s don't seem to know. I told the
_Times_ man on the waterfront over the telephone, five minutes before we
sailed, to make a personal item about how the Rev. Luther Meeker,
missionary, would sail next week for Hong-Kong in the _Taming_, and to
tell the shipping-office to reserve a ticket for me. Nobody knows I went
in the _Kut Sang_ for sure, and I could drop into Manila to-morrow as
Meeker, and not a man the wiser.

"We'll buy this little yacht, and I'll turn her into a missionary boat,
buying her with funds furnished by the London Evangelical Society, as
I'll tell 'em. I'll call her the _Bethlehem_ and cruise along the China
coast, putting in at ports to hold services. Then we'll sneak away some
day and drop down here, with chinks in the crew, and we'll get this gold
aboard in such way they won't suspect what it is.

"Then it's an easy matter to make away to any port we want and fill away
for London in a liner, with the gold strewn along in the banks here and
there, or packed with books or other junk and freighted. How's that,
mates?"

"And when it's all done we can go to the devil and you'll take the gold.
I know the palaver, Thirkle. If ye please, I'll take my chances alone
with the gold," said Buckrow.

"Then hang! I wash my hands of the two of ye, and may the devil mend ye!"

Thirkle raised his bound hands as he said this, and there was tragedy in
his grim old face, and pity for the two on whom he had apparently
pronounced the death-sentence. But I could see in his shrewd eyes that he
was acting a part--he was laughing at them while pleading for liberty.

Petrak began to whimper, and he looked at Buckrow appealingly.

"Let him loose, Bucky," he begged. "Let Thirkle loose, or we'll hang, as
he says, and we'll split it share and share alike."

"Let him loose so he can do for us!" raged Buckrow. "Let him loose so he
can make off with it, and then knife us when it comes handy! I know his
black heart!"

Yet, Buckrow was in a quandary and, in spite of his fear of Thirkle,
seemed inclined to free him, evidently finding it hard to make his own
decisions, and preferring to have some one to give the orders. He tossed
his cigar away, and stood watching Thirkle chewing a blade of grass.

"Ye can deal with me, mates, but ye'll find ye can't argue with the
judge," went on Thirkle in a quiet tone, keeping his eyes on the ground.
"Ye'll find ye can't talk the turnkey into liberty, and it will be too
late the morning the