ess of Grief's lies on the
Kanaka crew. By eleven o'clock Grief came on board, to find his mate
waiting up for him.

"There's something doing on Swithin Hall's island," Grief said, shaking
his head. "I can't make out what it is, but I get the feel of it. What
does Swithin Hall look like?"

Snow shook his head.

"That man ashore there never bought the books on the shelves," Grief
declared with conviction. "Nor did he ever go in for concealed lighting.
He's got a surface flow of suavity, but he's rough as a hoof-rasp
underneath. He's an oily bluff. And the bunch he's got with him--Watson
and Gorman their names are; they came in after you left--real sea-dogs,
middle-aged, marred and battered, tough as rusty wrought-iron nails and
twice as dangerous; real ugly customers, with guns in their belts, who
don't strike me as just the right sort to be on such comradely terms
with Swithin Hall. And the woman! She's a lady. I mean it. She knows a
whole lot of South America, and of China, too. I'm sure she's Spanish,
though her English is natural. She's travelled. We talked bull-fights.
She's seen them in Guayaquil, in Mexico, in Seville. She knows a lot
about sealskins.

"Now here's what bothers me. She knows music. I asked her if she played.
And he's fixed that place up like a palace. That being so, why hasn't
he a piano for her? Another thing: she's quick and lively and he watches
her whenever she talks. He's on pins and needles, and continually
breaking in and leading the conversation. Say, did you ever hear that
Swithin Hall was married?"

"Bless me, I don't know," the mate replied. "Never entered my head to
think about it."

"He introduced her as Mrs. Hall. And Watson and Gorman call him Hall.
They're a precious pair, those two men. I don't understand it at all."

"What are you going to do about it?" Snow asked.

"Oh, hang around a while. There are some books ashore there I want to
read. Suppose you send that topmast down in the morning and generally
overhaul. We've been through a hurricane, you know. Set up the rigging
while you're about it. Get things pretty well adrift, and take your
time."

VI

The next day Grief's suspicions found further food. Ashore early,
he strolled across the little island to the barracks occupied by the
divers.

They were just boarding the boats when he arrived, and it struck him
that for Kanakas they behaved more like chain-gang prisoners. The three
white men were there, and Gr