f the most hideous and appalling massacres of a ship's
crew that was ever perpetrated by natives--a massacre that had filled
my youthful mind with the most intense and unreasoning hatred of all
"niggers," as we called the natives of Melanesia. The memory of that
awful scene had burned itself upon my brain, for the captain and mate
of the vessel were dear friends of mine, and they and their men had
been cruelly slaughtered, not for any wrong they had done--for they were
good, straight men--but simply because their blind confidence in the
savage natives invited their destruction.

*****

I steadied my rifle upon the top of the heap of coconuts, and waited
a second or two till every man in the first canoe was in line. Then I
pulled the trigger, and was thrown back bleeding and unconscious, for
the rifle burst just in front of the breech block, which blew out and
struck me on the top of my head, nearly fracturing my skull.

When I came to again Yorke's face was bending over me.

"We're all right, Drake. The brigantine is within a mile of us, coming
up with a light air, and we'll be aboard in half an hour. How do you
feel, my son?"

"Rockotty. Did the rifle burst?"

"Burst? It burst like a cannon, all but killed you, and a splinter hurt
me in the eye. Drake, my boy, the next time you do the Gadarene swine
trick with a cheap German Snider in your hand, see that the barrel is
clear before you fire it. When you fell that time, your rifle barrel
must have been pretty badly choked with sand and coral pebbles... Now
lie still, and don't worry like an old maid who has lost her cat. You
can do nothing, and will only be a damned nuisance if you _do_ try to
do anything. The brigantine will be here presently, and you'll get your
head attended to, and have 'pretty-pretty' plasters stuck on your nose
and other parts of your facial beauties."

"Where are the niggers?" I asked.

"Gone, gone, my dear boy. Vanished, but not vanished in time enough for
five or six of them. I have used every one of our cartridges on the four
canoes, and have had the supreme satisfaction of knowing that I have not
used them in vain. Now stop talking, and let me attend to the ship--the
bamboo ship... There, put your head on my coat; and don't talk."

*****

When the _Fray Bentos_ sailed up alongside the raft I was lifted on
board, and placed in my berth, and long days passed ere I saw Yorke
again.

When I did see him the brigantine was lying at anc