greatly alarmed when they heard of the risk Wilfrid had run. Neither of
the wounded men appeared at breakfast, as the surgeon insisted that both
should lie quiet for at least one day. Mr. Renshaw had paid a visit to
Mr. Atherton directly he had heard from Wilfrid his story of the fray,
and thanked him most warmly for his intervention on behalf of his son.
"Wilfrid said he has very little doubt that they all three would have
been stabbed if you had not come up."

"I do not say they might not," Mr. Atherton said, "because their
resistance had raised the men's anger; and in this country when a man is
angry he generally uses his knife. Besides, dead men raise no alarm.
Still they might have contented themselves with robbing them. However, I
own that it was lucky I was on the spot."

"But it was not a question of luck at all," Mr. Renshaw insisted. "You
were there because you had specially gone ashore to look after these
foolish young fellows, and your being there was the result of your own
thoughtfulness for them, and not in any way of chance."

"There is quite a crowd on the quay, Mr. Renshaw," the captain said when
that gentleman went on deck, "I suppose they have found stains of blood
in the road and conclude that a crime has been committed. Oh, here is
our boat putting out from the landing-place. The steward has been on
shore to get fresh fruit for breakfast; he will tell us what is going
on."

The steward had gone ashore before the news of the encounter had been
spread by the surgeon.

"What is the excitement about on shore?" the captain asked him as he
stepped on deck.

"Well, sir, as far as I could learn from a chap who spoke a little
English, there have been bad doings on shore in the night. Two men were
found this morning lying dead there. There is nothing uncommon about
that; but they say there are no wounds on them, except that their skulls
are stove in, as if they had both been struck by a beam of wood at the
back of the head. But besides that there were two or three pools of
blood in the road. It seems one man walked back into the town, for there
are marks of his feet as if he stepped in the blood before starting in
that direction. Then there is a line of blood spots down to the
landing-place and down the steps, as if somebody had got into a boat.
Nobody seems to make head nor tail of the business."

"Well, we must keep this quiet if we can," the captain said, turning to
Mr. Renshaw. "If it were known