e
exclaimed, "There are two men lying on the beach. Who can they be? We
must, at all events, go in and ascertain."

He had brought his fowling-piece, and we had besides two muskets. He
told Jim and me to stand up, with the muskets in our hands, for he
didn't like to trust Horner, while he stepped on shore. Just as the
boat reached the beach, and Jim, who was in the bows, was about to jump
out, he exclaimed, "Why I do believe those two fellows are Muggins and
Jones."

The doctor leaped on shore, looking carefully round to ascertain that no
natives were near. A cry of horror escaped him. The two men were dead,
with their skulls fractured, the brains lying about.

Their "free and happy" life on shore had come speedily to an end. Why
they had been killed it was difficult to say. The doctor, stooping
down, felt the bodies.

"They are perfectly cold, and must have been dead some time," he
observed. "They probably had a quarrel with some of the natives, and
were trying to escape to the beach to cry for help, when they were
overtaken."

As we could do nothing we returned to the ship, thankful that we had
escaped the treachery of the natives, though, as the doctor observed,
the men who had suffered had evidently brought it all upon themselves.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

A CRUISE ACROSS THE PACIFIC AND THE ADVENTURES I MET WITH.

On reaching the ship we found that the captain, the English missionary,
and the big old chief, Utatee, had arrived on board just before us. The
doctor at once told them what had occurred.

"The fellows probably brought their fate upon themselves," said the
captain. "They must have provoked the savages and got killed in
consequence."

"I'm afraid that such was the case," observed the missionary; "but I
will ask the chief to inquire into the matter."

Utatee said he would do so, but if the white men were guilty he could
not undertake to punish their murderers.

While we were talking some of the crew cried out, "A shark! A shark!"
and sure enough there was a huge creature swimming up close under the
counter, with his fin just above the water, his wicked eye glancing up
at the ship. The chief said something to one of the natives who had
come aboard with him, a fine athletic fellow, who, like the chief,
appeared to be fully dressed in a tightly-fitting dark blue silk dress,
but who, in reality, had only a loincloth round his waist, fastened by a
girdle, in which were stuck a couple