said--

"'Thou art as a son to me. Lauati shall keep the gun, and thou shalt
keep thy house and lands. I will take nothing from thee. Let us be for
ever friends.'

"Then the white said to the chief, 'O chief, gladly will I give thee all
I have, but this man, Lauati, is as my brother, and I promised------'

"But Tuialo put his hand on the white man's mouth, and said, 'Say no
more, my son; I was but angered.'

*****

"Yet see now his wickedness. For that night, when my father and Uluvao,
my mother, were sitting with the white man and his wife, and drinking
kava, there suddenly sprang in upon them ten men, who stood over them
with clubs poised. They were the body-men of Tuialo.

"'Drink thy kava,' said one to the white man, 'and then come out to
die.'

*****

"Ah, he was a man! He took the cup of kava from the hands of his wife's
sister, and said--

"'It is well. All men must die. But yet would I see Tuialo before the
club fells.'

"The chief but waited outside, and he came.

"'Must I die?' said the white man.

"'Ay,' said Tuialo. 'Two such as thee and I cannot live at the same
time. Thou art almost as great a man as I.'

"The white man bent his head. Then he put out his hand to my father and
said, 'Farewell, O my friend.'

"Lauati, my father, fell at the chief's feet. 'Take thou the gun, O
chief, but spare his life.'

"Tuialo laughed. 'The gun will I take, Lauati, but his life I must have
also.'

"'My life for his,' said my father.

"'And mine,' said Uluvao, my mother.

"'And mine also,' said Manini, the white man's wife; and both she and
Taulaga, her sister, bent their knees to the chief.

"The white man tried to spring up, but four strong men held him.

"Then Tuialo looked at the pair who knelt before him. He stroked his
club, and spoke to his body-men.

"'Bring them all outside.' They went together to the beach. 'Brave
talkers ye be,' said he; 'who now will say "I die for the white man"?'

"'Nay, heed them not, Tuialo,' said the white man. 'On me alone let the
club fell.'

"But the chief gave him no answer, looking only at my father and the
three women."

*****

"'My life,' said Taulaga, the girl; and she knelt on the sand.

"The club swung round and struck her on the side of her head, and it
beat it in. She fell, and died quickly.

"'Oho,' mocked Tuialo, 'is there but one life offered for so great a man
as Tiufana?'

"Lauati fell before him. 'Spare me not, O chief, if my life b