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diff --git a/43688.txt b/43688.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 36ee772..0000000 --- a/43688.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2579 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wednesday the Tenth, A Tale of the South -Pacific, by Grant Allen - -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/license - - -Title: Wednesday the Tenth, A Tale of the South Pacific - -Author: Grant Allen - -Release Date: September 10, 2013 [EBook #43688] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEDNESDAY THE TENTH *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Ernest Schaal, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: _Frontis._ THERE WAS A TERRIBLE SCENE OF NOISE AND -CONFUSION. Page 124] - - - - - Wednesday the Tenth - - A TALE OF - THE SOUTH PACIFIC - - - BY - GRANT ALLEN - - Author of - Common Sense Science - and others - - - BOSTON - D LOTHROP COMPANY - WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1890, - BY - D. LOTHROP COMPANY. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. - WE SIGHT A BOAT 9 - - CHAPTER II. - THE BOAT'S CREW 27 - - CHAPTER III. - THE MYSTERY SOLVED 41 - - CHAPTER IV. - MARTIN LUTHER'S STORY 56 - - CHAPTER V. - A BREAK-DOWN 72 - - CHAPTER VI. - ON THE ISLAND 86 - - CHAPTER VII. - ERRORS EXCEPTED 100 - - CHAPTER VIII. - HOT WORK 113 - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - There was a terrible scene of noise and confusion _Front._ - - Where the Frenchmen landed 19 - - Natives of the Island of Tanaki 58 - - The savages fell back and listened with eagerness 70 - - - - - WEDNESDAY THE TENTH. - - _A Tale of the South Pacific._ - - - CHAPTER I. - - WE SIGHT A BOAT. - - -On the eighteenth day out from Sydney, we were cruising under the lee of -Erromanga--of course you know Erromanga, an isolated island between the -New Hebrides and the Loyalty group--when suddenly our dusky Polynesian -boy, Nassaline, who was at the masthead on the lookout, gave a surprised -cry of "Boat ahoy!" and pointed with his skinny black finger to a dark -dot away southward on the horizon, in the direction of Fiji. - -I strained my eyes and saw--well, a barrel or something. For myself, I -should never have made out it was a boat at all, being somewhat slow of -vision at great distances; but, bless your heart! these Kanaka lads have -eyes like hawks for pouncing down upon a canoe or a sail no bigger than -a speck afar off; so when Nassaline called out confidently, "Boat ahoy!" -in his broken English, I took out my binocular, and focused it full on -the spot towards which the skinny black finger pointed. Probably, -thought I to myself, a party of natives, painted red, on the war-trail -against their enemies in some neighboring island; or perhaps a "labor -vessel," doing a veiled slave-trade in "indentured apprentices" for New -Caledonia or the Queensland planters. - -To my great surprise, however, I found out, when I got my glasses fixed -full upon it, it was neither of these, but an open English row-boat, -apparently, making signs of distress, and alone in the midst of the wide -Pacific. - -Now, mind you, one doesn't expect to find open English row-boats many -miles from land, drifting about casually in those far-eastern waters. -There's very little European shipping there of any sort, I can tell you; -a man may sometimes sail for days together across that trackless sea -without so much as speaking a single vessel, and the few he does come -across are mostly engaged in what they euphoniously call "the -labor-trade"--in plain English, kidnaping blacks or browns, who are -induced to sign indentures for so many years' service (generally "three -yams," that is to say, for three yam crops), and are then carried off by -force or fraud to some other island, to be used as laborers in the -cane-fields or cocoa-nut groves. So I rubbed my eyes when I saw an open -boat, of European build, tossing about on the open, and sang out to the -man at the wheel: - -"Hard a starboard, Tom! Put her head about for the dark spot to the -sou'-by-southeast there!" - -"Starboard it is!" Tom Blake answered cheerily, setting the rudder -about; and we headed straight for that mysterious little craft away off -on the horizon. - -But there! I see I've got ahead of my story, to start with, as the way -is always with us salt-water sailors. We seafaring men can never spin a -yarn, turned straight off the reel all right from the beginning, like -some of those book-making chaps can do. We have always to luff round -again, and start anew on a fresh tack half a dozen times over, before we -can get well under way for the port we're aiming at. So I shall have to -go back myself to Sydney once more, to explain who we were, and how we -happened to be cruising about on the loose that morning off Erromanga. - -My name, if I may venture to introduce myself formally, is Julian -Braithwaite. I am the owner and commander of the steam-yacht -_Albatross_, thirty-nine tons burden, as neat a little craft as any on -the Pacific, though it's me that says it as oughtn't to say it; and I've -spent the last five years of my life in cruising in and out among those -beautiful archipelagos in search of health, which nature denies me in -more northern latitudes. The oddest part of it is, though I'm what the -doctors call consumptive in England--only fit to lie on a sofa and read -good books--the moment I get clear away into the Tropics I'm a strong -man again, prepared to fight any fellow of my own age and weight, and as -fit for seamanship as the best Jack Tar in my whole equipment. The -_Albatross_ numbers eighteen in crew, all told; and as I am not a rich -enough or selfish enough a man to keep up a vessel all for my own -amusement, my brother Jim and I combine business and pleasure by doing a -mixed trade in copra or dried cocoa-nut with the natives from time to -time, or by running across between Sydney and San Francisco with a light -cargo of goods for the Australian market. - -Our habit was therefore to cruise in and out among the islands, with no -very definite aim except that of picking up a stray trade whenever we -could make one, and keeping as much within sight of land, for the sake -of company, as circumstances permitted us. And that is just why, though -bound for Fiji, we had gone so far out of our way that particular voyage -as to be under the lee of Erromanga. - -As for our black Polynesian boy, Nassaline, to tell you the truth, I am -proud of that lad, for he's a trophy of war; we got him at the point of -the sword off a slaver. She was a fast French sloop, "recruiting" for -New Caledonia, as they call it, on one of the New Hebrides, when the -_Albatross_ happened to come to anchor, by good luck or good management, -in the same harbor. From the moment we arrived I had my eye on that -smart French sloop, for I more than half suspected the means she was -employing to beat up recruits. Early next morning, as I lay in my bunk, -I heard a fearful row going on in boats not far from our moorings; and -when I rushed up on deck, half-dressed, to find out what the noise was -about, blessed if I didn't see whole gangs of angry natives in canoes, -naked of course as the day they were born, or only dressed, like the -Ancient Britons, in a neat coat of paint, pursuing the French sloop's -jolly-boat, which was being rowed at high pressure by all its crew -toward its own vessel. "Great guns!" said I, "what's up?" So, looking -closer, I could make out four strapping young black boys lying manacled -in the bottom, kicking and screaming as hard as their legs and throats -could go, while the Frenchmen rowed away for dear life, and the Kanakas -in the canoes paddled wildly after them, taking cock-shots at them with -very bad aim from time to time with arrows and fire-arms. Such a -splutter and noise you never heard in all your life. Ducks fighting in a -pond were a mere circumstance to it. - -"Tom Blake!" I sang out, "is the gig afloat there?" - -"Aye, aye, sir," says Tom, jumping up. "She's ready at the starn. Shall -we off and at 'em?" - -"Right you are, Tom!" says I; "all hands to the gig here!" - -Well, in less than three minutes I'd got that boat under way, and was -rowing ahead between the Frenchmen and their sloop, with our Remingtons -ready, and everything in order for a good stand-up fight of it. - -When the Frenchmen saw we meant to intercept them, and found themselves -cut off between the savages on one side and an English crew well-armed -with rifles of precision on the other, they thought it was about time to -open negotiations with the opposing party. So the skipper stopped, as -airy as a gentleman walking down the Boulevards, and called out to me in -French, "What do you want ahoy, there?" - -"Ahoy there yourself," says I, in my very best Ollandorff. "We want to -know what you're doing with those youngsters?" - -"Oh! it's that, is it?" says the Frenchman, as cool as a cucumber, -coming nearer a bit, and talking as though we'd merely stopped him with -polite inquiries about the time of day or the price of spring chickens; -while the savages, seeing from our manner we were friendly to their -side, left off firing for a while for fear of hitting us. "Why, these -are apprentices of ours--indentured apprentices. We've bought them from -their parents by honest trade--paid for 'em with Sniders, ammunition, -calico and tobacco; and if you want to see our papers and theirs, -Monsieur, here they are, look you, all perfectly _en regle_," and he -held up the bundle for us to inspect in full--with a telescope, I -suppose--at a hundred yards' distance. - -"Row nearer, boys," I said, "and we'll talk a bit with this polite -gentleman. He seems to have views of his own, I fancy, about the proper -method of engaging servants." - -But when we tried to row up the Frenchman stopped and called out at the -top of his voice, in a very different tone, all bustle and bluster, -"Look out ahead there! If you come a yard closer we open fire. We want -no interference from any of you Methodistical missionary fellows." - -"We ain't missionaries," I answered quietly, cocking my revolver in the -friendliest possible fashion right in front of him; "we're traders and -yachtsmen. Show 'em your Remingtons, boys, and let 'em see we mean -business! That's right. Ready! present!--and fire when I tell you! Now -then, Monsieur, you bought these boys, you say. So far, good. Next then, -if you please, who did you buy them from?" - -The Frenchman turned pale when he saw we were well-armed and meant -inquiry; but he tried to carry off still with a little face and bluster. -"Why, their parents, of course," he answered, with a signal to his -friends in the ship to cover us with their fire-arms. - -"From their parents? O, yes! Well, how did you know the sellers were -their parents?" I asked, still pointing my revolver towards him. "And -why are the boys so unwilling to go? And what are the natives making -such a noise over this little transaction in indentured labor for? If -it's all as you say, what's this fuss and row about? Keep your rifles -steady, lads." - -"They want to back out of their bargain, I suppose, now they've drunk -our rum and smoked our tobacco," the Frenchman said. - -"No true, no true," one of the natives shouted out from beyond in his -broken English. "Man a _oui-oui_!"--that's what they call the French, -you know, all through the South Pacific--"man a _oui-oui_, bad--no -believe man, a _oui-oui_--him make us drunk, so try to cheat us." - -[Illustration: WHERE THE FRENCHMEN LANDED. Page 19] - -"Now, you look here, Monsieur," I said severely, turning to the skipper, -"I know what you've been doing. I've seen this little game tried on -before. You landed here last night with your peaceable equipment for -recruiting labor--we know what that means--a Winchester sixteen-shooter -and half a dozen pairs of English handcuffs. You brought on shore your -'trade'--a common clay pipe or two, some cheap red cloth, and a lot of -bad French Government tobacco; and you treated the natives all round to -free drinks of your square gin. When they'd reached that state of -convenient conviviality that they didn't know who they were or what they -were doing, you took advantage of their guileless condition. You picked -out the likeliest young men and lads, selected any particularly drunken -native lying about loose to represent their fathers, made 'em put their -marks to a formal paper of indentures, and handed over twenty dollars, a -bottle of rum, and a quid of tobacco, as a consolation for the wounded -feelings of their distressed relations. You've been carrying them off -all night at your devil's game; and now in the morning the natives are -beginning to wake up sober, miss their friends, and put a summary stop -to your little proceedings. Well, sir, I give you one minute to make up -your mind; if you don't hand us over these four lads to set on shore -again, we'll open fire upon you; and as we're stronger than you, with -the natives at our back, we'll make a prize of you, and tow you into -Fiji on a charge of slave-trading." - -Before the words were well out of my mouth the French skipper had given -the word "Fire!" and the bullets came whizzing past, and riddling the -gunwale of the gig beside us. One of them grazed my arm below the -shoulder and drew blood. Now there's nothing to put a man's temper up -like getting shot in the arm. I lost mine, I confess, and I shouted -aloud, "Fire, boys, and row on at them!" Our fellows fired, and the very -same moment the natives closed in and went at them with their canoes, -all alive with Sniders, lances and hatchets. It was a lively time, I can -tell you, for the next five minutes, with those lithe, long black -fellows swarming over them like ants; and poor Tom Blake got a bullet -from a French rifle in his thigh, that lodges there still in very -comfortable quarters. But one of the Frenchmen fell back in the -jolly-boat shot through the breast, and the skipper, who turned out to -be a fellow with one sound leg and a substitute, was severely wounded. -So we'd soon closed in upon them, the natives and ourselves, and -overpowered their crew, which was only ten, all told, besides the -fellows on the big vessel in the harbor. - -Well, we took out the four boys, when the mill was over, and transferred -them to our gig; and then we escorted the Frenchmen, ironed in their own -handcuffs, to the deck of their sloop, with the natives on either side -in their canoes rowing along abreast of us like a guard of honor. The -crew of the sloop didn't attempt to interfere with us as we brought -their comrades handcuffed aboard; if they had, why, then, with