t to such a sudden outburst of rage and
blasphemy at the little progress made by the brig that the chief
officer gazed at him in astonishment. However, on the morning of the
fourth day, a steady breeze set in, and Rawlings' equanimity was
restored. His anxiety to make a quick passage was very evident, and
when the vicinity of the Northern Solomons was reached, and continuous
and furious squalls were experienced almost every night, he would
refuse to take in sail till the very last moment, although both his
mates respectfully pointed out the risk of carrying on under such
circumstances, for, besides the danger to the spars, the islands of the
Solomon Group were but badly charted, and the currents continually
changing in their set. But to these remonstrances he turned an
impatient ear.

"We must push her along through the Solomons," he had said one dark
night to Barry as the _Mahina_ was tearing through the water under the
hum of a heavy squall, quivering in every timber, and deluging her
decks with clouds of spray which, from there being a head sea, leapt up
from her weather bow as high as the foretopsail. "I want to get into
Arrecifos Lagoon as quickly as I can, even if we do lose a light spar
or two. I'm no navigator, as you know, but I know the Solomons as well
as any man, for I've been trading and nigger-catching there for six
years at a stretch--a long time ago; and out here, where we are, we're
safe; there's a clear run of six hundred miles, free of any danger. So
the old skipper of the _Black Dog_ used to tell me--and he knew these
parts like a book."

Presently, as he leant back on his elbows against the weather rail, he
added in an indifferent tone of voice, "At the same time, I believe
there is no cause for hurry. But perhaps Tracey has imbued me with
some of his fears that some one else might get there before us, and
either get the pick of the shell, or perhaps skin the whole lagoon out
altogether."

Northward from the lofty, verdure-clad Solomons the brig sped steadily
onward, leaving behind her the fierce, sweeping rain squalls, and the
swirling currents, and mighty ocean tide-rips, whose lines of bubbling
foam, seen far away, often caused even the native look-outs to call out
"Breakers ahead?" and then she sailed into the region of the gentle,
north-east trade wind, till the blue mountain-peaks of Ponape the
beautiful showed upon the sunlit sea far to windward. And here the
scarcely won trade fa