take out a dozen men who would explore every nook and cranny. I should
inevitably be recaptured, brought back to the Beehive, and deprived of
my liberty for good.

I must therefore give up all idea of making my escape, unless I can
see that it has some chance of being successful, and if ever an
opportunity does present itself I shall not be slow to take advantage
of it.

On strolling round by the rows of cells I am able to observe a few of
these companions of the Count d'Artigas who are content to pass their
monotonous existence in the depths of Back Cup. As I said before,
calculating from the number of cells in the Beehive, there must be
between eighty and a hundred of them.

They pay no attention whatever to me as I pass, and on examining them
closely it seems to me that they must have been recruited from every
country. I do not distinguish any community of origin among them, not
even a similarity by which they might be classed as North Americans,
Europeans or Asiatics. The color of their skin shades from white to
yellow and black--the black peculiar to Australia rather than to
Africa. To sum up, they appear for the most part to pertain to the
Malay races. I may add that the Count d'Artigas certainly belongs
to that particular race which peoples the Dutch isles in the West
Pacific, while Engineer Serko must be Levantine and Captain Spade of
Italian origin.

But if the inhabitants of Back Cup are not bound to each other by
ties of race, they certainly are by instinct and inclination. What
forbidding, savage-looking faces they have, to be sure! They are men
of violent character who have probably never placed any restraint upon
their passions, nor hesitated at anything, and it occurs to me that
in all likelihood they have sought refuge in this cavern, where they
fancy they can continue to defy the law with impunity, after a
long series of crimes--robbery, murder, arson, and excesses of all
descriptions committed together. In this case Back Cup is nothing but
a lair of pirates, the Count d'Artigas is the leader of the band and
Serko and Spade are his lieutenants.

I cannot get this idea out of my head, and the more I consider the
more convinced I am that I am right, especially as everything I see
during my stroll about the cavern seems to confirm my opinion.

However this may be, and whatever may be the circumstances that have
brought them together in this place, Count d'Artigas' companions
appear to accept his