the ship herself.

When, on the morrow of this somewhat eventful day, the male members of
the _Flying Fish_ party went on deck to smoke an after-breakfast pipe,
they found the chiefs assembled in the Great Place below, awaiting their
appearance for the purpose of submitting the names of those of their
number considered most acceptable for the vacant kingship.

And now a rather amusing difficulty arose; for when von Schalckenberg
invited the chosen chiefs to ascend to the deck of the _Flying Fish_, in
order that the Spirits might determine which of them should receive the
position, the whole of them, sixteen in number, gravely ascended the
side-ladder and ranged themselves in line before the arbiters of their
fate. And when the professor demanded of Lobelalatutu an explanation of
this somewhat singular proceeding, he was informed that at the
conference of the preceding evening, each chief had calmly and
resolutely voted for himself. This somewhat complicated the matter, and
brought about a situation full of troublous possibilities, calling for
very careful and diplomatic handling; the four "Spirits," therefore,
having seated themselves in deck-chairs, invited each chief to step
forward, in turn, and state briefly, first, the grounds upon which he
based his belief in his own fitness for the post of king, and, secondly,
the lines upon which he would govern, and the course of conduct which he
would observe generally in the event of his nomination. To each man was
accorded a certain number of good and also of bad marks corresponding to
the nature of the replies given by him, the bad marks being deducted
from the good, and the candidate's fitness judged by the number of good
marks then remaining to him. Thus carefully examined, three of the
chiefs were eventually found to be equally suitable, upon which
discovery the choice of one from among them was determined by the simple
process of "odd man out," as a result of which--to the great
satisfaction of the judges--Lobelalatutu proved to be the fortunate
individual. The fifteen unsuccessful candidates were, naturally,
somewhat chagrined at their failure, but they had seen and understood
enough of the proceedings to satisfy them of the absolute fairness of
the test, and they therefore took their defeat with a good grace, and
made no demur when they were presently required to swear fealty to their
new sovereign.

This matter having been satisfactorily arranged, the bodies