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+Project Gutenberg's Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other Stories, by Louis Becke
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other Stories
+       1898
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: March 15, 2008 [EBook #24836]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RODMAN AND OTHERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+RODMAN THE BOATSTEERER AND OTHER STORIES
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+London T. Fisher Unwin, 1898
+
+
+     CONTENTS:
+
+     RODMAN THE BOATSTEERER
+
+     A POINT OF THEOLOGY ON MÂDURÔ
+
+     A MAN OF IMPULSE
+
+     THE TRADER
+
+     MRS. CLINTON
+
+     THE CUTTING-OFF OF THE “QUEEN CHARLOTTE”
+
+     THE PERUVIAN SLAVERS
+
+     A QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE
+
+     A TOUCH OF THE TAR-BRUSH
+
+     THE TRADER S WIFE
+
+     NINA
+
+     THE EAST INDIAN COUSIN
+
+     PROCTOR THE DRUNKARD
+
+     A PONAPEAN CONVENANCE
+
+     IN THE KING'S SERVICE, EPISODES OF A BEACH-COMBER
+
+     OXLEY, THE PRIVATEERSMAN
+
+     THE ESCAPEE
+
+     EMA, THE HALF-BLOOD
+
+     LEASSÉ
+
+     THE TROUBLE WITH JINABAN
+
+
+
+
+
+RODMAN THE BOATSTEERER
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+With her white cotton canvas swelling gently out and then softly
+drooping flat against her cordage, the _Shawnee_, sperm whaler of New
+Bedford, with the dying breath of the south-east trade, was sailing
+lazily over a sea whose waters were as calm as those of a mountain lake.
+Twenty miles astern the lofty peaks of Tutuila, one of the islands
+of the Samoan group, stood out clearly in the dazzling sunshine,
+and, almost ahead, what at dawn had been the purple loom of Upolu was
+changing to a cloud-capped dome of vivid green as the ship closed with
+the land.
+
+The _Shawnee_ was “a five-boat ship,” and, judging from the appearance
+of her decks, which were very clean, an unlucky one. She had been out
+for over a year, and three months had passed since the last fish had
+been killed. That was off the coast of Chile, and she was now cruising
+westward and northward towards the eastern coast of New Guinea, where
+Captain Harvey Lucy, the master, expected to make up for the persistent
+ill-luck that had attended him so far. Naturally a man of most violent
+and ungovernable temper, his behaviour to his men on the present voyage
+had led to disastrous consequences, and the crew, much as they admired
+their captain as one of the most skilful whalemen who had ever trod
+a deck, were now worked up into a state of exasperation bordering on
+mutiny. Shortly before the Samoan Islands were sighted, the ship's
+cooper, a man who took the cue for his conduct to the hands from the
+example set by the captain, had had a fierce quarrel with a young
+boat-steerer, named Gerald Rodman, who, in a moment of passion, struck
+the cooper such a terrific blow that the man lay between life and death
+for some hours. An attempt to put Rodman in irons was fiercely resisted
+by a number of his shipmates, who were led by his younger brother. But
+the after-guard were too strong for the men, and after a savage conflict
+the two Rodmans and three other seamen were overpowered by Captain Lucy,
+his four mates and the carpenter and stewards. As was common enough
+in those days on American whaleships, nearly all the officers were
+relatives or connections by marriage, and were always ready to stand
+by the captain; in this instance the cooper was a brother of the second
+mate. Six days had passed since this affair had occurred, and when Upolu
+was sighted the five men were still in irons and confined in the hot
+and stifling atmosphere of the sail-locker, having been given only just
+enough food and water to keep body and soul together.
+
+Four bells struck, and Captain Lucy made his appearance from below. The
+watch on deck, who had hitherto been talking among themselves as they
+went about their work, at once became silent, and muttered curses
+escaped from their lips as they eyed the tall figure of the captain
+standing at the break of the poop. For some minutes he apparently took
+no notice of any one about him; then he turned to the mate, who stood
+near him, and said:
+
+“Have you had a look at those fellows this morning, Brant?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the officer. “They want to know if you're going to let
+them have a smoke.”
+
+A savage oath preceded Captain Lucy's reply--
+
+“They can lie there till they die before any one of them shall put a
+pipe in his mouth.”
+
+“Just as you please, captain,” said the mate, nonchalantly. “I guess you
+know best what you're doing. But there's going to be more trouble aboard
+this ship if you don't ease up a bit on those five men; and if I were
+you I wouldn't go too far. One of 'em--that youngest Rodman boy--can't
+stand much more of that sail locker in such weather as this. And I guess
+_I_ don't want to go before a grand jury if he or any of 'em dies.”
+
+“I tell you, Brant, that rather than ease up on those fellows, I'd lose
+the ship. I'm going to keep them there till we strike another fish, and
+then I'll haze what life is left in them clean out of them.”
+
+Rough and harsh as he was with the crew of the _Shawnee_, Brant was no
+vindictive tyrant, and was about to again remonstrate with the savage
+Lucy, when, suddenly, the thrilling cry of “There she blows!” came from
+the look-out in the crow's nest; and in a few minutes the barque's decks
+were bustling with excitement. A small “pod” or school of sperm whales
+were in sight. Four boats were at once lowered and started in pursuit.
+
+When first sighted from the ship the whales were not more than two miles
+distant, and moving towards her. The mate's boat was first away, and in
+a very short time fastened to the leader of the “pod”--a huge bull over
+sixty feet in length. In less than five seconds after the keen-edged
+harpoon had plunged deep into his body, the mighty fish “sounded”
+ (dived) at a terrific speed; the other whales at once disappeared and
+Brant's boat shot away from the other three. The remaining boats were
+those of the captain and the second and third mates. For some ten or
+fifteen minutes their crews lay upon their oars watching the swift
+progress of the mate's boat, and scanning the sea from every point
+around them, to discern where the vanished and unstricken whales would
+rise to breathe again. At last they saw the great bull, to which the
+mate's boat was fast, burst out upon the surface of the water, two miles
+away. For a minute the mighty creature lay exposed to view, beating the
+sea into a white seeth of foam as he struck the water tremendous blows
+with his tail, and sought to free himself from the cruel steel in his
+body. As he thrashed from side to side, two of his convoy rose suddenly
+near him as if in sympathy with their wounded leader. Then, in an
+instant, they all disappeared together, the stricken whale still
+dragging the mate's boat after him at an incredible speed.
+
+Knowing that in all probability the two whales which had just appeared
+would accompany the great bull to the last--when he would receive
+the stroke of the death-dealing lance from Brant--the captain of the
+_Shawnee_ at once started off in pursuit, accompanied by the second and
+third mates' boats. The crews bent to their tough ash oars with
+strength and determination. There was no need for the dreadful oaths
+and blasphemies with which Captain Lucy and his officers assailed their
+ears, or his threats of punishment should they fail to catch up the
+mate's boat and miss killing the two “loose” whales; the prospect of
+such a prize was all the incentive the seamen needed. With set teeth
+and panting bosoms they urged the boats along, and presently they were
+encouraged by a cry from the third mate, who called out to the captain
+and second mate that the wounded whale was slackening his speed, and Mr.
+Brant was “hauling up alongside to give him the lance.” In another
+fifty strokes the captain and the two officers saw the great head of
+the creature that was dragging the mate's boat along again appear on the
+surface, and on each side were his devoted cetacean companions, who were
+almost of as monstrous a size as the bull himself.
+
+With savage oaths the captain urged his crew to fresh exertions, for
+just then he saw the mate go for'ard in his boat and plunge his keen
+lance of shining steel into his prize, then back his boat off as the
+agonised whale again sounded into the blue depths below, with his
+life-blood pouring from him in a bubbling stream.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+On board the _Shawnee_ the progress of the boats was watched amid the
+most intense excitement; and even the imprisoned seamen, in their foul
+and horrible prison, stretched their wearied and manacled limbs and
+sought to learn by the sounds on deck whether any or all of the boats
+were “fast”--that is, had harpooned a whale. Broken-spirited and
+exhausted as they were by long days of cruel and undeserved punishment,
+they would have forgotten their miseries in an instant had the fourth
+mate ordered them on deck to lower his boat--the only one remaining on
+board--and join their shipmates in the other boats in the chase. But of
+this they knew there was little prospect, for this remaining boat had
+been seriously injured by a heavy sea, which had washed her inboard
+a few days before the fight between the officers and crew. Presently,
+however, they heard the hurried stamping of feet on deck, and then the
+voices of the fourth mate and cooper giving orders to take in sail.
+
+“Jerry,” said a young English lad named Wray, to the elder Rodman, “do
+you hear that? One of the boats must have got 'fast' and killed. We'll
+be out of this in another half-hour, cutting-in. The captain won't
+let us lie here when there is work to be done on deck; he's too mean a
+Yankee to satisfy his revenge at the expense of his pocket.”
+
+But their pleasant belief that a whale had been killed, and that the
+ship was shortening sail while the carcass was being cut-in, was rudely
+disturbed a few minutes later, when the _Shawnee_ took a sudden list
+over to port, and they were all pitched to the lee side of the sail
+locker in a heap. A squall had struck the barque.
+
+Bruised and lacerated by the force with which they had been hurled
+together, the five prisoners sat up, and were soon enlightened as to the
+condition of affairs by the carpenter making his appearance, taking off
+their galling irons, and ordering them on deck.
+
+The squall was a very heavy one, accompanied by savage gusts of stinging
+rain, and the old ship, with her canvas in great disorder, was every
+now and then thrown almost on her beam ends with its fury. After
+considerable trouble the officers and crew succeeded in saving her
+canvas from being blown to ribbons, and got the barque snug again. A
+quarter of an hour later the squall began to lose its force, but the
+rain descended in torrents, and obscured the view of the now agitated
+ocean to such an extent that the look-outs from aloft could not discern
+its surface a cable length away. All those on board the barque felt
+intense anxiety as to whether the mate had succeeded in killing his
+whale before the squall burst upon him, for they knew that had he not
+done so he would have been compelled to cut the line and let his prize
+escape; no boat could live in such a sea as had arisen when “fast” to
+a sperm whale which was travelling at such a speed, even though fatally
+wounded and weak from loss of blood.
+
+An hour passed, and then, to the joy of all on board, the rain ceased,
+a faint air came from the westward and blew away the thick clouds of
+tropic mist which enveloped the ship. Ten miles distant the verdant
+hills and valleys of Upolu glistened in the sunshine, and then one of
+the look-outs hailed the deck:
+
+“I can see a boat, Mr. Newman--it is Mr. Brant's. He has killed his
+whale, sir.”
+
+In an instant the fourth mate was running aloft, but before he had
+ascended to the fore-top the lookout cried:
+
+“I can see the other three boats now, sir, and they are all 'fast,'
+too.”
+
+A cheer broke from the _Shawnee's_ hands, and, disregarding for the time
+all discipline, they sprang aloft one after another to gaze upon the
+thrilling scene. Three miles away, and plainly discernible in the now
+clear atmosphere, was the mate's boat lying alongside the big bull,
+which had just been killed, and at about the same distance were the
+boats of the captain and second and third mates, all “fast” to whales,
+and racing swiftly to windward toward the horizon.
+
+The fourth mate at once came down from aloft and held a hurried
+consultation with the cooper--an old and experienced whaler. It was
+evident to them that the three boats had only just succeeded in getting
+“fast,” and that, as darkness was so near, the officers in them would
+have great difficulty in killing the whales to which they were “fast,”
+ as the sea was still very lumpy from the violence of the squall. None
+of the boats were provided with bomb-guns, the use of which would have
+killed the whales in a very short time; and the wind having again died
+away it was impossible for the ship to work up to them. Nothing, it was
+evident, could be done to assist the three boats, but it was decided to
+send the one remaining on board the barque to help the mate to tow his
+whale to the ship before the hordes of sharks, which would be attracted
+to the carcass by the smell of blood, began to devour it.
+
+The carpenter was at once set to work to make her temporarily
+water-tight. By this time the sun had set, and only the position of
+the mate's boat was made known to the ship by a light displayed by Mr.
+Brant.
+
+Standing on the port side of the poop, Martin Newman, the fourth mate,
+was gazing anxiously out into the darkness, hoping to see the other
+three boats show lights to denote that they had succeeded in killing
+their fish, and were waiting for a breeze to spring up to enable the
+barque to sail towards them. Although Newman was the youngest officer
+on board, he was an experienced one, and the fact that his boat had not
+been fit to lower with the other four had filled him with sullen rage;
+for he was of an intensely jealous nature, and would rather have seen
+the boats return unsuccessful from the chase than that he alone should
+have missed his chance of killing a fish.
+
+Presently the younger of the two Rodmans, who was his (Newman's) own
+boatsteerer, ventured, in the fulness of his anxiety for his shipmates,
+to step up to the officer and speak:
+
+“Do you think, sir, that the captain and Mr. Ford and Mr. Manning have
+had to cut their lines?”
+
+The officer made no reply; and could the young boatsteerer have seen the
+dark, forbidding scowl upon his face, he would never have addressed him
+at such an unpropitious moment. But imagining that his question had not
+been heard, the youth repeated it.
+
+Newman turned, and seeing the lad standing in an attitude of expectancy,
+asked him in savage tones what he was doing there.
+
+“Nothing, sir; I only----”
+
+“I'll teach you that a man doing nothing doesn't suit me when I'm
+in charge of the deck of this ship!” and he struck the boatsteerer a
+terrific blow in the mouth, which knocked him off the poop on to the
+main deck.
+
+When Ned Rodman came to, he found his head supported by his brother and
+young Wray, and the rest of the hands on deck standing around him in
+sympathetic silence. Newman was the most liked of all the officers,
+and the lad whom he had struck down had been rather a favourite of his,
+principally, it was supposed, because the two Rodmans came from the same
+town as himself; and when the disturbance had arisen with the cooper,
+and the two brothers had been put in irons, Newman had several times
+expressed his sorrow to them when he had visited them in their prison.
+His sudden outburst of violence to Ned Rodman was therefore a surprise
+to the men generally; and several of them glanced threateningly at the
+figure of the fourth mate, who was now striding to and fro on the poop,
+occasionally hailing the look-outs in angry tones, and asking if any
+more boat-lights were visible.
+
+Gerald Rodman, though no words escaped his lips as he wiped away the
+blood which welled from a terrible cut on his brother's temple, had in
+his eyes a red light of passion that boded ill for the fourth mate when
+the time came. He was five years older than his brother, and, although
+both were boatsteerers, and had made many cruises in the Pacific, this
+was the first time they had been shipmates. Unlike Ned, he was a man of
+a passionate and revengeful nature, and the second mate, to whose boat
+he belonged, had warned the cooper of the _Shawnee_ never to meet Gerald
+Rodman ashore alone.
+
+“He is a man who will never forgive an injury, and I would not care to
+be in your shoes if he gets you by yourself one day.”
+
+And, as a matter of fact, Gerald Rodman had sworn to himself, when he
+lay in irons, in the sail-locker, to have his revenge upon both the
+cooper and Captain Lucy, should he ever meet either of them ashore at
+any of the islands the barque was likely to touch at during her cruise.
+He was a man of great physical strength, and, for his position, fairly
+well educated. Both his parents were dead, and he and his brother Ned,
+and a delicate sister of nineteen, were the sole survivors of a once
+numerous family. The care of this sister was the one motive that
+animated the elder brother in his adventurous career; and while his
+reserved and morose nature seemed incapable of yielding to any tender
+sentiment or emotion, it yet concealed a wealth of the deepest affection
+for his weakly sister, of which the younger one had no conception.
+And yet, strangely enough, it was to Ned that Nellie Rodman was most
+attached; it was to _his_ return that she most looked forward, never
+knowing that it was Gerald's money alone that maintained the old family
+home in the quiet little New England village in which her simple life
+was spent. Little did she think that when money was sent to her by
+Gerald, saying it came “from Ned and myself,” that Ned had never had a
+dollar to send. For he was too careless and too fond of his own pleasure
+to ever think of sending her money. “Jerry,” he thought, “was a mighty
+stingy fellow, and never spent a cent on himself--and could easily send
+Nell all she wanted.” And yet Gerald Rodman, knowing his brother's weak
+and mercurial nature, and knowing that he took no care in the welfare
+of any living soul but himself, would have laid his life down for him,
+because happy, careless Ned had Nellie's eyes and Nellie's mouth, and in
+the tones of his voice he heard hers. So as he sat on the deck, with
+his brother's head upon his knees, he swore to “get even” with Martin
+Newman, as well as with Captain Lucy and cooper Burr, for as he watched
+the pale face of the lad it seemed to him to grow strangely like that of
+his far-off sister.
+
+He had just completed sewing up the gaping wound in his brother's
+temple, when the cooper came up to the group:
+
+“Here, lay along, you fellows; the carpenter has finished Mr. Newman's
+boat, and some of you loafing 'soldiers' have to man her and help Mr.
+Brant to tow his whale alongside. Leave that man there, and look spry,
+or you'll feel mighty sorry.”
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+As the cooper turned away the younger Rodman, assisted by his brother,
+staggered to his feet. The fall from the poop had, in addition to the
+cut in his temple, severely injured his right knee, and he begged his
+brother to let him lie down again.
+
+“Yes, yes,” whispered Gerald Rodman, hurriedly; “lie down, Ned,” and
+then the lad heard him speaking to Wray in eager, excited tones.
+
+“I'm with you, Jerry,” said the young Englishman, quickly, in answer to
+something that Rodman had said; “where is he now?”
+
+“In the cabin, getting some Bourbon for Mr. Brant's boat. There is only
+the Dago steward with him, and if Porter and Tom Harrod will join us we
+shall manage the thing right enough.”
+
+“What is the matter, Jerry--what are you talking about?” asked Ned from
+where he lay.
+
+“Keep still, Ned, and ask us nothing just now; there's a chance of our
+getting clear of this floating hell. I needn't ask _you_ if you'll join
+us. Come on, Wray.”
+
+The fourth mate and the Portuguese steward were in the main cabin
+filling some bottles from a large jar of Bourbon whisky. Their backs
+were turned to the door, and both were so intent upon their task that
+they neither heard nor saw the four figures steal softly upon them.
+Suddenly they were seized from behind by Wray and Gerald Rodman, and
+then quickly gagged by Harrod and Porter before either had time to utter
+a cry. In a few minutes the four men had armed themselves with cutlasses
+from the rack around the mizzen-mast, which came through the cabin at
+the for'ard end of the table, Rodman also taking the captain's and chief
+mate's loaded revolvers out of their berths.
+
+The fourth mate and steward were then carried into the captain's cabin,
+and Gerald Rodman spoke:
+
+“Newman,” he said, “we are going to take charge of this ship for a
+while. If you make an attempt to give an alarm you are a dead man. Wray,
+stand here and run them both through if they make the ghost of a sound.”
+
+Again entering the captain's cabin, he returned with two or three
+charts, a sextant and the ship's chronometer, which he placed on the
+table just as a heavy footfall sounded on the companion steps. It was
+the cooper.
+
+“The boat is all ready, Newman,” he said, as he entered the somewhat
+darkened cabin; “who is going in her?”
+
+“We are,” said Rodman, dealing him a blow with the butt of his pistol
+and felling him. “Leave him there, Wray--he'll give us no trouble.
+Now take every one of those rifles out of the rack and put them on the
+table. There's two kegs of powder and a bag of bullets in Mr. Brant's
+cabin--get those as well.”
+
+This was quickly done, and, calling to the others to follow him, Rodman
+sprang up the companion. No one but the man at the wheel was on the
+poop, and the leader of the mutineers, looking over the rail, saw that
+the boat was alongside with only one hand in her. Besides this man
+there were but eight other persons besides the mutineers on the ship,
+including the fourth mate, cooper, steward, and carpenter.
+
+Calling the carpenter to him, Rodman covered him with his pistol, and
+told him and the rest of the startled men to keep quiet or it would be
+worse for them.
+
+“Two of you help my brother into the boat,” he ordered. He was at once
+obeyed, and Ned Rodman was passed over the side into the hands of the
+man in the boat.
+
+“Put out every light on deck and aloft,” was his next command, and this
+was done by the watch without delay; for there was in Rodman's face such
+a look of savage determination that they dared not think of refusing.
+Then he ordered them into the sail-locker.
+
+“Now, Mr. Waller,” he said, addressing the carpenter, “we don't want to
+hurt you and these three men with you. But we are desperate, and bent on
+a desperate course. Still, if you don't want to get shot, do as I tell
+you. Get into that sail-locker and lie low. Mr. Newman and the cooper
+and the steward are already disposed of. And I'm going to put it out of
+the power of Captain 'Brute' Lucy to get me and those with me into his
+hands again.”
+
+“You won't shut us up in the sail-locker and scuttle the ship and let us
+drown, will you?” asked the carpenter.
+
+“No; I'm no murderer, unless you make me one. If there is any one I have
+a grudge against it is Mr. Newman and the cooper; but I won't do more
+to the cooper than I have already done. Still I'm not going to leave the
+ship in your hands until I have messed her up a bit. So away with you
+into the locker, and let us get to work.”
+
+Then, with the man from the boat, the carpenter and his companions were
+pushed into the sail-locker and the door securely fastened. Looking down
+from the skylight into the cabin Rodman saw that the cooper had not yet
+come to, and therefore no danger need be apprehended from him. Sending
+Wray below, the rifles, ammunition, and nautical instruments were passed
+up on deck and handed down into the boat. Then, leaving Porter on guard
+to watch the cooper, Rodman and the others went for'ard with a couple of
+axes and slashed away at the standing fore-rigging on both sides; they
+then cut half-way through the foremast, so that the slightest puff of
+wind, when it came, would send it over the side. Then, going for'ard,
+they cut through the head stays.
+
+“That will do,” said the boat-steerer, flinging down his axe; and then
+walking to the waist he hailed the boat:
+
+“Are you all right, Ned?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the youth, “but hurry up, Jerry, I think a breeze is
+coming.”
+
+Running aft, the elder brother sprang up the poop ladder and looked down
+through the skylight into the cabin. “Cut Mr. Newman and the steward
+adrift,” he said to Wray.
+
+Wray disappeared into Captain Lucy's cabin, and at once liberated the
+two men, who followed him out into the main cabin.
+
+“Martin Newman,” said Rodman, bending down, “just a word with you. You,
+I thought, were a shade better than the rest of the bullying scoundrels
+who officer this ship. But now, I find, you are no better than Bully
+Lucy and the others. If I did justice to my brother, and _another
+person_ I would shoot you, like the cowardly dog you are. But stand up
+on that table--and I'll tell you why I don't.”
+
+The dark features of the fourth mate blanched to a deathly white,
+but not with fear. Standing upon the table he grasped the edge of
+the skylight, under the flap of which Gerald Rodman bent his head and
+whispered to him:
+
+“Do you know why I don't want to hurt you, Martin Newman? When I came
+home last year I found out my sister's love for you; I found your
+letters to her, and saw her eating her heart out for you day by day, and
+waiting for your return. And because I know that she is a dying woman,
+and will die happy in the belief that you love her, I said nothing. What
+I have now done will prevent my ever seeing her again, though I would
+lay my life down for her. But listen to me. Ned will, must, return to
+her, and beware, if ever you accuse him of having taken a hand in this
+mutiny----”
+
+The hands of the fourth mate gripped the skylight ledge convulsively,
+and his black eyes shone luridly with passion. Then his better nature
+asserted itself, and he spoke quietly:
+
+“Jerry, I did not know it was Ned whom I struck to-night. I was not
+myself.... I never meant to harm _him_. And for Nell's sake, and yours
+and Ned's, give up this madness.”
+
+“Too late, too late, Newman. I would rather die to-night than spend
+another hour on board this ship. But at least, for Nell's sake, you
+and I must part in peace,” and the mutineer held out his hand. It was
+grasped warmly, and then with a simple “goodbye” Rodman turned away,
+walked to the poop ladder and called out:
+
+“Into the boat, men!”
+
+Five minutes later they shoved off from the _Shawnee_, whose lofty spars
+and drooping canvas towered darkly up in the starless night. At the
+last moment Gerald Rodman had hoisted a light on the mizzen-rigging as a
+guide to the four absent boats. As the mutineers pulled quickly away its
+rays shone dimly over the barque's deserted decks.
+
+When daylight came the _Shawnee_ was still drifting about on a sea as
+smooth as glass, and the four boats reached her just before the dawn.
+The boat with the mutineers could not be discerned even from aloft,
+and Captain Harvey Lucy, in a state of mind bordering on frenzy, looked
+first at his tottering foremast and then at the four whales which had
+been towed alongside, waiting to be cut-in. With the rising sun came
+another rain-squall, and the foremast went over the side, although
+Martin Newman with his men had done their best to save it. But Lucy,
+being a man of energy, soon rigged a jury-mast out of its wreck, and set
+to work to cut-in his whales. Three days later the _Shawnee_ stood away
+for Apia Harbour in Samoa.
+
+“Those fellows have gone to Apia,” he said to mate Brant, “and I'll go
+there and get them if it takes me a month of Sundays.”
+
+But when the _Shawnee_ dropped anchor in the reef-bound harbour, Captain
+Lucy found that he had come on a vain quest--the mutineers' boat had not
+been seen.
+
+For seven years nothing was ever heard of the missing boat, till one day
+a tall, muscular-looking man, in the uniform of a sergeant of the New
+South Wales Artillery, came on board the American whaleship _Heloise_,
+as she lay in Sydney harbour, refitting. He asked for Captain Newman,
+and was shown into the cabin.
+
+The captain of the _Heloise_ was sitting at the cabin table reading a
+book, and rose to meet his visitor.
+
+“What can I do for you, sir? Good God! is it you, Gerald Rodman!”
+
+The soldier put out his hand. “Is my sister alive, Newman?”
+
+“She died three years ago in my arms, hoping and praying to the last
+that she might see you and Ned before she died. And Ned?”
+
+“Dead, Newman; he and Wray and Porter died of thirst. Harrod and I alone
+survived that awful voyage, and reached New Zealand at last. Was Nell
+buried with the old folks, Martin?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the captain of the _Heloise_, passing his hand quickly
+over his eyes, “it was her wish to lie with them. We had only been
+married two years.”
+
+The sergeant rose, and took Newman's hand in his, “Goodbye, Martin. Some
+day I may stand with you beside her grave.”
+
+And then, ere the captain of the whaleship could stay him, he went on
+deck, descended the gangway, and was rowed ashore to the glittering
+lights of the southern city.
+
+
+
+
+A POINT OF THEOLOGY ON MÂDURÔ
+
+The _Palestine_ Tom de Wolf's South Sea trading brig, of Sydney, had
+just dropped anchor off a native village on Mâdurô in the North Pacific,
+when Macpherson the trader came alongside in his boat and jumped on
+board. He was a young but serious-faced man with a red beard, was thirty
+years of age, and had achieved no little distinction for having once
+attempted to convert Captain “Bully” Hayes, when that irreligious
+mariner was suffering from a fractured skull, superinduced by a bullet,
+fired at him by a trader whose connubial happiness he had unwarrantably
+upset. The natives thought no end of Macpherson, because in his spare
+time he taught a class in the Mission Church, and neither drank nor
+smoked. This was quite enough to make him famous from one end of
+Polynesia to the other; but he bore his honours quietly, the only signs
+of superiority he showed over the rest of his fellow traders being
+the display on the rough table in his sitting-room of a quantity of
+theological literature by the Reverend James MacBain, of Aberdeen. Still
+he was not proud, and would lend any of his books or pamphlets to any
+white man who visited the island.
+
+He was a fairly prosperous man, worked hard at his trading business,
+and, despite his assertions about the fearful future that awaited every
+one who had not read the Reverend Mr. MacBain's religious works, was
+well-liked. But few white men spent an evening in his house if they
+could help it. One reason of this was that whenever a ship touched at
+Mâdurô, the Hawaiian native teacher, Lilo, always haunted Mac-pherson's
+house, and every trader and trading skipper detested this teacher above
+all others. Macpherson liked him and said he was “earnest,” the other
+white men called him and believed him to be, a smug-faced and sponging
+hypocrite.
+
+Well, as I said, Macpherson came on board, and Packenham and Denison,
+the supercargo, at once noticed that he looked more than usually solemn.
+Instead of, as on former occasions, coming into the brig's trade-room
+and picking out his trade goods, he sat down facing the captain and
+answered his questions as to the state of business, etc., on the island,
+in an awkward, restrained manner.
+
+“What's the matter, Macpherson?” said the captain. “Have you married a
+native girl and found out that she is related to any one on the island,
+and you haven't house-room enough for 'em all, or what?”
+
+The trader stroked his bushy sandy beard, with a rough brown hand, and
+his clear grey eyes looked steadily into those of the captain.
+
+“I'm no the man to marry any native girl, Captain Packenham. When I do
+marry any one it will be the girl who promised hersel' to me five years
+ago in Aberdeen. But there, I'm no quick to tak' offence at a bit of
+fun. And I want ye two tae help me to do a guid deed. I want ye tae come
+ashore wi' me at once and try and put some sense into the head of this
+obstinate native teacher.”
+
+“Why, what has he been doing?”
+
+“Just pairsecuting an auld man of seventy and a wee bit of a child. And
+if we canna mak' him tak' a sensible view of things, ye'll do a guid
+action by taking the puir things awa' wi' ye to some ither pairt of the
+South Seas, where the creatures can at least live.”
+
+Then he told his story. Six months before, a German trading vessel
+had called at Mâdurô, and landed an old man of seventy and his
+grand-daughter--a little girl of ten years of age. To the astonishment
+of the people the old man proved to be a native of the island. His name
+was Rimé. He had left Mâdurô forty years before for Tahiti as a seaman.
+At Tahiti he married, and then for many years worked with other Marshall
+Islanders on Antimanao Plantation, where two children were born to
+him. The elder of these, when she was fifteen years of age, married a
+Frenchman trading in the Paumotu Islands.
+
+The other child, a boy, was drowned at sea. For eight or nine years Rimé
+and his Tahitian wife, Tiaro, lived alone on the great plantation; then
+Tiaro sickened and died, and Rimé was left by himself. Then one day
+came news to him from the distant Paumotus--his daughter and her white
+husband had fallen victims to the small-pox, leaving behind them a
+little girl. A month later Rimé worked his way in a pearling schooner to
+the island where his granddaughter lived, and claimed her. His heart was
+empty he said. They would go to Mâdurô, though so many long, long years
+had passed since he, then a strong man of thirty, had seen its low line
+of palm-clad beach sink beneath the sea-rim; for he longed to hear the
+sound of his mother tongue once more. And so the one French priest on
+Marutea blessed him and the child--for Rimé had become a Catholic during
+his stay in the big plantation--and said that God would be good to them
+both in their long journey across the wide Pacific to far-off Mâdurô.
+
+But changes had come to Mâdurô in forty years. When Rimé had sailed away
+to seek his fortune in Tahiti he and his people were heathens; when
+he returned he found them rigid Protestants of the Boston New England
+Cotton-Mather type, to whom the name of “Papist” was an abomination
+and a horror. And when Rimé said that he too was a Christian--a
+Katoliko--they promptly told him to clear out. He was not an American
+Christian anyway, they said, and had no business to come back to Mâdurô.
+
+“And,” said Macpherson, “I'll no suffer this--the poor creature an' the
+wee lit child canna git a bit to eat but what I gie them. And because I
+_do_ gie them something to eat Lilo has turned against me, an' says I'm
+no a Christian. So I want ye to come ashore and reason wi' the man. He's
+but a bigot, I fear; though his wife is no so hard on the poor man and
+the child as he is; but a woman aye has a tender heart for a child. And
+yet, ye see, this foolish Rimé will no give in, and says he will die
+before he changes his faith at Lilo's bidding. They took awa' his silly
+brass cruceefix, and slung it into the lagoon. Then the auld ass made
+anither out of a broken canoe paddle, and stickit the thing up in my
+cook-shed! And I have no the heart to tell him to put it in the fire
+and warm his naked shin bones wi' it. But I think if we all tackle the
+native teacher together we may knock some sense into his conceited head,
+and make him treat the poor man better. 'Tis verra hard, too, on the
+poor auld fellow that these people will not give him back even a bit of
+his own land.”
+
+Then he went on to say that ever since Rimé had landed he and the child
+had been sleeping every night in his (Macpherson's) cooking-shed. The
+trader had given him a bundle of mats and free access to a pile of Fiji
+yams and a bag of rice, and sometime Louisa, Lilo's Hawaiian wife, would
+visit them at night, ostensibly to convert Rimé from the errors of Rome,
+but really to leave him a cooked fish or a piece of pork. Most of the
+day, however, Rimé was absent, wandering about the beaches with his
+grand-daughter. They were afraid to even pass near the village, for
+the children threw stones at them, and the men and women cursed them
+as Katolikos. Matters had gone on like this till two weeks before
+the _Palestine_ arrived, when Lilo and some of his deacons had formed
+themselves into a deputation, and visited the trader. It was very wrong
+of him, they said, to encourage this wicked old man and his child. And
+they wanted him to cease giving them food or shelter--then when the
+“Katolikos” found themselves starving they would be glad to give up
+the “evil” religion which they had learnt in Tahiti. Then would they be
+baptized and food given them by the people of Mâdurô.
+
+Macpherson tried to reason with Lilo. But neither he nor the
+white-shirted, but trouserless, deacons would listen to him. And
+furthermore, they gave him a warning--if Rimé continued obstinate, they
+would hold him (Macpherson) responsible and _tapu_ his store. Rimé did
+continue obstinate, and next morning the trader found himself _tabooed_,
+which is a mere euphemism for boycotted.
+
+“That's pretty rough on you, Mac,” said Packenham.
+
+“'Twill just ruin me, I fear. Ye see there's four other traders on this
+island besides me, and all my business has gone to them. But what can
+I do? The silly auld fule of a Rimé won't give in, and I canna see him
+starve--the damned auld Papist.”
+
+*****
+
+At noon, as Packenham, with his supercargo and Macpherson, stepped out
+of the trader's dwelling, and walked together to the Mission House, a
+native went through the village blowing a conch. Lilo had agreed to meet
+the white men and discuss matters with them. Already the big room in the
+teacher's house was filled with people, who sat around the walls three
+or four deep, talking in whispered tones, and wondering why the white
+men troubled so much over a miserable old man and a wretched child, who
+were both accursed “Katolikos.”
+
+As the captain and his friends entered, Lilo, the teacher, advanced to
+meet them. He was a small, slenderly built man, with a skin scarcely
+darker than that of an Italian, and very handsome features. After a few
+words of effusive welcome, and a particularly sweet smile to Macpherson,
+he escorted the white men to their seats--three chairs placed together
+at the head of the room.
+
+Presently there was a shuffling of naked feet outside, and five or
+six young men entered the house, pushing before them an old man and a
+girl--Rimé and his grand-child. In the centre of the room was a small
+square mat of coconut leaf--the Marshall Island prisoners' dock. With
+limbs trembling with age, Rimé seated himself cross-legged; the child,
+kneeling at his back, placed her bony arms around his wrinkled body, and
+clasped him tightly; her eyes, big, black, and mournful, filled with
+the indifference born of despair. Then, as she saw Macpherson, a faint
+semblance of a smile flitted across her sallow face.
+
+Lilo struck his hand upon a little table before which he sat, and
+at once the assembly was silent. Then he turned to Packenham and, in
+perfect English, pointing to the two figures in the centre of the room,
+said--
+
+“That is Rimé and his child. They have given us much trouble, and I and
+the deacons of this island do not want trouble. We are Christians, and
+will not have any 'Katolikos' here. Mr. Macpherson says we are cruel.
+He is wrong. We are just, and this man and this child must give up their
+false faith. But because you and Mr. Denison have written me a letter
+about this matter I have called the people together so that we may
+talk. So, if you please, captain, will you speak, and I will interpret
+whatever you say to the people.”
+
+“Will he, the damned little sweep?” muttered the supercargo to
+Packenham; “tell him that we can talk Mâdurô as well as he can--and
+better.”
+
+So, much to the teacher's disgust, Packenham answered in the Mâdurô
+dialect. “'Twas better,” he said, “that they should all talk Mâdurô.”
+ Lilo smiled unpleasantly, and said, “Very well.”
+
+Then Packenham, turning to the people, spoke to the point.
+
+“Look into my face, people of Mâdurô, and listen to my words. Long
+before the missionaries came to this island I lived among ye for three
+years with my wife Nerida. And is there here one man or one woman who
+can say that I ever lied to him or her? So this do I say to ye all;
+and to thee, Lilo, the teacher of the Word of God, that ye do wrong to
+persecute this old man and this child. For is it not true that he hath
+land, which ye have denied to him? Is it not true that he is old and
+feeble, and his limbs tremble as he walks? Yet ye neither give him food
+nor drink, nor yet a mat whereon to lie his head. He is a 'Katoliko,'
+ye say? Are there not many thousands of 'Katolikos' in Hawaii, the land
+from whence comes Lilo? And I ask of thee, Lilo, do they suffer wrong
+from the King and the chiefs of Hawaii because of their faith? So to
+thee, Lilo, do I say 'beware.' Thou art but a young and ignorant man,
+and were I to tell the white missionaries in Honolulu (who are thy
+masters) that this old man and this little child would have died of
+hunger but that the heart of one man alone was tender to them, then
+wouldst thou hang thy head in shame when the mission ship comes here
+next year. For hath not Christ said, 'Blessed are the merciful, for
+they shall obtain mercy?' And so I say to ye all, let this old man dwell
+among ye in peace, for death is near to him, and shame will be thine if
+ye deny to him his right to die on his own land, of which ye have robbed
+him.”
+
+The teacher sprang to his feet, his dark eyes blazing with passion.
+
+“There shall be no mercy shown to Katolikos; for they are of hell and
+the devil and his works!” and from the people there came a deep growl
+of approval, which changed into a savage hissing as Macpherson rose and
+stretched out his hand.
+
+“Let me speak,” he said.
+
+“No,” shouted the teacher. “Who are _you?_ You are a bad man, you
+are----”
+
+Packenham made two strides over to Lilo and placed his heavy hand on his
+shoulder--“Sit down, you damned little psalm-singing kanaka hog, or I'll
+knock your eye out. He _shall_ speak.”
+
+“Get thee hence, thou shielder of the devil's children,” said a young,
+fat deacon, walking up to the trader and spitting contemptuously at his
+feet. “We want no such white men as thee among us here in Mâdurô.” In
+an instant Macpherson struck him between the eyes and sent him flying
+backwards among his fellow-deacons. Then came an angry roar from the
+people.
+
+The trader turned to Packenham with a groan, “I'm a ruined man now,
+Captain Packenham, and all through this auld fule of a Papist.” Then he
+again tried to speak amidst the uproar.
+
+“Sit down, damn you,” said Denison, the supercargo, “and don't excite
+them any more. They're ready for any mischief now. Oh, you she-devil,”
+ and he darted into the middle of the room towards Rimé and his
+grand-daughter. A stout muscular girl had torn the child's arms from the
+old man's waist, and was beating her savagely in the face with clenched
+fists. Denison gave her an under-clip on the jaw and sent her down, and
+in a few seconds the old man and child were the centre of a struggling
+group--the white men hitting out right and left to save them from being
+murdered. The teacher's wife, a tall, graceful young woman--with
+whom Denison had been exchanging surreptitious glances a few minutes
+before--weeping copiously the while, aided them by belabouring the backs
+of the women who were endeavouring to get at the prostrate figure of the
+little girl. But Packenham, Macpherson, and the supercargo were too much
+for the natives, and soon cleared a space around them.
+
+“Take them to the ship, Captain Packenham,” said the teacher's wife
+pantingly, in English. “These people are mad now. Go--go at once.”
+
+Picking up the frail figure of the old man, the captain, followed by
+Macpherson and the supercargo, soon gained the boat through a shower
+of stones and other missiles. Ten minutes later they were on board the
+Palestine.
+
+*****
+
+“What a devil of a row!” said Packenham, as he clinked his glass against
+that of Macpherson, who, after the exciting events of the past hour,
+had been induced to take a nip to steady his nerves; “you ought to be
+d------d well ashamed of yourself, Mac, to be mixed up in a fight over a
+Papist. What would Mr. MacBain say, eh?”
+
+“It's a verra bad business for me,” said Macpherson ruefully. “Ye'll
+have to come back for me next month and tak' me awa' from Mâdurô. I'll
+do no more business here, I can see.”
+
+“Right you are, Mac,” and Packenham grasped his hand. “I _will_ come
+back for you, if it takes me a month of Sundays to beat against the
+trades. And you're a white man, Mac; and I'll never laugh at MacBain nor
+Aberdeen theology any more.”
+
+That night, as the captain of the _Palestine_ slept upon the skylight,
+old Rimé, who, with the child, lay upon the deck just beneath Packenham,
+rose softly to his knees and peered into the white man's face. He was
+sleeping soundly. Rimé touched his grandchild with his foot. She awoke,
+and together they pressed their lips to the skipper's hand. Then,
+without a sound, they stole along the deck, clambered over the brig's
+low side, dropped into the water and swam ashore.
+
+When daylight came the _Palestine_ was rolling heavily to a sweeping
+westerly swell, with the wind piping hard through her cordage as she
+strained at her cable. The absence of old Rimé and the child was not
+discovered till coffee time; the mate thought they had gone to sleep in
+the hold.
+
+“They've swum ashore in the night, Pack,” said the supercargo to
+Packenham. “I believe the old fellow will be content to die of
+starvation--hallo, here's Mac coming off in his boat!”
+
+In less than ten minutes the trader's boat was close to the ship, and
+Macpherson, bringing her up to the wind close under the brig's stern,
+hailed Packenham.
+
+“Hae ye seen anything of the old man Rimé?”
+
+“No,” answered the captain; “the old fool cleared out last night. Isn't
+he on shore?”
+
+“No. And there's a canoe missing from the beach, and I believe the auld
+Papist fule has taken the wee bit lassie wi' him, and thinks he can
+get to Ponape, whaur there's 'Katolikos' in plenty. And Ponape is sax
+hundred miles awa'.”
+
+“Well, come aboard and get some breakfast.”
+
+“Man, I'm going after the old fule! He's got no sail and canna be twenty
+mile awa'. I'll pick him up before he gets to Milli Lagoon, which is
+only saxty miles from here.”
+
+Packenham swore. “You infernal ass! Are you going to sea in a breeze
+like this by yourself? Where's your crew?”
+
+“The deevils wadna' come wi' me to look for a Papist. And I'm not going
+to let the auld fule perish.”
+
+“Then come alongside and take a couple of our Savage Island boys. I can
+spare them.”
+
+“No, no, captain. I'm not going tae delay ye when ye're bound to the
+eastward and I'm going the ither way. Ye'll find me here safe enough
+when ye come back in anither month. And I'll pick up the auld deevil and
+the wee bit lassie before mid-day.”
+
+And then, with his red beard spreading out across his shoulders,
+Macpherson let his boat pay off before the wind. In an hour he was out
+of sight.
+
+*****
+
+Three weeks afterwards the _Sadie Perkins_ sperm whaler of New Bedford,
+came across a boat, five hundred miles west of Mâdurô. In the stern
+sheets lay that which had once been Macpherson, the “auld fule Papist,
+and the wee bit lassie.”
+
+
+
+
+A MAN OF IMPULSE
+
+Blackett, the new trader at Guadalcanar in the Solomons, was
+entertaining a visitor, an old fellow from a station fifty miles
+distant, who had sailed over in his cutter to “have a pitch” with
+his nearest white neighbour. And the new man--new to this particular
+island--made much of his grizzled visitor and listened politely to the
+veteran's advice on many subjects, ranging from “doctoring” of perished
+tobacco with molasses to the barter of a Tower musket for a “werry nice
+gal.”
+
+*****
+
+The new trader's house looked “snugger'n anything he'd ever seed,” so
+the old trader had told him; and Blackett was pleased and very liberal
+with the liquor. He had been but a few months on the island, and already
+his house was furnished, in a rude fashion, better than that of any
+other trader in the region. He was a good host; and the captains of the
+Fiji, Queensland, and Samoan “blackbirders” liked to visit him and loll
+about the spacious sitting-room and drink his grog and play cards--and
+tell him that his wife was “the smartest and prettiest woman in the
+group.”
+
+Blackett was especially vain of the young Bonin Island half-caste
+wife who had followed his varying fortunes from her home in the far
+north-west Pacific to the solitary, ghostly outlier of Polynesia--lonely
+Easter Island, and thence to and fro amongst a hundred other islands.
+He was vain of her beauty--the beauty that had led him to almost abandon
+any intention of returning to civilisation; he was vain of the dark,
+passionate eyes, the soft, wavy hair, and the proud little mouth
+inherited from her Lusitanian father. Of this latter person, however,
+neither Blackett nor Cerita, his wife, were over-proud--he was a
+notorious old scamp and ex-pirate, even for that part of the Pacific,
+and Cerita knew that Blackett had simply bought her from him as he would
+buy a boat, or a bolt of canvas.
+
+*****
+
+Blackett, finding it impossible to make old Hutton drunk or get him to
+turn in, resigned himself entirely to the old pirate, who, glancing
+to the far end of the room, to where Cerita and his own wife, a
+tall, lithe-limbed Aoba woman, were lying together on a mat smoking
+cigarettes, proceeded to pour out the story of his countless murders and
+minor villainies.
+
+Blackett himself was a negatively-moral man. He could shoot a native if
+necessity demanded, but would not do so hastily; and the old trader's
+brutal delight in recounting his pot-shots only excited a disgust which
+soon became visible in his face.
+
+*****
+
+“_That's_ all right, Mr. Blackett,” said Hutton, with a hideous grin
+distorting his monkeyish visage; “I'm only a-tellin' you of these
+here things for your own good,... an' I ain't afeered of no man-o'-war
+a-collarin' _me_. This here island is a place where you've got to sleep
+with one eye open, an' the moment you sees a nigger lookin' crooked at
+you put a lead pill in him--that is, if he's a stranger from somewheres.
+An' the more you shoots the better you'll get on with your own nigs;
+they likes you more and treats you better.”
+
+With a weary gesture, Blackett rose from his seat. “Thank you, Hutton,
+for your advice. If I thought a nigger meant to send an arrow or a spear
+through me I'd try to get the drop on him first. But I couldn't kill any
+one in cold blood on mere suspicion. I could no more do that than--than
+you could kill that Aoba wife of yours over there.”
+
+Old Hutton rose, too, and put a detaining hand on Blackett. “Look here,
+now, an' I suppose you think I'm lyin'. If I thought that that there
+Aoba wench was foolin' me in any way--sech as givin' away my tobacco
+to a nigger buck, I'd have to wentilate her yaller hide or get laid out
+myself.”
+
+Blackett shuddered. “I'm going to turn in. Let us have another drink,
+Hutton. If the Dutch firm's schooner shows up this month I'll clear out
+of this accursed hole. I hate the place, and so does my woman.” He
+used the term “woman” instead of wife purely out of deference to Island
+custom; but Hutton noticed it.
+
+“Ain't she really your wife?” he asked inquisitively.
+
+“No--yes--what the devil does it matter to you?” And Blackett, whose
+patience had quite worn out, filled the glasses, and passed one to his
+visitor, who uncouthly apologised. Then the two shook hands and laughed.
+
+*****
+
+The night was close and sultry, and Cerita was lying on the cane-framed
+bed, fanning herself languidly. The man was leaning, with his face
+turned from her, against the open window, and looking out into the
+jungle blackness that encompassed the house. He was thinking of Hutton's
+query, “Ain't she really your wife?” His wife! No; but she would be yet.
+He would leave this infernal island, where one never knew when he might
+get a poisoned arrow or spear into him. He was making money here, yes;
+but money wasn't worth dying for. And 'Rita was more than money to him.
+She had been the best little woman in the world to him--for all her
+furious temper.
+
+“Yes, he would leave these blackguardly Solomons, with their hordes of
+savage cannibals,... and go back to the eastward again,... and Sydney,
+too. He could easily stow her away in some quiet house while he went and
+saw his people.” And so Blackett thought and smoked away till 'Rita's
+voice startled him.
+
+*****
+
+“Give me a match, Harry: I want to smoke. I can't sleep, it's so hot,
+and my arm is tired fanning, and the screen is full of mosquitoes. That
+devil of a girl--where is she?”
+
+“There!” said Blackett, pointing to beneath the bed, where Europuai, his
+wife's attendant, lay rolled up in a mat.
+
+“The black beast!”--and the half-blood rose from the bed, throwing the
+mosquito-net angrily aside--“and I thought she was sleeping near the
+Aoba woman, the wife of that drunken old Hutton,” and, stooping down
+so that her black hair fell like a mantle over her bare shoulders, she
+seized the short, woolly head of the sleeper and dragged her out.
+
+Blackett laughed. “Easy, 'Rita, easy! You'll frighten her so that she'll
+clear out from us. Let her take her mat over there in the corner. Give
+the poor devil a chance. She's terrified of old Hutton, so sneaked in
+here to hide. She's only a wild bushy”--and he looked compassionately at
+the almost nude figure of the girl that his wife had bought from a bush
+town for a musket--because she wanted “something to worry,” he used
+jokingly to say.
+
+The savage creature took the mat sullenly, went to the far end of the
+room, and covered herself up again.
+
+“You're too soft with women,” said Rita, scornfully.
+
+“I know I am--with you,” he answered, good-naturedly. And then the angry
+gleam in the black eyes died away, and she laughed merrily.
+
+*****
+
+Two days had passed. Old Hutton had returned to his station, and
+Blackett was returning with a boatload of copra from a village across
+the bay. Heavy rain-squalls tore down upon the boat at short intervals,
+and Blackett, drenched to the skin, began to feel the first deadly
+chills and pains of an attack of island fever. Usually light-hearted, he
+now felt angry, and savagely cursed at his crew when the heavily-laden
+boat touched and ground against the coral knobs that lay scattered about
+her course. It was long past midnight when he reached his station, and,
+stepping wearily out of the boat, dragged his aching limbs along the
+beach. 'Rita had heard the boat, and Blackett could see that a bright
+fire was burning in the thatched, open-sided cook-house, and that 'Rita
+herself was there, with a number of native children making coffee.
+
+The quickening agonies of fever were fast seizing him, and, entering the
+house and throwing himself on a seat, he felt his brain whirling, and
+scarcely noticed that Tubariga, the local chief, was bending over him
+anxiously. Then 'Rita came with the steaming coffee, and one quick
+glance at Blackett's crouched-up figure told her that the dreaded fever
+had seized him at last.
+
+'Rita proved herself what Blackett always called her, “one of the
+smartest little women going.” With Tubariga's help, she carried him
+to the bed, and sent out for some women to come and rub and thump his
+aching joints while she dosed him with hot rum and coffee. And then
+Blackett asked her what she was doing out in the cook-house. Hadn't she
+a cook? Then the suppressed rage of the hot-blooded girl broke out in
+a flood of tears. Europuai, the wild bush-girl, had been sulky all the
+time he was away, and she had given her a little beating with a bamboo.
+And then the black devil had run away, and--here the angry beauty wept
+again--she ['Rita) had to go out into a filthy cook-shed to boil water
+before a lot of man-eating savages! No one would help her, because they
+were all such fools that she always lost her temper with them.
+
+*****
+
+Blackett--under the combined influences of rum, strong coffee, fever,
+and woman's tears--went into a rage, and glared angrily at the chief,
+Tubariga.
+
+“You're a d-------d nice fellow,” he said in English; “you get my wife
+to pay a good musket for a girl, and then as soon as I am away you let
+that girl run back into the bush. You're a bad friend.”
+
+Tubariga felt hurt. He prided himself on two things--his knowledge of
+English and his friendship for white men. He rose to his feet, grasped
+his rifle, and made for the door.
+
+“Here, come back, Tubariga. Perhaps it isn't your fault. Let her stay
+away. She's no good, anyway.”
+
+Tubariga came back. “Tell me, white man, do you want your servant to
+come back?”
