im frightened half to death," intervened Rainey. "They
probably scared him into doing this. Didn't they, Sandy?"

The lad blinked, and tears of self-pity rolled down his grimy cheeks.
The relief of them seemed to unstopper his voice. That, and the kinder
quality of Rainey's questioning.

"Deming! He said he'd cut my bloody heart out if I didn't do it. Him an'
Beale. Lookit."

He plucked aside the front of his almost buttonless shirt and worn
undervest and showed them on his left breast the scoring where a sharp
blade had marked an irregular circle on his skin.

"Beale did that," he whined. "Deming said they'd finish the job if I
come back without 'em."

"Without the shells?"

"Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Rainey. Oh, Gord, they'll kill me sure! Oh, my
Gord!" His staring eyes and loose mouth, working in fear, made him look
like a fresh-landed cod.

"You ain't much use alive," said Lund.

"Mebbe I ain't," returned the lad, with the desperation of a cornered
rat. "But I got a right to live. And I've lived worse'n a dorg on this
bloody schooner. I'm fair striped an' bruised wi' boots an' knuckles an'
ends o' rope. I'd 'ave chucked myself over long ago if--"

"If what?"

The lad turned sullen.

"Never mind," he said, and glared almost defiantly at Lund.

"Is that door shut?" the giant asked Rainey. "Some of 'em might be
hangin' 'round." Rainey went to the corridor and closed and locked the
entrance.

"Now then, you young devil," said Lund. "What they did to you for'ard
ain't a marker on what I'll do to you if you don't speak up an' answer
when I talk. _If what?_"

Sandy turned to Rainey.

"They said they was goin' to give me some of the gold," he said. "They
said all along I was to have the hat go 'round for me. I told you I was
dragged up, but there's--there's an old woman who was good to me. She's
up ag'in' it for fair. I told her I'd bring her back some dough an' if I
can hang on an' git it, I'll hang on. But they'll do me up, now, for
keeps."

Rainey heard Lund's chuckle ripen to a quiet laugh.

"I'm damned if they ain't some guts to the herrin' after all," he said.
"Hangin' on to take some dough back to an old woman who ain't even his
mother. Who'd have thought it? Look here, my lad. I was dragged up the
same way, I was. An' I hung on. But you'll never git a cent out of that
bunch. I don't know as they'll have enny to give you."

His face hardened. "But you come through, an' I'll see you git somethin'
for