the help -of the savages, we should have been more than a match for them. So we -prowled around the ship on a voyage of discovery, and found ample -evidence in her get-up of her character as an honest and single-hearted -recruiter of labor. A rack in the cabin held eight Snider rifles, loaded -for use, above which hung eight revolvers, employed doubtless in -self-defense against the lawless character of the Kanakas, as the -skipper (with his hands in irons and his eyes in tears) most solemnly -assured us. The sloop was prepared throughout, with loopholes and -battening-hatches, to stand a siege, and could have made short work of -the natives alone had they tried to attack her, for she carried a small -howitzer, not so big as our own; but she never suspected interference -from a European vessel. We went down into her hold, and there we found -about forty natives, men, women and children--free agents all, the -skipper had declared--packed as tight as herrings in a barrel, and with -stench intolerable to the European nostril. Such a sight you never saw -in your life. There they lay athwart ship, side by side, the unhappy -black cattle, some handcuffed and manacled, others dead-drunk and too -careless to complain, while the women and children were crying and -screaming, and the men were shouting as loud as they could shout in -their own lingo. - -Fortunately, we had a sailor aboard the _Albatross_ who had been a -beach-comber (or degraded white man who lives like a native) for three -years on the island of Ambrymon, and had a Kanaka girl for a sweetheart; -so he could talk their palaver almost as easy as you can English, and he -acted as interpreter for us with the poor people in the hold. We knocked -their handcuffs off, and explained the situation to them. About a dozen -of the wretchedest and most squalid-looking of the lot were prepared, -even when we offered them freedom, to stand by their last night's -bargain, and go on to New Caledonia; but the remainder were only too -delighted to learn that they might go ashore again; and they gave us -three ringing British cheers as soon as they understood we had really -liberated them. - -As for the four boys we'd got in the gig, three of them elected at once -to go home to their own people on the island; but the fourth was our -present black servant, Nassaline. He, poor boy, was an orphan; and his -nearest relations, having held a consultation the day before whether -they should bake him and eat him, or sell him to the Frenchman, had -decided that after all he would be worth more if paid for in tobacco and -rum than if roasted in plantain-leaves. So, as soon as he found we were -going to put him on shore again, the poor creature was afraid after all -he was being returned for the oven; and flinging himself on his face in -the gig, groveling and cringing, he took hold of our knees and besought -us most piteously (as our sailor translated his words for us) to take -him with us. Of course, when we entered into the spirit of the -situation, we felt it was impossible to send the poor fellow back to be -made "long pig" of; so, to his immense delight, we took him along, and a -more faithful servant no man ever had than poor Nassaline proved from -that day forth to me. - -I've gone out of my way so far, as I said before, to tell you this -little episode of life in the South Pacific, partly in order to let you -know who Nassaline was and how we came by him; but partly also to give -you a side glimpse of the sort of gentry, both European and native, one -may chance to knock up against in those remote regions. It'll help you -to understand the rest of my yarn. And now, if you please, I'll tack -back again once more into my proper course, to the spot where I broke -off in sight of Erromanga. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - THE BOAT'S CREW. - - -Presently, as we headed towards the black object on the horizon, -Nassaline stretched out that skinny finger of his once more (no amount -of feeding ever seemed to make Nassaline one ounce fatter), and cried -out in his shrill little piping voice, "Two man on the boat! him makey -signs for call us!" - -I'd give anything to have eyes as sharp as those Polynesians. I looked -across the sea, and the loppy waves in the foreground, and could just -make out with the naked eye that the row-boat had something that looked -like a red handkerchief tied to her bare mast, and a white signal -flapping in the wind below it; but not a living soul could I distinguish -in her without my binocular. So I put up my glasses and looked again. -Sure enough, there they were, two miserable objects, clinging as it -seemed half-dead to the mast, and making most piteous signs with their -hands to attract our attention. As soon as they saw that we had really -sighted them, and were altering our course to pick them up, their joy -and delight knew no bounds, as we judged. They flung up their arms -ecstatically into the air, and then sank back, exhausted, as I guessed, -on to the thwarts where they had long ceased sitting or rowing. - -They were wearied out, I imagined, with long buffeting against that -angry and immeasurable sea, and must soon have succumbed to fatigue if -we hadn't caught sight of them. - -We put on all steam, as in duty bound, and made towards them hastily. By -and by, my brother Jim, who had been off watch, came up from below and -joined me on deck to see what was going forward. At the same moment -Nassaline cried out once more, "Him no two man! Him two boy! Two English -boy! Him hungry like a dying!" And as he spoke, he held his own skinny -bare arm up to his mouth dramatically, and took a good bite at it, as if -to indicate in dumb show that the crew of the boat were now almost ready -to eat one another. - -Jim looked through the glasses, and handed them over to me in turn. "By -George, Julian," he said, "Nassaline's right. It's a couple of boys, and -to judge by the look of them, they're not far off starving!" - -I seized the glasses and fixed them upon the boat. We were getting -nearer now, and could make out the features of its occupants quite -distinctly. A more pitiable sight never met my eyes. Her whole crew -consisted of two white-faced lads, apparently about twelve or thirteen -years old, dressed in loose blue cotton shirts and European trousers, -but horribly pinched with hunger and thirst, and evidently so weak as to -be almost incapable of clinging to the bare mast whence they were trying -to signal us. - -Now, you land-loving folk can hardly realize, I dare say, what such an -incident means at sea; but to Jim and me, who had sailed the lonely -Pacific together for five years at a stretch, that pathetic sight was -full both of horror and unspeakable mystery. For anybody, even grown men -long used to the ocean, to be navigating that awful expanse of water -alone in an empty boat is little short of ghastly. Just think what it -means! A stormy sheet that stretches from the north pole to the south -without one streak of continuous land to break it; a stormy sheet on -which the winds and waves may buffet you about in almost any direction -for five thousand miles, with only the stray chance of some remote -oceanic isle to drift upon, or some coral reef to swallow you up with -its gigantic breakers. But a couple of boys!--mere children -almost!--alone, and starving, on that immense desert of almost -untraveled water! On the Atlantic itself your chance of being picked up -from open boats by a passing vessel is slight enough, heaven knows! but -on the Pacific, where ships are few and routes are far apart, your only -alternative to starvation or foundering is to find yourself cast on the -tender mercies of the cannibal Kanaka. No wonder I looked at Jim, and -Jim looked at me, and each of us saw unaccustomed tears standing half -ashamed in the eyes of the other. - -"Stop her!" I cried. "Lower the gig, Tom Blake! Jim, we must go -ourselves and fetch these poor fellows." - -At the sound of my bell the engineer pulled up the _Albatross_ short and -sharp, with admirable precision, and we lowered our boat to go out and -meet them. As we drew nearer and nearer with each stroke of our oars, I -could see still more plainly to what a terrible pitch of destitution and -distress these poor lads had been subjected during their awful journey. -Their cheeks were sunken, and their eyes seemed to stand back far in the -hollow sockets. Their pallid white hands hardly clung to the mast by -convulsive efforts with hooked fingers. They had used up their last -reserve of strength in their wild efforts to attract our attention. - -I thanked heaven it was Nassaline who kept watch at the mast-head when -they first hove in sight. No European eye could ever have discovered the -meaning of that faint black speck upon the horizon. If it hadn't been -for the sharp vision of our keen Polynesian friend, these two helpless -children might have drifted on in their frail craft for ever, till they -wasted away with hunger and thirst under the broiling eye of the hot -Pacific noontide. - -We pulled alongside, and lifted them into the gig. As we reached them, -both boys fell back faint with fatigue and with the sudden joy of their -unexpected deliverance. "Quick, quick, Jim! your flask!" I cried, for we -had brought out a little weak brandy and water on purpose. "Pour it -slowly down their throats--not too fast at first--just a drop at a time, -for fear of choking them." - -Jim held the youngest boy's head on his lap, and opened those parched -lips of his that looked as dry as a piece of battered old shoe-leather. -The tongue lolled out between the open teeth like a thirsty dog's at -midsummer, and was hard and rough as a rasp with long weary watching. We -judged the lad at sight to be twelve years old or thereabouts. Jim put -the flask to his lips, and let a few drops trickle slowly down his burnt -throat. At touch of the soft liquid the boy's lips closed over the mouth -of the flask with a wild movement of delight, and he sucked in eagerly, -as you may see a child in arms suck at the mouthpiece of its empty -feeding-bottle. "That's well," I said. "He's all right, at any rate. As -long as he has strength enough to pull at the flask like that, we shall -bring him round in the end somehow." - -We took away the flask as soon as we thought he'd had as much as was -good for him at the time, and let his head fall back once more upon -Jim's kindly shoulder. Now that the first wild flush of delight at their -rescue was fairly over, a reaction had set in; their nerves and muscles -gave way simultaneously, and the poor lad fell back, half-fainting, -half-sleeping, just where Jim with his fatherly solicitude chose to lay -him. - -Tom Blake and I turned to the elder lad. His was a harder and more -desperate case. Perhaps he had tried more eagerly to save his helpless -brother; perhaps the sense of responsibility for another's life had -weighed heavier upon him at his age--for he looked fourteen; but at any -rate he was well-nigh dead with exposure and exhaustion. The first few -drops we poured down his throat he was clearly quite unable to swallow. -They gurgled back insensibly. Tom Blake took out his handkerchief, and -tearing off a strip, soaked it in brandy and water in the cup end of the -flask; then he gently moistened the inside of the poor lad's mouth and -throat with it, till at last a faint swallowing motion was set up in the -gullet. At that, we poured down some five drops cautiously. To our -delight and relief they were slowly gulped down, and the poor white -mouth stood agape like a young bird's in mute appeal for more -water--more water. - -We gave him as much as we dared in his existing state, and then turned -to the boat for some clue to the mystery. - -She was an English-built row-boat, smart and taut, fit for facing rough -seas, and carrying a short, stout mast amidships. On her stern we found -her name in somewhat rudely-painted letters, _Messenger of Peace: -Makilolo in Tanaki_. Clearly she had been designed for mission service -among the islands, and the last words which followed her title must be -meant to designate her port, or the mission station. But what that place -was I hadn't a notion. - -"Where's Tanaki, Tom Blake?" I asked, turning round, for Tom had been -navigating the South Seas any time this twenty years, and knew almost -every nook and corner of the wide Pacific, from Yokohama to Valparaiso. - -Tom shifted his quid from one cheek to the other and answered, after a -pause, "Dunno, sir, I'm sure. Never heerd tell of Tanaki in all my born -days; an' yet I sorter fancied, too, I knowed the islands." - -"There are no signs of blood or fighting in the boat," I said, examining -it close. "They can't have escaped from a massacre, anyhow." For I -remembered at once to what perils the missionaries are often exposed in -these remote islands--how good Bishop Patteson had been murdered at -Santa Cruz, and how the natives had broken the heads of Mason and Wood -at Erromanga not so many months back, in cold blood, out of pure lust of -slaughter. - -"But they must have run away in an awful hurry," Tom Blake added, -overhauling the locker of the boat, "for, see, she ain't found; there -ain't no signs of food or anything to hold it nowheres, sir; and this -ere little can must 'a' been the o'ny thing they had with 'em for -water." - -He was quite right. The boat had clearly put to sea unprovisioned. It -deepened our horror at the poor lads' plight to think of this further -aggravation of their incredible sufferings. For days they must have -tossed in hunger and thirst on the great deep. But we could only wait to -have the mystery cleared up when the lads were well enough to explain to -us what had happened. Meanwhile we could but look and wonder in silence; -and indeed we had quite enough to do for the present in endeavoring to -restore them to a state of consciousness. - -"Any marks on their clothes?" my brother Jim suggested, with practical -good sense, looking up from his charge as we rowed back toward the -_Albatross_, with the _Messenger of Peace_ in tow behind us. "That might -help us to guess who they are, and where they hail from." - -I looked close at the belt of the lads' blue shirts. On the elder's I -read in a woman's handwriting, "Martin Luther Macglashin, 6, '87." The -younger boy's bore in the same hand the corresponding inscription, "John -Knox Macglashin, 6, '86." It somehow deepened the tragedy of the -situation to come upon those simple domestic reminiscences at such a -moment. - -"Sons of a Scotch missionary, apparently," I said, as I read them out. -"If only we could find where their father was at work, we might manage -to get some clue to