they were. Then a wicked white man named Tom Rose, who lived on the
island and knew how much the people were looking forward to the day
when Elikana would come back to teach them, went to the traders and
whispered what he knew to them.

So the Peruvian traders, with craft shining in their eyes, turned
again to the islanders and said: "If you will come with us, we will
take you where you will be taught all that men can know about God."

At this the islanders broke out into glad cries and speaking to one
another said: "Let us go and learn these things."

The day came for sailing, and as the sun rose, hundreds of brown feet
were running to the beach, children dancing with excitement, women
saying "Goodbye" to their husbands--men, who for the first time in
all their lives were to leave their tiny islet for the wonderful world
beyond the ocean.

So two hundred of them went on board. The sails were hoisted and they
went away never to return; sailed away not to learn of Jesus, but to
the sting of the lash and the shattering bullet, the bondage of the
plantations, and to death at the hands of those merciless beasts of
prey, the Peruvian slavers.

* * * * *

Years passed and a little fifty-ton trading vessel came to anchor
outside the reef. One man and then another and another got down into
the little boat and pulled for the shore. Elikana had returned. The
women and children ran down to meet him--but few men were there, for