d, "Tell Naumoo to break away from him and run
aft."

From the _Rattler_, close astern, rifles cracked, and bullets spatted
against the rock. Van Asveld laughed defiantly, and Mauriri called
down in the native tongue to the woman. When directly beneath, Grief,
watching, saw her jerk away from the man. On the instant Grief touched
the fire-stick to the match-head in the split end of the short fuse,
sprang into view on the face of the rock, and dropped the dynamite. Van
Asveld had managed to catch the girl and was struggling with her. The
Goat Man held a rifle on him and waited a chance. The dynamite struck
the deck in a compact package, bounded, and rolled into the port
scupper. Van Asveld saw it and hesitated, then he and the girl ran aft
for their lives. The Goat Man fired, but splintered the corner of the
galley. The spattering of bullets from the _Rattler_ increased, and the
two on the rock crouched low for shelter and waited. Mauriri tried to
see what was happening below, but Grief held him back.

"The fuse was too long," he said. "I'll know better next time."

It was half a minute before the explosion came. What happened afterward,
for some little time, they could not tell, for the Rattler's marksmen
had got the range and were maintaining a steady fire. Once, fanned by a
couple of bullets, Grief risked a peep. The _Valetta_, her port deck
and rail torn away, was listing and sinking as she drifted back into the
harbour. Climbing on board the _Rattler_ were the men and the Huahine
women who had been hidden in the _Valetta's_ cabin and who had swum for
it under the protecting fire. The Fuatino men who had been towing in the
whaleboat had cast off the line, dashed back through the passage, and
were rowing wildly for the south shore.

From the shore of the peninsula the discharges of four rifles announced
that Brown and his men had worked through the jungle to the beach and
were taking a hand. The bullets ceased coming, and Grief and Mauriri
joined in with their rifles. But they could do no damage, for the men of
the _Rattler_ were firing from the shelter of the deck-houses, while the
wind and tide carried the schooner farther in.

There was no sign of the _Valetta_, which had sunk in the deep water of
the crater.

Two things Raoul Van Asveld did that showed his keenness and coolness
and that elicited Grief's admiration. Under the _Rattler's_ rifle fire
Raoul compelled the fleeing Fuatino men to come in and surren