and
what's more, Gordon has been running this post not exactly on the level.

"So long as that schooner lies there, I want her looked after. So you
and Blunt stay aboard with half the hands and watch for funny business.
But first, before I start up river, run up to Mr. Little and get an
inventory of his spare men and arms. Spares, mind: those he can do
without for a few days. Hurry back."

Jerry Rolfe started without comment. That was his conception of duty. He
had scarcely reached the deck when he was recalled. Barry could not
erase from his mind that picture of Leyden, at that moment perhaps
enjoying an intimate chat with Natalie Sheldon. And the more he thought
of it,--the thought swept through his mind in a flash--the hotter he
became, and he no longer restrained the impulse to follow, though the
folly and possible danger of it was clear to him.

"Rolfe!" he shouted. "Never mind. I'll go to the post myself. Stay here
and get together all our own spares. You know them better than I do."

The mate received this new order as complacently as the first. It suited
him better. In that steaming, reeking river station he was more at home
about his ship than tramping through an odorous village on shore
business.

Barry hustled up to the post and found Little deep in a stock-taking
revel, as enthusiastic as a boy in his new sphere. The typewriter-sailor
was more at home here than on board the ship, in utter contrast to
Rolfe; and Barry grinned perforce at the formidable armament he had
strapped about his body. He looked the part of a fiction trader, with
pen behind his ear, big cheroot in his teeth, and two mighty revolvers
in holsters at his waist.

"Ship ahoy, me tarry shellback!" he shouted as Barry entered. "Snug as a
bug already. Everything's fine--first-chop, except the station hands.
Can't find where they're working, Barry, though the pay sheet shows
fifty or more taking wages from Houten. But what's the trouble? You look
as solemn as that crocodile you plunked on the beezer as he was
investigating my free-lunch department."

"Nothing's the matter," replied Barry shortly. "It's about the hands I
want to see you. How many men, with guns, can you spare me for a few
days? I'm going up river."

"Whoopee!" yelled Little, dancing. "Up river? Me too. Say, we can
take--"

"_We_ nothing, Little. You stay right here. I want about six good men,
that's all, to join up with one watch from the ship."

"Oh, say now, that