nd
wondered why he was alone. At any rate, if he is carried beyond the
reef, he has a fighting chance. We have none."

"Why not? Are these men on the island so deaf to human sympathies that
they would murder all of us in cold blood?"

The girl's sweet, low-pitched voice sounded inexpressibly sad in that
vaulted place. Even De Sylva's studied control gave way before its
music. He uttered some anguished appeal to the deity in his own
tongue, and flung out his hands impulsively.

"What would you have me say?" he cried, and his eyes blazed, while the
scar on his forehead darkened with the gust of passion that swept over
his strong features. "I might lie to you, and try to persuade you that
we can exist here without food or water, whereas to-morrow, or next day
at the utmost, will see most of us dead. But in a few hours you will
realize what it means to be kept on this bare rock under a tropical
sun. You can do one thing. Your party greatly outnumbers mine. Climb
to the top-most pinnacle and signal to the island. You will soon be
seen."

He laughed with a savage irony that was not good to hear, but Coke
caught at the suggestion.

"Even that is better'n tearin' one another like mad dogs," he growled.
"I know wot's comin'. I've seen it wonst."

Hozier made for the exit, where Marcel stood, irresolute, apparently
waiting for orders.

"Where are you going?" demanded De Sylva.

"To see what is becoming of the lifeboat."

"Better not. You cannot help your friend, and the instant it becomes
known to the troops that there is a living soul on the Grand-pere rock
they will come in a steam launch and shoot everyone at sight."

"Will that be the answer to our signal?"

It was Iris who asked the question, and the Brazilian's voice softened
again.

"Yes," he said.

"Why, then, do you advise us to seek our own destruction?"

He bowed. His manner was almost humble.

"It is the easier way," he murmured.

"Is there no other?"

"None--unless we attack two hundred soldiers with sticks, and stones,
and three revolvers, and a sword."

Hozier came back. He had merely stepped a pace or two into the
sunlight. Through the northerly dip of the gulley he had seen the
ship's boat whirled past an islet by the fierce current. Macfarlane
was not visible. Perhaps that was better so. At any rate, the sight
of the small craft vanishing behind one of the island barriers brought
home with telling force the predicament