I was
careful to keep Oahika until the last, and it was not until the schooner
was fairly under way and heading out to sea that I cast him adrift and
permitted him to go over the side, which he did in a splutter of mingled
wrath and fear, pouring out a long string of what were probably native
curses as he seized the steering paddle and violently thrust the canoe
off the schooner's side.

By midday we were bowling merrily away to the westward under every rag
that we could set, and Roua Poua had sunk out of sight beneath the
eastern horizon. Long before this, however--in fact, the moment that
they were safely aboard and comfortably bestowed in their bunks--
Cunningham had taken the three wounded seamen in hand; and when he had
done all that he could for them he came up on deck and reported to me.

"I am afraid," he said, "that there is not much hope for those three,"
with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of the forecastle. "Sullivan
and Halpin have had their skulls cracked by blows inflicted with a war
club, and their cases are very similar to that of the skipper, but
worse; while poor Glenn has no less than eleven spear wounds in his
body, and though none of them is very serious in itself this heat makes
me terribly afraid of gangrene. However, I have done all that I can for
them at present, and we must just hope for the best. Glenn tells me
that after the skipper and I had left them the natives came swarming
round them, exciting their curiosity by exhibiting curios of various
kinds for sale, or barter, rather, at ridiculously cheap prices, and so
enticing them away from the beach toward the village, where, they were
informed, some really valuable articles might be seen. And then, when
they arrived at the village, they were suddenly set upon before they had
time to draw their weapons, overpowered, and confined in a hut, where
they were left all day yesterday and all last night without food or
water, and with their injuries untended. I am afraid there is not much
hope for them, poor fellows!"

This was bad news--so very bad, indeed, that I felt it my duty to go
forthwith to the skipper, report the matter to him, and ask for
instructions; my own idea being that we ought to head for the Samoa or
Tonga group, and procure properly qualified medical assistance with as
little delay as possible.

But when I got down below and began to talk to the Old Man I soon found
that he was, for some inscrutable reason, utter