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+Project Gutenberg's The Flemmings And “Flash Harry” Of Savait, 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: The Flemmings And “Flash Harry” Of Savait
+       From “The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other
+       Stories” - 1902
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24953]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLEMMINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FLEMMINGS and “FLASH HARRY” OF SAVAIT
+
+From “The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories” - 1902
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902
+
+LONDON
+
+
+
+
+THE FLEMMINGS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+On a certain island in the Paumotu Group, known on the charts as Chain
+Island, but called Anaa by the people themselves, lived a white man
+named Martin Flemming, one of those restless wanderers who range the
+Pacific in search of the fortune they always mean to gain, but which
+never comes to them, except in some few instances--so few that they
+might be counted on one's fingers.
+
+Two years had come and gone since Flemming had landed on the island
+with his wife, family, and two native servants, and settled down as a
+resident trader at the large and populous village of Tuuhora, where he
+soon gained the respect and confidence--if not the friendship--of the
+Anaa people, one of the proudest, most self-reliant, and brave of any
+of the Polynesian race, or their offshoots. For though he was a keen
+business man, he was just and honest in all his transactions, never
+erring, as so many traders do, on the side of mistaken generosity, but
+yet evincing a certain amount of liberality when the occasion justified
+it--and the natives knew that when he told them that tobacco, or
+biscuit, or rice, or gunpowder had risen in price in Tahiti or New
+Zealand, and that he would also be compelled to raise his charges, they
+knew that his statement was true--that he was a man above trickery,
+either in his business or his social relations with them, and would not
+descend to a lie for the sake of gain.
+
+Flemming, at this time, was about forty years of age; his wife, who
+was an intelligent Hawaiian Islander, was ten years his junior, and the
+mother of his three half-caste children--a boy of thirteen, another of
+ten, and a girl of six. Such education as he could give them during
+his continuous wanderings over the North and South Pacific had been but
+scanty; for he was often away on trading cruises, and his wife, though
+she could read and write, like all Hawaiian women, was not competent to
+instruct her children, though in all other respects she was everything
+that a mother should be, except, as Flemming would often tell her, she
+was too indulgent and too ready to gratify their whims and fancies.
+However, they were now not so much under her control, for soon after
+coming to the island, he found that one of the three Marist Brothers
+living at the mission was able to, and willing to give them a few hours'
+instruction several times a week. For this, Flemming, who was really
+anxious about his children's welfare, made a liberal payment to the
+Mission, and the arrangement had worked very satisfactorily--Father
+Billot, who was a good English scholar, giving them their lessons in
+that language.
+
+I must now make mention of the remaining persons constituting the
+trader's household--the two servants--one a man about thirty years
+of age, the other not more than eighteen or nineteen. They were both
+natives of Arorai (Hurd Island), one of the Eingsmill Group, and
+situated something less than three degrees south of the Equator.
+They had both taken service with him on their own island six years
+previously, and had followed his and his family's fortunes ever since,
+for they were both devotedly attached to the children; and when, a year
+after he had settled on their island, misfortune befell him through
+the destruction of his trading station by fire, and he found himself a
+ruined man, they refused to leave him, and declared they would work
+for him without payment until he was again in a position to begin
+trading--no matter how long it might be ere that took place.
+
+For some months after the loss of all his property, Flemming worked
+hard and lived meanly. Most fortunately for him, he had a very good
+whaleboat, and night after night, and day after day, he and his two
+faithful helpers, as long as the weather held fine, toiled at the
+dangerous pursuit of shark-catching, cutting off the fins and tails, and
+drying them in the sun, until finally he had secured over a ton's weight
+of the ill-smelling commodity, for which he received £60 in cash from
+the master of a Chinese-owned trading barque, which touched at the
+island, and this amount enabled him to leave Arorai, and begin trading
+elsewhere--in the great atoll of Butaritari, where owing to his
+possessing a good boat, sturdy health, and great pluck and resolution,
+his circumstances so mended that he came to look on the incident of the
+fire as the best thing that could have happened.
+
+In appearance these two men were like nearly all the people of the
+Kingsmill Group--dark-skinned, strongly built, and with a certain
+fierceness of visage, born of their warlike and quarrelsome nature, and
+which never leaves them, even in their old age. The elder of the two,
+whose native name was Binoké, but who had been given the nickname of
+“Tommy Topsail-tie,” had this facial characteristic to a great degree,
+and was, in addition, of a somewhat morbid and sullen disposition,
+disliking all strangers. But he was yet the veriest slave to Flemming's
+children, who tyrannised over him most mercilessly, for young as they
+were, they knew that his savage heart had nothing in it but adoration
+and affection for both them and their parents. Nobal, the younger man,
+who also had a nickname--“Jack Waterwitch” (taken from a colonial
+whaler in which he had once sailed) was of a more genial nature, and
+had constituted himself the especial guardian and playmate of the little
+girl Medora, who spoke his native tongue as well as himself; while Tommy
+Topsail-tie was more attached, if it were possible, to Flemming's eldest
+boy Robert, than to any other member of the family.
+
+After two or three years' successful trading in the northern islands of
+the Kingsmill Group, Flemming had sold out his trading interests very
+satisfactorily, and, always eager to go further afield, had sailed for
+the Paumotu Group, choosing Anaa as his home, for he thought he should
+like the people, and do very well as a trader, for the island was but a
+few days' sail from Tahiti in the Society Group, where there was always
+a good market for his produce, and where he could replenish his stock of
+trade goods from the great mercantile firm of Brander--in those days the
+Whiteleys of the South and Eastern Pacific.
+
+One afternoon, about six o'clock, when work at the trading station had
+ceased for the day, and the store door had been shut and locked by Mrs.
+Flemming, the trader was seated on his shady verandah, smoking a cigar
+and listening to the prattle of his little daughter, when his two boys
+raced up to him from the beach, and noisily asked him permission to take
+the smallest of the boats (a ship's dinghy) and go fishing outside the
+reef until the morning. They had just heard some natives crying out
+that a vast shoal of _tau tau_--a large salmonlike fish, greatly prized
+throughout the South Seas--had made their appearance, and already some
+canoes were being got ready.
+
+“Who is going with you, boys?” asked Flemming, looking at their
+deeply-bronzed, healthy faces--so like his own, though his hair had now
+begun to grizzle about his sunburnt temples.
+
+“Jack and Tom, and two Anaa men,” they replied, “they sent us to ask you
+if they could come. They have finished the new roof for the oil-shed,
+and want to go very badly. Say 'yes,' father.”
+
+“All right boys. You may go. Tell your mother to give you plenty to eat
+to take with you--for it's only six o'clock, and I suppose you won't be
+home till daylight.”
+
+The delighted boys tore into the house to get their fishing tackle,
+whilst their mother, telling them to make less clamour, filled an empty
+box with biscuit, bread, and tinned meats enough for the party of
+six, and in less than ten minutes they were off again, shouting their
+goodbyes as they raced through the gate, followed by a native woman
+carrying the heavy box of food.
+
+Martin Flemming turned to his wife with a smile lighting up his somewhat
+sombre face.
+
+“We shall have a quiet house to-night, Kaiulani,” he said, calling her
+by her Hawaiian name.
+
+“Which will be a treat for us, Martin. Those boys really make more noise
+every day. And do you know what they have done now?”
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“They have a live hawkbill turtle in their room--quite a large one,
+for I could scarcely move it--and have painted its back in five or six
+colours. And they feed it on live fish; the room smells horribly.”
+
+Flemming laughed. “I thought I could smell fresh paint about the house
+yesterday. Never mind, 'Lani. It won't hurt the turtle.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+At seven o'clock on the following morning the boys had not returned,
+and Martin Flemming, just as his wife brought him his cup of coffee, was
+saying that they probably were still fishing, when he heard a sound that
+made him spring to his feet--the long, hoarse, bellowing note of a conch
+shell, repeated three times.
+
+“That's a call to arms!” he cried, “what does it mean, I wonder. Ah,
+there is another sounding, too, from the far end of the village. I must
+go and see what is the matter.”
+
+Scarcely, however, had he put his foot outside his door when he heard
+his boys' voices, and in another moment he saw them running or rather
+staggering along the path together with a crowd of natives, who were all
+wildly excited, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+
+“Father, father,” and the eldest boy ran to him, and scarcely able to
+stand, so exhausted was he, he flung himself down on the verandah steps,
+“father, Jack and Tom, and the two Anaa men... been stolen by a strange
+ship... we must... we must save them.”
+
+Hastening inside, Flemming returned with a carafe of cold water, and
+commanding the boys not to try to speak any more just then, he poured
+some over their wrists, and then gave them a little in a glass to drink.
+When they were sufficiently “winded,” they told him their story, which
+was, briefly, this.
+
+In company with two canoes, they had put out to sea and began fishing.
+Then they parted company--the boat pulling round to the other side of
+Anaa, where they fished with fair success till daylight. Suddenly a
+small white-painted barque appeared, coming round the north end of
+the island. She was under very easy canvas, and when she saw the boat,
+backed her main-yard, and ran up her ensign.
+
+“They want us to come aboard,” said Bob, hauling in his line. “Up lines
+everybody.”
+
+His companions at once pulled up their lines, and took to the oars, and
+in a few minutes they were alongside the ship, and an officer leant over
+the side of the poop, and asked them to come aboard.
+
+The boys ascended first, the four natives following; the former were at
+once conducted into the barque's cabin, where the captain, an old
+man with a white moustache, asked them their names, and then began to
+question them as to the number of natives on the island, &c., when they
+started to their feet with alarmed faces as they heard a sudden rush of
+feet on deck, followed by oaths and cries, and Walter the younger of the
+two, fancied, he heard his brother's name called by Jack Waterwitch.
+
+“Sit down, boys, sit down,” said the captain, dropping his suave
+manner, and speaking angrily, “you can go on deck and be off on shore
+presently.” As he spoke a man came below, and made a sign to him.
+
+“All right, sir.”
+
+The captain nodded, and then told the boys to go on deck and get into
+their boat. They at once obeyed, but the moment they reached the deck
+they were surrounded by five or six of the crew, who hustled them to
+the gangway, and forced them over the side, despite their struggles, and
+their loud cries to their native friends, of whom they could see nothing
+whatever.
+
+The boat's line was cast off, and as she fell astern the boys saw that
+a number of sailors were aloft, loosing her light sails, and in a few
+minutes she was some distance away from them, heading to the eastward
+with a light breeze. As quickly as possible the two boys set the boat's
+sail, and sailing and pulling, they ran straight for the weather side of
+the island, crossed over the reef into the lagoon, and gave the alarm to
+the first people they met.
+
+“Good lads,” said Flemming, “you have done all that you could do. We
+shall see presently what can be done to save our men.”
+
+Then turning to his wife, he bade her get ready enough provision for
+his three boats, and have them launched and manned by their usual crews,
+whilst he went to the mission to consult with Father Billot and the
+chiefs, for he had already heard from one of the excited natives that
+the barque was still very near the land, and almost becalmed; and he
+knew that the Anaa natives would to a man assist him in recovering the
+four men from captivity.
+
+Half way to the mission house, he met the priest himself, hurrying along
+the shaded path, to tell him the further news that the two canoes which
+had accompanied the boat had just returned, after narrowly escaping
+capture by the barque. It appeared that they, too, had seen the barque
+crawling along under the lee of the land and close in to the reef, just
+as daylight broke, and from the number of boats she carried--she had
+two towing, as well as three others on deck--they imagined her to be
+a whaler. They paddled up alongside without the slightest suspicion
+of danger, and three or four of their number in the first canoe were
+clambering up the side when they suddenly sprang overboard, just as
+three or four grapnels with light chains were thrown from the bulwarks
+over the canoes so as to catch their outriggers, and capsize them. Most
+fortunately, however, only one of the grapnels caught--it fell upon the
+wooden grating or platform between the outrigger and the hull of
+one canoe, and was quickly torn away by the desperate hands of the
+natives--in less than a minute both canoes were clear of the ship, and
+racing shoreward without the loss of a single man. No attempt was made
+to follow them in the barque's boats, her ruffianly captain and crew
+evidently recognising that there was no chance of overtaking them when
+the land was so near.
+
+“The villains!” exclaimed Flemming, as he and the priest set off at a
+run to the house of the head chief, who had just sent an urgent message
+for them to come and meet him and his leading men in counsel, “she must
+be a slaver from the coast of South America.”
+
+The consultation with the chiefs was a hurried one, and a resolution
+to board the barque and recapture the four men if possible, was quickly
+arrived at. Over thirty canoes, and five or six boats, manned and armed
+by nearly two hundred of the picked men of the island, and led by Martin
+Flemming and three chiefs, were soon underway, and passing out through
+the narrow passage in the reef, went northward till they rounded the
+point, and saw the barque about five miles away. She had every stitch of
+canvas set, but was making little more than steerage way, for only the
+faintest air was filling her upper canvas.
+
+The canoes and boats, at Flemming's suggestion, approached her in a
+half-circle, his own boat leading. It was his intention to recover the
+men if possible, without bloodshed, and he would first make an attempt
+to board the slaver--for such she was--and alone try to achieve the
+men's liberation by pointing out to the captain that his ship would be
+captured and destroyed by the infuriated natives if he refused. If he
+did refuse there would be a heavy loss of life--of that he (Flemming)
+was certain.
+
+Apparently no notice was taken by the barque of the approaching
+flotilla, until it was within three quarters of a mile, then she hauled
+up her mainsail, came slowly to the wind, and began firing with two of
+the four guns she carried--nine-pounders. Flemming at once ordered all
+the other boats and canoes to cease pulling and paddling, and he went on
+alone. He was not again fired at till he came within a quarter of a mile
+of the vessel, when a volley of musketry was fired, together with the
+two heavy guns, both of which were loaded with grape. How any one of
+them in the boat escaped was a marvel, for the bullets lashed the water
+into foam only a few yards ahead, and some, ricochetting, struck and
+damaged two of the oars.
+
+To advance in face of such a fire would be madness. The barque evidently
+carried a large and well-armed crew, so he slewed round and pulled
+towards the little fleet, as those on the slaver yelled derisively, and
+again began firing with the nine-pounders, and small arms as well.
+
+And then, to his bitter rage and disappointment, a puff of wind came
+over from the westward, and the barque's sails filled. In ten minutes
+she was slipping through the water so quickly that she was leaving them
+astern fast, and in another hour she had swept round the south end of
+the land, and they saw her no more.
+
+Sad and dejected, he and his native friends returned to Tuuhora, and
+drawing up their boats and canoes, went to their homes in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TEN years had passed, and fortune had proved kind to Martin Flemming and
+his family, who were now, with the exception of the eldest son, settled
+on the island of Barotonga, one of the Cook's Group.
+
+For some years after the abduction of the four unfortunate natives,
+Flemming had tried every possible means of ascertaining their fate, and
+at first thought that he would succeed, for within a few weeks after
+the visit of the barque to Anaa, there came news of similar outrages
+perpetrated by three vessels, through the Ellice, Line Islands and
+Paumotu Group. One of these vessels was a barque, the others were brigs,
+and all sailed under Peruvian colours, though many of the officers were
+Englishmen.
+
+In one instance they had descended upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of
+the island of Nukulaelae in the Ellice Group, and carried off almost the
+entire population, and at Easter Island--far to the eastward, over
+three hundred unfortunate natives were seized under circumstances of the
+grossest treachery and violence, and manacled together, taken away to
+end their days as slaves in working the guano deposits on the Chincha
+Islands, off the coast of South America.
+
+Though not then a rich man, Flemming at his own expense made a long and
+tedious voyage to the Ghinchas. By the time he arrived there nearly a
+year had elapsed since the four men had been stolen, and he found that
+both the British and French Governments had compelled the Peruvian
+Government to restore all of the wretched survivors--there were but
+few, alas!--to their homes. Over one hundred of the wretched beings had
+perished of disease in the hot and stifling holds of the slavers; scores
+of them, attempting to regain their liberty, had been shot down, and the
+fearful toil in the guano pits of the Ghincha Islands carried off many
+more.
+
+At the Chincha Islands he was unable to gain any definite information
+about the four men, but was told that the British Consul at Gallao might
+be able to tell him what had become of them--whether they had died or
+had been among those restored to their homes. So to Gallao be went, for
+he was ever bearing in mind the grief of his children at the loss of
+their dear “Tommy Topsail-tie” and “Jacky Waterwitch,” and his promise
+to them that if they and their Anaa companions were alive he would bring
+them back.
+
+But a bitter disappointment awaited him at Gallao--for the Consul, who
+had been largely instrumental in forcing the Peruvian Government to
+liberate the captured people, gave him absolute proof that none of the
+four men had reached the Ghinchas, for he had obtained a great deal of
+information from the survivors, all of which he had carefully recorded.
+
+“Here is what Vili, a native of Nukulaelae, told me, Mr. Flemming. He
+was one of those who were captured by the barque, and was rather well
+treated by the captain on account of his speaking English, being put
+into the mate's watch as he had been to sea for many years in whale
+ships. He says:--
+
+'After we of Nukulaelae had been on board the barque for about twenty
+days, we came to an island in the Paumotus, where the captain tried to
+capture two canoes full of natives but failed, though quite soon after
+he seized four from a boat, and they were carried down into the hold
+and ironed, for they had fought very hard and all were much hurt and
+bleeding. I spoke to them and they told me that they had been out
+fishing with the two sons of a white man, who was a trader on the
+island. The captain did not hurt the two boys, but let them go. Then a
+lot of canoes and boats came off and the ship fired her cannons at them,
+and drove them away.
+
+'Next day we met another ship, a small schooner, flying the German flag,
+and her captain came on board our ship and had a long talk with our
+captain, and presently an officer and six men came down into the hold,
+and took the irons off nine men and drove them on deck. Among these men
+were the four who were taken from the boat. The captain of the schooner
+paid our captain money for them, and took them on board his vessel,
+which then sailed away.'
+
+“Now, Mr. Flemming,” resumed the Consul, “that is all I can tell you.
+I have written to the British Consul at Apia in Samoa, and at Levuka in
+Fiji, asking them to endeavour to find out the schooner's name and trace
+the nine men. I have no doubt but that she was some Fijian or Samoan
+'blackbirder,' and that the poor devils are working on some of the
+plantations in either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga. There is, therefore, good
+reason for you to hope that you will succeed in your search. I shall
+gladly give you all the assistance in my power to facilitate your
+enquiries.”
+
+Returning to Anaa, Flemming, through the aid of the French authorities
+in Tahiti, placed himself in communication with the British Consuls in
+Fiji and Samoa, telling them the details of the capture of the four
+men and of their transference with five others to another vessel, and
+enclosing a sum of money--all he could spare--to be given to Tommy
+Topsail-tie so that he and his three companions might be enabled to find
+their way back to Anaa.
+
+At the end of another long weary year of hopeful expectation, he
+received replies from the Consuls, returning the money he had sent, and
+saying that after most careful inquiries, they could learn nothing of
+the nine men; but that they (the Consuls) had strong reason to believe
+that the schooner to which they had been transferred was a notorious
+German “blackbirder” named the _Samoa_, though the captain and the crew
+swore they knew nothing of the matter.
+
+“It is quite possible,” they said in their joint report, “that some or
+all of the men are on one of the German plantations in Samoa or Tonga,
+and that you will yet discover them. But the German Consuls will give
+us no assistance, and absolutely decline to permit us to send any one to
+visit the plantations, unless the managers or owners are agreeable. And,
+as you can imagine, the owners and managers are _not_ agreeable, and
+have declined in terms of great rudeness to even supply us with the
+names of any of their labourers, or the names of the various islands
+from which they come.”
+
+But even in face of this Flemming did not despair, and told his wife and
+children, who could not restrain their tears when they read the Consuls'
+report, that he would not let the matter rest. He had several friends
+in Samoa and Fiji--merchants, traders and ship captains, and to them he
+wrote asking them to institute enquiries quietly, and let him know the
+result.
+
+After spending another five years on Anaa, during which time he had
+heard nothing of the missing men, he determined to settle on Rarotonga,
+where there was an excellent opportunity of making money. His eldest
+boy by this time was almost a grown man, and was earning his living as a
+supercargo of a trading vessel, running between Auckland in New Zealand
+and the various groups of islands in the South Pacific.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+In the quiet little harbour of Mulifanua, situated at the western end of
+the island of Upolu, a fine-looking brigantine was lying at anchor, and
+the captain and supercargo were pacing the deck together enjoying their
+after-breakfast pipes.
+
+The brigantine was the _Maori Maid_ of Auckland, Captain Heselton,
+and the supercargo was young Robert Flemming. The vessel had run into
+Mulifanua Harbour owing to her having struck on a reef a few days
+previously whilst beating up against the south-east trades from Wallis
+Island to Leone Bay, a port on the island of Tutuila, one of the Samoan
+Group, and as she was leaking rather seriously her captain decided to
+run into Mulifanua, put her on the beach, and get at the leak or leaks.
+
+“There is no need for you to stay on board, Bob,” said Heselton
+presently to his young supercargo. “Go ashore and stay ashore until we
+are ready for sea again. All going well we'll find out where the damage
+is by this time to-morrow, and be afloat again in a few days. But there
+is nothing to keep you aboard, and you might as well put in your time
+shooting or otherwise enjoying yourself; why not go and have a look at
+Goddeffroy's big plantation? It's only about a couple of miles away.”
+
+“Thank you, captain, I think I shall. As you know for years past I have
+always been hoping that during one of our cruises, I might come across
+some native or other on one of these plantations who might be able to
+tell me something about those four poor fellows who were collared by
+that Peruvian barque ten years ago. And this plantation of Goddeffroy's
+is one of the biggest in the South Seas--there are over seven hundred
+labourers, Line Islanders, Solomon Islanders, New Britain niggers and
+heaven knows what else.”
+
+“Well, you'll have a good chance now. And look here, Bob--take your
+time, a day or two more or less doesn't matter to us. I shall have
+plenty to do even after I get at this confounded leak. The rigging wants
+setting up badly, so we may be here any time under a week.”
+
+“Right. I'll go and have a look at the plantation; and if the manager is
+a decent sort of a Dutchman he might put me up. If he's a hog--which
+he probably is--I'll go to the native village, sleep there to-night and
+have a day's pigeon-shooting to-morrow.”
+
+Just then a boat was seen putting off from the shore, manned by Samoans,
+but steered by a white man, who as soon as he came on deck introduced
+himself as the local trader. He was a quiet, good-natured old fellow--an
+Englishman--and as soon as he learned of the mishap to the brigantine,
+at once offered to get a gang of natives to assist in beaching her; and
+then pressed Flemming to make his house his home during the stay of the
+vessel.
+
+“Thank you,” replied the young man, “I shall be very pleased. I want to
+have a look at the big plantation here and try to have a yarn with some
+of the Eingsmill Island labourers.” Then he told the trader, who was
+much interested, the object he had in view.
+
+“I'm sure that the manager will let you talk to any of the labourers,”
+ he said, “for he's one of the 'White men' kind of Dutchmen. His name
+is Knorr. He succeeded a regular brute of a man who used to flog the
+plantation hands right and left. A lot of them have run away during the
+past six or seven years and have taken to the mountains. They are all
+armed, and sometimes, when they are in want of food, will lay the Samoan
+villages under tribute, and if any resistance is shown, they set fire to
+the houses. The Samoans are terribly afraid of them, for there are two
+or three cannibal Solomon Islanders among them, and a Samoan has a holy
+terror of a man-eater.”
+
+“Why don't the Dutchmen capture the beggars?” asked the captain. “There
+are enough of them in Samoa.”
+
+The old trader laughed--“Ay, too many, sir; too many for us poor English
+traders. But they have tried, time and time again, to capture these
+fellows, but only got badly mauled in two or three fights. There is a
+standing reward of two hundred dollars for every one of them, dead or
+alive, and about a year ago ten flash young Samoan _manaias_{*} set out,
+well armed and well primed with grog, to surprise the escapees, who were
+known to be living in an almost inaccessible part of the mountains. Only
+four of the ten came back; the other six were shot down one by one as
+they were climbing the side of a mountain, and these four were made
+prisoners by the outlaws, who gave them such a fright that they will
+never get over it. It was as good as any novel to hear them talk about
+it, I can assure you.”
+
+     * Warriors or rather would-be warriors--young men whom the
+     local white men usually speak of as “bucks,”--i.e., flashy,
+     saucy fellows.
+
+“Go on, tell us the whole yarn,” said the skipper of the _Maori Maid_,
+as he pushed a decanter of brandy towards his visitor, and take a cigar.
+“It's pleasant to meet an Englishman in these Dutchman-infested islands,
+especially when he has a good yarn to spin.”
+
+“The yarn isn't a pleasant one, captain,” said the trader. “It's a
+d------d unpleasant one, but it's true, sir.”
+
+He lit a cigar and then resumed: “Well, after six of these flash young
+fellows were shot down, the other four dropped their rifles and cried
+out, _Fia ola! Fia ola!_ (Quarter! Quarter!) and in a few minutes about
+a dozen of the escapees made their appearance, took away their rifles
+and cartridges, and tying their arms behind their backs made them march
+in front of them up the mountain-side till they came to a bit of a
+thicket in which were four or five small huts. Telling their prisoners
+to sit down, half of their number went away, returning in half an hour
+with the six heads of the men who had been shot.
+
+“Take these heads back with you,” said one of the outlaws, who could
+speak Samoan, “and tell all Mulifanua that we are strong men. We fear
+no one, for we have plenty of guns and cartridges, and five hundred men
+such as you cannot take us. And say to the chief of the village, that on
+every fourth day, food for us must be brought to the foot of the eastern
+spur of the mountain. If this be not done, then shall we kill all whom
+we meet--men, women or children. Now go and tell the man who flogged
+us that some day we shall cook and eat his head, for we are very strong
+men.'
+
+“Well, the four poor trembling beggars were liberated, and carrying
+the six heads of their comrades, they went back, and their story so
+terrified the people of Mulifanua that no further attempt was ever made
+to capture the outlaws. And although the Germans don't know of it, the
+villagers are to this very day, gentlemen, supplying these dangerous
+devils with food, and I know for a fact that sometimes two or three of
+them come down from the mountains and sleep in the village without fear.
+They have never troubled me; but very often a native boy or girl will
+come to me and buy a 28-lb. bag of shot, caps and powder, and I know
+perfectly well that it is for the 'wild men,' as the people here call
+the escaped men. Every one of them has not only a rifle, but a shot-gun
+as well, for they one night broke into the plantation store and carried
+off all the rifles and guns they could find.”
+
+“Take care, Bob, that they don't take some pot shots at you,” said the
+captain, with a laugh, as his supercargo rose to get ready to go ashore
+with the trader.
+
+“They would if they thought Mr. Hemming was a German from the
+plantation,” said the trader, seriously, “so you had better not go too
+far away when you are shooting, unless you take a native guide with you.
+For, as I have said before, these men and the people of the village
+are now, I really believe, in secret friendship, or rather alliance--an
+alliance born out of terror on one side and savage desperation on the
+other.”
+
+A few minutes later young Flemming and the trader were being pulled
+ashore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The German manager of the great plantation proved to be, as the old
+trader had said, “one of the white-men kind of Dutchmen.” He received
+the young supercargo most hospitably, and insisted upon his remaining to
+lunch, and when Flemming told him frankly of the long quest for the four
+missing men, he at once became deeply sympathetic.
+
+“You shall see every one of the six or seven hundred natives I have
+working for me, Mr. Flemming. They are all now scattered about in
+different portions of the plantation, but at five o'clock, when they
+knock off, I shall have them all mustered. But I am almost certain that
+you will not find any one of the nine who were transferred from the
+Peruvian slaver to the German 'black-birder,' for I have always taken
+an interest in these people, and know pretty well from where they all
+come. My predecessor here was very rough with them--the less I say about
+him the better--and there is now quite a number of runaways living in
+the bush. They have defied all efforts to capture them. Who they are,
+and where they come from, I cannot well tell, for the former manager
+never kept an accurate account of the numbers of new arrivals brought
+here by the various labour vessels, nor did he specify in his books, as
+he should have done, from what particular islands they came. 'Natives'
+he considered to be a sufficient designation, and 'three years' or
+'six years' indicated the time for which they were engaged. He left the
+identification of themselves and their islands to the captains of the
+various vessels which, at the end of their time, take them back again.”
+
+“I wonder if it is possible that the four men I am looking for are among
+the outlaws,” said Flemming.
+
+“Possible, quite possible,” replied the manager, “but you will never be
+able to see them if they are. The gang is very desperate and determined,
+and though they have no animus against me personally, they would shoot
+me, or you, or any white man who attempted to get into communication
+with them.”
