h, close at heel, like a well-trained dog behind his
master.

"It's this way," said Jarrow, as they made their way between the
bales and barrels among the workers on the Mole. "Maybe Looney give
'em hot shot about this island and they're keen to go, thinkin'
there's bunches of gold there, which I know ain't so. But it don't
matter if we git a charter at fifty a day or so, and drag it out
into a couple of weeks."

"We'll want our own crew," suggested Peth.

"Bevins," said Jarrow.

"Shope," said Peth.

"And Doc Bird for steward, and Shanghai Tom ships as cook."

"Right. Ye leave it to me, and if there's anything in it, I'll have
all hands come dark."

"I ain't hatchin' no chickens on what Looney said," cautioned Jarrow,
"but if there's a man who's lit up on Looney's island-o'-gold yarn,
it ain't my way to throw sand in his eyes. And if we do find gold that's
two tails to the cat. We'll take things as they lay."

CHAPTER IV

CAPTAIN JARROW GOES CRUISING IN STRANGE WATERS

Captain Jarrow and Mr. Peth were driven across the Bridge of Spain
and up Bagumbayan Drive past the Walled City in a _carromata_, and
disembarked from the native rig at the edge of the Luneta, whence
they proceeded to the Bay View Hotel.

Jarrow wore a new white suit, squeaky French shoes of yellow hue,
and an aura of perfumed soap. Mr. Peth felt uncomfortably
respectable in blue serge and a shirt with a starched collar.

"I might ha' stayed back," grumbled Peth, as they mounted the stoop
of the deserted veranda.

"You lay a course for the bar while I brace the gent at the
office," said Jarrow. "Don't have nothin' to say."

Mr. Peth measured the veranda with his long legs and disappeared
into the bar, while Jarrow squeaked his way into the palms and
velvet grandeur of the _sala_, waving away the boy who came to
inquire about his baggage.

"Yes, sir," said Wilkins, rising from behind the railed desk.

"You got a man here named Locke," asserted Jarrow, seizing the
railing as if to brace himself against a shock.

"Right-o," said Wilkins. "Name, please?" He reached for the room
telephone.

Jarrow was taken aback at the thought of being so abruptly thrust
before a stranger he could not see. He had no plan for a telephone
conversation as preliminary to a meeting and was averse to having
his name bandied about by the clerk.

"You can say," he suggested, "it's a friend of Captain Dinshaw's,
who's come to have a word with him--st