t changed so
much as you may think, and the Gold Coast isn't exactly the centre of
civilisation. There! I've said my say. The less I see of you now till we
land, the better I shall be pleased."

He walked away and was challenged by the Doctor to a game of
shuffleboard. Da Souza remained in his chair, his eyes blinking as
though with the sun, and his hands gripping nervously the sides of his
chair.

CHAPTER XXIII

After six weeks' incessant throbbing the great engines were still, and
the Dunottar Castle lay at anchor a mile or two from the African coast
and off the town of Attra. The heat, which in motion had been hard
enough to bear, was positively stifling now. The sun burned down upon
the glassy sea and the white deck till the varnish on the rails cracked
and blistered, and the sweat streamed like water from the faces of the
labouring seamen. Below at the ship's side half a dozen surf boats were
waiting, manned by Kru boys, who alone seemed perfectly comfortable, and
cheerful as usual. All around were preparations for landing--boxes were
being hauled up from the hold, and people were going about in reach of
small parcels and deck-chairs and missing acquaintances. Trent, in white
linen clothes and puggaree, was leaning over the railing, gazing towards
the town, when Da Souza came up to him--

"Last morning, Mr. Trent!"

Trent glanced round and nodded.

"Are you disembarking here?" he asked.

Da Souza admitted the fact. "My brother will meet me," he said. "He is
very afraid of the surf-boats, or he would have come out to the steamer.
You remember him?"

"Yes, I remember him," Trent answered. "He was not the sort of person
one forgets."

"He is a very rough diamond," Da Souza said apologetically. "He has
lived here so long that he has become almost half a native."

"And the other half a thief," Trent muttered.

Da Souza was not in the least offended.

"I am afraid," he admitted, "that his morals are not up to the
Threadneedle Street pitch, eh, Mr. Trent? But he has made quite a great
deal of money. Oh, quite a sum I can assure you. He sends me some over
to invest!"

"Well, if he's carrying on the same old game," Trent remarked, "he ought
to be coining it! By the by, of course he knows exactly where Monty is?"

"It is what I was about to say," Da Souza assented, with a vigorous nod
of the head. "Now, my dear Mr. Trent, I know that you will have your
way. It is no use my trying to dissuade you, so li