sent me a letter from that kid. It was wrote in Kanaka. He couldn't
write much, but a little. Here, I'll show you the letter. You'll see
what that kid thought of me."

In the light from the open cabin window I read the letter, painfully
written on cheap, blue-lined paper.

"Greetings to you, McHenry, in Tahiti, from Your Dog. It is hard to
live without you. It is long since I have seen you. It is hard. I go
to join my father. I give myself to the _mako_. To you, McHenry, from
Your Dog, greetings and farewell."

Across the bottom of the letter was written in English: "The kid
disappeared from the leper settlement. They think he drowned himself."




CHAPTER III

Thirty-seven days at sea; life of the sea-birds; strange
phosphorescence; first sight of Fatu-hiva; history of the islands;
chant of the Raiateans.


Thirty-seven days at sea brought us to the eve of our landing in
Hiva-oa in the Marquesas. Thirty-seven monotonous days, varied only
by rain-squalls and sun, by calm or threatening seas, by the
changing sky. Rarely a passing schooner lifted its sail above the
far circle of the horizon. It was as though we journeyed through