THE CORAL 2

8/2/2019 THE CORAL 2

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THECORAL

RETOLD BY JOHNKENNETT

CHAPTER ONE

The Wreck

F or three days and nights ourship had driven before thestorm ,and now the end wasnear. Death looked us in the face.

There could be no doubt of that. The ship wasbreaking up. The first blast of thegale had carried away two of ourmasts :the frightful walls of water that came sweepingacross the Pacific had torn off our rudder and left us at themercy of wind and waves .Everything had been swept off thedecks except one small boat, andwe had been blown far out of ourcourse. I knew that might findourselves among dangerouscoral reefs-and I , Ralph Rover ,fifteen years old and mad aboutthe sea , was terribly afraid.

Then, at the dawn of the thirdday, there came a cryfrom the look-out:“Land! Land ahead! ”

I tried to peer through the sheetedrain. Its drops struck at me likebullets. I had never

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ISLAND

Dreamed it could blow so hard. The

wind was a screaming fury thatrushed in through my mouth andstrangled me as I faced it . . . .

And then the ship rose on amountainous wave, and I saw thedark mass of land that lay ahead. Itwas an island, encircled by a reef of pounded coral on which the waves

were breaking in fury of flying foam. There was calm water within the reef,but I could see only one narrowopening into the lagoon. My heartsank. We had no chance of winningthrough without a rudder.

I felt hopeless.I turned my head and stared at the

two boys who clung to the riggingbeside me. There were three of usserving as apprentices on board theArrow : Jack Martin , a tall, strong ladof eighteen , Peterkin Gay , whowas Little and quick and funny , andabout fourteen years old, and myself.Even in that awful moment, Jack’s

face showed no sign of fear, though



Peterkin looked sick and scared.and there were tears of pain inhis eyes from the hard slaps of wind and spray, and the longdriving spears of rain.

Above the roar of the gale Iheard the captain give a shout.

“It’s all up with us, lads! Standby to launch the boat! We’ll be onthe rocks any minute now!”

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Jack grabbed hold of my arm.“Never mind the boat! ” he

screamed in my ear. “ It’s sureto upset in this. When I give theworld, make a dash for it andgrab that big oar in the bows. If it’s driven over the breakers wemight get to the shore .”

I shouted an answer ,andclung on, as a great wall of watercaught the ship , tilted her over ata crazy angle , and flung hertowards the reef. I looked at thewhite wave that lashed the reef and boiled against its rocks , andhad little hope of coming throughalive.

Things happened quickly.Wind and the heaving seas

were shoving the Arrow towardsthe reef . I saw the men standingby the boat and the captainbeside them giving orders . thereef was very close , and a

tremendous wave was rushingtowards us.

“Now !” Jack yelled.We clawed our way towards the

bows , clinging to the rigging , andsobbing for air as we leaned into thewind . The wave fell on the deck witha crash like thunder . A rush of waterwent over my head. As I clungdesperately to the rigging , the shipstruck ; the foremast broke off closeto the deck and went over the side ,carrying the boat and men with it. Isaw the sea churned to flying roam ;I had a glimpse of black heads andupflung arms silhouetted

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against the frothing white of thewaves, and then all of themvanished .

We three ran towards the bow tolay hold of our oar . it was entangledwith the wreck , and Jack seized anaxe to cut it free. A lurch of the shipmade him miss the ropes and hestruck the axe deep into the oar .

Another wave washed it clear of thewreck. We all seized hold of it .Windand water caught it and whirled itaway, and the next instant we werestruggling in the wild sea.

I felt myself lifted and driventhrough the air , and then I droppedlike a stone . A rush of salt water went

over my head . I was drowning . Icould no longer breathe. Again the



waves lifted me and hurled meforward. I crashed down andsomething struck my head aheavy blow. I pitched headfirstinto a watery darkness.

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CHAPTER TWO

The Island

I felt water splashing on myface . I groaned And opened myeyes .I was lying , out of the wind ,under an overhanging shelf of rock. Peterkin and Jack werekneeling beside me, their facespale and drawn , and it thatmoment it all came back to me . Isat up , then blinked and clenchedmy brows in a frown of pain. I puta hand to my head and found thatit had been gashed across.

“Don’t rush things , Ralph ” said jack. “ You’re not quite better yet.Wet your lips with this water. I gotbetter yet. I got it from a spring.”

“What – what happened,” said Jack . “I manager to grab you andpush you towards the shore. It wasn’ttoo hard because the water was quitecalm inside the reef.”

“And the others ?” I asked.Jack shook his head.

“ No sign of them ,” he saidquietly.

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We were silent for a minute or two.

“ Did you see what happened tothe ship? ” I asked at last.“ She’s gone to the bottom, ”

Jack replied . “ She struck on the tailof the island and stove in the bow .

The next breaker swung her clear,and she floated away to leewardbefore she filled and went down. ”

There was a longer silence whilewe thought about it all . For my part ,



I did not feel very happy . wemight be on a desert island , but if it should turn out to be inhabited Ifelt certain , from all I had heardof South Sea Islanders, that weshould be roasted alive andeaten. If , on the other hand , itshould turn out to beuninhabited , I fancied that wemight well starve to death.

Jack must have been thinkingthe same .

“ If this is a desert island , ” hesaid suddenly , “ We’ll have tolive like wild animals. We haven’ta tool of any kind-not even a knife. ”

Peterkin’s face lit up .“ Yes we have ! ” he cried ,

and fumbled in his trouserspockets , from which he drew outa small penknife with only oneblade-and that was broken.

Jack grinned suddenly.“We’ll , that’s better than

nothing, ” he said.“ Let’s see what else we’ve

got . ”

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I sat up. I was feeling a lot betternow. My friends had taken off some of their clothes and spreadthem out in the sun. They hadalso stripped off most of my wetclothes .

We went through our pocketsand discovered that we had ,

between us, the broken penknife , anold solver pencil case without anylead in it, a piece of cord about sixyards long, a small sailmaker’sneedle , and a ship’s telescope.

And that was all !Jack suddenly started and

exclaimed :“ The oar! We’ve got forgotten the

oar ! ”“ What’s the use of that? ” asked

Peterkin .“ There’s enough wood on this

island to make a thousand oars. ”“I know,” said Jack, “but there was

a bit of hoop- iron at the end of ours,and that my be a lot of use to us.”

“ Come on, then, ” I said . “ Let’sgo and fetch it. ”

I was still a little weak from theloss of blood , but Jack lent me hisshoulder and helped me along. Myspirits rose as we walked down to thebeach. The gale had suddenly diedaway. The island was hilly andcovered with richly coloured trees andshrubs. A beach of dazzling whitesand lined this bright green shore ,and upon it there fell a gentle rippleof the sea, although a mile off acrossthe lagoon the great seas were rollingin

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and crashing upon the reef , to be

dashed into white foam and flung upin clouds of spray.



Peterkin ran on ahead anddown to the edge of the sea .Suddenly he gave a shout , andwe saw him tugging with all hismight at something that lay uponthe shore.

It was the axe which hadremained fast-so fast , indeed ,that Peterkin could not budge it .

“ What luck ! ” cried jack, andgave the axe a wrench thatplucked it out of the wood.

We carried the axe and theoar, which had some iron on theblade , black to the place wherewe had left the rest of our things ,intending to burn the wood awayfrom the iron at a moreconvenient time .

“ Now let’s go to the tail of the island , where the ship struck,and see if anything else has beenthrown ashore, ” Jack suggested.

We set off.“ What are we going to eat ?

” asked Peterkin , as we movedalong the white beach . “ I coulddo with a drink , too. ”

“ Look up there, ” answered Jack, “ and you’ll see both foodand drink. ”

He pointed to the branchedhead of a coconut palm , heavilyladen with fruit . Peterkin gave acry of delight and climbed up thetall stem of the tree as easily as a

squirrel. In a

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matter of seconds he had throwndown more than a dozen nuts.

“ Now let’s have some of thegreen , unripe ones, ” Jack called upto him –and down they came,followed by Peterkin .

We cut holes in the unripe nutswith Peterkin kin’s knife and drankgratefully of their cool, sweet milk.

“ Marvellous! ” cried Peterkin , in

high delight. “ This is the life! It’s likeParadise! ”

We went on until we came to thepoint of rocks off which the ship hadstruck , and searched carefully alongthe shore. We found nothing.

The sun was sinking when wewalked back.

As long as the daylight lasted weworked hard cutting down boughsand leaves and used them to build asort of wall all round as; then westrewed the inner floor with leavesand dry grass. On these we sat downand made our supper off the meat of coco-nuts.



All of us were yawning by thetime we had done , and we wereglad to lie back under theoverhanging palms.

That night the starry skylooked down upon sleep, and thedistant roaring of the surf uponthe reef was our lullaby.

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CHAPTER THREE

A Strange DiscoveryI was awakened by a loud

scream . I sat up, startled . Therecame a roar of laughter from Jackand Peterkin, who were alreadyon their feet and looking down atme.

“ Wh-what was it ? ” Istammered.“ A parrot, ” said Peterkin. “

It’s been sitting on a twig aboveyour head , looking into yourmouth , which was wide open ,and wondering if ought to fly in.”

I grinned and robbed my eyes . The sky was blue and the airheavy with the scent of flowers.

“ Who’s for a swim ? ” criedPeterkin.

He began tearing off hisclothes , then rushed over thewhite sands and plunged into the

water, even though he could swimonly a little, and could not dive at all.

Within ten seconds Jack and Iwere haring after him.

While Peter Enjoyed himself in theshallow water, Jack and I swam outinto the deep and

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began diving for stones. The waterwas so clear that we could see downto a depth of twenty or thirty yards .At our first dive we found ourselvesin a kind of submarine garden. Thebottom of the lagoon was coveredwith coral of every size , shape, andhue , though which sported manyfishes – blue ,red, yellow , green , andstriped – and they did not seem to bein the least afraid of us.

After a few minutes , as we bothrose to the surface, Jack gave a shout.

“ Oysters! ” he cried . “ Followme , Ralph. ”

We dived together . When Jackreached the bottom , he grasped the



coral stems and crept along on hishands and knees , peeping underthe sea – weed and among therocks. I did the same , and pickedup three or four large oysters.

Then he sprang like an arrow tothe surface , and the two of usswam lazily to the shore.

“ Breakfast , Peterkin ! ” Jackshouted , as we ran up the beach.“ Oysters , my body ! Split themopen while Ralph and I getdressed. ”

Peterkin took the oysters andopened them with the edge of ouraxe.

“ This is marvelous ! ” heexclaimed .” We’ll get a fine firegoing and roast them forbreakfast. ”

“ And how will you start thefire? ” I asked.

“ Easy ! ” said Peterkin. “ We’lluse the end

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Of the telescope as a burning –

glass. Leave it to me, my lad”We left it to him . Inside fiveminutes he had built up a fire ,and we set about roasting ouroysters . They tasted delicious.

Our next step, we decided, wasto explore our island. Since wehad no idea of what dangers we

might have to face , we cut twolarge clubs off a tree and jack

armed himself with the axe. We setoff.

To begin with we followed thebeach till we came to the entrance of a valley, though which flowed a littleriver. Here we turned our backs onthe sea and struck inland. At the headof the valley , about two miles off,stood a small mountain , all coveredwith trees except for a spot near theleft shoulder , where we could see abare and rocky cliff.

We reached the foot of themountain and were passing though agrove of banana trees , when we werestartled by a strange pattering and arumbling sound

We stopped sound.“ What’s that ? ” Peterkin cried.Jack held his axe tight in his right

hand and with the other pushed asidethe broad leaves,.

“ I can’t see anything ” he began.The rumbling sound came again ,

louder than before. We started allround, a little wild-eyed,

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expecting to see some giganticanimal bounding towards us. Then thepattering noise came again, muchcloser at hand this time. There was a



fearful crash among the bushes ,and a second later an enormousrock came hurtling through theundergrowth in a cloud of dustand small stones. It flew closepast the spot where we stood ,flattening the bushes and youngtrees in its path.

“ Gosh! Is that all? ” gaspedPeterkin, wiping the sweat fromhis forehead. “ I thought it was allthe wild man in the South SeaIslands coming at us in one grandcharge-and it was just a stonetumbling down the mountainside.”

“ If that stone had come a fewfeet this way , ” said Jack grimly, “it would have been the end of allof us ! ”

This was true , and we feltvery thankful for our escape . Onlooking at the spot more closely ,we found that it lay right underthe high cliff that we had seen . itwas clear that stones had tumbledfrom it before as they were strewnall around on the ground.

We moved forward again,having made up our minds tokeep clear of the place in future .

In a matter of minutes we wereclambering up the steep sides of the mountain . we saw , when wereached its top, that it was not thehighest point of the island , but

that another

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mountain lay beyond , and betweenthe two was a wide valley full of tall

trees. We pushed on down the hillside, crossed the valley , and began toclimb the second mountain.

We were not far from the top whenwe had our second shock of the day.

That was when Jack , who was in thelead , came to a sudden halt andgave an exclamation of surprise.

“ Look at that ! ” he cried , andpointed at the stump of a tree.

I started- and for a moment I waspuzzled. Then I saw what he meant .we were not the first to walk uponthis beautiful isle !

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Shark

We moved closer to the tree-stump and looked at it closely.

There could be no doubt at allthat it had been cut by the handof man. The wood was all decayedand partly covered with moss , sothat it must have been done along time before.

We stared at it in silence for afew seconds .

