He got up and wrung my hand. "That's what I wanted you to
+say. Of course I'll go--jump at the chance."
+
+"There's the chance of a nasty row. We're likely to meet Bothwell in
+that vicinity. If we do, there will be trouble."
+
+"So I gather from your description of the gentleman."
+
+I was delighted. Blythe was not only a good navigator; he was a tried
+companion, true as steel, an interesting fellow who had passed through
+strange experiences but never used them to impress upon others a sense
+of his importance.
+
+He had served through the Boer and the Spanish-American wars with
+distinction. As I looked at him--a spare tall man with a bronzed face of
+power, well-shouldered, clear-eyed, and light-footed--I felt he was the
+one out of ten thousand for my purpose.
+
+"Too bad I didn't know a week ago. I've let my crew go. But we can pick
+up another. My sailing master Mott is a thoroughly reliable man. He'll
+look after the details. My opinion is that we ought to get under way as
+soon as possible. That fellow Bothwell is going to crowd on all sail in
+his preparations. I take it as a sure thing that he means to have a try
+for the treasure."
+
+"My notion too. He struck me as a man of resource and determination."
+
+"So much the better. He'll give us a run for our money. My dear fellow,
+you've saved my life. I was beginning to get bored to extinction. This
+will be a bully picnic."
+
+"How long will it take you to get the yacht ready?"
+
+"Give me a week to pick a crew and get supplies aboard. I'll offer a
+bonus to get things pushed."
+
+To see the enthusiasm he put into the adventure did me good after the
+three days of disappointment I had endured. I was eager to have him and
+Miss Wallace meet, and I got her at once on the telephone and made
+arrangements to bring him up after dinner to the private hotel where she
+and her aunt were stopping.
+
+They took to each other at once. Inside of ten minutes we were all
+talking about our equipment for the trip.
+
+"If we have a good run and the proper luck we'll be back to you with the
+treasure inside of a month, Miss Wallace," Blythe promised as he rose to
+leave.
+
+"Back to me!" She looked first at him and then at me. "You don't think
+that I'm not going, too, do you?"
+
+It is odd that the point had not come up before, but I had taken it for
+granted she would wait in 'Frisco for us.
+
+"It's hardly a lady's job, I should say," was my smiling answer.
+
+"Nonsense! Of course I am going." Sharp decision rang in her voice.
+
+"It may be dangerous."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! Panama is a tourist point of travel these days. Half of
+my schoolgirl chums have been there. It's as safe as--Atlantic City."
+
+"Atlantic City isn't safe if one ventures too far out in the surf," I
+reminded her.
+
+"I'll stick close to the life line," she promised.
+
+Both Blythe and I were embarrassed. It was of course her right to go if
+she insisted. I appealed to her aunt, a plump, amiable lady nearer fifty
+than forty.
+
+"Don't you think, Miss Berry, that it would be better to wait here for
+us? There would be discomforts to which you are not used."
+
+"That is just what Boris told us," Evelyn put in mischievously.
+
+Miss Berry gave a little shrug of her shoulders.
+
+"Oh, I'd as soon stay here, but Evie will have her way." Her pleasant
+smile took from the words any sting they might otherwise have held.
+
+"Of course I shall. This is a matter of business," Miss Wallace
+triumphantly insisted.
+
+Excitement danced in her eyes. She might put it on commercial grounds if
+she liked, but the truth is that the romance of the quest had taken hold
+of her even as it had of us. One could not blame her for wanting to go.
+
+I consulted Sam with my eyes.
+
+"I suppose there is no absolute bar to letting the ladies go. There is
+room enough on the _Argos_."
+
+"There's plenty of room," he admitted.
+
+After all it was fanciful to suppose that we should run across Bothwell
+on the face of the broad Pacific. Why shouldn't they have the pleasure
+of a month's yachting? Certainly their presence would make the voyage a
+more pleasant one for us.
+
+"All right. Go if you must, but don't blame me if it turns out to be no
+picnic."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Sedgwick. That's just what it is going to be--a nice
+long picnic," the girl beamed.
+
+"Wish I had your beautiful confidence. Have you forgotten Captain
+Bothwell? Shall we take him along, too?" I asked with a laugh.
+
+"I'm afraid he would want all the cake. No, we'll not ask him to our
+picnic. He may stay at home."
+
+"Let's hope he will," Miss Berry contributed cheerfully.
+
+I don't think she gave the least weight to our fears of Bothwell. In
+fact he was rather a favorite of hers.
+
+"If he comes he'll have to take what is left. He understands he's not
+invited," Miss Wallace nodded gaily.
+
+Blythe was fortunately able to secure his sailing master, Mott, and one
+of the crew that had sailed with him before, a man named Williams. The
+Englishman's valet, Morgan, went as steward. For the rest, we had to be
+content with such men as we could get hurriedly together.
+
+Two brothers named Fleming were secured as engineers, a little cockney
+as fat as a prize pig for cook. He answered to the cognomen of 'Arry
+'Iggins, though on the ship's register the letter H was the first
+initial of both his names. Caine, the boatswain, was a sinister-looking
+fellow, but he knew his business. Taken as a whole, the crew appeared to
+average well enough.
+
+From long practice Blythe was an adept at outfitting a yacht for a
+cruise. Without going into details I'll only say that we carried very
+little that was superfluous and lacked nothing that would tend to
+increase our comfort.
+
+I am no sailor, but it did not take a professional eye to see that the
+_Argos_ was a jewel of a boat. Of her seagoing qualities I knew nothing
+except by repute, but her equipment throughout was of the best. She was
+a three-masted schooner with two funnels, fitted with turbines and
+Yarrow boilers. To get eighteen knots out of her was easy, and I have
+seen her do twenty in a brisk wind.
+
+In addition to her main deck the _Argos_ carried a topgallant forecastle
+and a bridge, the latter extended on stanchions from the main deck to
+the sides of the ship so as to give plenty of space for games or
+promenades. The bridge contained a reception and a tea room, which were
+connected by a carved stairway with the deck below.
+
+The rooms of the commander, the cook, and other servants lay well
+forward under the bridge. Abaft of these were the kitchen and the
+pantry, the dining room, the saloon, and the rooms of the owner and his
+guests.
+
+The conventional phrase "a floating palace" will do well enough to
+describe the interior of this turbine yacht. No reasonable man could
+have asked more of luxury than was to be found in the well-designed bath
+rooms, in the padded library with its shelves of books, its piano and
+music rack, and in the smoking room arranged to satisfy the demands of
+the most fastidious.
+
+I had resigned my place with Kester & Wilcox to help push the
+preparation for our departure, but I was still spending a good deal of
+my time in the office cleaning up some matters upon which I had been
+working. Much of the time I was down at the docks, and when I could not
+be there my thoughts were full of the _Argos_ and her voyage.
+
+Since I was giving my time to the firm without pay I took the liberty of
+using the boy Jimmie to run errands for me. Journeying back and forth to
+the wharf with messages and packages, he naturally worked up a feverish
+interest in our cruise, even though he did not know the object of it.
+When he came out point-blank one morning with a request to go with us as
+cabin boy I was not surprised. I sympathized with Master Jimmie's
+desire, but I very promptly put the lid on his hopes.
+
+"Nothing doing, Mr. James A. Garfield Welch."
+
+"You've gotter have a kid to run errands for youse, Mr. Sedgwick," he
+pleaded.
+
+"No use talking, Jimmie. You're not going."
+
+"All right," he acquiesced meekly.
+
+Too meekly, it occurred to me later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE MISSING CORNER
+
+
+Blythe and I had agreed that Bothwell would not let us get away without
+first making an effort to get hold of the original map of Doubloon Spit.
+He was nobody's fool, and there was no doubt but he had very soon
+detected the trick his cousin had played upon him.
+
+Since the chart was in a safety-deposit vault we felt pretty sure of
+ourselves, for he would have to secure it between the time we took it
+out and our arrival on the _Argos_, at best a spare half hour in the
+middle of the day. But since the captain did not know what we had done
+with the document, it was a good guess that he would have a try at
+searching for it.
+
+On the evening of the third day before we were due to sail, Blythe and I
+took Miss Berry and her niece to the opera and afterward to a little
+supper at a cozy French restaurant just round the corner from the
+Chronicle Building.
+
+It was well past midnight when we reached the hotel where the ladies
+had their rooms. Miss Wallace had no sooner flung open the door than she
+gave an exclamation of amazement.
+
+The room had been fairly turned upside down. Drawers had been emptied,
+searched, and their contents dumped down in one corner. Rugs had been
+torn up. Even the upholstery of chairs and the lounge had been ripped.
+The inner room was in the same condition. A thorough, systematic
+examination had been made of every square inch of the apartment. It had
+been carried so far that the linings of gowns had been cut away and the
+trimming of hats plucked off.
+
+"A burglar!" gasped Miss Berry.
+
+"Let's give him a name. Will Captain Boris Bothwell do?" I asked of
+Blythe.
+
+The Englishman nodded.
+
+"You've rung the bell at the first shot, Sedgwick."
+
+"Oh, I don't think it," Miss Berry protested. "Captain Bothwell is too
+much of a gentleman to destroy a lady's things wantonly. Just look at
+this hat!"
+
+Evelyn laughed at her wail. It happened not to be her hat.
+
+"It's dear Boris, all right. I wonder if he left his card?"
+
+"Shall we call in the police?" her aunt asked.
+
+Miss Wallace questioned me with her eyes.
+
+"Might as well," I assented. "Not that it will make a bit of difference,
+but it will satisfy the hotel people. Probably it would be as well not
+to mention our suspicions."
+
+So we had the police in. They talked and took notes and asked questions,
+and at last went away with the omniscient air peculiar to officers of
+the law the world over. They had decided it was the work of Nifty Jim, a
+notorious diamond thief at that time honoring San Francisco with his
+presence.
+
+Over a cigar in my rooms Blythe and I talked the matter out. Bothwell
+had made the first move. Soon he would make another, for of course he
+would search my place at the Graymount. The question was whether to keep
+the rooms guarded or to let him have a clear field. We decided on the
+latter.
+
+"How far will the man go? That's the question." My friend looked at his
+cigar tip speculatively. "Will he have you knocked on the head to see if
+you are carrying it?"
+
+"He will if he can," I told him promptly. "But I'm taking no chances. I
+carry a revolver."
+
+"Did you happen to notice that we were followed to-night?"
+
+"That's nothing new. They've been dogging me ever since I got the map.
+But I play a pretty careful game."
+
+"I would," Blythe agreed gravely. "I say. Let me stay with you here till
+we get off. Better be sure than sorry."
+
+"Glad to have you, though I don't think it's necessary."
+
+It may have been five minutes later that I suddenly sat bolt upright in
+my chair. An idea had popped into my head, one so bold that it might
+have been borrowed from Bothwell's lawless brain.
+
+"I say. Let's play this out with Captain Boris his own way. Let's just
+remind him we're on earth too."
+
+"Meaning----"
+
+My eyes danced.
+
+"I'm as good a burglar as he is, and so are you."
+
+Blythe waited.
+
+"He doesn't give a tinker's dam for the law," I continued. "Good enough!
+We'll take a leaf out of his book. To-morrow night you have an
+engagement--to ransack the captain's rooms."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To get that corner of a map he stole from his cousin. Part of the
+directions for finding the treasure are on it."
+
+"But Miss Wallace has another copy."
+
+"An inaccurate one. Her father changed the directions on purpose in case
+some one found it."
+
+Blythe smoked for a minute without answering.
+
+"You're a devilish cool hand, Sedgwick. I'm a law-abiding citizen
+myself."
+
+"And so am I--when the other fellow will let me. But if a chap hits me
+on the head with a bit of scantling I'll not stop to look for a
+policeman."
+
+"Just so. I was about to say that since I'm a law-abiding citizen it's
+my duty to take from Bothwell the goods he has stolen. I'm with you to
+search his rooms for that paper."
+
+Underneath his British phlegm I could see that he was as keen on the
+thing as Jack Sedgwick. Looking back on it from this distance, it seems
+odd that two reputable citizens should have adventured into
+housebreaking so gaily as we did.
+
+But Bothwell had brought it on himself, and both of us were eager to
+show him he had some one more formidable than a young woman to deal
+with. Moreover, there is something about the very name of buried
+treasure that knocks the pins of respectability from under a man.
+
+Up to date I had led the normal life of a super-civilized city dweller,
+but within a fortnight I was to shoot a man down and count it just part
+of the day's work. None of us knows how strong the savage is in us until
+we are brought up against life in the raw.
+
+My trailers followed me about next day as usual, but I chuckled whenever
+I saw them. For we were doing a little sleuthing ourselves. I borrowed
+Jimmie from the firm and the little gamin kept tab on Bothwell.
+
+The captain did not leave his room until nearly midday, but as soon as
+he had turned the corner next to his hotel, the Argonaut, on the way to
+his breakfast-lunch, Jimmie dodged in at the side entrance, slipped up
+the stairs and along a corridor, up a second and a third flight by the
+back way, down another passage, and stopped at a room numbered 417.
+
+With him he had a great bunch of keys similar to those used in that
+hotel. One after another he tried these, stopping whenever he heard
+approaching footsteps to hide the keys under his coat. Several persons
+passed, but found nothing unusual in the sight of a boy knocking
+innocently on a door.
+
+At last Jimmie found a key which turned in the socket. That was all he
+wanted. Relocking the door he went down the stairs to the street, his
+fingers tightly clenched around the key that fitted. Nor did he take the
+little closed fist out of his coat pocket until he and I were alone
+together in my office, from whence he departed two dollars richer than
+he had entered.
+
+Jimmie having been retired from duty, Blythe took his place in watching
+Bothwell. He engaged a room on the fourth floor of the Argonaut, from
+which he was able to observe the coming and going of the enemy.
+
+My work at the office finished, I took a car for the Graymount, followed
+as usual by one of the detectives that for days had dogged me. My
+attendant on this occasion was a shrimp of a man with a very wrinkled
+face and a shock of red hair. Some imp of deviltry in me moved me to
+change my seat for one beside his.
+
+"A pleasant day," I suggested to open the conversation.
+
+He agreed that it was.
+
+"I suppose your kind of work is always more cheerful in good weather," I
+went on.
+
+"My kind of work!" Plainly he was disconcerted at my remark.
+
+"Yes. Must be devilish unpleasant shadowing a man in cold weather.
+Don't you have to wait outside houses sometimes for hours at a stretch?"
+
+The palm of his hand rasped a stubbly chin as he looked askance at me.
+
+"Why--er--I don't know what you mean."
+
+"Don't you?" I laughed in his face. "Come now, let's put aside the
+little fiction that I'm not wise to your game. I'm not at all annoyed at
+the attentions you pay me. It's entirely a matter of business with you.
+I suppose I'm good for about five dollars a day to you. Faith, that's
+more than I've ever been able to earn for myself. Sorry I'm leaving
+these parts soon--on your account."
+
+He did not at all know how to take me, but he earnestly assured me that
+I was quite mistaken. He was a carpenter by trade.
+
+"Why not make it as easy for you as we can?" I chuckled. "Come in to the
+Graymount and have dinner with me. Our cafe isn't what it should be, but
+it will pass at a pinch. What do you say?"
+
+He said that I was making game of him.
+
+"Not at all," I assured him. "I'm merely trying to lighten the load of
+honest labor. Well, if you won't, you won't. After dinner I'm going to
+my rooms to smoke a cigar. About nine--or somewhere near that time--I'll
+be going out for an hour. Are your instructions to follow me?"
+
+"You're all wrong about me, sir. I don't know any more than a rabbit
+what you are talking about."
+
+"I was only going to say that if you care to go I'll try to arrange for
+another place at our little party."
+
+He was, I judged, glad to get rid of me at my corner. It had been his
+instruction to leave the car there too, no doubt, but my discovery of
+him drove the little man one block farther. I waited till he got off and
+waved a hand at him before I walked to the Graymount. For me it had been
+a very entertaining little adventure, but I am inclined to think he
+found it embarrassing.
+
+The program of my movements which I had given him was accurate enough.
+Dinner finished. I went to my room for a cigar, after which I called up
+a taxi.
+
+I selected an ulster with a deep collar, and in the right hand pocket I
+dropped a revolver, but not before I had carefully examined the weapon.
+
+As I stepped into the taxi the vest-pocket edition of Nick Carter with
+whom I had ridden up from the city a few hours earlier darted out from
+the alley where he had been lurking. Again I waved a hand derisively
+toward him. The chauffeur threw in the clutch and we moved swiftly down
+the hill. The little sleuth wheeled off in the direction of the nearest
+drug store.
+
+"He's going to call up Bothwell to tell him I've gone," was my guess.
+
+For perhaps a quarter of an hour I had the chauffeur drive me about the
+city, now fast, now slow, crossing and recrossing our track half a dozen
+times. When I was finally convinced that no other car was following mine
+I paid the driver and dismissed him.
+
+Catching the nearest street car I rode down to Market Street. It was a
+cool night, so that I was justified in turning up my coat collar in such
+a way as to conceal partially my face.
+
+Inconspicuously I stepped into the Argonaut and up the stairs to
+Blythe's room.
+
+Sam met me at the door and nodded in the direction of No. 417.
+
+"He went out half an hour ago."
+
+"I'll bet he got a telephone message from little Nick Carter first," I
+grinned.
+
+Three minutes later we were in Bothwell's room. Since it was probable
+that he was making himself at home in mine it seemed only fair that we
+should do as much in his.
+
+We did. If there was a nook or corner within those four walls we did not
+examine I do not know where it could have been. Every drawer was opened
+and searched for secret places. Bedposts, legs of chairs and tables, all
+the woodwork, had to undergo a microscopic scrutiny. The walls were
+sounded for cavities. We probed the cushions with long fine needles and
+tore the spreads from the beds. The carpet and the floor underneath were
+gone over thoroughly. Blythe even took the frame of the mirror to pieces
+to make sure that the shred of paper we wanted did not lie between the
+glass and the boards behind.
+
+At last I found our precious document. It was in the waste-paper basket
+among some old bills, a torn letter, some half smoked cigarettes, and a
+twisted copy of that afternoon's _Call_. Bothwell had thrust it down
+among this junk because he shrewdly guessed a waste-paper basket the
+last place one would likely look for a valuable chart.
+
+To deprive him of it seemed a pity, so we merely made a copy of what we
+wanted and left him the original buried again in the junk where he had
+hidden it.
+
+My watch showed that it was now between one and two o'clock. Since
+Bothwell might now be back at any time we retired to Blythe's room and
+_learned by heart_ the torn fragment of directions.
+
+This did not take us long for there was nothing on the faded corner but
+these letters and words:
+
+    wh
+    12
+    Take
+    Forked
+    till Tong of
+    west to Big Rock
+
+In the milkman hours we slipped from the hotel and took a car for the
+Graymount. My rooms were a sight. Some one--and I could put a name to
+him--had devastated them as a cyclone does a town in the middle West.
+The wreckage lay everywhere, tossed hither and thither as the searchers
+had flung away the articles after an examination. Blythe laughed.
+
+"The middle name of our friend Bothwell must be thorough. He hasn't
+overlooked anything, by Jove."
+
+"Oh, well, it's our inning anyhow," I grinned. "He didn't get what he
+wanted, and we know it. We did get what we wanted, and he doesn't know
+it." The Englishman flung himself down into a Morris chair and reached
+for my cigarettes.
+
+"On the whole I rather fancy our new profession, Jack. I wonder if
+Captain Bothwell will send our photographs to the chief of police for
+his rogues' gallery."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+IN THE FOG
+
+
+The day before we sailed I spent an hour aboard the _Argos_ arranging my
+things in my cabin. While returning in one of the yacht's boats I caught
+sight through the fog of two figures standing on the wharf.
+
+I had a momentary impression that one of these was our chief engineer,
+George Fleming, but when I scrambled ashore only one of the two was in
+sight. The one I had taken to be our engineer had sheered off into the
+fog.
+
+The outline of the other bulked large in the heavy mist, partly because
+of the big overcoat, no doubt. I had a feeling that I ought to know the
+man, but it was not until he stepped forward to me that I recognized
+him.
+
+"A pleasant evening if one doesn't object to fog, Mr. Sedgwick," he
+said, lifting his hat and bowing.
+
+"It's you, is it?" I answered, coolly enough.
+
+"Thought I'd drop down and see how you are getting along. The _Argos_
+looks like a good sailor. I congratulate you."
+
+"Thanks."
+
+"You sail to-morrow, I understand."
+
+"Since you know already I'll save myself the trouble of telling you."
+
+"Sharp work, Mr. Sedgwick. I needed only one good look at you to know
+you were a first-class man for this sort of thing."
+
+"I am delighted that my work pleases Captain Bothwell."
+
+He passed my irony with a laugh.
+
+"Oh, I didn't say it pleased me. I'm after the treasure myself, and I'm
+going to get it. But I'm not a fool. I can appreciate even an enemy when
+I find him on the job."
+
+"And of course your appreciation won't keep you from sticking a knife in
+him if you find it necessary."
+
+"Of course not. I said I wasn't a fool," he admitted easily.
+
+We were standing on the edge of the wharf, shut out from the world by a
+fog bank that left us to all intents alone. It was an uncanny place to
+meet one's dearest enemy. Faintly I could still hear the splashing of
+the oars as the boat that had brought me ashore moved back to the
+_Argos_. Otherwise no sound but the lapping of the waves at the piles
+broke the silence.
+
+Our eyes met straight as a plummet falls. Each of us had his right hand
+in his overcoat pocket. I can't swear to what was in his fingers, but I
+felt a good deal safer for what was in mine. My back was still toward
+the bay, for I had a vision of the man who had disappeared--whoever he
+might be--slipping up through the white fog and sticking a knife between
+my shoulder-blades.
+
+The captain gave me his friendliest smile.
+
+"But you needn't be afraid. What would it profit me to get rid of you
+here? I don't suppose you have the map with you?"
+
+At the last words his black eyes stabbed at me a question.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"No, it wouldn't be worth while murdering me now to get the map. I'm not
+a fool either, captain. It isn't on me."
+
+"So I judged. Then you may make your mind easy--for the present."
+
+"I'm not so sure about that. Wouldn't it pay you to put me out of the
+road, anyhow? You'll not get the treasure so long as I'm alive, you
+know."
+
+"There you touch my vanity, Mr. Sedgwick. I'm of a contrary opinion.
+Dead or alive you can't keep me from it."
+
+"Have you never noticed, captain, that in this world a man's
+opportunities do not always match his inclinations?"
+
+"I've noticed that a man gets what he wants if he is strong enough to
+take it."
+
+"So far as I know you have made four attempts to get the map. Have you
+got it?"
+
+"Not yet. Plenty of time though. When I need it I'll get it."
+
+My skeptical laugh must have annoyed him.
+
+"Then you'd better get busy if it's true that we sail to-morrow."
+
+"Hope you'll have a pleasant trip."
+
+"Thanks. Sorry we can't ask you, captain. But there really isn't room
+and our party is full. No doubt you'll be starting on a little jaunt of
+your own soon?"
+
+"Yes, to-morrow, too, as it happens. Perhaps we may meet again. It's a
+small world after all, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+"We'll look out for you."
+
+"Do. And go prepared for squalls. One never knows what may happen. The
+Pacific is treacherous. Likely enough you'll meet dirty weather."
+
+"I'm thinking you're right. But the yacht is good for it."
+
+"And the yacht's passengers?" he asked with angled brows.
+
+"We're all good sailors."
+
+"But isn't there a good deal of yellow fever in Panama?"
+
+"Not now. There used to be."
+
+"Haven't I heard of pirates in the Isthmus country?" he asked, smiling
+with superb impudence.
+
+"That's in the past too, captain; but if we meet any, the vermin will be
+glad to sheer off. I'll promise you that."
+
+The villain drew a breath of mock relief.
+
+"That makes my mind easier, Mr. Sedgwick. I'll confess I've been a
+little troubled for you."
+
+"Thanks for your kind thoughts, but I'm confident we can look out for
+ourselves."
+
+Our words had been light enough, but be sure there was no laughter in
+the eyes that fastened each pair to the other. For me, I never was more
+vigilant in my life--and Bothwell knew it.
+
+"Going up-town, captain? If not I'll say good evening."
+
+He nodded genially.
+
+"Pleasant voyage. And _do_ be careful of the squalls and the fever and
+the pirates. Do you know I can't help thinking you had better leave
+Evie at home for me to take care of."
+
+"But you're leaving, too, I understood you to say. No, we'll take good
+care of her. I give you my word on that."
+
+I had been edging round him with the intention of backing away. He held
+out his hand, but--well, my fingers were otherwise engaged. They still
+caressed a knobby bit of metal in my overcoat pocket.
+
+At the last moment, so it appeared, he yielded to an impulse.
+
+"Must we really be in opposite camps, Mr. Sedgwick? Come! Let's arrange
+a compromise. Neither of us alone has enough to go on. You need me and
+my scrap of map. I need you and your bit of chart. We'll consolidate
+forces and go to Panama together."
+
+"Afraid you're a little late, captain. You play your hand and we'll play
+ours."
+
+I had been increasing the distance between us. Now I turned sharply on
+my heel and walked away almost at a run, for I did not like the idea of
+taking with me a bullet in the small of my back.
+
+At the end of the wharf a figure brushed past me. Night had begun to
+fall, and in the gray dusk I could not make sure, but again I was oddly
+struck by its resemblance to our engineer, Fleming. I slued around my
+head to look a second time, but the fog had already swallowed him.
+Strange, I thought, that he had not recognized me; but perhaps, if the
+man was Fleming, he had found me too indistinct to know.
+
+At any rate it was a matter of no great importance. I pushed past the
+warehouse to take an up-town car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+ABOARD THE ARGOS
+
+
+Blythe and I had agreed that an attempt would be made to relieve us of
+the map while we were carrying it from the safety-deposit vault to the
+ship. So far as we could see it was Bothwell's last chance to gain
+possession of the coveted chart, and he was not the man to leave a stone
+unturned.
+
+At half past three we drove in the car of a friend to the International
+Safe Deposit Company's place of business. He waited outside while we
+went in to reclaim the document.
+
+Five minutes later we reappeared, the paper in the inside pocket of my
+tightly buttoned coat. My eyes explored to right and left.
+
+The thunder of trolley cars, the rumble of wholesale wagons, the buzz of
+automobiles, all made their contribution to the roar of the busy cañon
+up and down which men and women passed by hundreds. That Bothwell would
+make an attempt at a hold-up here seemed inconceivable. But if not here,
+then--where? He had to have the map or give up the fight.
+
+Blythe followed me into the tonneau and our car swept out into the
+stream of traffic. Less than a quarter of an hour later we stepped down
+from the machine, shook hands with our friend, and took the boat which
+was waiting for us at the wharf. Even now we were alert, ready for any
+emergency that might occur.
+
+Nothing happened, except our safe arrival at the _Argos_. Miss Wallace
+and her aunt were on deck to welcome us. Sam and I exchanged rather
+sheepish glances. Nobody likes to be caught making a mountain out of a
+mole hill, and that was apparently what we had done. Our elaborate
+preparations to defend the map during the past half hour had been
+unnecessary.
+
+"Tide right, Mr. Mott?" Blythe asked.
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+"Then we'll start at once."
+
+I retired to my cabin, disposed of a certain document, and presently
+returned to the deck. The engines were throbbing and the _Argos_ was
+beginning to creep.
+
+"We're off," I said to Miss Wallace, who was standing by my side on the
+bridge deck leaning upon the rail.
+
+"Yes, we're off. Luck with us," she cried softly with shining eyes.
+
+I looked at her and smiled. The excitement that burned in her I could
+understand, since I too shared it. We were answering the call of the sea
+and its romance was tingling in our blood. Into what wild waters we were
+to be whirled none of us had the slightest guess. It was fortunate that
+the future was screened by a veil behind which we could not peep.
+
+The quiver of the engines grew stronger. The _Argos_ was walking smartly
+out into the bay, her funnels belching black smoke. A stiff wind was
+blowing and the vessel leaped as she took the waves. Behind us in the
+falling dusk the lights of the city began to come out like stars.
+
+"I wonder when we'll see her again," my companion said softly, her gaze
+on the hill of twinkling lights.
+
+Like a Winged Victory her fine, lithe figure was outlined by the wind,
+which had flung back the white skirt against the slender limbs, showing
+the flowing lines as she moved. In her jaunty yachting cap, the heavy
+chestnut hair escaping in blowing tendrils, a warmer color whipped into
+her soft cheeks by the breeze, there was a sparkle to her gayety, a
+champagne tang to her animation. One guessed her an Ionian goddess of
+the sea reincarnated in the flesh of a delightful American girl.
+
+It was this impression on me that gave the impetus to my answer.
+
+"Not too soon, I hope."
+
+Miss Berry joined us. I tucked her arm under mine and the three of us
+tramped the promenade deck. Mott went down to his dinner and Blythe took
+the wheel. My friend was an experienced sailor, and he had that dash of
+daring which somehow never results in disaster. We could see the men
+scurrying to and fro at his orders. The white sails began to belly out
+with the whistling wind.
+
+Blythe roared an order down the speaking tube and swung round the spokes
+of the wheel. Straight toward the Golden Gate we sprang, bowling along
+with increasing speed. Past Tamalpais we scudded and through the
+narrows, out to the fresh Pacific like a bloodhound taking the scent.
+
+"By the way she's going the _Argos_ smells treasure at our journey's
+end," I laughed.
+
+"Oh, I like this! Isn't it glorious?" the girl murmured.
+
+"You come of sailor blood," I reminded her. "Many a girl would be in the
+hands of the ship's doctor already."
+
+"Didn't know we had a doctor on board."
+
+"Morgan will have to serve in lieu of one. But there goes the dinner
+gong. We must go and get ready."
+
+"I suppose so," she sighed regretfully. "But it's a pity to miss a
+moment of this. Do you see that glow on the water? Is that why it's
+called the Golden Gate?"
+
+"I fancy the argonauts called it that because it was the passage through
+which they passed on their way to the gold fields. And for the same
+reason we can give it that name too."
+
+We moved to the stairway, which was in the pavilion, and descended to
+our rooms on the main deck.
+
+As soon as I had entered mine I switched on the light and threw off my
+coat. Collar and tie followed the coat into the berth. I passed into the
+bath room and washed. At the moment I flung the towel back on the rack a
+sound came to me from my bedroom. I turned quickly, to see a diminutive
+figure roll from the back of the bed and untangle itself from my coat.
+
+"Please, I'm awful sick, Mr. Sedgwick," a voice lugubriously groaned.
+
+I stood staring at the little yellow face. The forlorn urchin was our
+office boy, Jimmie Welch.
+
+"You young cub, what are you doing here?" I demanded.
+
+"I'm a stowaway," he groaned. "Like Hall Hiccup, the Boy Pirate, you
+know. But, by crickey, I wouldn't a come if I'd a known it would be like
+this."
+
+"Didn't I tell you that you couldn't come? How did you get here?"
+
+"Golly, I'm sick! I'm going to die."
+
+"Serves you right, you young rascal."
+
+I didn't blow him up any more just then. Instead I hurriedly offered
+first aid to the seasick. He felt a little better after that.
+
+"I told Mr. Mott you had sent me on an errand. He thought I'd gone
+ashore again, mebbe."
+
+"That's where you'll go as soon as we reach San Pedro."
+
+"Yes, sir. Hope so." He groaned woefully. "Thought you'd need a cabin
+boy, sir, but I'll never do it again, s'elp me."
+
+"I'm going to give you a licking as soon as you get well. Don't forget
+that. Now I have to leave you. I'll be back after a while. Go to sleep
+if you can."
+
+By reason of Jimmie I reached the dinner table as the soup was being
+removed. Only four of us messed in the cabin. Mott, the engineers, and
+Morgan had a separate table of their own aft.
+
+"Late already, my boy. This won't do. Ship's discipline, you know. Make
+a report and clear yourself," Blythe called out as I entered.
+
+"My patient seems a bit better," I announced, sitting down opposite Miss
+Wallace.
+
+"Your patient?" that young woman repeated.
+
+"Yes, I find I have a guest to share my cabin with me, and he has begun
+by yielding to an attack of _mal-de-mer_."
+
+"Is this a conundrum? I'm not good at them." This from Miss Berry.
+
+"No, it's a stowaway. The conundrum is to know what to do with the
+little rascal."