this mystery." - -"We can look him up," Jim answered, "when we get to Fiji." - -We rowed back in silence the rest of the way to the _Albatross_, lifted -the poor boys tenderly on board, and laid them down to rest on our own -bunks in the cabin. Serang-Palo, our Malay cook, made haste at the -galleys to dress them a little arrowroot with condensed milk; and before -half an hour the younger boy was sitting up in Jim's arms with his eyes -and mouth wide open, craving eagerly for the nice warm mess we were -obliged to dole out to his enfeebled stomach in sparing spoonfuls, and -with a trifle of color already returning to his pale cheeks. He was too -ill to speak yet--his brother indeed lay even now insensible on the bunk -in the corner--but as soon as he had finished the small pittance of -arrowroot which alone we thought it prudent to let him swallow at -present, he mustered up just strength enough to gasp out a few words of -solemn importance in a very hollow voice. We bent over him to listen. -They were broken words we caught, half rambling as in delirium, but we -heard them distinctly-- - -"Steer for Makilolo ... Island of Tanaki ... Wednesday the tenth ... -Natives will murder them ... My mother--my father--Calvin--and Miriam." - -Then it was evident he could not say another word. He sank back on the -pillow breathless and exhausted. The color faded from his cheek once -more as he fell into his place. I poured another spoonful of brandy down -his parched throat. In three minutes more he was sleeping peacefully, -with long even breath, like one who hadn't slept for nights before on -the tossing ocean. - -I looked at Jim and bit my lips hard. "This is indeed a fix," I cried, -utterly nonplussed. "Where on earth, I should like to know, is this -island of Tanaki!" - -"Don't know," said Jim. "But wherever it is, we've got to get there." - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE MYSTERY SOLVED. - - -We paused for a while, and looked at one another's faces blankly. - -"Suppose," Jim suggested at last, "we get out the charts and see if such -a place as Tanaki is marked upon them anywhere." - -"Right you are," says I. "Overhaul your maps, and when found, make a -note of." - -Well, we did overhaul them for an hour at a stretch, and searched them -thoroughly, inch by inch, Jim taking one sheet of the Admiralty chart -for the South Pacific, and I the other; but never a name could we find -remotely resembling the sound or look of Tanaki. Tom Blake, too, was -positive, as he put it himself, that "there weren't no such name, not in -the whole thunderin' Pacific, nowheres." So after long and patient -search we gave up the quest, and determined to wait for further -particulars till the boys had recovered enough to tell us their strange -story. - -Meanwhile, it was clear we must steer somewhere. We couldn't go beating -wildly up and down the Pacific, on the hunt for a possibly non-existent -Tanaki, allowing the _Albatross_ to drift at her own sweet will wherever -she liked, pending the boys' restoration to speech and health. So the -question arose what direction we should steer in. Jim solved that -problem as easy as if it had come out of the first book of Euclid (he -was always a mathematician, Jim was, while for my part, when I was a -little chap at school, the asses' bridge at an early stage effectually -blocked my further progress. I could never get over it, even with the -persuasive aid of what Dr. Slasher used politely to call his _vis a -tergo_.) - -"They're too weak to row far, these lads," Jim said in his didactic -way--ought to have been a schoolmaster or a public demonstrator, Jim: -such a head for proving things! "Therefore they must mostly have been -drifting before the wind ever since they started. Now, wind for the last -fortnight's been steadily nor'east"--the anti-trade was blowing. -"Therefore, they must have come from the nor'east, I take it; and if we -steer clean in the face of the wind, we're bound sooner or later to -arrive at Tanaki." - -"Jim," said I, admiring him, like, "you're really a wonderful chap. You -do put your finger down so pat on things! Steer to the nor'-east it is, -of course. But I wonder how far off Tanaki lies, and what chance we've -got of reaching there by Wednesday the tenth?" For though we didn't even -know yet who the people were who were threatened with massacre at this -supposed Tanaki, we couldn't let them have their throats cut in cold -blood without at least an attempt to arrive there in time to prevent it. - -Of course, we knew with our one brass gun we should be more than a match -for any Melanesian islanders we were likely to meet with, if once we -could get there; but the trouble was, should we reach in time to -forestall the massacre? - -By Wednesday the tenth we must reach Tanaki--wherever that might be. - -Jim took out a piece of paper and totted up a few figures carelessly on -the back. "We've plenty of coal," he said, "and I reckon we can make -nine knots an hour, if it comes to a push, even against this head wind. -To-day's the sixth; that gives us four clear days still to the good. At -nine knots, we can do a run of two hundred and thirty-six knots a day. -Four two-hundred-and-thirty-sixes is nine hundred and forty-four, isn't -it? Let me see; four sixes is twenty-four; put down four and carry two: -four three's is twelve, and two's fourteen: four two's--yes, that's all -right: nine hundred and forty-four, you see, ex-actly. Well, then, look -here, Julian: unless Tanaki's further off than nine hundred and -forty-four nautical miles--which isn't likely--we ought to get there by -twelve o'clock on Wednesday at latest. Nine hundred and forty-four miles -is an awful long stretch for two boys to come in an open boat. I don't -expect these boys can have done as much as that or anything like it." - -"Wind and current were with them," I objected, "and she was drifting -like one o'clock when we first sighted her. I shouldn't be surprised if -she was making five or six knots an hour before half a gale all through -that hard blow. And the poor boys look as if they might have been out a -week or more. Still, it isn't likely they would have come nine hundred -knots, as you say, or anything like it. If we put on all steam, we ought -to arrive in time to save their father and mother. Anyhow we'll try it." -And I shouted down the speaking tube, "Hi, you there, engineer!--pile on -the coal hard and make her travel. We want all the speed we can get out -of the _Albatross_ for the next three days." - -"All square, sir," says Jenkins; and he piled on, accordingly. - -So we steamed ahead as hard as we could go, in the direction where we -expected to find Tanaki. - -Half an hour later, Nassaline, who had been down below with the Malay -cook and one of the men, looking after the patients, came up on deck -once more, with a broad grin on his jet-black face from ear to ear, and -exclaimed in his very best Kanaka-English, "Boy come round again. Eat -plenty arrowroot. Eat allee samee like as if starvee. Call very hard for -see Massa Captain." - -"What do you think's the matter with them, Nassaline?" I asked, as I -walked along by his side towards the companion-ladder. - -Nassaline's ideas were exclusively confined to a certain fixed and -narrow Polynesian circle. "Tink him fader go sell him for laborer to a -man _oui-oui_, or make oven hot for him," he answered, grinning; "so him -run away, and come put himself aboard Massa Captain ship; so eat -plenty--no beat, no starvee." - -It was his own personal history put in brief, and he fitted it at once -as the only possible explanation to these other poor fugitives. - -"Nonsense!" I said, with a compassionate smile at his innocence. "White -people don't sell or eat their children, stupid! It's my belief, -Nassaline, we'll never make a civilized Christian creature of you, in a -tall hat, and with a glass in your eye. You ain't cut out for it, -somehow. How many times have I explained to you, boy, that Christians -never cook and eat their enemies?... They only love them, and blow them -up with Gatlings or Armstrongs--a purely fraternal method of expressing -slight differences of international opinion.... Now, come along down and -let's see these lads. It's some of your heathen relations, I expect, the -poor fellows are flying from." - -But I omitted to have remarked to him (as I might have done) that I -hadn't seen such a painful sight before, since I saw the inhabitants of -a French village in Lorraine--old men, young girls, and mothers with -babies pressed against their breasts--flying, pell-mell, before the -sudden onslaught of a hundred and fifty Christian Prussian Uhlans. These -little peculiarities of our advanced civilization are best not mentioned -to the heathen Polynesian. - -In the cabin we found both boys now fairly on the high-road to recovery, -though still, of course, much too weak to talk; but bursting over, for -all that, with eagerness to tell us their whole eventful history. For my -own part, I, too, was all eagerness to hear it; but anxiety for their -safety made me restrain my impatience. The elder boy, now leaning on his -elbow and staring wildly before him with horror--a mere skeleton to look -at, with his sunken cheeks and great hollow eyes--began to break forth -upon me with his long tale in full; but I soon put a stop to that, you -may be pretty sure, with most uncompromising promptitude. "My dear Mr. -Martin Luther Macglashin," I said severely, giving him the full benefit -of all his own various high-sounding names for greater impressiveness, -"if you don't lean back this moment upon your pillow, quiet your rolling -eye down to everyday proportions, and answer only in the shortest -possible words nothing but the plain questions I put to you, hang me, -sir, if I don't turn you and John Knox adrift again upon the wild waves, -and continue on my course for Levuka in Fiji." - -"Why, how did you come to know our names?" he exclaimed, astonished. -"You must be as sharp as a lynx, Captain." - -"That's not an answer to my question I asked you," I replied with as -much sternness as I could put into my voice, looking at the poor -fellow's starved white face. "But as a special favor to a deserving -fellow-creature, I don't mind telling you. I'm as sharp as a lynx, as -you say, and a trifle sharper: for no lynx would have looked for your -names on the flap of your shirts--There, that'll do now; don't try to -talk; just answer me quietly. Where do you come from, and where do you -want us to go to?" - -Martin lifted up his face and answered with becoming brevity, "Tanaki." - -"That's better!" I said. "That's the sort of way a fellow ought to -answer, when he's more than half-starved with a week at sea. But the -next thing is, where's Tanaki?" - -"It's one of the group that used to be called the Duke of Cumberland's -Islands," the boy answered faintly, yet overflowing with eagerness. -"They lie just beyond the Ellice Archipelago, nearly on the line of a -hundred and eighty, as you go towards the Union Group along the -parallel of".... - -"Now, my dear boy," I said, "if you run on like that, as I said before, -I shall have to turn you adrift again in your open boat at the mercy of -the ocean. Do be quiet, won't you, and let me look up your island?" - -"We can't be quiet," Master John Knox put in eagerly, "when we know -they're going to murder our father and mother and Calvin and Miriam, on -Wednesday morning." - -"Just you hold your tongue, sir," I said, pushing him down again on his -bunk, "and wait till you're spoken to. Now, not another word, either of -you, till I've consulted my chart. Jim, hand down the Admiralty sheets -again, there's a good fellow, will you?" - -Jim handed them down, and we commenced our scrutiny at once. We soon -found the Duke of Cumberland's Islands, and as good luck would have it, -found we were steering as straight as an arrow for them. The direction -of the wind had not misled us. But no such place as Tanaki could we -still find anywhere. - -"It used to be called 'The Long Reef,'" Martin said, looking up; "but -now we call it by the native name, Tanaki." - -"Oh! The Long Reef," I said; "why didn't you say so at first? I know -that well enough by sight on the chart; but I never heard it called -Tanaki before. That accounts, of course, for the milk in the cocoa-nut. -Jim, hand along the calipers here, and let's measure out the course. -Two--four--six--eight," I went on, looping along line of sailing with -the calipers. "A trifle short of eight hundred miles. Say seven hundred -and eighty. And we have till Wednesday morning. Well, we ought to do -it." - -"You'll be in time to save them, then!" the elder boy cried, jumping up -once more like a Jack-in-the-box. "You'll be in time to save them!" - -"Will you be quiet, if you please?" I said, poking him down again flat, -and holding my hand on his mouth. "O, yes! I expect we'll be in time to -save them. If only you'll let us alone, and not make such a noise. We -can do nine knots an hour easy, under all steam; and that ought to bring -us up to Tanaki, as you call it, by Wednesday morning in the very small -hours. Let's see, we've got four clear days to do it in." - -"Five," the boy answered. "Five. To-day's Friday." - -"No, no," I replied curtly. "Will you please shut up? Especially when -you only darken counsel with many words. You're out of your reckoning. -To-day's Saturday, I tell you." - -And in point of fact, indeed, it really was Saturday. - -"No, it's Friday," Martin went on with extraordinary persistence. - -"Saturday," I repeated. "Knife; scissors: knife; scissors." - -"But we got away from Tanaki eight days ago," the boy declared strongly -with a very earnest face; "and it was Thursday when we left. I kept -count of the days and nights all that awful time we were tossing about -on the ocean alone, and I'm sure I'm right. To-day's Friday." - -"Jim," I said, turning to my brother, "what day of the week do you make -it?" - -"Why, Saturday, of course," Jim answered with confidence. - -I went to the bottom of the companion-ladder and called out aloud where -the boy could hear me, "Tom Blake, what day of the week and month is -it?" - -"Saturday the sixth, sir," Tom called out. - -"There, my boy," I said, turning to him, "you see you're mistaken. -You've lost count of the time in this awful journey of yours. I expect -you were half unconscious the last day and night. But, good heavens, -Jim, just to think of what they've done! They've been out nine days and -nights in an open boat, almost without food or drink, and they've come -all that incredible distance before the high wind. Except with a ripping -good breeze behind them they could never have done it." - -"For my part," said Jim, looking up from his chart, "I can hardly -understand how they ever did it at all. I declare, I call it nothing -short of a miracle!" - -And so indeed it was: for it seemed as though the wind had drifted them -straight ahead from the moment they started in the exact direction where -the _Albatross_ was to meet them. - -I'm an old seafaring hand by this time, and I may be superstitious, but -I see the finger of fate in such a coincidence as that one. