.

"I daresay what you say may be right, Mr. Supercargo. But I've come from
New Zealand to get this joker, and by blazes I mean to get him, and take
him back with me to New Zealand. And I mean to have those twenty
thousand sovereigns to take back as well."

"Well, then, why the devil don't you go and get your man? He's at Joe
D'Acosta's hotel with his wife."

"I don't want to be bothered with him just yet. I have no place to put
him into. The Californian mail boat from San Francisco is not due here
for another ten days. But I know that he hasn't taken his stolen money
ashore yet, and you had better hand it over to me at once. I can get
_him_ at any time."

Otway leant back in his chair and laughed.

"I don't doubt that, Mr. O'Donovan. If you have enough money to do it,
you can do as you say--get this man at any time. But you want to have
some guns behind you to enforce it; and then his capture won't affect
our custody of the money. If the Consul instigates you to make an attack
on the ship, you will do so at your peril, for we shall resist any
piratical attempt."

O'Donovan's face fell. "You said you would assist me?"

"So I will," replied Otway, lying genially, "But you must point out a
way. The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, in Fiji, is the only
man who could give you power to arrest the man and convey him to New
Zealand, and the moment you show me the High or the Deputy High
Commissioner's order to hand over the money, and Lacy's other effects,
I'll do so."

The detective made his last stroke.

"I can take the law into my own hands and chance the consequences. The
Consul will supply me with a force--"

Robertson smiled grimly, and pointed to the rack of Snider rifles around
the mizen-mast at the head of the table.

"You and your force will have a bad time of it then, and be shot down
before you can put foot on my deck. I've never seen a shark eat a
policeman, but there seems a chance of it now."

O'Donovan laughed uneasily, then he changed his tactics.

"Now look here, gentlemen," he said confidentially, leaning across the
table, "I can see I'm in a bit of a hole, but I'm a business man, and
you are business men, and I think we understand one another, eh? As you
say, my warrant doesn't hold good here in Samoa. But the Consul will
back me up, and if I can take this chap back to New Zealand it means a
big thing for me. Now, what's your figure?"

"Two hundred each for the skipper and myself