you so times and times and times without end?"

"And now we shall have no house. Raoul told me today that if you had
not sold the pearl to Toriki--"

"I did not sell it. Toriki robbed me."

"--that if you had not sold the pearl, he would give you five thousand
French dollars, which is ten thousand Chili."

"He has been talking to his mother," Mapuhi explained. "She has an eye
for a pearl."

"And now the pearl is lost," Tefara complained.

"It paid my debt with Toriki. That is twelve hundred I have made,
anyway."

"Toriki is dead," she cried. "They have heard no word of his schooner.
She was lost along with the Aorai and the Hira. Will Toriki pay you
the three hundred credit he promised? No, because Toriki is dead. And
had you found no pearl, would you today owe Toriki the twelve hundred?
No, because Toriki is dead, and you cannot pay dead men."

"But Levy did not pay Toriki," Mapuhi said. "He gave him a piece of
paper that was good for the money in Papeete; and now Levy is dead and
cannot pay; and Toriki is dead and the paper lost with him, and the
pearl is lost with Levy. You are right, Tefara. I have lost the pearl,
and got nothing for it. Now let us sleep."