Code, remembering the time of night they
arrived, knew this to be impossible, for it is dark at six in
September. He had barely been able to make out the lines of the
nearest schooners.

A man was standing like a statue at the wheel, and, as he put the
vessel over on the port tack, his face came brightly into the sun. It
was 'Arry Duncan. Code had not been wrong, then, in thinking that he
had seen the man's face in St. Pierre.

"Fine traitor you've got there at the wheel," said Schofield. "He'll
do you brown some day."

"I don't think so. Just because he did you, doesn't prove anything. He
was in my employ all the time, and getting real money for his work."

"So it was all a plot, eh?" said Code dejectedly. "I give you credit,
Burns, for more brains than I ever supposed you had. What's become of
Pete Ellinwood and the _Lass?_"

"Pete is back on the schooner and she's gone out to fish. You needn't
worry about them. At the proper time they'll be told you are safe and
unhurt."

Code said nothing for a while. With hands rammed into his pockets he
stood watching the white and blue sea whirl by. In those few minutes
he touched the last depth of failure and despair. For a brief space he
was minded to leap overboard.

He shivered as one with an ague and shook off the deadly influence of
the idea. Had he no more grit? he asked himself. Had he come this far
only to be beaten? Was this insolent young popinjay to win at last?
_No!_ Then he listened, for Nat was speaking.

"If you give your word of honor not to try and escape you can have the
run of the decks and go anywhere you like on the schooner. If not, you
will be locked up and go home a prisoner."

It was the last straw, the final piece of humiliation. Code stiffened
as a soldier might to rebuke. A deadly, dull anger surged within him
and took possession of his whole being--such an anger as can only come
to one who, amiable and upright by nature, is driven to inevitable
revolt.

"Look here, Burns," he said, his voice low, but intense with the
emotion that mastered him, "I'll give no word of honor regarding
anything. Between you and me there is a lot to be settled. You have
almost ruined me, and, by Heaven, before I get through with you,
you'll rue it!

"I shall make every attempt to escape from this schooner, and if I do
escape, look out! If I do not escape and you press these charges
against me, I'll hunt you down for the rest of my life; or if I go to
priso