, and Krause walked
in.

One look at his face showed me that he was labouring with suppressed
passion, though trying hard to conceal it.

"Good morning," I said without advancing to him; "take that chair over
there, please. I just want to look at this fellow's head for a moment."

He stalked over to the chair I indicated and sat down, and a sudden
spasm of rage distorted his face when he saw Niabon. She was seated at
the further end of the room, her chin resting on her hand, and looking
at him so steadily and fixedly that he could not but have resented her
gaze, even if his mind were undisturbed by passion. Tematau, too,
turned his head, and shot his master a glance of such deadly fury that I
murmured to him to keep quiet. I rapidly revolved in my mind what course
to pursue with our visitor, who, though I could not see his face, was, I
felt, watching my every movement.

"That will do," I said to my patient in the island dialect, which Krause
understood and spoke thoroughly; "lie down again. In a few days thou
wilt be able to walk."

"By God, he's going to walk _now_," said Krause, rising suddenly, and
speaking in a low, trembling tone. I motioned to him to sit down again.
He shook his head and remained standing, his brawny hand grasping the
back of the chair to steady himself, for every nerve in his body was
quivering with excitement.

"What is the matter, Mr. Krause?" I said coldly, though I was hot enough
against him, for he was armed with a brace of navy revolvers, belted
around his waist. "Won't you sit down?"

"No, I won't sit down," he answered rudely.

"Very well, then, stand," I said, seating myself near him.

Then I pointed to the pistols in his belt. "Mr. Krause, before you tell
me the business which has brought you here, I should like to know why
you enter my house carrying arms? It is a most extraordinary thing that
one white man should call on another armed with a brace of pistols,
especially when the island is quiet, and white men's lives are as safe
here as they would be in London or Berlin."

"I brought my pistols with me because I thought I might have trouble
with the natives over that fellow there," he said sullenly, pointing to
Tematau.

"Then you might have left them outside; I object most strongly to any
one marching into my house in the manner you have done."

He unbuckled his belt, and with a contemptuous gesture threw the whole
lot outside the door.

"Thank you, Mr. Krause," I sa