+
+"Meaning who?"
+
+"James A. Garfield Welch. I found him tucked away in my berth, very much
+the worse for wear."
+
+The Englishman helped himself to asparagus tips and laughed.
+
+"He's certainly a persevering young beggar. He hung around me for three
+days trying to persuade me to take him. Now he's here on French leave."
+
+"He'll have to make himself useful, now he's here. The little idiot
+imagines himself a sort of boy pirate, so he explained to me. I'm going
+to try to introduce a little sense into his system by means of a strap
+applied to the cuticle."
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't," Evelyn begged quickly. "Poor fellow! I daresay he
+wanted to come as badly as we did."
+
+"He happens to have a mother," I added dryly. "She's no doubt worrying
+her life out about the young pirate. I really think we owe him a licking
+on her account."
+
+"Poor woman! She must be feeling dreadfully. Isn't there any way of
+letting her know that he is safe?" Miss Berry asked.
+
+"We'll have to call in at San Pedro, though that means the loss of a
+day. We can send the youngster home from Los Angeles," Blythe suggested.
+
+"If his mother is willing, Jimmie might go on with us. He would be
+useful to run errands," Evelyn proposed.
+
+"Jimmie has a staunch friend in you, Miss Wallace. We'll think it over.
+There's plenty of time before we reach Los Angeles," our captain
+answered. "He can take the upper berth in the cook's cabin. Have him
+moved after dinner, Morgan."
+
+We lingered after dinner till the second dog watch was over, when Blythe
+excused himself to go on deck. I soon followed him, for though I am no
+sailor I was rated as second officer on the _Argos_, Mott being the
+first.
+
+I had not yet had a good view of the crew and I looked them over
+carefully as Blythe divided them in watches. They appeared a lively
+enough lot, though it struck me that one or two showed sullen faces.
+
+Caine, the boatswain, was a villainous looking fellow, due in part to
+the squint of his eyes that set them at different angles. But he turned
+out a thoroughly capable man with a knack of getting out of the men all
+that was in them.
+
+Under Mott's supervision I took a turn at the wheel, for I did not
+intend, if I could help it, to be deadwood throughout the whole cruise.
+I could see Miss Wallace pacing the deck with Blythe for hours, his
+cigar tip glowing in the darkness as they advanced toward the wheel
+house. I would have liked to join them, but I had set out to make of
+myself enough of a sailor to serve at a pinch, and I stuck to my task.
+It was late when I reached my cabin. I must have fallen asleep at once,
+for it was day again before I knew anything more.
+
+We met at breakfast, the four of us, and not one but was touched by the
+loveliness of which we were the center. It was not a new story to
+Blythe--this blue arched roof of sky, this broad stretch of sea, this
+warm sun on a day cool enough to invigorate the blood--but he too showed
+a lively pleasure in it.
+
+Miss Berry took some fancy work and a magazine with her on deck and
+spent the morning placidly in a steamer chair, but her niece and I were
+too full of our pleasure to rest so contentedly.
+
+To any who have sailed on the glassy breast of the Pacific day after
+day, knowing all the little pleasures of life aboard a well-found
+turbine yacht, a description would be superfluous; to one who has never
+known it, such an attempt would be entirely futile. By either
+alternative I am debarred from trying to set down the delight of our
+days, the glory of our nights of stars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+BOTHWELL MAKES A MOVE
+
+
+We put into San Pedro in the early morning and tied up opposite the
+_Harvard_. Blythe and I ran up to Los Angeles on the electric, taking
+Jimmie Welch with us.
+
+No matter how well one may be equipped for an expedition, every port
+touched finds needs to be satisfied. After I had wired Mrs. Welch that
+her hopeful was safe and would be returned to her or retained as ship's
+boy at her desire, I spent the morning executing commissions for the
+ladies and attending to little matters that needed looking after.
+
+We made an appointment to lunch at one of Los Angeles' numberless
+cafeterias. I went out of my way to the telegraph office to get the
+answer from Mrs. Welch, for which reason I was a few minutes late to
+luncheon.
+
+A stranger to me was sitting opposite Blythe. My friend introduced him
+as Mr. Yeager, known all over Arizona as Tom Yeager. It appeared that
+he had come to the coast with a couple of carloads of steers, having
+disposed of which, time was hanging heavy on his hands.
+
+Anybody who has lived in the cattle country knows the Yeager type. He
+was a brown, lithe man, all sinew, bone and muscle. His manner was easy
+and indifferent, but out of his hard face cool, quiet eyes judged men
+and situations competently.
+
+Over many straight and crooked trails his thirty-five years had brought
+him without shame. No doubt he had often skirted the edge of law, but
+even when he had been a scamp his footsteps had followed ways justified
+by his code.
+
+I gathered from their talk that Blythe and he had served together in the
+Rough Riders during the Spanish War. They were exchanging reminiscences
+and Jimmie Welch was listening open-mouthed to their conversation.
+
+"Say, ain't he a peacherino, Mr. Sedgwick," whispered my young hopeful.
+"Get onto those muscles of his. I'll bet he's got a kick like a mule in
+either mitt. Say, him and Teddy Roosevelt must 'a' made the dagoes sick
+down in Cuba."
+
+More jokes and stories of camp life passed back and forth.
+
+"Do you reckon he ever killed a Spaniard?" Jimmie murmured to me.
+
+"Better ask him," I suggested.
+
+But at thought of this audacity to his hero the young pirate collapsed.
+I put the question for him.
+
+The cowman grinned.
+
+"Only one, Jimmie. And he ain't all mine. Me and a fellow called the
+Honorable Samuel Blythe was out scouting one day while we were pushing
+through the tangle of brush toward Santiago. I reckon we got too
+anxious. Anyhow, we bumped into an ambush and it was a swift hike for us
+back to the lines. The bullets were fair raining through the leaves
+above us. Recollect, Sam?"
+
+Blythe nodded.
+
+"Rather. Whenever I think of it pins and needles run down my back."
+
+"Well, we cut a blue streak for camp, those fellows after us on the
+jump. I used to think I was some runner, but the Honorable Samuel set me
+right that day. He led good and strong, me burning the wind behind and
+'steen Spaniards spread out in the rear. A fat little cuss was leading
+them, and the way he plowed through that underbrush was a caution. You
+want to remember, Jimmie, that the thermometer was about a hundred and
+fifty in the shade. I went till I was fit to drop, then looked round and
+saw Don Fatty right close. I hadn't invited him to my party, so I
+cracked away at him with my gun."
+
+"And you killed him," Jimmie breathed, his eyes popping out.
+
+"Killed nothing," answered the Arizonian in disgust. "I missed him a
+mile, but he was so plumb discouraged with the heat and with running his
+laigs off that he up and laid down and handed in his checks. He's the
+only Spaniard I've got to my credit and Mr. Blythe here always claimed
+half of him because he ran faster."
+
+"You're kidding me," announced Jimmie promptly.
+
+"Well, I've always had a kind a suspicion myself that mebbe he had just
+fainted. But I like to figure it out that I destroyed one of my
+country's enemies that day, with a leetle help from my friend here."
+
+While Yeager was joyously fabricating this yarn Blythe had been writing
+on the back of an envelope. This he now shoved quietly across to me.
+
+     He's as well-plucked as they make them, Jack--and straight as a
+     string. Want to make him a proposition to join us?
+
+Those were the lines he had penciled on the envelope. Beneath them I
+wrote two words: "Suits me."
+
+Jimmie's mother had consented to let him go on with us. Now I took him
+away to get some necessary wearing apparel, leaving Blythe to make a
+proposition to Yeager.
+
+"Your mother says I'm in full charge of you. That means I'm to lick you
+whenever you need it," I told Jimmie, for I had already discovered that
+my young sleuth needed considerable repressing from time to time.
+
+"Yes, sir. I'll do whatever you say," agreed Young America, who was long
+since over his seasickness and was again eager for the voyage.
+
+The Englishman nodded when I saw him an hour later.
+
+"Tom's in with us."
+
+"He understands this ain't a pleasure excursion, doesn't he?" I asked.
+
+"Folks take their pleasure different, Mr. Sedgwick," drawled the cowman.
+"I shouldn't wonder but I might enjoy this little cruise even if it gets
+lively."
+
+"My opinion is that it may get as lively as one of your own broncos," I
+explained.
+
+"I'll certainly hope for the worst," he commented.
+
+I turned Jimmie over to my friends and spent the afternoon with a
+college classmate who was doing newspaper work on the _Herald_. In
+looking up a third man who also had belonged to our fraternity, time
+slipped away faster than we had noticed. It was getting along toward
+sunset when I separated from my friends to take the interurban for San
+Pedro at the big electric station. Before my car reached the port, dusk
+was falling.
+
+Whistling as I went, I walked briskly down the hill toward the wharf. As
+I passed an alley my name was called. I stopped in my stride and turned.
+Then a jagged bolt of fire seared my brain. My knees sagged. I groped in
+the darkness, staggering as I moved. About that time I must have lost
+consciousness.
+
+When I came to myself I was lying in the alley and a man was going
+through my clothes. A second man directed him from behind a revolver
+leveled at my head. Both of them were masked.
+
+"I tell you it ain't on him," the first man was saying.
+
+"We want to make dead sure of that, mate," the other answered.
+
+"If he's got it the damned thing is sewed beneath his skin," retorted
+the first speaker.
+
+"He's coming to. We'll take his papers and his pocketbook and set sail,"
+the leader decided.
+
+I could hear their retreating footsteps echo down the alley and was
+quite sensible of the situation without being able to rise, or even cry
+out. For five minutes perhaps I lay there before I was sufficiently
+master of myself to get up. This I did very uncertainly, a little at a
+time, for my head was still spinning like a top. Putting my hand to the
+back of it I was surprised to discover that my palm was red with blood.
+
+As I staggered down to the wharf I dare say the few people who met me
+concluded I was a drunken sailor. The _Argos_ was lying at the opposite
+side of the slip, but two of our men were waiting for me with a boat.
+One of them was the boatswain Caine, the other a deckhand by the name of
+Johnson.
+
+"Split me, but Mr. Sedgwick has been hurt. What is it, sir? Did you
+fall?" the boatswain asked.
+
+"Waylaid and knocked in the head," I answered, sinking down into the
+stern on account of a sudden attack of dizziness.
+
+Caine was tying up my head with a handkerchief when the mists cleared
+again from my brain.
+
+"All right, sir. A nasty crack, but you'll be better soon. I've sent
+Johnson up to have a lookout for the guys that done it," the boatswain
+told me cheerily.
+
+"No use. They've gone to cover long since. Call him back and let's get
+across to the ship."
+
+"Yes, sir. That will be better."
+
+He called, and presently Johnson came back.
+
+"Seen anything of the scoundrels, Johnson?" demanded Caine.
+
+"Not a thing."
+
+I had been readjusting the handkerchief, but I happened to look up
+unexpectedly. My glance caught a flash of meaning that passed between
+the two. It seemed to hint at a triumphant mockery of my plight.
+
+"Caine is a deep-sea brute, mean-hearted enough to be pleased at what
+has happened," I thought peevishly. Later I learned how wide of the mark
+my interpretation of that look had been.
+
+A chorus of welcome greeted me as I passed up the gangway to the deck of
+the _Argos_. One voice came clear to me from the rest. It had in it the
+sweet drawl of the South.
+
+"You're late again, Mr. Sedgwick. And--what's the matter with your
+head?"
+
+"Nothing worth mentioning, Miss Wallace. Captain Bothwell has been
+trying to find what is inside of it. I think he found sawdust."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"Knocked in the head as I came down to the wharf. Serves me right for
+being asleep at the switch. Think I'll run down to my room and wash the
+blood off."
+
+Yeager offered to examine the wound. He had had some experience in
+broken heads among the boys at his ranch, he said.
+
+"Perhaps I could dress the hurt. I had a year's training as a nurse,"
+suggested Miss Wallace, a little shyly.
+
+"Mr. Yeager is out of a job," I announced promptly.
+
+The girl blushed faintly.
+
+"We'll work together, Mr. Yeager."
+
+She made so deft a surgeon that I was sorry when her cool, firm fingers
+had finished with the bandages. Nevertheless, I had a nasty headache and
+was glad to get to bed after drinking a cup of tea and eating a slice of
+toast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ANOTHER STOWAWAY
+
+
+Southward ho! Before the trade winds we scudded day after day, past
+Catalina Island and San Diego, past Santa Margarita lying like a fog
+bank on the offing, out into the warm sunshine of the tropical Pacific.
+
+We promised ourselves that after the treasure had been lifted and we
+were headed again for the Golden Gate, our sails should have a chance to
+show what they could do alone, but now Blythe was using all his power to
+drive the _Argos_ forward.
+
+What plans Bothwell might have we did not know, but we were taking no
+chances of reaching Doubloon Spit too late. If we succeeded in getting
+what we had come after there would be plenty of time to dawdle.
+
+No days in my life stand out as full of enjoyment as those first ones
+off the coast of Lower California and Mexico. Under a perfect sky we
+sailed serenely. Our fears of Bothwell had vanished. We had shaken him
+off and held the winning hand in the game we had played with him. The
+tang of the sea spume, of the salt-laden spray was on our lips; the
+songs of youth were in our hearts.
+
+Every hour that I was not on duty, except those given to necessary
+sleep, I spent in the company of Evelyn Wallace. Usually her aunt was
+also present, and either Blythe or Yeager. That did not matter in the
+least, so long as my golden-brown beauty was near, so long as I could
+watch the dimples flash in her cheeks and the little nose crinkle to
+sudden mirth, or could wait for the sweep of the long lashes that would
+bring round to mine the lovely eyes, tender and merry and mocking by
+turns.
+
+Faith, I'll make a clean breast of it. I was already fathoms deep in
+love, and my lady did not in the least particularly seem to favor me.
+There were moments when hope was strong in me. I magnified a look, a
+word, the eager life in her, to the significance my heart desired, but
+reason told me that she gave the same friendly comradeship to Blythe and
+Yeager.
+
+It is possible that the absorption in this new interest dulled my
+perception of external matters. So at least Sam hinted to me one night
+after the ladies had retired. Mott was at the wheel, a game of solitaire
+in the smoking room claimed Yeager. Blythe and I were tramping the deck
+while we smoked.
+
+"Notice anything peculiar about the men to-day and yesterday, Jack?" he
+asked in a low voice.
+
+We were for the moment leaning against the rail, our eyes on the
+phosphorescent light that gleamed on the waves.
+
+"No-o. Can't say that I have. Why?"
+
+He smiled.
+
+"Thought perhaps you hadn't. When man's engaged----"
+
+"What!" I interrupted.
+
+"---- engaged in teaching a pretty girl how to steer, he doesn't notice
+little things he otherwise might."
+
+"Such as----" I suggested.
+
+He looked around to make sure we were alone.
+
+"There's something in the wind. I don't know what it is."
+
+"Something to do with the crew?"
+
+"Yes. They know something about the reason why we're making this trip.
+You haven't talked, of course?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor Miss Wallace? Perhaps her aunt----"
+
+"It doesn't seem likely. Whom would she talk to?"
+
+"Some of the men may have overheard a sentence or two. The point is that
+they are talking treasure in the f'c'sle. Morgan got it from Higgins."
+
+"From the cook?"
+
+"Yes. Afterward the man was sorry he had spoken. He's the type that
+can't keep a secret. Some of it is bound to leak out in his talk."
+
+"Couldn't Morgan find out where Higgins learned what he knows?"
+
+"No. I had him try. The man was frightened about what he had already
+said. He wouldn't say another word. That doesn't look well."
+
+After a moment of reflection I spoke.
+
+"Perhaps Bothwell may have told some of the men before we started. I saw
+him talking to a man that looked like our chief engineer."
+
+"When was that?"
+
+I told in detail about my meeting with Bothwell on the wharf. Of course
+I had mentioned the occurrence at the time, but without referring to
+Fleming.
+
+"Yes, he may have told Fleming about it, but----"
+
+The uncompleted sentence suggested his doubt.
+
+"You think he isn't the man to give away anything without a good
+reason?"
+
+"You've said it."
+
+"Of course it's really no business of the crew what we are going after."
+
+"True enough, but we agreed among ourselves to tell them at the last
+moment and in such a way as to enlist them as partners with us. Unless I
+guess wrong, their feeling is sullenness. They think we're after booty
+in which they have no share."
+
+"They'll feel all the kinder to us when we let them know that a
+percentage of our profits is to go to the crew."
+
+"Will they? I wonder."
+
+He was plainly disturbed, more so than I could find any justification
+for in the meager facts and surmises he had just confided to me.
+
+"What is troubling you? What are you afraid of?"
+
+"I can't put a name to my feeling, but I jolly well wish they didn't
+know. Seamen are a rough lot and they get queer ideas."
+
+"You don't imagine for an instant that they'll maroon us and hoist the
+Jolly Roger, do you?" I asked with a laugh.
+
+He did not echo my laugh.
+
+"No, but I don't like it. I thought we had the game in our own hands,
+and now I find the crew has notions, too."
+
+"Don't you think you're rather overemphasizing the matter, Sam?"
+
+"Perhaps I am." He appeared to shake off his doubts. "In fact, I'm
+pretty sure I am. But I thought it best to mention the thing to you."
+
+"Glad you did. We'll keep an eye open and, if there's any trouble, nip
+it in the bud."
+
+This was easy enough to say, but the event proved far otherwise. Within
+twenty-four hours we were to learn that serious trouble was afoot.
+
+It was midday of a Saturday, and the sky was clear and cloudless as
+those which had gone before. During the forenoon we had been doing a
+steady fifteen knots, but there had been some slight trouble with the
+engines and we were now making way with the sails alone while the
+engineers overhauled the machinery.
+
+Yeager and I were standing near the cook's scuppers fishing for shark
+with fat pork for bait. More than once I had caught the flash of a
+white-bellied monster, but Mr. Shark was wary about taking chances.
+
+Dugan, our carpenter, stopped as he was passing, apparently to watch us.
+Glancing at him I noticed something in his face that held my eyes.
+
+"There's trouble afoot, Mr. Sedgwick," he broke out in a low, jerky
+voice. "For God's sake, make a chance for me to talk to you or Captain
+Blythe!"
+
+The cook came out of his galley at that moment. My wooden face told no
+tales.
+
+"No chance. The beggar's too shy. I've had enough. How about you,
+Yeager?"
+
+"Me to," the Arizonian laughed easily, and he hauled up the line.
+
+I strolled forward to the pilot house, stopping to chat for an instant
+with Miss Berry, who lay in a steamer chair under the awning. For I had
+no intention of letting the men suspect that Dugan had told me anything
+of importance.
+
+Blythe was at the wheel. I told him what Dugan had said. Our captain did
+not turn a hair.
+
+"There's a shingle loose on the edge of the roof. Call Dugan to nail it
+tight."
+
+The carpenter brought a hammer and nails. Tom Yeager meanwhile was
+sitting on a coil of rope talking to Caine. His laughter rippled up to
+us care-free as that of a schoolboy. He never even glanced our way, but
+I knew he would be ready when we needed him.
+
+The captain turned the wheel over to me and stepped outside of the
+wheelhouse. Three or four of the men were lounging about the deck. So
+far as they could see, Blythe was directing the carpenter about the
+work and the latter was explaining how it could be best done.
+
+"Keep cool, my man. Don't let them guess what you are saying," the
+Englishman advised, lighting a cigar.
+
+"What have you to tell me?"
+
+"Mutiny, sir. That's what it is. We're after treasure. That's the story
+I've heard, and the men mean to take the ship."
+
+I thought of Evelyn and her aunt, and my heart sank.
+
+Sam stretched his arms and yawned.
+
+"When?"
+
+"Don't know, sir. I've picked up only a little here and there. Caine
+came to me this morning and asked me if I would go in with them."
+
+Dugan drove two nails into the shingle.
+
+"Do you know which of the men are stanch?"
+
+"No, sir. Can't say as I do, outside of Alderson. Tom's all right."
+
+"What about arms?"
+
+"They have plenty. They've been packed in a bulkhead, but Fleming and
+Caine gave them out to the men this morning."
+
+"The deuce! That looks ugly. They must be getting ready for business
+soon. If Caine approaches you again, fall in with his plans. Find out
+all you can, especially what men we can rely on. That will do."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+As soon as the man had gone the captain turned to me with a fighting
+gleam in his quiet eyes.
+
+"Well, Jack, it's worse by a devilish lot than I had thought. We're in
+for mutiny. I wouldn't ask for anything better than a turn with these
+wharf rats if it weren't for the ladies. But with them aboard it's
+different. Wish I knew when Mr. Caine intends to set the match to the
+powder."
+
+"What's the matter with my going down into the men's quarters and having
+a look around? I might stumble on some information worth while."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, thanks. I need my second officer. If he went down there an accident
+might happen to him--due to a fall down the stairway or something of the
+sort."
+
+"Then let me send Jimmie. Nobody would pay any attention to him. He
+could go into their quarters without suspicion."
+
+"It would be safe enough for him at present. Why not? Don't tell him too
+much, Jack."
+
+"Trust me."
+
+Jimmie jumped at the chance to go sleuthing again. I had told him a
+yarn about suspecting some of the men had whisky concealed in the ship.
+He was away less than half an hour, but when he came back it was with a
+piece of news most alarming.
+
+"Mr. Sedgwick," he gasped, "you remember that big, black-faced guy you
+set me trailing in 'Frisco--Captain what's-his-name--well, he's on this
+ship sure as I'm a foot high!"
+
+My heart lost a beat. "Certain of that, Jimmie?"
+
+"Yep, it's a lead-pipe cinch. Saw him in the engine room talking to Mr.
+Fleming. When he seen me Mr. Fleming called me to come down. But not for
+Jimmie. He took a swift hike up the stairs."
+
+The boy was all excitement. For that matter so was I, though I concealed
+it better. If Bothwell were on board the ship as a stowaway the aspect
+of affairs was more serious even than we had thought.
+
+"You're sure it was Captain Bothwell, Jimmie?"
+
+"Say, would I know me own mother? Would I know Jim Jeffries or Battling
+Nelson if I got an eyeful of them walking down Market Street? Would I be
+sure of the Chronicle Building if I set my peepers on it? Betcherlife."
+
+"How was he dressed?"
+
+"In sailors' slops. Didn't have on any coat. Wasn't right sure of him at
+first, 'cause he's run a lawn mower over them whiskers of his. But this
+guy's the original Bothwell all right, all right."
+
+"Jimmie, listen to me. Don't whisper a word of this. Do you hear?"
+
+"I'm a clam."
+
+"And don't go exploring in that end of the ship again. Captain Bothwell
+would as soon wring your neck as a chicken's, my boy. Keep away from the
+forecastle."
+
+Immediately I joined Blythe on the bridge and told him what Jimmie had
+discovered.
+
+The captain nodded.
+
+"That explains what was puzzling us. Bothwell has been too shrewd for
+us. He must have arranged it to throw his men in our way when we were
+selecting a crew. The scoundrel is laughing in his sleeve at us because
+we're taking him and his men at our expense to the treasure."
+
+"He's diddled us beautifully," I admitted with a sour grin.
+
+"I grant him one round. The man is dangerous as a wild beast that has
+escaped from its cage. But we're warned now. If he bests us it's our own
+fault."
+
+"It will be a finish fight, no surrender and no quarter."
+
+My friend nodded, his jaw gripped tight.
+
+"You've said it."
+
+"We've one advantage. All of us will stand together. He can't hold his
+riffraff long. They will quarrel among themselves. Every day that passes
+works in our favor."
+
+"Right enough, but Bothwell knows this as well as we do. He'll move
+soon. We've forced his hand by discovering his presence. Now he can't
+let us get into port because he knows we would get help against him."
+
+"That's true."
+
+"Unless I guess wrong we'll hear from him inside of twenty-four hours."
+
+"Since it has to be, the sooner the better."
+
+Blythe shrugged his broad, lean shoulders coolly.
+
+"What must be must. As for Captain Bothwell, I don't think he'll have an
+easy time of it. If he doesn't like the treatment he's going to get
+he'll have nobody to blame but himself. Nobody asked him on board."
+
+"We must lose no time in making preparations to meet an attack."
+
+"You're right. Tell Mr. Mott I wish to see him. Have Yeager look our
+weapons over and make sure that they are loaded. Tell him to guard the
+armory until further notice. Better give Morgan a revolver at once and
+slip Dugan one if you can."
+
+The flinty resolution in his eye warmed my heart. Man for man, I was
+ready to back Blythe against Bothwell.
+
+The Scotch-Russian had more of the devil in him, a starker cruelty, a
+more blazing passion, and perhaps greater cunning; but if I read the
+Englishman aright there was in him that same quiet force which carried
+Captain Scott to the south pole and afterward gave to the world that
+immortal letter, written in a bleak Antarctic waste of icy death.
+
+Sam Blythe would play the game out steadily to a fighting finish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+TAKING STOCK
+
+
+Yeager was sitting with the ladies under the awning telling them some
+story of his beloved Arizona. At a signal from me he arose and excused
+himself. We passed into the reception room and down the stairway.
+
+"You're armed, of course," I said.
+
+"Me? I always pack a gun. Got the habit when I was a kid and never
+shucked it. For rattlesnakes," he added with a grin.
+
+"We have a few of them on board. Yeager, the kid saw Bothwell in the
+engine room talking with Fleming. Do you know what that means?"
+
+"I can guess, I reckon," he drawled.
+
+"It means war--and soon."
+
+"And war is hell, Sherman said. Let's make it hell for Bothwell. It's
+about time for me to begin earning my passage. What's the matter with me
+happening down into the forecastle and inviting Capt. Bothwell up to be
+more sociable?"
+
+"Won't do at all. If he were alone it would be a different matter. If
+you went down there you'd never come up alive. We need every man we've
+got. Think of the women."
+
+His light-blue eye rested in mine.
+
+"I'd give twenty cows if they were back in Los Angeles, Jack."
+
+From my pocket I took the key which unlocked the door of the room we
+called the armory. After I had selected two revolvers I left him there
+attending to business. Morgan I found in Blythe's cabin. He took my news
+quietly enough, though he lost color when I told him what we had to
+expect.
+
+"I don't know much about revolvers, sir," he said, handling very
+respectfully the one I handed him.
+
+"You'll know more in a day or two," I promised. "Morgan, we're going to
+beat these scoundrels. Be quite sure of that."
+
+"Yes, sir. Glad to hear it, sir," he answered doubtfully.
+
+"You know Captain Blythe. He's worth half a dozen of these wharf rats.
+So is Mr. Yeager."
+
+"Are--are all the crew against us?" he asked after a moment's struggle
+with his trepidation.
+
+"No, we know of at least two who are for us. Probably there are others.
+Don't be afraid. We're going to smash this mutiny."
+
+"Yes, sir. Captain Blythe will see to that. I put my faith in him."
+
+But in spite of what I had said it was plain that Morgan's faith was a
+quavering one. He was a useful man, competent in his own line, but his
+_métier_ plainly was not fighting. My news had given him a shock from
+which he would not quickly recover.
+
+It was nearly time for the change of watches, and when I returned to the
+deck I saw that Mott was already on the bridge. He listened to our story
+with plain incredulity.
+
+"I know nothing about this man Bothwell, but say the word and I'll go
+down and haul him on deck for you, Captain Blythe," he offered,
+contemptuously.
+
+"You don't understand the situation. He's as dangerous as a mad dog."
+
+"I've yet to see the first stowaway I couldn't bring to time. They're a
+chicken-hearted lot, take my word for it."
+
+"He isn't a stowaway at all in the ordinary sense of the word. I'll be
+plain, Mr. Mott. We're after treasure, and Bothwell means to get it. The
+crew are with him."
+
+"Slap doodle bugs!" retorted our first officer. "I make nothing at all
+of your story, captain. Thirty years I've sailed this coast and I've
+yet to see my first mutiny. Haul up this fellow Bothwell and set him
+swabbing decks. If he shows his teeth, give him a rope's end or a
+marlinspike. I'll haze him for you a-plenty."
+
+I could have smiled at Mott's utter lack of appreciation of our dilemma
+if his bull-headed obstinacy had not been likely to cost us so much.
+
+"You don't understand the man with whom we have to deal, Mr. Mott. He
+sticks at nothing," I explained.
+
+"Beg pardon, Mr. Sedgwick. He'd stick at deck swabbing if I stood over
+him with a handspike," the burly mate answered grimly. "Truth is,
+gentlemen, I don't think that of your mutiny." And he snapped his
+fingers with a complacent laugh. "Mind you, I don't deny the men are a
+bit unsettled, what with all this talk of treasure that's going around.
+What they need is roughing and, by the jumping mercury, Johnny Mott is
+the man to do it!"
+
+There are none so blind as those who will not see. We could not even
+persuade Mott to accept a revolver. He had made up his mind that the
+whole thing was nothing more or less than a mare's nest.
+
+"What do you know of the men?" I urged. "Take our engineers. We picked
+up the Flemings on the wharf because we needed engineers in a hurry.
+The day before we sailed I saw George Fleming on the wharf talking to
+this man Bothwell. They are working together against us."
+
+"What of it? Let them work. But don't go to dreaming about mutiny, Mr.
+Sedgwick. You ask what I know of the crew. By your leave, I know this
+much. I've bullied American seamen for thirty years come next November,
+and there's not an ounce of mutiny in a million of them."
+
+And at that we had to let it go for the present. There were more
+important things on hand than the conversion of a wooden-headed tar.
+
+Leaving Mott at the wheel we adjourned to the deck saloon for a
+discussion of ways and means. Miss Wallace sauntered in with a magazine
+in her hand.
+
+The captain's eye questioned mine. I nodded. She would have to learn
+soon how things stood, and I trusted to her courage to hear the news
+without any fainting or hysterics. The color washed out of her face, but
+she showed not the least sign of panic.
+
+"What can I do?" she asked in a steady voice.
+
+"At present you may join an officers' council, Miss Wallace," said he.
+"The first thing to find out is who are for us and who against. Let's
+take the enemy first. There is Bothwell himself to begin with, and, of
+course, the two Flemings and Caine. Are we sure of any others?"
+
+"Johnson," I replied at once. "He was one of the two men who attacked me
+at San Pedro. I thought at the time one of the voices sounded familiar,
+but I couldn't place it. After I reached the boat I noticed Caine
+watching me closely. The reason is clear enough to me now. He and
+Johnson slugged me, and he was watching to see if I had any suspicion of
+him."
+
+"Sure, Jack?"
+
+"Quite. I couldn't swear to them, but I'm morally certain. Johnson's
+English is just a little broken. It was his voice I knew."
+
+"That makes five against us so far. We can add the firemen to that,
+since George Fleming chose them."
+
+"Eight to begin with. What about the rest of the crew?"
+
+"The man they call Tot Dennis was signed for me by Caine. Afraid we'll
+have to give him to the enemy."
+
+"Williams is a great friend of Dennis. I've seen them together a lot,"
+Evelyn suggested.
+
+"That's true, but Williams has sailed with me twice before. I did think
+I could have trusted him."
+
+"No doubt Caine and Bothwell have been influencing him. Put Williams
+down doubtful."
+
+We checked off the rest of the crew by name, but could find no evidence
+against any of them.
+
+"How many can we depend upon?" Evelyn asked.
+
+"Yeager, Mott, Morgan, Jack here, and myself. That's five to begin
+with," counted Blythe.
+
+"Dugan and Alderson," I added.
+
+"Seven. Any more?"
+
+"Our steward. Phillips is his name."
+
+"Sure, Miss Wallace?"
+
+"He's the most harmless creature on earth."
+
+The captain smiled.
+
+"Afraid he won't be of much use to us then. We want harmful men. But
+count him. That makes eight for us, nine against us, six doubtful. We'll
+do very nicely."
+
+"And there's the cook. He's so fat and good-natured he must be all
+right," Evelyn suggested.
+
+"By Jove! I'd forgotten 'Arry 'Iggins. No, he's against us. He talked to
+my man Morgan."
+
+"And I suppose his flunky, Billie Blue, goes with cookie?" I added.
+
+"The nine against us is now eleven," the girl said quietly.
+
+I spoke cheerfully, which is far from how I felt.
+
+"Oh, well, what's the odds? Nine or eleven, we'll beat them."
+
+A steamer rug lying on a lounge at the end of the room heaved itself up.
