“Mind ye, don’t,” growled Buckrow, who was still in an angry mood and perhaps thought he had made a mistake in giving Thirkle freedom again.

“Oh, limber up a bit, Bucky,” said Thirkle.  “What’s the use of us all going to Kingdom Come over a little fight, when we’ve had so much fighting to get this?  The gold turned all our heads, no doubt, but we can’t be fools through it.  The stuff’s no good here—­the job’s not done yet, but I’ll get ye all clear now if ye mind me and keep sober in port.  Shake, old mate, and let’s be friends again.”

He held out his hand to Buckrow, who took it, but awkwardly.  I could see that he feared Thirkle, even unarmed, and knew him for his master.

“I’m cussed sorry, Thirkle, for what I done; but I felt ye wanted to do for me, and I couldn’t stand for that,” he said, with his eyes on the ground.

“All square now, Bucky, and never a word.  Ye always did yer work well, and never a slip.”

“And didn’t I do the same, Thirkle?  Didn’t I stand by?” asked Petrak, surveying his chief with an expression of surprise that he had been overlooked in commendation, much as a dog would seek petting.

“You, too,” assented Thirkle, beaming on the little red-headed man.  “Never was a better man when there was to be a knife used quick and neat; I’ll say that for ye.  Now, I want to take a little rest for a few minutes, and if I was to have a word to say I’d suggest that you two get the sacks stowed in the hole there.  I want a little confab with Mr. Trenholm here, and I’ll give a hand presently.  If ye think it’s fair, I’ll rest a bit; but we ought to get that stuff snug away, and there’s no time to be lost.”

Buckrow took away the belt and pistols, which had been unfastened from me after my capture, and he and Petrak set to work carrying the sacks of gold into the cleft in the cliff.

“It looked bad for me a while back, Mr. Trenholm,” said Thirkle, sitting beside me and offering a cigar, which I took.  “I wasn’t quite sure that I could get myself out of that tangle.”

“You had a pretty good argument,” I commented, lighting the cigar, although my head throbbed so painfully that I knew I would not enjoy the smoke.  “I’m afraid I won’t be able to have any plan to help you get away with the gold and so earn my own life.”

“My dear Mr. Trenholm, I’m sorry you didn’t go down in the Kut Sang.  Really I am, for you know I took quite a fancy to you in Manila.  You are of such an unsuspicious nature.”

“Oh, I had my suspicions well enough, but they were on the wrong track; in fact, I could not have done you justice—­my imagination is not equal to it.  The best I could do for you was to mistake you for a spy—­an inadequate estimate, after what I have seen and heard of you.”

“You flatter me, my dear Mr. Trenholm.  But it is entirely your own fault that you are where you are.  I tried to warn you, but you couldn’t expect me to tell you my plans regarding the Kut Sang.  I didn’t want you in her, and I did my best to keep you out.  Really remarkable, in a way.”