in all things he was equal to Red-Hair."

*****

"When Red-Hair went back to his house Luliban was gone, and some said
she had fled to the mountains, and he reproached Nanakin, saying: 'Thy
daughter hath fled to Ngatik to the house of Harry. I will have her life
and his for this.' But Nanakin smoothed his face and said: 'Nay, not so;
but first put this boaster to shame before the people, and he shall die,
and Luliban be found.'

"Now, Luliban was hid in another village, and when the time drew near
for the trial at the pool she went there before the people. In her hand
she carried a sharp _toki_ (tomahawk) and a long piece of strong cinnet
with a looped end. She dived in and clambered out again underneath and
waited. The cave is not dark, for there are many fissures in the top
through which light comes when the sun is high.

"The people gathered round, and laughed and talked as the two white men
stripped naked, save for narrow girdles of leaves round their loins. The
skin of Red-Hair was as white as sand that lies always in the sun that
of Harry was brown, and covered from his neck to his feet with strange
tattooing, more beautiful than that of the men of Ponape.

"They looked at each other with blood in their eyes, and the long,
yellow teeth of Red-Hair ground together, but no words passed between
them till Red-Hair, poising a great stone on his shoulder, called out
to Harry: 'Follow me, O boastful stealer of my wife, and drown thy blue
carcass.'

"Then he walked in, and Harry, also with a heavy stone, followed him.
Ere one could count a score those that watched could not see Harry,
because of the depth of the water and the darkness of his skin. But
the white skin of Red-Hair gleamed like the belly of a shark when it
turneth--then it disappeared.

"When they were half-way through a stone fell through a fissure of the
cave, and Luliban, who watched for the signal, dived outwards with the
line of cinnet, and came behind Red-Hair and put the noose over his left
foot, and Harry, who followed close, cast the stone he carried away and
raised his hand and stabbed him in the belly as he turned, and then,
with Luliban and he dragging tight the line of cinnet, they shot up from
beneath the water into the cave and pulled Red-Hair after them."

*****

"The people had gathered at the farther end of the pool to see the two
men come up; and when they came not they wondered, and some one said:
'The devils have seized them!'