+From its folds emerged the red head of Jimmie, belligerently. Its owner
+had evidently been roused from a nap.
+
+"Where do I get off at I'd like to know?" demanded the indignant
+namesake of a martyred President. "Didn't I run down his nibs for you in
+'Frisco and wise you where he was staying? Didn't I find out he was
+aboard here? Why ain't you countin' me in?"
+
+Blythe assented gravely, but with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Our error, Jimmie. Counting you we have nine good men and true."
+
+"One of Jimmie's strong points is that he doesn't talk. He knows how to
+keep his mouth shut. Don't you, Jimmie?"
+
+"Sure thing, Mr. Sedgwick. I'm a clam, I am."
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Then run along and keep an eye on things outside. If you see anything
+suspicious, let me know at once."
+
+"Yes, sir. You bet you." And the boy was off at the word.
+
+"Couldn't we put back to San Diego?" Miss Wallace asked.
+
+The captain shook his head.
+
+"No. If I turned the ship's head they would be about our ears like
+rats."
+
+"We'll have to keep on as we are going."
+
+A sardonic smile touched Blythe's strong, lean face.
+
+"It's Mr. Bothwell's move. If we turned back he would have to stop us;
+if we continue to Panama he must prevent us from going into the harbor,
+or his game is up."
+
+"Then what will he do?"
+
+"He'll move, Miss Wallace."
+
+She looked at him, a man of quiet, contained strength, and some sort of
+vision of what we were to go through flitted before her mind. Her lips
+were gray and bloodless.
+
+"That dreadful treasure!" she murmured. "Why did we ever come after it?"
+
+A faint sound drew me to my feet and across the room to the stairway. A
+fat bulk of a man was crouched on the steps about half-way down. He
+scuttled to his feet at sight of me.
+
+"Good afternoon, Higgins! Just taking a nap on the stairs, I presume,"
+was my ironical greeting.
+
+The color faded from his blotched face.
+
+"No, sir, not as you might say----" He moistened his dry lips with the
+tip of his tongue and tried again. "Truth is, sir, Hi wanted to ask Miss
+Wallace what she would like for dinner."
+
+"That's very considerate of you. And I'm sure it's the truth. You were
+merely resting on the way. Come on up, Higgins. That is, if you're now
+able to finish the journey. Or shall I help you?"
+
+The tail of his eye had swung round to take in the lower deck. I could
+have sworn the man was considering making a bolt for it, but at my words
+he gave up the idea with a fat sigh. He came up slowly, his eyes fixed
+on mine as if I held them fascinated. Tiny beads of sweat stood out on
+his forehead. 'Arry 'Iggins was not at that moment comfortable in his
+mind.
+
+"Hi strive to please, sir," he explained. "Whatever the young lady would
+like. Hin a manner of speakin' I'm 'er 'umble servant, very respectably,
+'Arry Iggins."
+
+He ducked his head toward her and again toward Blythe.
+
+"Come here," the captain ordered.
+
+Higgins shuffled reluctantly forward.
+
+"When did you first meet this man Bothwell?"
+
+"Beg pardon, sir. Don't think I know the gent, sir."
+
+The Englishman's eyes pierced into his fellow-countryman like a drill.
+
+"Don't lie to me."
+
+The cook had recourse to a large bandanna handkerchief to mop away his
+perspiration.
+
+"If you mean the stowaway, sir, Hi met 'im just before we reached Los
+Angeles."
+
+"How many of the crew are with him in this mutiny?"
+
+"Mutiny, sir?"
+
+"I don't mince words. How many?"
+
+"There you 'ave me, sir. S'elp me, Captain Blythe, Hi'm not in 'is
+confidence."
+
+The man's painful assumption of innocence would have been pathetic had
+it not been ridiculous.
+
+"I know that," retorted my friend contemptuously. "He'll
+use you and chuck you aside, dead or alive, whichever is
+most convenient. Bothwell would as soon knife his fat
+friend as wink. But that's not the point just now.
+You'll--tell--me--all--you--know--about--this--affair--at--once.
+Understand?"
+
+Higgins wriggled like a trout on the hook, but he had to tell what he
+knew. In point of fact this was not much more than we had already
+learned.
+
+"You will go back to Bothwell and tell him to start the band playing
+just as soon as he has his program arranged. Tell him we don't care a
+jackstraw for his mutiny, and that if he lives through it we'll take him
+in irons to Panama and have him hanged as high as Haman. Get that, my
+man?" demanded Blythe.
+
+"Yes, sir. 'Anged as 'igh as 'Aman. Hi'll remember, sir."
+
+Sam turned to me and spoke in a low voice.
+
+"Before this fellow goes I want Mott to hear what he has said. Take
+Yeager up with you and relieve him. And see that Alderson gets a
+revolver."
+
+I took our mate's place at the wheel and sent him forward. Tom Yeager
+leaned on the ship's rail and looked away across the glassy waters of
+the Pacific. I remember that he was humming, as was his fashion, a
+snatch from a musical comedy.
+
+It was such a day as one dreams about, with that pleasant warmth in the
+air that makes for indolent content. One or two of the men were lounging
+lazily on the forecastle deck. Caine was reading a book of travels I had
+lent him the previous day.
+
+Were we all, as Mott believed, the victims of a stupid nightmare? Or
+could it be true that beneath all this peace boiled a volcano ready at
+any minute for an eruption?
+
+Mott returned in an unpleasant mood. The truth is that he was nursing a
+grudge because he was the last man on board to know that we were on a
+cruise for treasure. He resented it that our party had not told him, and
+he took it with a bad grace that every man jack of the crew had been
+whispering for days about something of which he had been kept in the
+dark. Upon my word I think he had some just cause of complaint.
+
+While he jeered at the precautions we were taking I tried to placate
+him, for now of all times we could least afford to have any quarrels in
+our party.
+
+"You will admit there is no harm in going prepared, Mr. Mott?" I argued.
+
+"To be sure. Ballast yourselves with revolvers, for all I care. I'll
+carry one because Captain Blythe has ordered it, but don't expect me to
+join in the play acting."
+
+I felt myself flushing.
+
+"The situation appears to us a very serious one."
+
+"Slap doodle bugs! Let Captain Blythe give the word and I'll go down and
+bring up this bogey man, that is, if there is such a fellow aboard at
+all."
+
+Presently I was called down to luncheon. I found Miss Wallace lingering
+with Blythe in the dining-room. As soon as I arrived the captain left.
+
+Philips waited on me. He had already heard the news, and was ashen. His
+hands trembled as he passed dishes so that I was sorry for him.
+
+"He's badly frightened, poor man," the young woman whispered to me
+across the table during one of his absences. "I wish I could tell him
+that there will probably be no serious trouble."
+
+Her eyes appealed to mine. I could see that with her aunt and poor
+Philips on her hands she was in for no easy time. But I could not lie to
+her.
+
+"What do you think yourself? You know your cousin. Will he lie down and
+let us win without a fight?"
+
+She shook her head slowly. "No. He'll go through with his villainy, no
+matter what it costs."
+
+"Yes. There is no use blinking the facts. We're in for a test of
+strength. I'm sorry, but the only way to meet the situation is to accept
+it and be ready for it. I don't fear the result."
+
+She looked steadily at me.
+
+"Nor I. But it's dreadful to have to wait and hold our hands. I wish I
+could do something."
+
+"You can," I smiled. "You may pass me the potatoes, and after I have
+finished eating you may play for us. We must show these scurvy ruffians
+that we aren't a bit afraid of them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+MY UNEXPECTED GUEST
+
+
+"And will they murder us all in our beds?"
+
+Miss Berry, very white but not at all hysterical, had Blythe penned in a
+corner by the piano as she asked the question.
+
+"Don't be a goose, auntie," her niece smiled affectionately.
+
+"The fact is that we were afraid you might complain of ennui, so we have
+stirred up a little excitement," explained Sam.
+
+"Truly, Mr. Blythe?"
+
+My friend looked at me appealingly and I came to the rescue.
+
+"Sailors are a queer lot. They often get notions that have to be knocked
+out of them. We'll try not to disturb you while we do the hammering,
+Miss Berry."
+
+A faint color washed back into her face.
+
+"Oh, I hope you are right. It would be dreadful if----" she interrupted
+herself to take a more cheerful view. "But I am sure Mr. Mott is right.
+He has been on the seas a great many years more than you two. He ought
+to know best, oughtn't he?"
+
+"Certainly," I conceded. "And I hope he does."
+
+"Besides, Captain Bothwell is such a gentleman. I'm sure he wouldn't do
+anything so dreadful. I wish I could talk to him. He was always so
+reasonable with me, though Evie and he couldn't get along."
+
+I concealed my smile at the thought of Miss Berry converting him.
+
+The trumpet call to dinner diverted our thoughts. I dropped into my room
+to wash before dinner, with the surprising result that I lost the meal.
+
+As I opened the door a low voice advised me to close it at once. Since I
+was looking into the wrong end of a revolver, and that weapon was in the
+hand of a very urgent person, I complied with the suggestion. The man
+behind the gun was Boris Bothwell.
+
+"Hope I don't intrude," I apologized, glancing at the disorder in my
+stateroom.
+
+The floor was littered with papers, coats, collars, ties, and underwear.
+Drawers had been dragged out and emptied, my trunk gutted of its
+contents. Evidently the captain had been engaged in a thorough search
+of the cabin when my entrance diverted his attention.
+
+"Not at all. I was hoping you would come," he answered pleasantly.
+
+"Perhaps I should have knocked before entering, but then I didn't expect
+to find you here."
+
+"I came on impulse," he explained. "I had reason to suppose you would be
+busy for an hour or two. By the way, Evie _is_ entertaining. Did I ever
+mention to you that it is my intention to marry her?"
+
+"I think not."
+
+"Ah! Then I make a confidant of you now. Congratulate me, my friend."
+
+"Is this an official announcement?" I asked.
+
+"Hardly official, I think. The lady does not know it."
+
+"Then I think I'll wait till the engagement gets her O. K."
+
+"As you like, Mr. Sedgwick, but I assure you I am an irresistible
+lover."
+
+"So I hear you say," I replied coldly. "Was it to tell me this that you
+have put me in debt to you for this call?"
+
+"Hardly. To be frank, I came to get a map."
+
+I sat down on the edge of the bed.
+
+"Again?"
+
+"As you say, again."
+
+"Quite like old times, isn't it? I am reminded of our 'Frisco Nights'
+Entertainment. The search for a map in other people's apartments is
+becoming rather a habit with you, isn't it?"
+
+"I'm a persistent beggar," he admitted.
+
+"I regret we have no more copies to lend."
+
+He laughed indulgently.
+
+"_Touché, monsieur._ But I don't care for copies. I am a collector of
+originals."
+
+"They are said to be expensive."
+
+"But valuable."
+
+"Still, the cost is a consideration."
+
+"Not when some one else pays the shot, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+"I see. You expect those poor devils whom you are misleading to draw the
+chestnut out of the fire for you."
+
+"Exactly," he admitted with the gayest aplomb.
+
+"You are willing that they should pay to the limit?" I asked, curious to
+see how far his cynical audacity would carry him.
+
+He shrugged, with a lift of his strong hands.
+
+"That is as luck, or fate, or Providence--whichever you believe in, Mr.
+Sedgwick--deals out the cards. I'm not a god, you know."
+
+"You know that you cannot follow the course outlined without lives being
+lost," I persisted.
+
+"I'll take your word for it," he flung back lightly.
+
+"That won't deter you in the least?"
+
+"Wasn't it Napoleon who said one couldn't make an omelet without
+breaking eggs?"
+
+"And yet his omelet was not a success," I reflected aloud.
+
+"Whose is, Mr. Sedgwick? We all have our Waterloos. Love, ambition, the
+search for wealth--none of them satisfy. But though none of us find
+happiness we yet seek. That is human nature."
+
+I shot a question at him abruptly.
+
+"Suppose you got all this treasure--would you keep faith with those
+poor, deluded ruffians and share with them?"
+
+His hardy smile approved me.
+
+"You're deep, my friend. Now I wonder what I would do? My tools _are_
+deluded. Wealth could not bring them the happiness they think it would.
+Most of them it would ruin. I fear it would be my duty to----"
+
+"---- let them hold the sack," I finished for him.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"There is, then, no honor among thieves."
+
+"Not a bit. No more than there is among gentlemen. But since you
+object to having eggs broken, I offer you an alternative."
+
+I waited.
+
+"In order to save eggs I'll ask you to turn over to me the map."
+
+"Where do you think I keep it? You've already searched my rooms and my
+person. I'm no wizard."
+
+His black eyes bored into mine.
+
+"We've been over this ground once before, Mr. Sedgwick. You know me. I'm
+here for business."
+
+"So I judge."
+
+"Come! This won't do. I'm a determined man. That map I'm going to have.
+Unless you want the scene to close with the final exit of John Sedgwick,
+find for me the map."
+
+"Suppose I tell you that I haven't it?"
+
+"I shall believe you, since the evidence would support the assertion. I
+should then ask who has it?"
+
+"You certainly are a man of one idea. I think I've never had the
+pleasure of talking with you that you didn't switch the conversation
+back to that map."
+
+He raised the revolver.
+
+"I asked a question."
+
+There was a step outside, followed by a knock on the door. "Come in," I
+sang out instantly.
+
+Bothwell's furious gaze came back from the door just as I leaped. A
+bullet crashed through the skylight, for my arm had deflected his. I
+wrapped myself about him in silent struggle for the weapon. We swayed
+against the bed and went down upon it hard, our weight tearing through
+the springs. Desperately I clung to his arm to keep the weapon from
+pointing at me.
+
+"Let go, Sedgwick," a voice ordered.
+
+Sinewy fingers had tightened on Bothwell's throat and a strong hand had
+wrenched the revolver from him.
+
+Panting, I struggled to my feet. My opportune friend covered the Russian
+with his own weapon and drawled out a warning.
+
+"Don't you now, Mr. Pirate, or I'll certainly have to load you up with
+lead."
+
+Bothwell lay on the bed, his breast heaving from his exertions. In no
+man's looks have I ever seen a more furious malice, but he had sense
+enough to recognize that this was our moment.
+
+"If it ain't butting in, what were you gentlemen milling around so
+active about this warm day?" asked Yeager.
+
+"Same old point of difference. Captain Bothwell wanted a map."
+
+Tom laughed gently.
+
+"Sho! You hadn't ought to be so blamed urgent, cap. It don't buy you
+anything."
+
+The Russian struggled with his rage, fought it down, and again found his
+ironic smile.
+
+"I am under the impression that it would have bought me a map if it had
+not been for your arrival, sir."
+
+"Too bad I spoiled yore game, then."
+
+"For the present," amended the defeated man. "I am a person of much
+resource, Mr. Sedgwick will tell you." Then, with a glance at the bit of
+plaster on my head: "He still wears a souvenir to remind him of it."
+
+"My little adventure at San Pedro. I always, credited you with that,
+captain. Thanks."
+
+"You're entirely welcome. More to follow," he smiled.
+
+"What are you allowing to do with your guest, Sedgwick?" asked Yeager.
+
+"We'll leave that to Blythe. I suppose we had better put him in irons
+and guard him. We can drop him off at Panama."
+
+"Any port in a time of storm," suggested our prisoner blithely.
+
+"Personally, I'd like to see you marooned for a few months," I growled,
+for the man's insolence ruffled me.
+
+I found Blythe on the bridge with Mott.
+
+"I have to report a prisoner of war captured, captain," I announced in
+formal military style.
+
+Blythe laughed.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Captain Boris Bothwell, sir."
+
+"What!"
+
+I told him and Mott the circumstances. The mate unbent a little.
+
+"And the lubber shot at you? In your own cabin! Put him in irons and
+throw him ashore at Panama. That's my advice, Mr. Blythe. Get rid of
+him, and you'll not hear any more about this mutiny business."
+
+"I'm of that opinion myself, Mr. Mott. We'll keep him under guard until
+he's in safe custody."
+
+Blythe followed me down to my cabin, and for the first time he and
+Bothwell looked each other over.
+
+"This isn't a passenger ship, sir," announced the owner of the _Argos_
+bluntly. "You've made a mistake, sir. We'll hand you over to the
+authorities at Panama."
+
+Bothwell bowed.
+
+"Dee-lighted! I've always wanted to see the old city of Pizarro, Drake
+and Morgan. Many a galleon has been looted of ingots and bullion by the
+old seadogs there. If I weren't so conscientious, by Jupiter, I'd turn
+pirate myself."
+
+"Haven't a doubt of it," Blythe assented curtly. "We'll try to see that
+your opportunities don't match your inclinations. Unless I guess wrong
+you wouldn't hesitate to cut a throat to escape if your hands were
+free."
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Just so. Merely as a formality we'll take the precaution of making sure
+you haven't any weapons that might go off and injure you--or anybody
+else. Jack, may I trouble you to look in my cabin for a pair of
+handcuffs--middle right hand drawer of my dressing table?"
+
+We made our prisoner secure and spelled each other watching him. The
+first three hours fell to me. Except the Arizonian I think all of us
+felt a weight lifted from our hearts. The chief villain was in our hands
+and the mutiny nipped in the bud.
+
+But Bothwell had managed to inject a fly into the ointment of my
+content.
+
+"We've drawn your sting now," Blythe had told him before he left.
+
+"Have you? Bet you a pony I'll be free inside of twenty-four hours," the
+Russian had coolly answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MUTINY
+
+
+It was in the afternoon of the day after our encounter with Bothwell--to
+be more accurate, just after four bells. Miss Wallace and I were sitting
+under the deck awning, she working in a desultory fashion upon a piece
+of embroidery while I watched her lazily.
+
+The languorous day was of the loveliest. It invited to idleness, made
+repudiation of work a virtue. My stint was over for a few hours at least
+and I enjoyed the luxury of pitying poor Mott, who was shut up in a
+stuffy cabin with our prisoner.
+
+Yeager, too, was off duty. We could hear him pounding away at the piano
+in the saloon. Ragtime floated to us, and presently a snatch from "The
+Sultan of Sulu."
+
+    Since I first met you,
+    Since I first met you,
+    The open sky above me seems a deeper blue,
+    Golden, rippling sunshine warms me through and through,
+    Each flower has a new perfume since I first met you.
+
+"T. Yeager is a born optimist," I commented idly. "Life is one long,
+glorious lark to him. I believe he would be happy if he knew raw, red
+mutiny were going to break out in twenty minutes."
+
+"He's very likable. I never knew a man who has had so many experiences.
+There's something right boyish about him."
+
+"Even if he could give me about a dozen years."
+
+"Years don't count with his kind. He's so full of life, so fresh and yet
+so wise."
+
+"His music isn't fresh anyhow. I move we go stop it."
+
+"Thank you, I'm very comfortable here. I don't second the motion," she
+declined.
+
+"Motion withdrawn. But I'm going to tempt him from that piano just the
+same. Jimmie, come here. Run down to the music-room and tell Mr. Yeager
+that Miss Wallace would like to see him."
+
+Evelyn laughed.
+
+"I think you're real mean, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+"For saving the life of your musical soul?"
+
+"He _is_ pretty bad," she admitted.
+
+He was on the chorus again, his raucous exuberant voice riding it like
+one of his own bucking broncos.
+
+Golden, rippling sunshine warms me through and through,
+Each flower has a new perfume since I first met you.
+
+"Bad. He's the worst ever. Thank Heaven, we've got him stopped! There he
+comes with Jimmie."
+
+He moved across the deck toward us with that little roll usually
+peculiar to dismounted horsemen of the plains.
+
+"I _do_ like him," the young woman murmured. "He's so strong and gentle
+and good-natured. I don't suppose he could get mad."
+
+"Oh, couldn't he? I'll ask him about that."
+
+"Now I _do_ think you're mean," she reproached with a flash of her eyes.
+
+"You sent for me, Miss Wallace? Was it to throw him overboard because
+he's mean?" Yeager asked genially.
+
+Her eye was sparkling and her lips open for an answer, but the words
+were never spoken. For at that instant a man burst past us with blood
+streaming down his face from a ghastly cut in the forehead. He was
+making for the bridge.
+
+"It's come," I said, rising and drawing my revolver.
+
+"I must go to Auntie," Evelyn said, very white about the lips.
+
+"Not now. She's perfectly safe. They won't trouble her till they have
+won the ship."
+
+"And there will be some merry times before then, I expect," said Tom,
+his hand on the butt of a revolver and his vigilant eye sweeping the
+deck.
+
+We were hurrying forward to the wheelhouse. Every moment I expected to
+see a rush of men tearing up the companionway, but all seemed quiet and
+orderly. The hands on deck either had not noticed Dugan, or else were
+awaiting developments.
+
+"'Twas Caine did it, sir," Dugan explained to Blythe. "I was lying in my
+bunk when he came down with the stowaway you were holding prisoner."
+
+"With Bothwell?" I cried.
+
+"Yes, sir. They asked me to join them in taking the ship. They put it
+plain they meant to get the treasure."
+
+"Do you know which of the men is with them?" I asked.
+
+"No, sir. Soon as I got the drift of what they were at I let Caine have
+my fist in his dirty mouth. He came at me with a cutlas. I got this cut
+before I could break away. Gallagher tried to head me, but I bowled him
+over."
+
+"Do you know how Bothwell escaped?"
+
+"Caine helped him. I heard Tot Dennis say that Mr. Mott had got his.
+That was just before they spoke to me."
+
+Evelyn sat down quickly. I think she wanted to faint. She too understood
+what was meant by the words that Mott had "got his."
+
+"What about Alderson? Are you sure he can be trusted?" Blythe asked of
+the sailor.
+
+"Yes, sir. I can speak for him and for Smith."
+
+Alderson was on deck and I called him to us. He was a clean-cut seamanly
+fellow of about thirty. His blue eyes were frank and self-reliant.
+
+"My man, there's mutiny aboard. That's the short of it. Are you for us
+or against us?"
+
+"I'm for you, sir."
+
+"Good. We're going to beat the scoundrels, but there is going to be
+fighting."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Bully for you!" cried Yeager, and slapped him on the back. "Can you
+shoot?"
+
+"Not especially well, sir."
+
+"Listen to me," ordered Blythe. "Our aim must be to hold the wheelhouse
+and the cabins. Mr. Sedgwick, you will take Miss Wallace back to the
+staterooms and rally the rest of our forces. Mr. Mott is done for, I am
+afraid, but the rest of our friends are probably all right. Arm all of
+them. Get the rifles out. Better nail up the windows and lock the doors
+after you are in. Alderson and Dugan will go with you. You, too, Jimmie.
+Yeager, you are the best shot. I'll have you stay with me."
+
+"Hadn't you better join us and give up the wheelhouse for the present?"
+
+The Englishman's eyes flashed.
+
+"Surrender my ship to that scum! I'm surprised at you, Jack."
+
+"I'm not surprised at you," I grinned. "I meant only until we have
+beaten them."
+
+"What about the rest of the crew who are for us?" Miss Wallace asked.
+
+"We'll have to give them time to declare themselves."
+
+We obeyed orders at once, Alderson supporting Dugan, who was growing
+weak from loss of blood. As we went to the reception room I caught sight
+of Tot Dennis, his hatchet face peering above the companionway at the
+end of the bridge deck. At sight of me his head disappeared hastily. But
+he had given me an idea. I hung back while the rest of our party passed
+into the saloon, then walked forward quickly and descended to the lower
+deck.
+
+A little group of men were gathered at the hatchway leading to the
+forecastle. I stepped briskly toward them, though Johnson's revolver was
+covering me. I'll admit I took a chance, but it was a calculated one.
+If Caine or Bothwell had been with them I would not have dared so far,
+but I reckoned that their mental habits as seamen were still strong
+enough to keep them from shooting an officer.
+
+"You poor devils, Dennis, Johnson and Mack! Do you know what this means?
+It spells hanging for every mother's son of you. Don't be a madman and
+fire that gun, Johnson. There's still a chance, even for you. Cut loose
+from the pirate you're serving and join the honest party. Mack, you're
+not a mutineer, are you? You don't want to be hanged at the yardarm, do
+you?"
+
+The group at the stairway had become four instead of three.
+
+"Avast there, Mr. Sedgwick. Get back or I'll fire," growled Caine.
+
+"I'm not speaking to you, Caine. Your bacon is cooked. I'm making my
+offer to the others. I've got no time to wait, my men. Are you coming?"
+
+A bullet from Caine's revolver whistled past my ear. I stayed no longer,
+but fell back to the stairs and took to my heels. A bullet chipped away
+a splinter of wood beside me as I ran.
+
+I found Dugan stretched on one of the long saloon seats, already being
+ministered to by Morgan and Evelyn. Alderson had locked one door and
+was on guard at the other, cutlas and revolver in hand.
+
+"Well done, Alderson. That's the way to keep a lookout," I sang out
+cheerfully.
+
+"Thank you, sir. Were you hit? That was risky, sir, talking to them
+without cover."
+
+"They can't hit a barn door," I answered with a laugh.
+
+I had moved over to the hospital corps and was looking down at the
+wounded man.
+
+"Is he badly hurt?" I asked.
+
+Evelyn looked at me with an expression I did not understand.
+
+"I don't think so. You mustn't do that again, Mr. Sedgwick. It isn't
+right to take unnecessary risks." Her voice was a little tense and
+strained.
+
+We heard the sound of a shot and presently of slapping footsteps.
+
+"Let me in," called a panting voice.
+
+Alderson turned to me.
+
+"It's Williams, sir. Shall I let him in?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+There came the crack of a rifle. Simultaneously Williams burst in on us.
+
+"They're shooting at me, sir. I watched my chance to follow you."
+
+"You're an honest man?" I asked sharply.
+
+"Of course I am, sir. Couldn't say so with all of them around me."
+
+"Good." I gave Jimmie the key of our armory. "Take Williams down and let
+him choose a revolver and a cutlas."
+
+I would have gone with him myself, but at that moment a voice had hailed
+the captain. Stepping from the saloon I saw Bothwell with a white
+handkerchief at the head of the stairway leading from the main deck.
+
+"Envoy to former Captain Blythe from the crew," I heard him say.
+
+Crisp and clear sang the answer of our captain.
+
+"My man, I don't know you. If my crew have anything to say let them send
+one of their own number. I don't deal with stowaways scalawags."
+
+"You'll deal with me if you deal with them. I've been elected captain in
+place of Mr. Blythe, deposed."
+
+"The devil you have! Bite on this, my man. I own this boat, every stick
+and ribbon of her. I'm going to be master here. If the men want to talk
+I'll name conditions. Let them bring you and Caine up here in irons and
+put their arms down on the deck. That will be a preliminary to any talk
+between me and them."
+
+"You speak large, Mr. Blythe."
+
+"_Captain_ Blythe, my man, and don't you forget it! Now tramp. Get back
+to your ruffians or I'll put a bullet through you."
+
+"Would you fire on a flag of truce?"
+
+"I recognize no flag of truce in your hands. Look lively."
+
+"I've only got to say that I'll take pleasure in settling your hash for
+this," Bothwell cried angrily.
+
+"I'm not Mr. Mott. You'll not find it so easy to murder me. Move!"
+
+Bothwell disappeared with a curse. I retired into the saloon.
+
+Evelyn was standing near the door with a face in which I could read both
+anxiety and anger.
+
+"Why do you expose yourself like that?" she cried.
+
+"I wanted to see what was going on."
+
+"You'll be shot. Then what shall we do?"
+
+"There's not much danger yet, and I must keep in touch with our friends
+forward. Don't you think we had better get your patient to bed?"
+
+"I'm all right, sir," Dugan spoke up faintly.
+
+"He ought to be kept quiet for a day or two," his young nurse decided.
+
+"I'll take him down to my cabin. Perhaps you can get him something to
+put him to sleep, Miss Wallace."
+
+Miss Berry came up the stairs just as we were starting down. She looked
+like a ghost.
+
+"Mr. Sedgwick, I've just been wakened from a nap. I heard some one
+groaning in the cabin next to mine." She caught sight of Dugan's
+bandaged head and cried out: "What's the matter? Has something
+happened?"
+
+"Don't be frightened, Miss Berry."
+
+"What are these men doing with pistols? Where does that blood come
+from?"
+
+Evelyn came forward and took her aunt in her arms.
+
+"Dearie, we can trust Captain Blythe and Mr. Sedgwick. We mustn't make
+it harder for them. Just now they are very busy."
+
+I looked my thanks.
+
+Williams and Jimmie returned from the armory. Morgan and Philips were at
+their heels. The steward looked very yellow.
+
+"Let me know if there is any sign of trouble. I'll be back presently," I
+told Alderson.
+
+Having put Dugan to bed in my room, I stepped into the one where we had
+been keeping our prisoner. Mott lay on the floor, his body still warm,
+quite dead. I judged that he had expired within the past few minutes.
+He had been struck with some blunt instrument and then knifed. The man
+had paid for his obstinate disbelief with his life.
+
+I lifted the body to the bed, locked the door, and returned to the
+promenade deck saloon. For the throb of the propeller had ceased. An
+immediate attack was probably impending.
+
+Miss Berry was sobbing softly in the arms of her niece. In my absence we
+had gained another adherent. Billie Blue, the cook's flunky, had come up
+from below.
+
+"Where is Higgins?" I asked.
+
+"Don't know, sir. He left right after lunch."
+
+Alderson, who had been craning out of the door, drew back his head to
+speak.
+
+"They're coming, sir."
+
+"Down to your cabin, ladies. You go with them, Jimmie. Lock yourselves
+in," I ordered.
+
+Evelyn's white lips tried to frame some words as she passed me. I
+understood what she wanted to say.
+
+"I'll be careful," I promised.
+
+"I have no weapon, sir," Billie Blue told me.
+
+I had brought up with me from below a repeating rifle, so I handed him
+one of my revolvers and an Italian dirk that had been hanging on the
+wall as an ornament.
+
+The second door I ordered locked. Putting my head out of one of the
+windows I counted the enemy as they stood grouped near the stairway from
+the main deck. Bothwell was in the lead, followed by Caine. At their
+heels trooped both engineers, the three firemen, the cook, Johnson,
+Mack, Gallagher, Dennis, Smith, and Neidlinger. It was not easy to count
+them, because they shifted to and fro, but I was almost sure they were
+fourteen. The boatswain carried in his hand a towel, which he was
+waving.
+
+"Crew to have a conference with you, Cap'n Blythe," he called out.
+
+"I hold no conference with armed mutineers," Blythe called back sternly.
+
+He was standing in the wheelhouse, rifle in hand. Beside him was the
+curly head of Tom Yeager.
+
+"This here ship's company offers to do the square thing, share and share
+alike, cap'n," boomed out the boatswain. "We wants a bit of that there
+treasure, and by Moses! we're going to have it. But we don't want no
+bloodshed, cap'n."
+
+"Then get back to duty in a hurry, my man!"
+
+George Fleming spoke up.
+
+"Give us that map and we'll put your party ashore safe, sir."
+
+"I'll see you hung up to dry at my yardarm first! If you want the ship
+come and take it, you scurvy scoundrel!"
+
+It looked like long odds--fourteen to two. I began to wonder if Bothwell
+had forgotten us, and I ordered Alderson to unlock the door for a sortie
+if one should be necessary.
+
+Even while I was speaking the rush came. They divided like running water
+when it reaches a big rock in midstream. Some of them poured toward us,
+the rest made for the bridge. I heard the crack of Sam's rifle, the
+rattle of small arms, and then the battle was upon us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE BATTLE
+
+
+I fired through the window and brought down one fellow while they were
+still coming in a huddle toward us. Before I could fire again they were
+in the saloon and at close quarters with us.
+
+To me it seemed that a hundred men were struggling in that narrow,
+smoke-filled space. A grimy, black-faced stoker leaped at me and I fired.
+I remember beating him over the head with my revolver and that we went
+down together in a clinch.
+
+As I was falling it came over me that the attack was only a feint to
+keep us busy. The main body of the mutineers was storming the
+wheelhouse.
+
+When I clambered to my feet I found that our attackers had been routed.
+Billie Blue's dirk had put a temporary quietus on my stoker, and the
+rest had fled as quickly as they had come.
+
+"This way!" I shouted, and was out of the door in a jiffy.
+
+A swarm of men were racing up the steps that led to the bridge and the
+pilot house. One lay with arms outstretched, face down on the deck.
+Another was sliding down the rail of the steps, his face writhing with
+pain.
