nd perchance we may fall upon one that sleepest away
from the rest, then shalt thou strike, and thou and I drag him away into
the bushes and take his head. Then, ere it is well dawn, we will be back
in the town, and Tuialo will no longer keep me from thee, for the head
of a Falifa man will win his heart better than a fat turtle, and I will
be wife to thee.'

"My father was pleased at her words. So they crept like snakes along the
dewy ground. When they came to a jagged boulder covered with vines, that
was near unto the fire, they looked and saw but one man, and, lo! he was
a _papalagi_--a white man. And then, until it was dawn, my father and
the girl hid behind the jagged rock and watched.

*****

"The white man was sitting on the sand, with his face clasped in his
hands. At his feet lay another man, with his white face turned up to the
sky, and those that watched saw that he was dead. He who sat over the
dead man was tall and thin, and his hands were like the talons of the
great fish eagle, so thin and bony were they. His garments were ragged
and old, and his feet were bare; and as my father looked at him his
heart became pitiful, and he whispered to Uluvao, 'Let us call out. He
is but weak, and I can master him if he springs upon me. Let us speak.'?

"But Uluvao held him back. 'Nay,' she said, 'he may have a gun and
shoot.'

"So they waited till the sun rose.

*****

"The white man stood and looked about. Then he walked down to the beach,
and my father and the girl saw lying on the rocks a little boat. The man
went to the side, and put in his hand and brought out something in his
hand, and came back and sat down again by the face of the dead. He had
gone to the boat for food, and my father saw him place a biscuit to his
mouth and commence to eat. But ere he swallowed any it fell from his
hand upon the sand and he threw himself upon the body of the dead man
and wept, and his tears ran down over the face that was cold and were
drank up by the sand.

"Then Uluvao began to weep, and my father stood up and called out to the
white man _Talofa!_

"He gazed at them and spoke not, but let them come close to him, and
pointing to him who lay on the sand, he covered his face with his hands
and bowed his head. Then Lauati ran and climbed a cocoanut tree and
brought him two young nuts and made him drink, and Uluvao got broad
leaves and covered over the face of the dead from the hot sun. Not
one word of our tongue could