Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/13



HE door of the skipper's cabin opened slowly, and the head of a man emerged. There was something sinister in the way he paused and listened. For a few moments he was irresolute. Then he glanced back over his shoulder into the cabin, and a queer, grim little smile flashed over his face. He remained irresolute no longer.

Without a sound he closed the door behind him, and moving stealthily, made his way to the deck, where he walked in the direction of the after wheel-house.

Only the soft swish of the water as it rippled along the sides of the steamer, and the steady thud thud of the propeller. A fitful moon occasionally glared down on a dead calm sea. Up on the bridge of the Four Winds a Kanaka helmsman mechanically kept her sou'east-by-south, and wondered vaguely about a little brown baby that ought to be able to swim by now. The officer on watch was 1