llam, and some of you fellows," said Captain W------, "run and
see what's the matter. That scoundrel, Lacy, I suppose, among the
women," he added, with a laugh, to the lieutenant.

The two officers followed the men. In a few minutes they came upon
a curious scene. Held in the strong arms of two stout seamen was the
native chief, whose heaving chest and working features showed him to be
under some violent emotion. On the ground, with his head supported by
a shipmate, lay Lacy, with blackened and distorted face, and breathing
stertorously. Shaking with fear and weeping passionately as she pressed
her child to her bosom, the young native wife looked beseechingly into
the faces of the men who held her husband.

"What is the meaning of this?" said Captain W------'s clear, sharp
voice, addressing the men who held the chief.

"That hound there"--the men who held their prisoner nearly let him go
in their astonishment--"came in here. She was alone. Do you want to know
more? I tried to kill him."

"Let him loose, men," and Captain W------ stepped up to the prisoner and
looked closely into his dark face. "Ah! I thought so--a white man. What
is your name?"

The wanderer bent his head, then raised it, and looked for an instant at
the sullen face of Hallam.

*****

"I have no name," he said.

"Humph," muttered Captain W------ to his lieutenant, "a runaway convict,
most likely. He can't be blamed, though, for this affair. He's a perfect
brute, that fellow Lacy." Then to the strange white man he turned
contemptuously:

"I'm sorry this man assaulted your wife. He shall suffer for it
to-morrow. At the same time I'm sorry I can't tie _you_ up and flog you,
as a disgrace to your colour and country, you naked savage."

The outcast took two strides, a red gleam shone in his eyes, and his
voice shook with mad passion.

"'A naked savage'; and you would like to flog me. It was a brute such as
you made me what I am," and he struck the captain of the _Pleiades_ in
the face with his clenched hand.

*****

"We'll have to punish the fellow, T------," said Captain W------, as
with his handkerchief to his lips he staunched the flow of blood. "If I
let a thing like this pass his native friends would imagine all sorts
of things and probably murder any unfortunate merchant captain that may
touch here in the future. But, as Heaven is my witness, I do so on that
ground only--deserter as he admits himself to be. Hurry up that fellow,
T----