bour. Tranter
was the first to discover that the _Rosana_ was leaking badly; and the
hold was half-flooded before any one knew anything about it, and the
_Rosana_ was settling by her head. Smith, it seems, and the captain
were armed, or armed themselves as soon as the state of affairs was
known; and before the rest of the crew were awake four men were ordered
to man the boat and bring her alongside. The hatches were closed down
with the rest of the crew still below, and if there was a scuffle two
armed men were perfectly capable of keeping order. Smith and Tranter
got into the boat, and were rowed ashore in safety. If the whole of
the crew had tried to board her there is no doubt about it no one would
have been saved, for there were a good many hands on the steamer, and
the rush to the one boat would have swamped her. The men who manned
the boat and pulled ashore were doubtless glad to save their lives at
any price; but they might make it exceedingly unpleasant for the two
survivors of the wreck did they make their story known. They were
cross-bred natives, whose lives were of no great value to any one but
themselves, and there was an easy way for two armed men to silence them
on a lonely shore without a soul near.'

'It's a sickening story,' said Ross, getting up and walking towards the
window; and unconsciously he clenched his big hand.

'Then how,' said Peter keenly, 'has the story leaked out?'

'Because,' said Dunbar, 'sometimes at a critical moment men do their
work badly, or perhaps a native knows how to feign death before his
life is actually extinct. Dead men tell no lies, but wounded men don't
have their tongues tied in the same way.'

'So one of the men lived to tell tales!' said Peter, leaning forward in
his chair; 'and Purvis, who has been here for some time past, is the
hero of the story? It is a blackguardly tale, Dunbar, and, thank God,
I believe it would have been impossible in England!'

'I don't pass judgment on my fellow-men,' said Dunbar. 'Life is sweet,
perhaps, to some of us, and no doubt the whole crew would have swamped
the boat, but----'

'But, all the same,' said Toffy, 'you don't mean to let Purvis-Smith
get a very light time of it when you do get him.'

'No, I don't,' said Dunbar.

Ross passed out through the door of the little drawing-room to the
corridor, and went to see about some work on the farm. The commissario
drank his coffee, and Dunbar waited restlessly for his t