+
+Our friends were hard pressed. Blythe was keeping the door against a
+mob, while Yeager was firing through the window. Twice I saw the
+captain's cutlas flash. Then I lost sight of him and I knew that
+Bothwell had forced the entrance.
+
+At the same instant the Arizonian disappeared from the opening which he
+had been using as a porthole. I knew that Sam was down and that his
+friend had gone to his assistance. My flank attack must have come as a
+surprise. The mutineers turned, finding themselves between two fires. We
+crowded in on them, and for a time the jam was so thick that none of us
+could do much damage.
+
+Now they fought as desperately to get out of the wheelhouse as they had
+a minute earlier to get in. They were in a panic of fear, fancying
+themselves trapped.
+
+I was flung against Bothwell, his furious face so close to mine that the
+hot breath filled my nostrils. We tried to grip each other, but in the
+huddle we were thrust apart.
+
+Suddenly the room was no longer full, I could see that the enemy was in
+flight. Before I reached the open I knew that the day was won.
+Alderson, Billie Blue, and Morgan were pursuing the flying rabble.
+
+Bothwell, making play with his cutlas against both Blythe and Yeager,
+was retreating slowly to the bridge rail. I remember crying out as I ran
+toward them.
+
+Bothwell vaulted over the rail to the deck below. I followed like a
+fool, for in the row I had lost my weapons. As I recall it now, Sam
+shouted to me to come back. But there was some idiotic notion in my head
+that the Russian might run into the reception room with his fellows and
+get possession of the women.
+
+Instead, he turned and slashed at me. The blow would have carved my head
+had not I dodged. At that I received a nasty swipe in the arm. It was
+not possible to stop. All I could do was to slip past him and continue
+running.
+
+George Fleming had stopped at the head of the stairway to the main deck.
+He leveled a pistol and waited for me. Bothwell was at my heels. I was
+between the devil and the deep sea.
+
+"We've got him!" the Russian cried.
+
+I swung in behind one of the boats which lay under a tarpaulin near the
+edge of the deck. Simultaneously I heard the engineer's gun crack. No
+rabbit could have clambered around the boat quicker than _I_. Bothwell
+had doubled back and was charging me. His whistling cutlas hissed down
+not an inch from my ear and ripped through the tarpaulin to bury the
+blade in the wood of the bow.
+
+I scudded back toward the bridge, my enemy in full chase.
+
+Every instant I expected to feel the slash of his blade between my
+shoulders. It seemed to me that my leaden feet clung to the planks, that
+a toddling child could do that stretch to safety quicker than I was
+doing it.
+
+As I ran the deck began to tilt dizzily. Before my eyes there spread a
+haze. All grew black even while my feet still automatically moved.
+
+"Badly hurt, old man?"
+
+The voice came to me from a great distance. With returning consciousness
+I found that the strong arm of its owner was supporting my head and
+shoulders. My eyes looked into those of our captain.
+
+"It's all right, Jack," he explained. "We got to you just as you fell
+and Tom drove that villain back. How badly cut are you?"
+
+"A glancing cut, I think. But I'm a bit dizzy? We beat them, didn't
+we?"
+
+"Yes. The rats have scuttled back to their holes."
+
+He helped me into the reception room and I sank down on the lounge.
+
+"Just a bit light-headed," I explained to Yeager, who came in at that
+moment.
+
+"Glad it's no worse. We gave them a drubbing, anyhow."
+
+"Get Bothwell?" asked Sam.
+
+"Nope. My gun was empty. I had him at the foot of the ladder, not ten
+feet from the muzzle, and _click_--nothing doing. The beggar turned and
+laughed in my face."
+
+"Keep a lookout, Alderson," the captain ordered, while he unbuttoned my
+coat. "Tom, you'd better take a look around and size up the damage."
+
+"Mott is dead. I found his body in the cabin," I told our chief.
+
+"I was afraid of it. With Mott gone and Dugan wounded we were short two
+men at the beginning of the scrimmage. Eight to fourteen--devilish long
+odds. Easy with that sleeve there. Here you, Billie Blue, get me a
+sponge and a basin of water. And tell Miss Wallace to bring her sticking
+plaster."
+
+Morgan, very white, was sitting on the opposite lounge trying to stop
+with a handkerchief the blood from a scalp wound. From where I lay I
+could see the body of Williams just outside the saloon. A stray bullet
+from one of the retreating mutineers had killed him at the very close of
+the battle.
+
+Altogether that left us five sound men, counting Blue as a man, and
+three wounded ones. The pirates had suffered more. One I had disposed of
+at the first rush, just before they reached the cabin, and the flunky
+had wounded one of the firemen.
+
+Yeager had picked off Johnson in the run for the bridge, and Sam had
+wounded Caine. In addition to these at least two more had been blooded
+in the scrimmage at close quarters outside the wheelhouse.
+
+"Eight of them left against five of us, not counting the wounded on
+either side," Yeager summed up.
+
+"What has become of Philips?" I asked, remembering that I had not seen
+him since the row began.
+
+"Thought I saw him run down stairs when the beggars poured in on us
+here, sir," Alderson answered.
+
+Later the poor fellow was found in his berth, trembling like an aspen
+leaf. He had locked his door and buried his face in the pillows.
+
+A shock of red hair above a very white face appeared at the head of the
+companionway. "Is--is it all over?" gasped a small voice.
+
+"Yes, Jimmie, right now it is. And you'll notice that we're still
+sticking to the saddle, son, and not pulling leather either," observed
+the plainsman cheerfully.
+
+"I--I didn't know it would be like this," murmured the boy. "I
+thought----" His voice tailed out and he dropped limply into a seat, his
+fascinated eyes fixed on my bleeding arm.
+
+Yeager clasped a hand on the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Brace up, kid. The first round is ours, strong. We've had to hustle,
+but I reckon we've given them a hectic time of it. They'll not bother us
+for quite some hours. Captain Bothwell is busy explaining to a real sore
+outfit just why his plans miscarried."
+
+"Is Mr. Sedgwick--killed?" asked the boy, swallowing hard.
+
+I laughed faintly.
+
+"He's worth a dozen dead men yet, Jimmie."
+
+And to prove it I fell back among the pillows, unconscious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MORNING AFTER
+
+
+My opening eyes fell upon Evelyn. She was putting the last touches to
+the bandage on my arm, which was already dressed and bound. Evidently I
+had been unconscious some time.
+
+"It's all right. We won," were my first words to her.
+
+"I know," she answered with a faint glow of color. "Thanks to the brave
+men who risked their lives for us!"
+
+"Poor Williams was killed, and Morgan was hurt. Has his wound been
+looked to?"
+
+"On the job now," sang out Yeager. "When I get through with him he'll be
+as good as new. Eh, Morgan?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," returned that impassive individual.
+
+"Where's Sam?" I asked.
+
+"Back at the wheel."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Alderson is with him. Don't worry about them. You couldn't dynamite
+that bunch of pirates on deck just now. There'll be nothing doing until
+they get Dutch courage from the bottle. We jolted them a heap harder
+than they did us," Tom rejoined lightly.
+
+It was all very well for him to keep up his cheerful talk to raise the
+spirits of our friends, but I did not forget the fact that since the
+beginning of hostilities we had lost as many men as they had in killed,
+and only one less in wounded. To be sure, with the exception of Dugan,
+their disabled were in worse condition than ours. Morgan had only a
+scratch, and a day or two of rest would set me right.
+
+"Time is fighting for us too, you bet," continued Tom briskly. "We're a
+unit, and I'll bet they're pulling already every which way. We've got
+them traveling south, Miss Wallace."
+
+Perhaps his cheerful, matter-of-fact talk was the best possible tonic
+for the depression which had settled upon us. I could not help think
+what a blessing it was that we had picked up at Los Angeles this
+competent frontiersman whose strong, brown hands could make or dress a
+wound with equal skill.
+
+It was plain to me that during the next few hours I would not be of much
+use. Out of ten thousand, Tom Yeager was the one I would have picked to
+take charge of the defense in my absence.
+
+When a few minutes later the beat of the screw began again the sound of
+it was like wine to me. It meant that, for the present, the mutineers
+had had enough. They would join in a tacit truce while the yacht was
+being worked south.
+
+"Help Mr. Sedgwick down to his cabin, Morgan, and then both of you turn
+in for a few hours' sleep. We'll look out for trouble. Won't we, Jimmie?
+You and I and Billie Blue, eh?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Yeager."
+
+"You'll call us if another attack threatens?" I asked.
+
+"Sure."
+
+The steady _throb--throb--throb_ of the propeller was again shaking the
+yacht as she took up her journey. This might be a ruse to throw us off
+our guard, but I did not think so. The enemy was badly demoralized, and
+the chances were that Bothwell would welcome a chance to whip his forces
+into shape again.
+
+"Is the door from the galley to the main deck locked and nailed up,
+Billie?" I asked of the flunky.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Nail planks across the window too. Philips will help you get dinner if
+you can find him. I'll expect you to see that our party is well fed."
+
+"Yes, sir," the young fellow promised.
+
+"You must go to your room at a moment's notice, Miss Wallace. Have
+Philips nail up your porthole. You need not be a bit afraid. We hold a
+very safe position at present. Get all the sleep you can to-night."
+
+"That's good advice, Mr. Sedgwick. Take it yourself," she returned with
+a little flicker of a wan smile.
+
+For an instant her hand, warm and firm, rested in mine. If I had not
+been sure of my love before, there was no uncertainty now. While her
+brave eyes met mine I seemed to drown fathoms deep in the blue of them.
+Trouble was what I read in them, but part of that trouble was for me. I
+gloried in that certainty.
+
+She might not love me--it was presumptuous to suppose she did--but at
+least I held a place in her regard. That was the thought I carried with
+me down-stairs, and it stayed pleasantly with me till I fell asleep in
+spite of the pain in my arm.
+
+About nine o'clock I was awakened by a knock on the door. Philips had
+brought me dinner on a tray.
+
+His eye would not meet mine. He was ashamed because he had shown the
+white feather in the scrimmage.
+
+"I--I've got a wife and three little children, sir," he blurted out
+before he left.
+
+I nodded pleasantly at him.
+
+"You're going to see them again. But you must help us beat those
+ruffians. You see we can do it. We've done it once."
+
+"Yes, sir. I--hope to do better next time."
+
+"I'm sure you will, Philips."
+
+We shook hands on it.
+
+I must have fallen asleep again almost immediately. When I opened my
+eyes it was day. I pushed the electric bell. Philips presently appeared.
+
+"All well?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes, sir. No more trouble. The yacht is still on her course. Doing
+about nine knots I should judge."
+
+"Heard from Dugan this morning?"
+
+"He isn't doing just what you could call first rate, sir. I think he is
+delirious. Miss Wallace and Miss Berry are taking care of him by turns."
+
+"And Morgan?"
+
+"Quite all right, sir. Your arm must be stiff. Shall I shave you this
+morning? I used to be a barber, sir."
+
+"Thanks. If you have time."
+
+Breakfast was served in the English fashion, for it was necessary to
+keep some one on guard all the time. The Arizonian was making play with
+a platter of bacon and fried eggs when I joined him.
+
+"How d'ye do? Ready for the round-up again?" he asked cheerfully, with
+his mouth full.
+
+"My arm's stiff, and when I move there's a pain jumps in it. Otherwise
+I'm fit as a fiddle. Anything new in the way of trouble?"
+
+"Not a thing. We've arranged a code of signals with our friends at the
+wheel. You'll find the code pasted up in the saloon. Say, what do you
+think? That girl slipped out with breakfast for Cap. Blythe and Alderson
+while I wasn't looking."
+
+"Crossed the deck with it?"
+
+"That's whatever, and sauntered back as cool as you please. Two or three
+of them were on the forecastle deck, but they didn't lift a hand to hurt
+her."
+
+I drew a long breath.
+
+"We mustn't let her do it again."
+
+"Not while I'm in the game. She's an ace-high trump just the same.
+Wonder if she would have any use for a maverick rancher from the alkali
+country? I got a pretty good outfit in the Flying D."
+
+"Better ask her."
+
+"I'm going to," he answered coolly. "Drift that butter down this way,
+will you?"
+
+"Where is she now?" I asked.
+
+"Not up yet. She took a two-hour turn watching while we slept. Then she
+sat by Dugan for a while. You'd ought to have seen her at the piano
+singing 'My Maryland' and 'Dixie' to us just as if she had starred in a
+mutiny every week of her life. She was doing it for what they call the
+moral effect, and it sure did keep up the nerve of the boys. I could see
+Jimmie and Billie get real gay again. Used to live in Tennessee, you
+know."
+
+"Jimmie or Billie?" I asked innocently.
+
+"You know who I mean all right, you old son of a gun. Try this bacon.
+It's the genuine guaranteed article. That Billie boy is some cook. Seems
+her mother was a Southerner before Wallace married her."
+
+"What was she afterward?"
+
+"My, you're a humorist! Say, do you reckon that little bald spot on the
+crown of my haid would be objectionable to her? I've never monkeyed with
+these here hair tonics, but I'd be willing to take a whirl at them."
+
+"Here she comes now. You can ask her."
+
+"Did you sleep well?" the young woman asked, after we had exchanged
+morning greetings.
+
+"Clear round the clock and then some more. You must have had a fine
+night's rest yourself from what I hear. On watch till one, and nursing
+Dugan _from_ one. Wasn't that about it?"
+
+"Not quite. I had three hours' sleep. Is your arm paining you much?"
+
+"Don't waste any sympathy on him, Miss Evelyn," the cowman interrupted.
+"His arm's just as good as a new wooden one, and his repartee is as
+sharp as the cutlas that broke the skin on it."
+
+She smiled as she began on her grapefruit. "Are you boys quarreling?"
+
+"He hasn't had time to quarrel. He has been making a dreary waste of
+what was once a platter of eggs and bacon."
+
+"Now I like that," Tom protested.
+
+"So I judge. Never mind, Miss Wallace. Billie can cook you some more."
+
+"Who is on guard?" Evelyn asked.
+
+"The kid. He's a scout for fair too; imagines he's Apache Jim, the
+terror of the Navajos, or some other paper-backed hero. I hope his gun
+won't go off and shoot him up."
+
+We made a lively breakfast of it till Yeager had to leave. You may
+think it strange that we could laugh and jest on that death ship, but
+one gets accustomed to the strain and on the reflex from anxiety arrives
+at a temporary gaiety.
+
+After the cattleman had taken his breezy departure a constraint fell
+upon us. Evelyn's eyes were shy, and mine not a great deal bolder.
+Yesterday we could have chatted away with the most delightful freedom;
+to-day we were confined to the veriest commonplaces.
+
+And all because our eyes had met for one long instant the evening before
+and hinted at something in the unspoken language of young people the
+world over.
+
+The arrival of Jimmie Welch with a very robust appetite helped things a
+good deal, and we were presently ourselves again. After breakfast Miss
+Wallace went to relieve her aunt at the bedside of the wounded carpenter
+while I mounted to the bridge to take Blythe's place, Tom doing the same
+for Alderson.
+
+It struck me as a piece of grim satire that I should be ringing orders
+down to the men in the engine room with whom a few hours before we had
+been battling for life, and probably soon would be again.
+
+It was beyond doubt that we would have to measure strength with them a
+second time. Bothwell would never let us run into port at Panama if he
+could help it. The men were probably not anxious for another brush after
+the drubbing they had received, but the situation forced their hands.
+They must either take the ship or let us give them up to the authorities
+as mutineers.
+
+My opinion is that if Bothwell had not been recognized by Jimmie he
+would have waited until we were actually on the treasure ground, and
+perhaps even until we had lifted it.
+
+From the sounds that came forward to us from the forecastle it was plain
+that the enemy were drinking pretty steadily. More than once I saw an
+empty bottle flung through a porthole into the sea. Occasionally some
+one appeared on the deck aft, and from the drunken shouts bawled up and
+down the hatchway the condition of the crew could be guessed.
+
+Blythe and I agreed that this probably meant an attack after darkness
+had fallen. Fortified by the courage which comes from whisky, they would
+try and slip up on us in the night and win by a surprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE NIGHT ATTACK
+
+
+The captain and I were in the wheelhouse when the attack came. It must
+have been an hour past midnight of a gentle starry night, without the
+faintest breath of wind in the air. Ever since dark the vibration of the
+propeller had ceased.
+
+No doubt the charge was intended for a surprise, but we had half a
+minute of warning. Dimly I could make out figures moving tiptoe at the
+head of the stairway. Three times I flashed a lantern in signal to our
+friends. Almost simultaneously came the rush along the deck.
+
+This time they took cover as they advanced, scattering like a covey of
+young quail. One dropped behind a boat here, another there. Some
+crouched close to the deckhouse. Bullets sang about our ears from
+invisible foes.
+
+It looked as if their intention was to pick us off without exposing
+themselves. The thing could be done too. For a rifle ball would tear
+through the flimsy woodwork of our shelter as if it had been paper.
+
+"We've got to get out of here," I told my friend.
+
+"Confound it, yes. But where shall we go?"
+
+"What's that? Listen, Sam."
+
+From below and to the left of us there came a sound as of some one
+moving. We could hear stealthy voices in animated whisper.
+
+"I see their game," Blythe murmured in my ear. "Those fellows on deck
+are to keep us busy pot-shotting us while the rest climb up from below
+and close with us when we're not looking."
+
+A bullet zipped through a window and left a little round hole. It must
+have passed between our heads.
+
+"Hot work," said the Englishman coolly, putting down his rifle and
+taking up a revolver and a cutlas. "We'd better sally out and have a
+look at the gentlemen who are climbing up the stanchions. You take that
+side and I'll take this."
+
+We were not a moment too soon. As I peered over the bridge rail an
+outstretched hand was reaching for a hold. Instantly it was withdrawn.
+The moonlight poured like a spotlight on the uplifted face of the sailor
+Neidlinger. Never have I seen a look more expressive of stupid, baffled
+surprise. His mouth was open, his eyes popping. But when I made a motion
+to aim my revolver he slid down the stanchion with a rush, knocking
+over the fellow supporting him from below.
+
+I paid no more attention to him, for the feet of those who had been
+shooting at us were already scurrying forward.
+
+"Blythe," I called in warning.
+
+But the captain was engaged with a mutineer who had climbed up in the
+way Neidlinger had attempted. A second man--and I saw in an instant that
+it was Caine--was astride the rail on his way to support the first. Half
+way over he had stopped to take a shot at Sam.
+
+I fired from my hip without waiting to take aim. It was the luckiest
+shot of my life. The boatswain's shoulders sagged, his fingers relaxed
+so that the weapon clattered on the floor, and slowly his figure swayed
+outward. There was no grip to his knees. He toppled overboard, head
+first. I heard the plop as his body dived into the sea.
+
+Blythe cut down his man at the same instant.
+
+"Back to the wheelhouse," I shouted.
+
+We were barely in time. They came crowding in on us pell-mell. We had
+already switched off the light. Now the lantern was dashed to pieces by
+trampling heels.
+
+I was flung back against the wheel and the revolver knocked from my
+hand. Sinewy fingers gripped my throat and forced me down until I
+thought my back would break. Close to my ear a gun exploded. The
+pressure on my jugular relaxed instantly. The body of my opponent sank
+slowly to the floor and lay there limp.
+
+I took a long breath, leaped across the prostrate figure, and flung
+myself upon another. We struggled. I became aware that we had the room
+to ourselves. The others were fighting outside.
+
+The vessel had fallen into the trough of the waves. In one of its
+lurches the moon flooded the place with light.
+
+"Sam!" I cried, and he "Jack!"
+
+In the darkness we had mistaken each other for the enemy.
+
+Catching up a cutlas I followed him into the open. Our friends had come
+and gone again. To say that they were going would be more accurate. For
+they were now in full flight, the pack of wolves in chase.
+
+A few moments earlier and we might have saved the day. Now we could only
+pursue the pursuers.
+
+Blythe leaped down the steps, revolver in hand. I followed, but my foot
+caught on a body lying at the foot of the ladder. A hand caught my coat.
+
+"Gimme a lift, partner," asked a voice.
+
+"You, Tom?" I cried, helping him up. "Hurt, are you?"
+
+"Knocked in the head. A bit groggy. That's all."
+
+The delay made me a witness rather than an actor in the dénouement. Our
+friends had disappeared within the saloon and slammed the door. The
+foremost mutineer reached it, tried the handle, and threw his weight
+against the panels. The others came to his assistance. A revolver shot
+through the door dropped one of them. The others fell back at once.
+
+They met Blythe. A stoker swung a cutlas and rushed for him. Full in the
+forehead a bullet from the captain's revolver crashed into his brain.
+Like a football tackler the body plunged forward to Sam's feet.
+
+For a moment nobody moved or spoke. Then,
+
+"My God!" groaned Henry Fleming.
+
+I cannot account for it. These men had been brave enough in the thick of
+the fight while facing numbers not so very inferior to their own. But
+now, standing there three to one, it seemed as if some wave of horror
+sickened them at sight of the lifeless body plunging along the deck.
+
+They stood there with eyes distended, while Blythe, grimly erect, faced
+them as motionless as a statue.
+
+"Gawd, I've 'ad enough," the cook gasped, and got his fat bulk to the
+stairway with incredible swiftness.
+
+The others were at his heel, fighting for the first chance down.
+
+A bullet clipped the deck in front of me. I looked up hastily to see
+Bothwell's malevolent face in the wheelhouse window.
+
+"Turn about, Mr. Sedgwick," he jeered, and let fly again.
+
+Half dragging him with me, I got Yeager into the shadow.
+
+"Got a revolver?" I whispered.
+
+"Yes." He felt for it in the darkness. "Damn! I must 'a dropped it when
+Bothwell hit me over the coconut."
+
+"Are you good for a run to the saloon? He'll pick us off just as soon as
+the moon comes out from behind that cloud."
+
+A bullet took a splinter from the rail beside me.
+
+"We'd better toddle," agreed the cattleman. "Go ahead."
+
+I scudded for safety, Yeager at my heels. We reached the door of the
+saloon just as the captain did.
+
+"Let us in. Captain Blythe and friends," I cried, hammering on a panel.
+
+Some one unlocked the door. It was Dugan.
+
+"You here?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, sir. I heard the shooting and came up just in time to lock the
+door on Mack. Think I wounded him through the door afterward, sir."
+
+"Any of our men short?" Blythe asked quickly, glancing around with the
+keen, quiet eye of a soldier.
+
+Alderson spoke up.
+
+"Fleming cut Blue down as we tried to force the steps, sir."
+
+"Killed him, you think?"
+
+"No doubt of it, sir."
+
+"Any more lost?"
+
+We did not notice it till a few minutes later, but little Jimmie Welch
+was missing. None of us was seriously wounded in the scrimmage, though
+nearly all had marks to show. Even Philips had a testimonial of valor in
+the form of a badly swollen eye.
+
+"They've suffered more than we have. Check up, my men. Mack, dead or
+badly wounded, shot by Dugan. Can you name any, Alderson?"
+
+"Only Sutton, sir, that you killed out here. There was a man lying on
+the bridge when we got there. Don't know who, sir."
+
+"Tot Dennis," answered Blythe, who had cut him down at the same time
+when I disposed of the boatswain.
+
+I mentioned Caine.
+
+"Didn't you finish another in the wheelhouse, Jack?"
+
+"I didn't. You did."
+
+The captain shook his head.
+
+"You're wrong about that. Must have been you."
+
+This puzzled me at the time, but we learned later that the man--he
+turned out to be the stoker Billie Blue had dirked in the first
+fight--had been killed by an unexpected ally who joined us later.
+
+"Counting Mack, they've lost five to our one," Sam summed up.
+
+"Hope they've got a bellyful by this time," I said bitterly.
+
+"They've won the wheel--for the present. But that's unimportant.
+Bothwell can't hold it. We'll starve him out. Practically it's our
+fight."
+
+What our captain said was quite true. Even if Bothwell could have solved
+the food problem and the question of sleep, he dared not leave his
+allies too long alone for fear they might make terms and surrender.
+
+For we had beaten them again. They had left now only seven men (not
+counting Mack), at least two of whom were wounded. This was exactly the
+same number that we had. Whereas the odds had been against us, now they
+were very much in our favor when one considered morale and quality.
+
+At Blythe's words we raised a cheer. I have heard heartier ones, for we
+were pretty badly battered up. But that cheer--so we heard later--put
+the final touch to the depression of the mutineers.
+
+"Mr. Sedgwick, will you kindly step down-stairs and notify the ladies
+that the day is ours? Get me some water, Morgan, and I'll take a look at
+Mr. Yeager's head. Philips, find Jimmie. Alderson, will you keep guard
+for the present? You'd better get back to bed, Dugan. I want to say that
+each one of you deserves a medal. If the treasure is ever found I
+promise, on behalf of Miss Wallace, that every honest man shall share in
+it."
+
+At this there was a second cheer and we scattered to obey orders.
+
+When I knocked on the door of Miss Wallace's stateroom a shaky voice
+answered.
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"It is I--Sedgwick."
+
+The door opened. Evelyn, very pale, was standing before me with a little
+revolver in her hand. She wore a kind of kimono of some gray stuff,
+loose about the beautifully modeled throat, in which just now a pulse
+was beating fast. Sandals were on her feet, and from beneath the gown
+her toes peeped.
+
+"What is it? Tell me," she breathed in a whisper, her finger on her
+lips.
+
+I judged that her aunt had slept through the noise of the firing.
+
+"They attacked us on the bridge again. We had the best of it."
+
+"Is anybody--hurt?" she asked tremulously.
+
+"Five of them have been killed or badly wounded. We lost Billie Blue,
+poor fellow."
+
+"Dead?" her white lips framed.
+
+"I'm afraid so."
+
+"Nobody else?"
+
+I hesitated.
+
+"Little Jimmie is missing. We are afraid----"
+
+Tears filled her eyes and brimmed over.
+
+"Poor Jimmie!"
+
+I'll not swear that the back of my eyes did not scorch with hot tears
+too. I thought of the likable little Arab, red-headed, freckled and
+homely, and I blamed myself bitterly that I had ever let him rejoin us
+at Los Angeles.
+
+"He wouldn't have come if it hadn't been for me. I asked you to let
+him," the young woman reproached herself.
+
+"It isn't your fault. You meant it for the best."
+
+Of a sudden she turned half from me and leaned against the door-jamb,
+covering her face with her hands. She was sobbing very softly.
+
+I put my arm across her shoulders and petted her awkwardly. Presently
+she crowded back the sobs and whispered brokenly, not to me, but as a
+relief to her surcharged feelings.
+
+"This dreadful ship of death! This dreadful ship! Why did I ever lead
+true men to their deaths for that wicked treasure?"
+
+I do not know how it happened, but in her wretchedness the girl swayed
+toward me ever so slightly. My arms went round her protectingly. For an
+instant her body came to me in sweet surrender, the soft curves of her
+supple figure relaxed in weariness. Then she pushed me from her gently.
+
+"Not now--not now."
+
+I faced a closed door, but as I went up the companionway with elastic
+heels my heart sang jubilantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A TASTE OF THE INQUISITION
+
+
+It could have been no more than five minutes after I left her that
+Evelyn followed me to the upper deck saloon. Yet in the interval her
+nimble fingers had found time to garb her in a simple blue princess
+dress she had found near to her hand.
+
+Without looking at me she went straight to Blythe, who was sponging the
+wrist of Alderson.
+
+"You'll let me help, won't you?" she asked, with such sweet simplicity
+that I fell fathoms deeper in love.
+
+"Of course. You're our chief surgeon. Eh, Alderson?"
+
+The sailor grinned. Though he was a little embarrassed he was grateful
+for the addition to the staff.
+
+After they had finished I brought her water to wash her hands. For the
+first time since she had entered the room our gaze met.
+
+Braver eyes no woman ever had, but the thick lashes fluttered down now
+and a wave of pink beat into her cheeks. Moved as she was by a touch of
+shy confusion, the oval of her face stirred delicately as if with the
+spirit of fire, she seemed a very blush rose, a creature of so fine a
+beauty as to stir a momentary fear.
+
+But I knew her to be strong, even if slight, and abrim with health. When
+she walked away with that supple, feathered tread of hers, so firm and
+yet so light, the vitality of her physique reasserted itself.
+
+"Some one slipping this way in the shadows, Captain Blythe," spoke up
+Morgan, who was on guard.
+
+Sam had been reloading his revolver. At once he stepped to the door.
+
+"Who goes there? Hands up! I have you covered. Move forward into the
+light. Oh, it's you, Smith! What do you want?"
+
+"I've come to give myself up, sir. I'm sick of it. Very likely you won't
+believe me, sir, but I joined under compulsion to save my life. I didn't
+dare leave them so long as Captain Bothwell----"
+
+"_Mr._ Bothwell," corrected Blythe sharply.
+
+"Mr. Bothwell, sir, I meant. He watched me as if I were a prisoner."
+
+"I think I noticed you on my bridge with a revolver in your hand," the
+Englishman told him dryly.
+
+"Yes, sir. But I fired in the air, except once when I shot the fireman
+who was killing Mr. Sedgwick over the wheel."
+
+I turned in astonishment to Blythe.
+
+"That explains it. Some one certainly saved me. If you didn't it must
+have been Smith."
+
+"That's one point to your credit," Blythe admitted. "So now you want to
+be an honest man?"
+
+"I always have been at heart, sir. I had no chance to come before. They
+kept me unarmed except during the fighting."
+
+His head bandaged with a blood-soaked bandanna, his face unshaven and
+bloodstained, Smith was a sorry enough sight. But his eye met the
+captain's fairly. I don't think it occurred to any of us seriously to
+doubt him.
+
+Sam laughed grimly.
+
+"You look the worse for the wars, my friend."
+
+Smith put his hand to the bound head and looked at the captain
+reproachfully.
+
+"Your cutlas did it at the pilot-house, sir."
+
+"You should be more careful of the company you keep, my man."
+
+"Yes, sir. I did try to slip away once, but they brought me back."
+
+"Let me look at your head. Perhaps I can do something for it," Evelyn
+suggested to the sailor.
+
+While she prepared the dressings I put the question to Smith.
+
+"Jimmie. Oh, yes, sir. He's down in the f'c'sle. Gallagher ran across
+him and took him down there."
+
+This was good news, the best I had heard since the mutiny began. It
+seemed that the boy had slipped out to get a shot at the enemy, and that
+his escape had been cut off by the men returning from the attack.
+
+Judging from what Smith said the men were very down-hearted and in
+vicious spirits. They were ready to bite at the first hand in reach,
+after the manner of trapped coyotes.
+
+"How many of them are there?" I asked.
+
+"Let's see. There's the two Flemings, sir, and Gallagher, and the cook,
+and Neidlinger, and Mack, but he won't last long."
+
+"Do you think they're likely to hurt the boy?"
+
+"Not unless they get to drinking, sir. They want him for a hostage. But
+there has been a lot of drinking. You can't tell what they will do when
+they're in liquor."
+
+I came to an impulsive decision. We couldn't leave Jimmie to his fate.
+The men were ready to give up the fight if the thing could be put to
+them right. The time to strike was now, in the absence of Bothwell,
+while they were out of heart at their failure.
+
+Why shouldn't I go down into the forecastle and see what could be done?
+That there was some danger in it could not be denied, but not nearly so
+much as if the Russian had been down there.
+
+I was an officer of the ship, and though that would have helped me
+little if they had been sure of victory it would have a good deal of
+weight now.
+
+Blythe would, I knew, forbid me to go. Therefore I did not ask him. But
+I took Yeager aside and told him what I intended.
+
+"I'll likely be back in half an hour, perhaps less. I don't want you to
+tell Sam unless he has to know. Don't let him risk defeat by attempting
+a rescue in case I don't show up. Tell him I'm playing off my own bat.
+That's a bit of English slang he'll understand."
+
+"Say! Let me go too," urged the cattleman, his eyes glistening.
+
+"No. We can't go in force. I'm not even going to take a weapon. That
+would queer the whole thing. It's purely a moral and not a physical
+argument I'm making."
+
+He did not want to see it that way, but in the end he grumblingly
+assented, especially when I put it to him that he must stay and keep an
+eye on Bothwell.
+
+While Blythe was down in his cabin getting a shave I watched my chance
+and slipped down to the main deck. Cautiously I ventured into the
+forecastle, tiptoeing down the ladder without noise.
