ever
thought I would live to see the like of that!"

"But how does he keep her engines going? The fireroom crew must know what
has happened," I said.

"What's left of 'em do," said Riggs. "He's likely got a few men below who
think they will get a share of the loot if they keep up steam. Perhaps
the Filipino chief is at his post keeping the chinkies going--leave that
to the devil on the bridge--he knows his game."

He drew back into the companion, and I looked out again. I could see a
pair of shoes sticking out past the donkey-engine, just abaft the
foremast; but the machinery hid the man from me. Presently a strip of
canvas fluttered in the breeze, and Long Jim stood up, with a sail-needle
and a length of sail-twine in his teeth, and cut out a square of
tarpaulin on the deck.

"Look at the cockney," I said to Riggs. "I can't make out what he is up
to."

He studied the sailor for a minute, and then drew back and whispered:

"Sewing sacks to carry the gold away. They are getting ready to scuttle
her. The starboard boats are hanging in the davits, ready to lower away
when we are behind the island. There is a channel a mile wide in there,
and deep soundings. He may find an anchorage until night and then get
away in the dark, but I'm afraid he won't take that long, because he
knows a coast-guard cutter is liable to spy him out. This coast is being
watched pretty close by the navy and the Japs and the customs, because
there is so much blockade-running."

"It may be that he is planning to maroon us on the island."

"That wouldn't be his way. The Devil's Admiral never leaves a man alive.
Four men will get out of the _Kut Sang_, and you know who they are. He
ain't the man to take a chance of meeting you or me, or even letting us
tell about him. It's 'Dead men tell no tales' with him, you may be sure
of that."

I took my turn at the little window, which was not wide enough to let the
muzzle of my pistol through, or I would have fired upon them. They
each wore a pair of pistols, big, black, long-barrelled weapons.
Thirkle's were quite plain, for he swung them from a belt over his white
jacket, as I could see when he approached the openings at each end of the
bridge where the ladder-heads ended.

"It will take about an hour at this clip to have the island abeam," said
Riggs, after he had gone below and looked through the ports. "They are
driving her again. Likely he has an agreement with the black gang to
stick to the