I should be ready.

The heads were placed in baskets, and reverently carried down to the
beach, and placed in the boat, and with our lug-sail close reefed we
pushed off just after dark.

There were nine persons in the boat--the four Salimu people, my crew of
four and myself. The night was starlight and rather cold, for every now
and then a chilly rain squall would sweep down from the mountains.

As we spun along before the breeze no one spoke, except in low tones.
Our dreadful cargo was amidships, each basket being covered from view,
but every now and then the boat would ship some water, and when I told
one of my men to bale out, he did so with shuddering horror, for the
water was much blood-stained.

When we were more than half-way across, and could see the lights and
fires of Salimu, a rain squall overtook us, and at the same moment the
boat struck some floating object with a crash, and then slid over it,
and as it passed astern I saw what was either a log or plank about
twenty feet long.

"Boat is stove in, for'ard!" cried one of my men, and indeed that was
very evident, for the water was pouring in--she had carried away her
stem, and started all the forward timber ends.

To have attempted to stop the inrush of water effectually would have
been waste, of time, but I called to my men to come aft as far as they
could, so as to let the boat's head lift; and whilst two of them kept
on baling, the others shook out the reef in our lug, and the boat went
along at a great speed, half full of water as she was, and down by the
stern. The water still rushed in, and I told the Samoans to move the
baskets of heads farther aft, so that the men could bale out quicker.

"We'll be all right in ten minutes, boys," I cried to my men, as I
steered; "I'll run her slap up on the beach by the church."

Presently one of the Samoans touched my arm, and said in a whisper that
we were surrounded by a swarm of sharks. He had noticed them, he said,
before the boat struck.

"They smell the bloodied water," he muttered.

A glance over the side filled me with terror. There were literally
scores of sharks, racing along on both sides of the boat, some almost on
the surface, others some feet down, and the phosphorescence of the water
added to the horror of the scene. At first I was in hopes that they were
harmless porpoises, but they were so close that some of them could have
been touched with one's hand. Most fortunately I was steering wit