and have been
so for two years or more, and the principal chief is Avatea's lover.
Once there, Avatea would be safe. Now, I suggest that you should
abandon your schooner. Do you think that you can make so great a
sacrifice?"

"Friend," replied Jack, "when I make up my mind to go through with a
thing of importance, I can make any sacrifice."

The teacher smiled. "Well, then, the savages could not conceive it
possible that for the sake of a girl you would voluntarily lose your
fine vessel; therefore, as long as she lies here, they think they have
you all safe. So I suggest that we get a quantity of stores conveyed to
a sequestered part of the shore, provide a small canoe, put Avatea on
board, and you three would paddle to the Christian island."

"Bravo!" cried Peterkin, springing up and seizing the teacher's hand.
"Missionary, you're a regular brick! I didn't think you had so much in
you!"

"As for me," continued the teacher, "I will remain on board till they
discover that you are gone. Then they will ask me where you are gone
to, and I will refuse to tell."

"And what'll be the result of that?" inquired Jack.

"I know not. Perhaps they will kill me; but," he added, looking at Jack
with a peculiar smile, "I too am not afraid to die in a good cause!"

"But how are we to get hold of Avatea?" inquired Jack.

"I have arranged with her to meet us at a particular spot, to which I
will guide you to-night. We shall then arrange about it. She will
easily manage to elude her keepers, who are not very strict in watching
her, thinking it impossible that she could escape from the island.
Indeed, I am sure that such an idea will never enter their heads. But,
as I have said, you run great danger. Fifty miles in a small canoe, on
the open sea, is a great voyage to make. You may miss the island, too,
in which case there is no other in that direction for a hundred miles or
more; and if you lose your way and fall among other heathens, you know
the law of Feejee--a castaway who gains the shore is doomed to die. You
must count the cost, my young friend."

"I have counted it," replied Jack. "If Avatea consents to run the risk,
most certainly I will; and so will my comrades also. Besides," added
Jack, looking seriously into the teacher's face, "your Bible--our
Bible--tells of ONE who delivers those who call on Him in the time of
trouble; who holds the winds in His fists, and the waters in the hollow
of His hand."

We