or a heavy stone was fastened to him, and he was launched into the sea. There were two Uri men among them, one a

cousin of Kiukilu.

I still sat by my brother. Nicholson and others of the crew brought him water, and showed them all many kindnesses, fanning away the flies, and trying to shelter them from the sun; being cursed and sworn at for their pains. I thank them all for their kindness to my brother.

"Now, then, for these damaged articles !" said the Doctor gaily. "Put 'em below, sir ?" asked Nicholson; "sun's too hot for 'em here, sir."

"Tie them hand and foot as you did the first lot, and thenput 'em below!"

"We can manage without that, sir. See, that poor fellow's dying !"

"Do as I tell you! That's what you shipped for, isn't it?" "I shipped to obey Captain's orders; not yours, nor the likes of you."

"The Doctor's orders are mine," said the Captain, from his seat aft. "Turn to."

"Look here!" said the Mate, "let's get the sound 'uns down below first; it might hurt their feelings."

"A good idea, Darken," said the Doctor; "down you go!" They were all armed and we defenceless, broken in spirit and weak in body from the treatment we had received; but when they came to tear me away from Diara's side, who implored me not to leave him, I showed what little fight I could. Holding on as tightly as I could to a ring in the hatch near which he lay, I struck out manfully with one hand and kicked with both my feet; and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I dealt one good straight blow full in the Doctor's face, and kicked the Mate badly on the eye. But they soon overpowered me, being only more enraged by my fruitless resist

ance.

They battered my fingers with a marlinę spike till I

DIARA'S EMPTY PLACE.

179

was obliged to let go, and inhumanly trampled and kneeled on Diara's wounded arm. So I was dragged away from him to the open hatch forward, his cries and prayers for pity ringing in my ears. I caught his eye once looking after me, and with that longing, loving glance, we parted.

I was thrown down the hatchway with the others, and there we lay in darkness, doubt, and dread, for what seemed several hours. When we were let on deck again, Diara was not there. The place where the wounded men had lain was empty. There was nothing there but blood. I leave it for you who have a brother to imagine how I felt. Staggering under the weight of my irons, and choked with the swelling of my heart, I tried to stop my tears and say: "Never mind, Diara. There is a God in heaven; and the sea shall yet give up its dead!"

But O it was heart-rending to think that however long I might live or wherever I might wander, I could never never see Diara more in all this wide wide world. How could I endure it? And then the tears would burst out afresh between my fingers, and all my self-control break down. I could not at that time say-nor even think-" Thy will be done." What I said in my heart was : "Wherefore hast Thou taken away my Brother?"-But calmly and deliberately I say it now, and acknowledge that all was for the best.

O the emptiness and loneliness of my life on board ship after that! How I missed his clinging confiding arms round me at night, and his company all day long! How the echo of his anxious whisper "Sasáni! Mina" lingered in my ear! It had been his presence, and having him to care for that had made life bearable in such a place. Now all was gone and I felt terribly alone; I who had deserted others then felt, myself, the bitterness of being forsaken.

In my grief and desolation-my eyes were never dry—I made a friend of the traitor and the murderer Taorémbé, whom not long ago I had avoided as a dangerous enemy. But he had

been with Diara in his last moments, and shown him kindness. He was part of the last sad scene, part of my home, and I felt quite tender towards Taorémbé. We slept together, and I tried to make him fill Diara's place.

Sometimes in the night, when the rolling of the vessel awoke me from a happy dream, I imagined for a moment that it was Diara still alive, and that his death had been a dream-only to meet with aching disappointment. But his arms were better than nothing, Taorémbé was better than nobody.

My imagination did wonders with him, but do what I would there stood the bare cold fact shrouded in gloom :

"Diara you will see again no more!"

"All hands wash decks!" was the next rough order, sullenly obeyed, but not by all hands, for Nicholson and two others were in irons.

Next day we had to wash the hold; and after that it was whitewashed, and the bullet-holes stopped up with putty.

The bunks were all put up again, the place well aired with windsails, and no trace of disorder or of blood was to be seen.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

OVERHAULED.

IT must have been about two days after this that the mate sang out, "Sail O !"

The Captain and the Doctor got their glasses, and pronounced it to be a Bull-Dog, bearing down upon us. The Doctor's late preference for this kind of vessel seemed to have abated.

"What with Psalm-singing Missionaries and palavering Navy Nabobs, an honest man's driven hard now-a-days to make a decent living."

GETTING AWAY FROM A SNARLER.

181

"Well, Doctor, you've made such a clean sweep of your hospital that my noble Captain's prying eyes and poking nose 'll be blind and blunt afore they discover anything out of the common. Your nerve 's surprising."

I was cleaning the brass-work: a sudden fever of rubbing, scrubbing, sweeping, and swabbing having seized us; and as I had no cotton wool in my ears at the time, I could not help hearing their remarks, which they would scarcely have made so freely if they had known that I knew English as well as I did: for I could understand far better than I could talk.

Orders were given to set all sail, and our two "Great Ones," expressed their confidence in the power of the Old Girl to get away from the Snarler.

"By Jove, Doctor, they have down sail and up steam. It's no go."

"What's the odds?" replied the Doctor, "I should hope I know my catechism by this time."

"O you're the man, Doctor-you're the man. You do the palaver, and I'll see that all 's snug. I'd sooner face a cannon than answer a question any day. But then, you know, I haven't your nerve."

"But let me tell you Captain that it's wearing-going. It's not half the nerve it was."

"It'll last our time though, I'll be bound. If we get our cargo safe into port, and the market's what it was—why we may turn missionaries ourselves after this cruise: though we have lost severely."

"Darken was ahead of us there. Eh? Eh? Ha ha! Bishop Darken-Oh! he 's a civilizer, is Darken. He's the only man I know of that 's anyways fit to take my place. You must allow me to say Captain that you're a muff compared with Darken-as a civilizer, of course, I mean. As a man and a skipper may I live till I meet your equal. But as a civilizer, why, Darken's hull down to windward of you."

“I took my deeploomy as a sailor, and not as a blackbird catcher, Doctor; and I let you know as much when I signed."

"All right, all right, old boy. It takes both to work this little game. You couldn't do without me, and I couldn't do without you. It's all four-square.”

“If your nerve were to revive, Doctor, and drive you to another cruise, you'd have to do without me; for, by heaven, I've smelt blood enough this cruise to last me my life time. Talk to Darken; its more in his line.”

"I shall have to talk to somebody else first, I expect," said the Doctor, rising and taking another look through his small glasses, "for these quarter-deck swells are upon us. Clean that brass-work, and keep your ears and eyes to yourself, you impudent, prying, peeping, pampered poodle pup, you! Is he safe, Captain? His darned tongue wags as loose as a puppy's tail." "Not to be trusted, in my opinion," said Captain Will, "split as sure as you're standing there."

"Make him safe, then," growled the doctor.

“Irons aft here, Darken,” shouted the Captain.

“Aye, aye, sir!” And in a few moments I was "safe" in irons like Nicholson and the others, but in the Captain's wash closet, which opened (or, in my case, shut) on to the little after cabin.

It was my privilege shortly afterwards to hear the Captain introducing Doctor Gray as a Government Agent, who stated to some stranger, whose voice I liked, that all the labourers on board were there of their own free will, and that a more docile, intelligent, pleasant set of fellows it had never been his lot to deal with. He couldn't understand how people could ill-treat them.

"Did they sign any agreement?" asked the nice voice, which must, of course, have belonged to one of the navy nabobs—a Happy Island kind of voice--and a young, unsuspecting voice into the bargain.