egan to reach the breaking point, when I was told, with
gentle impressiveness, that I was to remain in my house till the minute
of nine forty-five, pull off quietly to the _Nukanono_, board her by the
fore chains, and crouch there in the bow till I was told to get up!

It was a glorious moonlight night as I got into Joe's boat and saw the
_Nukanono_ across the bay, her loosened sails flapping in the first
faint breath of the land breeze, and her booms sparkling from end to end
with Chinese lanterns. The water was like black glass, the outer reefs
were silent, and the downpouring air from the mountains was fragrant
with _moso'oi_, and so warm and scented against the cheek that I doubt
not but what you could have smelled Upolu ninety miles to leeward. As
we drew nearer, the sound of girls' laughter, the tuning of musical
instruments, the hum and talk and gayety of a large company, floated
over to us from the schooner's deck, wonderfully mellowed by the
intervening water and (as it seemed to me) softened into a sort of
harmony with the night itself.

However, I did not allow these reflections to put me off my duty or make
me forgetful of the strict commands I had previously received from Sasa.
I came up softly under the bow of the _Nukanono_, dismissed Joe in a
whisper, and climbed silently to my appointed station. I had not been
there a minute when I felt Sasa's hand on my shoulder and heard her say
softly in my ear, "_Malie_," which in Samoan means good or well done.
Then she slipped away, and I heard her with sweet imperiousness ordering
about the crew and bidding them slip the moorings. We had hardly got
steerage-way when I heard a commotion aft, a choking, angry voice, that
sounded through the hubbub like Silver Tongue's, a quick, fierce,
violent struggle, and then suddenly the companion hatch went shut with a
bang. Even as it did so the fore-hatch followed with a crash, and
everybody began to cheer. From below there rose the sound of thumping,
smothered Teutonic protests, and a long, poignant, and unmistakably
feminine wail.

"All finish, captain," said Sasa, coming up to me cheerfully.

"Would you mind telling me what it's all about?" I asked.

"Just a little _tongafiti_ to bring loving hearts together," said Sasa.
"They threw Silver Tongue down the after hatchway, while me and the
girls we pushed Rosalie down the forehold. There they are, all alone in
the dark, with five hours to make it up!"

I could not hel