“‘Nay, nay, O stranger,’ she said, ’I am no virgin; neither am I a harlot.  I am respectable, and my father and mother have land.  I do not go to the ships.’  Then she tossed her hair back from her face and began to beat the kava again.

“Now, this girl pleased me greatly, for there were no twists in her tongue; so, when the kava-drinking was finished I made her sit beside me, and the Nanomaga woman told her I would run away from the ship if she would be my wife.  She put her face to my shoulder, and then took the circlet from her forehead and bound it round my bared arm, and I gave her a silver ring which I wore on my little finger.  Then, together with the Nanomaga man and his wife, we made our plans....  Ah! she was a fine girl.  For nearly a year was she wife to me until she sickened and died of the meisake elo[8] which was brought to Ponape by the missionary ship from Honolulu.

“So the girl and I made our plans, and my friends promised to hide me when the time came for me to run away.  We sat long into the night, and I heard much of the man called Franka and of the jealousy he bore to Preston.  He was jealous of him because of two reasons; one was that he possessed such a fine house and so much land and a schooner, and the other was that the people of Jakoits paid him the same respect as they paid one of their high chiefs.  So that was why Franka hated him.  His heart was full of hatred, and sometimes when he was drunk in his own house at Ro|an Kiti he would boast to the natives that he would one day show them that he was a better man than Preston.  Sometimes his drunken boastings were brought to the ears of Preston, who only laughed and took no heed, and always gave him the good word when they met, which was but seldom, for Jakoits and Kiti are far apart, and there was bad blood between the people of the two places.  And then—­so the girl Sipi afterwards told me—­Franka was a lover of grog and a stealer of women, and kept a noisy house and made much trouble, and so Preston went not near him, for he was a quiet man and no drinker, and hated dissension.  And, besides this, Franka took part in the wars of the Kiti people, and went about with a following of armed men, and such money as he made in trading he spent in muskets and powder and ball; for all this Preston had no liking, and one day he said to Franka, ’Be warned, this fighting and slaying is wrong; it is not correct for a white man to enter into these wars; you are doing wrong, and some day you will be killed.’  Now these were good words, but of what use are good words to an evil heart?

“So we pair sat talking and smoking, and the girl Sipi made us more kava, and then again sat by my side and leant her face against my shoulder, and presently we heard the sounds of music and singing from the big house.  We went outside to see and listen, and saw that Preston was playing on a pese laakau[9] and Solepa and the captain of my ship were dancing together—­like as white people