had evidently been drinking, made Villari
a saucy answer, and said that he had kept the boy below with a view to
making him useful. The mate, he said, "knew all about it," and Villari
had better "keep quiet." In another moment Villari knocked him senseless
with a belaying pin, and then, ordering the other man to let draw the
head sheets, put the helm hard up, and the schooner stood away from the
land, just as a rain squall came away from the northward. As soon as
Bucky became conscious, Villari spoke to him and the other seaman,
cautioned them against disobedience, and said that if they did their
duty, he would divide a hundred pounds between them when the schooner
reached Noumea in New Caledonia. The men then asked him whether he meant
to leave the mate and the other four hands behind?

"Yes, I do," he replied, "that is why I am giving you fifty pounds each.
But if you try on any nonsense with me, I'll shoot you both. Now go
for'ard and stand by to hoist the squaresail as soon as the squall dies
away--this boy will lend a hand."

As soon as the squaresail was set, Villari told Lilo to call down the
skylight to Mrs. Marston.

"He told me," concluded the boy, "that although I shall have to cook for
every one on board, I was to be your servant, and that I was to always
sleep in the cabin. And he himself is going to sleep in the deck house
behind the galley, for I saw that he has a lamp in there, and all his
things, and he asked me to bring him some writing paper, and ink, and
pens. Where shall I get them?"

Mrs. Marston found the articles for him, and Lilo at once took them to
Villari, who was at the wheel.

"Put them in the deck-house," he said, "and tell one of the men to come
aft, and take the wheel. Then go below again and remain there. If any
one puts foot in the cabin, you can shoot him with the pistol I gave to
Serena."

"Ami," said the boy anxiously, when he retained, "he is _vale_ (mad),
for his eyes are the eyes of one who is mad. The land is now far astern,
and the ship is speeding fast away from it. What doth this mean?"

"I cannot tell thee, Lilo," she replied, speaking in Samoan, "but as
thou sayest, he is mad. Let us trust in God to protect us."

She rose and went into the main cabin, and looked at the tell-tale
compass, which swung over the table, and saw that the schooner was
heading south-west, which would be the course for New Caledonia.

All that night the _Lupetea_ swept steadily and swiftly