'm afraid we won't. Both the
brigantine and cutter must have had to heave to, or else run, and if
they have run, they may be two hundred miles away from here by now. And
I think that Guest _would_ run to the westward for open water, instead
of heaving-to among such an infernal lot of reefs and shoals."

"Whatever he may have done, he, and my cutter, too, are safe, and we
shall see them back in three days," he reiterated, with such quiet
emphasis, and with such a strangely confident, contented look in his
eyes, that I also felt convinced the vessels would, as he said, turn up
safely.

We sat silent for some minutes, watching the sea, and noting how quickly
the wind was falling, when presently my comrade turned to me.

"You asked me why I did not try to make the German head station in
Blanche Bay, after my crew were killed," he said. "Well, I'll tell you.
I am frightened of no man living, but I happened to hear the name of the
manager there--a-Captain Sternberg, an ex-captain of the German navy.
He and I served together in the same ship--and I am a deserter from the
German service."

I was astonished. "You!" I exclaimed; "surely you are not a German?"

"Indeed, I am," he replied, "and if I fell into the hands or the German
naval authorities, or any German Consul, or other official anywhere, I
should have but a short time in this world."

"Why, what could they do?"

"Send me home to be tried--and shot."

"Surely they cannot shoot a man for desertion in the German navy."

"There is something beyond desertion in my case-- I killed an officer.
Sternberg knows the whole story, and though as a man and a gentleman he
would feel for me, he would have no hesitation in arresting me and
sending me home in irons, if he could get me. And he could not fail to
recognise me, although eight and twenty years have passed since he last
saw me."

"But he is not an Imperial officer now," I remarked.

"Yes, he is. He is Vice-Consul for Germany in the Western Pacific,
and, as such, would have authority to apprehend me, and apprehend me he
certainly would, though, as I have said, he knows my story, and when we
served together, was always a kind and good friend to me, despite the
fact that he was an officer and I was not; for I came from as good a
family as his own--and that goes a long way in both the German army and
navy."

I made some sympathetic remark, and then Yorke resumed:

"What I am telling you now--and I'll tell you the