amoan jests about the _toe'ina_ and _ulu tula_ (old man and
bald head), and would arrive from the church at her father's hell in a
state of suppressed exasperation.

The happy marriage had been celebrated by Tom and his _clientele_ in a
manner befitting the occasion and the supposed wealth of the bridegroom,
Then none of us saw Luisa for a week at the bathing-place, and her
non-appearance was discussed with interest at the nightly kava-drinking
at half-caste Johnny Hall's public-house. Old Toi'foi, duenna of the
kava-chewing girls, used to say solemnly that the old man had Luisa
locked up in her room as she was _vale_ (obstinate), and sat on a chair
outside and looked at her through a hole in the wall.

*****

An hour after midnight on one of those silent tropic nights when naught
is heard but the muffled boom of the ocean swell on the outer reef, a
shot rang out through the sleeping village, and then a long wail as of
some one in mortal agony or terror. Leger, the Canadian carpenter at
Macfarlane's store, was, in company with Alvord the Swearer, and Pedro
the Publican, and marry of us general sinners, up late at the kava-bowl
when Leva, the prettiest girl on the Point, and the most notorious
_nymphe du beach_ in Apia (there are no pavements in Samoa), dashed in
amongst its with the announcement that "Luisa was dead." In another
ten seconds we kava-drinkers, with unsteady legs but clear heads, were
outside on our way to Black Tom's house, which was within pistol-shot.

*****

An old man with a throat cut from ear to ear is not a cheerful sight
at any time, and we turned quickly away from where he lay on the once
spotless white bed, now an ensanguined horror, to look at poor Luisa,
who lay on a mat on the floor, gasping out her brief young life. Her
head was pillowed on her mother's bosom, and down her side the blood
ran from the jagged bullet-hole. On a chair sat the herculean figure
of Black Tom with his face in his hands, through which splashed heavy
tears. Slowly he rocked himself to and fro in the manner of his race
when strongly moved; and when he tried to speak there only struck upon
our ears a horrible gasping noise that somehow made us turn again to the
awful thing on the bed to see if it had aught to say upon the matter.

*****

Luisa spoke but little. The kind-faced, quiet-voiced missionary doctor
told her that which she already knew too well; and then we drew away
while he spoke of other things, and w