l you."

"How far is the Catwick?"

"Somewhere round two thousand--eight or nine days, perhaps ten. We're not
piling on--short of coal. It's mighty difficult to get it for a private
yacht. You may not find a bucketful in Singapore. In America you can
always commandeer it, having ships and coal mines of your own. The drop
down to Singapore from the Catwick is about forty hours. You have coal in
Manila. You can cable for it."

"You are honestly leaving us at that island?"

"Yes, sir. You can, if you wish, take the run up to Saigon; but your
chance for coal there is nil."

"Cleve," said Cleigh, solemnly, "you appreciate the risks you are
running?"

"Mr. Cleigh, there are no risks. It's a dead certainty. Cunningham is one
of your efficiency experts. Everything has been thought of."

"Except fate," supplemented Cleigh.

"Fate? Why, she's our chief engineer!"

Cleve turned away, chuckling; a dozen feet off this chuckle became
boisterous laughter.

"What can they be after? Sunken treasure?" cried Jane, excitedly.

"Hangman's hemp--if I live long enough," was the grim declaration, and
Cleigh drew the rug over his knees.

"But it can't be anything dreadful if they can laugh over it!"

"Did you ever hear Mephisto laugh in Faust? Cunningham is a queer duck. I
don't suppose there's a corner on the globe he hasn't had a peek at. He
has a vast knowledge of the arts. His real name nobody seems to know. He
can make himself very likable to men and attractive to women. The sort of
women he seeks do not mind his physical deformity. His face and his
intellect draw them, and he is as cruel as a wolf. It never occurred to me
until last night that men like me create his kind. But I don't understand
him in this instance. A play like this, with all the future risks! After I
get the wires moving he won't be able to stir a hundred miles in any
direction."

"But so long as he doesn't intend to harm us--and I'm convinced he
doesn't--perhaps we'd better play the game as he asks us to."

"Miss Norman," said Cleigh in a tired voice, "will you do me the favour to
ask Captain Dennison why he has never touched the twenty thousand I
deposited to his account?"

Astonished, Jane turned to Dennison to repeat the question, but was
forestalled.

"Tell Mr. Cleigh that to touch a dollar of that money would be a tacit
admission that Mr. Cleigh had the right to strike Captain Dennison across
the mouth."

Dennison swung out of the chair and