“ Perhaps a ship put in here forwood, ” said Peterkin .

Jack shook his head.“ That’s not answer, ” he

said. “ The crew of a ship wouldcut any wood they wanted closeof a ship would cut any wood theywanted close to the shore. Thiswas a large tree-and it stood nearthe top of the mountain. ” Hefrowned and scratched at thestump with his axe. “ I can’tunderstand it , ” he went on. “ Itmust be the work of savages-butwait a moment ! What’s this ? ”

He bent over the stump as hespoke and began to scrape morecarefully . As the moss fell away ,

I saw three distinct marks , as if someone

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had carved his initials upon the

trunk. They looked like J.S., but wereso broken up that we could not besure what they were.

It was all very puzzling and wespent a long time wondering how themarks had got there. Then, as the daywas wearing on, we began climbingonce more.

From the top of the mountain wecould see our kingdom laid out like amap beneath us, with all its woodsand valleys, plains and sparklingstreams . it was roughly circular inshape and about ten miles across,the whole island belted by a beach of pure white sand, on which washedthe gentle ripples of the lagoon. Outat sea lay about a dozen other islandsat various distances from half a mileto ten miles. All of them , as far aswell we could tell , were smaller thanours and much lower on the sea.

As the day was now well on weturned back the way we had come.we had not gone far when once more



we found traces of man. Thesewere a pole or staff , and one ortwo blocks of wood which hadbeen squared with an axe. Allwere very much decayed andmust have lain untouched foryears. We also found the prints of some four-footed animal , butcould not tell whether they wereold or new.

We sat up late that night ,talking our heads off and tryingto solve the riddle of the felled

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tree. As last, however , we madeup our minds that the island mustbe uninhabited, and went to bed.

For several days after we didnot go far from our camp. Webathed a lot , talked a great deal,

and, among other useful things , Jack turned about three inches of the hoop-iron into a fine sharpknife. First he beat it quite flatwith the axe. Then he made arough handle , tied the hoop-ironto it with our piece of cord , andground the iron to an edge on a

piece of hard sandstone. When

the blade was finished , he used it toshape a better handle .

Peterkin then tried using the cordas a fishing line. To the end of it hetied a piece of oyster; this the fishwere allowed to swallow , and thenthey were pulled ashore. As the linewas very short , however ,and we hadno boat , the fish we caught were allvery small.

One day Peterkin came up fromthe beach , where he had beenfishing , and said:

“ Jack , I think we ought to have ashot at making a boat. I want to gofishing in deeper water. ”

Jack thought about it for a minuteor two .

“ I’ll tell you what we could do, ”hesaid at last. “ we’ll fell a large treeand launch the trunk of it in thewater. We could all float on that. ”

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It seemed to be a good idea. Wefound a tree that grew close to the

water’s edge , and Jack set to workwith the axe. Within half an hour itcame crashing down.

“ Now for it! ” he cried.” Off with itshead ! ”

While he was lopping off thebranches , Peterkin and I shaped tworough paddles , and then the tree of us rolled the log into the lagoon.



Once it was well afloat ,weclimbed aboard. This was easy todo ; but after seating ourselvesastride the log we found that itrolled round and plunged us intothe water. It took an hour’spractice for us to become expertenough to keep our balancepretty steadily.

We decided to go deep-seafishing.

Peterkin baited his line with awhole oyster. Then we paddledout and dropped the line intodeep water.

After a minute or two Peterkingave an excited shout.

“ There’s a big fellow downthere. Gosh! He’s swallowed thebait! What a whacker ! ”

I could see that the fish was abig one. As it came struggling tothe surface we all leaned forwardto see it-and overturned the log.Peterkin threw his arms round theneck of the fish, and in anotherinstant we were all floundering inthe water.

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We rose to the surface like threedrowned rats and seized hold of

the log. One by one we climbed backon to it and sat more warily whilePeterkin secured the fish andrebaited the line. Then he dropped itin again.

Suddenly there was a ripple onthe sea, only a few yards from us.Peter shouted for us to paddle in thatdirection. As I swung up my paddle Iheard Jack give a shout that froze theblood in my veins.

“ Peterkin , pull in the line ! Grabyour paddle , quick!- It’s a shark! ”

A second later I saw a sharp finappear above the surface of thewater and cut though it towards thelog.

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CHAPTER FIVE

A Cry in the Night

We were all filled with horror.

We sat with our legs dangling inthe water and dared not pull themout for fear of upsetting the log.

Peterkin pulled in the line andgrabbed his paddle. We beganpaddling frantically for the shore,while the shark , which hadveered off a little , swam round

and round us with its sharp finsticking out of the water. I sawsuddenly , with a thrill of fear, thatit was moving closer as if attack.

Jack shouted.“ Look out! He’s coming! ”I stared at the water with

panic-stricken eyes and saw the

long sleek body dive close underus, and then the white of the bellyas the shark turned half over onhis side.

“ Splash with your paddles! ” Jack cried, and we all beat at thewater to kick up a great splashingand foaming.

For a moment the shark wasfrightened off. It went back tocircling around us.

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“ Throw him that fish, Peterkin ! ”cried Jack. “ We’ll make the shoreyet, if we can keep him off for a fewminutes. ”

Peterkin threw the fish , then pliedhis paddle once more with all his

might.I saw the fish touch the water and

had a glimpse of the white breast asthe shark rose; then the snoutappeared with its wide jaws and itsdouble row of teeth. The fish wasgone , and the shark sank back out of sight. We paddled furiously for theshore-and then the fin appearedagain and began circling close to us.

“ Stop paddling, ” Jack orderedsuddenly. “ Do as I tell you-and do itquickly. Do your best to balance thelog , and don’t look out for the shark.Leave him to me! ”

Peterkin and I did as we wereordered. For a few seconds , thatseemed like long minutes to my mind,we sat in silence; but I could not helplooking back. . . .

I saw Jack, sitting like a statue , hispaddle raised , his lips pressed tightlytogether , and his eyes glaring downinto the water. I also saw the shark,very close, darting towards Jack’s



foot. My heart was in my throat. Igave a cry. The shark rose, and Isaw Jack whip his leg out of thewater and throw it over the log,and it showed its hideous jaws. Asecond later Jack thrust hard

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down with the paddle and plungedit into the monster’s throat. As he

did so he rose to his feet so thatthe log was rolled right over andthe three of us plunged into thewater. We rose, spluttering andgasping.

“ Get ashore! ” yelled Jack. “Peterkin, grab my collar and kickout like mad ! ”

Peterkin did as he was told,and Jack struck out with suchforce that he cut through thewater like a boat. I went after himand another minute found us all inshallow water.

We flopped down on to thesand , worn out by our terrible

adventure , and much shaken bythe thought that we had run thesame danger while bathing in thelagoon. It was clear that we had todo something about that.

At last we thought of searchingfor a large pool among the rocks ,where the water would be deep

enough for diving , yet sosurrounded by rocks that no shark

could get at us. And such a pool wefound , not ten minutes’ walk fromour camp: a small, deep by with anarrow, shallow entrance that no fishas large as a shark could get through.

But there could be no more deep-sea fishing until we had made a raftor a boat. . . .

A few days later we made up ourminds to do something we had oftentalked about –to travel

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right round the island. Before we setout, however , Jack suggested that weshould arm ourselves in some way.

“ It would be a good idea to makebows and arrows, ” he said , “ andhave a shot at getting some animalfood. And there’s a certain nut thatgrows in the South Sea that the

natives call the candle-nut. I know allabout it and how to prepare it forburning ”

“ Then why don’t you do it? ”asked Peterkin.

“ Because, ” Jack answered , “ I’vegot not yet seen the tree on which itgrows. ”

“ What are the nuts like ? ” Iasked .



“ They’re about the size of awalnut; and I think the leaves arewhite. ”

Peterkin gave a start.“ I saw a tree like that today, ”

he said eagerly. “ It’s only abouthalf a mile away. ”

Jack rose and seized his axe.“ Lead me to it, ” he ordered.In a few minutes we were

pushing through the underwood of the forest, led by Peterkin .

We soon found the tree. Itsleaves were silvery white , and wefilled our pockets with the nuts.

“ Now, Peterkin, ” said Jackwhen we had

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done that, “ just climb that coco-nut tree and cut me one of thelong branches. ”

Peterkin shinned up the treeand threw down a branch aboutfifteen feet long, with a number of narrow , pointed leaflets rangeddown both sides. There was alsosomething like coarse browncotton cloth wrapped round theend of the stalk where it had beencut from the tree. This strangepiece of cloth we stripped off. Itwas about two feet long by a foot

broad , and we carried it home withus a great prize.

Jack then took one of the leafletsand cut out the central spine or stalk.Having made a small fire, he bakedthe nuts slightly , and then peeled off the husks. After that he bored a holein them with the point of our pencil-case . I watched him string the nutson the coco-nut spine and then, to myamazement , when he put a light tothe topmost nut I saw it begin to burnwith a clear, bright flame.

“ So far, so good, ” said Jack,blowing out our candle, “ but the sunwill be down in an hour , so we’ve notime to lose. I’m going to cut a youngtree to make a bow-and you’d betterfind some strong sticks for clubs.We’ll set to work on them after dark.”

We did as we were told and, whendarkness came down , we lit a candleinside the camp, sat down on ourleafy beds, and set to work.

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Jack started chipping at the piece of wood he had brought in with him,while Peterkin tried to fit a small ,sharp piece of the hoop-iron to theend of a long pole.

“ What’ s that for ? ” I asked.



“ I’m making a spear instead of a club, ” Peterkin answered.

“ Good idea , ” I said. “ I thinkI’ll change my mind too. I’m goingto make a sling out of this piece of cloth. I used to be pretty handywith a sling. ”

For some time we worked insilence. At last Peterkin looked up.

“ Jack , ” he said, “ may I havea strip of your handkerchief to tieon my spearhead? It’s pretty welltorn up already , and ”

He stopped dead and his eyeswidened. Over the island thererang out a strange and horriblecry that seemed to come from thesea.

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CHAPTER SIX

The Water-spouts

I felt a chill run up my back. Thesound came again , loud air-a longand hideous cry. We all started to ourfeet, and stared out across the sea.

The moon had risen and we could seethe islands in and beyond the lagoon,but there was nothing stirringanywhere. The sound died away whilewe were gazing at the sea.

“ What is it ? ” asked Peterkin, in alow, frightened whisper.

“ I’ve heard it before, ” said Jack ,“ but never as loud as that. I thoughtI might have imagined it, so I saidnothing to you. ”

We listened for a long time, butthe sound was not made again. Wesat down and started work once more, all of us a little uneasy.

There was a silence.“ Ralph, do you believe in ghosts?

” asked Peterkin at last.I shook my head.“ No , ” I said. “ I don’t ! ”

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“ What about you , Jack ? ”

“ I don’t either. I don’t know whatmade that sound , but I’ll find outbefore long. Now, I’ve finished

my bow and arrows, so if you’reready , we’d better get to sleep. ”

By this time Peterkin had thinneddown his spear and tied an ironpoint to the end of it, I had madea sling from plaited strips of thecoconut cloth, and jack had madea strong bow, nearly five feetlong, with several arrows thathe’d feathered from plumesdropped by birds.

So it was that we were all wellarmed when we set out on ourexpedition the next morning. Theday was still and peaceful , its

silence broken only by the littletwitter of birds among the bushesand the distant boom of the surf upon the reef.

Half a mile’s walk took us round abend in the land which shut ourcamp from view, and for some

time we strode on withoutspeaking, till we reached themouth of a valley that we had notexplored before. We were aboutto turn into it when Peterkinstopped and pointed along theshore.

“ What’s that? ” he said.

As he spoke , I saw a white column of something like steam or pray shootup above the rocks. It hung there fora moment and then

27disappeared. The odd thing was thatit was about fifty yards inland, amongrocks that stretched across the sandybeach to the sea. As we stoodgaping , a second column flew up fora few seconds-and disappeared.

Jack started forward.

“ Come on, ” he said. “ Let’s seewhat it is. ”

We reached the spot in a couple of minutes. The rocks were high andsteep and damp with the falling of spray. Here and there were holes inthe ground. We looked round ,puzzled , as there came a low ,rumbling sound near us. It grew into agurgling and hissing that seemed tocome from under our feet and amoment later a thick spout of waterburst from a hole in the rock only afew feet off. We sprang to one side,but not before a cloud of spray haddrenched us to the skin.

Peterkin , who had been well clear,gave a roar of laughter.

“ Mind your eye! ” he shouted. “ There goes another! ”



At the same instant a spout shotfrom another hole and drenchedus even more.

Peterkin was now doubled up with

laughter , but suddenly therecame a loud hiss and a fiercespout of water burst under hislegs, threw him off his feet ,drenched him in spray, andlanded him a clump of tangledbushes.

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It was our turn to laugh; then thethree of us ran from the spotbefore we were caught again.We looked at our wet and dripping

clothes.“ We’ll have to make a fire anddry them, ” said Jack ruefully.I carried the burning-glass in mypocket, and in a few minutes wehad a fire going and our clotheshanging up before it. While theywere drying we walked down to

the beach and we soon found outthat these curious spoutings tookplace after the fall of a wave. Wedecided that there must be anunderground channel in the rocks,that the water was driven into it,and that, having no way of escapeexcept through the holes, it was

forced up through them.We moved along the cliff a bit.