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - MARTIN LUTHER'S STORY. - - -For the next two days we went steaming ahead as hard as we could go in a -bee-line to the northeastward, in the direction of the Duke of -Cumberland's Islands; and it was two days clear before those unfortunate -boys, Jack and Martin--for that was what they called one another for -short, in spite of their severely theological second names--were in a -condition to tell us exactly what had happened, without danger to their -shattered nerves and impaired digestions. - -When they did manage to speak--both at once, for choice, in their -eagerness to get their story out--here's about what their history came -to, as we pieced it together, bit by bit, from the things they told us -at different times. If I were one of those writing chaps, now, that know -how to tell a whole ten years' history, end on end, exactly as it -happened, without missing a detail, I'd get it all out for you just as -Martin told us; or better still, I'd give it to you in a single -connected piece, between inverted commas, as his own words, beginning, -"I was born," said he, "in the city of Edinburgh," and so forth, after -the regular high-and-dry literary fashion. But how on earth those clever -book-making fellows can ever remember a whole long speech, word for -word, from beginning to end, I never could make out and never shall, -neither. What memories they must have to do it, to be sure! It's my own -belief they make it up more than half out of their own heads as they go -along, and are perfectly happy if it only just sounds plausible. But -anyhow, Martin Luther Macglashin didn't tell us all his story at a -single time, or in a connected way; he gave us a bit now and a bit -again, with additions from Jack, according as he was able. So being, as -I say, no more than a free-and-easy master mariner myself, without skill -in literature, I'm not going to try to repeat it all, word for word, to -you precisely as it came, but shall just take the liberty of spinning my -yarn my own way and letting you have in short the gist and substance of -what we gradually got out of our two fugitives. - -Well, it seems that Jack and Martin's father was, just as I suspected, a -Scotch missionary on the Island of Tanaki. He lived there with another -family of missionaries of the same sect, in peace and quiet, as well as -with an English merchant of the name of Williams, who traded with the -natives for calico, knives, glass beads and tobacco. For a long time -things had gone on pretty comfortably in the little settlement; though -to be sure the natives did sometimes steal Mr. Macglashin's fowls or -threaten to tie Mr. Williams to a cocoa-nut palm and take cock-shots at -him with a Snider, out of pure lightness of heart, unless he gave them -rum, square gin or brandy. Still, in spite of these playful little -eccentricities of the good-humored Kanakas, who will have their joke, -murder or no murder, all went as merrily as a wedding bell (as they say -in novels) till suddenly one morning a French labor-vessel--I suspect -the very one we had intercepted in the act of trying to carry off -Nassaline--put into the harbor in search of "apprentices." - -She was a very bad lot, from what the boys told us; a genuine slaver of -the worst type; and she stirred up a deal of mischief at Makilolo. - -[Illustration: NATIVES OF THE ISLAND OF TANAKI. Page 58] - -On the shore the Chief of Tanaki was drawn up to receive them with all -his warriors, tastefully but inexpensively rigged out in a string of -blue beads round the neck, an anklet of shells and a head-dress of a -single large yellow feather. - -"Who are you?" shouts the chief at the top of his voice. "You man a -_oui-oui_?" - -"Yes," the Frenchman shouts back in his pigeon-English. "Me de commander -of dis French ship. Want to buy boys. Must sell them to us. Tanaki -French island. Discovered by Bougainville." - -"No, no," says the Chief in pigeon-English again. "Tanaki no belong a -man a _oui-oui_. Tanaki belong a Queenie England. Capitaney Cook find -him long time back. My father little fellow then; him see Capitaney, him -tell me often. Capitaney Cook no man a _oui-oui_; him fellow English." - -The other natives joined in at once with their loud cry, "Chief speak -true. Tanaki belong a Queenie England. Tanaki no belong a man a -_oui-oui_. If man a _oui-oui_ want to take Tanaki, man a Tanaki come out -and fight him." And they threw themselves at once into a threatening -attitude. - -"Have you got any Englishmen here?" the French skipper called out, to -make sure of his ground. - -"Yes," says the missionary--our boys' father--standing out from the -crowd. "Three English families here. Settled on the island. And we deny -that this group belongs to the French Republic." - -At that the Frenchman pulled back a bit. When he saw there was likely to -be opposition, and that his proceedings were watched by three English -families, he drew in his horns a little. He knew if he interfered too -openly with the missionaries' proceedings, an English gunboat might come -along, sooner or later, and overhaul him for fomenting discord on an -island known to be under the British protectorate. So he only answered -in French, "Well, we're peaceable traders, Monsieur. We don't want to -interfere with the British Government. Consider us friends. All we -desire is to hire laborers." And he landed his boat's crew before the -very face of Macglashin and the Tanaki warriors. - -At first, as often happens in these islands, the natives were very -little disposed to trade with the strangers in boys or women, for they -were afraid of the Frenchmen; and Macglashin and the other missionary -did all they knew to prevent the new comers from carrying off any of the -islanders into practical slavery. But after awhile the Frenchmen -produced their regulation bottles of square gin (that's what they call -Hollands in the South Pacific), and began to treat the Chief and the -other savages to drinks all round, as much as you liked, with nothing to -pay for it. In a very short time the Chief had got so much liquor aboard -that his legs wouldn't answer the rudder any longer, and he began to -reel about like a perfect madman. Most of the other full-grown men -natives followed suit before long, and lay down on the beach half dead -with drunkenness. Perhaps the liquor was drugged; perhaps it wasn't; but -anyhow, in spite of all the missionaries could do, the shore before -nightfall was in a condition of the wildest and most bestial orgies. The -men, in what the newspapers call "a high state of vinous exhilaration," -were ready to sell their boys and girls, or anything else on earth for a -little more gin; and as the missionaries were naturally helpless to -prevent it, the Frenchman was soon driving a roaring trade in flesh and -blood against the drunken savages. - -The business-like way they went to work, Jack and Martin told us, was -horribly disgusting. The women, indeed, they tried to wheedle and -cajole--"You like go along a New Caledonia along a me? Only three yam -times; then ship bring you back again. Very good feed; plenty nyam-nyam. -Pay very good. Pay money. Lots of shop. You buy what you like: you buy -red dress, red handkerchief, beads like-a-chiefie. No fight; no beat; no -swear at you. You good girl; I good fellow master." But if they couldn't -induce them, by fair words and promises and little presents of cheap -French finery, to put their mark to their sham indentures, then they -just knocked them down with a blow on the head, dragged them by their -hair to the boats hard by, and got their fathers or husbands to put -their marks, and receive a few dollars and some red cloth in payment. - -As for the boys, they handled them like so many animals in a market. -"Turn round, _cochon_! Show me your faces! _Mille tonnerres_, let me see -how you can run, you dirty young blackguard!" They examined them as a -veterinary would examine a horse. "Why, there was our little fellow, -Nangaree," Jack said to us with deep concern--"Nangaree, that used to -clean up things for mother at the mission-house: his father sold him for -twenty dollars. The captain looked at his legs, and at the glands in his -throat, to see if he'd had the chicken-pox and the measles. Then he said -to his mate, 'This lot's cheap enough. He's a first-rate lad, and can -speak English. He'll do for the hold. Bundle him along!' And the mate -caught him up by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to the boats, -kicking and screaming; and that was the last we saw of poor Nangaree!" - -For three days and nights, it seems, this horrible inhuman market or -slave-fair went on upon the beach, the Frenchmen taking care to keep the -natives well primed with spirits all the time, till they'd got their -hold full, and were prepared to sail away again with their living cargo. -Then at last they upped anchor, and out of the harbor. But before they -went, the skipper, it appears, who was angry at the missionaries for -having interfered with him, and was afraid they might report his -proceedings to the British Government when next the mission ship came -that way on her provisioning rounds, took aside the Chief in a -confidential chat, and tried to inflame his mind, all mad drunk that he -was, against the English residents. Apparently he had made so good a -three days' work of it with his horrible trade, and found it so -convenient to draw his supplies from this remote and almost unvisited -island, that he thought it would be nice if before his next visit he -could get rid altogether of these meddlesome strangers. He didn't want -European witnesses to crop up against him in future; so he told the -Chief, with a great show of confidence, that Macglashin and his friends -were not English at all, but Scotch; and he pointed out that it was -uncomfortable for the natives to be interfered with in their trading -operations by a set of white-livered curs who objected to the selling of -boys and girls into temporary slavery. Surely a Chief had a right to do -as he would with his own subjects! What else he said, Heaven knows, but -this is what happened as soon as the French, with their horrid cargo, -had got well clear of the unhappy island. - -That very afternoon, the Chief, beginning to get sober again, but -quarrelsome from headache and the other after-effects of a long debauch, -came round to the mission-house in a towering rage, and asked the -unsuspecting missionary, "Say, white man, are you a Scotchman?" - -"Yes," says Macglashin, not knowing what was coming. "I'm a Scotchman, -Chief, certainly. I was born in Scotland." - -The Chief laughed loud. "Ha, ha," he said, "then Queenie England no take -care a you. No send gunboat to shoot us all dead, if man a Tanaki come -up and kill you." - -At that Macglashin grew alarmed, and answered, "O, yes! The Queen of -England would certainly avenge us." And he tried to explain the exact -relation in which Scotchmen stood to the British crown--that they were -just as much British subjects as Englishmen, entitled to precisely the -same amount of protection. But the Chief couldn't be made to understand. -The French skipper had evidently poisoned his mind against them. "Man a -Tanaki don't want no Scotchman interfere with Chief when him go to sell -him boy and him woman," the savage said angrily. "Tanaki belong a -Queenie England. Queenie England no want Scotchman interfere with people -in Tanaki. Scotchman better keep quiet in him house. Queenie England no -mind Scotchman." - -And no amount of reasoning produced any effect upon him. - -The missionaries went to bed that evening with many misgivings. They -felt that for the first time, so far as the natives were concerned, the -powerful protection of the British flag was now practically withdrawn. -They were alone, as strangers, among those excited black fellows. - -At dead of night, while the two boys slept, a horrible din outside the -mission-house awoke them. They looked out, and saw the red glare of -torches outside. A frightful horde of Kanakas, naked save for their -war-paint, drunk with the Frenchman's rum and armed with his Sniders, -surrounded the frail building in a hideous mob of savagery. As Martin -put his head out of the lattice a bullet came whizzing past. He withdrew -it for a moment, terrified, and then looked out again. As he did so the -other Scotch missionary appeared upon the veranda, half-dressed, and -holding up his hand in dignified remonstrance, began in Kanaka with his -gentle mild voice, "My friends, my dear friends, ..." Before he could -get any further, the Chief stepped forward, and aiming a blow at his -gray locks with a sacred native tomahawk, felled the peaceful old -teacher senseless to the ground. Martin shuddered with horror. The old -man lay weltering in a pool of his red gushing gore, while the savages -danced in triumph over his prostrate body, or smeared themselves with -great lines and circles of his warm heart-blood. - -"Come on!" the Chief cried in Kanaka. "Kill all! Kill every one! They're -taboo to our gods. Don't fear their gunboats. Queenie England won't -trouble to protect a Scotchman!" - -Then began a hideous orgy of wild lust and slaughter. The savages rushed -on, drunk with blood and rum, and dragged out the wife and children of -the other missionary, whom they brained upon the spot, before the -terrified eyes of the trembling Macglashins. The trader Williams ran up -just then, with his revolver in his hand, followed by two faithful black -servants from a neighboring island; but the French skipper had been -cunning enough there too. "Him a Welshman!" the savages cried. "Queenie -England no care for him!" For indeed he happened to be born in Wales. -And they shot him down as he came, before he could open fire upon them. -Then they turned to massacre the Macglashins, the only remaining -Europeans on the island. - -But just at that moment a sudden idea seemed to strike the Chief. He -cried out, "Stop!" The savages fell back and listened with eagerness to -what was coming. Then the Chief shouted out again in Kanaka--"I have a -thought. The gods have sent it to me. This is my thought. We have killed -enough for tonight. Let us catch them alive and bind them. Next moon is -the great feast of my father Taranaka. I have an idea--a divine idea. -Let us keep them till that day, and then, in honor of the gods, let us -roast them and eat them." - -[Illustration: THE SAVAGES FELL BACK. Page 70] - -The whole assembly answered with a wild shout of delighted -assent--"Taranaka! Taranaka! Our great dead Chief! In honor of Taranaka, -let us roast them and eat them." - -So they rushed wildly on upon the defenseless white family, bound them -in rude cords of native make, and carried them off in triumph to -Taranaka's temple tomb in the palm-grove. - -And that was as much as we could allow the boys to tell us at a time, of -their strange adventures. We were afraid of overtaxing their strength at -first, and tried to confine their attention as much as possible to -tinned meats and sea-biscuit soaked in condensed milk; though I'm bound -to admit that as soon as they began to recover appetite a bit, they -addressed themselves steadily and seriously to their food, with true -British pluck and perseverance. In spite of the terrors from which they -had just escaped, they did the fullest justice to Serang-Palo's cookery. