“You can sink a ship quicker than clean her sometimes. Well, there it was, and suddenly the old Mary Waters gave a dive, and dipped her bowsprit under. I saw her shiver like a dog, and then the stern went, the main hatch cover blowing off from air pressure as soon as the decks were awash. After that she went like a stone till there was nothing left of her but a case or two floating about and a bit of grating.
“Then we crawled back among the trees and held a council of war, as you might say, but we couldn’t fix on anything to do but lay still and wait our chances. We reckoned the fellows in the schooner were sure to come ashore armed, and we’d have time to warn them before they were set on. Our worst chance was that the Kanakas might find us before the schooner was in or the chaps come ashore, but there was no use bothering about that, and there we lay waiting and listening till the fore canvas of the schooner showed at the break, and in she came riding the full flood, every sail drawing to the wind that was freshening up.
“When I saw her full view I nearly leapt out of my skin. She was the Greyhound. Buck, as I found afterwards, had put into Papeete, heard of our expedition and me being with it, and, the old whaling chap offering to give him our port of destination for two bottles of whisky, closed on the offer and lit after us. He was anxious to pick up with me and make friends, and maybe he was anxious to have a hand in the coral business as well, no knowing; anyhow, here he was bulling along across the lagoon and evidently making to drop his anchor close to the village.
“‘Come on,’ I says to Heffernan, ‘follow me.’ We made back through the thick stuff, taking the track we’d come by, and we hadn’t more’n reached the sight of Tawela’s house through the trees when we heard the anchor chain go.
“I reckon the damn fool Kanakas had been so busy with the sinking of the schooner and then the Greyhound coming in, that they’d forgot to look to see if we were still safely tied up. Anyhow, the whole crowd were down on the beach to meet the boat that was coming off, and making sure of that, I took a peep into Tawela’s house to see if there was any clubs or spears handy for arming ourselves, and there I see Tawela’s son hiding a long knife under some matting. We went in; he was too scared to yell, and shoving him in a corner, we stripped up the matting, and there were our revolvers, a couple of knives and half a dozen short stabbing spears, all bloody with the blood of Sellers.
“We kicked him out before us, and, with the guns in our hands, down we marched to the beach.
IV
“Buck Slane had landed, he and four of his men, and every man with a Winchester.
“Tawela and her crowd were round them, all friendly as pie and wagging their tails, and so busy pretending to be innocent and God-fearing Kanakas they didn’t notice us till we were almost on them; for a moment I thought they were going to show fight, but when they saw the guns in our hands they boiled down.
“I clapped my gun to Tawela’s head, and called Buck to tie her hands behind her—we hadn’t time to say good-day to each other, just that—and Buck, tumbling to the truth of the matter, whips a big pocket handkerchief from his pocket, and one of his men does the binding. As he was binding her he says, ‘Look at her hands,’ and there, sure enough, was blood dried on her hands, the blood of Sellers calling out for revenge.