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+ <head>
+ <title>
+ SarrÉo, by Louis Becke
+ </title>
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sarréo, 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: Sarréo
+ 1901
+
+Author: Louis Becke
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2008 [EBook #25107]
+Last Updated: January 8, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SARRÉO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h1>
+ SARRÉO
+ </h1>
+ <p>
+ <br />
+ </p>
+ <h3>
+ From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories"
+ </h3>
+ <h2>
+ By Louis Becke
+ </h2>
+ <h5>
+ C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. <br /> <br /> 1901
+ </h5>
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <br /> <br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Well, there's niggers an' niggers, some just as good as any white man,"
+ said Mr. Thomas Potter as he, the second mate of the island-trading barque
+ <i>Reconnaisance</i>, and Denison the supercargo, walked her short, stumpy
+ poop one night, "though when I was before the mast I couldn't stand one of
+ 'em bunking too close to me&mdash;not for a long time. But after awhile I
+ found out that a Kanaka or a Maori is better than the usual run of the
+ paint-scrubbing Jack Dog who calls himself a sailorman nowadays. Why, I've
+ never seen a native sailor yet as was dirty in his habits&mdash;they're
+ too fond o' the water. Look at these Rotumah chaps aboard here&mdash;if
+ there's a calm they'll jump overboard and take a swim instead of turning
+ in when it's their watch below. Bah, white sailors ain't worth feeding in
+ this Island trade&mdash;lazy, dirty, useless brutes; a Kanaka is worth
+ three of any one of 'em. Did you notice that photograph in my cabin&mdash;that
+ one showing a ship's company standing on deck?"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Yes, I did," replied Denison.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Well, that's the crew of the <i>Fanny Long</i>, and amongst 'em is a
+ fellow I'm goin' to tell you about&mdash;a chap named Sarréo. We had that
+ picture taken in Hobart after we had come back from a sperm whaling
+ cruise. We had been very lucky, and the skipper and owners had all our
+ photographs taken in a group. I was second mate, and this Sarréo was one
+ of the boatsteerers. Him and me had been shipmates before, once in the old
+ <i>Meteor</i> barque, nigger-catching for the Fiji planters, and once in a
+ New Bedford sperm whaler, and he had taken a bit of a liking to me, so
+ whenever I got a new ship he generally shipped too.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Well, I was tired of whaling; I had two ribs broke on that cruise in the
+ <i>Fanny Lang</i>, by a boat being stove in by a whale. So after I had got
+ my money I walked out of the office, thinking of going to Sydney by the
+ steamboat, when up comes Sarréo.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Got your dollars, Sarréo?' I says.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Yes,' he answers. 'What you goin' to do now, Mr. Potter?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Going to Sydney to look for another ship.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'All right,' he says quietly. 'I come too. I don' want to go whalin' no
+ more.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Sure enough, when I went on board the steamer there he was for'ard
+ sitting on his chest, smoking his pipe, an' waiting for me.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "In Sydney there was a fine big lump of a schooner just fitting out for a
+ trading cruise to the Solomon Islands, and I happened to know the skipper,
+ who worked it for me with the owners and I got the berth of chief mate;
+ and Sarréo (who used to come every day to the place I was staying at to
+ ask me not to forget him) was shipped as an A.B.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "What sort of a looking man? Well, he was a short, square-built chap, with
+ a chest like a working bullock. He was rather darker than a Samoan or a
+ Tahiti man, owing to a seafaring life, and had straight, black hair. He
+ only spoke as a rule when he was spoken to, and kept himself pretty much
+ aloof from the rest of the hands, though he wasn't by any means sulky."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Where did he hail from?" Denison inquired.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Ah, now you're asking, sir. There was a beast of a supercargo&mdash;I beg
+ pardon, sir, for forgetting myself&mdash;a reg'lar flash, bullying pig of
+ a fellow, with us that trip. He put on as many airs as if he owned the
+ whole blooming Pacific. Well, one day he was straightening up his
+ trade-room, and calls for a couple of hands to help, and the skipper sent
+ Sarréo and another native sailor to him. We were then lying at anchor in
+ Marau Sound, in the Solomons, and the sun was hot enough to blister the
+ gates o' hell, and presently the supercargo comes on deck and slings his
+ fat, ugly carcase into a deck chair under the awning and says&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'That's a smart fellow, that Sarréo, Potter. Where does he come from?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Now I didn't know, and said so; so Mr. Supercargo grunts and says that
+ he'd ask him himself. Presently up comes Sarréo and the other native&mdash;they
+ were going for'ard for their dinner.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Here, I say you,' said the supercargo to Sarréo, touching him on the
+ calf of the leg with his foot as he was passing, 'what island you belong
+ to, eh?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Sarréo turned like lightning, and I caught a sight of his face. He had
+ dark, deép-set eyes and they seemed to spit fire at the fat brute in the
+ chair, and his two brown hands shut tight; but he said nothing, not a
+ blessed word, only looked as if all the rest of his body was turned to
+ stone. He stood like that for about ten seconds or so, then he bent his
+ head close to the other man's face and put his two clenched fists out
