in low tones to
Gordon and Mrs. Goring for a moment, received their aquiescence to his
question, then faced the skipper with an expression of resignation to a
task not entirely to his liking.

"Some of the story is not very pleasant, Barry, so I'll make it brief,"
he said. "It's due to you and to Little, otherwise I'd ask you to let
your doubts remain unanswered. Beginning with my uncle's engagement of
Little and yourself, at that time everybody concerned believed that gold
was to be found on this river,--everybody, that is, except Leyden and
Gordon here. Gordon desires me to tell the entire story, so I am not
going to waste time by repeated apologies. The chief thing in this gold
business is that Houten believed it implicitly, and naturally he wanted
to know where his property was going to. Hence your engagement.

"Now to explain some of the mystery that has bothered you, Captain, it
was discovered by my government some time back that Leyden was operating
a tremendous opium smuggling business, and the entire interior of the
island was in his grip. You'll see now how he could command such numbers
of native fighters to drive you out or kill you. Eventually I was
detailed to the duty of running him down. I am, as you perhaps have
gathered, a lieutenant in the Dutch navy."

"Yes, yes," interrupted Barry, interested, yet hotly impatient to arrive
at matters more closely concerning him personally. "That is all right,
Vandersee. I know that, and that Mrs. Goring is your sister, and that
she came here in my ship and stole my picture and why," he ran on,
giving the lady a reassuring grin as he mentioned the theft of the photo
by the brutal name. "I know, too, the connection between the opium
running and the gold-dust swindle; you told me that; but I can't see yet
why there was any necessity to compel me to keep my hands off that
fellow, since we were all out for him, though on different errands.
Seems to me a lot of useless waste of energy when he could have been
taken weeks ago if you had made me acquainted with the inside of the
business."

As he spoke, Mrs. Goring's face paled, and pain entered her eyes. Gordon
patted her shoulder tenderly, and Natalie soothed her with soft speech.
Vandersee waited for a moment until the pain had been banished by a
brave smile and she nodded to him resolutely, then he resumed in reply
to Barry:

"That is the real story, Captain. Juliana and I have not been blessed
with parents since c