Van Horn had learned that
she was not regarded with relish by her companions, and that they were on
their way to stake her out up to her neck in the running water of the
Balebuli. But first, before they staked her, their plan was to dislocate
her joints and break the big bones of the arms and legs. This was no
religious rite, no placation of the brutish jungle gods. Merely was it a
matter of gastronomy. Living meat, so treated, was made tender and
tasty, and, as her companions pointed out, she certainly needed to be put
through such a process. Two days in the water, they told the captain,
ought to do the business. Then they would kill her, build the fire, and
invite in a few friends.

After half an hour of bargaining, during which Captain Van Horn had
insisted on the worthlessness of the parcel, he had bought a fat pig
worth five dollars and exchanged it for her. Thus, since he had paid for
the pig in trade goods, and since trade goods were rated at a hundred per
cent. profit, the girl had actually cost him two dollars and fifty cents.

And then Captain Van Horn's troubles had begun. He could not get rid of
the girl. Too well he knew the natives of Malaita to turn her over to
them anywhere on the island. Chief Ishikola of Su'u had offered five
twenties of drinking coconuts for her, and Bau, a bush chief, had offered
two chickens on the beach at Malu. But this last offer had been
accompanied by a sneer, and had tokened the old rascal's scorn of the
girl's scrawniness. Failing to connect with the missionary brig, the
_Western_ _Cross_, on which she would not have been eaten, Captain Van
Horn had been compelled to keep her in the cramped quarters of the
_Arangi_ against a problematical future time when he would be able to
turn her over to the missionaries.

But toward him the girl had no heart of gratitude because she had no
brain of understanding. She, who had been sold for a fat pig, considered
her pitiful role in the world to be unchanged. Eatee she had been. Eatee
she remained. Her destination merely had been changed, and this big
fella white marster of the _Arangi_ would undoubtedly be her destination
when she had sufficiently fattened. His designs on her had been
transparent from the first, when he had tried to feed her up. And she
had outwitted him by resolutely eating no more than would barely keep her
alive.

As a result, she, who had lived in the bush all her days and never so
much as set fo