a thing or two. Anyhow, it was a partnership. Niclaus was
somewhat afraid of the Frenchman on account of his tempers, which

were awful. He looked then like a devil; but a man without hands,
unable to load or handle a weapon, can at best go for one only with

his teeth. From that danger Niclaus felt certain he could always
defend himself.

"The couple were alone together loafing in the common-room of that
infamous hotel when Fector turned up. After some beating about the

bush, for he was doubtful how far he could trust these two, he
repeated what he had overheard in the tiffin-rooms.

"His tale did not have much success till he came to mention the
creek and Bamtz's name. Niclaus, sailing about like a native in a

prau, was, in his own words, 'familiar with the locality.' The
huge Frenchman, walking up and down the room with his stumps in the

pockets of his jacket, stopped short in surprise. 'COMMENT?
BAMTZ! BAMTZ!'

"He had run across him several times in his life. He exclaimed:
'BAMTZ! MAIS JE NE CONNAIS QUE CA!' And he applied such a

contemptuously indecent epithet to Bamtz that when, later, he
alluded to him as 'UNE CHIFFE' (a mere rag) it sounded quite

complimentary. 'We can do with him what we like,' he asserted
confidently. 'Oh, yes. Certainly we must hasten to pay a visit to

that - ' (another awful descriptive epithet quite unfit for
repetition). 'Devil take me if we don't pull off a coup that will

set us all up for a long time.'
"He saw all that lot of dollars melted into bars and disposed of

somewhere on the China coast. Of the escape after the COUP he
never doubted. There was Niclaus's prau to manage that in.

"In his enthusiasm he pulled his stumps out of his pockets and
waved them about. Then, catching sight of them, as it were, he

held them in front of his eyes, cursing and blaspheming and
bewailing his misfortune and his helplessness, till Niclaus quieted

him down.
"But it was his mind that planned out the affair and it was his

spirit which carried the other two on. Neither of them was of the
bold buccaneer type; and Fector, especially, had never in his

adventurous life used other weapons than slander and lies.
"That very evening they departed on a visit to Bamtz in Niclaus's

prau, which had been lying, emptied of her cargo of cocoanuts, for
a day or two under the canal bridge. They must have crossed the

bows of the anchored Sissie, and no doubt looked at her with
interest as the scene of their future exploit, the great haul, LE

GRAND COUP!
"Davidson's wife, to his great surprise, sulked with him for

several days before he left. I don't know whether it occurred to
him that, for all her angelicprofile, she was a very stupidly

obstinate girl. She didn't like the tropics. He had brought her
out there, where she had no friends, and now, she said, he was

becoming inconsiderate. She had a presentiment of some misfortune,
and standing" target="_blank" title="prep.&conj.虽然；还是">notwithstanding Davidson's painstaking explanations, she could

not see why her presentiments were to be disregarded. On the very
last evening before Davidson went away she asked him in a

suspicious manner:
"'Why is it that you are so anxious to go this time?'

"'I am not anxious,' protested the good Davidson. 'I simply can't
help myself. There's no one else to go in my place.'

"'Oh! There's no one,' she said, turning away slowly.
"She was so distant with him that evening that Davidson from a

sense of delicacy made up his mind to say good-bye to her at once
and go and sleep on board. He felt very miserable and, strangely

enough, more on his own account than on account of his wife. She
seemed to him much more offended than grieved.

"Three weeks later, having collected a good many cases of old
dollars (they were stowed aft in the lazarette with an iron bar and

a padlock securing the hatch under his cabin-table), yes, with a
bigger lot than he had expected to collect, he found himself

homeward bound and off the entrance of the creek where Bamtz lived
and even, in a sense, flourished.

"It was so late in the day that Davidson actually hesitated whether
he should not pass by this time. He had no regard for Bamtz, who

was a degraded but not a really unhappy man. His pity for Laughing
Anne was no more than her case deserved. But his goodness was of a

particularly delicate sort. He realised how these people were
dependent on him, and how they would feel their dependence (if he

failed to turn up) through a long month of anxious waiting.
Prompted by his sensitivehumanity, Davidson, in the gathering

dusk, turned the Sissie's head towards the hardly discernible
coast, and navigated her safety through a maze of shallow patches.

But by the time he got to the mouth of the creek the night had
come.

"The narrow waterway lay like a black cutting through the forest.
And as there were always grounded snaggs in the channel which it

would be impossible to make out, Davidson very prudently turned the
Sissie round, and with only enough steam on the boilers to give her

a touch ahead if necessary, let her drift up stern first with the
tide, silent and invisible in the impenetrable darkness and in the

dumb stillness.
"It was a long job, and when at the end of two hours Davidson

thought he must be up to the clearing, the settlement slept
already, the whole land of forests and rivers was asleep.

"Davidson, seeing a solitary light in the massed darkness of the
shore, knew that it was burning in Bamtz's house. This was

unexpected at this time of the night, but convenient as a guide.
By a turn of the screw and a touch of the helm he sheered the

Sissie alongside Bamtz's wharf - a miserablestructure of a dozen
piles and a few planks, of which the ex-vagabond was very proud. A

couple of Kalashes jumped down on it, took a turn with the ropes
thrown to them round the posts, and the Sissie came to rest without

a single loud word or the slightest noise. And just in time too,
for the tide turned even before she was properly moored.

"Davidson had something to eat, and then, coming on deck for a last
look round, noticed that the light was still burning in the house.

"This was very unusual, but since they were awake so late, Davidson
thought that he would go up to say that he was in a hurry to be off

and to ask that what rattans there were in store should be sent on
board with the first sign of dawn.

"He stepped carefully over the shaky planks, not being anxious to
get a sprained ankle, and picked his way across the waste ground to

the foot of the house ladder. The house was but a glorified hut on
piles, unfenced and lonely.

"Like many a stout man, Davidson is very lightfooted. He climbed
the seven steps or so, stepped across the bambooplatform quietly,

but what he saw through the doorway stopped him short.
"Four men were sitting by the light of a solitary candle. There

was a bottle, a jug and glasses on the table, but they were not
engaged in drinking. Two packs of cards were lying there too, but

they were not preparing to play. They were talking together in
whispers, and remained quite unaware of him. He himself was too

astonished to make a sound for some time. The world was still,
except for the sibilation of the whispering heads bunched together

over the table.
"And Davidson, as I have quoted him to you before, didn't like it.

He didn't like it at all.
"The situation ended with a screamproceeding from the dark,

interior part of the room. 'O Davy! you've given me a turn.'
"Davidson made out beyond the table Anne's very pale face. She

laughed a little hysterically, out of the deep shadows between the
gloomy mat walls. 'Ha! ha! ha!'