his
master, and, glaring between his legs at the approaching savages,
displayed all his teeth and snarled fiercely. One, who appeared to be a
chief, ran straight at our hero, brandishing a club similar to his own.
Jarwin had become by that time well practised in the use of his weapon;
he evaded the blow dealt at him, and fetched the savage such a whack on
the small of his back as he passed him, that he fell flat on the sand
and lay there. Cuffy rushed at him and seized him by the throat, an act
which induced another savage to launch a javelin at the dog. It grazed
his back, cut it partly open, and sent him yelling into the woods.
Meanwhile, Jarwin was surrounded, and, although he felled three or four
of his assailants, was quickly overpowered by numbers, gagged, lashed
tight to a pole, so that he could not move, and laid in the bottom of
one of the war-canoes.

Even when in this sad plight the sturdy seaman did not lose heart, for
he knew well that Cuffy being wounded and driven from his master's side,
would run straight home to his master's hut, and that Big Chief would at
once suspect, from the nature of the wound and the circumstance of the
dog being alone, that it was necessary for him and his men-of-war to
take the field; Jarwin, therefore, felt very hopeful that he should be
speedily rescued. But such hopes were quickly dispelled when, after a
noisy dispute on the beach, the savages, who owned the canoe in which he
lay, suddenly re-embarked and pushed off to sea, leaving the other canoe
and its crew on the beach.

Hour after hour passed, but the canoe-men did did not relax their
efforts. Straight out to sea they went, and when the sun set, Big
Chief's island had already sunk beneath the horizon.

Now, indeed, a species of wild despair filled the breast of the poor
captive. To be thus seized, and doomed in all probability to perpetual
bondage, when the cup of regained liberty had only just touched his
lips, was very hard to bear. When he first fully realised his
situation, he struggled fiercely to burst his bonds, but the men who had
tied him knew how to do their work. He struggled vainly until he was
exhausted. Then, looking up into the starry sky, his mind became
gradually composed, and he had recourse to prayer. Slumber ere long
sealed his eyes, setting him free in imagination, and he did not again
waken until daylight was beginning to appear.

All that day he lay in the same position, without wate