easy movement among the men. Their common impulse was
to obey. Coke spread his feet a little apart.

"Leave 'im alone. 'E'll do no 'arm now," he said.

"I cannot be interrupted," cried De Sylva, whose iron self-restraint
seemed to be yielding before British truculence.

"I'll keep 'im quiet but I can't 'ave 'im roasted afore 'is time, an'
that's wot's 'ul 'appen if you tied him up in that gulley."

"Thanke'ee, skipper. You allus were a reel pal," murmured Watts.

Coke bent over him.

"If your tongue don't stop waggin' it'll soon be stickin' out between
yer teeth," he hissed. "This ain't no fancy lock-up in the East Injia
Dock Road, Arthur, me boy. They won't bring you a pint of cocoa 'ere,
an' ax if you're comfortable. You 'aven't long to live accordin' to
all accounts, so just close your mouth an' open your ears, an' mebbe
you'll know w'y."

De Sylva regained his self-possession with a rapidity that was
significant. He had not climbed to the presidential chair of the
Republic from a clerkship in the London Embassy of the Empire without
acquiring the habit of estimating his fellow men speedily and
accurately. Here was one who might be led, but would never permit
himself to be driven. Moreover, this dethroned ruler was by way of
being a philosopher.

"I hate drunkards," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "You cannot
trust them. If I had been surrounded by trustworthy men, I should
not----"

He broke off. There was a sound of hurrying footsteps on the steep
pathway. A figure, clad in rags that surpassed even De Sylva's,
appeared in the entrance. A brief colloquy took place. De Sylva's
eager questions were answered in monosyllables, or the nearest approach
thereto.

"Marcel tells me that one of your boats is drifting away with a man
lying in the bottom," came the uneasy explanation.

Coke's face showed a degree of surprise, which, in his case, was almost
invariably akin to disbelief, but an exclamation from Hozier drew all
eyes.

"Good Lord!" he cried, "that must be the lifeboat I was trying to clear
when the ship struck. Macfarlane was helping me, but he was hit by a
bullet and dropped across the thwarts. I thought he was dead!"

"Dead or alive, he is better off than we," said De Sylva. He
questioned Marcel again briefly. "There can be no doubt that the man
in the boat cast off the lashings when he found that the ship was
sinking," he continued in English. "Marcel saw him doing that, a