y of the
fallen boy, and strike wildly at his murderous pursuers.

With heaving bosoms and set teeth the seamen urged the boats along, and
they and the four canoes crashed together in deadly conflict. But as
they met, a huge savage stood up and, poising a spear, darted it at
the prone figure of the native boy; it did not reach him, for Maurice,
wounded and bleeding as he was with a spear wound through his thigh,
flung himself in front of the weapon to save his friend. It struck him
in the shoulder and came out a full foot at his back.

'You dog,' said Williams, raising his pistol, and the native went down
with a crash.

And then ensued a scene of slaughter, as the seamen of the _Boadicea_
got to work with their cutlasses. It did not take long to end the fight,
and not one of the Mano men escaped, for now Baringa's canoes had come
up, and with their heavy jade clubs dashed out the brains of those
of their enemies who sought to swim ashore. It was in truth a hideous
sight, and even the hardy sailors shuddered when they saw the merciless
manner in which wounded and dying men were massacred by their naked
allies.

As quickly as possible, the two boys were lifted out of the little canoe
and placed in the captain's boat, where their wounds were examined. The
native boy's arm was broken, and his back badly hurt, but he was quite
conscious. As for Maurice, he was in a bad state, and Captain Williams
decided not to pull out the spear till the ship was reached.

Just as he had given orders to pull for the ship, Baringa's canoe
returned from the slaughter of the remaining fugitives, and drew up
alongside the captain's boat, and the moment the chief saw the native
boy lying in the stern sheets of the boat he sprang out of the canoe and
embraced him.

'It is my boy, my Lokolol--he whom I thought was dead.'

Little remains to be told. The two boys were carefully attended to as
soon as they reached the ship, and to the joy of everyone the spear,
when extracted from Maurice's body, was pronounced by Baringa not to
be a poisoned one. As for Lokolol, the chief's son, his arm was put in
splints, but during the time that was occupied in doing this his hand
was clasped around that of the brave young sailor lad who had saved his
life, and his big, black eyes never left Maurice's pallid face.

For three days the _Boadicea_ remained at anchor opposite the
village--she had sailed there the morning after the fight--and the chief
showed