Suddenly Jack gave a shout. I ran tothe overhanging ledge of rock fromwhich he was looking down into thesea.“ What’s that in the water ? ” heasked. “ Is it a shark ? ”Down in the water I could see a faint ,pale object of a greenish colour ,which seemed to be moving slightly.“ It’s a fish of some sort, ” I said.

Jack turned and yelled for Peterkin.“ Bring your spear, ” he bawled.Peterkin did so but she spear was tooshort for us to reach the object withit, so Jack

29

Raised it, drove into his water, and letgo his hold. He must have missed.When the spear rose again , therewas the pale green object in the samespot, slowly moving its tail.

We took it in turn to plunge the spearinto the water again and again , butwe could neither hit the thing notdrive it away. We continued our

journey without discovering what itwas.

As we moved on along the little valleywe were lucky enough to find a largesupply of yams, and another root likea potato. We stuffed our pockets outwith them , planning to eat them forour supper.

This valley took us into another ,larger , one, in which we found a



clump of chestnuts growing onthe bank of a stream. Jack struckhis axe into one with all his forceand split off a large slice of wood,to satisfy him that we could cutshort planks if we needed them ata later date.

The sun was sinking as wewended our way back towards theshore. We wanted to camp nearthe beach because themosquitoes were so troublesome

in the forest. As we went , wewere startled by a loud, whistlingnoise above our heads and saw aflock of wild-ducks making for thecoast. We watched them, sawwhere they came down , andfollowed after them until wereached a most lovely blue lake

about two

30

hundred yards long, from which

rose a cloud of ducks , whilePeterkin went on to the shore andbuilt a fire. Jacksuggested that he and I should goa little out of our way to see if wecould shoot one of the ducks,while Peterkin went on to theshore and built a fire. We

saw nothing more of the ducksthough we searched for half an

hour , and we were about to startback when we were faced with one of the strangest sights we had yet seenon the island.It was on the edge of a clearing.About ten yards in front of us grew ahuge tree, with clusters of brightyellow fruit hanging from itsbranches. Under the tree lay at leasttwenty hogs of all ages and sizes , allfast asleep.

We watched them for a second , then

Jack put a hand on my arm.

“ Put a stone in your sling, ” hewhispered , “ and let fly at that bigfellow with his back to you . I’ll try toput an arrow in one of the others.Don’t miss if you can help it, for webadly need the meat. ”

I slung my stone with such a goodaim that it smacked against the hog’sflank as if against a drum. The animalstarted to its feet with a squeal of surprise, and scampered awaythrough the trees. At the same instant

Jack’s bow twanged and an arrowpinned one of the little pigs to theground by its ear.

31

“ He’s getting away, ” Jack yelled, anddarted forward with uplifted axe.

The little pig gave a loud squeal , torethe arrow from the ground , and ran

away with it, along with the wholedrove. We went crashing through the



bushes after them, but wereunable to catch them.

“ No pork supper tonight, ” said Jack ruefully . “ We’d better hurry

up and look for Peterkin. ”We worked our way back towardsthe shore , where we found a fireburning , but no sing of Peterkinat all. Jack gave a shout. As if inanswer , we heard a distantshriek, followed by a chorus of squeals from the hogs.

“ I believe Peterkin’s run intothem, ” I said excitedly.

There was a great deal of squealing , and then a distantshout. Along the beach we sawPeterkin walking towards us with

a little pig struck on the end of hislong spear.

“ Peterkin, you’re the best shotamong us, ” said Jack , giving hima slap on the shoulder.

Peterkin held out the pig andpointed to its ear.

“ Do you see that hole ? ” hesaid. “ and do you know thisarrow, eh? You hit him first. Butnever mind that. I’m hungry! Let’s go get supper going. ”

32

It took us some time , however , tomake up our minds how to cook thepig. We had never cut one up before,and we did not know how to begin. Inthe end , we cut off the legs with theaxe , along with a large part of theflesh, made some deep gashes inthem , thrust a sharp-pointed stickthrough each , and stuck them upbefore the blaze to roast. While theywere cooking, we scraped a hole inthe sand and ashes under the fire, putin the vegetables we had found, andcovered them up.

The meal , when cooked , seemed totaste better than anything we hadever eaten before. We had our full ,then lay down to sleep upon a couch

of branches under an overhangingshelf of rock. We slept soundly andwell that night-happily unaware of thegruesome discovery that we were tomake the next day.

33



CHAPTER SEVEN

The Hut

The sun was already high whenwe awoke. We all felt strong andwell and made a good breakfastoff cold pork and fruit .

We set out , but had not gonemore than a mile or so, when , aswe turned a point that showed usa new and beautiful cluster of islands beyond the reef , we heardthe appalling cry that had soalarmed us a few nights before.

We stood stockstill. The soundcame again, louder than before.

“ It’s coming from one of thoseislands ” said Jack.

We all peered towards the islands.And then I jumped with surprise.On the shore of the largest I couldsee some curious objects moving.At that distance they looked likean army of soldiers, marching in

lines and squares. Even as westared , that dreadful cry cameagain across the water.

And then Jack laughed.

“ They’re penguins, ” he said. “It’s their

34

cry we’ve been hearing. Whenwe’ve built our boat we’ll go over andhave a look at them. “We went on our way , much lighterat heart for having solved themystery of the ghostly cry.It was that afternoon that we foundthe footprints of a small animal ,which were something like those of adog. There were a lot of them, whichseemed too wide to have been madeby the animal itself. We followedthem and had gone some way whenwe came upon an open space and

heard a faint cry. We all started insurprise. On the track before us stooda small black animal.

“ It’s a wild-cat! ” cried Jack, and letfly with an arrow.

He missed. The arrow struck the earthabout two feet to one side. The wild-

cat, to our surprise, did not bolt away,but walked slowly towards the arrowand sniffed at it.

“ It’s tame ! ” cried Peterkin.

“ I think it’s blind , ” I said. “ Look , itkeeps walking into branches as itmoves along. It must be very old. ”



We hurried towards it. It did nothear our footsteps until we wereright up to it, seeming deaf aswell as blind. It gave a hoarsemew.

Peterkin went over and patted itshead.

35

“ Poor old thing ! ” he said gently.“ Poor pussy; chee, chee, chee ;

puss, puss , puss, cheetie pussy !”

The cat stood still and let himstroke it, then rubbed itself against his legs , purring loudly allthe time. Peterkin lifted it in hisarms.

“ It’s no more a wild-cat than Iam , ”he said. “ Poor pussy ! ”

We watched in amazement as thecat rubbed its head againstPeterkin’s cheek , and mewedand purred to show its pleasure.It was quite clear that the poor

animal had known man before ,and was showing its joy atmeeting human beings.

At last we decided to follow thetrack, and went on with Peterkincarrying the cat. After fifty yardor so the track turned to the rightand wandered for a short spacealong the banks of a stream. We

were quite startled when we came toa spot where there must once havebeen a crude bridge , the stones of which were now scattered in thestream. We moved on, moreexpectant now, until , under theshelter of some bread-fruit trees, wecame upon a small hut.

We stopped and stood for a long timein silent wonder. Here was a deep andmelancholy stillness about the place,a kind of sadness about this broken ,

lonely hut so far from the

37

usual dwellings of man. It was

roughly twelve feet long and sevenor eight feet high. It had one openingfor a window and the door was verylow. The roof was of coco-nut andplantain leaves. Most of it was in astate of decay.

We stood and talked in whispersbefore any of us dared go near theplace. Then Jack stole forward andtried to peer in though the window.He could see nothing in the deepshadow of the trees, so we lifted therusty iron latch and pushed the dooropen. It gave an eerie creak as itswung back. We entered and gazed

around us.



As my eyes grew used to the dimlight I made out a wooden stoolstanding beside a roughly hewntable , on which stood an ironpot. Then my gaze moved on andmy heart gave a sudden,frightened leap. In the cornerfarthest from the door was a lowbedstead , and on it lay theskeleton of a man.

38

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Diamond Cave

For long, long moments we stoodstaring in the awful stillness of theplace ; then Jack stepped forwardto the bed and we followed himwith beating hearts.

There were two skeletons , I saw ,lying in a little heap of dust. Onewas that of a men , and theother that of a dog, its head

resting on its master’s chest. Wesearched the hut for some clue to

the identity of this poor man , but wefound nothing that helped at all.

We talked about him in whispers. Isaid that he must have been a

shipwrecked sailor , cast away withonly his cat and dog for company.

There seemed to be no other answer.

Then came a sudden exclamationfrom Peterkin , who was turning overa heap of broken wood and rubbishthat lay in a corner.

“ Look here! These should be useful. ”

“ What are they? ” asked Jack,hastening across the room.

“ An old pistol and an axe , ” Peterkinreplied.

39

“ We might as well take them, ” said Jack quietly, “ though the gun won’tbe any use without powder. ”

We took these things and the iron potwith us. Peter lifted the cat and weleft the hut. As we did so, Jackstumbled heavily against the door-post, which was so decayed that itbroke across, and the whole hut



seemed ready to tumble aboutour ears. This put it down and letit form a grave for the skeletons.

Jack swung his axe at the other

door-post and brought the wholehut in ruins to the ground. Wecontinued our journey , though wedid not recover our good spirits tillwe got back to our camp, late onthe next day.

For several weeks after this wewere busy cutting and shapingwood with which to make a boat.And then one morning, after wehad bathed and eaten, Peterkinrose and said:

“ I could do with a rest. I’m tiredof cutting and hammering. Let’sdo something different today. ”

“ All right, ” said Jack. “ Whatshall we do ? ”

I was the first to answer.

“ Do you remember the greenthing we saw in the water close tothe water-spouts? Let’s see if it’s

still there. ”40

The others readily agreed, and wetook up our weapons and set out.When we reached the place andgazed down into the sea , therewas the same pale green object

moving its tail to and fro in thewater.

“ Well, this beats everything ! ” saidPeterkin. “ Let’s have another shot atmoving it with my spear. ”

A second later his spear flashed down

into the water. Down it went, straightinto the centre of the green object,passed right through it, and came upagain. Below us the mysterious tailstill moved quietly to and fro.

We looked at each other.

“ I don’t think it’s alive at all, ” said

Jack. “ I think it’s merely a light.Anyway, as long as it isn’t a sharkthere’s no reason why we shouldn’tdive down to it. I’m going to have alook. ”

He stripped off his clothes, joined hishands above his head, and plunged

into the sea. For a second or so hewas hidden by the spray of his dive;then the water became still and wesaw him swimming far down towardsthe green object.

And then he vanished !

We held our breath and waited for

him to reappear. A minute passed,two , three-and still he did not come.we waited a little longer,

41

and then a panic took hold of me.Peterkin started to his feet , his face



deadly pale.“ Ralph ! ” he said hoarsely. “ Heneeds help. Dive for him , Ralph. ”I was already on my feet. In amoment I was poised on the edgeof the rocks, and was on the pointof diving when I saw somethingblack shooting up through thewater. Another second and Jack’shead rose to the surface. He gavea shout and shook the spray fromhis hair; then I put out an armand helped him clamber up to theledge.He sank down, panting for breath.

“ Jack, ” cried Peterkin , and therewere tears in his eyes, “wherewere you? ”

Jack grinned.

“ Lads, ” he said, “ that greenobject is a stream of light thatcomes from a cave in the rocksunderneath us. I swan right intoit, saw a faint light above me ,darted up, and found my head outof water. At first I couldn’t seemuch , it was so dark; but whenmy eyes got used to the light , Ifound that I was in a big cave. Icould see part of the walls andthe roof. I had a good lookround ; then I thought that youtwo might be getting a bit worried, so I shot back up again. ”

This was enough to make me went tosee the cave , but Jack told me to waitfor a minute or

42two because he wanted to take downa torch, and set fire to it in the cave.

I waited while he cut some strips of inflammable bark off a tree , andcemented them together with a kindof gum from another tree. When this

was ready , he wrapped it up inseveral pieces of the coco-nut cloth;then he took a small piece of thetinder from the old pistol we hadfound , rolled up some dry grass, andmade another bundle protected bythe cloth.

At last we were ready. We walked tothe edge of the rocks , Jack carryingone bundle and I the other. Peterkin ,who could not dive , watched us witha mournful face.

“Don’t worry about us, Peterkin,” said Jack. “ We may not be back for half anhour. ”

The next moment we sprang from therock together.

It was easy to find the entrance tothe cave. I watched Jack swimthrough, then went straight afterhim. There was light above me. Icame up to the surface and trodwater , holding my bundle above my



head. As soon as our eyes wereused to the faint light , we swamto a shelf of rock and clamberedout on to it.

Inside five minutes our torchflared into life. I gazed all roundme, struck dumb by the wondersit showed.

The whole place flashed andgleamed. Its

43

roof was made of coral, and fromit hung glistening icicles that werereally a sort of limestone. As wewalked forward along the ledgewe saw that the floor was made of

the same stuff; its surface allrippled like water when ruffled bythe wind.

In the walls on either hand wereseveral openings that seemed tolead off into other caves, butthese we did not explore . wemoved far into the big cavern,without reaching the end of it. Itswalls and roof sparkled in theglare of the torch, and threw backgleams and flashes just as if theywere covered with preciousstones.

We turned back when the torch

began to burn down. What was

left of it we placed in a dry spot. Thenwe plunged back off the ledge, divedthrough the entrance , and shot up tothe surface.

As we dressed and walked home wetried to tell Peterkin all about thewonders of our Diamond cave , littleguessing then how much use it wouldprove to be in a moment of urgentdanger. . . .

