rom over the creek; my
men at the river saw his body floating down. Otherwise you would not
have been in that peril from fire." Barry met his eye with a wry smile,
as if to question whether it might not have been well to warn the
shipmaster, instead of keeping him and his ship in the safe keeping of a
little brown man in a tree. Vandersee explained: "I had lookouts from
end to end of the river, Barry, on both sides, and above and below here.
That is the strength of my net. But the killing of that one watchman was
about the last thing to be expected. It was a slip of mine, of course;
but to me that one man in particular was invisible and undetectable. But
that is past, and all of you are here yet. You are worrying about the
personal welfare of two ladies, I know."

Gordon's face darkened, and his lip was drawn between his teeth. The big
Hollander regarded him very softly and went on: "Both are now on board
the _Padang_--" Gordon choked down a curse, and apologized, and
Vandersee ignored the interruption--"Aboard the _Padang_, both safe and
well, and in no danger whatever. The schooner is due abreast here just
after dawn; her master is due about the same time, in his own steam
launch. He knows that Miss Sheldon is there; in fact she is practically
in charge of his vessel, so infatuated is he at his imagined triumph in
spite of you, Barry; but Mrs. Goring is there unknown to anybody except
Miss Sheldon and ourselves, and solely to give Natalie the support of
her presence and advice in what is going to be a very difficult
situation for a young girl."

Barry kicked at Little, to awake him to listen, and asked:

"Say, Vandersee, that sort of thing's a habit with Mrs. Goring, isn't
it?"

"Habit? Reassuring people, do you mean, Captain?"

"I mean sailing aboard of ships unknown to owners or skippers."

"Yes," put in Little, awake at last, "if she didn't arrive here in our
ship, I'll eat what's left of her--the ship, I mean."

"She certainly didn't leave Java before us, and she was undoubtedly in
this river as soon as we, and besides, there's a matter of a photo--"
Barry was rattling on, and Vandersee stopped him.

"I see you smell the rat, Captain." Houten was shaking like a vast jelly
with silent amusement. "I may as well tell you now that Mrs. Goring did
come in your ship. It was vital that she get here to the station before
Leyden, and unknown to him. I took care of her on the passage, and saw
that she got ashore sa