Sonnenschein,
had been sent or summoned to the scene of danger.
It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through all
the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats in the
house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks German freely, a
fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce more amused than
embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening the dissension and the
changing counsels of his neighbours. First the king himself was missing,
and there was a false alarm that he had escaped and was already closeted
with Poor. Next came certain intelligence that some of the ministry had
run the blockade, and were on their way to the house of the English
settler. Thereupon, in spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried
to defend the independence of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of
warriors, marched out of the village, brought back the fugitives, and
clapped them in the corrugated iron shanty which served as gaol. Along
with these he seems to have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the
Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing his conspiracy public, burst with his boat's-
crew into the town, made his way to the house of the native prime
minister, and demanded Coe's release.
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