t, and he was
thirsty. The seltzer tasted a little flat--or the whisky was of an
unusual brand, he fancied. And then inertia suddenly seized him. He lost
the use of his limbs, of his tongue, when he tried to call out. He saw
the doctor's sardonic eyes watching him as he strove to shake off a
lethargy that swiftly merged into dizziness.

Dimly he heard the scrape of the captain's chair being pushed back. From
far off he heard Lund's big voice booming, "Here, what's this?" and the
doctor's cutting in, low and eager; then he collapsed, his head falling
forward on his outstretched arms.

CHAPTER II

A DIVIDED COMPANY

It was not the first time that Rainey had been on a ship, a sailing
ship, and at sea. Whenever possible his play-hours had been spent on a
little knockabout sloop that he owned jointly with another man, both of
them members of the Corinthian Club. While the _Curlew_ had made no
blue-water voyages, they had sailed her more than once up and down the
California coast on offshore regattas and pleasure-trips, and, lacking
experience in actual navigation, Rainey was a pretty handy sailorman for
an amateur.

So, as he came out of the grip of the drug that had been given him,
slowly, with a brain-pan that seemed overstuffed with cotton and which
throbbed with a dull persistent ache--with a throat that seemed to be
coated with ashes, strangely contracted--a nauseated stomach--eyes that
saw things through a haze--limbs that ached as if bruised--the sounds
that beat their way through his sluggish consciousness were familiar
enough to place him almost instantly and aid his memory's flickering
film to reel off what had happened.

As he lay there in a narrow bunk, watching the play of light that came
through a porthole beyond his line of vision, noting in this erratic
shuttling of reflected sunlight the roll and pitch of cabin walls,
listening to the low boom of waves followed by the swash alongside that
told him the _Karluk_ was bucking heavy seas, a slow rage mastered him,
centered against the doctor with the sardonic smile and Captain Simms,
who Rainey felt sure had tacitly approved of the doctor's actions.

He remembered Lund's exclamation of, "Here, what's this?"--the question
of a blind man who could not grasp what was happening--and acquitted
him.

They had deliberately kidnapped him, shanghaied him, because they did
not choose to trust him, because they thought he might print the story
of the isla