Warm fingers met mine. It was her silk scarf which she was pressing
into my hand. I thrust it in my left breast, then took my own
handkerchief and held it to my cheek.

I was chuckling to myself as I fancied the Governor's guards tumbling
over each other in their retreat, when Captain Blaise broke in on me.
"Aren't you laughing rather soon? You're not over your troubles yet."

"Troubles, sir? Troubles?" It was not at all like him, and his voice,
too, was unwontedly harsh. "Troubles?" I almost laughed aloud again. He
did not understand--I had only to lean forward to gaze into her eyes. I
had only to reach out to clasp her hand. Troubles? Well, possibly so,
but I smiled to myself in the dark.


IV

Ere we had fairly boarded the brig they were in chase of us. We could
see lights flitting along the lagoon bank and hear the hallooing of
native runners--the Governor's, we knew. And for every voice we heard
and every light we saw, we knew that hidden back of the trees were a
dozen or a score whom we could not hear or see. And on the black surface
of the lagoon, paddling between us and the bank, as we worked the ship
out, were noiseless men in canoes. We could not see them, but every few
minutes a mysterious cry carried across the silent water, and the cry,
we knew, was the word of our progress from the Governor's canoe-men to
the messengers on the bank.

The lagoon emptied on the south into the Momba River, which twisted and