+
+“Yes, d---- you!” answered Blackett, who now again was seized with that
+hideous brain-whirl that in fever is simple delirium, “bring her back,
+alive or dead.”
+
+The chief nodded and went out.
+
+*****
+
+Next morning the first fierce violence of the fever had temporarily left
+him, and Blackett was lying covered up with rugs, when the grim figure
+of Tubariga entered noiselessly, and stole to his side. Motioning the
+trader's wife away, Tubariga's savage features relaxed with a pleased
+smile.
+
+“Well, Tubariga, how are you?” said Blackett. “'Rita tell me I damn you
+too much last night, eh? Never mind, old chap, I was mad about that girl
+running away. You can tell her people to keep her--and the musket too.
+Rita don't want her any more. Ship come soon, then we go away.'”
+
+Again the pleased smile spread over the chiefs face. Bending over
+Blackett he placed his hideous lips, blood-red with the stains of
+betel-juice, close to his face, and said with the simple pride of a
+child, “_Me pinish him_.”
+
+“What?” said Blackett, with a strange feeling at his heart--“What did
+you do to that girl, Tubariga?”
+
+Sitting down with his rifle across his knees, the chief told the
+conscience-stricken trader that he had followed the girl to a bush
+village, where he, Tubariga, as their chief, had demanded her from her
+parents. They insisted on her going back, but she whimpered and said
+that the white man's wife would beat her. She sprang for the jungle,
+and, ere she reached it, a bullet from the chiefs rifle struck her in
+the side. And then, with a feeling of horror, Blackett listened to the
+rest of the tale--the poor wretch, with her life-blood ebbing fast, was
+followed up and a spear thrust through her heart.
+
+*****
+
+He was sitting at the table with his face clasped in his hands when
+'Rita came in. She was smoking her inevitable cigarette, and the thin
+wreaths of blue smoke curled upwards from her lips as she leant one arm
+on the table and caressed Blackett's ice-cold forehead with her shapely
+hand. Suddenly she stooped and sought gently to remove his hands from
+his face.
+
+“Harry, are you very ill, old fellow? What can I do for you?”
+
+“Do for me?” and the sudden misery that had smitten his heart looked out
+from his pallid face,... “give me back the peace of mind that was mine
+ten minutes ago. Leave me to die here of fever--for you I have become a
+murderer--a man no better than Hutton. The blood of that poor girl
+will for ever be between us.” And then she saw that tears were falling
+through his trembling fingers.
+
+“Harry,” she said, “I thought you were more of a man”--and here her
+voice softened--“don't grieve over it. It wasn't your fault,... and I
+have been a good little girl to you. Don't be miserable because of
+such a little thing as that. If Tubariga hadn't killed her, I daresay I
+should have done so myself. She was a sulky little wretch.”
+
+*****
+
+I know Blackett well. The horror of that day has never entirely left
+him. But for that one dark memory he would have married 'Rita--who
+would have most probably run a knife into his ribs later on, when the
+influence of her beauty had somewhat waned and he began to look at other
+women. The fateful impulse of that moment when he told the chief to
+bring back the girl dead or alive wrecked and tortured his mind beyond
+description. And he can never forget.
+
+His 'Rita and he left the island soon afterwards to wander away back to
+Eastern Polynesia, but his continued fits of melancholy annoyed the girl
+so much that she one day quarrelled with and left him, and made a fresh
+matrimonial engagement with a man less given to mawkish sentiment.
+
+
+
+
+THE TRADER
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+The evening fires were lighting up the darkness of the coming night,
+when Prout, the only white man on the island, left his house on the edge
+of the lagoon, and, with his little daughter running by his side, walked
+slowly through the village.
+
+As they passed through the now deserted pathways that intersected the
+straggling collection of grey, thatched-roofed houses, and Prout's heavy
+step crunched into the broken coral, the natives, gathered together for
+their evening meal, looked forth, and the brown women called out a word
+or two of greeting to the child, and smiled and beckoned her to
+leave her father for an instant and take the fruit or piece of cooked
+breadfruit that they held out to her with their brown hands. But only
+a solemn shake of the little head, and then she and the taciturn,
+bronzed-faced man went by, the child's tiny fingers grasping his tanned
+and roughened hand as they walked across the narrow island towards the
+sound of the muffled thunder of the surf on the outer ocean beach.
+
+*****
+
+Here, with the little one perched beside him and looking wonderingly
+into his grave, impassive face, the white man would sit for long hours
+staring moodily out upon the tumbling breakers as they reared and fell
+upon the black, grim shelves of the reef.
+
+Sometimes, as he sat with his chin resting on his hand, and the red glow
+of his pipe sending now and again a fitful gleam of light across the
+rugged lines of his face, the girl would get quietly down from the
+moss-grown coral boulder on which she rested by his side, and stepping
+down to the short, steep beach, play with childish solemnity with such
+pebbles and light shells as lay within the reach of her little hands.
+Perhaps, if the tide was heavy and at its flood, and a breaker heavier
+than the rest breached shorewards in a white wall of seething foam, and
+crashed and rattled together the loose coral slabs that marked the line
+of high-water mark, the silent, dreaming man would spring to his feet
+with a loud warning call. And the little one, answering his deep tones
+with her soft, sweet treble, would spring back to her father's side, and
+nestling her tender form against his gaunt frame, lay her cheek against
+his, and say, in the soft Tokelau tongue, “'Twas a great wave, my
+father!”
+
+“Aye,” he would answer, as he placed an arm round the child and gazed at
+her for a moment, “'twas a great wave truly, _taka taina_,{*} and thou
+art so small, that if it but touched thy feet thou wouldst be swept
+away like as a leaf in a strong wind. So stay thee here beside me, sweet
+one,” and again his face would turn seaward, and the silence of the
+night, save for the soughing of the wind and the cry of the surf, fall
+upon them again.
+
+     *  “Little one of my heart.”
+
+Thus the first hours of the island night would pass, till a glare of
+light flashed upon the blackness of the sea beyond the snow-line of
+surf, as the canoes from Matakatea would round the point, each one with
+a flaming torch of dried palm-leaves held high by a brown, tattooed
+hand, to dazzle the flying fish that, with wings outspread, floated
+motionless upon the surface of the water.
+
+*****
+
+Then, because the child had no playmates, and her little life was almost
+as joyless and as solitary as his own, he would wait with her till
+the long line of canoes passed by, so that she could see the bronzed,
+half-naked figures of the paddlers, and the bright gleam and shimmer of
+the fish as they were swept up by the deadly net, and hear the warning
+cry from the torch-bearers, as in the depths beneath they saw the black
+shadow of a prowling shark rushing to seize the net, or perchance the
+outrigger of the canoe, in his cruel, murderous jaws.
+
+Slowly the canoes paddled by, and as they passed, the hum of voices
+and laughter and the cheery lilt of island melody died away, and the
+paddlers looked shoreward to the motionless figure of Prout, who, with
+the child by his side, seemed to heed naught but the wide sweep of ocean
+that lay before him.
+
+But though the voices and laughter and snatches of song ceased, many of
+the kindly-hearted people would, ere they passed, call out a word or two
+of greeting to the white man and his child, and the latter would wave
+her hand and smile back, while her father, as if awakened from a dream,
+called out, in the island tongue, the customary “May your fishing
+to-night be lucky.” And then, as the last canoe vanished, and the glare
+and the smoke of the torches with it, he, with the little Mercedes by
+his side, walked back to his house on the lagoon.
+
+*****
+
+And so, night after night, save in the stormy season of the year, when
+the white rain-squalls gathered together on the windward sea-line, and
+swept quickly down upon the island and drenched the loose, sandy soil
+with pouring showers, the white man had sat with his face turned seaward
+to the cloudless horizon of the starlit ocean and his mind dwelling upon
+the ever-present memories of the past.
+
+Such, for three years past, ever since he had first landed among the
+people of Nukutavau, had been the existence of Prout, the silent,
+solitary trader.
+
+*****
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+Nine years before, Prout, then one of the “smartest” Englishmen in the
+Hawaiian Islands, had been manager of the Kalahua sugar plantation on
+Maui. Out of his very loneliness in the world--for except his mother,
+in a far-away Devonshire village, there was no one in the outside world
+that cared aught for him--there grew upon him that quiet, reserved
+temperament that led the other white men on the plantation to call him
+in kindly jest, “Prout, the Hermit.”
+
+But although he never mixed with the men on the Kalahua Estate in the
+wild revelries with which they too often sought to break the monotony of
+their existence and celebrate a good season, he was by no means a morose
+or unsociable man; and Chard, the merry-hearted Belgian sugar-boiler,
+often declared that it was Prout alone who kept the estate going and
+the native labourers from turning on the white men and cutting their
+throats, out of sheer revenge for the brutal treatment they received
+from Sherard, the savage, drunken owner of Kalahua.
+
+Between Roden Sherard and Prout there had been always, from the first
+day almost of the latter entering upon his duties, a silent, bitter
+antagonism. And the reason of it was known only to the two men
+themselves.
+
+In those times the native labour for the Hawaiian sugar plantations was
+recruited from the islands of the Mid-Pacific, and from the chains of
+sandy atolls lying between the Bonins and the Radack Archipelago of the
+Marshall Group. On Kalahua there were some three hundred natives, and
+within a month of Prout taking charge, he had changed their condition
+so much for the better, that not one of the wild-eyed, half-naked beings
+who toiled from sunrise to dark but would give him a grateful glance as
+he rode through the cane fields. And Sherard, who rode with him, would
+see this, and scowl and tell Prout that as soon as his engagement
+terminated, he, Sherard, would bring back Fletcher, the former manager,
+“a man who would thump a kanaka into a pulp if he dared to look sideways
+at him.”
+
+“If you are not satisfied with me you can bring him here to-morrow if
+you like,” Prout had said coldly to him one day. “I've managed bigger
+places than this in Demerara, and on no one of them have I ever seen
+a nigger struck. But then, you see, in Demerara the planters are
+Englishmen, and Englishmen as a rule don't shine at nigger walloping.”
+
+Sherard, a black-visaged Marylander, snapped his teeth together and,
+smothering his rage, tried to laugh the matter off.
+
+“Well, I suppose you're right, Prout. I know I have got a good man in
+you; but at the same time, God never intended these damned saucy niggers
+to be coddled and petted.”
+
+Prout laughed ironically as he repeated Sherard's words “coddled and
+petted!” And then long-suppressed wrath boiled out, and, swinging his
+horse's head round, he faced the owner of Kalahua.
+
+“Look here, Sherard, give me the control of these three hundred natives
+for the next two seasons and I'll stake my life that they'll do more
+work for you than you have ever had done by that brute Fletcher when he
+had five hundred here. Do you think that these people _knew_ what was
+in store for them when they came here?--that in place of an encouraging
+word they would get a threat or a blow? That those of them who have
+wives and daughters can forget what has befallen _them?_ Do you think
+that I don't know that you speak of me to your friends with contempt as
+'a nigger-loving Britisher'? And yet, Sherard, you know well that, were
+I to leave Kalahua tomorrow, every native on the estate would leave
+too--not for love of me, but to get away from _you_.”
+
+Sherard laughed coarsely.
+
+“You've got more in you than I thought, Prout. What you say is true
+enough. Let us quit quarrelling. I know you can do more with them than
+Abe Fletcher could; and I guess I'm not going to interfere with you.”
+
+But, for all that, Prout did not trust Sherard, and he made up his mind
+to leave the estate when his two years' engagement came to an end.
+
+*****
+
+“The _Mana_ is in Honolulu with a cargo of Line Island boys, Prout,”
+ said Sherard to him about a month or two after this; “I wish you would
+get away down there, and try to obtain some more hands. You talk the
+language like a Line Islander, and will have no trouble in getting all
+the men we want.”
+
+But when Prout boarded the labour schooner _Mana_ there was not a native
+left. The other planters on Oahu had been there before him, and the
+master--Captain Courtayne--called him down to have a drink in the cabin.
+
+“You are the new manager on Kalahua, hey? Well, I'm sorry you've had
+your trip for nothing; but, at the same time, I'm real glad to see
+Sherard left out in the cold. He's a bad man, sir, and although you
+might think that because I'm in this trade I'm not particularly soft, I
+can tell you that I'd be thundering sorry to see any of the crowd I've
+brought up go to him.”
+
+“Your feelings do you honour, Captain; but I can assure you that the
+Kalahua boys are well treated now,” said Prout, as he took the cigar the
+seaman handed him.
+
+The quiet manner and truthful look in Prout's face made the master
+of the schooner regard him intently for a few moments, then he said
+abruptly:
+
+“Do you know Honolulu well?”
+
+Prout did not; his visits there had been few and far between.
+
+“Do you know any decent people here who could take care of my daughter
+for me till I come back from my next trip?”
+
+“No, Captain, I do not.”
+
+“Take another whisky, sir, and I'll tell you the fix I'm in. You see I'm
+new to this business. I had a trading station down on one of the Ellice
+Islands where I've lived for the last twenty years. This schooner came
+there about six months ago, and the captain died in my house. As the
+mate couldn't navigate, and I am an old shell-back, I sold out my
+trading station, took charge of her, brought my daughter aboard and
+filled the schooner with Line Island labourers.”
+
+“Her mother is dead, I suppose?”
+
+Captain Courtayne coloured and shifted about in his seat. “Well, no, not
+as far as I know; but, you see, down there in the south-east a man has
+to change his wives occasionally. For instance, if you marry a Samoa
+girl you must live in Samoa; she won't leave there to go and live on
+Nanomea or Vaitupu, where the people have different ideas and customs.
+And, as we poor traders have to shift about from one island to another
+sometimes, we can't afford to study a woman's whims.”
+
+Prout grasped the situation at once. “I see; your daughter, then, is
+your child by a former wife?”
+
+“Just so. Her mother was a Hervey Island half-caste whom I married when
+I was trading on Manhiki. We drifted apart somehow--perhaps it was my
+fault. I was a careless, hard-drinking man in those days. But, here I
+am telling you a lot of things that don't interest you, when I ought to
+tell you at once what it is I thought you might help me with. You see,
+Mr. Prout, my little Marie has lived with me all her life. Since she was
+five years old she has never left me for a day, and I've done my best to
+educate her. She's as good and true as gold, and this is what troubles
+me--I don't want to take her away again in the schooner if I can help
+it. Do you think--do you know--of any English or American family here
+that would take her to live with them till I return from this voyage?
+I'm willing to pay well for her keep.”
+
+Prout shook his head. “I should advise you to take her back with you,
+Captain. How old is she?”
+
+The captain went to the companion-way and called out:
+
+“Marie.”
+
+“Yes, father,” answered a girl's soft voice.
+
+“Come below a minute.”
+
+Prout heard some one getting out of a hammock that was slung over the
+skylight, and presently a small slippered foot touched the first step of
+the companion-way; and then a girl, about fifteen or sixteen, came
+into the cabin, and bowing to him, seated herself by the captain of the
+schooner. Then, as if ashamed of the formal manner of her greeting, she
+rose again, and a smile lit up her beautiful face, as she offered her
+hand to him.
+
+Prout, one of those men whose inborn respect for women often makes them
+appear nervous, constrained, and awkward in their presence, flushed to
+the roots of his hair as she let her soft hand touch his.
+
+“That is Marie, sir,” and the skipper glanced somewhat proudly at the
+graceful, muslin-clad figure of his daughter. “Marie, this gentleman
+says he does not know any English or American ladies here.”
+
+The sweet red mouth smiled and the dark eyes danced.
+
+“I'm very glad, father; I would rather go away with you to sea in the
+_Mana_ than stay in a strange place.”
+
+*****
+
+But Marie Courtayne did not go away; for next morning her father,
+through Prout, learned that the French Sisters were willing to take her
+as a boarder till the schooner returned, and so to them she went, with
+her tender mouth twitching, and her eyes striving to keep back the tears
+that would come as she bade her father goodbye.
+
+“You'll go and see my little Marie sometimes, I hope, Mr. Prout?” said
+Courtayne, as he bade farewell to the manager of Kalahua.
+
+Prout murmured something in reply, and then the captain of the _Mana_
+and he parted.
+
+*****
+
+Three months later the American cruiser _Saranac_ brought the news that
+she had spoken the labour schooner _Mana_, Captain Courtayne, off the
+island of Marakei, in the Gilbert Group, “all well, and wished to be
+reported at Honolulu.” After that she, her captain and crew, and the two
+hundred Kanaka labourers she had on board, were never heard of again.
+
+For nearly a year Prout and Marie Courtayne waited and hoped for some
+tidings of the missing ship, but none came. And every now and then, when
+business took him to Honolulu, Prout would call at the Mission School
+and try to speak hopefully to her.
+
+“He is dead,” she would say apathetically, “and I wish I were dead, too.
+I think I shall die soon, if I have to live here.”
+
+Then Prout, who had grown to love her, one day plucked up courage to
+tell her so, and asked her to be his wife.
+
+“Yes,” she said simply, “I will be your wife. You are always kind to
+me,” and for the first time she put her face up to his. He kissed her
+gravely, and then, being a straightforward, honourable man, he went to
+the Sisters and told them. A week afterward they were married.
+
+When he returned to Kalahua with his wife, Sherard met them on the
+verandah of his house, and Prout wondered at the remarkable change in
+his manner, for even to women Sherard was coarse and tyrannical.
+
+From the moment he first saw Marie's fresh young beauty Sherard
+determined to have a deadly revenge upon her husband. But he went about
+his plans cautiously. Only a few days previously he had made a fresh
+agreement with Prout to remain for another two years. Before those two
+years had expired he meant to put his plan into effect. There was on
+the plantation a ruffianly Chileno who, he knew, would dispose of Prout
+satisfactorily when asked to do so.
+
+*****
+
+When Marie's child was born, Sherard acted the part of the imperatively
+good-natured employer, and told Prout that as soon as his wife was
+strong enough, he was to leave the house he then occupied and take up
+his quarters permanently in the big house.
+
+“This place of yours will do me, Prout,” he said, when his manager
+protested; “and your wife's only a delicate little thing. There's all
+kinds of fixings and comforts there that she'll appreciate, which
+you haven't got here. D------n my thick skull, I might have done this
+before.”
+
+“Thank you, Sherard,” said Prout, with a genuine feeling of pleasure.
+“You are very good to us both. But I won't turn you out altogether; you
+must remain there too.”
+
+Sherard laughed. “Not I. You'll be far happier up there together by
+yourselves, like a pair of turtledoves. But I'll always be on hand in
+the smoking-room when you want me for a game of cards.”
+
+The change was soon made, and Moreno, the Chilian overseer, grinned when
+he saw the white-robed figure of the manager's wife lying on one of the
+verandah lounges, playing with her child.
+
+“Bueno,” he said to Sherard that night, as they drank together, “the
+plan works. Make the bird learn to love its pretty nest. _Dios_, when am
+I to feel my knife tickling Senor Prout's ribs?”
+
+“At the end of the crushing season, I think,” answered Sherard coolly;
+“the brat will be old enough to be taken from her by then.”
+
+It is a bad thing for a man to “thump” either a Chilian, or a Peruvian,
+or a Mexican. And Prout had “thumped” the evil-faced Chileno very badly
+one day for beating a native nearly to death. Had he been wiser he would
+have taken the little man's knife out of his belt and plunged it home
+between his ribs, for a Chileno never forgives a blow with a fist.
+
+*****
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+“Are you going over to Halaliko to-night, Prout?” asked Sherard, walking
+up to where his manager and Marie sat enjoying the cool of the evening.
+He threw himself in a cane chair beside them and puffed away at his
+cheroot, playing the while with the little Mercedes.
+
+“Yes, I might as well go to-night and see how the Burtons have got on,”
+ and Prout arose and went to the stables.
+
+Sherard remained chatting with Marie till Prout returned, and then,
+raising his hat to her, bade them good-night.”
+
+“Don't let Burton entice you to Halaliko, Prout,” he said with a laugh;
+“he knows that your time here is nearly up.”
+
+Prout laughed too. “I don't think that Marie would like me to give up
+Kalahua for Halaliko--would you, old girl?”
+
+She shook her head and smiled. “No, indeed, Mr. Sherard. I am too happy
+here to ever wish to leave.”
+
+*****
+
+Whistling softly to himself, Prout rode along the palm-bordered winding
+track. It was not often he was away from Marie, but he meant to take his
+time this evening. It was nearly five miles to Burton's plantation at
+Halaliko, and half an hour would finish his business there. He knew
+that, as soon as he left, Marie would tell the native servant to go to
+her bed in the coolie lines, and then she would herself retire; and when
+he returned he would find her lying asleep with her baby beside her.
+
+*****
+
+To the right the road wound round a great jagged shoulder of rocky
+cliff, and clung to it closely; for on the left there yawned a black
+space, the valley of Maunahoehoe, and, as he rode, Prout could see the
+glimmer of the natives' fires below--fires that, although they were but
+distant a few hundred feet, seemed miles and miles away.
+
+A slight sound that seemed to come from the face of the cliff above him
+caused him to look upwards, and the next instant a heavy stone struck
+him slantingly on the side of his head. Without a sound he fell to the
+ground, staggered to his feet, and then, failing to recover himself,
+vanished over the sloping side of the cliff into the valley beneath.
+
+A shadowy, supple figure clambered down from the inky blackness of cliff
+that overhung the road, and peered over the valley of Maunahoehoe. It
+was Moreno, the Chilian.
+
+“Better than a knife after all; Holy Virgin, he's gone now, and I
+forgive him for all the blows he struck me.”
+
+*****
+
+Long before daylight, Prout, with his face and shoulders covered with
+gory stains, staggered into the native village at Maunahoehoe and asked
+the people to lend him a horse to take him back to Kalahua.
+
+When within half a mile of Kalahua, almost fainting from loss of blood
+and exhaustion, he pulled up his horse at a hut on the borders of the
+estate and got off. There were some five or six natives inside, and
+they started up with quick expressions of sympathy when they saw his
+condition.
+
+“Give me a weapon, O friends,” he said. “Some man hath tried to kill
+me.”
+
+A short squat native smiled grimly, reached to the rafters of the
+dwelling, and took down a heavy carbine, which he loaded and then handed
+to the white man.
+
+“'Tis Moreno who hath hurt thee,” said the native; “at midnight he rode
+by here in hot haste.”
+
+With the native supporting him, Prout rode along the road to the Estate
+gates.
+
+As he reeled through he heard a faint cry.
+
+In another minute he was on the verandah and looking through the French
+lights into Marie's dimly-lighted bedroom. An inarticulate cry of
+anguish burst from him. Sherard and his wife were together.
+
+Steadying himself against a post he took aim at the trembling figure of
+his wife, and fired. She threw up her arms and fell upon her face, and
+then Sherard, pistol in hand, dashed out and met him.
+
+Ere he could draw the trigger, Prout swung the heavy weapon round, and
+the stock crashed into the traitor's brain.
+
+“It is the death of a dog,” said the native, spurning the body with his
+naked foot.
+
+She was dying fast when Prout, with love and hate struggling for mastery
+in his frenzied brain, stood over her.
+
+“He took my child away from me,” she said.... “He said he would kill her
+before me,... and it was to save her. Only for that I would have died
+first. Oh, Ned, Ned----”
+
+Then with a look of unutterable love from her fast-dimming eyes, she
+closed them in death.
+
+*****
+
+That was why Prout, after two years of madness in a prison, had stepped
+on board Hetherington's schooner and asked the captain to take him away
+somewhere--he cared not where--so that he could be away from the ken of
+civilised and cruel mankind and try and forget the dreadful past.
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+They are a merry-hearted, laughter-loving race, the people of
+white-beached Nukutavau, with whom the trader lived. To them the
+grave-faced, taciturn man, who cared not to listen to their songs or to
+watch their wild dances on the moonlit beach--as had been the custom of
+those white men who had dwelt on the island before him--was but as one
+afflicted with some mental disease, and therefore to be both pitied and
+feared. At first, indeed, when he had landed, carrying his child in his
+arms, to bargain with Patiaro, the chief, that the people should build
+him a house, the women of the island had clustered around him as he
+stepped out of the boat, and with smiles upon their faces, extended
+their arms to him for the child. But no answering smile lit up the man's
+rugged features, though, to avoid the appearance of discourtesy (to
+which all island races are so keenly sensitive) he gave the infant into
+the keeping of old Malineta, the mother of the chief.
+
+Patiaro, the chief, holding the stranger's right hand in both his own,
+looked searchingly into his calm, deep-set eyes with that dignified
+curiosity which, while forbidding a native to put a direct question to
+an utter stranger, yet asks it by the expression of his face. But Prout,
+whose anxious glance followed the movements of the grey-haired mother
+of the chief, as she pressed his child to her withered bosom, seemed to
+notice not his questioning look.
+
+Following the stranger's gaze, the chief broke the silence:
+
+“'Tis my mother, _ariki papalagi_.{*} who carries thy child--Malineta,
+the mother of Patiaro, the chief of Nukutavau, he who now speaks to
+thee. And I pray thee have no fear for the little one.”
+
+     * White gentleman.
+
+*****
+
+The quiet, dignified courtesy with which the chief addressed him
+recalled the white man to himself, and a pleasant smile lit up the
+native's features when the stranger answered him in Tokelau--the _lingua
+franca_ of the equatorial isles of the Pacific--north and south.
+
+“Nay, I fear not for the child, Patiaro, chief of Nukutavau, but yet it
+may not be well for her to be taken to the village awhile; for with
+thee and thy people doth it rest whether the child and I remain here,
+or return to the ship and seek some other island whereon I may build my
+house and live in peace. And I will pay thee that which is fair and just
+for house and land.”
+
+But in those days, before too much civilisation had brought these simple
+people deadly disease, Christianity, and the knowledge of the great Pit
+of Fire, the brown men thought much of a white man; and so Patiaro, the
+chief, made haste to answer:
+
+“Let the child go with my mother, and tell thou the men in the boat that
+everything thou desirest of me and my people to do shall be done. Five
+rainy seasons have come and gone since a white man has lived here; so I
+pray thee, stay.”
+
+The white man inclined his head; then he turned and walked to the boat,
+and spoke to the captain of the little vessel which, to bring him to the
+island, had dropped her anchor just outside the current-swept passage of
+the lagoon.
+
+“I am remaining here, Captain Hetherington. Will you let your men put my
+gear out on the beach?”
+
+Hetherington, the skipper, looked at his passenger curiously, and then
+answered:
+
+“Cert'nly. But I'm real sorry you are leaving us, I don't want to pry
+inter any man's business, and you know these islands as well as I do;
+but I guess I wouldn't stay here if I war you. Why, it won't pay a
+man to stay and trade on a bit of a place like this,” and he cast a
+deprecatory look around him.
+
+The trader made him no answer, and the skipper of the schooner, ordering
+his crew to take out his passenger's goods and carry them to the
+village, stepped ashore, and held out his hand to the chief, whose fine,
+expressive features showed some signs of fear that the captain's remarks
+were intended to dissuade the stranger from remaining on the island.
+
+*****
+
+Motioning to the white men to follow him, the stalwart young chief led
+the way to the _fale kaupale_, or council-house of the village, where
+food and young coconuts for drinking were brought in and placed before
+them by the young women.
+
+Sitting directly in front of his guests, the chief served them with food
+with his own hands, in token of his desire for friendship and to do
+them honour, and then quietly withdrew to direct the natives who were
+carrying the trader's goods up from the boat to his own house, further
+back in the village.
+
+“I would wish ter remark, mister,” said the American skipper as he
+pulled out his pipe and commenced to fill it, “thet, ez a rule, I
+don't run any risk ev bustin' myself with enthoosiastic admiration fer
+Britishers in general--principally because they air the supporters of er
+low-down, degradin' system ev Government, which hez produced some bloody
+wars and sunk my schooner the _Mattie Casey_, with a cargo of phosphates
+valued et four thousand dollars.”
+
+“It was a heavy loss to you, Captain Hetherington, but you surely do not
+dislike all Englishmen because the _Alabama_ sunk your vessel?” said
+the trader, with a melancholy smile, whilst his restless eye sought the
+village houses to discern the movements of the chief's mother with his
+child.
+
+The American pulled his long, straggling beard meditatively. “Wal, I
+don't know, they're a darned mean crowd anyway.” And then, with a sudden
+change of manner, “Say, look here, mister; hev yew finally made up your
+mind ter remain on this island among a lot ev outrageous, unclothed,
+ondelikit females, whar every prospeck pleases an' on'y man is vile; or
+air yew game ter come in pardners with me in the schooner an' run her in
+the sugar trade between 'Frisco and Honolulu?”
+
+Prout grasped the old man's hand, but shook his head.
+
+“You are a generous man, Captain Hetherington, but I cannot do it. I am
+no seaman, and, what is more to the point, I have no money to put into
+the venture.”
+
+“Thet's jest it,” the American answered quickly, “but yew hev a long
+head--fer a Britisher, a darned long head--an' I reckon yew an' me will
+pull together bully; so jes' tell the chief here to get the traps back
+inter the boat again, an' yew an' me an' little Mercedy will get aboard
+agin----”
+
+“No, no, no,” and the trader rose to his feet and walked quickly to
+and fro--“no, Hetherington; I cannot do as you wish. Here, among these
+islands, it is my wish to live; and here, or on such another island as
+this, and among such wild, uncivilised beings, must I die.”
+
+“So?” and the hard-featured American raised his shaggy eyebrows
+interrogatively. “Waal, I reckon yew regulates your own affairs ter
+your own fancy; but look here, mister,” and the kindly ring in the old
+skipper's voice appealed to the man before him--“what about little
+Mercedy? Yew ain't agoin' to let thet pore child grow up among naked,
+red-skinned savages, hey?”
+
+A deep flush overspread the trader's face, and then it paled again, and
+he ceased his hurried, agitated walk.
+
+“Hetherington!... do not, I implore you, say another word to me on the
+subject. It is better for me to remain here with my little Mercedes....
+So, here, give me that honest hand of yours and leave me.... But, stop,
+I forgot,” and he thrust his hand into a large canvas pouch that hung
+suspended from his shoulder, “I did indeed forget this, Captain; but
+forget the kindness that you have shown to me and my child during the
+four months I have been with you, I never can.”
+
+The Yankee skipper's face was visibly perturbed as he heard the jingle
+of money in the canvas pouch, and he worked his jaws violently, while
+his heavy, bushy brows met together as if he were in deep study, and
+uneasy mutterings escaped from his lips. Suddenly he rose and left his
+companion.
+
+As he shambled away to the far end of the council-house, he caught sight
+of a number of native women and children advancing towards himself and
+his passenger. Foremost among them was the old woman Malineta, her lean
+and wrinkled face wreathed in smiles, for the white man's child, whom
+she still carried, had placed one arm around her neck. As she drew near
+the American, the little one smiled and made as if she wished to go to
+him, or to her father who stood near by.
+
+Holding out his arms to the child, the skipper took her from the old
+woman, and then he turned to Prout.
+
+“Say, I've jest been reckonin' up an' I make out yew hev been jest four
+months aboard o' my hooker thar, an' I reckon thet twenty dollars a
+month ain't more'n a fair an' square deal.”
+
+Again the red flush mantled to the trader's brow. “No, no, Hetherington.
+I am poor, but not so poor that I should insult you by such an
+insignificant sum as that. Two hundred and fifty dollars I can give
+you easily, and freely and willingly,” and advancing to the captain he
+offered him a number of twenty-dollar gold pieces.
+
+An angry “Pshaw!” burst from the captain. He thrust the proffered
+money aside, and then, with his leathern visage working in strange
+contortions, he walked quickly outside, and sitting down upon an old
+unused canoe, bent his grizzled head, and strained the child to his
+bosom. And presently Prout and the natives heard something very like the
+sound of a sob.
+
+Then, as if ashamed of his emotion, he suddenly rose, and kissing the
+child tenderly, gave her back to the woman Malineta. Then he turned to
+Prout.
+
+“Waal, I guess I'll be goin'.... Naow, jest yew put them air cursed
+dollars back again. It's jest like yew darned Britishers, ter want ter
+shove money inter a man's hand, jest like ez if he war a nigger, an'
+hadn't a red cent ter buy a slice of watermelon with,” and then all his
+assumed roughness failed him, and his eyes grew misty as he grasped the
+Englishman's hand for the last time.
+
+“Thet thar Mercedy.... Why, I hed sich a little mite once....” and he
+chewed fiercely at the fresh plug he had thrust into his cheek.
+
+“Dead?” queried Prout, softly.
+
+“Yes; diphthery. Yew see it came about th' way. When I got back ter
+Cohoes--thet's whar I belong--after that cussed pirut Semmes sunk my
+hooker, an' 'Riar sees me standin' in front ev her without givin' her
+any warnin' I was comin', she gets that skeered that she drops kerwallop
+on the floor, an' when she come to, an' heerd that the _Mattie Casey_
+was gone, waal, thet jest sorter finished her. Waal, she hung on ter
+life fur a year or so, kep' getting more powerful weak in the intelleck
+every day; an' when she died, my little Hope was on'y four years old.
+An' Hope died when I was away servin' in the _Iroquois_ lookin' fur
+Semmes,... an' I ain't got no one else to keer fur me naow.... Waal,
+goodbye, Prout; I guess I'll beat up ter windward of this grewp, and
+then make a bee-line fur Honolulu.”
+
+In another minute he had shambled down to the boat, and as the sun sank
+below the line of coconuts on the lee side of Nukutavau, the schooner
+swept away into the darkness. Then Prout, taking the little girl in his
+arms, followed old Malineta to the house of Patiaro the chief, and again
+took up the thread of his lonely existence.
+
+Four years had come and gone. In his quiet house, under the shadow of
+the ever-rustling palms, Prout lay upon his rough couch of coarse
+mats, and little Mercedes stood beside him with her tiny hand upon his
+death-dewed forehead.
+
+The missionary ship had just anchored in the lagoon, and Patiaro and his
+men had paddled off to her, so that, save for the low murmur of voices
+of women and children in the houses near by, the village lay silent.
+
+Weeping softly, the child placed her tender cheek against the rugged
+face of the dying man, and whispered:
+
+“What is it, my father, that aileth thee?”
+
+He drew her slender figure to him with his failing hands and kissed her
+with pallid lips, and then Prout the trader gave up the battle of life.
+
+
+
+
+MRS. CLINTON
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+As the sun set blood red, a thick white fog crept westward, and the
+miserable fever-stricken wretches that lay gasping and dying on
+the decks of the transport _Breckenbridge_ knew that another day of
+calm--and horror--waited them with the coming of the dawn on the morrow.
+
+Twenty miles away the dark outline of the Australian shore shone out
+green and purple with the dying sunshafts, and then quickly dulled again
+to the sombre shades of the coming night and the white mantle of fog.
+
+On the starboard side of the high quarterdeck of the transport the
+master stood gazing seaward with a worn and troubled face, and as he
+viewed the gathering fog a heavy sigh broke from him.
+
+“God help us!” he muttered, “ninety-six dead already, and as many more
+likely to die in another week if this calm keeos up.”
+
+A hand was laid on his shoulder, and turning he met the pale face of the
+surviving surgeon of the fever-stricken ship.
+
+“Seven more cases, Belton--five prisoners and two marines.”
+
+The master of the _Breckenbridge_ buried his face in his hands and
+groaned aloud.
+
+“Can nothing be done, doctor? My God! it is terrible to see people
+perishing like this before our eyes when help is so near. Look!
+over there, only twenty miles away, is Twofold Bay, where there is a
+settlement, but I dare not send a boat ashore. There are not ten sound
+men in the ship, and if an easterly wind springs up I could not keep my
+ship from going ashore.”
+
+The young surgeon made no answer for awhile. Ever since the
+_Breckenbridge_ had left Rio, one or more of the convicts, seamen, or
+military guard had died day after day; and he had striven hard since
+the outbreak of the fever to stay its deadly progress. The cause he
+knew well: the foul, overcrowded 'tween decks, where four hundred human
+beings were confined in a space not fit to hold a hundred, the
+vile drinking-water and viler provisions, the want of even a simple
+disinfectant to clear the horrible, vitiated atmosphere, and the
+passage, protracted long beyond even the usual time in those days, had
+been the main causes of their present awful condition.
+
+Presently the surgeon spoke--
+
+“Nothing can be done, Belton.”
+
+“How is Lieutenant Clinton, sir?” asked the master, as the surgeon
+turned to leave him.
+
+“Dying fast. Another hour or so will see the end.”
+
+“And his wife and baby?”
+
+“She bears up well, but her infant cannot possibly live another day in
+such weather as this. God help her, poor little woman! Better for her if
+she follows husband and child.”
+
+“Who is with Mr. Clinton, doctor?” asked the master presently.
+
+“Adair--No. 267. I brought him into the cabin. Indeed, Clinton asked me
+to do so. He thinks much of the young fellow, and his conduct ever
+since the outbreak occurred deserves recognition. He has rendered
+me invaluable assistance with Clinton and the other sick in the main
+cabin.”
+
+“He's a fine young fellow,” said Belton, “and his good example has done
+much to keep the others quiet. Do you know, doctor, that at any time
+during the last three weeks the ship could have been captured by a dozen
+even unarmed men.”
+
+“I do know it; but the poor wretches seem never to have thought of
+rising.”
+
+“What was Adair sent out for?” asked Belton.
+
+“Lunacy; otherwise, patriotism. He's one of a batch of five--the five
+best conducted men on the ship--sentenced to end their days in
+Botany Bay for participating in an attack on a party of yeomanry at
+Bally-somewhere or other in Ireland. There was a band of about fifty,
+but these five were the only ones captured--the other forty-five were
+most likely informers and led them into the mess.”
+
+A hurried footstep sounded near them, and a big man, in a semi-military
+costume, presented himself abruptly before them. His dark, coarse race
+was flushed with anger, and his manner insolent and aggressive. Not
+deigning to notice the presence of the surgeon, he addressed himself to
+the master of the transport.
+
+“Mr. Belton, I protest against the presence in the main cabin of a
+ruffianly convict. The scoundrel refuses to let me have access to
+Lieutenant Clinton. Both on my own account and on that of Mr. Clinton,
+who needs my services, I desire that this man be removed immediately.”
+
+“What right, sir, have you, a passenger, to protest?” answered Belton
+surlily. “Mr. Clinton is dying and Prisoner Adair is nursing him.”
+
+“That does not matter to me, I----”
+
+The surgeon stepped in front of the newcomer.
+
+“But it _shall_ matter to you, Mr. Jacob Bolger, Government storekeeper,
+jailer, overseer, or commissary's runner, or whatever your position is.
+And I shall see that No. 267 suffers no molestation from you.”
+
+“Who are you, sir, to threaten me? The Governor shall hear of this when
+we arrive at the settlement. A pretty thing that I should be talked to
+like this by the ship's doctor!”
+
+“By God, sir, I'll give you something to talk about,” and the surgeon's
+Welsh blood leapt to his face. Advancing to the break of the poop, he
+called--
+
+“Sergeant Matthews!”
+
+The one remaining non-commissioned officer of the diminished
+convict-guard at once appeared and saluted.
+
+He was a solemn-faced, taciturn man, devoted to Clinton.
+
+“Mr. Belton,” said the doctor, “in the serious illness of Lieutenant
+Clinton I now assume charge of the military guard and convicts on
+this ship, and as a first step to maintain proper discipline at such a
+critical time, I shall confine Mr. Bolger to his cabin. Sergeant, take
+him below and lock him in.”
+
+Bolger collapsed at once. “I beg your pardon, doctor, for my hastiness.
+I did not know.... I was----”
+
+The surgeon cut his apologies short. “Go to your cabin, sir. I shall
+not have you locked in, but, by heavens! if you attempt to go into Mr.
+Clinton's cabin I'll put you in irons, Government official though you
+are. I am well aware that your presence is particularly objectionable to
+Mrs. Clinton.”
+
+With an evil look Bolger left them, and the surgeon, turning to
+Belton, said: “That settles _him_, anyway, for a time. He's a thorough
+scoundrel, I believe. Mrs. Clinton has a positive horror of the man; yet
+the brute is continually pestering her with offers of his services. Now
+I must go below again to poor Clinton.”
+
+In the dimly lighted cabin the young officer lay breathing heavily, and
+as the doctor softly entered he saw that the time was now very near.
+By her husband's side sat Marion Clinton, her loosened wavy brown hair
+hiding from view her own face and the dying hand which she held pressed
+to her quivering lips. At her feet, on a soft cushion on the floor, lay
+her infant, with one thin waxen hand showing out from the light
+shawl that covered it; at the further end of the cabin stood a young,
+broad-shouldered man in grey convict garb. As the doctor entered he
+stood up and saluted.
+
+The sound of the opening door made Clinton turn his face. “Is that you,
+Williams?” he said, in slow, laboured tones. “Marion, my girl, bear up.
+I know I am going, old fellow. Do what you can for her, Williams. The
+Governor will see to her returning to England, but it may be long before
+a ship leaves.... Marion!”
+
+“Yes,” she answered brokenly.
+
+“Is baby no better?”
+
+“No,” she answered with a sob, as she raised her tear-stained face to
+Surgeon Williams, who shook his head. “There is no hope for her, Harry.”
+
+His hand pressed hers gently. “God help you, dear! Only for that it
+would not be so hard to die now; and now I leave you quite alone.”
+
+She stooped down and lifted the fragile infant, and Williams and No.
+267 turned their faces away for awhile. Presently Clinton called the
+surgeon.
+
+“Williams,” and his eyes looked wistfully into the doctor's, “do what
+you can for her. There is something like a hundred guineas among my
+effects--that will help. Thank God, though, she will be a rich woman
+when my poor old father dies. I am the only son.”
+
+The surgeon bent down and took his hand. “She shall never want a friend
+while I live, Clinton, never.”
+
+A light of thankfulness flickered in Clinton's eyes, and the pallid lips
+moved; and then as wife and friend, each holding a hand, waited for him
+to speak, there came the sound of a heavy sob. Convict 267 was kneeling
+and praying for the departing soul.
+
+Slowly the minutes passed, the silence broken but by the creaking and
+straining of the ship as she rose and fell to the sea, and now and again
+the strange, mournful cry of some night-fishing penguin.
+
+“Marion,” Clinton said at last, “I would like to speak to Adair before I
+die. He has been good to you and to me.”
+
+Walking softly in his stockinged feet, Adair advanced close to the bed.
+
+“Give me your hand, Adair. God bless you,” he whispered.
+
+“And God bless you, sir, and all here,” answered the young Irishman in a
+husky, broken voice.
+
+“Hush,” said the surgeon warningly, and his eyes sought those of the
+watching wife, with a meaning in them that needed no words. Quickly she
+passed her arm around Clinton, and let his head lie upon her shoulder.
+He sighed heavily and then lay still.
+
+The surgeon touched the kneeling figure of Convict Adair on the arm, and
+together they walked softly out of the cabin.
+
+“Come again in an hour, Adair,” said Dr. Williams; “you can help me
+best. We must bury him by daylight. Meanwhile you can get a little
+sleep.”
+
+No. 267 clasped his hands tightly together as he looked at the doctor,
+and his lips worked and twitched convulsively. Then a wild beseeching
+look overspread his face. “For God's sake don't ask me!” he burst out.
+“I implore you as man to man to have pity on me. I _cannot_ be here at
+daylight!”
+
+“As you please,” answered Williams, with a surprised expression; and
+then as he went on deck he said to himself, “Some cursed, degrading
+Irish superstition, I suppose, about a death at sea.”
+
+*****
+
+Slowly the hours crept on. No noise disturbed the watcher by her dead
+save the low voices of the watch on deck and the unknown sounds that
+one hears at night alone. Prisoner Adair was sitting in the main cabin
+within near call of Mrs. Clinton, and, with head upon his knees, seemed
+to slumber. Suddenly the loud clamour of five bells as the hour was
+struck made him start to his feet and look quickly about him with
+nervous apprehension. From the dead officer's state-room a narrow line
+of light from beneath the door sent an oblique ray aslant the cabin
+floor and crossed the convict's stockinged feet.
+
+For a moment he hesitated; then tapped softly at the door. It opened,
+and the pale face of Marion Clinton met his as he stood before her cap
+in hand.
+
+“Have you come to take”--the words died away in her throat with a sob.
+
+“No,” he answered, “I have but come to ask you to let me say goodbye,
+and God keep and prosper you, madam. My time here is short, and you and
+your husband have made my bitter lot endurable.”
+
+She gave him her hand. He clasped it reverently in his for a moment,
+and his face flushed a dusky red. Then he knelt and kissed her child's
+little hand.
+
+“Are you leaving the ship? Are we then in port or near it?” she asked.
+
+He looked steadfastly at her for a moment, and then, pushing the door to
+behind him, lowered his voice to a whisper.
+
+“Mrs. Clinton, your husband one day told me that he would aid me to
+regain my freedom. Will you do as much?”
+
+“Yes,” she answered, trembling; “I will. I shall tell the Governor how
+you----”
+
+He shook his head. “Not in that way, but now, now.”
+
+“How _can_ I help you now?” she asked wonder-ingly.
+
+“Give me Mr. Clinton's pistols. Before daylight four others and myself
+mean to escape from the ship. The guard are all too sick to prevent us
+even if we are discovered. There is a boat towing astern, lowered
+with the intention of sending it ashore to seek assistance. Water and
+provisions are in it. But we have no firearms, and if we land on the
+coast may meet with savages.”
+
+Without a word she put her husband's pistols in his hands, and then gave
+him all the ammunition she could find.
+
+“Do not shed blood,” she began, when the convict clutched her arm. A
+sound as of some one moving came from the next cabin--the one occupied
+by Jacob Bolger--and a savage light came into Adair's eyes as he stood
+and listened.
+
+“He would give the alarm in a moment if he knew,” he muttered.
+
+“Yes,” she answered; “he hates you, and I am terrified even to meet his
+glance.”
+
+But Mr. Jacob Bolger made no further noise; he had heard quite enough,
+and at that moment was lying back in his bunk with an exultant smile,
+waiting for Adair to leave the cabin.
+
+Then the convict, still crouching on the floor, held out his hand.
+
+“Will you touch my hand once more, Mrs. Clinton?” he said huskily.
+
+She gave it to him unhesitatingly.
+
+“Goodbye, Adair. I pray God all will go well with you.”
+
+He bent his face over it and whispered “Goodbye,” and then went up on
+deck.
+
+*****
+
+As No. 267 stumbled along the main deck he saw that all discipline was
+abandoned, and even the for'ard sentry, that for the past week had been
+stationed to guard the prisoners when on deck, had left his post.
+
+At the fore-hatch four shadowy forms approached him, and then the five
+men whispered together.
+
+“Good,” said Adair at last. Then they quickly separated.
+
+*****
+
+Six bells had struck when Jacob Bolger opened his cabin door, peered
+cautiously about, and then, stepping quickly to Mrs. Clinton's door,
+turned the handle without knocking, and entered.
+
+“Why do you come here, Mr. Bolger?” said Marion Clinton, with a
+terrified look in her dark eyes. “Do you not know that my husband is
+dead and my child dying?” And, holding the infant in her arms, she
+barred a nearer approach.
+
+“I am sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Clinton; but I come as a friend,
+first to offer you my poor services in your great affliction, and
+secondly--but as a friend still--to warn you of the dangerous step you
+have taken in assisting a party of convicts to escape from the ship.”
+
+“For Heaven's sake, Mr. Bolger, have some pity on me! My dear husband is
+dead, my child has but a few hours--perhaps minutes--to live. Do not add
+to my misery.”
+
+“I shall not betray _you!_” and he advanced a step nearer to her;
+“but it is my duty,” and his cunning eyes watched her shrinking figure
+keenly, “to prevent these men from escaping.” And then he turned as if
+to go.
+
+Her courage came back. “Mr. Bolger”--and she placed her hand on his
+cuff, shuddering as she did so--“you are not a rich man. Will you--can
+I--will a hundred guineas buy your silence? It is all I have. Forget
+that which you know. Let these wretched men escape. What harm can it do
+you?”
+
+His savage, brutal nature came out, and he laughed coarsely.
+
+“None, but--but you would like to see them get away, would you not?”
+
+“Yes,” she answered, looking at him with dulled eyes, “Adair has been
+very good to us.”
+
+“Well, look here; money cannot buy my silence, but _you_ can. Now do you
+know what I mean?”
+
+“No,” she answered despairingly. “How should I? What is it you wish me
+to do?”
+
+“This”--and he bent his evil-eyed face close to hers--“promise to marry
+me three months from now.”
+
+She gave a gasping cry, and sank back upon her seat. He followed and
+stood over her, and then spoke quickly--
+
+“Ever since I first saw you I have loved you. You are a free woman now,
+and I shall have a good position at the settlement.”
+
+She made a gesture of horror, and his voice grew savage and threatening.
+“And unless you make me that promise I'll give the alarm now, and
+Adair and his confederates shall hang together. Come, think, and decide
+quickly--their life or death rests in your hands.”
+
+For some moments she bent her gaze upon the pinched and sunken features
+of her dying child; then she raised her head, and a swift gleam of fire
+came into her eyes.
+
+“I will do as you wish. Now go.”
+
+Without a word Bolger turned and left the cabin.
+
+As he walked quickly through the main cabin he did not see the tall
+figure of Sergeant Matthews standing a few feet aft from Mrs. Clinton's
+cabin-door. The moment Bolger disappeared the sergeant tapped and
+called--
+
+“Mrs. Clinton!”
+
+A new terror beset her as she recognised the sergeant's voice; but she
+bravely stifled it and bade him come in.
+
+The solemn, wooden-faced soldier looked at her steadily for a second or
+so, and then, being a man of few words, got through with them as quickly
+as possible.
+
+“Beg pardon, madam, doctor sent me with a message to Mr. Bolger, telling
+him he was at liberty to leave his cabin; found he was gone; heard
+his voice in here; waited to see if could be of any assistance to you,
+madam.”
+
+There was a kindly ring in his voice which encouraged her.
+
+“Matthews, did you hear what Mr. Bolger was saying?”
+
+The sergeant looked stolidly before him. “I did, madam--part of it.”
+
+“Part?” she repeated agitatedly.
+
+“Yes, madam--about Adair and some other men.”
+
+She pressed her hand to her throat. Matthews was an old, tried servant
+of her husband's in former years. “Close the door!” she said suddenly.
+
+Opening a locker, she took out a leathern-bound writing-desk, unlocked
+it, and in a moment or two more turned to the sergeant with a small but
+heavy purse in her hand.
+
+“Sergeant,” she said quietly; “this money, nearly a hundred guineas, is
+for you. I may not live to reach the settlement at Port Jackson. And I
+would like to reward you for--for----” The rest died away.
+
+Matthews understood. He took the money, saluted, and with softened tread
+left the cabin. He was not a hard man, and had meant to do his duty when
+he heard Bolger speak of Adair's intended escape; but a hundred guineas
+was a large sum to him.
+
+As the door closed after the sergeant, Marion Clinton, holding the
+infant close to her bosom, saw the grey shadow deepen on the pallid
+race, as with a gentle tremor of the frail body the child's head fell
+back upon her arm.
+
+*****
+
+No one on board heard a soft splashing of the Water as Adair swam to the
+boat towing astern and cut the painter where it touched the water-line;
+the dense fog hid everything from view. Holding the line in his left
+hand he swam silently along, drawing the boat after him, till he reached
+the fore-chains. Then four figures clambered noiselessly over the
+bulwarks and got into the boat, which was at once pushed off.
+
+Wrapped in the white mantle of fog, they drifted slowly away, watching
+with bated breath the misty outlines of the towering spars grow feinter
+and fainter, and then vanish altogether, till, although they were but
+forty yards away, the position of the _Brekenbridge_ was discernible
+only by a dull blurr of sickly light that came from her stern ports.
+Then suddenly there came the sound of a splash, followed by tramping of
+feet and Captain Belton's hoarse voice.
+
+“Hands to the boat, here! Mrs. Clinton and her baby have fallen
+overboard.”
