on the seas, and more than a few times had he
sailed on English ships, so that he understood fairly well all that had
passed between Schneider and Schmidt since he had stumbled upon them.

He rose to his feet and stepped into the clearing. Schneider and his
companion started as nervously as though a ghost had risen before them.
Schneider reached for his revolver. Momulla raised his right hand,
palm forward, as a sign of his pacific intentions.

"I am a friend," he said. "I heard you; but do not fear that I will
reveal what you have said. I can help you, and you can help me." He
was addressing Schneider. "You can navigate a ship, but you have no
ship. We have a ship, but no one to navigate it. If you will come
with us and ask no questions we will let you take the ship where you
will after you have landed us at a certain port, the name of which we
will give you later. You can take the woman of whom you speak, and we
will ask no questions either. Is it a bargain?"

Schneider desired more information, and got as much as Momulla thought
best to give him. Then the Maori suggested that they speak with Kai
Shang. The two members of the Kincaid's company followed Momulla and
his fellows to a point in the jungle close by the camp of the
mutineers. Here Momulla hid them while he went in search of Kai
Shang, first admonishing his Maori companions to stand guard over the
two sailors lest they change their minds and attempt to escape.
Schneider and Schmidt were virtually prisoners, though they did not
know it.

Presently Momulla returned with Kai Shang, to whom he had briefly
narrated the details of the stroke of good fortune that had come to
them. The Chinaman spoke at length with Schneider, until,
notwithstanding his natural suspicion of the sincerity of all men, he
became quite convinced that Schneider was quite as much a rogue as
himself and that the fellow was anxious to leave the island.

These two premises accepted there could be little doubt that Schneider
would prove trustworthy in so far as accepting the command of the
Cowrie was concerned; after that Kai Shang knew that he could find
means to coerce the man into submission to his further wishes.

When Schneider and Schmidt left them and set out in the direction of
their own camp, it was with feelings of far greater relief than they
had experienced in many a day. Now at last they saw a feasible plan
for leaving the island upon a seaworthy craft. Ther