March i6, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER 
to smell gin again — Now then, Mac, let's get to business, the 
boat and the stuff in her will look after themselves. Is this 
the place, by your indications ? 
" It is," said Macquart. 
" Then," said Hull, " lead us to the spot where the 
cache is." 
" One moment," said Macquart. " You surely don't 
want to go there in the broad hght of day with someone maybe 
spotting us." 
" Wiart's asleep," rephed Hull, " and there's no one to 
look ; what better do you want ? 
" I tell you," replied the other, " that wood may be full 
of eyes ; it's plain madness to go straight after landing to a 
spot that anyone can follow us to." 
" Maybe he's right," said Tillman. " The. cache won't 
run away, it's been there long enough." 
" Then what do you propose to do ? " grumbled Hull. 
" Get the tent and stores ashore," said Macquart, " and 
put up the tent somewhere among the trees ; Jacky and one of 
us can sleep in Wiart's house, and three of us in the tent." 
" Not me," said Tillman. " I'm not going to sleep in 
that gin palace." 
" I'd sooner sleep in the boat," said Houghton. 
" I'm — if I wouldn't sooner sleep in the river than 
under the same roof with that graven image of d'Urium 
trimmins," said Hull ; " not me." • 
" Well, I'll sleep there, I'm not particular," said 
Macquart. " It's a roof, and anything is better than a 
tent." 
Thev turned back to the boat. 
Tillman, who was leading tlie way, reached the landing- 
stage first. He turned and called to the others to hurry up. 
Then without a word, he pointed to something. 
Moored to the stage by the boat lay a fishing canoe. A 
sUm brown canoe with an outrigger. A paddle and a fish 
spear lay in it, also a spar with a brown sail. 
Sign of the owner there was none, and there was some- 
thing fierce and savage in the form and appearance of this 
thing that struck the four adventurers Hke the zip of an arrow 
in a wood. 
" You see," said Macquart, " it's just as well we were 
careful. That canoe has been following us, unless it has 
come from tlie upper river, which is unlikely." He looked 
into it more attentively, and saw a fish lying on the bottom 
board and half hidden b\' the mast and sail. It was a flying 
fish. 
He pointed it out. 
" I thought so. It has come up from the sea, and we 
didn't even ghmpse it, though it must have been not far 
behind us." 
" Well, it don't much matter." said Hull. " But it's 
just as well for us to keep our eyes open. Come along and 
get the stuff up. Fetch the tent alon"; first and let's prospect 
for a place to fix it." 
They carried the tent to a clearing in the trees to the 
left of the Papuan village and set it up. Then the rest of 
the boat's contents, including a spade and small pick-axe, 
were stored by the tent and covered with the boat's, sail. 
The oars and the baling tin were left in tlie boat. 
" They'll be safe there," said Hull, " unless anyone runs 
away with the boat, and even if they did, we can always tramp 
back down river to the yawl." 
He ordered Jacky to light a fire and prepare a meal, and 
whilst this was being done they strolled round the Papuan 
\-illage. 
The huts thatched with sago palm leaves were raised on 
piles about six feet from the ground ; not a soul was visible, 
with the exception of one old woman, who was engaged in 
watching som' goats. She seemed half idiotic and scarcely 
turned her head to look at the intruders, and they passed 
on, Hull leading the way. 
As they were turning to go back, from the trees on the 
right suddenly appeared a form. It was the form of a girl. 
She paused in the tree shadows and stood looking at them. 
She was clad in some hght white material, cast loosely and 
gracefully about her, after the fashion of the Greek himalion ; 
one brown arm was exposed to the shoulders and a ray of 
light piercing the leaves above struck the copper bangle 
fixed above the elbow. 
Houghton thought that he had never seen a more lovely 
picture. 
She was lovely, a revelation, a dream, mysterious as the 
forest that had suddenly given her birth. 
For a moment she stood, and then just as a dream, she 
vanished, the leaves re-took her, and now for the first time 
they saw that she had not been alone ; the glimpse of a half- 
naked figure shewed through the leaves, the figure of a youth 
supple and sinuous and graceful as a faun, then it vanished 
also and nothing shewed but the trees and the still-moving 
leaves. 
