"Long before that date, however--before 1836--Hare left and went to Singapore, where he died, leaving Ross in possession--the 'King of the Cocos Islands' as he came to be called. In a few years--chiefly through the energy of Ross's eldest son, to whom he soon gave up the management of affairs--the Group became a prosperous settlement. Its ships traded in cocoa-nuts (the chief produce of the islands) throughout all the Straits Settlements, and boat-buildin' became one of their most important industries. But there was one thing that prevented it from bein' a very happy though prosperous place, an' that was the coolies who had been hired in Java, for the only men that could be got there at first were criminals who had served their time in the chain-gangs of Batavia. As these men were fit for anything--from pitch-and-toss to murder--and soon outnumbered the colonists, the place was kept in constant alarm and watchfulness. For, as I dare say you know, the Malays are sometimes liable to have the spirit of _amok_ on them, which leads them to care for and fear nothin', and to go in for a fight-to-death, from which we get our sayin'--_run amuck_. An' when a strong fellow is goin' about loose in this state o' mind, it's about as bad as havin' a tiger prowlin' in one's garden." "Well, sometimes two or three o' these coolies would mutiny and hide in the woods o' one o' the smaller uninhabited islands. An' the colonists would have no rest till they hunted them down. So, to keep matters right, they had to be uncommon strict. It was made law that no one should spend the night on any but what was called the Home Island without permission. Every man was bound to report himself at the guard-house at a fixed hour; every fire to be out at sunset, and every boat was numbered and had to be in its place before that time. So they went on till the year 1862, when a disaster befell them that made a considerable change--at first for the worse, but for the better in the long-run. Provin' the truth, my lad, of what I was--well, no--I was goin' to draw a moral here, but I won't! "It was a cyclone that did the business. Cyclones have got a free-an'-easy way of makin' a clean sweep of the work of years in a few hours. This cyclone completely wrecked the homes of the Keelin' Islanders, and Ross--that's the second Ross, the son of the first one--sent home for _his_ son, who was then a student of engineering in Glasgow, to come out and help him to put things to rights. Ross the third obeyed the call, like a good son,--observe that, Nigel." "All right, father, fire away!"