+
+After a little further conversation with the manager, Flemming said he
+would have a few hours' pigeon-shooting, returning in time to see the
+plantation hands mustered. Knorr wished him to take a Samoan guide, but
+the young man laughingly reminded him that he was half a native himself,
+and from his infancy almost had been used to wandering about the
+mountain forests of the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia; so, bidding
+his host good morning, he shouldered his gun and set off, and in another
+hour was ascending the first spur of the mountain range, which traverses
+the island of Upolu from one end to the other.
+
+He had a reason for declining the services of a guide, for he had
+determined to attempt to reach the outlaws' refuge, and, at the risk
+of his life, finding out if Tommy Topsail-tie and Jack Waterwitch were
+among them. The old trader had told him that one of their number was a
+very big man, whose legs, back, and neck were tattooed as the Kingsmill
+Islanders tattoo, and he (Flemming) had formed the idea, since his
+conversation with the manager of the plantation, that this big man was
+Binoké--the dear friend of his boyhood's days, the ever-wanted “Tommy
+Topsail-tie” of his brother and his sister Medora, the man who, with
+Jack Waterwitch, had stood to his father and mother in their poverty and
+distress, and had toiled night and day for them without recompense.
+
+As he walked over the soft carpet of fallen leaves which covered the
+mountain-side so thickly that no sound came from his footsteps,
+he listened carefully. He knew that he was proceeding in the right
+direction for the outlaws' refuge--the direction the plantation manager
+had impressed on him to avoid--and after a two hours' stiff climb he
+found himself on the summit of the spur and overlooking the harbour. Far
+below him he could see the _Maori Maid_ being hauled on to the beach,
+and eight miles away the beautiful little island of Manono lay basking
+in the sun on a sea of deepest, glorious blue.
+
+Suddenly he heard a sound, a faint, soft creeping on the ground
+somewhere near him, and he knew that it was the sound of a human
+footstep, and that he was watched.
+
+He laid down his gun, and stood up and pretended to closely scan
+the thick, leafy canopy of the mighty trees overhead, as if he were
+searching for pigeons. Then his voice rang out clearly, and echoed and
+re-echoed in the grey and silent forest aisles.
+
+“Binoké, Binoké! 'Tis I! Nobal, Nobal! 'Tis I who call! Tis I, Papu
+(Bob), of Anaa! I, who have sought thee long. Binoké! Nohal!”
+
+Then came a sudden rush of feet and brown, naked bodies from all around,
+and in another moment the young man was almost lifted off hid feet by
+Tommy Topsail-tie, who, clasping his mighty arms around him, pressed him
+passionately to his bosom.
+
+“My boy, my boy!... See, 'tis I, Binoké, thy friend, thy slave, thy
+Binoké!” and then the savage creature wept as only wild people such as
+he was weep from excess of joy.
+
+In a few minutes Flemming was hurried along by the friendly hands of
+six or eight of the “wild men” to their refuge further up on the
+mountain-side, where he found not only “Jack Waterwitch,” but one of
+the Anaa natives, who had been carried off ten years before; the other
+native of Anaa, he was told by Tommy Topsail-tie, had died a year or two
+previously. There were, he found, twelve natives in all--Topsail-tie,
+who was their leader, Jack Waterwitch, the Anaa man, four Solomon
+Islanders, and five others from various islands.
+
+For an hour or more the young man conversed with his old friends, who
+delightedly agreed to leave their mountain retreat and go on board the
+brigantine as soon as she was ready to sail. The remaining eight men,
+however, refused to leave, although Flemming told them that they could
+all come down from the mountain at night-time, and be very easily stowed
+away on board, and that even if they were discovered the captain would
+be able to protect them, should the German manager make any demand
+for them to be delivered over to him. But all his arguments were in
+vain--they shook their heads and said that never, again would they go,
+willingly or unwillingly, upon the deep sea.
+
+Then the supercargo and Topsail-tie made their plans, and after spending
+another hour or so with the escapees, Flemming shook hands with them
+all, and guided by Nobal, returned to the base of the mountain.
+
+Here he parted from his companion, who quickly plunged into the forest
+again, and reached the plantation just as the manager was mustering the
+plantation hands for his inspection. Not deeming it advisable to tell
+his host of the discovery he had just made, he yet tried to display as
+much interest as possible, and after walking up and down the triple rows
+of men and looking at them rapidly one by one, he said that there was no
+one of them whom he had ever seen before. Then the manager dismissed the
+men, and Flemming, thanking him for his kindness, hurried on board and
+told his story to Captain Heselton.
+
+Two days afterwards the _Maori Maid_ was sailing slowly out through
+Mulifanua passage. Flemming, with the skipper beside him, was standing
+on the poop, looking for'ard.
+
+“Tell them they can come up on deck now, boatswain,” he cried, “we are a
+good mile off the land.”
+
+And then the three of the four men from whom he and his brother had
+parted ten years before rushed up from the hold, knelt at his feet, and
+laughing and sobbing like children, threw their brown arms around his
+legs.
+
+Binoké rose, and stretching out his huge right arm towards the rising
+sun, turned his black eyes on “the boy” he so loved.
+
+“Is it to the east we sail, Papu?”
+
+“Ay, to the east, Binoké, far, far to the east, to a fair, fair land
+with green mountains and falling streams. And there awaits us my father
+and mother, and my brother, and Medora. And they will be well content
+with me, for never hast thou and Nobal been forgotten.”
+
+
+
+
+
+“FLASH HARRY” OF SAVAIT
+
+Nearly thirty years ago, when the late King Malietoa of Samoa was
+quietly arming his own adherents and conciliating his rebel chiefs in
+order to combine against the persistent encroachments of the Germans,
+I was running a small trading cutter between Upolu and Savaii, the two
+principal islands of the group.
+
+One day I arrived in Apia Harbour with a cargo of yams which I was
+selling to an American man-of-war, the _Resacca_. I went alongside at
+once, had the yams weighed and received my money from the paymaster,
+and then went ashore for a bathe in the Vaisigago River, a lovely little
+stream which, taking its rise in the mountains, debouches into Apia
+Harbour. Here I was joined by an old friend, Captain Hamilton, the local
+pilot, who, stripping off his clothes, plunged into the water beside me.
+
+As we were laughing and chatting and thoroughly enjoying ourselves,
+a party of natives--young men and boys--emerged from the trees on the
+opposite bank, and casting off their scanty garments, boisterously
+entered the water and began disporting themselves, and then to my
+surprise I saw that their leader was a white man, tattoed in every
+respect, like a Samoan. He appeared to be about thirty years of age, was
+clean-shaven, and had bright red hair.
+
+“Who is that fellow?” I inquired.
+
+“One of the biggest scoundrels in the Pacific,” replied my companion,
+“'Flash Harry' from Savaii. He deserted from either the _Brisk_ (or the
+_Zealous_) British man-of-war, about seven years ago, and although the
+commanders of several other British warships have tried to get him, they
+have failed. He is the pet _protégé_ of one of the most powerful chiefs
+in Savaii, and laughs at all attempts to catch him. To my knowledge he
+has committed four atrocious murders, and, in addition to that, he is
+a drunken, foul-mouthed blackguard. He only comes to Apia
+occasionally--when there is no British man-of-war about--and paints
+the town red, for although he is merely a loafing beachcomber, he is
+liberally supplied with money by his chief, and possesses an extensive
+harem as well. He simply terrorises the town when he breaks out, and
+insults every timid European, male and female, whom he meets.”
+
+“Why doesn't some one put a bullet through him?”
+
+“Ah, now you're asking! Why? Porter” (a respectable Samoan trader)
+“told him that he would riddle him if he came inside his fence, and the
+scoundrel knows _me_ well enough not to come into my place with anything
+but a civil word on his foul tongue; but then you see, Porter and I
+are Americans. If either or both of us shot the man no commander of an
+American man-of-war would do more than publicly reprimand us for taking
+the law into our own hands; but if you or any other Englishman killed
+the vermin, you would be taken to Fiji by the first man-of-war that
+called here, put on your trial for murder, and, if you escaped hanging,
+get a pretty turn of penal servitude in Fiji gaol.”
+
+We finished our bathe, dressed, and set out for Hamilton's house on
+Matautu Point, for he had asked me to have supper with him. On our way
+thither we met the master of a German barque, then in port, and were
+chatting with him in the middle of the road, when Mr. “Flash Harry” and
+his retinue of _manaia_ (young bucks) overtook us.
+
+The path being rather narrow we drew aside a few paces to let them pass,
+but at a sign from their leader they stopped. He nodded to Hamilton and
+the German captain (neither of whom took any notice of him) then fixed
+his eyes insolently on me and held out his hand.
+
+“How do yer do, Mister. You're a nice sort of a cove not to come and see
+me when you pass my place in your cutter”--then with sudden fury as I
+put my hands in my pockets--“you, you young cock-a-hoopy swine, do you
+mean to say you don't mean to shake hands with a white man?”
+
+“Not with you, anyway,” I answered.
+
+“Then the next time I see you I'll pull your ------ arm out of the
+socket,” he said, with an oath, and turning on his heel he went off with
+his following of bucks. All of them were armed with rifles and the long
+beheading knives called _Nifa oti_ (death-knife), and as we three had
+nothing but our fists we should have had a bad time had they attacked
+us, for we were in an unfrequented part of the beach and would have been
+half murdered before assistance came. But in Samoa in those days street
+brawls were common.
+
+“The next time you _do_ meet him,” said Hamilton as we resumed our walk,
+“don't give him a chance. Drill a hole through him as soon as he gets
+within ten paces, and then clear out of Samoa as quick as you can.”
+
+* * * * *
+
+Quite a month after this I had to visit the little port of Asaua on
+the Island of Savaii; and as I was aware that “Flash Harry” was in the
+vicinity of the place on a _malaga_, or pleasure trip, I kept a sharp
+lookout for him, and always carried with me in my jumper pocket a small
+but heavy Derringer, the bullet of which was as big as that of a Snider
+rifle. I did not want to have my arm pulled out of the socket, and knew
+that “Flash Harry,” being twice my weight almost, would give me a sad
+time if he could once get within hitting distance of me, for like most
+men-of-war's men he was very smart with his hands, and I was but a
+stripling--not yet twenty.
+
+I had come to Asaua with a load of timber to be used in the construction
+of a church for the French Mission, and in the evening went to the
+resident priest to obtain a receipt for delivery. As he could not
+speak English and I could not speak French we had to struggle along in
+Samoan--to our mutual amusement. However, we got along very well, and I
+was about to accept his hospitable offer to remain and have sapper with
+him when a young chief whom I knew, named Ulofanua (“Top of a High
+Tree”) came in hurriedly and told us that “Flash Harry” and ten or
+fifteen young men, all more or less drunk, were coming to the village
+that night with the avowed intention of boarding the cutter under the
+pretence of trading, seizing all the liquor and giving me a father of a
+beating--the latter to avenge the insult of a month before.
+
+Laughingly telling the priest that under the circumstances discretion
+was the better part of valour, I bade him goodbye, walked down to my
+boat, which was lying on the beach, and with two native sailors pulling,
+we started for the cutter, a mile away. The night was beautifully calm,
+but dark, and as I was not well acquainted with the inner part of Asaua
+Harbour and could not see my way, I several times ran the boat on
+to submerged coral boulders; and, finally, lost the narrow channel
+altogether.
+
+Then I told one of my men, a sturdy, splendid specimen of a native of
+the Gilbert Islands named Te Manu Uraura (“Bed Bird”) to come aft
+and take the steer oar, knowing that his eyesight, like that of all
+Polynesians, was better than that of any white man.
+
+“Come here, Te Manu, and steer, I'll take your oar. Your eyes are better
+than mine.”
+
+The poor fellow laughed good-naturedly, and I little thought that this
+simple request of mine would be the cause of his being a cripple for
+life. He came aft, took the steer oar from me, and I, seating myself on
+the after thwart, began to pull. We were at this time about thirty yards
+from the beach, and between it and the inner reef of the harbour. We
+sent the boat along for two or three hundred yards without a hitch,
+and I was thinking of what my cook would have for my supper, when we
+suddenly plumped into a patch of dead coral and stuck hard and fast.
+
+Knowing that the tide was falling, we all jumped out, and pushed the
+boat off into deeper water as quickly as possible, just as half a dozen
+bright torches of coco-nut leaves flared up on the shore and revealed
+the boat dimly to those who were holding them.
+
+At first I imagined that the chief of the village had sent some of his
+people to help us through the channel, but I was quickly undeceived when
+I heard “Flash Harry's” voice.
+
+“I've got you now, my saucy young quarter-deck-style-of-pup. Slew round
+and come ashore, or I'll blow your head off.”
+
+One glance ashore showed me that we were in a desperate position. “Flash
+Harry,” who was all but stark-naked--he had only a girdle of _ti_ tree
+leaves round his waist--was covering the boat with his Winchester rifle,
+and his followers, armed with other guns, were ready to fire a volley
+into us, although most of them were pretty well drunk.
+
+“They can't hit us, Te Manu,” I cried to the Gilbert Islander, whose
+inborn fighting proclivities were showing in his gleaming eyes and
+short, panting breaths, “most of them have no cartridges in their guns,
+and they are all too drunk to shoot straight. Let us go on!”
+
+Te Manu gripped the haft of the steer oar and swung the boat's head
+round, and then I and the other native at the bow oar--a mere boy of
+sixteen--pulled for all we were worth just as “Flash Harry” dropped on
+one knee and fired.
+
+Poor Te Manu swayed to and fro for a few moments and then cried out, “He
+has broken my hand, sir! But go on, pull, pull hard!”
+
+Under a spattering fire from the beachcomber's drunken companions we
+pulled out into deeper water and safety, and then, shipping my oar, I
+sprang to Te Manu's aid. The bullet had struck him in the back of the
+right hand and literally cut off three of the poor fellow's knuckles.
+I did what I could to stop the loss of blood, and told him to sit
+down, but he refused, and although suffering intense pain, insisted on
+steering with his left hand. As soon as we reached the cutter I at
+once hove up anchor and stood along the coast before a strong breeze
+to Matautu Harbour, where I was able to have the man's hand properly
+attended to. He never recovered the use of it again except in a slight
+degree.
+
+I never saw “Flash Harry” again, for a few months later I left Samoa
+for the Caroline Group, and when I returned a year afterwards I was told
+that he had at last found the country too hot for him and had left the
+island in a German “blackbirder” bound to the Solomon Islands.
+
+*****
+
+Quite six years had passed, and then I learnt, in a somewhat curious
+manner, what became of him. One day in Sydney, New South Wales, three
+captains and myself met for lunch at the Paragon Hotel, on Circular
+Quay. We were all engaged in the South Sea trade, and one of the
+company, who was a stranger to me, had just returned from the Solomon
+Islands, with which group and its murderous, cannibal people he was very
+familiar. (He was himself destined to be killed there with his ship's
+company in 1884.) He was a young man who had had some very narrow
+escapes and some very thrilling experiences, some of which he narrated.
+
+We were talking of the massacre of Captain Ferguson and the crew of the
+Sydney trading steamer _Ripple_, by the natives of Bougainville Island
+in the Solomon Group, when our friend remarked--
+
+“Ah, poor Ferguson ought to have been more careful. Why, the very
+chief of that village at Numa Numa--the man who cut him down with a
+tomahawk--had killed two other white men. Ferguson knew that, and yet
+would allow him to come aboard time after time with hundreds of his
+people, and gave him and them the run of his ship. I knew the fellow
+well. He told me to my face, the first time I met him, that he had
+killed and eaten two white men.”
+
+“Who were they?” I asked.
+
+“One was a man trading for Captain MacLeod of New Caledonia; the other
+chap was some beachcombing fellow who had been kicked ashore at Numa
+Numa by his skipper. I heard he came from Samoa originally. Anyway the
+chief told me that as soon as the ship that had put the man ashore had
+sailed, he was speared through the back as he was drinking a coco-nut.
+
+“When they stripped off his clothes to make him ready for the oven, they
+found he was tattoed, Samoan fashion, from the waist to the knees. Then,
+as he had red hair, they cut off his head and smoke-dried it, instead of
+eating it with the rest of the body; they kept it as an ornament for the
+stem of a big canoe. A white man's head is a great thing at any time for
+a canoe's figurehead in the Solomons, but a white man's head with red
+hair is a great _mana_” (mascotte).
+
+Then I told him that I had known the man, and gave him his antecedents.
+
+“Ah,” he said, “I daresay if you had been there you would have felt as
+if you could have eaten a bit of the beggar yourself.”
+
+“I certainly do feel pleased that he's settled,” I replied, as I thought
+of poor Red Bird's hand.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flemmings And “Flash Harry” Of
+Savait, by Louis Becke
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+Project Gutenberg's The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait, 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: The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait
+       From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other
+       Stories" - 1902
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLEMMINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FLEMMINGS and "FLASH HARRY" OF SAVAIT
+
+From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories" - 1902
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902
+
+LONDON
+
+
+
+
+THE FLEMMINGS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+On a certain island in the Paumotu Group, known on the charts as Chain
+Island, but called Anaa by the people themselves, lived a white man
+named Martin Flemming, one of those restless wanderers who range the
+Pacific in search of the fortune they always mean to gain, but which
+never comes to them, except in some few instances--so few that they
+might be counted on one's fingers.
+
+Two years had come and gone since Flemming had landed on the island
+with his wife, family, and two native servants, and settled down as a
+resident trader at the large and populous village of Tuuhora, where he
+soon gained the respect and confidence--if not the friendship--of the
+Anaa people, one of the proudest, most self-reliant, and brave of any
+of the Polynesian race, or their offshoots. For though he was a keen
+business man, he was just and honest in all his transactions, never
+erring, as so many traders do, on the side of mistaken generosity, but
+yet evincing a certain amount of liberality when the occasion justified
+it--and the natives knew that when he told them that tobacco, or
+biscuit, or rice, or gunpowder had risen in price in Tahiti or New
+Zealand, and that he would also be compelled to raise his charges, they
+knew that his statement was true--that he was a man above trickery,
+either in his business or his social relations with them, and would not
+descend to a lie for the sake of gain.
+
+Flemming, at this time, was about forty years of age; his wife, who
+was an intelligent Hawaiian Islander, was ten years his junior, and the
+mother of his three half-caste children--a boy of thirteen, another of
+ten, and a girl of six. Such education as he could give them during
+his continuous wanderings over the North and South Pacific had been but
+scanty; for he was often away on trading cruises, and his wife, though
+she could read and write, like all Hawaiian women, was not competent to
+instruct her children, though in all other respects she was everything
+that a mother should be, except, as Flemming would often tell her, she
+was too indulgent and too ready to gratify their whims and fancies.
+However, they were now not so much under her control, for soon after
+coming to the island, he found that one of the three Marist Brothers
+living at the mission was able to, and willing to give them a few hours'
+instruction several times a week. For this, Flemming, who was really
+anxious about his children's welfare, made a liberal payment to the
+Mission, and the arrangement had worked very satisfactorily--Father
+Billot, who was a good English scholar, giving them their lessons in
+that language.
+
+I must now make mention of the remaining persons constituting the
+trader's household--the two servants--one a man about thirty years
+of age, the other not more than eighteen or nineteen. They were both
+natives of Arorai (Hurd Island), one of the Eingsmill Group, and
+situated something less than three degrees south of the Equator.
+They had both taken service with him on their own island six years
+previously, and had followed his and his family's fortunes ever since,
+for they were both devotedly attached to the children; and when, a year
+after he had settled on their island, misfortune befell him through
+the destruction of his trading station by fire, and he found himself a
+ruined man, they refused to leave him, and declared they would work
+for him without payment until he was again in a position to begin
+trading--no matter how long it might be ere that took place.
+
+For some months after the loss of all his property, Flemming worked
+hard and lived meanly. Most fortunately for him, he had a very good
+whaleboat, and night after night, and day after day, he and his two
+faithful helpers, as long as the weather held fine, toiled at the
+dangerous pursuit of shark-catching, cutting off the fins and tails, and
+drying them in the sun, until finally he had secured over a ton's weight
+of the ill-smelling commodity, for which he received �60 in cash from
+the master of a Chinese-owned trading barque, which touched at the
+island, and this amount enabled him to leave Arorai, and begin trading
+elsewhere--in the great atoll of Butaritari, where owing to his
+possessing a good boat, sturdy health, and great pluck and resolution,
+his circumstances so mended that he came to look on the incident of the
+fire as the best thing that could have happened.
+
+In appearance these two men were like nearly all the people of the
+Kingsmill Group--dark-skinned, strongly built, and with a certain
+fierceness of visage, born of their warlike and quarrelsome nature, and
+which never leaves them, even in their old age. The elder of the two,
+whose native name was Binok�, but who had been given the nickname of
+"Tommy Topsail-tie," had this facial characteristic to a great degree,
+and was, in addition, of a somewhat morbid and sullen disposition,
+disliking all strangers. But he was yet the veriest slave to Flemming's
+children, who tyrannised over him most mercilessly, for young as they
+were, they knew that his savage heart had nothing in it but adoration
+and affection for both them and their parents. Nobal, the younger man,
+who also had a nickname--"Jack Waterwitch" (taken from a colonial
+whaler in which he had once sailed) was of a more genial nature, and
+had constituted himself the especial guardian and playmate of the little
+girl Medora, who spoke his native tongue as well as himself; while Tommy
+Topsail-tie was more attached, if it were possible, to Flemming's eldest
+boy Robert, than to any other member of the family.
+
+After two or three years' successful trading in the northern islands of
+the Kingsmill Group, Flemming had sold out his trading interests very
+satisfactorily, and, always eager to go further afield, had sailed for
+the Paumotu Group, choosing Anaa as his home, for he thought he should
+like the people, and do very well as a trader, for the island was but a
+few days' sail from Tahiti in the Society Group, where there was always
+a good market for his produce, and where he could replenish his stock of
+trade goods from the great mercantile firm of Brander--in those days the
+Whiteleys of the South and Eastern Pacific.
+
+One afternoon, about six o'clock, when work at the trading station had
+ceased for the day, and the store door had been shut and locked by Mrs.
+Flemming, the trader was seated on his shady verandah, smoking a cigar
+and listening to the prattle of his little daughter, when his two boys
+raced up to him from the beach, and noisily asked him permission to take
+the smallest of the boats (a ship's dinghy) and go fishing outside the
+reef until the morning. They had just heard some natives crying out
+that a vast shoal of _tau tau_--a large salmonlike fish, greatly prized
+throughout the South Seas--had made their appearance, and already some
+canoes were being got ready.
+
+"Who is going with you, boys?" asked Flemming, looking at their
+deeply-bronzed, healthy faces--so like his own, though his hair had now
+begun to grizzle about his sunburnt temples.
+
+"Jack and Tom, and two Anaa men," they replied, "they sent us to ask you
+if they could come. They have finished the new roof for the oil-shed,
+and want to go very badly. Say 'yes,' father."
+
+"All right boys. You may go. Tell your mother to give you plenty to eat
+to take with you--for it's only six o'clock, and I suppose you won't be
+home till daylight."
+
+The delighted boys tore into the house to get their fishing tackle,
+whilst their mother, telling them to make less clamour, filled an empty
+box with biscuit, bread, and tinned meats enough for the party of
+six, and in less than ten minutes they were off again, shouting their
+goodbyes as they raced through the gate, followed by a native woman
+carrying the heavy box of food.
+
+Martin Flemming turned to his wife with a smile lighting up his somewhat
+sombre face.
+
+"We shall have a quiet house to-night, Kaiulani," he said, calling her
+by her Hawaiian name.
+
+"Which will be a treat for us, Martin. Those boys really make more noise
+every day. And do you know what they have done now?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"They have a live hawkbill turtle in their room--quite a large one,
+for I could scarcely move it--and have painted its back in five or six
+colours. And they feed it on live fish; the room smells horribly."
+
+Flemming laughed. "I thought I could smell fresh paint about the house
+yesterday. Never mind, 'Lani. It won't hurt the turtle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+At seven o'clock on the following morning the boys had not returned,
+and Martin Flemming, just as his wife brought him his cup of coffee, was
+saying that they probably were still fishing, when he heard a sound that
+made him spring to his feet--the long, hoarse, bellowing note of a conch
+shell, repeated three times.
+
+"That's a call to arms!" he cried, "what does it mean, I wonder. Ah,
+there is another sounding, too, from the far end of the village. I must
+go and see what is the matter."
+
+Scarcely, however, had he put his foot outside his door when he heard
+his boys' voices, and in another moment he saw them running or rather
+staggering along the path together with a crowd of natives, who were all
+wildly excited, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+
+"Father, father," and the eldest boy ran to him, and scarcely able to
+stand, so exhausted was he, he flung himself down on the verandah steps,
+"father, Jack and Tom, and the two Anaa men... been stolen by a strange
+ship... we must... we must save them."
+
+Hastening inside, Flemming returned with a carafe of cold water, and
+commanding the boys not to try to speak any more just then, he poured
+some over their wrists, and then gave them a little in a glass to drink.
+When they were sufficiently "winded," they told him their story, which
+was, briefly, this.
+
+In company with two canoes, they had put out to sea and began fishing.
+Then they parted company--the boat pulling round to the other side of
+Anaa, where they fished with fair success till daylight. Suddenly a
+small white-painted barque appeared, coming round the north end of
+the island. She was under very easy canvas, and when she saw the boat,
+backed her main-yard, and ran up her ensign.
+
+"They want us to come aboard," said Bob, hauling in his line. "Up lines
+everybody."
+
+His companions at once pulled up their lines, and took to the oars, and
+in a few minutes they were alongside the ship, and an officer leant over
+the side of the poop, and asked them to come aboard.
+
+The boys ascended first, the four natives following; the former were at
+once conducted into the barque's cabin, where the captain, an old
+man with a white moustache, asked them their names, and then began to
+question them as to the number of natives on the island, &c., when they
+started to their feet with alarmed faces as they heard a sudden rush of
+feet on deck, followed by oaths and cries, and Walter the younger of the
+two, fancied, he heard his brother's name called by Jack Waterwitch.
+
+"Sit down, boys, sit down," said the captain, dropping his suave
+manner, and speaking angrily, "you can go on deck and be off on shore
+presently." As he spoke a man came below, and made a sign to him.
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+The captain nodded, and then told the boys to go on deck and get into
+their boat. They at once obeyed, but the moment they reached the deck
+they were surrounded by five or six of the crew, who hustled them to
+the gangway, and forced them over the side, despite their struggles, and
+their loud cries to their native friends, of whom they could see nothing
+whatever.
+
+The boat's line was cast off, and as she fell astern the boys saw that
+a number of sailors were aloft, loosing her light sails, and in a few
+minutes she was some distance away from them, heading to the eastward
+with a light breeze. As quickly as possible the two boys set the boat's
+sail, and sailing and pulling, they ran straight for the weather side of
+the island, crossed over the reef into the lagoon, and gave the alarm to
+the first people they met.
+
+"Good lads," said Flemming, "you have done all that you could do. We
+shall see presently what can be done to save our men."
+
+Then turning to his wife, he bade her get ready enough provision for
+his three boats, and have them launched and manned by their usual crews,
+whilst he went to the mission to consult with Father Billot and the
+chiefs, for he had already heard from one of the excited natives that
+the barque was still very near the land, and almost becalmed; and he
+knew that the Anaa natives would to a man assist him in recovering the
+four men from captivity.
+
+Half way to the mission house, he met the priest himself, hurrying along
+the shaded path, to tell him the further news that the two canoes which
+had accompanied the boat had just returned, after narrowly escaping
+capture by the barque. It appeared that they, too, had seen the barque
+crawling along under the lee of the land and close in to the reef, just
+as daylight broke, and from the number of boats she carried--she had
+two towing, as well as three others on deck--they imagined her to be
+a whaler. They paddled up alongside without the slightest suspicion
+of danger, and three or four of their number in the first canoe were
+clambering up the side when they suddenly sprang overboard, just as
+three or four grapnels with light chains were thrown from the bulwarks
+over the canoes so as to catch their outriggers, and capsize them. Most
+fortunately, however, only one of the grapnels caught--it fell upon the
+wooden grating or platform between the outrigger and the hull of
+one canoe, and was quickly torn away by the desperate hands of the
+natives--in less than a minute both canoes were clear of the ship, and
+racing shoreward without the loss of a single man. No attempt was made
+to follow them in the barque's boats, her ruffianly captain and crew
+evidently recognising that there was no chance of overtaking them when
+the land was so near.
