elling the young officer who we were; he turned from him to us as we
prepared to clamber aboard and addressed us without ceremony, as if we
had been parted from him but a few minutes since our last meeting.

"You'd better be prepared for some unpleasant sights, you two!" he
said. "This is no place to bring an empty stomach to at this hour of
the morning--and I fancy you've no liking for horrors, Mr.
Middlebrook."

"I've had plenty of them during this night, Scarterfield," said I. "I
was a prisoner on board this vessel from yesterday afternoon until
soon after midnight, and I've sat on yonder beach listening to a good
many things that have gone on since I got away from her."

He stared at me in astonishment for a moment; so did his companion,
whose sharp eyes, running me over, settled their glance on my swathed
feet.

"Yes," I said, staring back at him. "Just so!--I was bundled off in
such a hurry that I left my boots behind me. They're in the cabin--and
if they aren't burned up I'll be glad of them."

I was making a move in that direction, for I saw that the fire, now
well under control, had been confined to the fore-part of the
yawl--but Scarterfield stopped me. He was clearly as puzzled as
anxious.

"Middlebrook!" he said earnestly. "I don't understand it, at all. You
say you were on this vessel--during the night? Then, in God's name,
who else was on her--whom did you find here--what men?"

"I left six men on her," I answered. "Netherfield Baxter--a
Frenchman--a Chinese gentleman, so described--three Chinese as well.
The Frenchman and the Chinese gentleman were those fellows we heard of
at Hull, Scarterfield, and one, at an rate, of the other three Chinese
was Lo Chuh Fen, of whom we've also heard."

"And you got into their hands--how?" he asked.

"Kidnapped--Miss Raven and myself--by Baxter and the Frenchman, in
those woods, yesterday afternoon," I answered. "We came across them by
accident, at the place where they'd just dug up that monastic
silver--there it is, man!" I continued, pointing to the chests, which
still stood where I had last seen them. "You've got it, at last."

He threw an almost careless glance at the chests, shaking his head.

"I want something beyond that," he muttered. "But--you say there were
six men altogether--six?"

"I've enumerated them." I replied. "Two Europeans--four Chinese."

He turned a quick eye on the naval officer.

"Then one of 'em's escaped--somehow!" he exclaimed.