l
want _utu_ for it some time. Eh, Ngati? Utu?"

"_Utu_, _utu_" said the chief, smiling.

"What's utu?" said Jem, in a surly tone.

"Payment."

"Oh, then we'll give him a bit of 'bacco."

He offered the New Zealander his tobacco-bag, which was quietly annexed
with a smile.

"There, we'll leave you the fruit. They're good eating, my lads, and if
at any time before you go, you feel disposed to settle down with us,
there's plenty of room, and it won't be very long before you'll grow
into chiefs."

He nodded, and then said a few words to his companion, who smiled at the
two strangers in turn, after which they went off together into the
forest, and were gone.

"Ugh!" ejaculated Jem. "Don't know whether it arn't safer aboard ship
after all."

"Why do you say that?" cried Don.

"Because whenever that black chap looks at me, he gives me the shivers."

"Why?"

"Seems to me that he's too fond of you, Mas' Don, and as if he was
thinking how good you'd be."

"Nonsense!" cried Don, who was enjoying the fruit. "Have some more of
these. I wonder whether there are any more good kinds of fruit grow
ashore."

"Sure to be."

"Do you think if we left the ship, Jem, and found our way right along
the coast to some place where we could live till the ship had gone, and
then wait till another ship came, we could get enough to eat?"

"Dessay we could."

"Because if we did, we should be quite independent, and could do as we
liked."

"To be sure, that's the way it seems to me; but just now, Mas' Don, I
can only think of one thing."

"What's that, Jem?"

"How to get a bit of sleep, for the sun has made me as drowsy as a
beedle."

"Well, then, sit down and sleep."

Jem wanted no persuasion, and in five minutes he was breathing very
heavily, while Don sat watching the beauties of nature, the clouds of
steam floating above the volcanic island, the wondrous sheen of the sea
in the sun, the great lace-like tree-ferns which drooped over the mossy
growth at the forest edge, and the beautiful butterflies which floated
about like gaily-painted flowers in the golden light.

Every now and then there was the sweet note of some bird ringing clearly
in the air; then a loud and piercing screech heralded the coming of a
parrot or cockatoo, which seemed tame enough to care little for the
stranger who was watching its actions.

Then all would be still again--a dreamy, sleepy stillness that was
wonderfully attractive to Don a