Part 14 (1/2)

”We say nothing,” he answered blandly, ”only that you have ent stared at him, but the japanese smiled affably

”We are shi+pwreck on the island,” he said ”We not knohat place it is, have no food, hungry, kill some seal for food, anybody do that”

At this iue-tied, but he turned to Hank

”These men say,” he said, ”that they are shi+pwrecked sailors and do not belong to that shi+p Let's get this thing right Tell us what you know about it”

Hank straightened up

”After the boy left ood to tackle 'eettin' at 'em from the shore side If I let 'em know they atched, they would be off, sure, an'

what I wanted was to find some way to head 'em off I knew if you came down the beach after 'em they'd have the start, an' you can't always depend on shootin' straight at night in a fog”

”What did you do, then?” asked the agent

”I just slipped into the water, down by the end o' the causeway,” the old whaler said, ”an' there were scores o' seals around, so that it didn't matter how much I splashed”

”Yourocks in the dark is no joke”

”I had plenty of time, and I can swim a little,” the old man modestly admitted ”Wa'al, pretty soon I saw the boat an' I swaht behind it The jap as sittin' in it wasn't expectin' any trouble an' as he was nid-noddin' and half asleep, I put one hand on the stern o' the boat, bringin' it down in the water With the other hand I grabbed the back of a blouse-thing he earin' an'

yanked him overboard”

”You didn't drown hiether,” the old whaler answered ”I held hiood an' full o' water an' had stopped kickin', an' then I clirabbed hi was pretty thick an' none o' the rest of 'eoin' on In a innin' to come round an' I didn't quite knohat to do I didn't want to knock him on the head, he hadn't done anythin' to hurt me, an' so I dropped the row-locks overboard, tossed the oars ashore--there they are, lyin' aot ashore round I untied the painter what held the boat an' set it adrift, givin' it a push off with one o' the oars The tide's goin' out, so I knew he couldn't get ashore again I'd hardly got the boat shoved off when he yelled an' the rest of 'em heard it”

”What did they do?”

”Come rushi+n' for the boats Most of 'em went over to the south'ard,” he pointed down the rookery, ”where there was a boat I hadn't seen, but these six tried to rush uns, an' face 'ehtedly, ”one against six”

”Had to,” said the sailor, ”or the six would have ive the tide a chance to get that boat out o'

the way After I held 'eht, because they had no boat, their own bein' adrift without oars”

”Big lie,” said the japanese leader placidly, ”we shi+pwreck sailors, nothing to do with that shi+p at all Thisof that boat Our boat sunk on rocks, away over there!”

He pointed to the other side of the island

”But you were killing seals!” protested the agent

”Yes,” said the japanese, ”we think islands have not any person on Need food, we kill Of course”