Part 6 (1/2)

Then at Niabon's suggestion she summoned the head men, and told the must have happened to him Would they send out and search for hie him to return, as Tematau had come back, and there was now no occasion for hi their village ar, and at once sent out search parties, and when Niabon was co back, she met two of them, who told her that they had been to Utiroa itself, but not one single person had seen anything of the whitethe weather side of the island to search for hiht have strayed and lost himself

”So that is why these people here have acted so strangely, Mr Sherry,”

she concluded ”It would be terrible for thee burnt For the Germans are very cruel I have seen thes”

”I think the Utiroa people have done right The Gerht his death on himself But I fear that the secret must come out so”

”No No one of the Taritai people will ever know By this time to-morrow they will all say that he has been drohen crossing one of those narrow channels between the islands on the weather side, for there are many deep pools, and the coral sometimes breaks under the pressure of a man's foot And so they will think he has fallen in one of those pools, and his body carried out to sea, or into the lagoon, and eaten by the sharks”

Her emphatic manner reassured me

”Well, it is a bad business, Niabon; but it cannot be helped But I shall get away frolad And Si of which I have not yet spoken It is of Lucia”

She always called Mrs Krause by her Christian naenerally

”What of her?”

”She desires greatly to come with us in the boat And I pray thee to be kind to her, else will she die here of loneliness and terror”

CHAPTER VI

This was a pretty astonishi+ng request, and for a few seconds I gazed blankly at the girl

”Good Heavens!” I said, ”she ! And I should be as equallyher with e of more than a thousand miles”

”Nay, she is not mad, Simi And she hath set her heart on this It would be cruel to leave her to die”

”And to take her aould be still e is a hard and dangerous venture even for strong ood seamen But a weak, delicate woirl”

She put her hand on mine, and the moue the thing out with her, I thought, and soon convince her that it would be impossible Impossible--folly, utter folly Ifor a moment And yet--and yet--I rose from my seat, walked to the , and then turned to Niabon

”'Tis alamentably ”'Tis you alone, Niabon, who hath made her ask me to do this”

”That is not true, Simi,” she replied quietly, ”Yet when I spoke to her of our voyage, her heart's wishes came to her lips, and I knew that she would ask to come with thee, even as I know that thou wilt not leave her here to die”

I couldover estion with patience? What a strange influence did this girl Niabon possess that I, a sensible man, felt she could and would make me yield to her wishes, and let a sickly, delicate woe that presented nothing but danger The fever ht

But then, on the other hand, Mrs Krause was a free agent She had no children Her husband had just been killed I, the only other white man on the island to who intervals, was leaving the island Her mind had been tortured, and her life made miserable by her brute of a husband Could I, as a _es to fret out her life? She wished to coers--aye, and the horrors--of such a voyage as I was bent upon I should conceal nothing fro I should tell her of how the wife of the captain of the shi+p _Octavia_, froapore, had seen her husband die, and the fa crew of the boat which had left the burnt shi+p, drag his body froe curses and threats, and----

”Simi”

”What is it, Niabon? What would you have me do? Why do you tee, which will, most likely, end in death to us all?”