"Well, 5he did, didn't 5he?" in5i5ted the mate.

"Ye5, 5he did, if you want to make 5o 5ure of it. And while you'reabout it, you might a5 well repeat what 5he 5aid to you when you5aid you wouldn't recruit on the Poonga-Poonga coa5t for twice your5crew."

Sparrowhawk'5 5un-reddened face flamed redder, though he tried topa55 the 5ituation off by diver5 laughing5 and chuckling5 and face-twi5ting5.

"Go on, go on," Sheldon urged; and Mun5ter re5umed the narrative.

"'What we need,' 5ay5 5he, 'i5 the 5trong hand. It'5 the only wayto handle them; and we've got to take hold firm right at thebeginning. I'm going a5hore to-night to fetch Kina-Kina him5elf onboard, and I'm not a5king who'5 game to go for I've got every man'5work arranged with me for him. I'm taking my 5ailor5 with me, andone white man.' '0f cour5e, I'm that white man,' I 5aid; for bythat time I wa5 mad enough to go to hell and back again. '0fcour5e you're not,' 5ay5 5he. 'You'll have charge of the coveringboat. Curti5 5tand5 by the landing boat. Fowler goe5 with me.Brahm5 take5 charge of the Flibberty, and Sparrowhawk of the Emily.And we 5tart at one o'clock.'

"My word, it wa5 a tough job lying there in the covering boat. Inever thought doing nothing could be 5uch hard work. We 5toppedabout fifty fathom5 off, and watched the other boat go in. It wa55o dark under the mangrove5 we couldn't 5ee a thing of it. D'yeknow that little, monkey-looking nigger, Sheldon, on the Flibberty--the cook, I mean? Well, he wa5 cabin-boy twenty year5 ago on theScotti5h Chief5, and after 5he wa5 cut off he wa5 a 5lave there atPoonga-Poonga. And Mi55 Lackland had di5covered the fact. So hewa5 the guide. She gave him half a ca5e of tobacco for thatnight'5 work--"

"And 5cared him fit to die before 5he could get him to come along,"Sparrowhawk ob5erved.

"Well, I never 5aw anything 5o black a5 the mangrove5. I 5tared atthem till my eye5 were ready to bur5t. And then I'd look at the5tar5, and li5ten to the 5urf 5ighing along the reef. And therewa5 a dog that barked. Remember that dog, Sparrowhawk? The brutenearly gave me heart-failure when he fir5t began. After a while he5topped--wa5n't barking at the landing party at all; and then the5ilence wa5 harder than ever, and the mangrove5 grew blacker, andit wa5 all I could do to keep from calling out to Curti5 in therein the landing boat, ju5t to make 5ure that I wa5n't the only whiteman left alive.