ok right through the white man; then they
turned towards the skipper and me.

"'Ibelieve you, Mr. Warby,' said the skipper, coming up and shaking
hands with the supercargo.

"And I believed him too, for he looked terribly distressed and cut up,
so I shook hands with him too.

"Then Sarreo put out his big brown tattooed hand.

"'And me too, Mr. Warby.'

"The supercargo pressed it gently, so as not to hurt Sarreo's shoulder,
then he almost ran past us on deck.

"Well, from that time out, that man Warby changed, and he looked after
Sarreo all the time he was laid up, as if he had been his own brother
instead of a Kanaka chap before the mast.

"After leaving Marau Sound we stood to the northward, being bound to
Bougainville Island. It took us more than a month to get there, and by
that time Sarreo was as well and strong as ever he was, and me and the
skipper had got quite chummy with the supercargo, for we found out that
he had a lot of good points about him. You see, mister, ten or twelve
years ago the Solomon Group was the place to show what a man was made
of--as far as that goes it's not much altered since. If you don't die
of fever you're pretty sure to get knocked on the head and go down the
nigger's gullets--and this chap Warby had rare pluck. He never ran a
boat's crew into danger, but would take any risks himself, and
somehow we had cruised right up from Marau Sound to the north end of
Bougainville without losing a man, or having more than a few arrows or
shots fired at the boats.

"Just when we were about to brace up to round Bouka Island, and being
about three miles off the land, we sighted the hull of a vessel ashore
on the beach of a small bay. We stood in for a mile or so and saw that
there was a native village at the head of the bay, and that the vessel
was a schooner of about a hundred tons. There were no signs of any boats
and she seemed to be stripped of both running and standing gear.

"We manned and armed two boats--one, with Mr. Warby in charge, being
the landing-party; and the other as a covering boat in case the natives
attacked. I had charge of the second boat and had four white sailors;
Warby had Sarreo and four other natives. The skipper told us to have a
good look at the vessel, then try and learn what the natives on shore
had to say about her, and then come off and report.

"We pulled right in to the wreck as close as we could get, for it was
low tide. Then Warby and I got out and walk