quite done with him--and return the
article with thanks. Now," he cried sharply; "another false movement
like that, and your family will have to deplore the loss of an
invaluable parent; keep strictly still, Davis."

Attwater said a word in the native, his eye still undeviatingly fixed on
the captain; and the servant thrust Huish smartly forward from the brink
of the stair. With an extraordinary simultaneous dispersion of his
members, that gentleman bounded forth into space, struck the earth,
ricocheted, and brought up with his arms about a palm. His mind was
quite a stranger to these events; the expression of anguish that
deformed his countenance at the moment of the leap was probably
mechanical; and he suffered these convulsions in silence; clung to the
tree like an infant; and seemed, by his dips, to suppose himself engaged
in the pastime of bobbing for apples. A more finely sympathetic mind or
a more observant eye might have remarked, a little in front of him on
the sand and still quite beyond reach, the unlighted cigar.

"There is your Whitechapel carrion!" said Attwater. "And now you might
very well ask me why I do not put a period to you at once, as you
deserve. I will tell you why, Davis. It is because I have nothing to do
with the _Sea Ranger_ and the people you drowned, or the _Farallone_ and
the champagne that you stole. That is your account with God; He keeps
it, and He will settle it when the clock strikes. In my own case, I have
nothing to go on but suspicion, and I do not kill on suspicion, not even
vermin like you. But understand: if ever I see any of you again, it is
another matter, and you shall eat a bullet. And now take yourself off.
March! and as you value what you call your life, keep your hands up as
you go!"

The captain remained as he was, his hands up, his mouth open: mesmerised
with fury.

"March!" said Attwater. "One--two--three!"

And Davis turned and passed slowly away. But even as he went, he was
meditating a prompt, offensive return. In the twinkling of an eye he had
leaped behind a tree; and was crouching there, pistol in hand, peering
from either side of his place of ambush with bared teeth; a serpent
already poised to strike. And already he was too late. Attwater and his
servants had disappeared; and only the lamps shone on the deserted table
and the bright sand about the house, and threw into the night in all
directions the strong and tall shadows of the palms.

Davis ground h