s we could barely stem. It must have taken us _hours_ to get
across that five or six miles of water; and long before we landed you
had put all lights out, and turned in; but there was the house, plain
enough to be seen in the bright moonlight, so we headed straight for it,
and landed at last on the beach just below."

"And what became of the punt that you stole from that unfortunate
native?" I demanded.

"Why, I reckon she's still there on the beach where we left her," was
the reply.

"Still there!" I exclaimed. "Why--yes--I suppose she is. This must be
looked to at once. Billy, take this man, Van Ryn, with you, and get him
to show you where they left the punt. Then you and he will paddle her
round to the cove here, and make her fast astern of the sailing boat.
Then get the sailing boat under way, and Van Ryn will point out to you
the spot on Apes' Island from which he and Svorenssen took her--"

"Nod me, misder; don'd you think id!" suddenly stormed the Dutchman.
"You're nod my schibber now, and I don'd dake orders from you or anybody
else. Ve're all equal now."

"Are we?" said I, slipping my hand into my jacket pocket. "That's where
you are making a big mistake, my man. I mean to be just as much skipper
here as I was aboard the _Yorkshire Lass_; and if you men wish to share
in the comforts of life that I am able to give you, and to go home with
me when I go, you will have to submit to discipline, and obey my
orders."

"Ah! ve'll see about dot," interrupted Van Ryn, springing to his feet.
"Olaf, mine zon, haf ve comed all dis vay from over yonder to be ordered
about mit dis man? Let's show 'im dot ve means to do as ve likes here.
Come on!" And, whipping out the remains of his sheath knife, he
gathered himself together for a spring upon me, with one eye on
Svorenssen meanwhile, in full expectation that the latter would back him
up.

But I was fully prepared. There had been, from the moment when I first
encountered these two men, early that morning, a certain truculence of
speech and demeanour that warned me against trusting them too
implicitly, and I had been on my guard with them all day. So now, as
the Dutchman sprang to his feet I sprang to mine, and, leaping back from
them, out of arms' reach, I whipped out the revolver that I had been
carrying all day in my jacket pocket, and shouted:

"Hands up, both of you! Don't so much as think of trying conclusions
with me; for if either of you advance