only add to the entanglement to have another involved in the
business before anything certain had been discovered; moreover, should I
observe sufficient cause for using extreme measures against Captain
Leach, I might easily arrest him at any time, having him entirely in my
power.

Having settled this matter to my own satisfaction, I determined to lie
in wait for his return, and to discover how he himself would explain his
absence.

I surmised that he must have left the ship from the boat which was
hanging to the davits astern, and on inspecting the matter, found that I
was correct, and that a stout line, such as might easily bear the weight
of a man, had been lashed to one of the falls, and hung to within a foot
or two of the water. I was then well assured that Captain Leach must
have clambered into the boat astern whilst I had gone forward, as told
above, and had dropped thence into the canoe by means of the line just
spoken of. The noise which I had heard I conceived to have been caused
by his making a misstep, or by the canoe rising with the ground-swell
more than he had expected.

Now, if he left the ship in that manner, of which, according to my mind,
there could be but little doubt, there was equal certainty that he would
return by the same way; so I determined to lie in watch for him there,
and to tax him with his absence so soon as he should come aboard.
Accordingly I laid myself down in the boat astern as comfortably as I
could contrive, and lighting my pipe, watched with all the patience I
could command for the return of the fugitive.

I judge that I lay there for the space of two or three hours, and in all
that time saw or heard nothing to arouse my suspicions; nor do I believe
that I would have discovered anything had I not been watching at that
very place, for so quiet was Captain Leach's return that I heard no
sound of oars nor knew anything of it until I saw the line that hung at
the davits moved from below by some one climbing aboard. I lay perfectly
still and made no noise until he had clambered into the boat and stood
within a few feet of me.

"Well, sir," says I, as quietly as I could speak, "and may I ask where
you have been for all this long time?"

VI.

Had a pistol been fired beside his head he could not have started more
violently, and I had thought that he would have been utterly dumfounded;
but he recovered himself with a most amazing quickness.

"Why, Captain Mackra," says h