and a half. There was no escaping from Lord Howe. For better or worse,
Bunster and he were tied together. Bunster weighed two hundred pounds.
Mauki weighed one hundred and ten. Bunster was a degenerate brute. But
Mauki was a primitive savage. While both had wills and ways of their
own.

Mauki had no idea of the sort of master he was to work for. He had had
no warnings, and he had concluded as a matter of course that Bunster
would be like other white men, a drinker of much whiskey, a ruler and
a lawgiver who always kept his word and who never struck a boy
undeserved. Bunster had the advantage. He knew all about Mauki, and
gloated over the coming into possession of him. The last cook was
suffering from a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder, so Bunster made
Mauki cook and general house-boy.

And Mauki soon learned that there were white men and white men. On
the very day the schooner departed he was ordered to buy a chicken
from Samisee, the native Tongan missionary. But Samisee had sailed
across the lagoon and would not be back for three days. Mauki returned
with the information. He climbed the steep stairway (the house stood
on piles twelve feet above the sand), and entered the living room to
report. The trader demanded the chicken. Mauki opened his mouth to
explain the missionary's absence. But Bunster did not care for
explanations. He struck out with his fist. The blow caught Mauki on
the mouth and lifted him into the air. Clear through the doorway he
flew, across the narrow veranda, breaking the top railing, and down to
the ground.

His lips were a contused, shapeless mass, and his mouth was full of
blood and broken teeth.