green-pea trade; that all these months we've been asleep
under a cabbage leaf, communin' with potato bugs?"

"Not for a minute," replied the commodore. "Why, I got a dozen
matched pearls here that's fit for a queen. Big, red, pear-shaped
boys--regular bleedin' hearts. There's ten thousand each in them
alone."

"Well, I'll--I'll brew some grog," gasped Captain Scraggs, and
departed forthwith to the galley. Fifteen minutes later he
returned with a kettle of his favourite nepenthe and all three
adventurers drank to a bon voyage home. At the conclusion of the
toast Mr. McGuffey set down his glass, wiped his mouth with the
back of his hairy hand, and thus addressed the syndicate.

"In leavin' this paradise of the South Pacific," he began, "we
find that we have accumulated other wealth besides the loot below
decks. I refer to His Royal Highness, the king of Kandavu, and
his prime minister, Tabu-Tabu. When these two outlaws was first
captured, I informed the syndicate that I would scheme out a
punishment befittin' their crime, to-wit--murderin' an' eatin'
you two boys. It's been a big job and it's taken some time, me
not bein' blessed with quite as fine an imagination as our
friend, Gib. However, I pride myself that hard work always brings
success, and I am ready to announce what disposition shall be
made of these two interestin' specimens of aboriginal life. I beg
to announce, gentlemen, that I have invented a punishment fittin'
the crime."

"Impossible," said Captain Scraggs.

"Shut up, Scraggs," struck in Commodore Gibney. "Out with it,
Mac. What's the programme?"

"I move you, members of the syndicate, that the schooner _Maggie
II_ proceed to some barren, uninhabited island, and that upon
arrival there this savage king and his still more savage subject
be taken ashore in a small boat. I also move you, gentlemen of
the syndicate, that inasmuch as the two aggrieved parties, A.P.
Gibney and P. Scraggs, having in a sperrit of mercy refrained
from layin' their hands on said prisoners for fear of invalidin'
them at a time when their services was of importance to the
expedition, be given an opportunity to take out their grudge on
the persons of said savages. Now, I notice that the king is a
miserable, skimpy, sawed-off, and hammered-down old cove. By all
the rules of the prize ring he's in Scraggsy's class." (Here Mr.
McGuffey flashed a lightning wink to the commodore. It was an
appeal for Mr. Gibney's moral support in