asleep, I put
one hand on the stern o' the boat, bringin' it down in the water. With
the other hand I grabbed the back of a blouse-thing he was wearin' an'
yanked him overboard."

"You didn't drown him, did you, Hank?" asked Colin.

"Not altogether," the old whaler answered. "I held him under, though,
until he was good an' full o' water an' had stopped kickin', an' then I
climbed into the boat. Next time he came up I grabbed him an' took him
aboard. The fog was pretty thick an' none o' the rest of 'em saw what
was goin' on. In a minute or two I could see he was beginnin' to come
round an' I didn't quite know what to do. I didn't want to knock him on
the head, he hadn't done anythin' to hurt me, an' so I dropped the
row-locks overboard, tossed the oars ashore--there they are, lyin' among
the seals--an' got ashore myself. As soon as I was on solid ground I
untied the painter what held the boat an' set it adrift, givin' it a
push off with one o' the oars. The tide's goin' out, so I knew he
couldn't get ashore again. I'd hardly got the boat shoved off when he
yelled an' the rest of 'em heard it."

"What did they do?"

"Come rushin' for the boats. Most of 'em went over to the south'ard," he
pointed down the rookery, "where there was a boat I hadn't seen, but
these six tried to rush me. I just had time to shove the boat off, grab
my guns, an' face 'em."

"It was a bully hold-up," said Colin delightedly, "one against six."

"Had to," said the sailor, "or the six would have made mincemeat o' the
one. Besides, I had to give the tide a chance to get that boat out o'
the way. After I held 'em a few minutes I knew it was all right, because
they had no boat, their own bein' adrift without oars."

"Big lie," said the Japanese leader placidly, "we shipwreck sailors,
nothing to do with that ship at all. This man tell story about boat--we
not know anything of that boat. Our boat sunk on rocks, away over
there!"

He pointed to the other side of the island.

"But you were killing seals!" protested the agent.

"Yes," said the Japanese, "we think islands have not any person on. Need
food, we kill. Of course."

"Clever," said the agent, turning to Hank. "This isn't as simple as it
looks. We have no direct evidence that these men belonged to that
schooner."

"But we know they did!" said the whaler emphatically.

"Of course," agreed the agent. "But we can't prove it. Law demands
proof. If we only had that boat, with the schoo