Half a dozen niggers had been whipped.

And _Mister_ Haggin had failed to solve the mystery of Patsy's and Kathleen's disappearance.

But Biddy and Terrence knew.

So did Michael and Jerry.
The four-months' old Patsy and Kathleen had gone into the cooking-pot at the barracks, and their puppy-soft skins had been destroyed in the fire.
Jerry knew this, as did his father and mother and brother, for they had smelled the unmistakable burnt-meat smell, and Terrence, in his rage of knowledge, had even attacked Mogom the house-boy, and been reprimanded and cuffed by _Mister_ Haggin, who had not smelled and did not understand, and who had always to impress discipline on all creatures under his roof-tree.
But on the beach, when the blacks, whose terms of service were up came down with their trade-boxes on their heads to depart on the _Arangi_, was the time when nigger-chasing was not dangerous.

Old scores could be settled, and it was the last chance, for the blacks who departed on the _Arangi_ never came back.