.

Slinging the huge carcase of the boar from a stout pole, we returned
to the village at nightfall. On the way down my two young half-caste
friends told me that it is a habit peculiar to the wild sows of Strong's
Island, when rearing their young, to flee to the lair of the boar when
alarmed, and that sometimes the boar will kill every one of her young
when harassed by dogs, and then, bursting through them, leave his
partner to her fate.

*****

Month after month passed away in the quiet little village of Leasse
without the writer seeing anything of his former shipmates in the
_Leonora_. Sometimes Hayes's boats would come to within a mile or so
of the entrance to Coquille Harbour in their quests for coco-nuts, but,
fortunately for the peace of the villagers, their crews never ventured
so far as the village itself. Perhaps, indeed, they did not know where
it was, for the high-peaked, saddle-backed houses were embowered in a
thick grove of breadfruit and durian-trees about half a mile from the
beach; and only the white curling smoke arising from the fires as the
women cooked the morning and evening meals would have revealed its
presence.

One peaceful, monotonously happy day followed another till at last,
in the first flush of one bright tropic sunrise, a stately British
man-of-war rounded the north end of the island, and furling her
snow-white canvas--for she made the land under sail--steamed into Lele
Harbour. And the next day Hayes fled from the island in an open boat,
and I, with three others of the _Leonora's_ company, saw from the decks
of the corvette the blue peaks of Kusaie sink into the sea.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Concerning "Bully" Hayes, by Louis Becke

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONCERNING "BULLY" HAYES ***

***** This file should be named 24998.txt or 24998.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/9/24998/

Produced by David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenb