“John stood leaning carelessly against the gate, viewing it all—the calmest person there! He felt that his presence would be a sufficient check, though it would have been folly to interfere. My girls were groaning and crying; and Yawaci (the girl I have here) was unconsciously doing her best to wrench the handles off the dining-room door in her despair, groaning out, “Missi, blood will be spilt!” while I was on my knees in the middle of the floor calling upon God to interfere. But my little F. stopped me, saying, “Mamma, Mamma, I don’t like to see you look up and talk like that! Are you ill?” So I tried to be myself again to the wee man, and felt comforted in having left the case with the Lord. Only I _must_ see Rangi, though I had very slender hope of influencing him; and I put my careful husband into a fine consternation, as he would rather have seen an apparition than me coming on such a scene. I had only a very dim notion, then, of his gestures and entreaties, being deaf and blind to everything except Rangi, who came nearest my idea of a _demon_ of anything I had ever seen! “The poor girl was tied, with her arms backward, to a cocoa-nut tree, pale with terror, and a hundred muskets bristling round her. The Tannese were in full Heathen costume, which means paint instead of clothing; and the Church members stood calmly, like John, looking on, except two or three of them, who kept guard around her with loaded muskets for her defence from murder, if necessary. Her life was all they or we wished to see spared, for she richly deserved any punishment short of death. I caught Rangi’s eye at last. At a sign he came quietly forward, and I began to tell him he should not dare to shoot my girl, but being too excited I ended in sobs and was marched off,—but not before Rangi earnestly assured me that he would not touch a hair of her head, or let any one else do it, only, he said, she deserved to be tied and ought to be well beaten for blackening his character! We could not keep from smiling, even in the excitement, at Rangi’s care for _his_ reputation, which was truly as black as it well could be.