CHAPTER II

The trade-room of the _Morning Star_; Lying Bill Pincher;
M. L'Hermier des Plantes, future governor of the Marquesas;
story of McHenry and the little native boy, His Dog.


"Come 'ave a drink!" Captain Pincher called from the cabin, and
leaving the spray-swept deck where the rain drummed on the canvas
awning I went down the four steps into the narrow cabin-house.

The cabin, about twenty feet long, had a tiny semi-private room for
Captain Pincher, and four berths ranged about a table. Here, grouped
around a demijohn of rum, I found Captain Pincher with my three
fellow-passengers; McHenry and Gedge, the traders, and M. L'Hermier
des Plantes, a young officer of the French colonial army, bound to
the Marquesas to be their governor.

The captain was telling the story of the wreck in which he had lost
his former ship. He had tied up to a reef for a game of cards with a
like-minded skipper, who berthed beside him. The wind changed while
they slept. Captain Pincher awoke to find his schooner breaking her
backs on the coral rocks.

"Oo can say wot the blooming wind will do?" he said, thumping the
table with his glass. "There was Willy's schooner tied up next to me,