+
+"The villains!" exclaimed Flemming, as he and the priest set off at a
+run to the house of the head chief, who had just sent an urgent message
+for them to come and meet him and his leading men in counsel, "she must
+be a slaver from the coast of South America."
+
+The consultation with the chiefs was a hurried one, and a resolution
+to board the barque and recapture the four men if possible, was quickly
+arrived at. Over thirty canoes, and five or six boats, manned and armed
+by nearly two hundred of the picked men of the island, and led by Martin
+Flemming and three chiefs, were soon underway, and passing out through
+the narrow passage in the reef, went northward till they rounded the
+point, and saw the barque about five miles away. She had every stitch of
+canvas set, but was making little more than steerage way, for only the
+faintest air was filling her upper canvas.
+
+The canoes and boats, at Flemming's suggestion, approached her in a
+half-circle, his own boat leading. It was his intention to recover the
+men if possible, without bloodshed, and he would first make an attempt
+to board the slaver--for such she was--and alone try to achieve the
+men's liberation by pointing out to the captain that his ship would be
+captured and destroyed by the infuriated natives if he refused. If he
+did refuse there would be a heavy loss of life--of that he (Flemming)
+was certain.
+
+Apparently no notice was taken by the barque of the approaching
+flotilla, until it was within three quarters of a mile, then she hauled
+up her mainsail, came slowly to the wind, and began firing with two of
+the four guns she carried--nine-pounders. Flemming at once ordered all
+the other boats and canoes to cease pulling and paddling, and he went on
+alone. He was not again fired at till he came within a quarter of a mile
+of the vessel, when a volley of musketry was fired, together with the
+two heavy guns, both of which were loaded with grape. How any one of
+them in the boat escaped was a marvel, for the bullets lashed the water
+into foam only a few yards ahead, and some, ricochetting, struck and
+damaged two of the oars.
+
+To advance in face of such a fire would be madness. The barque evidently
+carried a large and well-armed crew, so he slewed round and pulled
+towards the little fleet, as those on the slaver yelled derisively, and
+again began firing with the nine-pounders, and small arms as well.
+
+And then, to his bitter rage and disappointment, a puff of wind came
+over from the westward, and the barque's sails filled. In ten minutes
+she was slipping through the water so quickly that she was leaving them
+astern fast, and in another hour she had swept round the south end of
+the land, and they saw her no more.
+
+Sad and dejected, he and his native friends returned to Tuuhora, and
+drawing up their boats and canoes, went to their homes in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TEN years had passed, and fortune had proved kind to Martin Flemming and
+his family, who were now, with the exception of the eldest son, settled
+on the island of Barotonga, one of the Cook's Group.
+
+For some years after the abduction of the four unfortunate natives,
+Flemming had tried every possible means of ascertaining their fate, and
+at first thought that he would succeed, for within a few weeks after
+the visit of the barque to Anaa, there came news of similar outrages
+perpetrated by three vessels, through the Ellice, Line Islands and
+Paumotu Group. One of these vessels was a barque, the others were brigs,
+and all sailed under Peruvian colours, though many of the officers were
+Englishmen.
+
+In one instance they had descended upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of
+the island of Nukulaelae in the Ellice Group, and carried off almost the
+entire population, and at Easter Island--far to the eastward, over
+three hundred unfortunate natives were seized under circumstances of the
+grossest treachery and violence, and manacled together, taken away to
+end their days as slaves in working the guano deposits on the Chincha
+Islands, off the coast of South America.
+
+Though not then a rich man, Flemming at his own expense made a long and
+tedious voyage to the Ghinchas. By the time he arrived there nearly a
+year had elapsed since the four men had been stolen, and he found that
+both the British and French Governments had compelled the Peruvian
+Government to restore all of the wretched survivors--there were but
+few, alas!--to their homes. Over one hundred of the wretched beings had
+perished of disease in the hot and stifling holds of the slavers; scores
+of them, attempting to regain their liberty, had been shot down, and the
+fearful toil in the guano pits of the Ghincha Islands carried off many
+more.
+
+At the Chincha Islands he was unable to gain any definite information
+about the four men, but was told that the British Consul at Gallao might
+be able to tell him what had become of them--whether they had died or
+had been among those restored to their homes. So to Gallao be went, for
+he was ever bearing in mind the grief of his children at the loss of
+their dear "Tommy Topsail-tie" and "Jacky Waterwitch," and his promise
+to them that if they and their Anaa companions were alive he would bring
+them back.
+
+But a bitter disappointment awaited him at Gallao--for the Consul, who
+had been largely instrumental in forcing the Peruvian Government to
+liberate the captured people, gave him absolute proof that none of the
+four men had reached the Ghinchas, for he had obtained a great deal of
+information from the survivors, all of which he had carefully recorded.
+
+"Here is what Vili, a native of Nukulaelae, told me, Mr. Flemming. He
+was one of those who were captured by the barque, and was rather well
+treated by the captain on account of his speaking English, being put
+into the mate's watch as he had been to sea for many years in whale
+ships. He says:--
+
+'After we of Nukulaelae had been on board the barque for about twenty
+days, we came to an island in the Paumotus, where the captain tried to
+capture two canoes full of natives but failed, though quite soon after
+he seized four from a boat, and they were carried down into the hold
+and ironed, for they had fought very hard and all were much hurt and
+bleeding. I spoke to them and they told me that they had been out
+fishing with the two sons of a white man, who was a trader on the
+island. The captain did not hurt the two boys, but let them go. Then a
+lot of canoes and boats came off and the ship fired her cannons at them,
+and drove them away.
+
+'Next day we met another ship, a small schooner, flying the German flag,
+and her captain came on board our ship and had a long talk with our
+captain, and presently an officer and six men came down into the hold,
+and took the irons off nine men and drove them on deck. Among these men
+were the four who were taken from the boat. The captain of the schooner
+paid our captain money for them, and took them on board his vessel,
+which then sailed away.'
+
+"Now, Mr. Flemming," resumed the Consul, "that is all I can tell you.
+I have written to the British Consul at Apia in Samoa, and at Levuka in
+Fiji, asking them to endeavour to find out the schooner's name and trace
+the nine men. I have no doubt but that she was some Fijian or Samoan
+'blackbirder,' and that the poor devils are working on some of the
+plantations in either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga. There is, therefore, good
+reason for you to hope that you will succeed in your search. I shall
+gladly give you all the assistance in my power to facilitate your
+enquiries."
+
+Returning to Anaa, Flemming, through the aid of the French authorities
+in Tahiti, placed himself in communication with the British Consuls in
+Fiji and Samoa, telling them the details of the capture of the four
+men and of their transference with five others to another vessel, and
+enclosing a sum of money--all he could spare--to be given to Tommy
+Topsail-tie so that he and his three companions might be enabled to find
+their way back to Anaa.
+
+At the end of another long weary year of hopeful expectation, he
+received replies from the Consuls, returning the money he had sent, and
+saying that after most careful inquiries, they could learn nothing of
+the nine men; but that they (the Consuls) had strong reason to believe
+that the schooner to which they had been transferred was a notorious
+German "blackbirder" named the _Samoa_, though the captain and the crew
+swore they knew nothing of the matter.
+
+"It is quite possible," they said in their joint report, "that some or
+all of the men are on one of the German plantations in Samoa or Tonga,
+and that you will yet discover them. But the German Consuls will give
+us no assistance, and absolutely decline to permit us to send any one to
+visit the plantations, unless the managers or owners are agreeable. And,
+as you can imagine, the owners and managers are _not_ agreeable, and
+have declined in terms of great rudeness to even supply us with the
+names of any of their labourers, or the names of the various islands
+from which they come."
+
+But even in face of this Flemming did not despair, and told his wife and
+children, who could not restrain their tears when they read the Consuls'
+report, that he would not let the matter rest. He had several friends
+in Samoa and Fiji--merchants, traders and ship captains, and to them he
+wrote asking them to institute enquiries quietly, and let him know the
+result.
+
+After spending another five years on Anaa, during which time he had
+heard nothing of the missing men, he determined to settle on Rarotonga,
+where there was an excellent opportunity of making money. His eldest
+boy by this time was almost a grown man, and was earning his living as a
+supercargo of a trading vessel, running between Auckland in New Zealand
+and the various groups of islands in the South Pacific.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+In the quiet little harbour of Mulifanua, situated at the western end of
+the island of Upolu, a fine-looking brigantine was lying at anchor, and
+the captain and supercargo were pacing the deck together enjoying their
+after-breakfast pipes.
+
+The brigantine was the _Maori Maid_ of Auckland, Captain Heselton,
+and the supercargo was young Robert Flemming. The vessel had run into
+Mulifanua Harbour owing to her having struck on a reef a few days
+previously whilst beating up against the south-east trades from Wallis
+Island to Leone Bay, a port on the island of Tutuila, one of the Samoan
+Group, and as she was leaking rather seriously her captain decided to
+run into Mulifanua, put her on the beach, and get at the leak or leaks.
+
+"There is no need for you to stay on board, Bob," said Heselton
+presently to his young supercargo. "Go ashore and stay ashore until we
+are ready for sea again. All going well we'll find out where the damage
+is by this time to-morrow, and be afloat again in a few days. But there
+is nothing to keep you aboard, and you might as well put in your time
+shooting or otherwise enjoying yourself; why not go and have a look at
+Goddeffroy's big plantation? It's only about a couple of miles away."
+
+"Thank you, captain, I think I shall. As you know for years past I have
+always been hoping that during one of our cruises, I might come across
+some native or other on one of these plantations who might be able to
+tell me something about those four poor fellows who were collared by
+that Peruvian barque ten years ago. And this plantation of Goddeffroy's
+is one of the biggest in the South Seas--there are over seven hundred
+labourers, Line Islanders, Solomon Islanders, New Britain niggers and
+heaven knows what else."
+
+"Well, you'll have a good chance now. And look here, Bob--take your
+time, a day or two more or less doesn't matter to us. I shall have
+plenty to do even after I get at this confounded leak. The rigging wants
+setting up badly, so we may be here any time under a week."
+
+"Right. I'll go and have a look at the plantation; and if the manager is
+a decent sort of a Dutchman he might put me up. If he's a hog--which
+he probably is--I'll go to the native village, sleep there to-night and
+have a day's pigeon-shooting to-morrow."
+
+Just then a boat was seen putting off from the shore, manned by Samoans,
+but steered by a white man, who as soon as he came on deck introduced
+himself as the local trader. He was a quiet, good-natured old fellow--an
+Englishman--and as soon as he learned of the mishap to the brigantine,
+at once offered to get a gang of natives to assist in beaching her; and
+then pressed Flemming to make his house his home during the stay of the
+vessel.
+
+"Thank you," replied the young man, "I shall be very pleased. I want to
+have a look at the big plantation here and try to have a yarn with some
+of the Eingsmill Island labourers." Then he told the trader, who was
+much interested, the object he had in view.
+
+"I'm sure that the manager will let you talk to any of the labourers,"
+he said, "for he's one of the 'White men' kind of Dutchmen. His name
+is Knorr. He succeeded a regular brute of a man who used to flog the
+plantation hands right and left. A lot of them have run away during the
+past six or seven years and have taken to the mountains. They are all
+armed, and sometimes, when they are in want of food, will lay the Samoan
+villages under tribute, and if any resistance is shown, they set fire to
+the houses. The Samoans are terribly afraid of them, for there are two
+or three cannibal Solomon Islanders among them, and a Samoan has a holy
+terror of a man-eater."
+
+"Why don't the Dutchmen capture the beggars?" asked the captain. "There
+are enough of them in Samoa."
+
+The old trader laughed--"Ay, too many, sir; too many for us poor English
+traders. But they have tried, time and time again, to capture these
+fellows, but only got badly mauled in two or three fights. There is a
+standing reward of two hundred dollars for every one of them, dead or
+alive, and about a year ago ten flash young Samoan _manaias_{*} set out,
+well armed and well primed with grog, to surprise the escapees, who were
+known to be living in an almost inaccessible part of the mountains. Only
+four of the ten came back; the other six were shot down one by one as
+they were climbing the side of a mountain, and these four were made
+prisoners by the outlaws, who gave them such a fright that they will
+never get over it. It was as good as any novel to hear them talk about
+it, I can assure you."
+
+     * Warriors or rather would-be warriors--young men whom the
+     local white men usually speak of as "bucks,"--i.e., flashy,
+     saucy fellows.
+
+"Go on, tell us the whole yarn," said the skipper of the _Maori Maid_,
+as he pushed a decanter of brandy towards his visitor, and take a cigar.
+"It's pleasant to meet an Englishman in these Dutchman-infested islands,
+especially when he has a good yarn to spin."
+
+"The yarn isn't a pleasant one, captain," said the trader. "It's a
+d------d unpleasant one, but it's true, sir."
+
+He lit a cigar and then resumed: "Well, after six of these flash young
+fellows were shot down, the other four dropped their rifles and cried
+out, _Fia ola! Fia ola!_ (Quarter! Quarter!) and in a few minutes about
+a dozen of the escapees made their appearance, took away their rifles
+and cartridges, and tying their arms behind their backs made them march
+in front of them up the mountain-side till they came to a bit of a
+thicket in which were four or five small huts. Telling their prisoners
+to sit down, half of their number went away, returning in half an hour
+with the six heads of the men who had been shot.
+
+"Take these heads back with you," said one of the outlaws, who could
+speak Samoan, "and tell all Mulifanua that we are strong men. We fear
+no one, for we have plenty of guns and cartridges, and five hundred men
+such as you cannot take us. And say to the chief of the village, that on
+every fourth day, food for us must be brought to the foot of the eastern
+spur of the mountain. If this be not done, then shall we kill all whom
+we meet--men, women or children. Now go and tell the man who flogged
+us that some day we shall cook and eat his head, for we are very strong
+men.'
+
+"Well, the four poor trembling beggars were liberated, and carrying
+the six heads of their comrades, they went back, and their story so
+terrified the people of Mulifanua that no further attempt was ever made
+to capture the outlaws. And although the Germans don't know of it, the
+villagers are to this very day, gentlemen, supplying these dangerous
+devils with food, and I know for a fact that sometimes two or three of
+them come down from the mountains and sleep in the village without fear.
+They have never troubled me; but very often a native boy or girl will
+come to me and buy a 28-lb. bag of shot, caps and powder, and I know
+perfectly well that it is for the 'wild men,' as the people here call
+the escaped men. Every one of them has not only a rifle, but a shot-gun
+as well, for they one night broke into the plantation store and carried
+off all the rifles and guns they could find."
+
+"Take care, Bob, that they don't take some pot shots at you," said the
+captain, with a laugh, as his supercargo rose to get ready to go ashore
+with the trader.
+
+"They would if they thought Mr. Hemming was a German from the
+plantation," said the trader, seriously, "so you had better not go too
+far away when you are shooting, unless you take a native guide with you.
+For, as I have said before, these men and the people of the village
+are now, I really believe, in secret friendship, or rather alliance--an
+alliance born out of terror on one side and savage desperation on the
+other."
+
+A few minutes later young Flemming and the trader were being pulled
+ashore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The German manager of the great plantation proved to be, as the old
+trader had said, "one of the white-men kind of Dutchmen." He received
+the young supercargo most hospitably, and insisted upon his remaining to
+lunch, and when Flemming told him frankly of the long quest for the four
+missing men, he at once became deeply sympathetic.
+
+"You shall see every one of the six or seven hundred natives I have
+working for me, Mr. Flemming. They are all now scattered about in
+different portions of the plantation, but at five o'clock, when they
+knock off, I shall have them all mustered. But I am almost certain that
+you will not find any one of the nine who were transferred from the
+Peruvian slaver to the German 'black-birder,' for I have always taken
+an interest in these people, and know pretty well from where they all
+come. My predecessor here was very rough with them--the less I say about
+him the better--and there is now quite a number of runaways living in
+the bush. They have defied all efforts to capture them. Who they are,
+and where they come from, I cannot well tell, for the former manager
+never kept an accurate account of the numbers of new arrivals brought
+here by the various labour vessels, nor did he specify in his books, as
+he should have done, from what particular islands they came. 'Natives'
+he considered to be a sufficient designation, and 'three years' or
+'six years' indicated the time for which they were engaged. He left the
+identification of themselves and their islands to the captains of the
+various vessels which, at the end of their time, take them back again."
+
+"I wonder if it is possible that the four men I am looking for are among
+the outlaws," said Flemming.
+
+"Possible, quite possible," replied the manager, "but you will never be
+able to see them if they are. The gang is very desperate and determined,
+and though they have no animus against me personally, they would shoot
+me, or you, or any white man who attempted to get into communication
+with them."
+
+After a little further conversation with the manager, Flemming said he
+would have a few hours' pigeon-shooting, returning in time to see the
+plantation hands mustered. Knorr wished him to take a Samoan guide, but
+the young man laughingly reminded him that he was half a native himself,
+and from his infancy almost had been used to wandering about the
+mountain forests of the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia; so, bidding
+his host good morning, he shouldered his gun and set off, and in another
+hour was ascending the first spur of the mountain range, which traverses
+the island of Upolu from one end to the other.
+
+He had a reason for declining the services of a guide, for he had
+determined to attempt to reach the outlaws' refuge, and, at the risk
+of his life, finding out if Tommy Topsail-tie and Jack Waterwitch were
+among them. The old trader had told him that one of their number was a
+very big man, whose legs, back, and neck were tattooed as the Kingsmill
+Islanders tattoo, and he (Flemming) had formed the idea, since his
+conversation with the manager of the plantation, that this big man was
+Binok�--the dear friend of his boyhood's days, the ever-wanted "Tommy
+Topsail-tie" of his brother and his sister Medora, the man who, with
+Jack Waterwitch, had stood to his father and mother in their poverty and
+distress, and had toiled night and day for them without recompense.
+
+As he walked over the soft carpet of fallen leaves which covered the
+mountain-side so thickly that no sound came from his footsteps,
+he listened carefully. He knew that he was proceeding in the right
+direction for the outlaws' refuge--the direction the plantation manager
+had impressed on him to avoid--and after a two hours' stiff climb he
+found himself on the summit of the spur and overlooking the harbour. Far
+below him he could see the _Maori Maid_ being hauled on to the beach,
+and eight miles away the beautiful little island of Manono lay basking
+in the sun on a sea of deepest, glorious blue.
+
+Suddenly he heard a sound, a faint, soft creeping on the ground
+somewhere near him, and he knew that it was the sound of a human
+footstep, and that he was watched.
+
+He laid down his gun, and stood up and pretended to closely scan
+the thick, leafy canopy of the mighty trees overhead, as if he were
+searching for pigeons. Then his voice rang out clearly, and echoed and
+re-echoed in the grey and silent forest aisles.
+
+"Binok�, Binok�! 'Tis I! Nobal, Nobal! 'Tis I who call! Tis I, Papu
+(Bob), of Anaa! I, who have sought thee long. Binok�! Nohal!"
+
+Then came a sudden rush of feet and brown, naked bodies from all around,
+and in another moment the young man was almost lifted off hid feet by
+Tommy Topsail-tie, who, clasping his mighty arms around him, pressed him
+passionately to his bosom.
+
+"My boy, my boy!... See, 'tis I, Binok�, thy friend, thy slave, thy
+Binok�!" and then the savage creature wept as only wild people such as
+he was weep from excess of joy.
+
+In a few minutes Flemming was hurried along by the friendly hands of
+six or eight of the "wild men" to their refuge further up on the
+mountain-side, where he found not only "Jack Waterwitch," but one of
+the Anaa natives, who had been carried off ten years before; the other
+native of Anaa, he was told by Tommy Topsail-tie, had died a year or two
+previously. There were, he found, twelve natives in all--Topsail-tie,
+who was their leader, Jack Waterwitch, the Anaa man, four Solomon
+Islanders, and five others from various islands.
+
+For an hour or more the young man conversed with his old friends, who
+delightedly agreed to leave their mountain retreat and go on board the
+brigantine as soon as she was ready to sail. The remaining eight men,
+however, refused to leave, although Flemming told them that they could
+all come down from the mountain at night-time, and be very easily stowed
+away on board, and that even if they were discovered the captain would
+be able to protect them, should the German manager make any demand
+for them to be delivered over to him. But all his arguments were in
+vain--they shook their heads and said that never, again would they go,
+willingly or unwillingly, upon the deep sea.
+
+Then the supercargo and Topsail-tie made their plans, and after spending
+another hour or so with the escapees, Flemming shook hands with them
+all, and guided by Nobal, returned to the base of the mountain.
+
+Here he parted from his companion, who quickly plunged into the forest
+again, and reached the plantation just as the manager was mustering the
+plantation hands for his inspection. Not deeming it advisable to tell
+his host of the discovery he had just made, he yet tried to display as
+much interest as possible, and after walking up and down the triple rows
+of men and looking at them rapidly one by one, he said that there was no
+one of them whom he had ever seen before. Then the manager dismissed the
+men, and Flemming, thanking him for his kindness, hurried on board and
+told his story to Captain Heselton.
+
+Two days afterwards the _Maori Maid_ was sailing slowly out through
+Mulifanua passage. Flemming, with the skipper beside him, was standing
+on the poop, looking for'ard.
+
+"Tell them they can come up on deck now, boatswain," he cried, "we are a
+good mile off the land."
+
+And then the three of the four men from whom he and his brother had
+parted ten years before rushed up from the hold, knelt at his feet, and
+laughing and sobbing like children, threw their brown arms around his
+legs.
+
+Binok� rose, and stretching out his huge right arm towards the rising
+sun, turned his black eyes on "the boy" he so loved.
+
+"Is it to the east we sail, Papu?"
+
+"Ay, to the east, Binok�, far, far to the east, to a fair, fair land
+with green mountains and falling streams. And there awaits us my father
+and mother, and my brother, and Medora. And they will be well content
+with me, for never hast thou and Nobal been forgotten."
+
+
+
+
+
+"FLASH HARRY" OF SAVAIT
+
+Nearly thirty years ago, when the late King Malietoa of Samoa was
+quietly arming his own adherents and conciliating his rebel chiefs in
+order to combine against the persistent encroachments of the Germans,
+I was running a small trading cutter between Upolu and Savaii, the two
+principal islands of the group.
+
+One day I arrived in Apia Harbour with a cargo of yams which I was
+selling to an American man-of-war, the _Resacca_. I went alongside at
+once, had the yams weighed and received my money from the paymaster,
+and then went ashore for a bathe in the Vaisigago River, a lovely little
+stream which, taking its rise in the mountains, debouches into Apia
+Harbour. Here I was joined by an old friend, Captain Hamilton, the local
+pilot, who, stripping off his clothes, plunged into the water beside me.
+
+As we were laughing and chatting and thoroughly enjoying ourselves,
+a party of natives--young men and boys--emerged from the trees on the
+opposite bank, and casting off their scanty garments, boisterously
+entered the water and began disporting themselves, and then to my
+surprise I saw that their leader was a white man, tattoed in every
+respect, like a Samoan. He appeared to be about thirty years of age, was
+clean-shaven, and had bright red hair.
+
+"Who is that fellow?" I inquired.
+
+"One of the biggest scoundrels in the Pacific," replied my companion,
+"'Flash Harry' from Savaii. He deserted from either the _Brisk_ (or the
+_Zealous_) British man-of-war, about seven years ago, and although the
+commanders of several other British warships have tried to get him, they
+have failed. He is the pet _prot�g�_ of one of the most powerful chiefs
+in Savaii, and laughs at all attempts to catch him. To my knowledge he
+has committed four atrocious murders, and, in addition to that, he is
+a drunken, foul-mouthed blackguard. He only comes to Apia
+occasionally--when there is no British man-of-war about--and paints
+the town red, for although he is merely a loafing beachcomber, he is
+liberally supplied with money by his chief, and possesses an extensive
+harem as well. He simply terrorises the town when he breaks out, and
+insults every timid European, male and female, whom he meets."
+
+"Why doesn't some one put a bullet through him?"
+
+"Ah, now you're asking! Why? Porter" (a respectable Samoan trader)
+"told him that he would riddle him if he came inside his fence, and the
+scoundrel knows _me_ well enough not to come into my place with anything
+but a civil word on his foul tongue; but then you see, Porter and I
+are Americans. If either or both of us shot the man no commander of an
+American man-of-war would do more than publicly reprimand us for taking
+the law into our own hands; but if you or any other Englishman killed
+the vermin, you would be taken to Fiji by the first man-of-war that
+called here, put on your trial for murder, and, if you escaped hanging,
+get a pretty turn of penal servitude in Fiji gaol."
+
+We finished our bathe, dressed, and set out for Hamilton's house on
+Matautu Point, for he had asked me to have supper with him. On our way
+thither we met the master of a German barque, then in port, and were
+chatting with him in the middle of the road, when Mr. "Flash Harry" and
+his retinue of _manaia_ (young bucks) overtook us.
+
+The path being rather narrow we drew aside a few paces to let them pass,
+but at a sign from their leader they stopped. He nodded to Hamilton and
+the German captain (neither of whom took any notice of him) then fixed
+his eyes insolently on me and held out his hand.
+
+"How do yer do, Mister. You're a nice sort of a cove not to come and see
+me when you pass my place in your cutter"--then with sudden fury as I
+put my hands in my pockets--"you, you young cock-a-hoopy swine, do you
+mean to say you don't mean to shake hands with a white man?"
+
+"Not with you, anyway," I answered.
+
+"Then the next time I see you I'll pull your ------ arm out of the
+socket," he said, with an oath, and turning on his heel he went off with
+his following of bucks. All of them were armed with rifles and the long
+beheading knives called _Nifa oti_ (death-knife), and as we three had
+nothing but our fists we should have had a bad time had they attacked
+us, for we were in an unfrequented part of the beach and would have been
+half murdered before assistance came. But in Samoa in those days street
+brawls were common.
+
+"The next time you _do_ meet him," said Hamilton as we resumed our walk,
+"don't give him a chance. Drill a hole through him as soon as he gets
+within ten paces, and then clear out of Samoa as quick as you can."
+
+* * * * *
+
+Quite a month after this I had to visit the little port of Asaua on
+the Island of Savaii; and as I was aware that "Flash Harry" was in the
+vicinity of the place on a _malaga_, or pleasure trip, I kept a sharp
+lookout for him, and always carried with me in my jumper pocket a small
+but heavy Derringer, the bullet of which was as big as that of a Snider
+rifle. I did not want to have my arm pulled out of the socket, and knew
+that "Flash Harry," being twice my weight almost, would give me a sad
+time if he could once get within hitting distance of me, for like most
+men-of-war's men he was very smart with his hands, and I was but a
+stripling--not yet twenty.
+
+I had come to Asaua with a load of timber to be used in the construction
+of a church for the French Mission, and in the evening went to the
+resident priest to obtain a receipt for delivery. As he could not
+speak English and I could not speak French we had to struggle along in
+Samoan--to our mutual amusement. However, we got along very well, and I
+was about to accept his hospitable offer to remain and have sapper with
+him when a young chief whom I knew, named Ulofanua ("Top of a High
+Tree") came in hurriedly and told us that "Flash Harry" and ten or
+fifteen young men, all more or less drunk, were coming to the village
+that night with the avowed intention of boarding the cutter under the
+pretence of trading, seizing all the liquor and giving me a father of a
+beating--the latter to avenge the insult of a month before.
+
+Laughingly telling the priest that under the circumstances discretion
+was the better part of valour, I bade him goodbye, walked down to my
+boat, which was lying on the beach, and with two native sailors pulling,
+we started for the cutter, a mile away. The night was beautifully calm,
+but dark, and as I was not well acquainted with the inner part of Asaua
+Harbour and could not see my way, I several times ran the boat on
+to submerged coral boulders; and, finally, lost the narrow channel
+altogether.
+
+Then I told one of my men, a sturdy, splendid specimen of a native of
+the Gilbert Islands named Te Manu Uraura ("Bed Bird") to come aft
+and take the steer oar, knowing that his eyesight, like that of all
+Polynesians, was better than that of any white man.
+
+"Come here, Te Manu, and steer, I'll take your oar. Your eyes are better
+than mine."
+
+The poor fellow laughed good-naturedly, and I little thought that this
+simple request of mine would be the cause of his being a cripple for
+life. He came aft, took the steer oar from me, and I, seating myself on
+the after thwart, began to pull. We were at this time about thirty yards
+from the beach, and between it and the inner reef of the harbour. We
+sent the boat along for two or three hundred yards without a hitch,
+and I was thinking of what my cook would have for my supper, when we
+suddenly plumped into a patch of dead coral and stuck hard and fast.
+
+Knowing that the tide was falling, we all jumped out, and pushed the
+boat off into deeper water as quickly as possible, just as half a dozen
+bright torches of coco-nut leaves flared up on the shore and revealed
+the boat dimly to those who were holding them.
