he
Commissioner's guest. Captain Malu was responsible for two other
suggestions, which given, he disappears from this narrative. One was
to Captain Hansen, the other to Mr. Harriwell, manager of Reminge
Plantation. Both suggestions were similar in tenor, namely, to give
Mr. Bertram Arkwright an insight into the rawness and redness of life
in the Solomons. Also, it is whispered that Captain Malu mentioned
that a case of Scotch would be coincidental with any particularly
gorgeous insight Mr. Arkwright might receive.

* * * * * *

"Yes, Svartz always was too pig-headed. You see, he took four of his
boat's crew to Tulagi to be flogged--officially, you know--then started
back with them in the whale-boat. It was pretty squally, and the boat
capsized just outside. Swartz was the only one drowned. Of course it
was an accident."

"Was it? Really?" Bertie asked, only half-interested, staring hard at
the black man at the wheel.

Ugi had dropped astern, and the _Arla_ was sliding along through a
summer sea toward the wooded ranges of Malaita. The helmsman who so
attracted Bertie's eyes sported a tenpenny nail, stuck skewerwise
through his nose. About his neck was string of pants buttons. Thrust
through holes in his ears were a can-opener, the broken handle of a
tooth-brush, a clay pipe, the brass wheel of an alarm clock, and
several Winchester rifle cartridges. On his chest, suspended from
around his neck hung the half of a china plate. Some forty similarly
apparelled blacks lay about the deck, fifteen of which were boat's
crew, the remainder being fresh labor recruits.

"Of course it was an accident," spoke up the _Arla's_ mate, Jacobs, a
slender, dark-eyed man who looked more a professor than a sailor.
"Johnny Bedlip nearly had the same kind of accident. He was bringing
back several from a flogging, when they capsized him. But he knew how
to swim as well as they, and two of them were drowned. He used a
boat-stretcher and a revolver. Of course it was an accident."

"Quite common, them accidents," remarked the skipper. "You see that
man at the wheel, Mr. Arkwright? He's a man-eater. Six months ago, he
and the rest of the boat's crew drowned the then captain of the _Arla_.
They did it on deck, sir, right aft there by the mizzen-traveller."

"The deck was in a shocking state," said the mate.

"Do I understanad--?" Bertie began.

"Yes, just that," said Captain Hansen. "It