OF THE SOUTH SEAS 131 



the bandits in the picture-shows, the fearful stranglers 

 of Paris, the lynchers, the police, who in the films are 

 always beating the poor, as in real life, the pickpockets, 

 and the hospitals where willy-nilly they render one un- 

 conscious and remove one's vermiform appendix — all 

 these are nightmares to the aborigines whose relations 

 are departing. 



When heads were counted, Landers's was missing, 

 and jumping into Llewellyn's carriage, an old-fashioned 

 phaeton, I drove to Lovaina's, where he occupied the 

 room next to mine in the detached house in the animal- 

 yard. He was sound asleep, having played poker and 

 drunk until an hour before; but when I awoke him I 

 could not but admire the serenity of the man. His body 

 was in the posture in which he had lain down, and his 

 breathing was as a child's. 



"Landers, get up !" I shouted from the doorway. He 

 opened his eyes, regarded me intently, and without a 

 word went to the shower-bath by the camphor-wood 

 chest, returned quickly, and dressed himself. I fancied 

 him a man who would have answered his summons be- 

 fore a firing-squad as calmly. He had a perfection of 

 ease in his movements ; not fast, for he was very big, but 

 with never an unnecessary gesture nor word. He was 

 one of the finest animals I had ever seen, and fascinating 

 to men and women of all kinds. 



The Potii Morea had taken on her passengers when 

 we returned, and we put off from the sea-wall at once, 

 with two barrels of bottled beer, and half a dozen demi- 

 johns of wine prominent on the small deck. Often the 

 sea between Tahiti and jNIoorea is rough in the daytime, 

 and passage is made at night to avoid accident, but we 



