Meanwhile Jackson was explaining matters to Howard. He had, he said, circled round to the other side of the village and lurked there for several hours, waiting his chance. Then he had slipped up on the deck and run directly into Mother Joyce, who promptly whisked him below. “Cap’n Forbes’s big snake had got away, and he had gone after it,” continued the policeman, “and----” Howard held up his hand. “It won’t get away again,” he interjected. “It came here.” “Here?” Howard nodded. “Yes, it came here,” he repeated. “Came here and attacked me. It was a very intelligent snake--from Forbes’s standpoint. It would have killed me, beyond a doubt, but for Miss Fair--but for my wife. She shot it with your pistol, Jackson. But we haven’t time to talk about it now,” he concluded with some impatience. “Go on with your story.” Jackson, however, had little more to tell. In Forbes’s absence, it seems, he and the others had had no difficulty in getting at the rifles and ammunition. Further, under Mother Joyce’s direction, he had broken open the captain’s private storeroom and procured a compass, sextant, and a chronometer, which Mother Joyce had declared would enable them to navigate a boat as soon as they found one. “An’,” concluded Jackson, “I think we’d better be findin’ it soon, for Gallegher has gotten out a Gatling gun, and is making every preparation to do us up for fair.” “I expected something of the sort,” said Howard, nodding. “We shall be ready to leave the Queen the moment we have had breakfast. So, now, if you’ll come below----” At the breakfast-table Howard unfolded his plan. “None of us want to fight if we can help it,” he declared. “We haven’t anything to gain by it, and everything to lose. And we don’t want to stay near here. From all I can learn, Forbes has destroyed all the boats within fifty miles or so, and we must go at least that far away to have any chance of finding one. Now, what I propose is this: We will leave now in a few minutes, but instead of going north along the coast, which is what Forbes will expect us to do, we will go east straight into the pack, make a detour around the village, and come back to the coast to the south. By this means I think we will outwit him, and can make our preparations in peace. Without a compass, I might have hesitated to go into the depths of the pack, but since Mother Joyce has brought us one, we can afford to risk it. As there will probably be nothing to eat there, we must take food and water enough to carry us through. I have already made up three bundles of these, and it will take only a few moments to prepare three more. Then we can be off.” Ten minutes later the party left the Queen forever. Dorothy’s eyes were streaming wet as she looked at the vessel for the last time.