t they had not forgotten was quickly evident, for his name was
shouted again and again with eager, welcoming cries as the boat was
run up on to the hard, white sand of the shining beach, and he, Atkins,
Tessa, and their companions were literally pounced upon by the delighted
people and carried up to the headman's house. Ten minutes later every
family was busy preparing food for their unexpected visitors; and pigs,
fowls, and ducks were being slaughtered throughout the islet, whilst
Tessa and her faithful Maoni were simply overwhelmed with caresses from
the women and children, who were anxious to hear the story of their
adventures from the time of the burning of the steamer to the moment of
their arrival in the lagoon.

Calling the head-man apart Harvey pointed to the body of Morrison, which
was then being carried up from the boat.

"Ere we eat and drink, let us think of the dead," he said.

The kindly-hearted and sympathetic natives at once set to work to dig
out a grave beneath a wide-spreading pandanus palm, which grew on the
side of the coral mound overlooking the waters of the placid lagoon;
whilst some of the women brought Atkins and Harvey clean new mats to
serve as a shroud for their dead shipmate.

Then mustering the hands together, Atkins, with Harvey, Roka, and Huka,
carried the body to its last resting-place, and Huka, as Latour the
steward dropped a handful of the sandy soil into the grave, prayed as he
had prayed over the bodies of those who had been buried at sea--simply,
yet touchingly--and then the party returned along the narrow palm-shaded
path to the village.

Much to Harvey's satisfaction, the head-man informed him that a trading
schooner was expected to reach Pikirami within two or three weeks, as
nearly six months had passed since her last visit, and she always came
twice a year.

"That will suit us well," said Harvey to Tessa and Atkins, as they
sat in the head-man's cool, shady house and ate the food that had been
brought to them. "We can well wait here for two or three weeks; and the
skipper of the _Sikiana_ will be glad enough to earn five or six hundred
dollars by giving us a passage to Ponape. I know him very well; he's
a decent little Dutchman named Westphalen, who has sailed so long in
English and American ships that he's civilised. He was with me, Tessa,
when I was sailing the _Belle Brandon_ for your father."

Soon after noon the crew, after having had a good rest, set to work to