secretly drinking the coarse
and fiery rum that was sold to the natives; and as I remembered the
mutterings and moanings that had formerly alarmed me, I wondered that I
had not guessed the cause of them at the time; but until the arrival of
Mr. Bransome, Jackson had always kept charge of the spirits himself, and
he was such a secret old fellow that there was no knowing what he had
then taken. Now that I was aware of his failing, I was very sorry for
the old sailor; for on such a coast and in such a climate there was only
one end to it; and although I could not actually prevent him from taking
the liquor, I resolved to watch him, and if such symptoms as I had seen
before again appeared, to tell Mr. Bransome of them at all hazards. But
I was too late to prevent what speedily followed my discovery. It had
come about that the same mail-steamer that had brought out Mr. Bransome
had again anchored off the Point, and again the weather was coarse and
lowering. A stiff breeze had blown for some days, which made the rollers
worse than they had been for a long while. Both Mr. Bransome and Jackson
watched the weather with eager looks, but each was differently affected
by it. Bransome appeared to be anxious and nervous, while Jackson was
excited, and paced up and down the veranda, and kept, strange to say,
for it was contrary to his late habit, a watch upon Bransome's every
movement.

Every now and then, too, he would rub his hands together as if in eager
expectation, and would chuckle to himself as he glanced seaward. Of his
own accord he gave orders to Sooka to get both the surf-boats ready for
launching, and to make the boys put on their newest loin-cloths; and
then, when everything was in readiness, he asked Bransome if he was
going off to the steamer.

"I fear I must," said Bransome; "but I--I don't like the look of those
cursed rollers."

At this Jackson laughed, and said something about "being afraid of very
little."

"The beach is perfectly good," he added; "Sooka knows, and Sooka is the
oldest patrao on the Point."

And Sooka, who was standing by, made a low obeisance to the agent, and
said that "the beach lived for well," which was his way of expressing in
English that the sea was not heavy.

At that moment a gun was fired from the steamer as a signal to be quick,
and Bransome said, "I will go, but not in that black blackguard's boat;
it need not come," and he went down to the beach.

It was one of Jackson's rules