nd honourable custom remains with us. You all know what it is. When a
man is a proven thief and liar he shall be struck with a dead pig."

His right hand went into the basket, and, despite the lack of his
spectacles, the dead pig that came into view landed accurately on
Deasy's neck. With such force was it thrown that the Chancellor, in
his sitting position, toppled over sidewise. Before he could recover,
Sepeli, with an agility unexpected of a woman who weighed two hundred
and sixty pounds, had sprung across to him. One hand clutched his shirt
collar, the other hand brandished the pig, and amid the vast uproar of a
delighted kingdom she royally swatted him.

There remained nothing for Tui Tulifau but to put a good face on his
favourite's disgrace, and his mountainous fat lay back on the mats and
shook in a gale of Gargantuan laughter.

When Sepeli dropped both pig and Chancellor, a talking man from the
windward coast picked up the carcass. Cornelius was on his feet and
running, when the pig caught him on the legs and tripped him. The people
and the army, with shouts and laughter, joined in the sport.

Twist and dodge as he would, everywhere the ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer was met or overtaken by the flying pig. He scuttled like a
frightened rabbit in and out among the avocados and the palms. No hand
was laid upon him, and his tormentors made way before him, but ever they
pursued, and ever the pig flew as fast as hands could pick it up.

As the chase died away down the Broom Road, Grief led the traders to the
royal treasury, and the day was well over ere the last Fitu-Ivan bank
note had been redeemed with coin.

VII

Through the mellow cool of twilight a man paddled out from a clump of
jungle to the _Cantani_. It was a leaky and abandoned dugout, and he
paddled slowly, desisting from time to time in order to bale. The
Kanaka sailors giggled gleefully as he came alongside and painfully
drew himself over the rail. He was bedraggled and filthy, and seemed
half-dazed.

"Could I speak a word with you, Mr. Grief?" he asked sadly and humbly.

"Sit to leeward and farther away," Grief answered. "A little farther
away. That's better."

Cornelius sat down on the rail and held his head in both his hands.

"'Tis right," he said. "I'm as fragrant as a recent battlefield. My head
aches to burstin'. My neck is fair broken. The teeth are loose in my
jaws. There's nests of hornets buzzin' in my ears. My medulla oblon