+
+"Dead as a door nail. That makes seven gone to Davy Jones's locker," I
+heard a despondent voice say.
+
+"'E could sing a good song, Mack could, and 'e carried 'is liquor like a
+man, but that didn't 'elp 'im from being shot down like a dog. It'll be
+that wye with us next."
+
+"Stow that drivel, cookie," growled a voice which I recognized as
+belonging to the older Fleming. "You're nice, cheerful company for
+devils down on their luck. Ain't things bad enough without you croaking
+like a sky pilot?"
+
+"That's wot I say, says I; we'll all croak before this blyme row is
+over," Higgins prophesied.
+
+I sauntered forward with my hands in my pockets.
+
+"Looks that way, doesn't it? Truth is, you've made a mess of it from
+first to last. Whichever way you look at it the future is devilishly
+unpleasant. Even if you live to be hanged--which isn't at all
+likely--one can't call it a cheerful end."
+
+Conceive, if you can, a more surprised lot of ruffians than these. They
+leaped to their feet and stared at me in astonishment. I'll swear four
+revolvers jumped to sight while one could bat an eyelid.
+
+I leaned on the edge of the table and gave them the most care-free grin
+I could summon. All the time I was wondering whether some fool would
+perhaps blaze away at me and do his thinking afterward.
+
+"How did you get down here?" the senior engineer demanded.
+
+"Walked down. I'm really surprised at you, Fleming. What would Bothwell
+think of you? Why, I might have shot half of you before Higgins could
+say Jack Robinson."
+
+It showed how ripe they were for my purpose that at the mention of
+Bothwell's name two or three growled curses at him.
+
+"He got us into this, he did; promised us a fortune if we'd join him,"
+Gallagher said sulkily.
+
+"And no blood shed, Mr. Sedgwick. That's wot 'e promised," whined the
+cook.
+
+"Probably he meant none of ours," I explained ironically.
+
+"He was going to wait till you'd got the treasure and then put you in a
+boat near the coast," Gallagher added.
+
+Neidlinger spat sulkily at a knot in the floor. His eyes would not meet
+mine. It was a fair guess that he was no hardened mutineer, but had been
+caught in a net through lack of moral backbone.
+
+"Afraid Bothwell isn't a very safe man to follow. He's let you be mauled
+up pretty badly. I've a notion he'll slip away and leave you to be
+hanged without the comfort of his presence."
+
+"You don't need to rub that in, Mr. Sedgwick," advised George Fleming.
+"And perhaps, since you're here, you will explain your business."
+
+It must be said for George Fleming that at least he was a hardy villain
+and no weakling. The men were like weather-vanes. They veered with each
+wind that blew.
+
+"That's right," chimed in Gallagher. "We didn't ask your company. If we
+go to hell I shouldn't wonder but you'll travel the road first, sir.
+Take a hitch and a half turn on this. We're in the same boat, you and
+us. Now you take an oar and pull us out of the rough water, Mr.
+Sedgwick."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Not I, Gallagher. You made your own bed, and I'm hanged if I'll lie in
+it, though I believe it is bad taste to refer to hanging in this
+company. _I_ didn't start a little mutiny. _I_ didn't murder as good a
+mate as any seaman could ask for. It isn't _my_ fault that a round half
+dozen of you are dead and gone to feed the fishes."
+
+Higgins groaned lugubriously. Neidlinger shifted his feet uneasily. Not
+one of them but was impressed.
+
+Harry Fleming glanced at his brother, cleared his throat, and spoke up.
+
+"Mr. Sedgwick, spit it out. What have you to offer? Will Captain Blythe
+let this be a bygone if we return to duty? That's what we want to know.
+If not, we've got to fight it out. A blind man could see that."
+
+I told them the truth, that I had no authority to speak for Blythe. He
+would probably think it his duty to give them up to the authorities if
+they were still on board when we reached Panama.
+
+It was pitiful to see how they clutched at every straw of hope.
+
+"Well, sir, what do you mean by that if? Will he stand back and let us
+escape?"
+
+"All of you but Bothwell. Mind, I don't promise this. Why not send a
+deputation to the captain and ask for terms?"
+
+Higgins slapped his fat thigh.
+
+"By crikey, 'e's said it. A delegation to the captain. That's the
+bloomin' ticket."
+
+Pat to his suggestion came an unexpected and startling answer.
+
+"Fortunately it won't be necessary to send the delegation, since your
+captain has come down to join you."
+
+The voice was Bothwell's; so, too, were the ironic insolence, the
+sardonic smile, the air of contemptuous mastery that sat so lightly on
+him. He might be the greatest scoundrel unhanged--and that was a point
+upon which I had a decided opinion--but I shall never deny that there
+was in him the magnetic force which made him a leader of men.
+
+Immediately I recognized defeat for my attempt to end the mutiny at a
+stroke. His very presence was an inspiration to persistence in evil. For
+though he had brought them nothing but disaster, the fellow had a way of
+impressing himself without appearing to care whether he did or not.
+
+The careless contempt of his glance emphasized the difference between
+him and them. He was their master, though a fortnight before none of
+them had ever seen Bothwell. They feared and accepted his leadership,
+even while they distrusted him.
+
+The men seemed visibly to stiffen. Instead of beseeching looks I got
+threatening ones. Three minutes before I had been dictator; now I was a
+prisoner, and if I could read signs one in a very serious situation.
+
+"I'm waiting for the deputation," suggested Bothwell, his dark eye
+passing from one to another and resting on Higgins.
+
+The unfortunate cook began to perspire.
+
+"Just our wye of 'aving a little joke, captain," he protested in a
+whine.
+
+"You didn't hear aright, Bothwell. A deputation to the captain was
+mentioned," I told him.
+
+"And I'm captain of this end of the ship, or was at last accounts.
+Perhaps Mr. Sedgwick has been elected in my absence," he sneered.
+
+"You bet he ain't," growled Gallagher.
+
+"It's a position I should feel obliged to decline. No sinking ship for
+me, thank you. I've no notion of trying to be a twentieth century
+Captain Kidd. And, by the way, he was hanged, too, wasn't he, captain?"
+
+"That's a prophecy, I take it. I'll guarantee one thing: You'll not live
+to see it fulfilled. You've come to the end of the passage, my friend."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"But before you pass out I've a word to say to you about that map."
+
+His eye gave a signal. Before I could stir for resistance even if I had
+been so minded, George Fleming and Gallagher pinned my back to the
+table. Bothwell stepped forward and looked down at me.
+
+A second time I glimpsed the Slav behind his veneer of civilization.
+Opaque and cruel eyes peered into mine through lids contracted to slits.
+Something in me stronger than fear looked back at him steadily.
+
+His voice was so low that none, I think, except me caught the words. In
+his manner was an extraordinary bitterness.
+
+"You're the rock I've split on from the first. You stole the map from
+me--and you tried to steal her. By God, I wipe the slate clean now!"
+
+"I've only one thing to say to you. I'd like to see you strung up, you
+damned villain!" I replied.
+
+"The last time I asked you for that map your friend from Arizona
+blundered in. He's not here now. I'm going to find out all you know. You
+think you can defy me. Before I've done with you I'll make you wish
+you'd never been born. There are easy deaths and hard ones. You shall
+take your choice."
+
+With that fiend's eyes glittering into mine it was no easy thing to keep
+from weakening. I confess it, the blood along my spine was beginning to
+freeze. Fortunately I have a face well under control.
+
+"You have a taste for dramatics, Captain Kidd." I raised my voice so
+that all might hear plainly. "You threaten to torture me. You forget
+that this is the year 1913. The inquisition is a memory. You are not in
+Russia now. American sailors--even mutineers--will draw the line at
+torture."
+
+His face was hard as hammered iron.
+
+"Don't flatter yourself, Mr. Sedgwick. I'm master here. When I give the
+word you will suffer."
+
+I turned my head and my eyes fell upon Henry Fleming. He had turned
+white, shaken to the heart. Beyond him was Neidlinger, and the man was
+moistening his gray lips with his tongue. The fat cockney looked
+troubled. Plainly they had no stomach for the horrible work that lay
+before them if I proved resolute.
+
+To fight for treasure was one thing, and I suppose that even in this
+they had been led to believe that a mere show of force would be
+sufficient; to lend their aid to torture an officer of the ship was
+quite another and a more sinister affair.
+
+The Slav in Bothwell had failed to understand the Anglo-Saxon blood with
+which he was dealing.
+
+I faced the man with a dry laugh.
+
+"We'll see. Begin, you coward!"
+
+Pinned down to the table as I was, he struck me in the face for that.
+
+"You lose no time in proving my words true," I jeered.
+
+An odd mixture is man. Faith, one might have thought Bothwell impervious
+to shame, but at my words the fellow flushed. He could not quite forget
+that he had once been a gentleman.
+
+In the way of business he could torture me, wipe me from his path
+without a second thought, but on the surface he must live up to the
+artificial code his training had imposed upon him.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Sedgwick. Were there time I would give you
+satisfaction for that blow in the customary manner. But time presses. I
+shall have to ask you instead to accept my apologies. I have the devil
+of a temper."
+
+"So I judge."
+
+"It flares like powder. But I must not waste your time in explanations."
+From his vest pocket he drew three little cubes of iron. "You still have
+time, Mr. Sedgwick. The map!"
+
+I flushed to the roots of my hair.
+
+"Never, you Russian devil!"
+
+He selected the hand pinned down by Fleming, perhaps because he was not
+sure that he could trust Gallagher. Between my fingers close to the
+roots he slipped the cubes. His fingers fastened over mine and drew the
+ends of them together slowly, steadily.
+
+An excruciating pain shot through me. I set my teeth to keep from
+screaming and closed my eyes to hide the anguish in them.
+
+"You are at liberty to change your mind--and your answer, Mr. Sedgwick,"
+he announced suavely.
+
+"You devil from hell!"
+
+Again I suffered that jagged bolt of pain. It seemed as if my fingers
+were being rent asunder at the roots. I could not concentrate my
+attention on anything but the physical agony, yet it seems to me now
+that Gallagher was muttering a protest across the table.
+
+Bothwell released my hand. I saw a flash of subtle triumph light his
+eyes.
+
+"A wilful man must have his way, Mr. Sedgwick," he nodded to me, then
+whispered in the ear of George Fleming, who at once left the room.
+
+They pulled me up from the table and seated me in a chair. Bothwell
+whistled a bar or two of the sextet from Lucia until he was interrupted
+by the entrance of the engineer with Jimmie Welch.
+
+In a flash I knew what the man meant to do, and the devilish ingenuity
+of it appalled me. He had concluded that I was strung up to endure
+anything he might inflict.
+
+Now he was going to force me to tell what I knew in order to save the
+boy from the pain I had myself found almost unendurable.
+
+What must I do? I beat my wits for a way out. One glance around the room
+showed me that the scoundrel's accomplices would not let him go much
+further.
+
+The weak spot in his leadership was that he did not realize the humanity
+which still burned in their lost souls. But at what point would they
+revolt? I could not let little Jimmie go through the pain I had
+undergone.
+
+The boy gave a sobbing cry of relief when he saw me and tried to break
+away to my side. He was flung on the table just as I had been. Gallagher
+looked at me imploringly while Bothwell fitted the cubes.
+
+Neidlinger stole a step nearer. His fingers were working nervously.
+Harry Fleming had turned away so as not to see what would follow.
+
+"Mr. Sedgwick, what are they going to do with me?" the frightened little
+fellow called in terror.
+
+Bothwell took the lad's fingers in his. I opened my lips to
+surrender--and closed them again. Neidlinger had drawn still another
+step nearer. The big blond Scandinavian had reached his limit.
+
+The Slav gave a slight pressure and Jimmie howled. Crouched like a
+panther, Neidlinger flung himself upon his chief and bore him back to
+the wall. Bothwell, past his first surprise, lashed out with a straight
+left and dropped the man.
+
+Simultaneously Gallagher closed with him, tripping Bothwell so that the
+two went down hard together. Neidlinger crawled forward on hands and
+knees to help his partner.
+
+Shaking off the grip of the irresolute men holding me, I was in time to
+seize George Fleming, who had run forward to aid the captain.
+
+From the hatchway a crisp order rang out.
+
+"Back there, Fleming!"
+
+I turned. Blythe and Yeager were standing near the foot of the ladder;
+behind them Alderson, Smith, Morgan, and Philips. All six were armed.
+Their weapons covered the mutineers.
+
+"Gallagher--Neidlinger, don't release that man. You are prisoners--all
+of you," Sam announced curtly.
+
+Taken by surprise, the two sailors had ceased to struggle with Bothwell.
+I could see the master villain's hand slip to the butt of his revolver.
+
+My foot came down heavily on his wrist and the fingers fell limp. A
+moment, and the revolver was in my hand.
+
+Bothwell was handcuffed and disarmed before the eyes of his followers,
+who in turn had to endure the same ignominy.
+
+The mutiny on the _Argos_ was quelled at last.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+ANCHORED HEARTS
+
+
+Our rescue had been due to the vigilance of Tom Yeager. He had seen
+Bothwell slip down from the bridge and follow me to the forecastle.
+
+The first impulse of the Arizonian had been to step out and end the
+campaign by a fighting finish with the Slav. But second thoughts brought
+wiser counsels. Blythe, called hurriedly upstairs, had agreed to his
+proposal to try and determine the mutiny at a stroke.
+
+To both of them it had been clear that Bothwell surrendered the bridge
+because he was afraid to let me have a talk with the men alone. That my
+life was in great danger neither doubted.
+
+Swiftly the men had been gathered for the sortie into the forecastle,
+Evelyn having volunteered to take the wheel until relieved. The success
+of the plan had been beyond the expectations of any.
+
+Bothwell was the first of the prisoners to speak.
+
+"Let me offer my congratulations, Captain Blythe," he said with suave
+irony.
+
+The lean, brown face of the Englishman expressed quiet scorn.
+
+"Not necessary at all. It is the only result I have considered from the
+first. One doesn't expect to be driven from his ship by wharf rats, no
+matter how numerous they may be."
+
+Bothwell laughed, debonair as ever.
+
+"True enough, captain. My scoundrels made an awful botch of it. They
+played a good hand devilish badly or we should have won out."
+
+"The devil you would! We beat you from first to last at odds against of
+two to one nearly. I reckon, Mr. Pirate, you undertook too big a
+round-up," grinned the cattleman.
+
+"Fortunately there is always a to-morrow," retorted Bothwell with a bow.
+
+"Sometimes it's mortgaged to Jack Ketch."
+
+"I'll wager he doesn't foreclose, Mr. Yeager," answered Boris with a lip
+smile.
+
+Blythe cut short the repartee.
+
+"We'll put this man in a stateroom and lock him up, Sedgwick. The rest
+will stay here guarded by Alderson. If one of them makes a suspicious
+move, shoot him down like a mad dog. Understand, my man?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I'll see they make no trouble," Alderson answered
+resolutely.
+
+I made a suggestion to our captain. After a moment's consideration he
+accepted it.
+
+"Very good, Mr. Sedgwick. Have Gallagher, Neidlinger, and Higgins freed.
+See that they clean the ship up till she is fresh as paint."
+
+The first thing we did was to gather the bodies of the poor fellows who
+had fallen in the struggles for the ship. Blythe read the burial service
+before we sank the weighted corpses into the sea.
+
+Under my direction the men then swabbed the decks, washed the woodwork,
+and scoured the copper plates until they shone.
+
+It was not until luncheon that I found time for more than a word with
+Evelyn. None of us, I suppose, had suffered more than she and Miss
+Berry, but they made it their business to help us forget the nightmare
+through which we had lately passed.
+
+I remember that Miss Wallace looked round from a gay little sally at
+Jimmie with a smile in her eyes. I was reaching for some fruit when her
+glance fell upon my hand.
+
+"What's the matter with your fingers?" she asked quickly.
+
+I withdrew my hand promptly. The flesh was swollen and discolored from
+the attentions of Boris Bothwell.
+
+"I had a little accident--nothing of importance," was my inadequate
+answer.
+
+Her gaze circled the table, passed from Sam's face to that of Jimmie and
+from Jimmie to Higgins, who was waiting on us. She must have read a
+confirmation of her intuition of a secret, for she dropped the subject
+at once.
+
+"Jack crushed his hand against a piece of iron," explained the captain.
+
+At which Miss Evelyn murmured. "Oh!" and inquired how long it would
+probably be before we reached the Bay of Panama.
+
+"Using only our canvas we may reach there to-morrow night, and we may
+not. We can't make very good time till we start the engines again,"
+Blythe said.
+
+"And when are you going to start them?" Miss Berry asked.
+
+"Don't quite know. I'm shy of engineers. The only ones I have are on a
+vacation," Sam answered with a smile.
+
+They were not to enjoy one very long, however. About sunset the _Argos_
+began to rock gently on a sea no longer glassy.
+
+"Cap says we're going to have trouble," Yeager informed me. "When you
+get this sultry smell in the air and that queer look in the sky there is
+going to be something doing. She's going to begin to buck for fair."
+
+I noticed that Blythe was taking in sail and that the wind was rising.
+
+"Knock the irons off the Flemings and send Gallagher down into the
+engine room to stoke for them. We'll need more hands. This thing is
+going to hit us like a wall of wind soon," he told me.
+
+When I returned from the forecastle the sea had risen. As I was standing
+on the bridge a voice called my name. I looked down to see Evelyn on the
+promenade deck in a long, close-fitting waterproof coat, her hair flying
+a little wildly in the breeze. In the face upturned to mine was a very
+vivid interest.
+
+"We're in for it. There's going to be a real squall," she cried
+delightedly.
+
+I stepped down and tucked her arm under mine, for the deck was already
+tipping in the heavy run of seas.
+
+Most of our canvas was in, and the booming wind was humming through the
+rest with growing power. The _Argos_ put her nose into the whitecaps and
+ran like a racer, for the engines were shaking the yacht as she plowed
+forward.
+
+The young woman turned to me an eager, mobile face into which the wind
+had whipped a rich color.
+
+"What would you take to be somewhere else? Back in your stuffy old law
+office, say?"
+
+The lurch of the staggering yacht threw her forward so that the lithe,
+supple body leaned against me and the breath of the dimpling lips was in
+my nostrils.
+
+Just an instant she lay there, with that smile of warm eyes and
+rose-leaf mouth to tantalize me, before she recovered and drew back.
+
+"Not for a thousand dollars a minute," I answered, a trumpet peal of
+indomitable happiness ringing in my heart.
+
+From the wheelhouse Blythe shouted a warning to be careful. His voice
+scarcely reached us through the singing of the wind. I nodded and took
+hold of the little hand that lay close to mine.
+
+"You must be a rich man to value the pleasure of the hour so highly,"
+she answered lightly, with a look quick and questioning at me.
+
+The squall that had flung itself across the waters hit us in earnest
+now. We went down into the yawning troughs before us with drunken
+plunges and climbed the glassy hills beyond to be ready for another
+dive.
+
+"The richest man alive if last night was not a dream."
+
+Our fingers interlaced, palms kissing each other.
+
+"Does it seem to you a dream?" she asked, deep in a valley of the seas.
+
+From the top of the next comber I answered:
+
+"It did until you joined me here, but now I know you belong to me
+forever, both in the land of dreams and waking."
+
+"Did the storm teach you that?"
+
+I looked out at the flying scud and back at the storm-bewitched girl
+with laughter rippling from her throat and the wild joy of a rare moment
+in her eyes.
+
+"Yes, the storm. It brought you to my arms and your heart to mine."
+
+"I think it did, Jack; the wee corner of it that was not yours already."
+
+Her shy eyes fell and I drew her close to me. In the dusk that had
+fallen like a cloak over the ship her lips met mine with the sweetest
+surrender in the world.
+
+So in the clamorous storm our hearts found safe anchorage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SENSE AND NONSENSE
+
+
+The squall passed as suddenly as it had swept upon us, and left in its
+wake a night of stars and moonbeat.
+
+Apparently there was no question of returning the mutineers to the irons
+from which we had freed them. Alderson, Smith, Neidlinger, and Higgins
+were grouped together on the forecastle deck in amiable chat.
+
+Blythe was still at the wheel, and our cheerful friend from the cattle
+country at the piano bawling out the identical chorus I had interrupted
+so ruthlessly just before the first blow of the mutiny was struck.
+
+He was lustily singing as Evelyn and I trod the deck.
+
+"Tom sings as if with conviction. I hope it may not be deep-rooted," I
+laughed.
+
+"If you mean me----"
+
+"I don't mean Miss Berry."
+
+To my surprise she took the words seriously.
+
+"It isn't so, Jack. Say it isn't so."
+
+"Does that mean that it is?" I asked.
+
+"No-o. Only I can't bear to think that our happiness will make anybody
+else unhappy."
+
+"It doesn't appear to be making him unhappy."
+
+"But he doesn't know--yet."
+
+"Then he's really serious? I wasn't quite sure."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"I wish he wasn't. How girls can like to make men fall in love with them
+I can't conceive. He's such a splendid fellow, too."
+
+"He's a man, every inch of him," I offered by way of comfort. "It won't
+hurt him to love a good woman even if he doesn't win her. He'll recover,
+but it will do him a lot of good first."
+
+"Would you feel so complacent if it were you?" she asked slyly, with a
+flash of merry eyes.
+
+We happened to be in the shadow of the smokestack. After the interlude I
+expounded my philosophy more at length.
+
+"He's young yet--at least his heart is. A man has to love a nice girl or
+two before he is educated to know the right one when he meets her. I
+don't pity Yeager--not a great deal, anyhow. It's life, you know," I
+concluded cheerfully.
+
+"Oh, I see. A man has to love a nice girl or two as an educative
+process." Her voice trailed into the rising inflection of a question.
+"Then the right girl ought to thank me for helping to prepare Mr. Yeager
+for her--if I am."
+
+"That's a point of view worth considering," I assented.
+
+"But I suppose she will never even know my name," she mused.
+
+"Most likely not," was my complacent answer.
+
+Whereupon she let me have her thrust with a little purr of amusement in
+her voice.
+
+"Any more than I shall know what nice girls prepared you for me."
+
+"_Touché_," I conceded with a laugh. "I didn't know you were the kind of
+young woman that lays traps for a fellow to tumble into."
+
+"And I didn't know you were a war-worn veteran toughened by previous
+campaigns," she countered gaily. "You've been very liberally educated,
+didn't you say?"
+
+"No, I didn't say. This is how I put it to myself: A boy owes something
+to the nice girls all about him. One would not like to think, for
+instance, that the youths of Tennessee had been so insensible as never
+to have felt a flutter when your long lashes drifted their way," I
+diplomatically suggested.
+
+"How nicely you wrap it up," she said with her low, soft laugh. "And
+must my heart have fluttered, too, for them? Unless it has, I won't be
+properly educated for you, shall I?"
+
+"Ah, that's the difference. You are born perfect lovers, but we have to
+acquire excellence through experience."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+An interjection can sometimes express more than words. My sweetheart's
+left me wondering just what she meant. There was amusement in it, but
+there was, too, a demure suppression to which I had not the key.
+
+She, too, I judged, had known a few love episodes in her life. Perhaps
+she had been engaged before, as is sometimes the custom among Southern
+girls. The thought gave me a queer little stab of pain.
+
+Yeager came out of the deck pavilion as we passed.
+
+"I say, let's have some music, good people."
+
+I looked at my watch.
+
+"My turn at the wheel. Maybe Blythe will join you."
+
+He did. From the pilot-house I could hear his clear tenor and Evelyn's
+sweet soprano filling the night with music. Presently they drifted into
+patriotic songs, in which Tom came out strong if not melodious. But
+when the piano sounded the notes of "Dixie" Evelyn's voice rose alone,
+clear and full-throated as that of a lark.
+
+After being relieved by Alderson I turned in and slept round the clock.
+The tune of drumming engines was in my ears when I woke.
+
+"Sam is making her walk," I thought, and when I reached the deck I
+learned that we had entered the Gulf of Panama. A long, low line showed
+dimly in the foggy distance to the left. We were running parallel with
+it, Prieto Point directly in front of us.
+
+With the exception of the older Fleming, who had been transferred to the
+same cabin as Bothwell, all the crew were at work. Only the true men,
+however, were armed. From the looks cast by the former mutineers toward
+the blurred shore line it was plain that they looked forward to Panama
+with anxiety.
+
+In the canal zone, with the flag of the United States flying to the
+breeze, the law would give them short shrift. We observed that whenever
+their duties permitted it, they drew uneasily together in earnest talk.
+
+Blythe smiled grimly.
+
+"Our friends don't like the wages of sin, now that pay day is at hand.
+I'll give you two to one, Jack, that before an hour is up you'll see a
+delegation to the captain."
+
+He was right. As Sam stepped down from the bridge, having turned the
+wheel over to Alderson, he was approached timidly by Neidlinger and
+Gallagher. Higgins, in partial payment for his share in the revolt, was
+taking a turn at shoveling coal in the stifling furnace room.
+
+Gallagher touched his hat humbly.
+
+"We'd like a word with you, Captain Blythe."
+
+"I thought Bothwell was your captain?"
+
+The sailor flushed.
+
+"No, sir. We're through with him."
+
+"Now that he's a prisoner?" suggested Sam.
+
+"We wish we'd never let him bamboozle us, sir. It would 'a' been a sight
+better for a lot of poor fellows if we'd never seen him. That man's a
+devil, sir."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+As he stood there, a lean brown man straight as a ramrod, efficient to
+the last inch of him, it struck me that the mutineers would get justice
+rather than mercy from our captain.
+
+The sailor moistened his dry lips and went on.
+
+"Captain Blythe, we--we're sorry we let ourselves be led
+into--into----"
+
+Gallagher stumbled for a word. Sam supplied it quietly:
+
+"Mutiny."
+
+"Yes, sir; if you want to put it that way, sir."
+
+"How else can I put it?"
+
+"We were led astray by that man Bothwell, sir. He promised there would
+be no bloodshed. We're sorry, sir."
+
+"I don't doubt it," the Englishman assented dryly.
+
+"Begging your pardon, sir, we asks to be taken back and punished by you.
+Whatever you give us we'll take and not a word out of our heads. Say a
+flogging and we'll thank you kindly, sir. But don't turn us over to the
+law."
+
+"Didn't I tell you what would come of it, Gallagher?"
+
+"Yes, sir; you warned us straight. But that man Bothwell had us
+bewitched."
+
+"If you're taken ashore at Panama you'll be hanged."
+
+"We know that, sir."
+
+Blythe considered for a minute and announced his decision sharply.
+
+"I'll give you another chance--you two and Higgins and young Fleming.
+I'll not let you off scot-free, but your punishment will depend on how
+faithful you are for the rest of the cruise."
+
+Once I saw a man acquitted of murder in a courtroom. The verdict was
+such a relief that he fainted. The captain's unexpected clemency took
+these men the same way, for virtually he had untied the noose from their
+necks. Tears started to their eyes. Plainly they were shaken with
+emotion.
+
+"You'll not regret it, sir. We'll be true to the death, Captain Blythe,"
+the Irishman promised, his white lips trembling.
+
+After Alderson's turn at the wheel came mine. Evelyn presently joined me
+in the pilot-house.
+
+"When shall we get ashore?" she asked me.
+
+We were at the time, I remember, passing Taboga Island.
+
+"Not till morning. We'll have to be inspected. To-night we'll lie in the
+harbor."
+
+"How is your hand?" she asked, glancing at my bruised fingers.
+
+I flashed a look quickly at her.
+
+"My hand! Oh, it's all right now."
+
+"Jimmie's is better, too," she said quietly.
+
+In the language of my boyhood I was up a stump. So I played for time.
+
+"Jimmie's?"
+
+"Yes. I have been taking care of it for him. His fingers were not
+bruised much, though. It's odd, isn't it, that both of you were hurt in
+exactly the same place--by accident?"
+
+I murmured that it was strange.
+
+"So I had a little talk with him," she went on quietly.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"And he told me all about it. Oh, Jack, I didn't think even Boris would
+do a thing like that!" She looked up at me with bright, misty eyes. "I
+asked Gallagher and Neidlinger about it. They both told me how brave you
+were."
+
+"I'm grateful for their certificate of valor," I answered lightly.
+
+Before I knew what she was at my sweetheart had stooped to kiss the
+bruises above my knuckles. I snatched my hand away.
+
+"Don't do that," I said gruffly. "It isn't exactly--you know--right."
+
+"Why not?" She looked at me with head flung back in characteristic
+fashion. "Why not? They suffered for us, the poor, bruised fingers. Why
+shouldn't I honor them with my poor best?"
+
+"Oh, well!" I shrugged, embarrassed by her shining ardor, even though in
+my heart it pleased me.
+
+She came close to me.
+
+"I love you better every day, Jack. You're splendid. Life is going to be
+a great, big thing for me with you."
+
+"Even though we don't find the treasure?" I asked, thrilling with the
+joy of her confession.
+
+"We've found the treasure," she whispered. "I don't give that"--she
+snapped her fingers with a gesture of scorn--"for all the gold that was
+ever buried compared to you, laddie. I just spend my time thanking God
+for you with all my heart."
+
+"But you mustn't idealize me. I'm full of faults."
+
+"Don't I know it? Don't I love your faults, too, you goose? Who wants a
+perfect man?"
+
+"I know, I know."
+
+The wheel was getting very little attention, for my darling was in my
+arms and I was kissing softly her tumbled hair and the shadows under her
+glorious eyes.
+
+"Love is like that. It doesn't want perfection. I care more for you
+because you're always wanting your own way. The tiny, powdered freckles
+on the side of your nose are beauty marks to me."
+
+"You _are_ a goose," she laughed. "But it's true. I've seen lots of
+handsomer men than you--Boris, for example; but I've never seen one so
+good looking."
+
+"And that's just nonsense," I told her blithely.
+
+"Of course it's nonsense. But there is no sense so true as nonsense."
+
+I dare say we babbled foolishly the inarticulate rhapsody all lovers
+find so expressive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE BIG DITCH
+
+
+Darkness had fallen before we dropped anchor in the harbor of Panama. It
+was such a night as only the tropics can produce, the stars burning
+close and brilliant, the full moon rising out of a silent sea. In front
+of us the lights of the city came twinkling out. Behind them lay the
+mystery of conquest.
+
+No spot in all the western hemisphere held so much of romance as this.
+Drake and Pizarro had tarried here in their blustering careers, Morgan
+had captured and burned the city.
+
+Many times in the past centuries the Isthmus had been won and lost, but
+never had such a victory been gained as that our countrymen had secured
+in the past half dozen years.
+
+They had overcome yellow fever and proved that the tropics might be made
+a safe place for the Anglo-Saxon to live. They had driven a sword
+through the backbone of the continent and had built a canal through
+which great liners could climb up and down stairs from one ocean to
+another.
+
+The dream of the centuries had become a reality through the skill and
+resolution with which the sons of Uncle Sam had tackled the big ditch.
+
+It may be guessed how anxious all of us were to get ashore. There was
+little sleep aboard the _Argos_ that night. It was long past midnight
+before any of us left the deck.
+
+The truth is that the yacht had become a prison to us just as it had to
+Bothwell. The thought of a few days on land, where we need not watch
+every moment to keep our throats from being slit, was an enormous
+relief.
+
+But Blythe was taking no chances with the vessel. It had been decided
+among us that either he, Yeager, or I should remain in charge of the
+_Argos_ every minute of our stay.
+
+I had volunteered for the first day and Yeager was to relieve me on the
+second.
+
+All three of us were firmly resolved, though we had not yet broached the
+subject to Evelyn, that the ladies should remain in the canal zone while
+we continued down the coast to lift the treasure.
+
+Before Bothwell was taken ashore he had the effrontery to ask for a talk
+with his cousin. Blythe did not even submit his request to her. Fleming
+and he were removed from the vessel while the ladies were eating
+breakfast with Yeager, so that they did not even know until afterward
+that the men had been turned over to the authorities.
+
+None of the reconstructed mutineers asked for shore leave. Each of them
+knew that if he left the ship he would be liable to arrest for a capital
+offense and preferred to take his chance of any punishment the captain
+might inflict.
+
+The day was an endless one, but it wore away at last. The cattleman was
+to relieve me at breakfast time. I was up with the summer sun and had
+bathed, shaved, and eaten long before the city showed any sign of
+activity around the harbor.
+
+"You'll like Panama," Yeager assured me after he had clambered aboard.
