self, but in order to put an end to a
situytion w'ich must be equally pyneful to all, I 'ave deputed my friend
and partner, Mr J. L. Huish, to l'y before you my proposals, and w'ich
by their moderytion, Will, I trust, be found to merit your attention.
Mr J. L. Huish is entirely unarmed, I swear to Gawd! and will 'old 'is
'ands over 'is 'ead from the moment he begins to approach you. I am your
fytheful servant, John Davis.

Huish read the letter with the innocent joy of amateurs, chuckled
gustfully to himself, and reopened it more than once after it was
folded, to repeat the pleasure; Davis meanwhile sitting inert and
heavily frowning.

Of a sudden he rose; he seemed all abroad. 'No!' he cried. 'No! it can't
be! It's too much; it's damnation. God would never forgive it.'

'Well, and 'oo wants Him to?' returned Huish, shrill with fury. 'You
were damned years ago for the Sea Rynger, and said so yourself. Well
then, be damned for something else, and 'old your tongue.'

The captain looked at him mistily. 'No,' he pleaded, 'no, old man! don't
do it.'

''Ere now,' said Huish, 'I'll give you my ultimytum. Go or st'y w'ere you
are; I don't mind; I'm goin' to see that man and chuck this vitriol in
his eyes. If you st'y I'll go alone; the niggers will likely knock me
on the 'ead, and a fat lot you'll be the better! But there's one thing
sure: I'll 'ear no more of your moonin', mullygrubbin' rot, and tyke it
stryte.'

The captain took it with a blink and a gulp. Memory, with phantom
voices, repeated in his cars something similar, something he had once
said to Herrick--years ago it seemed.

'Now, gimme over your pistol,' said Huish. 'I 'ave to see all clear. Six
shots, and mind you don't wyste them.'

The captain, like a man in a nightmare, laid down his revolver on the
table, and Huish wiped the cartridges and oiled the works.

It was close on noon, there was no breath of wind, and the heat was
scarce bearable, when the two men came on deck, had the boat manned, and
passed down, one after another, into the stern-sheets. A white shirt at
the end of an oar served as a flag of truce; and the men, by direction,
and to give it the better chance to be observed, pulled with extreme
slowness. The isle shook before them like a place incandescent; on
the face of the lagoon blinding copper suns, no bigger than sixpences,
danced and stabbed them in the eyeballs; there went up from sand and
sea, and even from the boat, a glare of s