g-suppressed wrath boiled out, and, swinging his
horse's head round, he faced the owner of Kalahua.

"Look here, Sherard, give me the control of these three hundred natives
for the next two seasons and I'll stake my life that they'll do more
work for you than you have ever had done by that brute Fletcher when he
had five hundred here. Do you think that these people _knew_ what was
in store for them when they came here?--that in place of an encouraging
word they would get a threat or a blow? That those of them who have
wives and daughters can forget what has befallen _them?_ Do you think
that I don't know that you speak of me to your friends with contempt as
'a nigger-loving Britisher'? And yet, Sherard, you know well that, were
I to leave Kalahua tomorrow, every native on the estate would leave
too--not for love of me, but to get away from _you_."

Sherard laughed coarsely.

"You've got more in you than I thought, Prout. What you say is true
enough. Let us quit quarrelling. I know you can do more with them than
Abe Fletcher could; and I guess I'm not going to interfere with you."

But, for all that, Prout did not trust Sherard, and he made up his mind
to leave the estate when his two years' engagement came to an end.

*****

"The _Mana_ is in Honolulu with a cargo of Line Island boys, Prout,"
said Sherard to him about a month or two after this; "I wish you would
get away down there, and try to obtain some more hands. You talk the
language like a Line Islander, and will have no trouble in getting all
the men we want."

But when Prout boarded the labour schooner _Mana_ there was not a native
left. The other planters on Oahu had been there before him, and the
master--Captain Courtayne--called him down to have a drink in the cabin.

"You are the new manager on Kalahua, hey? Well, I'm sorry you've had
your trip for nothing; but, at the same time, I'm real glad to see
Sherard left out in the cold. He's a bad man, sir, and although you
might think that because I'm in this trade I'm not particularly soft, I
can tell you that I'd be thundering sorry to see any of the crowd I've
brought up go to him."

"Your feelings do you honour, Captain; but I can assure you that the
Kalahua boys are well treated now," said Prout, as he took the cigar the
seaman handed him.

The quiet manner and truthful look in Prout's face made the master
of the schooner regard him intently for a few moments, then he said
abruptly:

"Do you kno