d gone down a bit; an' the
bucks said that they would swim on shore (their canoe had been smashed
in the night) and bring us some food early in the mornin'. I gave 'em
a bottle o' Hollands, an' my kind regards for the old barrelled-belly
swine of a chief, some terbacker fur themselves; and then, after they
had gone, looked to our Winchesters and pistols, which the bucks hadn't
seen, fur we always kept 'em outer sight, under our sleepin' mats.

"'Paulo,' sez Tia to me, speakin' in Samoan (an' cussin' in English),
'you an' Docky an' "Star" are a lot o' blamed fools! You orter hev
shot all those bucks ez soon ez they hed finished. Didn't you say that,
"Star"?'

"'Star' had said 'Yes' to her, but being an unobtrusive sorter o'
Kanaka, he hadn't said nuthin' to us--thinkin' we knew better'n him what
ter do.

"We kep' a good watch all that day an' the nex' day, and then at sunset
two bucks in a canoe came off, bringing us six cooked pigeons from the
chief, with a message that he would come an' see us in a day or two, and
bring men to build us better houses to live in until the luggers and the
cutter came back.

"We collared the two bucks and tied 'em up, and then Tia made one of
'em eat part of a pigeon--she standin' over him with a Winchester at his
ear. He ate it, an' in ten minutes he was tyin' himself up in knots, and
was a dead nigger in another quarter of an hour. The pigeons were all
poisoned.

"We kep' the other nigger alive an' told him that if he would tell us
what was a-goin' on we'd let him off, and set him ashore, free.

"'At dawn to-morrow,' says he, 'Baian' (the fat old chief) thought to
find you all dead, because of the poisoned pigeons sent to you. And
then he meant to take all the good things you have here, and set up your
heads in his _duk duk_ house.'

"Before daylight came, Docky Mason an' 'Star' an' me hed fixed up things
all serene ter give Baian and his cannibals a doin'. Fust ev all--to
show our prisoner that we meant business, Tia held up his right hand,
an' Docky sent a Winchester bullet through it, an' told him that he
would send one through his skull ef he didn't do what he was told.

"Then we took two empty one gallon colza oil tins, and filled 'em with
dynamite, tamped it down tight, and then ran short fuses through the
corks, and carried 'em down to the place where our prisoner said Baian
and his crowd would land. It was a little bay, lined on each side by
pretty high, ragged coral bo