DENDROBIUM SCHRODERIANUM 117 



circle had broken up. A swarm of warriors danced towards 

 the boat-house — tore down the walls ; in an instant the 

 posts stood naked — with their burdens. Chiefs climbed 

 aboard the prau and mustered, with tossing feathers, brand- 

 ishing their arms, shouting and singing, on its deck. Ropes 

 were manned. Scores of brawny savages started at a run, 

 whilst the boys howled with delight and tumbled over one 

 another. The great vessel moved, quickened. Then a 

 party rushed upon that little group, trampling it under foot, 

 snatched up the boy and girl, and sped with them towards 

 the sea. The old man and women lay where they were 

 tossed : there was no help for them in earth or heaven. The 

 prau glided quicker and quicker amidst a roaring tumult. 

 As it neared the sea, those small victims, tossed aloft from 

 either side, fell across its course. Micholitz looked no 

 more. 



' Let me attend to my business, for God's sake ! ' he kept 

 repeating. 



But when he reached the trees his business was done. 

 Those horrors had so disconcerted him that for an instant he 

 saw long green stems of orchid perched upon the boughs 

 without regarding them. But here was one from the top of 

 which depended a cluster of rosy garlands, four or five, 

 bearing a dozen, or twenty, or thirty great flowers, all open ; 

 and there a cluster snow-white — a crimson one beyond, 

 darkening almost to purple. Dendrobium Schroderianum 

 was rediscovered ! 



Of Mitcholitz's emotion it is enough to tell that it drove 

 all else from his mind, or almost. When the interpreter 

 summoned him he sat down and hobnobbed with those 

 murderers and ate their dubious viands. The triumph was 

 startling, so speedy and complete ; but so much the heavier 

 were his responsibilities. When, with a chilling shock, he 

 recalled distinctly the dread spectacle, he said again : 



