inhabitants are nearly as badly off for firewood as those

A shadow fell across the sunlight, and I looked up to see the man I was thinking of standing before me. He had a cigarette in his mouth, and his hands in the pockets of his riding- breeches. He stood eyeing me with a curious smile on his face.

'Well, Mr Storekeeper,' he said, 'you and I have met before under pleasanter circumstances.'

I said nothing, my mind being busy with what to do at the drift.

'We were shipmates, if I am not mistaken,' he said. 'I dare say you found it nicer work smoking on the after-deck than lying here in the sun.'

Still I said nothing. If the man had come to mock me, he would get no change out of David Crawfurd.

'Tut, tut, don't be sulky. You have no quarrel with me. Between ourselves,' and he dropped his voice, 'I tried to save you; but you had seen rather too much to be safe. What devil prompted you to steal a horse and go to the cave? I don't blame you for overhearing us; but if you had had the sense of a louse you would have gone off to the Berg with your news. By the way, how did you manage it? A cellar, I suppose. Our friend Laputa was a fool not to take better precautions; but I must say you acted the drunkard pretty well.'

The vanity of 19 is an incalculable thing. I rose to the fly.

'I know the kind of precaution you wanted to take,' I muttered.