44

CHAPTER NINE

Penguin Island

Our boat, at last, was finished.

It looked a clumsy thing, but it did ourhearts good to see it. Its planks were

of chestnut, and its keel made from asmall tree which had a branchgrowing at the proper angle aboutten feet up its stem. The planks werenailed to the keel with wooden pegs,driven hard through holes that wehad bored through the timber with alength of red-hot hoop-iron. The oars

we blocked out roughly with the axe;



then we smoothed them downwith the knife.

It was a bright clear morningwhen we first launched the boat

upon the lagoon. The sea was likea sheet of glass, and in its depthsshone the brilliant corals. Werowed and fished for an hour ortwo and found that the boathandled surprisingly well.

“ The next thing, ” said Jack, “is to make a mast and sail. I’ll seeto the mast and you two

45

can collect coco-nut cloth for thesail. Let’s get to work .”

In three days we had set up themast and sail. The sail was madeof a number of oblong pieces of cloth that we had sewn togetherwith our needle. It workedperfectly , and we cruised about

over the lagoon , fishing , andwatching for hours the gambols of

the brightly coloured fish that swamamong the corals and sea-weed.

Soon after we’d finished the boat ,we were sitting on the rocks at

Spouting Cliff , and talking about asail we planned to make to PenguinIsland , on the very next day. As wesat there I noticed a dark line, like alow cloud of fogbank, on the seawardhorizon. The day was fine, thoughcloudy , and the seas breaking on thereef were no higher than usual. We

thought a storm might be brewing ,and kept our eyes on that strangedark line that seemed to draw nearerwithout spreading up over the sky. Itmoved swiftly, but there was nosound till it reached an island out atsea. At its touch a cloud of whitefoam burst in spray that rose high in

the air. There was a loud roar andthen, for the first time, we realizedthat we were calmly gazing at amonster wave , sweeping in towardsus.

We sprang to our feet.

“ Run! ” Jack shouted. “ Quickly-geton high ground ! ”

46

We hared towards a hill that rosebehind us, and scrambled to itssummit. There we turned, wide-eyedand panting , in time to see the greatwave strike the reef.



It burst right over with a roar likethunder, then rolled on towardsthe shore. Its great crest seemedto rear higher, and then, with acrash that shook the solid rocks ,it fell. In that moment it seemedas if all the earth had been blownup with water. We were stunnedand confused by the shock, andblinded by flying spray. The waveswept across the beach anddashed into the woods, smashingdown trees and bushes and itsheadlong course.

As soon as the water had flowedback , we tore down the hill ,afraid that our camp might havebeen swept away , and that ourboat, which we had pulled up onto the beach , might have been

utterly destroyed. The camp, wefound, was safe , for the wavehad not flowed that far , thoughthere were torn-up bushes andtangled heaps of sea-weed only afew feet from the entrance.

Our next thought was for the

boat. we hurried down to thebeach and found that it was gone.

We started towards the woods,our eyes searching everywherefor some sign of the missing boat.

Then Peterkin gave a shout.

“ Jack! What sort of fruit is that

growing on top of that bushthere ? ”

47

We stared and saw our boatperched upside-down on the top of a large bush. Luckily it was notdamaged in any way, though it washard work to get it out of the bushand down to the sea an again.

The weather next morning was sogood, and the sea so quiet, that wemade up our minds to sail across toPenguin Island as we had planned.We rowed over the lagoon towardsthe outlet in the reef , and slippedbetween the two green islets thatguarded the entrance. We shippedsome water in the surf , but thenfound ourselves floating smoothlyenough on a long oily swell.We had about twenty mile to go.Rowing was hard work , but after wehad covered a mile or two a breezegot up , so we spread our sail andflew merrily over the waves.As we drew close to the island, wewere much amused by the antics of

the penguins as they strutted to andfro, or marched in ranks like soldiers. There were thousands of them on therock, and the noise they made wasdeafening. We pulled in to a fewyards of them , and lay there for morethan an hour watching the habits of these curious birds. Finally we all

decided that they were the mostwonderful creatures in the world.



It was late afternoon when weturned away

48

from the island. We had made upour minds to camp for the nighton another smaller island onwhich we could see a few coco-nut trees growing , about twomiles off.

The sky darkened as we went.Before were half-way the breeze

had freshened until it was blowinga gale. It was not dead against us,but it checked us very much , andthe waves began to rise and rolltheir broken crests against theboat so that she took in water,and we had much ado to keepourselves afloat.

With sinking hearts we at lastrealized that we could never makethe island. Jack put the boataround and called for the sail tobe hoisted, meaning to run backto Penguin Island.

“ If we can get there , we’ll atleast have the shelter of thebushes, ” he said.

Even as he spoke the wind shiftedand began to blow so muchagainst us that it was clear that itwould not be easy to beat up forthe island. The gale came in

sudden squalls that more thanonce nearly tipped us over.

“ You’ll have to take in sail, ” Jackshouted above the wind.

Peterkin and I hurried to obey. Wehad the sail down in a moment but

were then struck by a sudden squallthat left the boat half full of water. Istarted baling , while Peterkin againraised a corner of the sail.

49

Several minutes passed. When I hadfinished baling, I sat up and staredaround me. In that moment the awfultruth dawned upon me. It would beimpossible for us to reach PenguinIsland. Our small and leaky boat wasbeing swept out into the ocean.

50



CHAPTER TEN

Cannibals

I was scared stiff.

At any moment one of the hugewaves which curled over inmasses of foam might swallow upthe boat. Water kept washing overthe sides and I had to keep onbaling, for Jack dared not leavethe helm or Peterkin the sail.

Several minutes passed. Thencame a shout from Jack.

“ Look-a rock- or an island-straight ahead ! ”

Hope sprang up inside me. I baledfuriously, then sat up and lookedahead. I had not seen the islandbefore because of the dark cloudsthat filled the sky , and theblinding spray that flew into myeyes.

The island was bare of trees-a seapounded stretch of coral sand thatrose only two or three feet out of thewater. And my heart sank again whenI saw that there was not a spot wherewe could thrust our little boat withoutits being dashed to pieces.

51

“ Show a bit more sail, ” Jack ordered,

as we went sweeping past theweather side of the rock with fearfulspeed.

The extra bit of sail was enough to laythe boat right over. It creaked soloudly that I felt sure it wouldoverturn , but somehow Jackmanaged to steer us sharply round tothe leeward side of the rock, wherethe water seemed almost calm andthe force of the wind was broken.

“ out with the oars ! ” Jack cried.

We obeyed at once. Two or threegood strong pulls and we werefloating in a little creek so narrow thatit would barely admit the boat. Here



we leaped ashore and made ourcraft fast to the rocks. Even thenour plight was far from happy. Wehad brought plenty of food withus, but we were drenched to theskin, the attacking sea wasfoaming all round us, and thespray flew high over our heads. Atthe upper end of his creek,however, was a small hollow inthe rock, which would give ussome shelter against the fury of the sea and wind.

We landed our provisions, wrungthe water out of our clothing ,spread our sail for a carpet , andate a cold meal. By then we werefeeling more cheerful, but as nightdrew on our spirits sank again.

52

We lay there in the darkness ,unable to see the rock , andstunned by the fury of the storm.

From time to time the spray blewinto our faces and the sea, in itsmad boiling , washed up into ourlittle creek until it reached ourfeet. Flashes of lighting shonewith a ghastly glare through thewatery curtains around us andgave an added horror to the scene

, while crashing peals of thunderseemed to split the skies in two.

Again and again we fancied that thesolid rock was giving way, and in ouragony we clung to the bare ground,expecting every second to be whirledaway into the black , howling sea.

Somehow the hours dragged by, andat last we saw the gleam of dawnbreaking through the mists. The end,however, was not yet. . . .

For three days and nights we werechained to that rock, and all the timethe storm raged with unabated fury.

Then , on the morning of the fourthday, the wind dropped. By the middleof the morning the sea was dead calmand the sun was shining.

It was with light hearts that welaunched our boat once more andpulled away for Coral Island. The

breeze rose an hour later, but we didnot reach the outer reef till dusk. Themoon and stars were shining in thesky when we came

53

to our camp and found the poor oldblack cat curled up asleep inside.For many months after we livedhappily enough. Sometimes we wentfishing in the lagoon , sometimes wehunted in the woods , and often weclimbed to the mountain –top to look

for passing ships. Theweather was so fine, our island so



beautiful , that it all seemed likea never-ending summer-untilthere happened something thatwas alarming and horrible.It was when we were sitting onthe rocks at Spouting Cliff one daythat I noticed the two dark objectsthat had appeared on the horizon.We stared at them for a long time.“ They’re coming closer, ” I said.“ I think they’re whales, ” saidPeterkin, shading his eyes with hishands. “ No, wait – canthey be boats, Jack ? ”

Jack gazed out across the sea.

“ They are boats, ” he said atlast

I felt my heart begin to poundwith excitement.

We were all on our feet now,staring out across the sunlit sea.Suddenly Jack gave a start.

“ They’re canoes, ” he said. “ theymay be war-canoes. I don’t likethe look of this. We mustn’tforget that a lot of the natives of

54

these islands are fierce cannibals.We’d better hide until we knowwhat to make of them. Come on –behind the rocks! ”

a minute later we lay hidden,

each one of us with a thick club in

his hand and his eyes on theapproaching canoes.

It was soon clear that one waschasing the other. The one in the lead

held about forty people, among thema few women and children. The canoewhich pursued them held only men,who were paddling with all theirmight. It looked like a war-canoe.

The first canoe made for the shorealmost right below us. The paddlesflashed in and out of the water andthrew up a shower of spray. Fromwhere I lay I could see the eyes of thepaddlers glistening in their blackfaces. As the canoe grounded on thesand, the whole party sprang to theshore. Three women and a girl rushedaway into the woods, while the mencrowded to the water’s edge , wavingspears and clubs as if to threaten theapproaching enemy.

The second canoe came onunchecked. It struck the beach , andits savage crew leaped into the waterand rushed to the attack.

The attackers were led by a tall,strong chief whose hair was frizzedout all round his head. It was lightyellow in colour , and , since his bodywas as black as coal, I cold only

55



think that it must have been dyed.He was tattooed from head tofoot, his whole body smeared andstreaked with red and white paint.

The battle that followed wasfrightful to watch. Most of the menwielded great clubs , with whichthey dashed out each other’sbrains.

As they leaped and bounded andpounced for the kill, they lookedmore like devils than humanbeings. I felt my heart grow sickwithin me at the awful sights Isaw.

Suddenly the yellow-haired chief was attacked by a man as bigand strong as himself. the twofought like demons , and then in

an instant Yellow Hair tripped andcrashed down to the ground. Hisenemy sprang forward; clubupraised, but before he couldstrike him, too, was felled to theground by a stone from the handof one who had seen his chief'sdanger.

That was the turning point. Thesavages who had landed firstturned and fled towards thewoods, but not one of themescaped. all were overtaken anddragged to the ground. Fifteenwere seized alive, tied hand and

foot with cords, and thrown downupon the sand. Then they were

left where they lay while their captorsmoved along the beach and begandressing their wounds and three orfour of their number was

56

sent running into the woods to searchfor the women we had seen comeashore.

Still we stayed behind our rock. I sawanother of the savages go up into the

woods and return with a great bundleof firewood. He crouched down uponthe sand and soon had a big fireblazing on the beach. Yellow Hairgave a shout, and two of hisfollowers went over to the captivesand began dragging one of themtowards the fire.

A dreadful feeling of horror crept overme. I could see that these savagesmeant to burn their enemies. Igasped for breath and made to springto my feet, but Jack grabbed hold of me and held me where I was. Asecond later one of the savages

swung up his club to smash it downon the skull of his enemy. It washorrible. I turned away, and when Ilooked again Yellow hair and his menwere roasting something over the fire.I could guess what it was . . . .

There came a scream from thewoods. A minute later two of thesavages came out of the woods, one



dragging by the hair a womanwho carried a baby in her arms,and the other struggling with thegirl we had already seen.

Yellow Hair rose and walkedtowards the woman. He put hishand upon the child. The womanwailed in fear and shrank awayfrom him. he let out a wild laugh ,tore the child from

57

her arms , and threw it down uponthe sands. the mother shriekedand crumpled in a faint.

I heard Jack moan.

The young girl was draggedforward , and Yellow Hair spoke toher. It seemed to me , by the wayhe pointed to the fire, that he wasthreatening her life.

a great hatred took hold of me.

" Peterkin, " said Jack, in a hoarsewhisper, " have you got yourknife ? "

"Yes , " replied Peterkin in astrange voice.

I looked at him and saw that hewas as white as death.

"Listen, " said Jack between histeeth, "I want you to make a dash

for the prisoners, and cut them

loose. I'll keep the others busy. goon , before it's too late. "

He raised, his great club gripped inhis hand. I heard him give a yell that

rang like a death- shriek among therocks. he went leaping towards thesavages.

"Come on, " cried Peterkin to me ,and the two of us went darting acrossthe sands towards the prisoners.

5

8

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The " Jolly Roger "

As I dropped beside the first of thebound men I looked over my shoulderand saw jack rushing upon YellowHair, swinging his club.

The chief leaped back as quickly as acat, and at the same time aimed ablow at jack. now it was Jack's turn tospring aside , and then two of themwere at it hammer and tongs.

