ff glass of grog to
steady my nerves, which were beginning to feel a little upset.

"It's time I got out of this place," I thought, as, lighting my pipe,
I went down to my boat again and busied myself in taking out all her
fittings, examining and replacing them again.

When I returned to the house for my supper it was quite dark, and just
as my lamp was lit Niabon entered.

CHAPTER V

Thinking it would be wiser to refrain from asking her any questions
until she had at least rested a little--for she seemed to be very
weary--I said nothing to her but a few words of welcome, and bade my
servants lay the supper, then told her that I was sure she was both
hungry and tired. She replied that she certainly was tired, having come
on foot from Taritai to save time. The canoe with Tematau was to follow
on later in the night when the tide turned, and when there would be more
water on the upper sand flats of the lagoon.

"Very well, Niabon," I said in English, "now sit down and drink a cup of
tea and eat a little. Then we can talk."

"I have many things of which to tell thee, Simi," she said, "for I have
been speaking long with the wife of the man Krause, and----"

I told her that it would please me better if she first ate something.
She at once obeyed, but instead of sitting at the table with me she
seated herself on a mat near me, and Pai waited upon her whilst big Tepi
attended to me. Only once did she speak during the meal, when she asked
me if I had had any recurrence of either fever or ague, and she was
undoubtedly pleased when I said that I had not, and that another coarse
or two of her medicine would, I believed, care me. She smiled, and told
me she would make more of the mixture that evening.

After eating a very slight sapper she made herself a cigarette and sat
and smoked until I had finished my pipe. Then she came a little nearer
to me, and I felt ashamed of myself for not having asked her if her neck
gave her much pain, for I now noticed that the neck and front of her
dress were blood-stained. She made light of the wound, however; said
it was but skin deep, and would be healed in a few days. But I insisted
upon her letting me see for myself. She consented somewhat unwillingly,
and I saw that she had had a very narrow escape, the heavy bullet from
Krause's Derringer having scored her neck pretty deeply and made a wound
nearly two inches long. She had, however, she told me, had it attended
to by Mrs. Krause