and again on the lips; and Billy Hindoo shook like a wet dog in
the bow, whimpering, "Hi, yi! me British subject! me no likey!" babbling
deliriously besides of his wages even to that day, and of the
unfulfilled covenant with its passage to the white country in a ship.

Then the sail was hoisted and the sheet put into Salesa's hand; and in
this wise the boat was shoved into deep water, and her bow headed
straight to seaward. Then Tanielu fell on his knees and prayed that Uvea
might be delivered forever and ever of such an infliction; and the young
men formed a line with their rifles, ready to shoot if the voyagers
showed the least sign of coming back; and across the waves one could see
Salesa supporting Professor No No as the boat lay over in the wind, and
her mocking laughter was borne back to us. And we waited and waited and
waited as it became a diminishing speck against the sky; and waited and
waited and waited until it disappeared. Then, lo! there were explosions
of thunder and lightning, and the rain descended in torrents, and the
little children all threw off their clothes and ran about rejoicing in
the wet, while the elders looked at one another, and said, "Lo, Uvea is
delivered!"

CAPTAIN ELIJAH COE

Puna Punou lies in 14th South exactly, though the writer keeps back the
longitood for reasons that will soon be understood by the gentle
reader--if the gentle reader is patient and won't skip. Not that there
is any buried treasure there, or any foolishness of that kind; it's
girls mostly, and pearl shell and cocoanuts, that Puna Punou produces,
and you don't need no chart with red crosses from my dying hands to find
any of them. But Mrs. Tweedie is still alive, and likewise Elijah Coe,
and I'd be acting like the son of a sea cook if I did a hand's turn to
hurt either. Of course it's an old story now, going back to the days
before the bottom had dropped out of copra, and there was still money to
be made in beach-la-mar and fungus. Oh, my, yes! a long time ago, before
steam ever got into the Group, before law and order and compulsory
vaccination, and an hour and a half of Deputy Commissioner every nine
months.

It was always a mighty fine island to look at, rising sheer from the sea
to basaltic cliffs, and high needlelike pinnacles, and forested solid
from the water's edge to almost the top; and off the main settlement of
Fale a Lupo there was good holding ground in six fathoms. A tidy little
island, indee