at."

"And the other little devil has dived, and they will lose her. Perdition
take their souls! A bullet would have settled her," said Martinas. "She
will easily get ashore now and alarm the whole village."

Then, with a volley of oaths and curses, he ordered the rest of the
boats away to the little strait separating the two islets.

But ere they had sped more than halfway to the shore, the girl who had
dived had swum in between the jagged, isolated clumps of coral that
stood out from the reef, and rising high upon a swelling wave, they
saw her lifted bodily upon its ledge, and then, exhausted as she was,
stagger to her feet and run shorewards along its surface.

On, on, she ran, the sharp coral rock tearing her feet, till she gained
the white sand of the inner beach, and then she fell prone, and lay
gasping for her breath. But not for long, for in a few minutes she was
up again, and with wearied limbs and dizzy brain she struggled bravely
on till the houses of the village came in sight, and the wondering
people ran out to save her from falling again.

"Flee! flee!" she gasped. "My uncle, and Fetu, and all with them are
killed.... The white men on the ships have killed them all."

Like bees from their hives, the terrified natives ran out of their
houses, and in ten minutes every soul in the village had fled to the
beach, and launching canoes, were paddling madly across the lagoon
to the main island of Nukufetau lagoon. Here, in the dense puka and
mangrove scrub, there was hope of safety.

And, with rage in their villains' hearts, the slavers pursued them in
vain; for before the boats could be brought round to the passage the
canoes were nearly across the lagoon. But two of the canoes, being
overloaded, were swamped, and all in them were captured and bound. Among
those who escaped were the wife of Big Harry and her daughter Vailele.

That afternoon, when the boats returned to the ships, Captain Peter
Hennessy and his worthy colleague, Captain Martinas, of the barque _Cid
Campeador_ quarrelled, and the young Peruvian, drawing a pistol from his
belt, shot the Irish gentleman through the left arm, and the next
moment was cut down upon his own deck by a sweeping blow from Hennessy's
cutlass. Then, followed by Arguello's curses, the Irish captain went
back to his brig and set sail for Callao, leaving Martinas to get the
better of his wound and swoop down upon the natives of Easter Island six
weeks later.

And down