+
+Lights appeared on the deck, and then a voice called out, “The boat is
+gone, sir!”
+
+“Clear away the starboard-quarter boat, then!” roared Belton; “quick!”
+
+But before the quarter-boat could be lowered, the sound of oars was
+heard, a boat dashed up, and a man, leaning over the side, grasped the
+drowning woman and lifted her in, her dead baby still clasped tightly in
+her arms.
+
+“Have you got her?” called out Williams and Belton together.
+
+“No,” came the answer, and those in the boat began rowing again, but
+instead of approaching the ship, she seemed to be swallowed up in the
+fog, and the _click clack_ of the oars momentarily sounded feinter.
+
+“By heavens, the scoundrels are pulling away!” shouted Belton. “After
+them, you fellows in the quarter-boat!”
+
+But the dense, impenetrable mantle of fog made pursuit useless, and the
+quarter-boat returned an hour later with an exhausted crew.
+
+At ten o'clock next morning a keen, cold air came from the south-east,
+and two days later the _Breckenbridge_ brought her load of misery into
+Sydney Cove, and her master reported the escape of Edward Adair, Michael
+Terry, William O'Day, Patrick O'Day, and Daniel McCoy, and the death
+by drowning of Mrs. Clinton, who, with her baby in her arms, had jumped
+overboard on the same night.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+Till dawn the convicts urged the boat along through the fog, then they
+ceased rowing and ate ravenously of the food in the boat's locker.
+
+Lying upon the sail in the bottom, of the boat, Mrs. Clinton slept. The
+night was warm, her wet clothing did her no harm, and her sleep was the
+sleep of physical and mental exhaustion. As the rising sun sent its rays
+through the now lifting fog, Adair touched the sleeping woman on her
+shoulder.
+
+She opened her eyes and looked wildly about her, then at the outline
+of a little figure that lay beside her covered with a convict's coarse
+jacket, and seizing it in her arms, looked at the five men with eyes of
+such maddened terror, they thought her reason was gone.
+
+But rough, unkempt and wild-looking as were Adair's four companions,
+they treated her with the tenderest pity, and watched in silent sympathy
+the bitter tide of grief that so quickly possessed her. As the sun rose
+higher, the glassy water rippled here and there in dark patches, and the
+men looked longingly at the sail on which she sat, holding the infant,
+but hesitated to disturb her. Away to the westward the dim summits of a
+range of mountains showed faintly blue, but of the _Breckenbridge_ there
+was no sign, and a grey albatross sailing slowly overhead was their
+only companion. Already Adair and the others had cast away their hated
+convict garb, and clothed themselves in tattered garments given them by
+some of the transport's crew.
+
+Another hour passed, and then helping Mrs. Clinton to a seat in the
+stern, they hoisted the mainsail and jib, and headed the boat for the
+land, for the breeze was now blowing freshly.
+
+What Adair's intentions were regarding Mrs. Clinton the others did not
+ask. Theirs was unquestioning loyalty, and they were ready to follow him
+now with the same blind and fateful devotion that had brought them with
+him on board the _Breckenbridge_ in manacles.
+
+As the boat sped over the sunlit sea Adair spoke--
+
+“Mrs. Clinton, I shall try to reach a settlement near here. There we may
+be able to put you ashore.”
+
+She only smiled vacantly, and with a feeling of intense pity Adair saw
+her again bend her head and heard her talking and crooning to the dead
+child.
+
+“Sure 'tis God's great pity has desthroyed her raison, poor darlin',”
+ muttered a grey-headed old prisoner named Terry; “lave her alone. We'll
+take the babe from her by an' by.”
+
+Between the boat and the faint blue outline of the distant land lay the
+rounded wooded slopes of Montagu Island, showing a deep depression in
+the centre. As the boat sailed round its northern point a small bay
+opened out, and here in smooth water they landed without difficulty.
+Carrying Mrs. Clinton to a grassy nook under the shade of the cliffs,
+she unresistingly allowed old Terry to take the infant from her arms,
+and her dulled eyes took no heed of what followed.
+
+Forcing their way through the thick, coarse grass that clothed the
+western side of the island, and disturbing countless thousands of
+breeding gulls and penguins, Adair and Terry dug a tiny grave on the
+summit under a grove of low, wide-branched mimosa trees, and there the
+child was buried.
+
+As they were about to descend, the old man gave a shout and pointed
+seaward--there, not a mile away, was a large ship, whose many boats
+showed her to be a whaler, and quite near the shore a boat was pulling
+swiftly in towards the landing-place.
+
+Rushing down to their companions they gave the alarm, and then a hurried
+consultation was held.
+
+“We must meet them,” said Adair, “we can't hide the boat. If they mean
+mischief we can take to the woods.”
+
+In another five minutes the newcomers saw the little group and gave a
+loud, friendly hail. Stepping out from his companions, who followed him
+closely, Adair advanced to meet the strangers.
+
+A young, swarthy-faced man, who steered, jumped out of the boat and at
+once addressed him. He listened with interest to Adair's story that they
+had escaped from a ship that had gone ashore on the coast some weeks
+before, and then said quietly--
+
+“Just so. Well, I'm glad that I can assist you. I've just come from Port
+Jackson, and am bound to the East Indies, sperm-whaling. Come aboard,
+all of you, and I'll land you at one of the Dutch ports there.”
+
+Adair's face paled. Something told him that his story was not believed.
+What should he do?
+
+The captain of the whaler beckoned him aside. “Don't be alarmed. I can
+guess where you come from. But that doesn't concern me. Now look here.
+My ship--the _Manhattan_, of Salem--is a safer place for you than an
+open boat, and I'm short-handed and want men. You can all lend a hand
+till I land you at Amboyna or Ternate. Is that your wife?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Well, what are you going to do--stay here or come aboard?”
+
+“We accept your offer gladly,” answered Adair, now convinced of the
+American's good intentions.
+
+“Very well; carry your wife down to the boat while my men get some
+gulls' eggs.”
+
+*****
+
+For two weeks after Mrs. Clinton was carried up the whale-ship's side
+she hovered between life and death. Then, very, very slowly, she began
+to mend. A month more and then the _Manhattan_ hove-to off the verdant
+hills and shining beaches of Rotumah Island.
+
+“You cannot do better than go ashore here,” the captain had said to
+Adair a few hours before. “I know the natives well. They are a
+kind, amiable race of people, and many of the men, having sailed in
+whale-ships, can speak English. The women will take good care of Mrs.
+Clinton” (Adair had long since told him hers and his own true story);
+“have no fear of that. In five months I ought to be back here on my way
+to Port Jackson, and I'll give her a passage there. If she remains on
+board she will most likely die; the weather is getting hotter every day
+as we go north, and she is as weak as an infant still. As for yourself
+and old Michael, you will both be safe here on Rotumah. No King's ship
+has ever touched here yet; and if one should come the natives will hide
+you.”
+
+That evening, as the warm-hearted, pitying native women attended to Mrs.
+Clinton in the chiefs house, Adair and Terry watched the _Manhattan's_
+sails disappear below the horizon.
+
+*****
+
+There for six months they lived, and with returning health and strength
+Marion Clinton learned to partly forget her grief, and to take interest
+in her strange surroundings. Ever since they had landed Adair and old
+Michael Terry had devoted themselves to her, and as the months went by
+she grew, if not happy, at least resigned. To the natives, who had never
+before had a white woman living among them, she was as a being from
+another world, and they were her veriest slaves, happy to obey her
+slightest wish. At first she had counted the days as they passed; then,
+as the sense of her utter loneliness in the world beyond would come to
+her, the thought of Adair and his unswerving care for and devotion to
+her would fill her heart with quiet thankfulness. She knew that it
+was for her sake alone he had remained on the island, and when the six
+months had passed, her woman's heart told her that she cared for him,
+and that “goodbye” would be hard to say.
+
+But how much she really did care for him she did not know, till one
+day she saw him being carried into the village with a white face and
+blood-stained garments. He had been out turtle-fishing, the canoe had
+capsized on the reef, and Adair had been picked up insensible by his
+native companions, with a broken arm and a deep jagged cut at the back
+of his head.
+
+Day by day she watched by his couch of mats, and felt a thrill of joy
+when she knew that all danger was past.
+
+One afternoon while Adair, still too weak to walk, lay outside his house
+thinking of the soft touch and gentle voice of his nurse, there came a
+roar of voices from the village, and a pang shot through his heart--the
+_Manhattan_ was back again.
+
+But it was not the _Manhattan_, and ten minutes afterwards four or five
+natives, headed by old Terry, white-faced and trembling, came rushing
+along the path.
+
+“'Tis a King's ship!” the old man gasped, and then in another minute
+Adair was placed on a rude litter and carried into the mountains.
+
+It was indeed a King's ship, bound to Batavia to buy stores for the
+starving settlers at Port Jackson, and in want of provisions even for
+the ship's company. Almost as soon as she anchored, the natives flocked
+off to her with fruit, vegetables, and such poultry as they had to
+barter. Among those who landed from the ship was a tall, grave-raced
+Sergeant of Marines, who, after buying some pigs and fowls from the
+natives on the beach, had set out, stick in hand, for a walk along the
+palm-lined shore. At the request of the leading chief, all those who
+came ashore carried no weapons, and, indeed, the gentle, timid manner of
+the natives soon convinced the white men that there was no need to arm
+themselves. A quarter of a mile walk hid the ship from view, and then
+Sergeant Matthews, if he did not show it, at least felt surprised, for
+suddenly he came face to face with a young, handsome white woman dressed
+in a loose jacket and short skirt. Her feet were bare, and in one hand
+she carried a rough basket, in the other a heavy three-pronged wooden
+crab-spear. He recognised her in a moment, and drawing himself up,
+saluted, as if he had seen her but for the first time.
+
+“What do you want?” she asked trembling; “why have you come here--to
+look for me?”--and as she drew back a quick anger gave place to fear.
+
+“No, Madam,” and the sergeant looked, not at her, but away past her, as
+if addressing the trees around him, “I am in charge of the Marine guard
+on board the _Scarborough_. Put in here for supplies. Ship bound to
+Batavia for stores, under orders of Deputy-Commissary Bolger, who is on
+board.”
+
+“Ah!” and she shuddered. “Matthews, do not tell him I am here. See, I am
+in your power. I implore you to return to the ship and say nothing of my
+being here. Go, go, Matthews, and if you have pity in your heart for me
+do all you can to prevent any of the ship's company from lingering about
+the village! I beg, I pray of you, to ask me no questions, but go, go,
+and Heaven reward you!”
+
+The sergeant again saluted, and without another word turned on his heel
+and walked leisurely back to the boat.
+
+An hour before sunset, Adair, from his hiding-place in the mountains,
+saw the great ship fill her sails and stand away round the northern
+point. Terry had left him to watch the movements of the landing party,
+and Adair but waited his return. Soon through the growing stillness of
+the mountain forest he heard a footfall, and then the woman he loved
+stood before him.
+
+“Thank God!” she cried, as she clasped her hands together; “they have
+gone.”
+
+“Yes,” he answered huskily, “but... why have you not gone with them? It
+is a King's ship,... and I hoped--oh! why did you stay?”
+
+She raised her dark eyes to his, and answered him with a sob that told
+him why.
+
+Sitting beside him with her head on his shoulder, she told him how that
+morning she had accompanied a party of native women to a village some
+miles distant on a fishing excursion, and knew nothing of the ship till
+she was returning and met Sergeant Matthews.
+
+“And now,” she said, with a soft laugh, “neither King's ship nor
+whale-ship shall ever part us.”
+
+*****
+
+Another month went by all too swiftly now for their new-found happiness,
+and then the lumbering old _Manhattan_ came at last, and that night her
+captain and Adair sat smoking in the latter's thatched hut.
+
+“That,” said the American, pointing to a heavy box being borne past
+the open door by two natives, “that box is for Mrs. Clinton. I just
+ransacked the Dutchmen's stores at Amboyna, and bought all the woman's
+gear I could get. How is she? Old Terry says she's doing 'foine.'”
+
+“She is well, thank you,” said Adair, with a happy smile, and then
+rising he placed his hand on the seaman's shoulder, while his face
+reddened and glowed like a boy's.
+
+“Oh, that's it, is it?” said the American with a good-natured laugh.
+“Well, I'm right pleased to hear it. Now look here. The _Manhattan_ is
+a full ship, and I'm not going to Port Jackson to sell my oil this time.
+I'm just going right straight home to Salem. And you and she are coming
+with me; and old Parson Barrow is going to marry you in my house; and in
+my house you and your wife are going to stay until you settle down and
+become a citizen of the best country on the earth.”
+
+*****
+
+And the merry chorus of the sailors, as they raised the anchor from its
+coral bed, was borne across the bay to old Terry, who sat watching the
+ship from the beach. No arguments that Adair and the captain used could
+make him change his mind about remaining on the island. He was too old,
+he said, to care about going to America, and Rotumah was a “foine place
+to die in--'twas so far away from the bloody redcoats.”
+
+As he looked at the two figures who stood on the poop waving their hands
+to him, his old eyes dimmed and blurred.
+
+“May the howly Saints bless an' kape thim for iver! Sure, he's a thrue
+man, an' she's a good woman!”
+
+Quickly the ship sailed round the point, and Marion Clinton, with a last
+look at the white beach, saw the old man rise, take off his ragged hat,
+and wave it in farewell.
+
+
+
+
+THE CUTTING-OFF OF THE “QUEEN CHARLOTTE”
+
+One day, early in the year 1814, the look-out man at the South Head of
+Port Jackson saw a very strange-looking craft approaching the land from
+the eastward. She was a brigantine, and appeared to be in ballast;
+and as she drew nearer it was noticed from the shore that she seemed
+short-handed, for when within half a mile of the Heads the wind died
+away, the vessel fell broadside on to the sea and rolled about terribly;
+and in this situation her decks were clearly visible to the lightkeeper
+and his men, who could see but three persons on board. In an hour after
+the north-easter had died away, a fresh southerly breeze came up, and
+then those who were watching the stranger saw that her sails, instead of
+being made of canvas, were composed of mats stitched together, similar
+to those used by South Sea Island sailing canoes. Awkward and clumsy as
+these looked, they yet held the wind well, and soon the brigantine came
+sweeping in through the Heads at a great rate of speed.
+
+Running close in under the lee of the land on the southern shore of the
+harbour the stranger dropped anchor, and shortly after was boarded by
+a boat from the shore, and to the surprise of those who manned her the
+vessel was at once recognised as the _Queen Charlotte_, which had sailed
+out of Port Jackson in the May of the preceding year.
+
+The naval officer in charge of the boat at once jumped on board, and,
+greeting the master, a tall, bronzed-faced man of thirty, whose name was
+Shelley, asked him what was wrong, and where the rest of his crew were.
+
+“Dead! Lieutenant Carlisle,” answered the master of the brigantine
+sadly. “We three--myself, one white seaman, and a native chief--are all
+that are left.”
+
+*****
+
+Even as far back as 1810 the port of Sydney sent out a great number of
+vessels all over the South Seas. The majority of these were engaged
+in the whale fishery, and, as a rule, were highly successful; others,
+principally smaller craft, made long but very remunerative cruises among
+the islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, trading for coconut
+oil, sandal-wood, and pearl shell. A year or two before, an adventurous
+trading captain had made a discovery that a vast group of islands named
+by Cook the Dangerous Archipelago, and lying to the eastward of Tahiti,
+was rich in pearl shell. The inhabitants were a race of brave and
+determined savages, extremely suspicious of, and averse to, the presence
+of strangers; but yet, once this feeling was overcome by just treatment,
+they were safe enough to venture among, provided a good look-out was
+kept, and the vessel well armed to resist an attempt at cutting-off.
+
+The news of the wealth that lay hidden in the unknown lagoons of the
+Dangerous Archipelago (now called the Paumotu Group) was soon spread
+from one end of the Pacific to the other, and before two years had
+passed no less than seven vessels had appeared among the islands, and
+secured very valuable cargoes for a very trifling outlay. Among those
+who were tempted to hazard their lives in making a fortune quickly was
+Herbert Shelley, the master and owner of the _Queen Charlotte_.
+
+*****
+
+Leaving Sydney on May 14, with a crew of nine men all told, the
+brigantine arrived, thirty-one days later, at Matavai Bay in Tahiti.
+Here she remained some days, while the master negotiated with the chiefs
+of the district for the services of some of their men as divers. Six
+were secured at Tahiti; and then, after wooding and watering, and taking
+on board a number of hogs, fowls, and turtle, presented to Captain
+Shelley and his officers by the chief Pomare, the vessel stood away
+north-west to the island of Raiatea, with a similar purpose in view.
+Here the master succeeded in obtaining three fine, stalwart men, who
+were noted not only for their skill in diving but for their courage and
+fidelity as well.
+
+Among those natives secured at Tahiti was a chief named Upaparu, a
+relative of Pomare, and hereditary ruler of the district of Taiarapu.
+He was a man of herculean proportions, and during the stay of Captain
+Bligh, of the _Bounty_, at Tahiti, was a constant visitor to the white
+men, with whom he delighted to engage in friendly wrestling matches
+and other feats of strength and endurance. Fletcher Christian, the
+unfortunate leader of the mutiny that subsequently occurred, was the
+only one of all the ship's company who was a match for Upaparu in these
+athletic encounters, and until thirty years ago there remained a song
+that recounted how the unfortunate and wronged master's mate of the
+_Bounty_ and the young chief of Taiarapu once wrestled for half an hour
+without either yielding an inch, though “the ground shook and quivered
+beneath the stamping and the pressing of their feet.” And although
+twenty-three years had passed since Upaparu had seen the barque sail
+away from Tahiti for the last time, when Christian and his fated
+comrades bade the people farewell for ever, the native chief was still,
+despite his fifty years, a man of amazing strength, iron resolution, and
+dauntless courage.
+
+The voyage from the fertile and beautiful Society Islands to the low,
+sandy atolls of the Dangerous Archipelago was a pleasant one; for not
+only was the weather delightfully fine, but there prevailed on board a
+spirit of harmony and comradeship among Captain Shelley, his officers,
+and crew, that was not often seen. A brave and humane man himself, the
+master of the _Queen Charlotte_ was particularly fortunate in having
+for his first and second officers two young men of similar dispositions.
+This was their second voyage among the islands of the Society and
+Dangerous Archipelago Islands; and their kindness to the natives with
+whom they had come into contact, their freedom from the degrading
+licentiousness that, as a rule, marked the conduct of seamen associating
+with the natives, and the almost brotherly regard that they evinced for
+each other made them not only respected, but loved and admired by whites
+and natives alike. Both were men of fine stature and great strength;
+and, indeed, Upaparu one day jestingly remarked that he and Captain
+Shelley's two officers were a match for three times their number.
+
+For some eight or nine days the _Queen Charlotte_ beat steadily to the
+eastward against the gentle southeast trades, which, at that time of the
+year, blew so softly as to raise scarce more than tiny ripples upon the
+bosom of the ocean. Then, one day, there appeared against the horizon
+the faint outline of a line of coco-trees springing from the ocean,
+and by and by a white gleam of beach showed at their base as the vessel
+lifted to the long ocean swell, and then sank again from view; but up
+aloft on the brigantine's foreyard, the native pearl-divers, with their
+big, luminous eyes shining with excitement, gazed over and beyond the
+tops of the palm-trees, and saw the light-green waters of a noble lagoon
+that stretched northwest and south-east for fifty miles, and twenty from
+east to west.
+
+Aft, on the skylight, Captain Shelley and his mate, with Upaparu, the
+chief, leaning over their shoulders, peered over a rough chart of the
+Dangerous Archipelago which showed a fairly correct outline of the
+island before them. Twelve months before, the master of the brigantine
+had heard from the captain of a South Seaman--as whaleships were called
+in these days--that this island of Fakarava abounded in pearl shell, and
+had determined to ascertain the truth of the statement. As he carefully
+studied the chart given him by the captain of the whaler, and read aloud
+the names of the villages that appeared here and there, the Tahitian
+chief nodded assent and confirmation.
+
+“That is true,” he said to the white man, “I have heard these names
+before; for long before Tuti the Wise{*} came to Tahiti, we had heard
+of these people of Fakarava and their great lagoon, so wide that even if
+one climbs the tallest coconut-tree on one side he cannot see across to
+the other. And once, when I was a boy, I saw bonito hooks of thick pearl
+shell, that were brought to Taiarapu from this place by the Paniola.{**}
+
+     *  Captain Cook.
+
+     *  The Spaniards--two Spanish ships fitted out by the
+     Viceroy of Peru had visited these islands before Cook.
+
+“But then,” he went on to say, “O friends of my heart, we must be
+careful, for these men of Fakarava are all _aitos_ (fighting men), and
+no ship hath ever yet been inside the great lagoon, for the people swarm
+off in their canoes, club and spear in hand, and, stripped to the loins,
+are ready to fight to the death the stranger that sets foot on their
+land.”
+
+Somewhat disquieted at this intelligence, the master of the _Queen
+Charlotte_ was at first in doubt whether to venture inside or not; but,
+looking round him and noting the eager, excited faces of his white crew
+and their native messmates, he decided at least to attempt to see for
+himself whether there was or was not pearl shell in the lagoon.
+
+By this time the brigantine was within a mile or so of the entrance,
+which, on a nearer inspection, presented no difficulties whatever. As
+the vessel passed between the roaring lines of surf that thundered and
+crashed with astounding violence on the coral barriers enclosing the
+placid lagoon, a canoe shot out from the beach a quarter of a mile away,
+and approached the ship. But four natives were in the tiny craft, and
+when within a cable-length of the brigantine they ceased paddling, and
+conversed volubly with one another, as if debating whether they should
+venture on board the strange ship or not. Paddles in hand, they regarded
+her with the most intense curiosity as a being from another world; and
+when, the ship bringing up to the wind, the anchor was let go, a loud
+cry of astonishment burst forth from them, and with a swift backward
+sweep of their paddles the canoe shot shorewards like an arrow from a
+bow full fifty feet astern.
+
+Clambering out on the end of the jib-boom, Upaparu seized hold of a
+stay and hailed them in a semi-Tahitian dialect, the _lingua franca_ of
+Eastern Polynesia--
+
+“_Ia ora na kotore teie nei aho!_” (“May you have peace this day!”), and
+then, bidding them await him, he sprang overboard and swam to them. In
+a few minutes he was alongside the canoe, holding on the gunwale and
+holding an animated conversation with its crew, one of whom, evidently
+the leader, at last bent down and rubbed noses with the Tahitian in
+token of amity. Then they paddled alongside, and after some hesitation
+clambered up on deck.
+
+Tall and finely made, with light copper-coloured skins deeply tattooed
+from their necks to their heels, and holding in their hands wooden
+daggers set on both edges with huge sharks'-teeth as keen as razors,
+they surveyed the vessel and her crew with looks of astonishment. Except
+for a narrow girdle of curiously-stained pandanus leaves, each man was
+nude, and their stiff, scanty, and wiry-looking beards seemed to quiver
+with excitement as they looked with lightning-like rapidity from one
+object to another.
+
+Advancing to them with his hand outstretched, the master of the
+brigantine took the leader's hand in his, and pointed to the poop, and
+Upaparu told them that the white chief desired them to sit and talk with
+him. Still grasping their daggers they acceded, and followed Shelley and
+the Tahitian chief to the poop, seated themselves on the deck, while the
+crew of the brigantine, in order not to embarrass or alarm them, went
+about their work as if no strangers were present.
+
+In a very short time Upaparu had so far gained their confidence that
+they began to talk volubly, and answered all the questions he put to
+them. “Pearl shell? Yes, there be plenty of it. Even here, beneath the
+ship. Let us show thee!” and one of them, springing over the side, in
+another minute or two reappeared with a large pearl shell in his hand,
+which he placed in the hands of the master of the brigantine.
+
+Convinced that he had done well in venturing inside, Captain Shelley
+strove his utmost to establish friendly relations with his visitors,
+and so far succeeded, through the instrumentality of the Tahitian chief,
+that the leader of the natives, who was a leading chief of the island
+named Hamanamana, promised to show them where the thickest patches of
+pearl shell lay in the lagoon. Then, after making them each presents
+of a sheath-knife and some other articles, the master and his officers
+watched them descend into their canoe again, and paddle swiftly back to
+their village, which lay within full view of the ship, a quarter of a
+mile away.
+
+*****
+
+At a very early hour on the following day, the ship was surrounded by
+some fifty or sixty canoes, all filled with natives of both sexes, who
+proffered their services as divers, and seemed animated by the kindliest
+feelings towards the white men. Lowering the largest boat, the master,
+accompanied by Upaparu and the other Tahitians, was soon on his way to
+a place in the lagoon, where his guides assured him there was plenty of
+pearl shell. For some hours the first and second officers watched
+their captain's movements with the liveliest anxiety; for, despite the
+apparent friendliness of the natives, they were by no means confident.
+
+But when, four hours later, the master returned with nearly a ton of
+pearl shell in the boat, and excitedly told them that their fortunes
+were made, the young men could not but feel highly elated, and sought by
+every means in their power to increase the good impression that they and
+the rest of the ship's company seem to have made upon the islanders.
+
+That night, when the natives had returned to the shore, and the bright
+blaze of the fires shot out across the sleeping lagoon, and their voices
+were borne across the water to those in the ship, the two young officers
+sat and talked together on the poop. A month or two in such a place as
+this and they would be made men, for it was evident that no other vessel
+had yet been inside the lagoon, which undoubtedly teemed with pearl
+shell. And up for'ard the white sailors and their dark-skinned shipmates
+grew merry, and talked and sang, for they, too, would share in the
+general good luck. Then, as the lights from the houses on shore died
+out, and the murmur of voices ceased, the crew of the _Queen Charlotte_,
+officers and men, lay down on deck and went to sleep.
+
+*****
+
+One for'ard and one aft, the two sentries paced to and fro, and only the
+slight sound of their naked feet broke the silence of the tropic night.
+Now and then a fish would leap out of the water and fall back again
+with a splash, and the sentries watched the swell and bubble of the
+phosphorescent water for a minute or so, and then again resumed their
+walk.
+
+But though so silent, the darkness of the night was full of danger to
+the unsuspecting ship's company of the _Queen Charlotte_. A hundred yards
+away, swimming together in a semicircle, were some two hundred savages,
+each with a dagger in his mouth and short ebony club held in the left
+hand. Silently, but quickly, they swam towards the dark shadow of the
+brigantine, whose lofty spars stood silhouetted against the white line
+of beach that lay astern.
+
+Suddenly fifty naked, dripping savages sprang upon the deck, and ere the
+sentries could do more than fire their muskets the work of slaughter
+had begun. Nearly all the white seamen, and many of the Tahitians, were
+lying upon the main hatch, and these were slain almost ere they had time
+to awake and realise their dreadful fate. As the loud reports of the
+sentries' muskets reverberated across the motionless waters of the
+lagoon, the master of the brigantine and his two officers awoke, and,
+cutlasses in hand, tried bravely to defend those terrified and unarmed
+members of the crew who had not yet been slaughtered. For some ten
+minutes or so these three men, with Upaparu beside them, defended the
+approaches to the poop, and succeeded in killing no less than fifteen
+of their assailants. Swinging a short, heavy axe in his right hand, the
+Tahitian chief fought like a hero, till a club was hurled at him with
+such force that it broke two of his ribs. As he sank down he saw the
+wild rush of naked bodies pass over him, and heard the death-cries
+of the first and second officers, who, borne down by numbers, were
+ruthlessly butchered. After that he remembered no more, for he was dealt
+another blow on the head, which left him stunned.
+
+When he came to his senses in the cold grey of the morning he found the
+ship in possession of the people of Fakarava, and of all his shipmates
+but two remained alive--Captain Shelley and a seaman named Ray; all the
+rest had been slain and thrown overboard.
+
+Apparently satisfied with the dreadful slaughter they had committed, the
+natives now began plundering the ship, and Captain Shelley, who seems
+to have been spared merely for the same reason that Upaparu was not
+killed--because he was a chief, and therefore sacred--had to sit by and
+watch them.
+
+After stripping the vessel of everything movable, and even taking all
+her canvas except the spanker and topsails, the natives went ashore, and
+their leader, addressing Upaparu, told him that the ship was at liberty
+to go away.
+
+With the aid of the seaman Ray and the gallant chieftain, Captain
+Shelley managed to get under weigh, and sailed for Tahiti, which he
+reached safely. Here he stayed for some months, and then, having made
+a new suit of sails from native mats, he returned to Port Jackson to
+relate the story of his fateful voyage.
+
+
+
+
+THE PERUVIAN SLAVERS
+
+About north-west from turbulent and distracted Samoa lie a group of
+eight low-lying coral atolls, called the Ellice Islands. Fifty years
+ago, when the white cotton canvas of the ships of the American whaling
+fleet dotted the blue of the Pacific from the west coast of South
+America to the bleak and snow-clad shores of the Siberian coast, these
+lonely islands were perhaps better known than they are now, for
+then, when the smoky flames of the whaleships' try works lit up the
+night-darkened expanse of the ocean, and the crackling of the furnace
+fires and the bubble of the boiling oil made the hardy whalemen's hearts
+grow merry, many a white man, lured by the gentle nature and amiable
+character of the Ellice Islanders, had built his house of thatch under
+the shadow of the rustling palms, and dwelt there in peace and happiness
+and overflowing plenty. Some of them were traders--men who bartered
+their simple wares, such as red Turkey twill, axes, knives, beads,
+tobacco, pipes, and muskets, for coconut oil and turtle shell. Others
+were wild, good-for-nothing runaways from whaleships, who then were
+generally known as “beach-combers”--that is, combing the beach for a
+living--though that, indeed, was a misnomer, for in those days, except
+one of these men was either a murderer or a tyrant, he did not “comb”
+ for his living, but simply lived a life of luxurious, sensuous ease
+among the copper-coloured people with whom he dwelt. He had, indeed, to
+be of a hard and base nature to incur the ill-will or hostility of the
+denizens of the eight islands.
+
+Twenty years had passed, and, save for a few wandering sperm whalers,
+the great fleet of the olden days had vanished; for the Civil War
+in America had borne its fruit even put upon the placid Pacific, and
+Waddell, in the Confederate cruiser _Shenandoah_, had swept northwards
+from Australia, bent on burning every ship that flew the hated Stars
+and Stripes. So, with fear in their hearts, the Yankee whaling skippers
+hurried into neutral ports for shelter; and not a day too soon, for the
+rebel war-vessel caught four of them at Ponapé Island, burnt them and
+went up to the Arctic to destroy the rest.
+
+Then followed years of quiet, for only a very few of the whaleships
+returned, and, one by one, most of the white men wandered away to the
+far distant isles of the north-west, taking their wives and families
+with them, till there were but five or six remaining in the whole Ellice
+Group.
+
+Among those who sailed away one day in a whale-ship was a trader named
+Harry. His surname was never known. To his fellow white men and the
+natives of the island of Nukufetau on which he lived he was simply
+“Harry”; to those of the other islands of the group he was _Hari Tino
+Kéhé_, Big Harry.
+
+It was not that he was wearied of the monotony of his existence on
+Nukufetau that had led Harry to bid his wife and two children farewell,
+but because that he had heard rumours of the richness in pearl-shell and
+turtle-shell of the far distant isles of the Pelew Group, and desired
+to go there and satisfy himself as to the truth of these sailors' tales;
+for he was a steady, honest man, although he had run away from his ship,
+a Sydney sandal-wooding vessel; and during his fifteen years' residence
+on Nukufetau he had made many thousands of dollars by selling coconut
+oil to the Sydney trading ships, and provisions to the American whalers.
+A year after his arrival on the island he had married a native woman
+named Te Ava Malu (Calm Waters). She was the daughter of the chief's
+brother, and brought her husband as her dowry a long, narrow strip of
+land richly covered with countless thousands of coco-palms, and it was
+from these groves of coconuts that Harry had earned most of the bright
+silver dollars, which, in default of a strong box, he had headed up in
+a small beef keg and buried under the gravelled floor of his thatched
+dwelling-house.
+
+Children had been born to him--two fair-skinned, dark-eyed, and
+gentle-voiced girls, named Fetu and Vailele. The elder, Fetu (The Star),
+was a quiet, reserved child, and had her father's slow, grave manner and
+thoughtful face. The younger, Vailele (Leaping Water), was in manner
+and her ever merry mood like her name, for she was a restless, laughing
+little maid, full of jest and song the whole day long.
+
+When the time came for Big Harry to say farewell, he called to him his
+wife and the two girls--Fetu was fourteen, and Vailele twelve--and,
+bidding them lower down the door of plaited thatch so that they might
+not be observed, he unearthed the keg of dollars, and, knocking off the
+two topmost hoops, took out the head. Then he took out nine hundred of
+the bright, shining coins, and, placing them in the lap of Te Ava Malu,
+quickly headed up the keg again, and put it back in its hiding-place.
+
+“Listen now to me, O wife and children,” said he in the native tongue.
+“See this money now before us. Of the nine hundred dollars I shall take
+seven hundred; for it is to my mind that if these tales I hear of these
+far-off islands be true, then shall I buy from the chiefs there a piece
+of land, and get men to build a house for me; and if all goeth well with
+me, I shall return here to Nukufetau within a year. Then shall we sail
+thither and dwell there. And these other two hundred dollars shalt thou
+keep, for maybe a ship may come here, and then thou, Te Ava Malu, shalt
+go to thy father and place them in his hand, and ask him to go to
+the ship and buy for me a whaleboat, which, when we leave this land
+together, we shall take with us.”
+
+Then, giving his wife the two hundred dollars, he placed the rest in a
+canvas pouch slung round his waist, and, embracing them all tenderly,
+bade them farewell, and walked down to the shining beach to where the
+boat from the whaleship awaited his coming.
+
+Drawing her children to her side, Te Ava Malu stood out upon the sand
+and watched the whaler loosen her canvas and heave up anchor. Only when
+the quick _click, click_ of the windlass pauls reached their listening
+ears, as the anchor came up to the song of the sailors and the ship's
+head swung round, did the girls begin to weep. But the mother, pressing
+them to her side, chid them, and said that a year was but a little time,
+and then she sank down and wept with them.
+
+So, with the tears blinding their eyes, they saw the whaler sail slowly
+out through the passage, and then, as she braced her yards up and stood
+along the weather shore of the island, they saw Big Harry mount halfway
+up the mizzen lower rigging. He waved his broad leaf hat to them three
+times, and then soon, although they could see the upper canvas of the
+ship showing now and then above the palms, they saw him no more.
+
+*****
+
+Seven months had come and gone, and every day, when the great red sun
+sank behind the thick line of palms that studded the western shore of
+Nukufetau, Fetu and Vailele would run to a tall and slender _fau_ tree
+that grew on their mother's land, and cut on its dark brown bark a broad
+notch.
+
+“See,” said Vailele to her sister on this day, “there are now twenty and
+one marks” (they were in tens) “and that maketh of days two hundred and
+ten.”
+
+“Aue!” said the quiet Fetu. “Cut thou a fresh one above. One hundred and
+fifty and five more notches must there be cut in the tree before Hari,
+our father, cometh back; for in the white men's year there are, so he
+hath told me, three hundred and sixty and five days.”
+
+“O-la!” and Vailele laughed. “Then soon must we get something to stand
+on to reach high up. But yet, it may be that our father will come before
+the year is dead.”
+
+Fetu nodded her dark head, and then, hand in hand, the two girls walked
+back to their mother's house through the deepening gloom that had fallen
+upon the palm grove.
+
+*****
+
+Ten miles away, creeping up to the land under shortened canvas, were a
+barque and a brig. No lights showed upon their decks, for theirs was
+an evil and cruel mission, and the black-bearded, olive-skinned men
+who crowded her decks spoke in whispers, lest the sound of their voices
+might perhaps fall upon the ears of natives out catching flying fish in
+their canoes.
+
+Closer and closer the ships edged in to the land, and then, as they
+opened out the long white stretch of beach that fringed the lee of the
+island, they hove-to till daylight.
+
+But if there were no lights on deck there were plenty below, and in the
+barque's roomy cabin a number of men were sitting and talking together
+over liquor and cigars. They were a fierce, truculent-looking lot, and
+talked in Spanish, and every man carried a brace of revolvers in his
+belt. All round the cabin were numbers of rifles and carbines and
+cutlasses; and, indeed, the dark faces of the men, and the profusion of
+arms that was everywhere shown, made them look like a band of pirates,
+bent upon some present enterprise. Pirates they were not; but they were
+perhaps as bad, for both the brig and the barque were Peruvian slavers,
+sent out to capture and enslave the natives of the South Sea Islands to
+work the guano deposits of the Chincha Islands.
+
+At one end of the cabin table sat the captain of the barque--a
+small-made, youthful-looking man, of not more than twenty-five years
+of age. Before him was spread a sheet-chart of the Ellice Group, and
+another of the Island of Nukufetau, which he was studying intently.
+
+Standing at the back of the captain's chair was a short, stout,
+broad-shouldered man, with a heavy black moustache and hawk-like
+features, who followed with interest the movements of the captain's
+slender brown hand over the chart. This was Senor Arguello, the owner of
+the two vessels, and the leading spirit in the villainous enterprise.
+
+“There is the passage into the lagoon, Senor Arguello,” said the young
+captain, pointing to the place on the chart; “and here, on this islet,
+the last one of the three that form the western chain of the atoll, is
+the native village. Therefore, if we can succeed in landing our boats'
+crews between the islet and the one next to it, we can cut off all
+chances of the natives escaping in that direction.”
+
+“Good, Captain Martinas. But what if they escape into the forest?”
+
+“As you see, Senor,” said the captain politely, “the islet is but
+narrow, and offers no chance of concealment unless there are mangrove
+scrubs in the wider portions. We can secure every one of them in a few
+hours. There is no possible way of escape but by the sea, and that we
+have provided against--the brig's boats will watch both sides of the
+islet, three on the lagoon side, and two on the ocean side.”
+
+“Excellent, Captain,” said the fat ruffian Arguello. “I must compliment
+you upon your exactitude of your arrangements. I trust that we shall be
+as successful here as we were at Nukulaelae.{*} Captain Hennessy,” and
+here he bowed to a man who sat at the other end of the table, “will,
+I am sure, see that none of these people are drowned in their silly
+efforts to escape, as occurred at other places.”
+
+     * Nukulaelae was almost entirely depopulated by these
+     slavers.
+
+Captain Peter Hennessy, once a dashing officer of the Peruvian navy, now
+a dissipated, broken-down master of a slaving brig, for answer struck
+his hand heavily on the table, and swore an oath.
+
+“That was not my fault. But, by the God above me, I am sick of this
+business! I undertook to sail the brig and fill her with natives, but I
+did not undertake to have a hand in the bloody deeds that have happened.
+And now that I am on board, I may as well tell you all that the moment
+I see a shot fired at any of these poor devils I back out of the concern
+altogether.”
+
+“The brave Captain Pedro is tender-hearted,” sneered the young captain
+of the barque, showing his even white teeth under his jet-black
+moustache.
+
+“No words from you, Captain Martinas,” retorted the Irishman. “I am
+prepared to go on now; but mind you--and you know me--the first man
+that I see lift a rifle to his shoulder, that man will I send a bullet
+through, be he black or white.”
+
+Then, with a curt nod to his fellow-associates in crime, the captain
+of the brig _Chacahuco_ strode out of the cabin, and calling his boat,
+which was towing astern of the barque, he got into her and pulled off to
+shore.
+
+*****
+
+Just as the first flushes of the rising sun tinged the sea to windward
+with streaks of reddish gold, the decks of the slavers bustled with
+activity. Boats were lowered, and the crews of cut-throat Chilenos and
+Peruvians swarmed eagerly into them, and then waited for the signal to
+cast off.
+
+Suddenly the look-out on the barque, who was stationed on the foreyard,
+hailed the deck and reported that three canoes had pushed off from the
+beach and were paddling towards the ship.
+
+A savage curse broke from Porfiro Arguello. He and Martinas had hoped to
+get part of the landing party posted between the two islets before the
+natives could see the ships. Now it was too late.{*}
+
+     * Three vessels were engaged in this nefarious business, a
+     barque and two brigs. The most dreadful atrocities were
+     committed. At Easter Island they seized nearly the whole
+     population; at Nukulaelae, in the Ellice Group, they left
+     but thirty people out of one hundred and fifty.
+
+“Let all the boats go round to the port side,” said Martinas. “The
+canoes will board us on the starboard side, Senor Arguello, and once we
+get these people safely on board we shall still be in time to block the
+passage between the islets.”
+
+The boats were quickly passed astern, and then hauled up alongside on
+the port side; and Martinas, having signalled to the brig to do the same
+with her boats, lest the natives, seeing armed men in them, should make
+back for the shore, quietly lit a cigar and waited.
+
+On came the three canoes, the half-naked, stalwart rowers sending them
+quickly over the ocean swell. In the first canoe were four men and two
+young girls; in the others men only. Unconscious of the treacherous
+intentions that filled the hearts of the white men, the unfortunate
+people brought their canoes alongside, and, with smiling faces, called
+out in English--
+
+“Heave a rope, please.”
+
+“Aye, aye,” responded a voice in English; and the natives, as the rope
+was thrown to them, made fast the canoes and clambered up the sides, the
+two girls alone remaining in the first canoe, and looking with lustrous,
+wondering eyes at the crowd of strange faces that looked down at them
+from the barque's decks.
+
+Ten minutes before Martinas had ordered two sentries who stood guard,
+one at the break of the poop and the other on top of the for'ard
+deckhouse, to disappear; and so, when the natives gained the deck there
+was nothing to alarm them. But at the heavy wooden gratings that
+ran across the decks, just for'ard of the poop and abaft the for'ard
+deckhouse, they gazed with eyes full of curiosity. As for the main
+hatch, that was covered with a sail.
+
+“Good morning, cap'en,” said the leader of the natives, a tall, handsome
+old man about fifty. “Where you come from?”
+
+“From California,” answered Martinas, making a sign to one of his
+officers, who slipped away down to the main deck.
+
+“What you come here for, sir?” resumed the native amiably; “you want
+fowl, pig, turtle, eh?” And then, unfastening a small bag tied round his
+naked waist, he advanced and emptied out a number of silver dollars.
+
+“What is that for?” said Martinas, who spoke a little English.
+
+The native laughed pleasantly.
+
+“Money, sir.” And then he looked round the ship's decks as if seeking
+something. “Me want buy boat. Where all your boat, cap'en? Why boat no
+here?” pointing to the davits and the pendant boat-falls.
+
+“Sea break all boat,” said the Peruvian quickly. And then, seeing the
+look of disappointment on the man's face, he added, “But never mind. You
+come below. I have handsome present for you.”
+
+“All right, cap'en,” answered the old man with a pleased smile, as he
+turned and beckoned to the other natives to follow him.
+
+An exultant smile showed on the grim features of Senor Arguello as he
+saw the captain's ruse. But just then the second mate came up.
+
+“The girls won't come up on deck,” he muttered in Spanish to the
+captain. “They laugh, and shake their heads.”
+
+“Let them stay, Juan, until I get these fellows below quietly. Then let
+one of the boats slip round and seize them.”
+
+*****
+
+Great results sometimes attend upon the merest trifles, and so it
+fell about now, for by a simple accident were some hundreds of these
+innocent, unsuspecting people of Nukufetau saved from a dreadful fate;
+for just as Mana, who was the chiefs brother and the uncle of the two
+poor half-caste children in the canoe, was about to go below, followed
+by his people, one of the boat's crew on the starboard side dropped the
+butt of his musket heavily on the naked foot of a young Chileno boy, who
+uttered an exclamation of pain.
+
+Wondering where the cry came from, the old native, before he could be
+stayed, ran to the port side and looked over. There, lying beneath him,
+were four boats filled with armed men.
+
+Suspicion of evil intent at once flashed through his mind, and,
+springing back, he gave voice to a loud cry of alarm.
+
+“Back, back, my children!” he cried. “There be many boats here, and
+in them are men with guns and swords.” And then he and those with him
+rushed for the break of the poop, only to meet the black muzzles of
+carbines and the glint of twenty cutlasses.
+
+Alas! poor creatures, what hope was there for them, unarmed and almost
+naked, against their despoilers? One by one they were thrown down,
+seized, and bound; all but the old man, who, with his naked hands,
+fought valiantly, till Martinas, seizing a cutlass from a seaman, passed
+it through his naked body.
+
+With one despairing cry, the old man threw up his arms and fell upon his
+face, and Martinas, drawing out his bloody weapon, ran to the side and
+looked over. The canoes were there, but the two girls were gone.
+
+“Curses on you, Juan!” he shouted. “Why did you not seize them?”
+
+But Senor Arguello, with a grim smile, took him by the arm and pointed
+to where Juan, the second mate, was chasing the two girls in his boat.
+At the sound of the struggle on deck they had jumped overboard, and,
+fearless of the sharks, were swimming swiftly for the reef, not a
+quarter of a mile away.
+
+Standing on the poop-deck of the barque, the captain and Arguello
+watched the chase with savage interest. Halfway to the shore they saw
+Juan stand up and level his carbine and fire. The ball struck the water
+just ahead of the two girls, who were swimming close together. Then, in
+another two or three minutes, Juan was on top of them, and they saw the
+oars peaked.
+
+“Saints be praised! He's got one,” said Arguello. “They are lifting her
+into the boat.”
+
+“And the other little devil has dived, and they will lose her. Perdition
+take their souls! A bullet would have settled her,” said Martinas. “She
+will easily get ashore now and alarm the whole village.”
+
+Then, with a volley of oaths and curses, he ordered the rest of the
+boats away to the little strait separating the two islets.
+
+But ere they had sped more than halfway to the shore, the girl who had
+dived had swum in between the jagged, isolated clumps of coral that
+stood out from the reef, and rising high upon a swelling wave, they
+saw her lifted bodily upon its ledge, and then, exhausted as she was,
+stagger to her feet and run shorewards along its surface.
+
+On, on, she ran, the sharp coral rock tearing her feet, till she gained
+the white sand of the inner beach, and then she fell prone, and lay
+gasping for her breath. But not for long, for in a few minutes she was
+up again, and with wearied limbs and dizzy brain she struggled bravely
+on till the houses of the village came in sight, and the wondering
+people ran out to save her from falling again.
+
+“Flee! flee!” she gasped. “My uncle, and Fetu, and all with them are
+killed.... The white men on the ships have killed them all.”
+
+Like bees from their hives, the terrified natives ran out of their
+houses, and in ten minutes every soul in the village had fled to the
+beach, and launching canoes, were paddling madly across the lagoon
+to the main island of Nukufetau lagoon. Here, in the dense puka and
+mangrove scrub, there was hope of safety.
+
+And, with rage in their villains' hearts, the slavers pursued them in
+vain; for before the boats could be brought round to the passage the
+canoes were nearly across the lagoon. But two of the canoes, being
+overloaded, were swamped, and all in them were captured and bound. Among
+those who escaped were the wife of Big Harry and her daughter Vailele.
+
+That afternoon, when the boats returned to the ships, Captain Peter
+Hennessy and his worthy colleague, Captain Martinas, of the barque _Cid
+Campeador_ quarrelled, and the young Peruvian, drawing a pistol from his
+belt, shot the Irish gentleman through the left arm, and the next
+moment was cut down upon his own deck by a sweeping blow from Hennessy's
+cutlass. Then, followed by Arguello's curses, the Irish captain went
+back to his brig and set sail for Callao, leaving Martinas to get the
+better of his wound and swoop down upon the natives of Easter Island six
+weeks later.
+
+And down below in the stifling, sweating hold, with two hundred
+miserable captives like herself, torn from various islands and speaking
+a language akin to her own, lay the heart-broken and despairing daughter
+of Big Harry of Nukufetau.
+
+*****
+
+And now comes the strange part of this true story. Two years had
+passed, when one cold, sleety evening in Liverpool, a merchant living at
+Birkenhead returned home somewhat later than his usual hour in a hired
+vehicle. Hastily jumping out, he pulled the door-bell, and the moment it
+was opened told the domestic to call her mistress.
+
+“And you, Mary,” he added, “get ready hot flannels, or blankets, and a
+bed. I found an unfortunate young foreign girl nearly dead from cold
+and exhaustion lying at the corner of a side street. I am afraid she is
+dying.”
+
+In another minute the merchant and his wife had carried her inside, and
+the lady, taking off her drenched and freezing garments, set about to
+revive her by rubbing her stiffened limbs. A doctor meanwhile had been
+sent for, and soon after his arrival the girl, who appeared to be about
+sixteen years of age, regained consciousness, and was able to drink a
+glass of wine held to her lips. For nearly an hour the kindly hearted
+merchant and his wife watched by the girl's bedside, and with a feeling
+of satisfaction saw her sink into a deep slumber.
+
+The story she told them the next day, in her pretty broken English,
+filled them with the deepest interest and pity. She had, she said, been
+captured by the crew of one of two slave ships and taken to a place
+called Callao. On the voyage many of her ill-fated companions had died,
+and the survivors, upon their arrival at Callao, had been placed upon a
+vessel bound to the Chincha Islands. She, however, had, the night before
+the vessel sailed, managed to elude the sentries, and, letting herself
+drop overboard, swam to an English ship lying nearly a quarter of a mile
+away, and clambered up her side into the main-chains. There she remained
+till daylight, when she was seen by one of the crew. The captain of the
+ship, at once surmising she had escaped from the slave barque, concealed
+her on board and, the ship being all ready for sea, sailed next day for
+Japan. For nearly ten months the poor girl remained on board the English
+ship, where she was kindly treated by the captain and his wife and
+officers. At last, after visiting several Eastern ports, the ship sailed
+for Liverpool, and the girl was taken by the captain's wife to her own
+lodgings. Here for some weeks she remained with this lady, whose husband
+meantime had reported the girl's story to the proper authorities, and
+much red-tape correspondence was instituted with regard to having her
+sent back to her island home again. It so happened, however, that the
+girl, who was deeply attached to the captain's wife, was one day left
+alone, and wearied and perhaps terrified at her mistress not returning
+at dark, set out to look for her amid the countless streets of a great
+city. In a very short time she was hopelessly lost, and became so
+frightened at the strangeness of her surroundings that she sank
+exhausted and half-frozen upon the pavement of a deserted street. And
+here she was found as related.
+
+For some months the girl remained with her friends, the merchant and
+his wife, for the captain of the ship by which she had reached Liverpool
+had, with his wife, consented to her remaining with them.
+
+One evening, some few months after the girl had been thus rescued, a
+tall, sunburnt man, dressed like a seaman, presented himself at the
+merchant's house and asked to see him.
+
+“Send him in,” said Mr.----
+
+As the stranger entered the room, Mr. ---- saw that he carried in his
+hand a copy of a Liverpool newspaper.
+
+“I've come, sir,” he began, “to ask you if you are the gentleman that
+I've been reading about----”
+
+Just then the door opened, and the merchant's wife, followed by a girl,
+entered the room. At the sound of their footsteps the man turned, and
+the next moment exclaimed--
+
+“My God! It's my little girl!”
+
+And it was his little girl--the little Fetu from whom he had parted at
+Nukufetau two years before.
+
+*****
+
+Sitting with his great arms clasped lovingly around his daughter, Big
+Harry told his tale. Briefly, it was this:--After reaching the Pelew
+Islands and remaining there a few weeks, he had taken passage in a
+vessel bound to Manila, in the hope that from that port he could get
+a passage back to Nukufetau in another whaler. But the vessel was cast
+away, and the survivors were rescued by a ship bound for Liverpool.
+Landed at that port, and waiting for an opportunity to get a passage to
+New Bedford, from where he could return to his island home in a whaler,
+he had one day picked up a paper and read the account of the slavers'
+onslaught upon the Ellice Islands, and the story of the escape of
+a young half-caste girl. Never dreaming that this girl was his own
+daughter--for there are many half-castes in the eight islands of the
+group--he had sought her out, in the hope that she would be pleased to
+hear the sound of her native tongue again, and perhaps return with him
+to her native land.
