MYSTIC ISLES 109 



steamship which had been missing six weeks. She had 

 left one of the Paumotu atolls and failed to reach her 

 next port, thirty miles away. Rumor had sent her to 

 the bottom. She was a crank vessel, with a perpetual 

 list, and a roll of twenty-five degrees in the quietest sea ; 

 the dread of all compelled by affairs to take passage on 

 her. 



"She's sunk; rolled over too much, and turned tur- 

 tle," was the verdict at the Cercle Bougainville. Her 

 agents had sent the Cholita, a small power schooner, to 

 go over the Saint Michel's course, and find trace of her, 

 if possible. Imagine the excitement along the water- 

 front when, almost coincident with the sighting of the 

 Noa-Noa, the Saint Michel appeared, pulled by the 

 Cholita. Familiar faces of passengers appeared on her 

 deck as she made fast to the quay, holding cigarettes as 

 if they had waked up after a night in their own beds. 

 The Cholita had found the Saint Michel at the Mar- 

 quesas Islands, whither she had drifted after losing her 

 rudder on a rock. After a month lying inert at the 

 Marquesas, the Cholita had taken hold and dragged the 

 crippled Saint back to Papeete. 



The joy and surprise of the families and friends of the 

 passengers and the crew must have the vent usual here, 

 and what with the Noa-Noa s crew of amateur sailors, 

 firemen, and yachtsman, and six licensed captains, tak- 

 ing the places of the strikers, the town was filled with 

 pleasure-seekers. A high mass of thanksgiving at the 

 cathedral was followed by a day of explanations, anathe- 

 mas upon the owners of the Saiiit Michel, and the strik- 

 ing labor-unions, and of music, dancing, and toasts. 



New Year's eve, two picture shows, hulas, and the f es- 



