m his belt and shot twice at Simi who was now quite
close to him. These bullets, too, did Simi no harm, for taking a steady
aim at his foe he shot him through the body, and as Karta fell upon his
side one of our people leapt on him and held his head under the water
till there was no more life in his wicked heart.

"The fight was soon ended, for seeing three of their number killed so
quickly, the rest of the white men ran back to their boat and tried to
float her again; and then Simi, taking a shot-gun loaded with slugs
from one of his men, ran up to them and shot dead the one named Joe. The
other white men he let escape, for all their followers were now paddling
off or swimming to the other side of the lagoon, and Simi was no lover
of bloodshed.

"That day the people at the north end sent a message for peace, and
peace was made, for our people had lost but one man killed, so the thing
was ended well for us.

"Serena came back from the ship, for now that Karta was dead she had
no fear. The three white men who were spared soon left Peru in a
whale-ship, for they feared to remain.

"Simi and his wife and children and Serena did not long stay with us,
for he sold his house and boats to a new trader who came to the island
about a month after the fight, and they went away to live at a place in
Fiji called Yasawa. They were very good to me and mine, and I was sore
in my heart to see the ship sail away with them, and at night I felt
very lonely for a long time, knowing that I should see them no more."

THE BRASS GUN OF THE BUCCANEERS

Challoner was a trader at Jakoits Harbour in Ponape, one of the
loveliest of the great Caroline Archipelago in the North Pacific. He
was a quiet but determined-looking man of fifty, and at the time of
this story had been living on Ponape for over five years. Unlike the
generality of the white men who were settled on the island, he never
carried arms and never entered into any of the disputes that too often
occurred among them and ended in bloodshed.

Many of his neighbours were scoundrels and ruffians of the deepest
dye--deserters from whale-ships and men-of-war, or escaped criminals
from California and the Australian colonies. Some of these earned a
living by trading with the natives for turtle-shell and cocoanut oil,
others were simply beachcombers, who attached themselves to the leading
chiefs and gave their services to them in war time, receiving in return
houses and land,