+
+Nearly a year passed before Big Harry, with his daughter Fetu, sailed
+into the placid waters of Nukufetau Lagoon, and of the glad meeting of
+those four happy souls there is no need to tell.
+
+
+
+
+A QUESTION OF PRECEDENCE
+
+Denison, the supercargo of the _Indiana_ was always reproaching
+Packenham, the skipper, for getting the ship into trouble by his
+inconsiderate and effusive good-nature--“blind stupidity,” Denison
+called it. And whenever Packenham did bring trouble upon himself or the
+ship's company by some fresh act of glaring idiotcy, he would excuse
+himself by saying that it wouldn't have happened if Nerida had been with
+him that trip. Nerida was Packenham's half-caste Portuguese wife. She
+was a very small woman, but kept her six-foot husband in a state of
+placid subjection and also out of much mischief whenever she made a
+cruise in the _Indiana_. Therefore Denison loved her as a sister, and
+forgave her many things because of this. Certainly she was a bit of a
+trial sometimes to every living soul on board the brig, but then all
+skippers' wives are that, even when pure white. And Nerida's doings
+would make a book worth reading--especially by married women with
+gadabout husbands like Packenham. But on this occasion Nerida was not
+aboard, and Denison looked for trouble.
+
+*****
+
+For four days and nights the little _Indiana_ had leapt and spun along,
+before a steady southerly gale, rolling like a drunken thing a-down the
+for'ard slopes of mountain seas, and struggling gamely up again with
+flattened canvas from out the windless trough; a bright, hot sun had
+shone upon her swashing decks from its slow rosy dawn to its quick
+setting of fiery crimson and blazing gold; and at night a big white moon
+lit up an opal sky, and silvered the hissing froth and smoky spume that
+curled in foaming ridges from beneath her clean-cut bows.
+
+The brig was bound from Auckland to Samoa and the islands of the
+north-west, and carried a cargo of trade goods for the white traders who
+hoisted the _Indiana's_ house-flag in front of their thatched dwellings.
+Packenham thought a good deal of this flag--it bore the letters R. P. in
+red in a yellow square on a blue ground--until one day Hammerfeld, the
+German supercargo of the _Iserbrook_, said it stood for Remorseless
+Plunderer. Some one told this to Packenham, and although he gave the big
+Dutchman a bad beating for it, the thing travelled all over the South
+Seas and made him very wroth. So then he got Nerida to sew another half
+turn in red to the loop of the P, and thereby made it into a B.
+
+“That'll do fine,” he said to Denison. '“Bob Packenham' instead of
+'Robert Packenham,' eh?”
+
+“Ye-s,” answered, Denison thoughtfully, “I daresay it will be all
+right.” And a month later, when Captain Bully Hayes came on board the
+_Indiana_ in Funafuti Lagoon, he gravely told Packenham that a lot of
+people were saying the letters stood for “Bloody Pirate.”
+
+But all this has nothing to do with this story.
+
+As I have said, the brig was running before a stiff southerly gale.
+Packenham came on deck, and flinging his six feet of muscular manhood
+upon the up-ended flaps of the skylight, had just lit his cigar when
+Alan the bos'un came aft and said that the peak of Tutuila was looming
+high right ahead, thirty miles away.
+
+“Bully old ship!” said the skipper, “give the _Indiana_ a good breeze
+that catches her fair and square in the stern and she'll run like a
+scared dog with a tin-pot tied to his tail. Denison, you sleepy beast,
+come up on deck and look at Samoa the Beautiful, where every prospect
+pleases and only the German trader is vile.”
+
+And so as he and Denison sat aft on the skylight drinking their
+afternoon coffee and smoking their Manilas, and the brown-skinned native
+crew sat below in the dark and stuffy foc's'le and gambled for tobacco,
+the _Indiana_ foamed and splashed and rolled before the gale till she
+ran under the lee of the land into a sea of transparent green, whose
+gentle rollers scarce broke in foam as they poured over the weed-clad
+ledges of the barrier-reef into the placid waters or the islet-studded
+lagoon encompassing the mainland about the village of Sa Lotopa.
+
+Then as some of the merry-hearted kanaka crew ranged the cable, and
+others ran aloft to clew-up the sails, Packenham steered the brig
+between a narrow reef-bound passage till she brought up abreast a
+sweeping curve of sandy beach, shining white under the wooded spurs of
+a mountain peak two thousand feet above. Back from the beach and showing
+golden-brown among the sunlit green lay the thatched houses of a native
+village, and as the brig came head to wind, and the cable clattered
+through the hawse-pipes, the brown-skinned people ran joyously down to
+their canoes and swarmed off to the ship. For they all knew Pakenami the
+_kapeni_, and Tenisoni the supercargo, and Alan the half-caste bos'un,
+and the two mates, and the Chinaman cook, and every one else on board,
+and for years past had laughed and joked and sang and hunted the wild
+boar with them all; and sometimes lied to and robbed and fought with
+them, only to be better friends than ever when the white men came
+back again, and the skipper and Denison made the young men presents
+of meerschaum pipes and condemned Snider rifles; and Alan the Stalwart
+“asked” every fourth girl in the village when he got drunk at a dance
+and denied it when sober, yet paid damages like an honourable man (2
+dols, in trade goods for each girl) to the relatives.
+
+In a few minutes the first batch of canoes reached the ship, and the
+occupants, men, women, and children, clambered up the brig's side, and
+then rushed aft to the poop to rub noses with Packenham and Denison,
+after the custom of the country, and then for a time a wild babble of
+voices reigned.
+
+“Hallo, Iakopo, how are you!” said the skipper, shaking hands with a
+fat-faced, smiling native, who was clad in a white duck suit, and was
+accompanied by a pretty, dark-eyed girl; “how's the new church getting
+on? Nearly finished, is it. Well, I didn't forget you. I've brought you
+down the doors and windows from Auckland.”
+
+Iakopo (_Anglicè_ Jacob), who was the local teacher and rather a
+favourite with the _Indiana's_ company, said he was very glad. He
+was anxious to get the church finished before the next visit of the
+missionary ship, he said. That vain fellow Pita, the teacher at Leone
+Bay, had been boasting terribly about _his_ church, and he (Iakopo)
+meant to crush him utterly with these European-made doors and windows,
+which his good friend Pakenami had brought him from Nui Silani.
+
+“You bet,” said the skipper; “and what's more, I'll help you to take the
+shine out of Pita. I'll fix the doors and windows for you myself,” and
+he winked slily at the teacher's daughter, who returned it as promptly
+as any Christian maiden, knowing that Nerida wasn't on board, and that
+she had nothing to fear.
+
+“I wish to goodness that fellow hadn't come aboard,” grumbled Denison to
+Packenham, after the missionary and his daughter had gone ashore. “Peter
+Deasy and the Dutchman don't like it, I can see, or they would have been
+aboard before now. No white man likes boarding a ship _after_ a native
+teacher, and both these fellows are d----d touchy. The chances are that
+they won't come aboard at all to-day.”
+
+“That's true,” said the captain thoughtfully; “I didn't think of that.”
+ (He never did think.) “Shall I go ashore first, and smooth down their
+ruffled plumage?”
+
+Denison said he thought it would be a good thing to do. Deasy and the
+Dutchman (_i.e._, the German) were both independent traders, who had
+always bought their trade goods from and sold their produce to the
+_Indiana_ for years past, and were worth humouring. So Packenham went
+ashore, leaving Denison to open out his wares in the brig's trade room
+in readiness for the two white men.
+
+*****
+
+Now both Peter Deasy and Hans Schweicker were feeling very sulky--as
+Denison imagined--and at that moment were talking to each other across
+the road from their respective doorways, for their houses were not far
+apart. They had intended boarding the ship the moment she anchored, but
+abandoned the idea as soon as they saw the teacher going off. Not
+that they disliked Iakopo personally, but then he was only a low-class
+native, and had no business thrusting himself before his betters. So
+they sat down and waited till Denison or the captain came ashore.
+
+Peter wore a pair of clean white moleskins and a bright pink print shirt
+covered with blue dogs; and as the lower portion of this latter garment
+was hanging outside instead of being tucked inside his moleskins, quite
+a large number of dogs were visible. Hans, dressed in pyjamas of a green
+and yellow check, carefully starched, smoked a very bad German cigar;
+Deasy puffed a very dirty clay dhudeen.
+
+Presently one of Hans's wife's numerous relatives ran up to him, and
+told him that the captain was coming ashore, and the atmosphere at once
+cleared a little. Deasy was the elder trader, and by right of custom
+expected the skipper would come to his house first. Hans, however, was
+the “warmest” man of the two, and thought _he_ should be the honoured
+man, especially as he had the larger quantity of copra and other island
+produce to sell Packenham. Both men were very good friends at that
+moment, and had been so for years past. They had frequently
+lied manfully on each other's behalf when summoned before the
+Deputy-Commissioner for selling arms and ammunition to the natives.
+But while in social matters--such as getting drunk, circumventing the
+missionaries, and making fools of her Majesty's representatives--the two
+were in perfect and truly happy accord, they were often devoured
+with the bitterest business jealousies, and their wives and relatives
+generally shared this feeling with them. And as Mrs. Deasy and Mrs.
+Schweicker each had a large native following who all considered
+_their_ white man was the better of the two, the question of commercial
+supremacy between Peter Deasy and Hans Schweicker was one of much local
+importance.
+
+As the word was passed along that the captain was coming, the female
+inmates of the two houses each surrounded their respective head, and
+looked anxiously over his shoulders at the approaching visitor.
+Deasy's wife had put on her best dress; so had Schweicker's.
+Pati-lima--otherwise Mrs. Peter Deasy--who was a huge eighteen stone
+creature, with a round good-humoured face and a piping childish voice,
+had arrayed her vast proportions in a flowing gown of Turkey-red twill,
+and the radiant glory thereof had a pleasing and effective background in
+the garments of her three daughters, who were dressed in 'green, yellow,
+and blue respectively. Manogi--Mrs. Schweicker--who had no children,
+and was accounted the prettiest woman in Samoa, was clothed, like her
+husband, in spotless white, and her shining black tresses fell in a wavy
+mantle down to her waist. Unlike Pati-lima's daughters, whose heads were
+encircled by wreaths of orange blossoms, Manogi wore neither ornament
+nor decoration. She knew that her wavy hair drooped gracefully down her
+clear-cut, olive-hued face like the frame of a picture, and set off her
+bright eyes and white teeth to perfection; and that no amount of orange
+blossoms could make her appear more beautiful. So in the supreme and
+blessed consciousness of being the best-dressed and best-looking
+woman in the whole village, she sat behind her husband fanning herself
+languidly, and scarce deigning to answer the Deasy girls when they spoke
+to her.
+
+Presently the boat touched the beach. The captain jumped out, shook
+hands with a number of natives who thronged around him, and stepped
+along the path. Half-way between the white men's houses was the
+unfinished church, and near to that the teacher's house, embowered in a
+grove of orange and lemon trees. As Packenham walked along he looked
+up the road, smiled and nodded at the Deasy and Schweicker crowd, then
+deliberately turned to the left and walked into the teacher's dwelling!
+And Manogi and all the Deasy women saw Miriamu, the teacher's daughter,
+come to the open window and make a face at them in derision. Peter and
+Schweicker looked at each other in speechless indignation.
+
+“The swape av the wurruld!” and Deasy dashed his pipe down at his feet
+and smashed it in small pieces, “to go to a native's house first an'
+white min sthandin' awaitin' his pleasure. By the sowl av' me mother,
+Hans, devil a foot does he put inside my door till he explains phwat he
+manes by it.”
+
+“Shoost vat you mide expeg from a new chum!” replied Hans, who had lived
+in Australia. Then they both went back to their respective houses to
+await events.
+
+Now Packenham meant no harm, and had not the faintest idea he was giving
+offence. But then, as Denison said, he never would think. Yet on this
+occasion he had been thinking. Iakopo had told him that he had collected
+enough money to pay for the doors and windows right away, and then
+Packenham, who knew that this would surprise and please Denison, told
+the teacher that he would call for the money when he came ashore.
+
+“Come to my father's house first--before you go to the white men's,”
+ said Iakopo's daughter, with a side look at the captain. She hated all
+the Deasy girls and Manogi in particular, who had “said things” about
+her to Denison, and knew that they would feel furiously jealous of her
+if Packenham called at her father's house first. And Packenham said he
+would do so.
+
+Half an hour passed, and then the skipper having been paid the money by
+the teacher, and having smoked a couple of cigarettes rolled for him by
+Miriamu, said he must go. And Miriamu, who wanted to triumph over the
+Deasy girls and Manogi, said she would come too. On the Scriptural
+principle of casting bread upon the waters she had given Packenham some
+presents--a fan, a bottle of scented coconut-oil, and two baked fowls.
+These she put into a basket and told her little brother to bring
+along--it would annoy the other girls.
+
+During this time Deasy and Hans had been talking over the matter, and
+now felt in a better temper. Manogi had said that Denison was a more
+important man than Packenham. _He_ wouldn't have gone into the teacher's
+house first; and then most likely Miriamu, who was no better than she
+ought to be, had called the captain in.
+
+“Why let this vex thee?” she said, “this captain for ever forgetteth
+_faà Samoa_ (Samoan custom), and hath been beguiled by Miriamu into her
+father's house.”
+
+After awhile Deasy and Hans agreed with her, and so when Packenham came
+up to them with outstretched hand, they greeted him as usual; but their
+women-folk glared savagely at Miriamu, who now felt frightened and stuck
+close to the captain.
+
+“Bedad, it's hot talking here in the sun,” said Deasy, after Packenham
+had shaken hands with Mrs. Deasy and Mrs. Hans and the girls, “come
+inside, captain, and sit down while I start my people to fill the copra
+bags and get ready for weighing.”
+
+“Veil, I don't call dot very shentlemanly gonduck,” grunted Hans, who,
+naturally enough, wanted _his_ copra weighed first so that he could get
+away on board the brig and have first pick of Denison's trade room.
+
+Deasy fired up. “An' I tell ye, Hans, the captain's going to plase
+himself intoirely. Sure he wouldn't turn his back on my door to plase a
+new man like you---”
+
+Manogi pushed herself between them: “You're a _toga fiti_ man (schemer),
+Paddy Deasy,” she said in English, with a contemptuous sniff.
+
+“Yes,” added Hans, “you was no good, Deasy; you was alvays tarn
+shellous----”
+
+“An' you're a dirty low swape av a Dutchman to let that woman av yours
+use a native wor-rud in the captain's hearin',” and Deasy banged
+his fellow-trader between the eyes, as at the same moment Manogi and
+Pati-lima sprang at each other like fiends, and twined their hands in
+each other's hair. Then, ere Manogi's triumphant squeal as she dragged
+out a handful of the Deasy hair had died away, half a dozen young lady
+friends had leapt to her aid, to be met with cries of savage fury by the
+three Misses Deasy, and in ten seconds more the whole lot were fighting
+wildly together in an undistinguishable heap, with Deasy and the
+Dutchman grasping each other's throats underneath.
+
+Packenham jumped in on top of the struggling mass, and picking up three
+women, one after another, tossed them like corks into the arms of
+a number of native men who had now appeared on the scene, and were
+encouraging the combatants; but further movement on his part was
+rendered impossible by Miriamu, who had clasped him round the waist and
+was imploring him to come away. For a minute or so the combat continued,
+and then the tangle of arms, legs, and dishevelled hair was heaved up in
+the centre, and Deasy and Hans staggered to their feet, glaring murder
+and sudden death at each other.
+
+Freeing himself from the grasp of the minister's daughter, who at once
+leapt at Manogi, Packenham seized Schweicker by the collar, and was
+dragging him away from Deasy when he got a crack on the side of his head
+from Manogi's mother, who thought he meant to kill her son-in-law,
+and had dashed to the rescue with a heavy tappa mallet. And then, as
+Packenham went down like a pithed bullock, there arose a wild cry from
+some one that the white captain was being murdered. Denison heard it,
+and with five of the _Indiana's_ crew, armed with Winchester rifles, he
+jumped into the boat and hurried ashore.
+
+By this time some thirty or forty stalwart Samoans, under the direction
+of the teacher, had flung themselves upon the women who were still
+rending each other in deadly silence, and in some way separated them.
+Packenham was lying apart from the rest, his head supported by a
+white-haired old native who was threatening every one present with the
+bloody vengeance of a man-of-war. Deasy and Hans were seated on the
+sward, still panting and furious. Deasy had one black eye; Hans had two.
+
+“Are yez satisfied, Dutchy?” inquired Deasy.
+
+“Shoost as mooch as you vas!” answered the German.
+
+*****
+
+Now here the matter would have ended, but just at that time Pati-lima,
+who was being fanned by a couple of her friends, caught sight of the
+slight figure of Manogi, her white muslin gown torn to ribbons and her
+bosom heaving with excitement. Her beautiful face, though white with
+rage, was un-marred by the slightest scratch, while Pati-lima's was
+deeply scored by her enemy's nails. This was hard to bear.
+
+Raising herself on one elbow, Mrs. Deasy pointed contemptuously to
+Manogi's husband and called out--
+
+“Ah, you conceited Manogi! Take home thy German _pala-ai_ (coward). My
+man hath beaten him badly.”
+
+“Thou liest, thou great blubbering whale,” was the beauty's scornful
+reply; “he could beat such a drunkard as thy husband any day.”
+
+The two women sprang to their feet, and were about to engage again when
+Denison ran in between them, and succeeded in keeping them apart. Deasy
+and Hans looked on unconcernedly.
+
+“What is all this?” said Denison to Packenham.
+
+Packenham groaned, “I don't know. An old woman hit me with a club.”
+
+“Serve you right. Now then, Deasy, and you, Hans, send all these women
+away. I thought you had more sense than to encourage such things,”
+ and then Denison, who excelled in vituperative Samoan, addressed the
+assemblage, and told the people to go home.
+
+Still glaring defiance, the two factions slowly turned to leave the
+field, and again all would have been well but for Manogi, who was
+burning to see the thing out to its bitter end. So she had her try.
+
+Pati-lima came from Manono, the people of which island eat much
+shell-fish, and suffer much in consequence from the sarcastic allusions
+of the rest of the Samoan people. And they don't like it, any more than
+a Scotsman likes his sacred haggis being made the subject of idiotic
+derision. So as the two parties moved off, Manogi faced round to
+Pati-lima.
+
+“Pah! _Manono ai foli_” (Manono feeds on shellfish).
+
+“_Siamani vao tapiti elo_” (Germans gorge on stinking cabbage) was the
+quick retort of Mrs. Deasy, who pointed scornfully at Manogi's husband,
+and instantaneously the whole assemblage, male and female, were
+engaged in hideous conflict again, while Denison and his boat's crew,
+“Wond'ring, stepped aside,” and let them fight it out.
+
+What the result would have been had not the encounter been stopped
+is hard to say; but in the midst of this second struggle the young
+yellow-haired local chief bounded into the fray, and smote right and
+left with a heavy club, ably seconded by Denison and his men and lakopo.
+The appearance of the chief was, however, enough--the opposing factions
+drew off from each other and retired, carrying their wounded with them.
+
+*****
+
+“What a brace of detestable ruffians!” said Captain De Groen, of her
+Majesty's ship _Dawdler_, to Denison a day or two afterwards. The doctor
+of the man-of-war had gone ashore to patch up the wounded, and Denison
+had been telling the commander how the affair occurred.
+
+Now Captain De Groen was wrong. Both Deasy and Schweicker were as decent
+a pair of men as could be found in the Pacific--that is to say, they did
+no harm to a living soul except themselves when under the influence of
+liquor, which was not infrequent. But it was all Packenham's fault. Had
+he kept clear of the teacher's house, Deasy and Hans would not have felt
+affronted, Manogi and Pati-lima would not have said nasty things to each
+other, and Denison would not have been reported upon officially by her
+Majesty's High Commissioner for the Western Pacific as a person who,
+“with a Mr. Packenham, master of the brig _Indiana_, incited the native
+factions of Sa Lotopa to attack each other with murderous fury.”
+
+
+
+
+A TOUCH OF THE TAR-BRUSH
+
+Dr. Te Henare Rauparaha, the youngest member of the New Zealand House
+of Representatives, had made his mark, to a certain extent, upon the
+political life of the colony. Representing no party, and having no
+interests but those of the Maori race, he seldom rose to speak except on
+questions of native land-grants, or when similar matters affecting
+the Maori population were under discussion. Then his close, masterly
+reasoning and his natural eloquence gained him the most profound
+attention. Twice had he succeeded in inducing the House to throw out
+measures that would have perpetrated the grossest injustice upon certain
+Maori tribes; and ere long, without effort on his part, he became the
+tacit leader of a small but growing party that followed his arguments
+and resisted tooth and nail the tendency of certain Ministers to smooth
+the path of the land-grabber and company-promoter. Later on in the
+session his powers of debate, undeviating resolution, and determined
+opposition to Governmental measures that he regarded as injurious to the
+natives began to make Ministers uneasy; and although they cursed him in
+secret for a meddling fool and mad-brained enthusiast, they no longer
+attempted to ride rough-shod over him in the House, especially as the
+Labour members, who held the balance of power, entertained very friendly
+feelings towards the young man, and gave him considerable support.
+Therefore he was to be conciliated, and accordingly the curt nods of
+recognition, which were all that were once given him, were exchanged for
+friendly smiles and warm hand-grasps. But Rauparaha was not deceived. He
+knew that in a few evenings a certain Bill to absolutely dispossess the
+native holders of a vast area of land in the North Island would be read,
+and that its mover, who was a Government member, was merely the agent
+of a huge land-buying concern, which intended to re-sell the stolen
+property to the working people on magnanimous terms for village
+settlements; and although sorely afraid at heart that he would have to
+bear the brunt of the battle in opposing the Bill, the young doctor was
+hopeful that the Labour members would eventually come to his support
+when he exposed the secret motives that really had brought it into
+existence. But he did not know that the Labour members had already been
+“approached,” and had given promises not to support him and not to
+vote against the measure; otherwise some concessions regarding railway
+contracts, which the Government were prepared to make to the great
+Labour party, would be “matters for future consideration” only. And,
+therefore, rather than offend the Government, the honest men agreed
+to let Rauparaha “fight it out himself against the Government,” and
+“ratted” to a man. Every one of their number also expected to be
+appointed a Director of a Village Settlement, and were not disposed to
+fly in the face of a Providence that would give them each a permanent
+and comfortable billet, especially as their parliamentary career was
+doomed--not one of them had the faintest hope of re-election.
+
+And so Dr. Rauparaha made the effort of his life, and the House listened
+to him in cold and stony silence. From the first he knew that he was
+doomed to failure, when he saw two or three of his once ardent admirers
+get up and sneak out of the Chamber; but, with a glance of contemptuous
+scorn at their retreating figures, he went on speaking. And then, at the
+close of an impassioned address, he held up in his right hand a copy of
+the Treaty of Waitangi.
+
+“And this, honourable members, is the solemn bond and testimony of a
+great nation, the written promise of our Queen and her Ministers to
+these people that their lands and their right to live in their country
+should be kept inviolate! How has that promise been kept? Think of it,
+I pray you, and let your cheeks redden with shame, for the pages of this
+Treaty are blotted with the blackest treachery and stained a bloody red.
+And the Bill now before the House to rob and despoil some hundreds of
+native families of land that has been theirs before a white man ever
+placed his foot in the country is the most shameful and heartless act
+of all. I say 'act' because I recognise how futile is my single voice
+raised on behalf of my race to stay this bitter injustice. Rob us,
+then, but offer us no longer the ghastly mockery of parliamentary
+representation. Better for us all to die as our forefathers have done,
+rifle in hand, than perish of poverty and starvation on the soil that is
+our only inheritance.”
+
+“Rot!” called out a short, fat man wearing a huge diamond ring and an
+excessively dirty white waistcoat. This was the Minister for Dredges and
+Artesian Bores, a gentleman who hoped to receive a C.M.G. ship for his
+clamorous persistency in advocating the claim of the colony to “'ave a
+Royel dook as its next Governor.”
+
+“Shut up!” said an honourable member beside him. “Rauparaha doesn't talk
+rot. You do--always.”
+
+The Minister muttered that he “didn't approve of no one a-usin' of
+inflammetery langwidge in the 'Ouse,” but made no further remark.
+
+Rauparaha resumed his seat, the proposer of the Bill made his reply, and
+the House voted solidly for the measure.
+
+*****
+
+That evening, as the young man sat in his chambers gazing moodily into
+the glowing embers of the fire, and thinking bitterly of the utter
+hopelessness of the cause that lay so near his heart, his door opened,
+and Captain Lionel Brewster, a member of the House and a favoured
+_protégé_ of the Government, walked in and held out his hand.
+
+“How are you, doctor?” and he showed his white teeth in a smile of set
+friendliness. “I hear you are leaving Wellington at the close of the
+session for the North Island. I really am sorry, you know--deuced
+sorry--that your splendid speech was so quietly taken this afternoon. As
+a matter of fact, both ------ and ------ have the most friendly feeling
+towards you, and, although your political opponents in this matter,
+value and esteem you highly.”
+
+“Thanks, Captain Brewster,” answered Rau-paraha coldly. He knew that
+this polished gentleman had been sent to him merely to smooth him down.
+Other land-grants had yet to come before the House, and Dr. Rauparaha,
+although he stood alone, was not an enemy to be despised or treated with
+nonchalance. One reason was his great wealth, the second his influence
+with a section of the Press that attacked the Government native policy
+with an unsparing pen. But, as a matter of fact, his visitor had a
+second and more personal motive.
+
+However, he asked Brewster to be seated; and that gentleman, twirling
+his carefully-trimmed moustache, smiled genially, and said he should be
+delighted to stay and chat a while.
+
+“By the way, though, doctor,” he said cordially, “my people--my aunt and
+cousin, you know--have heard so much of you that I have promised to take
+you down to our place for a few days if I can induce you to come. They
+were both in the gallery yesterday, and took the deepest interest in
+your speech. Now, my dear fellow, the House doesn't meet again till
+Tuesday. Come down with me to-morrow.”
+
+“Thanks,” and the doctor's olive features flushed a deep red; “I will
+come. I think I have fired my last shot in Parliament, and intend to
+resign, and so do not care much whether I ever enter the House again.
+And I shall have much pleasure in meeting your aunt and cousin again; I
+was introduced to them some weeks ago.”
+
+“So they told me,” and Brewster smiled sweetly again. “Then you won't
+come as a stranger. Now I must be off. I shall call for you after lunch
+tomorrow.”
+
+As Lionel Brewster threw himself back in his cab and smoked his cigar he
+cursed vigorously. “Damn the cursed half-breed of a fellow! He's clever
+enough, and all that; but what the devil Helen can see in him to make
+me invite him down to Te Ariri I don't know. Curse her infernal twaddle
+about the rights of humanity and such fustian. Once you are my wife, my
+sweet, romantic cousin, I'll knock all that idiotic bosh on the head.
+It's bad enough to sit in the House and listen to this fellow frothing,
+without having to bring a quarter-bred savage into one's own family.
+However, he's really not a man to be ashamed of, so far as appearances
+go.... And I must humour her. Five thousand a year must be humoured.”
+
+*****
+
+“Well, Helen, and what do you think of your savage?” said Mrs.
+Torringley to her niece, late the following evening, as she came to the
+door of Helen's room before she said good-night.
+
+The girl was lying on a couch at the further end of the room, looking
+through the opened window out into the shadows of the night. The pale,
+clear-cut face flushed. “I like him very much, auntie. And I have been
+thinking.”
+
+“Thinking of what, dear?”
+
+“Wondering if my father ever thought, when he was leading his men
+against the Maoris, of the cruel, dreadful wrong he was helping to
+perpetrate.”
+
+“'Cruel'! 'dreadful'! My dear child, what nonsense you talk! They were
+bloodthirsty savages.”
+
+“Savages! True. But savages fighting for all that was dear to them--for
+their lands, their lives, their liberties as a people. Oh, auntie, when
+I read of the awful deeds of bloodshed that are even now being done in
+Africa by English soldiers, it makes me sicken. Oh, if I were only a
+man, I would go out into the world and----”
+
+“My dear child,” said the older lady, with a smile, “you must not read
+so much of--of Tolstoy and other horrible writers like him. What would
+Lionel say if he thought you were going to be a Woman with a Mission?
+Good-night, dear, and don't worry about the Maoris. Many of them
+are real Christians nowadays, and nearly all the women can sew quite
+nicely.”
+
+Outside on the broad gravelled walk the young doctor talked to himself
+as he paced quickly to and fro. “Folly, folly, folly. What interest can
+she have in me, except that I have native blood in my veins, and that
+her father fought our people in the Waikato thirty years ago?”
+
+*****
+
+Brewster had gone back to town for a day or two; but as he bade his aunt
+and cousin goodbye, he warmly seconded their request to the doctor to
+remain at Te Ariri till he returned, although inwardly he swore at them
+both for a pair of “blithering idiots.” And as he drove away to the
+station he congratulated himself on the fact that while his fiancée
+had a “touch of the tar-brush,” as he expressed it, in her descent, her
+English bringing-up and society training under her worldly-minded but
+rather brainless aunt had led her to accept him as her future husband
+without difficulty.
+
+For the next two days Dr. Rauparaha had much writing to do, and passed
+his mornings and afternoons in the quiet library. Sometimes, as he
+wrote, a shadow would flit across the wide, sunlit veranda, and Helen
+Torringley would flit by, nodding pleasantly to him through the windows.
+Only two or three times had he met her alone since he came to Te Ariri,
+and walked with her through the grounds, listening with a strange
+pleasure to her low, tender voice, and gazing into the deep, dark eyes,
+that shone with softest lustre from out the pale, olive face, set in a
+wealth of wavy jet-black hair. For Helen Torringley was, like himself,
+of mixed blood. Her mother, who had died in her infancy, was a South
+American quadroon, born in Lima, and all the burning, quick passions
+and hot temperament of her race were revealed in her daughter's every
+graceful gesture and inflexion of her clear voice.
+
+*****
+
+It was late in the afternoon, and Dr. Rauparaha, pushing his papers
+wearily away from him, rose from his seat. His work was finished.
+To-morrow he would bid these new friends goodbye--this proud English
+lady and her beautiful, sweet-voiced niece--the girl whose dark eyes and
+red lips had come into his day-dreams and visions of the night. And just
+then she came to the library door, carrying in her hand a portfolio.
+
+“Are you very busy, Dr. Rauparaha?” she said, as she entered and stood
+before him.
+
+“Busy! No, Miss Torringley. Are these the sketches you told me Colonel
+Torringley made when he was in New Zealand?” and as he extended his hand
+for the book, the hot blood surged to his sallow forehead.
+
+“Yes, they were all drawn by my father. I found them about a year since
+in the bottom of one of his trunks. He died ten years ago.”
+
+Slowly the young man turned them over one by one. Many of them were
+drawings of outposts, heads of native chiefs, &c. At last he came
+to one, somewhat larger than the others. It depicted the assault and
+capture of a Maori _pah_, standing on a hill that rose gradually from
+the margin of a reedy swamp. The troops had driven out the defenders,
+who were shown escaping across the swamp through the reeds, the women
+and children in the centre, the men surrounding them on all sides to
+protect them from the hail of bullets that swept down upon them from the
+heights above the captured fortress.
+
+A shadow fell across the face of Dr. Rauparaha, and his hand tightened
+upon and almost crumpled the paper in his grasp; then he smiled, but
+with a red gleam in his dark eyes.
+
+“'The assault on Maungatabu by the 18th Royal Irish,'” he read.
+
+“The brave Irish,” he said, with a mocking smile, raising his head and
+looking intently into the pale face of the girl; “the brave Irish! So
+ardent for liberty themselves, such loud-mouthed clamourers to the world
+for justice to their country--yet how they sell themselves for a paltry
+wage to butcher women and children”--then he stopped suddenly.
+
+“Pardon me, I forgot myself. I did not remember that your father was an
+officer of that regiment.”
+
+She gave him her hand, and her eyes filled. “No, do not ask my pardon. I
+think it was horrible, horrible. How can such dreadful things be? I have
+heard my father say that that very victory filled him with shame.... He
+led the storming party, and when the _pah_ was carried, and he saw the
+natives escaping--the men surrounding the women and children--he ordered
+the 'Cease firing' to be sounded, but----” and her voice faltered.
+
+“But----” and the lurid gleam in Rauparaha's eyes made her face flush
+and then pale again.
+
+“The men went mad, and took no notice of him and the other two officers
+who were both wounded--the rest were killed in the assault. They had
+lost heavily, and were maddened with rage when they saw the Maoris
+escaping, and continued firing at them till they crossed the swamp, and
+hid in the long fern scrub on the other side.”
+
+“And even then a shell was fired into them as they lay there in the
+fern, resting their exhausted bodies ere they crept through it to gain
+the hills beyond,” added the young man slowly.
+
+“Yes,” she murmured, “I have heard my father speak of it. But it was
+not by his orders--he was a soldier, but not a cruel man. See, this next
+sketch shows the bursting of the shell.”
+
+He took it from her hand and looked. At the foot of it was written, “The
+Last Shot at Maungatabu.”
+
+His hand trembled for a moment; then he placed the drawing back in the
+portfolio, and with averted face she rose from the table and walked to
+the window.
+
+For a moment or two she stood there irresolutely, and then with the
+colour mantling her brow she came over to him.
+
+“I must ask _your_ pardon now. I forgot that--that--that----”
+
+“That I have Maori blood in my veins. Yes, I have, my father was a
+Pakeha Maori,{*} my mother a woman of one of the Waikato tribes. She
+died when I was very young.” Then, in a curiously strained voice, he
+said: “Miss Torringley, may I ask a favour of you? Will you give me that
+sketch?”
+
+     * A white man who had adopted Maori life and customs.
+
+She moved quickly to the table, and untied the portfolio again.
+
+“Which, Dr. Rauparaha? The last----”
+
+“Yes,” he interrupted, with sudden fierceness, “the Last Shot at
+Maungatabu.”
+
+She took it out and came over to him. “Take it, if you wish it; take
+them all, if you care for them. No one but myself ever looks at them....
+And now, after what you have told me, I shall never want to look at them
+again.”
+
+“Thank you,” he said, in softer tones, as he took the picture from her.
+“I only wish for this one. It will help to keep my memory green--when I
+return to my mother's people.”
+
+“Ah,” she said, in a pained voice, “don't say that. I wish I had never
+asked you to look at it. I have read the papers, and know how the Maori
+people must feel, and I am sorry, oh! so sorry, that I have unthinkingly
+aroused what must surely be painful memories to you.”
+
+“Do not think of it, Miss Torringley. Such things always will be. So
+long as we live, breathe, and have our being, so long will the strong
+oppress and slay the weak; so long will the accursed earth-hunger of
+a great Christian nation be synonymous for bloodshed, murder, and
+treachery; so long will she hold out with one hand to the children
+of Ham the figure of Christ crucified, and preach of the benefits of
+civilisation; while with the other she sweeps them away with the Maxim
+gun; so long will such things as the 'Last Shot at Maungatabu'--the
+murder of women and children, always be.”
+
+With bated breath she listened to the end, and then murmured--
+
+“It is terrible to think of, an unjust warfare. Were any women and
+children killed at Maungatabu?”
+
+“Yes,” he almost shouted back, “many were shot as they crossed the
+swamp. And when they gained the fern two more were killed by that last
+shell--a woman and child--my mother and my sister!”
+
+He turned away again to the window, but not so quickly but that he could
+see she was crying softly to herself, as she bent her face over the
+table.
+
+*****
+
+Three days after, Mrs. Torringley showed her nephew a note that she had
+found on her niece's dressing-table:--
+
+     “Do not blame me. I cannot help it. I love him, and am going
+     away with him to another country. Perhaps it is my mother's
+     blood. Wipe me out of your memory for ever.”
+
+
+
+
+THE TRADER S WIFE
+
+Years ago, in the days when the “highly irregular proceedings,” as naval
+officers termed them in their official reports, of the brig _Carl_ and
+other British ships engaged in the trade which some large-minded people
+have vouched for as being “absolutely above reproach,” attracted
+some attention from the British Government towards the doings of the
+gentlemanly scoundrels engaged therein, the people of Sydney used to
+talk proudly of the fleet of gunboats which, constructed by the New
+South Wales Government for the Admiralty, were built to “patrol the
+various recruiting grounds of the Fijian and Queensland planters and
+place the labour-traffic under the most rigid supervision.” The remark
+quoted above was then, as it is now, quite a hackneyed one, much used
+by the gallant officers who commanded the one-gun-one-rocket-tube craft
+aforementioned. Likewise, the “highly irregular proceedings” were
+a naval synonym for some of the bloodiest slaving outrages ever
+perpetrated, but which, however, never came to light beyond being
+alluded to as “unreliable and un-authenticated statements by discharged
+and drunken seamen who had no proper documentary evidence to support
+their assertions.”
+
+The Australian slave-suppressing vessels were not a success. In the
+first place, they could not sail much faster than a mud-dredge. Poor Bob
+Randolph, the trader, of the Gilbert and Kingsmill Groups, employed as
+pilot and interpreter on board, once remarked to the officer commanding
+one of these wonderful tubs which for four days had been thrashing her
+way against the south-east trades in a heroic endeavour to get inside
+Tarawa Lagoon, distant ten miles (and could not do it), that “these
+here schooners ought to be rigged as fore-and-afters and called
+'four-and-halfters; for I'll be hanged if this thing can do more than
+four and a half knots, even in half a gale of wind, all sail set and a
+smooth sea.” But if the “four-and-halfters,” as they were thenceforth
+designated in the Western Pacific, were useless in regard to suppressing
+the villainies and slaughter that then attended the labour trade, there
+was one instance in which one of the schooners and her captain did some
+good by avenging as cruel a murder as was ever perpetrated in equatorial
+Oceania.
+
+One Jack Keyes was a trader on the island of Apiang, one of the Gilbert
+Group, recently annexed by Great Britain. He was very old, very quiet
+in his manner, and about the last kind of man one would expect to see
+earning his living as a trader among the excitable, intractable native
+race which inhabit the Line Islands. His fellow-trader, Bob Randolph,
+a man of tremendous nerve and resolution, only maintained his prestige
+among the Apiang natives by the wonderful control he had learnt to
+exercise over a naturally fiery temper and by taking care, when knocking
+down any especially insulting native “buck,” never to draw blood, and
+always to laugh. And the people of Apiang thought much of Te Matân Bob,
+as much as the inhabitants of the whole group--from Arorai in the south
+to Makin in the north--do to this day of quiet, spectacled Bob Corrie,
+of wild Maiana, who can twist them round his little finger without an
+angry word. Perhaps poor Keyes, being a notoriously inoffensive man,
+might have died a natural death in due time, but for one fatal mistake
+he made; and that was in bringing a young wife to the island.
+
+A white woman was a rarity in the Line Islands. Certainly the Boston
+mission ship, _Morning Star_, in trying to establish the “Gospel
+according to Bosting--no ile or dollars, no missn'ry,” as Jim Garstang,
+of Drummond's Island, used to observe, had once brought a lady
+soul-saver of somewhat matured charms to the island, but her advent into
+the Apiang _moniap_ or town hall, carrying an abnormally large white
+umbrella and wearing a white solar topee with a green turban, and blue
+goggles, had had the effect of scaring the assembled councillors away
+across to the weather-side of the narrow island, whence none returned
+until the terrifying apparition had gone back to the ship. But this
+white woman who poor old Keyes married and brought with him was
+different, and the Apiang native, like all the rest of the world, is
+susceptible to female charms; and _her_ appearance at the doorway of the
+old trader's house was ever hailed with an excited and admiring chorus
+of “_Te boom te matân! Te boom te matân!_” (The white man's wife.) But
+none were rude or offensive to her, although the young men especially
+were by no means chary of insulting the old man, who never carried a
+pistol in his belt.
+
+One of these young men was unnecessarily intrusive. He would enter the
+trader's house on any available pretext, and the old man noticed that he
+would let his savage eyes rest upon his wife's figure in a way there was
+no mistaking. Not daring to tackle the brawny savage, whose chest, arms,
+and back were one mass of corrugations resulting from wounds inflicted
+by sharks' teeth spears and swords in many encounters, old Jack one day
+quietly intimated to his visitor that he was not welcome and told him to
+“get.” The savage, with sullen hate gleaming from cruel eyes that looked
+out from the mat of coarse, black hair, which, cut away in a fringe over
+his forehead, fell upon his shoulders, rose slowly and went out.
+
+*****
+
+Early next morning old Keyes was going over to Randolph's house,
+probably to speak of the occurrence of the previous day, when his
+wife called him and said that some one was at the door waiting to buy
+tobacco.
+
+“What have you to sell?” called out the old man.
+
+“_Te moe motu_” (young drinking-coconuts), was the answer, and the old
+man, not recognising the voice as that of his visitor of the day before,
+went unsuspectingly to take them from the native's hand, when the
+latter, placing a horse-pistol to the trader's heart, shot him dead,
+with the savage exclamation--
+
+“Now your wife is mine!”
+
+The poor woman fled to Bob Randolph for safety, and, dreading to remain
+on the island, went away in a schooner to her home in New Zealand.
+Nearly a year passed, and then a man-of-war came and endeavoured to
+capture the murderer; but in vain, for the captain would not use force;
+and “talk” and vague threats the natives only laughed at. So the ship
+steamed away; and then the natives began to threaten Randolph, and talk
+meaningly to each other about his store being full of _te pakea_ and _te
+rom_ (tobacco and gin). A long, uneasy six months passed, and then the
+little “four-and-halfter” Renard, Commander ------ sailed into Apiang
+lagoon, and the naval officer told Randolph he had come to get the man
+and try him for the murder.
+
+*****
+
+The commander first warped his vessel in as near as possible to the
+crowded village, and moored her with due regard to the effectiveness
+of his one big gun. Then, with Randolph as interpreter, negotiations
+commenced.
+
+The old men of the village were saucy; the young men wanted a fight and
+demanded one. Randolph did his part well. He pointed out to the old men
+that unless they gave the man up, the long gun on the ship would destroy
+every house and canoe on the island, even if no one were killed. That
+meant much to them, whereas one man's life was but little. But, first,
+the natives tried cunning. One and then another wretched slave was
+caught and bound and taken off to the naval officer as the murderer,
+only to be scornfully rejected by Randolph and the captain. Then the
+officer's patience was exhausted. If the man who murdered Keyes was not
+surrendered in an hour he would open fire, and also hang some of the
+chiefs then detained on board as hostages.
+
+Randolph's gloomy face quickened their fears. This captain could neither
+be frightened nor fooled. In half an hour the slayer of the trader was
+brought on board. The old men admitted their attempt at deception, but
+pleaded that the murderer was a man of influence, and they would rather
+the two others (who were absolutely innocent) were hanged than this one;
+but their suggestion was not acted upon. The trial was just and fair,
+but short, and then Randolph urged the captain to have the man executed
+on shore by being shot. It would impress the people more than hanging
+him on board. And hanging they regarded as a silly way of killing a man.
+
+The naval officer had no relish for work of this nature, and when
+Randolph told him that the natives had consented to execute the prisoner
+in his (Randolph's) presence (and the captain's presence also if
+necessary) he, no doubt, felt glad. Bob Randolph then became M.C., and
+gave his instructions to the old men. The whole village assembled in
+front of Randolph's to see the show. An old carronade lying in the
+corner of the copra house was dragged out, cleaned, and loaded with a
+heavy blank charge. Then the prisoner, sullen and defiant to the last,
+but wondering at the carronade, was lashed with his back to the muzzle,
+and, at a signal from one of the old men, a firestick was applied to the
+gun. A roar, a rush of fragments through the air, and all was finished.
+Bob Randolph's fox-terrier was the only creature that seemed to trouble
+about making any search for the remnants of the body. Half an hour
+afterwards, as Bob was at supper, he came in and deposited a gory lump
+of horror at his master's feet.
+
+
+
+
+NINA
+
+When Captain Henry Charlton--generally known as “Bully
+Charlton”--stepped on shore at Townsville in North Queensland with his
+newly-wedded wife, his acquaintances stared at them both in profound
+astonishment. They had heard that he had married in Sydney, and from
+their past knowledge of his character expected to see a loudly-attired
+Melbourne or Sydney barmaid with peroxided hair, and person profusely
+adorned with obtrusive jewelry. Instead of this they beheld a tall,
+ladylike girl with a cold, refined face, and an equally cold and distant
+manner.
+
+“Well, I _have_ seen some curious things in my time,” said Fryer, the
+American master of a Torres Straits pearling schooner, to the other men,
+as they watched Charlton and his wife drive away from the hotel, “but
+to think that _that_ fellow should marry a lady! I wonder if she has the
+faintest idea of what an anointed scoundrel he is?”
+
+“He's been mighty smart over it, anyway,” said a storekeeper named Lee.
+“Why, it isn't six months since Nina drowned herself. I suppose it's
+true, Fryer, that she did bolt with Jack Lester?”
+
+The American struck his hand upon the table in hot anger. “That's a
+lie! I know Lester well, and Nina Charlton was as good a woman as ever
+breathed.”
+
+“Well, you see, Fryer, we don't know as much as you do about the matter.
+But when Nina cleared out from her husband and Lester disappeared a day
+or two later and went no one knows where, it did look pretty queer.”
+
+“And I tell you that Lester never saw Mrs. Charlton after the day he
+took it out of Charlton. He's a gentleman. And if you want to know where
+he is now I'll tell you. He's pearling at Thursday Island in Torres
+Straits. And Nina Charlton, thank God, is at rest. After the fight
+between Lester and her husband she ran away, and reached Port Denison
+almost dead from exposure in the bush. Shannon, of the _Lynndale_, who
+had known her in her childhood, gave her a passage to Sydney. Two days
+before the steamer reached there she disappeared--jumped overboard in
+the night, I suppose.”
+
+“Well, I'm sorry I repeated what is common gossip; but Charlton himself
+put the story about. And the papers said a lot about the elopement of
+the wife of a well-known plantation manager.'”
+
+Fryer laughed contemptuously. “Just the thing Charlton would do. He's an
+infernal scoundrel. He told Lester that he'd make it warm for him--the
+beast. But I'm sorry for that sad-faced girl we saw just now. Fancy
+the existence she will lead with an unprincipled and drunken brute like
+Charlton! Good-bye; I'm off aboard. And look here, if ever any of you
+hear any more talk about Lester and Nina Charlton and repeats it in my
+hearing I'll do my best to make him sorry.”
+
+*****
+
+Lester was the manager of a mine and quartz-crushing battery near
+Charlton's plantation on the Lower Burdekin River when he “took it out”
+ of its owner. He was a quiet, self-possessed man of about thirty,
+and occasionally visited Charlton and his wife and played a game of
+billiards--if Charlton was sober enough to stand. Sometimes in his rides
+along the lonely bush tracks he would meet Mrs. Charlton and go as
+far as the plantation gates with her. She was a small, slenderly built
+woman, or rather girl, with dark, passionate eyes, in whose liquid
+depths Lester could read the sorrows of her life with such a man as
+Henry Charlton. Once as he rode beside her through the grey monotone of
+the lofty, smooth-barked gum-trees she told him that her father was an
+Englishman and her mother a Portuguese.
+
+“I married Captain Charlton in Macao. He was in the navy, you know; and
+although it is only four years since I left my father's house I feel
+so old; and sometimes when I awake in the night I think I can hear the
+sound of the beating surf and the rustle of the nipa-palms in the trade
+wind. And, oh! I so long to see----” Her eyes filled with tears, and she
+turned her face away.
+
+Perhaps Lester's unconsciously pitying manner to her whenever they met,
+and the utter loneliness of her existence on the Belle Grace Plantation
+made Nina Charlton think too much of the young mine manager, and,
+without knowing it, to eagerly look forward to their chance meetings.
+
+One day as Lester was walking through Charlton's estate, gun in
+hand, looking for wild turkeys, he met her. She was seated under the
+widespreading branches of a Leichhardt-tree, and was watching some of
+her husband's labourers felling a giant gum.
+
+“I came out to see it fall,” she said. “It is the largest tree on
+Belle Grace. And it is so dull in the house.” She turned her face away
+quickly.
+
+Lester muttered a curse under his breath. He knew what she meant.
+Charlton had returned from Townsville the day before in a state of
+frenzy, and after threatening to murder his servants had flung himself
+upon a couch to sleep the sleep of drunkenness.
+
+As the men hewed at the bole of the mighty tree Lester and Nina Charlton
+talked. She had spent the first year of her married life in Sydney,
+which was Lester's native town, and in a few minutes she had quite
+forgotten the tree, and was listening eagerly to Lester's account of
+his wanderings through the world, for his had been an adventurous
+career--sailor, South Sea trader, pearl-sheller, and gold miner in New
+Guinea and the Malayan Archipelago.
+
+“And now here I am, Mrs. Charlton, over thirty years of age, and not any
+the richer for all my roving. Of course,” he added, with boyish candour,
+“I know when I'm well off, and I have a good billet here and mean to
+save money. And I intend to be back in Sydney in another fortnight.”
+
+“But you will return to Queensland, will you not?” she said quickly.
+
+Lester laughed. “Oh yes, I suppose I shall settle down here finally.
+But I'm going to Sydney to be married. Would you care to see my future
+wife's photograph? You see, Mrs. Charlton, you're the only lady I've
+ever talked to about her, and I should like you to see what she is
+like.”
+
+She made no answer, and Lester in wondering ignorance saw that her face
+had paled to a deathly white and that her hands were trembling.
+
+“You are ill, Mrs. Charlton. You must be getting a touch of fever. Let
+me take you home.”
+
+“No,” she answered quickly; “let me stay here. I shall be better in a
+minute.” And then she began to sob passionately.
+
+Charlton, awakening from his drunken sleep, looked at them from the
+window of the sitting-room. He hated his wife because she feared him,
+and of late had almost shuddered when he touched her. Picking up
+his whip from the table, he walked out of the house to where she was
+sitting.
+
+“So this is your little amusement, is it?” he said savagely to Nina;
+“and this fellow is the cause of all my trouble. I might have known what
+to expect from a woman like you. Your Portuguese nature is too much for
+you. Go back to the house, and leave me to settle with your lover.”
+
+The next instant Lester launched out and struck him on the mouth. He lay
+where he fell, breathing heavily, and when he rose to his feet he saw
+Lester carrying his wife, who had fainted, to the house.
+
+Placing Mrs. Charlton in the care of a servant, Lester returned quickly
+to where Charlton, who was no coward, awaited him.
+
+“You drunken scoundrel!” he burst out; “I've come back to settle up with
+you!”
+
+And Lester did “settle up” to his heart's content, for he half-killed
+Charlton with his own whip.
+
+A week later, however, Charlton had his first bit of revenge. Lester was
+dismissed, the directors of the mine being determined, as they said, to
+show their disapproval of his attack upon “a justice of the peace and
+one of their largest shareholders.”
+
+Lester sat down and wrote to the “girl of his heart,” and told her that
+he could not see her for another year or so. “I have had to leave the
+mine, Nell, dear,” he said. “I won't tell you why--it would anger you
+perhaps. But it was not all my fault. However, I have decided what to
+do. I am going back to my old vocation of pearler in Torres Straits. I
+can make more money there than I could here.”
+
+The following morning, as he was leaving Belle Grace, he heard that Mrs.
+Charlton had left her husband two days previously, and had made her way
+through the bush to Port Denison, from where she had gone to Sydney.
+
+Soon after Lester had sailed for Torres Straits in Fryer's schooner, the
+owner of Belle Grâce Plantation received a telegram from Sydney telling
+him that his wife was dead--she had jumped overboard on the passage
+down. And, later on, Lester heard it also.
+
+*****
+
+Lester was doing well, but wondering why Nellie March did not write. He
+little knew that Charlton was in Sydney working out his revenge. This he
+soon accomplished.
