push the tidal waves because they always come from the west'ard,
and the trades are from the east."

"I can look out of the veranda of this Cercle Bougainville and tell
you what time it is to a quarter of an hour any day in the year just
by looking at the shore or the reef and seein' where the water is,"
said Goeltz. "You can't do that any place on the globe except in
this group."

A beneficent nature has considered the white visitor in this concern,
for he can go upon the reef to look for its treasures at low tide,
at sun-up or sun-fall, when it is cool.

We fell to talking about missing ships, and Goeltz insisted on Lying
Bill telling of his own masterful exploit in bringing back a schooner
from South America after the captain had run away with it and a
woman. Pincher was mate of the schooner, which traded from Tahiti,
and the skipper was a handsome fellow who thought his job well lost
for love. He became enamored of the wife of another captain. One night
when by desperate scheming he had gotten her aboard, he suddenly
gave orders to up anchor and away. The schooner was full of cargo,
copra and pearl-shell and pearls, and was due to return to Papeete to
discharge. But this amative mariner filled his jibs on another tack,
and before his crew knew whither they were bound was well on his long
traverse to Peru.

Lying Bill was the only other white man aboard, and he took orders, as
he had to by law and by the might of the swashbuckler captain. The lady
lived in the only cabin--a tiny corner of the cuddy walled off--and ate
her meals with her lover while Pincher commanded on deck. At a port