The native laughed pleasantly.
“Money, sir.” And then he looked round the ship's decks as if seeking something. “Me want buy boat. Where all your boat, cap'en? Why boat no here?” pointing to the davits and the pendant boat-falls.
“Sea break all boat,” said the Peruvian quickly. And then, seeing the look of disappointment on the man's face, he added, “But never mind. You come below. I have handsome present for you.”
“All right, cap'en,” answered the old man with a pleased smile, as he turned and beckoned to the other natives to follow him.
An exultant smile showed on the grim features of Senor Arguello as he saw the captain's ruse. But just then the second mate came up.
“The girls won't come up on deck,” he muttered in Spanish to the captain. “They laugh, and shake their heads.”
“Let them stay, Juan, until I get these fellows below quietly. Then let one of the boats slip round and seize them.”
Great results sometimes attend upon the merest trifles, and so it fell about now, for by a simple accident were some hundreds of these innocent, unsuspecting people of Nukufetau saved from a dreadful fate; for just as Mana, who was the chiefs brother and the uncle of the two poor half-caste children in the canoe, was about to go below, followed by his people, one of the boat's crew on the starboard side dropped the butt of his musket heavily on the naked foot of a young Chileno boy, who uttered an exclamation of pain.
Wondering where the cry came from, the old native, before he could be stayed, ran to the port side and looked over. There, lying beneath him, were four boats filled with armed men.