Alfred Rubery, large, good-looking, adventurous, nephew of the great
London publicist, John Bright. It was he who spoke first in a guarded
undertone:

"Is everything ready--safe?"

"Far as I can tell," responded Harpending.

"How many men d'you get?" asked Rubery.

"Twenty ... that's enough. We'll pick up more at Manzanillo. There we'll
dress the Chapman into fighting trim, set up our guns aboard and capture
the first Pacific Mail liner with gold out of California."

"You're a clever fellow, Harpending. How'd you get those guns aboard
without suspicion?"

"Through a Mexican friend," replied Harpending. "He said he needed them
to protect his mine in South America. Besides, we've a large assortment
of rifles, revolvers, cutlasses. They're boxed and marked 'machinery.'"

Further talk was interrupted by a group of men who approached, saluted,
gave a whispered countersign. Others came, still others till the quota
of a full score had arrived. At Harpending's command they separated to
avoid attention. Silently they slipped through dimly-lighted streets,
past roaring saloons and sailors' boarding houses to an unfrequented
portion of the waterfront. There the trim black silhouetted shape of
the schooner Chapman loomed against a cloudy sky.

At the rail stood Ridgely Greathouse, big, florid, his burnside whiskers
twitching.

"Where the devil's Law?" he bellowed. "Lord Almighty! Here it's nearly
midnight and no captain."

"He's not with us," said Harpending quietly. But his face paled.
Navigator William Law was the only one of whom he had a doubt. But the
men must not suspect. "Law will be along soon," he added. "Let us all
get aboard and make ready to sail."

The men followed him and went below. Harpending, Greathouse and Rubery
paced the deck. "He's drunk probably," commented Greathouse savagely.

"Tut! Tut!" cried Rubery, "let us have no croaking." But at two o'clock,
the navigator had not shown his face. They could not sail without a
captain. Wearily they went below and left a sentinel on watch. He was a
young man who had eaten heavily and drunk to even more excess. For a
time he paced the deck conscientiously. Then he sat down, leaned against
a spar and smoked. After a while the pipe fell from his
listless fingers.

* * * * *

"Ahoy, schooner Chapman!"

The sleeping sentinel stirred languidly. He stretched himself, yawned,
rose in splendid leisure. Then a shout broke from hi