to their guide in appearance, appearing so suddenly that Natalie uttered
a little shriek of alarm. Bill Blunt, cool as a cucumber, charged his
rifle chamber and clapped the muzzle against the brown man's breast
without a word. The man stopped, amazingly unafraid, ignored Bill, and
handed a piece of cane to Rolfe, picking him out as the leader
unerringly.

Jerry stared at the small stick, turning it over and over in his hand
like some backwoods denizen receiving a letter for the first time in
forty years and scared to open it. Then Natalie detected a loose end to
the stick and suggested that it might contain something of value. Rolfe
stripped a rice leaf from the cane, opened it, and found a message
written on it in a fair hand.

"On no account attack naval party. Barry and party are safe. Vandersee."

Rolfe glowered at the brief missive and looked up to find the messenger
gone and Bill Blunt staring at the muzzle of his rifle which had a
moment before been jammed against the man's brown skin. The mate read
the words aloud and sought for an answer in Miss Sheldon's eyes. She
brightened swiftly and cried out with relief:

"Oh, I said so, didn't I? Your captain and his party are safe in Mr.
Vandersee's hands if they have done no wrong."

"Safe in Vandersee's hands," repeated Jerry slowly, as if groping for
inspiration. "In--Vandersee's--hands! Pi'zen my soul, but that's what
I've believed all along! Come on--March!" he gritted, and plunged ahead.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The trail became more open shortly, and progress was swift. Natalie kept
her place with increasing difficulty, but never a murmur escaped her.
Her shoes had long since become shapeless envelopes of soggy leather;
her skirt was tattered like a Foreign Legion battle flag. Her hands and
face were scratched and swollen with insect bites, but her eyes were dry
and her lips firm, for some inward voice told her that she was about to
learn some part of the truth that had been hidden from her. For all her
earlier assertion that Vandersee was Barry's friend and a man to be
trusted, a stubborn question had taken root in her breast since that
message was delivered. If Vandersee was the man who had taken Barry's
party, what became of all the previous suppositions and arguments
regarding their relative relations with Leyden?

If the question were not to be answered quickly, at least it was to be
forced aside by more vital affairs; all doubts were to be settled