o back to New York people will say, 'That's the specialist, Duncan
Gray, who wrote about narcotics and their uses.' They'll come and see
me because the newspapers tell them to. We advertise or die, nowadays,
captain, and the man who gets a foothold up above must take some risks.
I took them when I shipped with Edmond Czerny."

It was an honest story, and I liked the man the better for it. No word
of mine intervened before he went on with it.

"Luck put me in the way of the thing," he continued, the mood being on
him now and my silence helping him; "I met Czerny's skipper in 'Frisco,
and he was a talker. There's nothing more dangerous than a loose
tongue. The man said that his master was the second human being to set
foot on Ken's Archipelago. I knew that it was not true. A hundred years
ago Jacob Hoyt, a Dutchman, was marooned on this place and lived to
tell the story of it. The record lies in the library at Washington;
I've read it."

He said this with a low chuckle, like a man in possession of a secret
which might be of great value to him. I did not see the point of it at
the time, but I saw it later, as you shall hear.

"Yes," he rattled on, "Edmond Czerny holds a full hand, but I may yet
draw fours. He's a clever man, too, and a deep one. We'll see who's
the deeper, and we will begin soon, Captain Begg--very soon. The
sleep-time's through, I guess, and this means waking."

Now, this was spoken of the storm without, and a heavy clap of thunder,
breaking at that moment, pointed his words as nothing else could have
done. I had many questions yet to ask him, such as how it was that he
persuaded Czerny to take him aboard (though a man who knew so much
would have been a dangerous customer to leave behind), but the rolling
sounds awoke the others, and Peter Bligh, jumping up half asleep, asked
if any one knocked.

"I thought it was the devil with the hot water--and bedad it is!" cries
he. "Is the house struck, or am I dreaming it, doctor? It's a fearsome
sound, truly."

Peter meant it as a bit of his humour, I do believe; but little he knew
how near the truth his guess was. The storm, which had threatened us
since dawn, now burst with a splendour I have never seen surpassed. A
very sheet of raging fire opened up the livid sky. The crashing thunder
shook the timbers of the house until you might have thought that the
very roof was coming in. In the gardens themselves, leaping into your
view and passing out of it agai