nd had
noticed that he was taking an exceptionally prominent part in the
proceedings; while one or two circumstances which I had also noticed led
me to suspect that he might possibly be a person of some importance
among the natives of Roua Poua.

And now, as with the assistance of three lanterns we proceeded with our
investigations, the really desperate character of the struggle in which
we had so recently been engaged began to be borne in upon us; for, in
addition to the nineteen who had fallen victims to the boatswain's
contrivance, we found scattered about the ship twenty-six dead, and
thirty-three more or less wounded natives; while others--with whom the
sharks were already busy--were floating in the water near the ship. As
for ourselves, we had lost two foremast hands, both of them Americans,
while the remainder of us, with the solitary exception of the cook, had
each his scratch to show, my own and the sailmaker's being, fortunately,
the only wounds that could be reasonably termed serious, while even they
were of comparatively little moment, provided that gangrene did not
supervene.

And now, the natives having been beaten off, our next task was to
straighten up after the fight, and a beginning was made by throwing all
the dead--except our own two--overboard, where the sharks might be
safely trusted to see to their speedy disposal. Then we overhauled the
wounded savages: and such of them as had received only trifling hurts,
and might therefore perhaps yet give us trouble if we were not careful,
we bound securely; while the others we laid out on deck, and then
proceeded to doctor up as well as our means and our very limited
surgical knowledge permitted.

It was while we were all thus busily engaged that the boatswain,
happening to straighten his back for a moment and cast an alert glance
across the water toward the shore, suddenly stood rigid and staring, and
then remarked to me, in a low tone of voice:

"Just look over there for a minute, Mr Temple. Ain't that a canoe or
somethin' headin' this way?"

I looked in the direction indicated, and at once sighted a small,
shapeless blot of deeper blackness in the shadow that enshrouded the
whole of the west side of the island. But if it was a canoe it was
certainly a very small craft; moreover, it was not coming from the
direction of the beach, but from a point apparently about a mile to the
north of it. We stood watching it for a full minute, or more, and the