"The eggers picked up the birds that lay in rumpled, bloody heaps on the water. They made toothsome pies, and what they couldn't eat they left behind. They didn't care how many birds they killed, because there were plenty left. "They weren't shooting just for food--they were shooting mostly for fun. As they trampled about the island they crushed with their heavy boots more eggs than they picked up. "No one would have blamed hungry men for killing enough birds and taking enough eggs to supply their families. But the eggers saw red, and just went on shooting and trampling without excuse. "Years of that kind of thing turned many an island into a graveyard. "Well, when they had gathered some eggs and smashed the rest, they picked up the dead birds they wanted and carried them back to the boat. "They jerked off the feathers and broiled the sea-pigeons. Then they brought out big, black bottles of rum to take away the oily, fishy flavor, and filled themselves with strong drink and bird-flesh. [Illustration: OFF DUTY] "They fell asleep, snoring drunk, and dawn found them piled about the deck helplessly. "But when they got back to the island from which they started on their journey, they found that rivals had landed there, and were killing birds which they looked on as their own. "There was a fight at once. "The men who were coming back home fired a volley and then took their guns as if they were clubs and rushed toward their enemies. "Then, man to man, they fought like wild beasts. One man was carried to the boat with his skull fractured: another limped off with a bullet in his leg: a third was feeling his jaw to learn how many of his teeth had been driven through a hole in his cheek. "So they fought till they tired of it, and then they pulled out the rum-bottles, and drank themselves into forgetfulness of their fierce battle. "With the next morning came a hundred honest fishermen who wanted nothing more from the islands than the birds and the eggs they actually needed for their hungry wives and little ones at home. "They had been eating salt meat for months: scurvy had broken out, and they wanted a change of diet. "But the pirate eggers were bound they shouldn't have it. The fishermen brought no guns: they weren't looking for trouble: they were taken by surprise when the eggers rushed down on them like tigers roused from their lairs. "One of the eggers, who had not slept off the effects of the carousal of the night before, shot one of the fishermen. Then the fishermen, who outnumbered the eggers about ten to one, gave the latter the beating of their lives. Fortunately, the fisherman who had been shot was not killed. "That was the sort of thing that happened again and again in the bad old days.