e that night and it never would be rewritten. None the less, a
woman's courage could show me a bright face and all that girlish
gentleness which was her truest charm. Never once would she speak of
her own trouble, but always lightly of ours; so that we three--little
Ruth, Dr. Gray, and Jasper Begg--might have been friends met upon any
common adventure, and not at the crisis of that desperate endeavour.
And so I think it will befall in all the perilous days, that what is
written in the story-books about loud exclamations and pale faces and
all the rest of it is the property of the story-teller, and that in
plain truth you find none of these things, but just silent actors and
simple talk, and no more noise of the difficulty than the common day
will bring. This, at least, is my memory of that never-to-be-forgotten
night. To-morrow might give us life or death--a grave beneath the seas
or mastership of that house of mystery; though of this no word passed
between us, but briefly we gave each other the news and asked it in
return.

"Captain," says the doctor, he being the first to speak, "they tell me
you've struck a gun-store. Is it true or false?"

I told him that it was true, and making light of it--for I did not wish
Miss Ruth to be upset before there was good reason--I named another
thing.

"Yes," said I, "we shall defend ourselves if there's need, and give a
good account, I hope. For the rest, we'll take it as we find it. I am
trusting that Mister Czerny will listen to common sense and not risk
bloodshed. If he does, the blame be on his own head, for I shall do my
best to make it easy for him."

"I know you will--I know you will, Jasper," says little Ruth, closing
her hand upon mine, and not caring much what the doctor thought of it,
I'll be bound; "we can do no more than our duty, each of us. Mine is
very hard, but I shall not turn from it--never, while I know that duty
says, 'Go on!'"

"That I'm sure you won't, Miss Ruth," was my answer to her; "if ever
duty justified man or woman it justifies you and I this night. Let us
begin with that and all the rest is easy. What we are doing is done as
much for the sake of our fellow-men as for ourselves. We work for a
good end--to let the world know what Ken's Island harbours and to keep
our fellow-men from such a place. Accomplish that much, and right and
humanity owe us something, though it's not for me to speak of it, nor
is this the time. My business is to hold this ho