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - A BREAK-DOWN. - - -Time went on, and the boys began to grow visibly fatter. It was Tuesday -evening, and we hoped, putting on all steam as we were doing, to reach -Tanaki by the small hours of Wednesday morning, in good season to -relieve the four unhappy souls still, as we believed, detained there in -captivity. We were strained on the very rack of excitement, indeed, with -our efforts to arrive before the savages could take any further step; -and the boys' anxiety for their parents' and their sister's safety had -naturally communicated itself to us, as we listened to their story. Why, -it was that very evening that Martin had told us the rest of his strange -tale--how his father and mother, with his younger brother Calvin and his -sister Miriam, had been confined by the savages in the grass-hut temple, -while he and Jack were put to lie in an open out-house hard by, guarded -only by a single half-intoxicated Kanaka. Well, in the middle of the -night, those two brave boys had silently gnawed their ropes asunder, and -creeping past their guard had stolen away to the beach in the desperate -effort to escape in search of assistance. There, they luckily found the -mission boat hauled down on the shore; and waiting only to take a can of -water from the spring close by, and a bunch of half-ripe bananas from a -garden on the harbor, they had put forth alone on their wild and -adventurous voyage across the lone Pacific. I can tell you, it brought -the tears to our eyes more than once, rough sailors as we were, to hear -the strange story of their hopeless sail, and it made our blood boil to -learn how these ungrateful savages had repaid the earnest and devoted -life-labor of the unhappy missionaries. - -"No wonder him hungry," that young monkey Nassaline said, with profound -condolence, "if him don't hab nuffin to eat for ten day long but unripe -banana." Anything that concerned the human stomach always touched a most -tender and responsive chord in Nassaline's sympathies. - -At eight bells when my watch was up, I went off for a quiet snooze to my -cabin. I knew I should be wanted for hot work about three in the -morning, for I didn't expect to effect the rescue without a hard fight -for it; so I thought it best to get what sleep I could before arriving -at the islands. So I lay in my berth, with my eyes shut, and a thin -sheet spread over me (for it was broiling hot tropical weather), and I -was just beginning to doze off in comfort, when suddenly I felt -something move under me like a young earthquake. Next minute I was -jolted clean out of my bed, with such a jerk that I thought at first we -were all going to sleep on the bed of the ocean. - -"Halloo," I cried out to Jim up atop, rushing out of my cabin. "What's -up? Anything wrong? What's happened?" - -"Grazed a reef, I guess," Jim shouted back, calmly. "No land in sight, -but shoal water and breakers ahead. We seem to be in danger." - -Cool chap, Jim, under no matter what circumstances. But this looked -serious. In a second I was up, and peering out over the bows into the -dark black water. The _Albatross_ had slowed, and was reversing engines. -All round us we could see great heaving breakers. - -"No land hereabouts," Jim sung out, consulting the chart once more. "We -ought to be at least five miles to suth'ard of the Great Caycos Band -Reef." - -As he spoke, I saw Martin's white face appearing suddenly at the top of -the companion-ladder. He flung up his hands in an agony of despair. "Oh, -how terrible!" the poor lad blurted out in his misery. "I ought to have -remembered! I ought to have told you! Father says the charts hereabouts -are all many miles wrong in their bearings. The Caycos Reef lies six or -seven knots south by west of the point it's marked at!" - -In a ferment of anxiety I turned up our other Sydney charts at once to -test his statement. Sure enough there was a discrepancy, a considerable -discrepancy, both in latitude and longitude, between the two maps. At -the margin of one I read this vague and uncomfortable note--"These -islands are reported by certain navigators to lie further south and west -than here laid down, and have never been accurately surveyed by good -authorities. Careful navigation by day alone is recommended to master -mariners." - -Jim looked at me, and I looked at Jim. What on earth could we do in such -a fix as this? To go on in the dark, with unknown reefs before us, was -to imperil the _Albatross_ and all on board; to cast anchor where we -stood and hold back till daylight was to risk not arriving in time to -rescue the unfortunate missionary with his wife and family. I glanced at -the boy's white face as he stood by the companion-ladder, and made up my -mind at once. Come what might, I must push forward and save them. - -"Slow engines," I called down the pipe, "and proceed half-speed till -further orders. Jim, go for'ard, and keep a sharp eye on the breakers. -As soon as we're clear, we'll steam ahead full pelt again, and risk -going ashore sooner than leave these poor folks on the island to be -cruelly massacred." - -"Thank you," the boy said, with an ashy face, and lay down upon the -deck, unmanned and trembling. His lips were as white, I give you my -word, as this sheet of paper I'm this moment writing upon. - -For a hundred yards or so we slowed, and went ahead without coming to -any further stop; then suddenly, a sharp thud--a dull sound of -grating--a thrill through the ship; and Jim, looking up from in front, -with a cool face as usual, called out at the top of his voice, but with -considerable annoyance, "By Jove, we're aground again!" - -And so we were, this time with a vengeance. - -"Back her," I called out, "back her hard, Jenkins!" and they backed her -as hard as the engines could spurt; but nothing came of it. We were -jammed on the reef about as tight as a ship could stick, and no power on -earth could ever have got us off till the tide rose again. - -Well, we tried our very hardest, reversing engines first, and then -putting them forward again to see if we could run through it by main -force; but it was all in vain. Aground we were, and aground we must -remain till there was depth of water enough on the reef to float us. - -Fortunately the tide was rising fast, and three hours more would see us -out of our difficulties. Three hours was a very serious delay; but I -calculated if we got off the reef by two in the morning, we should still -have time to reach Tanaki pretty comfortably before seven. We must enter -the harbor by daylight, no doubt, which would perhaps be dangerous; -because when the savages saw us arrive, they might make haste to cut the -white people's throats before we could get up to rescue them. But I -thought it more likely they would try to save them, to prevent our -opening fire upon them by way of punishment; so with what comfort we -could, we stuck on upon the reef, and waited for the inevitable tide to -come and float us. - -Waiting for the tide is always slow business. - -At about half-past one, however, the water began to deepen under the -ship, and we could feel her rise and fall--bump, bump, bump--with each -onslaught of the breakers. Now bumping on a reef isn't exactly wholesome -for a ship's bottom, so I gave the word to Jenkins for the engines to go -to work again; and presently, after two or three unsuccessful attempts, -we got her safe off, by energetic reversing, and found to our great -delight that the _Albatross_, like a tight little craft that she was, -had sprung no leak, and was making no water. Her sound old timbers had -just grazed the surface of that flat-topped reef without suffering any -serious internal injury. - -As soon as we were free, and had examined our hold, I shouted down once -more, "Now forward, boys, as hard as you can go, and mind, Jenkins, you -make her travel!" - -To my immense surprise, instead of obeying my orders, the _Albatross_ -suddenly stood stock-still in the trough of a wave, drifting helplessly -about like a log on the ocean. - -"Now then," I shouted down again, half angry and half alarmed. "What are -you doing there, Jenkins? Didn't you hear what I said? Stir your stumps, -my friend! Double time, and forward!" - -Imagine my horror when the engineer shouted back in a voice of blank -dismay, "I can't, sir. She won't work. Don't answer to the valve. We've -injured something in backing her off the reef there." - -This was an awkward job. And at such a crisis, too! In a minute I was -down in the engine-room myself, inspecting all the valves and bearings -with lamp in hand, and with the closest scrutiny. Before long we had -ascertained the extent of the injury. A piece of the engine was broken -that would certainly take us six or eight hours to repair. And it was -already two o'clock on the Wednesday morning! - -But that wasn't all, either. Another serious difficulty beset us in our -work. We were beating about in the angry sea off the Caycos Reef, with -the breakers dashing in, and the surf running high. If we tried to mend -the broken engine where we stood, we should infallibly be dashed to -pieces on the dangerous shallows. You can't go to work like that on a -lee shore, with no engine to fall back upon, and the wind blowing half a -gale. The only thing possible for us was to hoist sail and make for the -open sea to southward under all canvas. That was taking us further away -from Tanaki, of course; but it was our one chance of getting our engine -repaired in peace and quiet. - -So we hoisted sail and stood out to sea once more, leaving the dim long -line of surf gradually behind us on the lee, and beating by constant -tacks against the wind, which had now veered to the southeast, and was -blowing us straight on to the Caycos shallows. - -By four o'clock we'd got so far out that we thought we might lie to a -bit and take a few hands off navigating duty to assist the engineer in -repairing his engine. - -But it proved a much more difficult and lengthy task to retrieve the -mischief than we had at first sight at all anticipated. The minutes went -by with appalling rapidity. Five o'clock came, and the smith was only -just getting his iron well hammered into shape. Six o'clock, and the -engineer was still fitting the place it came from. Seven -o'clock--something wrong, surely, with the ship's time! Before this hour -I had hoped to be anchored off the harbor of Tanaki. - -Seven o'clock on Wednesday morning; and by twelve at noon, so the boys -assured us, the ovens would be made hot at Taranaka's tomb for those -unfortunate prisoners on the remote island! - -Oh, how frantically we worked for the next two hours! and how -remorselessly everything seemed to turn against us! How is it that -whenever one's in the greatest hurry all nature seems to conspire to -defeat one's purpose? I won't attempt to explain to you all the petty -mishaps and unfortunate failures that attended our efforts. It seemed as -if iron, wood, and coal--all inanimate matter itself--was banded -together to make our further approach to Tanaki impossible. By nine -o'clock I knew the worst myself. The breakdown to the engine was far -more serious than we had at first imagined. I felt sure that before noon -at earliest, with all our skill and toil, we couldn't possibly repair -it. - -But I shrank from telling those two poor trembling lads that there was -no hope now left of saving their parents. - -Gradually, however, as the day wore on, they discovered it -themselves--they saw that the golden opportunity had been lost for us. -As each hour passed by they told us with ever redoubled horror what they -knew must at that moment be passing on the island. Now the savages would -be bringing their father out before the prison hut, and sacrificing him -with their tomahawks by the hideous blood-stained altar of their great -dead chieftain. Now their poor mother would be crouching on the ground, -trying in vain to protect their helpless little brother. Now Miriam -herself, little golden-haired, three-year-old, innocent Miriam--but at -that last horror they broke down in tears, and could say no more. They -could only sob and hide their faces in their hands with speechless agony -at that unspeakable picture. - -By noon we knew the worst must be over. They were at rest now, poor -souls, from their month-long misery. The afternoon dragged on and we -still worked hard on the mere chance of some respite which might enable -us to rescue them. But we felt sure the end had come for all that. We -worked away by the mere force of pure aimless energy. It distracted us -from thinking of the awful events which we nevertheless in our hearts -felt certain must have happened. - -It was eight at night before we got the _Albatross_ fairly under way -again; and even then she lumbered slowly, slowly on, the engine being -only somehow repaired, in the most clumsy fashion, till we could reach -harbor once more, and quietly overhaul her. - -So we steamed ahead, feebly and cautiously, all night long, keeping a -sharp lookout for land across our bows, and with Martin on deck almost -all the time, to aid us by his close personal knowledge of the island -approaches. - -Wednesday the tenth was over now. The terrible day had come and gone. We -didn't doubt that the massacre was completed long before the clock -struck one on Thursday morning. