ast and shoot
you."

The two men looked at each other when he said that, and smiled
intelligently.

"However, if you choose to help me now," continued Young, "I'll be
obliged to you, and will pay you for what you do."

The men set to work with a will, for they were fond of the kindly
midshipman; but they kept a bright look-out all the time, lest any of
the other Englishmen should come up and find them there.

For two or three evenings in succession Timoa and Nehow came to Young's
field and acted in this way. Young made no secret of the fact, and
Quintal, on hearing of it, at once suggested that he and McCoy should go
up and lie in ambush for them.

"If you do," said Young, with indignation, "I'll shoot you both. I
don't jest. You may depend on it, if I find either of you fellows
skulking near my field when these men are at work there, your lives
won't be worth a sixpence."

At this Quintal and McCoy both laughed, and said they were jesting.
Nevertheless, while walking home together after that conversation, they
planned the carrying out of their murderous intention.

Thus, with plot and counterplot, did the mutineers and Otaheitans render
their lives wretched. What with the bitter enmity existing between the
whites and blacks, and the mutual jealousies among themselves, both
parties were kept in a state of perpetual anxiety, and the beautiful
isle, which was fitted by its Maker to become a paradise, was turned
into a place of torment.

Sometimes the other native men, Tetaheite and Menalee, joined Nehow and
Timoa in working in Young's garden, and afterwards went with them into
the bush, where they planned the attack which was afterwards made.

At last the lowering cloud was fully charged, and the thunderbolt fell.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

MURDER!

The planting time came round at Pitcairn, and all was busy activity in
the little settlement at Bounty Bay. The women, engaged in household
work and in the preparation of food, scarcely troubled themselves to
cast an anxious eye on the numerous children who, according to age and
capacity, rolled, tumbled, staggered, and jumped about in noisy play.
The sun, streaming through the leaves of the woods, studded shady places
with balls of quivering light, and blazed in fierce heat in the open
where the men were at work, each in his respective garden. We have said
that those gardens lay apart, at some distance from each other, and were
partially concealed by shrubs