+ behind him.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Here, Sarréo,' I says, collaring him by one arm, 'what's all these
+ gymnastics? What's the matter?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "He pushed me aside as if I was a feather, then he straightens himself up
+ sudden, and, lookin' at the supercargo, spits on the deck at his feet.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'You dog,' he says, 'when we get ashore I will fight you!'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Warby,' that was the supercargo's name, was no cur, whatever else he
+ was, but though he seemed mighty sick when he heard Sarréo call him a dog,
+ he jumped up at once.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'You damned Kanaka swine! You're drunk! You've been sneaking a bottle of
+ gin in the trade-room, an' I'll give you a pounding,' he says.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Then before any one could interfere they were at it, and in less than a
+ couple of minutes Sarréo had the supercargo by the throat, lifted him off
+ his feet, and dashes him down on the poop. He lay there stunned, an' I
+ tell you, mister, I was mighty pleased, for we all hated him for his
+ beastly bullyin' ways, and his foul talk. So none of us rushed at him too
+ violently to pick him up. Presently up comes the skipper and orders me to
+ put Sarréo in irons, though I could see he didn't half like doing it. But
+ it had to be done, and I had to do it However, Sarréo held out his hands
+ to me as quiet as a lamb, and I led him for'ard and told him to keep a
+ stiff upper lip; the captain, I knew, would let him loose again the next
+ morning. He nodded his head quietly and said, 'All right, Mr Potter. But
+ when we get ashore <i>I mus' kill that man</i>.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Why, Sarréo,' I said, 'you mustn't talk like that, you've nearly cracked
+ his skull as it is. Don't you go on that tack, or it'll be worse for you.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "He nods again. 'I know. But I have been look for that man for more'n five
+ year.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Why, do you know him?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Yes, I know him <i>now</i>. When I see him roll up his shirt-sleeve in
+ the trade-room, an' I see some tattoo mark on his arm, I know him.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Of course I asked him what the supercargo had done to him, but he
+ wouldn't tell me any more. So, telling one of the hands to give him his
+ pipe and tobacco, I went aft again and told the skipper that there seemed
+ to be an old grudge between the two men.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Like enough/ says the skipper. 'That fellow Warby is the two ends and
+ bight of a howling blackguard. He was only appointed to this ship at the
+ last moment, or else I would have bucked against his coming aboard. He's
+ got a bad name.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Warby lay in his bunk for the rest of the day, but in the evening he came
+ on deck and said to the skipper roughly&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'What are you going to do with that damned nigger?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "' Keep him in irons for a day or two, I suppose. What more can I do?'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Warby looked at him for a moment, then he says, with a sneer, that in
+ some ships the captain would have tied such a fellow up and given him six
+ dozen.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'No doubt,' says the skipper, looking him full in his ugly face, 'no
+ doubt, especially in the sort of ships you've sailed in. But nothing like
+ that is going to happen aboard this hooker.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The supercargo muttered something under his breath and turned away. Next
+ morning, however, when we were at breakfast, he asked the captain how long
+ he meant to keep Sarréo in irons.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Till after breakfast'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Warby jumped up in a rage and said that he protested against such a man
+ being given his liberty. 'Why, he'll murder me,' he says at last with a
+ white look in his face.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The skipper laughed. 'You make too much of the business, Mr. Warby. Why,
+ he is one of the best and quietest men aboard. If you hadn't kicked him
+ and then swore at him, he wouldn't have tackled you. And I'm not going to
+ keep him in irons&mdash;that's flat.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "After breakfast I went up for'ard to take the irons off Sarréo. He was
+ sitting against the windlass and smoking.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Here, Sarréo,' I said, 'I've come to take off your bracelets; but you
+ must promise not to have any more rows with the supercargo; if you won't
+ promise, then the captain says he'll have to keep you in irons until we
+ get to Fiji, and then send you to jail.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "He promised, and from the quiet, soft manner in which he spoke, I felt
+ sure he was over his burst of passion, and was feeling a bit funky over
+ it. However, he turned-to very quietly, and was soon sent ashore with a
+ watering party, he being in charge of the boat which was manned by native
+ sailors. When he came back with the first lot of casks he told me that the
+ bush around the watering-place was full of pigeons. As soon as the captain
+ heard this he said he would go ashore and shoot some, and Mr. Warby said
+ he would like to join him.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "So off they went&mdash;skipper, supercargo, and Sarréo and his boat's
+ crew. We on board soon heard the two guns firing, and were smacking our
+ chops at the thought of pigeon stew for supper. I did not expect to see
+ them back until about supper-time, knowing that the boat had to tow the
+ casks off to the ship, which lay about half a mile from the beach. But
