i8 
LAND & WATER 
April 27, 1916 
especially in these forests that he knew so well. He was 
following now a line of demarcation between a vast grove of 
dammar trees and a mixed wilderness of camphor, cutch and 
teak, and now he was skirting a huge boggy patch where 
rubber trees and nipah palms grew in profusion. 
" You are certain we are going right ? " said Macquart. 
" Sure," replied Wiart. " I could tell my way by the 
smell, but don't waste time in talking, for I want to reach more 
open ground before dark. Where were heading there is a 
big tract of very open ground leading within a mile of the 
river, where the trees close up again. You remember, we 
came through it this morning— but perhaps you did not notice. 
Men cl(«rt in forests, but to me a thinning of the trees that 
would not be very noticeable to ordinary folk is as sure an 
indication as a street would be." 
" (io ahead." said Mticquart. 
At sunilown, they paused to rest and partake of some food. 
■' Well. ' said Macquart, as he ate, " we have got our 
arms free at last ; it's all ])lain before us now, unless those 
(haps work their way out of that booby-trap ; if they do, and 
if they catch up with us, well— they've got the guns." 
Wiart said nothing for a moment ; he was busy eating. 
Then he said : - 
■ \nu needn't worry. Leave that to them. They'll 
have enough of it before Ihey are done. I^sides, if they did 
manage to get out, what are they to say ? Is it out fault 
that they lost themselves ? " 
■■ I tell you this," said Macquart. " That chap. Hull, 
wouldn't stop to ask whose fault it was. There wouldn't i)e 
the least little bit of good in putting up a defence, lied 
shoot, and shoot on sight. I know him. There wouldn't hr. 
any use saying to him, " It's not our fault," or trying to make 
excuses." 
"Well," said Wiart, " when he gets out of that place he's 
at liberty to do as he chooses, as far as I'm concerned. I'm 
not afraid." 
They resumed their way, now beneath the starlight and 
the glow of the rising moon. 
The forest glowed green to the moonlight, the green of 
the deep sea cave to which penetrates a few rays of the sun ; 
the loops of the liantasse and the lianas sagging from the 
trw boles showed like ropes, and the orchids clinging to them 
like marine growths. The monkeys, for they, had reached 
now the region where the monkeys swarmedil knowing by 
some instinct that they were unarmed, pursued them per- 
sistently, pelting them with nuts and bits of stick, but they did 
not even look up. 
A little before [midnight they reached the river, and 
skirting the village they came down to the landing stage. 
Here -Macquart, having fetched the pick and shovel from the 
tent, waited whilst Wiart went to the house to collect what 
money he had there and to fetch his rifle. 
Hy the stage was moored the boat, and near the boat a 
canoe. It was Saji's. 
" We're in luck," said Macquart. " I was fearing that 
the boat might have been taken off by someone or gone 
adrift. It's just the sort of thing that might happen to spoil 
ever\'thing— but it hasn't." 
" if by any chance they get out of that place," said Wiart, 
" they might follow us In that canoe— there's just room for 
three in it." 
" Leave that to me," said Macquart. 
He went to the canoe and untied the grass rope painter 
that held it to the stage, then bringing the canoe up, he 
followed his companions into the boat and they pushed off. 
Canoe and boat floated out into [the current, and Macquart, 
who had shipped the stern oar whilst Wiart took the bow, dicl 
not perceive a dark form half start from the bushes of the 
lanchng-stage and then take cover again. 
Macquart, by his seizure of the canoe, had won the second 
move in this game he was playing against Fate. But he did 
not know it. He was quite unaware of the fact that he had 
been recognised by the woman who had been waiting fifteen 
years for his return, or that he had been followed by Saji. He 
recognised nothing and cared for nothing now, but the fact 
that his object was nearly accomplished. 
Haifa mile down the river he stopped rowing, and order- 
ing Jacky, who was in the stern sheets, to haul the canoe up by 
its tow rope, he scuttled it, capsizing it with the help of the 
out-rigger. 
It sank like a bottle, and the boat resumed its way. 
The rivrr, vaguely decked with mist, lay under the moon, 
making a fairy-like picture as it flowed by the chanting, 
miion-stricken forests, (ireat bats passed them, fouling the air, 
and the splash of a jumping fish now and then cast rings 
across the water. Now and then a great white feathery 
moth circled around them like a fragment of mist, and vanished 
as though dissolved. 
