white man by training, if not by blood, and after he had sobered
up, what if his wife didn't smuggle him in a knife, and what if he
didn't dig his way out! Yes, sir, that's what Peter Jones did--dug
through the gravel floor and tunneled out, rising from the grave, so to
speak, to the general uproar and hullabaloo of the entire settlement.
Then--no one stopping him--he armed himself with an old Springfield
rifle and an ax and a crowbar, and the cry went up he was going to
murder the pastor, with the children running along in front and the
women screaming.

But Peter wasn't gunning for any missionary, which even in Raka-hanga
might have had a nasty comeback--the natives being mild but not cowards,
and beginning to buzz like hornets and reach for their shark-tooth
spears. No, what Peter was inflamed against was the coral jail, which he
set at most ferocious with crowbar and ax until it was nothing but a
heap of rubbish. Then he shot holes through the galvanized roofing, and
burned it in a blazing fire along of the iron-studded door and window
framing. By this time the missionary was trying to raise the multitude
against Peter, but they were none too fond of the coral jail themselves
and did nothing but hoot and shout like a pack of boys at a circus,
which indeed it was and enough to make you split your sides laughing.
After that Peter was let alone and nobody dared cross him, no matter
what he did.

But this is all by the way to give you an idea of what Raka-hanga was
like, and make the rest of the yarn the easier to understand. I shall
always feel sorry all my life that Stanley and I were off fishing on the
windward side of the island and thereby missed Clemm's arrival in the
lagoon, which was well over before we got there, with the stern of a
ten-oared boat heading for a man-of-war, and Clemm himself standing
kind of helpless on the beach in the midst of all his chests and boxes
and bedding.

He made a splendid appearance in his white clothes and shirt and
pipe-clayed shoes and pith-helmet, being a short, thick-set man with
gray hair and a commanding look. When we came running up he spoke to us
very grand, though genial, saying: "Gentlemen, I am the new Resident
Deputy Commissioner, and I call on you to assist me raise the flag and
annex this island in the name of her Royal and Imperial Majesty, Queen
Victoria!"

At this he took his hat off, and we did the same, though I am an
American, and then went on to tell us t