e same moment drove in both spurs with her heels, rushing the startled
horse straight at Gogoomy. It all happened in an instant. Every cane-
knife was lifted, and every boy save Gogoomy leaped for her. He swerved
aside to avoid the horse, at the same time swinging his cane-knife in a
slicing blow that would have cut her in twain. She leaned forward under
the flying steel, which cut through her riding-skirt, through the edge of
the saddle, through the saddle cloth, and even slightly into the horse
itself. Her right hand, still raised, came down, the thin whip whishing
through the air. She saw the white, cooked mark of the weal clear across
the sullen, handsome face, and still what was practically in the same
instant she saw the man with the puckered face, overridden, go down
before her, and she heard his snarling and grimacing chatter-for all the
world like an angry monkey. Then she was free and away, heading the
horse at top speed for the house.

Out of her sea-training she was able to appreciate Sheldon's
executiveness when she burst in on him with her news. Springing from the
steamer-chair in which he had been lounging while waiting for breakfast,
he clapped his hands for the house-boys; and, while listening to her, he
was buckling on his cartridge-belt and running the mechanism of his
automatic pistol.

"Ornfiri," he snapped out his orders, "you fella ring big fella bell
strong fella plenty. You finish 'm bell, you put 'm saddle on horse.
Viaburi, you go quick house belong Seelee he stop, tell 'm plenty black
fella run away--ten fella two fella black fella boy." He scribbled a
note and handed it to Lalaperu. "Lalaperu, you go quick house belong
white fella Marster Boucher."

"That will head them back from the coast on both sides," he explained to
Joan. "And old Seelee will turn his whole village loose on their track
as well."

In response to the summons of the big bell, Joan's Tahitians were the
first to arrive, by their glistening bodies and panting chests showing
that they had run all the way. Some of the farthest-placed gangs would
be nearly an hour in arriving.

Sheldon proceeded to arm Joan's sailors and deal out ammunition and
handcuffs. Adamu Adam, with loaded rifle, he placed on guard over the
whale-boats. Noa Noah, aided by Matapuu, were instructed to take charge
of the working-gangs as fast as they came in, to keep them amused, and to
guard against their being stampeded into making a bre