shoot
you!"

"That's exactly what I see, Missi," continued Nelwang; "but I want you
just to think you are in my place, and tell me how you would carry her
off. You white men can always succeed. Missi, hear my plans, and advise
me."

With as serious a face as I could command, I had to listen to Nelwang,
to enter into his love affair, and to make suggestions, with a view to
avoiding bloodshed and other miseries. The result of the deliberations
was that Nelwang was to secure the confidence of two friends, his
brother and the orator Taia, to place one at each end of the coral rocks
above the village as watchmen, to cut down with his American tomahawk a
passage through the fence at the back, and to carry off his bride at
dead of night into the seclusion and safety of the bush! Nelwang's eyes
flashed as he flourished his tomahawk about and cried, "I see it now,
Missi! I shall win her from them all. Yakin and I will be strong for you
all our days."

Next morning Yakin's house was found deserted. They sent to all the
villages around, but no one had seen her. The hole in the fence behind
was then discovered, and the thirty whispered to each other that Yakin
had been wooed and won by some daring lover. Messengers were despatched
to all the villages, and Nelwang was found to have disappeared on the
same night as the widow, and neither could anywhere be found.

The usual revenge was taken. The houses of the offenders burned, their
fences broken down, and all their property either destroyed or
distributed. Work was suspended, and the disappointed thirty solaced
themselves by feasting at Yakin's expense.

Three weeks passed. The runaways were nowhere to be found. It was
generally believed that they had gone in a canoe to Tanna or Erromanga.
But one morning, as I began my work at my house alone, the brave Nelwang
appeared at my side!

"Hillo!" I said, "where have you come from? and where is Yakin?"

"I must not," he replied, "tell you yet. We are hid. We have lived on
cocoanuts gathered at night. Yakin is well and happy. I come now to
fulfil my promise: I will help you, and Yakin will help Missi Paton the
woman, and we shall be your friends. I have ground to be built upon and
fenced, whenever we dare; but we will come and live with you, till peace
is secured. Will you let us come to-morrow morning?"

"All right!" I said. "Come to-morrow!" And, trembling with delight, he
disappeared into the bush.

Thus strangely God provid