e, inquiring anxiously what was
the matter. Of course, I had no alternative but to explain to them that
the men had risen in mutiny, and had seized the ship; and, although I
made as light of it as I could, it was a sorry tale at best that I had
to tell them. I was still in the midst of my story when the
phosphorescent flash of oars became visible in the black shadow of the
islet, and presently the outline of the boat, telling dark upon the
starlit surface of the still water, was seen approaching. As she drew
near, the voice of Rogers came pealing across the water--

"Shore ahoy! just walk a bit farther back from the water's edge, there,
or we shall be obliged to fire. We're about to land Sir Edgar; and if
there's any sign of a rush at the boat, we shall shoot to kill. So if
you don't want to be hurt, you'd better stand well back."

"Hold on there a moment," I answered back, disregarding the threat.
"Surely, men, you do not intend to abandon us here, unarmed; without a
shelter from the weather, and with only the clothes we stand up in?"

"Oh, you'll do well enough, I don't doubt," replied Rogers, brutally.
"You don't want arms, because there's nobody nor nothing here that'll
hurt you; you don't need clothes, because the climate's so warm that you
can do without 'em; and, as to a shelter, why, we've left all the axes
and shovels ashore; you're welcome to them, and if you can't build a
house with such tools as that, you deserves to go without. There's
plenty of fruit, and plenty of good water, so you won't starve; and,
lastly, there's a chance for you to get all the treasure that's in that
other hole--if we decides that we don't want it ourselves."

"What?" I exclaimed, indignantly, "after stealing my ship and my
treasure from me, will you not go to the small trouble of passing the
ladies' and children's clothing into a boat, and sending it--"

"Well, if you _won't_ stand back, take that!" interrupted Rogers; and as
the word left his lips there was a flash, a sharp report, and a bullet
went singing close past my ear.

At the same moment I felt my arm seized by a white figure that
unexpectedly appeared at my side, and Miss Merrivale's voice, rendered
almost inarticulate by scorn and anger, exclaimed--

"Leave the cowardly brutes alone. You _shall not_ humiliate yourself
further by stooping to ask a favour from them, even on our behalf; nor
shall you wantonly expose yourself to the risk of being murdered in col