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - ON THE ISLAND. - - -At Tanaki meanwhile, as we afterwards learned by inquiry among the -islanders, things had been going on with the unhappy missionary very -much as our worst fears had led us to expect. Though I wasn't there at -the time to see for myself, I got to know what happened a little later -almost as well as if I'd been on the spot; so I shall take the liberty -once more--not being one of these book-making chaps--of telling my story -my own way, and explaining how matters went in rough sailor fashion, -without trying to let you know in detail how we found it all out till I -come to explain the upshot of our present adventures. - -Well, on the night when Martin and Jack stole away from the hut and got -clear off on their venturesome journey in the mission boat, their father -and mother, with little Calvin, who was eight years old, and Miriam, who -was a pretty wee lassie of three, were heavily guarded by half a dozen -desperate and drunken savages in the temple-tomb of the deceased -Taranaka. It was a thatched native grass-house, with a bare mud floor, -and a rough altar-slab raised high on the threshold, which covered the -remains of the blood-thirsty old chieftain--the man who in his early -youth had seen "Capitaney Cook" when he discovered the islands. The -Melanesian natives, I ought to tell you, regard their dead ancestors as -a sort of gods or guardian spirits, and frequently offer up food and -drink at their graves as presents to appease them. Every morning gifts -of taro, bread-fruit, and plantain were laid on the altar by Taranaka's -tomb; and once every ten days a little square gin, mixed with -cocoa-milk, was poured out upon the rude slab of unsculptured stone, -that the dead chief's ghost might come to drink of it and be satisfied. -Wednesday the tenth was the anniversary of Taranaka's death (he had been -killed in a fight with some neighboring islanders, who fell out with him -over the wreck of an American whaling vessel), and it was on that -festival day that the chief proposed offering up the blood of our -fellow-countrymen as an expiation to the shades of his departed -relative. - -Macglashin and his wife never even knew that the boys had escaped. If -they had, those long days of suspense might have been even worse for -them. They might have been looking forward with mad hope to some miracle -of rescue such as that which the _Albatross_ had so boldly planned, and -which had been so cruelly interfered with by the breakdown of our -machinery. As it was, the savages carefully kept from them all knowledge -of their boys' escape. They never even breathed a hint of that desperate -voyage. Every day, on the contrary, when they brought the unhappy -missionary and his wife their daily rations of yam and banana, they -taunted them with threats of what tortures the Chief had still in store -for Jack and Martin. They were fatting them up, they said, for Taranaka -to feed upon. On Taranaka's day they would be offered up as victims on -the cannibal altar. - -But the most terrible part of all the poor father and mother's -sufferings was the fact that they couldn't keep the knowledge of that -awful fate in store for them even from Calvin and pretty little Miriam. -Macglashin's diary, which I read later on, was just heartrending about -the children. Those helpless mites cowered all day long on the bare mud -floor of that hideous temple, awaiting the horrible doom that the -savages held out before them with the painful resignation of innocent -childhood. They were too frightened to cry over it; too frightened to -talk of it; they only crouched pale and terrified by their mother's -side, and dragged out the long day in horrible apprehensions. They knew -they must die, and they sat there watching for that inevitable sentence -to be carried out with the stoical fortitude of utter childish -helplessness. Well, there--I'm an old hand on the sea, you know, and I -don't mind the dangers of the wind and waves for grown men and boys that -can look after themselves, any more than most of you land-folks mind -dodging about in the Strand at Charing Cross on a crowded afternoon in -the London season; but I can't bear to talk or even to think of what -those poor children suffered all those terrible days in the heathen -tomb-house. There are things that make a man's blood run cold to speak -about. That makes mine run cold: I can't dwell on it any longer; it's -too ghastly to realize. - -So there--the days went by, one after another; and Monday the eighth -came, and Tuesday the ninth, and still no chance of escape or rescue. Up -to the last moment, Macglashin hoped (as he says in the diary) that some -miracle might occur to set them free, some interposition of Providence -on their behalf to prevent the last misfortune from overtaking his poor -pallid little Miriam. Perhaps the mission ship, that went her rounds -twice a year, might happen to put in, out of due season, with some -special message or under stress of weather; or perhaps some whaling -vessel or some English gunboat might arrive in the nick of time in the -little harbor of Tanaki. But when Tuesday evening came, and no help had -arrived, the unhappy man's heart sank within him. He gave up that last -wild hope of a rescue at the eleventh hour, and addressed himself to die -with what courage he could muster. - -Ah yes, to die one's self is all easy enough; nobody worth his salt -minds that; but to see one's wife and children murdered before one's -eyes--there, I'm a rough sort of sailor-body, as I said before, but you -must excuse my breaking off. I haven't got the strength to hold my pen -and write about it. Why, I've a boy of my own at school at Sydney, and -my Mary's in England, bless her little heart! at a lady's college they -call it nowadays; and I know what it means; I know what it means, -gentlemen. I'd no more expose those two dear children in the places I've -been among the islands myself, than--well, than I'd send them to sea -alone in a cock-boat. And my heart just bleeds for that poor father at -Tanaki, when I read his diary over again, though I haven't got the skill -to put it all down in words at full length as one of those fellows would -do that write for the newspapers. - -However, on Tuesday night, neither Macglashin himself nor Mrs. -Macglashin could get a wink of sleep, as you may easily imagine. They -sat up in the temple, with their backs against the wall, and relays of -black fellows, armed with Sniders, and smeared with red paint, watching -them closely all the while, to see they didn't escape or try to do away -with themselves. But Calvin fell asleep out of pure fatigue on his -mother's lap, and Miriam, poor little soul, lay against her father's -shoulder, dozing as peacefully as ever she dozed in her own small cot at -the mission-house, where she was born. Once the thought came into her -father's mind, oughtn't he to twist his handkerchief round her soft -little throat, as she lay there all unconscious in his circling arms, to -save her from the tender mercies of those cruel black savages? How could -he tell what torments they might inflict upon her? Wasn't it better she -should be spared all that horror of fear? Wasn't it better she should -just sleep away her dear little life without ever knowing it, till she -woke next morning in a happier and a brighter country? But in another -minute his heart recoiled from the terrible thought. While there was -still one chance of safety he must let things take their course. Perhaps -even those black monsters might have pity at the last on that one ewe -lamb. Perhaps they might spare his Miriam's life, and make her over to -the mission-ship when it next arrived on its rounds at the island. - -All that night long the savages, for their part, were holding a -_sing-sing_, as they call it, close by, and the hideous noise of their -heathenish revels could be distinctly heard by the watchers in the -temple. They danced to the music of their hollow drums, while the shells -upon their ankles resounded in unison. At times the echo of horrible -laughter fell harsh upon the ear. The natives, covered with red feathers -and smeared with blood, were keeping high festival, as is their horrid -custom. And as the long hours wore away, the din of their revelry became -more wild in their orgies each moment. - -Morning dawned at last--the morning of Wednesday the tenth, when that -awful deed of bloodshed was to be done before the open eye of heaven; -and with the first streak of light the poor children awoke and gazed -around them blankly at their temple prison. The black watchers brought -them yam and mammee-apples once more, but they couldn't eat; they sat -bewildered and mute, with their hands clasped in their parents' palms, -waiting for the end, and too dazed and terrified almost to know what was -passing. - -About six o'clock the Chief came down to the temple, with bloodshot eyes -and tottering feet, attended by half a dozen naked black followers. They -had all been drinking the greater part of the night at the _sing-sing_, -for the Frenchmen had left plenty of square gin behind; and they -rollicked in the cruel good-humor of the born savage. - -"How do, Macglashin?" the Chief inquired with a hateful leer. "How do, -white woman? Taranaka day come at last. How you like him this morning? -What for you no tell man a Tanaki sooner you don't know Englishman? Ha! -ha! dat true; so him see. Queenie England no care for Scotchman." - -"If you dare to touch a hair of our heads," Macglashin cried in his -despair, rising up and facing the savage angrily, "sooner or later, I -tell you, the Queen of England will hear of it, and she'll send a -gunboat to punish you for our death, and her sailors'll shoot you all -down for your part in this murder." - -The Chief laughed--a wild, horrible, barbaric laugh. "Ha! ha!" he -answered. "Dat all very fine for try frighten me. But man a _oui-oui_ -tell me you no true Englishman. You speakee English, but you Scotchman -born. All samee American. Queenie England no care for American, no care -for Scotch; no send her gunboat for look after Scotchman. Man a Tanaki -go for eat you to-day, for do honor to ghost a Taranaka." - -Macglashin saw that words would produce no effect upon the tipsy and -excited wretch; he must make up his mind for the worst. There was no -help for it. - -"At least," he cried, "Chief, you'll let us say good-by to our boys -before we die? You'll bring them in for their mother and me to take our -last farewell of them?" - -The Chief shook his head and made a hideous grimace. "No say good-by to -boys," he said, with horrible glee. "Man a Tanaki kill pig all night; -kill Scotchman in morning. Kill baby first; then boy; then mother. Last -of all, kill you yourself, Macglashin. Taranaka very much love white -man's blood. Great day to-day for feast for Taranaka." And he went off -again, grinning in hideous buffoonery, while Macglashin's soul seethed -in speechless indignation. - -For half an hour more they were left undisturbed. Then the Chief -appeared at the door once more, and beckoning with his long black -forefinger, called to the missionary-- - -"Come out, Macglashin!" - -The unhappy man strode out with little Miriam half-fainting in his arms. - -"Come out, white woman!" the savage cried once more. - -The pale mother, almost unable to totter with terror, made her way to -the door, with Calvin's fingers intertwined in her own. - -"Now, white people, we going to shoot you," the savage continued, -unabashed. "You make too much trouble for man a Tanaki. Interfere too -much with man who sell him boy or him woman. Me don't going to kill you -with axe, like Taranaka kill first missionary that come a Tanaki. Man a -_oui-oui_ sell me plenty Snider. Man a Tanaki want to try him -shooting-irons. Set you up to run, and then go fire at you." - -At the word he nodded, and four stalwart savages caught Macglashin in -their arms and held him to a line drawn lightly in the dust by the -Chief's stick. At the same moment four others caught his unhappy wife, -and dragged her, half senseless, to the self-same line. The two children -were ranged by their sides, pale and white with terror. Then the Chief -walked forward, and drew another line some forty yards in front of them -with his stick again. "When Chief call 'go,'" he called out, "man a -Tanaki let go missionary, and boy, and white woman. Missionary run till -him reach dis line. Man a Tanaki no shoot till missionary pass dis line. -Den man a Tanaki fire; missionary run; man a Tanaki run after missionary -to kill him. Whoever shoot missionary or white woman first, give him -body up in temple to Taranaka." - -As he spoke, the savages ranged themselves behind, Sniders in hand. The -Chief placed himself in order at their head on the right. Then he called -out in Kanaka, "When I give the word--'one, two, three'--loose them! -When I give the word Fire! off with your rifles at them." - -There was a deadly pause. All was still as death. Then the Chief cried -aloud, "One--two--three--loose them!" and the savages loosed the poor -terrified Europeans. - -Even in that supreme moment of agony and doubt, however, one thought -kept rising ever in the father's and mother's heart. What had become of -Jack and Martin? - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - ERRORS EXCEPTED. - - -It was Thursday the eleventh, in the small hours of the morning. The -_Albatross_ was lumbering along as best she might with her broken -engine, and we were nearing the line of 180 deg.. We weren't making much -way, however, for the speed was low; and we hadn't so much reason for -hurrying now, for we felt almost hopeless of being in time to prevent -the threatened massacre. Our people, we feared, had long since fallen -victims to the superstition and bloodthirstiness of the ungrateful -savages. - -I was asleep in my berth after the fatigues of the day, and was dreaming -of my dear little girl in England; when suddenly I felt a clammy cold -hand laid upon my own outside the coverlet, and waking with a start, I -saw Martin Luther standing pale and white in his blue shirt and trousers -before me. I knew at once by his face something fresh had turned up. - -"Goodness gracious, boy," I exclaimed, "what on earth's the matter now?" - -"Captain Braithwaite," he answered with very solemn seriousness, "I've -been counting the days over and over again, and I'm quite sure there's a -mistake somewhere. We've got a day wrong in our reckoning, I'm certain. -I've counted up each day and night a hundred times over since we left -Tanaki in the boat--Jack and I--and I feel confident you're twenty-four -hours out in your reckoning. Yesterday wasn't Wednesday the tenth at -all. It was Tuesday the ninth, and we may yet reach Tanaki in time to -save them." - -"No, no, my boy," I answered, "you're wrong; you're wrong. Your natural -anxiety about your father's fate has upset your calculations. To-day's -the eleventh; yesterday was the tenth. Till we get to the meridian of -180 deg."