said he.

"Why should he want to?" I demanded sharply.

"_Quien sabe_?" shrugged he.

We turned in silence toward the beach. Each brooded his thoughts. The
sight of that man dressed in overalls, carrying on some mysterious
business, brought home to each of us the fact that our expedition had
an object, as yet unknown to us. The thought had of late dropped into
the background. For my part I had been so immersed in the adventure
and the labour and the insistent need of the hour that I had forgotten
why I had come. Dr. Schermerhorn's purpose was as inscrutable to me
as at first. What had I accomplished?

The men, too, seemed struck with some such idea. There were no yarns
about the camp fire that night. Percy Darrow did not appear, for which
I was sincerely sorry. His presence might have created a diversion.
For some unknown reason all my old apprehensions, my sense of
impending disaster, had returned to me strengthened. In the firelight
the Nigger's sullen face looked sinister, Pulz's nervous white
countenance looked vicious. Thrackles' heavy, bulldog expression was
threatening, Perdosa's Mexican cast fit for knife work in the back.
And Handy Solomon, stretched out, leaning on his elbow, with his red
headgear, his snaky hair, his hook nose, his restless eye and his
glittering steel claw--the glow wrote across his aura the names of
Kid, Morgan, Blackbeard. They sat smoking, staring into the fire with
mesmerised eyes. The silence got on my nerves I arose impatiently and
walked down the pale beach, where the stars glimmered in splashes
along the wettest sands. The black silhouette of the hills against
the dark blue of the night sky; the white of breakers athwart the
indistinct heave of the ocean, a faint light marking the position of
the _Laughing Lass_--that was everything in the world. I made
out some object rolled about in the edge of the wash. At the cost of
wet feet I rescued it. It was an empty brandy bottle.

[Illustration: "These sheep had become as wild as deer"]

X

CHANGE OF MASTERS

The next day we continued our explorations by land, and so for a week
after that. I thought it best not to relinquish all authority, so I
organised regular expeditions, and ordered their direction. The men
did not object. It was all good enough fun to them.

The net results were that we found a nesting place of sea birds--too
late in the season for eggs; a hot spring near enough camp to be
useful; and that was abou