um, some tobacco, some biscuit."

"Right you are, you man-catching old' cannibal," said the mate,
jocosely, "come below." As the mate went below with the native at his
heels, the latter made a quick sign by a backward move of his arm. In an
instant the ten apparently-bound men had sprung to their feet, and with
their pseudo-captors, flung themselves upon the five men. The wild cry
of alarm reached the mate in the cabin. He darted up, and as he reached
the deck a tomahawk crashed into his brain.

No need to tell the tale of the savage butchery on deck in all its
details. Not one of the men had time to even fire a shot--they went down
so quickly under the knives and tomahawks of the fifty men who struggled
and strove with one another to strike the first blow. One man, indeed,
succeeeded in reaching the main rigging, but ere he had gained ten feet
he was stabbed and chopped in half-a-dozen places.

*****

And then, as the remaining members of the crew sat "spelling" in the
jungle, and waiting for the skipper's return, there came a sudden, swift
rush of dark, naked forms upon them. Then gasping groans and silence.

There were many oven-fires lit that night and the following day; and
although the former shipmates of the "long, baked pigs" were present by
the invitation of the chief, their uncultivated tastes were satisfied
with such simple things as breadfruit and yams.

That was the "wiping-out" of the _Queen Caroline_ at Pentecost, and the
fulfilment of the unconscious prophecy of Captain Fordham to his mate.

AN HONOUR TO THE SERVICE

The Honourable Captain Stanley W------ believed in flogging, and during
the three years' cruise of the frigate in the South Pacific he had taken
several opportunities of expressing this belief upon the bluejackets of
his ship by practical illustrations of his hobby. He was, however--in
his own opinion--a most humane man, and was always ready to give a dozen
less if Dr. Cartwright suggested, for instance, that Jenkins or Jones
hadn't quite got over his last tricing up, and could hardly stand
another dozen so soon. And the chaplain of the frigate, when dining with
the Honourable Stanley, would often sigh and shake his head and agree
with the captain that the proposed abolition of flogging in the British
Navy would do much to destroy its discipline and loosen the feelings of
personal attachment between officers and men, and then murmur something
complimentary about his Majesty's s