wife
that you're not the kind of man to receive as a friend."

"And by Heavens, I'll shoot you like a rat."

The doctor rose to his feet, and the two men faced each other--the one
outwardly calm and collected, the other shaking with passion.

"What is it to be, Captain Danvers?"

"This, you sneaking Scotch sawbones!" and raising his cane Danvers
struck the elder man a savage blow across the face.

In another moment Bruce had closed with him, wrenched the cane from his
hand, and drawing back struck him between the eyes with such force that
he was sent flying backwards off the verandah, to fall heavily upon the
shrubs of the garden beneath, where he lay huddled up in a heap.

A score of people--white and coloured--rushed to the spot. Bruce,
carefully standing the cane against the side of the lounge on which he
had been reclining, walked down the steps and pushed his way into the
little crowd surrounding the fallen man.

"Let me look at him," he said, with grim humour, "as a medical man. I'm
afraid I've hurt him more than I intended."

The landlord joined them. "What is the matter, Doctor?"

"Nothing serious, Manton. Ye see, Captain Danvers rang that old gag
on me about a surgical operation being necessary for a Scotsman to
understand a joke; then I lost my temper and called him a fool, and he
tickled me with his cane across my face, and I hit him harder than I
intended. But he'll be all right soon. He's only stunned. Carry him into
his room."

Manton knew his business. "Just so, Doctor. I'll see to him. But he's
given you a fearful bruise on your cheek."

"A mere trifle, Manton," and then without another word he returned to
his seat on the lounge, not altogether satisfied with what had happened,
and hoping that Danvers would at least have sense enough to corroborate
the story he had told Manton as to the cause of the quarrel.

Between seven and eight o'clock Lester and Pedro Diaz came ashore,
the _Maritana_ being left in charge of the boatswain. By the judicious
application of a strip of fresh goat's meat the long bruise on the
doctor's cheek had almost disappeared, and he was in his usual placid
mood.

"We're a bit too late," remarked Lester, with a laugh, as he and Diaz
shook hands; "why couldn't you wait? We heard that you had thrown the
new chum Danvers over the verandah an hour or two ago."

Bruce told them the story. "Just as well, Jim. I think he'll take a
plain hint that he's sailing on the wrong