"Nonsense!" Marsh smiled. "Let's be friends again, George. Bygones are bygones. I came over to make up with you and ask about affairs at Kalvik. If you are here on business and I can help--" "You dirty rat!" breathed the fisherman. "Very well; if you wish to be obstinate--" Willis Marsh shrugged his shoulders carelessly, although in his voice there was a metallic note. "I have nothing to say." He turned a very bright and very curious pair of eyes upon George's companions, as if seeking from them some hint as to his victim's presence there. It was but a momentary flash of inquiry, however, and then his gaze, passing quickly over Clyde and Fraser, settled upon Emerson. "Mr. Balt and I had a business misunderstanding," he said, smoothly, "which I hoped was forgotten. It didn't amount to much--" At this Balt uttered a choking snarl and stepped forward, only to meet Boyd, who intercepted him. "Behave yourself!" he ordered. "Don't make a scene," and before the big fellow could prevent it he had linked arms with him, and swung him around. The movement was executed so naturally that none of the patrons of the cafe noticed it, except, perhaps, as a preparation for departure. Marsh bowed civilly and returned to his seat, while Boyd sauntered toward the exit, his arm which controlled George tense as iron beneath his sleeve. He felt the fisherman's great frame quivering against him and heard the excited breath halting in his lungs; but possessed with the sole idea of getting him away without disorder, he smiled back at Clyde and Fraser, who were following, and chatted agreeably with his prisoner until they had reached the foyer. Then he released his hold and said, quietly: "You'd better go up to your room and cool off. You came near spoiling everything." "He tried to shake hands," George mumbled, "_with me!_ That thieving whelp tried to shake--" He trailed off into an unintelligible jargon of curses and threats which did not end until he had reached the elevator. Here Alton Clyde clamored for enlightenment as to the reason for this eruption. "That is the fellow we will have to fight," Boyd explained. "He is the head of the cannery combination at Kalvik, and a bitter enemy of George's. If he suspects our motives or gets wind of our plans, we're done for." Clyde spoke more earnestly than at any time during the evening. "Well, that absolutely settles it as far as I am concerned. This is bound to end in a row." "You mean you don't want to join us?" "_Don't want to!_ Why, I've just _got_ to, that's all. The ten thousand is yours, but if you don't take me along I'll stow away." CHAPTER XI WHEREIN BOYD EMERSON IS TWICE AMAZED Nearly a month had elapsed when Emerson at last expressed to George the discouragement that for several days had lain silently in both men's minds. "It looks like failure, doesn't it?" "Sure does! You've played your string out, eh?"