“I suppose you don’t want to come home, eh?”
“No; I’m comfortable enough here as an emigrant.”
“An emigrant, eh? Look here, Master Tomati, if I did my duty, I suppose I should take you aboard, and hand you over to the authorities.”
“What for?” said the Englishman, surlily.
“Escaping from Norfolk Island. That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Look here!” said the Englishman; “do you know, sir, that this is one of the worst parts of the coast, and that the people here think nothing of attacking boats’ crews and plundering them, and making them prisoners, and often enough killing and eating ’em?”
“Threatening, eh?” said the lieutenant.
“Not I. But I’m a chief, and the people here would do everything I told them, and fight for me to a man.”
“Then you are threatening.”
“No, sir; I only wanted to remind you that your boats’ crews have come and gone in peace; that you have been allowed to go about ashore, and been supplied with fruit and vegetables, and never a thing missed.”