ke some refreshment The offer was accepted, for neither
had had the inclination to eat anything on shore--they, like their men,
were too eager to get possession of the ship to trouble about food.

Ryan sat at the table with them as they ate, and repeated his fiction
regarding the accident to his chief officer, at which the planter
politely expressed his concern. Then the mutineer, in a casual sort of
a way, asked Raymond if there had been any English or American war-ships
cruising about Samoa lately.

"No, not for a long time, but I did hear that the American corvette
_Adams_ was expected here last year, but she must have passed by here,
and gone on to Fiji There is always work for a man-of-war there at any
time--the Fijians are a rough lot, and hardly a month passes without
some European trader or sailor being killed and eaten, or else badly
hurt. Even at the present time all the people living in the eastward
islands of the Fiji Group are rank cannibals. It is a place to be
avoided."

"Ah, well, I won't go near there," said the mutineer, somewhat
meditatively.

"No, of course not," said the planter; "I suppose that your course for
Batavia will take you to the northwest after you leave here--Fiji is six
hundred miles to the south-west."

"I did think of putting in there when my mate met with his
accident--thought I would find a doctor there; but now, thanks to your
friend, I shall not need one for him--he is much better already."

"That is fortunate," said Raymond: "he might have died before you could
reach the port of Levuka in Fiji. And besides that, I doubt if you would
find a doctor living there. I have never heard of any medical man being
settled in Fiji. On the other hand you could have left him on shore,
where he would at least have met with good nursing from some of the
English ladies there; and you could easily have obtained another mate;
there are dozens of ex-skippers and mates idling about in Fiji."

Ryan had learnt all he wanted to know, and he changed the subject. He
was still anxious about Almanza not living--for no one could tell what
might occur to the _Esmeralda_ if he died and the ship was left without
a navigator. He (Ryan) and Foster would have had no objection to ridding
themselves of him, were either one of them able to navigate the ship as
far as the Philippine Islands. They had all three previously agreed with
the rest of the crew as to their future plans, after they had disposed
of Mars