I. A N I) A N D W AT E R 
March g, 191^. 
he was, and the man who. having been twice diddled by him, 
was evidently determined never to be so treated again. 
Then Hull had taken virtual command of the expedition 
and he had worked Macquart like a dog. The explosion that 
now followed was the result of all this. 
Macquart sprang from the edge of the bunk and stood 
upright before the Captain. 
" D n you," he cried. " Who are you to be meddling 
and ordering and interfering in what you don't understand, 
a wharf rat sprung from nowhere, shot aboard by that 
Screed. You leave this thing alone or I'll chuck it, 
one word more from you and you can hunt for the stuff 
yourself you ." 
He was shouting at the top of his voice and Hull had 
drawn back a moment and was preparing to strike when 
Tillman and Houghton flung themselves between the antag- 
onists forcing Macquart back on the bunk and Hull to the 
other side the table. 
" Don't be fools," cried Tillman. " Good Lord, the 
idea of fighting amongst ourselves in our position. Can't 
you see there's no use in arguing what we'll do till we've 
touched the stuff." 
" Let up," said the- Captain, who had recovered possession 
of himself. " I'm not goin' to touch the blighter — but one 
word more of his lip and I'll break his neck. There, that's 
said and done. Let him sit there and cool." He turned and 
went on deck where Tillman and Houghton followed him. 
CHAPTER -Xlll. 
The Bl.\ck Ship. 
NEXT morning, at breakfast, all signs of the quarrel 
had- disappeared. Macquart seemed cheerful and 
the Captain had got into the old bantering way of 
talking to him. He did not seem to resent it. 
After breakfast, they set to work to make everything snug 
and secure on board. They brought the top-mast down and 
lashed it with the spare spars on deck, stowed away every- 
thing movable, even to the collapsible boat, and put ashore 
extra mooring ropes. Then they collected on deck the stores 
for the boat expedition, canned meat and vegetables, blankets, 
a tent, matches, ammunition and a small parcel of trade, con- 
sisting of stick tobacco, knives, dollar watches and clay 
pipes. 
The lazarette was carefully secured and every locker 
fastened, and an hour or two before sundown all the prepara- 
tions were finished for the start on the morrow. 
" Well, that's done," said Tillman, as he surveyed their 
work. " Nothing will move her except, maybe, an earth- 
quake or a tornado." He filled his pipe and lit it. Hough- 
ton also produced a pipe, whilst Hull, perspiring from the work 
he had been uf)on, went below for a drink. Macquart had 
taken his seat on deck and was engaged in mending a rent in 
his trousers. He was often patching himself up hke this. In 
Sydney, he could have borrowed tiie money from Screed for a 
full outfit, or got it on credit from the outfitter of the expe- 
dition, but he had come away with only a few things, perhaps 
from carelessness or from some strange twist of the mind 
making him utterly regardless of appearances. 
" Come out on the water." said Tillman to Houghton ; 
it's cooler out there and we can explore round a bit." 
They got into the boat which was lying alongside and 
pushed out into the lagoon. 
The sunlight was striking the water across the tree toj)*.. 
and the trees of the southern bank threw their cave-like 
shadow far out on the water ; against this shadow the moth- 
like dance of the humming birds patterned itself with an 
effect at once gorgeous and ghostly. 
This place was the paradise of birds, the gorgeous- 
• oUared lory preened itself on the lower branches of the 
trees by the water, answering with its beaver-like noise the 
ka-ka-toi, ka-ka-toi of the white cockatoos haunting the 
groves ; the wonderful crowned pigeon flitted across from 
bank to bank ; fork-tailed water ch its and blue fly catchers 
flew everywhere, and, ;is the boat floated along, skirting the 
shadows, kingfishers, hke i)irds carved from emerald, showed 
motionless as sentries perched on drift logs by the banks. 
They had rowed towards the south bank, and now they 
sat smoking and letting the boat drift on the edge of the tree 
-'ladows. 
■■' "I wish I could put a stopper on Hull in some way," 
-.lid Tillman. " He's been working Macquart up ever since we 
started ; he won't let the chap alone ; he keeps on at him. 
pretending to joke and sneering at him all the time." 
" He's got a frightful down on him," said Houghton. 
■' and I don't wonder ; from what I can make out, Mac has 
bested him more than once. Hull told me something of wliat 
happened between them f<iur years ago in 'Frisco. Macquart 
got away that time, and tlK\v didn't meet again till that 
morning, you remember, when we were coming from hu-ini; 
our first look at the Barracuda. Seems hke fate that they 
should have met just then." 
