were to sail for America again, Jack had been uptown to post some cards and letters and did not return to the ship till about nine o’clock at night. As he made his way to his cabin, he was startled to see what he thought was a human figure gliding among the boats and life-rafts on the deck outside, for the wireless-room of the Cambodian, like most such structures, was perched upon the boat deck.

“Now, who could that be?” thought the boy. “Guess I’ll take a look around. These docks are infested with thieves, and although there’s a watchman on duty, somebody may have sneaked on board.”

But although he made what was quite a thorough search, he could find no trace of the man he thought he had seen dodging among the boats as if seeking a hiding place. He was forced to conclude at length that, in the uncertain light, he must have mistaken the swaying shadow of a rope or part of the rigging, for a human form.

“Well, I guess I’ll turn in,” decided Jack, as he opened his cabin door. “We sail early to-morrow and I’ll have to be on the job.”

He undressed slowly, thinking of many things, among them of Raynor and his fate.

“Somehow I cannot bring myself to believe that he is drowned,” reflected the boy. “I’m just as sure as I am that I am sitting here that he will turn up some day. And yet he should have been picked up by one of the ships I spoke with if he succeeded in keeping afloat. But maybe a sailing craft rescued him. In that case he might have to make a voyage to China before he could communicate with the outside world.”

A slight noise outside made the boy sit up erect and listen intently. He went to the door and looked out. There was nothing out of the ordinary there.

“I must be nervous to-night,” said Jack to himself, in tones of self-reproof. “What’s the matter with me? First I think I see a man and then I think I hear someone snooping about. Guess this climate doesn’t agree with me.”

But Jack was not, as he indignantly assured himself, the victim of nerves. There was a man outside his cabin. A man who was watching him eagerly through a port-hole opening into the wireless room. The man had a yellow, evil face and two glittering black eyes like a snake’s. In his ears hung two hoops of gold. It was Alvarez, the Spanish sailor.

He was there to witness the culmination of a plot he had formed that was to imperil Jack’s life.

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