I tore at the cords that held the man'slegs, while Peterkin went along the

line slashing away with his knife.when I looked up again I saw yellow



hair swing up his club. Then Jackdarted in and struck the savagebetween the eyes with all hisforce. Yellow hair fell forward and

Jack , staggering , went downbeneath the body of the chief.

The other savages yelled withfury. A dozen clubs were swunghigh , ready to crush Jack's skull ,but the men hesitated for amoment , as of afraid to striketheir chief.

That moment saved Jack's life. Allthe prisoners were free, andPeterkin and I led them

59

across the sands , in a howling,shrieking mob, grabbing forstones and fallen clubs as wewent.

A fierce hand-to hand strugglefollowed. Seven of Yellow Hair'smen went down beneath the clubsof the prisoners , who knew wellenough that they were fighting fortheir lives. Our enemies weretaken completely by surprise and ,I think , felt disheartened because

of the fall of their chief. they werealso overawed by the sweeping

fury of Jack , who had no soonershaken himself free of the chief'sbody than he rushed into the midst of them and struck down three men inas many blows. Insideten minute all our opponents werewither knocked down or madeprisoners , bound hand and foot, andstretched out in a line upon theseashore. Westood there, breathing hard, while thesavages crowded around and

jabbered away in their own tongue ,which sounded so strange to ourears . I saw Jack take hold of the handof the big man who was their chief (and who seemed to have recoveredfrom the blow that had struck himdown ) and shake it warmly to showthat we were friends. then his eyesfell upon the poor child that had beenthrown upon the shore. Dropping thechief's hand, he hurried towards itand found that it was still alive. Itsmother was lying upon the sandwhere she had fallen , and Jack

60

carried the baby to her and laid itswarm little cheek on hers. the effectwas wonderful. The woman openedher eyes , felt the child , let out ascream of joy, and clasped the babyin her arms.

Jack turned away.



"Come on, ' he said to Peterkinand me. " Let's take them to thecamp and hunt up some food. "

Within half an hour all the

savages were seated on theground in front of our campmaking a hearty meal off a coldfish, and an unlimited supply of fruits.

As soon as we had eaten, wethree, who now felt thoroughlyexhausted, threw ourselves downon our beds and fell fast asleep.

Then the savages followed ourexample , and in a little while thewhole camp was lost to the world.

The sun was up when I awoke ,and the savages were alreadyastir. We made a cold breakfast;

then Jack signed to the savages tofollow him down to the beach ,where we had left the prisonersforgotten overnight.

They seemed none the worse of their night on the shore and theyate greedily of the food we gave

them. Jack then began to dig ahole in the sand with one of thenative paddles and after workingat it for some time , he pointed toit and to the dead bodies that stilllay stretched

61

out upon the beach. The savages sawwhat he wanted, ran for theirpaddles , and inside an hour had duga hole big enough to make a commongrave. The savages stayedwith us for three days. during thattime we made every effort to talkwith them , but all we could learn wasthat their chief was named Tararoand that the young girl was calledAvatea. On the fourth daythe whole party made ready todepart. We helped them to load theircanoe with fruit and provisions , andto put the prisoners in it. Since wecould not speak to say good-bye , wewent though the ceremony of shakinghands. As soon as Tararo had donethat, however , he took hold of Jackand rubbed noses with him. Then hedid the same to Peterkin and me. Ididn't think that was much fun.

Avatea was the last to take leave of us . Going up to Jack, she put out herflat little nose to be rubbed , thenturned to me. I thought that wasmuch more enjoyable . . . .

Two hours later the canoe was out of sight and we were left with an oddfeeling of sadness creeping round ourhearts.

But he days passed by once more,and at last we began to think of thevisit of the savages as if it had allbeen a terrible dream -until , that is,



62

there happened something thatwas even more of a

nightmare. . . .One afternoon Jack and I weresunning ourselves on the beach ,while Peterkin was clamberingabout on a low cliff behind.Suddenly he gave a shout of thewildest excitement. we started up,wondering at the urgency in hisvoice.

"A sail ! 'he yelled. "Jack ! Ralph ! There's a ship coming this way!"

We clawed our way up the cliff towhere he stood. there , rightenough , was a schooner , outside

the reef , but making for theisland under a steady breeze.

We were mad with excitement.

The ship came on rapidly. In lessthan an hour she was close to thereef , where she rounded to andbacked her topsails as if to survey

the coast. We were all leapingand dancing and waving ourarms , dreadfully afraid that weshould not be seen. Then , to ourgreat joy , we saw men beginningto lower a boat.

" They've seen us, " yelledPeterkin. "They 're comingashore ! "

And then several things happened allat once.

A flag was suddenly run up to theschooner; s peak, a little cloud of

white smoke seemed to flower fromher side , and an instant later acannon-shot came crashing throughthe bushes

63

and burst in atoms against the cliff , a

few yards below the spot on which westood. For a moment we werefrozen to the spot, filled with asudden terror. The flag , we couldsee, was black, with a skull and cross-bones picked out upon it in white. Itwas the "Jolly Roger ", the pirate flagfeared upon all the seven seas.

"Pirates! " we said together.the boat had now shot away from theschooner's side and was making forthe entrance to the lagoon.

I looked at Jack.

"What are we going to do ? " I asked.

"Hide, " he said grimly. "We don'twant to fall into their hands. Comeon-quickly ! "

he tore off onto the woods and led us,by a winding path to Spouting Cliff.Here he stopped , crept up behind arock , and peered round its edge. I didthe same and saw the boat, crowdedwith men , just running ashore. In



another instant the crew hadlanded and was running uptowards our camp.

A minute or so later we saw them

hurrying back towards the boat,one of them swinging our poor catround his head by its tail. Whenhe reached the edge of the sea ,he tossed it far out into thewater , and moved towards hisfriends, roaring with laughter.

64

"You see what we can expect fromthem , " said Jack bitterly. "If theydecide to search the island ,there's only one place we can go -down into the Diamond Cave. "

Peterkin started."What about me ?" he said. "Ican't dive down there - "

"We'll take you down , " said Jack . "You'll just have to make upyour mind to it. There's nowhereelse we can hide. "

Peterkin gulped.

" All right, " he said "I'll do it.Come on !"

We crouched low and haredtowards the spot from which wealways dived to the cave. Beforewe had gone far a hoarse shoutcame from the beach : the pirates

had seen us. We sprang down to theledge and Jack and I seized Peterkinby the arms.

"Keep quite still , Peterkin, " said Jack,

urgently. "Take a deep breath - anddon’t struggle. Let us take you. "

Peterkin nodded. His face was set ,and he looked ready to go thoughwith anything.

"Right! "said Jack. "Now ! "

As the pirates gained the foot of therocks, which hid us for a momentfrom their view , we bent over the seaand plunged down together headforemost. Peterkin behaved like ahero.

65

He floated between us as stiff as a logof wood. We shot though the tunneland rose into the cave more quicklythan I had ever done it before.

We all took a long , deep breath andthen scrambled out of the water. Jackgroped around for the torch andtinder which we always kept in thecave. Within two or three minutes thetorchlight was revealing to Peterkinthe wonders he had never yet seen.

We decided that we should have tospend the night in the cave. At oddtimes jack and I had carried coco-nuts

and other fruits down to the cave ,partly because we had an idea that



we might be driven there by thesavages one day and knew that if that happened we should be gladof a store of food. We wedged ourtorch in a crack in the rock andate our supper , then sat andtalked in whispers until the dimlight that came though theentrance died away , and weknew that it was night . Then weput out our torch and settleddown to sleep.

When I awoke I found it hard toremember where we were. Wecould see by the faint light thatday had dawned , but we had noidea of the hour.

"One of us ought to dive out andhave a look round, " Jacksuggested. "I'll go. "

"No , " I said. "You stay here. You've

66

done enough for us already. Letme take a few risks for a change."

"All right, " Jack agreed. "But keepa sharp look-out. "

"Don't get caught, "whispered

Peterkin.

while the words were still sounding inmy ears I plunged into the water , andswam out to the open air. I rosegently , and floated on my back ,listening carefully . There was nosound but the twittering of the birdsand the distant boom of the surf.

Then I swam towards the ledge ,pulled myself out, and climbed up thecliff a step at a time till I had a view of the shore.

I gave a cry of joy. As I looked out to

sea, I saw the pirate schooner sailingaway almost hull down on thehorizon.

We were safe 1 I shouted again.

"There she goes ! They've not caughtus this time ! "

Almost before I had finished speakingI heard a little movement behind me.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that , "said agruff voice. At the same moment aheavy hand clapped down on myshoulder and held it as if in a vice.

67

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Schooner

my heart jumped into my throat. I jerked round , put up a desperate

struggle to tear myself away , andreceived a slap on the side of the



head for my pains. It left me half dazed and stupid. Though tears of pain I looked up at the man whoheld me.

He seemed as tall as a tree. hewas a white man , though his facewas deeply bronzed by sun andwind. He had a beaky nose thatwas bent downstairs in a bow ,and his beard and moustachewere lightly touched with grey. Hewore the usual dress of a sailor ,

but there was a thick belt slunground his waist in which he hadstuck a brace of pistols and aheavy cutlass.

He shook me.

"Don't try any tricks, "he warned ,and gave a shrill whistle.

It was answered at once , and asecond or two later I saw thepirate long-boat sweep into sightaround a jutting neck of land. Itcame rapidly towards us.

69

The man pushed me from him anddrew one of his pistols. He waved it atme.

"Walk down to the beach, " he said .

"If you try to run away , I'll send abullet after you ! "

I obeyed. The long-boat was agroundwhen I reached the beach and a littleknot fierce looking seamen stood onthe sands and watched me approach.

"Get a fire going , one of you , "

ordered the man who had capturedme.

A man sprang to obey . In a fewminutes he had a fire burning , withclouds of thick smoke climbing intothe air. Suddenly I heard the boom of a gun rolling over the sea and in a

flash I saw how I had been tricked. The fire was a signal to recall theschooner, which had only pretendedto put out to sea.

As the ship veered her head again ,the pirates crowded round me - atough-looking bunch with shaggybears and scowling brows, all of themarmed to the teeth. When they spoketo the men who capture me theycalled him captain.

"Where are the other cubs ? "criedone of the men , with an oath thatmade me shudder.

"I'll swear there were three of them . "



"You hear what he says , whelp :where are the other dogs? "thecaptain demanded.

70"I won't tell you, "I answered in alow voice.

The whole crew roared withlaughter , while their captaincocked his pistol and said :"I've no time to waste on you atthe moment, but a taste of thethumb-screw will loosen yourtongue , my lad. "He turned to hismen . "Put him in the boat , " heordered. "Look alive ! The breezeis freshening . "A couple of the men grabbed holdof me , raised me shoulder high,swung me down the beach , andtossed me into the bottom of theirboat, where I struck my head on aseat and lay for some time half-stunned. We were outside the reef and close alongside the schoonerbefore I could think clearly oncemore. Someone swung a boot at

me and a rough voice told me to jump aboard. I rose andclambered up the side. In a fewminutes the boat was hoisted ondeck, the ship's head put close tothe wind , and the Coral Islanddropping slowly astern as we beatup against a head sea. The crew

was so busy working the ship that,for the moment, no one had any

time for me. I leaned against thebulwarks, thinking of the friends I hadleft ashore, and a tear or two rolledslowly down my cheeks."So you're blubbering , are you ? "said the deep voice of the captain."Well , there's some thing to cry for , "and he gave me a box on the71

ear that nearly felled me to the deck."Clap a stopper on your eyes , andget below till I call you ! "

As I moved to obey my eye fell on asmall keg standing by the main-mast.Scrawled on its side in pencil was theword gunpowder. I saw, in an instant,that since we were beating up againstthe wind, anything floating in the seawould be driven on the reef encirclingCoral Island. And I remembered thatmy friends had a pistol !

Without a second's hesitation , Igrabbed up the keg and tossed it intothe sea. There was a roar from thecaptain. He strode up to me, his handraised to strike.

"You little rat ! " he bawled. "What doyou mean by that ? "

"I've got some friends on that island ,"I answered. "They have a pistol , butno powder. Now , you can do whatyou like with me "

The captain glared for a second and

then , to my surprise , he smiled ,



turned on his heel , and walkedaft again . I went below.

There was a shout of laughterfrom the men in the forecastle

when I appeared. One of thempatted me on the back.

"We'll make something of you ,my lad, " said one . "You'll turnout all right. Bill there was just likeyou at one time - and now he'sthe biggest cut-throat of us all ! "

72

There was another laugh at this."Give the boy some grub, " saidanother "He looks half-dead. "

They handed me a plate of boiledpork and a yam. I ate it hungrilyoaths that flowed from the lips of these godless men. Only one mankept silence, and that was theman they called Bill , who wasnearly as big as the captainhimself.For the rest of the afternoon I wasleft to myself, but just after sunsetone of the watches on deckbawled down the hatchway. "Send that boy aft to the captain -sharp ! " "Do you hear ,youngster ? Look alive , " saidBill , raising his great frame fromthe locker on which he had beenasleep for the past two hours.

