"When the punishment is severe, neither slave nor wife dare disobey:
the old fashions are better than the new."

Much heated discussion followed, but at last she succeeded in getting
the punishment reduced to the infliction of ten stripes and nothing
more. She had gone as far as she dared. Under ordinary circumstances
salt would have been rubbed into the wounds, and mutilation or
dismemberment would have followed. She thanked the men, enjoined the
wives and slaves to show their gratitude by a willing and true service,
and went to prepare alleviations for the victims.

Through the shouting and laughing of the operators and onlookers she
heard piercing screams, as strong arms plied the alligator hide, and
one by one the girls came running into her, bleeding and quivering in
the agony of pain. By and by the opiate did its work and all sank into
uneasy slumber.

Fourteen days went by, and it was time for the return journey. The same
noise and excitement and delay occurred, and it was afternoon ere the
canoe left the beach. The evening meal, a mess of yam and herbs, cooked
in palm oil, which had been carried on board smoking hot from the fire
and was served in the pot, had scarcely been disposed of when the
splendour of the sunset and afterglow was swept aside by a mass of
angry cloud, and the moaning of the wind fell threateningly on the ear.
"A stormy night ahead," said Mary apprehensively to Okon, who gave a
long look upward and steered for the lee of an island. The sky
blackened, thunder growled, and the water began to lift. The first rush
of wind gripped the canoe and whirled it round, while the crew, hissing
through their set teeth, pulled their hardest. In vain. They got out of