use built upon it."

Raymond's letter was a voluminous one, but Frewen soon became deeply
engrossed in its contents.

"My dear Frewen (let us now drop the 'Sir' and 'Captain,' for I am sure
we each regard the other as a friend), I am now starting on a very long
letter, and have but little time in which to finish it, for the _Dancing
Wave_, by which I am sending it, leaves Apia to-morrow at daylight, and
it will take a native runner all his time to cross over the mountains
with it to Apia."

Then he went on to say that, about six months previously, Malie had been
approached by a German gentleman (who had just arrived from Hamburg) and
asked if he would sell a large tract of land near Samatau. The chief
at once consulted Raymond, who could not help feeling some natural
curiosity as to the object of the German gentleman making such a large
purchase of land so far away from the principal port of the group
(Apia). Malie could give him no information on the subject--all he knew
was that he (Malie) had been offered a very fair price for a tract of
country that he was willing to lease, but not to sell, for on it were
several villages, and the soil was of such fertility that the people
would deeply resent their chief parting with it and making them remove
to less productive lands.

On the spur of the moment--and feeling that there was some very good
reason for the German making the chief such a substantial offer--Raymond
said to Malie--

"The German has offered you ten thousand dollars for the land, but will
not lease it from you. Now I am not a rich man, and even if you were
willing to sell it to me for five thousand dollars, I could not buy it.
But I will lease it from you for one year. I will not disturb any of
your people, but at the end of the year I will make you another offer.
There is some mischief on foot, Malie. Let you and I go to Apia and find
out who this man is, and why he is so eager to buy your land."

They set out together, and at Apia gained all the information they
desired. The German gentleman was the agent of a rich corporation of
Hamburg merchants who wished to purchase all the available land in Samoa
for the purpose of founding a colony, the principal industry of which
would be cotton-growing. Cotton was bringing fabulous prices in Europe,
and the corporation had already made purchases of land both in Fiji and
Tahiti, and were using every effort to obtain more.

Raymond quickly made up his mind as