100 MYSTIC ISLES 



remarked Levy, the millionaire pearl-buyer, as he stood 

 by the table to be introduced to me. 



"Absinthe seul he general' take," said Joseph, the 

 steward. 



"I bid fifty thousand francs for one of Gauguin's 

 paintings in Paris last year," Count Polonsky said as 

 he claimed his game of ecarte against Tati, the chief of 

 Papara district. "I failed to get it, too. I bought 

 many here for a few thousand francs each before that." 



"Blow me!" cried Pincher, the skipper of the Morn- 

 ing Star. "'E was a bleedin' ijit. I fetched 'im ab- 

 sinthe many a time in Atuona. 'E said Dr. Funk was a 

 bloomin' ass for inventin' a drink that spoiled good 

 Pernoud with water. 'E was a rare un. 'E was like 

 Stevenson 'at wrote 'Treasure Island.' Comes into my 

 pub in Taiohae in the Marquesas Islands did Steven- 

 son off'n his little Casco, and says he, "Ave ye any 

 whisky,' 'e says, "at 'as n't been watered? These South 

 Seas appear to 'ave flooded every bloomin' gallon,' 'e 

 says. This painter Gauguin was n't such good com- 

 pany as Stevenson, because 'e parleyvoud, but 'e was a 

 bloody worker with 'is brushes at Atuona. 'E was 

 cuttin' wood or paintin' all the time." 



"He was a damn' fool," said Hallman, who had come 

 in to the Cercle to take away Captain Pincher. "I lived 

 close to him at Atuona all the time he was there till he 

 died. He was bughouse. I don't know much about 

 painting, but if you call that crazy stuff of Gauguin's 

 proper painting, then I 'm a furbelowed clam." 



''Eh hien/' Count Polonsky said, with a smile of the 

 man of superior knowledge, "he is the greatest painter 

 of this period, and his pictures are bringing high prices 