+
+At first I imagined that the chief of the village had sent some of his
+people to help us through the channel, but I was quickly undeceived when
+I heard "Flash Harry's" voice.
+
+"I've got you now, my saucy young quarter-deck-style-of-pup. Slew round
+and come ashore, or I'll blow your head off."
+
+One glance ashore showed me that we were in a desperate position. "Flash
+Harry," who was all but stark-naked--he had only a girdle of _ti_ tree
+leaves round his waist--was covering the boat with his Winchester rifle,
+and his followers, armed with other guns, were ready to fire a volley
+into us, although most of them were pretty well drunk.
+
+"They can't hit us, Te Manu," I cried to the Gilbert Islander, whose
+inborn fighting proclivities were showing in his gleaming eyes and
+short, panting breaths, "most of them have no cartridges in their guns,
+and they are all too drunk to shoot straight. Let us go on!"
+
+Te Manu gripped the haft of the steer oar and swung the boat's head
+round, and then I and the other native at the bow oar--a mere boy of
+sixteen--pulled for all we were worth just as "Flash Harry" dropped on
+one knee and fired.
+
+Poor Te Manu swayed to and fro for a few moments and then cried out, "He
+has broken my hand, sir! But go on, pull, pull hard!"
+
+Under a spattering fire from the beachcomber's drunken companions we
+pulled out into deeper water and safety, and then, shipping my oar, I
+sprang to Te Manu's aid. The bullet had struck him in the back of the
+right hand and literally cut off three of the poor fellow's knuckles.
+I did what I could to stop the loss of blood, and told him to sit
+down, but he refused, and although suffering intense pain, insisted on
+steering with his left hand. As soon as we reached the cutter I at
+once hove up anchor and stood along the coast before a strong breeze
+to Matautu Harbour, where I was able to have the man's hand properly
+attended to. He never recovered the use of it again except in a slight
+degree.
+
+I never saw "Flash Harry" again, for a few months later I left Samoa
+for the Caroline Group, and when I returned a year afterwards I was told
+that he had at last found the country too hot for him and had left the
+island in a German "blackbirder" bound to the Solomon Islands.
+
+*****
+
+Quite six years had passed, and then I learnt, in a somewhat curious
+manner, what became of him. One day in Sydney, New South Wales, three
+captains and myself met for lunch at the Paragon Hotel, on Circular
+Quay. We were all engaged in the South Sea trade, and one of the
+company, who was a stranger to me, had just returned from the Solomon
+Islands, with which group and its murderous, cannibal people he was very
+familiar. (He was himself destined to be killed there with his ship's
+company in 1884.) He was a young man who had had some very narrow
+escapes and some very thrilling experiences, some of which he narrated.
+
+We were talking of the massacre of Captain Ferguson and the crew of the
+Sydney trading steamer _Ripple_, by the natives of Bougainville Island
+in the Solomon Group, when our friend remarked--
+
+"Ah, poor Ferguson ought to have been more careful. Why, the very
+chief of that village at Numa Numa--the man who cut him down with a
+tomahawk--had killed two other white men. Ferguson knew that, and yet
+would allow him to come aboard time after time with hundreds of his
+people, and gave him and them the run of his ship. I knew the fellow
+well. He told me to my face, the first time I met him, that he had
+killed and eaten two white men."
+
+"Who were they?" I asked.
+
+"One was a man trading for Captain MacLeod of New Caledonia; the other
+chap was some beachcombing fellow who had been kicked ashore at Numa
+Numa by his skipper. I heard he came from Samoa originally. Anyway the
+chief told me that as soon as the ship that had put the man ashore had
+sailed, he was speared through the back as he was drinking a coco-nut.
+
+"When they stripped off his clothes to make him ready for the oven, they
+found he was tattoed, Samoan fashion, from the waist to the knees. Then,
+as he had red hair, they cut off his head and smoke-dried it, instead of
+eating it with the rest of the body; they kept it as an ornament for the
+stem of a big canoe. A white man's head is a great thing at any time for
+a canoe's figurehead in the Solomons, but a white man's head with red
+hair is a great _mana_" (mascotte).
+
+Then I told him that I had known the man, and gave him his antecedents.
+
+"Ah," he said, "I daresay if you had been there you would have felt as
+if you could have eaten a bit of the beggar yourself."
+
+"I certainly do feel pleased that he's settled," I replied, as I thought
+of poor Red Bird's hand.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of
+Savait, by Louis Becke
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+  <head>
+    <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" name="linkgenerator" />
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      The Flemmings and 'Flash Harry' of Savait, by Louis Becke
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
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+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait, 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: The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait
+       From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other
+              Stories" - 1902
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24953]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLEMMINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE FLEMMINGS and &ldquo;FLASH HARRY&rdquo; OF SAVAIT
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      From &ldquo;The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories&rdquo; - 1902
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Louis Becke
+    </h2>
+    <h5>
+      T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 <br /> <br /> LONDON
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>THE FLEMMINGS</b></big> </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+          </p>
+          <br /> <br />
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> <big><b>"FLASH HARRY&rdquo; OF SAVAIT</b></big>
+            </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FLEMMINGS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On a certain island in the Paumotu Group, known on the charts as Chain
+      Island, but called Anaa by the people themselves, lived a white man named
+      Martin Flemming, one of those restless wanderers who range the Pacific in
+      search of the fortune they always mean to gain, but which never comes to
+      them, except in some few instances&mdash;so few that they might be counted
+      on one's fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two years had come and gone since Flemming had landed on the island with
+      his wife, family, and two native servants, and settled down as a resident
+      trader at the large and populous village of Tuuhora, where he soon gained
+      the respect and confidence&mdash;if not the friendship&mdash;of the Anaa
+      people, one of the proudest, most self-reliant, and brave of any of the
+      Polynesian race, or their offshoots. For though he was a keen business
+      man, he was just and honest in all his transactions, never erring, as so
+      many traders do, on the side of mistaken generosity, but yet evincing a
+      certain amount of liberality when the occasion justified it&mdash;and the
+      natives knew that when he told them that tobacco, or biscuit, or rice, or
+      gunpowder had risen in price in Tahiti or New Zealand, and that he would
+      also be compelled to raise his charges, they knew that his statement was
+      true&mdash;that he was a man above trickery, either in his business or his
+      social relations with them, and would not descend to a lie for the sake of
+      gain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flemming, at this time, was about forty years of age; his wife, who was an
+      intelligent Hawaiian Islander, was ten years his junior, and the mother of
+      his three half-caste children&mdash;a boy of thirteen, another of ten, and
+      a girl of six. Such education as he could give them during his continuous
+      wanderings over the North and South Pacific had been but scanty; for he
+      was often away on trading cruises, and his wife, though she could read and
+      write, like all Hawaiian women, was not competent to instruct her
+      children, though in all other respects she was everything that a mother
+      should be, except, as Flemming would often tell her, she was too indulgent
+      and too ready to gratify their whims and fancies. However, they were now
+      not so much under her control, for soon after coming to the island, he
+      found that one of the three Marist Brothers living at the mission was able
+      to, and willing to give them a few hours' instruction several times a
+      week. For this, Flemming, who was really anxious about his children's
+      welfare, made a liberal payment to the Mission, and the arrangement had
+      worked very satisfactorily&mdash;Father Billot, who was a good English
+      scholar, giving them their lessons in that language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must now make mention of the remaining persons constituting the trader's
+      household&mdash;the two servants&mdash;one a man about thirty years of
+      age, the other not more than eighteen or nineteen. They were both natives
+      of Arorai (Hurd Island), one of the Eingsmill Group, and situated
+      something less than three degrees south of the Equator. They had both
+      taken service with him on their own island six years previously, and had
+      followed his and his family's fortunes ever since, for they were both
+      devotedly attached to the children; and when, a year after he had settled
+      on their island, misfortune befell him through the destruction of his
+      trading station by fire, and he found himself a ruined man, they refused
+      to leave him, and declared they would work for him without payment until
+      he was again in a position to begin trading&mdash;no matter how long it
+      might be ere that took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some months after the loss of all his property, Flemming worked hard
+      and lived meanly. Most fortunately for him, he had a very good whaleboat,
+      and night after night, and day after day, he and his two faithful helpers,
+      as long as the weather held fine, toiled at the dangerous pursuit of
+      shark-catching, cutting off the fins and tails, and drying them in the
+      sun, until finally he had secured over a ton's weight of the ill-smelling
+      commodity, for which he received £60 in cash from the master of a
+      Chinese-owned trading barque, which touched at the island, and this amount
+      enabled him to leave Arorai, and begin trading elsewhere&mdash;in the
+      great atoll of Butaritari, where owing to his possessing a good boat,
+      sturdy health, and great pluck and resolution, his circumstances so mended
+      that he came to look on the incident of the fire as the best thing that
+      could have happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In appearance these two men were like nearly all the people of the
+      Kingsmill Group&mdash;dark-skinned, strongly built, and with a certain
+      fierceness of visage, born of their warlike and quarrelsome nature, and
+      which never leaves them, even in their old age. The elder of the two,
+      whose native name was Binoké, but who had been given the nickname of
+      &ldquo;Tommy Topsail-tie,&rdquo; had this facial characteristic to a great degree, and
+      was, in addition, of a somewhat morbid and sullen disposition, disliking
+      all strangers. But he was yet the veriest slave to Flemming's children,
+      who tyrannised over him most mercilessly, for young as they were, they
+      knew that his savage heart had nothing in it but adoration and affection
+      for both them and their parents. Nobal, the younger man, who also had a
+      nickname&mdash;&ldquo;Jack Waterwitch&rdquo; (taken from a colonial whaler in which he
+      had once sailed) was of a more genial nature, and had constituted himself
+      the especial guardian and playmate of the little girl Medora, who spoke
+      his native tongue as well as himself; while Tommy Topsail-tie was more
+      attached, if it were possible, to Flemming's eldest boy Robert, than to
+      any other member of the family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After two or three years' successful trading in the northern islands of
+      the Kingsmill Group, Flemming had sold out his trading interests very
+      satisfactorily, and, always eager to go further afield, had sailed for the
+      Paumotu Group, choosing Anaa as his home, for he thought he should like
+      the people, and do very well as a trader, for the island was but a few
+      days' sail from Tahiti in the Society Group, where there was always a good
+      market for his produce, and where he could replenish his stock of trade
+      goods from the great mercantile firm of Brander&mdash;in those days the
+      Whiteleys of the South and Eastern Pacific.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, about six o'clock, when work at the trading station had
+      ceased for the day, and the store door had been shut and locked by Mrs.
+      Flemming, the trader was seated on his shady verandah, smoking a cigar and
+      listening to the prattle of his little daughter, when his two boys raced
+      up to him from the beach, and noisily asked him permission to take the
+      smallest of the boats (a ship's dinghy) and go fishing outside the reef
+      until the morning. They had just heard some natives crying out that a vast
+      shoal of <i>tau tau</i>&mdash;a large salmonlike fish, greatly prized
+      throughout the South Seas&mdash;had made their appearance, and already
+      some canoes were being got ready.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is going with you, boys?&rdquo; asked Flemming, looking at their
+      deeply-bronzed, healthy faces&mdash;so like his own, though his hair had
+      now begun to grizzle about his sunburnt temples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack and Tom, and two Anaa men,&rdquo; they replied, &ldquo;they sent us to ask you
+      if they could come. They have finished the new roof for the oil-shed, and
+      want to go very badly. Say 'yes,' father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right boys. You may go. Tell your mother to give you plenty to eat to
+      take with you&mdash;for it's only six o'clock, and I suppose you won't be
+      home till daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The delighted boys tore into the house to get their fishing tackle, whilst
+      their mother, telling them to make less clamour, filled an empty box with
+      biscuit, bread, and tinned meats enough for the party of six, and in less
+      than ten minutes they were off again, shouting their goodbyes as they
+      raced through the gate, followed by a native woman carrying the heavy box
+      of food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martin Flemming turned to his wife with a smile lighting up his somewhat
+      sombre face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have a quiet house to-night, Kaiulani,&rdquo; he said, calling her by
+      her Hawaiian name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which will be a treat for us, Martin. Those boys really make more noise
+      every day. And do you know what they have done now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have a live hawkbill turtle in their room&mdash;quite a large one,
+      for I could scarcely move it&mdash;and have painted its back in five or
+      six colours. And they feed it on live fish; the room smells horribly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flemming laughed. &ldquo;I thought I could smell fresh paint about the house
+      yesterday. Never mind, 'Lani. It won't hurt the turtle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At seven o'clock on the following morning the boys had not returned, and
+      Martin Flemming, just as his wife brought him his cup of coffee, was
+      saying that they probably were still fishing, when he heard a sound that
+      made him spring to his feet&mdash;the long, hoarse, bellowing note of a
+      conch shell, repeated three times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a call to arms!&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;what does it mean, I wonder. Ah, there
+      is another sounding, too, from the far end of the village. I must go and
+      see what is the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely, however, had he put his foot outside his door when he heard his
+      boys' voices, and in another moment he saw them running or rather
+      staggering along the path together with a crowd of natives, who were all
+      wildly excited, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, father,&rdquo; and the eldest boy ran to him, and scarcely able to
+      stand, so exhausted was he, he flung himself down on the verandah steps,
+      &ldquo;father, Jack and Tom, and the two Anaa men... been stolen by a strange
+      ship... we must... we must save them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hastening inside, Flemming returned with a carafe of cold water, and
+      commanding the boys not to try to speak any more just then, he poured some
+      over their wrists, and then gave them a little in a glass to drink. When
+      they were sufficiently &ldquo;winded,&rdquo; they told him their story, which was,
+      briefly, this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In company with two canoes, they had put out to sea and began fishing.
+      Then they parted company&mdash;the boat pulling round to the other side of
+      Anaa, where they fished with fair success till daylight. Suddenly a small
+      white-painted barque appeared, coming round the north end of the island.
+      She was under very easy canvas, and when she saw the boat, backed her
+      main-yard, and ran up her ensign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They want us to come aboard,&rdquo; said Bob, hauling in his line. &ldquo;Up lines
+      everybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His companions at once pulled up their lines, and took to the oars, and in
+      a few minutes they were alongside the ship, and an officer leant over the
+      side of the poop, and asked them to come aboard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys ascended first, the four natives following; the former were at
+      once conducted into the barque's cabin, where the captain, an old man with
+      a white moustache, asked them their names, and then began to question them
+      as to the number of natives on the island, &amp;c., when they started to
+      their feet with alarmed faces as they heard a sudden rush of feet on deck,
+      followed by oaths and cries, and Walter the younger of the two, fancied,
+      he heard his brother's name called by Jack Waterwitch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down, boys, sit down,&rdquo; said the captain, dropping his suave manner,
+      and speaking angrily, &ldquo;you can go on deck and be off on shore presently.&rdquo;
+       As he spoke a man came below, and made a sign to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain nodded, and then told the boys to go on deck and get into
+      their boat. They at once obeyed, but the moment they reached the deck they
+      were surrounded by five or six of the crew, who hustled them to the
+      gangway, and forced them over the side, despite their struggles, and their
+      loud cries to their native friends, of whom they could see nothing
+      whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat's line was cast off, and as she fell astern the boys saw that a
+      number of sailors were aloft, loosing her light sails, and in a few
+      minutes she was some distance away from them, heading to the eastward with
+      a light breeze. As quickly as possible the two boys set the boat's sail,
+      and sailing and pulling, they ran straight for the weather side of the
+      island, crossed over the reef into the lagoon, and gave the alarm to the
+      first people they met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good lads,&rdquo; said Flemming, &ldquo;you have done all that you could do. We shall
+      see presently what can be done to save our men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then turning to his wife, he bade her get ready enough provision for his
+      three boats, and have them launched and manned by their usual crews,
+      whilst he went to the mission to consult with Father Billot and the
+      chiefs, for he had already heard from one of the excited natives that the
+      barque was still very near the land, and almost becalmed; and he knew that
+      the Anaa natives would to a man assist him in recovering the four men from
+      captivity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half way to the mission house, he met the priest himself, hurrying along
+      the shaded path, to tell him the further news that the two canoes which
+      had accompanied the boat had just returned, after narrowly escaping
+      capture by the barque. It appeared that they, too, had seen the barque
+      crawling along under the lee of the land and close in to the reef, just as
+      daylight broke, and from the number of boats she carried&mdash;she had two
+      towing, as well as three others on deck&mdash;they imagined her to be a
+      whaler. They paddled up alongside without the slightest suspicion of
+      danger, and three or four of their number in the first canoe were
+      clambering up the side when they suddenly sprang overboard, just as three
+      or four grapnels with light chains were thrown from the bulwarks over the
+      canoes so as to catch their outriggers, and capsize them. Most
+      fortunately, however, only one of the grapnels caught&mdash;it fell upon
+      the wooden grating or platform between the outrigger and the hull of one
+      canoe, and was quickly torn away by the desperate hands of the natives&mdash;in
+      less than a minute both canoes were clear of the ship, and racing
+      shoreward without the loss of a single man. No attempt was made to follow
+      them in the barque's boats, her ruffianly captain and crew evidently
+      recognising that there was no chance of overtaking them when the land was
+      so near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The villains!&rdquo; exclaimed Flemming, as he and the priest set off at a run
+      to the house of the head chief, who had just sent an urgent message for
+      them to come and meet him and his leading men in counsel, &ldquo;she must be a
+      slaver from the coast of South America.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The consultation with the chiefs was a hurried one, and a resolution to
+      board the barque and recapture the four men if possible, was quickly
+      arrived at. Over thirty canoes, and five or six boats, manned and armed by
+      nearly two hundred of the picked men of the island, and led by Martin
+      Flemming and three chiefs, were soon underway, and passing out through the
+      narrow passage in the reef, went northward till they rounded the point,
+      and saw the barque about five miles away. She had every stitch of canvas
+      set, but was making little more than steerage way, for only the faintest
+      air was filling her upper canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The canoes and boats, at Flemming's suggestion, approached her in a
+      half-circle, his own boat leading. It was his intention to recover the men
+      if possible, without bloodshed, and he would first make an attempt to
+      board the slaver&mdash;for such she was&mdash;and alone try to achieve the
+      men's liberation by pointing out to the captain that his ship would be
+      captured and destroyed by the infuriated natives if he refused. If he did
+      refuse there would be a heavy loss of life&mdash;of that he (Flemming) was
+      certain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently no notice was taken by the barque of the approaching flotilla,
+      until it was within three quarters of a mile, then she hauled up her
+      mainsail, came slowly to the wind, and began firing with two of the four
+      guns she carried&mdash;nine-pounders. Flemming at once ordered all the
+      other boats and canoes to cease pulling and paddling, and he went on
+      alone. He was not again fired at till he came within a quarter of a mile
+      of the vessel, when a volley of musketry was fired, together with the two
+      heavy guns, both of which were loaded with grape. How any one of them in
+      the boat escaped was a marvel, for the bullets lashed the water into foam
+      only a few yards ahead, and some, ricochetting, struck and damaged two of
+      the oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To advance in face of such a fire would be madness. The barque evidently
+      carried a large and well-armed crew, so he slewed round and pulled towards
+      the little fleet, as those on the slaver yelled derisively, and again
+      began firing with the nine-pounders, and small arms as well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, to his bitter rage and disappointment, a puff of wind came over
+      from the westward, and the barque's sails filled. In ten minutes she was
+      slipping through the water so quickly that she was leaving them astern
+      fast, and in another hour she had swept round the south end of the land,
+      and they saw her no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sad and dejected, he and his native friends returned to Tuuhora, and
+      drawing up their boats and canoes, went to their homes in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TEN years had passed, and fortune had proved kind to Martin Flemming and
+      his family, who were now, with the exception of the eldest son, settled on
+      the island of Barotonga, one of the Cook's Group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some years after the abduction of the four unfortunate natives,
+      Flemming had tried every possible means of ascertaining their fate, and at
+      first thought that he would succeed, for within a few weeks after the
+      visit of the barque to Anaa, there came news of similar outrages
+      perpetrated by three vessels, through the Ellice, Line Islands and Paumotu
+      Group. One of these vessels was a barque, the others were brigs, and all
+      sailed under Peruvian colours, though many of the officers were
+      Englishmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one instance they had descended upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of
+      the island of Nukulaelae in the Ellice Group, and carried off almost the
+      entire population, and at Easter Island&mdash;far to the eastward, over
+      three hundred unfortunate natives were seized under circumstances of the
+      grossest treachery and violence, and manacled together, taken away to end
+      their days as slaves in working the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands,
+      off the coast of South America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though not then a rich man, Flemming at his own expense made a long and
+      tedious voyage to the Ghinchas. By the time he arrived there nearly a year
+      had elapsed since the four men had been stolen, and he found that both the
+      British and French Governments had compelled the Peruvian Government to
+      restore all of the wretched survivors&mdash;there were but few, alas!&mdash;to
+      their homes. Over one hundred of the wretched beings had perished of
+      disease in the hot and stifling holds of the slavers; scores of them,
+      attempting to regain their liberty, had been shot down, and the fearful
+      toil in the guano pits of the Ghincha Islands carried off many more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Chincha Islands he was unable to gain any definite information
+      about the four men, but was told that the British Consul at Gallao might
+      be able to tell him what had become of them&mdash;whether they had died or
+      had been among those restored to their homes. So to Gallao be went, for he
+      was ever bearing in mind the grief of his children at the loss of their
+      dear &ldquo;Tommy Topsail-tie&rdquo; and &ldquo;Jacky Waterwitch,&rdquo; and his promise to them
+      that if they and their Anaa companions were alive he would bring them
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a bitter disappointment awaited him at Gallao&mdash;for the Consul,
+      who had been largely instrumental in forcing the Peruvian Government to
+      liberate the captured people, gave him absolute proof that none of the
+      four men had reached the Ghinchas, for he had obtained a great deal of
+      information from the survivors, all of which he had carefully recorded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is what Vili, a native of Nukulaelae, told me, Mr. Flemming. He was
+      one of those who were captured by the barque, and was rather well treated
+      by the captain on account of his speaking English, being put into the
+      mate's watch as he had been to sea for many years in whale ships. He says:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'After we of Nukulaelae had been on board the barque for about twenty
+      days, we came to an island in the Paumotus, where the captain tried to
+      capture two canoes full of natives but failed, though quite soon after he
+      seized four from a boat, and they were carried down into the hold and
+      ironed, for they had fought very hard and all were much hurt and bleeding.
+      I spoke to them and they told me that they had been out fishing with the
+      two sons of a white man, who was a trader on the island. The captain did
+      not hurt the two boys, but let them go. Then a lot of canoes and boats
+      came off and the ship fired her cannons at them, and drove them away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Next day we met another ship, a small schooner, flying the German flag,
+      and her captain came on board our ship and had a long talk with our
+      captain, and presently an officer and six men came down into the hold, and
+      took the irons off nine men and drove them on deck. Among these men were
+      the four who were taken from the boat. The captain of the schooner paid
+      our captain money for them, and took them on board his vessel, which then
+      sailed away.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Flemming,&rdquo; resumed the Consul, &ldquo;that is all I can tell you. I
+      have written to the British Consul at Apia in Samoa, and at Levuka in
+      Fiji, asking them to endeavour to find out the schooner's name and trace
+      the nine men. I have no doubt but that she was some Fijian or Samoan
+      'blackbirder,' and that the poor devils are working on some of the
+      plantations in either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga. There is, therefore, good
+      reason for you to hope that you will succeed in your search. I shall
+      gladly give you all the assistance in my power to facilitate your
+      enquiries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to Anaa, Flemming, through the aid of the French authorities in
+      Tahiti, placed himself in communication with the British Consuls in Fiji
+      and Samoa, telling them the details of the capture of the four men and of
+      their transference with five others to another vessel, and enclosing a sum
+      of money&mdash;all he could spare&mdash;to be given to Tommy Topsail-tie
+      so that he and his three companions might be enabled to find their way
+      back to Anaa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of another long weary year of hopeful expectation, he received
+      replies from the Consuls, returning the money he had sent, and saying that
+      after most careful inquiries, they could learn nothing of the nine men;
+      but that they (the Consuls) had strong reason to believe that the schooner
+      to which they had been transferred was a notorious German &ldquo;blackbirder&rdquo;
+       named the <i>Samoa</i>, though the captain and the crew swore they knew
+      nothing of the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is quite possible,&rdquo; they said in their joint report, &ldquo;that some or all
+      of the men are on one of the German plantations in Samoa or Tonga, and
+      that you will yet discover them. But the German Consuls will give us no
+      assistance, and absolutely decline to permit us to send any one to visit
+      the plantations, unless the managers or owners are agreeable. And, as you
+      can imagine, the owners and managers are <i>not</i> agreeable, and have
+      declined in terms of great rudeness to even supply us with the names of
+      any of their labourers, or the names of the various islands from which
+      they come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in face of this Flemming did not despair, and told his wife and
+      children, who could not restrain their tears when they read the Consuls'
+      report, that he would not let the matter rest. He had several friends in
+      Samoa and Fiji&mdash;merchants, traders and ship captains, and to them he
+      wrote asking them to institute enquiries quietly, and let him know the
+      result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After spending another five years on Anaa, during which time he had heard
+      nothing of the missing men, he determined to settle on Rarotonga, where
+      there was an excellent opportunity of making money. His eldest boy by this
+      time was almost a grown man, and was earning his living as a supercargo of
+      a trading vessel, running between Auckland in New Zealand and the various
+      groups of islands in the South Pacific.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the quiet little harbour of Mulifanua, situated at the western end of
+      the island of Upolu, a fine-looking brigantine was lying at anchor, and
+      the captain and supercargo were pacing the deck together enjoying their
+      after-breakfast pipes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brigantine was the <i>Maori Maid</i> of Auckland, Captain Heselton,
+      and the supercargo was young Robert Flemming. The vessel had run into
+      Mulifanua Harbour owing to her having struck on a reef a few days
+      previously whilst beating up against the south-east trades from Wallis
+      Island to Leone Bay, a port on the island of Tutuila, one of the Samoan
+      Group, and as she was leaking rather seriously her captain decided to run
+      into Mulifanua, put her on the beach, and get at the leak or leaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no need for you to stay on board, Bob,&rdquo; said Heselton presently
+      to his young supercargo. &ldquo;Go ashore and stay ashore until we are ready for
+      sea again. All going well we'll find out where the damage is by this time
+      to-morrow, and be afloat again in a few days. But there is nothing to keep
+      you aboard, and you might as well put in your time shooting or otherwise
+      enjoying yourself; why not go and have a look at Goddeffroy's big
+      plantation? It's only about a couple of miles away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, captain, I think I shall. As you know for years past I have
+      always been hoping that during one of our cruises, I might come across
+      some native or other on one of these plantations who might be able to tell
+      me something about those four poor fellows who were collared by that
+      Peruvian barque ten years ago. And this plantation of Goddeffroy's is one
+      of the biggest in the South Seas&mdash;there are over seven hundred
+      labourers, Line Islanders, Solomon Islanders, New Britain niggers and
+      heaven knows what else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you'll have a good chance now. And look here, Bob&mdash;take your
+      time, a day or two more or less doesn't matter to us. I shall have plenty
+      to do even after I get at this confounded leak. The rigging wants setting
+      up badly, so we may be here any time under a week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right. I'll go and have a look at the plantation; and if the manager is a
+      decent sort of a Dutchman he might put me up. If he's a hog&mdash;which he
+      probably is&mdash;I'll go to the native village, sleep there to-night and
+      have a day's pigeon-shooting to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then a boat was seen putting off from the shore, manned by Samoans,
+      but steered by a white man, who as soon as he came on deck introduced
+      himself as the local trader. He was a quiet, good-natured old fellow&mdash;an
+      Englishman&mdash;and as soon as he learned of the mishap to the
+      brigantine, at once offered to get a gang of natives to assist in beaching
+      her; and then pressed Flemming to make his house his home during the stay
+      of the vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; replied the young man, &ldquo;I shall be very pleased. I want to
+      have a look at the big plantation here and try to have a yarn with some of
+      the Eingsmill Island labourers.&rdquo; Then he told the trader, who was much
+      interested, the object he had in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure that the manager will let you talk to any of the labourers,&rdquo; he
+      said, &ldquo;for he's one of the 'White men' kind of Dutchmen. His name is
+      Knorr. He succeeded a regular brute of a man who used to flog the
+      plantation hands right and left. A lot of them have run away during the
+      past six or seven years and have taken to the mountains. They are all
+      armed, and sometimes, when they are in want of food, will lay the Samoan
+      villages under tribute, and if any resistance is shown, they set fire to
+      the houses. The Samoans are terribly afraid of them, for there are two or
+      three cannibal Solomon Islanders among them, and a Samoan has a holy
+      terror of a man-eater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't the Dutchmen capture the beggars?&rdquo; asked the captain. &ldquo;There
+      are enough of them in Samoa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old trader laughed&mdash;&ldquo;Ay, too many, sir; too many for us poor
+      English traders. But they have tried, time and time again, to capture
+      these fellows, but only got badly mauled in two or three fights. There is
+      a standing reward of two hundred dollars for every one of them, dead or
+      alive, and about a year ago ten flash young Samoan <i>manaias</i>{*} set
+      out, well armed and well primed with grog, to surprise the escapees, who
+      were known to be living in an almost inaccessible part of the mountains.
