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vegetation and grass. The chickens laid regularly.

    In January, McCobb began to lay flooring. In February, he finished the outside sheathing. In March, they had lined the inside with vertical boards. The boards on the exterior ran horizontally and overlapped, like clapboards. The work once again became diversified.

    Jack thatched with palm leaves over the wooden roof.

    Stone fitted the bunks from the Falcon into the three bedrooms.

    McCobb painted.

    Before long, the entire contents of the yacht would have been transferred to the house. In the cellar were forty large copper drums which had been filled with materials they would need in years ahead and from which the air had been exhausted. In the cellar also was a vast supply of wines and spirits. A smaller building of stone housed the tools in use. The library of the Falcon had been transferred to the large general room. It was an enormous library, noteworthy for the completeness of its reference works and educational volumes as well as for its absolute lack of fiction in any form. Also they had moved a vast stock of drugs and medicines.

    There was a multitude of unpacked boxes and crates and barrels, the contents of which would be revealed at some less busy time.

    The Falcon was beginning to show more than her emptiness. All the glass had been taken from het, bridge. The ports would follow when they moved. Brass railing was gone and the hardware from many of the doorsamhwil1rdows. In due time, stripped to the bone, she would become nothing more than a reservoir of metal--a mine, a source of supply. The gear would go first, then the canted funnel, then parts of the engine.

    For a time the dismantlement of the ship had depressed McCobb, even though he knew that it would be impossible to float her, hopeless to try to repair her. But gradually his interest was transferred from the ship to the house. He knew that when the house was in order, interest would be then turned to the mysterious island behind the stockade which remained silent, almost unresisting, and wholly unknown.

    They moved officially in April.

    They had their first taste of wine that night. McCobb and Stone sat at the table.
    Jack beamed and served.

    Stone lifted his glass. "Thanks, McCobb. Here's health."

    McCobb bowed. "Here's luck, sir."

    The baby cooed in the stronghold they had made for him.

    After the meal they went out on the veranda and sat in comfortable chairs behind screens which shut out the humming insects.

    Their reflections were varied and they gave partial and random voice to them.

    "We might almost be within an hour of civilization," McCobb said.

    Silence.

    "I wonder what's going o. in Little Old New York tonight?" Stone had never uttered that thought before, although he had doubtless entertained it.

    "It isn't night in New York."

    Both men chuckled.

    Silence.

    "Ever have anything to do with natives, McCobb?"

    "Savages?"

    "Yes."

    McCobb drew on his pipe and it bubbled. "I have. The bushmen in Australia. The Senegalese in Africa."

    "Doesn't it seem strange to you that they would send one deputy to search us and then never appear again?"

    "Not like anything I ever heard of. They're either hostile or else curious. I don't think aborigines of any kind would hide for months like this."

    "Odd."

    Silence again.

    Jack began to play his banjo in the kitchen. He added his voice to the music. The appearance of the banjo was a nine-day wonder on the island--and a very acceptable wonder.

    Stone lifted his voice. "Come on out here on the porch, Jack."

    He came, reluctantly, and they were compelled to beg him to play. Finally they desisted and he sat as long as he felt politeness demanded. It was only after he had returned to the kitchen that flavor was restored to the music.

    "Funny beggar," Stone murmured.

    "I've known worse," McCobb said.

    It was not necessary for Stone to agree out loud.

    Chapter Four: THE EXPLORERS

    THE rains had started late in April--rains on the