in mine.

"'I will save thee from this pig Franka,' I said quickly, 'he shall
never take thee away. Sit ye here with Sipi, and when ye hear the
schooner strike, spring ye both into the sea and swim towards the two
islands which are near.'

"In the centre of the deck cabin was a hatch which led into the hold.
There was no deck between, for the vessel was but small. I took my knife
from the sheath and then lifted the hatch, descended, and crawled
forward in the darkness to the fore hatch, up which I crept very
carefully, for I had much in my mind. I saw a man standing up, holding
on to the fore stay. He was calling out to Franka every now and then,
telling him how to steer. I sprang up behind him, and as I drove my
knife into his back with my left hand, I struck him with my right on his
neck and he fell overboard. He was a white man, I think for when my
knife went into his back he called out 'Oh Christ!' But then many native
men who have mixed with white people call out 'Oh, Christ,' just like
white men when they are drunk. Anyway, it does not matter now.

"But as I struck my knife into him, I called out in English to put the
helm hard down, for I saw that the schooner was very near the reef on
the starboard hand. Franka, who was at the wheel, at once obeyed and was
fooled, for the schooner, which was now leaping and singing to the
strong night wind from the mountains smote suddenly upon the coral reef
with a noise like the felling of a great forest tree, and began to grind
and tear her timbers.

"Almost as she struck Solepa and Sipi stood by me, and together we
sprang overboard into the white surf ... Give me some more grog, dear
friend of my heart. I am no boaster, nor am I a liar; but when I think
of that swim to the shore through the rolling seas with those two women,
my belly cleaves to my backbone and I become faint.... For the current
was against us, and neither Sipi nor Solepa were good swimmers, and many
times had we to clutch hold of the jagged coral, which tore our skins so
that our blood ran out freely, and had the sharks come to us then I
would not be here with thee to-night drinking this, thy good sweet grog
which thou givest me out of thy kind heart. Ta|pa|! When I look
into thy face and see thy kind eyes, I am young again. I love thee, not
alone because thou hast been kind to me in my poverty and paid the fines
of my granddaughter when she hath committed adultery with the young men
of the village, but