O'Keefe whistled. "A good three hundred miles from where I left the H.M.S. Dolphin about four hours ago," he said. "That squall I rode in on was some whizzer! "The Dolphin," he went on, calmly divesting himself of his soaked uniform, "was on her way to Melbourne. I'd been yearning for a joy ride and went up for an alleged scouting trip. Then that blow shot out of nowhere, picked me up, and insisted that I go with it. "About an hour ago I thought I saw a chance to zoom up and out of it, I turned, and _blick_ went my right wing, and down I dropped." "I don't know how we can notify your ship, Lieutenant O'Keefe," I said. "We have no wireless." "Doctair Goodwin," said Da Costa, "we could change our course, sair--perhaps--" "Thanks--but not a bit of it," broke in O'Keefe. "Lord alone knows where the Dolphin is now. Fancy she'll be nosing around looking for me. Anyway, she's just as apt to run into you as you into her. Maybe we'll strike something with a wireless, and I'll trouble you to put me aboard." He hesitated. "Where are you bound, by the way?" he asked. "For Ponape," I answered. "No wireless there," mused O'Keefe. "Beastly hole. Stopped a week ago for fruit. Natives seemed scared to death at us--or something. What are you going there for?" Da Costa darted a furtive glance at me. It troubled me. O'Keefe noted my hesitation. "Oh, I beg your pardon," he said. "Maybe I oughn't to have asked that?" "It's no secret, Lieutenant," I replied. "I'm about to undertake some exploration work--a little digging among the ruins on the Nan-Matal." I looked at the Portuguese sharply as I named the place. A pallor crept beneath his skin and again he made swiftly the sign of the cross, glancing as he did so fearfully to the north. I made up my mind then to question him when opportunity came. He turned from his quick scrutiny of the sea and addressed O'Keefe. "There's nothing on board to fit you, Lieutenant." "Oh, just give me a sheet to throw around me, Captain," said O'Keefe and followed him. Darkness had fallen, and as the two disappeared into Da Costa's cabin I softly opened the door of my own and listened. Huldricksson was breathing deeply and regularly. I drew my electric-flash, and shielding its rays from my face, looked at him. His sleep was changing from the heavy stupor of the drug into one that was at least on the borderland of the normal. The tongue had lost its arid blackness and the mouth secretions had resumed action. Satisfied as to his condition I returned to deck.