akness."

"Our weakness, sir?" asked Miss Belcher, carelessly, as though but
half attending.

"Our weakness, ma'am; as it was doubtless to discover our weakness
that he came."

"Now, I rather thought," murmured Miss Belcher, "that Miss Plinlimmon
and I had spent a great part of this afternoon in impressing him with
our strength."

"To be sure," pursued Captain Branscome, "with such a company as he
found on board, he can scarcely have suspected a treasure hunt.
Still, when he does suspect it--as sooner or later he must--he will
know our weakness."

"He could scarcely have dealt with us more frankly than he did, at
any rate," said Miss Belcher, with an air of simplicity; "for he
assured us he was alone on the island."

"And you believed him, ma'am?"

"I forget, sir, if I believed him; but he certainly knows that we are
here in search of treasure, for I told him so myself."

Captain Branscome gasped. "You--you told him so?" he echoed.

"I did, and he replied that it scarcely surprised him to hear it,
that of the few vessels which found their way to Mortallone, quite an
appreciable proportion came with some idea of discovering treasure.
The proportion, he added, had fallen off of late years, and the
most of them nowadays put in to water, but there was a time when
the treasure-seekers threatened to become a positive nuisance.
He said this with a smile which disarmed all suspicion. In fact, it
was impossible to take offence with the man."

But at this point Plinny, frightened perhaps at the warnings of
apoplexy in Captain Branscome's face, laid a hand gently on Miss
Belcher's arm.

"Are we treating our good friend quite fairly?" she asked.

Miss Belcher glanced at her and broke into a ringing laugh.

"You dear creature! No, to be sure, we are not; but from a child I
always turned mischievous under correction. Captain Branscome, I beg
your pardon."

"It is granted, ma'am."

"And--for I take you to be on the point of resigning, here and now--"

"Ma'am, you have guessed correctly."

"I am going to beg you to do nothing of the sort. No, I am not
going to ask it only as a favour, but to appeal to your reason.
You think it extremely rash of me to have entertained this man and
talked with him so frankly? Well, but consider. To begin with, if
I had not told him that we were after the treasure, he would probably
have guessed it; nay, I make bold to say that he guessed it already,
for--I forgot to menti