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Nada, at the eleventh hour, came to them with the story of Penwenn's treachery.

"What does Penwenn intend to do?" McGuire asked.

Nada answered, but addressed Williams: "He said that if you were arrested here, in San Francisco, a policeman or two would get all the credit. It is the credit he wants. He likes to be talked about.

"He told me that at first he planned to go on the Molly McDonald and when all the shell was on board to take you prisoner. He thought it would be a great joke, he said, to keep the shell and pearls and get the reward, too, for capturing you."

McGuire made a slight, queer, chuckling sound.

"But he said that would take two months at least, and he said that he could not take so much time away from his business. So——"

"So?" This from McGuire. Williams continued to listen as if it was of someone other than himself that she talked.

"So"—her lips moved like little ripples in the wind—"for fear you might grow suspicious or try to go away on your schooner—just slip out some night—he got you to tie up at one of his wharves. Now, he says, you can't slip away without pulling into the current with a rowboat, and he has men watching the Islander to stop you if you try to do that. And he isn't going to use the Molly McDonald at all. He is going to tell you to start first on the Islander, and the Molly McDonald will follow, but his yacht is out in the bay, and he says that it is the fastest schooner anywhere on the Pacific Coast, and he has put cannons on his yacht. 'Six pounders' he called them. And about two hours after you are outside the Golden Gate he intends to follow on his yacht, the Flying Gull, because he wants to catch you on the high seas. He told me that you did not have a cannon on your Islander, and that it would be easy."