onto a reef, and they proposed to save their supply of gasoline for such an emergency. At last, under a glorious sunset, with its rose and coral, its great, vivid bands of green and vivid gold lighting up a few fleecy clouds near the horizon, they sighted the low, long cluster of islets. Not a thing had occurred during the trip to cause uneasiness. Sam had been both courteous and respectful, without being servile. Like most Jamaica colored people he felt himself to be the equal of the race of lighter color, as far as education and morality could be compared. In the matter of his color of skin he felt, with justice, that the teaching of the Bible, and of the United States Constitution, that all men are equal, in the sense of all being created by the same Great Creator, was a true teaching. Being sensible boys, Nicky, Tom and Cliff made no distinction in the matter of Sam's color. As long as he preserved the same habits of decency as they did, as long as he "acted white," as Nicky put it, they were too finely bred to treat him like an ignorant heathen, as so many rather ignorant people do in their relations with men of dark, or yellow skin. They looked at the intelligence and the inner man, and not alone at the tint of the skin. Sam felt the decent attitude and responded. He never tried to be above his station but he acted as an equal wherever his education enabled him to do so, and accepted gracefully the superiority of Mr. Neale's training, Nicky's deftness with a fish spear, Nicky's eyes having been quickened and trained by archery and other sports. Tom's superior speed as a runner had been proved on the beach before they sailed, as had Cliff's supremacy in wrestling. But there was no color line drawn, and that made the cruise more pleasanter. "The Keys!" cried Nicky from the bow. They all lined up around the mast, and, just before the twilight and its afterglow left the long reach of islets looking like ghostly shapes on the water, they cast anchor. CHAPTER VII AN UNCANNY SUMMONS The spot where the Treasure Belle came to anchor was just at the lowermost point of the archipelago of coral islets. The solid land which had Cape Sable for its most Southern tip had been passed and lay to their left, while the first of the Keys was dimly visible as they looked off in the opposite direction. A council was being held on the decked-over top of the stuffy cabin. Sam was not there. He had taken the dinghy, with its glass bottom, and was just out of earshot toward the inner bay, fishing to secure their morning meal. "I have been thinking a great deal about our next course," Mr. Neale stated. "One reason that I anchored just here is this: It is a deep enough channel between the mainland and the Key for us to navigate the Belle without danger of grounding or 

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