that had not changed the Hollander's
expression one bit; but now, in a last swift up-stroke of the knife, the
cornered rat saw victory beckoning to him.

He drove in his thrust, and Barry went cold at sight of it. He wondered
angrily at Houten's indifference. The great trader stood in his launch
as unruffled as if in his office; his men, although they retained their
rifles in hand, offered to use them for no other purpose than keeping
their prisoners quiet. And just beside them, that murderous blade
swished through the air fair aimed at Vandersee's breast. Then the big
Hollander stepped back, and stumbled.

"Gone!" Barry and Gordon cried hoarsely together. Yet they saw Houten in
his old, apparently indifferent attitude, and could not force
themselves to move. Men sprang into full sight where Rolfe and his
party were, and they, too, remained in their places. The thing was
uncanny: the colossal trader exercised a compelling influence over
everybody about him, bordering upon the supernatural. Not a hand was
raised in Vandersee's vital peril. Then the utter confidence of the man
was revealed.

With his stumble Vandersee drew back from his antagonist three feet, and
Leyden plunged forward, tripped by his own balked impetus. The knife
flashed upwards, missing its mark by a foot, and while yet the sun
played on the steel in midair Vandersee recovered, smiling now with
terrible assurance, and his great bulk leaned, his long, powerful arms
enwrapped his foe in a hug that paralyzed every limb. The knife fell
through Leyden's clutching fingers, and the point quivered for a moment
in Vandersee's shoulder before it fell to disappear through the broken
planks. The next breath brought both men heavily against a gaunt,
charred stanchion, and Leyden's terrified cry pealed over the water.

Alongside the wreck, on the schooner, ashore, wherever a man was
stationed, faces looked on in fascination. Still Houten stood in his
place, his placid visage regarding the conflict unmoved; no line of his
immense figure revealing anything in him save a sort of bovine
indifference in the result. In a flash everything was changed in him.
The sudden impact of those two struggling bodies was the final strain
the stanchion could bear; the blackened timber burst into splinters, and
Vandersee and his foe crashed through and pitched headlong into the
swirling current of the creek entrance.

Then Houten's real interest was shown, and swiftly. His guttura