With the oars and the current, they were making five 
knots so that, allowing for rests on the way, they reached tliu 
lagoon opening in less than two hours. The Barracuda was 
lying just as she had been left, berthed by the trees on the 
banks. A horde of little monkeys were camped on board her, 
but they had done no harm and at the sight of the approaching 
boat they scuttered away, taking to the tree branches from 
where they observed the doings of the newcomers. 
Macquart brought the boat alongside, and they scram- 
bled on board, where on the deck Wiart collapsed, declarinjj 
himself fagged out. 
" I must turn in and have a bit of sleep," said he. " I've 
been at it now since yesterday morning, and I'm not as young 
as I used to be. There's no use in spoiling the job by over- 
haste. Those chaps are tixed, even if they escape they have 
no boat to follow us with, so where's the use in us killing our- 
selves." 
" All right," said Macquart. " I'll give you four hours. 
It'll be near sunrise by tiien. As lor myself, I can't sleep." 
They opened the hatch and went below, where Wiart 
tumbled into a bunk and was soon snoring. 
Macquart had lit the swinging lamp, and he sat now under 
it at the cabin table, smoking. 
There was food and drink in plenty to his hand, but ho 
touched neither. He wanted no support or stimulant. Hf 
wanted notliing but just to sit and smoke and dream. 
He had succeeded. He possessed the Barracuda and 
two hands to hel]) work her. Half a million of money in gold 
lay only waiting to be shipped, and he had settled the score 
between himself and Hull. 
The hatred of .Macquart for Hull was a passion indicati\'e 
of the man's nature. Hull had never done half as much 
injury to hinv as he had done to Hull. The way Hull had 
man handled him on board the Barracuda would, one might 
have thought, been sufficient to account for this hatred ; as 
a matter of fact, whilst strengthening it, it had no count ction 
with its cause. 
He hated Hull because the latter had turned up in Sydney 
just at the moment when he had triumphed overall obstacles. 
It was the intrusion of his Past at the psychological moment 
when his new future w;us forming. Hull was the concrete 
expression of all Macquart's failures, wretchedness, crirrles 
and general disabilities. He was also, of course, a possible 
sharer of profits, but the latter fact was less than the former, 
and the bad soul of Macquart rose against him from its most 
uttermost and powerful depths. 
This being so, imagine his feeling when Screed sprang 
Hull upon him at the moment of starting. Hull, from whom 
he fancied he had escaped ! 
Well, he had paid Hull out ; he had disposed of Tillman 
and Houghton ; there remained only Screed, Screed waiting 
quietly at Sydney to gobble half the" profits of the expedition. 
He determined in liis own mind that this should not be. 
Screed in his cleverness imagined that he had a tight hold on 
the expedition for the simple reason that to dispose of the 
findings without risk of exciting suspicion and enquiry, a 
" fence " was needed— a rich and well-to-do business man 
with business connections and a banking account. But Screed 
had never dreamed of Wiart. Wiart, despite his drinking 
habits and his position as a factor, had large connections in the 
Dutch settlements, and a dark scheme was now evolving in 
the mind of Ma. quart by which these connections might be 
exploited without Wiart having a finger in the pie. .A drunkard 
can never be trusted. Wiart would have to go ; but he might 
be made very good use of before he was extinguished. 
Jacky would have to go at the last when he had done his 
work. The gold was imperative in its terrible demands. No 
witness must be left ol the whole of this business. 
So deep in thought was Macquart that he did not notice 
the passing of time. It might be said that he slept a sleep that 
was full of dreams. 
Rousing from it, he stood up and stretched himself. 
Then he turned and looked at Wiart, who was lying in the 
bunk breathing heavily, with his mouth half open. 
Macquart smiled as he looked at the helpless figure before 
him ; then he turned and lit the stove to make some coffee, 
and when that was done he set out some biscuits and canned 
meat. He let Wiart sleep till the last mon\ent possible. 
Then he awakened him. 
<7o be conliiiucd) 
The second volume of Germany in Dcjeal, by Charles d^ 
S(mza (Kegan Paul and Co., ()s. net) is just "as brilliantly 
written and fascinating as the first, ])resenting the strategic 
jiroblems of the war in a style that makes them equal to any 
novel. We find it rather diflicult to agree with all the author's 
views, but concur most heartily in his presentment of the 
problem of Antwerp, and his opinion of the genius that saved 
the western campaign, and we lofik forward with interest to 
the further volumes of this brilliant study of the strategic 
aspect of the war. 