+
+From the local postmistress at Belle Grace Charlton had learned the
+address of the girl Lester was to marry; and the first thing he did when
+he arrived in Sydney was to call upon her parents, and tell them
+that Lester had run away with his wife. And they--and Nellie March as
+well--believed his story when he produced some Queensland newspapers
+which contained the accounts of the “elopement.” He was a good-looking
+man, despite his forty years of hard drinking, and could lie with
+consummate grace, and Nellie, after her first feelings of shame and
+anger had subsided, pitied him, especially when he said that his poor
+wife was at rest now, and he had forgiven her. Before a month was out
+she married him.
+
+Then Charlton, who simply revelled in his revenge, sent the papers
+containing the announcement of his marriage to Lester.
+
+Lester took it very badly at first. But his was a strong nature, and
+he was too proud a man to write to the woman he loved and ask for an
+explanation. It was Charlton's money, of course, he thought. And as the
+months went by he began to forget. He heard of Charlton sometimes from
+the captains of passing vessels. He was drinking heavily they said, and
+whenever he came to town boasted of having “got even” with the man who
+had thrashed him. Lester set his teeth but said nothing, and in time
+even such gossip as this failed to disturb him. But he swore to give
+Charlton another thrashing when the opportunity came.
+
+*****
+
+A year had come and gone, and Lester found himself in Sydney. He liked
+the free, open life among the pearlers, and intended to go back after
+a month or so of idleness in the southern city. One evening he strolled
+into the bar of Pfahlerts Hotel and ordered a whisky-and-soda. The
+girl he spoke to looked into his face for a moment and then nearly
+fainted--it was Nina Charlton!
+
+“Give me your address,” she said quickly, as she put out her hand. “I
+will come and see you in an hour from now.”
+
+She came, and in a few minutes told him her history since he had seen
+her last. The captain of the _Lynniale_ pitying her terror at the
+prospect of her husband following her, had concealed her when the
+steamer was near Sydney, and it was he who telegraphed to Charlton that
+his wife had disappeared on the passage and was supposed to have jumped
+or fallen overboard. And she told Lester that she knew of her husband's
+second marriage and knew who it was whom he had married.
+
+What was she going to do? Lester asked.
+
+Nothing, she said. She would rather die than let Charlton know she was
+alive. When she had saved money enough she would go back to her own
+people.
+
+Lester walked home with her. At the door of the hotel she bade him
+good-night.
+
+“We shall meet sometimes, shall we not?” she asked wistfully. “I have
+not a friend in all Sydney.”
+
+“Neither have I,” he said, “and I shall only be too happy to come and
+see you.” She was silent a moment, then as she placed her hand in his
+she asked softly--
+
+“Have you forgotten _her_ altogether?”
+
+“Yes,” he answered, “I have. I did cut up a bit at first. But I'm over
+it now.”
+
+Her fingers pressed his again, and then with an almost whispered
+“Good-night” she was gone.
+
+Before a month was over Lester was honestly in love with her. And she
+knew it, though he was too honourable a man to tell her so. Then one day
+he came to her hurriedly.
+
+“I'm going back to Torres Straits to-morrow,” he said. “I may be away
+for two years.... You will not forget me.”
+
+“No,” she answered, with a sob, “I shall never forget you; you are all
+the world to me. And go now, dear, quickly; for I love you--and I am
+only a woman.”
+
+*****
+
+But there is a kindly Providence in these things, for when Lester
+reached Thursday Island in Torres Straits he heard that Charlton was
+dead. He had been thrown from his horse and died shortly after. His
+widow, Lester also heard, had returned to Sydney.
+
+So Lester made quick work. Within twenty-four hours he had sold his
+business and was on his way back to Sydney.
+
+He dashed up in a cab to his old lodgings. In another hour he would see
+Nina. He had sent her a telegram from Brisbane, telling her when the
+steamer would arrive, and was in a fever of excitement. And he was late.
+As he tumbled his things about, his landlady came to the door with a
+letter.
+
+“There was a lady called here, sir, a week ago, and asked for your
+address. I had just got your telegram saying you were coming back
+to-day, and she said she would write, and this letter came just now.”
+
+Lester knew the handwriting. It was from Nellie. He opened it.
+
+     “I know now how I have wronged you. My husband, before he
+     died, told me that he had deceived me. My life has been a
+     very unhappy one, and I want to see you and ask for your
+     forgiveness. Will you send me an answer to-night?--Nellie!”
+
+Lester held the letter in his hand and pondered. What should he do?
+Answer it or not? Poor Nellie!
+
+He sat down to think--and then Nina Charlton opened the door and flung
+her arms around his neck.
+
+“I could not wait,” she whispered, “and I am not afraid _now_ to say I
+love you.”
+
+That night Lester wrote a letter to the woman he had once loved. “I am
+glad to know that Charlton told you the truth before he died,” he said.
+“But let the past be forgotten.”
+
+*****
+
+He never told Nina of this. But one day as they were walking along the
+“Block” in George Street, she saw her husband raise his hat to a tall,
+fair-haired woman with big blue eyes.
+
+“Is that she, Jack?” murmured Nina.
+
+Lester nodded.
+
+“She's very lovely. And yet I felt once that I could have killed
+her--when you and I sat together watching the big tree fall. But I
+couldn't hate _any one_ now.”
+
+
+
+
+THE EAST INDIAN COUSIN
+
+Nearly eighty years ago, when the news of Napoleon's downfall at
+Waterloo had not yet reached England's colonies in the Far East, a
+country ship named the _Nourmahal_ sailed from Madras for the Island of
+Singapore. The object of her voyage was not known except, perhaps, to
+the leading officials of the Company's establishment at Madras; but it
+was generally believed that she carried certain presents from the Indian
+Government to the then Sultans of Malacca, Johore, and Pahang.
+Sir Stamford Raffles, it was known, had urged the occupation and
+fortification of Singapore as a matter of importance to England's
+supremacy in the Eastern seas. And, indeed, three years later he began
+the work himself.
+
+But the presents destined for the Rajahs never reached them; for from
+the day that she sailed from Madras roadstead the _Nourmahal_ was never
+heard of nor seen again; and a year later no one but the relatives of
+the few Europeans on board thought any more about her. She had, it was
+conjectured, foundered in a typhoon, or been captured by pirates on her
+way through the Straits of Malacca.
+
+The master of the missing ship was an Englishman named John Channing.
+For twenty-five or more years he had served the East India Company well,
+and his brave and determined conduct in many a sea-fight had won him
+not only a high place in the esteem of the directors, but considerable
+wealth as well. In those days it was not unusual for the captains of
+the larger ships belonging to or chartered by the Honourable Company
+to accumulate fortunes as the result of half a dozen successful voyages
+between England and Calcutta, and Captain John Channing had fared as
+well--or even better--than any of his fellow-captains in the service.
+For many years, however, he had not visited England, as, on account of
+his intimate and friendly relations with both the Portuguese and Dutch
+in the East Indies, the Government kept him and his ship constantly
+employed in those parts. Jealous and suspicious as were both the
+Dutch and Portuguese of English influence, they yet accorded Channing
+privileges granted to no other Englishman that sailed their seas. The
+reasons for these concessions from the Dutch were simple enough. A Dutch
+war-vessel conveying treasure to Batavia had been attacked by pirates,
+and in spite of a long and gallant defence was almost at the mercy
+of her savage assailants when Channing's ship came to her rescue and
+escorted her to port in safety. With the Portuguese merchants he was on
+most friendly terms, for twenty years before the opening of this story
+he had married the daughter of one of the wealthiest of their number,
+who was settled at Macassar, in Celebes. They had but one child, Adela,
+who when the _Nourmahal_ sailed from Madras was about eighteen years of
+age, and she, with her mother, had accompanied her father on his last
+and fateful voyage. In England the missing seaman had but one relative,
+a nephew named Francis Channing, who was a lieutenant in the Marines.
+Nearly a year after the departure of his uncle's ship from India, all
+hope of his return was abandoned, and as he had left no will an official
+intimation was sent to the young man by John Channing's Calcutta
+bankers, informing him of his uncle's supposed death, and suggesting
+that he should either obtain a lengthened leave or resign from the
+service and come out to India to personally confer with them and the
+proper authorities as to the disposal of the dead man's property, which,
+as the owner had died intestate, would, of course, be inherited by his
+sole remaining relative. But the ship by which this letter was sent
+never reached England. A week after she sailed she was captured by
+a French privateer, one of several which, openly disregarding the
+proclamation of peace between England and France, still preyed upon
+homeward-bound merchantmen; and all the letters and despatches found on
+board the captured vessel were retained by the privateer captain, and
+were doubtless lost or destroyed.
+
+Meanwhile Lieutenant Channing, quite unconscious of his good fortune,
+had sailed in His Majesty's ship _Triton_ for the Cape and East Indies.
+With no influence behind him, and nothing but his scanty pay to live on,
+he had nothing to hope for but that another year's or two years' service
+would gain him his captaincy. Of his uncle in India he had scarcely ever
+heard, for his father and John Channing had quarrelled in their early
+lives, and since then had not corresponded.
+
+Although at times quiet and reflective in his manner, his genial,
+open-hearted disposition soon made the young officer of Marines a
+general favourite with every one on board the _Triton_. The captain
+of the frigate, one of those gallant old seamen who had distinguished
+themselves under Nelson and Hyde Parker, knew Channing's worth and
+bravery well, for they had served together in some of the bloodiest
+engagements that had ever upheld the honour of England's flag. Unlike
+many other naval captains who in those days were apt to regard somewhat
+slightingly the services rendered by the Marines, Captain Reay was, if
+not an ardent admirer of the corps, at least a warm-hearted advocate
+for and friend to it. Perhaps much of the feeling of friendship shown
+to Channing was due to the fact that before he joined the _Triton_ her
+captain had told his officers a story of his experiences in the West
+Indies, in which the officer of Marines was the central figure. Captain
+Reay had been sent by the senior officer of the squadron to demand
+the surrender of a fort on the Island of Martinique, when by an act of
+treachery he and his boat's crew were made prisoners and confined in
+the fortress, where he was treated with almost savage brutality by
+the commandant. The frigate at once opened fire, but after four hours'
+bombardment had failed to silence a single gun in the fort. At midnight
+it was carried in an attack led by young Channing, then a mere lad,
+and who, although two-thirds of his small force fell ere the walls were
+reached, refused to draw back and abandon Reay and his men. From that
+day Reay became his warm and sincere friend.
+
+*****
+
+The best part of a year had passed since the _Triton_ had sailed from
+Portsmouth, and now, with only the faintest air filling her canvas,
+she was sailing slowly along the shores of a cluster of islands, high,
+densely wooded, and picturesque. They formed one of the many minor
+groups of the beautiful and fertile Moluccas. Ten days before, the
+frigate had left Banda, and, impelled upon her course by but the
+gentlest breezes, had crept slowly northward towards Ternate, where
+Captain Reay was touching for letters before reporting himself to the
+Admiral at Singapore. On the quarter-deck a party of officers were
+standing together looking over the side at the wonders of the coral
+world, over which the ship was passing. For many hours the _Triton_ had
+sailed thus, through water as clear as crystal, revealing full sixty
+feet below the dazzling lights and ever-changing shadows of the uneven
+bottom. Now and again she would pass over a broad arena of sand,
+gleaming white amid encircling walls of living coral many-hued, and
+gently swaying weed and sponge of red and yellow, which, though so
+far below, seemed to rise and touch the frigate's keel and then with
+quivering motion sink again astern. And as the ship's great hull cast
+her darkening shadow deep down through the transparency, swarms of
+brightly coloured fishes, red and blue and purple and shining gold, and
+banded and striped in every conceivable manner, darted away on either
+side to hide awhile in the moving caverns of weed that formed their
+refuge from predatory enemies. So slowly was the frigate moving, and
+so clear was the water, that sometimes as she sailed over a valley of
+glistening sand the smallest coloured pebble or fragment of broken coral
+could be as clearly discerned upon the snowy floor as if it lay embedded
+in a sheet of flawless crystal; and then again the quivering walls of
+weed and sponge would seem to rise ahead as if to bar her way, then
+slowly sink astern in the frigate's soundless wake.
+
+But if the strange world beneath was wondrous and fascinating to look
+upon, that around was even more so. Three miles away on the starboard
+hand a group of green and fertile islands shone like emeralds in the
+morning sun. Leaning over the rail, Francis Channing gazed at their
+verdant heights and palm-fringed beaches of yellow sand with a feeling
+but little short of rapture to a man with a mind so beauty-loving and
+poetic as was his. Familiar to the wild bloom and brilliance of the West
+Indian islands, the soft tropical beauty of the scene now before him
+surpassed all he had ever seen, and, oblivious of the presence and
+voices of his brother officers as they conversed near him, he became
+lost in reflective and pleased contemplation of the radiant panorama of
+land, sea, and almost cloudless sky around him. Thirty miles away,
+yet so distinctly defined in the clear atmosphere that it seemed but a
+league distant from the ship, a perfect volcanic cone stood abruptly up
+from out the deep blue sea, and from its sharp-pointed summit a pillar
+of darkly-coloured smoke had risen skywards since early morn; but now as
+the wind died away it slowly spread out into a wide canopy of white,
+and then sank lower and lower till the pinnacle of the mountain was
+enveloped in its fleecy mantle.
+
+As the young officer watched the changes of the smoky pall that
+proclaimed the awful and mysterious forces slumbering deep down in the
+bosom of the earth, he was suddenly aroused from his reflective mood by
+the shrill whistles and hoarse cries of the boatswain's mates, and in
+another minute the watch began to shorten sail: a faint greenish tinge
+in the western sky, quickly noted by the master, who was an old sailor
+in Eastern seas, told of danger from that quarter.
+
+Although the typhoon season had not yet set in, and both Captain Reay
+and the master knew that in that latitude (about 4 deg. south) there
+was not very much probability of meeting with one, every preparation
+was made, as violent squalls and heavy rain, at least, were certain
+to follow the greenish warning in the sky. In a very short time their
+surmise proved correct, for by four in the afternoon the _Triton_ under
+short canvas, was battling with a mountainous sea and furious gusts
+of wind from the W.N. W. The presence of so much land around them,
+surrounded by networks of outlying reefs, the strong and erratic
+currents, and the approaching night, gave Captain Reay much concern, and
+it was with a feeling of intense relief that he acceded to the master's
+suggestion to bring the ship to an anchor in a harbour situated among
+the cluster of islands that the ship had passed early in the day.
+
+“We can lie there as snugly as if we were in dock,” said the master;
+“the holding ground is good, and there is room for half a dozen
+line-of-battle ships.” Then, pointing to the chart lying before him, he
+added, “The place is called Tyar, and, curiously enough, was first
+made known to the Admiral at Calcutta by a Captain Channing, one or the
+Company's men. This plan of the harbour is a copy of the one he made ten
+years ago.”
+
+“Channing's uncle, very probably,” said Captain Reay, who had been told
+by his Marine officer that he had an unknown uncle in the Company's
+service. “Very well, Mr. Dacre, let us get in there by all means. I am
+most anxious to see the ship out of this before darkness sets in and we
+get piled up on a reef.”
+
+A mighty downpour of rain, which fell upon the frigate's deck like a
+waterspout, cut short all further speech by its deafening tumult, and
+although it lasted but a few minutes, it killed the fury of the squall
+to such an extent that the ship, unsteadied by her canvas, rolled so
+violently that no one could keep his feet. Suddenly the torrent ceased,
+and a short, savage, and gasping puff struck and almost sent her over on
+her beam-ends, then swept away as quickly as it came, to be followed a
+minute later by another almost as fierce but of longer duration.
+
+Without further loss of time the reefs were shaken out of the
+topsails, for darkness was coming on, and, wearing ship at a favourable
+opportunity, the Triton kept away for Mr. Dacre's harbour. The wind, now
+blowing with steady force, sent her through the confused and lumpy sea
+at such a speed that before sundown she ran through the entrance to the
+harbour, and, bringing to under a high, wooded bluff, dropped anchor
+in ten fathoms of water, quite close to a narrow strip of beach that
+fringed the shores of a little bay.
+
+The place in the immediate vicinity of the ship appeared to be
+uninhabited, but as darkness came on, a glimmer of lights appeared along
+the shore some miles away, and at daylight a number of fishing prahus
+approached the frigate, at first with hesitation, but when they were
+hailed by the master in their own tongue, and told that the ship was
+English, they came alongside and bartered their fish. They assured the
+master that the stormy weather was sure to continue for some days, until
+the moon quartered, and Captain Reay was pleased to learn from them that
+a certain amount of provisions, fish, vegetables, and fruit, would be
+brought off daily to the ship for sale.
+
+The wind still blew with violence, and although the ship lay in water as
+smooth as a mill-pond, the narrow strip of open ocean visible from her
+decks was whipped foaming white with its violence.
+
+In their conversation with the master, the natives had told him that at
+a village some miles away from where the Triton was anchored, there was
+a white man and his wife living--French people, so they said. A year
+before, a French privateer, running before a heavy gale and a wild,
+sweeping sea, had struck upon the barrier reef of one of the outer
+low-lying islands of the group, and, carried over it by the surf, had
+foundered in the lagoon inside. Only ten people were saved, and among
+them were the Frenchman and his wife. Two months afterwards eight of
+the male survivors took passage in a prahu belonging to the Sultan of
+Batchian, having heard that there was a French ship refitting at that
+island.
+
+“Why did the two others remain?” asked Mr. Dacre.
+
+The natives laughed. “Ah! the one man who stayed was a clever man. When
+the prahu from Batchian came here he said he was sick, and that his wife
+feared to sail so far in a small prahu. He would wait, he said, till a
+ship came.”
+
+“And then?” asked Dacre.
+
+“And then, after the other Frenchmen had gone, he came to our head man
+and said that if they would keep faith with him he would make them rich,
+for he knew that which none else knew. So he and they made a bond to
+keep faith with one another, and that day he took them to where the ship
+had sunk, and pointing to where she lay beneath the water he said: 'Is
+there any among ye who can dive down so far?' They laughed, for the
+wreck was but ten single arm lengths below, and then they said: 'Is this
+where thy riches lie? Of what use to us is this sunken ship, save for
+the guns on her decks?'
+
+“Then he said: 'In that ship is gold and silver money enough to cover as
+a carpet the beach that lies in front of the village, but to get it
+the decks must be torn up. I, who was second in command, know where the
+treasure lieth in the belly of the ship. Now let us talk together and
+make a plan whereby we can get this money. It was for this I lied to
+those who have gone and said I was sick.'
+
+“Then as soon as the tides were low, the Frenchman and the head men made
+rafts of bamboos and timber, and floating them on the wreck they took
+thick ropes of rattan, and divers went down and lashed the ends thereof
+to the cross-beams under the decks. Then when this was done more bamboos
+were added to the rafts above, and as the tide flowed the rattan ropes
+stood up like iron bars. For two days the people worked at this, and yet
+the decks kept firm, but on the third day a great piece tore out, and
+the sunken rafts sprang to the surface. And then the divers again went
+down, and by and by they brought up money in bags of canvas, and wooden
+boxes. And half of which was gotten up the Tuan took, and half he gave
+to the head men, according to the bond. And much more money is yet in
+the ship, for it is only when the water is clear and the current is not
+swift can we dive. Yet every time do we get money.”
+
+“The rascal!” said Captain Reay, when Dacre translated this. “I suppose
+this money was from plundered English prizes. Only that we are at
+peace with France, I'd like to take every coin from both the piratical
+scoundrel himself and his Malay partners. And, indeed, if the _Triton_
+were not a King's ship, I'd send a boat there and take it now. But I
+suppose I can't interfere--confound the fellow!--now that we are at
+peace with France.”
+
+The wind was still blowing with great force, and as there appeared no
+prospect of the weather breaking for another day or two, Captain Reay
+and his officers made preparations for excursions into the country. The
+natives showed a very great friendliness towards the _Triton's_ people,
+and at about ten in the morning two boats left the ship for the
+shore, and Channing, accompanied by one of his Marines, who carried
+a fowling-piece, set out by themselves along the winding path that
+encircled the narrow littoral of the island off which the frigate lay.
+The captain had ordered that the shore party was not to remain later
+than sunset; so, determined to see as much of the place as possible,
+Channing and Private Watts set off at a brisk pace. A three hours' walk
+brought them to the windward side of the island, and then emerging from
+the palm-shaded path, they suddenly came upon the principal village
+of the island. Their appearance was hailed by the natives with every
+manifestation of pleasure, and a number of young men escorted them to
+the house of the principal head man, where they offered a simple repast
+of fish and fruit, and small drams of arrack served in coconut shells.
+
+Leaving Private Watts to amuse himself with the villagers, who
+apparently took much interest in his uniform and accoutrements,
+Francis Channing set out for a walk. The path led along through the
+sweet-smelling tropical forest at about a cable's length from the shore,
+and then suddenly emerged upon a little cove, the beach of which was
+strewn with wreckage; spars, hempen cables, and other ship's gear
+covering the sand at high-water mark. Several rudely constructed rafts
+of wreckage, timber, and bamboo, were moored a little distance off, and
+Channing at once surmised that the spot was used as a landing-place by
+the wreckers working at the sunken privateer.
+
+As he stood looking about him, uncertain whether to go on or turn back,
+a man approached him from a house that stood at the furthest point of
+the bay, and saluted him politely in French.
+
+“I presume, sir,” he said, as he bowed and extended his hand to the
+Englishman, “that you are one of the officers from the English frigate
+anchored at Tyar. I have heard that peace has been declared between our
+two nations, and I rejoice.”
+
+Channing made a suitable reply, and gazed with interest at the stranger,
+who was a handsome man of less than twenty-five years of age, dressed
+in a rough suit of blue jean, and wearing a wide-rimmed hat of plaited
+straw. His face was tanned a rich brown by the Eastern sun; and rough
+and coarse as was his attire, his address and manner showed him to be a
+man of education and refinement.
+
+He seemed somewhat discomposed when Channing, in a very natural manner,
+asked him the name of his ship, and answered--
+
+“_L'Aigle Noir_, Monsieur, and my name is Armand Le Mescam.”
+
+“I have heard her name mentioned by our master,” said the Marine
+officer, with a smile. “He has had the honour of serving in many
+engagements against your country's ships in these seas, in which our
+ships have not always secured a victory.”
+
+The Frenchman bowed and smiled, and then, feeling no doubt that he could
+do so with safety to himself, and that even if the cause of his presence
+on the island were known to the _Tritons_ people that he would suffer no
+molestation, invited Channing to walk to his house and take a glass of
+wine.
+
+“Ah!” said Channing, with a laugh; “then you have got wine as well as
+money from the wreck of _L' Aigle Noir_.”
+
+The Frenchman's face darkened, and he stopped short.
+
+“You know then, Monsieur, the reason of my remaining on this island?”
+
+“I have heard,” answered Channing frankly; and then, noticing the
+agitation expressed on the Frenchman's face, he added, “but that does
+not concern me, nor indeed any one else on board the _Triton_--not now,
+at any rate, since France and England are at peace.”
+
+Monsieur Le Mescam seemed greatly relieved at hearing this, and in
+another minute, chatting gaily to his visitor, led the way into his
+house. The building was but little better than an ordinary native
+dwelling, but it was furnished with rude couches and seats made from the
+wreckage of the privateer, and scattered about were many articles,
+such as weapons, crockery, cooking utensils, clothing, &c. Two or three
+native servants, who were lounging about, at once presented themselves
+to their master, and one of them, bringing a small keg, filled two
+silver cups with wine, and Channing and his host, bowing politely to
+each other, drank.
+
+For some little time the two men conversed pleasantly, and then the
+Frenchman, who so far had avoided all allusion to the treasure, offered
+to conduct his guest a part of the way back to the native village. That
+he had not presented Channing to his wife did not surprise the latter,
+who imagined that she could scarcely be clothed in a befitting manner to
+meet a stranger, and he therefore did not even let his host know that he
+was aware of his wife being with him on the island.
+
+Drinking a parting cup of wine together, the two men set out, the
+Frenchman leading the way past a number of sheds built of bamboos, and
+covered with atap thatch. As they reached the last of these buildings,
+which stood almost at the water's edge, they came upon a woman who
+was sitting, with her back turned to them, under the shade of the
+overhanging thatched eaves, nursing a child.
+
+In a moment she rose to her feet and faced them, and rough and coarsely
+clad as she was, Channing was struck by her great beauty and her sad and
+mournful face.
+
+For a moment the Frenchman hesitated, and with a quick “Sit you there,
+Adela, I shall return shortly,” was turning away again with Channing,
+when they heard the woman's voice calling in French, “Adrian, come
+back!” and then in another moment she added in English, as she saw
+Channing walking on, “And you, sir, in Heaven's name, do not leave me! I
+am an Englishwoman.”
+
+In an instant Channing turned, and quick as lightning the Frenchman,
+whose face was dark with passion, barred his way--“Monsieur, as an
+honourable man, will not attempt to speak to my wife when I request him
+not to do so.”
+
+“And I beg of you, sir, as my fellow-countryman, not to desert me. I am
+indeed an Englishwoman. My father's ship was captured, plundered, and
+then sunk by a French privateer, within sight of Malacca. Both he and
+my mother are dead, and I was forced to marry that man there,” and she
+pointed scornfully through her tears to Le Mescam. “His captain, who I
+thought had some honour, promised to set me ashore at Manila, but when
+we reached there I was kept on board, and, ill and scarce able to speak,
+was married to Lieutenant Le Mescam, against my will, by a Spanish
+priest. Oh, sir, for the sake of my father, who was an English sailor,
+help me!”
+
+Channing sprang towards her. “Madam, I am an Englishman, and there is
+a King's ship not four miles away. You, sir”--and he turned to the
+Frenchman, whose handsome face was now distorted with passion--“shall
+answer for your cowardly conduct, or I very much mistake the character
+of the gallant officer under whom I have the honour to serve. Ha!” And
+with sudden fury he seized Le Mescam's right arm, the hand of which had
+grasped a pistol in the bosom of his coat. “You cowardly, treacherous
+hound!” and wrenching the weapon from his grasp, he struck the Frenchman
+in the face with it, and sent him spinning backward upon the sand, where
+he lay apparently stunned.
+
+Then Charming turned to the woman, who, trembling in every limb, was
+leaning against the side of the house. “Madam, I shall return to the
+ship at once. Will you come with me now, or shall I go on first? That
+our captain will send a boat for you within an hour you may rely on. He
+will take quick action in such a matter as this. If you fear to remain
+alone, I shall with pleasure escort you on board now.”
+
+“No, no,” she pleaded; “he,” and she pointed to the prone figure of the
+Frenchman, “would never hurt me; and I cannot leave him like this--I
+cannot forget that, wicked and cruel as he has been to me, he is the
+father of my child. Return, sir, I pray you, to your ship, and if you
+can help me to escape from my unhappy position, do so. Were it not
+for the money that my husband is employed in getting from the sunken
+privateer, my lot would not have been so hard, for he would have
+returned with the other survivors to Batchian; and from there, by
+the weight of my poor father's name, I could easily have escaped to
+Macassar, where my mother's relatives live.”
+
+“Do not fear then, Madam,” said Channing kindly, “I shall leave you
+now, but rest assured that a few hours hence you shall be among your
+own countrymen once more.” Then as two native women appeared, as if
+searching for their mistress, he raised his hat and walked quickly away.
+
+*****
+
+Armand Le Mescam, with the bitterest rage depicted on his swarthy
+features, rose to his feet, and instead of returning to his house went
+slowly along towards one of his storehouses, without even glancing at
+his wife, who stood watching him from where Channing had left her. In
+a few moments she saw his figure vanishing among the palms, but not so
+quickly but that she perceived he carried a musket.
+
+His intention was easy to divine, and with a despairing look in her
+eyes, she began to run after him, carrying the infant in her arms.
+
+*****
+
+Private Watts, meanwhile, had very much enjoyed himself with the
+natives, who, by reason of the Polynesian strain in their blood, were
+a merry, demonstrative, joyous people, unlike most of the Malayan race,
+who are much the reverse, especially towards strangers. For some time
+he had been watching the native boys throwing darts at a target, and
+his attempts to emulate their skill aroused much childish merriment.
+Suddenly the lengthening shadows of the surrounding palms recalled
+him to the fact that it was getting late, so bidding goodbye to his
+entertainers, he shouldered his fowling-piece and set off to meet his
+master, taking the same path as that by which Lieutenant Channing had
+left him. Half an hour's walk brought him to a spot where the path lay
+between the thick forest jungle on one side and the open beach on the
+other, with here and there jagged clumps of broken coral rock covered
+with a dense growth of vines and creepers.
+
+Three or four hundred yards away he could see the tall figure of
+Lieutenant Channing walking quickly along the path; and so, sitting down
+upon a little strip of grassy sward that skirted the beach side of the
+track, the soldier awaited his master.
+
+With the approach of sunset the wind had fallen, and though a mile or
+two away the thundering surges leapt with loud and resounding clamour
+upon the barrier reef, only the gentlest ripple disturbed the placid
+water of the sheltered lagoon. Overhead the broad leaves of the
+coco-palms, towering above the darker green of the surrounding
+vegetation, drooped languidly to the calm of the coming night, and great
+crested grey and purple-plumaged pigeons lit with crooning note upon
+their perches to rest.
+
+As he lay there, lazily enjoying the beauty of the scene, the soldier
+heard the loud, hoarse note and whistling and clapping of a hornbill,
+and, turning his head, he saw the huge-beaked, ugly bird, rising in
+alarm from one of the vine-covered boulders of coral which stood between
+the path and high-water mark not thirty yards away, and at the same
+moment he caught a gleam of something bright that seemed to move amid
+the dense green tangle that covered the rock; and then a man's head and
+shoulders appeared for a second in full view. His back was turned
+to Watts, who now saw, with a vague feeling of wonder, that he was
+kneeling, and peering cautiously out upon the path below. Further along
+Watts could see his master, now within a hundred feet of the boulder,
+and walking very quickly. Then an exclamation of horror broke from
+him as the kneeling man slowly rose, and pointed his musket full at
+Channing; but ere the treacherous hand could pull the trigger, the
+Marine had levelled his piece and fired; without a cry the man spun
+round, and then pitched headlong to the ground at Channing's feet.
+
+“My God, sir!” panted Watts, as a few seconds later he stood beside his
+master, who was gazing with stupefied amazement at the huddled-up figure
+of Armand Le Mescam, who lay with his face turned upward, and a dark
+stream trickling from his mouth, “I was only just in time. He had you
+covered at ten paces when I fired.”
+
+Le Mescam never spoke again. The shot had struck him in the back and
+passed through his chest. As the two men bent over him, a woman carrying
+a child burst through the jungle near them, sank exhausted on her knees
+beside the dead man, and then fainted.
+
+*****
+
+There was much excitement when the last boat returned to the _Triton_
+pulling as her crew had never pulled before. Then there was a rush of
+pig-tailed bluejackets to the gangway, as a murmuring whisper ran along
+the decks that the “soger officer was comin' aboard holdin' a woman in
+his arms,” and the news was instantly conveyed to the captain, who
+was that evening dining with his officers, with the result that as the
+cutter ran up alongside, Captain Reay, the master, and half a dozen
+other officers were standing on the main deck.
+
+“By Heavens, gentlemen, it's true!” cried Captain Reay to the others.
+“Here, show more light at the gangway!”
+
+And then amid a babble of excitement, Lieutenant Channing, pale,
+hatless, and excited, ascended the gangway, carrying in his arms a woman
+whose white face and dark hair stood clearly revealed under the blaze
+of lights held aloft by the seamen. As he touched the deck, the sleeping
+babe in her arms awoke, and uttered a wailing cry.
+
+“Take her to my cabin, Channing,” said Reay, without waiting to question
+him. “Here! give me the youngster, quick! Sentry, pass the word for the
+doctor.”
+
+The moment the officers had disappeared a buzz of talk hummed, and
+Private Watts was besieged with questions. “Give us a tot, an' I'll
+tell ye all about it, afore I'm sent for by the captain,” was his prompt
+answer; and then swallowing the generous draught provided him, he told
+his story in as few words as possible.
+
+A big, bony sergeant slapped him on the shoulder, “Mon, ye'll hae your
+stripes for this.”
+
+“Ay, that he will,” said a hairy-chested boatswain. “Well, it's a
+uncommon curious ewent: this 'ere young covey goes a-shootin', and
+bags a Frenchman, and the soger officer brings a hangel and a cherrybim
+aboard.”
+
+*****
+
+The officers of the Triton sat long over their wine that night, and
+Lieutenant Channing was the recipient of much merry badinage; but there
+was behind it all a sincere feeling of joy that he had escaped such
+a treacherous death. Private Watts being sent for, was excused by the
+Scotch sergeant, who gravely reported that he was bad in the legs,
+whereat the officers laughed, and straightway made up a purse of guineas
+for him. Suddenly, as Captain Reay entered, the babble ceased.
+
+“Gentlemen, let Mr. Channing turn in; he wants rest. The lady and her
+baby are now sound asleep. She has told me her strange story. To-morrow,
+Mr. West, you can take a boat's crew, and bring aboard a large sum
+of money concealed in a spot of which I shall give you an exact
+description. It belongs to this lady undoubtedly, now that Watts's lucky
+shot has settled her ruffianly husband.”
+
+*****
+
+Two days after, the frigate had cleared her harbour of refuge, and
+was bowling along on her course for Ternate when Captain Reay sent for
+Lieutenant Channing to come to his cabin.
+
+“Channing,” he said, taking his hand with a smile, “it is my happy lot
+to give you what I know will prove a joyful surprise. This lady”--and
+he bowed to Mrs. Le Mescam, who was sitting looking at him with a bright
+expectancy in her dark eyes--“is your own cousin, Adela Channing. There,
+I'll leave you now. She has much to tell you, poor girl; I have decided
+to go straight to the Admiral at Singapore instead of touching at
+Ternate, and if old Cardew is worth his salt he'll give you leave to
+take her to Calcutta.”
+
+*****
+
+Of course, Channing and Adela fell in love with each other, and he duly
+married the lady, and when they reached England he received the news of
+the inheritance that had fallen to him by John Channing's death.
+
+Ex-Sergeant Watts, of the Marines, followed his master when he retired
+from the Service, and was for long the especial guardian of the
+“cherubim,” as Adela Channing's eldest boy had been named by the
+_Triton's_ people--until other sons and daughters appeared to claim his
+devotion.
+
+
+
+
+PROCTOR THE DRUNKARD
+
+Proctor, the ex-second mate of the island-trading brig _Bandolier_,
+crawled out from under the shelter of the overhanging rock where he
+had passed the night, and brushing off the thick coating of dust which
+covered his clothes from head to foot, walked quickly through the leafy
+avenues of Sydney Domain, leading to the city.
+
+Sleeping under a rock in a public park is not a nice thing to do, but
+Proctor had been forced to do it for many weeks past. He didn't like it
+at first, but soon got used to it. It was better than having to ask
+old Mother Jennings for a bed at the dirty lodging-house, and being
+refused--with unnecessary remarks upon his financial position. The
+Sailors' Home was right enough; he could get a free bed there for the
+asking, and some tucker as well. But then at the Home he had to listen
+to prayers and religious advice, and he hated both, upon an empty
+stomach. No, he thought, the Domain was a lot better; every dirty “Jack
+Dog” at the Home knew he had been kicked out of sundry ships before he
+piled up the _Bandolier_, and they liked to comment audibly on their
+knowledge of the fact while he was eating his dinner among them--it's a
+way which A.B.'s have of “rubbing it in” to an officer down on his beam
+ends. Drunkard? Yes, of course he was, and everybody knew it. Why, even
+that sour-faced old devil of a door-keeper at the Home put a tract on
+his bed every evening. Curse him and his “Drunkard, beware!” and every
+other rotten tract on intemperance. Well, he had been sober for a week
+now--hadn't any money to get drunk with. If he had he certainly would
+get drunk, as quickly as he possibly could. Might as well get drunk as
+try to get a ship now. Why, every wharf-loafer knew him.
+
+A hot feeling came to his cheeks and stayed there as he walked through
+the streets, for he seemed to hear every one laugh and mutter at him as
+he passed, “That's the boozy mate of the _Bandolier_. Ran her ashore in
+the Islands when he was drunk and drowned most of the hands.”
+
+*****
+
+Proctor was twenty-five when he began to drink. He had just been made
+master, and his good luck in making such quick passages set him off. Not
+that he then drank at sea; it was only when he came on shore and met
+so many of the passengers he had carried between Sydney and New Zealand
+that he went in for it. Then came a warning from the manager of the
+steamship company. That made him a bit careful--and vexed. And ill-luck
+made him meet a brother captain that night, and of course they had “a
+time” together, and Proctor was driven down in a cab to the ship and
+helped up the gangway by a wharfinger and a deck hand. The next morning
+he was asked to resign, and from that day his career was damned. From
+the command of a crack steamship to that of a tramp collier was a big
+come-down; but Proctor was glad to get the collier after a month's
+idleness. For nearly a year all went well. He had had a lesson, and did
+not drink now, not even on shore. A woman who had stood to him in his
+first disgrace had promised to marry him when the year was out, and that
+kept him straight. Then one day he received a cold intimation from his
+owners that he “had better look out for another ship,” his services
+were no longer wanted. “Why?” he asked. Well, they said, they would
+be candid, they had heard he was a drinking man, and they would run no
+risks. Six months of shamefaced and enforced idleness followed; and then
+Proctor was partly promised a barque. Another man named Rothesay was
+working hard to get her, but Proctor beat him by a hair's breadth. He
+made two or three trips to California and back, and then, almost on the
+eve of his marriage, met Rothesay, who was now in command of a small
+island-trading steamer. Proctor liked Rothesay, and thought him a good
+fellow; Rothesay hated Proctor most fervently, hated him because he was
+in command of the ship he wanted himself, and hated him because he was
+to marry Nell Levison. Proctor did not know this (Nell Levison did), or
+he would have either knocked the handsome black-bearded, ever-smiling
+Captain Rothesay down, or told him to drink by himself. But he was no
+match for Rothesay's cunning, and readily swallowed his enemy's smiling
+professions of regard and good wishes for his married happiness. They
+drank together again and again, and, at eleven o'clock that night, just
+as the theatres were coming out, Rothesay suddenly left him, and Proctor
+found himself staggering across the street. A policeman took him to his
+hotel, where Proctor sank into a heavy, deadly stupor. He awoke at noon.
+Two letters were lying on his table. One, from the owners of his barque,
+asked him to call on them at ten o'clock that morning, the other was
+from Nell Levison. The latter was short but plain: “I shall never marry
+a drunkard. I never wish to see you again. _I saw you last night_.” He
+dressed and went to the owners' office. The senior partner did not shake
+hands, but coldly bade him be seated. And in another minute Proctor
+learnt that it was known he had been seen drunk in the street, and that
+he could “look for another ship.” He went out dazed and stupid.
+
+For three days he kept up his courage, and then wrote to the owners of
+the barque and asked them to overlook the matter. He had served them
+well, he urged, and surely they would not ruin him for life. And
+Rothesay, to whom he showed the letter, said it was one of which no man
+need be ashamed. He would take it himself, he added, for he felt he was
+in some degree to blame for that fatal night. Take it he did, for he
+felt certain that it would not alter the decision of Messrs. Macpherson
+& Donald--he knew them too well for that. Then he came back to Proctor
+with a gloomy face, and shook his head. The wretched man knew what that
+meant, and asked him no questions. Rothesay, sneak and traitor as he
+was, felt some shame in his heart when, an hour later, Proctor held out
+his hand, thanked him, and bade him good-bye. “I'm clearing out,” he
+said.
+
+Then for six years Proctor was seen no more in Sydney. He went steadily
+to the devil elsewhere--mostly in the South Sea Islands, where he was
+dismissed from one vessel after another, first as skipper, then as
+mate, then as second mate. One day in a Fiji hotel he met a man--a
+stranger--who knew Rothesay well.
+
+“What is he doing now?” asked Proctor.
+
+“Don't know exactly. He's no friend of mine, although I was mate with
+him for two years. He married a girl that was engaged to another man--a
+poor devil of a chap named Proctor--married her a week after Proctor got
+the run from his ship for being drunk. And every one says that it was
+Rothesay who made him drunk, as he was mad to get the girl. And I have
+no doubt it's true. Rothesay is the two ends and bight of a damned
+sneak.”
+
+Proctor nodded, but said nothing.
+
+He drank now whenever he could get at liquor, ashore or afloat.
+Sometimes he would steal it. Yet somehow he always managed to get
+another ship. He knew the islands well, and provided he could be kept
+sober there was not a better man to be found in the Pacific labour
+trade. And the “trade”--_i.e._, the recruiting of native labourers for
+the Fijian and Queensland sugar plantations from among the New Hebrides
+and Solomon Groups--was a dangerous pursuit. But Proctor was always a
+lucky man. He had come down to a second mate's berth now on the brig
+_Bandolier_; but then he was “recruiter” as well, and with big wages,
+incurred more risks than any other man on the ship. Perhaps he had grown
+careless of his life, which was lonely enough, for though not a morose
+man, he never talked with his shipmates. So for two years or more he
+cruised in the _Bandolier_ among the woolly-haired, naked cannibals
+of the Solomon Group and thereabout, landing at places where no other
+recruiter would get out of his boat, and taking a box of trade goods
+with him, sit calmly down on the beach surrounded by savages who might
+without a moment's warning riddle him with spears or club him from
+behind. But Proctor knew no fear, although his armed boat's crew and
+the crew of the covering boat would call to him to get aboard again and
+shove off. Other labour ships there were cruising on the same ground
+who lost men often enough by spear or bullet or poisoned arrow, and went
+back to Fiji or Queensland with perhaps not a score of “recruits,”
+ but Proctor never lost a single man, and always filled the crazy old
+_Bandolier_ with a black and savage cargo. Then, once in port again,
+his enemy seized him, and for a week at a time he would lie drunk in the
+local hells, till the captain sought him out and brought him on board
+again. Going back to the recruiting grounds with an empty ship and with
+no danger to apprehend from a sudden rush of naked figures, the captain
+gave him as much liquor as he wanted, else Proctor would have stolen
+it. And one night he was drunk on his watch, ran the _Bandolier_ upon
+a reef, and all hands perished but himself and six others. One boat was
+saved, and then followed long days of hunger and thirst and bitter agony
+upon the sea under a blazing sun, but Proctor brought the boat and
+crew safely to the Queensland coast. A month later he was in Sydney
+penniless, and again “looking for a ship.” But no one would have him
+now; his story was too well known.
+
+And so for weeks past he had slept in the park at night, and wandered
+down about the wharves during the day. Sometimes he earned a few
+shillings, most of which went in cheap rum.
+
+*****
+
+Half an hour's walk through the long shady avenue of Moreton Bay figs,
+and then he emerged suddenly into the noise and rattle of the city.
+Four coppers was all the money he possessed, and unless he could earn a
+shilling or two during the day on the wharves he would have to starve
+on the morrow. He stopped outside the _Herald_ office presently, and
+pushing his way through a number of half-starved outcasts like himself,
+he read down the “Wanted” column of the paper. And suddenly hope sprang
+up in his heart as he saw this--
+
+     WANTED, for the Solomon Islands Labour trade, four able
+     Seamen used to the work.    High wages to competent men.
+     Apply to Harkniss & Co., George Street.
+
+Ten minutes later he was at Harkness & Company's office waiting to see
+the manager. Ten o'clock, the clerks said, would be time enough to
+come. Proctor said he would wait. He feared that there would be other
+applicants, and was determined to see the manager before any one else.
+But he need not have been so anxious. Men such as Harkness & Company
+wanted were hard to get, and the firm were not disposed to be particular
+as to their character or antecedents, so long as they could do the
+“work” and hold their tongues afterward. Ten o'clock came, and at
+half-past ten Proctor and two other men went out of the office each
+with a £1 note in his pocket, and with orders to proceed to Melbourne
+by steamer, and there join the barque _Kate Rennie_. Before the steamer
+left for Melbourne, Proctor had parted with half of his pound for
+another man's discharge. He did not want to be known as Proctor of the
+_Bandolier_ if he could help it. So he was now Peter Jensen; and Peter
+Jensen, a hard-up Norwegian A.B., was promoted--on paper--to John
+Proctor, master. At Melbourne they found the barque ready for sea, and
+they were at once taken to the shipping office to meet the captain and
+sign articles, and Proctor's heart beat fiercely with a savage joy when
+he heard the voice of the man who had stolen Nell Levison from him! So
+Rothesay was the captain of the _Kate Rennie!_ And the Solomon Islands
+was a good place to pay off one's old scores.
+
+The _Kate Rennie_ sailed the next day. As soon as the tug cast off, the
+crew were mustered on the main-deck, and the watches and boats'
+crew picked. Peter Jensen, A.B., was standing furthest away when the
+captain's eye fell on him.
+
+“What's your name?” he asked, and then in an instant his face paled--he
+recognised the man.
+
+Jensen made no answer. His eyes were fixed in a dull stare upon the
+features of a little boy of six, who had come up from the cabin and had
+caught hold of Rothesay's hand. For Nell Levison's face was before
+him again. Then with an effort he withdrew his gaze from the child and
+looked down at the deck.
+
+“You can have him, Mr. Williams,” said Rothesay curtly to the mate.
+
+From that day till the barque made the Solomon Islands, Rothesay watched
+the man he had injured, but Jensen, A.B., gave no sign. He did his work
+well, and spoke to no one except when spoken to. And when the boy Allan
+Rothesay came on deck and prattled to the crew, Jensen alone took no
+notice of him. But whenever he heard the child speak, the memory of the
+woman he had lost came back to him, and he longed for his revenge.
+
+One night, as the barque was slipping quietly through the water, and the
+misty mountain heights of Bougainville Island showed ghostly grey under
+myriad stars, Rothesay came on deck an hour or two before the dawn.
+Jensen was at the wheel, and the captain walked aft, seated himself near
+him, and lit a cigar. Williams, the mate, was at the break of the poop,
+and out of earshot.
+
+Presently Rothesay walked over to the wheel and stood beside the
+steersman, glancing first at the compass, and then aloft at the white
+swelling canvas. The barque was close-hauled and the course “full and
+by.”
+
+“Is she coming up at all?” said Rothesay quietly, speaking in a low
+voice.
+
+“No, sir,” answered Jensen steadily, but looking straight before him;
+“she did come up a point or so a little while back, but fell off again;
+but the wind keeps pretty steady, sir.”
+
+Rothesay stood by him irresolutely, debating within himself. Then he
+walked up to the mate.
+
+“Mr. Williams, send another man to the wheel, and tell Jensen to come
+below. I want to speak to him about Bougainville; he knows the place
+well, I have been told. And as neither you nor I do, I may get something
+out of him worth knowing.”
+
+“Ay, ay, sir,” answered the Welsh mate. “But he's mighty close over it,
+anyway. I've hardly heard him open his mouth yet.”
+
+A minute or two passed, and Jensen was standing at the cabin-door, cap
+in hand.
+
+“Come in,” said Rothesay, turning up the cabin lamp, and then he said
+quietly, “Sit down, Proctor; I want to talk to you quietly. You see, I
+know you.”
+
+The seaman stood silent a moment with drooping eyes. “My name is Jensen,
+sir,” he said sullenly.
+
+“Very well, just as you like. But I sent for you to tell you that I had
+not forgotten our former friendship, and--and I want to prove it, if you
+will let me.”
+
+“Thank you, sir,” was the reply, and the man's eyes met Rothesay's for
+one second, and Rothesay saw that they burned with a strange, red gleam;
+“but you can do nothing for me. I am no longer Proctor, the disgraced
+and drunken captain, but Jensen, A.B. And,” with sudden fury, “I want to
+be left to myself.”
+
+“Proctor,” and Rothesay rose to his feet, and placed his hands on the
+table, “listen to me. You may think that I have treated you badly. My
+wife died two years ago, and I----”
+
+Proctor waved his hand impatiently. “Let it pass if you have wronged me.
+But, because I got drunk and lost my ship, I don't see how you are to
+blame for it.”
+
+A look of relief came into Rothesay's face. Surely the man had not heard
+whom he had married, and there was nothing to fear after all.
+
+For a minute or so neither spoke, then Proctor picked up his cap.
+
+“Proctor,” said Rothesay, with a smile, “take a glass of grog with me
+for the sake of old times, won't you!”
+
+“No, thank you, sir,” he replied calmly, and then without another word
+he walked out of the cabin, and presently Rothesay heard him take the
+wheel again from the man who had relieved him.
+
+Two days later the _Kate Rennie_ sailed round the north cape of
+Bougainville, and then bore up for a large village on the east coast
+named Numa Numa, which Rothesay hoped to make at daylight on the
+following morning.
+
+At midnight Jensen came to the wheel again. The night was bright with
+the light of shining stars, and the sea, although the breeze was brisk,
+was smooth as a mountain lake, only the _rip, ripy rip_ of the barque's
+cutwater and the bubbling sounds of her eddying wake broke the silence
+of the night. Ten miles away the verdure-clad peaks and spurs of lofty
+Bougainville stood clearly out, silhouetted against the sea-rim on the
+starboard hand. The wind was fair abeam and the ship as steady as a
+church, and Proctor scarce glanced at the compass at all. The course
+given to him was W.S.W., which, at the rate the ship was slipping
+through the water, would bring her within two miles of the land by the
+time he was relieved. Then she would have to go about and make another
+“short leg,” and, after that, she could lay right up to Numa Numa
+village.
+
+Late in the day Rothesay had lowered one of the ship's boats, whose
+timbers had opened under the rays of the torrid sun, and was keeping
+her towing astern till she became watertight. Presently Proctor heard a
+voice calling him.
+
+“Peter, I say, Peter, you got a match?”
+
+Looking astern, he saw that the native who was steering the boat had
+hauled her up close up under the stern.
+
+“Yes,” he answered, taking a box of matches out of his pocket and
+throwing them to the native sailor. “Are you tired of steering that
+boat, Tommy?”
+
+“No, not yet; but I wanted to smoke. When four bell strike I come
+aboard, Mr. Williams say.”
+
+Two bells struck, and then Proctor heard Williams, who was sitting down
+at the break of the poop, say, “Hallo, young shaver, what do you want on
+deck?”
+
+“Oh, Mr. Williams, it is so hot below, and my father said I could come
+on deck. See, I've got my rug and pillow.”
+
+“All right, sonny,” said the mate good-naturedly; “here, lie down here
+on the skylight.”
+
+The child lay down and seemed to sleep, but Proctor could see that his
+eyes were wide open and watched the stars.
+
+Four bells struck, and Proctor was relieved by a white seaman, and
+another native came to relieve the man who was steering the boat, which
+was now hauled up under the counter. Just then, as the mate called out,
+“Ready about,” Proctor touched the child on the arm.
+
+“Allan, would you like to come in the boat with me?”
+
+The boy laughed with delight. “Oh, yes, Peter, I would like it.”
+
+Proctor turned to the native who was waiting to relieve the man who was
+steering the boat. “You can go for'ard, Jimmy, I'll take the boat for
+you.”
+
+The native grinned. “All right, Peter, I no like boat,” and in another
+moment Proctor had passed the child down into the boat, into the arms
+of the native sailor whose place he was taking, and quickly followed. As
+she drifted astern, the _Kate Rennie_ went about, the towline tautened
+out, and a delighted laugh broke from the boy as he sat beside Proctor
+and saw the white canvas of the barque looming up before him.
+
+“Hush!” said Proctor, and his hand trembled as he grasped the steer-oar.
+Then he drew the child to his bosom and caressed him almost fiercely.
+
+For half an hour the barque slipped along, and Proctor sat and steered
+and smoked and watched the child, who now slumbered at his feet. Then
+the stars darkened over, a black cloud arose to the eastward, the wind
+died away, and the mate's voice hailed him to come alongside, as a heavy
+squall was coming on. “And you'll have trouble with the captain for
+taking his boy in that boat,” added Williams.
