lling themselves slowly over the ship's
side and falling exhausted into the shade to sleep for a few hours.

"They will be fresh enough in a while," he said, "and then we shall
one and all row ashore to see what we shall see."

He paused, and Chris, looking up, saw that the Captain's gaze was
fixed on Zachary Heigh. Zachary was obviously not only far from
sleeping, but was restless, jumping up to look out to sea and then
sitting down again. It would be only a few minutes more before up he
would jump once more to pace the deck or lean at the ship's rail.

"It would seem," the Captain said casually, "that Zachary has
something on his mind."

Mr. Finney joined Chris and the Captain at that moment, and looking
down at Zachary nodded his long sad face in lugubrious agreement.
Chris opened his mouth to say something to the Captain of what he had
seen Zachary doing. Before the words could leave his mouth, he was
interrupted by the appearance of red-faced Ned Cilley. Cheerful as a
sand flea at the prospect of going ashore, Ned had come from his rest
with a small company of the sailors to ask permission of the Captain
if they might leave the ship.

"Well, why not?" the Captain demanded. "And why not take along the
rest too? We were all to go ashore presently, in any case. Those who
still want to sleep can do so even more comfortably on the shady sand
under the palms."

So in an instant the decks of the _Mirabelle_ were crowded with
laughing jostling men, duties over for that day, tumbling down the
ladders to the dinghies in which they rowed ashore.

Chris and Amos were shoved along with their friends, Chris hiking up
his breeches to cover the coil of the magic rope around his waist; the
leathern bag hanging in plain sight about his neck. The sailors had
often teased him about it, saying that he kept his riches there, but
they made no attempt to snatch it from him. There had been no time to
warn the Captain, but as the last boatload of sailors leaped into
shallow water and scattered under the shade of the trees, Chris
searched and searched again for three faces among the crowd that he
did not find. Zachary Heigh, the Captain, and Mr. Finney were not to
be found.

Aghast, as he understood now what Zachary's plan was--to blow up the
_Mirabelle_ just as the _Venture_ and its crew came near enough to
shoot down the unarmed men--Chris rushed back to the water's edge and
stood there hesitating in the powerful sun. How could h