ent I was called away. As I went I heard Bastin muttering
something about martyrs, but paid no attention. Little did I guess
what was going on in his pious but obstinate mind. In effect it was
this--that if no one else would remove that idol he was quite ready to
do it himself.

However, he was very cunning over that business, almost Jesuitical
indeed. Not one word did he breathe of his dark plans to me, and still
less to Bickley. He just went on with his teaching, lamenting from time
to time the stumbling-block of the idol and expressing wonder as to how
it might be circumvented by a change in the hearts of the islanders, or
otherwise. Sad as it is to record, in fact, dear old Bastin went as near
to telling a fib in connection with this matter as I suppose he had ever
done in his life. It happened thus. One day Bickley's sharp eye caught
sight of Bastin walking about with what looked like a bottle of whisky
in his pocket.

"Hallo, old fellow," he said, "has the self-denying ordinance broken
down? I didn't know that you took pegs on the sly," and he pointed to
the bottle.

"If you are insinuating, Bickley, that I absorb spirits surreptitiously,
you are more mistaken than usual, which is saying a good deal. This
bottle contains, not Scotch whisky but paraffin, although I admit
that its label may have misled you, unintentionally, so far as I am
concerned."

"What are you going to do with the paraffin?" asked Bickley.

Bastin coloured through his tan and replied awkwardly:

"Paraffin is very good to keep away mosquitoes if one can stand the
smell of it upon one's skin. Not that I have brought it here with that
sole object. The truth is that I am anxious to experiment with a lamp of
my own design made--um--of native wood," and he departed in a hurry.

"When next old Bastin wants to tell a lie," commented Bickley, "he
should make up his mind as to what it is to be, and stick to it. I
wonder what he is after with that paraffin? Not going to dose any of
my patients with it, I hope. He was arguing the other day that it is a
great remedy taken internally, being quite unaware that the lamp variety
is not used for that purpose."

"Perhaps he means to swallow some himself, just to show that he is
right," I suggested.

"The stomach-pump is at hand," said Bickley, and the matter dropped.

Next morning I got up before it was light. Having some elementary
knowledge of the main facts of astronomy, which remained with me from