rself," answered Dubosc. "He steers by my order. Besides,
it is a simple creature--an infant, truly, incapable of any but the most
primitive reasoning."

"Is he incapable of treachery?"

"Of any that would deceive us. Also, he is bound by his duty. I made my
bargain with his chief, up the river, and this one is sent to deliver us
on board our ship. It is the only interest he has in us."

"And he will do it?"

"He will do it. Such is the nature of the native."

"I am glad you feel so," returned Fenayrou, adjusting himself indolently
among the drier reeds and nursing the last of his cigarette. "For my
part I wouldn't trust a figurehead like that for two sous. Mazette! What
a monkey face!"

"Brute!" repeated Perroquet, and this man, sprung from some vile
river-front slum of Argenteuil, whose home had been the dock pilings,
the grog shop, and the jail, even this man viewed the black Canaque
from an immeasurable distance with the look of hatred and contempt....

Under the heat of the day the two younger convicts lapsed presently into
dozing. But Dubosc did not doze. His tormented soul peered out behind
its mask as he stood to sweep the sky line again under shaded hand. His
theory had been so precise, the fact was so different. He had counted
absolutely on meeting the ship--some small schooner, one of those
flitting, half-piratical traders of the copra islands that can be hired
like cabs in a dark street for any questionable enterprise. Now there
was no ship, and here was no crossroads where one might sit and wait.
Such a craft as the catamaran could not be made to lie to.

The doctor foresaw ugly complications for which he had not prepared and
whereof he must bear the burden. The escape had been his own conception,
directed by him from the start. He had picked his companions
deliberately from the whole forced labor squad, Perroquet for his great
strength, Fenayrou as a ready echo. He had made it plain since their
first dash from the mine, during their skirmish with the military
guards, their subsequent wanderings in the brush with bloodhounds and
trackers on the trail--through every crisis--that he alone should be the
leader.

For the others, they had understood well enough which of their number
was the chief beneficiary. Those mysterious friends on the outside that
were reaching half around the world to further their release had never
heard of such individuals as Fenayrou and The Parrot. Dubosc was the man
who ha