He explained afterwards to Blair that Ra'a's men had wanted for a long time past to come in and enjoy all the benefits they saw the others receiving, but Ra'a had held them back, telling them that the whites were only tricking Ha'o and his people and would presently carry them away. They had seen the arrival of the Blackbird ships, had watched the fight at sea, and also that in the pass, and these had convinced them of the good intentions of the white men. Finally they had taken matters into their own hands and settled things their own way. And so the divisions in the island were healed by blood, and that which had seemed like to wreck their hopes turned marvellously to their highest good. CHAPTER XXIII THE SCOURGE OF GOD But there was trouble of a quite unexpected kind brewing. The yellow men in their lives had slain a certain number of the brown. In their deaths they slew still more. The whites had hoped that, with the introduction of new food supplies, the unnatural but deep-rooted native craving for human flesh would have disappeared. The final rites of the battlefield shocked them exceedingly, and words had so far failed to convince Ha'o and his people of the error of their ways. "You eat pig," was Ha'o's blunt argument in reply, "and man is cleaner than pig." There was, however, an argument in preparation for him with which the white men had nothing whatever to do, but which drove home conviction beyond dispute and in the most terrifying fashion. Ever since the fighting, and the subsequent orgies, the villages had been unusually quiet. Even the wholesale submission of Ra'a's men produced little excitement among them. "They are like snakes after a full meal," said Cathie. "They've eaten too much, and it'll take 'em all their time to digest it." Evans, however, had his doubts. He hinted to Blair that he feared an outbreak of sickness, but as yet could form no opinion as to its character. The men had lost all their energy, the women were depressed, the children listless. It was as though the strenuous doings at One-Tree Pass had sucked all the life out of them. And Evans went in and out of the houses with a keen eye for symptoms. It was about a fortnight after the fight that Blair, going up to the village, met him coming hastily from it, and was startled at the sight of his face. "What is it, Evans?" he asked. "It's come--I feared it, but could not be sure--smallpox." "God help us! ... How has it got here?" "I can only imagine," said Evans, with a quick, meaning look at him. "Good God! How very horrible!" "Yes. They'll have a lesson they'll never forget, and many of them will never have the chance to. What about our wives, Blair? Shall we send them away till it is over?" Kenneth Blair's lips pinched tight at the thought of it all, and he walked heavily and in silence. "We are in God's hands," he said at last. "I think it must be left to themselves to decide."