I went up the ladder , and went aft, where one of the men showed

me into the cabin. It was plainlyfurnished and lit by a lamp that hungfrom a beam. Seated on a camp stoolat the table , studying a chart of thePacific , was the captain. He lookedup at me."What's your name ? " he asked."Ralph Rover , "I replied."How did you come to be on thatisland?’ I told him. He sat frowningfor a moment when I had finished."I could use a lad like you, " he said atlast. "We might have treated you alittle roughly,

73

but that was because you gave us abit of trouble . I'm no pirate , boy ,but a lawful trader- a rough one ,perhaps , but that can't be helped inthese seas , where there are so manymurderous blackguards. I trade insandal-wood - and if you choose tobehave yourself I'll take you alongwith me and give you a share in theprofits. You can look after the cabinand keep the log , and superintendthe traffic on shore sometimes. Whatdo you say ? Would you like to be atrader ? "

What could I say ? I agreed to becomeone of the crew until we reachedsome spot where I might be putashore.

When I left the cabin and went ondeck my heart was still heavy within



me. Whatever the captain said , Iwas quite sure that he and hismen were far from being honesttraders.

74

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Bloodshed

Three weeks had passed. I stoodon the quarter - deck watching ashoal of porpoises swimmingaround the ship. There was a deadcalm , with no cloud in the blueabove and no breath of wind uponthe blue below. The only soundwas the slow creaking of themasts as we swayed on the swell ,and an occasional flap of thehanging sails.

Most of the crew lay fast asleep underan awing that they had stretchedacross the fore-deck . The man Billwas at the tiller, but he had so little todo that from time to time he took alittle turn around the deck. At last hemoved close to me and leaned on therail at my side.

"Boy, "he said suddenly, "this is noplace for you. "

"I know , "I said. "But the captain saidhe'd put me ashore at the end of thistrip. "

"What else did he tell you ? "askedBill, lowering his voice.

"He said he was a trader , and toldme he'd

75

give me share of the profits if I joinedthe crew. "

Bill scowled.

"He lied when he said that "hebegan , and was interrupted by ashout from the look out .

"Sail ho ! "

" Where away ? "cried Bill , springing

to the tiller.



"On the starboard quarter , hulldown ! "

The crew were stirring , startledby the sudden cry. The captain

came on deck and climbed intothe rigging to peer towards thehorizon.

"Take in top-sails, "he bawled ,and swung himself back to thedeck.

The men sprang into the rigging

and went aloft like cats. All wasmovement and bustle. Top-sailswere taken in and stowed , thewatch stood by the sheets andhalyards , and the captain gazedanxiously for the breeze whichwas rushing towards us like asheet of dark blue. A minute later

it struck the ship. She trembled ,then bent gracefully to the wind ,cutting though the waves towardsthe strange sail.

Within half an hour we were closeenough to see that she, too , wasa schooner , and from the clumsy

look of her masts and sails I judged her to be a trader . She didnot seem to like the look of us ,for the instant the breeze reachedher she

76

Crowded all sail and showed usher stern. I could see, however,

that we would soon over haul her.When we were within half a mile wehoisted British colours, and thecaptain called for a shot to be putacross her bows.In a moment, to my surprise , a largeportion of the bottom of the boatamidships was removed , and in thehole so exposed appeared animmense brass gun.I gaped. I could hardly believe myeyes. The gun worked on a swivel andwas raised by machinery . It wasloaded and fired. A cannon shotstruck the water a few yards ahead of the ship plunged into the sea beyond.It was enough . The ship aheadbacked her top-sails and hove-to ,while we ranged up and lay to about ahundred yards from her."Lower the boat , "the captainordered. The boat was loweredand manned by a dozen of our men,all armed with cutlasses and pistols.As the captain walked past me , hesaid ; 'Jump into the stern-sheets ,Ralph ; I may want you 'I was surprised , but obeyed him. Inless than ten minutes we were allstanding on the stranger's deck,staring at her ragged crew. Every oneof them was a black man-allunarmed, and all quite clearly scared.

Their

77



captain was a tall , middle-agedman , dressed in a white cottonshirt, a swallow-tailed coat , and astraw hat , while his legs werebare below the knees.

He swept off his straw hat andmade a low bow to our captain.

"Where do you come from / Whatcargo are you carrying ? "ourcaptain asked.

"We are come from Aitutaki, "was

the answer.”We were going forRarotonga. We is native miss’nary ship, called de Olive Branch.De cargo is two tons coco-nuts ,seventy pigs, twenty cats, an' deGosp'l . "

Our men roared with laughter at

this , but the captain silence themwith a frown.

"Step into the cabin, "he said tothe missionary. "I want to have atalk with you. "

The two were in the cabin forabout a quarter of an hour, and

shook hands in a friendly waywhen they came on deck oncemore . The captain ordered us intoour boat, and we had left theother ship far behind.

That night I went on deck andfound bill at the helm alone.

"Tell me, 'I said to him , "is thisship really a trader ? "

"Yes and no , "he answered . "Shedoes some trading , but she's just asmuch a pirate.

78

She trades when she can't take byforce , and she takes by forcewhenever she can. I've seen somepretty murderous things done on thisdeck. " "Then

why did the captain let that shipescape this afternoon ? ""Because he wouldn't harm amissionary. He knows , like everybodyelse, that the only places in the SouthSeas where ships can put in withouthaving trouble with the natives, arethose where the people are Christian.

The missionaries are useful , becausethey tame these wild islanders . In theuntamed state they're a prettysavage lot , as you might find out ,my lad. "Our track after this lay though acluster of small islands, and a carefulwatch was kept , for we were not onlyin danger of being attacked bysavages but we also ran some riskfrom the coral reefs that rose up inthe channels between the islands.We were becalmed one day close to asmall island. Since we were in need of fresh water, the captain ordered theboat ashore to bring off a cask ortwo , and told me to go with the men.



We were quite close to the shorewhen a crowd of naked blackscame pelting out of the trees andgathered at the water's edge,waving spears and clubs in athreatening manner. We, of course , stopped rowing , whilethe mate stood up and madesigns to the savages. They replied79

with a shower of heavy stones ,one or two of which struck some

of our men , cutting them ratherbadly. Instantly we levelled ourmuskets, but before we could puta volley over the savages' headsthe captain hailed us from theship.

"Don't fire ! Pull off the pointbehind you ! "

We pulled away from the ashore ,now crowded with about fivehundred shrieking savages. Wehad gone a couple of hundredyards when a loud roar thunderedover the sea and the big brassgun on the schooner sent a hail of small-shot right into the livingmass on the beach , mowing themdown and cutting a wide laneright through them.

Those who were left alive let out ayell of terror and fled for thewoods. Heaps of dead men,

however, lay upon the sands.Among them I could see the

wounded writhing and twisting inagony , while here and there one ortwo tried to stagger towards thewoods and fell before they had takena few steps.

My blood curdled at the horror of thethings I saw. The captain's voicecarried over the water.

"All right lads. Pull ashore and fillyour water-casks ! "

We obeyed , all of us breathing hard ,

but I

80

could fell that even the men were

shocked by this ruthless act. Wecame to the mouth of a rivulet andfound it streaming with blood. I wassickened by the thought of the manywho were now dead and who had sorecently been standing on its banks .One body , which had been washeddown, was jammed between two

rocks, with staring eyeballs turnedtowards us and black hair waving inthe ripples of the blood-red stream.

No one tried to stop our landing now.We carried the casks to a poolhigher up, filled them , and pulledback to the ship. A breeze sprang upsoon afterwards and carried us awayfrom the dreadful spot-but nothing , I



felt , would ever take away fromme the memory of what I hadseen.

81

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Island of Emo

At dusk , two days later, we foundourselves a few miles to the

windward of a large island , fromwhich rose a high , bare mountainpeak. I asked Bill what it wascalled.

"That's Emo , "he said. "I know itwell. I've been there before , andso has this ship. It's famous for its

sandal-wood and we've taken off many cargoes already-and paid

for them , too ! The savages are somany that the captain hasn't daredto take them by force. Even so, theydon't like us very much. The last timewe were here the men behaved verybadly , and I wonder that thecaptain's come back to the place. If you ask me , we'll run into trouble inthis place . . . . "

We ran , next morning , inside abarrier reef and dropped our anchorin six fathoms of water, just opposite

the mouth of a small creek. A bigvillage lay about half a mile from thispoint.

The captain ordered a boat to belowered and told me to follow him.We pulled ashore, taking

82

with us fifteen men , all heavily

armed , and with the big brass gunaimed to cover us.A swarm of savages ran to meet us .With them came their chief, Romata ,who led us up to his house , feastedus on baked pig, and talked for a longtime with the captain , who spoke thenative tongue. I gathered

from Bill that Romata had side he wasglad to see us , and that he would set



his men to work cutting down andloading sandal-wood trees for us.Romata , who was a huge manwith a great black beard, was fullof smiles and friend- liness.

The next day most of our menwere sent ashore to help cut thesandal -wood . I went with them ,while the captain and one or twomore stayed on board beside thebrass gun , which they hadtrained point-blank at Romata'shut. During therest-hour Bill and I wandereddown to the beach to watch thesavages swimming in the surf .After a little while one of themcame sweeping in on the crest of a wave and landed with a violentbound almost on the spot wherewe stood. As he rose panting tohis feet I saw, to my greatsurprise, that he was Tararo - myold friend of the Coral Island!

We stared at each other . Then hegave a shout, rushed forward ,took me by the neck , and rubbedhis nose hard against mine.

83

"Has that chap taken a fancy toyou ? "asked Bill in some surprise."Or is he an old friend ? "

He spoke to Tararo in the native

tongue , and the two held a longconversation , during which

Tararo often pointed to me . Whenthey paused I begged Bill to ask himabout the girl Avatea, whom we hadsaved. At mention of her name ,

Tararo frowned darkly and his eyesflashed with anger. Bill; listened tohim for what seemed a long time.

"Tararo is on a visit to this island,"said Bill at last . "He comes from anisland called Mango , where the girlis now. He's angry with her becausehe's picked out a man for her to

marry and she won't do it . She wantsto marry a chief who lives on anotherisland. If she won't do what he wantswhen he goes back , he says he'llsend her to her lover as a long pig ! "

I gaped at him. His Face was grim .

"What's that ? "I asked.

"It means that he'll see her bakedover a fire- just like a pig - then sendher off to be eaten. "

I could do no more than stare at him,speechless and aghast.

We were another week at Emo and ,

as the days passed , it became clearthat there was trouble brewingbetween Romata and the

84



captain. Once they quarrelled onthe shore and Romata threatenedto send a fleet of his war canoesto burn the schooner. The captain

just smiled at this , looked thechief in the eye, and said : "Try itand see what happens. I've onlyto raise my little finger and my biggun will blow your whole village topieces 1 " Romataquietened down , but I could seethat he was seething with rage. Itwas , therefore, no surprise whenhe sent a message on the eightday to say that we were not tosend our men ashore. Only thecaptain was to go , becauseRomata had something to say tohim.

The captain was gone for several

hours and his face was as black asthunder when he returned . Heshut himself up in the cabin ,while the rest of us waited to seewhat would happen next.

That evening when I was ondeck , I heard part of a

conversation between the captainand the mate. They were down inthe cabin , but the skylight was off so that I heard every word quiteclearly.

"I don't like it , " said the mate , tobegin with. " It seems to me thatwe'll have hard fighting andnothing to show for it. "

"Nothing to show for it!” exclaimedthe captain angrily. "There's a finecargo lying in the woods and thatblackguard chief knows it.

85Now he says he won’t let me take off.Well, I’m going to show him a thing ortwo! “

“What are you going to do? “Askedthe mate.

“I’m going to have the schoonerrowed up to the head of that creekover there and then creep though thewoods to the village. These cannibalsare always dancing around their firesat night, so we can drop forty or fiftyat the first volley. After that the thingwill be easy enough. The savages will

take to the woods; we’ll grab what wewant, up anchor, and away. Give themen a glass or two of rum and warnthem to be ready at midnight. “

I’d heard enough. I crept away,awaiting the coming struggle withdread.

At midnight the men were musteredon deck, the cable was cut, and theschooner quietly rowed up into thecreek. It took half an hour to reachthe spot where the captain wanted usto land. Here a small kedge anchor,attached to a thin line, was let overthe stern.



“Now, lads, “whispered thecaptain, as he walked along theline of men who stood ready,don’t be in a hurry, aim low, anddon’t waste your first shots. ‘

Within a matter of minutes wewere all ashore and lined upbeneath the overhanging trees.

“There’s no need to leave a manwith the

86

Boat,”I heard the mate whisper tothe captain. “We shall want allhands. Let Ralph stay. “

The captain ordered me to standby and guard the boat. Then heglided off among the bushes,followed by the men.

I waited in the darkness, my heartthrobbing wildly. For a long timethere was no sound, and a feelingof dread slowly crept over me. I

was sure that something terriblewas about to happen.

And then I heard a shot.

It seemed to come from thevillage, and was followed at onceby a chorus of shrieks and yells.Shot after shot rang out and

echoed through the woods ; therewere more shouts and screams ,

and then the firing seemed to begoing on all over the place, as if parties of men were scatteringthrough the forest.

The noise went on for what seemed avery long time, and then I heard along-drawn – out yell that could havecome only from the savages. Itsounded as if they were triumphant,and my blood ran cold at the thought.What should I do if our men werebeaten? I could not let myself be

taken by the savages; and to take theschooner out of the creek withouthelp was impossible.

I had just made up my mind to getback on

87

Board the ship, when my blood waschilled by an appalling shriek. I knewthe voice to be that of one of thecrew. I knew the voice to be that of one of the crew. It was followed by achorus of loud shouts from at least ahundred savage throats. Then cameanother shriek of agony, another, and

another.I waited no longer , but seized theboat-hook to push myself from shore.As the boat moved a man camecrashing though the bushes, pantingand sobbing for breath.