+      Only four of the ten came back; the other six were shot down one by one as
+      they were climbing the side of a mountain, and these four were made
+      prisoners by the outlaws, who gave them such a fright that they will never
+      get over it. It was as good as any novel to hear them talk about it, I can
+      assure you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Warriors or rather would-be warriors&mdash;young men whom the
+     local white men usually speak of as &ldquo;bucks,&rdquo;&mdash;i.e., flashy,
+     saucy fellows.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, tell us the whole yarn,&rdquo; said the skipper of the <i>Maori Maid</i>,
+      as he pushed a decanter of brandy towards his visitor, and take a cigar.
+      &ldquo;It's pleasant to meet an Englishman in these Dutchman-infested islands,
+      especially when he has a good yarn to spin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The yarn isn't a pleasant one, captain,&rdquo; said the trader. &ldquo;It's a d&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;d
+      unpleasant one, but it's true, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lit a cigar and then resumed: &ldquo;Well, after six of these flash young
+      fellows were shot down, the other four dropped their rifles and cried out,
+      <i>Fia ola! Fia ola!</i> (Quarter! Quarter!) and in a few minutes about a
+      dozen of the escapees made their appearance, took away their rifles and
+      cartridges, and tying their arms behind their backs made them march in
+      front of them up the mountain-side till they came to a bit of a thicket in
+      which were four or five small huts. Telling their prisoners to sit down,
+      half of their number went away, returning in half an hour with the six
+      heads of the men who had been shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take these heads back with you,&rdquo; said one of the outlaws, who could speak
+      Samoan, &ldquo;and tell all Mulifanua that we are strong men. We fear no one,
+      for we have plenty of guns and cartridges, and five hundred men such as
+      you cannot take us. And say to the chief of the village, that on every
+      fourth day, food for us must be brought to the foot of the eastern spur of
+      the mountain. If this be not done, then shall we kill all whom we meet&mdash;men,
+      women or children. Now go and tell the man who flogged us that some day we
+      shall cook and eat his head, for we are very strong men.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the four poor trembling beggars were liberated, and carrying the
+      six heads of their comrades, they went back, and their story so terrified
+      the people of Mulifanua that no further attempt was ever made to capture
+      the outlaws. And although the Germans don't know of it, the villagers are
+      to this very day, gentlemen, supplying these dangerous devils with food,
+      and I know for a fact that sometimes two or three of them come down from
+      the mountains and sleep in the village without fear. They have never
+      troubled me; but very often a native boy or girl will come to me and buy a
+      28-lb. bag of shot, caps and powder, and I know perfectly well that it is
+      for the 'wild men,' as the people here call the escaped men. Every one of
+      them has not only a rifle, but a shot-gun as well, for they one night
+      broke into the plantation store and carried off all the rifles and guns
+      they could find.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care, Bob, that they don't take some pot shots at you,&rdquo; said the
+      captain, with a laugh, as his supercargo rose to get ready to go ashore
+      with the trader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would if they thought Mr. Hemming was a German from the plantation,&rdquo;
+       said the trader, seriously, &ldquo;so you had better not go too far away when
+      you are shooting, unless you take a native guide with you. For, as I have
+      said before, these men and the people of the village are now, I really
+      believe, in secret friendship, or rather alliance&mdash;an alliance born
+      out of terror on one side and savage desperation on the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later young Flemming and the trader were being pulled
+      ashore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The German manager of the great plantation proved to be, as the old trader
+      had said, &ldquo;one of the white-men kind of Dutchmen.&rdquo; He received the young
+      supercargo most hospitably, and insisted upon his remaining to lunch, and
+      when Flemming told him frankly of the long quest for the four missing men,
+      he at once became deeply sympathetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall see every one of the six or seven hundred natives I have
+      working for me, Mr. Flemming. They are all now scattered about in
+      different portions of the plantation, but at five o'clock, when they knock
+      off, I shall have them all mustered. But I am almost certain that you will
+      not find any one of the nine who were transferred from the Peruvian slaver
+      to the German 'black-birder,' for I have always taken an interest in these
+      people, and know pretty well from where they all come. My predecessor here
+      was very rough with them&mdash;the less I say about him the better&mdash;and
+      there is now quite a number of runaways living in the bush. They have
+      defied all efforts to capture them. Who they are, and where they come
+      from, I cannot well tell, for the former manager never kept an accurate
+      account of the numbers of new arrivals brought here by the various labour
+      vessels, nor did he specify in his books, as he should have done, from
+      what particular islands they came. 'Natives' he considered to be a
+      sufficient designation, and 'three years' or 'six years' indicated the
+      time for which they were engaged. He left the identification of themselves
+      and their islands to the captains of the various vessels which, at the end
+      of their time, take them back again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if it is possible that the four men I am looking for are among
+      the outlaws,&rdquo; said Flemming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possible, quite possible,&rdquo; replied the manager, &ldquo;but you will never be
+      able to see them if they are. The gang is very desperate and determined,
+      and though they have no animus against me personally, they would shoot me,
+      or you, or any white man who attempted to get into communication with
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a little further conversation with the manager, Flemming said he
+      would have a few hours' pigeon-shooting, returning in time to see the
+      plantation hands mustered. Knorr wished him to take a Samoan guide, but
+      the young man laughingly reminded him that he was half a native himself,
+      and from his infancy almost had been used to wandering about the mountain
+      forests of the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia; so, bidding his host
+      good morning, he shouldered his gun and set off, and in another hour was
+      ascending the first spur of the mountain range, which traverses the island
+      of Upolu from one end to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had a reason for declining the services of a guide, for he had
+      determined to attempt to reach the outlaws' refuge, and, at the risk of
+      his life, finding out if Tommy Topsail-tie and Jack Waterwitch were among
+      them. The old trader had told him that one of their number was a very big
+      man, whose legs, back, and neck were tattooed as the Kingsmill Islanders
+      tattoo, and he (Flemming) had formed the idea, since his conversation with
+      the manager of the plantation, that this big man was Binoké&mdash;the dear
+      friend of his boyhood's days, the ever-wanted &ldquo;Tommy Topsail-tie&rdquo; of his
+      brother and his sister Medora, the man who, with Jack Waterwitch, had
+      stood to his father and mother in their poverty and distress, and had
+      toiled night and day for them without recompense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he walked over the soft carpet of fallen leaves which covered the
+      mountain-side so thickly that no sound came from his footsteps, he
+      listened carefully. He knew that he was proceeding in the right direction
+      for the outlaws' refuge&mdash;the direction the plantation manager had
+      impressed on him to avoid&mdash;and after a two hours' stiff climb he
+      found himself on the summit of the spur and overlooking the harbour. Far
+      below him he could see the <i>Maori Maid</i> being hauled on to the beach,
+      and eight miles away the beautiful little island of Manono lay basking in
+      the sun on a sea of deepest, glorious blue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly he heard a sound, a faint, soft creeping on the ground somewhere
+      near him, and he knew that it was the sound of a human footstep, and that
+      he was watched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid down his gun, and stood up and pretended to closely scan the
+      thick, leafy canopy of the mighty trees overhead, as if he were searching
+      for pigeons. Then his voice rang out clearly, and echoed and re-echoed in
+      the grey and silent forest aisles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Binoké, Binoké! 'Tis I! Nobal, Nobal! 'Tis I who call! Tis I, Papu (Bob),
+      of Anaa! I, who have sought thee long. Binoké! Nohal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came a sudden rush of feet and brown, naked bodies from all around,
+      and in another moment the young man was almost lifted off hid feet by
+      Tommy Topsail-tie, who, clasping his mighty arms around him, pressed him
+      passionately to his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy, my boy!... See, 'tis I, Binoké, thy friend, thy slave, thy
+      Binoké!&rdquo; and then the savage creature wept as only wild people such as he
+      was weep from excess of joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes Flemming was hurried along by the friendly hands of six
+      or eight of the &ldquo;wild men&rdquo; to their refuge further up on the
+      mountain-side, where he found not only &ldquo;Jack Waterwitch,&rdquo; but one of the
+      Anaa natives, who had been carried off ten years before; the other native
+      of Anaa, he was told by Tommy Topsail-tie, had died a year or two
+      previously. There were, he found, twelve natives in all&mdash;Topsail-tie,
+      who was their leader, Jack Waterwitch, the Anaa man, four Solomon
+      Islanders, and five others from various islands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For an hour or more the young man conversed with his old friends, who
+      delightedly agreed to leave their mountain retreat and go on board the
+      brigantine as soon as she was ready to sail. The remaining eight men,
+      however, refused to leave, although Flemming told them that they could all
+      come down from the mountain at night-time, and be very easily stowed away
+      on board, and that even if they were discovered the captain would be able
+      to protect them, should the German manager make any demand for them to be
+      delivered over to him. But all his arguments were in vain&mdash;they shook
+      their heads and said that never, again would they go, willingly or
+      unwillingly, upon the deep sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the supercargo and Topsail-tie made their plans, and after spending
+      another hour or so with the escapees, Flemming shook hands with them all,
+      and guided by Nobal, returned to the base of the mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he parted from his companion, who quickly plunged into the forest
+      again, and reached the plantation just as the manager was mustering the
+      plantation hands for his inspection. Not deeming it advisable to tell his
+      host of the discovery he had just made, he yet tried to display as much
+      interest as possible, and after walking up and down the triple rows of men
+      and looking at them rapidly one by one, he said that there was no one of
+      them whom he had ever seen before. Then the manager dismissed the men, and
+      Flemming, thanking him for his kindness, hurried on board and told his
+      story to Captain Heselton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days afterwards the <i>Maori Maid</i> was sailing slowly out through
+      Mulifanua passage. Flemming, with the skipper beside him, was standing on
+      the poop, looking for'ard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell them they can come up on deck now, boatswain,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;we are a
+      good mile off the land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the three of the four men from whom he and his brother had parted
+      ten years before rushed up from the hold, knelt at his feet, and laughing
+      and sobbing like children, threw their brown arms around his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Binoké rose, and stretching out his huge right arm towards the rising sun,
+      turned his black eyes on &ldquo;the boy&rdquo; he so loved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it to the east we sail, Papu?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, to the east, Binoké, far, far to the east, to a fair, fair land with
+      green mountains and falling streams. And there awaits us my father and
+      mother, and my brother, and Medora. And they will be well content with me,
+      for never hast thou and Nobal been forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      &ldquo;FLASH HARRY&rdquo; OF SAVAIT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Nearly thirty years ago, when the late King Malietoa of Samoa was quietly
+      arming his own adherents and conciliating his rebel chiefs in order to
+      combine against the persistent encroachments of the Germans, I was running
+      a small trading cutter between Upolu and Savaii, the two principal islands
+      of the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day I arrived in Apia Harbour with a cargo of yams which I was selling
+      to an American man-of-war, the <i>Resacca</i>. I went alongside at once,
+      had the yams weighed and received my money from the paymaster, and then
+      went ashore for a bathe in the Vaisigago River, a lovely little stream
+      which, taking its rise in the mountains, debouches into Apia Harbour. Here
+      I was joined by an old friend, Captain Hamilton, the local pilot, who,
+      stripping off his clothes, plunged into the water beside me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we were laughing and chatting and thoroughly enjoying ourselves, a
+      party of natives&mdash;young men and boys&mdash;emerged from the trees on
+      the opposite bank, and casting off their scanty garments, boisterously
+      entered the water and began disporting themselves, and then to my surprise
+      I saw that their leader was a white man, tattoed in every respect, like a
+      Samoan. He appeared to be about thirty years of age, was clean-shaven, and
+      had bright red hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that fellow?&rdquo; I inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of the biggest scoundrels in the Pacific,&rdquo; replied my companion,
+      &ldquo;'Flash Harry' from Savaii. He deserted from either the <i>Brisk</i> (or
+      the <i>Zealous</i>) British man-of-war, about seven years ago, and
+      although the commanders of several other British warships have tried to
+      get him, they have failed. He is the pet <i>protégé</i> of one of the most
+      powerful chiefs in Savaii, and laughs at all attempts to catch him. To my
+      knowledge he has committed four atrocious murders, and, in addition to
+      that, he is a drunken, foul-mouthed blackguard. He only comes to Apia
+      occasionally&mdash;when there is no British man-of-war about&mdash;and
+      paints the town red, for although he is merely a loafing beachcomber, he
+      is liberally supplied with money by his chief, and possesses an extensive
+      harem as well. He simply terrorises the town when he breaks out, and
+      insults every timid European, male and female, whom he meets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why doesn't some one put a bullet through him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, now you're asking! Why? Porter&rdquo; (a respectable Samoan trader) &ldquo;told
+      him that he would riddle him if he came inside his fence, and the
+      scoundrel knows <i>me</i> well enough not to come into my place with
+      anything but a civil word on his foul tongue; but then you see, Porter and
+      I are Americans. If either or both of us shot the man no commander of an
+      American man-of-war would do more than publicly reprimand us for taking
+      the law into our own hands; but if you or any other Englishman killed the
+      vermin, you would be taken to Fiji by the first man-of-war that called
+      here, put on your trial for murder, and, if you escaped hanging, get a
+      pretty turn of penal servitude in Fiji gaol.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We finished our bathe, dressed, and set out for Hamilton's house on
+      Matautu Point, for he had asked me to have supper with him. On our way
+      thither we met the master of a German barque, then in port, and were
+      chatting with him in the middle of the road, when Mr. &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; and
+      his retinue of <i>manaia</i> (young bucks) overtook us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path being rather narrow we drew aside a few paces to let them pass,
+      but at a sign from their leader they stopped. He nodded to Hamilton and
+      the German captain (neither of whom took any notice of him) then fixed his
+      eyes insolently on me and held out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do yer do, Mister. You're a nice sort of a cove not to come and see
+      me when you pass my place in your cutter&rdquo;&mdash;then with sudden fury as I
+      put my hands in my pockets&mdash;&ldquo;you, you young cock-a-hoopy swine, do
+      you mean to say you don't mean to shake hands with a white man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not with you, anyway,&rdquo; I answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the next time I see you I'll pull your &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; arm out
+      of the socket,&rdquo; he said, with an oath, and turning on his heel he went off
+      with his following of bucks. All of them were armed with rifles and the
+      long beheading knives called <i>Nifa oti</i> (death-knife), and as we
+      three had nothing but our fists we should have had a bad time had they
+      attacked us, for we were in an unfrequented part of the beach and would
+      have been half murdered before assistance came. But in Samoa in those days
+      street brawls were common.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next time you <i>do</i> meet him,&rdquo; said Hamilton as we resumed our
+      walk, &ldquo;don't give him a chance. Drill a hole through him as soon as he
+      gets within ten paces, and then clear out of Samoa as quick as you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Quite a month after this I had to visit the little port of Asaua on the
+      Island of Savaii; and as I was aware that &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; was in the
+      vicinity of the place on a <i>malaga</i>, or pleasure trip, I kept a sharp
+      lookout for him, and always carried with me in my jumper pocket a small
+      but heavy Derringer, the bullet of which was as big as that of a Snider
+      rifle. I did not want to have my arm pulled out of the socket, and knew
+      that &ldquo;Flash Harry,&rdquo; being twice my weight almost, would give me a sad time
+      if he could once get within hitting distance of me, for like most
+      men-of-war's men he was very smart with his hands, and I was but a
+      stripling&mdash;not yet twenty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had come to Asaua with a load of timber to be used in the construction
+      of a church for the French Mission, and in the evening went to the
+      resident priest to obtain a receipt for delivery. As he could not speak
+      English and I could not speak French we had to struggle along in Samoan&mdash;to
+      our mutual amusement. However, we got along very well, and I was about to
+      accept his hospitable offer to remain and have sapper with him when a
+      young chief whom I knew, named Ulofanua (&ldquo;Top of a High Tree&rdquo;) came in
+      hurriedly and told us that &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; and ten or fifteen young men, all
+      more or less drunk, were coming to the village that night with the avowed
+      intention of boarding the cutter under the pretence of trading, seizing
+      all the liquor and giving me a father of a beating&mdash;the latter to
+      avenge the insult of a month before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laughingly telling the priest that under the circumstances discretion was
+      the better part of valour, I bade him goodbye, walked down to my boat,
+      which was lying on the beach, and with two native sailors pulling, we
+      started for the cutter, a mile away. The night was beautifully calm, but
+      dark, and as I was not well acquainted with the inner part of Asaua
+      Harbour and could not see my way, I several times ran the boat on to
+      submerged coral boulders; and, finally, lost the narrow channel
+      altogether.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I told one of my men, a sturdy, splendid specimen of a native of the
+      Gilbert Islands named Te Manu Uraura (&ldquo;Bed Bird&rdquo;) to come aft and take the
+      steer oar, knowing that his eyesight, like that of all Polynesians, was
+      better than that of any white man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here, Te Manu, and steer, I'll take your oar. Your eyes are better
+      than mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellow laughed good-naturedly, and I little thought that this
+      simple request of mine would be the cause of his being a cripple for life.
+      He came aft, took the steer oar from me, and I, seating myself on the
+      after thwart, began to pull. We were at this time about thirty yards from
+      the beach, and between it and the inner reef of the harbour. We sent the
+      boat along for two or three hundred yards without a hitch, and I was
+      thinking of what my cook would have for my supper, when we suddenly
+      plumped into a patch of dead coral and stuck hard and fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Knowing that the tide was falling, we all jumped out, and pushed the boat
+      off into deeper water as quickly as possible, just as half a dozen bright
+      torches of coco-nut leaves flared up on the shore and revealed the boat
+      dimly to those who were holding them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I imagined that the chief of the village had sent some of his
+      people to help us through the channel, but I was quickly undeceived when I
+      heard &ldquo;Flash Harry's&rdquo; voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got you now, my saucy young quarter-deck-style-of-pup. Slew round
+      and come ashore, or I'll blow your head off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One glance ashore showed me that we were in a desperate position. &ldquo;Flash
+      Harry,&rdquo; who was all but stark-naked&mdash;he had only a girdle of <i>ti</i>
+      tree leaves round his waist&mdash;was covering the boat with his
+      Winchester rifle, and his followers, armed with other guns, were ready to
+      fire a volley into us, although most of them were pretty well drunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can't hit us, Te Manu,&rdquo; I cried to the Gilbert Islander, whose
+      inborn fighting proclivities were showing in his gleaming eyes and short,
+      panting breaths, &ldquo;most of them have no cartridges in their guns, and they
+      are all too drunk to shoot straight. Let us go on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Te Manu gripped the haft of the steer oar and swung the boat's head round,
+      and then I and the other native at the bow oar&mdash;a mere boy of sixteen&mdash;pulled
+      for all we were worth just as &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; dropped on one knee and fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Te Manu swayed to and fro for a few moments and then cried out, &ldquo;He
+      has broken my hand, sir! But go on, pull, pull hard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Under a spattering fire from the beachcomber's drunken companions we
+      pulled out into deeper water and safety, and then, shipping my oar, I
+      sprang to Te Manu's aid. The bullet had struck him in the back of the
+      right hand and literally cut off three of the poor fellow's knuckles. I
+      did what I could to stop the loss of blood, and told him to sit down, but
+      he refused, and although suffering intense pain, insisted on steering with
+      his left hand. As soon as we reached the cutter I at once hove up anchor
+      and stood along the coast before a strong breeze to Matautu Harbour, where
+      I was able to have the man's hand properly attended to. He never recovered
+      the use of it again except in a slight degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never saw &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; again, for a few months later I left Samoa for
+      the Caroline Group, and when I returned a year afterwards I was told that
+      he had at last found the country too hot for him and had left the island
+      in a German &ldquo;blackbirder&rdquo; bound to the Solomon Islands.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Quite six years had passed, and then I learnt, in a somewhat curious
+      manner, what became of him. One day in Sydney, New South Wales, three
+      captains and myself met for lunch at the Paragon Hotel, on Circular Quay.
+      We were all engaged in the South Sea trade, and one of the company, who
+      was a stranger to me, had just returned from the Solomon Islands, with
+      which group and its murderous, cannibal people he was very familiar. (He
+      was himself destined to be killed there with his ship's company in 1884.)
+      He was a young man who had had some very narrow escapes and some very
+      thrilling experiences, some of which he narrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were talking of the massacre of Captain Ferguson and the crew of the
+      Sydney trading steamer <i>Ripple</i>, by the natives of Bougainville
+      Island in the Solomon Group, when our friend remarked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, poor Ferguson ought to have been more careful. Why, the very chief of
+      that village at Numa Numa&mdash;the man who cut him down with a tomahawk&mdash;had
+      killed two other white men. Ferguson knew that, and yet would allow him to
+      come aboard time after time with hundreds of his people, and gave him and
+      them the run of his ship. I knew the fellow well. He told me to my face,
+      the first time I met him, that he had killed and eaten two white men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who were they?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One was a man trading for Captain MacLeod of New Caledonia; the other
+      chap was some beachcombing fellow who had been kicked ashore at Numa Numa
+      by his skipper. I heard he came from Samoa originally. Anyway the chief
+      told me that as soon as the ship that had put the man ashore had sailed,
+      he was speared through the back as he was drinking a coco-nut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When they stripped off his clothes to make him ready for the oven, they
+      found he was tattoed, Samoan fashion, from the waist to the knees. Then,
+      as he had red hair, they cut off his head and smoke-dried it, instead of
+      eating it with the rest of the body; they kept it as an ornament for the
+      stem of a big canoe. A white man's head is a great thing at any time for a
+      canoe's figurehead in the Solomons, but a white man's head with red hair
+      is a great <i>mana</i>&rdquo; (mascotte).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I told him that I had known the man, and gave him his antecedents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I daresay if you had been there you would have felt as if
+      you could have eaten a bit of the beggar yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly do feel pleased that he's settled,&rdquo; I replied, as I thought
+      of poor Red Bird's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait, 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: The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait
+       From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other
+       Stories" - 1902
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLEMMINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FLEMMINGS and "FLASH HARRY" OF SAVAIT
+
+From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories" - 1902
+
+By Louis Becke
+
+T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902
+
+LONDON
+
+
+
+
+THE FLEMMINGS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+On a certain island in the Paumotu Group, known on the charts as Chain
+Island, but called Anaa by the people themselves, lived a white man
+named Martin Flemming, one of those restless wanderers who range the
+Pacific in search of the fortune they always mean to gain, but which
+never comes to them, except in some few instances--so few that they
+might be counted on one's fingers.
+
+Two years had come and gone since Flemming had landed on the island
+with his wife, family, and two native servants, and settled down as a
+resident trader at the large and populous village of Tuuhora, where he
+soon gained the respect and confidence--if not the friendship--of the
+Anaa people, one of the proudest, most self-reliant, and brave of any
+of the Polynesian race, or their offshoots. For though he was a keen
+business man, he was just and honest in all his transactions, never
+erring, as so many traders do, on the side of mistaken generosity, but
+yet evincing a certain amount of liberality when the occasion justified
+it--and the natives knew that when he told them that tobacco, or
+biscuit, or rice, or gunpowder had risen in price in Tahiti or New
+Zealand, and that he would also be compelled to raise his charges, they
+knew that his statement was true--that he was a man above trickery,
+either in his business or his social relations with them, and would not
+descend to a lie for the sake of gain.
+
+Flemming, at this time, was about forty years of age; his wife, who
+was an intelligent Hawaiian Islander, was ten years his junior, and the
+mother of his three half-caste children--a boy of thirteen, another of
+ten, and a girl of six. Such education as he could give them during
+his continuous wanderings over the North and South Pacific had been but
+scanty; for he was often away on trading cruises, and his wife, though
+she could read and write, like all Hawaiian women, was not competent to
+instruct her children, though in all other respects she was everything
+that a mother should be, except, as Flemming would often tell her, she
+was too indulgent and too ready to gratify their whims and fancies.
+However, they were now not so much under her control, for soon after
+coming to the island, he found that one of the three Marist Brothers
+living at the mission was able to, and willing to give them a few hours'
+instruction several times a week. For this, Flemming, who was really
+anxious about his children's welfare, made a liberal payment to the
+Mission, and the arrangement had worked very satisfactorily--Father
+Billot, who was a good English scholar, giving them their lessons in
+that language.
+
+I must now make mention of the remaining persons constituting the
+trader's household--the two servants--one a man about thirty years
+of age, the other not more than eighteen or nineteen. They were both
+natives of Arorai (Hurd Island), one of the Eingsmill Group, and
+situated something less than three degrees south of the Equator.
+They had both taken service with him on their own island six years
+previously, and had followed his and his family's fortunes ever since,
+for they were both devotedly attached to the children; and when, a year
+after he had settled on their island, misfortune befell him through
+the destruction of his trading station by fire, and he found himself a
+ruined man, they refused to leave him, and declared they would work
+for him without payment until he was again in a position to begin
+trading--no matter how long it might be ere that took place.
+
+For some months after the loss of all his property, Flemming worked
+hard and lived meanly. Most fortunately for him, he had a very good
+whaleboat, and night after night, and day after day, he and his two
+faithful helpers, as long as the weather held fine, toiled at the
+dangerous pursuit of shark-catching, cutting off the fins and tails, and
+drying them in the sun, until finally he had secured over a ton's weight
+of the ill-smelling commodity, for which he received L60 in cash from
+the master of a Chinese-owned trading barque, which touched at the
+island, and this amount enabled him to leave Arorai, and begin trading
+elsewhere--in the great atoll of Butaritari, where owing to his
+possessing a good boat, sturdy health, and great pluck and resolution,
+his circumstances so mended that he came to look on the incident of the
+fire as the best thing that could have happened.
+
+In appearance these two men were like nearly all the people of the
+Kingsmill Group--dark-skinned, strongly built, and with a certain
+fierceness of visage, born of their warlike and quarrelsome nature, and
+which never leaves them, even in their old age. The elder of the two,
+whose native name was Binoke, but who had been given the nickname of
+"Tommy Topsail-tie," had this facial characteristic to a great degree,
+and was, in addition, of a somewhat morbid and sullen disposition,
+disliking all strangers. But he was yet the veriest slave to Flemming's
+children, who tyrannised over him most mercilessly, for young as they
+were, they knew that his savage heart had nothing in it but adoration
+and affection for both them and their parents. Nobal, the younger man,
+who also had a nickname--"Jack Waterwitch" (taken from a colonial
+whaler in which he had once sailed) was of a more genial nature, and
+had constituted himself the especial guardian and playmate of the little
+girl Medora, who spoke his native tongue as well as himself; while Tommy
+Topsail-tie was more attached, if it were possible, to Flemming's eldest
+boy Robert, than to any other member of the family.
+
+After two or three years' successful trading in the northern islands of
+the Kingsmill Group, Flemming had sold out his trading interests very
+satisfactorily, and, always eager to go further afield, had sailed for
+the Paumotu Group, choosing Anaa as his home, for he thought he should
+like the people, and do very well as a trader, for the island was but a
+few days' sail from Tahiti in the Society Group, where there was always
+a good market for his produce, and where he could replenish his stock of
+trade goods from the great mercantile firm of Brander--in those days the
+Whiteleys of the South and Eastern Pacific.
+
+One afternoon, about six o'clock, when work at the trading station had
+ceased for the day, and the store door had been shut and locked by Mrs.
+Flemming, the trader was seated on his shady verandah, smoking a cigar
+and listening to the prattle of his little daughter, when his two boys
+raced up to him from the beach, and noisily asked him permission to take
+the smallest of the boats (a ship's dinghy) and go fishing outside the
+reef until the morning. They had just heard some natives crying out
+that a vast shoal of _tau tau_--a large salmonlike fish, greatly prized
+throughout the South Seas--had made their appearance, and already some
+canoes were being got ready.
+
+"Who is going with you, boys?" asked Flemming, looking at their
+deeply-bronzed, healthy faces--so like his own, though his hair had now
+begun to grizzle about his sunburnt temples.
