The captain solemnly shook hands. 'Gentlemen, you have sand,' he said, a supreme tribute of respect. 'Well, about these two natives. I never liked taking them aboard. They are, in consequence of the triumph of our arms, American subjects, natives of the conquered Philippines. I am no lawyer, and they may be citizens, they may have votes. They are entitled, anyway, to the protection of the Flag, and I would have entered them as steerage passengers. But that Professor Jenkins (and the other professors agreed) would have it that they came under the head of scientific exhibits. And they did allow that the critters were highly dangerous. I guess they were right.' 'Why, what could they do?' 'Well, gentlemen, I heard stories on shore that I took no stock in. I am not a superstitious man, but they allowed that these darkeys are not of a common tribe, but what the papers call "highly developed mediums." And I guess they are at the bottom of the stramash.' 'Captain Funkal, may I be frank with you?' asked Bude. 'I am hearing you,' said the captain. 'Then, to put it shortly, I have been at Cagayan Sulu before, on an exploring cruise. That was in 1897. I never wanted to go back to it. Logan, did I not regret the choice of that port when the news reached us in New Zealand?' Logan nodded. 'You funked it,' he said. 'When I was at Cagayan Sulu in 1897 I heard from the natives of a singular tribe in the centre of the island. This tribe is the Berbalangs.' 'That's what Professor Jenkins called them,' said the captain. 'The Berbalangs are subject to neither of the chiefs in the island. No native will approach their village. They are cannibals. The story is that they can throw themselves into a kind of trance. They then project a something or other--spirit, astral body, influence of some kind--which flies forth, making a loud noise when distant.' 'That's what we heard,' said the captain. 'But is silent when they are close at hand.' 'Silent they were,' said the captain. 'They then appear as points of red flame.' 'That's so,' interrupted the captain. 'And cause death to man and beast, apparently by terror. I have seen,' said Bude, shuddering, 'the face of a dead native of high respectability, into whose house, before my own eyes, these points of flame had entered. I had to force the door, it was strongly barred within. I never mentioned the fact before, knowing that I could not expect belief.' 'Well, sir, I believe you. You are a white man.'