him fella Sati, long time," Nau-hau drove to the point.
"What come along money belong him?"

Van Horn did mental arithmetic from the account.

"Altogether him make 'm six tens pounds and two fella pounds gold money,"
was his translation of sixty-two pounds of wages. "I pay advance father
belong him one ten pounds and five fella pounds. Him finish altogether
four tens pounds and seven fella pounds."

"What name stop four tens pounds and seven fella pounds?" Nau-hau
demanded, his tongue, but not his brain, encompassing so prodigious a
sum.

Van Horn held up his hand.

"Too much hurry you fella Nau-hau. Him fella Sati buy 'm slop chest
along plantation two tens pounds and one fella pound. Belong Sati he
finish altogether two tens pounds and six fella pounds."

"What name stop two tens pounds and six fella pounds?" Nau-hau continued
inflexibly.

"Stop 'm along me," the captain answered curtly.

"Give 'm me two tens pounds and six fella pounds."

"Give 'm you hell," Van Horn refused, and in the blue of his eyes the
black chief sensed the impression of the dynamite out of which white men
seemed made, and felt his brain quicken to the vision of the bloody day
he first encountered an explosion of dynamite and was hurled through the
air.

"What name that old fella boy stop 'm along canoe?" Van Horn asked,
pointing to an old man in a canoe alongside. "Him father belong Sati?"

"Him father belong Sati," Nau-hau affirmed.

Van Horn motioned the old man in and on board, beckoned Borckman to take
charge of the deck and of Nau-hau, and went below to get the money from
his strong-box. When he returned, cavalierly ignoring the chief, he
addressed himself to the old man.

"What name belong you?"

"Me fella Nino," was the quavering response. "Him fella Sati belong
along me."

Van Horn glanced for verification to Nau-hau, who nodded affirmation in
the reverse Solomon way; whereupon Van Horn counted twenty-six gold
sovereigns into the hand of Sati's father.

Immediately thereafter Nau-hau extended his hand and received the sum.
Twenty gold pieces the chief retained for himself, returning to the old
man the remaining six. It was no quarrel of Van Horn's. He had
fulfilled his duty and paid properly. The tyranny of a chief over a
subject was none of his business.

Both masters, white and black, were fairly contented with themselves. Van
Horn had paid the money where it was due; Nau-hau, by virtue of kingship,