with a
boar and two sows, were to be landed and allowed to run wild for a week
or two, until proper quarters could be prepared for their reception, in
order that they might improve their condition. The mention of live
stock produced another weighty argument in favour of the proposal just
carried by Polson, for it elicited an expression of opinion that horses
and horned cattle, as well as sheep, were urgently required by the
colonists, and ought to be procured at the earliest possible moment.

"What d'ye think of the arrangement, Mr Troubridge?" asked the
boatswain, when he had brought his account of the proceedings to a
close.

"I see nothing to find fault with in it," I replied, "except that I
think you are acting unwisely in meddling with the cargo before
providing a receptacle for it ashore. I believe it highly probable that
when you begin to break out the cargo you will find many things that
must necessarily be kept under cover, if they are not to be ruined by
exposure to the weather; and what will you do with them? Strike them
back into the hold? If so, you will be giving yourselves double
trouble, and delaying instead of expediting matters."

"Well, but what else can we do? What would you have advised if you'd
been in my place?" demanded Polson.

"I should have proposed building a storehouse big enough to receive the
whole of the cargo before removing the hatches," replied I. "The job
could easily be done. A few poles cut up there among the hills and
brought down to the shore, a sufficient quantity of wattles to form the
roof and sides, and a covering of coconut-palm leaves, and there you
are. We saw plenty of such structures among the islands that we visited
before arriving here, and I remember that everybody remarked how easily
they might be built."

"Now, why the mischief didn't I think of that?" exclaimed the boatswain,
smiting his knee with vexation. "Of course that's the proper thing to
do. Oh, Mr Troubridge, why didn't you let yourself be elected a member
of council, sir? You've an old head, although it is on young shoulders;
and you'd have been worth more to us than Fell, Burgess, Monroe, and
Hilary all lumped together."

"I refused, Polson," said I, "because, as you must have been aware from
the first, I absolutely and utterly disapproved of the whole affair from
beginning to end. You started wrong, in the first place, by stealing
the ship and cargo from those to whom they lawfully bel