nned and commanded by some of the
greatest ruffians who ever dangled from the end of a rope.

The story was told to her by old Kaibuka, who himself had participated
in the massacre, which had been planned and executed under the direct
supervision of his father, his uncle, and himself. And it was not the
only such affair in which he had been concerned--not on Tarawa alone,
but on the neighbouring lagoon of Maiana. From Niabon he had concealed
nothing of his past life, and I honestly believe could not have done so
had she wished otherwise, for the old fellow showed his respect and
fear for her and her powers of "seeing beyond" to the same degree as
did every other one of his people--man, woman, or child. Niabon imagined
that this particular case of cutting-off occurred about forty or fifty
years previously, for Kaibuka told her that although he was young at the
time, he was yet a full-grown man; but as he could not even guess at his
present age, she had no very reliable data.

This island, he told her, was called Te Mata Toto (The Bloody Eye of the
Land) from its being the northern eye or point of the lagoon, from
which a watch was always kept in olden times to give warning to the
inhabitants of the large villages on the opposite side of the approach
of their hereditary enemies--the people of Apaian. The moment a fleet
of canoes were seen crossing the ocean strait which divides the two
islands, signal fires, always kept in readiness, were lit, and the
villages would prepare to resist the invaders, who sometimes, however,
would content themselves with an assault on the outpost stationed on
the little island. As they generally outnumbered the defenders by ten
to one, there was usually but one result--every one of the garrison was
slaughtered, and the victors, after stripping the dead bodies of their
valued armour of coco-nut fibre, and destroying their canoes and houses,
would return to Apaian satisfied. For this reason--i.e., the many
sanguinary encounters which took place on the little island--it was
given its ominous name.

One day Kaibuka was sent to command a party of ten men who formed
the garrison and who were keeping a keen watch--for a raid was again
expected--when a small, square-rigged vessel was seen heading for the
island.

[Illustration: She came boldly on 126]

She came boldly on, and dropped anchor close to the shore, lowered a
boat, and five men came on shore. They were all armed, and at first were
ca