parley again with
the others. The colloquy was even more spirited than before. Captain
Sykes swung his arms like a crazy man. He pointed to the sky, then to
the sea, then to the voiceless score, huddled together, sheep-like, on
the beach. Back came the speaker again, a nervous decision in his
manner.

"If you won't set us over yourself, what'll you sell that sloop for?
Give you two hundred dollars!"

Reading refusal in the lad's face, he raised the bid before Jim had time
to open his lips.

"Three hundred! We've some passengers who must get to a certain place at
a particular time, and they can't do it unless we can land 'em before
daylight to-morrow. Say four hundred!"

"That sloop isn't for sale."

"Wouldn't you take five hundred for her?"

"No; nor a thousand!"

Jim's jaws came together. Back in his brain was forming a suspicion of
these fishermen who raised their bid so glibly. Why were they so eager
to reach the mainland that night, and why did the twenty have no voice
in the discussion? He scrutinized them searchingly.

"What are you staring at?" demanded the man, angrily.

Jim did not reply. Percy passed by on his way to the cabin. He had been
using his eyes to good advantage. He nudged Jim.

"Those fellows are Chinamen," he whispered. "I've seen too many of 'em
to be mistaken."

His words crystallized Jim's suspicions into certainty. The whole thing
was plain now. The crew of the _Clementine Briggs_ (if, indeed, that was
her name) were no fishermen, but smugglers of Chinese!

He remembered a recent magazine article on the breaking of the
immigration laws. Chinamen would cross the Pacific to Vancouver, paying
the Dominion head-tax, and thus gaining admission into Canada. A
society, organized for the purpose, would take them in charge, teach
them a few ordinary English phrases, transport them to New Brunswick,
and slip them aboard some fast schooner. The captain of this vessel
would receive three hundred dollars a head for landing his passengers
safely here and there at lonely points on the New England coast, whence
they could make their way undetected to their friends in the large
cities. Thus were the exclusion laws of the United States set at naught.

The destruction of the schooner had made it necessary for her passengers
to be landed somewhere as secretly and as quickly as possible. Twenty
men at three hundred dollars a head meant six thousand dollars. That
explained the anxiety of the six wh