--and then, with a start, I broke off suddenly. - -"What's the matter?" Martin cried, for he saw at once I was faltering -and hesitating. "Ah, you see I was right now. You see this morning's the -tenth, don't you?" - -In a moment the truth flashed across me with a burst. I saw it all; the -only wonder was how on earth I had failed so long to perceive it. I -seized the poor lad's hand in a fervor of delight, relief and -exultation. - -"Martin," I cried, overjoyed, "we are both of us right in our own way of -reckoning. This morning's the eleventh on board the _Albatross_ here, -but it's the tenth, I don't doubt, in your island at Tanaki!" - -"What do you mean?" he cried, astonished, and gazing at me as if he -thought me rather more than half-mad. "How on earth can it be Thursday -here, while it's Wednesday at Tanaki?" - -"Hold on a bit, youngster," said I, jumping out of my cabin, "till I've -consulted the chart and made quite sure about it. Let me see. Here we -are. Duke of Cumberland's Islands, 179 deg. west. Hooray! Hooray!" I waved -the chart round my head in triumph. "Jim, Jim!" I shouted out, rushing -up the companion-ladder in my night-shirt as I stood; "here's a hope -indeed! Here's splendid news. Put on all steam at once and we may save -them yet. Tanaki's the other side of 180!" - -Jim looked at me in astonishment. - -"Why, what on earth do you mean, Julian?" he asked. "What on earth has -that to do with our chance of saving them?" - -"Jim," I cried once more, hardly knowing how to contain myself with -excitement and reaction; "was there ever such a precious pair of fools -in the world before as you and me, my good fellow? It's Wednesday -morning in Tanaki, man! It's Wednesday in Tanaki! Tanaki's the other -side of 180!" - -As I said the words, Jim jumped at me like a wild creature and grasped -my hand hard. Then he caught Martin in his arms and hugged him as tight -as if he'd been his own father. After that he threw his cap up in the -air and shouted aloud with delight. And when he'd quite finished all -those remarkable performances, he looked hard into my face and burst out -laughing. - -"Well, upon my soul, Julian," he said, "for a couple of seasoned old -Pacific travelers, I do agree with you that a pair of bigger fools and -stupider dolts than you and I never sailed the ocean!" - -"If it had been our first voyage across now," I said to Jim, feeling -thoroughly ashamed of myself for my silly mistake, "there might have -been some excuse for us!" - -"Or if the boy hadn't told us there was a discrepancy in the accounts -the very first day he ever came aboard," he added solemnly. - -"But as it is," I went on, "such a scholar's mate, such a beginner's -blunder as this is for two seafaring men--why, it's absolutely -inexcusable!" - -"Absolutely inexcusable!" Jim repeated, penitently. - -"But if we clap on all steam we may get there yet on Wednesday morning," -I continued, consulting my watch. - -"By three or four o'clock on Wednesday morning," Jim echoed, examining -the chart once more, and carefully noting the ship's position. "Why, -it's Wednesday now, Julian. We've crossed 180 deg.." - -"But what day was yesterday?" Martin asked, all trembling. - -"Why, yesterday," I answered, "was Wednesday the tenth, my boy; but -to-day is Wednesday the tenth also. It comes twice over at this -longitude. We've gained a day; that's the long and the short of it. We -ought to have known it, my brother and I, who are such old hands at -cruising in and out of the islands; but our anxiety and distress made us -clean forget it." - -"How does that come about?" Martin asked bewildered, his lips white as -death. - -"Just like this," said I. "Sailing one way, you see, from England, you -sail with the sun; and sailing the other way, you sail against it. In -one direction you keep gaining time, and in the other you lose it." - -"The meridian of 180 deg. is the particular place where the two modes of -reckoning reach their climax," I hastened to add. "So, when you get to -180 deg., sailing west, you lose a day, and Saturday's followed right off by -Monday. But sailing east, you gain a day, and have two Sundays running, -or whatever else the day may be when you happen to get there. Now, we're -going in the right direction for gaining a day; and so, though yesterday -was Wednesday the tenth the other side of 180 deg., to-day's Wednesday the -tenth, don't you see, this side of it? And as Tanaki's this side, your -people must always have reckoned by the American day, so to speak, while -we've reckoned all along by the Australian one. It's this morning those -savages threatened to kill your father and mother, and if we make a good -run, we shall still perhaps be in time to save them." - -As I spoke, the boy's knees trembled under him with excitement. He -staggered so that he caught at a rope for support. He was too much in -earnest to cry, but the tears stood still in his eyes without falling. - -"Oh! I hope to Heaven we'll be in time," he answered. "We may save them! -We may save them!" - -I went below and turned in once more for a little sleep, for I knew I -should be wanted later in the morning; and having fortunately the true -sailor's habit in that matter of dozing off whenever occasion occurred, -I was soon snoring away again most comfortably on my pillow. At -half-past three, Tom Blake came down once more to wake me. - -"Land in sight, sir," he said, "on our starboard bow, and this young -fellow Martin says he makes it out to be the north point of Tanaki." - -In a minute I was on deck again, and peering at the dim land through the -gray mist of morning--the same gray mist through which, as we afterwards -learned, the poor creatures in the heathen temple saw the dawn break of -the day that was to end their earthly troubles. It was Tanaki, no doubt, -for Martin was quite sure he could recognize the headlands and the -barrier reef. Our only question now was how next to proceed. We held a -brief little council of war on deck, with Martin as our chief adviser on -the local situation. - -From what he told us, I came rapidly to the conclusion that it would be -useless to attempt an open entrance into the little harbor of Makilolo, -where the Chief had his hut, and where the mission-people, as we -believed, were still confined in the temple. To do so would only be to -arouse the anger of the savages beforehand; and unless we could get them -well between a cross fire, and so effectually prevent any further -outrage, we feared they might massacre the unhappy people in their hands -the moment we hove in sight to enter the harbor. But here our friend -Martin's local knowledge of the archipelago helped us out of our -difficulty. He could pilot us, he said, to a retired bay at the back of -the island, by the east side, where we could land a small party in -boats, well armed with Sniders and our Winchester repeater; and Jack, -who had slept all night, and was therefore the fresher of the two, would -show us a path through the thick tropical underbrush by which we could -approach the village from the rear, while the _Albatross_ ran round -again with the remainder of the crew, and brought our brass -thirty-pounder to bear upon the savages from the open harbor. - -This plan was at once received with universal approbation, and we -proceeded forthwith to put it into execution. - -Steering cautiously round the island, under cover of the mist, and -fortunately unperceived by the assembled natives, who were too much -occupied with their _sing-sing_ to be engaged in scanning the offing, we -reached at last the little retired bay of which Martin had spoken, and -got ready our boat to land our military party. It was ticklish work, for -we could afford to land only ten, all told, with Jack for our guide; but -each man was armed with a good rifle and ammunition, and the habit of -discipline made our little band, we believed, more than a match for -those untutored savages. Nassaline, also, joined the military party, -while seven men were left as a naval reserve. Silently and cautiously we -landed on the white sandy beach, and turned with Jack into the thick -tangled brake of tropical brushwood. - -Meanwhile, my brother Jim, with Martin to guide him, undertook to take -the _Albatross_ round to the regular harbor; for Martin fortunately knew -every twist and turn of those tortuous reef-channels, having been -accustomed to navigate them from his childhood upwards, both in the -mission-boat and in the native canoes which frequently put to sea for -the _beche-de-mer_ fishery. - -Our plan of action, as arranged beforehand, was for the military party -to wait about in the woods at the back of the village till the -_Albatross_ hove in sight off the mouth of the harbor. Then, the moment -she appeared, she was to fire a blank shot towards the Chief's hut with -her thirty-pounder; and at the same moment, we of the surprise party -were to fall upon the savages, and before they could recover from their -first surprise, demand the instant restitution of the missionary and his -family. - -Everything depended now upon the two boys. If Jack failed to show us the -path aright--if Martin drove the _Albatross_ upon reef or rock--all -would be up with us, and the savages would massacre our whole party in -cold blood, as they proposed to do with Macglashin and his little ones. -I trembled to think on how slender a thread those four precious human -lives depended. After all, they were but lads, mere children almost, and -the rash confidence of youth might easily deceive them. But I decided, -none the less, to trust to their instincts and their keen affection for -their friends to see us through in our need. If that wouldn't lead us -right, I felt sure in my own soul no human aid could possibly save the -unhappy prisoners. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - HOT WORK. - - -Jack led us from the beach over the white coral sand straight up to the -wood, and after looking about for a while to make sure of his bearings -among the huge fallen logs, hit at last upon a faint trail that led -straggling through the forest--a trail scarcely worn into the semblance -of a path by the bare feet of naked savages. Following his guidance, we -plunged at once, with some doubtful misgivings, into the deep gloom of -the woodland, and found ourselves immediately in a genuine equatorial -thicket, where mouldering trunks of palms encumbered the vague path, and -great rope-like lianas hung down in loops from the trees overhead, to -block our way at every second step through that fatiguing underbrush. -The day was warm, even as we travelers who know the world judge warmth -in the tropical South Pacific; and the moist heat of that basking, -swampy lowland, all laden with miasma from the decaying leaves, seemed -to oppress us with its deadly effluvia and its enervating softness at -every yard we went through the jungle. Moreover, we had to carry our -arms and ammunition among that tangled brake; and as our rifles kept -catching continually in the creepers that drooped in festoons from the -branches, while our feet got simultaneously entangled in the roots and -trailing stems that straggled underfoot, you can easily imagine for -yourself that ours was indeed no pleasant journey. However, we -persevered with dogged English perseverance; the sailors tramped on and -wiped their foreheads with their sleeves from time to time; while poor -Jack marched bravely at our head with an indomitable pluck which -reflected the highest credit on Mr. Macglashin's training. - -The only one who seemed to make light of the toil was our black boy, -Nassaline. - -We went single file, of course, along the narrow trail, which every here -and there divided to right or left in the midst of the brake with most -puzzling complexity. At every such division or fork in the track, Jack -halted for a moment and cast his eye dubiously to one side and the -other, at last selecting the trail that seemed best to him. Nassaline, -too, helped us not a little by his savage instinct for finding his way -through trackless jungle. For my own part, I could never have believed -any road on earth could possibly be so tortuous; and at last, at the end -of the twenty-fifth turn or thereabouts, I ventured to say in a very low -voice (for we were stealing along in dead silence), "Why, Jack, I -believe you're leading us round and round in a circle, and you'll bring -us out again in the end at the very same bay where we first landed!" - -"Hush!" Jack answered, with one finger on his lip. "We're drawing near -the outskirts of the village now. You must be very quiet. I can just see -the grass roof of Taranaka's temple peeping above the brushwood to the -right. In three minutes more we shall be out in the open." - -And sure enough he told the truth. Almost as he ceased speaking, the -noise of savage voices fell full upon my ear from the village in front, -and I could hear the natives, in their hideous corroboree, beating hard -upon their hollow drums of stretched skin, and shouting in the dance to -their drunken comrades. - -It was a ghastly noise, but it did our hearts good just then to hear it. - -I could almost have clapped my hand upon Jack's back and given him three -cheers for his gallant guidance when we saw the village plot opening up -in front of us, and the naked savages, in their war-paint and feathers, -guarding the door of Taranaka's temple. But the necessity for caution -compelled me to preserve a solemn silence. So we crouched as still as -mice behind a clumpy thicket of close-leaved tiro bushes, and peeped out -from our ambush through the dense foliage to keep an eye upon the scene -till the _Albatross_ hove into sight in the harbor. - -"My father and my mother must still be there," Jack whispered under his -breath, but in a deep tone of relief. "The Tanaki men are guarding them -exactly as they did when Martin and I left the island. I almost think I -can see Miriam's head through the open door. We shall be in time still -to deliver them from these bloodthirsty wretches." - -"In what direction must we look for the _Albatross_?" I whispered back. -"Will she come in from the south there?" - -"O, no!" Jack answered in a very low voice. "That's an island to the -right--a little rocky island that guards the harbor. There's deep water -close in by the shore that side. Martin 'll try to bring her in the -northern way, so that the natives mayn't see her till she's close upon -the village. It's a difficult channel to the north, all full of reefs -and sunken