e thwarts
as they threw all their weight into each stroke. They knew what dire
fate was certain if ever the sea-washed coral rock gripped the _Arangi's_
keel. And they knew fear precisely of the same sort as that of the fear-
struck girl below in the lazarette. In the past more than one
Langa-Langa and Somo boy had gone to make a Su'u feast day, just as Su'u
boys, on occasion, had similarly served feasts at Langa-Langa and at
Somo.

"My word," Tambi, at the wheel, addressed Van Horn as the period of
tension passed and the _Arangi_ went clear. "Brother belong my father,
long time before he come boat's crew along this place. Big fella
schooner brother belong my father he come along. All finish this place
Su'u. Brother belong my father Su'u boys kai-kai along him altogether."

Van Horn recollected the _Fair_ _Hathaway_ of fifteen years before,
looted and burned by the people of Su'u after all hands had been killed.
Truly, the Solomons at this beginning of the twentieth century were
savage, and truly, of the Solomons, this great island of Malaita was
savagest of all.

He cast his eyes speculatively up the slopes of the island to the
seaman's landmark, Mount Kolorat, green-forested to its cloud-capped
summit four thousand feet in the air. Even as he looked, thin
smoke-columns were rising along the slopes and lesser peaks, and more
were beginning to rise.

"My word," Tambi grinned. "Plenty boy stop 'm bush lookout along you eye
belong him."

Van Horn smiled understandingly. He knew, by the ancient telegraphy of
smoke-signalling, the message was being conveyed from village to village
and tribe to tribe that a labour-recruiter was on the leeward coast.

All morning, under a brisk beam wind which had sprung up with the rising
of the sun, the _Arangi_ flew north, her course continuously advertised
by the increasing smoke-talk that gossiped along the green summits. At
high noon, with Van Horn, ever-attended by Jerry, standing for'ard and
conning, the _Arangi_ headed into the wind to thread the passage between
two palm-tufted islets. There was need for conning. Coral patches
uprose everywhere from the turquoise depths, running the gamut of green
from deepest jade to palest tourmaline, over which the sea filtered
changing shades, creamed lazily, or burst into white fountains of sun-
flashed spray.

The smoke columns along the heights became garrulous, and long before the
_Arangi_ was through the passage the ent