nds on you
whether we find you a lonelier island--turn you loose or hand you over
to the authorities in British East!"

"Good!" Coutlass shouted. "By Jingo, you are a gentleman! You are the
best man in the world! I will treat you as my brother!"

"Thanks!" said Fred dryly.

"Aren't you men ever coming?" asked Will, striding out of the shadows.
"I've made the dicker--found a man who'd been on the mainland and knows
Swahili. The chief's agreeable to loan us two canoes in place of
deeding you the woman. I took your name in vain, Fred, and consented
to that while your back was turned--kick all you like--the deed is
done! Four of his savages come with us as far as we want to go, we
feeding 'em meat and paying 'em money. It's agreed they're to eat just
as often as we do. They paddle the canoes back home when we're through
with them. Are you all ready? Then all aboard! Let's hurry!"

CHAPTER TWELVE

"MANY THAT ARE FIRST SHALL BE LAST; AND THE LAST FIRST--"

When the last of the luck has deserted and the least of the chances
has waned,
When there's nowhere to run to and even the pluck in the smile
that you carry is feigned;
When grimmer than yesterday's horror to-morrow dawns hungry and cold,
And your faith in the coming unknown is denied in regret for the
known and the old,
Then you're facing, my son, what the Fathers from Abraham down to to-day
Have looked on alone, and stood up to alone, and each in his several way
O'ercame (or he shouldn't be Father). So ye shall o'ercome: while
ye live,
Though ye've nothing but breath and good-will to your name ye must
stand to it naked, and give!

Ye shall learn in that hour that the plunder ye won by profession is
nought--
And false was the aim ye aspired with--and dross was the glamour
ye sought--
The codes and the creeds that ye cherished were shadows of clouds
in the wind,
(And ye can not recall for their counsel lost leaders ye dallied
behind!)
Ye shall stand in that hour and discover by agony's guttering flame
How the fruits of self-will, and the lees of ambition and
bitterness all are the same,
Until, stripped of desire, ye shall know that was death. Then the
proof that ye live
Shall be knowledge new-born that the naked--the fools and the felons,
can give!

Then the suns and the stars in their courses shall speedily swing
to your aid,