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Vandersee spoke in low tones to Gordon and Mrs. Goring for a moment, received their aquiescence to his question, then faced the skipper with an expression of resignation to a task not entirely to his liking. "Some of the story is not very pleasant, Barry, so I'll make it brief," he said. "It's due to you and to Little, otherwise I'd ask you to let your doubts remain unanswered.
Then Natalie detected a loose end to the stick and suggested that it might contain something of value. Rolfe stripped a rice leaf from the cane, opened it, and found a message written on it in a fair hand. "On no account attack naval party. Barry and party are safe. Vandersee."
Yet you let me make that awful mess back at the river entrance, letting go the anchors by meddling with the gears you had showed me. Now here you crop up, when I am half eaten, and tell me when the proper time comes I'll know all! It's like a yellow-backed novel." Vandersee smiled broadly. He admired the cheery ex-salesman.
With one impulse Little and Barry sprang out to intercept them; and even in his heat the skipper wondered why, now that the time had come, neither Gordon nor Vandersee was anxious to get his hands on Leyden. For that Leyden was one of those two plunging whites neither doubted. But Rolfe's bonfire blazed higher, and every face and form stood clearly revealed.
He took Vandersee's arm now, turning him until he faced the mainsail. "See that slit, Mr. Vandersee?" he said casually, yet watching the man's face closely. "Might have a man patch that in the morning. Don't think it's necessary to unbend the sail, is it?" "No sir. Lower away to the first reef. That'll do. How did it happen, sir? That's a stout piece of canvas." "Stout's right, Mr.
Vandersee," drawled Barry. "A bird flew through it. Pretty stout bird, hey?" "Bird? Surely you're joking, sir," laughed the second mate, his round face glowing with a jolly grin. "But I'll see that it's attended to."
Why, he told me I was a whale of a shellback, and he's going to teach me...." "This is business, Little," Barry interrupted, with a trace of irritation. "Come, Mr. Rolfe; if you've finished your breakfast, you can relieve Vandersee for his. We can talk as well on deck." The second mate was relieved and went below.
He must be well posted on her situation since he's got as many men about him as you have, apparently." "No, Captain," returned Vandersee, very softly. "He doesn't know that the dust is taken out. He doesn't know, yet, that your ship is burned. He simply expected his people to bottle her up in that creek and kill or drive you off.
They reached the main hut and found Gordon seated at the table his own old table of trading days looking fit and well, but wearing an air of intense boredom. He rose as they entered, and Vandersee stopped him with outstretched hand. "Stay here, Gordon," he said, with a kindly smile; "you look almost ready for work, hey? Feeling fit again?" "Fit as a fiddle, thanks to you and Ju Mrs.
As it is, I cannot permit these men to rob me of Leyden. That foul devil is mine by all the laws of God and Justice." Gordon stood by, his gaze fixed full on Vandersee, his face alight with the fervor of high hope. When the Hollander paused, Gordon moistened his lips and whispered: "Mine too, Hendrik! Can't you let me do this? I'm fit now, a man again. Let him be mine."
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