--."

*****

"That fellow" was Hallam, who had been sent to the boat for a bit of
line suitable for the purpose in view. His florid face paled somewhat
when the coxswain jeeringly asked him if he didn't miss his green bag,
and flung him an old pair of yoke-lines.

*****

The business of flogging was not, on the whole, unduly hurried. Although
"All Hands to Witness Punishment" was not piped, every native on the
island, some seventy or so all told, gathered round the cocoanut-tree
to which the man was lashed, and at every stroke of the heavy yoke-lines
they shuddered. One, a woman with a child sitting beside her, lay face
to the ground, and as each cruel swish and thud fell on her ear the
savage creature wept.

*****

"That's enough, Hallam," said Captain W------, somewhat moved by the
tears and bursting sobs of the pitying natives, who, when they saw the
great blue weals on the brown back swell and black drops burst out,
sought to break in through the cordon of blue jackets.

***** Clustering around him, the brown people sought to lift him in
their arms and carry him to his house; but his strength was not all
gone, and he thrust them aside. Then he spoke, and even the cold,
passionless Captain W------ felt his face flush at the burning words:

"For seven years, lads, I've lived here, a naked savage, as your captain
called me. I had a heavy disgrace once, an' it just broke my heart
like--I was flogged--and I wanted to hide myself out of the world. Seven
years it is since I saw a white man, an' I've almost forgotten I _was_ a
white man once; an' now because I tried to choke a hound that wanted
to injure the only being in the world I have to love, I'm tied up and
lashed like a dog--_by my own father!_"

*****

The island was just sinking below the horizon when the burly figure of
boatswain's mate Hallam was seen to disappear suddenly over the bows,
where he had been standing.

*****

"A very regrettable occurrence," said Captain W------, pompously, to the
chaplain when the boats returned from the search. "No doubt the horror
of seeing his only son a disgraced fugitive and severed from all decent
associations preyed upon his mind and led him to commit suicide. Such
men as Hallam, humble as was his position, are an Honour to the Service.
I shall always remember him as a very zealous seaman."

"Particularly with the cat," murmured Lieutenant T------.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ebbing