n't know what she
was doing. The yellow man came a step nearer and said, "Halloa, my
hearty." I nodded my head to him and he put his hand on my shoulder.
Poor fool, he thought I was a child, perhaps, and to be treated as one;
but I have learnt a thing or two about taking care of myself in Japan,
and you couldn't have counted two before I had his arm twisted under
mine, and he gave a yell that must have been heard up in the hills.

"If you cry out like that, you'll ruin your beautiful voice," said I;
"hasn't any one ever asked you to sing hymns in a choir? Well, I'm
surprised. Good-night, my boy; I shall be coming back for your picture
before many days have passed."

Upon this, I stepped towards the door, and thought that I had done with
him; but no sooner was I out in the garden than something went singing
by my ear, and upon that a second dose with two reports which echoed in
the hills like rolling thunder. No written music vas necessary to tell
me the kind of tune it was, and I swung round on my heel and gripped
the man by the throat almost before the echoes of the shot had died
away.

"Kess Denton," said I, "if you will have it, you shall!" and with that
I wrenched the pistol from his grasp and struck him a blow over the
head that sent him down without a word.

"One," said I, to myself, "one that helped to make little Ruth
Bellenden suffer;" and with that I set off running and never looked to
the right of me nor to the left until I saw Peter Bligh at the gate and
heard his honest voice.

"Is it you--is it you yourself, Mr. Begg? Thank God for that!" cries
he, and it was no longer in a whisper; "there's men in the hills, and
Seth Barker whistling fit to crack his lips. Is the young lady coming
aboard, sir? No?--well, I'm not surprised, neither, though this shore
do seem a queerish sort of place----"

I cut him short, and Dolly Venn running round from his place in the
garden I asked him for his news. The thing now was to find a road to
the sea. What could be done for Ruth Bellenden that night was over and
passed. Our chance lay on the deck of the Southern Cross, and after
that at 'Frisco.

"What have you seen, Dolly Venn--be quick, lad, for we can't linger?"
was my question to him so soon as he was within hail. He answered me by
pointing to the trees which border the garden on the eastward side.

"The wood is full of armed men, sir. Two of them nearly trod upon me
while I was lying there. They carry rifles, a