ica when I want to go?"

"I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon," Engineer
Serko replies, "and I regard your presumption as a very natural
one. Observe, however, that we live here in a noble and superb
independence, that we acknowledge the authority of no foreign power,
that we are subject to no outside authority, that we are the
colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence.
Besides, what memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these
grottoes which seem to have been chiselled by the hands of the gods
and in which they were wont to render their oracles by the mouth of
Trophonius."

Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius
after Pluto and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard
of Trophonius? It is clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have
to exercise the greatest patience in order not to reply in the same
tone.

"A moment ago," I continue shortly, "I wanted to enter yon habitation,
which, if I mistake not, is that of the Count d'Artigas, but I was
prevented."

"By whom, Mr. Gaydon?"

"By a man in the Count's employ."

"He probably had received strict orders about it."

"Possibly, yet whether he likes it or not, Count d'Artigas will have
to see me and listen to me."

"Maybe it would be difficult, and even impossible to get him to do
so," says Engineer Serko with a smile.

"Why so?"

"Because there is no such person as Count d'Artigas here."

"You are jesting, I presume; I have just seen him."

"It was not the Count d'Artigas whom you saw, Mr. Gaydon."

"Who was it then, may I ask?"

"The pirate Ker Karraje."

This name was thrown at me in a hard tone of voice, and Engineer Serko
walked off before I had presence of mind enough to detain him.

The pirate Ker Karraje!

Yes, this name is a revelation to me. I know it well, and what
memories it evokes! It by itself explains what has hitherto been
inexplicable to me. I now know into whose hands I have fallen.

With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in
Back Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the
past and present of Ker Karraje:

Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates
who acted with the greatest audacity. A band of criminals of various
origins, composed of escaped convicts, military and naval deserters,
etc., operated