OF THE SOUTH SEAS 13 



different in him, because he sent two of his sons to 

 school, and afterward to a university in Europe. To 

 make it queerer j^et, one of them is here on this ship, in 

 the second class, and would n't dare to speak to his 

 father without being asked. Of course he 's a half- 

 Marquesan — the son — and looks it. I know them all, 

 and only yesterday I heard Hallman call his son on the 

 main-deck, away from where any one could see him, and 

 threaten him with 'putting him back in the jungle, 

 where he came from,' if he appeared again near the first- 

 class space. I tell you, I 'd hate to be in his hands if I 

 was in his way." 



Fictionists who take the South Seas for their scenery 

 too often paint their characters in one tone — black, 

 brown, or yellow, or even white. Their bad men are 

 super-villains, and yet there are no men all bad. I 

 know there are no supermen at all, bad or good, but only 

 that some men do super acts now and then; none has 

 the grand gesture at all times. Napoleon had a dis- 

 graceful affliction at Waterloo, which rid him of 

 strength, mental and physical ; the thief on the cross be- 

 came wistful for an unknown delight. 



Hallman had said to me in the smoking-room that he 

 never drank alcohol or smoked tobacco, because "it took 

 the edge off the game." Now, a poet might say that, 

 or even a moralist, but he was neither. 



That night I walked through the waist of the ship 

 and on to the promenade-deck of the third-class pas- 

 sengers, where a huddle of stores, coiled ropes, and riff- 

 raff prevented these poor from taking any pleasurable 

 exercise. I stood at the taffrail and peered down at 

 the welter of white water, the foam of the buffets of 



