avely. "I've seen the
bones at one of their camps after a feast."

The beachcomber laughed hoarsely.

"Now you know what you've got to expect, youngster; so behave yourself,"
he said. "Now, doctor, you know. Be civil, and I daresay we shall be
very good friends; be nasty, and I shan't keep my black pack quiet, but
let 'em do as they like. Hi! Black Jack!"

The savage bounded once more to his side.

"See that the canoe and boat are fast, and then you shall have a feast."

"All fast. Tie rope," said the black, pointing to the farther side of
the steamer deck. Then, to Carey's horror, he made a peculiar gesture
and pointed at him.

"No. Salt beef. 'Bacco," growled his leader, and the man once more
bounded away.

"Come below," continued the man, hoarsely, "and get those brutes
something to keep 'em quiet; and I want a big drink. You three go
first."

Carey glanced at the doctor and then at Bostock, both of whom avoided
his eye and went to the cabin entrance, leaving the boy to follow,
feeling half-stunned and wondering whether they ought not to make some
effort to drive the intruders overboard.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: Beachcomber. A white man who settles down in one of the South Sea
Islands and lives by trading with the natives for copra--the dried
kernels of cocoanuts--pearl shells, and the sea slug _Beche de mer_;
often living by wrecking, kidnapping the natives, or any nefarious
scheme. Many of them have been drunken, unprincipled scoundrels, their
ranks in the old days having been recruited from the convicts escaped
from Botany Bay or Norfolk Island.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

To Carey's rage and discomfiture he found that their captor treated him
as the ship's boy, following Bostock to the store-room and ordering him
to carry the most solid of the provisions to the blacks.

"They won't want any knives and forks and plates, young 'un. Wait a
moment. Where's the tobacco?"

This was produced in its tub, and in obedience to his orders Carey took
out twenty of the long square compressed cakes.

"That's right. Twenty of 'em, and don't let either of the warmint
snatch two."

"How am I to stop them?" said Carey, bitterly.

"Got a fist, haven't you?"

Carey nodded shortly.

"Hit the first as does in the mouth."

"To be knocked down with a club," said the boy, bitterly.

"No one dare touch you, my lad, unless I give 'em leave. I'm ki