e a chance to use it. God, how I longed for a chance to use
it! Finding MacLean sort of steadied me; it shocked me sane, so to
speak. The fog began to thin out, and I slipped into a cave.

"Pretty soon the fog lifted altogether, and it was a bright calm
morning. Through the cave mouth, I could see the Japs parading the
deck. But I didn't see them making preparations to get the ship under
way, so I reasoned the ambergris was still ashore, and that they would
come for it. So I just waited.

"You see, I thought it was all ended for the Happy Family. I knew
Carew, and these yellow devils; I was sure you had all been killed, and
that Ruth--oh, well, I was going to meet them when they came ashore,
and do a little work with Sails' knife before they finished me.

"At last their whaleboat started for the beach. I was ready to show
myself, when I noticed you in the party--you, alive. I thought if you
were alive, some of the others might also be alive, and there might be
something to hope for. So I lurked in the cave, and watched."

"I saw you!" interjected Martin. "Lord, what a start the glimpse of
your face gave me! I knew you were alive, but I was convinced you were
on board. I thought I was seeing ghosts."

"You went in through the Elephant Head, and I went after you,"
continued Little Billy. "The cave I was in (the one those fellows
lived in, by the reek of the place) communicated with the passage you
traveled, so I could fall in behind without going out on the beach. I
trailed your party to the big cave, stopped just back of the light, and
watched you cross the ledge. Then came that awful blast (did you
notice it was steam, Martin?) and I saw you struggling with one of
them, and you knocked another one over the edge, and I thought it was
time for me to lend a hand. But the sight of me was too much for that
fellow who held the line.

"Well, they are gone, poor devils. I suppose I should feel a bit sorry
for them. But I don't. I know just what brutes they were. What
surprises me, is that they didn't make a thorough job of it and
slaughter all hands, instead of only three. What do they want of
prisoners? Except--Ruth?"

"I am sure Carew prevented that," said Martin. He rehearsed the scene
in the cabin. "Carew is wild about Ruth, and she has him bluffed,
actually bluffed. If it had been left to Ichi, there, I am sure we all
would have been killed, and the directions for finding the treasure
tort