ose to go outside, the noise occasioned by the removing of
this rude door awakened everybody else; and on more than one occasion I
had remarked that the islanders were nearly as irritable as more civilized
beings under similar circumstances.

The difficulty thus placed in my way I determined to obviate in the
following manner. I would get up boldly in the course of the night, and,
drawing the slide, issue from the house, and pretend that my object was
merely to procure a drink from the calabash, which always stood without
the dwelling on the corner of the pi-pi. On re-entering I would purposely
omit closing the passage after me, and trusting that the indolence of the
savages would prevent them from repairing my neglect, would return to my
mat, and waiting patiently until all were again asleep, I would then steal
forth, and at once take the route to Pueearka.

[Illustration: ABOUT MIDNIGHT I AROSE AND DREW THE SLIDE]

The very night which followed Marnoo's departure, I proceeded to put this
project into execution. About midnight, as I imagined, I arose and drew
the slide. The natives, just as I had expected, started up, while some of
them asked, "Arware poo awa, Tommo?" (where are you going, Tommo?) "Wai,"
(water,) I laconically answered, grasping the calabash. On hearing my
reply they sank back again, and in a minute or two I returned to my mat,
anxiously awaiting the result of the experiment.

One after another the savages, turning restlessly, appeared to resume
their slumbers, and, rejoicing at the stillness which prevailed, I was
about to rise again from my couch, when I heard a slight rustling--a dark
form was intercepted between me and the doorway--the slide was drawn across
it, and the individual, whoever he was, returned to his mat. This was a
sad blow to me; but as it might have aroused the suspicions of the
islanders to have made another attempt that night, I was reluctantly
obliged to defer it until the next. Several times after I repeated the
same manoeuvre, but with as little success as before. As my pretence for
withdrawing from the house was to allay my thirst, Kory-Kory, either
suspecting some design on my part, or else prompted by a desire to please
me, regularly every evening placed a calabash of water by my side.

Even under these inauspicious circumstances I again and again renewed the
attempt; but when I did so, my valet always rose with me, as if determined
I should not remove myself from his o