h difficulty he prevented those members of
his band who carried muskets from firing on the boat. None of them
thought for a moment, of course, of making the mad attempt to swim
towards her. Indeed, Mr Mason himself would have hesitated to do so
had he been capable of cool thought at the time; but the sudden rush of
hope when he heard of his child being near, combined with the agony of
disappointment on seeing her torn, as it were, out of his very grasp,
was too much for him. His reasoning powers were completely overturned;
he continued to buffet the waves with wild energy, and to strain every
fibre of his being in the effort to propel himself through the water,
long after the boat was hopelessly beyond reach.

Henry understood his feelings well, and knew that the poor missionary
would not cease his efforts until exhaustion should compel him to do so,
in which case his being drowned would be a certainty, for there was
neither boat nor canoe at hand in which to push off to his rescue.

In these circumstances the youth took the only course that seemed left
to him. He threw off his clothes and prepared to swim after his friend,
in order to render the assistance of his stout arm when it should be
needed.

"Here, Jakolu!" he cried to one of the natives who stood near him.

"Yes, mass'r," answered the sturdy young fellow, who has been introduced
at an earlier part of this story as being one of the missionary's best
behaved and most active church members.

"I mean to swim after him, so I leave the charge of the party to Mr
Bumpus there. You will act under his orders. Keep the men, together,
and guard against surprise. We don't know how many more of these
blackguards may be lurking among the rocks."

To this speech Jakolu replied by shaking his head slowly and gravely, as
if he doubted the propriety of his young commander's intentions.

"You no can swim queek nuff to save him," said he.

"That remains to be seen," retorted Henry, sharply, for the youth was
one of the best swimmers on the island--at least the best among the
whites, and better than many of the natives, although some of the latter
could beat him. "At any rate," he continued, "you would not have me
stand idly by while my friend is drowning, would you?"

"Him's not drownin' yet," answered the matter-of-fact native. "Me 'vise
you to let Jakolu go. Him's can sweem berer dan you. See, here am bit
plank, too,--me take dat."

"Ha! that's well thought