s
intrusion.

"If she only had another couple of horsepower----" he cried.

The Japanese smiled.

A port in the rail of the schooner opened and the muzzle of a small
swivel-gun projected, aimed full at the launch. Colin caught his breath.

A puff of smoke followed, and a couple of seconds later the sharp crack
of a small gun. A crash and a few sharp explosions were heard from the
launch, but, so far as could be seen from the shore, no one was injured.
The engine gave a 'chug-chug' or two--then stopped dead.

Colin dropped his arms limply by his side in despair.

The leader of the Japanese took a quick step forward and whispered a
word or two to the nearest man, who passed it down the line. The agent
strained his ears to hear what was said, but could not distinguish the
words.

"What's that you were saying?" he asked in Japanese.

The man replied calmly, and in English.

"We say nothing," he answered blandly, "only that you have made big
mistakes. That is not our ship!"

The agent stared at him, but the Japanese smiled affably.

"We are shipwreck on the island," he said. "We not know what place it
is, have no food, hungry, kill some seal for food, anybody do that."

At this impudent and barefaced falsehood, the agent was tongue-tied, but
he turned to Hank.

"These men say," he said, "that they are shipwrecked sailors and do not
belong to that ship. Let's get this thing right. Tell us what you know
about it."

Hank straightened up.

"After the boy left me," he said, "I saw it wouldn't do any good to
tackle 'em at once, there bein' no way of gettin' at 'em from the shore
side. If I let 'em know they were watched, they would be off, sure, an'
what I wanted was to find some way to head 'em off. I knew if you came
down the beach after 'em they'd have the start, an' you can't always
depend on shootin' straight at night in a fog."

"What did you do, then?" asked the agent.

"I just slipped into the water, down by the end o' the causeway," the
old whaler said, "an' there were scores o' seals around, so that it
didn't matter how much I splashed."

"You must be half a seal yourself," the agent said. "Swimming among
rocks in the dark is no joke."

"I had plenty of time, and I can swim a little," the old man modestly
admitted. "Wa'al, pretty soon I saw the boat an' I swam under water till
I came up right behind it. The Jap what was sittin' in it wasn't
expectin' any trouble an' as he was nid-noddin' and half