abin, not so much to avoid a wetting, as to be where he could
alarm Jarrow and Locke if there appeared to be any necessity to
investigate the actions of the crew.

It was all rather absurd, he thought. There was nothing especially
sinister about sailors carrying a line aft. To demand what it was
about and make himself known would only serve to make him
ridiculous if the explanation proved to be the carrying out of some
legitimate duty. Being quiet, with the vessel at anchor, was hardly
to be condemned. And if it turned out that the crew were preparing
trouble it was no time to show that they were being watched unless
the danger were imminent.

He stepped into the galley and felt along the bulkhead for the row
of knives he had seen in their leathern pockets. He pulled out a
large one, judging its size by the thickness of its handle. It was
a formidable weapon.

Dinshaw was still breathing musically. So far as Trask could tell,
all hands in the cabin were asleep. He passed through with great
care, smiling at the figure he would cut if he were challenged and
found with a great knife in his hands sneaking about the cabin. He,
rather than the crew, would be held guilty of some dangerous
intention against the safety of the schooner.

The rain was now striking the cabin roof with sweeping gusts. It
was not a heavy downpour, but a threat of more to come, the weak
advance guard of an approaching deluge.

Ascending the companion, he put his head out far enough to see a
shape moving at the taffrail, evidently a man bent over some task.
Then it moved away to starboard, slowly, and Trask heard a gentle
blowing, as one might make in clearing the nostrils of rain.

Trask now felt rather ashamed of himself. Instead of an attack on
the cabin, the man who had come aft had gone about his business and
departed. There was nothing to be alarmed about in that, surely.

So Trask went to the forward door and looked out on deck, putting
the knife away in the galley without, however, attempting to insert
it in the leather sheath. Then he stood in the doorway, and
listened.

The man could be seen moving along the starboard side slowly. Trask
caught a foreign sound, a gurgle which he at first mistook for rain
water running from the scuppers. But the deck was scarcely wet
and, besides, the sound was to starboard. Water running off would
go to port, for the schooner was heeled a little in that direction.

Soon there was a rasping along th