en the
room was so crowded, could scarce have failed to take effect; where many
were armed and all tipsy, it could scarce have failed to draw others;
and the woman who spied the weapon and the man who seized it may very
well have saved the white community.

The mob insensibly melted from the scene; and for the rest of the day
our neighbourhood was left in peace and a good deal in solitude. But the
tranquillity was only local; _din_ and _perandi_ still flowed in other
quarters: and we had one more sight of Gilbert Island violence. In the
church, where we had wandered photographing, we were startled by a
sudden piercing outcry. The scene, looking forth from the doors of that
great hall of shadow, was unforgettable. The palms, the quaint and
scattered houses, the flag of the island streaming from its tall staff,
glowed with intolerable sunshine. In the midst two women rolled fighting
on the grass. The combatants were the more easy to be distinguished,
because the one was stripped to the _ridi_ and the other wore a holoku
(sacque) of some lively colour. The first was uppermost, her teeth
locked in her adversary's face, shaking her like a dog; the other
impotently fought and scratched. So for a moment we saw them wallow and
grapple there like vermin; then the mob closed and shut them in.

It was a serious question that night if we should sleep ashore. But we
were travellers, folk that had come far in quest of the adventurous; on
the first sign of an adventure it would have been a singular
inconsistency to have withdrawn; and we sent on board instead for our
revolvers. Mindful of Taahauku, Mr. Rick, Mr. Osbourne, and Mrs.
Stevenson held an assault of arms on the public highway, and fired at
bottles to the admiration of the natives. Captain Reid, of the
_Equator_, stayed on shore with us to be at hand in case of trouble, and
we retired to bed at the accustomed hour, agreeably excited by the day's
events. The night was exquisite, the silence enchanting; yet as I lay in
my hammock looking on the strong moonshine and the quiescent palms, one
ugly picture haunted me of the two women, the naked and the clad, locked
in that hostile embrace. The harm done was probably not much, yet I
could have looked on death and massacre with less revolt. The return to
these primeval weapons, the vision of man's beastliness, of his
ferality, shocked in me a deeper sense than that with which we count the
cost of battles. There are elements in our s