+ about four o'clock I saw the boat pushing off in a deuce of a hurry, and
+ then pull like mad for the ship. Knowing that there was no danger from
+ natives at that part of the island, I couldn't make it out, but in a few
+ minutes the boat dashes up alongside, and looking over the side I saw that
+ Sarréo was sitting beside the captain, in between him and Mr. Warby; his
+ eyes were closed, and I thought he was dead at first.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We had him lifted up on deck and then carried into the cabin in a brace
+ of shakes, and I saw that he had a bullet wound in his shoulder; the ball
+ had gone clean through. Then the skipper, who was never much of a talker,
+ told me that Mr. Warby had shot the man accidentally. Of course I looked
+ at Warby. His face was very pale, but his eyes met mine without flinching.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "It didn't take the captain long to dress the wound, and half an hour
+ later, when I came below again, Sarréo was sitting up on some cushions in
+ the transoms smoking one of the captain's Manilas, and looking as if
+ nothing had happened. He smiled when he saw me and put out his hand.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'I'm all right, Mr. Potter,' he said; 'not going to die this time.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "I was just about to ask him how the thing happened, when Robertson&mdash;that
+ was our skipper's name&mdash;called me into his room. He was as solemn as
+ a judge. Closing his cabin door, he said, 'Sarréo will get over it all
+ right, but the business is an ugly one; to cut it short, I believe that it
+ was no accident, but that Warby tried to murder the poor fellow.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Then he told me what had occurred. Leaving the rest of the boat's crew to
+ fill the water casks, they set out to shoot pigeons; Sarréo went with them
+ to pick up and carry the birds. About an hour later they saw a wild boar
+ rush by them. Robertson fired both barrels at it and wounded it, but it
+ didn't stop. Warby had one barrel empty. He at once loaded with ball, and
+ the three men gave chase, Sarréo leading, Warby following him close. On
+ reaching some high grass at the river bank Sarréo plunged into it; then, a
+ few seconds later, Robertson heard Warby call out that he saw the animal
+ lying down, and fired. The captain was a short distance behind, but he and
+ Warby reached the spot together, and there, sure enough, lying in the long
+ grass, was the wounded boar, and Sarréo beside it, with the blood pouring
+ from his shoulder. He was sitting up, supporting himself on his left hand.
+ The skipper assisted him to his feet, and Warby tried to help, but Sarréo
+ turned on him and cursed him, and said that he (Warby) had tried to murder
+ him. The supercargo swore that he had not seen him when he fired, but
+ further talk was cut short by Sarréo going faint through loss of blood, so
+ they carried him to the boat.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "That was the story so far, and Robertson asked me what I thought of it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Now I had been shipmates with Sarréo off and on for a matter of five or
+ six years, and I never knew him to tell a lie; but at the same time I
+ couldn't think Warby would be such a brute as to try and murder the man in
+ cold blood. The skipper, however, took a very black view of the matter,
+ and told me that if we met a man-of-war he would put Warby in irons,
+ signal for a boat, and hand him over on a charge of attempted murder. Then
+ we went out into the main cabin and sat down, and Robertson told the
+ steward to call the supercargo.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Warby came below at once. He gave a quick glance at Sarréo, then at the
+ skipper and myself, and sat down quietly. In less than a minute the
+ captain told him of his suspicions and what he intended doing if we met a
+ man-of-war.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "I thought Warby would bluster and blaspheme in his usual way; but he
+ didn't. He listened in silence. Then he rose and put his hands on the
+ cabin table, and said&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Before God, I swear to you both that I am innocent I did not fire at
+ that man; I did not even see him again after he disappeared into the grass&mdash;as
+ the Almighty is my judge, I did not... I did mean to take it out of Sarréo
+ for nearly breaking my skull the other day; but then I remembered
+ afterwards that he had cause to hate me, and I was only waiting for a
+ chance to ask him to make it up. And I say again that I am no cowardly
+ murderer; when I fired, I fired at the boar or what I honestly thought was
+ the boar, struggling in the grass. You can put me in irons now if you
+ like; or shut me up in my cabin. I'm not going to sit down at the same
+ table with men who suspect me of attempted murder.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "There was something in his voice which made us believe him, and then he
+ took a couple of turns up and down the cabin deck, and stepped up to the
+ wounded man.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Sarréo, I did you a bad turn a long time ago; but I'm sorry for it now&mdash;I
+ have been sorry for it ever since. But I did not know where to find you,
+ and I would not have known you yesterday if you hadn't looked into my face
+ and spoken. It's ten years since that day, Sarréo.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The wounded man looked up, searching-like, into Warby's face all the time
+ he was speaking; then his big black eyes drooped again, but he made no
+ answer. So then Warby went on again, talking to the lot of us.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'I was supercargo on the <i>Manola</i> brig, and Sarréo here was one of
+ the hands. One day, in Apia harbour, a bag of dollars was stolen out of my
+ cabin. The steward next morning said he had seen Sarréo ashore at one of
+ the dance houses spending money very freely. The captain and I burst open
+ his chest, and we found about twenty Mexican dollars among his clothes.