+
+"Jack and Tom, and two Anaa men," they replied, "they sent us to ask you
+if they could come. They have finished the new roof for the oil-shed,
+and want to go very badly. Say 'yes,' father."
+
+"All right boys. You may go. Tell your mother to give you plenty to eat
+to take with you--for it's only six o'clock, and I suppose you won't be
+home till daylight."
+
+The delighted boys tore into the house to get their fishing tackle,
+whilst their mother, telling them to make less clamour, filled an empty
+box with biscuit, bread, and tinned meats enough for the party of
+six, and in less than ten minutes they were off again, shouting their
+goodbyes as they raced through the gate, followed by a native woman
+carrying the heavy box of food.
+
+Martin Flemming turned to his wife with a smile lighting up his somewhat
+sombre face.
+
+"We shall have a quiet house to-night, Kaiulani," he said, calling her
+by her Hawaiian name.
+
+"Which will be a treat for us, Martin. Those boys really make more noise
+every day. And do you know what they have done now?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"They have a live hawkbill turtle in their room--quite a large one,
+for I could scarcely move it--and have painted its back in five or six
+colours. And they feed it on live fish; the room smells horribly."
+
+Flemming laughed. "I thought I could smell fresh paint about the house
+yesterday. Never mind, 'Lani. It won't hurt the turtle."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+At seven o'clock on the following morning the boys had not returned,
+and Martin Flemming, just as his wife brought him his cup of coffee, was
+saying that they probably were still fishing, when he heard a sound that
+made him spring to his feet--the long, hoarse, bellowing note of a conch
+shell, repeated three times.
+
+"That's a call to arms!" he cried, "what does it mean, I wonder. Ah,
+there is another sounding, too, from the far end of the village. I must
+go and see what is the matter."
+
+Scarcely, however, had he put his foot outside his door when he heard
+his boys' voices, and in another moment he saw them running or rather
+staggering along the path together with a crowd of natives, who were all
+wildly excited, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+
+"Father, father," and the eldest boy ran to him, and scarcely able to
+stand, so exhausted was he, he flung himself down on the verandah steps,
+"father, Jack and Tom, and the two Anaa men... been stolen by a strange
+ship... we must... we must save them."
+
+Hastening inside, Flemming returned with a carafe of cold water, and
+commanding the boys not to try to speak any more just then, he poured
+some over their wrists, and then gave them a little in a glass to drink.
+When they were sufficiently "winded," they told him their story, which
+was, briefly, this.
+
+In company with two canoes, they had put out to sea and began fishing.
+Then they parted company--the boat pulling round to the other side of
+Anaa, where they fished with fair success till daylight. Suddenly a
+small white-painted barque appeared, coming round the north end of
+the island. She was under very easy canvas, and when she saw the boat,
+backed her main-yard, and ran up her ensign.
+
+"They want us to come aboard," said Bob, hauling in his line. "Up lines
+everybody."
+
+His companions at once pulled up their lines, and took to the oars, and
+in a few minutes they were alongside the ship, and an officer leant over
+the side of the poop, and asked them to come aboard.
+
+The boys ascended first, the four natives following; the former were at
+once conducted into the barque's cabin, where the captain, an old
+man with a white moustache, asked them their names, and then began to
+question them as to the number of natives on the island, &c., when they
+started to their feet with alarmed faces as they heard a sudden rush of
+feet on deck, followed by oaths and cries, and Walter the younger of the
+two, fancied, he heard his brother's name called by Jack Waterwitch.
+
+"Sit down, boys, sit down," said the captain, dropping his suave
+manner, and speaking angrily, "you can go on deck and be off on shore
+presently." As he spoke a man came below, and made a sign to him.
+
+"All right, sir."
+
+The captain nodded, and then told the boys to go on deck and get into
+their boat. They at once obeyed, but the moment they reached the deck
+they were surrounded by five or six of the crew, who hustled them to
+the gangway, and forced them over the side, despite their struggles, and
+their loud cries to their native friends, of whom they could see nothing
+whatever.
+
+The boat's line was cast off, and as she fell astern the boys saw that
+a number of sailors were aloft, loosing her light sails, and in a few
+minutes she was some distance away from them, heading to the eastward
+with a light breeze. As quickly as possible the two boys set the boat's
+sail, and sailing and pulling, they ran straight for the weather side of
+the island, crossed over the reef into the lagoon, and gave the alarm to
+the first people they met.
+
+"Good lads," said Flemming, "you have done all that you could do. We
+shall see presently what can be done to save our men."
+
+Then turning to his wife, he bade her get ready enough provision for
+his three boats, and have them launched and manned by their usual crews,
+whilst he went to the mission to consult with Father Billot and the
+chiefs, for he had already heard from one of the excited natives that
+the barque was still very near the land, and almost becalmed; and he
+knew that the Anaa natives would to a man assist him in recovering the
+four men from captivity.
+
+Half way to the mission house, he met the priest himself, hurrying along
+the shaded path, to tell him the further news that the two canoes which
+had accompanied the boat had just returned, after narrowly escaping
+capture by the barque. It appeared that they, too, had seen the barque
+crawling along under the lee of the land and close in to the reef, just
+as daylight broke, and from the number of boats she carried--she had
+two towing, as well as three others on deck--they imagined her to be
+a whaler. They paddled up alongside without the slightest suspicion
+of danger, and three or four of their number in the first canoe were
+clambering up the side when they suddenly sprang overboard, just as
+three or four grapnels with light chains were thrown from the bulwarks
+over the canoes so as to catch their outriggers, and capsize them. Most
+fortunately, however, only one of the grapnels caught--it fell upon the
+wooden grating or platform between the outrigger and the hull of
+one canoe, and was quickly torn away by the desperate hands of the
+natives--in less than a minute both canoes were clear of the ship, and
+racing shoreward without the loss of a single man. No attempt was made
+to follow them in the barque's boats, her ruffianly captain and crew
+evidently recognising that there was no chance of overtaking them when
+the land was so near.
+
+"The villains!" exclaimed Flemming, as he and the priest set off at a
+run to the house of the head chief, who had just sent an urgent message
+for them to come and meet him and his leading men in counsel, "she must
+be a slaver from the coast of South America."
+
+The consultation with the chiefs was a hurried one, and a resolution
+to board the barque and recapture the four men if possible, was quickly
+arrived at. Over thirty canoes, and five or six boats, manned and armed
+by nearly two hundred of the picked men of the island, and led by Martin
+Flemming and three chiefs, were soon underway, and passing out through
+the narrow passage in the reef, went northward till they rounded the
+point, and saw the barque about five miles away. She had every stitch of
+canvas set, but was making little more than steerage way, for only the
+faintest air was filling her upper canvas.
+
+The canoes and boats, at Flemming's suggestion, approached her in a
+half-circle, his own boat leading. It was his intention to recover the
+men if possible, without bloodshed, and he would first make an attempt
+to board the slaver--for such she was--and alone try to achieve the
+men's liberation by pointing out to the captain that his ship would be
+captured and destroyed by the infuriated natives if he refused. If he
+did refuse there would be a heavy loss of life--of that he (Flemming)
+was certain.
+
+Apparently no notice was taken by the barque of the approaching
+flotilla, until it was within three quarters of a mile, then she hauled
+up her mainsail, came slowly to the wind, and began firing with two of
+the four guns she carried--nine-pounders. Flemming at once ordered all
+the other boats and canoes to cease pulling and paddling, and he went on
+alone. He was not again fired at till he came within a quarter of a mile
+of the vessel, when a volley of musketry was fired, together with the
+two heavy guns, both of which were loaded with grape. How any one of
+them in the boat escaped was a marvel, for the bullets lashed the water
+into foam only a few yards ahead, and some, ricochetting, struck and
+damaged two of the oars.
+
+To advance in face of such a fire would be madness. The barque evidently
+carried a large and well-armed crew, so he slewed round and pulled
+towards the little fleet, as those on the slaver yelled derisively, and
+again began firing with the nine-pounders, and small arms as well.
+
+And then, to his bitter rage and disappointment, a puff of wind came
+over from the westward, and the barque's sails filled. In ten minutes
+she was slipping through the water so quickly that she was leaving them
+astern fast, and in another hour she had swept round the south end of
+the land, and they saw her no more.
+
+Sad and dejected, he and his native friends returned to Tuuhora, and
+drawing up their boats and canoes, went to their homes in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TEN years had passed, and fortune had proved kind to Martin Flemming and
+his family, who were now, with the exception of the eldest son, settled
+on the island of Barotonga, one of the Cook's Group.
+
+For some years after the abduction of the four unfortunate natives,
+Flemming had tried every possible means of ascertaining their fate, and
+at first thought that he would succeed, for within a few weeks after
+the visit of the barque to Anaa, there came news of similar outrages
+perpetrated by three vessels, through the Ellice, Line Islands and
+Paumotu Group. One of these vessels was a barque, the others were brigs,
+and all sailed under Peruvian colours, though many of the officers were
+Englishmen.
+
+In one instance they had descended upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of
+the island of Nukulaelae in the Ellice Group, and carried off almost the
+entire population, and at Easter Island--far to the eastward, over
+three hundred unfortunate natives were seized under circumstances of the
+grossest treachery and violence, and manacled together, taken away to
+end their days as slaves in working the guano deposits on the Chincha
+Islands, off the coast of South America.
+
+Though not then a rich man, Flemming at his own expense made a long and
+tedious voyage to the Ghinchas. By the time he arrived there nearly a
+year had elapsed since the four men had been stolen, and he found that
+both the British and French Governments had compelled the Peruvian
+Government to restore all of the wretched survivors--there were but
+few, alas!--to their homes. Over one hundred of the wretched beings had
+perished of disease in the hot and stifling holds of the slavers; scores
+of them, attempting to regain their liberty, had been shot down, and the
+fearful toil in the guano pits of the Ghincha Islands carried off many
+more.
+
+At the Chincha Islands he was unable to gain any definite information
+about the four men, but was told that the British Consul at Gallao might
+be able to tell him what had become of them--whether they had died or
+had been among those restored to their homes. So to Gallao be went, for
+he was ever bearing in mind the grief of his children at the loss of
+their dear "Tommy Topsail-tie" and "Jacky Waterwitch," and his promise
+to them that if they and their Anaa companions were alive he would bring
+them back.
+
+But a bitter disappointment awaited him at Gallao--for the Consul, who
+had been largely instrumental in forcing the Peruvian Government to
+liberate the captured people, gave him absolute proof that none of the
+four men had reached the Ghinchas, for he had obtained a great deal of
+information from the survivors, all of which he had carefully recorded.
+
+"Here is what Vili, a native of Nukulaelae, told me, Mr. Flemming. He
+was one of those who were captured by the barque, and was rather well
+treated by the captain on account of his speaking English, being put
+into the mate's watch as he had been to sea for many years in whale
+ships. He says:--
+
+'After we of Nukulaelae had been on board the barque for about twenty
+days, we came to an island in the Paumotus, where the captain tried to
+capture two canoes full of natives but failed, though quite soon after
+he seized four from a boat, and they were carried down into the hold
+and ironed, for they had fought very hard and all were much hurt and
+bleeding. I spoke to them and they told me that they had been out
+fishing with the two sons of a white man, who was a trader on the
+island. The captain did not hurt the two boys, but let them go. Then a
+lot of canoes and boats came off and the ship fired her cannons at them,
+and drove them away.
+
+'Next day we met another ship, a small schooner, flying the German flag,
+and her captain came on board our ship and had a long talk with our
+captain, and presently an officer and six men came down into the hold,
+and took the irons off nine men and drove them on deck. Among these men
+were the four who were taken from the boat. The captain of the schooner
+paid our captain money for them, and took them on board his vessel,
+which then sailed away.'
+
+"Now, Mr. Flemming," resumed the Consul, "that is all I can tell you.
+I have written to the British Consul at Apia in Samoa, and at Levuka in
+Fiji, asking them to endeavour to find out the schooner's name and trace
+the nine men. I have no doubt but that she was some Fijian or Samoan
+'blackbirder,' and that the poor devils are working on some of the
+plantations in either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga. There is, therefore, good
+reason for you to hope that you will succeed in your search. I shall
+gladly give you all the assistance in my power to facilitate your
+enquiries."
+
+Returning to Anaa, Flemming, through the aid of the French authorities
+in Tahiti, placed himself in communication with the British Consuls in
+Fiji and Samoa, telling them the details of the capture of the four
+men and of their transference with five others to another vessel, and
+enclosing a sum of money--all he could spare--to be given to Tommy
+Topsail-tie so that he and his three companions might be enabled to find
+their way back to Anaa.
+
+At the end of another long weary year of hopeful expectation, he
+received replies from the Consuls, returning the money he had sent, and
+saying that after most careful inquiries, they could learn nothing of
+the nine men; but that they (the Consuls) had strong reason to believe
+that the schooner to which they had been transferred was a notorious
+German "blackbirder" named the _Samoa_, though the captain and the crew
+swore they knew nothing of the matter.
+
+"It is quite possible," they said in their joint report, "that some or
+all of the men are on one of the German plantations in Samoa or Tonga,
+and that you will yet discover them. But the German Consuls will give
+us no assistance, and absolutely decline to permit us to send any one to
+visit the plantations, unless the managers or owners are agreeable. And,
+as you can imagine, the owners and managers are _not_ agreeable, and
+have declined in terms of great rudeness to even supply us with the
+names of any of their labourers, or the names of the various islands
+from which they come."
+
+But even in face of this Flemming did not despair, and told his wife and
+children, who could not restrain their tears when they read the Consuls'
+report, that he would not let the matter rest. He had several friends
+in Samoa and Fiji--merchants, traders and ship captains, and to them he
+wrote asking them to institute enquiries quietly, and let him know the
+result.
+
+After spending another five years on Anaa, during which time he had
+heard nothing of the missing men, he determined to settle on Rarotonga,
+where there was an excellent opportunity of making money. His eldest
+boy by this time was almost a grown man, and was earning his living as a
+supercargo of a trading vessel, running between Auckland in New Zealand
+and the various groups of islands in the South Pacific.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+In the quiet little harbour of Mulifanua, situated at the western end of
+the island of Upolu, a fine-looking brigantine was lying at anchor, and
+the captain and supercargo were pacing the deck together enjoying their
+after-breakfast pipes.
+
+The brigantine was the _Maori Maid_ of Auckland, Captain Heselton,
+and the supercargo was young Robert Flemming. The vessel had run into
+Mulifanua Harbour owing to her having struck on a reef a few days
+previously whilst beating up against the south-east trades from Wallis
+Island to Leone Bay, a port on the island of Tutuila, one of the Samoan
+Group, and as she was leaking rather seriously her captain decided to
+run into Mulifanua, put her on the beach, and get at the leak or leaks.
+
+"There is no need for you to stay on board, Bob," said Heselton
+presently to his young supercargo. "Go ashore and stay ashore until we
+are ready for sea again. All going well we'll find out where the damage
+is by this time to-morrow, and be afloat again in a few days. But there
+is nothing to keep you aboard, and you might as well put in your time
+shooting or otherwise enjoying yourself; why not go and have a look at
+Goddeffroy's big plantation? It's only about a couple of miles away."
+
+"Thank you, captain, I think I shall. As you know for years past I have
+always been hoping that during one of our cruises, I might come across
+some native or other on one of these plantations who might be able to
+tell me something about those four poor fellows who were collared by
+that Peruvian barque ten years ago. And this plantation of Goddeffroy's
+is one of the biggest in the South Seas--there are over seven hundred
+labourers, Line Islanders, Solomon Islanders, New Britain niggers and
+heaven knows what else."
+
+"Well, you'll have a good chance now. And look here, Bob--take your
+time, a day or two more or less doesn't matter to us. I shall have
+plenty to do even after I get at this confounded leak. The rigging wants
+setting up badly, so we may be here any time under a week."
+
+"Right. I'll go and have a look at the plantation; and if the manager is
+a decent sort of a Dutchman he might put me up. If he's a hog--which
+he probably is--I'll go to the native village, sleep there to-night and
+have a day's pigeon-shooting to-morrow."
+
+Just then a boat was seen putting off from the shore, manned by Samoans,
+but steered by a white man, who as soon as he came on deck introduced
+himself as the local trader. He was a quiet, good-natured old fellow--an
+Englishman--and as soon as he learned of the mishap to the brigantine,
+at once offered to get a gang of natives to assist in beaching her; and
+then pressed Flemming to make his house his home during the stay of the
+vessel.
+
+"Thank you," replied the young man, "I shall be very pleased. I want to
+have a look at the big plantation here and try to have a yarn with some
+of the Eingsmill Island labourers." Then he told the trader, who was
+much interested, the object he had in view.
+
+"I'm sure that the manager will let you talk to any of the labourers,"
+he said, "for he's one of the 'White men' kind of Dutchmen. His name
+is Knorr. He succeeded a regular brute of a man who used to flog the
+plantation hands right and left. A lot of them have run away during the
+past six or seven years and have taken to the mountains. They are all
+armed, and sometimes, when they are in want of food, will lay the Samoan
+villages under tribute, and if any resistance is shown, they set fire to
+the houses. The Samoans are terribly afraid of them, for there are two
+or three cannibal Solomon Islanders among them, and a Samoan has a holy
+terror of a man-eater."
+
+"Why don't the Dutchmen capture the beggars?" asked the captain. "There
+are enough of them in Samoa."
+
+The old trader laughed--"Ay, too many, sir; too many for us poor English
+traders. But they have tried, time and time again, to capture these
+fellows, but only got badly mauled in two or three fights. There is a
+standing reward of two hundred dollars for every one of them, dead or
+alive, and about a year ago ten flash young Samoan _manaias_{*} set out,
+well armed and well primed with grog, to surprise the escapees, who were
+known to be living in an almost inaccessible part of the mountains. Only
+four of the ten came back; the other six were shot down one by one as
+they were climbing the side of a mountain, and these four were made
+prisoners by the outlaws, who gave them such a fright that they will
+never get over it. It was as good as any novel to hear them talk about
+it, I can assure you."
+
+     * Warriors or rather would-be warriors--young men whom the
+     local white men usually speak of as "bucks,"--i.e., flashy,
+     saucy fellows.
+
+"Go on, tell us the whole yarn," said the skipper of the _Maori Maid_,
+as he pushed a decanter of brandy towards his visitor, and take a cigar.
+"It's pleasant to meet an Englishman in these Dutchman-infested islands,
+especially when he has a good yarn to spin."
+
+"The yarn isn't a pleasant one, captain," said the trader. "It's a
+d------d unpleasant one, but it's true, sir."
+
+He lit a cigar and then resumed: "Well, after six of these flash young
+fellows were shot down, the other four dropped their rifles and cried
+out, _Fia ola! Fia ola!_ (Quarter! Quarter!) and in a few minutes about
+a dozen of the escapees made their appearance, took away their rifles
+and cartridges, and tying their arms behind their backs made them march
+in front of them up the mountain-side till they came to a bit of a
+thicket in which were four or five small huts. Telling their prisoners
+to sit down, half of their number went away, returning in half an hour
+with the six heads of the men who had been shot.
+
+"Take these heads back with you," said one of the outlaws, who could
+speak Samoan, "and tell all Mulifanua that we are strong men. We fear
+no one, for we have plenty of guns and cartridges, and five hundred men
+such as you cannot take us. And say to the chief of the village, that on
+every fourth day, food for us must be brought to the foot of the eastern
+spur of the mountain. If this be not done, then shall we kill all whom
+we meet--men, women or children. Now go and tell the man who flogged
+us that some day we shall cook and eat his head, for we are very strong
+men.'
+
+"Well, the four poor trembling beggars were liberated, and carrying
+the six heads of their comrades, they went back, and their story so
+terrified the people of Mulifanua that no further attempt was ever made
+to capture the outlaws. And although the Germans don't know of it, the
+villagers are to this very day, gentlemen, supplying these dangerous
+devils with food, and I know for a fact that sometimes two or three of
+them come down from the mountains and sleep in the village without fear.
+They have never troubled me; but very often a native boy or girl will
+come to me and buy a 28-lb. bag of shot, caps and powder, and I know
+perfectly well that it is for the 'wild men,' as the people here call
+the escaped men. Every one of them has not only a rifle, but a shot-gun
+as well, for they one night broke into the plantation store and carried
+off all the rifles and guns they could find."
+
+"Take care, Bob, that they don't take some pot shots at you," said the
+captain, with a laugh, as his supercargo rose to get ready to go ashore
+with the trader.
+
+"They would if they thought Mr. Hemming was a German from the
+plantation," said the trader, seriously, "so you had better not go too
+far away when you are shooting, unless you take a native guide with you.
+For, as I have said before, these men and the people of the village
+are now, I really believe, in secret friendship, or rather alliance--an
+alliance born out of terror on one side and savage desperation on the
+other."
+
+A few minutes later young Flemming and the trader were being pulled
+ashore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The German manager of the great plantation proved to be, as the old
+trader had said, "one of the white-men kind of Dutchmen." He received
+the young supercargo most hospitably, and insisted upon his remaining to
+lunch, and when Flemming told him frankly of the long quest for the four
+missing men, he at once became deeply sympathetic.
+
+"You shall see every one of the six or seven hundred natives I have
+working for me, Mr. Flemming. They are all now scattered about in
+different portions of the plantation, but at five o'clock, when they
+knock off, I shall have them all mustered. But I am almost certain that
+you will not find any one of the nine who were transferred from the
+Peruvian slaver to the German 'black-birder,' for I have always taken
+an interest in these people, and know pretty well from where they all
+come. My predecessor here was very rough with them--the less I say about
+him the better--and there is now quite a number of runaways living in
+the bush. They have defied all efforts to capture them. Who they are,
+and where they come from, I cannot well tell, for the former manager
+never kept an accurate account of the numbers of new arrivals brought
+here by the various labour vessels, nor did he specify in his books, as
+he should have done, from what particular islands they came. 'Natives'
+he considered to be a sufficient designation, and 'three years' or
+'six years' indicated the time for which they were engaged. He left the
+identification of themselves and their islands to the captains of the
+various vessels which, at the end of their time, take them back again."
+
+"I wonder if it is possible that the four men I am looking for are among
+the outlaws," said Flemming.
+
+"Possible, quite possible," replied the manager, "but you will never be
+able to see them if they are. The gang is very desperate and determined,
+and though they have no animus against me personally, they would shoot
+me, or you, or any white man who attempted to get into communication
+with them."
+
+After a little further conversation with the manager, Flemming said he
+would have a few hours' pigeon-shooting, returning in time to see the
+plantation hands mustered. Knorr wished him to take a Samoan guide, but
+the young man laughingly reminded him that he was half a native himself,
+and from his infancy almost had been used to wandering about the
+mountain forests of the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia; so, bidding
+his host good morning, he shouldered his gun and set off, and in another
+hour was ascending the first spur of the mountain range, which traverses
+the island of Upolu from one end to the other.
+
+He had a reason for declining the services of a guide, for he had
+determined to attempt to reach the outlaws' refuge, and, at the risk
+of his life, finding out if Tommy Topsail-tie and Jack Waterwitch were
+among them. The old trader had told him that one of their number was a
+very big man, whose legs, back, and neck were tattooed as the Kingsmill
+Islanders tattoo, and he (Flemming) had formed the idea, since his
+conversation with the manager of the plantation, that this big man was
+Binoke--the dear friend of his boyhood's days, the ever-wanted "Tommy
+Topsail-tie" of his brother and his sister Medora, the man who, with
+Jack Waterwitch, had stood to his father and mother in their poverty and
+distress, and had toiled night and day for them without recompense.
+
+As he walked over the soft carpet of fallen leaves which covered the
+mountain-side so thickly that no sound came from his footsteps,
+he listened carefully. He knew that he was proceeding in the right
+direction for the outlaws' refuge--the direction the plantation manager
+had impressed on him to avoid--and after a two hours' stiff climb he
+found himself on the summit of the spur and overlooking the harbour. Far
+below him he could see the _Maori Maid_ being hauled on to the beach,
+and eight miles away the beautiful little island of Manono lay basking
+in the sun on a sea of deepest, glorious blue.
+
+Suddenly he heard a sound, a faint, soft creeping on the ground
+somewhere near him, and he knew that it was the sound of a human
+footstep, and that he was watched.
+
+He laid down his gun, and stood up and pretended to closely scan
+the thick, leafy canopy of the mighty trees overhead, as if he were
+searching for pigeons. Then his voice rang out clearly, and echoed and
+re-echoed in the grey and silent forest aisles.
+
+"Binoke, Binoke! 'Tis I! Nobal, Nobal! 'Tis I who call! Tis I, Papu
+(Bob), of Anaa! I, who have sought thee long. Binoke! Nohal!"
+
+Then came a sudden rush of feet and brown, naked bodies from all around,
+and in another moment the young man was almost lifted off hid feet by
+Tommy Topsail-tie, who, clasping his mighty arms around him, pressed him
+passionately to his bosom.
+
+"My boy, my boy!... See, 'tis I, Binoke, thy friend, thy slave, thy
+Binoke!" and then the savage creature wept as only wild people such as
+he was weep from excess of joy.
+
+In a few minutes Flemming was hurried along by the friendly hands of
+six or eight of the "wild men" to their refuge further up on the
+mountain-side, where he found not only "Jack Waterwitch," but one of
+the Anaa natives, who had been carried off ten years before; the other
+native of Anaa, he was told by Tommy Topsail-tie, had died a year or two
+previously. There were, he found, twelve natives in all--Topsail-tie,
+who was their leader, Jack Waterwitch, the Anaa man, four Solomon
+Islanders, and five others from various islands.
+
+For an hour or more the young man conversed with his old friends, who
+delightedly agreed to leave their mountain retreat and go on board the
+brigantine as soon as she was ready to sail. The remaining eight men,
+however, refused to leave, although Flemming told them that they could
+all come down from the mountain at night-time, and be very easily stowed
+away on board, and that even if they were discovered the captain would
+be able to protect them, should the German manager make any demand
+for them to be delivered over to him. But all his arguments were in
+vain--they shook their heads and said that never, again would they go,
+willingly or unwillingly, upon the deep sea.
+
+Then the supercargo and Topsail-tie made their plans, and after spending
+another hour or so with the escapees, Flemming shook hands with them
+all, and guided by Nobal, returned to the base of the mountain.
+
+Here he parted from his companion, who quickly plunged into the forest
+again, and reached the plantation just as the manager was mustering the
+plantation hands for his inspection. Not deeming it advisable to tell
+his host of the discovery he had just made, he yet tried to display as
+much interest as possible, and after walking up and down the triple rows
+of men and looking at them rapidly one by one, he said that there was no
+one of them whom he had ever seen before. Then the manager dismissed the
+men, and Flemming, thanking him for his kindness, hurried on board and
+told his story to Captain Heselton.
+
+Two days afterwards the _Maori Maid_ was sailing slowly out through
+Mulifanua passage. Flemming, with the skipper beside him, was standing
+on the poop, looking for'ard.
+
+"Tell them they can come up on deck now, boatswain," he cried, "we are a
+good mile off the land."
+
+And then the three of the four men from whom he and his brother had
+parted ten years before rushed up from the hold, knelt at his feet, and
+laughing and sobbing like children, threw their brown arms around his
+legs.
+
+Binoke rose, and stretching out his huge right arm towards the rising
+sun, turned his black eyes on "the boy" he so loved.
+
+"Is it to the east we sail, Papu?"
+
+"Ay, to the east, Binoke, far, far to the east, to a fair, fair land
+with green mountains and falling streams. And there awaits us my father
+and mother, and my brother, and Medora. And they will be well content
+with me, for never hast thou and Nobal been forgotten."
+
+
+
+
+
+"FLASH HARRY" OF SAVAIT
+
+Nearly thirty years ago, when the late King Malietoa of Samoa was
+quietly arming his own adherents and conciliating his rebel chiefs in
+order to combine against the persistent encroachments of the Germans,
+I was running a small trading cutter between Upolu and Savaii, the two
+principal islands of the group.
+
+One day I arrived in Apia Harbour with a cargo of yams which I was
+selling to an American man-of-war, the _Resacca_. I went alongside at
+once, had the yams weighed and received my money from the paymaster,
+and then went ashore for a bathe in the Vaisigago River, a lovely little
+stream which, taking its rise in the mountains, debouches into Apia
+Harbour. Here I was joined by an old friend, Captain Hamilton, the local
+pilot, who, stripping off his clothes, plunged into the water beside me.
+
+As we were laughing and chatting and thoroughly enjoying ourselves,
+a party of natives--young men and boys--emerged from the trees on the
+opposite bank, and casting off their scanty garments, boisterously
+entered the water and began disporting themselves, and then to my
+surprise I saw that their leader was a white man, tattoed in every
+respect, like a Samoan. He appeared to be about thirty years of age, was
+clean-shaven, and had bright red hair.
