in a minute, but let
Mrs. Tracey and the girls come first."

Mrs. Tracey and Pani and Toea clambered up over the bulwarks, and Velo
noiselessly conducted them to the sail locker in the deck-house and
bade them remain there for the present. Then, cutlass in hand, he
crouched before the door and listened to the murmur of voices from the
cabin.

Rawlings was in such excellent spirits that he could not refrain from
"chaffing" his chief officer upon his want of appetite, and kept
pressing him to drink.

"My dear Barry," he said, "you really want livening up. You have
worked too hard altogether, and seem a bit run down. Come, if you
won't drink lager, try a glass of hock."

"Yesa," said the Greek, with the grin that was so intolerable to the
man he meant to murder, "you have worka too harda, Mr. Barry. Ah! when
we get to Singapore you will feela betta; there is fine prawna curry
there in Singapore--make you feel stronga. Make you feela you wanta
come back quick to Arrecifos, and finda more pearla."

Barry looked up wearily, but for the twentieth part of a second his eye
met that of Mose the steward, who slipped behind the Greek's chair and
filled his glass.

"No, thank you," he said to Rawlings, "I won't drink anything just now.
I have a bit of a headache. I'll sit on the transoms a bit, and get a
breath of fresh air from the stern port."

"Guess it isn't on account of the liquor you've drunk, mister," said
Warner, with a sneering laugh. He himself had been drinking freely
and, despite warning glances from the captain, he had several times
rudely insisted upon Barry drinking with him, and the officer's
refusals had evidently aroused his brutal temper.

"I tell you that I don't want to drink anything," he said quietly.

He rose from his seat and walked toward the stern, but as he was
passing Rawlings his left arm shot out like lightning and seized the
captain by the throat; and at the same instant Barradas, rising to his
feet, leant across the table and struck the Greek a fearful blow
between the eyes. There was no need for the steward's help--the man
went down like a stone dropped into a well.

And then came a rush of naked feet and wild cries, and an English cheer
from Joe and the white seamen as the cabin was filled with the excited
crew and their island allies.

Warner made a desperate dash towards the companion, and by sheer
strength fought his way out through the white and native seamen with
his fi