"'Tis a strange ship--one that never before have we seen in Lele."

The youth made him no answer. He merely raised his arm and pointed his
finger at the three messengers.

"Then they have lied to me. Bring them here to me."

Kanka stepped over to where the fated men were sitting. They rose at his
behest, and crept over to the king; behind them, at some invisible sign
given by him, followed a man with a heavy club of _toa_ wood. The
clamour which had filled the courtyard ceased, and terrified silence
fell. One by one the messengers knelt upon the coral flags--no need for
them to ask for mercy from Charlik, the savage son of a bloodstained
father. The bearer of the club held the weapon knob downward, and
watched the king's face for the signal of death. He nodded, and then,
one after another of the men were struck and fell prone upon the stones.
With scowling eyes Charlik regarded them for a moment or two in silence,
then he turned unconcernedly away, as some of his slaves came forward
and carried the bodies out of sight.

Suddenly he sprang to his feet, as a loud, long cry, first from a single
throat, and then echoed and reechoed by a hundred more, came upward from
the beach.

"A ship! A ship! Another ship! The ship of Késa!"

Bidding his sister and the old chief Kanka to come with him, Charlik
quickly left the house, and walking through a grove of breadfruit trees,
reached a spot from where he had a full view of the open sea. There