"Perhaps you would, capataz," Decoud began, in a

whisper. "However, you need not trouble. There arc other things than the fear of your knife to keep my heart steady. It shall not betray you. Only, have you forgotten " 1 I spoke to you openly, as to a man as desperate as myself," explained the capataz. "The silver must be saved from the Montcrists. I told Captain Mitchell three times that I preferred to go alone. I told Don Carlos Gould, too. It was in the Casa Gould. They ha<l sent for me. The ladies were there; and when I tried to explain why I did not wish to have you with me they promised me hth of them, great rewards f<-r your safety. A strange way to talk to a man you are sending out to an almost certain death. Those gentlefolk do not seem to have sense enough to under- stand what they are giving one to do. I told them I could do nothing for you. You would have been safer with the 1 .audit Hernandez. It would have been Hprible to ride out of the town with no greater risk than a chance shot sent after you in the dark. But it was as if they had been deaf. I had to promise I would wait for you under the harbor gate. I did wait And now, liccause you are a brave man, you are as tafe as the silver. Neither more nor less."

At that moment, as if by way of comment upon

Nostromo's words, the invisible steamer went ahead, at half-speed only, as could l>c judged by the leisurely beat of her propeller. The sound shifted its place markedly, hut without coming nearer. It even grew a little more distant right abeam of the lighter, and

then ceased again.