Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-06-04

just started out after bech eide -mer.
Tom, with pistol and sword, hurried
after Joe Bird and after him came
Jules Farani with sword. Arrived
at the houses OF the divers Joe chargd
their head man, Tsngiora, with steal.
ing the cocoanuts and fred the gun
over his head. Then he grappled
with Tangiora and called to Tom for
help. Tom ran up and got hold Of
Tangiora's hand aud snapped his pis-
tol at him. 1t missed fire and he re-
capped it, taking the fresh cap from
a little chamber in the butt of the
weapon. As he aimed a second time
a savage named Maori caught him by
the hand, whereupon Tom knocked
him down by blow in the eye. But
rs he fell Maori caught Tom by the
feet and threw him with the assist
ance Of Tangora, and these two then
disarmed him and tied his hands and
feet. Meanwhile savage named
Rapahua seized Joe Bird aud threw
him down, aud with the help of Tang
ioro lashed his hands. Faram had
no firearms, but he came Oh run
with his sword at Matahu. The lat
ter with the aid of Popokia and Ma
toto, tied the Frenchman up like his
mates. The three beachcombers were
then thrown into their boat and word
was sent to four other Penrhyns
who were fishing on the other side to
come and row the boat.
Toms wife Snmaria, came running
to Here's house shouting, so nga
ropa, o nga ropa, good people, they
are killing the white men for they are
taking them away in the boat" Toms
wife, Kokorariki, and Kaitai's wife,
all fastened to the boat. Here Su-
maria and Kaitai's wife had already
cast off the lashings from Toms
wrists and ankles, when Rapa-
hua aimed gun at the women and
forced them to desist. Tom, appar-
emily thinking that they were to be
set on one of the islets across the
lagoon, then babe Kaitai's wife to call
the Manahikians to launch his boat.
This the Penrhyns prevented with
guns and swords, and, the four row.
ers by this time having come across,
they pulled the boat out into the la
COON. Tom was seated on the gun
vale and the other two were lying
under the thwarts. Joe Bird begged
his captors for mercy and offered all
he had if only his life might be
spared.
But Tom babe him not to be child,
for it was now too late, and he himself
had brought this fate upon himself
and his companions. At the deepest
part of the lagoon the Penrhyns hove
Joe Bird overheard first, and he sank
right to the bottom. Tom was tle
next to go, and he, too, went down
like stone. But the Frenchman rose
alongside the boat, and Powhatu cut
his bead open with sword. Then the
Frenchman sank to Join his mates in
the quiet depths OF the lagoon.
Now that the deed was done the
shrewdness and facile invention of the
Paumotu woman, Kokorariki, stood
the party in good stead. Left to their
own simple devices they would have
shared out the goods OF the murdered
white men, and their detection would
have been certain. She it was who
set the scene and concocted the story
so we'll as to deceive Captain Sus-
temance. She had the boat burned
and the metal work sunk in the la
COON, and the property of the white
men was in like manner destroyed, all
but the single bolt of cheap cloth dis
tributed to the divers. That was a
stroke of genuine art. 1t would be
such natural thing for Joe Bird to
do if he were sailing away that it car
ried proof in itself. The money was
almost all in her possession, but she
had a long series of unwritten ac-
counts by which it was made to seem
the wages of the Penrhyn Islanders
acquired by her in the way OF trade.
With these confessions set out in
full the original document ends. A
careful search of the records shows no
indication that any attempt was made
to punish the murderers. Three men
had died in the early morning in the
lagoon of little visited atoll in the
wild South Seas, but they were only
beachcombers, and their loss was not
grievously felt by the world of civil.
cation they had voluntarily cast off in
order to plunge into the heart of saw
agery, wild, II sudden, a cruel heart.
How such a murder was regarded
by n man who was living the same life
and was exposed to the same chances
is naively shown in the concluding
words of the deposition of Captain
Sustenance: ''There did not appear
to have been any serious quarrel,
neither should I judge the natives to
have been much excited. Ishould in
fer that it must have been talked of
long before and probably accelerated
by the gun unhappily discharged over
instead of into the head of Tangiroa.
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