ings!"

I had not yet noticed the room, but now looked with interest at these
places that promised to reveal so much. The room itself was large and
expressive of luxury, without being luxuriously furnished. The
fireplace, mantel, and furniture were of a good, home-made mission type,
constructed from gyminda, Florida's nearest approach to ebony; but the
floor was covered with really beautiful rugs. Around the walls were
built-in book shelves, mantel high, filled with the volumes Doloria had
told me of. The piano was there, not an up-right as we had found on the
_Orchid_, but a handsome grand, bearing one of the best names. A violin
case lay upon it, while near by was a music stand. Altogether, these
living quarters of Efaw Kotee showed a taste I would have expected.
Instinctively I crossed to the desk, but Tommy stopped me, saying:

"Not while that's in here, old fellow," he jerked his head toward the
divan. "In no other circumstances would he take it from us lying down,
and it's kind of rubbing it in, don't you think so?"

"If you feel that way about it," I agreed. "But to rob a girl of
seventeen years or so of life isn't a crime that merits much sympathy."

"I reckon he pretty well paid up for it during last night and to-day,"
he said softly.

"Whether he did or not, I don't owe him anything," I retorted, in no
charitable vein, that I hope was caused by our excitement and excessive
strain.

"You owe him a dog-gone lot," Tommy emphatically replied. "Look at those
books, at that piano, at what is suggested by the violin case, at the
refinement of this room--and then picture what might have been here!
Take another view, and consider what a fine chance you'd have had to
meet her if that old codger hadn't turned scamp off there in Azuria!
Anyway, we've got to clean up the signs of this butchery before she
comes."

In an adjoining room we laid Efaw Kotee upon his own bed. The sheet that
Tommy got out of a press to spread over him was, I noticed, of beautiful
linen, and I felt softened toward the uncouth frame which, in this
wilderness, had still demanded the refinements of life.

Locking the door, we passed back to the living room and thence to the
landing where, at our direction, the sailor signaled Gates to bring up
his waiting party. As Doloria once more stepped upon the island I saw
her eyes grow moist with tears.

We told her that the chief had been found dying, that now he was dead
and the place deserted; bu