e, not a sound could I hear when the
rolling echoes had passed away. It was just the silence of the thicket
and of the great precipices which headed it--a silence which might
freeze a man's heart because the danger which threatened him was
hidden.

"Crouch low to the rocks, lad, and go easy," cried I, when my wits came
back again; "that's a tongue it doesn't do to quarrel with. The dirty
skunks--to fire on unarmed men! But we'll return it, Dolly; as I live
I'll fire a dozen for every one they send us."

"Return it, sir," says he; "but aren't you going aboard?"

"Aye," says I, "and coming back again like drift on an open sea. Now
let me see you skip across that bridge, and no mistake about it."

He darted across the chasm's bridge like a chamois. I followed him
quick and clumsy. If my heart was in my mouth--well, let that pass. Not
for my own sake did I fear mortal man that day, but for the sake of a
woman whose very life I believed to be in danger.

CHAPTER IV

WE GO ABOARD, BUT RETURN AGAIN

We made the ship safely when twenty minutes were passed, and ten
minutes later, Mister Jacob and Peter Bligh were in my cabin with me.

"Lads," I said, for it was not a day when a man picked his talk;
"lads," said I, "this ship goes full steam ahead for 'Frisco, and
you'll be wanting to know the reason why. Well, that's right and
proper. Let me tell you that she's steaming to 'Frisco because it's the
shortest way to Ken's Island."

They looked queer at this, but my manner kept them silent. Every man
aboard the Southern Cross had heard the gun fired up in the hills, and
every one knew that Dolly Venn and the skipper had raced for their
lives to the water's edge. "What next?" they asked; and I meant to tell
them.

"Yes," said I, "the shortest way to Ken's Island, and no mistake about
it. For what does a man do when he sees some one in a house and the
front door's slammed in his face? Why, he goes to the back door
certainly, and for choice when the night's dark and the blinds are
down. That's what I'm going to do this night, lads, for the sake of a
bit of a girl you and I would sail far to serve."

They said, "Aye, aye," and drew their chairs closer. The men had been
piped down to dinner, but Peter Bligh forgot his, and that was
extraordinary peculiar in him. Mister Jacob took snuff as though it
were chocolate powder, and the whole of a man spoke from his little
eyes.

"Listen," said I, beginning to tell them what yo