It was the Doctor that untied us. He had come in through a narrow door--not much bigger than a Pombuana door-hole— which he shut behind him.

The opening of this little door drew our attention to the bulkhead or partition in which it was cut. There were also cut in it three small holes like eyes, with shutters behind them. The doctor counted us and took stock of us, turning us over and inspecting us. I think there must have been about a hundred and twenty of us huddled together. Round the hold of the vessel, for that was where we were, were three tiers of bamboo bunks, and my eyes running along them came to the other bulkhead, forward, in which they discovered three more holes just like the ones aft.

When the Doctor had counted us he called down another man, and the two of them began a search for weapons of any kind, and took all they could find away.

"Now," said the Doctor, "all you've got to do is to be quiet -be qui-et. Do you understand that. For if you dare to make a disturbance, I'll show you what you'll get―"

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Bang" went a pistol through one of the eye-holes aft, which would have made us all jump, only there wasn't room. "Now, bear that in mind," said the Doctor, as the smoke cleared away a little, "be quiet and you'll be happy; make a noise and

Bang" went another fire-arm from an eye-hole forʼard, in the smoke of which the Doctor disappeared, and left us to our own reflections.

I could hear from the faint voices overhead, and the patter of feet where the shrouds and haulyards were, that we were setting sail.

Suddenly I heard the Doctor's voice crying out:

"Shoot every mother's-son of 'em. Fire! what are you afraid of? Give me the rifle, and I'll show you how to shoot blackbirds."

THE CAPTAIN AND THE DOCTOR.

169

Following these words there were shots and a faint distant shriek, after which we heard no more, except the Captain's exclamation, with an oath attached of course :

"We're clear of the beggars now! Doctor! And what an eye! mistake! "

What a nerve you have,

Born for the business and no

"Didn't I tell you I'd show you a little of the science of black-bird-catching before I'd done with you, Captain?"

"And you've kept your word. By jove, we're sailing through the Red Sea !"

"It was the Black Sea a while ago. Nothing like variety. Skipper, what'll you take?"

The conversation was continued below and aft, but some distance farther aft than the bulkhead, or I could have heard it more distinctly.

When we had got away from the land, that is next morning, one hatch was removed, and a bamboo ladder fixed for us to get up and down by. We were not molested in any way: not even to be fed, for we lived entirely on cocoanuts, of which there must have been a large stock on board. Sometimes we had only two a day.

On the stern of a boat I read the vessel's name, the Black Swan, and the Captain's name I found out was Will, and the mate's Darken.

One day, seeing me with my battered straw hat on my head, the Doctor-Doctor Gray-called me to him and asked me who gave me that hat.

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Bishop and Wakefield," I answered,

Bishop and Wakefield be hanged!" said he, turning to the Captain, who stood smoking close by, "these meddling Missionaries 'll be the ruination of these niggers yet. go now-a days there's Missionaries."

Where ever you

"Missionaries and men-of-war," said the Captain.

"Give me the men-o'-war," returned the doctor, they

pepper 'em now and again, and bring 'em to their senses; but these psalm-singing hypocrites, they put all kind o' newfangled ideas into their heads. You can make nothing out of a mission nigger; he knows as much as you do, every bit.”

"Now, the way I look at it," said the Captain, "is this here. I aint got your nerve, Doctor, nor yet your eye; and I'm bold to say that killing isn't in my creed. I told you so when we was drawing up our little agreement. But for the matter of taking them away from their islands into civilised countries, why, its for their benefit, mentally and morially, and I'd take 'em. They don't know what's good for 'em. We do."

My looks must have betrayed my thoughts, for I was moving off, feeling that the conversation was neither edifying nor pleasant, when the disagreeable doctor seized me and shook me, and then held me roughly by the arm- -a hold so different from the friendly grasp of Percy Wakefield or the Bishopwhile he sputtered out these words into my hot and indignant face:

"Now, look here you (profanity) young mission nigger, if you give yourself any of your confounded airs here, I'll flog the life out of you." He roared at me and shook me savagely, and then went on :

"My flesh creeps to have the likes of you about me.”

"And I'll bet, Doctor, the like of him's flesh creeps to have the likes of you about them," interrupted the Captain.

"The way you speak about men that I know are good men, shows me that you are no goo -" said a voice that I trembled to recognise as my own.

"Take that, you offensive black puppy, and get out!"

That was a blow from the savage Doctor's arm across my face. "O, God!" I cried, "save me out of the hands of these bad men."

A sudden thought of JESUS comforted me at this moment, and made me almost glory in my miniature ill-treatment. A

CAPTAIN WILL'S ADVICE.

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picture of Him standing so calm and holy before Pilate, and the soldiers striking Him upon the face-a picture I had seen at Happy Island-flashed before my mind; and I thought "Nothing can be too bad for me!"

But I could not keep silence when they dragged the names of my dear friends through the mire of their vulgarity and blasphemy.

As I was "getting out," according to his latest instructions, the Doctor shouted after me:

"If you value your young life, keep that ugly mouth of yours shut, except at cocoanut times, or I'll cut that saucy, wagging tongue out of your head. We'll have no black bounce aboard this ship!"

"Doctor," said the Captain, "don't let that undoubted nerve of yours get the better of your equally undoubted judgement. Don't go and smash your own furniture! And don't light your pipe with a ten-poun' note !"

The practical nature of this advice, and the truth underlying the Captain's figurative language, were hidden from me at this time, but became only too clear afterwards. I had already ascertained the value of a Pombuana young woman in Pombuana money, and now, without knowing it, I had the valuation of a Pombuana young man in English money.

Our food on board the Black Swan, I have already told you, was scanty, and the same adjective will describe the amount of cheerfulness on board. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that sullen ill-humour brooded over us like an atmosphere.

We were a very mixed company, and a great many different reasons had brought us all together. Some had been glad to come away because they had got into trouble-it was a milder form of committing suicide; others had come for the sake of novelty, having been refused by the Bishop. Others, again, had come against their will. The majority were angry and discontented.

How could there be peace even on an island which contained both Surakana men and Pombuanians? And here they were, cooped up together in a dark box, with everything to irritate them.

Constant and increasing discomfort for the weather grew stormy and wet, and there was no going on deck-abated a good deal of the hopefulness, and swelled the feelings of rebellion and revenge. We not only hated our betrayers and tormentors, but what was a great deal worse for them, we despised them. We feared their firearms and the various means of torture and punishment at their disposal; but we did not fear them. How could we, when every hour we saw their guilty fear of us? Crowded and uncomfortable as we were in the dark hold, we slept sounder than they did; for their pillows were pistols and blunderbusses, and their rest was consumed by watching. They were afraid of us night and day. The Captain used to cry out "Murder!" in his sleep, and the Doctor drank to brace his nerves and drown his horrors. I often heard them telling their dreams, and Captain Will used often to exclaim: "A bloody business, Doctor! a bloody business!"

Better by far, thought I, to have had in hand the "bad business" of Captain Campbell, than the "bloody business" of Captain Will.

And there was more blood to come.

CHAPTER XXXVII

DIARA.

My dear brother Diara, a far more spirited fellow than I, chafed terribly in his imprisonment, and became like a caged minor bird caught when too old. These birds will often beat themselves to death against their prison bars.