were numbers of natives clustered together on the beach, the
greater portion were women and children. He had with him five men, all
armed with muskets and cutlasses, and although extremely anxious to
avoid a collision, he was not at all alarmed. The natives meanwhile
preserved a passive attitude, and when the men in the boat, at a word
from the officer, stopped rowing, backed her in stern first, and then
lay on their oars, they nearly all sat down on the sand and waited for
him to speak.

Standing up in the boat, the officer hailed--

"Hallo there, ashore! Any white men living here?"

For a minute or so there was no answer, and the eyes of the natives
turned in the direction of one of their number who kept well in the
background.

Again the seaman hailed, and then a man, seemingly a native, stout and
muscular, with hair felling down in thick masses upon his reddish-brown
shoulders, walked slowly out from the others, and folding his brawny
arms across his naked chest, he answered--

"Yes; there's some white men here."

The officer, who was the mate of the brigantine, then spoke for a few
minutes to a young man who pulled bow oar, and who from his dress was
not one of the crew, and said finally, "Well, let us make sure that
there is no danger first, Maurice."

The young man nodded, and then the mate addressed the seeming native
again:

"There's a young fellow here wants to come ashore; he wants to see one
of the white men here. Can he come ashore?"

"Of course he can. D'ye think we're a lot o' cannibals here? I'm a white
man myself," and he laughed coarsely; then added quickly, "Who does he
want to see?"

The man who pulled the bow oar sprang to his feet.

"I want to see Henry Deschard!"

"Do you?" was the sneering response. "Well, I don't know as you can.
This isn't his day at-home like; besides that, he's a good long way
from here just now."

"I've got good news for him," urged the man called Maurice.

The beachcomber meditated a few seconds; then he walked down to the
boat.

"Look here," he said, "I'm telling the exac' truth. Deschard's place
is a long way from here, in the bush too, so you can't go there in the
boat; but look here, why can't you chaps come along with me? I'll show
you the way, and you'll have a good look at the island. There's nothin'
to be afraid of, I can tell you. Why, these natives is that scared of
all them guns there that you won't see 'em for dust when you come with
me; an'