“Stop , Ralph ! “ cried a voice. “Wait

for me ! “



It was Bill. He bounded into theboat with a leap that almost upsether.

“Push off ! ‘He gasped, and I did

so readily enough.In a matter of seconds we were onboard the ship ; the boat wasmade fast, the line of the anchorcut , and the oars run out. Theywere great sweeps that it took allmy strength to pull , but ,between us , we got the schoonerunder way.

We began to glide down the creek, but before we reached its moutha yell from a thousand voices onthe bank told us that we had beenseen . I heard splashes as anumber of the savages plunged

into the water and swam towardsus. One of them managed to grabhold of the cut rope dangling fromthe stern , and

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Clambered up on to the deck. Billlet the fellow straighten up , thenstruck him a blow that sent himtoppling back overboard.

But now a greater danger awaitedus , for the savages had outrun uson the bank and were about toplunge into the water in front of the schooner.

I shouted to Bill. He came to his feet ,drew a pistol from his belt , sprang tothe brass gun , held the pan of hispistol over the touch-hole , and fired.

The flash and the crashing thunder of the gun burst upon the savages withsuch a deafening roar that it seemedas if the island had been tornasunder.

In that moment of surprise andhesitation we had time to pass thedanger point. A breeze, which the

woods of the shore had stopped usfrom feeling , caught and bulged outour sails. The ship bent before it andwe were wafted out to sea.

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Return

Now that the danger was past Iknew , quite suddenly , that I wascompletely worn out. I rememberfeeling the cool breeze upon my faceas we left that hateful island behind



us , and then I must have pitchedforward and fallen asleep uponthe deck.

When I awoke the sun was shining

in my eyes. I sat up and staredround. I saw a calm sea and feltthe schooner cutting through itwith the help of a steady breeze.Bill was seated upon the deckbehind me , his head laid upon hisright arm , which was wrappedaround the tiller. The slight noise I

made as I lurched to my feetmade him look up and see methere.

One look at his face and I sprangtowards him on great anxiety. Hewas deadly pale. His hair , whichhung in untidy locks over hisface , was clotted with blood.Blood also stained his hollowcheeks and the front of his shirt ,which was all torn and soiled withmud.

“Bill ! “ I cried. “You werewounded ! “

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He winced and nodded.

“Yes, ” he said quietly. “I’ve got anugly wound , lad. I’ve been waitingfor you to waken, to ask you to get

me a drop o’ brandy from the cabinlocker. “

I ran below at once , found the brandy, and brought back some brokenbiscuits. He seemed a little betterafter he had eaten and taken a longdrink of the brandy and water.Almost at once he fell asleep , and Iwatched him anxiously till he woke.He smiled at me when he did so.

“I feel better for that , Ralph, “hesaid. Then he made to rise , but hesank back again with a deep groan.

“Lie still, “I said. “I’ll get you some

proper food, and then take a look atyour wound. “

I left him, lighted a fire in the galley,cooked him some eggs , and make apot of coffee. He managed to eat wellenough. Then I helped him strip off his shirt and took a look at his wound.

It was a knife-wound , very deep , inthe chest. It did not bled much and Iwas in high hopes that it might not beserious. But Bill shook his head.

“Sit down , Ralph ,”he said, “and I’lltell you all about it. We didn’t takethe savages by surprise last night , asthe captain had said we

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should. Romata must haveexpected us to try something likethat , and he kept a good watchon us. The savages ambushed usbefore we’d got as far as thevillage. Ralph, there seemed to bethousands of them. The captainwas stabbed almost at once. Therest of us scattered into thewoods , with a mob of screamingsavages on our heels. One of them caught up with me and wehad a bit of a scrap, but hestabbed me before I put himdown. There were more of themafter me , but they weren’t quickenough to stop me reaching theboat. “

He paused , his face all drawnand tired.

“Bill, “I said, “We’ve got to makeup our minds what we are goingto do now. The wind’s getting up.Which way shall we steer ? “

He shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter to me, “ he

said. “I think my time’s gettingshort. Go where you like. “

“I think we’d better steer for theCoral Island. The captain oncepointed it out to me on the chart, and I marked it afterwards. Ithink I can find it again. If you sitbeside the tiller and steer for anhour or so each day, while I have

a nap , we ought to manage betweenus. “

Bill nodded.

“You know, Ralph, “ he said , “I’vebeen a

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Pirate three years now. I was

kidnapped aboard this schooner , andkept here by force until I agreed to join the crew. I’m beginning to wishnow that I’d lived a better life. “Hesank back with a groan. A low hissingsound came sweeping across the sea.

The wind had risen and now a squallwas coming. I started to my feet, ran

to shorten sail , then returned aft andtook my stand at the helm.

The wind burst upon us in sudden ,squally gusts and the spray was flyingover the decks. The schooner sprangforward like a war-horse. Clouds haddarkened the sky , and the windbegan to whistle and shriek throughthe rigging. Quite suddenly the windshifted a point. At once a heavy seacaught us on the bow and laid theship over almost on her beam-ends.

Bill lost his hold of the belaying-pinwhich had served to steady him andslid with stunning violence against the

skylight. I shouted to him, but he justlay still and I did not dare to leave the



tiller to go to his help. For an hourthe blast drove us along , whilethe schooner dashed through thewaves. Then the squall passedaway and left us rocking on thelifting sea.

I dashed to Bill’s side, draggedhim into the cabin , and somehowmanaged to lift him on to thecouch. I fetched the brandy-bottle,rubbed his face and hands withthe stuff, and tried to

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Pour a little down his throat. Itwas no use. At last I let go of thehand I had been rubbing. Itdropped heavily to the deck. I putmy hand over his heart , but couldfeel no flutter at all-Bill was dead.

I sat for some time, looking uponhis pale, cold features. Then Irose, tied a cannon-ball to hisfeet, and , with feelings of thedeepest sorrow, let him slide intothe sea.

For fully a week after that asteady breeze blew out of theeast. I managed to hoist thetopsails , having lashed the helmto hold the schooner on hercourse. In this way, I was able tosnatch a few hours’ sleepwhenever the sea was calm, andafter a week of fair sailing I

guessed that I must be drawing nearto Coral Island.

On the evening of the fourteenth dayI was wakened out of a nap by a loud

cry. I started up, gazed around me,and was surprised and delighted tosee a large albatross soaring over theship.

Next morning , as I stood with heavyeyes at the helm, I waited anxiouslyfor daylight, and peered towards thehorizon , where I thought I sawsomething like a black cloud againstthe dark sky. Being always on thealert for squalls , I ran to the bow.

There could be on doubt it was asquall , and as I listened I thought Iheard the murmur of the coming gale.At once I set

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To work to shorten sail. After an hourand a half I had most of it reducedand the day was dawning clear. I cast

a glance ahead. I could hear the roarof the waves, and as a single ray of the rising sun gleamed over theocean I saw-what ! Could it be that Iwas dreaming ? – That magnificentbreaker with its ceaseless roar! – Thatmountain top ! – Yes, once more Ibeheld Coral Island !

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Last of the Coral Island

I shouted and cried with joy as Igazed towards the island. It wasstill many miles out the outlinesof the two mountains.

It would take me another two orthree hours to run the ship in. Iremembered that Jack andPeterkin were not in the habit of

rising before six, and as it wasnow only three , I hoped to arrive

before they were awake. I made upmy mind to run the schooner into thelagoon and bring up opposite our oldcamp. The anchor was hanging at thecathead , so all I had to do was cutthe tackling and down it would drop.

I searched among the flags until Ifound the terrible 'Jolly Roger ", whichI ran up to the peak. While I wasdoing this, a thought struck me. Iwent to the powder magazine ,brought up a blank cartridge, and

loaded the big brass gun. I took careto grease its mouth well , then wentand thrust the poker into the fire.

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All was now ready. I was not morethan a quarter of a mile from the reef.In no time, it seemed , I was glidingthrough the entrance. On comingopposite the camp, I but the helmhard down. The schooner came roundand lost way. I ran forward, let go theanchor , caught up the red-hot poker,

put it to the brass gun, and shattered



the morning silence with analmighty bang.

I gazed hopefully towards theshore.

Before the echoes had died away,I saw Peterkin bound out of thecamp, his eyeballs starting fromhis head with surprise and terror.He gave one look , one yell , thenfled into the bushes like a wildcat. The next moment Jackappeared , took one look , andturned to run.

I was almost mad with joy.

"Ahoy ! "I shouted. "Peterkin! Jack! It's ! "

Jack came to a halt and turned.Peterkin appeared out of thebushes. I shouted again , and thetwo of them ran at full speedtowards the beach. I could nolonger contain myself. I threw off my jacket and jumped overboardat the same moment that Jackbounded into the sea. We met indeep water, clasped each otherround the neck , and sank to thebottom. When we had struggledback to the surface , I sawPeterkin spluttering about like awounded

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Duck , laughing and crying by turns,and choking himself with salt water.

How can I tell of the joy that followedmy landing on the beach ? We all of

us acted like mad things, leaping andprancing and talking and shouting ,and beating each other upon theback.

And then , of course , I had to tell mytale.

As soon as I had to tell my tale. As

soon as I had finished the two of themmade me go over it again. Both werevery worried by what I could tell themof the probable fate of the girlAvatea. Jack clenched his teeth ,shook his first towards the sea, andsaid that he'd like to break Tararo'shead.

After they had pumped me dry , itwas my turn to ask what happened tothem since I'd been gone, and howthey had got out of the DiamondCave.

"We waited an hour for you to comeback, "said Jack , "and then began toget really worried. I dived out of thecave by myself , and there was nosigh of you or anyone else. Then I sawthe schooner standing out to sea ,and decided that the pirates musthave carried you away with them. Youcan guess how I felt then. I dived backto the cave and told Peterkin. We hadto think of a way of getting out



without your help. As far as Icould see , there was only oneway it could be done, I dived out ,found a good strong

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Pole , took it back with me , andlashed Peterkin to it keep himstraight and stiff "

"You can imagine how much Iliked that ! "Said Peterkin.

Jack grinned.

" We searched all over the islandfor you, " he went on , "and feltpretty low when we knew forcertain that the pirates hadcarried you off . And then , when

we were out on the reef one day,Peterkin saw a small , dark objectlying among the rocks. We foundthat it was a small keg of gunpowder. '

"I sent you that , 'I put in , with asmile.

"Well , we found it very useful,"said Jack, "and we've been ableto use the pistol ever since. Butthe island became a dreary placeafter you'd gone , and we werelonging for a ship to take us off.Now that we've got it , I think weought to have a look at some of

the other islands of the SouthSeas. We couldn't really do much

better than shape our course for theisland on which Avatea lives , and seeif we can do anything to rescue her. "

There was a little silence while we

stared at him and thought this over. Then Peterkin and I spoke together.

"Good idea 1 "we said. "We'll come ! "

It was settled. Wee lost no time inmaking ready to leave the island. Asthe ship was

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Already laden with stores , we hadvery little to do.

When all was ready , we climbed tothe mountain-top and gazed for thelast time at the rich green valleys ,the white sandy beach , the still

lagoon , and the coral reef with itscrested breakers.

We went back to the camp , andcarved our names upon a piece of board , which we set up upon theshore. A few minutes later we wereon board the schooner.

A steady breeze was blowing whenwe set sail, a little before sunset. Itcarried us past the reef and out tosea. The shore grew rapidly moreindistinct as the shades of eveningfell , while our ship bounded lightlyover the waves. Slowly the mountain-top sank on the horizon until it

became a mere speck. In anothermoment the sun and our Coral Island



sank together into the broadbosom of the Pacific.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The Island of Mango

We made good speed. For threeweeks the breeze blew fair , andat the end of that time arrived off the island of Mango , of which

Tararo was the chief. Beating upfor the south side of the island ,we arrived before sunset and

hove-to off the coral reef.No sooner were we anchored thana canoe put off from the shore. Asit drew close we saw in it a mild-looking native , about forty yearsof age, who came on board andmade us a low bow. He wasdressed in European clothes andwore a straw hat.

"Good day , gentlemen , "he said."Welcome to the island of Mango. Iam the missionary teacher at thisstation. "

"You're the very man we want to see,then , "said Jack . "Come down to thecabin, and let's have a talk. "

We learned from the missionary thatthe people of the island were dividedinto two groups- Christians andheathens. Avatea lived

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Among the heathens though shereally wished to join the Christians,but Tararo would not let her. The poorgirl had fallen in love with a Christianchief, who lived on an island aboutfifty miles to the south. Besides this ,we learned that the heathens were atwar among themselves , and that

Tararo's side had won a great victoryin a battle fought that very day.

When the missionary went back tothe shore, we took the schooner inthrough the passage in the reef, andanchored off a village at the head of asmall bay.

The next day, when we went ashore,we were given a warm welcome bythe missionary and his wife , who led



us to their hut and set before us ameal of baked meats and fruit.When we had eaten , we askedthe missionary if he could find usa crew for the schooner . This hedid easily enough , so we madeup our minds to sail round theisland at once and drop anchoropposite the heathen village.When we sailed , a few hours later, the missionary himself camewith us.

After only two hours' sailing , wedropped about a hundred yardsoff the heathen village , and firedour big gun by way of salute. Theexcitement and commotion onshore showed us that we hadstruck terror into the hearts of thenatives ; but seeing that we did

not offer

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To molest them , they at last senta canoe out towards us. Themissionary spoke to the men whomanned it and told them that wewere friends. He also said that wewished to speak with their chief ,and that we should like him tocome on board.