" That's the gal," said Hull, "that's the peach the 
ginman was yarning about ; b'gosh, he was right ! — she's an 
a-pricot." He spoke without enthusiasm, though with con- 
viction. His temper had been brittle all the morning, and 
the feeling that the girl and j'oung man had been spying 
on them did not improve it. 
Houghton said nothing ; the fact was being borne in on 
him that he had seen John Lant's daughter ; Chaya, the girl 
half European, half Dyak, the child that had been born to 
Lant before he had come to his untimely end. 
As they returned to the tent, they did not notice that 
the old woman who had been tending the goats had risen and 
was making off among the trees. 
CHAPTER XV. 
Thev St.4rt to Dig. 
WHEN they got back they found that Jacky had laid 
out some food and was squatting on his heels by 
the fire he had built close to the tent. He was 
boihng some water for tea. They drank tea at 
nearly every meal and they drank it sometimes between meals ; 
it was their main stand-by, and the sight of the preparations 
for making it restored Hull's good humour. 
The Captain fell to on the food, as did Tillman. Houghton 
touched notliing, waiting for the tea. He had lost interest 
for the moment in food, in the expedition, in cverytliing under 
the sun except the vision of the girl that still jjursued him. 
It seemed to him that he had travelled the whole of his journey 
through life to arrive at ^t his sight and this end. Fate had 
shown him an absolutely new thing, and in one moment had 
led him into an absolutely new world. 
The beauty of Chaya, as disclosed to Houghton in that 
moment when her ej^es, gazing at the group, had rested on him 
in turn, was a thing miraculous as though speech liad come to 
the forest or voice to the sky depths above the trees. A whole 
world in himself of whose existence he had known nothing 
awoke in troublous life, never to sleep again. 
And he had to sit now whilst the Captain, munching 
bully beef, expounded his ideas as to their future proceedings 
to Macquart and Tillman. 
" I don't care a dump," said the Captain, " whether we're 
watched or whether we ain't ; I'm goin' for that stuff to-night 
after sundown. Ain't we armed ? Mac, you've got to bring 
us to the stuff to-night ; I ain't goin' to be put off wa'tia' — 
what do you say, Tillman ? " 
" I'm with you," said Tillman. " We'll go and scratch 
the cache, and once we're sure the stuff's there, we'll bring the 
yawl right up ; four of us can do that, leaving one 1 eliind 
to guard the boodle." 
" "Very well," said Macquart. " I'll lead you to the spot 
to-night." 
Macquart had long dropped more than the vaguest pre- 
tence of acting in this affair under directions and plans given 
him by someone else. Had any of them taxed him witli the 
fact that he had once belonged to Lant's crew, and had 
assisted in the burying of the gold, I doubt if he would have 
bothered to refute the impeachment. There were no witnesses, 
fifteen years had passed and Lant was no doubt forgotten, 
even by the natives. 
" The TerscheUing was sunk in the river close to the 
cache, you said ? " spoke up Tillman, who was engaged now 
in lighting a pipe. 
" Yes," said Macquart, " that's the story." 
" They wouldn't have sunk her more than over her decks," 
went on Tillman. " There wouldn't have been water enough 
for more than that — some of her bones ought to be lying there 
still." 
" Maybe they are," replied Macquart ; " unless tlie wash 
of the river has swept them away." 
" What a devil that Lant must have been," went on 
Tillman. " You said he waited till all the crew but one man 
were in the fo'c'sle and then clapped the hatches on 'em ? " 
" That's the yarn," said Macquart. 
Tillman seemed about to pursue the subject, then he 
seemed to think better of it. 
There was no use in raking up this old business. The 
question whether this one man, who was not included in the 
general rnurder of the crew, had assisted in the murder or 
not was a question for him to settle with his Maker. 
Tillman was certain in his own mind that this man had 
been Macquart, and he chose to leave it at that. 
Towards evening, the Papuan rubber getters returned 
from work, and almost at the same time Dyak canoes began 
to arrive from the sea. 
The Dyak fishermen, as they passed on to their village, 
scarcely noticed the new encampment, but the Papuans were 
more curious. Women and children came to look at the new- 
comers, and a few men, to whom Tillman presented tobacco. 
21 
