n to me, where I was
tossing about like a dying fish. He hissed to me and swiftly cut me free,
and I rushed to the boats, with a tangle of rope still clinging to my
feet.

"Captain Riggs," I cried, "it is I, Trenholm!" and he lifted his hand
from the shoulder of the dying Thirkle and took mine.

"All's well," he said calmly. "Glad to see ye alive, Mr. Trenholm. I gave
ye up, and we came back here and went to sleep in the boat, but Rajah was
on watch when he heard ye coming back, and I guess he's made an end of
this beauty. Here, strike a match and let's look at him."

I held the flame down to Thirkle's face, and his clenched teeth grinned
at me through snarling, open lips, but his eyes were glazed with death.
We stripped him of his arms and lay him down in the palm-leaves, quite
dead.

"Did that other rascal get away?" asked Riggs. "We'll have to wait a bit
and see if we can't find him. But probably we better get to sea. Ye know
where ye left the plugs and oars? That little red-headed chap can't do
much harm, and if he gets away we'll find him some day. We'll be back
here in the shake of a lamb's tail, anyhow."

We rigged the tackle and hauled the boat into the sand with little
trouble, and, while Rajah held her on an even keel, we tugged at the
painter and soon had the water lapping at her bows. The stock of
provisions and water was restowed, and then we smashed the extra boat and
took the oars. We covered Thirkle with sand, but Riggs said he would
carry him back to Manila with the gold.

Rajah was in the boat, and we were prying it off the shingle and waiting
for a favouring wave when we were startled with a hail from the jungle.

"Cap'n Riggs! Oh, Cap'n Riggs!"

"Who's there?" I shouted, although I knew.

"Petrak--don't leave me here, cap'n! Take me away from this cussed
place--please, sir, please. I'll be good, only don't leave me on the
beach--I'll die afore mornin', sir."

We took him. He came creeping out of the jungle, sniffling and wailing,
and begging not to be hanged, and saying Thirkle and the others had done
it all. We bundled him into the bows, telling him he was a dead man if he
made a suspicious move; but the little cur never had enough courage to
fight unless he could stab a man in the back.

Once in the channel we filled away to the south, scooting past the black
upper-works of the _Kut Sang_, as we caught a stiff breeze from the
north. Then Captain Riggs made me sleep.

It was long afte