+
+“Ay, ay, sir,” answered Proctor, as he looked at the cloud to windward,
+which was now quickly changing to a dullish grey; and then he sprang
+forward and cut the tow-line with his sheath-knife.
+
+Five minutes passed. Then came a cry of agony from the barque, as
+Rothesay, who had rushed on deck at Williams's call, placed his hand on
+the tow-line and began to haul it in.
+
+“Oh, my God, Williams, the line has parted. Boat ahoy, there, where are
+you?”
+
+And then with a droning hum the squall smote the _Kate Rennie_ with
+savage fury, and nearly threw her over on her beam ends; and Proctor the
+Drunkard slewed the boat round and let her fly before the hissing squall
+towards the dimmed outline of Bougainville.
+
+*****
+
+For two days the _Kate Rennie_ cruised off the northern end of
+Bougainville, searching for the missing boat. Then Rothesay beat back to
+Numa Numa and anchored, and carefully examined the coast with his boats.
+But no trace or Proctor nor the child was ever found. Whether the boat
+was dashed to pieces upon the reef or had been blown past the north end
+of the island and thence out upon that wide expanse of ocean that lies
+between the Solomons and New Guinea was never known, and the fete of
+Proctor the Drunkard and his innocent victim will for ever remain one
+of the many mysteries of the Western Pacific till the sea gives up its
+dead.
+
+
+
+
+A PONAPEAN CONVENANCE
+
+“Here also, as at Yap, the youngest wives and sisters of the chiefs
+visited the frigate.... Somewhat shocking at first to our feelings as
+Christians.... Yet to have declined what was regarded by these simple
+and amiable people as the very highest token of their regard for the
+officers of the expedition, would have been bitterly resented....
+And, after all, our duties to our King and Queen were paramount... the
+foundation of friendly relations with the people of this Archipelago!...
+The engaging manners and modest demeanour of these native ladies were
+most commendable. That this embarrassing custom was practised to do us
+especial honour we had ample proof.”
+
+*****
+
+Chester, the trader, laid down the book and looked curiously at the
+title, “A Journal of the Expedition under Don Felipe Tompson, through
+the Caroline Islands.” It was in Spanish, and had been lent him by one
+of the Jesuit Fathers in Ponapé.
+
+“Ninety years haven't worked much difference in some of the native
+customs,” thought he to himself. “What a sensation Don Felipe would have
+made lecturing at St. James's Hall on these pleasantly curious customs!
+I must ask Tulpé about these queer little functions. She's chock-full of
+island lore, and perhaps I'll make a book myself some day.”
+
+*****
+
+“Huh!” said Tulpe, Chester's native wife, whipping off her muslin gown
+and tossing it aside, as she lay back and cooled her heated face and
+bared bosom with a fan, “'tis hot, Kesta, and the sun was balanced in
+the middle of the sky when we left Jakoits in the boat, and now 'tis all
+but night; and wind there was none, so we used not the sail.”
+
+“Foolish creature,” said Chester, again taking up his book, “and merely
+to see this new white missionary woman thou wilt let the sun bake thy
+hands and feet black.”
+
+Handsome, black-browed Tulpé flashed her white, even teeth as she
+smiled.
+
+“Nay, but listen, Kesta. Such a woman as this one never have I seen. Her
+skin is white and gleaming as the inside of the pearl-shell. How
+comes it, my white man, that such a fair woman as this marrieth so
+mean-looking a man? Was she a slave? Were she a woman of Ponapé, and of
+good blood, Nanakin the Great would take her to wife.”
+
+“Aye,” said Chester lazily; “and whence came she and her husband?”
+
+“From Kusaie (Strong's Island), where for two years have they lived, so
+that now the woman speaketh our tongue as well as thee.”
+
+“Ha!” said the trader quickly; “what are their names?”
+
+She told him, and Chester suddenly felt uncomfortable.
+
+*****
+
+Two years before, when spending a few idle months in Honolulu, he had
+met that white woman. She was waiting to be married to the Rev. Obadiah
+Yowlman, a hard-faced, earnest-minded, little Yankee missionary, who was
+coming up from the Carolines in the _Planet_. There had been some rather
+heavy love-passages between her and Chester. He preserved his mental
+equilibrium--she lost hers. The passionate outburst of the “little she
+missionary,” as he called her when he bade her goodbye, he regarded
+as the natural and consistent corollary of moonlit nights beneath the
+waving palms on white Hawaiian beaches. When he returned to Ponapé he
+simply forgot all about her--and Tulpé never asked him inconsiderate
+questions about other women whom he might have met during the six months
+he was away from her. He had come back--that was all she cared for.
+
+*****
+
+“I wonder how Tulpe would take it if she knew?” he thought. “She might
+turn out a bit of a tiger.”
+
+“What are thy thoughts, Kesta?” And Tulpé came over to him and leant
+upon his shoulder. “Is it in thy mind to see and talk with the new
+missionary and his wife?”
+
+“No,” said Chester promptly; “sit thou here, wood-pigeon, and tell me of
+the customs I read of here.”
+
+She sat down beside him, and leant her dark head against his knee,
+fanning herself the while she answered his questions.
+
+*****
+
+“As it was then, Kesta, so is it now. And if it were to advantage thee I
+should do likewise. For is it not the duty of a woman to let all men see
+how great is her love for her husband? And if a great chief or king of
+thy land came here, would I not obey thee?”
+
+Chester laughed. “No great chiefs of my land come here--only
+ship-captains and missionaries.”
+
+She turned and looked up into his face silently for a few moments, then
+rose.
+
+“I know thy meaning now. But surely this mean-faced missionary is not
+to be compared to thee! Kesta, 'tis the fair-faced woman that is in thy
+mind. Be it as you will. Yet I knew not that the customs of thy land
+were like unto ours.”
+
+“What the devil is she driving at!” thought Chester, utterly failing to
+grasp her meaning.
+
+Early next morning Tulpe was gone.
+
+****
+
+“Deny it not, white woman. If thou dost not love my husband, how came
+it that yesterday thou asked his name of me? See now, I deal fairly with
+thee. For three days will I stay _here_ although thy husband is but as
+a hog in my eyes, for he is poor and mean-looking, while mine is----,
+well, thou shalt see him; and for three days shalt thou stay in _my_
+house with my husband. So get thee away, then--the boat waits.”
+
+Pretty Mrs. Yowlman fled to her room and, wondering whether Chester
+knew, began to cry, while Tulpé sat down, and, rolling a cigarette,
+resignedly awaited the appearance of the Rev, Obadiah Yowlman.
+
+An hour afterwards the Rev. gentleman came in with Chester, who had
+walked across the island on discovering Tulpé's absence.
+
+“No, thank you,” he said to the missionary; “I won't stay now.... Some
+other time I will do myself the pleasure of calling upon Mrs. Yowlman,
+and yourself... You must excuse my wife having called upon you twice.
+She is deeply imbued with the native customs and observances, and
+I--er--sincerely trust she has given no offence.”
+
+Then took he Tulpé's hand and led her, wondering, back to his home. And
+Tulpé thought he and the white woman were both fools.
+
+
+
+
+IN THE KING'S SERVICE, SOME EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A BEACH-COMBER
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+The white cloud mantle that had enwrapped the wooded summit of Lijibal
+was slowly lifting and fading before the red arrow-rays of the tropic
+sun--it was nearly dawn in Lêla Harbour. A vast swarm of sooty terns,
+with flapping wing and sharp, croaking note, slid out from the mountain
+forest and fled seaward, and low down upon the land-locked depths of
+Lela a soft mist still hovered, so that, were it not for the deadened
+throbbing beat and lapping murmur of the flowing tide, one might have
+thought, as he looked across from land to land, that the high green
+walls of verdure in whose bosom the waters of Lela lay encompassed were
+but the portals to some deep and shadowy mountain valley in a land of
+utter silence, untenanted by man.
+
+But as the blood-redness of the sun paled and paled, and then changed
+into burnished gold, the topmost branches of the dew-laden trees
+quivered and trembled, and then swayed softly to the sea-breeze; the
+fleecy vapours that hid the waters of the harbour vanished, and the dark
+bases of the mountains stood out in purest green. Away out seawards,
+towards the hiss and boil of the tumbling surf, tiny strips of gleaming
+sandy beach showed out in every nook and bay. And soon the yellow
+sunlight flashed through the gloomy shadows of the forest, the sleeping
+pigeons and the green and scarlet-hued parrakeets awoke to life amid the
+sheltering boughs, and the soft, crooning note of one was answered back
+by the sharp scream of the other. Along the mountain sides there was a
+hurried rustling and trampling among the thick carpet of fallen leaves,
+and a wild boar burst his way through the undergrowth to bury in his
+lair till night came again; for almost with the first call of the birds
+sounded the hum and murmur of voices, and the brown people of Léla
+stepped out from their houses of thatch, and greeted each other as they
+hurried seaward for their morning bathe--the men among the swirl and
+wash of the breaking surf, and the women and children along the sandy
+beach in front of the village.
+
+Out upon the point of black and jagged reef that stretched northward
+from the entrance to the harbour was the figure of a young boy who
+bathed by himself. He was the son of the one white man on Strong's
+Island, whose isolated dwelling lay almost within hail of him.
+
+The father of the boy was one of those mysterious wanderers who, in the
+days of sixty years or so ago, were common enough on many of the islands
+of the North Pacific. Without any material means, save a bag of silver
+dollars, he had, accompanied by his son, landed at Lêla Harbour on
+Strong's Island from a passing ship, and Charlik, the king of the
+island, although at first resenting the intrusion of a poor white man
+among his people, had consented to let him remain on being told by the
+captain of the ship that the stranger was a skilful cooper, and could
+also build a boat. It so happened that many of the casks in which the
+king stored his coconut-oil were leaking, and no one on the island could
+repair them; and the white man soon gave the native king proof of his
+craft by producing from his bag some of a cooper's tools, and going
+into the great oil shed that was close by. Here, with some hundreds
+of natives watching him keenly, he worked for half an hour, while his
+half-caste son sat upon the beach utterly unnoticed by any one, and
+regarded with unfavourable looks by the island children, from the mere
+fact of their having learned that his mother had been a native of a
+strange island--that to them was sufficient cause for suspicion, if not
+hostility.
+
+Presently the king himself, attended by his mother, came to the oil
+shed, looked in, and called out to the white man to cease his work.
+
+“Look you, white man,” he said in English. “You can stop. Mend and make
+my casks for me, and some day build me a boat; but send away the son of
+the woman from the south lands. We of Kusaie (Strong's Island) will have
+no strangers here.”
+
+The white man's answer was quick and to the point. He would not send
+his child away; either the boy remained with him on shore or they both
+returned to the ship and sought out some other island.
+
+“Good,” said Charlik with cold assent, and turning to his people he
+commanded them to provide a house for the white man and his boy, and
+bring them food and mats for their immediate necessities.
+
+*****
+
+An hour or two afterwards, as the ship that had landed him at Lêla
+sailed slowly past the white line of surf which fringed the northern
+side of the island, the captain, looking shoreward from his deck, saw
+the white man and his boy walking along the beach towards a lonely
+native house on the farthest point. Behind them followed a number of
+half-nude natives, carrying mats and baskets of food. Only once did the
+man turn his face towards the ship, and the captain and mate, catching
+his glance, waved their hands to him in mute farewell. A quick upward
+and outward motion of his hand was the only response to their signal,
+and then he walked steadily along without looking seaward again.
+
+“Queer fellow that, Matthews,” said the captain to his mate. “I wonder
+how the deuce he got to the Bonins and where he came from. He's not a
+runaway convict, anyway--you can see that by the look in his eye. Seems
+a decent, quiet sort of a man, too. What d'ye think he is yourself?”
+
+“Runaway man-o'war's man,” said Matthews, looking up aloft. “What the
+devil would he come aboard us at night-time in a fairly civilised place
+like the Bonin Islands as soon as he heard that the _Juno_, frigate, was
+lying at anchor ten miles away from us there. And, besides that, you can
+see he's a sailor, although he didn't want to show it.”
+
+“Aye,” said the captain, “likely enough that's what he is. Perhaps he's
+one of the seven that ran away from Sir Thomas Staine's ship in the
+South Pacific some years ago.”
+
+And Mr. Matthews, the mate of the barque _Oliver Cromwell_ was perfectly
+correct in his surmise, for the strange white man who had stolen aboard
+the ship so quietly in the Bonin Islands was a deserter from his Majesty
+William IV.'s ship _Tagus_. For nearly seven years he had wandered from
+one island to another, haunted by the fear of recapture and death since
+the day when, in a mad fit of passion, he had, while ashore with a
+watering party, driven his cutlass through the body of a brutal petty
+officer who had threatened, for some trifling dereliction of duty, to
+get him “a couple of dozen.”
+
+Horror-stricken at the result of his deadly blow, he had fled into the
+dense jungle of the island, and here for many days the wretched man
+lived in hiding till he was found by a party of natives, who fed and
+brought him back to life, for he was all but dead from hunger and
+exposure. For nearly a year he lived among these people, adapting
+himself to their mode of life, and gaining a certain amount of respect;
+for in addition to being a naturally hard-working man, he had no taste
+for the gross looseness of life that characterised nine out of every
+ten white men who in those days lived among the wild people of the North
+Pacific Islands.
+
+Two years passed by. Brandon--for that was his name--realised in all its
+bitterness that he could never return to England again, as recognition
+and capture, dared he ever show himself there, would be almost certain:
+for, in addition to his great stature and marked physiognomy, he was
+fatally marked for identification by a great scar received in honourable
+fight from the cutlass of the captain of a Portuguese slaver on the
+coast of Africa. And so, in sheer despair of his future, he resolved
+to cast aside for ever all hope of again seeing his native land and all
+that was dear to him, and live out his life among the lonely islands of
+the wide Pacific.
+
+Perhaps, as he looked out, at long, long intervals of years, at the
+sails of some ship that passed within sight of the island, he may have
+thought of the bright-faced girl in the little Cornish village who had
+promised to be his wife when he came home again in the _Tagus_; but in
+his rude, honest way he would only sigh and say to himself--
+
+“Poor Rose, she's forgotten me by now; I hope so, anyhow.”
+
+So time went by, slowly at first, then quicker, for the young native
+woman whom he had married a year before had aroused in him a sort of
+unspoken affection for her artless and childlike innocence, and this
+deepened when her first child was born; and sometimes, as he worked
+at his old trade of boat-building--learned before he joined the King's
+service--he would feel almost content.
+
+As yet no fear of a King's ship had crossed his mind. In those days ten
+years would go by, and save for some passing merchantman bound to China
+by the Outer Route, which would sweep past miles away before the strong
+trade wind, no ship had he seen. And here, on this forgotten island, he
+might have lived and died, but that one day a sandal-wooding brigantine
+was becalmed about four miles away from the island, and Brandon
+determined to board her, and endeavour to obtain a few tools and other
+necessaries from her captain.
+
+With half-a-dozen of his most trusted native friends he stepped into
+a canoe, and reached the brigantine just as night began to fall. The
+master of the vessel received him kindly enough, and gave him the few
+articles he desired, and then, suddenly turning to him, said--
+
+“I want another man; will you come? I'm bound to Singapore with
+sandal-wood.”
+
+“No, thank you, sir. I can't leave here. I've got a wife and child.”
+
+The seaman laughed with good-humoured contempt, and sought to persuade
+him to come, but Brandon only shook his head solemnly. “I can't do that,
+sir. These here people has treated me well, and I can't play them a
+dirty trick like that.”
+
+After some little bargaining the natives who had come with Brandon
+agreed to return to the shore and bring off some turtle to the ship. It
+was still a dead calm, and likely to continue so all night, and Brandon,
+shaking the captain's hand, got into the canoe and headed for the
+island.
+
+As they ran the bow of the canoe upon the beach Brandon called loudly to
+his wife to come out of the house and see what he had brought from the
+ship, and was instantly struck with alarm at hearing no answer to his
+call. Running quickly over the few hundred yards that separated his
+house from the beach, he lifted up the door of thatch and saw that the
+house was empty--his wife and child were gone.
+
+In a moment the whole village was awake, and, carrying lighted torches,
+parties of men and women ran along the path to seek the missing woman,
+but sought in vain. The island was small and had but one village, and
+Brandon, puzzled at his wife's mysterious disappearance, was about
+to lead another party himself in another direction to that previously
+taken, when a woman who lived at a house at the extreme end of the
+village, suddenly remembered that she had seen Brandon's wife, carrying
+her child in her arms, walking quickly by in the direction of a point of
+land that ran far out from the shore on the lee side of the island.
+
+In an instant he surmised that, fearing he might go away in the ship,
+she had determined to swim out to him. The moment he voiced his thought
+to the natives around him, the men darted back to the beach, and several
+canoes were at once launched, and in the first was Brandon.
+
+There were four canoes in all, and as that of the white man gained the
+open sea, the crew urged him not to steer directly for the brigantine,
+“for,” said they, “the current is so strong that Mâhia, thy wife, who is
+but a poor swimmer and knows not its strength, hath been swept round far
+beyond the point--and, besides, she hath the child.”
+
+For nearly half an hour the canoes paddled out swiftly, but noiselessly,
+the men calling out loudly at brief intervals, and every now and then
+Brandon himself would call.
+
+“Mâhia! Mâhia! Call to us so that we may find thee!”
+
+But no answer came back over the dark waters. At last the four canoes
+approached each other, and the natives and Brandon had a hurried
+consultation.
+
+“Paranta,” said the steersman of the nearest canoe, “let us to the ship.
+It may be that she is there.”
+
+The man who sat next to the speaker muttered in low tones, “How can that
+be, Kariri? Either the child hath wearied her arm and she hath sunk,
+or--the sharks.”
+
+Plunging his paddle deeply into the water, Brandon, brought the head
+of the canoe round for the ship, the faint outlines of whose canvas was
+just showing ghostly white half a mile away through the thin morning
+haze which mantled the still unruffled surface of the ocean.
+
+Urged swiftly along by the six men who paddled, the white man's canoe
+was soon within hailing distance of the brigantine, and at the same
+moment the first puff of the coming breeze stirred and then quickly
+lifted the misty veil which encompassed her.
+
+“Ship ahoy!” hailed Brandon. “Did a woman and child swim off to you
+during the night?”
+
+Almost ere the answering “No” was given, there was a loud cry from one
+of the other canoes which had approached the vessel on the other side,
+and the “No” from the brigantine was changed into--
+
+“Yes, she's here; close to on the port side. Look sharp, she's sinking,”
+ and then came the sound of tackle as the crew lowered a boat that hung
+on the ship's quarter.
+
+With a low, excited cry the crew of Brandon's canoe struck their bright
+red paddles into the water with lightning strokes, and the little craft
+swept swiftly round the stern of the brigantine before the just lowered
+boat had way on her.
+
+There, scarce a hundred yards away, they saw Mâhia swimming slowly
+and painfully along towards the ship, to the man whom she thought had
+deserted her. With one arm she supported the tiny figure of the child,
+and Brandon, with a wild fear in his heart, saw that she was too
+exhausted to hold it many seconds longer.
+
+“Quick! Quick, man, for the love of God!” came in loud, hoarse tones
+from the captain of the brigantine, who stood on the rail holding to
+the main rigging, and drawing a pistol from his belt he sent its bullet
+within a few feet of the feeble swimmer.
+
+Only another ten yards, when, as if aware of the awful fate that awaited
+her, Mâhia half raised herself, and with dying strength held the child
+out almost clear of the water. And then, as her panting bosom wailed out
+her husband's name for the last time, there pealed out upon the ocean a
+shriek of mortal agony, and he saw her drop the infant and disappear
+in a swirl of eddying foam. Ere that awful cry had ceased to vibrate
+through the morning air, a native had sprung from the canoe and seized
+the drowning child, and the agonised father, looking down into the blue
+depths, saw a running streak of bubbling white five fathoms beneath.
+Again the native dived, and followed the wavering track of white, and
+presently, not fifty feet away, they saw him rise with the woman on his
+arm, her long black hair twining around his brawny neck and shoulders.
+
+“By God, he's saved her!” cried the mate, as both his boat and Brandon's
+canoe reached the native simultaneously, and they reached out their
+hands to take hold of the motionless figure.
+
+“Paranta, turn thy eyes away,” said a native, and flinging his arms
+around the white man, he forced his face away as the diver and his
+burden were lifted into the boat.
+
+A shuddering sob stirred the frame of the mate or the brigantine when he
+saw that only the upper half of the woman's body was left.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+With the captain of the sandal-wooder, the broken-hearted wanderer, had
+taken passage, and one day, as he watched the movements of his child as
+it frolicked with the rough seamen of the brigantine, the haunting
+fear of discovery returned to him in all its first force of three years
+before. A kindly remark made by the rough but good-natured skipper led
+him to reveal his story, and the seaman's face fell when the deserter
+asked him if he thought it possible he could ever return to England with
+safety.
+
+“No, I don't. You _might_ but I can tell you that a man with a figure
+like you--6 ft. 1 in. if you're an inch, and with a cut across the
+face--wouldn't miss being found out. And look here, 'tisn't even safe
+for you to come to Singapore. There's many a King's ship around these
+parts, and the chances are that some of the company of any one of 'em
+would recognise you--and you know what that means. If I were in your
+place I would try and get away in an American whaler. Once in America
+you'll be safe enough. The best I can do for you is to put you ashore
+at the Bonin Islands. There's bound to be whalers in there next season,
+making up northwards to the coast of Japan and Tchantar Bay.”
+
+One day they sailed slowly into a little land-locked harbour in the
+Bonin Islands, and Brandon, grasping the kind-hearted skipper's hand,
+bade him goodbye, and went ashore. Here, among the strange hybrid
+population of natives, half-bloods, runaways from whale-ships, and
+Portuguese, he found employment at boat-building, and for another three
+years lived contentedly enough, working hard, and saving what little
+money he could. Then came the _Oliver Cromwell_ and reported that an
+English frigate which was at anchor a few miles away at another harbour
+would be at his then refuge on the following day.
+
+Without saying a word of farewell to his rough and wild associates,
+he had taken his bag of honestly-earned money, and going on board the
+barque at night, besought the master to give him and the boy a passage
+away to any island in the Caroline or Marshall Groups at which the
+vessel could conveniently land them.
+
+At noon next morning the barque was under way, and as she rounded the
+point the lofty spars of the frigate showed up scarce a mile distant,
+and Brandon, with a pistol in the bosom of his shirt, sat and trembled
+till the _Oliver Cromwell_ was well away from her, and the frigate's
+white sails had become hull down.
+
+For week after week the barque sailed past many a palm-shaded isle, with
+its belt of gleaming beach within the fringe of beating surf, and the
+brown people came out from their dwellings of thatch and shouted and
+bawled to the men on the passing ship; but at none of these would the
+captain land the deserter, for the natives were reputed to be savage and
+treacherous to the last degree.
+
+At last the green peaks of Kusaie which shadowed the deep waters of Lêla
+Harbour were sighted; and here once more the wandering man sought to
+hide himself from the world.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+The sun was high now, and the boy Harry, now a strong,
+sturdy-limbed youngster of seven, as he splashed about, called loudly to
+his father to come and bathe too.
+
+“Come, father,” he called. “See, the sun is between the big and little
+peaks, and to-day it is that you and I go to Utwé in the new boat.”
+
+At the sound of the boy's voice Brandon came to the door of his hut, and
+stroking his bearded chin, smiled and shook his head.
+
+“Aye, aye, Harry. Come in, boy, and eat something, and then let us away
+to the king's boat-shed. To-day the people of Utwé shall see the new
+boat, and Charlik goes with us.”
+
+“Father,” asked the boy, as he ate his food, “when shall we go away from
+this place? Kanka, the priest, said to me yesterday that by and by the
+king would build us a new house in the village--when you had finished
+another boat.”
+
+Brandon shook his head. He had found Charlik a hard master during the
+time he had lived on the island; for although both he and the boy were
+well treated in some respects, the savage and avaricious chief kept him
+constantly at work, and Brandon was beginning to weary of his existence.
+
+Just as the trade wind began to whiten the tops of the long, sweeping
+ocean rollers, the new boat built by the king's white man slid out from
+the wooded shores of Lêla, and, under a great mat sail, sped down the
+coast towards the native village called Utwé.
+
+Seated beside Brandon was the grim-faced Charlik, who was in high good
+humour at the speed shown by the boat, and promised to build him a new
+house within a few weeks. For nearly two hours the boat spun southward
+along the line of thundering breakers on the eastern shore, till Brandon
+hauled to the wind and ran inside the narrow passage to Utwé Harbour.
+And there, right before them, lay at anchor the very frigate he had so
+narrowly escaped at the Bonins!
+
+Before the astonished king could prevent him the deserter had run the
+boat ashore on a shelving patch of reef, and seizing his boy in his
+arms, sprang out and made for the shore.
+
+He would escape yet, he thought, as he sprang from ledge to ledge of
+coral rock, until he gained the beach. In the thick forest jungle he
+would at least be safe from pursuit by the ship's people.
+
+Taking the boy by the hand, he set out at a run past the line of native
+houses which dotted the beach, and to all inquiries as to his haste
+he made no answer. Suddenly, as he turned into a path that led
+mountain-wards, he found his way blocked by an officer and a party of
+blue-jackets.
+
+“Halt!” cried the officer, covering him with a fowling-piece. “Who are
+you, and why are you running like this?”
+
+“That is my business, sir,” he said. Then the officer sprang at him.
+
+“Surrender, you villain! I know you--you are one of the men we want.”
+
+He turned like lightning, and, with the boy in his arms, sped back
+again towards the beach in the hope of getting a canoe and gaining the
+opposite shore of the island. But his pursuers were gaining on him fast,
+and when the beach was reached at last he turned and faced them, for
+every canoe was gone.
+
+The officer motioned to his men to stand back.
+
+“Brandon, there is no chance for you. Do not add another crime to that
+which you have already committed.”
+
+“No, sir; no. I shall do no more harm to any one in the King's service,
+but I will never be taken alive.”
+
+He pressed the muzzle of his pistol to his heart, pulled the trigger,
+and fell dead at their feet.
+
+
+
+
+OXLEY, THE PRIVATEERSMAN
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+All day long the _Indiana_, Tom de Wolfs island trading brig, had tried
+to make Tucopia Island, an isolated spot between Vanikoro and the New
+Hebrides, but the strong westerly current was too much for her with such
+a failing breeze; and Packenham, the skipper, had agreed with Denison,
+his supercargo, to let Tucopia “slide” till the brig was coming south
+again from the Marshalls.
+
+“Poor old Oxley won't like seeing us keep away,” said Denison. “I
+promised him that we would be sure to give him a call this time on our
+way up. Poor old chap! I wish we could send him a case of grog ashore to
+cheer him up. But a thirty miles' pull dead to windward and against
+such a current is rather too much of a job even for a boat's crew of
+natives.”
+
+But about midnight the breeze freshened from the eastward, and by
+daylight the smooth, shapely cone of the green little island stood
+up clear and sharply defined from its surrounding narrow belt of
+palm-covered shore in a sunlit sea of sparkling blue, and Denison told
+the captain to get the boat ready.
+
+“Ten miles or so isn't much--we can sail there and back in the boat.”
+
+Tucopia was a long way out of the _Indiana's_, usual cruising ground;
+but a year or so before a French barque had gone ashore there, and
+Denison had bought the wreck from her captain on behalf of Mr. Tom De
+Wolf. And as he had no white man on board to spare, he had handed his
+purchase over to the care of Oxley, the one European on the island.
+
+“Strip her, Jack, and then set a light to her hull--there's a lot of
+good metal bolts in it. You shall have half of whatever we get out of
+the sale of her gear.”
+
+And so old Jack Oxley, who had settled on Tucopia because forty-five
+years before he had married a Tucopian girl, when he was a wandering
+boat-steerer in the colonial whaling fleet, and was now too shaky to go
+to sea, shook Denison's hand gratefully, and was well satisfied at the
+prospect of making a few hundred pounds so easily.
+
+A quiet, blue-eyed, white-haired, stooping old man with a soft voice and
+pleasant smile, he had bade Denison goodbye and said with his tremulous
+laugh, “Don't be surprised if when you come back you find my old hull
+has broken up before that of the wreck. Eighty-seven is a good age, Mr.
+Denison. However, I'll take things easy. I'll let some of my boys” (his
+“boys” were sons of over forty years of age) “do all the bullocking{*}
+part of the work.”
+
+     * A colonial expression denoting heavy labour--i.e., to work
+     like bullocks in a team.
+
+*****
+
+When Denison reached the landing-place he was met by a number of the old
+whaler's whitey-brown descendants, who told him that Jack was dead--had
+died three months ago, they said. And there was a letter for the
+supercargo and captain, they added, which the old man had written when
+he knew he was dying. Denison took the letter and read it at once.
+
+     “Dear Mr. Denison,--Tom and Sam will give you all
+     particulars about the gear and metal from the wreck.... You
+     asked me one day if I would write you something about the
+     privateer I sailed in, and some of the fights in which I was
+     engaged. You and Captain Packenham might like to read it
+     some day when time hangs heavy. Sam will give you the
+     yarn.... Goodbye. I fear we shall not meet again.--Yours
+     very truly, John Oxley.”
+
+A few days later, as the _Indiana_ was sailing northward from Tucopia,
+Denison took out old Oxley's yarn. It was written in a round schoolboy
+hand on the blank pages of a venerable account-book.
+
+*****
+
+“Old as I am now I have never forgotten the exultant feeling that filled
+my bosom one dull gray morning in February, 1805, when I, John Oxley,
+put my weak hands to the capstan bars to help weigh anchor on board the
+_Port-au-Prince_ at Gravesend, and the strange, wild thrill that tingled
+my boyish blood at the rough, merry chorus of the seamen while the
+anchor came underfoot and the hands sprang aloft to make sail. For I
+was country-born and country-bred, and though even in our little town of
+Aylesbury, where my father was a farmer, we were used to hearing tales
+of the sea and to the sight of those who had fought the king's battles
+by land and sea, I had never until that morning caught sight of the
+ocean.
+
+“Two weeks before I, foolish lad that I was, had been enticed by two
+village comrades into a poaching venture, and although I took no actual
+part therein--being only stationed as a watch on the outskirts of
+Colstone Wood--I was seized by two of Sir John Latham's keepers and
+taken away to the county gaol. I will not here attempt to describe the
+days of misery and shame that followed, and the grief and anguish of my
+parents; for although Sir John and the other county magistrates before
+whom I was brought believed my tale when I weepingly told them that I
+had no intention of poaching (and, indeed, I did not actually know that
+my two companions were bent upon so dangerous an enterprise) and my
+punishment was but light, yet the disgrace was too much for me to bear.
+So ere the sting of the whipping I received had died away I had made up
+my mind to run away to London and get some honest employment, and trust
+to time for my father's forgiveness. My sister Judith--Heaven bless her
+loving heart--to whom alone I made known my purpose, sought with tender
+words and endearing caresses to overcome my resolution; but, finding her
+pleading was of no avail, she made heart to dry her tears, and, giving
+me half a guinea, which a month before had been given to her by Lady
+Latham, she folded me in her arms, and, kissing me a last goodbye, as I
+stood with her at midnight behind my father's barn, bade me God speed.
+
+“'Goodbye, John,' she whispered, ''twill surely break mother's heart, I
+fear, when she knows you have gone.'
+
+“So, whispering back a promise that I would find some one in London
+to write to her for me and tell her how I fared, I gently took poor
+Judith's loving arms from around my neck, and ran as hard as I could
+across the field into the high road; for every moment my courage was
+failing me, and when I reached a hedge and lay down to rest awhile, my
+mother's face rose before me, and I thought I heard her tender voice
+crying, 'My boy, my boy! Has he gone without a last kiss from me?' Twice
+did I rise up with tears running down my cheeks and resolve to go back
+and at least receive her farewell kiss and blessing, but my boyish pride
+came to my aid, and with a choking sob I lay down again and waited for
+the morning.
+
+“It took me some days to reach London, for it is a long journey from
+Aylesbury, and then for nearly a week I endured much hardship and
+misery, for my starved and dejected appearance was such that no
+one would give me employment of any sort, and my half-guinea became
+exhausted in buying food. But weak and wretched as I was, my courage to
+go on in the course I had taken was still unshaken; and, although it
+was a bitter winter, and I all but perished with the cold, I managed to
+always obtain some sort of shelter at night-time.
+
+“I do not know, even now, in what part of London those my first
+wanderings led me; but at last, one morning, weak, footsore, and faint
+from hunger I came in sight of the shipping on the Thames, and for the
+moment forgot my woes in the strangeness of the sight. Seating myself
+on a great log of mahogany that some strange-looking, black-whiskered
+seaman had just rolled up from a ship lying in the dock, I remained
+gazing in a sort of dulled amazement at the bustle and, to my mind,
+confusion that seemed to prevail around me.
+
+“For nearly half an hour I remained thus watching the hurrying to and
+fro of those about me; for there was an Indiaman just about to leave the
+dock, and many hundreds of people had come down to bid farewell to those
+on board, among whom were about a hundred or so of soldiers. Hungry and
+weary as I felt, the sight of these soldiers, and the inspiriting sounds
+of drum and fife music played upon the quarter-deck of the Indiaman,
+made me stand upon the log so that I might obtain a better view. Just
+then I heard a voice beside me exclaim--
+
+“'Well, my lad, I suppose you would like to be one of them, with a red
+coat on your back and a musket on your shoulder, eh?'
+
+“The suddenness of the address nearly caused me to fall off the log,
+and the speaker put out his hand to save me. He was an old, white-haired
+gentleman of between sixty and seventy, and kindness and benevolence
+seemed to irradiate his countenance.
+
+“'Indeed, sir, I should,' I answered as I slipped down off the log and
+made him a bow, as was my duty to such a gentleman, and trying to speak
+bravely, 'I should like to be a soldier, sir.'
+
+“He looked at me for a moment, and then put his hand on my shoulder.
+
+“'Who are you, my lad, and how came you-down among the docks? You are
+a country lad, I can see. Have you been dishonest, or done anything
+wrong?'
+
+“There was so much kindliness in his tones as he asked me this that I
+could not tell him naught but the whole truth, and although his face was
+very grave at the finish, his kind manner did not change, as putting
+his hand in his pocket he pulled out his purse and gave me a guinea and
+urged me to return to my parents.
+
+“'Nay, sir,' I said, and I began to cry as I spoke, 'I cannot return
+home, and with your pardon, sir, neither can I take this money,' and
+then my courage returning somewhat, I added; 'but I would like to get
+honest work, sir.'
+
+“'Come with me, then,' said he, 'and I will see what can be done. But
+first you must have some food.'
+
+“With that he bade me follow him, and in a few minutes we were opposite
+a coffee-house frequented by people engaged at the docks. Pushing me in
+front of him, he told the landlord of the place to give me all the food
+I could eat, and said he would return for me in the evening.
+
+“'Certainly, Mr. Bent,' said the landlord, who, by the way he bowed and
+scraped, seemed to be much impressed by the condescension of the old
+gentleman in entering such a humble place, and then, bowing my kind
+friend out, he took me to a table and bade a young woman attendant give
+me a good meal.
+
+“'You are in luck, my lad,' he said to me, 'for that is Mr. Robert Bent,
+one of the richest gentlemen in London, and a great shipowner.'
+
+“I remained at the coffee-house all day, and in the evening a hackney
+coach drove up, and the old gentleman, accompanied by a younger man
+of very commanding presence, came into the room where I was seated
+anxiously awaiting him.
+
+“'Well, my lad,' said he, 'here you are. Now, I must tell you that I
+know Sir John Latham well, and, indeed, have just left him, for he is
+now in London. He has confirmed your story to me, and says that your
+father is a good, honest man, who, although he loves you very much,
+would rather that you did not return to Aylesbury with the memory of
+your disgrace still fresh in his mind. So this is what I now offer you.
+This gentleman here is Captain Duck, the master of a ship of mine which
+is leaving Gravesend in a day or two for the South Seas. He is willing
+to take you with him and try to make a man and a seaman of you. What do
+you say to it?'
+
+“What else could I say but thank him warmly for his kindness, and
+promise I would try hard to do my duty and win my father's forgiveness?
+
+“'Very good,' said he; 'and now I will leave you in the care of Captain
+Duck. He will buy you all that is necessary for the voyage, and I
+shall write to your father by Sir John Latham and tell him you are well
+bestowed with my good friend here. So goodbye, my lad, and do your duty
+like a man.'
+
+“Then he shook my hand, and turning to his companion said--
+
+“'Goodbye, Duck. Remember that whales as well as prizes must be sought
+after you double Cape Horn, and that I rely upon your good judgment
+not to engage an enemy's ship if you think she is better armed than the
+_Port-au-Prince_. But if you meet my other ship, the _Lucy_, and with
+her can take away some rich prizes from the Spaniards--why, well and
+good. I should be very pleased if you send me a prize home before you go
+into the Pacific.'
+
+“So away he went in the coach, and in half an hour more, with my heart
+bounding with excitement, I set out with Captain Duck to join the
+_Port-au-Prince_, lying at Gravesend.”
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+“For the first week or so I was very sea-sick and unable to leave my
+hammock, but after that I began to recover. Captain Duck, who was a most
+humane and considerate gentleman, sent frequent inquiries after me, and
+told the officers that I was to be allowed plenty of time to gain my
+strength. These inquiries were always made by a lad who was under the
+captain's immediate protection. His name was William Mariner, and being
+of an adventurous disposition he had gained his parents' consent to make
+the voyage. Of all those that sailed with us he and I only survived to
+reach England and tell the story of that fateful venture, and I have
+heard that Mr. Mariner wrote a book giving an account of the awful
+calamity that befel our ship, but that few people credited the strange
+story of his adventures.{*}
+
+     * This was “Mariner's Tonga Islands,” published by John
+     Murray, Albemarle Street, London, in 1818. Seventeen of the
+     privateer's crew escaped the massacre.
+
+“Before going any further I will tell in a few words the nature of
+our mission to such far-off seas. The _Port-au-Prince_ had a double
+commission. She was what was termed a private ship-of-war, or privateer,
+and England being then at war with Spain, she had been fitted out to
+cruise within certain latitudes in the Atlantic for prizes. If not very
+successful she was to double Cape Horn and proceed to the South Seas in
+search of whales, unless she met the _Lucy_, when they were to try the
+coast of South America for prizes. She was very well armed, and her crew
+were all men who had seen much service in the king's ships; many of them
+were old South-Seamen, expert in the whale-fishery. There was, besides
+Captain Duck, a regular whaling-master, William Brown. This gentleman
+was of a very quarrelsome temper, and long before we were out of the
+Channel began to show it, greatly to our misery. Captain Duck, on the
+other hand, was always very good to the men. He was a brave and gallant
+seaman, very stern and exacting when duty demanded it, but always full
+of good feeling and humanity to those under his command. He had formerly
+commanded a privateer in the Mediterranean, and had taken many rich
+prizes, and his owner, who thought very highly of him, had fitted out
+the _Port-au-Prince_, specially for him to command.
+
+“In about a month I was looked upon as being quite a smart boy, and
+Captain Duck would often smile encouragingly at me, and to show his
+appreciation of my good conduct permitted young Mr. Mariner, who was
+a brave and handsome lad, to bring me into his cabin occasionally, and
+instruct me in reading and writing.
+
+“We had a very stormy passage to the River Plate, where we began to look
+out for prizes, but without success; so, after waiting off the coast
+many weeks, and seeing nothing but two large ships of war, which were
+too heavily armed for us to engage, we stood southward to double Cape
+Horn. This was accomplished on the 18th of June, and three days later we
+sailed northward into the Pacific.
+
+“Ten days after doubling the Cape we fell in with a South Sea whaler--I
+think her name was the _Vincent_, Captain Patrick Joy--and on that day
+there came about a collision between Captain Duck and Mr. Brown, the
+whaling-master. 'Twas this quarrel, arising out of the obstinacy and
+pride of Mr. Brown, which caused our future dreadful disaster, as will
+be seen later on. The _Vincent_ signalled that she wanted us to send
+a boat; and highly pleased I was when young Mr. Mariner spoke to the
+gunner and asked leave for me to go in the boat with himself and Captain
+Duck. As soon as we got on board our captain was taken below by the
+master of the ship, but only remained a few minutes. When he returned
+on deck he seemed much pleased, and, ordering us back into the boat,
+was just about to descend himself when a harpooner belonging to the
+_Vincent_ begged permission to speak to him.
+
+“'Why, Turner, is it you, indeed?' and Captain Duck shook the man's hand
+warmly, and asked him how he had fared since he had last seen him.
+
+“'Well, sir, I thank you,' answered the harpooner; 'but will you have me
+on board your ship, sir? You know me well, sir, and Captain Joy says he
+is willing to let me go and serve under my old captain again. Indeed,
+sir,' he added, 'I have it set in my mind that I shall again have the
+honour to board some more Spanish prizes with you; and I would rather
+kill a murdering Spaniard or Portugal than a honest whale. I am with
+you, sir, heart and soul, and will be proud to serve under you again;
+and Captain Joy won't stand in my way.'
+
+“This being corroborated by Mr. Joy, Captain Duck told the man to put
+his things into the boat, and in a few minutes we were rowing back to
+the _Port-au-Prince_. Presently I heard our captain telling young Mr.
+Mariner that he had heard from Captain Joy that there were two Spanish
+ships lying at Conception, and he had resolved to go thither and cut
+them out--especially as one had thirty-three thousand dollars on board.
+As soon as we were on board, the harpooner from the _Vincent_ told us
+that the news about the two ships was correct, and that we would have no
+trouble in cutting them out; for he knew the place well, and there were
+no guns mounted there. He also told us something about himself, which I
+here set down as showing his adventurous nature.
+
+“Five years before he had sailed from London in a South Seaman, the
+_Sweet Dolly_, which had made a very successful voyage, for the ship
+was filled with whale oil in less than a year. The _Sweet Dolly_, on her
+return to England, fell in with the _Vincent_, and Turner, giving her
+captain instructions to pay certain money to his sweetheart, who
+lived in Bristol, shipped on board the _Vincent_. She, too, was
+very successful, and was going home a full ship when she met the
+_Port-au-Prince_. 'And now, lads,' said he to us, 'I will make another
+haul, for we are sure to take these two ships at Conception, and more
+besides; and I shall take my lass to church in a carriage.' Little did
+he know how soon he was to meet his fate!
+
+“And now as to the quarrel I have spoken of between our good captain and
+Mr. Brown, the whaling-master. It seems that as soon as the matter of
+the two Spanish ships at Conception was mentioned to Mr. Brown he became
+very obstinate--and then, with many intemperate expressions and oaths,
+flatly refused to give up the good prospects of a whaling voyage for the
+sake of capturing a dozen prizes. Upon this Captain Duck reminded him
+that he, being only whaling-master, had nought to do with the matter;
+that it was his duty to aid in making the voyage a success, but that if
+they failed to get any prizes in the course of a month or so, then he
+(Captain Duck) would make all possible haste to get upon the whaling
+ground. Instead of receiving this in a sensible manner, Mr. Brown only
+became the more rude, and the upshot of it was that Captain Duck lost
+his temper, and, seizing a cutlass, presented it at Mr. Brown's breast.
+
+“'Go to your cabin, sir, and remain there,' he said. 'I will deal
+quickly with the man who dares use mutinous language to me.' And then he
+ordered Mr. Tobias Williams, our officer of marines, to keep Mr. Brown
+in close custody. He seemed very much excited and angry--and very justly
+so; but half an hour afterwards, when Mr. Brown sent for him to express
+his sorrow for his rudeness, he forgave him most readily, and drank wine
+with him, saying that 'twas a pity that two shipmates should quarrel
+when in but a little time one might lose the number of his mess by a
+Spanish bullet.
+
+“A week later we arrived off Quinquina, an island in Conception Bay, and
+anchored at nightfall. About midnight the boats were manned and armed,
+and proceeded towards Conception, pulling with muffled oars. I was in
+the boat with Mr. James Parker, the first lieutenant, who had with him
+twenty-six seamen and marines. The other boats were commanded by Mr.
+Brown, the whaling-master, Mr. Williams, the officer of marines, and Mr.
+Peter Russel, the second lieutenant. The night was dark, but calm, which
+latter was unfortunate, as the _Port-au-Prince_ could not follow the
+boats and cover the cutting-out party, as had been intended by Captain
+Duck. After an hour's rowing we got up unobserved to the first ship,
+and Mr. Parker, followed by Turner and the rest of his boat's crew,
+succeeded in getting on board and capturing the crew without alarming
+the other ships, which lay about a quarter of a mile away. After cutting
+her cables she was taken in tow by Mr. Russel's boat, and the other
+three set out for the second ship. We had just got within half a cable's
+length of her when Turner, again assuring Mr. Parker that there were no
+batteries on shore, took out one of his pistols to look at the priming.
+He was steering at the time, and by some woeful mishap the pistol went
+off.
+
+“'Never mind, lads,' said Mr. Parker; 'I'll lay you alongside in another
+minute or two.' And with that we gave a cheer and bent to the oars.
+
+“But before we had gone a hundred yards we knew that we were discovered
+from the shore, for two batteries immediately opened out upon us.
+However, we soon got aboard and captured the ship; but we were so close
+to the batteries that by the time we had cut her cables the ship was
+hulled in twenty places. Some of us were then sent back to the boats to
+tow her out of fire. I was in the boat with Turner, who was cheering the
+men to greater exertions in towing, when I heard a dreadful sound and
+felt something splash over me that I knew was not salt water, and saw
+Turner fall upon his face. Almost at the same moment another heavy shot
+struck the boat amidships at the water-line, and she at once began to
+fill, but the other boat came alongside and picked us up, including poor
+Turner.
+
+“Finding that the calm still continued, and that many of our party were
+wounded, Mr. Parker called to us in the boat to come round on the port
+side, where the remaining boat was lying.
+
+“'We'll stick to her a bit yet,' he called out, and then he sent some of
+our men up aloft to loose and set some sails. As soon as this was done
+he ordered every one back into the boats, and went to the helm himself,
+telling us that if a breeze sprang up and the sails wanted trimming he
+would call for us to come up again.
+
+“All this time the ship was being hulled repeatedly, and we were
+in great concern--not for ourselves, as we were now all but out of
+danger--but for our gallant Mr. Parker, who seemed bent on getting away
+with the prize. The first thing we did after our boat was under shelter
+was to get a light and look at poor Turner; and the sight was a terrible
+one to me. The shot had carried away his lower jaw, his left arm as far
+as the elbow (for he was stooping when he looked at the priming of his
+pistol), and his right hand. The fleshy part of his thigh was also gone.
+The poor fellow could not do more than mutely look his dreadful anguish,
+and yet I could see he was perfectly conscious of all that was going on
+around him.
+
+“For nearly a quarter of an hour we continued like this, feeling every
+shot that struck the ship. Every now and then one of us would clamber
+up the side to see after Mr. Parker, who would angrily order him back to
+his boat. At last Mr. Cresswell, our gunner, called out that the prize
+was sinking, and we saw that she was beginning to feel the effect of the
+water that was pouring into her, for she had been struck in many places
+between wind and water. At the same time Mr. Parker called out for four
+hands to come on deck as he had found the treasure, which was in the
+main cabin, packed in boxes. These were quickly taken out and placed
+in the boats, and then Mr. Parker liberated the crew of the prize, and
+ordered them into one of her boats to save themselves. We then shoved
+off and pulled after the first prize, but were met by Mr. Russel, who
+had had to abandon her on account of the calm and the close fire of
+another battery.
+
+“'Never mind,' said Mr. Parker, with a laugh, 'if we can't bring them
+to Captain Duck the Spaniards won't get further use of them. I have set
+fire to mine.'
+
+“'And I to mine,' said Mr. Russel.
+
+“So this was our first engagement, and little did I relish it. We got
+back to the _Port-au-Prince_ at daylight, and just as we came alongside
+we saw the first of the prizes blow up. Our first care was to lift the
+mutilated but still breathing body of poor Turner carefully on deck.
+Unable to utter more than a dreadful groaning sound, his eyes seemed
+filled with a longing to speak to Captain Duck, who bent over him with a
+pitying face.
+
+“'Poor fellow,' said the captain to Mr. Russel, 'he wants to say
+something and cannot.' Then bending over him again, he asked him if the
+order he had on board in his (Captain Duck's) care was to be sent to
+Bristol. A feeble nod of the head was his answer, and in a few minutes
+he was gone. I was glad to learn afterwards that when he joined the
+_Port-au-Prince_ he had an order on the owners of the _Vincent_ for
+quite a large sum of money, and this he had given to Captain Duck,
+telling him that he wished it to be sent to a young woman named Mary
+Agnew, whose address in Bristol he wrote on the back and whom he had
+hoped to marry when he returned from this last voyage. Our captain
+afterwards sent the order home by the _Clinton_, South Seaman. (I
+learned afterwards from Mr. Bent that the poor woman received it
+safely.)
+
+“On the following day we sailed into Conception Bay to give the
+batteries a taste of our metal. We went close in and then hove in stays
+and sent four or five shots right into the battery, but their guns were
+too heavy for us to do more, and with two men wounded we stood out of
+range again. After this we disguised the ship like an American, and went
+boldly into Coquimbo Roads. Here we were boarded by a party of gaily
+dressed gentlemen who came to trade with the supposed American. They
+brought with them nearly $3,000, and were deeply mortified to learn that
+the ship was an English privateer and they were our prisoners. One of
+them, however--Don Mario--took the matter very jocosely, and ate and
+drank and made merry, telling Mr. Mariner and Captain Duck that his
+entertainment was well paid for. Later on in the day more merchants came
+off, carrying much money, all of which they surrendered. Meanwhile
+four boats, well manned and armed, had gone ashore and captured some
+warehouses about a mile from the town. From these we obtained a great
+quantity of wine and some pigs of copper. Finding that the town was too
+well defended to be taken, we ransomed our prisoners, and Captain Duck
+having presented Don Mario with a cheese, in token of the good temper he
+had shown under his misfortune, we set sail again.
+
+“It would take too long to tell of all that befel us during the next ten
+weeks or so, except that we harried every Spanish settlement along the
+coast, fired at every fort we saw, and took many prizes. As we were
+too shorthanded to man these, we took out all their stores, arms, and
+powder, and sank them right under the guns of a Spanish frigate at
+Arica, firing at her meanwhile with much merriment. While we were thus
+engaged a boat came alongside with six Englishmen in her. She belonged
+to the _Minerva_, a London South Seaman, bound to Port Jackson, and
+those in her were Captain Obed Cottle, his first and second mates, and
+three seamen. The remainder of the _Minerva's_ crew, they stated, had
+mutinied, and after some bloodshed had permitted these six to leave in
+one of the boats. When they left the _Minerva_ the mutineers ran up
+a black flag and announced their intention of turning the ship into a
+pirate. Captain Duck made them welcome, and they proved useful additions
+to our ship's company.
+
+“On the 20th of September we fell in with our looked-for consort the
+_Lucy_, privateer of London, Captain Ferguson, belonging to the same
+owner as did the _Port-au-Prince_, and this gentleman and our good
+captain agreed to go shares in such plunder as the ships got in company.
+The following day, therefore, we anchored off Chinca and took that
+place, but were but poorly rewarded, as there were only two hundred
+dollars in the Governor's house. However, there was some excellent wine,
+of which we took twenty hogsheads on board, and we told the Governor to
+keep his money.
+
+“And now comes the story of our fight with a very big ship, of which I
+have so often told you, Mr. Denison. On the 6th of October, the _Lucy_
+being-ahead (and both our ships off Paita), she took a king's tender
+laden with provisions, so the prisoners told Captain Ferguson, for the
+Spanish frigate _Astraea_ then lying at anchor in Paita Roads. It had
+been our intent to capture the town, but the frigate's presence there
+put that out of the question for the time being. But we were willing to
+fight her outside, away from the batteries, and word to that effect
+was sent ashore, challenging her to come out and tackle us. She carried
+sixty guns, and was commanded by a Frenchman of great bravery. As soon
+as he received Captain Duck's challenge he got under way, and sailed out
+to meet the _Lucy_ and _Port-au-Prince_. In half an hour we commenced a
+close action with the Spanish ship, and almost at the first shot I was
+stunned by a splinter which nearly put out my left eye. But young Mr.
