ild hatred in his eyes, and muttering awful threats. Icy-cold,
cruel, with compressed lips and poisonous looks like a serpent's,
he hissed his curses and tortured Belni, who excused himself clumsily
and shyly, playing with the yam and looking from one dark corner to
the other, like a boy being scolded. The scene was so gruesome that
I had Belni shut up again, and we watched all night, for Macao was
determined to take the murderer's life. It was a dry, moonlit night;
one of the boys was writhing with a pain in his stomach, and we could
do nothing to help him, so they were all convinced it was caused by
Belni's relatives, and wanted to sail immediately. A warm breeze had
driven mosquitoes to the cutter; it was a most unpleasant night.

Next noon the natives appeared, about twenty strong, but without
the second murderer. They said the shot had hit him, and that he
had died during the night. This might have been true, and as we
could do nothing against the village anyway, we let the matter drop,
especially as they had brought us Bourbaki's rifle and two tusked
pigs. The chief said he hoped we were satisfied with him, and would
not trouble anyone but the murderers.

We returned to the cutter, and the pigs were put in the hold,
where they seem to have kept good company with Belni, after a little
preliminary squealing and shrieking. Then we sailed northward, with a
breeze that carried us in four hours over the same distance for which
we had taken twenty-four last time. It was a bitterly cold night. We
decided to return home, fearing the boys would murder Belni in an
unwatched moment, as they had asked several times, when the sea was
high, whether we would not throw Belni into the water now. The passage
to Santo was very rough. The waves thundered against the little old
cutter, and we had a nasty tide-rip. We were quite soaked, and looking
in through the portholes, we could see everything floating about in
the cabin--blankets, saucepans, tins and pistols. We did not mind much,
as we hoped to be at home by evening.

Rest, cleanliness and a little comfort were very tempting after a
fortnight in the filthy narrowness of the little craft. We had no
reason to be vain of our success; but such trips are part of the game,
and we planned a second visit to Big Nambas to reconcile the chief. We
were glad to greet the cloud-hung coast of Santo, and soon entered
the Segond Channel. There we discovered that the old boat had leaked
to such