but I couldn't do it. And very glad of it I was afterwards,
for a week later I had two boats stove in by a whale, and of course, had
I hurt one of those beggars of killers, the whole crew would have said
it was only a just retribution."

"REVENGE"

On that fever-stricken part of the coast of the great island of New
Britain, lying between the current-swept headland of Gape Stephens and
the deep forest-clad shores of Kabaira Bay, there is a high grassy bluff
dotted here and there with isolated coco-palms leaning northward to the
sea beneath, their broad branches restlessly whipping and bending to
the boisterous trade wind. On the western side of the bluff there is a
narrow strip of littoral, less than half a mile in width, and thickly
clothed with a grove of betel nut, through which the clear waters of a
mountain stream flow swiftly out oceanwards across a rocky bar.

Near where the margin of the grove of straight, grey-boled betels touch
the steep side of the bluff, there may be seen the outline of a low wall
of coral stones, forming three sides of a square, and bound and knit
together with vines, creepers, and dank, ill-smelling moss--the growth,
decay, and re-growth of three score years. The ground which it encloses
is soft and swampy, for the serried lines of betel-trees, with their
thick, broad crowns, prevent either sun or wind from penetrating to the
spot, and the heavy tropical rains never permit it to dry. It is a dark,
dismal-looking place, only visited by the savage inhabitants when they
come to collect the areca-nuts, and its solitude is undisturbed save
by the flapping of the hornbill's wings as he carries food to his
imprisoned mate, or the harsh screech of a white cockatoo flying
overhead to the mountain forest beyond.

Yet sixty years ago it was not so, for then on the shore facing the bar
stood a native village, and within the now rained wall were the houses
of three white men, who from their doorways could see the blue Pacific,
and the long curve of coast line with cape and headland and white line
of reef stretching away down to the westward in the misty tropic haze.

Walk inside the old, broken walls, and you will see, half-buried in the
moist, steaming, and malarious ground, some traces of those who dwelt
there--a piece of chain cable, two or three whaler's trypots, a rotten
and mossgrown block or two, only the hardwood sheaves of which have
resisted the destroying influences of the climate;