OF THE SOUTH SEAS 11 



Death aboard ship is terrible in its imminence to all. 

 The buoy, with its flaming torch, had drifted far to lee- 

 ward, and the lookout could do no more than follow its 

 fainting light as the dark of the tropics closed in. An 

 hour the Noa-Noa lay gently heaving upon the mysteri- 

 ous waters in which the despairing pundit had sought 

 Nirvana, until the boat returned with a report that it 

 had picked up the buoy, but had seen no sign of the 

 man. Doubtless he had been swept into the propellers, 

 but if not quickly given release in their cyclopean 

 strokes, he may have watched for a few minutes our 

 vain attempt to negative his fate. If so, I imagine he 

 smiled again, as when he gave me the god upon the 

 tiger. 



As they hoisted the boat to its davits, I found in the 

 lantern light his ancient volume, the "Analects of Confu- 

 cius," and claimed it for my own. It was the very boat 

 he had been accustomed to sit under, and he must have 

 laid down the ancient philosopher to procure the gift 

 for me, his grim determination already made. I had 

 caught a glimpse of him Sunday morning listening to 

 the Christian services conducted by the captain in the 

 social hall, and when I told the brooding captain that, 

 he was struck by the idea that perhaps some word of 

 his preachment might have come to Leung Kai Chu's 

 mind in his agony in the waters, and that at the last mo- 

 ment he might have repented and been saved. 



"One aspiration, and he might be washed as white as 

 snow. 'This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,' " 

 said the commander, who was known as the parson skip- 

 per, dour, but ever on the watch for the first sign of 

 repentance. 



