Old Maru, and his son Kahili, and the other hostages to law and order, had returned to their homes full to the brim of new ideas and great intentions, and Blair reposed great hopes in them. He and Cathie, on one of their usual rounds of the islands in the _Torch_, came sailing round Kanele Head one day and were surprised to find a ship at anchor in the bay. "Ah!" broke from them both at the sight. "So that's come," said Cathie. "Bound to sooner or later. Nip it tight, sir, is my advice." He gave some orders to the mate, and they went ashore. A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach from Maru's house to meet them. He was stout and evil-faced, with small blue eyes and tangled hay-coloured beard and moustache, and the roll in his walk seemed too pronounced to come entirely from much walking of slippery decks. [Illustration: A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach.] "Morning," he said curtly. "Traders?" "No, sir. Missionaries in charge." "Gee-whilikins!" "Yes, very much so," and Blair pulled out his watch. The man needed no investigation. His character was written all over him. "It is now nine o'clock. I will give you till half-past ten to clear out of here. If your anchor is not up by that time you will take the consequences. Understand?" "Say, have you bought this island, mister?" gaped the other. "Yes, from the devil and all his works, so you clear out. It is now two minutes past nine, and you've got eighty-eight minutes left." "Well, I'm----" "You will be if you don't stir your stumps." "And suppos'n I say I'll be hanged if I go." "I should consider it not unlikely. You certainly will if you stay." "Well, I _am_----! Was it _missionaries_ you said?" "That's what I said." "Very well, then," said the invader, pulling himself together, "I'll see you eternally annihilated first." That was not his exact expression, but it is printable and will suffice. "Eighty-six minutes left," said Blair quietly. Captain Cathie waved his hat three times to the _Torch_, and Long Tom's angry bellow rolled up into the hills and lined the side of the trader with curious faces. "_Missionaries_! Well, I _am_----" and he looked at them, and then at the _Torch_ with the cloud of blue-white smoke drifting slowly away from her deck, and then turned and humped his shoulders and went back the way he had come, and Blair and Cathie followed him. They were all fast asleep at Maru's house, and not likely to waken in a hurry, if the empty rum bottles scattered about were anything to go by. There were some opened cases of trade lying about, and the scraps and remnants of a feast--in addition to the inert forms of old Maru and his wife, and Kahili and his wife, and some of their people. "Eighty minutes!" said Blair grimly, as he looked round on this undoing of his work. "Say, mister, couldn't we come to some arrangement?" began the trader.