und by the shore. We've got
to have a chin-chin with Hoang, if he don't get loose aboard there
and fire the boat before we can get back. I don't propose taking these
beach-combers back to 'Frisco with us."

"What will we do with the two prisoners?" she asked.

"Let them go; we've got their arms."

The positions of the two were reversed. It was Wilbur who assumed
control and direction of what went forward, Moran taking his advice and
relying upon his judgment.

In accordance with Wilbur's orders, Charlie was carried aboard the dory;
which, with two Chinamen at the oars, and the ambergris stowed again
into the cuddy, at once set off for the schooner. Wilbur himself cut the
ropes on the two prisoners, and bade them shift for themselves. The rest
of the party returned to the "Bertha Millner" around the wide sweep of
the beach.

It was only by high noon, under the flogging of a merciless sun, that
the entire crew of the little schooner once more reassembled under the
shadow of her stranded hulk. They were quite worn out; and as soon as
Charlie was lifted aboard, and the ambergris--or, as they spoke of it
now, the "loot"--was safely stowed in the cabin, Wilbur allowed the
Chinamen three or four hours' rest. They had had neither breakfast nor
dinner; but their exhaustion was greater than their hunger, and in a few
moments the entire half-dozen were stretched out asleep on the forward
deck in the shadow of the foresail raised for the purpose of sheltering
them. However, Wilbur and Moran sought out Hoang, whom they found as
they had left him--bound upon the floor of the cabin.

"Now we have a talk--savvy?" Wilbur told him as he loosed the ropes
about his wrists and ankles. "We got our loot back from you, old man,
and we got one of your men into the bargain. You woke up the wrong
crowd, Hoang, when you went up against this outfit. You're in a bad way,
my friend. Your junk is wrecked; all your oil and blubber from the whale
is lost; four of your men have run away, one is killed, another one we
caught and let go, another one has been hamstrung; and you yourself are
our prisoner, with your teeth filed down to your gums. Now," continued
Wilbur, with the profoundest gravity, "I hope this will be a lesson to
you. Don't try and get too much the next time. Just be content with what
is yours by right, or what you are strong enough to keep, and don't try
to fight with white people. Other coolies, I don't say. But when you try
to get