he door.

"Where are you going, boy?" cried the beachcomber.

"To get a bucket of fresh water and have a sluice," replied Carey,
sulkily, for he objected to be called "boy."

"Humph! You look clean enough," growled the man. "Be off then, and
make haste back to get breakfast."

Carey stepped back to catch up a towel, and then went to the saloon
doorway and out on deck.

"Yes, I'll come back soon, and I'll help," muttered the boy through his
teeth; "but only wait till I get my chance. Brrrr!" he snarled, "how it
all makes me feel as if I should like to do something to somebody."

He walked sharply to where the bucket he used every morning stood ready,
with a line attached to the handle; but before he reached it, there was
the soft pattering of feet, and the pack of black fellows came running
to meet him, headed by Black Jack, who stopped short close upon the boy
to strike an attitude, making a hideous grimace, and poising his spear
with one hand while he rested it upon the fingers of the other as if to
steady it for hurling, while his companions snatched melon-headed clubs
or boomerangs from out of the cord-like girdles which supported a broad
shell hanging in front.

Carey had not had his breakfast, a fact which added fuel to the hot
temper he was already in, consequent upon his treatment in the saloon.

Feeling perfectly reckless and irritated by the action of the naked
blacks, and the most utter contempt for their childish attempt to
frighten him, Carey's temper boiled over.

"Out of the way, you black monkey," he cried, and, treating the
threatening spear with the most perfect contempt, he made a dash at the
black and flicked at him sharply with the towel, catching him with a
smart crack on the thigh and making him utter a yell, as he bounded
back, dropping his spear and stooping to rub the place.

As soon as Carey had delivered the flick so dexterously, one often
practised on bathing excursions when at school, he repented, fully
expecting that the others would rush upon him with their clubs.

But to his utter astonishment and relief, they uttered a shout of
delight on seeing their leader's discomfiture, and some broke into a
triumphal dance, chattering and laughing, while three of the party threw
themselves on deck and rolled about in convulsions of mirth.

"I don't care," muttered Carey; "I'll let them see I'm not afraid of
them," and, without pausing now, he walked to the side, caught up the
bucket