l voice
barked a brief order in Dutch, the concealed men on the wreck sprang
into sight and covered Leyden's men in the launch, and like the dart of
a shark Houten drove his own craft out into the stream after the
vanished combatants, his great red face gone ashy, his beady eyes
gleaming anxiously.

On board the schooner Barry drove his men to boat-falls in hasty
endeavor to get a boat over; but the effort could have only proved
fruitless, for the stream ran like a mill race around those writhing,
twisting grasses that endlessly bent, straightened, and twined, and the
undertow was appalling. Houten's launch rounded the _Barang's_ stern and
the trader searched the waters with outthrust head that contrasted
strongly with his previous attitude of nonchalance.

Something rolled upwards on the surface at the very edge of the grasses
and disappeared again. In a few seconds it appeared again, and now
Vandersee's red, strangling face emerged from the water. The launch shot
towards him and picked him up, twenty yards from the spot where he had
plunged in grips with Leyden. When he regained his breath, he pointed
inshore beside the wreck, and the launch put back. Still there came no
sight of Leyden; and soon the boat headed for the schooner, Vandersee's
men bringing Leyden's launch in response to an order. And the two burly
Hollanders came on board the _Padang_ in quiet mood, mounted to the poop
and met their friends with a subdued, almost sorrowful smile. Mrs.
Goring and Gordon could not restrain their anxiety, however, and
Vandersee answered their looks of inquiry.

"It is finished," he said very seriously. "Not by my hand, but by the
inevitable hand of Justice. We fell beside that weed bank, and separated
as we struck the water. I came up outside the eddy; being the heavier
the current had more action on me; but he plunged deep into the grass. I
went down again to try to release him, but it was out of my hands then."
Vandersee shuddered slightly, then his soft, placid smile returned, full
of quiet reverence for the name he now used. "God had taken vengeance
from me and had substituted his infallible Justice. Leyden lies down
there under that bank, with a rope of weed about his neck that no
strength of mine could break."

"It iss better so!" grumbled Houten, after a silence that thrilled. He
stepped over to Gordon, took his hand in a short, warm grip, then gently
put him aside, and gathered Mrs. Goring into his tremendous a