+Mariner told me all that followed after I was carried below.
+
+“The frigate's decks were crowded with men, for in addition to the
+ship's company she had on board nearly three hundred soldiers, who kept
+up a continuous but ineffective musketry fire. They and the Spanish
+sailors cursed us continually as they fired, and our crew returned the
+compliment, for many of our men could swear very well in Spanish. After
+fighting us for about an hour she bore up for the land, we sticking
+close to her and meaning to board; but at two o'clock our mizzen topmast
+was shot away, and falling athwart of our mainyard prevented us from
+bracing about. Then before we could get clear of this, the Spaniard
+came to the wind and sent a broadside that shot away our mizzen and main
+topmast and fore topsail yards, and played sad havoc with our braces and
+bowlines. In this condition, and being now almost under the guns of the
+forts, we had to discontinue the fight, and with the _Lucy_, haul off.
+The _Astraea_, too, had suffered much, and was glad to get back into
+Paita as quick as she could. We had several men badly wounded, among
+whom was our captain; and one poor boy, named Tommy Leach, was cut in
+halves by grape-shot. We made a second attempt to capture her two days
+later, but were again beaten off.
+
+“Next morning Mr. Brown and Captain Duck had more angry words. And then
+two parties began to form, one in favour of whaling, and the other in
+favour of taking prizes. However, Captain Duck said he would go first
+to the Galapagos and refit before anything else was done. We anchored at
+James Island on the 16th, and found there three ships, the _Britannia_
+and _British Tar_ of London, and the American ship _Neutrality_. From
+Captain Folger, of the _Neutrality_, which had just arrived from Paita,
+we learnt that the _Astraea_ had had her fore-topmast shot away, thirty
+hands killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded. Monsieur de Vaudrieul,
+her commander, told Captain Folger that his cowardly Spanish officers
+wished him to strike before he fired the last broadside at our ship, and
+only that we could not board him he would have done so.
+
+“We returned to the coast after this, and captured many prizes. One
+of these, the Spanish brig _Santa Isidora_ was placed in charge of Mr.
+Parker, who, with ten hands, was ordered to take her to Port Jackson.
+Then the same week--the _Lucy_ having parted company with us--we took
+the corbeta _Santa Anna_. She was a fine, new vessel and a fast sailer,
+and well armed. She had a prize crew put on board under the command of a
+gentleman adventurer of our company, Mr. Chas. Maclaren, who was ordered
+to follow Mr. Parker's prize to Port Jackson. Whether they ever reached
+this place I cannot say. I know I never heard of the corbeta again, but
+did hear that the _Santa Isidora_ was captured by the natives of the
+Paumotu Islands and all hands massacred.
+
+“During the time that we lay at the Galapagos, our kind and brave
+captain continued to get worse from his wound (he had been struck by a
+falling spar during an engagement with the _Astraea_, which had injured
+him internally), and at last it was evident to us all that his days
+were numbered. And then, too, his ardent and courageous spirit fretted
+greatly because of some news we had heard from the _O'Caen_, an armed
+American whaler, which on the 7th of August anchored near us. This
+was that a Spanish sloop-of-war was at anchor at a little port on the
+mainland, only a few days' sail from our anchorage. She was on her
+way to Callao from the northern ports of North America and Mexico, and
+carried tribute from the different Governors on those coasts. Much of
+this tribute was in furs, sealskins, and other valuable commodities, and
+she also had on board 170,000 dollars in money. Her crew were all very
+sick, and she was leaking badly, having been ashore at San Diego. The
+captain of this vessel had sent for assistance to Acapulco by a small
+trading vessel, and the master of the _O'Caen_ said we could take
+her easily. She would have proved a rich prize to us, and our captain
+fretted greatly at his illness, for he was quite unable to do more than
+speak in a whisper.
+
+“Four days afterwards I was sent to watch by his bedside by the gunner,
+and scarcely had I seated myself by him when he put his hand on mine,
+and I saw he was trying to speak. I was about to leave him to call
+assistance, but he held my hand with his dying strength.
+
+“'John,' he said, in a little, thin voice, 'quick, listen to me.... Tell
+Mr. Brown... make for the Spanish sloop. But I fear he is a shuffler....
+but... a rich prize..., God bless you, my lad.'
+
+“And with this the grip of his hand relaxed, and his eyes closed in
+death. For some minutes I permitted my tears to flow uninterruptedly,
+then went on deck and reported our dear captain's end to the gunner, as
+well as his last words. Mr. Brown was then on shore, but soon came off;
+and that evening our worthy and lamented commander was borne to his
+lonely grave on the island, amid tears of unfeigned grief by every one
+present.
+
+“At daylight next morning Mr. Brown, upon whom the command now devolved,
+ordered us with very unwarrantable and harsh language to get the ship
+ready for sea.
+
+“'Sir,' said the gunner, 'to-day is Sunday, and the men are not yet over
+the loss of the captain.'
+
+“But this only brought forth a very violent explosion from Mr. Brown,
+who called him a mutineer, and added that he intended to sail that day
+for the whaling ground; that the Spanish sloop might rot at her moorings
+for all he cared; and finally that he was master now, and would brook no
+interference.
+
+“So amid the gloomy looks and muttered discontent of the men the anchor
+was weighed, and the _Port-au-Prince_ stood out of the harbour to meet
+with her final and terrible disaster.”
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+“It was on Saturday, the 20th of November, 1806, that we anchored at one
+of the Haapai Islands, in the Tonga Group, or as people now call them,
+the Friendly Islands. The town was named Lifuka, and it was a very
+beautiful place to look at, for the houses of the natives were embowered
+in palm groves of the loveliest verdure, and a very white beach ran from
+one end of the island to the other.
+
+“Our voyage from the Galapagos had in no wise been a fortunate one;
+for we had taken but two whales, and the crew were in a highly mutinous
+state. Our new captain had grossly insulted the officer of marines from
+the first, and said that he and his men were a set of lazy, skulking
+dogs. Now ours had always been a very happy ship's company when Captain
+Duck was alive, and the marines we had on board had become as good
+seamen as any other of our people, so that this speech rankled deeply in
+their minds and bore bitter fruit, as will presently be shown.
+
+“No sooner had we dropped anchor than a great number of natives came
+on board. They were an extraordinarily fine built race, and, indeed,
+although we had some very big and powerful men in the ship's company, no
+one of them was anything like in stature and haughty carriage to these
+naked, brown-skinned savages. Mr. Brown invited some of the chiefs into
+the cabin, and, with young Mr. Mariner, entertained them. Although they
+knew he was the commander they paid him little deference, but seemed
+to be greatly taken with Mr. Mariner, embracing him with every
+demonstration of affection, as if he were some long lost friend.
+
+“In a few hours their numbers had increased to such an extent that one
+of our crew, a native of the Sandwich Islands (who had joined the ship
+at the Galapagos) ventured to tell Mr. Brown that he thought they had
+hostile intentions. He had, he said, heard them use the word _mate_,
+which in his islands meant to kill; and this and other expressions which
+much resembled those used in his own country led him to think that some
+mischief was intended. Instead of listening to poor Hula--for so he was
+named--Mr. Brown ordered him on deck, and threatened to flog him, so
+that the poor fellow came back quite dejected.
+
+“'Jack,' said he to me--I was a favourite of his--'Captain he fool. You
+get cutlass and pistol and keep close alongside Hula. I think Kanaka men
+want to take ship and kill all white man.'
+
+“I was, indeed, by this time quite terrified at the number of savages
+on board, and made haste to obey the poor man's warning; whereupon Mr.
+Brown, who just then came on deck, swore violently at me for a fool,
+and ordered me to lay aside my arms. 'The natives,' said he, 'mean us
+no harm, and I will not affront them by letting any of you timid fools
+carry arms in their presence.'
+
+“The following day was Sunday, and the crew came aft in a body, and
+asked permission for half of the ship's company to go ashore. To this
+request Mr. Brown refused to accede, called them lazy, mutinous dogs,
+and swore he would flog the first man who attempted to leave the ship.
+No sooner had he said this than one Jim Kelly, the ship's armourer,
+stepped out in front, and brandishing a Mexican dagger swore he would
+run it through the first man that sought to stay him. His example was
+followed by William Clay, Jabez Martin, David Jones, William Baker,
+James Hoag, and Tom Woods, the carpenter, who, drawing their cutlasses,
+said they would stand to him. Then twelve others followed, and with
+defiant exclamations went over the side into canoes, many of them taking
+their clothes with them.
+
+“In the meantime there came on board a young native chief of immense
+stature, named Vaka-ta-Bula, who inquired for Mr. Mariner. He seemed
+very pleased to see the young gentleman, and petted and fondled him as
+the other natives had done previously. This apparent friendliness seemed
+to quite overcome all sense of danger in Mr. Brown's mind; for, to the
+fear of the rest of the officers and crew, he ordered all our axes,
+boarding-pikes, cutlasses, and firearms to be taken below, and then
+signified his intention of accompanying Vaka-ta-Bula on shore to the
+native village. However, at the earnest entreaty of Mr. Dixon, the
+second in command, he consented to put off his visit till the following
+morning.
+
+“At nine o'clock in the morning I was sent aloft by the sailmaker to
+help unbend the foretopsail, which was to be repaired, and looking down
+saw the decks were rapidly filling with natives. Mr. Brown had already
+gone ashore with the chief Vaka-ta-Bula, Mr. Mariner was in the cabin
+writing, and the rest of the officers were engaged in various work on
+deck. Just then I saw Mr. Dixon jump up on one of the carron-ades, and
+make signs to the natives that no more were to come on board. Suddenly,
+a tall native, who stood behind him, dashed out his brains with a club;
+and then in an instant a dreadful cry resounded through the ship, and
+all those of her crew on deck were attacked and savagely slaughtered.
+Horrified at the terrible butchery I saw going on below, I thought at
+first to leap overboard and attempt to swim to the shore, but before I
+could collect my thoughts I was seized by several natives and dragged to
+the deck.
+
+“Just then--so I was afterwards told--young Mr. Mariner came on deck,
+and, seeing that every soul of the ship's company on deck lay wallowing
+in their blood, ran down-the scuttle into the gunroom, where, with
+the cooper, he rapidly devised some means or escape from the general
+slaughter. But the hideous yells and dreadful clamour of the savages as
+they rushed below to seek out and murder those of the crew still alive
+so appalled them that they fled to the magazine, and resolved to blow up
+the ship rather than meet with such a fate.
+
+“Fired with this resolution, Mr. Mariner ran back to the gunroom for a
+flint and steel, but before he could secure those articles he was seized
+by a number of savages; and at that moment I was also dragged down into
+the cabin, where the first sight that met our eyes was Vaka-ta-Bula,
+holding Captain Duck's bloodstained sword in his hand. He was surrounded
+by many other chiefs and, greatly to our relief, he went up to Mr.
+Mariner and embraced him. Then, in broken English, he said that Mr.
+Brown and many of those who had gone on shore were already killed;
+that now that he had possession of the ship he was satisfied, and was
+inclined to spare those on board who yet remained alive. Then he asked
+us how many were left.
+
+“'Three,' said the young gentleman, pointing to himself, the cooper, and
+myself.
+
+“'Good,' said Vaka-ta-Bula, handing the bloodied sword to a native;
+'three no too many.' Then he told us we must follow him ashore, and
+motioned us to go on deck.
+
+“A very shocking sight there met our view. Upon the quarter-deck lay
+twenty-five bodies, all perfectly naked, and placed closely together
+side by side. Only one or two could we recognise, for the poor fellows'
+heads had been battered out of all human semblance by blows from the
+heavy native clubs, and from their still warm bodies ran a dreadful
+stream of red that flooded the quarter-deck and poured along the
+covering-board to the deck below. But even worse than this was the
+appearance of a short, squat old native whose head was covered with what
+had a few minutes before been snow-white hair, but was now dyed deep
+with the life-blood of our unfortunate companions.
+
+“Over his left shoulder was thrown poor Mr. Dixon's jacket, and his
+frightful appearance was increased by his being--save for this one
+garment--absolutely naked, and holding across his huge and ensanguined
+thighs a heavy ironwood club, bespattered with blood and brains. So
+terrifying an object was he that we could scarce believe him human till
+he opened his horrid mouth, and with a dreadful laugh pointed to the
+mutilated bodies of our shipmates. I saw no more then, for I swooned.
+
+“When I came to I found myself in a house in the village, but my
+companions were not visible; and, indeed, I never saw them again, for
+I was taken away the next day to another island, where, although I was
+kindly treated, I remained a prisoner for two long weary months, knowing
+nothing of what befell those of my shipmates who had been spared from
+the general massacre.
+
+“About ten weeks afterwards, when the shock of that dreadful slaughter
+which I had witnessed had somewhat worn off, I began to take an interest
+in my surroundings. My first object was to try and learn something about
+young Mr. Mariner; but the natives seemed to evade my inquiries, and
+at first would tell me nothing. But after a time the chief with whom I
+lived, whose name was Fatafehe, told me that Finau, the native king who
+had planned and carried out the cutting off of the _Port-au-Prince_ had
+taken a great liking to the young gentleman, who was now high in favour
+with him and the _matabuli_ or leading men. And later on I was told that
+thirteen of my surviving comrades had taken service with Finau, and were
+then engaged with him in preparing for an expedition intended to conquer
+the large neighbouring island of Tongatabu. Seven of the privateer's
+carronades and two eighteen-pounder guns which formed part of the
+armament were worked by the thirteen Englishmen; and about seven months
+afterwards I heard that at the storming of Nukualofa, the great fortress
+on Tonga-tabu, Finau achieved a great victory, and made much of his
+white artillerymen, giving them houses and land and wives, and making
+them of equal rank with his _matubuliu_. The tale of the terrible
+slaughter at the taking of this fort was something dreadful even to
+hear, and yet I have heard that young Mariner said in his book that
+Finau was by no means a bloodthirsty man. I can only speak of the man
+as I heard of him--but Mr. Mariner, who lived with him for some three or
+four years, no doubt knew this savage chieftain well, and was competent
+to speak as he did of him.
+
+“For ten months I lived with the chief Fatafehe in the Haapai Group,
+and then from there I was removed to the larger island of Vavau. Here I
+spent a year before I could make my escape, which by a kind Providence
+I was at last enabled to effect by swimming off on board the ship
+_Chalice_, of Nantucket, as she lay at anchor in Niafu Harbour.
+
+“Her captain treated me very kindly, and put me on the ship's books, and
+then, Mr. Denison, began my career as a whaleman.
+
+“It was quite another year ere I succeeded in reaching England, where I
+made haste to tell my story to Mr. Robert Bent; but he had already heard
+of the disaster that had overtaken his ship. He behaved very generously
+to me, and gave me twenty guineas to carry me home to my native place,
+and told me--as I still desired to follow a seaman's life--to come to
+him when I wanted a ship.
+
+“My parents and my dear sister Judith had for about six months mourned
+me as dead, and ours was truly a happy and wonderful reunion, and the
+first night I spent at home we all knelt down together and thanked God
+for my deliverance.
+
+“Mr. Mariner, I am glad to say, escaped from those dreadful islands
+three years later, and reached England in safety. And so I come to the
+end of this tale of a very strange and calamitous voyage, brought
+about mainly through the obstinacy of the whaling-master of the
+_Port-au-Prince_.”
+
+*****
+
+“And now, Mr. Denison and Captain Packenham, as I think we shall never
+meet again, I want you to be good to my boys, Tom and Sam, and warn them
+both against the drink. It is kind, generous gentlemen like you who,
+meaning no harm, send so many half-caste lads to hell.”
+
+
+
+
+THE ESCAPEE
+
+One hot, steaming morning, a young man, named Harry Monk, was riding
+along a desolate stretch of seashore on the coast of North Queensland,
+looking for strayed cattle. He had slept, the previous evening, on the
+grassy summit of a headland which overlooked the surrounding low-lying
+country for many miles, and at dawn had been awakened by the lowing of
+cattle at no great distance from his lonely camping-place, and knew
+that he would probably discover the beasts he sought somewhere along the
+banks of a tidal creek five miles distant. Although the sun was not yet
+high the heat was intense, and his horse, even at a walking pace, was
+already bathed in sweat. The country to his right was grim, brown,
+forbidding, and treeless, save for an occasional clump of sandal-wood,
+and devoid of animal life except the ever-hovering crows and a wandering
+fish-eagle or two. To the left lay the long, long line of dark,
+coarse-sanded beach, upon which the surf broke with violence as the
+waves sped shoreward from the Great Barrier Reef, five leagues away.
+
+The track along which the man was riding was soft and spongy sand,
+permeated with crab-holes; and at last, taking pity on his labouring
+horse, he dismounted, and led him. Half a mile distant, and right ahead,
+a grey sandstone bluff rose sheer from the water's edge to a height of
+fifty feet, its sides clothed with verdure of a sickly green. At the
+back of this headland, Monk knew that he would find water in some native
+wells, and could spell for an hour or so before starting on his quest
+along the banks of the tidal creek.
+
+It was with a feeling of intense relief that he at last gained the
+bluff, and led his sweltering horse under an acacia-tree, which afforded
+them both a welcome shade from the still-increasing heat of the tropic
+sun. Here for ten minutes he rested. Then, taking off the saddle, Monk
+took his horse through the scrub towards the native wells, after first
+satisfying himself that there were no natives about, for the wild
+blacks upon that part of the coast of North Queensland were savage and
+treacherous cannibals, and he knew full well the danger he was running
+in thus venturing out alone so far from the station of which he was
+overseer. As yet, he had seen neither the tracks by day nor the fires
+by night of any myalls (wild blacks), but for all that he was very
+cautious; and so as he emerged from the scrub, holding his bridle and
+carrying his billy-can, he kept his Winchester rifle ready, for above
+the native wells were a mass of rugged sandstone boulders, thrown
+together in the wildest confusion and covered with straggling vines
+and creepers--just the sort of place to hide the black, snaky bodies
+of crouching niggers, waiting to launch their murderous spears into
+the white man as he stooped to drink. For a minute or so he stood and
+watched the boulders keenly, then he dropped his rifle with a laugh and
+stroked his horse's nose.
+
+“What a fool I am, Euchre! As if you wouldn't have smelt a myall long
+before I could even see him! Stand there, old boy, and you'll soon have
+a drink.”
+
+He soon clambered down to the bottom of the ravine, and found to his joy
+that two of the three wells contained water, sweet, pure, and limpid.
+After satisfying his own thirst he thrice filled his billy-can and gave
+his patient horse a drink, then, leaving him to crop the scanty herbage
+that grew about the wells, he climbed to the top of the bluff and sat
+down to rest under a lofty ledge of rock.
+
+Taking out his pipe and tobacco he began to smoke. Below him the surf
+beat unceasingly against the base of the bluff and sent long swirls of
+yellow foam high upon the desolate beach beyond.
+
+An hour had passed, and then, rising and descending to the wells, he
+filled his canvas water-bag. Then, giving Euchre another drink, he
+saddled up again and led him through the scrub to the summit of the
+bluff. Here for a moment he stood to enjoy the first breaths of the sea
+breeze which had sprung up during his rest, and to scan the coast to the
+southward, which was rather high and well-wooded. Suddenly he uttered an
+exclamation of astonishment, and, springing into his saddle, rode down
+the steep descent at a breakneck pace--a white man was running for
+his life along the beach towards the bluff, pursued by six blacks.
+Un-slinging his Winchester as he galloped over the sand he gave a loud
+cry of encouragement to the man. But neither the man nor his pursuers
+heard it. Dropping his reins, but urging his horse along with the spur,
+Monk levelled his rifle at the foremost native, fired, and missed,
+and then he saw the white man fall on his hands and knees with a spear
+sticking in his back. But ere the black had time to poise another spear
+the overseer's rifle cracked again and the savage spun round and fell,
+and the other five at once sprang towards the short thick scrub that
+lined the beach at high-water mark. Then Monk, steadying himself in the
+saddle, set his teeth and fired again and again, and two of the naked
+ebony figures went down upon the sand.
+
+“The other four won't trouble me any more,” he muttered, as he rode back
+to the wounded man; “and I'm no native police-officer to shoot black
+fellows for the pleasure of it, though I'd like to revenge poor Cotter
+and his murdered children “--a settler and his family had been murdered
+a few weeks previously.
+
+The wounded man was lying on his left side, unable to rise, and Monk,
+jumping off his horse, saw that the long, slender spear had gone clean
+through his right shoulder, the sharp point protruding in front for
+quite a foot.
+
+The man was breathing hard in his agony, and Monk, before attempting to
+draw the spear, placed the nozzle of his water-bag to his lips. He drank
+eagerly, and then said--
+
+“Now, comrade, pull the cursed thing out.”
+
+Taking a firm grip around the shaft of the weapon, the overseer
+succeeded in drawing it, and then began to staunch the flow of blood by
+plugging the holes with strips of his handkerchief, when the man stayed
+his hand, and said calmly--
+
+“Let it bleed awhile, my friend; it will do good. So; that will do. Ah,
+you are a brave fellow!”
+
+Supported on Monk's arm, the stranger, who was a powerfully-built,
+black-bearded man, dressed in garments which were a marvel of rags and
+patches, walked slowly with him to the foot of the bluff and sat down
+under the shade of a tree.
+
+“My good friend,” he said, with a smile, “you were just in time. Now,
+tell me, what are you going to do with me?”
+
+“Carry you up this bluff, and then put you on my horse and take you to
+Willeroo Station as soon as the heat of the sun has passed. 'Tis only
+thirty miles.”
+
+He shook his head. “I was never on the back of a horse in my life, and
+I am weak. I have not had food for nearly two days, and no water since
+last night. Ah, heaven! give me that water-bag again.”
+
+He drank deeply, and Monk pondered as to what had best be done. He soon
+made up his mind. He would carry him to the top of the bluff, leave him
+food and water and his Winchester, and then ride as hard as he could to
+the station for assistance. But, to his astonishment, the man implored
+him not to do so.
+
+“See, my friend. You have saved my life and I am grateful. But I shall
+be doubly grateful to you if you do not bring assistance--I want none.
+This spear-wound--bah! it is nothing. But I do want food.”
+
+His words, few as they were, rang with earnest entreaty, and then it
+flashed through Monk's brain who the man was. He was Kellerman, the
+notorious escapee from New Caledonia, for whom the North Queensland
+police had been seeking for the past six months, after his breaking out
+of Cooktown gaol. For the moment Monk said nothing; but, with sudden
+sympathy, he lit his pipe and handed it to his companion. “Take a smoke,
+old man, and we'll see presently what is best to be done.”
+
+The story of Kellerman's escape from that hell upon earth, the prison
+of He Nou, in New Caledonia, was well known to Monk, and had filled him
+with pity, for the man before him was the only survivor of a party of
+five escapees who had landed at Cape Flattery; the others were killed
+and eaten by the blacks. Kellerman, who was a man of powerful physique,
+had succeeded in reaching a beche-de-mer station on the coast, where
+for six or eight months he worked steadily and made a little money. From
+there he went to a newly-discovered alluvial goldfield north of Cooktown
+with a prospecting party, who all spoke well of him as “a plucky,
+energetic fellow, and a good mate.” Then, one day, two mounted troopers
+rode into camp; and Kellerman, with despair in his eyes, was taken in
+handcuffs to Cooktown. He was at once identified by a French warder from
+Noumea, and was placed in prison to await transhipment to the terrors of
+Noumea again. On the third night he escaped, swam the alligator-infested
+Endeavour River, and hid in the dense coastal scrubs. What horrors the
+man had gone through since then Monk could well imagine as he looked at
+his gaunt frame and hollow, starved-like eyes. The overseer made up his
+mind.
+
+Carelessly picking up his rifle he strolled over to where his horse was
+standing, and placed the weapon on the ground. Then he came back, and,
+sitting on a rock in front of the convict, he leant his chin on his hand
+and looked him in the face.
+
+“I'll tell you what I will do,” he said quietly, “I shall take you to
+a place on the top of this bluff, make you a damper and a billy of tea,
+give you my blanket, and stay with you till daylight. Then I shall
+ride to Willeroo Station and return early the next morning with more
+provisions and some clothing and a razor--your beard is too long. And
+perhaps, too, I can get you a horse and saddle. Then, as soon as you are
+better, you can travel towards New South Wales. You speak English well,
+and New South Wales is the best place for you.”
+
+The Frenchman sprang to his feet, his face blanched to a deathly white,
+and his limbs trembled.
+
+“Why do you---- who are you? Ah, my God--you know me!”
+
+“Yes, I know you; sit down. You are Kellerman, but I will not betray
+you.”
+
+“You will not betray me?”
+
+The anguished ring in his voice went to the overseer's heart, and rising
+he placed his hand on the convict's arm. “Sit down. I will give you a
+proof that I harbour no evil intentions to you.” Then he walked away to
+where his Winchester lay, picked it up, and returning placed it in the
+convict's hands.
+
+“In that rifle there are left twelve cartridges. I have thirty more in
+my saddle-pouch. They and the rifle are yours to defend yourself from
+the blacks on your way down the coast. If you use it against white men
+you will be a murderer.”
+
+Kellerman clutched the weapon convulsively for a moment, and his eyes
+flashed. Then he thought a moment.
+
+“I promise you that I will not use it against a white man--even to save
+myself.”
+
+In less than an hour Monk had fixed the wounded man comfortably under
+the overhanging ledge of rock, boiled him some tea, and made him a
+damper, of which he ate ravenously. His wound troubled him but little,
+and as he lay on the overseer's blanket he talked freely of his past
+life. His earlier life had been spent in England and America. Then came
+the Franco-German war, and from America he had returned to France to
+take part in the struggle, and when the dark days of the Commune fell
+upon Paris, Kellerman was one of its warmest adherents, and paid the
+penalty with worse than death--he was sentenced to transportation for
+life. His only relatives were a brother and a sister, both of whom were
+little more than children when he was transported.
+
+Monk listened with deep interest, and then bade him try and sleep. The
+Frenchman at once laid his head upon his pillow of leaves and was soon
+slumbering. At dawn Monk rose and saddled his horse; then, making some
+fresh tea, he was about to bid his companion goodbye till the following
+morning when Kellerman asked him if he had a pencil and paper with him.
+
+The overseer pulled out an old pocket-book which he used when out
+mustering cattle to note down the brands of any strange cattle on
+Willeroo run.
+
+“Before you go, my friend, I want you to write down something in that
+book,” said the convict. “Do you know a little creek about fifteen miles
+from here?”
+
+“Yes, I do; there is a lot of heavy timber on it, pretty fer up.”
+
+“Exactly. Now, there is gold in the headwaters of that creek, and it has
+not yet been prospected by anybody, except myself. And if I had had a
+dish with me I could have washed out ten, twenty, aye, thirty ounces a
+day. It is easy to get. I lived on the headwaters of that creek for six
+weeks. Then the water dried up, but still I got gold. But thirst drove
+me away, and knowing these native wells were here I made up my mind to
+come and camp on this hill till rain fell; and, but for you, I would
+now be being eaten in a blacks' camp. Now, write as I tell you. You must
+work that creek, my friend, and send me some share of all the gold
+you get. If I am dead you must seek out my brother and sister. No, no;
+to-morrow may never come; write now.”
+
+Then he gave Monk explicit directions as to the locality of a
+particularly rich “pocket,” which the overseer wrote carefully down.
+
+The sun had just risen when Monk, bidding the convict goodbye, turned to
+lead his horse down the hill. Suddenly he stopped, and, walking back, he
+carefully put out the fire.
+
+“You need have no fear from blacks,” he said, “but there is a detachment
+of native police at Willa Willa, thirty-five miles from here, inland.
+Possibly they _may_ be out on patrol now, and if so, might come to the
+wells to water their horses. Therefore it is best to take precautions,
+though you are safe out of sight up here.”
+
+“Thanks, my good friend,” said the Frenchman, with a sigh, as he laid
+his head upon his pillow again.
+
+Once more filling his water-bag at the wells, the overseer mounted, and,
+pushing through the scrub, soon emerged upon the open beach, and struck
+into a canter. Suddenly he pulled up sharply--a number of horse tracks
+were visible on the hard, dark sand, just above water-mark, and leading
+round the back of the bluff. Turning his horse's head he followed
+cautiously.
+
+“It must be Jackson and his black troopers,” he muttered; “and, by
+heavens, they have gone through the back scrub to get to the top of the
+bluff!”
+
+For some minutes he hesitated as to the best course to pursue, when
+suddenly he heard a voice from the summit above him, “Surrender in the
+Queen's name!” There was a moment's silence, then he heard a laugh.
+
+“_Peste!_ I could shoot you all if I cared to, Mr. Officer, but, being a
+fool, I will not break a promise to a friend.” Then the sharp crack of
+a rifle rang out.
+
+Spurring his horse through the scrub, Monk dashed over the rough ground
+and up the hill. In front of the cave were a sub-inspector of black
+police, a white sergeant, and eight black troopers. They were looking at
+Kellerman, who lay on the ground with a bullet through his heart--dead.
+
+“Confound the fellow!” grumbled the sergeant; “if I'd ha' known he meant
+to play us a trick like that I'd ha' rushed in on him. I wonder how he
+managed it? I could only see his head.”
+
+“Leant on the muzzle and touched the trigger with his naked toe, you
+fool!” replied his superior officer, sharply.
+
+*****
+
+Twelve months afterward Monk left North Queensland a rich man, and
+went to Europe, and spent quite a time in France, prosecuting certain
+inquiries. When he returned to Australia he brought with him a French
+wife; and all that his Australian lady friends could discover about her
+was that her maiden name was Kellerman.
+
+
+
+
+EMA, THE HALF-BLOOD
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+For nearly ten miles on each side of old Jack Swain's trading station
+on Drummond's Island,{*} the beach trended away in a sweeping curve,
+unbroken in its monotony except where some dark specks on the bright
+yellow sand denoted the canoes of a little native village, carried down
+to the beach in readiness for the evening's flying-fish catching.
+
+     * One of the lately annexed Gilbert Group in the South
+     Pacific.
+
+Perhaps of all the thousands of islands that stud the bosom of the North
+Pacific, from the Paumotus to the Pelews, the Kingsmill and Gilbert
+Islands are the most uninviting and monotonous in appearance.
+
+The long, endless lines of palms, stretching from one end of an island
+to the other, present no change or variation in their appearance
+till, as is often the case, the narrow belt of land on which they so
+luxuriously thrive becomes, perhaps, but fifty yards in width, and the
+thick matted undergrowth of creepers that prevail in the wider parts
+of the island gives place to a barren expanse of wind-swept sand, which
+yet, however, supports some scattered thousand-rooted palms against the
+sweeping gusts from the westward in the rainy season, and the steady
+strain of the southeast trades for the rest of the year.
+
+In such spots as these, where the wild surf on the windward side of the
+island sometimes leaps over the short, black reef, shelving out abruptly
+from the shore, and sweeps through the scanty groves of palm and
+pandanus trees, and, in a frothy, roaring flood, pours across the narrow
+landbelt into the smooth waters of the lagoon, a permanent channel is
+made, dry at low water, but running with a swift current when the tide
+is at flood.
+
+*****
+
+Within an hour's walk from the old trader's house there were many such
+places, for although Drummond's Island--or Taputeauea, as its wild
+people call it--is full forty miles in length, it is for the most part
+so narrow that one can, in a few minutes, walk across from the ceaseless
+roar and tumult of the surf on the ocean reef to the smooth, sandy inner
+beach of the lagoon.
+
+Unlike other islands of the group, Drummond's is not circular in
+its formation, but is merely a long, narrow palm-clad strip of sand,
+protected from the sea on its leeward side, not by land, but by a
+continuous sweep of reef, contracted to the shore at the northern end,
+and widening out to a distance of ten or more miles at its southern
+extremity. Within this reef the water is placid as a mill-pond.
+
+The day had been very hot, and as the fierce yellow sun blazed westward
+into the tumbling blue of the sailless ocean, a girl came out from the
+thick undergrowth fringing the weather-bank of the island, and, walking
+quietly over the loose slabs of coral covering the shore, made her way
+towards a narrow channel through which the flowing tide was swiftly
+sweeping.
+
+Just where the incoming swell of the foaming little breakers from the
+outer reef plashed up against the sides of the rocky channel, stood a
+huge coral boulder, and here the girl stopped, and clambering up its
+rough and jagged face sat down and began to roll a cigarette.
+
+The name of the girl was Ema. She was the half-caste daughter of the old
+trader. She had come to bathe, but meant to wait awhile and see if some
+of the native girls from the nearest village, who might be passing along
+to her father's store, to buy goods or sell native produce, would join
+her. So, lighting her cigarette with a piece of burning coconut husk
+that she brought with, her, she spread the towel she carried upon the
+rock and waited, looking sometimes at the opposite side of the channel
+to where the path from the village led, and sometimes out to sea.
+
+Somewhat short in stature, the old trader's daughter looked younger than
+she was, for she was about twenty--and twenty is an age in those tropic
+climes which puts a girl a long way out of girlhood.
+
+No one would ever say that little Ema Swain was beautiful. She certainly
+was not. Her freckled face and large mouth “put her out of court,”
+ as Captain Peters would sometimes say to his mate. (Captain Peters
+frequently came to Drummond's, and he and Etna's father would get drunk
+on such occasions with uniform regularity.) But wait till you spoke to
+her, and then let her eyes meet yours, and you would forget all about
+the big mouth and the freckles; and when she smiled it was with such an
+innocent sweetness that made a man somehow turn away with a feeling in
+his heart that no coarse passion had ever ruffled her gentle bosom.
+
+And her eyes. Ah! so different from those of most Polynesian
+half-blooded girls. Theirs, indeed, in most cases, are beautiful eyes;
+but there is ever in them a bold and daring challenge to a man they like
+that gives the pall of monotony to the brightness of a glance.
+
+Nearly every white man who had ever seen Ema and heard the magical
+tones of her voice, or her sweet innocent laugh, was fascinated when
+she turned upon him those soft orbs that, beneath the long dark lashes,
+looked like diamonds floating in fluid crystal.
+
+I said “nearly every white man,” for sometimes men came to Jack Swain's
+house whose talk and manner, and unmistakable looks at her, made the
+girl's slight figure quiver and tremble with fear, and she would hide
+herself away in another room lest her father and brother might guess
+the terror that filled her tender bosom. For white-headed Jack was a
+passionate old fellow, and would have quickly invited any one who tried
+to harm the girl “to come outside”; Jim, her black-haired, morose and
+silent brother, would have driven a knife between the offender's ribs.
+
+But the girl's merry, loving disposition would never let her tell her
+brother nor her father how she dreaded these visits of some of the rough
+traders from the other islands of the group to the house. Besides that,
+neither of them noticed Ema; for Jim always got as drunk as his father
+on such occasions of island harmony and foregathering of kindred
+spirits.
+
+*****
+
+So for the past ten years the girl had grown up amongst these savage
+surroundings--a fierce, turbulent, native race, delighting in deeds of
+bloodshed, and only tolerating the presence of her father among them
+because of his fair dealing and indomitable courage. In those far back,
+olden days, when the low sandy islands of the Equatorial Pacific were
+almost unknown (save to the few wandering white men who had cast their
+lives among their wild and ferocious inhabitants, and the crews of the
+American whaling fleet), no one but such a man as he would have dared
+to dwell alone among the intractable and warlike people of Drummond's
+Island.
+
+But old Swain had lived for nearly forty years among the islands of the
+South Seas, roaming from one end of the Pacific to the other, and his
+bold nature was not one to be daunted. There was money to be made in
+those times in the oil trade; yet sometimes, when he lay upon his couch
+smoking his pipe, some vague idea would flit through his mind of going
+back to the world again and ending his days in civilisation.
+
+But with the coming morning such thoughts would vanish. How could he, a
+man of sixty, he thought, give up the life he had led for forty years,
+and take to the ways of white men in some great city? And then there
+were Jim and Ema. Why, they would be worse off than he, poor things.
+Neither of them could read or write; no more could he--but then he knew
+something of the ways of white people, and they didn't. What would they
+do if he took them to the States, and he died there? No! it wouldn't do.
+They would all stay together. Jim would look after Em if he died. Yes,
+Jim would. He was a good boy, and very fond of Em. A good boy! Yes, of
+course he was, although he was a bit excitable when he came across any
+grog. He hadn't always been like that, though. Perhaps he learnt it
+aboard that man-o'-war.
+
+And then the old trader, as he lay back on his rough couch, watching
+the curling smoke wreaths from his pipe ascend to the thatched roof,
+recalled to memory one day six years before, when the American cruiser
+_Saginaw_ had anchored off the village of Utiroa, where Swain then
+lived, and a group of the officers from the war-ship had stood talking
+to him on the beach.
+
+Beside him were his son and daughter; the boy staring curiously, but
+not rudely, at the uniformed officers, the girl, timid and shrinking,
+holding her father's hand.
+
+“How old is your son?” the commander of the cruiser had asked him
+kindly; “and why don't you let him see something of the world? Such a
+fine young lad as he ought not to waste his life down here among these
+God-forsaken lagoons.” And before the trader could frame a reply the boy
+had stepped out and answered for himself.
+
+“I wan' to go away, sir. I has been two or three voyages in a whaler,
+sir, but I would like to go in a man-o'-war.”
+
+The grey-bearded captain laughed good-naturedly, but the kindly light in
+his eyes deepened as the girl, with an alarmed look, took her brother by
+the hand and sought to draw him back.
+
+“Well, we'll talk about it presently, my lad. I don't think this little
+sister of yours would thank me for taking you away.”
+
+And, half an hour afterwards, as the rest of the officers strolled about
+the native village, the captain and old Jack did talk the matter over,
+and the end of it was that the stalwart young half-caste was entered
+on the ship's books, and at sunset Ema and her father saw the cruiser
+spread her canvas, and then sail away to the westward.
+
+In five years or so Jim would be free to return home again, unless he
+preferred to remain in the service altogether.
+
+*****
+
+Three years passed, and then, one day, a Hawaiian trading schooner swept
+round the north end of the island, her white sails bellying out to the
+lusty trades. A boat was lowered and pulled ashore, and the first man
+that jumped out of her on to the beach was Jim Swain.
+
+Half-way between his father's house and the beach the old man met him.
+
+“Well, I be darned! Why, Jim, what hez brought you back?”
+
+“Got tired of it, dad,” he answered, in his quiet way, but without
+meeting his father's eye. And then he added, “The fac' is, dad, I bolted
+from the _Saginaw_ at Valparaiso. Now, don' ask me no more 'bout it.”
+
+“Right you are, my boy,” said the trader, placidly; “but you'll have to
+get out o' the way if another cruiser comes along. But that isn't likely
+to happen for many a year. Come along and see Em. She'll jes' go dancin'
+mad when she sees you.”
+
+*****
+
+For the next twelve months the father and daughter lived at Utiroa, and
+Jim voyaged to and fro among the islands of the group, returning every
+few months, and again sailing away on a fresh cruise; but never once
+had the old man asked him any further questions as to his reasons for
+deserting from the _Saginaw_. But Em, gentle-hearted Em, knew.
+
+One bright morning there came in sight a lofty-sparred ship, with
+snow-white canvas, sailing at a distance of two miles from the shore
+along the reef, from the south end of the island, and Ema Swain rousing
+her brother from his mid-day slumber, with terror in her eyes, pointed
+seaward.
+
+Taking his father's glass from the bracket on the wall in the
+sitting-room, the half-caste walked out of the house to a spot where
+he could obtain a clear view of the ship. For a minute or so he gazed
+steadily, then lowered the glass.
+
+“A man-o'-war, Em, right enough; but I don' think she's an American.
+I'll wait a bit until she gets closer.”
+
+“No, no, Jim! What you run such risk for? You go, Jim.” And then, in her
+trembling fear, their mother's tongue came to her aid, and the agitated
+girl dragged him back into the house, imploring him in the native
+language to yield to her wishes.
+
+In another two hours they were sailing down the lagoon in the old
+trader's whaleboat towards a place of safety, for Utiroa was, they knew,
+the only spot where a man-of-war would anchor.
+
+But long before they reached the village for which they were bound
+they saw the great ship slowly change her course and bear away to the
+westward, and leave the low, sandy island astern.
+
+A long, steady look at her told the sailor eye of Jim Swain that he had
+nothing to fear, even had she kept on and anchored at Utiroa.
+
+“All right, Em,” he said, with a low laugh, “we had no need to be
+scared; she's a Britisher. That's the _Tagus_. I see her 'bout a year
+ago at Samoa.” And then he hauled the boat to the wind and beat back to
+his father's place.
+
+And so time went by, and the haunting fear of discovery that for the
+first year or so after his return to the island had so often made the
+young half-caste start up in his sleep with a wild alarm in his heart
+when the cry of “Te Kaibuke!”{*} resounded from village to village,
+slowly died away.
+
+     *  “A ship!”
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+Nearly an hour had passed since the girl had left her father's house,
+and now, as the sun dipped into the ocean, the flowing tide swept
+through the narrow channel in little waves of seething foam, and Ema,
+with one last look at the path on the opposite side, descended to the
+beach, and throwing off her loose bodice of blue print and her short
+skirt, tied around her waist a native waist-girdle of yellow grass, and
+stepped into the cold waters of the channel.
+
+For some few minutes she laved herself, singing softly the while to
+herself as is customary with many Polynesian native women when bathing,
+when suddenly, through the humming drone of the beating surf on the
+windward reef, she heard the sound or voices.
+
+“Ah!” she said to herself, “now I will wait and startle these girls from
+Tabeâue as they come along.” And so she sank low down in the water, so
+that only her dark head showed above the surface.
+
+But amid the sound of native voices she heard the unfamiliar tones of
+white men, and in an instant she sprang to the shore, and, seizing her
+clothes, fled to the shelter of the boulder.
+
+In a minute she had dressed herself, and was peering out through the
+fast-gathering darkness at a group of figures she could just discern on
+the opposite side of the channel. They had halted, and the girl could
+hear the natives in the party discussing means as to getting the white
+men across, for the water was now deep, and the current was swirling
+through the narrow pass with great velocity.
+
+There were in the party some eight or ten natives and nearly as many
+white men; and these latter, the girl could see, were in uniform, and
+carried arms; for presently one of them, who stood a little apart from
+the others, struck a light and lit a cheroot, and she caught the gleam
+of musket-barrels in the hands of those who were grouped in the rear.
+
+Wondering how it came about that armed white men were searching through
+the island at such an hour, the girl was about to call out to the
+natives--some of whom she recognised--not to attempt the passage without
+a canoe, when she heard the sound of oars, and looking across the
+darkening waters of the lagoon she saw a boat, filled with men, pulling
+rapidly along in the direction of Utiroa.
+
+When just abreast of the passage they ceased rowing, and a figure stood
+in the stern, and hailed the shore party.
+
+“Are you there, Mr. Fenton?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the man who had struck the light. “Come in here, Adams,
+and take us across. There is a channel here, and though I guess it is
+not very deep, the current is running like a mill-race.”
+
+Still crouching behind the coral boulder the girl saw the boat row in to
+the shore, a little distance further down, so as to escape the swirling
+eddies of the passage.
+
+As the man-o'-war cutter--for such was the boat--touched the rocks, a
+lantern was held up, and by its light the girl saw a short, stout man
+step out on to the beach and walk up to the officer in charge of the
+shore party.
+
+“Ah, Adams, is that you? Well, this is a devil of a place. We have
+crossed at least half a dozen of these cursed gutters, and thought to
+have crossed this one too, without trouble, but the tide is coming in
+fast. However, it's the last one--at least so this infernal hang-dog
+looking native guide tells me. So the sooner we get across in the cutter
+and get this man-hunting business over the better I'll like it.”
+
+“Aye, aye, sir!” answered the man he had addressed as Adams. “It won't
+take us much longer, I guess. Not a canoe has passed us going down the
+coast, so we are pretty sure to catch him at home.”
+
+“That is what this truculent scoundrel says,” and the officer nodded in
+the direction of a native who had seated himself on the ground only a
+few yards distant from the rock behind which the girl was hidden.
+“He tells me that young Swain came home about a week ago from
+Maiana”--another island of the group--“and the old man induced him to
+stay at home and help him rig a new boat he has just built.”
+
+“We'll catch him, sir,” answered Adams, confidently.
+
+Clutching the side of the rough boulder in an agony of terror, the girl
+saw the two men turn away, and, followed by the rest of the shore party,
+natives and all, walk down to the boat. Then, standing upright, she
+watched them get in and the cutter shove off.
+
+That they were in search of her brother she was now only too certain,
+and dreading that the boat would land the shore party again on her
+side of the channel and she be discovered and prevented from giving the
+alarm, she sprang over the loose slabs of coral that strewed the
+shore between the water and the coconut palms, and fled along the
+night-enshrouded path towards her father's house.
+
+Ere she had gained the level ground the clattering sound made by the
+displaced coral stones reached the ears of those in the boat, which
+was instantly headed for shore, and the officer, with eight or ten
+bluejackets, leapt out and, led by the native guides, followed in swift
+pursuit.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+Within the trader's house the father and son sat smoking in silence,
+waiting for the girl's return. A coconut-oil lamp, placed in the centre
+of a table, showed that the evening meal was in readiness.
+
+“Em's a powerful long time, Jim,” said the old man, rising from his
+seat, and, going to the door, he looked through the serried vista of the
+palm trunks which showed white and ghostly in the darkness.
+
+“Aye,” said Jim, “she is. I'll give her a call.”
+
+Just beside the doorway lay a huge conch shell, such as is used by the
+people of the Equatorial islands either as a summons to assemble or a
+call to one person only, and the stalwart young half-caste, taking it
+up, placed the perforated end to his lips and blew a loud, booming note.
+
+A wild clamour of alarm answered the call, and a swarm of noddies and
+terns, roosting in countless thousands among a thicket of pandanus palms
+near by, slid from their perches, and with frightened croak and flapping
+wing whirled and circled around the trader's house, then vanished in the
+darkness ere the echoes of the conch had died away.
+
+“That'll bring her, Jim,” said the old man, turning to the lamp and
+pricking up the wick with his knife.
+
+Silent Jim nodded.
+
+“Yes, she's comin' now. I can hear her runnin'.”
+
+They heard her footsteps over the dead palm branches which strewed the
+path, and in a few seconds more, with a gasping sob of terror, the
+girl sprang into the room and almost fell at her brother's feet as she
+clasped her arms around his neck.
+
+“Ha!” and old Swain, seizing a loaded musket from a number that stood
+in a corner of the room, stepped to the door. “Jus' what I thought would
+happen one of these days. Some o' them flash native bucks from the south
+end has been frightenin' o' her. Quick, Em, who was it?”
+
+For a moment or so the exhausted girl strove to speak in vain, but at
+last she found her voice.
+
+“No, father, no. But Jim, Jim, it is you they want! Come, Jim, quick,
+quick! They very close now.”
+
+“What in thunder are you talkin' 'bout, Em? An' who wants Jim?” And then,
+turning to his son, he asked, “Have you been a-thumpin' any o' those
+south-end natives lately, Jim?”
+
+“No, no,” said the girl, rising to her feet, and endeavouring to speak
+calmly; “you don' know, father. But Jim must go, an' you an' me mus'
+stay here. Quick, quick, for God's sake, dear, go out at the back an'
+cross to the windwar' side. Plenty place there for you to hide, Jim, for
+two or tree day.”
+
+A savage light came into the half-caste's eyes, as with an abrupt yet
+tender gesture he placed his huge brown hand on his sister's curly
+head; then, without a word, he seized a musket and cutlass, and with a
+farewell wave of his hand to the wondering old man, opened the door at
+the back of the house and disappeared among the pandanus thicket.
+
+Leaning his musket against the wall, the old man poured some water
+into a cup and, putting his arm round the trembling figure of the girl,
+placed it to her lips.
+
+“Here, take a drink, Em, an' then tell me what all this here means.
+What's the boy been a doin', an' who's after him?”
+
+With shaking fingers the girl raised the cup to her lips and drank;
+then, with terror-filled eyes, she placed her hand upon his knee.
+
+“Listen.”
+
+“Thar's nothin' outside, Em. What in the worl' has scared ye so, gal?”
+
+“Don' you ask now, father. I carn' tell you now. Jes' you listen; don'
+you hear people a comin'? Don' you hear people a talkin'?” she answered.
+
+For half a minute they waited and listened, but no sound broke upon the
+stillness of the island night save the ceaseless hum of the surf, and
+the quick panting breaths of the girl.
+
+“'Taint nothing, Em, on'y the surf a poundin' on the reef.”
+
+“P'raps they're all a comin' in the boat. Dad, there's a lot o'
+man-o'-war men comin' for Jim. I was bathin', and I heerd 'em talkin'.
+They'll kill him, dad, if they gets him. Niban, that native that Jim
+gave a beatin' to onst, was showin' 'em the way here--an' I runned and
+runned----”
+
+A half-stifled shriek escaped her as she sprang to her feet.
+
+There was a sudden rush of booted feet and the clank of steel. Then a
+voice rang out--
+
+“Keep your men close up to the back of the house, Adams.”
+
+Forcing his trembling daughter down upon her seat, the trader, placing
+his pipe in his mouth, lit it, and advanced to the open door, to meet,
+face to face, an officer in the uniform of the American navy.
+
+“Stand back, sir!” and the officer pointed a pistol at the trader's
+breast; but as the light of the lamp fell upon the old man's wrinkled
+features and snow-white hair, he lowered his weapon to his side.
+
+“What might your business be, sir, and why are you and your men a-comin'
+inter my house at night time, an' pointin' a pistol at me?”
+
+Then, still eyeing the officer, he stepped backward, and placed his arm
+protectingly around his daughter's shoulder.
+
+“Stay outside till I call you, Williams,” said the officer, turning to a
+leading seaman, who, with drawn cutlass, had followed him inside.
+
+Then he came into the room.
+
+“Who else have you here with you?” he began, when he stopped suddenly in
+his speech, and raised his cap. “This girl is your daughter, I suppose?”
+
+“My daughter, sir. But what is your business, I ask again? What may you
+want here, anyway?”
+
+The angry light in the old man's eyes, and the sharp tone of his voice,
+called the officer to his duty.
+
+“I am sorry to be here, Mr. Swain; but be good enough to ask your
+daughter to leave us alone for a minute or two. My business is such that
+I can tell it better to you alone.”
+
+At a sign from her father the girl rose from her seat and reluctantly
+walked into her room. The officer watched her retreating figure
+disappear, then he turned sharply round on his heel.
+
+“I am a lieutenant on the United States ship _Adirondack_ and my
+business is to arrest a man named James Swain, a deserter from the
+_Saginaw_ and a murderer as well.”
+
+Even in the dim light of the rude lamp the officer saw the rugged bronze
+of the old trader's face pale to a deathly whiteness, and he leant one
+hand upon the table to steady himself.
+
+“That's a kinder surprise to me, sir. An' I doesn't believe it, nohow.
+A deserter my boy Jim might be; but I won't allow he's murdered any one.
+Maybe you mean he killed a man in a fair fight?”
+
+“I cannot talk this over with you, old man. My orders are to arrest
+James Swain. He is here, I know; and although it is a painful duty for
+me to fulfil, you must stand aside and let that duty be done.”
+
+“You can look for him, sir; but I can tell you that you won't diskiver
+him here.”
+
+“We shall see about that.” And the officer, walking to the door, called
+out, “Come in, Williams, and search the place. Use no violence, but if
+the man we want, or any other person in the house, resists, make short
+work of it.”
