_'
(cannibal). 'Take care he doesn't bite it off.'

Pulu shook his mop of yellow hair gravely. A great pity filled his big
heart, for as he had turned to go back to the boat Ridan had fallen upon
his knees and pressed his lips to the feet of the man who had given him
a drink.

That night Burton and the Scotch engineer went to Ridan's hut, taking
with them food and a new sleeping-mat. He was sitting cross-legged
before a tiny fire of coco-nut shells, gazing at the blue, leaping jets
of flame, and as the two men entered, slowly turned his face to them.

'Here,' said Burton, less roughly than usual,' here's some _kai kai_ for
you.'

He took the food from Burton's hand, set it beside him on the ground,
and then, supporting himself on his gaunt right arm and hand, gave the
overseer one long look of bitter, undying hatred; then his eyes drooped
to the fire again.

'And here, Ridan,' said Craik, the engineer, throwing the sleeping-mat
upon the ground, 'that'll keep your auld bones frae cutting into the
ground. And here is what will do ye mair good still,' and he placed a
wooden pipe and a stick of tobacco in 'the devil's' hand. In a moment
Ridan was on his knees with his forehead pressed to the ground in
gratitude.

The men looked at him in silence for a few moments as he crouched at
Craik's feet, with the light of the fire playing upon his tattooed
yellow back and masses of tangled black hair.

'Come awa', Burton, leave the puir deevil to himself. And I'm thinking
ye might try him on the other tack awhile. Ye _have not_ broken the
creature's spirit yet, and I wouldna try to if I were you--for my own
safety. Sit up Ridan, mon, and smoke your pipe.'

* * * * *

Two years before, Ridan had been brought to Samoa by a German
labour-ship, which had picked him up in a canoe at sea, somewhere off
the coast of Dutch New Guinea. He was the only survivor of a party of
seven, and when lifted on board was in the last stage of exhaustion from
thirst and hunger. Where the canoe had sailed from, and whither bound,
no one on board the _Iserbrook_ could learn, for the stranger spoke a
language utterly unknown to anyone of even the _Iserbrook's_ polyglot
ship's company--men who came from all parts of Polynesia and Micronesia.
All that could be learned from him by signs and gestures was that a
great storm had overtaken the canoe, many days of hunger and thirst had
followed, and then death ended the ago