uch tricks; I know that."

Miss Sheldon gave up in despair, turning to Blunt for relief from
Rolfe's surly silence. She found in the old sea dog a ready companion,
and he rattled along in his whimsical, uncouth language, spinning
endless yarns of a "Hadmiral as prayed to a paint pot" and "cleaned his
bloomin' teeth wi' holystone," until the girl unconsciously resumed her
brisk, tireless step and found herself laughing merrily in spite of her
disease of mind.

"An' there's our blessed Cap'n, ma'am," went on Bill, warming under the
girl's happiness. "Gennelmun if ther' ever wuz. Sees me, he do, a
roarin', ragged, bacca-chawin' ol' swab, an' I ses to him, 'Giv 's a
job,' an' he up an' makes me a bloomin' orf'cer! Me, as never knowed
nuthin' 'cept drawin' me grog rations twice. Missy, there's a man for
ye. If ever yer wantin' a real sailorman to steer yuh clear o' shoals,
Cap'n Barry's th' blue-eyed boy--Oh, blast my eyes!" Bill burst out, "I
forgot he's in the bilboes, Miss. Now ain't that a dummed shame?"

"I begin to think it is," replied Natalie seriously. She had rippled
with laughter while the old fellow chattered, had colored warmly at his
rough eulogy, and now felt a sinking of the spirits that harmonized not
at all with her earlier feelings.

"But what can you do, if he is in the hands of the naval authorities?"
she asked. "You wouldn't dare attack Government officers?"

"I dunno, Missy," returned Bill, scratching his towsled head in
perplexity. "That's fer Mr. Rolfe to say. I only knows as I'd tackle th'
Great High Hadmiral o' H--Beg pardon, lady, but you knows what I means,
I 'spect--I'd tackle him if 'twas to get Cap'n Barry offen a lee shore."

The girl relapsed into thoughtful silence, and the party plunged into a
belt of jungle so thick that single file was forced upon them. Here the
messenger despatched by Little, who had stayed behind at the post until
he recovered from his exhaustion, overtook them and told Rolfe that it
was here he last saw Barry's party.

"Get ahead with the guide," Rolfe ordered him, and the march was
conducted with stealth and painful slowness. A broken cane here and
patch of dead leaves crushed into the black mold there gave slender
hints that a party might have passed that way; and every ear was attuned
to preternatural keenness for human sounds, for the eye could not pierce
the thicket a yard before.

Out upon this tense atmosphere burst a ghostly brown native, own brother