up to them with outstretched hand, they greeted him as usual; but their
women-folk glared savagely at Miriamu, who now felt frightened and stuck
close to the captain.

"Bedad, it's hot talking here in the sun," said Deasy, after Packenham
had shaken hands with Mrs. Deasy and Mrs. Hans and the girls, "come
inside, captain, and sit down while I start my people to fill the copra
bags and get ready for weighing."

"Veil, I don't call dot very shentlemanly gonduck," grunted Hans, who,
naturally enough, wanted _his_ copra weighed first so that he could get
away on board the brig and have first pick of Denison's trade room.

Deasy fired up. "An' I tell ye, Hans, the captain's going to plase
himself intoirely. Sure he wouldn't turn his back on my door to plase a
new man like you---"

Manogi pushed herself between them: "You're a _toga fiti_ man (schemer),
Paddy Deasy," she said in English, with a contemptuous sniff.

"Yes," added Hans, "you was no good, Deasy; you was alvays tarn
shellous----"

"An' you're a dirty low swape av a Dutchman to let that woman av yours
use a native wor-rud in the captain's hearin'," and Deasy banged
his fellow-trader between the eyes, as at the same moment Manogi and
Pati-lima sprang at each other like fiends, and twined their hands in
each other's hair. Then, ere Manogi's triumphant squeal as she dragged
out a handful of the Deasy hair had died away, half a dozen young lady
friends had leapt to her aid, to be met with cries of savage fury by the
three Misses Deasy, and in ten seconds more the whole lot were fighting
wildly together in an undistinguishable heap, with Deasy and the
Dutchman grasping each other's throats underneath.

Packenham jumped in on top of the struggling mass, and picking up three
women, one after another, tossed them like corks into the arms of
a number of native men who had now appeared on the scene, and were
encouraging the combatants; but further movement on his part was
rendered impossible by Miriamu, who had clasped him round the waist and
was imploring him to come away. For a minute or so the combat continued,
and then the tangle of arms, legs, and dishevelled hair was heaved up in
the centre, and Deasy and Hans staggered to their feet, glaring murder
and sudden death at each other.

Freeing himself from the grasp of the minister's daughter, who at once
leapt at Manogi, Packenham seized Schweicker by the collar, and was
dragging him away from Deasy when he got