+
+"Who is that fellow?" I inquired.
+
+"One of the biggest scoundrels in the Pacific," replied my companion,
+"'Flash Harry' from Savaii. He deserted from either the _Brisk_ (or the
+_Zealous_) British man-of-war, about seven years ago, and although the
+commanders of several other British warships have tried to get him, they
+have failed. He is the pet _protege_ of one of the most powerful chiefs
+in Savaii, and laughs at all attempts to catch him. To my knowledge he
+has committed four atrocious murders, and, in addition to that, he is
+a drunken, foul-mouthed blackguard. He only comes to Apia
+occasionally--when there is no British man-of-war about--and paints
+the town red, for although he is merely a loafing beachcomber, he is
+liberally supplied with money by his chief, and possesses an extensive
+harem as well. He simply terrorises the town when he breaks out, and
+insults every timid European, male and female, whom he meets."
+
+"Why doesn't some one put a bullet through him?"
+
+"Ah, now you're asking! Why? Porter" (a respectable Samoan trader)
+"told him that he would riddle him if he came inside his fence, and the
+scoundrel knows _me_ well enough not to come into my place with anything
+but a civil word on his foul tongue; but then you see, Porter and I
+are Americans. If either or both of us shot the man no commander of an
+American man-of-war would do more than publicly reprimand us for taking
+the law into our own hands; but if you or any other Englishman killed
+the vermin, you would be taken to Fiji by the first man-of-war that
+called here, put on your trial for murder, and, if you escaped hanging,
+get a pretty turn of penal servitude in Fiji gaol."
+
+We finished our bathe, dressed, and set out for Hamilton's house on
+Matautu Point, for he had asked me to have supper with him. On our way
+thither we met the master of a German barque, then in port, and were
+chatting with him in the middle of the road, when Mr. "Flash Harry" and
+his retinue of _manaia_ (young bucks) overtook us.
+
+The path being rather narrow we drew aside a few paces to let them pass,
+but at a sign from their leader they stopped. He nodded to Hamilton and
+the German captain (neither of whom took any notice of him) then fixed
+his eyes insolently on me and held out his hand.
+
+"How do yer do, Mister. You're a nice sort of a cove not to come and see
+me when you pass my place in your cutter"--then with sudden fury as I
+put my hands in my pockets--"you, you young cock-a-hoopy swine, do you
+mean to say you don't mean to shake hands with a white man?"
+
+"Not with you, anyway," I answered.
+
+"Then the next time I see you I'll pull your ------ arm out of the
+socket," he said, with an oath, and turning on his heel he went off with
+his following of bucks. All of them were armed with rifles and the long
+beheading knives called _Nifa oti_ (death-knife), and as we three had
+nothing but our fists we should have had a bad time had they attacked
+us, for we were in an unfrequented part of the beach and would have been
+half murdered before assistance came. But in Samoa in those days street
+brawls were common.
+
+"The next time you _do_ meet him," said Hamilton as we resumed our walk,
+"don't give him a chance. Drill a hole through him as soon as he gets
+within ten paces, and then clear out of Samoa as quick as you can."
+
+* * * * *
+
+Quite a month after this I had to visit the little port of Asaua on
+the Island of Savaii; and as I was aware that "Flash Harry" was in the
+vicinity of the place on a _malaga_, or pleasure trip, I kept a sharp
+lookout for him, and always carried with me in my jumper pocket a small
+but heavy Derringer, the bullet of which was as big as that of a Snider
+rifle. I did not want to have my arm pulled out of the socket, and knew
+that "Flash Harry," being twice my weight almost, would give me a sad
+time if he could once get within hitting distance of me, for like most
+men-of-war's men he was very smart with his hands, and I was but a
+stripling--not yet twenty.
+
+I had come to Asaua with a load of timber to be used in the construction
+of a church for the French Mission, and in the evening went to the
+resident priest to obtain a receipt for delivery. As he could not
+speak English and I could not speak French we had to struggle along in
+Samoan--to our mutual amusement. However, we got along very well, and I
+was about to accept his hospitable offer to remain and have sapper with
+him when a young chief whom I knew, named Ulofanua ("Top of a High
+Tree") came in hurriedly and told us that "Flash Harry" and ten or
+fifteen young men, all more or less drunk, were coming to the village
+that night with the avowed intention of boarding the cutter under the
+pretence of trading, seizing all the liquor and giving me a father of a
+beating--the latter to avenge the insult of a month before.
+
+Laughingly telling the priest that under the circumstances discretion
+was the better part of valour, I bade him goodbye, walked down to my
+boat, which was lying on the beach, and with two native sailors pulling,
+we started for the cutter, a mile away. The night was beautifully calm,
+but dark, and as I was not well acquainted with the inner part of Asaua
+Harbour and could not see my way, I several times ran the boat on
+to submerged coral boulders; and, finally, lost the narrow channel
+altogether.
+
+Then I told one of my men, a sturdy, splendid specimen of a native of
+the Gilbert Islands named Te Manu Uraura ("Bed Bird") to come aft
+and take the steer oar, knowing that his eyesight, like that of all
+Polynesians, was better than that of any white man.
+
+"Come here, Te Manu, and steer, I'll take your oar. Your eyes are better
+than mine."
+
+The poor fellow laughed good-naturedly, and I little thought that this
+simple request of mine would be the cause of his being a cripple for
+life. He came aft, took the steer oar from me, and I, seating myself on
+the after thwart, began to pull. We were at this time about thirty yards
+from the beach, and between it and the inner reef of the harbour. We
+sent the boat along for two or three hundred yards without a hitch,
+and I was thinking of what my cook would have for my supper, when we
+suddenly plumped into a patch of dead coral and stuck hard and fast.
+
+Knowing that the tide was falling, we all jumped out, and pushed the
+boat off into deeper water as quickly as possible, just as half a dozen
+bright torches of coco-nut leaves flared up on the shore and revealed
+the boat dimly to those who were holding them.
+
+At first I imagined that the chief of the village had sent some of his
+people to help us through the channel, but I was quickly undeceived when
+I heard "Flash Harry's" voice.
+
+"I've got you now, my saucy young quarter-deck-style-of-pup. Slew round
+and come ashore, or I'll blow your head off."
+
+One glance ashore showed me that we were in a desperate position. "Flash
+Harry," who was all but stark-naked--he had only a girdle of _ti_ tree
+leaves round his waist--was covering the boat with his Winchester rifle,
+and his followers, armed with other guns, were ready to fire a volley
+into us, although most of them were pretty well drunk.
+
+"They can't hit us, Te Manu," I cried to the Gilbert Islander, whose
+inborn fighting proclivities were showing in his gleaming eyes and
+short, panting breaths, "most of them have no cartridges in their guns,
+and they are all too drunk to shoot straight. Let us go on!"
+
+Te Manu gripped the haft of the steer oar and swung the boat's head
+round, and then I and the other native at the bow oar--a mere boy of
+sixteen--pulled for all we were worth just as "Flash Harry" dropped on
+one knee and fired.
+
+Poor Te Manu swayed to and fro for a few moments and then cried out, "He
+has broken my hand, sir! But go on, pull, pull hard!"
+
+Under a spattering fire from the beachcomber's drunken companions we
+pulled out into deeper water and safety, and then, shipping my oar, I
+sprang to Te Manu's aid. The bullet had struck him in the back of the
+right hand and literally cut off three of the poor fellow's knuckles.
+I did what I could to stop the loss of blood, and told him to sit
+down, but he refused, and although suffering intense pain, insisted on
+steering with his left hand. As soon as we reached the cutter I at
+once hove up anchor and stood along the coast before a strong breeze
+to Matautu Harbour, where I was able to have the man's hand properly
+attended to. He never recovered the use of it again except in a slight
+degree.
+
+I never saw "Flash Harry" again, for a few months later I left Samoa
+for the Caroline Group, and when I returned a year afterwards I was told
+that he had at last found the country too hot for him and had left the
+island in a German "blackbirder" bound to the Solomon Islands.
+
+*****
+
+Quite six years had passed, and then I learnt, in a somewhat curious
+manner, what became of him. One day in Sydney, New South Wales, three
+captains and myself met for lunch at the Paragon Hotel, on Circular
+Quay. We were all engaged in the South Sea trade, and one of the
+company, who was a stranger to me, had just returned from the Solomon
+Islands, with which group and its murderous, cannibal people he was very
+familiar. (He was himself destined to be killed there with his ship's
+company in 1884.) He was a young man who had had some very narrow
+escapes and some very thrilling experiences, some of which he narrated.
+
+We were talking of the massacre of Captain Ferguson and the crew of the
+Sydney trading steamer _Ripple_, by the natives of Bougainville Island
+in the Solomon Group, when our friend remarked--
+
+"Ah, poor Ferguson ought to have been more careful. Why, the very
+chief of that village at Numa Numa--the man who cut him down with a
+tomahawk--had killed two other white men. Ferguson knew that, and yet
+would allow him to come aboard time after time with hundreds of his
+people, and gave him and them the run of his ship. I knew the fellow
+well. He told me to my face, the first time I met him, that he had
+killed and eaten two white men."
+
+"Who were they?" I asked.
+
+"One was a man trading for Captain MacLeod of New Caledonia; the other
+chap was some beachcombing fellow who had been kicked ashore at Numa
+Numa by his skipper. I heard he came from Samoa originally. Anyway the
+chief told me that as soon as the ship that had put the man ashore had
+sailed, he was speared through the back as he was drinking a coco-nut.
+
+"When they stripped off his clothes to make him ready for the oven, they
+found he was tattoed, Samoan fashion, from the waist to the knees. Then,
+as he had red hair, they cut off his head and smoke-dried it, instead of
+eating it with the rest of the body; they kept it as an ornament for the
+stem of a big canoe. A white man's head is a great thing at any time for
+a canoe's figurehead in the Solomons, but a white man's head with red
+hair is a great _mana_" (mascotte).
+
+Then I told him that I had known the man, and gave him his antecedents.
+
+"Ah," he said, "I daresay if you had been there you would have felt as
+if you could have eaten a bit of the beggar yourself."
+
+"I certainly do feel pleased that he's settled," I replied, as I thought
+of poor Red Bird's hand.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of
+Savait, by Louis Becke
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+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait, 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: The Flemmings And "Flash Harry" Of Savait
+       From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other
+              Stories" - 1902
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2008 [EBook #24953]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLEMMINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE FLEMMINGS and &ldquo;FLASH HARRY&rdquo; OF SAVAIT
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      From &ldquo;The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories&rdquo; - 1902
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Louis Becke
+    </h2>
+    <h5>
+      T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902 <br /> <br /> LONDON
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>THE FLEMMINGS</b></big> </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a>
+          </p>
+          <br /> <br />
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> <big><b>"FLASH HARRY&rdquo; OF SAVAIT</b></big>
+            </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FLEMMINGS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On a certain island in the Paumotu Group, known on the charts as Chain
+      Island, but called Anaa by the people themselves, lived a white man named
+      Martin Flemming, one of those restless wanderers who range the Pacific in
+      search of the fortune they always mean to gain, but which never comes to
+      them, except in some few instances&mdash;so few that they might be counted
+      on one's fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two years had come and gone since Flemming had landed on the island with
+      his wife, family, and two native servants, and settled down as a resident
+      trader at the large and populous village of Tuuhora, where he soon gained
+      the respect and confidence&mdash;if not the friendship&mdash;of the Anaa
+      people, one of the proudest, most self-reliant, and brave of any of the
+      Polynesian race, or their offshoots. For though he was a keen business
+      man, he was just and honest in all his transactions, never erring, as so
+      many traders do, on the side of mistaken generosity, but yet evincing a
+      certain amount of liberality when the occasion justified it&mdash;and the
+      natives knew that when he told them that tobacco, or biscuit, or rice, or
+      gunpowder had risen in price in Tahiti or New Zealand, and that he would
+      also be compelled to raise his charges, they knew that his statement was
+      true&mdash;that he was a man above trickery, either in his business or his
+      social relations with them, and would not descend to a lie for the sake of
+      gain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Flemming, at this time, was about forty years of age; his wife, who was an
+      intelligent Hawaiian Islander, was ten years his junior, and the mother of
+      his three half-caste children&mdash;a boy of thirteen, another of ten, and
+      a girl of six. Such education as he could give them during his continuous
+      wanderings over the North and South Pacific had been but scanty; for he
+      was often away on trading cruises, and his wife, though she could read and
+      write, like all Hawaiian women, was not competent to instruct her
+      children, though in all other respects she was everything that a mother
+      should be, except, as Flemming would often tell her, she was too indulgent
+      and too ready to gratify their whims and fancies. However, they were now
+      not so much under her control, for soon after coming to the island, he
+      found that one of the three Marist Brothers living at the mission was able
+      to, and willing to give them a few hours' instruction several times a
+      week. For this, Flemming, who was really anxious about his children's
+      welfare, made a liberal payment to the Mission, and the arrangement had
+      worked very satisfactorily&mdash;Father Billot, who was a good English
+      scholar, giving them their lessons in that language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must now make mention of the remaining persons constituting the trader's
+      household&mdash;the two servants&mdash;one a man about thirty years of
+      age, the other not more than eighteen or nineteen. They were both natives
+      of Arorai (Hurd Island), one of the Eingsmill Group, and situated
+      something less than three degrees south of the Equator. They had both
+      taken service with him on their own island six years previously, and had
+      followed his and his family's fortunes ever since, for they were both
+      devotedly attached to the children; and when, a year after he had settled
+      on their island, misfortune befell him through the destruction of his
+      trading station by fire, and he found himself a ruined man, they refused
+      to leave him, and declared they would work for him without payment until
+      he was again in a position to begin trading&mdash;no matter how long it
+      might be ere that took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some months after the loss of all his property, Flemming worked hard
+      and lived meanly. Most fortunately for him, he had a very good whaleboat,
+      and night after night, and day after day, he and his two faithful helpers,
+      as long as the weather held fine, toiled at the dangerous pursuit of
+      shark-catching, cutting off the fins and tails, and drying them in the
+      sun, until finally he had secured over a ton's weight of the ill-smelling
+      commodity, for which he received £60 in cash from the master of a
+      Chinese-owned trading barque, which touched at the island, and this amount
+      enabled him to leave Arorai, and begin trading elsewhere&mdash;in the
+      great atoll of Butaritari, where owing to his possessing a good boat,
+      sturdy health, and great pluck and resolution, his circumstances so mended
+      that he came to look on the incident of the fire as the best thing that
+      could have happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In appearance these two men were like nearly all the people of the
+      Kingsmill Group&mdash;dark-skinned, strongly built, and with a certain
+      fierceness of visage, born of their warlike and quarrelsome nature, and
+      which never leaves them, even in their old age. The elder of the two,
+      whose native name was Binoké, but who had been given the nickname of
+      &ldquo;Tommy Topsail-tie,&rdquo; had this facial characteristic to a great degree, and
+      was, in addition, of a somewhat morbid and sullen disposition, disliking
+      all strangers. But he was yet the veriest slave to Flemming's children,
+      who tyrannised over him most mercilessly, for young as they were, they
+      knew that his savage heart had nothing in it but adoration and affection
+      for both them and their parents. Nobal, the younger man, who also had a
+      nickname&mdash;&ldquo;Jack Waterwitch&rdquo; (taken from a colonial whaler in which he
+      had once sailed) was of a more genial nature, and had constituted himself
+      the especial guardian and playmate of the little girl Medora, who spoke
+      his native tongue as well as himself; while Tommy Topsail-tie was more
+      attached, if it were possible, to Flemming's eldest boy Robert, than to
+      any other member of the family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After two or three years' successful trading in the northern islands of
+      the Kingsmill Group, Flemming had sold out his trading interests very
+      satisfactorily, and, always eager to go further afield, had sailed for the
+      Paumotu Group, choosing Anaa as his home, for he thought he should like
+      the people, and do very well as a trader, for the island was but a few
+      days' sail from Tahiti in the Society Group, where there was always a good
+      market for his produce, and where he could replenish his stock of trade
+      goods from the great mercantile firm of Brander&mdash;in those days the
+      Whiteleys of the South and Eastern Pacific.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, about six o'clock, when work at the trading station had
+      ceased for the day, and the store door had been shut and locked by Mrs.
+      Flemming, the trader was seated on his shady verandah, smoking a cigar and
+      listening to the prattle of his little daughter, when his two boys raced
+      up to him from the beach, and noisily asked him permission to take the
+      smallest of the boats (a ship's dinghy) and go fishing outside the reef
+      until the morning. They had just heard some natives crying out that a vast
+      shoal of <i>tau tau</i>&mdash;a large salmonlike fish, greatly prized
+      throughout the South Seas&mdash;had made their appearance, and already
+      some canoes were being got ready.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is going with you, boys?&rdquo; asked Flemming, looking at their
+      deeply-bronzed, healthy faces&mdash;so like his own, though his hair had
+      now begun to grizzle about his sunburnt temples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jack and Tom, and two Anaa men,&rdquo; they replied, &ldquo;they sent us to ask you
+      if they could come. They have finished the new roof for the oil-shed, and
+      want to go very badly. Say 'yes,' father.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right boys. You may go. Tell your mother to give you plenty to eat to
+      take with you&mdash;for it's only six o'clock, and I suppose you won't be
+      home till daylight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The delighted boys tore into the house to get their fishing tackle, whilst
+      their mother, telling them to make less clamour, filled an empty box with
+      biscuit, bread, and tinned meats enough for the party of six, and in less
+      than ten minutes they were off again, shouting their goodbyes as they
+      raced through the gate, followed by a native woman carrying the heavy box
+      of food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Martin Flemming turned to his wife with a smile lighting up his somewhat
+      sombre face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall have a quiet house to-night, Kaiulani,&rdquo; he said, calling her by
+      her Hawaiian name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which will be a treat for us, Martin. Those boys really make more noise
+      every day. And do you know what they have done now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have a live hawkbill turtle in their room&mdash;quite a large one,
+      for I could scarcely move it&mdash;and have painted its back in five or
+      six colours. And they feed it on live fish; the room smells horribly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Flemming laughed. &ldquo;I thought I could smell fresh paint about the house
+      yesterday. Never mind, 'Lani. It won't hurt the turtle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At seven o'clock on the following morning the boys had not returned, and
+      Martin Flemming, just as his wife brought him his cup of coffee, was
+      saying that they probably were still fishing, when he heard a sound that
+      made him spring to his feet&mdash;the long, hoarse, bellowing note of a
+      conch shell, repeated three times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a call to arms!&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;what does it mean, I wonder. Ah, there
+      is another sounding, too, from the far end of the village. I must go and
+      see what is the matter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely, however, had he put his foot outside his door when he heard his
+      boys' voices, and in another moment he saw them running or rather
+      staggering along the path together with a crowd of natives, who were all
+      wildly excited, and shouting at the top of their voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Father, father,&rdquo; and the eldest boy ran to him, and scarcely able to
+      stand, so exhausted was he, he flung himself down on the verandah steps,
+      &ldquo;father, Jack and Tom, and the two Anaa men... been stolen by a strange
+      ship... we must... we must save them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hastening inside, Flemming returned with a carafe of cold water, and
+      commanding the boys not to try to speak any more just then, he poured some
+      over their wrists, and then gave them a little in a glass to drink. When
+      they were sufficiently &ldquo;winded,&rdquo; they told him their story, which was,
+      briefly, this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In company with two canoes, they had put out to sea and began fishing.
+      Then they parted company&mdash;the boat pulling round to the other side of
+      Anaa, where they fished with fair success till daylight. Suddenly a small
+      white-painted barque appeared, coming round the north end of the island.
+      She was under very easy canvas, and when she saw the boat, backed her
+      main-yard, and ran up her ensign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They want us to come aboard,&rdquo; said Bob, hauling in his line. &ldquo;Up lines
+      everybody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His companions at once pulled up their lines, and took to the oars, and in
+      a few minutes they were alongside the ship, and an officer leant over the
+      side of the poop, and asked them to come aboard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys ascended first, the four natives following; the former were at
+      once conducted into the barque's cabin, where the captain, an old man with
+      a white moustache, asked them their names, and then began to question them
+      as to the number of natives on the island, &amp;c., when they started to
+      their feet with alarmed faces as they heard a sudden rush of feet on deck,
+      followed by oaths and cries, and Walter the younger of the two, fancied,
+      he heard his brother's name called by Jack Waterwitch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sit down, boys, sit down,&rdquo; said the captain, dropping his suave manner,
+      and speaking angrily, &ldquo;you can go on deck and be off on shore presently.&rdquo;
+       As he spoke a man came below, and made a sign to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The captain nodded, and then told the boys to go on deck and get into
+      their boat. They at once obeyed, but the moment they reached the deck they
+      were surrounded by five or six of the crew, who hustled them to the
+      gangway, and forced them over the side, despite their struggles, and their
+      loud cries to their native friends, of whom they could see nothing
+      whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat's line was cast off, and as she fell astern the boys saw that a
+      number of sailors were aloft, loosing her light sails, and in a few
+      minutes she was some distance away from them, heading to the eastward with
+      a light breeze. As quickly as possible the two boys set the boat's sail,
+      and sailing and pulling, they ran straight for the weather side of the
+      island, crossed over the reef into the lagoon, and gave the alarm to the
+      first people they met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good lads,&rdquo; said Flemming, &ldquo;you have done all that you could do. We shall
+      see presently what can be done to save our men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then turning to his wife, he bade her get ready enough provision for his
+      three boats, and have them launched and manned by their usual crews,
+      whilst he went to the mission to consult with Father Billot and the
+      chiefs, for he had already heard from one of the excited natives that the
+      barque was still very near the land, and almost becalmed; and he knew that
+      the Anaa natives would to a man assist him in recovering the four men from
+      captivity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half way to the mission house, he met the priest himself, hurrying along
+      the shaded path, to tell him the further news that the two canoes which
+      had accompanied the boat had just returned, after narrowly escaping
+      capture by the barque. It appeared that they, too, had seen the barque
+      crawling along under the lee of the land and close in to the reef, just as
+      daylight broke, and from the number of boats she carried&mdash;she had two
+      towing, as well as three others on deck&mdash;they imagined her to be a
+      whaler. They paddled up alongside without the slightest suspicion of
+      danger, and three or four of their number in the first canoe were
+      clambering up the side when they suddenly sprang overboard, just as three
+      or four grapnels with light chains were thrown from the bulwarks over the
+      canoes so as to catch their outriggers, and capsize them. Most
+      fortunately, however, only one of the grapnels caught&mdash;it fell upon
+      the wooden grating or platform between the outrigger and the hull of one
+      canoe, and was quickly torn away by the desperate hands of the natives&mdash;in
+      less than a minute both canoes were clear of the ship, and racing
+      shoreward without the loss of a single man. No attempt was made to follow
+      them in the barque's boats, her ruffianly captain and crew evidently
+      recognising that there was no chance of overtaking them when the land was
+      so near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The villains!&rdquo; exclaimed Flemming, as he and the priest set off at a run
+      to the house of the head chief, who had just sent an urgent message for
+      them to come and meet him and his leading men in counsel, &ldquo;she must be a
+      slaver from the coast of South America.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The consultation with the chiefs was a hurried one, and a resolution to
+      board the barque and recapture the four men if possible, was quickly
+      arrived at. Over thirty canoes, and five or six boats, manned and armed by
+      nearly two hundred of the picked men of the island, and led by Martin
+      Flemming and three chiefs, were soon underway, and passing out through the
+      narrow passage in the reef, went northward till they rounded the point,
+      and saw the barque about five miles away. She had every stitch of canvas
+      set, but was making little more than steerage way, for only the faintest
+      air was filling her upper canvas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The canoes and boats, at Flemming's suggestion, approached her in a
+      half-circle, his own boat leading. It was his intention to recover the men
+      if possible, without bloodshed, and he would first make an attempt to
+      board the slaver&mdash;for such she was&mdash;and alone try to achieve the
+      men's liberation by pointing out to the captain that his ship would be
+      captured and destroyed by the infuriated natives if he refused. If he did
+      refuse there would be a heavy loss of life&mdash;of that he (Flemming) was
+      certain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apparently no notice was taken by the barque of the approaching flotilla,
+      until it was within three quarters of a mile, then she hauled up her
+      mainsail, came slowly to the wind, and began firing with two of the four
+      guns she carried&mdash;nine-pounders. Flemming at once ordered all the
+      other boats and canoes to cease pulling and paddling, and he went on
+      alone. He was not again fired at till he came within a quarter of a mile
+      of the vessel, when a volley of musketry was fired, together with the two
+      heavy guns, both of which were loaded with grape. How any one of them in
+      the boat escaped was a marvel, for the bullets lashed the water into foam
+      only a few yards ahead, and some, ricochetting, struck and damaged two of
+      the oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To advance in face of such a fire would be madness. The barque evidently
+      carried a large and well-armed crew, so he slewed round and pulled towards
+      the little fleet, as those on the slaver yelled derisively, and again
+      began firing with the nine-pounders, and small arms as well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, to his bitter rage and disappointment, a puff of wind came over
+      from the westward, and the barque's sails filled. In ten minutes she was
+      slipping through the water so quickly that she was leaving them astern
+      fast, and in another hour she had swept round the south end of the land,
+      and they saw her no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sad and dejected, he and his native friends returned to Tuuhora, and
+      drawing up their boats and canoes, went to their homes in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      TEN years had passed, and fortune had proved kind to Martin Flemming and
+      his family, who were now, with the exception of the eldest son, settled on
+      the island of Barotonga, one of the Cook's Group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some years after the abduction of the four unfortunate natives,
+      Flemming had tried every possible means of ascertaining their fate, and at
+      first thought that he would succeed, for within a few weeks after the
+      visit of the barque to Anaa, there came news of similar outrages
+      perpetrated by three vessels, through the Ellice, Line Islands and Paumotu
+      Group. One of these vessels was a barque, the others were brigs, and all
+      sailed under Peruvian colours, though many of the officers were
+      Englishmen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one instance they had descended upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of
+      the island of Nukulaelae in the Ellice Group, and carried off almost the
+      entire population, and at Easter Island&mdash;far to the eastward, over
+      three hundred unfortunate natives were seized under circumstances of the
+      grossest treachery and violence, and manacled together, taken away to end
+      their days as slaves in working the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands,
+      off the coast of South America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though not then a rich man, Flemming at his own expense made a long and
+      tedious voyage to the Ghinchas. By the time he arrived there nearly a year
+      had elapsed since the four men had been stolen, and he found that both the
+      British and French Governments had compelled the Peruvian Government to
+      restore all of the wretched survivors&mdash;there were but few, alas!&mdash;to
+      their homes. Over one hundred of the wretched beings had perished of
+      disease in the hot and stifling holds of the slavers; scores of them,
+      attempting to regain their liberty, had been shot down, and the fearful
+      toil in the guano pits of the Ghincha Islands carried off many more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Chincha Islands he was unable to gain any definite information
+      about the four men, but was told that the British Consul at Gallao might
+      be able to tell him what had become of them&mdash;whether they had died or
+      had been among those restored to their homes. So to Gallao be went, for he
+      was ever bearing in mind the grief of his children at the loss of their
+      dear &ldquo;Tommy Topsail-tie&rdquo; and &ldquo;Jacky Waterwitch,&rdquo; and his promise to them
+      that if they and their Anaa companions were alive he would bring them
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a bitter disappointment awaited him at Gallao&mdash;for the Consul,
+      who had been largely instrumental in forcing the Peruvian Government to
+      liberate the captured people, gave him absolute proof that none of the
+      four men had reached the Ghinchas, for he had obtained a great deal of
+      information from the survivors, all of which he had carefully recorded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is what Vili, a native of Nukulaelae, told me, Mr. Flemming. He was
+      one of those who were captured by the barque, and was rather well treated
+      by the captain on account of his speaking English, being put into the
+      mate's watch as he had been to sea for many years in whale ships. He says:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'After we of Nukulaelae had been on board the barque for about twenty
+      days, we came to an island in the Paumotus, where the captain tried to
+      capture two canoes full of natives but failed, though quite soon after he
+      seized four from a boat, and they were carried down into the hold and
+      ironed, for they had fought very hard and all were much hurt and bleeding.
