three in the morning before
They ran away on all fours in the dark , and so doing plumped upon another sentry , whom Laupepa grappled and flung in a ditch ; for the Sheet of Paper , although infirm of character , is , like most Samoans , of an able body . The second sentry -LRB- like the first -RRB- fired after his assailants at random in the dark ; and the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia . On the afternoon of the 16th , the day of the hand-shakings , Suatele , a high chief , despatched two boys across the island with a letter . They were most of the night upon the road ; it was near three in the morning before the sentries in the camp of Malietoa beheld their lantern drawing near out of the wood ; but the king was at once awakened . The news was decisive and the letter peremptory ; if Malietoa did not give himself up before ten on the morrow , he was told that great sorrows must befall his country . I have not been able to draw Laupepa as a hero ; but he is a man of certain virtues , which the Germans had now given him an occasion to display . Without hesitation he sacrificed himself , penned his touching farewell to Samoa , and making more expedition than the messengers , passed early behind Apia to the banks of the Vaisingano .