ied this. The man had been halted by a broad
tributary stream, and fear had prevented him from swimming over. And he
was not sure, either, whether the launch had gone straight up the main
stream or taken the tributary. She had stolen along past him without
lights, he said, and he could not follow her definitely by hearing. But
the fact of her falling into silence warned Barry that she was nearing
some destination or halting place, for she had left her last stop
noisily enough.

"Better keep to the river and make for the sands," suggested Little.
"He's sure to go there."

"I suppose he is," returned Barry, in puzzlement. "But which is the
main river? I can't make it out in this coal pocket."

"Think we'd better tie up and wait until daylight, or the moon rises?"

"The only thing to do," grunted Barry. "And that means nearly daylight.
There's no moon until morning."

The sails were lowered, and the boat poled cautiously into the bank. She
slid over viscid slime that scarcely impeded her and came to rest
against the twisted roots of a malodorous tree from which drooped heavy,
damp masses of moss, felt, but unseen. Barry gave orders to stretch a
sail for an awning, sensing a heavy dew before darkness lifted; and
setting a watch fore and aft, he bade the crew snatch what sleep they
might.

And silence had hardly settled over the boat when the underbrush
crackled above them, and a quiet voice called out:

"Given us the slip, Captain, hey?"

Following the soft query, a huge bulk dropped nimbly and expertly down
by an overhanging vine, and Vandersee sat on the stern boards beside
Barry.

CHAPTER TEN

The big Hollander's sudden and unperturbed appearance in the boat seemed
to cast a soothing spell upon the rattled nerves of the native crew. The
night was yet too dark to distinguish faces; but every man in the boat,
from Barry himself down to the greenest hand, knew from intimate
association that soft, musical voice. Vandersee lit a black cheroot,
passed some around, and remarked impartially to Little and the skipper:

"Our task will be finished sooner than I expected."

Such apparent coolness and breezy optimism at a moment when things
looked to be at a dead end made Barry gasp in renewed amazement at this
unfathomable second mate, who was so obviously something infinitely more
than a second mate.

"Sooner?" he echoed sharply. "You've got cat's eyes, haven't you,
Vandersee?"

"Not exactly, sir." The re