324 REMINISCENCES OF 



temptingly barbaric. In fact, they clubbed and ate 

 three people there four years ago ! 



" One is right out of the world in these islands 

 of coral and cocoanut palms, and I haven't had a 

 letter for eight weeks — ^in fact, they are all waiting 

 for me in Auckland, N.Z. So I know no news. I 

 just managed to catch the mail which left soon after 

 I arrived here, and scribbled off a short letter to the 

 laird, telling him a brief account of recent events. 



" That is, how one dark eveningr I fell ten feet 

 over a precipice which skirted the road, and landed 

 with my head on a rock. ' A narrow squeak,' the 

 medico said. However, though I smashed my skull, 

 ' fractured it ' (gruesome-sounding name), I did not 

 feel much the worse, and as I was at the time 

 literally invaluable in Reynolds' office, a report having 

 to be sent in, the experiments for which I had taken, 

 etc., I went into harness three days after and worked 

 on for a fortnight. By which time the urgency for 

 work was over, and the expediency of a rest mani- 

 fest. 



" I could not ask Reynolds to give me an in- 

 definite holiday, especially as he needed some one 

 capable of running the place when he was away, so 

 I told him how I felt and resigned. 



" Enough of dull facts ; now for fanciful ones. 

 I've just got back from a trip to Savii, an island 

 some thirty miles off — I and a chap called Peacock, 

 whom I made friends with on the boat coming here 

 from Fiji. We hired an English-speaking native 

 and a boat with a sail and three men, taking calico, 