+      I spoke to them and they told me that they had been out fishing with the
+      two sons of a white man, who was a trader on the island. The captain did
+      not hurt the two boys, but let them go. Then a lot of canoes and boats
+      came off and the ship fired her cannons at them, and drove them away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'Next day we met another ship, a small schooner, flying the German flag,
+      and her captain came on board our ship and had a long talk with our
+      captain, and presently an officer and six men came down into the hold, and
+      took the irons off nine men and drove them on deck. Among these men were
+      the four who were taken from the boat. The captain of the schooner paid
+      our captain money for them, and took them on board his vessel, which then
+      sailed away.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Mr. Flemming,&rdquo; resumed the Consul, &ldquo;that is all I can tell you. I
+      have written to the British Consul at Apia in Samoa, and at Levuka in
+      Fiji, asking them to endeavour to find out the schooner's name and trace
+      the nine men. I have no doubt but that she was some Fijian or Samoan
+      'blackbirder,' and that the poor devils are working on some of the
+      plantations in either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga. There is, therefore, good
+      reason for you to hope that you will succeed in your search. I shall
+      gladly give you all the assistance in my power to facilitate your
+      enquiries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to Anaa, Flemming, through the aid of the French authorities in
+      Tahiti, placed himself in communication with the British Consuls in Fiji
+      and Samoa, telling them the details of the capture of the four men and of
+      their transference with five others to another vessel, and enclosing a sum
+      of money&mdash;all he could spare&mdash;to be given to Tommy Topsail-tie
+      so that he and his three companions might be enabled to find their way
+      back to Anaa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of another long weary year of hopeful expectation, he received
+      replies from the Consuls, returning the money he had sent, and saying that
+      after most careful inquiries, they could learn nothing of the nine men;
+      but that they (the Consuls) had strong reason to believe that the schooner
+      to which they had been transferred was a notorious German &ldquo;blackbirder&rdquo;
+       named the <i>Samoa</i>, though the captain and the crew swore they knew
+      nothing of the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is quite possible,&rdquo; they said in their joint report, &ldquo;that some or all
+      of the men are on one of the German plantations in Samoa or Tonga, and
+      that you will yet discover them. But the German Consuls will give us no
+      assistance, and absolutely decline to permit us to send any one to visit
+      the plantations, unless the managers or owners are agreeable. And, as you
+      can imagine, the owners and managers are <i>not</i> agreeable, and have
+      declined in terms of great rudeness to even supply us with the names of
+      any of their labourers, or the names of the various islands from which
+      they come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in face of this Flemming did not despair, and told his wife and
+      children, who could not restrain their tears when they read the Consuls'
+      report, that he would not let the matter rest. He had several friends in
+      Samoa and Fiji&mdash;merchants, traders and ship captains, and to them he
+      wrote asking them to institute enquiries quietly, and let him know the
+      result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After spending another five years on Anaa, during which time he had heard
+      nothing of the missing men, he determined to settle on Rarotonga, where
+      there was an excellent opportunity of making money. His eldest boy by this
+      time was almost a grown man, and was earning his living as a supercargo of
+      a trading vessel, running between Auckland in New Zealand and the various
+      groups of islands in the South Pacific.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      In the quiet little harbour of Mulifanua, situated at the western end of
+      the island of Upolu, a fine-looking brigantine was lying at anchor, and
+      the captain and supercargo were pacing the deck together enjoying their
+      after-breakfast pipes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brigantine was the <i>Maori Maid</i> of Auckland, Captain Heselton,
+      and the supercargo was young Robert Flemming. The vessel had run into
+      Mulifanua Harbour owing to her having struck on a reef a few days
+      previously whilst beating up against the south-east trades from Wallis
+      Island to Leone Bay, a port on the island of Tutuila, one of the Samoan
+      Group, and as she was leaking rather seriously her captain decided to run
+      into Mulifanua, put her on the beach, and get at the leak or leaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is no need for you to stay on board, Bob,&rdquo; said Heselton presently
+      to his young supercargo. &ldquo;Go ashore and stay ashore until we are ready for
+      sea again. All going well we'll find out where the damage is by this time
+      to-morrow, and be afloat again in a few days. But there is nothing to keep
+      you aboard, and you might as well put in your time shooting or otherwise
+      enjoying yourself; why not go and have a look at Goddeffroy's big
+      plantation? It's only about a couple of miles away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, captain, I think I shall. As you know for years past I have
+      always been hoping that during one of our cruises, I might come across
+      some native or other on one of these plantations who might be able to tell
+      me something about those four poor fellows who were collared by that
+      Peruvian barque ten years ago. And this plantation of Goddeffroy's is one
+      of the biggest in the South Seas&mdash;there are over seven hundred
+      labourers, Line Islanders, Solomon Islanders, New Britain niggers and
+      heaven knows what else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you'll have a good chance now. And look here, Bob&mdash;take your
+      time, a day or two more or less doesn't matter to us. I shall have plenty
+      to do even after I get at this confounded leak. The rigging wants setting
+      up badly, so we may be here any time under a week.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Right. I'll go and have a look at the plantation; and if the manager is a
+      decent sort of a Dutchman he might put me up. If he's a hog&mdash;which he
+      probably is&mdash;I'll go to the native village, sleep there to-night and
+      have a day's pigeon-shooting to-morrow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then a boat was seen putting off from the shore, manned by Samoans,
+      but steered by a white man, who as soon as he came on deck introduced
+      himself as the local trader. He was a quiet, good-natured old fellow&mdash;an
+      Englishman&mdash;and as soon as he learned of the mishap to the
+      brigantine, at once offered to get a gang of natives to assist in beaching
+      her; and then pressed Flemming to make his house his home during the stay
+      of the vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; replied the young man, &ldquo;I shall be very pleased. I want to
+      have a look at the big plantation here and try to have a yarn with some of
+      the Eingsmill Island labourers.&rdquo; Then he told the trader, who was much
+      interested, the object he had in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sure that the manager will let you talk to any of the labourers,&rdquo; he
+      said, &ldquo;for he's one of the 'White men' kind of Dutchmen. His name is
+      Knorr. He succeeded a regular brute of a man who used to flog the
+      plantation hands right and left. A lot of them have run away during the
+      past six or seven years and have taken to the mountains. They are all
+      armed, and sometimes, when they are in want of food, will lay the Samoan
+      villages under tribute, and if any resistance is shown, they set fire to
+      the houses. The Samoans are terribly afraid of them, for there are two or
+      three cannibal Solomon Islanders among them, and a Samoan has a holy
+      terror of a man-eater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't the Dutchmen capture the beggars?&rdquo; asked the captain. &ldquo;There
+      are enough of them in Samoa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old trader laughed&mdash;&ldquo;Ay, too many, sir; too many for us poor
+      English traders. But they have tried, time and time again, to capture
+      these fellows, but only got badly mauled in two or three fights. There is
+      a standing reward of two hundred dollars for every one of them, dead or
+      alive, and about a year ago ten flash young Samoan <i>manaias</i>{*} set
+      out, well armed and well primed with grog, to surprise the escapees, who
+      were known to be living in an almost inaccessible part of the mountains.
+      Only four of the ten came back; the other six were shot down one by one as
+      they were climbing the side of a mountain, and these four were made
+      prisoners by the outlaws, who gave them such a fright that they will never
+      get over it. It was as good as any novel to hear them talk about it, I can
+      assure you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Warriors or rather would-be warriors&mdash;young men whom the
+     local white men usually speak of as &ldquo;bucks,&rdquo;&mdash;i.e., flashy,
+     saucy fellows.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go on, tell us the whole yarn,&rdquo; said the skipper of the <i>Maori Maid</i>,
+      as he pushed a decanter of brandy towards his visitor, and take a cigar.
+      &ldquo;It's pleasant to meet an Englishman in these Dutchman-infested islands,
+      especially when he has a good yarn to spin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The yarn isn't a pleasant one, captain,&rdquo; said the trader. &ldquo;It's a d&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;d
+      unpleasant one, but it's true, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lit a cigar and then resumed: &ldquo;Well, after six of these flash young
+      fellows were shot down, the other four dropped their rifles and cried out,
+      <i>Fia ola! Fia ola!</i> (Quarter! Quarter!) and in a few minutes about a
+      dozen of the escapees made their appearance, took away their rifles and
+      cartridges, and tying their arms behind their backs made them march in
+      front of them up the mountain-side till they came to a bit of a thicket in
+      which were four or five small huts. Telling their prisoners to sit down,
+      half of their number went away, returning in half an hour with the six
+      heads of the men who had been shot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take these heads back with you,&rdquo; said one of the outlaws, who could speak
+      Samoan, &ldquo;and tell all Mulifanua that we are strong men. We fear no one,
+      for we have plenty of guns and cartridges, and five hundred men such as
+      you cannot take us. And say to the chief of the village, that on every
+      fourth day, food for us must be brought to the foot of the eastern spur of
+      the mountain. If this be not done, then shall we kill all whom we meet&mdash;men,
+      women or children. Now go and tell the man who flogged us that some day we
+      shall cook and eat his head, for we are very strong men.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, the four poor trembling beggars were liberated, and carrying the
+      six heads of their comrades, they went back, and their story so terrified
+      the people of Mulifanua that no further attempt was ever made to capture
+      the outlaws. And although the Germans don't know of it, the villagers are
+      to this very day, gentlemen, supplying these dangerous devils with food,
+      and I know for a fact that sometimes two or three of them come down from
+      the mountains and sleep in the village without fear. They have never
+      troubled me; but very often a native boy or girl will come to me and buy a
+      28-lb. bag of shot, caps and powder, and I know perfectly well that it is
+      for the 'wild men,' as the people here call the escaped men. Every one of
+      them has not only a rifle, but a shot-gun as well, for they one night
+      broke into the plantation store and carried off all the rifles and guns
+      they could find.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care, Bob, that they don't take some pot shots at you,&rdquo; said the
+      captain, with a laugh, as his supercargo rose to get ready to go ashore
+      with the trader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They would if they thought Mr. Hemming was a German from the plantation,&rdquo;
+       said the trader, seriously, &ldquo;so you had better not go too far away when
+      you are shooting, unless you take a native guide with you. For, as I have
+      said before, these men and the people of the village are now, I really
+      believe, in secret friendship, or rather alliance&mdash;an alliance born
+      out of terror on one side and savage desperation on the other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later young Flemming and the trader were being pulled
+      ashore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The German manager of the great plantation proved to be, as the old trader
+      had said, &ldquo;one of the white-men kind of Dutchmen.&rdquo; He received the young
+      supercargo most hospitably, and insisted upon his remaining to lunch, and
+      when Flemming told him frankly of the long quest for the four missing men,
+      he at once became deeply sympathetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You shall see every one of the six or seven hundred natives I have
+      working for me, Mr. Flemming. They are all now scattered about in
+      different portions of the plantation, but at five o'clock, when they knock
+      off, I shall have them all mustered. But I am almost certain that you will
+      not find any one of the nine who were transferred from the Peruvian slaver
+      to the German 'black-birder,' for I have always taken an interest in these
+      people, and know pretty well from where they all come. My predecessor here
+      was very rough with them&mdash;the less I say about him the better&mdash;and
+      there is now quite a number of runaways living in the bush. They have
+      defied all efforts to capture them. Who they are, and where they come
+      from, I cannot well tell, for the former manager never kept an accurate
+      account of the numbers of new arrivals brought here by the various labour
+      vessels, nor did he specify in his books, as he should have done, from
+      what particular islands they came. 'Natives' he considered to be a
+      sufficient designation, and 'three years' or 'six years' indicated the
+      time for which they were engaged. He left the identification of themselves
+      and their islands to the captains of the various vessels which, at the end
+      of their time, take them back again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if it is possible that the four men I am looking for are among
+      the outlaws,&rdquo; said Flemming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possible, quite possible,&rdquo; replied the manager, &ldquo;but you will never be
+      able to see them if they are. The gang is very desperate and determined,
+      and though they have no animus against me personally, they would shoot me,
+      or you, or any white man who attempted to get into communication with
+      them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After a little further conversation with the manager, Flemming said he
+      would have a few hours' pigeon-shooting, returning in time to see the
+      plantation hands mustered. Knorr wished him to take a Samoan guide, but
+      the young man laughingly reminded him that he was half a native himself,
+      and from his infancy almost had been used to wandering about the mountain
+      forests of the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia; so, bidding his host
+      good morning, he shouldered his gun and set off, and in another hour was
+      ascending the first spur of the mountain range, which traverses the island
+      of Upolu from one end to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had a reason for declining the services of a guide, for he had
+      determined to attempt to reach the outlaws' refuge, and, at the risk of
+      his life, finding out if Tommy Topsail-tie and Jack Waterwitch were among
+      them. The old trader had told him that one of their number was a very big
+      man, whose legs, back, and neck were tattooed as the Kingsmill Islanders
+      tattoo, and he (Flemming) had formed the idea, since his conversation with
+      the manager of the plantation, that this big man was Binoké&mdash;the dear
+      friend of his boyhood's days, the ever-wanted &ldquo;Tommy Topsail-tie&rdquo; of his
+      brother and his sister Medora, the man who, with Jack Waterwitch, had
+      stood to his father and mother in their poverty and distress, and had
+      toiled night and day for them without recompense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he walked over the soft carpet of fallen leaves which covered the
+      mountain-side so thickly that no sound came from his footsteps, he
+      listened carefully. He knew that he was proceeding in the right direction
+      for the outlaws' refuge&mdash;the direction the plantation manager had
+      impressed on him to avoid&mdash;and after a two hours' stiff climb he
+      found himself on the summit of the spur and overlooking the harbour. Far
+      below him he could see the <i>Maori Maid</i> being hauled on to the beach,
+      and eight miles away the beautiful little island of Manono lay basking in
+      the sun on a sea of deepest, glorious blue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly he heard a sound, a faint, soft creeping on the ground somewhere
+      near him, and he knew that it was the sound of a human footstep, and that
+      he was watched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laid down his gun, and stood up and pretended to closely scan the
+      thick, leafy canopy of the mighty trees overhead, as if he were searching
+      for pigeons. Then his voice rang out clearly, and echoed and re-echoed in
+      the grey and silent forest aisles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Binoké, Binoké! 'Tis I! Nobal, Nobal! 'Tis I who call! Tis I, Papu (Bob),
+      of Anaa! I, who have sought thee long. Binoké! Nohal!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came a sudden rush of feet and brown, naked bodies from all around,
+      and in another moment the young man was almost lifted off hid feet by
+      Tommy Topsail-tie, who, clasping his mighty arms around him, pressed him
+      passionately to his bosom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy, my boy!... See, 'tis I, Binoké, thy friend, thy slave, thy
+      Binoké!&rdquo; and then the savage creature wept as only wild people such as he
+      was weep from excess of joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes Flemming was hurried along by the friendly hands of six
+      or eight of the &ldquo;wild men&rdquo; to their refuge further up on the
+      mountain-side, where he found not only &ldquo;Jack Waterwitch,&rdquo; but one of the
+      Anaa natives, who had been carried off ten years before; the other native
+      of Anaa, he was told by Tommy Topsail-tie, had died a year or two
+      previously. There were, he found, twelve natives in all&mdash;Topsail-tie,
+      who was their leader, Jack Waterwitch, the Anaa man, four Solomon
+      Islanders, and five others from various islands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For an hour or more the young man conversed with his old friends, who
+      delightedly agreed to leave their mountain retreat and go on board the
+      brigantine as soon as she was ready to sail. The remaining eight men,
+      however, refused to leave, although Flemming told them that they could all
+      come down from the mountain at night-time, and be very easily stowed away
+      on board, and that even if they were discovered the captain would be able
+      to protect them, should the German manager make any demand for them to be
+      delivered over to him. But all his arguments were in vain&mdash;they shook
+      their heads and said that never, again would they go, willingly or
+      unwillingly, upon the deep sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the supercargo and Topsail-tie made their plans, and after spending
+      another hour or so with the escapees, Flemming shook hands with them all,
+      and guided by Nobal, returned to the base of the mountain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here he parted from his companion, who quickly plunged into the forest
+      again, and reached the plantation just as the manager was mustering the
+      plantation hands for his inspection. Not deeming it advisable to tell his
+      host of the discovery he had just made, he yet tried to display as much
+      interest as possible, and after walking up and down the triple rows of men
+      and looking at them rapidly one by one, he said that there was no one of
+      them whom he had ever seen before. Then the manager dismissed the men, and
+      Flemming, thanking him for his kindness, hurried on board and told his
+      story to Captain Heselton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two days afterwards the <i>Maori Maid</i> was sailing slowly out through
+      Mulifanua passage. Flemming, with the skipper beside him, was standing on
+      the poop, looking for'ard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell them they can come up on deck now, boatswain,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;we are a
+      good mile off the land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then the three of the four men from whom he and his brother had parted
+      ten years before rushed up from the hold, knelt at his feet, and laughing
+      and sobbing like children, threw their brown arms around his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Binoké rose, and stretching out his huge right arm towards the rising sun,
+      turned his black eyes on &ldquo;the boy&rdquo; he so loved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it to the east we sail, Papu?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ay, to the east, Binoké, far, far to the east, to a fair, fair land with
+      green mountains and falling streams. And there awaits us my father and
+      mother, and my brother, and Medora. And they will be well content with me,
+      for never hast thou and Nobal been forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      &ldquo;FLASH HARRY&rdquo; OF SAVAIT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Nearly thirty years ago, when the late King Malietoa of Samoa was quietly
+      arming his own adherents and conciliating his rebel chiefs in order to
+      combine against the persistent encroachments of the Germans, I was running
+      a small trading cutter between Upolu and Savaii, the two principal islands
+      of the group.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One day I arrived in Apia Harbour with a cargo of yams which I was selling
+      to an American man-of-war, the <i>Resacca</i>. I went alongside at once,
+      had the yams weighed and received my money from the paymaster, and then
+      went ashore for a bathe in the Vaisigago River, a lovely little stream
+      which, taking its rise in the mountains, debouches into Apia Harbour. Here
+      I was joined by an old friend, Captain Hamilton, the local pilot, who,
+      stripping off his clothes, plunged into the water beside me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we were laughing and chatting and thoroughly enjoying ourselves, a
+      party of natives&mdash;young men and boys&mdash;emerged from the trees on
+      the opposite bank, and casting off their scanty garments, boisterously
+      entered the water and began disporting themselves, and then to my surprise
+      I saw that their leader was a white man, tattoed in every respect, like a
+      Samoan. He appeared to be about thirty years of age, was clean-shaven, and
+      had bright red hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that fellow?&rdquo; I inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of the biggest scoundrels in the Pacific,&rdquo; replied my companion,
+      &ldquo;'Flash Harry' from Savaii. He deserted from either the <i>Brisk</i> (or
+      the <i>Zealous</i>) British man-of-war, about seven years ago, and
+      although the commanders of several other British warships have tried to
+      get him, they have failed. He is the pet <i>protégé</i> of one of the most
+      powerful chiefs in Savaii, and laughs at all attempts to catch him. To my
+      knowledge he has committed four atrocious murders, and, in addition to
+      that, he is a drunken, foul-mouthed blackguard. He only comes to Apia
+      occasionally&mdash;when there is no British man-of-war about&mdash;and
+      paints the town red, for although he is merely a loafing beachcomber, he
+      is liberally supplied with money by his chief, and possesses an extensive
+      harem as well. He simply terrorises the town when he breaks out, and
+      insults every timid European, male and female, whom he meets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why doesn't some one put a bullet through him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, now you're asking! Why? Porter&rdquo; (a respectable Samoan trader) &ldquo;told
+      him that he would riddle him if he came inside his fence, and the
+      scoundrel knows <i>me</i> well enough not to come into my place with
+      anything but a civil word on his foul tongue; but then you see, Porter and
+      I are Americans. If either or both of us shot the man no commander of an
+      American man-of-war would do more than publicly reprimand us for taking
+      the law into our own hands; but if you or any other Englishman killed the
+      vermin, you would be taken to Fiji by the first man-of-war that called
+      here, put on your trial for murder, and, if you escaped hanging, get a
+      pretty turn of penal servitude in Fiji gaol.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We finished our bathe, dressed, and set out for Hamilton's house on
+      Matautu Point, for he had asked me to have supper with him. On our way
+      thither we met the master of a German barque, then in port, and were
+      chatting with him in the middle of the road, when Mr. &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; and
+      his retinue of <i>manaia</i> (young bucks) overtook us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path being rather narrow we drew aside a few paces to let them pass,
+      but at a sign from their leader they stopped. He nodded to Hamilton and
+      the German captain (neither of whom took any notice of him) then fixed his
+      eyes insolently on me and held out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do yer do, Mister. You're a nice sort of a cove not to come and see
+      me when you pass my place in your cutter&rdquo;&mdash;then with sudden fury as I
+      put my hands in my pockets&mdash;&ldquo;you, you young cock-a-hoopy swine, do
+      you mean to say you don't mean to shake hands with a white man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not with you, anyway,&rdquo; I answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then the next time I see you I'll pull your &mdash;&mdash;&mdash; arm out
+      of the socket,&rdquo; he said, with an oath, and turning on his heel he went off
+      with his following of bucks. All of them were armed with rifles and the
+      long beheading knives called <i>Nifa oti</i> (death-knife), and as we
+      three had nothing but our fists we should have had a bad time had they
+      attacked us, for we were in an unfrequented part of the beach and would
+      have been half murdered before assistance came. But in Samoa in those days
+      street brawls were common.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next time you <i>do</i> meet him,&rdquo; said Hamilton as we resumed our
+      walk, &ldquo;don't give him a chance. Drill a hole through him as soon as he
+      gets within ten paces, and then clear out of Samoa as quick as you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Quite a month after this I had to visit the little port of Asaua on the
+      Island of Savaii; and as I was aware that &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; was in the
+      vicinity of the place on a <i>malaga</i>, or pleasure trip, I kept a sharp
+      lookout for him, and always carried with me in my jumper pocket a small
+      but heavy Derringer, the bullet of which was as big as that of a Snider
+      rifle. I did not want to have my arm pulled out of the socket, and knew
+      that &ldquo;Flash Harry,&rdquo; being twice my weight almost, would give me a sad time
+      if he could once get within hitting distance of me, for like most
+      men-of-war's men he was very smart with his hands, and I was but a
+      stripling&mdash;not yet twenty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had come to Asaua with a load of timber to be used in the construction
+      of a church for the French Mission, and in the evening went to the
+      resident priest to obtain a receipt for delivery. As he could not speak
+      English and I could not speak French we had to struggle along in Samoan&mdash;to
+      our mutual amusement. However, we got along very well, and I was about to
+      accept his hospitable offer to remain and have sapper with him when a
+      young chief whom I knew, named Ulofanua (&ldquo;Top of a High Tree&rdquo;) came in
+      hurriedly and told us that &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; and ten or fifteen young men, all
+      more or less drunk, were coming to the village that night with the avowed
+      intention of boarding the cutter under the pretence of trading, seizing
+      all the liquor and giving me a father of a beating&mdash;the latter to
+      avenge the insult of a month before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Laughingly telling the priest that under the circumstances discretion was
+      the better part of valour, I bade him goodbye, walked down to my boat,
+      which was lying on the beach, and with two native sailors pulling, we
+      started for the cutter, a mile away. The night was beautifully calm, but
+      dark, and as I was not well acquainted with the inner part of Asaua
+      Harbour and could not see my way, I several times ran the boat on to
+      submerged coral boulders; and, finally, lost the narrow channel
+      altogether.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I told one of my men, a sturdy, splendid specimen of a native of the
+      Gilbert Islands named Te Manu Uraura (&ldquo;Bed Bird&rdquo;) to come aft and take the
+      steer oar, knowing that his eyesight, like that of all Polynesians, was
+      better than that of any white man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here, Te Manu, and steer, I'll take your oar. Your eyes are better
+      than mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellow laughed good-naturedly, and I little thought that this
+      simple request of mine would be the cause of his being a cripple for life.
+      He came aft, took the steer oar from me, and I, seating myself on the
+      after thwart, began to pull. We were at this time about thirty yards from
+      the beach, and between it and the inner reef of the harbour. We sent the
+      boat along for two or three hundred yards without a hitch, and I was
+      thinking of what my cook would have for my supper, when we suddenly
+      plumped into a patch of dead coral and stuck hard and fast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Knowing that the tide was falling, we all jumped out, and pushed the boat
+      off into deeper water as quickly as possible, just as half a dozen bright
+      torches of coco-nut leaves flared up on the shore and revealed the boat
+      dimly to those who were holding them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I imagined that the chief of the village had sent some of his
+      people to help us through the channel, but I was quickly undeceived when I
+      heard &ldquo;Flash Harry's&rdquo; voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've got you now, my saucy young quarter-deck-style-of-pup. Slew round
+      and come ashore, or I'll blow your head off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One glance ashore showed me that we were in a desperate position. &ldquo;Flash
+      Harry,&rdquo; who was all but stark-naked&mdash;he had only a girdle of <i>ti</i>
+      tree leaves round his waist&mdash;was covering the boat with his
+      Winchester rifle, and his followers, armed with other guns, were ready to
+      fire a volley into us, although most of them were pretty well drunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They can't hit us, Te Manu,&rdquo; I cried to the Gilbert Islander, whose
+      inborn fighting proclivities were showing in his gleaming eyes and short,
+      panting breaths, &ldquo;most of them have no cartridges in their guns, and they
+      are all too drunk to shoot straight. Let us go on!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Te Manu gripped the haft of the steer oar and swung the boat's head round,
+      and then I and the other native at the bow oar&mdash;a mere boy of sixteen&mdash;pulled
+      for all we were worth just as &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; dropped on one knee and fired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poor Te Manu swayed to and fro for a few moments and then cried out, &ldquo;He
+      has broken my hand, sir! But go on, pull, pull hard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Under a spattering fire from the beachcomber's drunken companions we
+      pulled out into deeper water and safety, and then, shipping my oar, I
+      sprang to Te Manu's aid. The bullet had struck him in the back of the
+      right hand and literally cut off three of the poor fellow's knuckles. I
+      did what I could to stop the loss of blood, and told him to sit down, but
+      he refused, and although suffering intense pain, insisted on steering with
+      his left hand. As soon as we reached the cutter I at once hove up anchor
+      and stood along the coast before a strong breeze to Matautu Harbour, where
+      I was able to have the man's hand properly attended to. He never recovered
+      the use of it again except in a slight degree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I never saw &ldquo;Flash Harry&rdquo; again, for a few months later I left Samoa for
+      the Caroline Group, and when I returned a year afterwards I was told that
+      he had at last found the country too hot for him and had left the island
+      in a German &ldquo;blackbirder&rdquo; bound to the Solomon Islands.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      Quite six years had passed, and then I learnt, in a somewhat curious
+      manner, what became of him. One day in Sydney, New South Wales, three
+      captains and myself met for lunch at the Paragon Hotel, on Circular Quay.
+      We were all engaged in the South Sea trade, and one of the company, who
+      was a stranger to me, had just returned from the Solomon Islands, with
+      which group and its murderous, cannibal people he was very familiar. (He
+      was himself destined to be killed there with his ship's company in 1884.)
+      He was a young man who had had some very narrow escapes and some very
+      thrilling experiences, some of which he narrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were talking of the massacre of Captain Ferguson and the crew of the
+      Sydney trading steamer <i>Ripple</i>, by the natives of Bougainville
+      Island in the Solomon Group, when our friend remarked&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, poor Ferguson ought to have been more careful. Why, the very chief of
+      that village at Numa Numa&mdash;the man who cut him down with a tomahawk&mdash;had
+      killed two other white men. Ferguson knew that, and yet would allow him to
+      come aboard time after time with hundreds of his people, and gave him and
+      them the run of his ship. I knew the fellow well. He told me to my face,
+      the first time I met him, that he had killed and eaten two white men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who were they?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One was a man trading for Captain MacLeod of New Caledonia; the other
+      chap was some beachcombing fellow who had been kicked ashore at Numa Numa
+      by his skipper. I heard he came from Samoa originally. Anyway the chief
+      told me that as soon as the ship that had put the man ashore had sailed,
+      he was speared through the back as he was drinking a coco-nut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When they stripped off his clothes to make him ready for the oven, they
+      found he was tattoed, Samoan fashion, from the waist to the knees. Then,
+      as he had red hair, they cut off his head and smoke-dried it, instead of
+      eating it with the rest of the body; they kept it as an ornament for the
+      stem of a big canoe. A white man's head is a great thing at any time for a
+      canoe's figurehead in the Solomons, but a white man's head with red hair
+      is a great <i>mana</i>&rdquo; (mascotte).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then I told him that I had known the man, and gave him his antecedents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I daresay if you had been there you would have felt as if
+      you could have eaten a bit of the beggar yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly do feel pleased that he's settled,&rdquo; I replied, as I thought
+      of poor Red Bird's hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>