+
+With a dozen men at his heels, Williams entered the house, and the
+officer, taking his stand at the back door, leant against it, pistol in
+hand.
+
+There were but three rooms in the trader's house--the sitting-room,
+which was also used as a sleeping room by the old man and his son; the
+trade room, or store; and Ema Swain's bedroom. The first two were
+at once entered and searched, and in a few minutes Williams, the
+boatswain's mate, reported that the man they sought for was not there.
+
+“There is but one more room, sir,” said old Swain, quietly, from his
+seat at the table. “Ema, come out, and let these men look in your room.”
+ And he glanced defiantly at the officer.
+
+Calmly and quietly she walked into the front room, and, sitting down
+beside her father, looked on. But although she was outwardly so calm,
+the girl's heart was beating nigh to bursting, for she had overheard
+Williams tell one of the bluejackets that some of Adams' men had, long
+before the main body approached, formed a complete line of guards on
+both sides of the house, extending from the inner lagoon beach right
+across the island, which, at this place, was not a quarter of a mile in
+width. And the girl knew that at the unguarded open ends on either side
+there was no chance of concealment, for there the coast rose steep-to
+from the sea, and was bare of verdure.
+
+Presently the boatswain, with two or three bluejackets, re-entered the
+room.
+
+“There's no place in the girl's room, sir, where a man could hide. He
+must have cleared out, sir, long before we reached her. I guess that
+that noise we heard crossing the channel was made by him. I think he's
+just doubled on us and made down for the south end of the island.”
+
+Pressing her father's hand warningly, the girl fixed her dark, dreamy
+eyes on the officer and spoke.
+
+“Yes, that true. My brother he ran away long time before boat come up.
+Some one been tell him that 'Merican man-o'-war anchor down at south
+end. So he run away.”
+
+The officer, with an exclamation of disgust, put his pistol back in his
+belt.
+
+“That lying scoundrel of a native has just fooled us nicely, Williams.
+Sound a call for Adams and his men to come back, and let us get back to
+the cutter. We'll have to begin the search again to-morrow.”
+
+The boatswain's mate had just stepped outside and placed his whistle
+to his lips, when the thundering report of a heavy musket-shot echoed
+through the air. Then silence for a few seconds, followed by the sharper
+sounds of the rifles of the American bluejackets.
+
+Before any one could stay her Ema Swain darted through the guard of
+blue-jackets at the door, and disappeared in the direction of the sound
+of firing; and almost immediately afterwards the officer and his party
+followed.
+
+But ere Lieutenant Fenton and his men had advanced more than a hundred
+yards or so into the gloomy shadows of the palm-grove, he called a halt,
+as the sound of voices came through the gloom.
+
+“Is that you, Adams?” he called.
+
+“Yes, sir,” answered a voice from a little distance; “we've got him;
+he ran right into us; but before we could catch him he shot the native
+guide through the body.”
+
+In a few minutes Adams's party joined that of the officer, and then in
+silence, with their prisoner in their midst, they marched back to the
+trader's house.
+
+“Bring the prisoner inside, Adams,” said Lieutenant Fenton, briefly.
+
+With hands handcuffed behind his back and a seaman on each side, Jim
+Swain was marched inside his father's house. A bullet had ploughed
+through his left cheek, and he was bleeding profusely.
+
+“Stand aside, old man,” and the officer held up a warning hand to old
+Jack. “It is folly for you to attempt to interfere.”
+
+And then a blue-jacket, almost as old as the trader himself, placed
+himself between father and son.
+
+Taking a paper from his pocket the officer read it to himself, glancing
+every now and then at the prisoner.
+
+“He's the man, sure enough,” he muttered. “Poor devil!” Then turning to
+the man Adams, he asked--“Are you absolutely certain that this is the
+man, Adams?”
+
+“Certain, sir. That is the man who murdered the boatswain of the
+_Saginaw_. I took particular notice of him when I served in her, because
+of his colour and size, and his sulky temper.”
+
+“Jim,” broke in the old man's voice, quaveringly, “you haven't murdered
+any one, hev' you?”
+
+The half-caste raised his dark, lowering face and looked at his father,
+and for a moment or so he breathed heavily.
+
+“Yes, dad. I killed th' man. We had a muss in Valparaiso, an' I knifed
+him.”
+
+Old Swain covered his face with his hands and sank into a seat, and then
+Lieutenant Fenton walked over to him and placed a kindly hand on his
+shoulder. Then he withdrew it quickly.
+
+“I have a hard duty, Swain, and the sooner it is over the better. I am
+ordered to arrest your son, James Swain, for the crime of murder and for
+deserting from his ship. He will be taken to San Francisco. Whatever you
+wish to say to him, do so now. In another ten minutes we must be on our
+way to the ship, and there will be no further opportunity for you to see
+him.”
+
+“Aye, aye, sir,” said the old man, huskily, and rising he walked slowly
+over to his manacled son, and put his trembling hand on his arm.
+
+“You will excuse me, sir, if I talk to him in the native lingo.”
+
+Fenton nodded, motioned to the seamen who stood beside the prisoner to
+move away, and then walked to the further end of the room.
+
+“Jim,” said the old trader, quickly, speaking in the native language,
+“what's to be done? I have only got to send a native along the beach
+with the shell{*} and we shall have you away from these people in no
+time.”
+
+     {*} The conch shell.
+
+“No, no, father, even if every one of them was killed it would do no
+good. An' they would never let me be taken away from them alive. It
+is no use, father, to try that. But”--and here he bent his head
+forward--“if I could free my hands I would make a dash--and be shot. I
+swear I shall never be hanged. Father, where is Em? I would like to see
+her before I go.”
+
+“She runned away, boy,” said the old man, brokenly, and speaking in
+English; “runned away, jes' as soon as she heerd the firin'. She went
+to look for you, Jim. Heaven help the gal, Jim, when she comes back an'
+finds you gone.”
+
+For a little while longer they talked, and then Lieutenant Fenton came
+toward them, and Adams, at a sign from his superior, took the old trader
+by the arm, and with rough kindness forced him away from his son.
+
+Suddenly, however, he dashed the seaman aside and sprang toward his son,
+but, strong and active as he was, he was no match for a man like Adams,
+who threw his arms around him and held him in a vice-like grip.
+
+“That will do, mister,” said old Jack, quietly. “I reckon I give in. Th'
+boy has got to go--an' thet's all about it, an' I ain't agoin' to try
+an' stop you from takin' him.”
+
+And then as the blue-jackets closed around him, Jim Swain turned.
+
+“Goodbye, dad, and say goodbye to Em for me.”
+
+“Poor old man!” said Fenton to himself, as the party marched along the
+narrow, sandy track. “Hang me, if I wouldn't be pleased to see the fellow
+escape.”
+
+*****
+
+The four men who were left in charge of the boat had sprung to their
+arms the moment they heard the sound of the firing, and for some time
+they scanned the dark outline of the shore with intense anxiety.
+
+“I guess it's all right,” said one of them at last. “I only heard three
+or four shots. Hullo! here they come along the beach. Shove in.”
+
+Tramp, tramp, along the hard sand the landing party marched, and a
+seaman in the boat, picking up a lantern, held it up to guide them.
+
+Two hundred yards behind was Ema Swain, striving hard to catch up with
+them and see her brother for the last time in this world, she thought.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+“Lift him in carefully,” said Lieutenant Fenton, as the boat's bows
+touched the beach; “he seems pretty weak.”
+
+“Thank you, sir!” and the prisoner turned his dark eyes upon the
+officer. “I am nearly dropping. I got a hard hit in the chest with a
+musket butt from one of your men, sir.”
+
+A couple of men lifted him in, and then as soon as the rest of his
+people had taken their places the lieutenant followed.
+
+“Push off, Gates.”
+
+As the heavy boat slid out from the shore into the still waters of
+the lagoon, the lieutenant glanced down at the manacled figure of his
+prisoner.
+
+“Let him sit up, Adams, and take the irons off. He can't lie there like
+a trussed fowl; and see if one of you can't stop that bleeding.”
+
+Adams bent down, and unlocking the handcuffs lifted him up.
+
+Then, quick as thought, Jim Swain, dashing him aside, sprang overboard
+and dived towards the shore.
+
+“Quick! Show a light,” said the officer, standing up in the stern,
+pistol in hand, waiting for the man to rise.
+
+A long narrow streak of light showed his figure not ten feet away from
+the beach. In another minute he would touch the shore.
+
+“Stop!” cried the officer. “Swim another yard and you are a dead man.”
+
+But the half-caste kept steadily on. Again Fenton's warning cry rang
+out, then he slowly raised his pistol and fired.
+
+The shot told, for as the half-caste rose to his feet he staggered. And
+then he sped up the steep beach towards the thick scrub beyond.
+
+As he panted along with the blood streaming from a bullet wound in his
+side, his sister's hand seized him by the arm.
+
+“Jim, Jim!” she gasped, “only a little more, and we------”
+
+And then half a dozen muskets flashed, and the two figures went down
+together and lay motionless on the bloodied sand.
+
+Fenton jumped ashore and looked at them. “Both dead,” he said,
+pityingly, to old Swain, who with a number of natives now stood beside
+him.
+
+“Aye, sir,” said the trader, brokenly, “both. An' now let me be with my
+dead.”
+
+*****
+
+But neither Ema nor Jim Swain died, though both were sorely wounded; and
+a month later they with their father sailed away to Samoa.
+
+
+
+
+LEASSÉ
+
+There were only a score or so of houses in Leassé village--curious
+saddle-backed structures, with steeply pitched roofs of gray and yellow
+thatch, rising to a sharp point fore and aft; and in all the twenty not
+more than one hundred natives--men, women, and children--dwelt. At the
+back of the village the dense mountain forest began, and all day long
+one might hear the booming notes of the gray wood-pigeons and the shrill
+cries of the green and golden parrakeets as they fed upon the rich
+purple berries of the _masa'oi_ and the inflorescence of the coco-palms.
+In front, and between two jutting headlands of coral rock, with sides
+a-green with climbing masses of _tupa_ vine, lay a curving beach of
+creamy sand; westward the sea, pale green a mile from the shore, and
+deeply blue beyond the clamouring reef, whose misty spume for ever rose
+and fell the livelong day, and showed ghostly white at night.
+
+It was at night time that young Denison, ex-supercargo of the wrecked
+brig _Leonora_ first saw the place and took a huge liking to it. And
+the memories of the seven happy months he spent there remains with him
+still, though he has grown grizzled and respectable now and goes trading
+no more.
+
+A white moon stood high in a cloudless sky when he bade farewell to the
+good-natured ruffian with whom, until two months previously, he had had
+the distinction of serving as supercargo. The village wherein Captain
+Bully Hayes and his motley rum-drinking crew had established themselves
+was six miles from Leassé, on the shores of the Utwé Harbour, at
+the bottom of which lay the once shapely _Leonora_, with her broken
+fore-topmast just showing above the water. For reasons that need not
+here be mentioned, Denison and the captain had quarrelled, and so the
+former was deeply touched and said goodbye with a husky throat when the
+burly skipper placed one of his two remaining bottles of gin in his hand
+and said he was a “damned young fool to take things up so hotly.” So,
+without a further word, he swallowed the lump in his throat and stepped
+out quickly, fearing that some of the crew (none of whom knew of
+his going) might meet him ere he gained the beach and mingle their
+tears--for they all loved him well--with the precious bottle of gin.
+
+For nearly an hour he walked along the sandy shore of a narrow and
+winding strip of low-lying land, separated from the high and wooded
+mainland by a slumbering lagoon, deep in parts but shallow at the south
+end where it joined the barrier reef. Here Denison crossed, for the tide
+had ebbed, and, gaining the shelving beach on the other side, he saw
+before him Mout Leassé village, standing out clearly in the blazing
+moonlight against the black edge of the mountain forest, which, higher
+up, was wrapped in fleecy mist. It was near to dawn, but, being tired
+and sleepy, the ex-supercargo lay down on the soft warm sand, away from
+the falling dew of the pendulous palm leaves, and slept till it came.
+
+An hour after daylight he was in the village and being hugged and
+embraced by the inhabitants in general and Kusis, the headman, and his
+wife and daughter in particular. I have already mentioned that Denison
+was very young then; he would not permit such a thing now.
+
+Still, although three-and-twenty years have passed since then, Denison
+often wishes he could live those seven months in Leassé over again, and
+let this, his latter-day respectability, go hang; because to men like
+him respectability means tradesmen's bills, and a deranged liver, and a
+feeling that he will die on a bed with his boots off, and be pawed about
+by shabby ghouls smelling of gin. There, it is true, he had no boots to
+die in had his time come suddenly, but he did not feel the loss of them
+except when he went hunting wild pigs with Kusis in the mountains. And
+though he had no boots, he was well off in more important things--to
+wit, ten pounds of negro-head tobacco, lots of fishing-tackle, a
+Winchester rifle and plenty of ammunition, a shirt and trousers of
+dungaree, heaps to eat and drink, and the light heart of a boy. What
+more could a young fool wish for--in the North-west Pacific. But I want
+to tell something of how Denison lived in a place where every prospect
+pleased, and where (from a theological point of view) only man was vile.
+
+*****
+
+At daylight he would awaken, and, lying on his bed of mats upon the
+cane-work floor, listen to the song of the surf on the barrier reef a
+mile away. If it sounded quick and clear it meant no fishing in the blue
+water beyond, for the surf would be heavy and the current strong; if it
+but gently murmured, he and Kusis and a dozen other brown-skinned men
+(Denison was as brown as any of them) would eat a hurried meal of fish
+and baked taro, and then carry their red-painted canoes down to the
+water, and, paddling out through the passage in the reef, fish for
+bonito with thick rods of _pua_ wood and baitless hooks of irridescent
+pearl shell.
+
+Then, as the sun came out hot and strong and the trade wind flecked the
+ocean swell with white, they would head back for shining Leassé beach,
+on which the women and girls awaited their return, some with baskets in
+their hands to carry home the fish, and some with gourds of water which,
+as the fishermen bent their bodies low, they poured upon them to wash
+away the stains of salty spray.
+
+An hour of rest has passed, and then a fat-faced, smiling girl (Denison
+dreams of her sometimes, even now) comes to the house to make a bowl of
+kava for the white man and Kusis before they go hunting the wild pig in
+the mountain forest. There is no ceremony about this kava-drinking as
+there is in conventional Samoa; fat-faced Sipi simply sits cross-legged
+upon the matted floor and pounds the green root with a rounded piece of
+jade upon a hollowed stone.
+
+The kava is drunk, and then Kusis takes off his cumbrous girdle of grass
+and replaces it by a narrow band of closely-woven banana fibre, stained
+black and yellow (there be fashions in these parts of the world) and
+reaches down his pig-spear from the cross-beams overhead, while Tulpé,
+his wife, ties cinnet sandals upon the white man's feet. Then, good man
+and true, Kusis takes his pipe from his mouth and gives his wife a draw
+ere he goes, and the two men step outside upon the hot, gravelly path,
+Denison carrying his Winchester and Kusis leading two sad-faced mongrel
+dogs. As they pass along the village street other men join them, some
+carrying spears and some heavy muskets, and also leading more sad-faced
+dogs. Black-haired, oval-faced women and girls come to the doors of the
+houses and look indolently at the hunters, but they neither speak nor
+smile, for it is not the nature of the Strong's Islanders to speak when
+there is no necessity for words. Once, fifty years ago, when they were
+numbered by thousands, and their villages but a mile apart along the
+coast, it was different; now they are a broken and fast-vanishing race.
+
+As the hunters, walking in single file, disappear into the deep jungle
+shades, the women and girls resume their daily tasks. Some, who squat
+upon the floor, with thighs and knees together and feet turned outward
+and backward, face curious little looms and weave girdles from the
+shining fibre of the banana stalk; others, who sit cross-legged, plait
+mats or hats of pandanus leaf for their men folk; while outside, in the
+cook-sheds, the younger children make ready the earthen ovens of red-hot
+stones to cook the sunset meal. Scarcely a word is spoken, though
+sometimes the women sing softly together as they weave and stitch.
+
+And so another hour has gone, and the coco-palms along the shore begin
+to throw long lines of shadows across the sloping beach. Then far off
+a musket-shot sounds, and the women cease their work and listen for
+the yelping of the hunters' dogs as they rush at their wounded prey,
+battling fiercely for his life upon the thick carpet of forest leaves.
+
+By and by the huntsmen come back, their brown skins dripping with sweat
+and their naked legs stained with the bright red clay of the sodden
+mountain-paths. Two of them carry slung on a pole a gaunt, razorbacked
+boar, with hideous yellow tusks curving backward from his long and
+blood-stained snout.
+
+Again the patient women come forth with gourds of water; they pour it
+over the heads and bodies of the men, who dry their skins with shreds of
+white beaten bark; two sturdy boys light wisps of dry coconut leaves and
+pass the flames over the body of the boar in lieu of scalding, and the
+melancholy dogs sit around in a circle on their haunches and indulge
+in false hopes. Presently, one by one, the men follow Denison and Kusis
+into the latter's house and sit down to smoke and talk, while Sipi the
+Fat pounds more kava for them to drink. Then mats are unrolled and every
+one lies down; and as they sleep the sun touches the sea-rim, swarms of
+snowy gulls and sooty terns fly shoreward with lazily flapping wing
+to roost, a gleam of torchlight shows here and there along the village
+paths, and the island night has come.
+
+
+
+
+THE TROUBLE WITH JINABAN
+
+Palmer, one of Tom de Wolf's traders on the Matelotas
+
+Lagoon in the Western Carolines, was standing at his door, smoking his
+pipe and wondering what was best to be done. Behind him, in the big
+sitting-room, were his wife and some other native women, conversing in
+low tones and looking shudderingly at a basket made of green coconut
+leaves which stood in the centre of the matted floor.
+
+Presently the trader turned and motioned one of the women to come to
+him.
+
+“Take it away and bury it,” he said, “'tis an ill thing for my wife to
+see.”
+
+The woman, whose eyes were red with weeping, stooped and lifted the
+basket; and then a young native lad, nude to the waist, stepped quickly
+over to the place where it had lain and sprinkled a handful of white
+sand over a broad patch of red which stained the mat.
+
+Palmer, still smoking thoughtfully, watched the rest of the women follow
+her who carried the basket away into the grove of breadfruit-trees, and
+then sat down upon a bench outside his door.
+
+The sun was blazing hot, and on the broad, glassy expanse of the
+slumbering atoll a dim, misty haze, like the last vanishing vapours of
+a sea fog in some cold northern clime, hovered low down upon the water;
+for early in the day the trade wind had died away in faint, warm gusts,
+and left the island and the still lagoon to swelter under the fierce
+rays of an all but equatorial sun. Five miles away, on the western side
+of the reef-encircled lagoon, a long, low and densely-wooded islet stood
+out, its white, dazzling line of beach and verdant palms seeming to
+quiver and sway to and fro in the blinding glare of the bright sunlight.
+Beyond lay the wide sweep of the blue Pacific, whose gentle undulations
+scarce seemed to have strength enough to rise and lave the weed-clad
+face of the barrier reef which, for thirty miles, stretched east and
+west in an unbroken, sweeping curve.
+
+In Ailap village, where the trader lived, a strange unusual silence
+brooded over all; and though under the cool shades of the groves of
+breadfruit and orange-trees groups of brown-skinned people were sitting
+together, they only spoke in whispered tones, and looked every now and
+again at the figure of the white man standing at his door.
+
+And as the people sat together in silence, Palmer, with his bearded
+chin resting on the palm of one hand, gazed steadily before him, seeming
+oblivious of their presence, for he was thinking deeply, and wondering
+what had best be done to rid the island of Jinaban.
+
+Presently a young man, dressed like a seaman and wearing a wide-rimmed
+hat of pandanus leaf, came along the path that led from the village to
+the trader's house. He stopped for a moment at the gate as if in doubt
+whether to open it or not; and then catching sight of Palmer's figure he
+pushed it open quickly and walked towards him, and the trader, roused by
+the sound of approaching footsteps, raised his head and looked in some
+surprise at the new-comer, who was an utter stranger to him.
+
+“Good morning,” said the man to Palmer, and the moment he had spoken and
+lifted his hat, the trader saw that he was not a white man, for his dark
+complexion, wavy black hair and deep-set eyes proclaimed him to be of
+mixed blood. Nearly six feet in height, he yet walked and moved with
+that particularly easy and graceful manner so noticeable among the
+native races of Polynesia, and Palmer was quick to see from his stature
+and appearance generally that he was not a Caroline Island half-caste.
+And he noticed as well that the stranger had a firm, square-set jaw and
+a fearful raw-looking slash across his face that extended from ear to
+chin.
+
+“Good morning,” he answered. “Do you want to see me?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the man, in a slow, hesitating sort of manner. “I
+was the second mate of that schooner “--and he waved his hand with a
+backward sweep toward the lagoon, where a large white-painted vessel was
+being towed down to the passage by her boats, to anchor and wait for the
+land-breeze at night--“but last night I had a row with the skipper. He
+called me a half-bred Maori nigger, an' so----”
+
+“And so you had a fight?”
+
+“Yes, sir, we had a fight. But he couldn't stand up to me for more than
+a couple of rounds; an' sang out for the mate an' carpenter to come and
+help him, an' the three of 'em went for me: They got me down at last,
+and then the mate gave me a slash across the face with his knife. So,
+as I didn't want to get killed, I jumped overboard and swam ashore. I've
+been hiding in the village since.”
+
+Palmer looked steadily into the man's immovable face, and then said--
+
+“You want a stitch or two put in that cut. Come inside and I'll do it
+for you. Your skipper was here at daylight this morning looking for you.
+He told me quite a different story; said that you gave him 'lip' and
+then struck him.”
+
+The half-caste laughed quietly. “He lied, sir. He's a regular bully, and
+he and the mate knock the men about something terrible. But he made a
+mistake when he started on me and called me a nigger. And if he tries to
+bring me aboard of that floating hell again I'll kill him, as sure as my
+name is Frank Porter.”
+
+The trader's face lightened up. “Are you Frank Porter, the man who saved
+the _Marion Renny_ from being cut-off in the Solomon Islands?”
+
+“Yes,” answered the half-caste, “I am the man.”
+
+Palmer extended his hand. “You're welcome to my house, Frank Porter. And
+there's no fear of the captain coming ashore again to look for you. Now
+come inside, and let me dress that ugly slash for you.”
+
+“Thank you, Mr. Palmer. But I did not come to you for that. I came
+to see if you can give me a berth of some sort on your station. I'm a
+pretty handy man at almost anything.”
+
+The trader thought a moment; then he looked up quickly. “I cannot give
+you anything to do on the station--there is nothing _to_ do. But I will
+give you five hundred dollars and a home in my house if you will help me
+to do one thing.”
+
+“What is that?”
+
+“Put a bullet into a man here who has murdered thirty people within ten
+years. I cannot do it alone, I have tried and failed, and these people
+cannot help me. Come inside, and I'll tell you all about it.”
+
+The half-caste followed Palmer into his sitting-room, and the trader,
+getting needles and silk thread from his wife, stitched up the wound in
+the man's face. Then he gave him a glass of whiskey, and as they smoked
+their pipes, told him the story of Jinaban, the Outlaw.
+
+*****
+
+Two years before, when Palmer first landed on the white beach of
+Matelotas Lagoon to settle down as a trader for turtle-shell, Jinaban
+was one of the three chiefs who ruled over the cluster of palm-clad
+islets--the two others were his half-brothers, Jelik and Rao. All
+three had met the white man as soon as he landed, and he and they had
+exchanged gifts and vows of friendship after the manner of the people of
+Las Matelotas.
+
+But Jinaban, who was a man of violent temper, was bitterly aggrieved
+when Palmer decided to build his house and trading station in the
+village ruled over by his half-brother Jelik. He had long been anxious
+to secure a white trader for his own village, and bitter words passed
+between Jelik and Raô and himself. Palmer stood by and said nothing. He
+had taken an instinctive dislike to Jinaban, whose reputation as a man
+of a cruel and sanguinary nature had been known to him long before he
+had come to settle in the Carolines. But Palmer was not a man to be
+daunted by Jinaban's fierce looks and the bitter epithets he applied to
+his half-brothers, whom he accused of “stealing” the white man from him.
+He quietly announced his intention of standing to the agreement he had
+made with Jelik; and the next day that chief's people set about building
+a house for the trader. In a month the house was finished, and Palmer,
+who meant to try the lagoon for pearl shell, and thought that his stay
+on the island would be a long one, announced his intention of taking
+a wife, and asked Jelik for a young girl named Letanë. She was about
+seventeen, and her gentle, amiable disposition had attracted him from
+the first day he landed on the island. Calling the girl to him, Jelik
+questioned her as to her inclinations, and she at once, in the most
+innocent and charming manner, expressed her liking for the white
+man, but said that her uncle Jinaban, who had gained some idea of her
+feelings towards Palmer, had threatened to kill her if she dared
+to marry him; for he (Jinaban) had determined that the people of
+Ailap--Jelik's village--should not monopolise him altogether, and that a
+wife should be chosen from his (Jinaban's) village.
+
+Jelik's face instantly become grave. He knew the rancour of Jinaban's
+feelings towards him, and dreaded to incur his further hatred, and soon
+acquainted Palmer with his fears. The trader laughed at them, and said
+that he would be dictated to by no man as regarded his choice of a wife,
+and, drawing the smiling Letanë to him, told the chief to make all haste
+with the wedding feast. The news of this soon reached Jinaban, who soon
+after made his appearance at Palmer's house accompanied by many old men
+of his clan and a young and beautiful girl named Sépé. Trembling with
+suppressed rage and excitement, he addressed the trader with all the
+eloquence he could command. He was, he said (and with truth), the
+greatest of the three brothers in rank and influence, but had yielded
+to the white man's desire to live in Ailap under the protection of his
+brother Jelik; but neither he (Jinaban) nor his people would put up with
+the additional insult of the trader espousing an Ailap girl. And then,
+pointing to the girl who accompanied him--a handsome creature about
+eighteen or twenty years of age--he earnestly besought Palmer to make
+her his wife. Before the trader could frame a reply Letanë, accompanied
+by a number of her young girl friends, walked into the room, and,
+sitting down beside him, put her hand on his shoulder, and, though her
+slender form trembled, gave her uncle and the girl Sépé a look of bold
+defiance.
+
+Palmer rose to his feet, and placed his hand on the head of the girl,
+who rose with him. “It cannot be, Jinaban. This girl Letanë, who is
+of thine own kin, shall be my wife. But let not ill-blood come of it
+between thee and me or between thee and her; for I desire to live in
+friendship with thee.”
+
+Without a word Jinaban sprang to his feet, and, with a glance of bitter
+hatred at the trader and the girl who stood beside him, he walked out of
+the house, accompanied by his old men and the rejected Sépé, who, as she
+turned away, looked scornfully at her rival and spat on the ground.
+
+In a few weeks the marriage took place, and Palmer made the customary
+presents to his wife's relatives. To Jinaban--who refused to attend
+the feasting and dancing that accompanied the ceremony--he sent a
+new fishing-net one hundred fathoms in length, a very valuable and
+much-esteemed gift, for the cost of such an article was considerable.
+To Jelik, his wife's guardian, he gave a magazine rifle and five hundred
+cartridges, and to Raô, the other brother, presents of cloth, tobacco,
+and hatchets.
+
+That night, whilst Palmer slept with his bride, Jinaban came to the
+house of his brother Jelik. His black eyes gleamed red with anger.
+
+“What right hast thou, my younger brother, to take from the white man
+that which I coveted most? Am not I the greater chief, and thy master?
+Give me that gun.”
+
+Jelik sprang to his feet. “Nay, why shouldst thou covet my one gift from
+the white man? Is not the net he gave thee worth twenty such guns as the
+one he hath given me?”
+
+Jinaban leapt at his brother's throat, and for a minute or two they
+struggled fiercely; then Jelik fell with a groan, for Jinaban stabbed
+him in the throat twice. Then seizing the rifle and two bags of
+cartridges he sallied out into the village. Behind him, panting with
+rage, ran his murdered brother's wife, a young woman of twenty years
+of age. She carried an infant in her arms, and was running swiftly,
+clutching in her right hand a short dagger.
+
+“Stand, thou coward, Jinaban!” she called, setting the child down in the
+path--“stand, thou coward, for though thou hast slain my husband thou
+shalt not rob me of that which was his--give me back the gun.”
+
+Jinaban laughed fiercely, and his white teeth flashed from his
+black-bearded lips; he slipped some cartridges into the rifle. He waited
+till the woman was within ten yards of him, then raised the weapon and
+shot her dead. And now, his tiger nature aroused to the full, he sprang
+into the middle of the village square of Ailap, and began firing at
+every person he saw, sparing neither age nor sex. His second brother,
+Raô, a courageous young man, seizing the only weapon available--a
+seaman's cutlass--rushed forth from his house and, calling upon Jinaban
+to lay down his weapon, advanced towards him. Pretending to consent--for
+a cartridge had jammed and the rifle would not work--Jinaban held out
+the butt to Raô in token of surrender; then the moment Raô grasped it,
+he sprang at his throat and bore him to the ground, and, tearing the
+cutlass from his hand, he plunged it through and through the prostrate
+man's body. Then, with a savage threat against the whole of the murdered
+men's families, he turned and fled towards the beach. Dragging a light
+canoe down into the water, he sprang into it, and pushed off just as
+Palmer appeared on the scene, and, raising his revolver, fired six shots
+at the escaping murderer. None of the shots, however, took effect,
+and Jinaban, with an oath of vengeance against the white man, paddled
+swiftly away and reached the low, densely wooded and uninhabited island
+on the western side of the lagoon.
+
+This for two years had now been his lair. Paddling over at dead of night
+from time to time, he would stalk, rifle in hand, through the village,
+and, entering any house he pleased, demand food and tobacco. And such
+was the terror of his name and his chiefly prestige that no one dared
+refuse. Sometimes, moved by the lust for slaughter, he would command
+that the food he demanded should be carried before him and placed in
+his canoe. Then he would shoot the unfortunate bearer dead on the
+beach. Against his half-brother's families he manifested the most deadly
+hatred; and on one occasion, meeting a girl, a slave of Rao's widow,
+on a little islet some miles away from Ailap, he shot the poor child
+through her legs, breaking them both, and left her to perish of
+starvation. Palmer well knew that he was willingly supplied with food by
+the people of his own village, although they asserted their innocence of
+aiding him in any way, and expressed the utmost fear and horror of
+the outlaw. That his death would be a relief to them as well as to the
+people of Ailap was certainly true, but Palmer and his wife Letanë
+were well aware that none of Jinaban's own people would ever raise hand
+against him; and, indeed, the Ailap people, though they now had the
+strongest feelings of friendship for the white man, were so smitten with
+terror at the constantly recurring bloody deeds perpetrated by Jinaban,
+that they were too terrified to accompany the trader over to the
+outlaw's island and track him to his lair. Twice had Palmer crossed over
+in the darkness of night, and, Winchester in hand, carefully sought for
+traces of Jinaban's hiding-place, but without success. The interior
+of the island was a dense thicket of scrub which seemed to defy
+penetration. On the last occasion Palmer had hidden among a mass of
+broken and vine-covered coral boulders which covered the eastern shore.
+Here for a whole night and the following day he remained, keeping a
+keen watch upon the line of beach in the hope that he would see Jinaban
+carrying his canoe down to the water to make one of his murderous
+descents upon the Ailap village. His own canoe he had carefully
+concealed among the scrub, and as he had landed on a very dark night
+upon a ledge of rocks that stretched from the water's edge to the
+thicket, and carried the canoe up, he was sure that no trace of his
+landing would be visible to Jinaban. At dark on the following evening he
+gave up his quest and paddled slowly over to the village, sick at heart
+with fear for his wife Letanë, for the outlaw had made a threat that she
+should soon fall a victim to his implacable hatred.
+
+Halfway across the lagoon he heard the sound of two shots, and by its
+sharp crack knew that one came from Jinaban's rifle--the rifle he had
+given to the slaughtered Jelik. Urging his canoe along the surface of
+the quiet water, Palmer soon reached the beach of Ailap village, and
+was horrified to learn that the man he had sought had just left after
+shooting a lad of fifteen--a cousin of Letanë--whom he had surprised
+while fishing in the lagoon. Cutting off the boy's head, Jinaban had
+boldly stalked through the village till he reached Palmer's house,
+through the open window of which he had thrown his gory trophy, and then
+made his escape.
+
+The trader's wife, who at the time was sleeping in the big room of the
+house, surrounded by half a dozen natives armed with muskets, at once
+sprang up, and, seizing a rifle, started in pursuit, for she feared that
+Jinaban had learnt of Palmer's absence, and would wait for and shoot him
+as he crossed the lagoon. She managed to reach the beach in time to
+see the escaping murderer paddling along in his canoe close in shore.
+Kneeling down, she took careful aim and fired. A mocking laugh answered
+the shot.
+
+*****
+
+That was the story that Palmer told the half-caste Maori, who listened
+to him attentively throughout.
+
+For some minutes, however, after the trader had finished, he did not
+speak, and then at last said in his slow, methodical way--
+
+“I will promise you that I'll get you Jinaban, dead or alive, before a
+week is out. And I don't want money. But I want you, please, to get
+some one of your natives here to come and tell me all they can about
+Jinaban's friends in the other village.”
+
+Palmer called to his wife. She came in, heavy-eyed and pale-faced, for
+the youth whose head she and her women had just buried was much attached
+to her, and her husband as well. At that moment the lad's relatives were
+searching the lagoon in the hope of finding the body, into which it had
+doubtless been thrown by the ruthless hand of Jinaban; and Letanë had
+just returned alone to the house.
+
+In a very short time the half-caste learnt from Letanë that Sépé, who
+lived in Jinaban's village, was strongly suspected of receiving visits
+from the outlaw, and even of visiting the man himself; for on several
+occasions she had been absent from her mother's house for two or three
+days at a time. And as most of Jinaban's people were in secret sympathy
+with their outlawed chief, the girl's movements were never commented on
+by the inhabitants of her own village, for fear that the relatives of
+the murdered chiefs, Raô and Jelik, and other people of Ailap, would
+kill her. But in some way Sépé had betrayed herself, and Letanë was now
+having a strict watch kept upon the girl by two or three of her women
+attendants whom she had sent to reside in Ijeet, as Jinaban's village
+was called. Ostensibly they had gone to visit some relatives there.
+Sépé, however, was always on her guard, and so far the spies had learnt
+nothing fresh.
+
+At Porter's request the trader's wife gave him a description of Sépé's
+appearance, and also described the exact position of the house in which
+she lived with her mother. Then the half-caste unfolded his plan to
+Palmer and his wife.
+
+“And now,” he said, “I must go. If I stay longer it may spoil our plans
+by making Jinaban's friend suspicious. Give me the bottle of gin,
+and I'll carry it so that every one can see it as I walk through the
+village. And you must get all your men out of the way by the time I come
+back. They might shoot me, but the women will be too frightened.”
+
+Palmer went to his trade room and returned with a large bottle of
+Hollands, which he gave to Porter, together with a box of revolver
+cartridges; these the half-caste carefully concealed in the bosom of his
+singlet. Then, shaking hands with the trader and his wife, he walked out
+of the house, down the steps, and along the path to the village.
+
+“Parma,” said Letanë to her husband, as they watched the seaman
+disappear among the coco-palms, “dost think this man will be true to us
+in this thing?”
+
+“Aye,” replied the trader, “sure am I of his good faith; for he it
+was who four years ago, single-handed, fought two hundred of the wild
+man-eaters of the Solomon Islands, when they captured the ship in which
+he sailed, and slew every man on board but himself. Twenty-and-three of
+those devils of _kai tagata_ (cannibals) did he kill with his Winchester
+rifle from the fore-top of the ship, although he was slashed in the
+thigh with a deep knife wound, and was faint from loss of blood. And
+then when the rest had fled in their canoes he came down and steered
+the ship away from the land and sailed her in safety to a place called
+Rubiana where white men dwell.”
+
+“Ah-h-h!” and Letanë's dark eyes opened wide in admiration.
+
+*****
+
+An hour later Frank Porter, with an half-emptied bottle of liquor placed
+before him on the matted floor, was sitting in a house in Jinaban's
+village, surrounded by a number of young men and women.
+
+“Come,” he said, with drunken hilarity, and speaking in the Ponapé
+dialect, which is understood by the people of Las Matelotas, “come,
+drink with me;” and pouring out some of the liquor he offered it with
+swaying hand to the man nearest him; “drink, I tell thee, for when this
+bottle is empty then shall I make the white man give me more.”
+
+“Bah!” said a tall, dark-skinned girl, whose head was encircled with a
+wreath of red and yellow flowers, and who stood with her rounded arms
+folded across her bare bosom, “thou dost but boast. How canst thou
+_make_ Parma give thee liquor, if, as thou sayest, thou hast no money?
+Is he a child to be frightened by loud words--which are but born in
+the belly of _that_” and she laughed and pointed contemptuously at the
+bottle beside him.
+
+The half-caste looked at her with drunken gravity.
+
+“Who art thou, saucy fool?” he asked, “to so talk to me? Think ye that
+I fear any white man? See!” and staggering to his feet he came over to
+where she stood, “seest thou this bloodied cut across my face, which was
+given me by a white man, when I fought with, three but last night?”
+
+The girl laughed mockingly. “How know I but that last night thou wert
+as drunk as thou art now, and fell on the ship's deck and so cut thy
+face, and now would make us think that----”
+
+“Nay, Sépé,” broke in a lad who sat near, “'tis true, for I was on the
+ship and saw this man fight with three others. He does not lie.”
+
+“Lie!” and the half-caste, drawing his knife from its sheath, flashed it
+before the assembled natives; “nay, no liar am I, neither a boaster;
+and by the gods of my mother's land I shall make this Parma give me more
+grog to drink before the night comes, else shall this knife eat into his
+heart. Come ye all, and see.”
+
+And in another minute, followed by the girl Sépe and a dozen or more
+men and women, he sallied out into the road, knife in hand, lurching
+up against a palm-tree every now and then, and steadying himself with a
+drunken oath.
+
+*****
+
+Sitting or standing about Palmer's house were some scores of native
+women, who waited for him to awaken from his afternoon's sleep and open
+his store so that they might sell him the pearl-shell that the menfolk
+had that day taken from the lagoon. But the white man seemed to sleep
+long to-day, and when the people saw Letanë, his wife, coming from
+her evening bathe, they were glad, for they knew she would open her
+husband's store and buy from them whatever they had to sell. But
+suddenly, as she walked slowly along the shaded path, a man sprang out
+upon her and seized her by the wrist. It was the half-caste sailor.
+
+“Back!” he shouted warningly to the women, as they rushed towards him,
+“back, I say, else do I plunge my knife into this woman's heart.” And
+then, releasing his hold of Letanë's wrist, he swiftly clasped her round
+the waist, and swung her over his shoulder with an exulting laugh. “Tell
+ye the white man that his wife shall now be mine, for her beauty hath
+eaten away my heart,” and he ran swiftly away with his struggling
+burden, who seemed too terrified even to call for assistance.
+
+And then as the loud cries of alarm of the women sounded through the
+village, Palmer sprang out from his house, pistol in hand, and darted in
+pursuit. The half-caste, with a backward glance over his shoulder, saw
+him coming.
+
+Dropping the woman, who seemed to have swooned, for she lay motionless
+upon the path, Porter awaited the white man, knife in hand, and laughed
+fiercely as Palmer, raising his pistol, fired at him thrice. In another
+instant they were struggling fiercely together, and a cry of terror
+broke from the watching women when they saw the trader fall as if
+stabbed or stunned, and the half-caste, leaping upon him, tear the
+pistol from his hand, and, with an exultant cry, wave it triumphantly in
+the air. Then he fled swiftly through the palm grove towards Ijeet.
+
+When Palmer opened his eyes, Letanë and a number of terrified women were
+bending over him, all but Letanë herself imagining he had been stabbed.
+
+“Nay,” he said, putting his hand to his head, “I was but stunned. Help
+me into my house.”
+
+That night the whole population of Ailap came to his house and urged him
+to lead them to Ijeet and slay the coward sailor who had sought to take
+his life and steal from him his wife.
+
+“Wait,” he answered grimly, “wait, I pray thee, O my friends, and then
+shalt thou see that which shall gladden thy hearts and mine. And let
+none of ye raise his hand against the half-caste till I so bid him.”
+
+They wondered at this; but went away contented. Parma was a wise man,
+they thought, and knew what was best.
+
+When the house was in darkness, and the trader and his wife lay on their
+couch of mats with their sleeping child between them, Palmer laughed to
+himself.
+
+“Why dost thou laugh, Parma?” And Letanë turned her big eyes upon his
+face.
+
+“Because this man Porter is both wise and brave; and in two days or less
+we shall sleep in peace, for Jinaban shall be dead.”
+
+*****
+
+Back from the clustering houses of Ijeet village the man who was “wise
+and brave” was sitting upon the bole of a fallen coco-palm with his arms
+clasped round the waist of the star-eyed Sépé, who listened to him half
+in fear, half in admiration.
+
+“Nay,” she said presently, in answer to something he had said, “no love
+have I for Jinaban; 'tis hate alone that hath led me to aid him, for he
+hath sworn to me that I shall yet see Letanë lie dead before me. And for
+that do I steal forth at night and take him food.”
+
+“Dost thou then love Parma?”
+
+“As much as thou lovest his wife,” the girl answered quickly, striking
+him petulantly on his knee.
+
+The half-caste laughed. “Those were but the words of a man drunken with
+liquor. What care I for her? Thee alone do I love, for thy eyes have
+eaten up my heart. And see, when thou hast taken me to Jinaban, and he
+and I have killed this Parma, thou shalt run this knife of mine into the
+throat of Letanë. And our wedding feast shall wipe out the shame which
+she hath put upon thee.”
+
+The girl's eyes gleamed. “Are these true words or lies?”
+
+“By my mother's bones, they be true words. Did not I flee to thy house
+and bring thee this pistol I wrenched from Parma's hand to show thee
+I am no boaster. And as for these three women of Ailap who spy upon
+thee--show me where they sleep and I will beat them with a heavy stick
+and drive them back to their mistress.”
+
+Sépé leant her head upon his shoulder and pressed his hand. “Nay, let
+them be; for now do I know thou lovest me. And to-night, when my mother
+sleeps, shall we take a canoe and go to Jinaban.”
+
+*****
+
+At dawn next morning Palmer was aroused from his sleep by a loud
+knocking at the door, and the clamour of many voices.
+
+“Awake, awake, Parma!” cried a man's voice; “awake, for the big sailor
+man who tried to kill thee yesterday is crossing the lagoon, and is
+paddling swiftly towards thy house. Quick, quick and shoot him ere he
+can land.”
+
+In an instant the trader and every one of his household sprang from
+their couches, the door was thrown open, and Palmer, looking across
+the lagoon, which was shining bright in the rays of the rising sun, saw
+about a quarter of a mile away, a canoe, which was being urged swiftly
+along by Frank Porter and a woman. She was heading directly for his
+house, and already Palmer's bodyguard were handling their muskets, and
+waiting for him to tell them to fire.
+
+Taking his glass from its rack over the door he levelled it at the
+approaching canoe, and looked steadily for less than half a minute, and
+then he gave an exulting cry.
+
+“Oh, my friends, this is a lucky day! Lay aside thy guns, and harm not
+the sailor; for in that canoe is Jinaban, bound hand and foot. And the
+fight that ye saw yesterday between this half-caste and me was but a
+cunning plan between us to get Jinaban into our hands; and no harm did
+he intend to my wife, for she too knew of our plan.”
+
+A murmur of joyful astonishment burst from the assembled natives, and in
+another moment they were running after Palmer down to the beach.
+
+The instant the canoe touched the sand, Porter called out in English--
+
+“Collar the girl, Mr. Palmer, and don't let her get near your wife. She
+means mischief.”
+
+Before she could rise from her seat on the low thwart, Sépé was seized
+by two of Palmer's people. Her dark, handsome face was distorted by
+passion, but she was too exhausted to speak, and suffered herself to
+be led away quietly. And then Jinaban, who lay stretched out on the
+outrigger platform of the canoe, with his hands and feet lashed to a
+stout pole of green wood, was lifted off.
+
+A few hurried words passed between Palmer and the half-caste, and then
+the former directed his men to carry the prisoner up to the house.
+This was at once done, amidst the wildest excitement and clamour. The
+lashings that bound him to the pole were loosened a little by Palmer's
+directions, and then four men with loaded rifles were placed over him.
+Then, calling a native to him, Palmer told him to take a conch-shell,
+go from village to village, and summon all the people to the white man's
+house quickly.
+
+“Tell them to come and see Jinaban die,” he said sternly.
+
+As soon as the prisoner had been disposed of for the time being, Palmer
+and Porter went into the dining-room, where Letanë had prepared a
+hurried breakfast for the half-caste.
+
+“Where is Sépé?” he asked, as he sat down.
+
+“Locked up in there,” said Palmer, pointing to one of the store-rooms.
+
+“Poor devil! Don't be too rough on her. I had to lay a stick across her
+back pretty often before she would help me to carry Jinaban down to the
+canoe. And I had to threaten to shoot her coming across the lagoon. She
+wouldn't paddle at first, and I think wanted to capsize the canoe and
+escape, until she looked round and saw my pistol pointed at her. Then
+she gave in. I wasn't goin' to let Mr. Jinaban drown after all my
+trouble. But”--his mouth was stuffed with cold meat and yam as he
+spoke--“I'm sorry I had to beat her. An' she's got the idea that your
+missus will kill her when I tell you all about her.”
+
+Washing down his breakfast with a copious drink of coffee, Porter lit
+his pipe, and then, in as few words as possible, told his story. And as
+he told it a loud, booming sound rang through the morning air, and the
+hurrying tramp of naked feet and excited voices of the gathering people
+every moment increased, and “Jinaban!” “Jinaban!” was called from house
+to house.
+
+*****
+
+“As soon as the girl an' me got to the island,” he said, “she told me to
+wait in the canoe. 'All right,' I said, and thinking it would be a good
+thing to do, I told her to take the revolver and box of cartridges with
+her, just to show them to Jinaban in proof of the story of the fight I
+had with you; I thought that if she told him I was armed he might smell
+a rat and shoot me from the scrub. An' I quite made up my mind to collar
+him alive if I could. The night was very dark, but the girl knew her way
+about pretty well, an', leaving me in the canoe, she ran along the beach
+and entered the _puka_ scrub. About an hour went by, an' I was beginning
+to feel anxious, when she came back. 'Come on,' she said, 'Jinaban will
+talk with you.' I got out of the canoe and walked with her along
+the beach till we came to what looked like a tunnel in the thick
+undergrowth. 'Let me go first,' she said, stooping down, and telling me
+to hold on to her grass girdle, she led the way till we came out into an
+open spot, and there was Jinaban's house, and Jinaban sitting inside it,
+before a fire of coconut shells, handling your revolver and looking
+very pleased. He shook hands with me and, I could see at once, believed
+everything that Sépé had told him. Then we had a long talk and arranged
+matters nicely. I was to stay with him until the first dark, rainy
+night. Then we were to come over and hide ourselves in your boat-shed to
+wait until you opened your door the first thing in the morning. We were
+both to fire together, and bring you down easy. Then Sépé was to settle
+her account with your wife while Jinaban rallied the Ijeet people, in
+case the Ailap natives wanted to fight. After that he and I were to
+divide all the plunder in the house and station between us, take two of
+your whaleboats, and with some of his people make for some other island
+in the Carolines as quick as possible. And Sépé was to be Mrs. Frank
+Porter.
+
+“Then, before he knew what was the matter with him, I hit him under the
+ear, and laid him out stiff; and after choking the girl a bit to keep
+her quiet, I tied him up safely.”
+
+Palmer set his teeth, but said nothing. Then the half-caste, having
+finished his pipe, rose.
+
+“What are we going to do with him--hang him, or what?” he inquired,
+coolly.
+
+“Stand him out there on the beach and let one of the Ailap people shoot
+him.”
+
+*****
+
+Jinaban was led forth from Palmer's house into the village square,
+and bound with his back to a coconut palm. On three sides of him were
+assembled nearly every man, woman, and child on Las Matelotas Lagoon.
+Not a sign of fear was visible in his dark, bearded face; only a look
+of implacable hatred settled upon it when Palmer, followed by the
+half-caste seaman and a servant boy, walked slowly down his verandah
+steps and stood in full view of the assemblage. He was unarmed, but the
+boy carried his rifle.
+
+Raising his hand to command silence, the murmuring buzz of voices was
+instantly hushed, and the trader spoke. There, said he, was the cruel
+murderer who had so ruthlessly slain more than a score of men, women,
+and children--many of whom were of his own blood. Jinaban must die, and
+they must kill him. He himself, although he had good cause to slay him,
+would not. Let one of those whose kith and kin had been slain by this
+cruel man now take a just vengeance.
+
+A young man stepped out from among the crowd, and Palmer, taking the
+rifle from the boy who held it, placed it in his hand. He was the
+brother of the girl whom Jinaban had shot through the legs and left to
+die of starvation and thirst.
+
+Slowly the young native raised the rifle to his shoulder, glanced along
+the barrel, then grounded it on the sand.
+
+“I cannot do it,” he said, handing the weapon back. Jinaban heard and
+laughed.
+
+“Just what I thought would happen,” muttered Palmer to Porter. “We
+must hurry things along, even if we have to do it ourselves,” and then,
+raising his voice, he called out--
+
+“Ten silver dollars to the man who will shoot Jinaban.”
+
+No one moved, and a low murmur passed from lip to lip among the crowded
+natives. A minute passed.
+
+“Oh, cowards!” said Palmer scornfully. “Twenty dollars!”
+
+“Double it,” said the half-caste in a low voice; “and be quick. I can
+see some of Jinaban's people looking ugly.”
+
+“Forty dollars, then, and ten tins of biscuit to him who will kill this
+dog. See, he mocks at us all.”
+
+A short, square-built man--a connection by marriage of the murderer's
+brother, Rao--sprang into the open, snatched the rifle from Palmer's
+hand, and levelled it at Jinaban. But as his eye met those of the
+dreaded outlaw his hand shook. He lowered the weapon, and turned to the
+white man.
+
+“Parma,” he said, giving back the rifle to Porter, “I cannot do it; for
+his eye hath killed my heart.”
+
+“Ha!” laughed Jinaban, and the group of Ijeet men swayed to and fro, and
+a savage light came into Palmer's eyes. He looked at Porter, who at
+that moment raised the rifle and fired, and a man who was approaching
+Jinaban, knife in hand, to cut his bonds, spun round and fell upon the
+sand with a broken back. In a moment the crowd of Ijeet men drew off.
+
+“Back, back,” cried the half-caste, fiercely, springing towards them and
+menacing them with the butt of his empty rifle, and then hurling it from
+him he leaped back and picked up something that stood leaning up against
+the wall of Palmer's boat-shed. It was a carpenter's broad-axe--a
+fearful looking weapon, with a stout handle and a blade fourteen inches
+across.
+
+“Look,” he cried. “This man must die. And all the men of Ailap are
+cowards, else would this murderer and devil now be dead, and his blood
+running out upon the sand. But, as for me who fear him not--see!”
+
+He took two steps forward to Jinaban and swung the axe. It clove through
+the murderer's shaggy head and sank deep down into his chest.
+
+*****
+
+Two days later Sépé, who had made her peace with Palmer's wife, met the
+sailor as he was walking down to the beach to bathe.
+
+“Wilt thou keep thy promise and marry me?” she asked.
+
+“No,” answered the half-caste, pushing her aside roughly; “marriage with
+thee or any other woman is not to my mind. But go to the white man and
+he will give thee the forty dollars and ten tins of biscuit instead.
+Something thou dost deserve, but it shall not be me.”
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other
+Stories, by Louis Becke
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RODMAN AND OTHERS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 24836-0.txt or 24836-0.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/8/3/24836/
+
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