" The world's a small place," said Tillman, " and that's 
the first thing that a scamp finds out. Hullo ! " 
The boat floating with the current th.at moved the lagoon 
water just here bumped gently against something and slewed 
round nose to shore. 
Tillman looked over. 
" Why, it's all black rocks," said he. " No— it's not 
rocks ; it looks like an old landing-stage of some sort sunk by 
the bank." 
Houghton leaned over the starboard gunnel. 
" Why, it's the bones of an old ship," said he, with a 
catch-back of his breath. " She's been burnt at her moorings, 
and we've hit one of the mast stumps." 
He was right. Looking down through the water, the 
charred deck planking and bulwarks could be plainly made 
out. The planking had burst up here and there, showing 
wide yawning holes through which the flames and smoke had 
once poured, before the seams had opened letting in the 
lagoon water to quench the flames ; the buhvarks were all 
gone from the knightheads to midships on the port side, and 
the upper planking also, so that the ribs stood up like piles. 
Small fish were darting in and out of the gloomy cavern 
that had once been the main hold, and a great eel waved its 
way from between the ribs and scuttered along the lagoon 
floor, as if resenting the presence of the gazers above. Not 
a sign of mast or spar was visible with the exception of the fore 
mast stump with which the boat had colUded. 
The two men looked at one another. 
" That's funny, isn't it ? " said Tillman.. " She must have 
been a fairly big ship." 
" Maybe brought in here by pirates," said Houghton. 
" Looks as though the masts had been shot away." 
" O, the fire would have done that," said Tillman. " I've 
seen a ship in Sydney Harbour with the masts clean gone 
through fire, and not much sign of damage to the hull." 
" I don't know what it is," said Houghton, " but this 
lagoon makes me feel that I want to get away from it : funny, 
isn't it, but, from the first, I felt there was something crawly 
about it. It's just the place for river pirates to hide in, and I 
expect bloody work has gone on here long ago." 
" O, the lagoon is all right," said Tillman. " One never 
can tell : this old hooker may have been a peaceful trader 
set alight to by some d — d fool messing round with a light, the 
same as the Baralong was burnt just outside the Heads." 
" Maybe so," replied Houghton ; " all the same, I don't 
hke this place." 
They rowed back to the yawl and reported their find, 
without raising any interest or speculation in Hull and 
Macquart. 
" Some old tub scuttled for insurance, maybe," said Hull. 
" No, I ain't particular about goin' to look at her. I guess 
she'll keep. I'm goin' to turn in when I've had my supjjer, 
for we'll have to be off before sun up, so's to reach the village 
in the cool of the day." 
They had lit a fire on the bank to keep the mosquitoes 
off, though the mosquitoes here were far less troublesome than 
one might have expected, owing, perhaps, to the fact that the 
water was not stagnant, 
Tillman threw some more sticks on the fire and then they 
went below to supper, after which they turned in. 
They were awakened by Jacky. 
It was an hour before dawn, a slight wind had risen, 
blowing the mists from the lagoon, and as they came on deck 
the mist wreathes were passing off like the ghosts of scarfs, 
wreatiiing unseen forms and leaving great spaces of star-shot 
water frosted by the breeze. 
They breakfasted hurriedly, and everything being stowed 
on board the boat, they got in and pushed off just as the first 
lilac of the dawn was touching the sky beyond the tree 
tops. 
When they reached the ri\er, the wind was fresher and 
blowing with them, and before they had made half a mile up 
stream, the sun was blazing through the trees of the left bank 
and the parrots shouting at them from the branches. 
Just at this hour, the river was lovely, fresh, fair and 
brilhant. Butterflies big as birds and gorgeous as flowers 
pursued them or flitted across the boat ; azure butterflies Uke 
flakes of sky, butterflies of bronze and gold in whose broad 
wings were set little clear spaces like panes of mica. 
A mile and a half, or perhaps two miles, above the lagoon, 
the river took a bend westward, and the right bank losing its 
trees showed tracts of cane and tall grass, with here and there 
a great tree standing in isolation. 
The left bank showed still the edge of the eternal, un- 
broken forest, the forest just as it was when Moses gave laws 
to Israel, just as it will be when all present things are for- 
gotten. 
(To b« continuetl.) 
