Barry nodded. "Just so. But there's nothing much to see except the
graves of two of the crew of a whaleship who were buried at the end of
this island about four or five years ago. If you follow that path
you'll come to the place in about half an hour. Don't lose your way
when you're coming back. I'll keep the boat ready for you to take you
aboard again."

Again Barradas looked at him as if he would like to say something more,
but Barry's cold, set, and repellent face forbade it.

"Well, I think I'll go that far, anyway," said the Spaniard, and then
he added nervously, with a half-appealing look to the chief officer, "I
suppose you're too tired for a yarn and a smoke?"

"I am," replied Barry with studied coolness and without moving his face.

The second mate raised his dark and gloomy eyes and looked at him
furtively; then, with something like a sigh, he turned quickly away,
and walked along the winding path that, through the jack-fruit grove,
led to the next island.

Barry turned and watched him, and presently Velo, stripped to the
waist, came out of the hut and stood beside his officer.

"Shall I follow him?" he asked in the Samoan language.

"Yes," replied Barry quickly in the same tongue, "follow him and see
where he goeth. There may be some mischief doing, for this man hath
for many days tried to thrust himself upon me. It may be that we have
been betrayed . . . But, stay, Velo, I will come with thee."

Entering the house, he threw off his canvas shoes, belted his Colt's
revolver around his waist, and in a few minutes he and Velo were
following in the track of the Spaniard.

Every now and then they caught a glimpse of him in the bright and
dazzling moonlight as he trudged steadily along the white sandy path.
Once he sat down on the bole of a fallen coco-palm, leant his chin upon
his hands, and seemed lost in thought. Then he rose again and set off
at a rapid walk.

At the north end of the little island he came to a stop, for further
progress was barred by the wide channel separating Ujilong from the
next island; the tide was flowing, and the connecting reef was covered
by three feet of water. He stood awhile, looking about him, and then
turned toward a cleared space among the coco-palms, where a low, square
enclosure formed of loosely piled blocks of coral stood clearly out in
the moonlight; in the centre of the square were two graves, one of
which had at its head a cross roughly hewn from a