rocks; but I think he understands it, he's swam in it so -often. We won't see her at all till she's right in the harbor and just -opposite the temple." - -We were dying of thirst now, and longing for drink, but could get -nothing to quench our drought. "What I would give," I muttered to Tom -Blake, "for a drink of water!" - -"If Captain want water," Nassaline answered, "me soon get him some." And -he made a gash with his knife in the stem of a sort of gourd that -climbed over the bushes, from which there slowly oozed and trickled out -a sort of gummy juice that relieved to some degree our oppressive -sensations. All the men began at once cutting and chewing it, with -considerable satisfaction. It wasn't as good as a glass of British beer, -I will freely admit; but still, it was better than nothing, any way. - -By this time it was nearly half-past six, and we watched eagerly to see -what action the natives would take as soon as they finished their -night-long _sing-sing_. Lying flat on the ground, with our rifles ready -at hand, and our heads just raised to look out among the foliage, we -kept observing their movements cautiously through the thick brushwood. - -At a quarter to seven we saw some bustle and commotion setting in on a -sudden in front of the temple; and presently a tall and sinister-looking -native, who, Jack whispered to me, was the Chief of Tanaki, came up from -the village, where the _sing-sing_ had taken place, and stood by the -door of the thatched grass-house. We could distinctly hear him call the -missionary to come out in pigeon English; and next moment our -unfortunate countryman staggered forth, with his little daughter half -fainting in his arms, and stood out in the bare space between the tomb -of Taranaka and the spot where we were lying. - -Oh! how I longed to take a shot at that miscreant black fellow. - -At sight of his father, worn with fatigue and pale with the terror of -that agonizing moment, Jack almost cried aloud in his mingled joy and -apprehension; but I clapped my hand on his mouth and kept him still for -the moment. "Not a sound, my boy, not a sound," I whispered low, "till -the time comes for firing!" - -"Shall we give it them hot now?" Tom Blake inquired low at my ear next -moment. But I waved him aside cautiously. - -"Not yet," I answered, "unless the worst comes to the worst, and we see -our people in pressing and immediate danger; we'd better do nothing till -the _Albatross_ heaves in sight. Her gun will frighten them. To fire now -would be to expose ourselves and our friends there to unnecessary -danger." - -"All right, sir," Tom murmured low in reply. "You know best, of course. -But I must say, it'd do my 'eart good to up an' pepper 'em!" - -"Come out, white woman!" we heard the Chief say next with insolent -familiarity; and Mrs. Macglashin stepped out, a deplorable figure, with -her boy's hand twined in hers, and her white lips twitching with horror -for her little ones. It made one's blood boil so to see it that we could -hardly resist the temptation as we looked to fire at all hazards, and -let them know good friends were even now close at hand to help and -deliver them. - -"Whether the _Albatross_ heaves in sight or not," I whispered to Tom -Blake, "we must fire at them soon--within five minutes--and sell our -lives as dearly as we can. I can't stand this much longer. It's too -terrible a strain. Come what may, I must give the word and at them!" - -"Quite right, sir," says Tom. "What's the use of delaying?" - -And, indeed, I began to be terribly afraid by this time there was -something very wrong indeed somewhere. Could Martin have missed his way -among those difficult shoals, and run our trusty vessel helplessly on -the rocks and reefs? It looked very like it. They were certainly -overdue; for even at the present crippled rate of speed, the good old -_Albatross_ had had plenty of time, I judged, to round the point and get -back safe again into the deep water of the harbor. If she failed in this -our hour of need, the natives would surround us and cut us to pieces in -a mass, for our best reliance was in our solid brass thirty-pounder. I -began to tremble in my shoes for some time for the possible upshot. Over -and over again I glanced eagerly towards the point for that longed-for -white nose of hers to appear round the corner. - -At last, unable to restrain my curiosity any longer, I rose to my feet -and peered across the bushes. As I did so, I saw the savages seize -Macglashin in their arms, and range the four poor fugitives in a line -together. My blood curdled. The Chief and the ten savages with the -Sniders stood in a row, half fronting us where we lay. Macglashin and -his wife were fortunately out of line of fire for our rifles. "Now, we -can delay no longer," I cried. "He means murder. The moment the black -fellow gives the word of command, fire at once upon him and his men, -boys. Take steady aim. No matter what comes. Let the poor souls have a -run for their lives, any way." - -As I spoke, the Chief uttered in Kanaka the native words for "One, two, -three," with loud drunken laughter. - -At the sound of the Chief's voice, the savages loosed the four wretched -Europeans. At the very same sound we all fired simultaneously--and six -of the black monsters fell writhing on the ground, while the Chief and -the four others, taken completely by surprise, dropped their rifles in -their supreme astonishment. - -"Forward, boys, and secure them!" I cried, dashing out into the open, -and waving my hat to the astounded missionary. "Here we are, sir. Run -this way! We're friends. We've come to your rescue. Catch the Chief at -once, lads; and hooray for the _Albatross!_" - -For just as I spoke, to my joy and relief, her good white nose showed at -last round the point; and next instant, the boom! boom! of her jolly -brass thirty-pounder, fired in the very nick of time, completed the -discomfiture of the astonished savages. - -Before they knew where they were, they found themselves hemmed in -between a raking cross-fire from our Sniders on one side, and the heavy -gun of the _Albatross_ on the other. The tables were now completely -turned. We charged at them, running. Macglashin, seizing the situation -at a glance, caught up one of the rifles belonging to the wounded men, -which had been flung upon the ground, and, hardly yet realizing his -miraculous escape, joined our little party as an armed recruit with -surprising alacrity. For the next ten minutes there was a terrible scene -of noise and confusion. The blacks advanced upon us, swarming up from -the village like bees or wasps, and it was only by a hand-to-hand fight -with our bayonets--for we had fortunately brought them in case of close -quarters--that we kept our dusky enemy at bay. At last, however, after a -smart hand-to-hand contest, we secured the Chief, and tied him safely -with the rope he had loosed from Macglashin. Then we seized the -remaining Sniders that lay upon the ground, while the men of the -village, drunk and stupefied, began to fall back a little and molest us -from a distance. - -"Now, put the lady and children in the center, boys," I cried, at the -top of my voice, "and let the Chief march along with us as a hostage. -Down to the shore, while the _Albatross_ boat puts out to save us!" Then -I turned to the savages, and called out in English, "If any one of you -dares to fire at us, I give you fair warning, we shoot your Chief! Hold -off there, all of you!" - -To my great delight, Nassaline, standing forward as I spoke, translated -my words to them into their own tongue, and waving them back with his -hands made a little alley for us through the midst to regain the shore -by. Smart boy, Nassaline! - -After a moment, however, the natives once more began to crowd round us, -as we started to march, in very threatening attitudes, with their -Sniders and hatchets. At one time I almost thought they would overpower -us; but just then Jim, who was watching the proceedings with his glass -from the deck of the _Albatross_, and saw exactly how matters stood, -created a judicious diversion at the exact right moment by firing a -little grape-shot plump into the heart of the grass huts of the village, -and bowling over a roof or two before the very eyes of the astonished -savages. They fell back at once, and began to make signs of desiring a -parley. So we halted on the spot, with the lady and children still -carefully guarded, and held up our handkerchiefs in sign of truce. Then -Nassaline, aided by our sailor who understood the Kanaka language, began -to palaver with them. He told them in plain and simple terms we must -first be allowed to take the lady and children in safety to the -_Albatross_, and that we would afterwards come back to treat at greater -length with their head men as to the Chief's safety. To this, after some -demur, the black fellows assented; and we beckoned to Jim accordingly by -a preconcerted sign to send the boat ashore to us, to fetch off the -fugitives. At the same time we retreated in military order, in a small -hollow square, to the beach, still taking good care to protect in the -midst our terrified non-combatants. - -As for the Chief, he marched before us, with his hands tied, and his -feet free, led by a rope, the ends of which I held myself, with the aid -of two of my sailors. A more ridiculously crestfallen or disappointed -creature than that drunken and conquered savage at that particular -moment it has never yet been my fate to light upon. - -We reached the beach in safety, and sent Mrs. Macglashin and the -children aboard, with Jack to accompany them. Then we turned to parley -with the discomfited savages. Jim kept the thirty-pounder well pointed -in their direction, with ostentatious precision, and we made them hold -off along the beach at a convenient distance, where he could rake them -in security, while we ourselves retained the Chief in our hands, with a -pistol at his head, as a gentle reminder that we meant to stand no -nonsense. - -After a few minutes' parley, conducted chiefly by our -Kanaka-speaking sailor, with an occasional explanation put in by our -assistant-interpreter, Nassaline, we arrived at an understanding, in -accordance with which we were to return them their Chief for the time -being, on consideration of their bringing us down to the beach all the -Macglashins' goods, and making restitution for the sack of the -mission-house in dried cocoa-nut, the sole wealth of the island. Those -were the terms for the immediate present, as a mere personal matter: for -the rest, we gave the Chief clearly to understand that we intended to -sail straight away with all our guests for Fiji, there to lay our -complaint of his conduct before the British High Commissioner in the -South Pacific. We would then charge him with murder and attempted -cannibalism, and with stirring up his people to massacre the other -missionary, and the trader Freeman. We would endeavor to get a gunboat -sent to the spot, to make official inquiry into the nature of the -disturbances, and to demand satisfaction on the part of the relations of -the murdered men. Finally, we would also lay before the Commissioner the -conduct of the French labor-vessel, and her kidnaping skipper, who had -instigated the savages to their dastardly attack, and whom I was -strongly inclined to identify with the captain from whose grip we had -rescued our friend Nassaline. We gave the Chief to understand, -therefore, that he must by no means consider himself as scot free, -merely because we let him go unhurt till trial could be instituted by -the proper authorities. He must answer hereafter for his high crimes and -misdemeanors to the Queen's representative. - -To all of which the penitent savage merely answered with a sigh: - -"Me make mistake. Kill missionary by accident. Man a _oui-oui_ tell me -Queenie England no care for Scotchman, an' me too much believe him. Now -Captain tell me Queenie send gunboat for eat me up, and kill all my -people. No listen any more to man a _oui-oui_." - -And then we put off in triumph to the _Albatross_. The family meeting -that ensued on board when Macglashin stood once more upon a British deck -with his wife and children, I won't attempt--rough sailor as I am--to -describe: I don't believe even the special correspondent of a morning -paper could do full justice to it. To see those two lads, too, catch -their pretty little sister once more in their arms, and cover her with -kisses, while she clung to their necks and cried and laughed -alternately, was a sight to do a man's heart good for another -twelvemonth. And as we sat that same evening round the cabin-table -(where our Malay cook had performed wonders of culinary art for the -occasion), and drank healths all round to everybody concerned in this -remarkable rescue, the toast that was received with the profoundest -acclamations from every soul on board, was that of the two brave boys -whose courage and skill had guided us at last, as if by a miracle, to -the recovery of all that was nearest and dearest to them. - -Indeed, if Martin and Jack don't get the Victoria Cross when we return -to England, I shall have even a lower opinion than ever before of her -Majesty's confidential political advisers of all creeds or parties. - - - - - Transcriber Notes: - -Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. - -Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. - -Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of -the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. - -The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up -paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate. Thus -the page number of the illustration might not match the page number in -the List of Illustrations, and the order of illustrations may not be the -same in the List of Illustrations and in the book. - -Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected -unless otherwise noted. - -On page 32, "to" was replaced with "too". - -On page 35, "aud" was replaced with "and". - -On page 39, "inportance" was replaced with "importance". - -On page 82, "reparing" was replaced with "repairing". - -On page 97, "Macglasin's" was replaced with "Macglashin's". - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wednesday the Tenth, A Tale of the -South Pacific, by Grant Allen - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEDNESDAY THE TENTH *** - -***** This file should be named 43688.txt or 43688.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/6/8/43688/ - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Ernest Schaal, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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