m sorry to see this, Captain," he said softly, and his usual smile
swept across his face, to leave it dark again. "I particularly wished to
avoid this attack, though. It's very unfortunate."

"Unfortunate!" snapped Barry, amazed at the man's cool attitude.
"Wasn't it more unfortunate for us to be making a meal for a few million
ants? I'm darned glad Rolfe attacked, and I don't understand your
message telling him to hold off."

"Let me explain, sir," replied Vandersee, and now he was entirely like
his old self,--suave, smiling, soft-spoken. "I wanted to get Leyden
myself. That is why I am here. I missed him by minutes when he first
visited you to gloat over you; and I had him followed and knew he was
coming back. He killed my man, so I had nothing to do but wait here for
his second visit. Now he won't come back, for his men who got away have
rejoined and are with him by now."

"See here, Vandersee," exploded the skipper angrily, "I want to know
more about your part in this mess. I have been held up as an opium
smuggler; there is no gold in Houten's river--never has been--yet Leyden
got dust through Gordon; and when Little and I and all Houten's men are
threatened with annihilation by some of Leyden's men masquerading as
Dutch sailors, you coolly tell me our rescue is unfortunate. Houten sent
you here, didn't he? Then what's the answer?"

Vandersee smiled gently and regarded Miss Sheldon with a wonderful depth
of tenderness, strange to see in a man of his bulk. Then he shrugged
slightly and answered:

"I think I must tell you, since matters have turned out this way. It
will interest Miss Sheldon, too, I hope, and perhaps it won't hurt my
plans very much after all.

"I am an officer in the Holland Navy. On leave now, I am completing some
private business of my own while doing some work for my Government. Only
to tell you what immediately concerns you, I am out to catch Leyden's
band of opium runners."

"Mr. Leyden an opium runner!" breathed Natalie, dumbfounded.

"I'm sorry to say he is, Miss Sheldon. Oh, have no fear--" he
interjected, seeing the pain in her eyes--"he would never have been
permitted to carry you from here, Miss. You have been in good keeping,
before and since you left the Mission. There was a reason for letting
Leyden go so far; a reason which I must withhold still. But there is a
definite limit set to his progress, which I hoped would be reached
to-day. Now, unfortunately, he has escaped me for