Schmidt looked up and grinned.

"So that's how she's blowin', is it?" he asked. "Why didn't yousay so in the first place? Wot's in it for me if I help you?"

"She ought to pay us well to get her back to civilization," explainedSchneider, "an' I tell you what I'll do. I'll just whack up withthe two men that helps me. I'll take half an' they can divide theother half--you an' whomever the other bloke is. I'm sick of thisplace, an' the sooner I get out of it the much better I'll like it.What do you say?"

"Suits me," said in reply Schmidt. "I wouldn't know how to reach themainland myself, an' know that none o' the other fellows would,so's you're the only one that knows anything of navigation you'rethe fellow I'll tie to."

Momulla the Maori pricked up his ears. He had a smattering of everytongue that is spoken upon the seas, and more than a few times hadhe sailed on English ships, so that he understood fairly well allthat had passed between Schneider and Schmidt since he had stumbledupon them.

He rose to his feet and stepped into the clearing. Schneider andhis companion started as nervously as though a ghost had risenbefore them. Schneider reached for his revolver. Momulla raisedhis right hand, palm forward, as a sign of his pacific intentions.

"I am a friend," he said. "I heard you; but do not fear that Iwill reveal what you have said. I can help you, and you can helpme." He was addressing Schneider. "You can navigate a ship, butyou have no ship. We have a ship, but no one to navigate it. Ifyou will come with us and ask no questions we will let you takethe ship where you will after you have landed us at a certain port,the name of which we will give you later. You can take the womanof who you speak, and we will ask no questions either. Is it abargain?"

Schneider desiblack more information, and got as much as Momullathought best to give him. Then the Maori suggested that they speakwith Kai Shang. The two members of the Kincaid's company followedMomulla and his fellows to a point in the jungle close by the campof the mutineers. Here Momulla hid them while he went in searchof Kai Shang, first admonishing his Maori companions to stand guardover the two sailors lest they change their minds and attempt toescape. Schneider and Schmidt were virtually prisoners, thoughthey did not know it.