+ Now, in the bag which had been stolen there were nearly five hundred
+ Mexican dollars. Sarréo swore he had not stolen the money and that all the
+ money he had spent on shore was five dollars, which he had brought with
+ him from San Francisco. But the skipper and I believed he was the thief,
+ and to make him own up and tell us where the rest of the dollars were, we
+ flogged him. Then we put him in irons and kept him in irons for a week. He
+ still swore he had not taken the money, and I, believing he was lying,
+ gave him another thrashing on my own account. That night he got overboard
+ and swam ashore, and we gave the money up for lost Well, about a week
+ after this, when the steward was ashore, the mate and I decided to make a
+ thorough search of <i>his</i> cabin. We found nothing there, but we did in
+ the pantry&mdash;we found the missing bag of dollars, all but the twenty
+ which he had put into Sarréo's chest&mdash;stowed away in the bottom of
+ half a barrel of flour."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "As soon as Sarréo heard this, the poor fellow almost began to cry, and
+ said, 'I told you, Mr. Warby, I no steal that money.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'No, Sarréo, I know you didn't&mdash;that is, I knew it when the steward
+ owned up to stealing it; and told us afterward that he took twenty dollars
+ out of the bag, and, seeing your chest lying open in the deck-house, he
+ slipped in when no one was about and put the money among the clothes at
+ the bottom.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Sarréo sighed, pleased-like, and then his brown face lit up.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The big supercargo came a bit nearer to him, and then held out his hand.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Look here, Sarréo! The day before yesterday I was wrong, but you got my
+ blood up; and I am sorry, very sorry, for the wrong I did you on board the
+ <i>Manola</i>; but so help me God, Sarréo, I <i>did not</i> fire at you.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Sarréo's eyes seemed to look right through the white man; then they
+ turned towards the skipper and me.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Ibelieve you, Mr. Warby,' said the skipper, coming up and shaking hands
+ with the supercargo.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "And I believed him too, for he looked terribly distressed and cut up, so
+ I shook hands with him too.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Then Sarréo put out his big brown tattooed hand.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'And me too, Mr. Warby.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The supercargo pressed it gently, so as not to hurt Sarréo's shoulder,
+ then he almost ran past us on deck.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Well, from that time out, that man Warby changed, and he looked after
+ Sarréo all the time he was laid up, as if he had been his own brother
+ instead of a Kanaka chap before the mast.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "After leaving Marau Sound we stood to the northward, being bound to
+ Bougainville Island. It took us more than a month to get there, and by
+ that time Sarréo was as well and strong as ever he was, and me and the
+ skipper had got quite chummy with the supercargo, for we found out that he
+ had a lot of good points about him. You see, mister, ten or twelve years
+ ago the Solomon Group was the place to show what a man was made of&mdash;as
+ far as that goes it's not much altered since. If you don't die of fever
+ you're pretty sure to get knocked on the head and go down the nigger's
+ gullets&mdash;and this chap Warby had rare pluck. He never ran a boat's
+ crew into danger, but would take any risks himself, and somehow we had
+ cruised right up from Marau Sound to the north end of Bougainville without
+ losing a man, or having more than a few arrows or shots fired at the
+ boats.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Just when we were about to brace up to round Bouka Island, and being
+ about three miles off the land, we sighted the hull of a vessel ashore on
+ the beach of a small bay. We stood in for a mile or so and saw that there
+ was a native village at the head of the bay, and that the vessel was a
+ schooner of about a hundred tons. There were no signs of any boats and she
+ seemed to be stripped of both running and standing gear.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We manned and armed two boats&mdash;one, with Mr. Warby in charge, being
+ the landing-party; and the other as a covering boat in case the natives
+ attacked. I had charge of the second boat and had four white sailors;
+ Warby had Sarréo and four other natives. The skipper told us to have a
+ good look at the vessel, then try and learn what the natives on shore had
+ to say about her, and then come off and report.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We pulled right in to the wreck as close as we could get, for it was low
+ tide. Then Warby and I got out and walked over to it. We found that she
+ was stripped of everything of value, even the chain-plates having been cut
+ out, the decks were torn up and partly burnt, and the anchors and cables
+ were gone; in fact, she was nothing but a shell.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'Been looted by the niggers,' I said to Warby. 'Hope the poor chaps that
+ manned her got away in the boat; better for 'em to have been drowned than
+ be eaten by these beggars about here.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "'We'll soon see,' said he. 'It's my opinion they did get away safely.