+"It's a city of madmen, plumb daffy about the big ditch. The men can't
+talk anything but cuts, dams, cubic feet, steam plows, and earth slides.
+But, by Moses, when I see what they've done it makes me glad I'm an
+American. Everything is the biggest in the world--the dam, the locks,
+the cuts, the lake, the machinery, the whole blessed works. They've set
+a new mark for the rest of the earth."
+
+"What is Sam doing about getting a crew in place of our precious
+mutineers?" I asked.
+
+"He's picked up several fellows already. A Yankee named Stubbs is chief
+engineer. Sam is shipping Jamaica niggers for firemen."
+
+No schoolboy out for a holiday could have been half so keen to be free
+as I was. At the wharf I picked up a _coche_ and was driven to the
+Tivoli, the hotel in the American quarter where our party was staying.
+
+The mud and the mosquitoes of former years were gone, though the natives
+were as indolent as ever. It is a town of color, due largely to the
+assorted population. I was told by a young engineer from Gatun that
+forty languages are spoken on the Isthmus at present, a condition due to
+the number of Caribbean islanders employed by our government.
+
+I found that the program for the day included a trip to Colon on the
+Isthmus railroad. Miss Berry preferred to rest quietly at the hotel, so
+her niece, Sam, and I set out to see the great canal.
+
+As I look back on it now Panama means to me a series of panoramic
+pictures. To give more than a cursory description of our impressions is
+impossible. The fact is that one obliterated another so swiftly as to
+leave a sense only of confusion.
+
+Take Culebra Cut, for instance, where the monsters of man's invention
+are biting into the mountain sides, ripping down with giant jaws loose
+dirt, and hauling it away on a maze of tracks.
+
+Great hoses, under tremendous pressure, are tearing at hills and
+washing them down. All the time there is a deafening noise, the crash of
+the continent's spine being rent by dynamite, the roar of trains, the
+shrieks of dirt shovels blowing off steam, the stab and hammer of
+drills.
+
+Man is making war on nature with amazing energy on a titanic scale. The
+disorder seemed hopeless, but one realized that these little figures
+moving about it in the man-made cañon were achieving the seemingly
+impossible none the less.
+
+"Isn't it wonderful?" Evelyn asked for the tenth time, as we looked down
+on a machine which had just seized a section of track and hoisted it up,
+rails and ties complete, to swing it over to another place.
+
+I quoted to her Damon Runyon's verses:
+
+    We are ants upon a mountain, but we're leavin' of our dent,
+    An' our teeth-marks bitin' scenery they will show the way we went;
+    We're a liftin' half-creation, and we're changin' it around,
+    Just to suit our playful purpose when we're diggin' in the ground.
+
+"You Americans take the cake," Blythe admitted. "You never tire of doing
+big things."
+
+His eyes had come back to a group of young engineers who had just
+entered the car. The grimy sweat had dried on their sooty faces and
+their hands were black and greasy. They wore no coats and their shirts,
+wet from the perspiration drawn by the hot Panama sun, stuck to the
+muscular shoulders.
+
+They looked like tramps from their attire, but Olympians could not have
+carried in their manner a blither confidence. These boys--I'll swear the
+oldest could have been no more than twenty-five--had undertaken to cut
+asunder what God has joined.
+
+It did not matter to them in the least that they looked like coal
+miners. The only thing of importance was the work, the big ditch. Yet I
+knew that these were just such splendid fellows as our technical schools
+are turning out by thousands.
+
+A few years before their thoughts had been full of cotillions and girls
+and the junior prom. The Isthmus had laid hold of them and hardened
+their muscles and bronzed their faces and given them a toughness of
+fiber that would last a lifetime.
+
+They had taken on responsibility as if they had been born to it. A glow
+of pride in them flushed me. I was proud of the country that could fling
+out by hundreds of thousands such young fellows as these.
+
+Empire, Gorgona, Gatun. From one to another we were hurried, passing
+through jungles such as we of the North never dream exist. In that
+humid climate vegetation is prodigal beyond belief, gorgeous with
+spattered greens and yellows and crimsons bizarre enough to take the
+breath.
+
+We ate luncheon at Colon and were back across the Isthmus at Panama a
+few hours later. After dinner we strolled around the city and saw the
+Parque de la Catedral, the Plaza Santa Ana, and the old sea wall.
+
+It did my heart good to see broad-shouldered, alert young Americans
+walking with wholesome girls from home and making love to them in the
+same fashion their friends were doing up in "God's country."
+
+Bothwell and his bunch of pirates began to lose themselves in the
+background of my mind. There was a dance at the hotel that evening.
+Before I had waltzed twice with Evelyn her buccaneer cousin had
+dissolved into a myth.
+
+When Yeager came ashore next morning he brought a piece of news. Henry
+Fleming had taken a boat during the night and escaped.
+
+"If I run across him I'll curl his hair for him," Tom promised with a
+look that made me think he would keep his word.
+
+But I was not sorry Fleming had taken French leave. Neidlinger could be
+trusted now, and neither Higgins nor Gallagher would go far astray
+without a leader.
+
+But both the engineers had known of Bothwell's plans from the first. If
+I could have foreseen what effect the desertion of our second engineer
+was to have upon the expedition I would not have taken his disappearance
+so easily.
+
+Our stay on the canal zone was a delightful one, though we were busy
+every minute of the time enjoying ourselves or making preparations for
+departure. With some difficulty Blythe picked up two engineers and a
+couple of firemen from Barbados and Jamaica, the latter of whom were
+natives. Philips was to stay at Panama until our return.
+
+I had my share of duty aboard the _Argos_ to do, but every minute that
+was my own I spent in the old city or on the works.
+
+Evelyn surprised us by making no objection to our decree that she should
+remain at Panama while we took the _Argos_ down to San Miguel Bay to
+lift the doubloons. In spite of her courage she was a woman. She
+confessed to me that she had seen bloodshed enough on the way down from
+California to last her a lifetime. The thought of returning so soon to
+the yacht had been a dreadful one to her.
+
+On the afternoon of our last day at Panama, Evelyn and I went out to
+the old sea wall for an hour together. The tide was in and from the
+parapet we watched the waves beat against the foot of the wall.
+
+Away to our right was Balboa, above which rested a smoke pall from tugs,
+dredges, and tramp west coasters. Taboga we could just make out, and
+closer in a group of smaller islands the names of which I have
+forgotten. Beyond them all stretched the endless Pacific.
+
+Evelyn was quieter than usual, but I had never seen her look so lovely.
+The poise of my dear girl's burnished head, the untutored grace of her
+delicate youth, the gleam of tears behind the tremulous smile, all made
+mighty appeal to me.
+
+"I'm afraid for you, Jack. That's the truth of it. We've just found each
+other--after all these years. I don't want to run the risk of losing you
+again." Ever so slightly her voice broke.
+
+"You'll not lose me. Do you think anything could keep me away--with the
+sweetest girl in the world waiting for me here?"
+
+"I know," she smiled, a little drearily. "It sounds foolish, but I think
+of that dreadful man."
+
+We had been following the cement promenade on top of the wall. I led her
+across it to the landward side, from which we could look down into the
+yard of a prison. Under the eyes of an armed guard some prisoners were
+crossing to their cells. Two of them were in stripes, the third was not.
+
+"Look," I told her. "Bothwell is down there, locked up and guarded. He
+can't escape."
+
+The little group below came closer. I had noticed that the prisoner not
+in uniform was a white man and not a native. He carried himself with a
+distinction one could not miss. Even before he looked up both of us knew
+the man was Boris Bothwell.
+
+He stopped in his tracks, white-lipped, a devil of hatred and rage
+burning out of his deep-set eyes. A dullard could not have missed his
+thoughts. He was a prisoner in this vile hole, while I had brought the
+woman he loved to mock at him. The girl and the treasure would both be
+mine. Before him lay no hope.
+
+I felt a sense of shame at being an unexpected witness of his
+degradation. As I started to draw Evelyn back a guard prodded the Slav
+with his bayonet point. Bothwell whirled like a tiger and sprang for the
+throat of the fellow. They went down together. Other guards rushed to
+the rescue of their companion.
+
+We waited to see no more.
+
+It must have been a minute before either of us spoke.
+
+"Bad as he is, I can't help being sorry for him. It's as if a splendid
+lion were being worried to death by a pack of coyotes," Evelyn said with
+a shudder.
+
+"Yes, there's something big even in his villainy. But you may take one
+bit of comfort: He can't get free to interfere with us--and he deserves
+all he'll get."
+
+"I know. My reason tells me that all will be well now, but I have a
+feeling as if the worst were not yet over."
+
+I tried to joke her out of it.
+
+"It hasn't begun. You're not married to Jack Sedgwick yet."
+
+"No; but, dear, I can't get away from the thought that you are going
+into danger again," she went on seriously.
+
+"Tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink," I quoted lightly.
+
+"I dare say I'm a goose," she admitted.
+
+"You are. My opinion is that you're in as much danger as we shall be."
+
+"Is that why you are leaving me here?" she flashed back.
+
+I laughed. In truth I did not quite believe what I had said. For I
+could see no danger at all that lay in wait for her. But the events
+proved that I had erred only in not putting the case strongly enough.
+Before we returned to civilization she was to be in deadly peril.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A MESSAGE FROM BUCKS
+
+
+In the forenoon we drew out from the harbor and followed the shore line
+toward the southwest, bound for that neck of the Isthmus which is known
+loosely as The Darien.
+
+Before night had fallen we were rounding Brava Point into the Gulf of
+San Miguel, so named by Balboa because it was upon St. Michael's Day,
+1513, that his eyes here first fell upon the blue waters of the Pacific.
+
+We followed the north shore, along precipitous banks that grew higher
+the farther inland we went. The dense jungle came down to the water's
+edge and was unbroken by any sign of human habitation.
+
+In the brilliant moonlight we passed the South and the North bays,
+pushing straight into the Darien Harbor by way of the Boco Chico. The
+tides here have a rise and fall of nearly twenty feet, but we found a
+little inlet close to a mangrove swamp that offered a good harborage for
+the night.
+
+The warm sun was pouring over the hill when I reached the deck next
+morning. We were steaming slowly past the village of La Palma along a
+precipitous shore heavily timbered. One could not have asked a
+pleasanter trip than that to the head of the harbor, at which point the
+Rio Tuyra pours its waters into the bay. Between La Palma and the river
+mouth we did not see a sign of human life.
+
+At the distance of a rifle shot from the head of the harbor we rounded a
+point and saw before us a long tongue of sand running into the water.
+
+Blythe and I spoke almost together:
+
+"Doubloon Spit."
+
+There could be no mistake about it. We had reached the place where Bully
+Evans and Nat Quinn had buried the gold ingots they had sold their souls
+to get. We came to anchor a couple of hundred yards from the end of the
+sand spit.
+
+Neither Blythe nor I had said a word to any of the crew to indicate that
+we were near our journey's end, but all morning there had been an
+unusual excitement aboard. Now we could almost see the word run from man
+to man that the spot where the treasure was buried lay before us.
+
+"You'll command the shore party to-day, Jack," Blythe announced.
+
+"Do I draw shore duty?" Yeager asked eagerly.
+
+"You do. I'll stay with the ship. Jack, you'll have with you, too,
+Alderson, Smith, Gallagher, and one of the stokers."
+
+"Also James A. Garfield Welch," I added.
+
+"Also Jimmie," he nodded.
+
+We had no reason to expect any trouble, but we went ashore armed, with
+the exception of Gallagher and Barbados, as we called our white-toothed,
+black-faced fireman.
+
+I had our boat beached at the neck of the peninsula. While the men were
+drawing it up on the sand beyond reach of the tide I called to Jimmie.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+"Take off your coat."
+
+"Are youse going to give me that licking now?" he asked, eyes big with
+surprise.
+
+"How often have I told you not to ask questions? Shuck the coat."
+
+He twisted out of it like an eel. I took it from him, turned it inside
+out, and opened my pocket knife. Carefully I ripped the lining at the
+seams. From a kind of pocket I drew an envelope. Out of the envelope I
+took the map that had been so closely connected with the history of
+Doubloon Spit.
+
+When I say the men were surprised, I do them less than justice. One
+could have knocked their eyes off with a stick.
+
+"Crikey! I didn't know that was there," Jimmie cried.
+
+It had been Evelyn's idea to sew the map in Jimmie's coat, since that
+was the last place the mutineers would think of looking for it. While he
+had been peacefully sleeping Miss Wallace had done so neat a piece of
+tailoring that Jimmie did not suspect the garment had been tampered
+with.
+
+We had, however, taken the precaution to take a copy of the map. During
+all the desperate fighting it had been lying in a shell snugly fitted
+into one of the chambers of a revolver in Yeager's room.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir. Did the boy have the map with him while he was Mr.
+Bothwell's prisoner?" asked Gallagher.
+
+"He did; but he didn't know it."
+
+"Glad he didn't, sir, because if he had that devil would have got it out
+of him."
+
+"Which no doubt would have distressed you greatly," I answered dryly.
+
+"I'm on the honest side now, sir," the sailor said quietly.
+
+"Let's hope you stay there."
+
+"I intend to, sir," he said, flushing at my words.
+
+[Illustration: "CRIKEY! I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS THERE," JIMMIE CRIED.
+p. 240]
+
+The chart that Tom and I looked at was a contour map of the spit and the
+territory adjacent to it. No doubt it had in the old days been roughly
+accurate, but now the tongue of sand was wider than it had been by
+nearly a hundred years of sand deposits washed up by the tide.
+
+Both on the map and the spit a salient feature was the grove of palms
+that stood on the hill just beyond the neck of the peninsula. Here
+plainly was the starting point of our quest. With Yeager I led the way
+to the clump, followed by my men carrying spades and shovels.
+
+"Ye Grove" the clump of palms was labeled, and the great drooping tree
+to one side some fifty yards farther down the hill must be "Ye Umbrela
+Tree."
+
+Beneath the map were the directions for finding the treasure, written in
+the angular hand of Nat Quinn. In order that you may understand I give
+these just as he had written them.
+
+    HOW TO FIND ITTE:
+
+    From inlet nearest shore go 200 paces to summit where Grove is.
+    From most eastern palm measure 12 steps to Ye Umbrela Tree
+    and seven beyond. Take a Be line from here thirty paces throu
+    ye Forked Tree. Here cut a Rite Anggel N. N. E. till Tong of
+    Spit is lost. Cast three long steps Souwest to Big Rock and
+    dig on landward side.
+
+                                    (Sined)
+
+                                    Bully Evans X (His Mark)
+                                    Nat Quinn
+
+While I had been poring over this map and the directions with it in my
+office at San Francisco it had seemed an easy thing to follow them, but
+in this dense, tropical jungle I found it quite another matter.
+
+The vegetation and the underbrush were so rank that one found himself
+buried before he had gone three steps in them.
+
+No doubt at the time when the survivors of the _Mary Ann_ of Bristol had
+cached their ill-gotten doubloons a recent fire had swept this point of
+land so that they had found no difficulty in traversing it, but now the
+jungle was so thick and matted that I decided to begin by cutting roads
+to the palm grove and the umbrella tree.
+
+From the yacht I got hatchets and machetes and we set to work. Before
+night we all had a tremendous respect for the power of resistance
+offered by a Panama jungle. We might almost as well have hacked at
+rubber.
+
+There was none of that sturdy solidity of our northern woods. The jungle
+yields to every blow and springs back into place with a persistence that
+seems devilish. By nightfall we had made so little progress that I was
+discouraged.
+
+To our right there was a mangrove swamp. As we passed its edge on the
+way back to the boat our eyes beheld thousands upon thousands of birds
+coming there to roost for the night. Among them were many aigrette
+herons, white as the driven snow. I think I have never seen a bird so
+striking as this one.
+
+Blythe, with Neidlinger, Higgins, our engineers, and the other fireman,
+took the second day on shore. Morgan was doing the cooking, and so was
+exempt from service. Dugan, still weak from his wound, was helping in
+the galley as best as he could.
+
+All through the third day it rained hard, but on the fourth I and my
+detail were back on the job. We were making progress. By this time a
+path had been cut through to the palm grove and from it to the umbrella
+tree.
+
+It was clear that a century ago the line of palms must have stretched
+farther down the hill, for now the nearest was at least fifty yards from
+the umbrella tree, instead of twelve as mentioned in the directions.
+
+The only alternative to this was that the original umbrella tree had
+disappeared, and this I did not want to believe. At best one of the
+landmarks had gone.
+
+We could go seven paces beyond the big tree, but "beyond" is a vague
+word, the point from which the measurement began having vanished.
+
+Moreover, we encountered here another difficulty.
+
+"Take a Be line from here thirty paces throu ye Forked Tree," we read on
+the chart, but the forked tree had apparently fallen and rotted long
+since. There were trees in the jungle, to be sure, but none of them were
+of sufficient age to have been in existence then.
+
+The best I could do was to guess at the point seven paces beyond the
+umbrella tree and, using it as a center, draw a circle around it at
+thirty paces. Our machetes hacked a trail, and at one point of it we
+crossed the stump of a tree that had been in its day of some size.
+
+The stump had rotted so that one could kick it to pieces with the heel
+of a boot. This might or might not be the remains of the forked tree,
+but since we were working on a chance, this struck us as a good one to
+try.
+
+It was impossible to tell where the fork had been, but we made a guess
+at it and proceeded to follow directions.
+
+"Here cut a Rite Anggel N. N. E. till Tong of Spit is lost."
+
+This at least was specific and definite. North northeast we went by the
+compass, slashing our way through the heavy vines and shrubbery inch by
+inch. We dipped over a hillock and came out of the jungle into the sand
+before the end of the spit was hidden by higher ground.
+
+"Cast three long steps Souwest to Big Rock and dig on landward side."
+
+Three steps to the southwest brought me deeper into the sand. There was
+no big rock in sight.
+
+I looked at Tom. He laughed, as he had a habit of doing when in a
+difficulty.
+
+"I guess we'll have to try again, Jack."
+
+Gallagher broke in, touching his hat in apology:
+
+"Not meaning to butt in, Mr. Sedgwick, but mightn't the rock be covered
+with sand? Give a hundred years and a heap of sand would wash into this
+cove here."
+
+"There's sense in that. Anyhow, we'll try out your theory, Gallagher."
+
+I marked a space about twelve by twelve upon which to begin operations.
+It took us an hour and a half to satisfy ourselves that nothing was
+hidden there.
+
+I marked a second square, a third, and finally a fourth. Dusk fell
+before we had finished digging the last. Tired and dispirited we pulled
+back to the yacht.
+
+During the night it came on to rain again, and for three successive days
+water sluiced down from skies which never seemed empty of moisture.
+There was a gleam of sunshine the fourth day and though the jungle was
+like a shower bath Blythe took his machete and shovel squad to work.
+
+At the end of the day they were back again. Sam had picked on a great
+_lignum vitæ_ as the forked tree named in the chart and had come to
+disappointment, even as I had.
+
+In the end it was Gallagher who set us right. By this time, of course,
+every member of our party had the directions on the chart by heart,
+though several had not read the paper. We had finished luncheon and
+several of the men were strolling about. I was half way through my cigar
+when Gallagher came swinging back almost at a run.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir. Would you mind coming with me?"
+
+"What is it?" I asked in some excitement.
+
+"It may not amount to anything. I don't know. But I thought I'd tell
+you, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+He had been lying down on the sand where it ran back to the jungle from
+the farthest inlet. Kicking idly with his heel he had come to solid
+stone. An examination proved to him that he was lying on a big rock
+covered with sand.
+
+"You think this is the Big Rock," I said, after I had examined it.
+
+"That's my idea. Stand here, sir, at the edge. You can't see the tongue
+of the spit, can you?"
+
+"No, but that doesn't prove anything. We can't see it from this inlet at
+all."
+
+"Sure about that, sir? Take three steps nor'east--long ones. Can you see
+the point now?"
+
+"No, there's a hillock between."
+
+"Take one step more."
+
+I moved forward another yard. Over the top of the rise I could just see
+the sand tongue running into the bay.
+
+Jimmie, the irrepressible, broke out impatiently.
+
+"Don't see what he's getting at, Mr. Sedgwick. The map says to take
+three steps _southwest_ to the big rock."
+
+"Exactly, Jimmie, but we're starting _from_ the big rock, so we have to
+reverse directions. By Jove, I believe you've hit on the spot,
+Gallagher."
+
+I called to Alderson to bring the men with their spades. A tree more
+than a foot thick at the ground had grown up at the edge of the rock. We
+brought this down by digging at the roots. After another quarter of an
+hour's work Barbados unearthed a bottle. He was as proud of his find as
+if it had been a bar of gold.
+
+We were all excited. The bottle was passed from hand to hand.
+
+"We're getting warm," I cried. "This is the spot. Remember that every
+mother's son of you shares what we find. Five dollars to the man that
+first touches treasure."
+
+There was a cheer. The men fell to work with renewed vigor. Presently
+Gallagher's spade hit something solid. A little scraping showed the top
+of an iron box.
+
+"I claim that five, sir," cried Gallagher.
+
+I jumped into the hole beside him. With our hands we scraped the dirt
+away from the sides.
+
+"Heave away," I gave the word.
+
+We lifted the box to the solid ground above. It was very rusty, of a
+good size, and heavy.
+
+"Let's open it now," cried Jimmie, dancing with enthusiasm.
+
+"Let's not," I vetoed. "We'll take it on board first. Five dollars to
+the man that finds the second box."
+
+But there was no second box. We worked till dark at the hole. Before we
+left there was an excavation large enough for the cellar of a house. But
+not a trace of more treasure did we find.
+
+Blythe had decided it best not to open the treasure before the men, and
+though the crew was plainly disappointed we stuck to that resolution.
+
+Sam promised the men that they should see it before we reached San
+Francisco, and that they should appoint two of their number to accompany
+the treasure to the assay office in that city to determine the value of
+our find and their share.
+
+Yeager, being handier with an ax than the rest of us, broke open the lid
+of the chest. A piece of coarse sacking covered the contents. Blythe
+lifted this--_and disclosed to our astonished eyes a jumble of stones
+and sand_.
+
+We looked at our find and at each other. Tom put our feeling into words.
+
+"Bilked, by Moses!"
+
+We tossed the rocks and sand upon the table and came to a piece of
+ragged paper folded in two. In a faint red four words were traced as if
+with the end of a pointed stick.
+
+Sold, you devils! BUCKS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+TREASURE-TROVE
+
+
+Tom broke the silence again.
+
+"Now will some one tell me who the devil is Bucks?"
+
+It was the question in all our minds and our eyes groped helplessly in
+those of each other for an answer.
+
+"Bucks! Bucks! I've heard his name somewhere."
+
+Blythe spoke up like a flash.
+
+"So have I, Jack. He was one of the sailors that took the _Santa
+Theresa_. Quinn gave a list of them in his story. This fellow must have
+escaped somehow when the ship was blown up."
+
+"Or from the gig that set out to pursue the long boat. Perhaps when the
+_Truxillo_ pounded the boat to pieces he swam to shore," I suggested.
+
+"Yes, but Quinn does not mention that Bucks got ashore. That's funny
+too, because he says that he was the only man from the _Santa Theresa_
+left alive after Bully Evans was shot."
+
+"That is queer. But it's plain Bucks _did_ escape. Don't you think it
+might be this way? When he got to shore he ran forward to tell the four
+who had landed with the treasure about the coming of the _Truxillo_. But
+before he reached the top of the hill he heard shots and suspected
+danger. So he stole forward cautiously and saw what had happened to Wall
+and Lobardi. Of course he wouldn't dare show himself then, for he was
+probably unarmed. So he kept hidden while the two survivors buried the
+treasure."
+
+"Of course. Like a wise man too," assented Tom. "And when Quinn and the
+mate had pulled their freights he steps out and buries the gold in
+another place."
+
+"Probably he waited till the _Truxillo_ was out of the harbor," amended
+the Englishman.
+
+"Sure. But the big point that sticks out like a sore thumb is that Bucks
+didn't fool Evans and Quinn, but us. The treasure's gone. That's a
+rock-bottom fact," Yeager commented.
+
+"I'm not so sure about that," I reflected aloud. "Look here. If Bucks
+dug the gold up he had to rebury it somewhere. He had no way of taking
+the doubloons with him. He couldn't have hauled the other boxes far.
+Therefore, it follows that he buried them close to where he found them.
+The one thing we don't know is whether he came back later and got the
+treasure. I'll bet he didn't. The man was a common sailor and had no
+means."
+
+"Even if we give you the benefit of every doubt, the treasure is hidden.
+We don't know where. In a year we might not find it."
+
+"True enough, Sam. And we might stumble on it to-morrow. Look at the
+facts. He was alone, probably superstitious, certainly in fear lest
+Bully Evans might return and find him there. More than that, he had no
+provisions. To get away and reach the Indians to get food would be his
+main thought. It was a case of life and death with him. So you can bet
+he chose easy digging when he transferred the treasure. That means he
+buried it in the sand not far from where he found it."
+
+"You have it figured out beautifully," Sam laughed. "Well, I wish you
+luck."
+
+"But you don't expect any for me. Just you wait and see."
+
+We called the crew in and showed them what we had found, explaining the
+facts and our deductions from them. For we thought it better they should
+know just how matters stood. Their disappointment was keen, but to a man
+they were eager to search further.
+
+Hitherto we had staked our chances for success upon the map, but it was
+now manifest that the chart was no longer of any use. I decided first to
+take a look along the shore from the point where we had discovered the
+first box.
+
+Fortune is a fickle jade. We had spent a week here and met only
+disappointment, working on careful calculations made from the directions
+left by Quinn. By chance Gallagher had hit on the first cache. By chance
+I hit on the second.
+
+Fighting my way through the jungle just adjacent to the beach I stumbled
+over what I took to be a root. In some annoyance I glanced hastily at
+the projection--and then looked again. My foot had been caught by a bone
+sticking out of the ground. The odd thing was that it looked like a
+human bone.
+
+I plied my machete. Within a quarter of an hour I had cleared a small
+square of ground and was digging with a pick. What I presently uncovered
+were the remains of a skeleton. An old sack, more brittle than paper,
+lay beneath these. This I removed. There, lying in the sand, were _three
+bars of gold_.
+
+My heart jumped, lost a beat, hammered furiously. I looked around
+quickly. Alderson and Gallagher were the only men I had brought ashore
+with me. They were digging at haphazard in the sand a hundred yards
+away. With one stroke of the pick I upended several more yellow bars.
+
+That was enough for me. I laid aside the first three and covered the
+others with sand, using my foot as a spade. The three original bars I
+buttoned under my coat and then walked down hill to the beach.
+
+"I'm going aboard," I told the men.
+
+"Gallagher, you may row me out. I'll be back presently, Alderson."
+
+I was under a tremendous suppressed excitement. Blythe met me as I came
+aboard and his eyes questioned mine. Without a word we moved toward the
+bridge pavilion and down into the saloon.
+
+"I've had another message from Mr. Bucks," I told him.
+
+"The deuce you say!"
+
+"He delivered it in person this time."
+
+The Englishman's eyes danced, but otherwise his face was immobile.
+
+"Did he say his name was Bucks?"
+
+"No. I'm not dead sure I have him identified correctly. As Tom would
+say, the brand is worn out."
+
+"I never was any good at riddles," he admitted.
+
+"I stumbled over a thigh bone in the jungle. It was sticking out of the
+ground, where in the course of time the sand had buried the rest of the
+body. I have reason to think it belonged to Bucks because----"
+
+I paused for dramatic effect, my arms folded across my chest to keep the
+treasure from slipping down.
+
+"Just so, because----?"
+
+He was as cool as an iced melon, the drawl in his voice not quickening
+in the least. But his eyes gave away his tense interest.
+
+"Why, because I found a lot of these in the sand, all of them measuring
+up to sample." From under my coat I drew the shining yellow bars and
+handed them to him.
+
+"Gold!" he cried softly. "By Jove, this is a find."
+
+"And a lot more where those came from, or I miss my guess. There is a
+mound there that looks to me like a cache."
+
+"But what was Bucks doing there?"
+
+"That's a guess. Here is mine. It doesn't cost you a cent even if you
+don't accept it. After he had made the cache we'll say that he hiked off
+to try to find a settlement. Very likely he had no idea where to look
+and he found progress through the jungle impossible. After a while he
+wandered back, half starved and exhausted. Perhaps his idea may have
+been that the _Truxillo_ was still on the ground. If so, he may have
+wanted to offer the gold in exchange for his life. Anyhow, back he
+comes, to find that he is too late. The brig has gone. In his delirium
+he has some notion of digging up the treasure to buy food. He gets the
+first sack of bullion up and then quits, too weak to do any more."
+
+"Sounds reasonable enough. The chief point is that you've found the
+gold. I'll order a force ashore to help you."
+
+There is something in the very thought of treasure-trove that unsettles
+the most sane. Not a word was said to anybody except Tom about what I
+had found, but everybody on board was sure the bullion had been found.
+
+Before the eyes of each man danced shining yellow ingots and pieces of
+eight. We could tell it by the eagerness with which they volunteered for
+shore duty.
+
+I chose Yeager, the chief engineer--he was a lank Yankee named
+Stubbs--and Jamaica Ginger, as we called our second fireman. With us we
+took ashore a stout box, in which to pack the loose gold.
+
+Those left on board cheered us as we pulled toward the beach, and we
+answered lustily their cheer. Every man jack of us was in the best of
+spirits.
+
+By this time it was late in the afternoon, but the sun was still very
+hot. I was careful not to let anybody work long at a stretch. As the
+bars of gold were uncovered we packed them in the box brought for the
+purpose. Every time a shovel disclosed a new find there was fresh
+jubilation.
+
+While Alderson and I were resting under the shade of a mangrove the
+sailor made a suggestion.
+
+"You don't expect to get all the treasure out to-night, do you, sir?"
+
+"No. Perhaps not by to-morrow night. It is hard digging among so many
+roots. And Mr. Bucks does not seem to have put it all together."
+
+"Will you keep a guard here, Mr. Sedgwick?"
+
+"Yes. It looks like a deserted neck of the woods, but we'll take no
+chances."
+
+"That is what I was thinking, sir. Last night I couldn't sleep for the
+heat and I strung a hammock on deck. About three o'clock this morning a
+boat passed on its way to the mouth of the river."
+
+"Cholo Indians, likely."
+
+"No, sir. This was a schooner. It was some distance away, but I could
+make that out."
+
+"Well, we'll keep this place under our eye till the treasure is
+lifted."
+
+About sunset I sent Gallagher, Stubbs, and Jamaica Ginger aboard with
+the box of treasure, the Arizonian being in charge of the boat. While I
+waited for its return I took a turn up the beach to catch the light
+breeze that was beginning to stir.
+
+I walked toward the head of the harbor, strolling farther in that
+direction than any of us had yet gone. I went possibly an eighth of a
+mile above the spit, carrying my hat in my hand and moving in a
+leisurely way.
+
+In truth I was at peace with the world. We had succeeded in our quest
+and found the treasure. In a few days at most I should be back at Panama
+with my slim sweetheart in my arms. What more could rational man ask?
+
+Then I stopped in my stride, snatched into a sudden amazement. For there
+before me in the sand was the imprint of a boot made since the tide went
+out a few hours earlier in the day.
+
+No flat-footed Indian had left the track. It was too sharp, too
+decisive, had been left plainly by a shoe of superior make.
+
+No guess of the truth came to me, but instinctively I eased the revolver
+in the scabbard by my side. Of this much I was sure, that whereas I had
+supposed no white man except those of our party to be within many
+miles, there was at least one in the immediate vicinity.
+
+What, then, was he doing here? How had he come? Had he any intimation
+that there was treasure to be found? It was altogether likely that
+whoever this man was he had not come to this desolate spot without
+companions and without a very definite purpose.
+
+Where were they, then? And how did it happen we had not seen them? The
+very secrecy of their presence seemed to suggest a sinister purpose.
+
+Should I go on and follow the tracks. Or should I go back and notify
+Blythe at once? The latter no doubt would be the wiser course, but my
+impulse was to push forward and discover something more definite. As
+luck would have it, the decision was taken out of my hands.
+
+Out of the jungle a man came straight toward me. The very sight of that
+strong, erect figure moving swiftly with easy stride tied, as it were, a
+stone to my heart. The man was Boris Bothwell. I was sure of it long
+before his face was distinguishable.
