rily enough,
oblivious of the cold rain squalls which overtook them at midnight, as
they headed for Samoa.

CHAPTER III

When Frewen allowed Cheyne to write the pencilled note to Captain
Keller, he did so with a double purpose, for he and Cheyne had carefully
thought out and decided upon their plans. In the first place, the dead
whale would convince the ship's company that he and his boat's crew had
"done the square thing," by killing and leaving for their benefit the
best and largest whale that had yet been taken, and that although
they were deserting (and consequently losing their entire share of the
profits of the cruise so far, which would be divided with their former
shipmates) the rich prize they were leaving to the ship would prove of
ten times the value of the boat in which they had escaped. In the second
place he wished to put Keller on a false scent by naming Savage Island
(or Nine, as it is generally known) as their destination; for Keller
knew that the island was a favourite resort of runaway sailors, but that
a suitable reward offered to the avaricious natives would be sure to
effect the capture and return to the ship of any deserters from the
_Casilda_.

Cheyne's father was an English master mariner, who, tired of a seafaring
life, had settled as a trader in the beautiful island of Manono in
Samoa. He there married a daughter of one of the leading chiefs, and
himself attained to some considerable influence and property, but lost
his life in an encounter with a rebellious clan on the island of Upolu.
He left two children: Randall, a lad of sixteen, and Marie, a girl
two years younger. The boy went to sea in a whaler, and at the age
of twenty-four had an established reputation as one of the smartest
boatsteerers in the Pacific. Only once after four years' absence, had he
returned to his native country, when he found that his sister, who had
just arrived from Australia, where she had been educated, was about
to be married to one of the few Europeans in the country--a well-to-do
planter and merchant, named Raymond, and that his mother had also
married again, and settled in New Zealand.

Satisfied as to his sister's future happiness, he saw her married, and
again turned his face to the sea, although Raymond earnestly besought
him to stay with and help him in his business. He made his way to
Honolulu, and there joined the _Casilda_, then homeward bound, and, as
has been related, he and the second offi