ulders, covered with creepers. We stowed the
tins in readiness, and then brought our prisoner down, and told him
what to do when the time came. I guess thet thet nigger knew thet ef he
didn't play straight he was a dead coon. Tia sat down jest behind him,
and every now and then touched his backbone with the muzzle ev her
pistol--jest ter show him she was keepin' awake. At the same time he
wasn't unwillin', for he hed told us thet he and his dead mate were not
Baian's men--they were slaves he had captured from a town he had raided
somewhere near North Cape, and they were liable to be killed and eaten
at any time if Baian's crowd ran short of pig meat or turtle.

"A little bit higher up, Docky Mason, 'Star' an' me, planted ourselves
with our Winchesters, an' one of our boats' whaler's bomb guns, which
fired four pounds of slugs and deer shot, mixed up--the sorter thing,
boss, thet you an' me may find mighty handy here in this very place, if
we get rushed sudden. We made a charcoal fire, and then frayed out the
ends of the dynamite fuses so thet they would light quickly.

"When daylight came, we caught sight of nigh on fifty canoes, all
crammed with niggers, paddlin' like blazes to where we was cached, but
making no noise. Even if they hed we would not hev heard it, fur the
wind and the surf beatin' on the reef would hev drowned it.

"On they came and rushed their canoes into the little cove, four
abreast, and Tia prodded our buck in the back, and told him to stand up
and talk to Baian, who was in one of the leadin' canoes.

"Up he jumps.

"'Oh, Baian, Baian, great Baian,' he called, 'the two white men are dead
in their house, and we have the woman bound hand and foot.'

"'Good,' said Baian with a fat chuckle, as he put one leg over the
gunwale of his canoe to step out, and the next moment I put a bullet
through him, and then Docky Mason lit the first charge o' dynamite, and
slings it down, right inter the middle of the crowded canoes, and before
it went off he sent the second one after it.

"Boss, I hev seen some dynamite explosions in my time--especially when I
hev hed to blow up wrecks--but I hev never seen anything like thet. The
two shots killed over thirty niggers, wounded as many more, and stunned
a lot, who were drowned. Those who were not hurt swam out of the cove,
and neither Docky nor me had the heart to shoot any of 'em--though we
might hev picked off a couple of dozen afore they got outer range.

"Befo