orld with a wild, unnatural
glory.

Lund, striding the deck, his red beard iced with his breath, suddenly
stopped and stared into the east. There, in the very eye of the dawn,
was a trail of smoke, like a plume against the flaming, three-quarters
circle of the rising sun!

CHAPTER XVI

THE MIGHT OF NIPPON

Lund's face, on which the bruises were fast fading, changed purple-black
with rage. He whirled upon Sandy, gaping near, and ordered him to fetch
his binoculars. Through them he stared long at the smoke. Then he turned
to the girl and Rainey.

"Come down inter the cabin," he said. "We'll need all our wits."

"That's a gunboat patrol," he said. "Japanese, for a million! None other
this far west. An' it's damned funny it should come up right at this
minnit. We've made the trip on schedule time, an' here they show. But
we'll let that slide. We've got to think fast. They'll board us. They'll
overhaul us lookin' for seal pelts. At least, I hope so.

"We've got none. Our hunters an' our rifles an' shotguns'll prove our
claim to be pelagic sealers. We got to trust they believe us. If there
was a hide aboard or a club, or a sign of a dead seal on the beaches
they'd nail us. They may, ennyway, jest on suspicion.

"They run things out this way with a high hand. If they ever clap us in
prison it'll be where we can't let a peep out of us. A lot they worry
about our consuls. They's too many good sealers dropped out of sight in
one of their stinkin' jails to starve on millet an' dried, moldy fish. I
know what I'm talkin' about.

"It's lucky we didn't start mussin' up that beach. But they'll go over
everything. I know 'em. They claim to own the seas hereabouts, an'
they're cockier than ever, since the war. Rainey you got to git busy on
the log. If yore father didn't keep it up, Miss Peggy, so much the
better. If he has, you got to fake it someways, Rainey.

"I'm Simms, get me, until we're clear of 'em. An' you, Rainey, are Doc
Carlsen. Nothin' must show in the log about enny deaths."

"But why?" asked the girl. "Why do we have to masquerade? If we haven't
touched the seals?"

Lund barked at her:

"I gave you credit for sharper wits," he said. "We've got to have
everything so reg'lar they can't find an excuse for haulin' us in an'
settin' fire to the schooner. They'd do it in a jiffy. We got to show
'em our clearance papers, an' we've got to tally up all down the line.
Rainey ain't on the ship's books--Carlsen