CHAPTER VI.
THE SPEARING OF ALFRED.
"The spears they carried, though entirely of wood, were dangerous weapons," says the old writer in describing the armament of a tribe of the South Sea islanders.

"Their points are hardened by being subjected to fire, and, in the hands of those fierce men, they are as deadly as the assegai of the African." This passage, which he had stumbled upon somewhere, was of deepest interest to young Harlson.

His armament, he felt, was not yet what it should be.

He had arrived at the dignity of a gun, it was true, but that was quite another thing.

What he needed was something especially adapted for personal encounter and for any knight-errantry which chanced to offer itself.