It did not need five minutes' talk to show the Aia men how unsafe their position was. It was self-evident. But it took much talk and persuasion to induce them to migrate to Kapaa'a. They saw the advantages. Some of them had been there already and seen for themselves; but the brown men cling to their own bits of coral or volcanic rock as strenuously as Highland crofter to his dripping heather, or Irish peasant to his patch of bog. The women, however, had listened to those marvellous accounts of the unheard-of security of life and property on Kapaa'a, and now they joined forces with Blair and carried the day. By sunset they were all aboard the _Torch_ with such belongings as the Kanele men had left them. The _Torch_ beat to and fro again throughout the night, and not a native closed an eye for the strangeness of it all, and in the early morning Blair was ashore again on Kanele. He had assured Jean there was no danger; but he left Captain Cathie behind--to look after the crowd of brown men and women. He walked boldly up to old Maru's house, and found it still asleep. The old man started up wide awake at his call, and the look on his face was a matrix of Blair's--detected wrong quailing before righteous wrath. "You know what I have come about, Maru," said Blair. "You have done ill by Aia. Why?" "It was the young men. They desired more goods." "Call the young men. I will speak to them." But there was no need to call them. They had seen the _Torch_ and were coming, and coming in expectation of possible trouble, for they all came armed. "Yes, I see you know why I have come back," said Blair, as they thronged about the house. "You have done wrong, and you have got to answer for it. We came here to make life brighter by bringing peace----" "We don't want peace. Fighting is very much better," growled one. "Oh, you are brave men! How many men were there on Aia? Twenty-five at most. And how many of you went over? More than sixty. Oh yes, you like fighting when the others are weak. How will you like it when you are beaten and running for your lives into the hills? You have done ill, and you must answer for it. Maru and Kahili will come with me to Kapaa'a, and we will decide what shall be done." "Not me!" said old Maru, or words to that effect, and drew from its hiding-place one of the axes Blair had given him, and began to swing it gently in his hand. "If you do not come, we shall fetch you. It is for you to say. If we have to fetch you, it will make trouble." Old Maru's axe swung gently to and fro, to and fro, as though hungering to bite, but doubtful. "That would not serve you, Maru," said Blair quietly. "Though you cut me in pieces, the rest would come and you would suffer the more. The old times are past. We have come to give you better times. Peace you shall have, though we have to bring it with club and spear."