“Now, grog is a good thing.  It is good for a weak, panting woman when her strength is gone and her soul is terrified, and it is good for an old man who is despised by his relations because he is bitten with poverty.  There was grog in a wicker jar in the cabin.  I gave her some in a glass, and then as the dog Franka, whose soul and body are now in hell, was getting the schooner under way, she told me that while she and Preston were asleep the house was surrounded by a hundred or more of men from Ro|an Kiti, led by Franka.  They burst in suddenly, and Franka and some others rushed into their sleeping-room and she was torn away from her husband and carried down to the beach.

“‘Is thy husband dead?’ I asked.

“‘I cannot tell,’ she said in a weak voice.  ’I heard some shots fired and saw him struggling with Franka’s men.  That is all I know.  If he is dead then shall I die too.  Give me a knife, so that I may die.’

“As she spoke the schooner began to move, and again we heard Franka’s voice calling out in English to some one to go forward and con the ship whilst he steered, for the night was dark and he, clever stealer of women as he was, did not know the passage out through the reef, and trusted to those with him who knew but little more.  Then something came into my mind, and I took Solepa’s hand in mine.

“‘I will save thee from this pig Franka,’ I said quickly, ’he shall never take thee away.  Sit ye here with Sipi, and when ye hear the schooner strike, spring ye both into the sea and swim towards the two islands which are near.’

“In the centre of the deck cabin was a hatch which led into the hold.  There was no deck between, for the vessel was but small.  I took my knife from the sheath and then lifted the hatch, descended, and crawled forward in the darkness to the fore hatch, up which I crept very carefully, for I had much in my mind.  I saw a man standing up, holding on to the fore stay.  He was calling out to Franka every now and then, telling him how to steer.  I sprang up behind him, and as I drove my knife into his back with my left hand, I struck him with my right on his neck and he fell overboard.  He was a white man, I think for when my knife went into his back he called out ‘Oh Christ!’ But then many native men who have mixed with white people call out ‘Oh, Christ,’ just like white men when they are drunk.  Anyway, it does not matter now.

“But as I struck my knife into him, I called out in English to put the helm hard down, for I saw that the schooner was very near the reef on the starboard hand.  Franka, who was at the wheel, at once obeyed and was fooled, for the schooner, which was now leaping and singing to the strong night wind from the mountains smote suddenly upon the coral reef with a noise like the felling of a great forest tree, and began to grind and tear her timbers.