hin a hundred feet of the mangroves.

Van Horn continued to cast anxious glances at the wooded shore. For Su'u
had an evil name. Since the schooner _Fair_ _Hathaway_, recruiting
labour for the Queensland plantations, had been captured by the natives
and all hands slain fifteen years before, no vessel, with the exception
of the _Arangi_, had dared to venture into Su'u. And most white men
condemned Van Horn's recklessness for so venturing.

Far up the mountains, that towered many thousands of feet into the trade-
wind clouds, arose many signal smokes that advertised the coming of the
vessel. Far and near, the _Arangi's_ presence was known; yet from the
jungle so near at hand only shrieks of parrots and chatterings of
cockatoos could be heard.

The whaleboat, manned with six of the boat's crew, was drawn alongside,
and the fifteen Su'u boys and their boxes were loaded in. Under the
canvas flaps along the thwarts, ready to hand for the rowers, were laid
five of the Lee-Enfields. On deck, another of the boat's crew, rifle in
hand, guarded the remaining weapons. Borckman had brought up his own
rifle to be ready for instant use. Van Horn's rifle lay handy in the
stern sheets where he stood near Tambi, who steered with a long sweep.
Jerry raised a low whine and yearned over the rail after Skipper, who
yielded and lifted him down.

The place of danger was in the boat; for there was little likelihood, at
this particular time, of a rising of the return boys on the _Arangi_.
Being of Somo, No-ola, Langa-Langa, and far Malu they were in wholesome
fear, did they lose the protection of their white masters, of being eaten
by the Su'u folk, just as the Su'u boys would have feared being eaten by
the Somo and Langa-Langa and No-ola folk.

What increased the danger of the boat was the absence of a covering boat.
The invariable custom of the larger recruiting vessels was to send two
boats on any shore errand. While one landed on the beach, the other lay
off a short distance to cover the retreat of the shore party, if trouble
broke out. Too small to carry one boat on deck, the _Arangi_ could not
conveniently tow two astern; so Van Horn, who was the most daring of the
recruiters, lacked this essential safeguard.

Tambi, under Van Horn's low-uttered commands, steered a parallel course
along the shore. Where the mangroves ceased, and where high ground and a
beaten runway came down to the water's edge, Van Horn motioned the rower