nese. I doubt if this island is set down on American or British
charts. But I'll bet it is on the Japanese. I don't know as any nation
has openly claimed it, but it's a sure thing the Japs know of its
existence. They don't know of the gold, or it wouldn't be there.
Rightly, the island may belong to Russia, but, since the war, Russia's
in a bad way, an' ennything loose from the mainland'll be gobbled by
Japan.

"What the Japs grab they don't let go of. On general principles they
patrol the west side of Bering Strait. If one of their patrols sees us
we'll be inside the sealin' limit, an' they'll have right of search.
They'd take it, ennyway, if they sighted us. They go by _power_ of
search, not right. They won't find enny pelts on us, we've got hunters
aboard, we're pelagic sealers, they won't be able to hang up enny
clubbin' of herds on us.

"But, if they should suspicion us of gittin' gold off enny island they
c'ud trump up to call theirs, if they found gold on us at all, it 'ud be
all off with us an' the _Karluk_. We'd be dumped inside of some Jap
prison an' the schooner confiscated.

"An', if things go right with us, an' we ever sight the smoke of a Jap
gunboat comin' our way, the first thing I'll be apt to do will be to
scrag Tamada or he'll blow the whole proposition, whether we've got the
gold aboard or not. Even if he didn't want to tell becoz of his own
share, they'd git it out of him what we was after."

Did this, wondered Rainey, explain Tamada's "certain circumstances"? Was
he calculating on the arrival of a Japanese patrol? Had he already
tipped off to his consul in San Francisco the purpose of the expedition,
sure of a reward equal to what his share would have been? If so, Rainey
had made a muddle of his attempt to sound Tamada. He felt guilty, glad
that Lund could not see his face, and he dropped the subject abruptly.

Lund seemed to know that something was amiss.

"Nervous, Rainey?" he asked. "That's becoz you've not bin livin' a man's
life. All yore experience has bin second-hand, an' you've never gone
into a rough-an'-tumble, I take it. You'll make out all right if it
comes to that at all. Yo're well put up, an' you've got solid of late.
Now yo're goin' to git a taste of life in the raw. Not story-book stuff.
It's strong meat sometimes, an' liable to turn some people's stomachs.
I've got an appetite for it, an' so'll you have, after a bit.

"Ever play much at cards?" he went on. "Play for yore las