and nineteen Samoans, all armed with
rifles. The army fired at him for two hours, and about midnight returned
and reported him riddled with bullets, whereupon Mrs. Molly, who was a
little hysterical at the awful mess and wreckage caused by the brute,
thanked them and gave them ten dollars.

Now it so happened that Billy MacLaggan was not killed at all, for about
two o'clock in the morning, as Bully Hayes and Tom Denison were sitting
on the verandah of the former's house at Matautu Point, drinking brandy
and soda, and dabbing arnica bandages on their various contusions, Pilot
Hamilton hailed them from the front gate. He had just left the dance
with his wife, and was quite sober--for Samoa. He asked them to come on
with him to his place, as Billy MacLaggan, he said, was lying down in
Mrs. Hamilton's kitchen, and seemed poorly, and that he hoped Hayes
would forgive the poor thing, which was only a dumb animal. So Hayes and
Denison went and saw William, who was now sober and looked sorry. They
dressed his wounds, and Tom Denison took him on board early in the
morning, intending to take him to sea till the memory of his misdeeds
had toned down a bit, for Billy was a great institution in Samoa, and
had many friends. Hardly a white man in the place, no matter how hard up
he was, but would stand Billy a bottle of lager or a chew of tobacco. (I
forgot to mention that Billy would drink anything and chew anything,
except cigarettes, at which he snorted with contempt.) Now Denison's
little vessel was lying quite near the German man-of-war, and was to
sail next day for the Solomons if the captain was sober, and he
(Denison) had a lot of work to do to get the ship ready, and whilst he
was poring over accounts in the cabin about noon, a boat ran alongside
and Bully Hayes came into the cabin.

"Where's Billy?" he said. "Quick, get him into my boat at once. There's
a search-party coming on board, and the widow is going to give you the
dirty kick-out, Tom Denison. There's been the devil to pay over that
cursed goat, but I'm going to save his life all the same. But if she
does sack you, you can come to me for a berth."

Billy, who was placidly eating bananas on the main deck, was at once
seized and hoisted over the side into Hayes's boat, which shoved off,
leaving Hayes on board to explain things to Tom.

It seemed that when the fat German manager--the man with spectacles--I
mean the man who had the spectacles until Billy MacLaggan cam