She read his meaning intuitively and shivered.  “I could not do that,” she murmured.  “I would faint.  Whilst you are away I will pray for them—­my unfortunate friends.”

As he passed from her side he heard her sobbing quietly.

When he reached the lagoon he halted suddenly.  Something startled him.  He was quite certain that he had counted fourteen corpses.  Now there were only twelve.  The two Lascars’ bodies, which rested on the small group of rocks on the verge of the lagoon, had vanished.

Where had they gone to?

CHAPTER III

DISCOVERIES

The sailor wasted no time in idle bewilderment.  He searched carefully for traces of the missing Lascars.  He came to the conclusion that the bodies had been dragged from off the sun-dried rocks into the lagoon by some agency the nature of which he could not even conjecture.

They were lying many feet above the sea-level when he last saw them, little more than half an hour earlier.  At that point the beach shelved rapidly.  He could look far into the depths of the rapidly clearing water.  Nothing was visible there save several varieties of small fish.

The incident puzzled and annoyed him.  Still thinking about it, he sat down on the highest rock and pulled off his heavy boots to empty the water out.  He also divested himself of his stockings and spread them out to dry.

The action reminded him of Miss Deane’s necessities.  He hurried to a point whence he could call out to her and recommend her to dry some of her clothing during his absence.  He retired even more quickly, fearing lest he should be seen.  Iris had already displayed to the sunlight a large portion of her costume.

Without further delay he set about a disagreeable but necessary task.  From the pockets of the first officer and doctor he secured two revolvers and a supply of cartridges, evidently intended to settle any dispute which might have arisen between the ship’s officers and the native members of the crew.  He hoped the cartridges were uninjured; but he could not test them at the moment for fear of alarming Miss Deane.

Both officers carried pocket-books and pencils.  In one of these, containing dry leaves, the sailor made a careful inventory of the money and other valuable effects he found upon the dead, besides noting names and documents where possible.  Curiously enough, the capitalist of this island morgue was a Lascar jemadar, who in a belt around his waist hoarded more than one hundred pounds in gold.  The sailor tied in a handkerchief all the money he collected, and ranged pocket-books, letters, and jewelry in separate little heaps.  Then he stripped the men of their boots and outer clothing.  He could not tell how long the girl and he might be detained on the island before help came, and fresh garments were essential.  It would be foolish sentimentality to trust to stores thrown ashore from the ship.