were tricked out very smart in red _lavalavas_ and white drill
coats, and being all of them of the obstreperous, no-good class like
Peter, they were soon the terror of the island. Not that Mr. Clemm
didn't keep them tight in hand, but when it came to an order of court or
any backwardness in taxes he never seemed to care much whom they
plundered and beat, which was what they reveled in and thirsted for the
chance of.

Old David was the first to feel the weight of authority, and I believe
his job of Native Adviser was merely a plan to keep him in good humor
till Mr. Clemm was ready to squash him, which Mr. Clemm did three months
later most emphatic. The Kanakas were forbidden to contribute to the
church, and the pastor's private laws were abolished, and there was no
more excommunicating nor jail for church members nor any curfew either.
The natives went wild with joy--all except a few old soreheads that are
always to be found in every community--and the only folks who were now
forced to go to church were the Native Constabulary, who lined up
regular to keep tab on what the missionary preached, and arrest him for
sedition in case he let his tongue run away with him.

In private, however, old David made all the trouble he dared, and tried
to hearten up his followers by saying there would be a day of reckoning
for Mr. Clemm when the missionary vessel arrived on her annual
visit--at which the Commissioner pretended to laugh but couldn't hide he
was worried. Leastways he asked a raft of questions about the _Evangel
of Hope_, and that with a ruminating look, and about the character of
the people in charge which were Captain Bins and the Reverend T. J.
Simpkins. The _Evangel of Hope_ never stayed any longer than to land a
few stores and hymn books for the pastor and take off what copra and
shell he had acquired by way of church subscriptions. At that time she
was about due in two months, and we all laughed at the empty larder she
was going to find, though, as I said, Mr. Clemm seemed worried,
remarking it was hard to be misrepresented and slandered when his only
thought was for the good of the island.

He was certainly upsetting things very lively and bossed the island like
it belonged to him. If the natives could play all they wanted, now that
David was deposed, they had bumped into something they had never known
before and that was--work. The Commissioner couldn't abide laziness in a
Kanaka, and went at them terrific, build