CHAPTER II
"THE OCMULGEE"
"Where are the rest of the crew?" inquired Jack of the Kanaka who hove the rope, as he looked round the empty decks.
"All gone dead!" responded the South Sea Islander laconically.
"All dead?" burst out the former with a start.
"All dead!" repeated the Polynesian mournfully. "De coral him splead, de palm him g'ow big, but man him die all-e-time!"
The speaker was a magnificent specimen of manhood, standing six foot, with limbs of perfect proportions.
He was dressed in the dungarees of the sailor, with leather sea-boots. The clothes hung loosely on his emaciated form, and he had the appearance of a strong man worn out by long hardship and privation.
A gigantic harpoon in his right hand and the hideous tattooed gridiron on his face gave him a look of ferocity directly at variance with the expression in his big brown Polynesian eyes, which contained that wonderful liquid softness shown chiefly in the eyes of deer.