icked up the first rifle I could lay hands on. Now,
Miss Deane, as the affair has ended so happily, may I venture to ask
you to remain in the cave until I return?"

"Oh, please--" she began.

"Really, I must insist. I would not leave you if it were not quite
imperative. You _cannot_ come with me."

Then she understood one at least of the tasks he must perform, and she
meekly obeyed.

He thought it best to go along Turtle Beach to the cove, and thence
follow the Dyaks' trail through the wood, as this line of advance would
entail practically a complete circuit of the island. He omitted no
precautions in his advance. Often he stopped and listened intently.
Whenever he doubled a point or passed among the trees he crept back and
peered along the way he had come, to see if any lurking foes were
breaking shelter behind him.

The marks on the sand proved that only one sampan had been beached.
Thence he found nothing of special interest until he came upon the
chief's gun, lying close to the trees on the north side. It was a very
ornamental weapon, a muzzle-loader. The stock was inlaid with gold and
ivory, and the piece had evidently been looted from some mandarin's
junk surprised and sacked in a former foray.

The lock was smashed by the impact of the Lee-Metford bullet, but close
investigation of the trigger-guard, and the discovery of certain
unmistakable evidences on the beach, showed that the Dyak leader had
lost two if not three fingers of his right hand.

"So he has something more than his passion to nurse," mused Jenks.
"That at any rate is fortunate. He will be in no mood for further
enterprise for some time to come."

He dreaded lest any of the Dyaks should be only badly wounded and
likely to live. It was an actual relief to his nerves to find that the
improvised Dum-dums had done their work too well to permit anxiety on
that score. On the principle that a "dead Injun is a good Injun" these
Dyaks were good Dyaks.

He gathered the guns, swords and krisses of the slain, with all their
uncouth belts and ornaments. In pursuance of a vaguely defined plan of
future action he also divested some of the men of their coarse
garments, and collected six queer-looking hats, shaped like inverted
basins. These things he placed in a heap near the pitcher-plants.
Thenceforth, for half an hour, the placid surface of the lagoon was
disturbed by the black dorsal fins of many sharks.

To one of the sailor's temperament there wa