lf to speak. Ruth's eyes were wet, but the tears could not
obscure a look that made the young man's heart thump wildly.

"Allen," said the captain, taking his hand, "it was the pluckiest thing
I ever heard of. If we get out of this place alive, we shall owe it
all to you."

"You make too much of it," disclaimed Drew, red and confused. "But
hadn't we better stow away these things the men have brought along?
Here's the box of cartridges I found under your berth."

The captain fairly shouted.

"That puts the cap sheaf on!" he exulted. "Now Ditty and his gang are
done for. They can't come too soon."

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE GHOST

The camp quieted down after a time. In one corner, Ruth had a shelter
of rugs which had been brought up from the boat, and she retired to
this after helping her father dress and rebandage Drew's foot.

The captain, as so many skippers are, was a good amateur surgeon; and
as far as he could discern there were no bones broken. But the foot
was so very painful that the young man could not coax the drowsy god.
He tossed restlessly on the hard bed of lava rock, and, though his eyes
closed at times, they opened again as though fitted with springs.

The exciting events of the day and the chances he had taken were
repeated over and over in his mind. For the first time in his life he
had aimed a deadly weapon at another human being.

He knew that Bingo had fallen by his hand. But, oddly enough, that
fact did not sear his conscience. He had been accused of drowning
Lester Parmalee, and the thought of that accusation now made him shrink
and writhe.

He was guiltless of Parmalee's awful end; still, he shuddered at the
thought that he might have been guilty. At one time he had felt such
rage and animosity, through jealousy, that he might have struck
Parmalee a fatal blow.

Drew had considered the missing man his rival for Ruth's affection.
Fate had removed that rival from his path. Yet, in doing this, fate
had likewise raised a barrier to Drew's own happiness with Ruth.

The man groaned aloud at this thought. Then, fearing that some of the
others would be disturbed, that Ruth might hear him, he arose and
hobbled to the barrier.

He felt in a pocket of the coat he had put on while aboard the schooner
and found pipe and tobacco. He filled the pipe and fell to smoking,
hoping to soothe his jumping nerves, while he stared out across the
moonlit open.

The tropical moonlight reve