e laughed, and said I was
foolish; that she was playing with me. I told her this. She swore to me
that when I had fifty gold pieces she would be my wife, but that I must
tell no one.... Ah! how a woman can fool a man! I was fooled. And every
gold piece I got I gave to her to keep for me.

"I have said that there were many servants. There was one young man,
named Harry, whose work it was to take my master about in his _puha tia
tia_ (carriage). Sometimes I would see him talking to the girl, and then
looking at me. Then I began to watch; but she was too cunning. Always
had she one word for me. Be patient; when we have the fifty gold pieces
all shall be well. We shall go away from here, and get married.'

"One night, as I lay upon the grass, smoking my pipe, I heard voices,
the voices of the man Harry and Lissi. They were speaking of me. They
spoke loudly, and I heard all that was said. 'He is but a simple fool,'
she said, with a laugh; 'but in another month I shall have the last
of his money, and then thou and I shall go away quietly. Faugh! the
tattooed beast!' and I heard her laugh again, and the man laughed with
her, but bade her be careful lest I should suspect."

"She was a bad woman, Pakfa," I began, when he interrupted me with a
quick gesture.

"I crept back into the house and got a knife, and waited. The night was
dark, but I could see. Presently they came along a narrow path which led
to the house. Then I sprang out, and drove my knife twice into the man's
chest. I had not time to kill the woman, for at the third blow the knife
broke off at the hilt, and she fled in the darkness. I wanted to kill
her because she had fooled me and taken my money--forty-six gold pieces.

"There was a great wood which ran from my master's house down to the
sea. I ran hard, very hard, till I came to the water. I could see ships
in the harbour, quite near. I swam to one, and tried to creep on deck
and hide, but heard the sailors talking. Presently I saw a vessel--a
schooner--come sailing slowly past. There was a boat towing astern. I
swam softly over, and got into the boat, and laid down till it was near
the dawn. There was but little wind then, and the ship was not moving
fast, so I got into the water again, and held on to the side of the
boat, and began to cry out in a loud voice for help. As soon as they
heard me the ship was brought to the wind, and I got back into the boat
I was taken on board and given food and coffee, and t