mpanied with
facial contortions. The royal personages thinking, probably, that they
were poisoned, leaped into the sea like a couple of frogs, and swam to
the royal barge.

"Holloa, sire," cried Jack, "where are you off to?"

This was answered by the barge paddling away rapidly towards land.
Hitherto, the whole affair had been a farce; but now the natives, who
had collected in great numbers along the shore, seeing their king and
queen leap into the water with a terrified air, supposed that an
attempt had been made to cut short their royal lives, and, under this
impression, discharged a cloud of arrows at the pinnace, and matters
began to assume a serious aspect.

"What!" exclaimed Jack, "shooting at the great Rono!"

"That," said Fritz, "only proves they are men like ourselves. He who
is covered with incense one day, is very often immolated the next."

"And that simply because Rono treated Mr. and Mrs. What's-their-names
to a pinch of snuff. Serve them right to discharge the contents of the
four-pounder amongst them."

"No, no," cried Willis; "the worthy people are, perhaps, fond of their
king and queen."

"Worthy people or not," said Fritz, drawing out an arrow that had sunk
into the capstan, "it is very likely that if this dart had hit one of
us, there would only have been two instead of three in the crew of the
pinnace."

"Well," said Willis, "Master Jack thought the voyage rather dull; now
something has turned up to relieve the monotony of his log."

"We are still without fresh water though, Willis; I wish you could say
that had turned up as well."

"It will be prudent to go in search of that somewhere else now," said
Willis, unfurling the sails. "Fortunately the wind is fresh, and we
can make considerable headway before night."

As they steered gently out of the bay a second cloud of arrows was
sent after them, but this time they fell short.

"The belief in Rono is about to be seriously compromised," remarked
Fritz; "I should advise the priestess to retire into private life."

"Impossible."

"Why?"

"Because she is too fat to live in an ordinary house, she could only
breathe in a temple. But, O human vicissitudes!" added Jack, rolling
himself up in a sail after the manner of the Roman senators; "behold
Rono the Great banished from his country, and compelled to go and
pillow his head on a foreign sail, like Marius at Minturnus--like
Coriolanus amongst the Volcians--like Hannibal at the house of