ly half hearing, for she had Jerry in her arms and was
calling him "Blessed Dog," the while she stilled his snarling and soothed
down the last bristling hair.

But Jerry snarled again and was for leaping upon the black when he
stirred restlessly and dizzily sat up. Harley removed a knife from
between the bare skin and a belt.

"What name belong you?" he demanded.

But the black had eyes only for Jerry, staring at him in wondering amaze
until he pieced the situation together in his growing clarity of brain
and realized that such a small chunky animal had spoiled his game.

"My word," he grinned to Harley, "that fella dog put 'm crimp along me
any amount."

He felt out the wounds of his neck and face, while his eyes embraced the
fact that the white master was in possession of his rifle.

"You give 'm musket belong me," he said impudently.

"I give 'm you bang alongside head," was Harley's answer.

"He doesn't seem to me to be a regular Malaitan," he told Villa. "In the
first place, where would he get a rifle like that? Then think of his
nerve. He must have seen us drop anchor, and he must have known our
launch was on the beach. Yet he played to take our heads and get away
with them back into the bush--"

"What name belong you?" he again demanded.

But not until Johnny and the launch crew arrived breathless from their
run, did he learn. Johnny's eyes gloated when he beheld the prisoner,
and he addressed Kennan in evident excitement.

"You give 'm me that fella boy," he begged. "Eh? You give 'm me that
fella boy."

"What name you want 'm?"

Not for some time would Johnny answer this question, and then only when
Kennan told him that there was no harm done and that he intended to let
the black go. At this Johnny protested vehemently.

"Maybe you fetch 'm that fella boy along Government House, Tulagi,
Government House give 'm you twenty pounds. Him plenty bad fella boy too
much. Makawao he name stop along him. Bad fella boy too much. Him
Queensland boy--"

"What name Queensland?" Kennan interrupted. "He belong that fella
place?"

Johnny shook his head.

"Him belong along Malaita first time. Long time before too much he
recruit 'm along schooner go work along Queensland."

"He's a return Queenslander," Harley interpreted to Villa. "You know,
when Australia went 'all white,' the Queensland plantations had to send
all the black birds back. This Makawao is evidently one of them, and a
hard