+ Look over there, Potter, at those niggers waiting for us on the beach; now
+ if they had cut off this vessel they would have bolted into the bush, or
+ begun firing at us. Come on.'
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We walked back to the boats and then pulled over to the village, which
+ was about eight hundred yards away, Warby's boat, of course, going first.
+ About thirty or forty natives came down to the water's edge and waited.
+ They were all armed with bows, spears, and clubs, but seemed friendly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "However, Warby jumped boldly out on to the beach, and telling his crew to
+ keep her afloat in case he had to run for it, he went up to the crowd of
+ niggers and shook hands with some of them; I and my chaps in the covering
+ boat keeping our rifles out of view, but quite ready.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "In about five minutes Warby sang out to me that it was all right. The
+ vessel, the natives told him, had parted her cables, gone ashore and
+ bilged on the reef in the night; and the hands being too frightened to
+ come ashore, had gone away next morning in two boats. Then he told me to
+ wait a few minutes, as he was going to the chief's house to look at the
+ copper and other gear that the natives had taken from the schooner, and
+ very likely he would buy it. First of all, though, he told Sarréo to pass
+ him out a 12 lb. case of tobacco as a present for the chief.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "He took the case from Sarréo and handed it to the chief, and then off
+ they went&mdash;he in the middle of thirty or forty murderous-looking
+ savages; but he had done the same thing so often before that we did not
+ feel any particular alarm.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We lay there, backed stern on to the beach, for about five minutes,
+ looking at the house into which he had gone with the natives. Suddenly we
+ saw him burst out of the house and fall on his knees, trying to draw his
+ revolver; but in another moment he was being tomahawked and clubbed by a
+ mob of yelling devils! Poor chap, he must have died very quickly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "We opened fire at once and they disappeared like magic, and then from
+ every bush, tree, and rock they began firing at us in the boats with both
+ muskets and arrows. One of my men was hit, and then, before I could stop
+ him, Sarréo had jumped out of his boat and was running up the beach, rifle
+ in hand, to where Mr. Warby's body was lying.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "He got there, I think, without being hit, just as a big native ran at him
+ with a tomahawk. He hadn't time to put his Snider to his shoulder; but
+ that nigger gave his last jump anyway, for I saw the rifle go off and the
+ nigger topple over. In another five seconds he had lifted the supercargo
+ up, thrown him over his left shoulder, and was running down to the boats.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "By this time, me and two of my crew had jumped out of the boat and ran to
+ meet him, firing as we went. We had just reached him when down he went on
+ to his face in the sand&mdash;a bullet had smashed his hip.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Dropping our rifles, we picked him and Mr. Warby's body up, and by God's
+ mercy managed to tumble into the boat together and push off, covered by
+ the fire from the ship, which carried two six-pounders.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Sarréo lived two days&mdash;he died the same morning that we were getting
+ ready to take Warby's body ashore to bury on a little island between Bouka
+ and Bougainville. So we made only one trip ashore. Poor chap! He had a
+ good, simple heart, and almost his last words were that he 'was glad Mr.
+ Warby wasn't eaten.'
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ "Ah, as you say, Mr. Denison, the rotten South Seas ain't no place for a
+ white man. Good-night."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sarréo, by Louis Becke
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