p nearly had the same kind of accident. He was bringing back
several from a flogging, when they capsized him. But he knew how to swim
as well as they, and two of them were drowned. He used a boat stretcher
and a revolver. Of course it was an accident."

"Quite common, them accidents," remarked the skipper. "You see that man
at the wheel, Mr. Arkwright? He's a man eater. Six months ago, he and
the rest of the boat's crew drowned the then captain of the ARLA. They
did it on deck, sir, right aft there by the mizzen-traveler."

"The deck was in a shocking state," said the mate.

"Do I understand--?" Bertie began.

"Yes, just that," said Captain Hansen. "It was an accidental drowning."

"But on deck--?"

"Just so. I don't mind telling you, in confidence, of course, that they
used an axe."

"This present crew of yours?"

Captain Hansen nodded.

"The other skipper always was too careless," explained the mate. "He but
just turned his back, when they let him have it."

"We haven't any show down here," was the skipper's complaint. "The
government protects a nigger against a white every time. You can't shoot
first. You've got to give the nigger first shot, or else the government
calls it murder and you go to Fiji. That's why there's so many drowning
accidents."

Dinner was called, and Bertie and the skipper went below, leaving the
mate to watch on deck.

"Keep an eye out for that black devil, Auiki," was the skipper's parting
caution. "I haven't liked his looks for several days."

"Right O," said the mate.

Dinner was part way along, and the skipper was in the middle of his
story of the cutting out of the Scottish Chiefs.

"Yes," he was saying, "she was the finest vessel on the coast. But when
she missed stays, and before ever she hit the reef, the canoes started
for her. There were five white men, a crew of twenty Santa Cruz boys
and Samoans, and only the supercargo escaped. Besides, there were sixty
recruits. They were all kai-kai'd. Kai-kai?--oh, I beg your pardon.
I mean they were eaten. Then there was the James Edwards, a
dandy-rigged--"

But at that moment there was a sharp oath from the mate on deck and a
chorus of savage cries. A revolver went off three times, and then was
heard a loud splash. Captain Hansen had sprung up the companionway on
the instant, and Bertie's eyes had been fascinated by a glimpse of him
drawing his revolver as he sprang.

Bertie went up more circumspectly, hesitating before he