Broken Stick

Norman Ferris stood his ground as a group of 40 or 50 Bellonses warriors held their spears high and thundered across the sacred beach toward him. He had come to this remote island to tell the devil worshipers about the one true God . . . and he wasn’t leaving until he did so.

Norman wasn’t afraid to die, and he wasn’t afraid to live, either. In 1927, fully aware of the dangers awaiting them, he and his wife, Ruby, sailed to the Solomon Islands only a year and a half after their marriage. Dau...