he evening, after they left, I went to Miaki and Nouka. Miaki, with
a sneer, said, "Missi, where was Jehovah to-day? There was no Jehovah
to-day to protect you. It's all lies about Jehovah. They will come and
kill you, and Abraham, and his wife, and cut your bodies into pieces to
be cooked and eaten in every village upon Tanna."

I said, "Surely, when you had planned all this, and brought them to kill
us and steal all our property, Jehovah did protect us, or we would not
have been here!"

He replied, "There was no Jehovah to-day! We have no fear of any
Man-of-war. They dare not punish us. They durst not punish the
Erromangans for murdering the Gordons. They will talk to us and say we
must not do so again, and give us a present. That is all. We fear
nothing. The talk of all Tanna is that we will kill you and seize all
your property tomorrow."

I warned him that the punishment of a Man-of-war can only reach the body
and the land, but that Jehovah's punishment reached both body and soul
in Time and in Eternity.

He replied, "Who fears Jehovah? He was not here to protect you to-day!"

"Yes," I said, "my Jehovah God is here now. He hears all we say, sees
all we do, and will punish the wicked and protect His own people."

After this, a number of the people sat down around me, and I prayed with
them. But I left with a very heavy heart, feeling that Miaki was
evidently bent on our destruction.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

I SENT Abraham to consult Nowar, who had defended us till disabled by a
spear in the right knee. He sent a canoe by Abraham, advising me to take
some of my goods in it to his house by night, and he would try to
protect them and us. The risk was so great we could only take a very
little. Enemies were on every hand to cut off our flight, and Miaki, the
worst of all, whose village had to be passed in going to Nowar's. In the
darkness of the Mission House, we durst not light a candle for fear of
some one seeing and shooting us. Not one of Nowar's men durst come to
help us. But in the end it made no difference, for Nowar and his men
kept what was taken there, as their portion of the plunder. Abraham, his
wife, and I waited anxiously for the morning light. Miaki, the false and
cruel, came to assure us that the Heathen would not return that day.
Yet, as daylight came in, Miaki himself stood and blew a great conch not
far from our house. I ran out to see why this trumpet-shell had been
blow