the Caledonian
Canal.

"I fear I do not know much about them," he said. "Behind those hills
there one sees a few Canoe Indians; I have heard that they are somewhat
lower in the social scale than the aborigines of Australia."

"Are they?" said Courtenay. He looked Christobal straight in the eyes,
and the doctor returned his gaze as steadily.

"That is their repute. They live mostly on shellfish. They do not
congregate in communities. A few families keep together, and move
constantly from place to place. They have a quaint belief that if they
remain on a camping-ground more than a night or two the devil will
stick his head out of the ground and bite them. Obviously, the real
devil that plagues them is the continuous wandering demanded by their
search for food."

Christobal would have aired such a scrap of interesting knowledge at
the foot of the scaffold, and expected the executioner to listen
attentively.

"They are called the Alaculof. They use bows and arrows, with heads
chipped out of stone or bottle-glass," put in Tollemache.

"Oh, you have been in these parts before?" cried Courtenay, regarding
his compatriot with some interest, while the Spaniard surveyed his
rival doubtfully.

"Yes--was on the _Emu_--wrecked in Cockburn Channel."

Now, the story of the _Emu_ is one of those fierce tragedies which the
sea first puts on the stage of life with dire skill, and then proceeds
to destroy the slightest vestige of their brief existence. But such
things leave abiding memories in men's souls, and Courtenay had heard
how twenty-seven survivors, out of a muster-roll of thirty who escaped
from the wreck, had been shot down by Indians ambushed in the forest.
Elsie, whose tears were dispelled by the doctor's amusing summary of
the Canoe Indians' theological views, was listening to the
conversation, so the captain did not carry it further, contenting
himself with the remark:

"That will be useful, if we are compelled to go ashore. You will have
some acquaintance with the ways of our hosts."

Tollemache, having nothing to say, was not given to the use of
unnecessary words. Elsie was conscious of a certain constraint in
their talk.

"Please don't mind me," she said quietly. "I know all about the loss
of the _Emu_. If we fall into the hands of the Alaculof tribe, we
shall be not only killed but eaten."

She was pouring out a second cup of tea for Walker when she made this
remarkable statement. Her eyes