he stepped into the stern sheets. A
few strokes of the oars showed him that the fog had lifted slightly
from the water, and a green light hanging from the side of the Excelsior
could be plainly seen. Ten minutes' more steady pulling placed him on
her deck, where the second officer stood with a number of the sailors
listlessly grouped around him.

"The landing has been completed?" said Senor Perkins interrogatively.

"All except one boat-load more, which waits to take your final
instructions," said the mate. "The men have growled a little about it,"
he added, in a lower tone. "They don't want to lose anything, it seems,"
he continued, with a half sarcastic laugh.

Senor Perkins smiled peculiarly.

"I am sorry to disappoint them. Who's that in the boat?" he asked
suddenly.

The mate followed the Senor's glance.

"It is Yoto. He says he is going ashore, and you will not forbid him."

Senor Perkins approached the ship's side.

"Come here," he said to the man.

The Peruvian sailor rose, but did not make the slightest movement to
obey the command.

"You say you are going ashore?" said Perkins blandly.

"Yes, Patrono."

"What for?"

"To follow him--the thief, the assassin--who struck me here;" he pointed
to his head. "He has escaped again with his booty."

"You are very foolish, my Yoto; he is no thief, and has no booty. They
will put YOU in prison, not him."

"YOU say so," said the man surlily. "Perhaps they will hear me--for
other things," he added significantly.

"And for this you would abandon the cause?"

The man shrugged his shoulders.

"Why not?" he glanced meaningly at two of his companions, who had
approached the side; "perhaps others would. Who is sending the booty
ashore, eh?"

"Come out of that boat," said the Senor, leaning over the bulwarks with
folded arms, and his eyes firmly fixed on the man.

The man did not move. But the Senor's hand suddenly flew to the back
of his neck, smote violently downwards, and sent eighteen inches of
glittering steel hurtling through the air. The bowie-knife entered
the upturned throat of the man and buried itself halfway to the hilt.
Without a gasp or groan he staggered forward, caught wildly at the side
of the ship, and disappeared between the boat and the vessel.

"My lads," said Senor Perkins, turning with a gentle smile towards the
faces that in the light of the swinging lantern formed a ghastly circle
around him, "when I boarded this ship that had b