alth, they would have been rewarded
liberally. Forewarned is forearmed."

Captain Bergen was a brave man, and there was no fear of his
displaying any shrinking in the crisis which was evidently close at
hand.

Once more he raised the glass to his eye and gazed toward the inlet of
the atoll. During the few minutes that he had spent in looking down
upon the deck and listening, the schooner had made good speed, and the
island was less than a half mile distant. When the instrument was
pointed toward the place, he saw clearly and unmistakably the figure
of the mast standing beside the inlet, where it had been placed years
before by Grebbens and his companions.

This, then, was Pearl Island, as the New Englanders had named it; and
here it was that the bed of pearl oysters of fabulous richness was to
be found.

Something like a feeling of depression came over the captain when he
realized that the land of promise had risen on his vision at last. For
days, weeks and months this had been the one absorbing theme of his
mind. He had dreamed of it until he was almost, if not quite, a
monomaniac, and he had built air-castles until the whole sky of his
vision was filled with gorgeous structures. And it should be added, in
justice to both Bergen and Storms, that these structures were
creditable to the builders; for, realizing in the fullest sense that
about all they could extract personally from riches was their own
board and lodging, they had perfected a number of colossal schemes
for benefiting humanity; indeed, charity was the foundation-stone of
all these castles. And now, after these long months of waiting, he
seemed to see the wealth lying within his grasp, and something like a
reaction came to him.

"Is it worth all this?" he asked himself. "Is the gain likely to pay
for the peril in which we have placed ourselves?"

Still further, the ominous words which he had overheard impressed him
vividly with the impending danger in which he and his mate were
placed. He saw now that in taking Brazzier and Redvignez he had taken
two mutineers aboard, and two who, in all probability, had won the
giant African, Pomp, over to their side.

What was to be the outcome of all this?

CHAPTER XII

IN THE HAVEN AT LAST

As Captain Bergen descended the rigging to the deck of the schooner he
was greatly depressed, for the conviction was strong upon him that in
entering this promised land--as he had sometimes termed the little
cir