+
+He waved a hand at me with debonair insouciance.
+
+I waited for him without moving, my fingers on the butt of the revolver
+at my side.
+
+"So happy to meet you again, dear friend," he jeered as soon as he was
+within hail.
+
+"What are you doing here? How did you get out?" I demanded.
+
+"My simple-minded youth, money goes a long way among the natives. I
+bought my way out, since you are curious to know."
+
+"And you've followed us down here to make more trouble?"
+
+"To renew our little private war. How did you guess it?"
+
+"So you haven't had enough yet. You have come back to take another
+licking."
+
+"It's a long lane that has no turning," he assured me gaily. "I give you
+my word that I've reached the bend, Mr. Sedgwick."
+
+His confident audacity got on my nerves. On the surface we had all the
+best of the game. The trouble was that he knew the cards I held, whereas
+I could only guess at his.
+
+"You are the most unmitigated villain not yet hanged!" I cried in rage.
+
+He bowed, rakish and smiling, with all the airs of a dancing master.
+
+"I fear you flatter me, sir."
+
+"I warn you to keep your hands off. We're ready for you."
+
+"I thought it only fair to warn _you_. That is why I am here and have
+the pleasure of talking with you."
+
+"More lies. You showed yourself only because you knew I had seen your
+footprints."
+
+He gave up the point with an easy laugh.
+
+"But really I did want to talk with you. We have many interests in
+common. Our taste in women, for instance. By the way, did you leave Evie
+well?"
+
+Triumph swam in the eyes, narrowed to slits, through which he watched
+me. I could not understand his derisive confidence.
+
+"We'll not discuss that," I told him bluntly.
+
+"As you say. I come to another common interest--the treasure. Is it
+running up to our hopes?"
+
+So he knew that we had found it. No doubt he had been watching us all
+day through the telescope that hung at his side.
+
+"We don't recognize any hopes you may have."
+
+"But why not face facts? I intend to own the treasure when you have dug
+it up for me."
+
+"You're of a sanguine temperament."
+
+"Poof! Life is a game of cards. First you hold trumps, then they fall to
+me. It chances that now I hold the whip and ride on the crest of
+fortune's wave. Hope you don't mind mixed figures."
+
+"You'll ride at the end of the hangman's rope," I prophesied.
+
+"Let us look on the bright side."
+
+"I'm trying to do that."
+
+The man knew something that I did not. I was not bandying repartee with
+him for pleasure, but because I knew that if he talked long enough he
+would drop the card hidden up his sleeve.
+
+What was his ace of trumps? How could he afford to sit back and let us
+dig up the gold? He could not be merely bluffing, for the man had been
+laughing at me from that first wave of the hand.
+
+"It is unfortunate that you and I don't pull together, Mr. Sedgwick.
+We'd make an invincible team. You're the best enemy I ever met."
+
+"And you're the worst I've met."
+
+"Same thing, I assure you. We both mean compliments. But what I want to
+say is that it is against the law of conservation of energy for us to be
+opposing each other. I propose combination instead of competition."
+
+"Be a little more definite, please."
+
+"Chuck your friends overboard and go into partnership with me."
+
+"Are you speaking literally, or in metaphor, captain?"
+
+He shrugged.
+
+"That's a mere detail. If you have compunctions we'll maroon them."
+
+"Just what you promised the crew last time," I scored.
+
+"Wharf rats!" He waved the point aside magnificently. "I'm proposing now
+a gentleman's agreement."
+
+"Which you'll keep as long as it suits you."
+
+"I thought you knew me better."
+
+"What have you to offer? My friends and I can keep the treasure. Why
+should I ditch them for you? What's the _quid pro quo_?"
+
+"You and Evie and I will go shares, third and third alike. The better
+man of us two will marry her. If it should be you, that will give you
+two-thirds."
+
+"You're very generous."
+
+"Oh, I intend to marry her if I can. But I'll play fair. If she has the
+bad taste to prefer you----"
+
+"In the event that I should happen to be alive still," I amended. "You
+know how dangerous yellow fever is in the Isthmus, captain. I am afraid
+that it would get me before we reached the canal zone again."
+
+He chuckled.
+
+"If you have a fault, my friend, it lies on the side of suspicion. When
+I give my word I keep it--that is, when I give it to a gentleman."
+
+"I don't want to lead you into the temptation of revising your opinion
+of me and deciding that I am no gentleman."
+
+"Come, Mr. Sedgwick. We're not two fishwives to split hairs over a
+trifle. I offer a compromise. Do you accept it?"
+
+"You offer me nothing I haven't got already. A share of the
+treasure--that will be mine, anyhow, as soon as we have it assayed and
+weighed."
+
+"You forget Evie."
+
+"Who is safe at Panama, beyond your reach, you scoundrel. Why should I
+fear you as a rival since your life is forfeit as soon as you show your
+head?"
+
+He could not have spoken more insolently himself. It was hot shot, but I
+poured it in for a purpose. The mask fell from his face. One could see
+the devil in his eyes now.
+
+"You reject my offer," he said, breathing hard to repress his rising
+passion.
+
+A second man had come out of the jungle and was moving toward us. It
+was time to be going. I moved back a step or two, my fingers caressing
+the butt of a revolver.
+
+"Yes, since I don't want to commit suicide, captain."
+
+He suddenly lost his temper completely and hopelessly. He glared at me
+in a speechless rage, half of a mind to fight our quarrel out on the
+spot. But the advantage lay with me. All I had to do to blaze away was
+to tilt the point of my revolver at him without drawing it from the
+scabbard. Then words came, poured out of him in a torrent. He cursed me
+in Russian, in French, in English.
+
+I backed from him, step by step, till I was out of range. Then, swiftly
+as his rage had swept upon him it died away, leaving him white and
+shaken. He leaned heavily upon the man who had now joined him.
+
+Unless I was much mistaken the man was George Fleming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ABOARD THE SCHOONER
+
+
+Dignity be hanged! I scudded down the beach as fast as my legs would
+carry me. Alderson had been left alone at the cache and my heart was in
+my throat.
+
+When I saw him strolling about with his hands in his pockets I could
+have shouted for joy if I had had the breath. For I had half expected to
+find him dead.
+
+He came forward quickly to meet me.
+
+"A tug rounded the bend five minutes since and stopped at the yacht, Mr.
+Sedgwick," he told me.
+
+I looked out into the bay. A boat was just leaving the _Argos_ for the
+shore. At the point where the sailors presently beached it I was
+waiting. Blythe jumped out and splashed through the shallow water to
+meet me. From the look on his face it was clear that something had gone
+wrong.
+
+Taking me by the arm he led me a few yards along the sand.
+
+"Bad news, Jack."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Miss Wallace was waylaid and kidnaped four days ago while she and her
+aunt were driving."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Miss Berry sent Philips down in a tug to let us know. But that is not
+the worst. The day before the kidnaping Bothwell escaped from prison. It
+is thought that his guards were bribed."
+
+I saw in a flash the cause of the Slav's gloating triumph. Evelyn was
+his prisoner. He had her safely hidden somewhere in the mangrove swamps.
+
+We might dig the treasure up, but we would have to give him every cent
+of it in ransom for her. That was his plan, and in it lay the elements
+of success. For Blythe and Yeager, no more than I, would weigh gold
+against her safety.
+
+We knew Bothwell. His civilization was a veneer. Disappointed of the
+wealth he had come seeking, the man would revenge himself on the girl
+who had stood in his way. I dared not think of the shame and degradation
+he would make her suffer.
+
+I told Blythe of my meeting with Bothwell.
+
+My face must have been ashen, for Sam put a hand on my shoulder.
+
+"Keep a stiff upper lip, old chap. Bothwell won't hurt her until he is
+pushed to it. Before that time comes we'll take care of her."
+
+"That's easy saying. But how? That prince of devils has her back there
+in the swamps guarded by his ruffians. We don't know where they are.
+This very minute she may be---- My God, think of the danger she runs!"
+
+Blythe shook his head.
+
+"She's safe till Bothwell gives the word. Not one of his fellows would
+dare lift a hand against her. The captain would shoot him like a dog."
+
+"And Bothwell himself?"
+
+"She's safe yet, Jack. He's playing for the treasure and to marry her,
+too. The man is not such a fool as to kill the goose that lays the
+golden eggs. The hour of danger for her would be the one when he found
+out that he had lost the treasure."
+
+"Let's give it to him. I'll go tell him he may have it all."
+
+"Easy, lad, easy. We must play our cards and not throw the hand down. We
+must get hold of the treasure before we can make terms."
+
+"And let Evelyn stay in his hands without making an effort to free her?"
+I demanded.
+
+"Did I say that, Jack?"
+
+"What are you going to do, then?"
+
+"As soon as night falls we'll send a boat up the river to find out where
+his camp is. We'll make a reconnaissance."
+
+"I'll go."
+
+"Don't you think somebody less impetuous would be better, Jack? We don't
+want to spoil things by any premature attack."
+
+"I'm going, Sam. That's all there is to say about that."
+
+"All right. If you are, you are. But you'd better let me."
+
+"You may come along if you like."
+
+"No, if you go I'll have to stay by the ship against a possible attack.
+Tom will have charge of the party that watches the treasure. The deuce
+of it is that our force will be divided into three. I hope Bothwell does
+not take the occasion to make mischief."
+
+Within the hour the tug that had brought Philips steamed back down the
+harbor on the return trip to Panama. With it we sent Jimmie and the
+steward. Dugan flatly declined to go, and since his wound was almost
+healed the captain let him stay.
+
+This left us fourteen men, counting the former mutineers and the native
+stokers. To go with me on my night expedition I chose Alderson and
+Smith. The guard for the treasure cache consisted of Yeager, Gallagher,
+Barbados and Stubbs. The rest were to remain with the ship.
+
+The tide was coming in when we pulled from the _Argos_ toward the mouth
+of the Tuyra. The wash of the waves made it unnecessary for us to take
+any precautions to muffle the sound of our oars and the darkness of the
+night made detection at any distance improbable.
+
+One difficulty we did encounter. For the first few hundred yards of our
+journey up the river we disturbed some of the numberless birds which had
+settled for the night on the trees close to the banks. The flapping of
+their wings gave notice of our approach as plainly as if a herald had
+shouted it.
+
+We carried no light. The heavy tropical jungle growth on the mud flats
+which extended on both sides of the river helped to increase the
+darkness. Our progress was slow, for we had to make sure that we did not
+slip past without noticing the schooner that had brought the pirates
+down from Panama.
+
+The sound of voices on the water warned us that we were approaching the
+boat of which we were in search. Very cautiously, keeping close to the
+bushes along the shore, we drew near the schooner which began to take
+dim shape in the darkness.
+
+The tide was still strong, and it carried our boat across the bow of the
+schooner. The anchor chain was hanging and served to hold us in place,
+though with each lift of the tide I was afraid those on board would hear
+us grind against her side. Intermittently the voices came to us, though
+we could make out no words.
+
+We were in a good deal of danger, for any minute one of the crew might
+saunter to the side of the vessel and look over. It was plain to me that
+we could not stay here. Either we must go forward or back.
+
+Now back I would not go without finding whether Evelyn was here, and to
+try to board the schooner in attack would be sheer madness. My mind
+caught at a compromise.
+
+I whispered to Alderson directions, and when the jibboom of the schooner
+came down with the next recession of a wave I swung myself to it by
+means of the chain, using the stays to brace my foot.
+
+Here I lay for a minute getting my bearings, while the sailors in the
+boat below backed quietly out of sight among the shore bushes that
+overhung the banks.
+
+So far as I could see the deck was deserted. Carefully I edged on to the
+bowsprit, crept along it, and let myself down gently to the deck. I
+could see now that men were lying asleep at the other end of the vessel.
+
+One was standing with his back toward me beside the mizzen-mast. From
+his clothes I guessed the watch to be a native.
+
+The voices that had come to us across the water still sounded, but more
+faintly than before I had come on board. Evidently they were from below.
+
+Probably the speakers were in a cabin with the porthole open. I could
+not be sure, but it struck me that one of them was a woman. My
+impression was that she pleaded and that he threatened, for occasionally
+the heavier voice was raised impatiently.
+
+From its scabbard I drew my revolver and crept forward in the shadow of
+the bulwarks. My life hung on a hair; so too did that of the watchman
+drowsing by the mast. If he looked up and turned I was lost, and so was
+he.
+
+Foot by foot I stole toward the forecastle ladder, reached it, and
+noiselessly passed down the stairs.
+
+I say noiselessly, yet I could hear my heart beat against my ribs as I
+descended. For I knew now that the voices which came from behind the
+closed door of the cabin to my right belonged to my sweetheart and to
+Boris Bothwell.
+
+"Not I, but you," he was saying. "I'm hanged if I take the
+responsibility. If you had trusted me we might have lifted the gold
+without the loss of a drop of blood."
+
+"You are so worthy of trust!" Evelyn's voice answered with bitterness.
+
+"Have you ever known me to break my word? But let that pass. You chose
+to reject my love and invite that meddler Sedgwick into our affairs.
+What is the result? What have you gained?"
+
+"A knowledge of the difference between the love of a true man and that
+of a false one," she answered quietly.
+
+"A true man! Oh, call him a fool and be done with it."
+
+"Perhaps, but I could love such folly."
+
+He seemed to strangle his irritation in his throat.
+
+"A lot of good it will do! You belong to me. That is written in the book
+of your life, and what is to be will be. And I'll get the treasure,
+too."
+
+"Never! You call them fools, but they have outwitted you from start to
+finish."
+
+"They've pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for me, if that is what
+you mean."
+
+"And as for me, I'm only a girl, but I swear before Heaven I'd rather
+sink a knife into my heart than give myself to you."
+
+He clapped his hands ironically with a deep laugh like the bay of a
+wolf.
+
+"Bravo! Well done! You'd make a fortune in tragedy, Evie. But dramatics
+apart, you may make up your mind to it. I'm your master, and before
+twenty-four hours shall be your mate. Why else have I brought this
+broken wretch of a priest along, but to tie the knot in legal fashion?
+I'm a reasonable man. Since you have a taste for the conventional and
+decorum you shall have them. But priest or no priest, willy nilly, mine
+you are and shall be."
+
+"You think everybody is a fool but yourself. Can't I see why you want
+the marriage? It's not to please me, but through me to give you a legal
+claim on the treasure."
+
+"Why do you always stir up the devil in me? I love you. I want to please
+you. I'll treat you right if you'll let me."
+
+"Then send me back to the yacht, Boris. I'll give my word to divide the
+treasure with you. My friends will do as I say. You don't want to break
+my heart, do you? Think of all the dreadful murder that has been done by
+you."
+
+"Not by me, but by you and your friends. I offered to compromise and
+you would not. Now it is too late. No, by God! I'll play the game out to
+a fighting finish."
+
+She gave a sobbing little cry.
+
+"Have you no heart?"
+
+His voice fell a note. He moved close to her.
+
+"_Cherie_, you have stolen it and hold it fast in this little palm I
+kiss!"
+
+By the sounds from within she must have struggled in vain. I told
+myself:
+
+"Not yet, not yet!"
+
+"In such fashion my ancestor Bothwell wooed Mary Queen of Scots. Fain
+she would, but dare not. She knew he was a man and a lover out of ten
+thousand, and though her heart beat fast for him she was afraid. She
+fled, and he followed. For he was a lover not to be denied, though a
+king must die to clear the road. So it is with Boris, my queen."
+
+"You mean----?"
+
+The catch in her voice told me she breathed fast.
+
+He laughed, with that soft boisterousness that marked his merriment.
+
+"Your mad Irishman is no king, but he has crossed my path enough. Next
+time he dies."
+
+"Because he has tried to serve me!"
+
+"Because he is in my way. Reason enough for me."
+
+The door knob was in my hand. All I had to do was to open it and shoot
+the man dead. But what after that? His men would swarm down and murder
+me before the eyes of my love. And she would be left alone with a pack
+of wolves which had already tasted blood.
+
+It was the hardest ordeal of my life to keep quiet while the fellow
+pressed his hateful suit, pushed it with the passionate ardor of the
+Slav, regardless of her tears, her despair, and her helplessness.
+
+For an hour--to make a guess at the time--she fought with all the
+weapons a woman has at command, fending him off as best she could with
+tears and sighs and entreaties.
+
+Then I heard a man stumbling down the ladder and moved aside. If he
+should turn my way I was a dead man, for he must come plump against me.
+He knocked on the door of the cabin.
+
+Bothwell opened and whispered with him a moment, then excused himself to
+his cousin, locked the door, and followed the sailor up to the deck.
+
+I unlocked the door softly and walked into the cabin. By the dim light
+of a hanging lantern I made out a rough room furnished only with two
+bunks, one above the other, a deal table, and two cheap chairs.
+
+Evelyn had not heard me enter. She was standing with her back to me,
+leaning against the woodwork of the bed, her face buried in one arm.
+Despair and weariness showed in every line of the slight, drooping
+figure.
+
+She must have heard me as I moved. She turned, the deep shadowy eyes
+gleaming with fear. Never have I seen the soul's terror more vividly
+flung to the surface.
+
+I suppose that for a moment she could not believe that it was I, and not
+Bothwell. Perhaps she thought the ghost of me had come to say farewell
+to her.
+
+She stared at me out of a face from which the color was gone, the great
+eyes dilating as the truth came home to her. From her throat broke a
+startled, stifled little cry.
+
+"You!"
+
+I took her in my arms and her tired body came to me. The sensitive mouth
+trembled, the eyes closed, a shiver of relief passed through her. She
+clung to me as a frightened child does to its mother, burying her soft
+cheeks on my shoulder.
+
+Then came sobs. The figure of my love rocked. The horror of what she had
+been through engulfed her as she told me her story in broken words, in
+convulsive shivers, in silence so poignant that they stabbed my heart
+like a needle.
+
+It was such a tale as no girl should have to tell, least of all to the
+man she loves. But I had come in time--I had come in time. The knowledge
+of that warmed me like champagne.
+
+I whispered love to her as I kissed in a passion of tenderness the
+golden hair, the convolutions of the pink ears, the shadows beneath the
+sad, tired eyes.
+
+"Tell me, how did you come?" she begged.
+
+I told her, in the fewest possible words, for it might be that our time
+was brief. Briefly I outlined a plan for her rescue.
+
+I would send Alderson and Smith back for aid and would hide somewhere in
+the vessel during their absence, to be ready in case she needed help.
+
+When Blythe arrived I would join her and barricade the cabin to protect
+her until our friends had won the ship.
+
+"But if he should find you before----"
+
+I said then what any man with the red blood of youth still running
+strong in his veins would say to the woman he loves when she is in
+peril. Let it cost me what it would I was going to free her from these
+wolves.
+
+Her deep eyes, soft with love, aglow with an adorable trust, met mine
+for a long instant.
+
+"Do as you will, dear. But go now--before any one comes. And--God with
+us, Jack!"
+
+Her arm slid round my neck, she drew my face down to hers, and kissed me
+with a passion that I had not known was in her.
+
+"Remember, Jack--if I never see you again--no matter what happens--I
+love you, dearest, for ever and ever."
+
+She whispered it brokenly, then pushed me from her toward the door.
+
+The last glimpse I had of her she was standing there in the shadows,
+like a divine incarnation of love, her eyes raining upon me the soft
+light that is the sweetest glimpse of heaven given to a man in this
+storm-battered world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A RAT IN A TRAP
+
+
+I groped my way forward in the darkness till I came to a room used for
+storing purposes. Well up near the beams was a porthole. Too high for
+me to reach, I presently found a large box which I upended cautiously
+until it lay beneath the port. Standing on this I could look through
+into the heavy foliage of the bushes projecting from the shore.
+
+Except for the lapping of the waves the night was very still. The moon
+rode low in the sky. A fan-shaped wedge of light silvered the inky
+river.
+
+I gave the signal agreed upon between me and my men, but no answering
+flash of white replied to the wave of my handkerchief. Again I shook the
+piece of linen from the porthole, and at intervals for fully five
+minutes.
+
+Did Alderson see me? Or was there a reason why he could not answer? It
+was impossible they could have been captured without some sound having
+reached me. Nor was it more likely that they had deserted their post.
+
+The bushes stirred at last and the bow of a boat pushed through. Smith
+stood up so that his face was just below mine. His finger was on his
+lips.
+
+"Couldn't come any sooner, sir. Captain Bothwell was leaning over the
+rail smoking a cigarette. I wonder he didn't see your handkerchief," he
+whispered.
+
+I gave him orders concisely and the men backed the boat till the bushes
+hid them. For me there was nothing left to do but wait. How long it
+might be before Blythe would get back with a rescue party I could not
+tell. The men in the boat would not dare to stir from their hiding-place
+until the moon went under a cloud.
+
+The tide must now be at the full, so that it would be running out strong
+before they got started. This would carry them swiftly back to the bay.
+
+I found myself giving my friends two hours as a minimum before they
+could return to me. At the worst they should be here within four, unless
+my messenger met with bad luck.
+
+But what about Bothwell? Would he force my hand before Blythe arrived? I
+thought it very likely. There is something in the tropical air that
+calls to the passion of a man, and reduces his sense of law till
+restraint ebbs away.
+
+In Bothwell's case desire and interest went together. He was a criminal
+on more than one count, but the charges against him would in a measure
+fall to the ground if he could drive Evie to marry him.
+
+Once she was his wife the kidnaping charge would not stick, and even his
+black record on the _Argos_ could be made to appear the chivalry of a
+high-minded man saving the woman he loved from her enemies.
+
+Moreover, his claim to the treasure would then be a valid one. The man
+was no fool. What he did must be done quickly. There lay before him one
+safe road. Since that was the path he desired above all things to
+follow, it was sure he would set out on it without delay.
+
+Her scruples had hitherto held him back, because it would be better she
+should come of her own accord to him. But these could not hold him many
+hours longer.
+
+The masterful insistence of the man had told me that, but no more
+plainly than his mounting passion.
+
+I sat down on the box and waited. In that dark, stuffy hole the heat was
+intense. The odor of food decomposing in the moisture of the tropics did
+not add to my comfort.
+
+Sitting in cushioned chairs in club rooms with a surfeit of comfort
+within reach, men have argued in my presence that there is no such thing
+as luck. Men win because of merit; they fail only if there is some lack
+in themselves.
+
+This is a pleasant gospel for those who have found success, but it does
+not happen to be true. Take my own case here. How could I foresee that a
+barefooted, half-naked black cook would come into the storeroom to get a
+pan of rice for next day's dinner?
+
+Or, as I lay crouched beside a box in the shadows beyond the dim circle
+illumined by his candle, how could I know whether it were best to
+announce myself or lie still?
+
+I submit that the part of wisdom was to let the fellow go in peace, and
+this I did.
+
+But as he turned the light for an instant swept across me. He gave a
+shriek and flung away both the candle and the pan of rice, bolting for
+the door. I called to him to stop. For answer he slammed the door--_and
+locked it_. Nor did my calls stay the slap of his retreating feet. I was
+caught fast as a rat in a trap.
+
+I certainly had spilt the fat into the fire this time. Inside of five
+minutes the passage outside was full of men. But during that time I had
+been an active Irishman. In front of me and around me I had piled a
+barrier of boxes and barrels.
+
+"Who's in there?" Bothwell called.
+
+I fired through the door. Some one groaned. There was a sudden scurry of
+retreating footsteps, followed by whisperings at the end of the passage.
+These became imperative, rose and fell abruptly, so that I judged there
+was a division of counsel.
+
+Presently Bothwell raised his voice and spoke again.
+
+"We've got you, whoever you are. My friend, you'll have a sick time of
+it if you don't surrender without any more trouble. Do you hear me?"
+
+He waited for an answer, and got none. I had him guessing, for it was
+impossible to know how many of us might be there. Moreover, there was a
+chance of working upon the superstition of the natives among the crew.
+The cook had very likely reported that he had seen a ghost.
+
+Except a shot out of the darkness no sound had come from me since. So
+long as I kept silent the terror of the mystery would remain. Was I man
+or devil? What was it spitting death at them from the black room?
+
+"We're going to batter that door down," went on Bothwell, "and then
+we're going to make you wish you'd never been born."
+
+The voices fell again to a whispered murmur. Soon there would be a rush
+and the door would be torn from its hinges. I made up my mind to get
+Bothwell if I could before the end.
+
+Above the mutterings came clearly a frightened soprano.
+
+"What is it, Boris? What are you going to do?"
+
+Evelyn had come out of her room to try to save me.
+
+"Just getting ready to massacre your friend," her cousin answered
+promptly.
+
+"Mr. Sedgwick?"
+
+Terror shook in the voice that died in her throat.
+
+Bothwell bayed deep laughter.
+
+"O-ho! My friend from Erin once more--for the last time. Come out and
+meet your welcome, Sedgwick."
+
+"Suppose you come and take me," I suggested.
+
+"By God, I will! Back with you into that room, girl."
+
+A door slammed and a key turned.
+
+Still the rush did not come. I waited, nerves strung to the highest
+pitch. One could have counted sixty in the dead silence.
+
+I knew that some devilish plan had come to the man and that he was
+working out the details of it in his mind.
+
+"Say the word, Cap," Fleming called to him impatiently.
+
+"Not just yet, my worthy George. We'll give the meddler an hour to say
+his prayers. But I'm all for action. Since it isn't to be a funeral just
+yet, what do you say to a marriage?"
+
+"I don't take you."
+
+"H-m! Hold this passage for a few minutes, George. You'll see what you'll
+see."
+
+A key turned in a lock. When I heard his voice again the man had stepped
+inside the cabin used by Evelyn. It lay just back of the storeroom and
+the portholes of the two rooms were not six feet apart. Every word that
+was said came clearly to me.
+
+"So you thought you'd trick me, my dear--thought you'd play a smooth
+trick on your trusting cousin. Fie, Evie!"
+
+"What are you going to do to Mr. Sedgwick?" she demanded.
+
+"There's been some smooth work somewhere. I grant you that. How the
+devil did he get aboard here? He didn't come alone. If he did, what has
+become of the boat? Speak up, _m'amie_."
+
+"Do you think I'd tell you even if I knew?" she asked scornfully.
+
+He laughed softly, with diabolical enjoyment.
+
+"I think you would--and will. I have ways to force open closed mouths,
+beloved."
+
+"You would--torture me?"
+
+"If it were necessary," he admitted coolly.
+
+She answered in a blaze of defiance.
+
+"Get out your iron cubes for my fingers, you black-hearted villain!"
+
+"Not for your soft fingers, _ma cherie_. I kiss them one by one as a
+lover should. Shall we say for your friend's fingers? If you won't talk,
+perhaps he will."
+
+"Are you all tiger, Boris? Isn't there somewhere in your heart a spark
+of manhood?" she sobbed, her spirit melted at my danger.
+
+"Rhetorical questions, Evie. Shall we come to business? How did your
+soon-to-be-deceased lover come on board? Who brought him? What were his
+plans?"
+
+"If I tell you, will you spare him?" she begged.
+
+"I'll promise this," he assured her maliciously. "If you don't tell I'll
+not spare him."
+
+She told all she knew except my plan of rescue. As soon as she mentioned
+the boat in which I had come the fellow hurried up on deck to intercept
+it.
+
+I could hear a boat scraping against the side of the schooner as it was
+being lowered. Fleming and two others got in and paddled back and forth
+among the bushes. They found nothing.
+
+My friends had managed to slip away unseen and were headed for the
+_Argos_. You may believe that I wished them a safe and speedy voyage.
+
+Bothwell came down the forecastle ladder swearing. He went straight to
+Evelyn. Before he opened the door he was all suavity once more.
+
+"They've got away this time. Just as well perhaps. We'll be able to
+concentrate our attention on the wedding festivities. Can you be ready
+in half an hour, dear heart?"
+
+"Ready for what?" The words choked in her throat.
+
+"To make your lover a happy man. This is our wedding night, my dear."
+
+"Never! I'd rather lie at the bottom of the bay. I wouldn't marry you to
+save my life."
+
+"H-m! You exaggerate, as is the manner of your charming sex. Now I'll
+wager that you'd marry me to save--why, to save even that meddling
+Irishman who is listening to our talk."
+
+She strangled a little cry of despair.
+
+"Why do you hate him so? Is it because he is so much better and braver
+than you?"
+
+"I don't hate him. He annoys me. So I step on him, just as I do on this
+spider."
+
+"Don't, Boris. I'll give you all my share of the treasure. I'll forgive
+you everything you've done. I'll see that you're not prosecuted. Be
+merciful for once."
+
+"Don't get hysterical, Evie. Sedgwick understands he has got to pay. He
+took a fighting chance and he has lost. It's all in the game." The
+villain must have looked at his watch, and then yawned. "Past 10:30.
+Excuse me for a half hour while I settle your friend's hash. Afterward
+I'll be back with the priest."
+
+"No--no! I won't have it. Boris, if you ever loved me--Oh, God in
+heaven, help me now!"
+
+I think that in her wild despair she had flung herself on her knees in
+front of him. Her voice shook, broke almost into a scream.
+
+"Are these--dramatics--for yourself or for him?" Bothwell asked with a
+sneer.
+
+"Don't kill him! Don't! I'll do whatever you say."
+
+"Will you marry me--at once--to-night?"
+
+I spoke up from the porthole where I was listening.
+
+"No, she won't, you scoundrel! As for me, I'd advise you to catch your
+hare before you cook it."
+
+"I'm on my way to catch it now, dear Sedgwick, just as soon as I break
+away from the lady," he called back insolently.
+
+"I'll--marry you." The words came from a parched throat.
+
+"To-night," he demanded.
+
+"Not to-night," she begged. "When we get back to Panama."
+
+"No. I'm not going to give you a chance to welch. Now--here--on this
+schooner."
+
+"Not to-night. I'm so--weary and--unstrung. I'll do whatever you say,
+but--give me time to--to--Oh, I'm afraid!"
+
+"Bothwell, you cur, come in here and you and I will see this out to a
+finish!" I cried in helpless fury.
+
+"Presently, my dear Sedgwick. I'll be there soon enough, and that's a
+promise. But ladies first. You wouldn't have me delay my wedding, would
+you?"
+
+I flung myself against the door repeatedly and tried to beat it down,
+but my rage was useless. The lock and the hinges held. Back I went to my
+porthole.
+
+"Evelyn, are you there?"
+
+"Yes," came the answer in a choked voice.
+
+"Don't do it. What are you thinking of? I'd rather die a hundred deaths
+than have you marry him."
+
+"I must, Jack. If you should be killed--and I could have prevented
+it---- Oh, don't you see I must?"
+
+The words were wrung from her in a cry, as if she had been a tortured
+child.
+
+"Of course she must. But why make a tragedy of it? By Heaven, you wound
+my vanity between the pair of you. Am I not straight--as good a man as
+my neighbor--still young? Come, let us make an end of the
+heavy-villain-and-hero business. You, my dear Sedgwick, shall stand up
+and give the bride away. That is to say, you shall stand at your
+porthole. You'll find rice in a sack to scatter if you will. We want you
+to enjoy yourself. Don't we, Evie?" Bothwell jeered blithely.
+
+"You devil from hell!"
+
+"Pooh! Be reasonable, man. We can't both marry the maid, and by your
+leave I think the best man wins. Abrupt I may be, but every _Katherine_
+is the better for her _Petruchio_." He turned to her, dropping his irony
+for tones of curt command. "I'll be back in twenty minutes with the
+parson. Be ready then."
+
+With that he turned on his heel and left, locking the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+A RESCUE
+
+
+Even now when it is only a memory I do not like to look back upon that
+twenty minutes. My poor girl was hysterical, but decided. Neither
+argument nor entreaty could move her from her resolution to save my
+life, no matter what the cost. I pleaded in vain.
+
+"I can't let you die, Jack--I can't--I can't." So she answered all my
+appeals, with a kind of hopeless despair that went straight to my heart.
+
+Through my remonstrances there broke a high-pitched voice jabbering
+something in Spanish of a sort. The sound of running footsteps on the
+deck above came to us. Some one called a warning.
+
+"Keep back there or we'll fire!"
+
+Then my heart leaped, for across the water came the cool, steady voice
+of Blythe.
+
+"My man, I want to talk with Bothwell."
+
+More feet pattered back and forth on the deck, and among the hurrying
+steps was one sharp and strong.
+
+"Good evening, Captain Blythe. You're rather late for a call, aren't
+you? Mr. Sedgwick was in better time. We have to thank him for an hour's
+pleasant entertainment."
