drawn into further talk upon the subject, and the pair went below to the
stuffy little cabin more than a trifle disconsolate. "Well, here's the
man you talked so big about," said White, bitterly. "As soon as we get
out at sea, he shows himself in his true colors. Why, he's a blooming
Methodist. But if he sells us when it comes to the point, and there's a
chance of my getting nabbed, by gad I'll murder him like I would a rat."

"If he offers a scrimmage," said Sheriff, "you take my tip, and clear
out. He's a regular glutton for a fight; I know he's armed; and he could
shoot the buttons off your coat at twenty yards. No, Mr. White; make the
best or the worst of Captain Kettle as you choose, but don't come to
fisticuffs with him, or as sure as you are living now, you'll finish out
on the under side then. And mind, I'm not talking by guess-work.
I know."

"I shall not stick at much if this show's spoiled. Why, the money was as
good as in our pockets, if he hadn't cut up awkward."

"Don't throw up the sponge till some one else does it for you. Look
here, I know this man Kettle a lot better than you do. He wants the pay
very badly. And when it comes to sticking up the cable station, you'll
see him do the work of any ten like us. I tell you, he's a regular demon
when it comes to a scuffle."

It was in this attitude, then, that the three principal members of the
little steamer's complement voyaged down over those warm tropical seas
which lay between Lagos and the isle of their hopes and fears. Two of
them kept together, and perfected the detail of their plans for use in
every contingency; but the other kept himself icily apart, and for an
occupation, when the business of the ship did not require his eye,
wrapped himself up in the labor of literary production. He even refused
to partake of meals at the same table with his employers.

The island first appeared to them as a huddle of mountains sprouting out
of the sea, which grew green as they came more near, and which finally
showed great masses of foliage growing to the crown of the splintered
heights, with a surf frilling the bays and capes at their foot. There
was a town in the hug of one of these bays, and toward it the little
steamer rolled as though she had been an ordinary legitimate trader. She
brought up to an anchor in the jaws of the bay, half-way between the
lighthouse and the rectangular white building on the further beach, and
after due delay, a negro doctor, p