Part 19 (1/2)

It was only by high noon, under the flogging of a merciless sun, that the entire crew of the little schooner once more reassembled under the shadow of her stranded hulk They were quite worn out; and as soon as Charlie was lifted aboard, and the aris--or, as they spoke of it now, the ”loot”--was safely stowed in the cabin, Wilbur allowed the Chinamen three or four hours' rest They had had neither breakfast nor dinner; but their exhaustion was greater than their hunger, and in a few moments the entire half-dozen were stretched out asleep on the forward deck in the shadow of the foresail raised for the purpose of sheltering the, whom they found as they had left him--bound upon the floor of the cabin

”Noe have a talk--savvy?” Wilbur told hiot our loot back froain You woke up the wrong crowd, Hoang, when you went up against this outfit You're in a bad way, my friend Your junk is wrecked; all your oil and blubber from the whale is lost; four of your ht and let go, another one has been ha; and you yourself are our prisoner, with your teeth filed down to your guravity, ”I hope this will be a lesson to you Don't try and get too ht, or what you are strong enough to keep, and don't try to fight hite people Other coolies, I don't say But when you try to get the better of white people you are out of your class”

The little beach-comber (he was scarcely above five feet) rubbed his chafed wrists, and fixed Wilbur with his tiny, twinkling eyes

”What you do now?”

”We go ho to maroon you and your people here on this beach

You deserve that I should let you eat your fists by way of table-board; but I'm no such dirt as you When our ood share of our provisions I'll leave them here for you--and there's plenty of turtle and abalone to be had for the catching Some of the Aet-practice twice a year, and if we speak any on the way up we'll ask them to call here for castaways That's what I'll do for you, and that's all! If you don't like it, you can set out to march up the coast till you hit a town; but I wouldn't advise you to try it Nohat have you got to say?”

Hoang was silent His queue had becoth, and he plaited it aneinking his eyes thoughtfully

”Well, what do you say?” said Moran

”I lose face,” answered Hoang at length, calmly

”You lose face? What do you mean?”

”I lose face,” he insisted; then added: ”I heap 'shahtee my China boy, you catchee o back, him no likee me Mebbe all same killee me I lose face--no mo'

boss”

”What a herd of wild cattle!”in what he says, don't you think,a braid over each shoulder and stroking it according to her habit

”We'll ask Jim about it,” decided Wilbur

But Jih killuood boss, fo' sure,” he declared

”Don't you think, mate,” said Moran, ”we'd better take hi”

So it was arranged that the defeated beach-coer dared look his men in the eye, should be taken aboard

By four o'clock nextthe sand from around the ”Bertha Millner's” bow The line by which she was to be warped off was run out to the ledge of the rock; fresh water was taken on; provisions for the marooned beach-coaskets were cast off, and hatches battened down

At high tide, all hands straining upon the warp, the schooner was floated off, and under touch of the lightest airs drew almost imperceptibly away fro out to the heads of the bay But here the breeze was freshening Moran took the wheel; the flying-jib and staysail were set; the wake began to whiten under the schooner's stern, the forefoot sang; the Pacific opened out more and more; and by 12:30 o'clock Moran put the wheel over, and, as the schooner's boung to the northward, cried to Wilbur:

”Mate, look your last of Magdalena Bay!”

Standing at her side, Wilbur turned and swept the curve of the coast with a single glance The vast, heat-scourged hoop of yellow sand, the still, so water, with its beds of kelp, had become insensibly dear to him It was all familiar, friendly, and hospitable

Hardly an acre of that sweep of beach that did not hold the impress of his foot There was the point near by the creek where he and Moran first landed to fill the water-casks and to gather abalones; the creek itself, where he had snared quail; the sand spit with its whitened whale's skull, where he and Moran had beached the schooner; and there, last of all, that spot of black over which still hung a haze of brown-gray s-cabin, where they had outfought the beach-combers

For aThey stood on the quarter-deck; in the shadow of the ht of the schooner's crew, and for the instant quite alone

”Well, Moran, it's good-by to the old places, isn't it?” said Wilbur at length