+
+I recognized the voice as belonging to Bothwell.
+
+"If you've hurt a hair of his head I'll hold you personally to account.
+Unless you want me to board your schooner you will at once release Mr.
+Sedgwick and Miss Wallace."
+
+"Miss Wallace has practically ceased to exist," the Russian drawled.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I shall have the honor to send you cards, captain. Miss Wallace has
+become my wife."
+
+I stuck my head out of the porthole and shouted. "That's a lie, Sam.
+You're just in time to save her."
+
+"Are you a prisoner, Jack?"
+
+"Yes. So is she. In the next cabin." Some one stepped quickly across the
+deck and leaned over the rail above me. Bothwell's dark face looked down
+into mine. He leveled a revolver at my head and fired just as I drew
+back.
+
+That shot served as a signal for the attack. Bullets sang back and
+forth, some from the schooner, others from the boats of my friends.
+
+As for the battle, I saw from my porthole only the edge of it, and that
+but for a few moments as a boat full of men swept forward. Someone was
+firing with a rifle, while the others put their backs to the oars.
+
+Presently the boat swept round the bow of the schooner and was lost to
+my view. But I could hear the firing of guns, the trampling of men
+above, and from their words could tell that the attackers were keeping
+their distance, even though they were firing pretty steadily from the
+cover of the shore bushes.
+
+I must confess that Blythe's method of attack surprised me. How many men
+Bothwell had I did not know, but it was plain to me that the only way to
+take the ship was to rush it. We might fire at long distance for a week
+without doing more than keep them busy.
+
+That I was wild to be free and in the thick of it may be guessed.
+Knowing as I did how matters stood between Evelyn and her cousin, I saw
+that she must be rescued at once to prevent the unholy marriage the Slav
+planned.
+
+Strange that Sam could not see this and that he had not led a more
+dashing attempt at succoring the girl.
+
+Three taps on the door of my prison jerked me round as if I had been
+pulled by a string. My revolver was in my hand. The door opened slowly
+and let in a man.
+
+"That's far enough. What do you want?" I asked brusquely.
+
+"S-sh! It's me, Mr. Sedgwick. Are you in irons?"
+
+It was Gallagher. If I had been a Frenchman I would have kissed his ugly
+old mug for the sheer pleasure of seeing it. I knew now that Blythe had
+kept up the long distance fusillade in order to distract the attention
+of the defenders while Gallagher had crept close from the shore side.
+
+I ran forward.
+
+"Where is your boat?"
+
+"Hidden in the bushes. Alderson is with it. Where is the lady, sir?"
+
+In another minute Evelyn was free and standing with us in the passage. I
+noticed that the fire of the attackers had grown more rapid. The sound
+seemed closer. The demonstration was taking on the appearance of a real
+boarding expedition.
+
+We climbed the forecastle ladder. I led the way, revolver in hand. From
+where I stood, a few steps from the top of the ladder, my eyes could
+sweep the forward deck.
+
+Bothwell, the Flemings, and perhaps half a dozen dark-skinned sailors
+were crouching behind the bulwarks, raising their heads above the rail
+only to shoot.
+
+A constant crackling of small arms filled the air. The boats had crept
+nearer and were pouring a very steady fire upon the defenders.
+
+The forward movement was only a diversion under cover of which we might
+have a chance to escape, but it was being executed with so much
+briskness and spirit that Bothwell could not guess its harmless nature.
+
+At my signal the sailor led Evelyn quickly toward the poop. With my eyes
+over my left shoulder I followed at their heels. We had all but reached
+the stern when I heard the smack of a fist and turned in time to see a
+Panama peon hit the deck full length.
+
+He had been hurrying forward and had caught sight of us. His mouth was
+open to shout an alarm at the time the Irishman's fist had landed
+against the double row of shining teeth.
+
+The fellow rolled over and was up like an acrobat. But my revolver,
+pointing straight at his stomach, steadied him in an instant.
+
+"Don't move or shout," I warned.
+
+From the bushes Alderson had been waiting for us and his boat was in
+place. He flung up a rope ladder with grappling hooks on the end.
+Gallagher fixed them to the rail and helped Evelyn down.
+
+"You next," I ordered.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Your turn now, Sambo," I told the peon after the sailor had gone.
+
+The fellow rolled his eyes wildly toward the stem of the vessel but
+found no hope from that quarter. He clambered over the rail like a
+monkey and went down hand after hand. I followed him.
+
+We were huddled promiscuously in the little boat so that it rocked to
+the very lip. For a half a minute I was afraid we were going down, but a
+shift in position by Gallagher steadied the shell.
+
+Meanwhile Alderson had thrown his muscles into the oars and we drew away
+steadily; fifty strokes, and the shadows had swallowed us.
+
+Alderson pulled across the river and let the boat drift down the
+opposite bank. The outgoing tide carried us swiftly. We slipped past the
+schooner unobserved. Gallagher blew twice on a whistle and the two boats
+commanded by Blythe and Yeager at once drew back into safety.
+
+Some three hundred yards farther down stream they caught up with us.
+
+"All right, Jack?" Blythe called across to me.
+
+"All right, Sam."
+
+"Miss Wallace is with you, of course?"
+
+"Yes, and one other passenger who nearly swamped us. Can you take our
+prisoner?"
+
+His boat pulled up beside us and relieved us of one very frightened
+Panama peon. We were very glad to be rid of him, for a dozen times the
+waves had nearly swamped our overloaded skiff and I had been bailing
+every second.
+
+A few minutes later we reached the _Argos_.
+
+From Blythe I learned that Gallagher had been responsible for the plan
+by means of which he had rescued us. Moreover, he had insisted on taking
+the stellar rôle in carrying it out, dangerous as the part had been. It
+was his way of wiping out his share in the mutiny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE LAST BRUSH
+
+
+We resumed next morning the digging for the treasure. The shore party
+was made up of Blythe, Yeager, Smith, Higgins and Barbados.
+
+Those of us left on board had a lazy time of it. I arranged watches of
+two to guard against any surprise on the part of the enemy either by an
+attack upon the yacht or by a sally along the shore upon the treasure
+diggers.
+
+Having divided my men into watches, I discharged my mind of
+responsibility. Evelyn and I had a thousand things to tell each other.
+We sat on the upper deck under the tarpaulin and forgot everything
+except that we were lovers reunited after dreadful peril.
+
+Youth is resilient. One would scarce have believed that this girl
+bubbling over with life and spirits was the same one who had been in
+such hopeless despair a few hours earlier.
+
+A night's good sleep had set her up wonderfully.
+
+Last night I had looked into tired eyes that had not yet fully escaped
+from the shadows of tragedy, into the sharp oval of a colorless face
+from which waves of storm had washed the life.
+
+This morning the sun shone for her.
+
+Courage had flowed back into her heart. Swift love ran now and again
+through her cheeks and tinted them.
+
+She was herself, golden and delicate, elastic and vivid as a captured
+nymph.
+
+"When I left the old _Argos_ I thought I never wanted to see the yacht
+again, but now I think I could be happy here all my life," she confided.
+
+"Wouldn't you prefer to have your cousin just a few miles farther away?"
+
+She fell grave for a moment.
+
+"Do you think he'll try to do more mischief?"
+
+"He'll try. That's a safe bet. But I think we have him checkmated. By
+night we ought to have the bulk of the treasure on board. Once we get it
+the _Argos_ will show him her heels."
+
+Four bells sounded, six, eight. Dugan came down from the bridge to
+report to me.
+
+"Captain Blythe's party coming down to the beach, sir."
+
+Two of the men were carrying a large chest. It was so heavy that every
+forty or fifty yards relays relieved each other. The box was brought
+down to the edge of the water and loaded into a boat. Smith and Higgins
+took their places at the oars and Blythe stepped into the bow.
+
+The cargo seemed to call for tackle and ropes. I had them ready before
+the boat reached us. Blythe superintended the hoisting of the chest,
+arranging the ropes so as to make a slip impossible. We hauled it safely
+aboard.
+
+"Have it taken to the strong room, Sam. There's another waiting for us
+ashore," Blythe explained.
+
+"Want me to go back for it?"
+
+"No. Keep a sharp lookout for our friend up the river."
+
+He was pulled ashore again and returned two hours later with a second
+chest, this time leaving Yeager and Barbados on guard at the cache.
+Gallagher and Alderson were sent ashore later to join Tom's party for
+the night watch.
+
+A few more hours' work would be enough to lift the rest of the treasure.
+Already we had on board a fortune in doubloons and bars of gold, but
+there was still one more chest to be unearthed. We felt that we were
+near the end of our adventure and our spirits were high.
+
+Blythe got out his violin and Evie sang some of her plantation songs,
+her soft voice falling easily into the indolent negro dialect.
+
+My stunt was Irish stories. We dragooned the staid Morgan into playing
+the piano while we ragged.
+
+It must have been close to midnight before we spoke of breaking up.
+
+Evelyn and I took a turn on the deck. Our excuse was to get a breath of
+fresh air, but the truth is that we were always drifting together.
+
+Even in the company of others our eyes had a way of sending wireless
+messages of which we two only understood the code.
+
+We leaned against the rail and looked across the bay. It was a night of
+ragged clouds behind which the moon was screened.
+
+"Isn't that a boat over there?" Evie asked, pointing in the direction of
+the river mouth.
+
+The moon had peeped out and was flinging a slant of light over the
+water. I looked for a long minute.
+
+"Yes. I believe it's Bothwell's schooner. He has slipped out unnoticed.
+The fellow must mean mischief."
+
+"Oh, I hope not," said Evie, and she gave a little shiver.
+
+A sound came faintly over the water to us from the shore.
+
+"Did you hear that?" Evelyn turned to me, her face white in the shining
+moonbeam.
+
+A second pistol shot followed the first.
+
+"Trouble at the cache!"
+
+I turned toward the pavilion and met Blythe. Already he was flinging a
+crisp order to the watch.
+
+"Lower a boat, Neidlinger. Smith will help you. That you, Higgins? Rouse
+all hands from sleep. We've work afoot."
+
+Again came a faint echo across the still waters, followed by two sharper
+explosions. Some one had brought a rifle into action.
+
+Blythe turned to me. "It's my place to stand by the ship, Jack. This may
+be a ruse to draw us off. I can spare you one man to go ashore and see
+what the trouble is. Take your pick."
+
+I chose Smith.
+
+"Keep a sharp lookout, Jack. He's wily as the devil, Bothwell is. Better
+not land at the usual place. He may have an ambush planted."
+
+"All right, Sam."
+
+The Englishman turned to give Stubbs orders for arming the crew.
+
+In the darkness a groping little hand found mine.
+
+"Must you go, Jack? I--wish you would stay here."
+
+My arm slid around the shoulders of my girl.
+
+"It's up to me to go, honey."
+
+We were alone under the awning. Her soft arms went round my neck and her
+fingers laced themselves.
+
+"You'll be careful, won't you? It's all so horrible. I thought it was
+all over, and now---- Oh, boy, I'm afraid!"
+
+"Don't worry. Blythe will hold the ship."
+
+"Of course. It isn't that. It's _you_. I don't want you to go. Let Mr.
+Stubbs."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"No, dear. That won't do. It's my place to go. But you needn't worry.
+The gods take care of lovers. I'll come back all right."
+
+Her interlaced fingers tightened behind my neck.
+
+"Don't be reckless, then. You're so foolhardy. I couldn't bear it if--if
+anything happened to you."
+
+"Nothing will happen except that I shall come back to brag of our
+victory," I smiled.
+
+"If I could be sure!" she cried softly.
+
+The sinister sound of shots had drifted to us as we talked. The boat was
+by this time lowered and I knew I must be gone. Gently I unclasped the
+knotted fingers.
+
+"Must you go _already_?" She made no other protest, but slipped a plain
+band ring from her finger to my hand. "I want you to have something of
+mine with you, so that----"
+
+Her voice broke, but I knew she meant so that the gods of war might know
+she claimed ownership and send me back safe. For another instant she lay
+on my heart, then offered me her lips and surrendered me to my duty.
+
+"Ready, Jack!" called Blythe cheerfully.
+
+I ran across the deck and joined the man in the skiff. We pushed off and
+bent to the stroke. As our oars gripped the water the sound of another
+far, faint explosion drifted to us.
+
+We landed a couple of hundred yards to the right of the spit and dragged
+our little boat into some bushes close to the shore.
+
+I gave Smith instructions to stay where he was unless he heard the
+hooting of an owl. If the call came once he was to advance very quietly;
+if twice, as fast as he could cover the ground.
+
+The mosquitoes were a veritable plague. As I moved forward they swarmed
+around me in a cloud. Unfortunately I had not taken the time to bring
+the face netting with which we all equipped ourselves when going ashore.
+
+Before I had covered fifty yards I heard voices raised as in anger.
+Presently I made out the sharp, imperious tones of Bothwell and the
+dogged persistent ones of Henry Fleming.
+
+"I'll do as I please. Understand that, my man!" The words were snapped
+out with a steel edge to them.
+
+"No, by thunder, you won't! I don't care about the cattleman, but
+Gallagher and Alderson were my shipmates. I'm no murderous pirate."
+
+"You'll hang for one, you fool, if you're not careful. Didn't Gallagher
+desert to the enemy? Wasn't Alderson against us from start to finish?
+Didn't one of them give me this hole in my arm just now? They'll either
+join us or go to the sharks," Bothwell announced curtly.
+
+From where I stood, perhaps forty yards north of the cache, I could make
+out that my friends were prisoners. No doubt the pirate had taken them
+at advantage and forced a surrender. Of Barbados I could see no sign.
+Later I learned that he had taken to his heels at the first shot.
+
+Twice I gave the hoot of an owl. Falling clearly on the still night, the
+effect of my signal was startling.
+
+"What was that, boss?" asked a Panamanian faintly.
+
+"An owl, you fool," retorted Bothwell impatiently. "Come, I give you one
+more chance, Gallagher. Will you join us and share the booty? Or shall
+I blow out your brains?"
+
+Gallagher, from where he lay on the ground, spoke out firmly:
+
+"I'll sail no more with murderous mutineers."
+
+"Bully for you, partner!" boomed the undaunted voice of the cattleman.
+
+"And you, Alderson?"
+
+"I stand with my friends, Captain Bothwell."
+
+"The more fool you, for you'll be a long time dead. Stand back,
+Fleming."
+
+As I ran forward I let out a shout.
+
+Simultaneously a revolver cracked.
+
+Bothwell cursed furiously, for Henry Fleming had struck up the arm of
+the murderer.
+
+The Russian turned furiously on the engineer and fired point-blank at
+him.
+
+The bullet must have struck him somewhere, for the man gave a cry.
+
+Bothwell whirled upon me and fired twice as I raced across the moonlit
+sand.
+
+A flash of lightning seared my shoulder but did not stop me.
+
+"Ha! The meddler again! Stung you that time, my friend," he shouted, and
+fired at me a third time.
+
+They were the last words he was ever to utter. One moment his dark,
+venomous face craned toward me above the smoke of his revolver, the next
+it was slowly sinking to the ground in a contorted spasm of pain and
+rage.
+
+For George Fleming had avenged the attempt upon his brother's life with
+a shot in the back.
+
+Bothwell was dead almost before he reached the ground.
+
+For a moment we all stood in a dead silence, adjusting our minds to the
+changed conditions.
+
+Then one of the natives gave a squeal of terror and turned to run. Quick
+as a flash the rest of them--I counted nine and may have missed one or
+two--were scuttling off at his heels.
+
+George Fleming stared at the body of his chief which lay so still on the
+ground with the shining moon pouring its cold light on the white face.
+
+Then slowly his eyes came up to meet mine.
+
+In another moment he and his brother were crashing through the lush
+underbrush to the beach. I judged from the rapidity with which Henry
+moved that he could not be much hurt. From the opposite direction Smith
+came running up.
+
+I dropped to my knees beside Yeager and cut the thongs that tied his
+hands.
+
+"Hurt?" I asked.
+
+"No," he answered in deep disgust at himself. "I stumbled over a root
+and hit my head against this tree right after the game opened. Gallagher
+and Alderson had to play it out alone. But Bothwell must have had
+fourteen men with him. He got Gallagher in the leg and rushed Alderson.
+You dropped in right handy, Jack."
+
+"And not a minute too soon. By Jove! we ran it pretty fine this trip.
+Badly hurt, Gallagher?"
+
+"No, sir. Hit in the thigh."
+
+I examined the wound as well as I could and found it not as bad as it
+might have been.
+
+"A good clean flesh wound. You're in luck, Gallagher. The last two days
+have more than wiped out your week of mutiny. We're all deep in your
+debt."
+
+"Thank you, sir," he said, flushing with pleasure.
+
+Here I may put it down that this was the last word Gallagher heard about
+his lapse from duty. He and the other reconstructed mutineers were
+forgiven, their fault wiped completely off the slate.
+
+I sent Alderson down to the spit to signal the _Argos_ for a boat. One
+presently arrived with Stubbs and Higgins at the oars. The little
+cockney was struck with awe at sight of the dead man.
+
+"My heye, Mr. Sedgwick, 'e's got 'is at larst and none too soon. 'Ow did
+you do it?"
+
+"I didn't do it. One of his friends did."
+
+"Well, 'e 'ad it comin' to 'im, sir. But I'll sye for him that 'e was a
+man as well as a devil."
+
+We helped Gallagher down to the boat and he and I were taken aboard.
+
+The wound in my shoulder was but a scratch.
+
+It was enough, however, to let me in for a share of the honors with
+Gallagher.
+
+In truth I had done nothing but precipitate by my arrival the final
+tragedy; but love, they say, is blind.
+
+It was impossible for me to persuade Evelyn that I had not been the hero
+of the occasion.
+
+She could appreciate the courage of the three men who had chosen death
+rather than to join Bothwell in his nefarious plans, but she was caught
+by the melodramatic entry I had made upon the stage.
+
+"You were one against fourteen, but that didn't stop you at all. Of
+course the others were brave, but----"
+
+"Sheer nonsense, my dear. Any one can shout 'Villain, avaunt!' and
+prance across the sand, but there wasn't any pleasant excitement about
+looking Boris Bothwell in the eye and telling him to shoot and be
+hanged. That took sheer, cold, unadulterated nerve, and my hat's off to
+the three of them."
+
+She leaned toward me out of the shadow, and the light in her eyes was
+wonderful.
+
+With all the innocence of a Grecian nymph they held, too, the haunting,
+wistful pathos of eternal motherhood.
+
+She yearned over me, almost as if I had been the son of her dreams.
+
+"Boy, Jack, I'm glad it's over--so glad--so glad. I love you--and I've
+been afraid for you."
+
+Desire of her, of the sweet brave spirit in its beautiful sheath of
+young flesh, surged up in my blood irresistibly.
+
+I caught her to my heart and kissed the soft corn-silk hair, the deep
+melting eyes, the ripe red lips.
+
+By Heaven, I had fought for her and had won her! She was the gift of
+love, won in stark battle from the best fighter I had ever met.
+
+The mad Irish blood in me sang.
+
+After all I am not the son of a filibuster for nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+IN HARBOR
+
+
+The morning found me as good as new except for a dull ache in my
+shoulder. I was up betimes for breakfast and ready for shore duty.
+
+Yet I was glad to accept Blythe's orders to stay on board as long as we
+remained in Darien Harbor.
+
+It was good to avoid the sun and the mosquitoes and the moist heat of
+the jungle, though I felt a little guilty at lying in a hammock on the
+shady side of the deck with Evelyn at my side, while my friends were
+perspiring in the burning sand pits with shovel and pick.
+
+Fortunately, it was only a few hours before the last of the boxes buried
+by Bucks was uncovered. Jamaica Ginger's hatchet found it a good fifty
+yards from the others. Within an hour it had been dragged out of the
+dirt and brought aboard.
+
+We sailed the same afternoon about twelve hours later than the schooner,
+which had quietly slipped past us on its way to the sea in the faint
+light of early dawn.
+
+That Fleming had given up the attempt to win the treasure was plain. I
+doubt whether his men would have followed him even if he had wished it,
+for he had not the dominant temper of his chief.
+
+We dropped anchor under the lee of a little island in the Boco Chico,
+but our engines were throbbing again by break of day. As we puffed
+across the North Bay we passed the schooner almost within a stone's
+throw.
+
+Henry Fleming was on deck, and half a dozen of the blacks and browns who
+made up the crew swarmed to the side of the vessel to see us. Blythe had
+made quiet preparations in case any attempt at stopping us should be
+made, but apparently nothing was farther from the thoughts of the enemy.
+
+In fact several of the dusky deck hands waved us a friendly greeting as
+we drove swiftly past. From that day to this I have never seen any
+member of that crew, though a letter received last week from
+Gallagher--who is doing well in the cattle business in the
+Argentine--mentioned that he had run across Henry Fleming at Buenos
+Ayres.
+
+Out of the Gulf of San Miguel we pushed past Brava Point as fast as
+Stubbs could send the _Argos_. The lights of Panama called to us. They
+stood for law and civilization and the blessed dominance of the old
+stars and stripes.
+
+We were in a hurry to get back to the broad piazzas of its hotels, where
+women at their ease did fancy work and played bridge while laughing
+children romped without fear.
+
+Adventure is all very well, but I have discovered that one can get a
+surfeit of it.
+
+Before the division of the treasure there arose a point of morality
+that, oddly enough, had not been considered before. It was born of my
+legal conscience and for a few minutes was disturbing.
+
+Tom and I were in Blythe's cabin with him discussing an equitable
+division of the spoils. Into my mind popped the consideration that we
+were not the owners of it all but certain remote parties in Peru.
+
+After having fought for it and won it the treasure was not ours. The
+thing hit me like a blow in the face. I spoke my thought aloud. Sam
+looked blankly at me.
+
+Yeager laughed grimly. There was a good deal of the primitive man still
+in the Arizonian.
+
+"If they want it let them come and take it. I reckon finding is
+keeping."
+
+But I knew the matter could not be settled so easily as that. A moral
+question had arisen and it had to be faced. Evelyn was called into
+counsel.
+
+She had an instant solution of the difficulty.
+
+"We can't return it even if we want to. The town of Cerro Blanco and the
+neighboring mines were destroyed by an earthquake in 1819. Not a soul at
+the mines escaped and only a few peasants from the town. You will find
+the whole story in Vanbrough's 'Great Earthquakes.'"
+
+"Then, after all, we are the rightful owners."
+
+"I'm afraid we are," she smiled.
+
+Blythe, already as wealthy as he cared to be, declined to accept any
+share of our spoils beyond the expenses of the cruise. Each of the
+sailors received a good-sized lump sum, as did also Philips and Morgan.
+
+Rather against the wishes of our captain the three former mutineers
+shared with the rest of the crew. We did not of course forget the
+relatives of the men who had fallen in our defense.
+
+The boatswain Caine left a widow and two children. We put her upon a
+pension until she married a grocer two years later.
+
+We were never able to hear that she thought the loss of husband number
+one anything but a good riddance.
+
+Jimmie's share went into a fund, which is being managed by Yeager and me
+as trustees. It is enough to keep him and his mother while the boy is
+being educated and to leave a small nest-egg in addition.
+
+Yeager, of course, put his profits into cattle. Since Evelyn and I moved
+to Los Angeles we see a good deal of Tom and his wife. At least once
+during the winter we run across to his Arizona ranch for a week or two.
+His boy is just old enough to give his name proudly with a lisp as "Tham
+Blythe Yeager."
+
+Ours is a girl. She has the golden hair and the sparkling spirit of her
+mother.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+N. B.--The autocrat of the household has just read the last line as she
+leans over my shoulder. She will give me no peace till I add that the
+baby has the blue, Irish eyes of her dad.
+
+THE END
+
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+whose depredations on the high seas were so ferocious that he was called
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+he enlists in the navy and gives up his life defending his country's
+flag. A love story with the winsome Kitty Trimmer for its heroine lends
+a fascinating charm to the narrative. 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Net
+$1.25
+
+
+THE PRICE
+
+By GEORGE BROADHURST and ARTHUR HORNBLOW, authors of "Bought and Paid
+For." Founded upon the play, this is a powerful story of a woman's
+desperate struggle to save her reputation and her happiness. How she
+tries to sink the memory of a foolish entanglement with another woman's
+husband in her own marriage with the man she really loved and how she
+paid the subsequent bitter price of her folly forms a dramatic theme of
+deep human interest. 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated with scenes from play. Net
+$1.25.
+
+
+MATTHEW FERGUSON
+
+By MARGARET BLAKE, author of "The Greater Joy;" "The Voice of the
+Heart." How the hero, by virtue of a self-evolved, infallible system,
+speedily climbs to the top of his profession in New York; how he saves
+the woman he loves from a fate worse than death, and then, to save his
+honor, discards the system that made his success, forms a vividly
+realistic and powerful story. 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Net $1.25.
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+NINE SPLENDID NOVELS BY
+WILLIAM MacLEOD RAINE
+
+
+THE PIRATE OF PANAMA
+
+A tale of old-time pirates and of modern love, hate and adventure. The
+scene is laid in San Francisco on board _The Argos_ and in Panama. A
+romantic search for the lost pirate gold. An absorbing love-story runs
+through the book.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Jacket in Colors. Net $1.25._
+
+
+THE VISION SPLENDID
+
+A powerful story in which a man of big ideas and fine ideals wars
+against graft and corruption. A most satisfactory love affair terminates
+the story.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Net $1.25._
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS AND STRAIGHT
+
+A story of Arizona; of swift-riding men and daring outlaws; of a bitter
+feud between cattle-men and sheep-herders. The heroine is a most unusual
+woman and her love-story reaches a culmination that is fittingly
+characteristic of the great free West.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Popular Edition 50 cents._
+
+
+BRAND BLOTTERS
+
+A story of the Cattle Range. This story brings out the turbid life of
+the frontier with all its engaging dash and vigor with a charming love
+interest running through its 320 pages.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Jacket in Colors. Popular Edition 50 cents._
+
+
+"MAVERICKS"
+
+A tale of the western frontier, where the "rustler," whose depredations
+are so keenly resented by the early settlers of the range, abounds. One
+of the sweetest love stories ever told.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Popular Edition, 50 cents._
+
+
+A TEXAS RANGER
+
+How a member of the most dauntless border police force carried law into
+the mesquit, saved the life of an innocent man after a series of
+thrilling adventures, followed a fugitive to Wyoming, and then passed
+through deadly peril to ultimate happiness.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Popular Edition, 50 cents._
+
+
+WYOMING
+
+In this vivid story of the outdoor West the author has captured the
+breezy charm of "cattleland," and brings out the turbid life of the
+frontier with all its engaging dash and vigor.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Popular Edition, 50 cents._
+
+
+RIDGWAY OF MONTANA
+
+The scene is laid in the mining centers of Montana, where politics and
+mining industries are the religion of the country. The political
+contest, the love scene, and the fine character drawing give this story
+great strength and charm.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Popular Edition, 50 cents._
+
+
+BUCKY O'CONNOR
+
+Every chapter teems with wholesome, stirring adventures, replete with
+the dashing spirit of the border, told with dramatic dash and absorbing
+fascination of style and plot.
+
+_12mo, Cloth, Illustrated. Popular Edition, 50 cents._
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+BOOKS BY EDWARD MARSHALL
+
+
+BAT--An Idyl of New York
+
+"The heroine has all the charm of Thackeray's Marchioness in New York
+surroundings."--_New York Sun._ "It would be hard to find a more
+charming, cheerful story."--_New York Times._ "Altogether
+delightful."--_Buffalo Express._ "The comedy is delicious."--_Sacramento
+Union._ "It is as wholesome and fresh as the breath of
+springtime."--_New Orleans Picayune._ 12mo, cloth. Illustrated. $1.00
+net.
+
+
+THE MIDDLE WALL
+
+_The Albany Times-Union_ says of this story of the South African diamond
+mines and adventures in London, on the sea and in America: "As a story
+teller Mr. Marshall cannot be improved upon, and whether one is looking
+for humor, philosophy, pathos, wit, excitement, adventure or love, he
+will find what he seeks, a-plenty, in this capital tale." 12mo, cloth.
+Illustrated. 50 cents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BOOKS NOVELIZED FROM GREAT PLAYS
+
+
+THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE
+
+From the successful play of EDGAR JAMES. Embodying a wonderful message
+to both husbands and wives, it tells how a determined man, of dominating
+personality and iron will, leaves a faithful wife for another woman.
+12mo, cloth. Illustrated from scenes in the play. Net $1.25.
+
+
+THE WRITING ON THE WALL
+
+_The Rocky Mountain News:_ "This novelization of OLGA NETHERSOLE'S play
+tells of Trinity Church and its tenements. It is a powerful, vital
+novel." 12mo, cloth. Illustrated. 50 cents.
+
+
+THE OLD FLUTE PLAYER
+
+Based on CHARLES T. DAZEY'S play, this story won the friendship of the
+country very quickly. _The Albany Times-Union:_ "Charming enough to
+become a classic." 12mo, cloth. Illustrated. 50 cents.
+
+
+THE FAMILY
+
+Of this book (founded on the play by ROBERT HOBART DAVIS), _The Portland
+(Oregon) Journal_ said: "Nothing more powerful has recently been put
+between the covers of a book." 12mo, cloth. Illustrated. 50 cents.
+
+
+THE SPENDTHRIFT
+
+_The Logansport (Ind.) Journal:_ "A tense story, founded on PORTER
+EMERSON BROWNE'S play, is full of tremendous situations, and preaches a
+great sermon." 12mo, cloth bound, with six illustrations from scenes in
+the play. 50 cents.
+
+
+IN OLD KENTUCKY
+
+Based upon CHARLES T. DAZEY'S well-known play, which has been listened
+to with thrilling interest by over seven million people. "A new and
+powerful novel, fascinating in its rapid action. Its touching story is
+told more elaborately and even more absorbingly than it was upon the
+stage."--_Nashville American._ 12mo, cloth. Illustrated. 50 cents.
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+By ARTHUR HORNBLOW
+
+
+THE TALKER     Just Issued
+
+An impeachment of the attitude of many women with regard to the
+sacredness of the marriage tie--From the play of
+MARION FAIRFAX.
+
+A poignantly affecting story, deeply arresting in its significance.
+
+
+KINDLING     4th Large Edition
+
+A story of mother-love in the tenements--From the Play of
+CHARLES KENYON.
+
+"A dramatic and interesting story from the powerful and unusual
+play."--_Buffalo Express._
+
+
+BOUGHT AND PAID FOR     5th Large Edition
+
+A tremendous arraignment of the mercenary marriage--From the play of
+GEORGE BROADHURST.
+
+"The story is intensely human in its serious side and delightfully
+amusing in its lighter
+phases."--_Boston Globe._
+
+
+THE GAMBLERS   85th Thousand
+
+A dramatic story of American life, from the wonderful play of Charles
+Klein.
+
+"A powerful indictment of the methods of modern
+finance."--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+
+THE EASIEST WAY     6th Large Edition
+
+A vivid story of metropolitan life from Eugene Walter's thrilling play.
+
+"The easiest way is in reality the hardest way."--_Boston Times._
+
+
+JOHN MARSH'S MILLIONS     6th Large Edition,
+
+The struggle of a young girl, heiress to millions.
+
+"Has many thrilling dramatic situations."--_St. Louis Post-Dispatch._
+
+
+THE THIRD DEGREE     70th Thousand
+
+A brilliant novelization of Charles Klein's great play.
+
+"A strongly-painted picture of certain conditions in the administration
+of law and justice."--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+
+BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST     100th Thousand
+
+A thrilling story of shipwreck upon a deserted island.
+
+"A sensational situation handled with delicacy and rigor."--_Boston
+Transcript._
+
+
+THE END OF THE GAME     75th Thousand
+
+A love story dealing with the perils of great wealth.
+
+"A thoroughly wholesome book, with action in the drama and real human
+interest."--_Literary Digest._
+
+
+THE PROFLIGATE     60th Thousand
+
+A thrilling story of love, mystery and adventure.
+
+"The moral tone of the story is excellent."--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+
+THE LION AND THE MOUSE    200th Thousand
+
+A brilliant novelization of Charles Klein's wonderful play.
+
+"As fascinating as Mr. Klein's play."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate of Panama, by William MacLeod Raine
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE OF PANAMA ***
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