The canoe put back to the shore ,but shortly returned with themessage that Tararo could not comeon board that day, since he was busywith certain religious ceremoniesbefore the gods. He thereforebegged us to land and visits him , andthis we decided to do.

On reaching the beach we werereceived by a crowd of naked savages, who shouted a wild welcome and ledus to a hut where a baked pig was

quickly prepared for us. When we hadeaten , we asked that we might betaken to Tararo but were told that hewas just going to the temple of hisgods and could not see us yet.

"Well , "said Jack , rising , "Will youcome too ? "He asked.

The missionary shook his head.

"I cannot, "he said. "I will havenothing to do with their heathen gods."

This we could understand , so thethree of us set off without him. Jackled us through some banana grovesto rising ground immediately

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Behind the village , on top of whichstood the temple , under the darkshade of a group of ironwood trees.

As we followed the broad path that

climbed the hill we heard the shoutsof a great crowd coming from behind.



We drew aside into the bushesand awaited their coming up.Soon we saw them- a longprocession of natives dancing andshrieking in the most franticmanner. All of them were daubedand smeared with paint. I n theirplanks, on which were seatedmore than a dozen men.

Only when they drew very closedid the awful truth dawn upon me.All the men upon the planks

were dead, but tied up in a sittingposition. They were , we learnedlater , men who had been killed inbattle the day before. They werenow on their way to be presentedto the gods, and then eaten. Asthey bent their sightless crewbelow, it was as if they laughed in

ghastly mockery at the utterinability of their enemies to hurtthem any more.

Behind the procession came ashrieking crowd of women andchildren , with whom we mingledand whom we followed to the

temple.It was a tall , round building openat one side. Around it were strewnheaps of human bones

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And skulls. At a long table inside satthe priest , an old man with a greybeard , and before him lay several

knives with which he performed hisoffice of dissecting dead bodies.

The bodies were arranged before thetemple in a sitting position. A man ,called an orator, advanced , and ,laying his hands on their heads,began to chide them in a low ,bantering tone. We did not

understand a word, but as he went onhis voice grew louder. Then heshouted to them at the top of his lingsand finished up by kicking the bodiesover and running away, amid theshouts and laughter of the people.

They now rushed forward anddragged the bodies into the temple

to be dissected by the priest beforebeing taken out to be baked.But we had seen enough. We were allpale and haggard as we hurried backto rejoin the missionary , who wasequally sickened and distressed whenhe had heard our tale.Before long , however , Tararo came

along the beach , followed by a longline of men who bore baskets of fruitand vegetables on their heads. Wewalked to meet him , and he showedmuch pleasure at seeing us."And what is it that my friends wishto say to me ? "He asked.

The missionary explained that we



had come to ask him to spareAvatea's life.

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Tararo frowned at this , and thenreplied at some length

"He will not hear of this thing, "themissionary told us. "He says thegirl must die. "

It was Jack's turn to frown.

"Tell him that if he does not to do

as I ask it will be the worse forhim, " he said fiercely. " Say thatmy big gun upon the ship willblow his village into the sea if hedoes not give up the girl. "

"What does my friend say ? "asked the chief, who seemed

nettled by Jack's looks of defiance."He is displeased, " replied themissionary.

Tararo scowled, and walked awaytowards the men who had carriedthe baskets , which they hademptied on to the beach in an

enormous pile. A moment latertwo more men appeared, leadinga young girl between them.

They walked up to the heap of fruit and vegetable and placedher on the top of it. We all started,for the girl was Avatea.

The missionary grabbed Jack bythe arm.

"We are too late, "he said hoarsely."They are going to sacrifice her now !"

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The flight

We stood rooted to the earth withthick-coming fears. Then Jack gave afierce shout, dashed aside twonatives who stood in his way , rushedtowards the heap , sprang up its side,and seized Avatea in his arms. Heleaped down again and placed herback to a large tree. Then,wrenching a war-club from the handof one of the savages , he whirled itabove his head and yelled , his wholeface blazing with fury:

“Come on, the lot of you , and doyour worst! “

The savages gave an answering yell ,and started towards him , but Tararosprang forward and raised his handsabove his head. The savagesstopped and the chief turned o Jack.

“You are very brave- but foolish, “ hesaid.

“But I do not forget that once youhelped me. I will say that Avatea



shall not be harmed for threedays. Now go back to your ship. “

“Do as he say, “the missionarywhispered to Jack. “Three days

are worth having. “107

Jack hesitated for a moment , thenlowered his club, and threw it to

the ground. The missionarystepped forward and whispered afew words to Avatea. She repliedby a single glance of her darkeyes, before Tararo took her bythe hand and led her away.

We returned to the schooner. As

soon as we were in the cabin, themissionary said,

“If you are prepared to give upthis ship, the girl may yet besaved.”

“How ? ‘We asked eagerly.

“If you were to raise the anchor,“the missionary said, “You’d havea thousand warriors standing onyour deck. They will watch you allthe time , so the ship must beleft behind. These savages willthink that you would not sacrificeit for the sake of a girl , so as longas the ship does not move all willbe well. Now , I have told you

that there is an island about a canoewith stores, put Avatea on board, andpaddle to the island. I will stay heretill they discover that you are gone. “

“And what next then ? “ John asked.“I do not know. At all events, I havetold the girl to meet us at a spot towhich I will guide you tonight. Nowatch will be kept on the girl , forthey will think it impossible for her toescape. It will be easy for me to gethold

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Of a canoe , but fifty miles on theopen sea will not be an easy voyage

to make. “ “There’ s no otherway, “said Jack , and looked atPeterkin and me. “Do we go ?”Heasked.We nodded. It was agreed.It was close on midnight when wedropped over the side of the schoonerand into the canoe which the

missionary had sent one of the crewto get. We paddled quietly across thebay. A quarter of an hour brought usto an overhanging cliff. As the canoegrated on the beach a hand was laidupon the bow and a dim form wasseen.“Avatea? “ whispered the missionary.



There was a soft murmur in thedarkness, and the girl steppedinto the canoe.

We sped once more across the

still waters of the lagoon and putthe missionary on board theschooner again. Then we turnedtowards the opening in the reef and drove the canoe into the longswell of the ocean.

All that night and the whole of thefollowing day we plied the paddlesin turn. Jack had taken thebearing of the island just after westarted , and kept a pocket-compass before him as hepaddled. Peterkin and I were inthe bow, and Avatea workeduntiringly in the middle.

At dusk of the next day, Jackthrew down his paddle and calleda halt.

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“We’ve come a long way, “hesaid. “It’s time we had a goodmeal and a sound sleep. “

We ate hungrily of the cold roastpig we had brought with us , whilethe night closed in and all aroundwas calm and dark and silent. Andthen we slept. . . .

I was awakened by a cry fromPeterkin, just as the grey dawnbegan to glimmer in the east.

“What’s wrong? “Said Jack , startingup.

“Look ! “Gasped Peterkin.

His face was filled with dread and hepointed across the sea. A glanceshowed me a great war-canoespeeding towards us. With a cry of despair Jack seized his paddle andshouted for us to do the same. We didnot need telling. Already our fourpaddles were glancing in the water,and the canoe went bounding overthe glassy sea.

The chase , however , could end onlyin one way. It was two hours beforethe war-canoe was close enough forus to hear the cries of the men in it .But then they came on rapidly.

Jack shouted for us to stop paddling.We turned the side of the canoetowards our enemies, and put downthe paddles. Jack said nothing , butstood up and lifted his club in anattitude of bold defiance.

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The other canoe came on like a war-horse, with the foam curling up fromits sharp bow, and the spear-heads of the savages gleaming in the sunlight.No one spoke. We could hear the



hissing water, and see the fiercefaces of the warriors as they camerushing on. I waited for them toturn the head of the canoe. Theymade no move to do so, andsuddenly I realized their intention.I grasped my paddle, stood up ,and gave one cry. Next momentthe sharp prow of the war-canoestruck us like a thunder-bolt andhurled us into the sea.

I’m not sure what happened after

that , for I was struck on the headby the canoe in passing, went intothe sea, and almost drowned.When I recovered my senses Ifound myself stretched on myback , bound hand and foot, in thebottom of the large canoe.Peterkin and Jack were beside

me .

His rest of that voyage back toMango was one long torment. Wewere given neither food nor waterthe whole time and sufferedagonies from thirst , for the airwas exceptionally hot and it

seemed that a storm was buildingup.

While we were being led ashore,we caught a glimpse of Avatea ,who was not bound in any way.Our captors drove us before themtowards the hut of Tararo. Thechief awaited us with an ugly lookon his face. He spoke, his eyes

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Flashing with anger, to the missionary, who stood beside him.

“My friends, “said the missionaryquietly, “Tararo says that his debt toyou is cancelled. You must die. “

Tararo signed to several of his men,who seized hold of Jack and Peterkinand me and dragged us though thebush to the edge of the village. Herethey thrust us into a cave in the cliff,

and, having barricaded the entrance ,left us in total darkness.

We felt about for some time-for ourlegs were free , although our wristswere still bound-till we found a lowledge of rock running along one sideof the cave. On this we seated

ourselves and waited quietly for theend that we knew must be near.

At last we heard a noise at theentrance to the cave. The barricadewas dragged away; then threesavages entered and led us throughthe forest , towards the temple thatstood on the hill. We had not gone farwhen a procession of natives cameto meet us, shouting and beatingdrums. We were placed at the headof the procession and forced alongtowards the temple where , we knew ,human beings were offered forsacrifice.



I staggered on , so lost in fearand horror that I was hardly awarethat the sky had darkened.

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Suddenly there came a growl of thunder overhead , and heavydrops of rain began to fall; the airwas filled with the rush of something , and then theafternoon went mad. . . .A hurricane hit Mango with adeafening roar. The natives fledfor shelter on every side, leavingus alone in the midst of thehowling storm.

The wind caught us and whirled

us along , while great , drivenrain-drops slapped hard againstour flesh.

“Get down ! “ I heard Jack shout ,and I threw myself to the ground.

A body sprawled down beside me.It was the missionary , and he had

a knife in his hand.“Thank the Lord ,”he cried , as hecut our bonds, “I am in time! Now,follow me. “

We fought our way along in theteeth of the howling wind, whichburst with the noise of a thunder-

clap among the trees, tearingmany from their roots and hurling

them to the ground. Rain cut acrossthe land in sheets; lightning playedlike forked serpents in the air; andhigh above the roar of the stormthunder crashed and rolled in awfulmajesty.

We found shelter in a cave andstayed there all though that nightand the next day, while the stormraged in fury. In the village the scenewas appalling. Houses were blowndown and

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Whirled away. Great waves camesweeping in from the mighty ocean,rising higher and higher on the beach,until the sea was lashing its angrywaters far inland and had dashed intowreck those few houses that were stillstanding.

A little before dawn on the secondday the backbone of the hurricanebroke. When the sun rose, the windwas no more hats a steady breeze,and the sea had gone down again.For the first time in two days wethought of the dangers from which wehad been rescued by the storm.

“You must have food, “the missionarytold us. “I will get that for you, andthen you must try to escape. “

He went off, and was gone for a longtime , while we waited restlessly. Atlast we heard footsteps at theentrance , and the missionary stood



there with his back to the light sothat we could not see his face. Aswe moved towards him, he took

Jack by the shoulders andexclaimed:

“My dear young friend, throughthe great goodness of God youare free! “

“Free ! “We cried together.

“Yes , free- to come and go as youwill. I warned Tararo that if he

tried to kill you, then the goodLord would punish him and all hispeople. The hurricane came toprove my words.

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Tararo has become a Christian ,and his people are burning theirgods of wood. Come and see foryourselves ! “

We could scarcely believe oursenses. Our eyes were dazzled bythe bright sunshine, and ourminds by what he had said, as wefollowed him from the cave and

into the shambles of the village.One after another the savagesrushed towards us and shook usby the hand. Then they fell inbehind us, and, forming a sort of procession , they led us to Tararo.

The chief was kindness itself,ready to do anything to help us;and Avatea , he promised, should

be sent in a war-canoe to the island of her lover-chief.

Our next thought was for theschooner, which , we found , had

been washed ashore but had notbeen seriously damaged by thestorm. With the help of Tararo’speople we got her afloat again, andrepaired what little damage she hadsuffered. Within a week she was fit forthe open sea.

During this time the natives hadstarted building a church , under theguidance of the missionary , andseveral rows of new cottages weremarked out, so that the place soonlooked as if it might well become aspeaceful and beautiful a village asany in the South Sea Islands.

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We now resolved to delay ourdeparture no longer. Three nativesvolunteered to go with us to Tahiti ,where we thought it likely that weshould be able to pick up a crew of sailors to man our vessel.

It was a bright clear morning when wehoisted the snow-white sails of thepirate schooner and left the shores of Mango. The missionary andthousands of the natives came downto bid us God-speed, and to see us

sail away. As the vessel bent before alight , fair wind , we glided quickly



over the lagoon under a cloud of canvas.

That night , as we sat on theaffray gazing out upon the wide

sea, a thrill of joy, strangely mixedwith sadness , passed through ourhearts; for we were at length“homeward bound”, and wereleaving far behind us the beautiful, bright green coral islands of thePacific Ocean.

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THE CORAL 2

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Transcript of THE CORAL 2