left with their arms full of
bonds. When France discovered the fraud they were well away.

"Third: Still two weeks later a schooner yacht, afterward supposed to be
the one bought in New York, dropped anchor at Guayra and stayed until
two men, arriving by steamer, went aboard; whereupon she sailed.

"This is all we definitely discovered, except that before sailing crafty
inquiries were made into extradition treaties between France and South
American countries--and found, in every instance, to be unfriendly to
swindlers.

"I now see how it was with them. Fearing everywhere the press of
France's vengeance, shunning telegraph wires, they were driven to the
solitude of these islands where, as solitude has a way of treating the
criminal mind, their shyness grew to fear, their fear to terror. They
did not dare go out except at rare intervals, nor dared they realize on
the bonds. It is clear to me at last!"

It was also clear to me, at last inerrantly clear, that Doloria and the
little princess were the same.

"Whew!" Tommy gave a whistle. "I feel as woozy as an old warped mirror!
Did France offer a reward for this stuff?"

"_Certainement!_ And you drew it out!--it is yours, my boy!"

"Like hell it is," he laughed. "I move it goes as prize money to Smilax,
Echochee, and the crew!"

Late that evening we buried Efaw Kotee under the mangroves, and did not
tell Doloria. No one knows, who has never seen it, the desolation of
laying a shrouded figure in a mangrove-covered oyster bar at twilight,
where water follows each slushy lift of the spade! I feared for her to
witness it, and therefore, Tommy reading the service, the old chief was
buried without a woman's sympathy. But, in a measure, he had our own. He
held a claim on it for having faced a certain responsibility to Doloria;
for having, with the skill of a master, developed the talents God had
given her; for having kept her from growing up like a weed.

At ten o'clock that night when, by prearrangement, Tommy and I paddled
across to bring Monsieur back from the little island, she was standing
with him on the landing. The moon was nearing full, bathing her in a
silvery light, and I saw from the droop of her body that she was tired.

"Good night," I said, arising in the punt and putting out my hand.

"Good night," she murmured wearily; but her fingers were cold and did
not answer the pressure of my own. I had touched Efaw Kotee's hand only
a few hours before, and it had