Keola, who was listening so hard that he forgot to steer.

And the mate cursed him, and swore that Kanaka was for no use in the
world, and if he got started after him with a belaying-pin, it would be
a cold day for Keola.

And so the captain and mate lay down on the house together, and Keola
was left to himself.

"This island will do very well for me," he thought; "if no traders deal
there, the mate will never come. And as for Kalamake, it is not possible
he can ever get as far as this."

With that he kept edging the schooner nearer in. He had to do this
quietly, for it was the trouble with these white men, and above all with
the mate, that you could never be sure of them; they would be all
sleeping sound, or else pretending, and if a sail shook they would jump
to their feet and fall on you with a rope's end. So Keola edged her up
little by little, and kept all drawing. And presently the land was close
on board, and the sound of the sea on the sides of it grew loud.

With that the mate sat up suddenly upon the house.

"What are you doing?" he roars. "You'll have the ship ashore!"

And he made one bound for Keola, and Keola made another clean over the
rail and plump into the starry sea. When he came up again, the schooner
had payed off on her true course, and the mate stood by the wheel
himself, and Keola heard him cursing. The sea was smooth under the lee
of the island; it was warm besides, and Keola had his sailor's knife, so
he had no fear of sharks. A little way before him the trees stopped;
there was a break in the line of the land like the mouth of a harbour;
and the tide, which was then flowing, took him up and carried him
through. One minute he was without, and the next within: had floated
there in a wide shallow water, bright with ten thousand stars, and all
about him was the ring of the land, with its string of palm-trees. And
he was amazed, because this was a kind of island he had never heard of.

The time of Keola in that place was in two periods--the period when he
was alone, and the period when he was there with the tribe. At first he
sought everywhere and found no man; only some houses standing in a
hamlet, and the marks of fires. But the ashes of the fires were cold and
the rains had washed them away; and the winds had blown, and some of the
huts were overthrown. It was here he took his dwelling; and he made a
fire drill, and a shell hook, and fished and cooked his fish, and
climbed after green co