ull their houses down. But he did not wish to see the
sight. He had nothing to do with the affair, so filling and lighting
another pipe, and leaving all his belongings to be brought on by
Berselius, he turned with Felix and, saying good-bye to his companions,
started.

They had nearly reached the edge of the forest when shouts from behind
caused Adams to turn his head.

The soldiers were shouting to Papeete to come back.

The thing had trotted after Adams like a black dog. It was within a few
yards of him.

"Go back," shouted Adams.

"Tick-tick," replied Papeete. It was the only English the creature knew.

It stood frying in the sun, grinning and glistening, till Adams, with an
assumption of ferocity, made for it, then back it went, and Adams,
laughing, plunged under the veil of leaves.

Berselius, seated at his tent door, looked at his watch. Meeus, seated
beside Berselius, was smoking cigarettes.

"Give him an hour," said Berselius. "He will be far away enough by that.
Besides, the wind is blowing from there."

"True," said Meeus. "An hour." And he continued to smoke. But his hand was
shaking, and he was biting the cigarette, and his lips were dry so that he
had to be continually licking them.

Berselius was quite calm, but his face was pale, and he seemed
contemplating something at a distance.

When half an hour had passed, Meeus rose suddenly to his feet and began to
walk about, up and down, in front of the tent, up and down, up and down,
as a man walks when he is in distress of mind.

The black soldiers also seemed uneasy, and the villagers huddled closer
together like sheep. Papeete alone seemed undisturbed. He was playing now
with the old tomato tin, out of which he had scraped and licked every
vestige of the contents.

Suddenly Meeus began crying out to the soldiers in a hard, sharp voice
like the yelping of a dog.

The time was up, and the soldiers knew. They ranged up, chattering and
laughing, and all at once, as if produced from nowhere, two rhinoceros
hide whips appeared in the hands of two of the tallest of the blacks.
Rhinoceros hide is more than an inch thick; it is clear and almost
translucent when properly prepared. In the form of a whip it is less an
instrument of punishment than a weapon. These whips were not the smoothly
prepared whips used for light punishment; they had angles that cut like
sword edges. One wonders what those sentimental people would say--those
sentimental people w