OF THE SOUTH SEAS 161 



"I can look out of the veranda of this Cercle Bougain- 

 ville and tell you what time it is to a quarter of an hour 

 any day in the year just by looking at the shore or the 

 reef and seein' where the water is," said Goeltz. "You 

 can't do that any place on the globe except in this 

 group." 



A beneficent nature has considered the white visitor 

 in this concern, for he can go upon the reef to look for 

 its treasures at low tide, at sun-up or sun-fall, when it 

 is cool. 



We fell to talking about missing ships, and Goeltz 

 insisted on Lying Bill telling of his own masterful ex- 

 ploit in bringing back a schooner from South America 

 after the captain had run away with it and a woman. 

 Pincher was mate of the schooner, which traded from 

 Tahiti, and the skipper was a handsome fellow who 

 thought his job well lost for love. He became enam- 

 ored of the wife of another captain. One night when 

 by desperate scheming he had gotten her aboard, he sud- 

 denly gave orders to up anchor and away. The 

 schooner was full of cargo, copra and pearl-shell and 

 pearls, and was due to return to Papeete to discharge. 

 But this amative mariner filled his jibs on another ta^k, 

 and before his crew knew whither they were bound was 

 well on his long traverse to Peru. 



Lying Bill was the only other white man aboard, and 

 he took orders, as he had to by law and by the might of 

 the swashbuckler captain. The lady lived in the only 

 cabin — a tiny corner of the cuddy walled off — and ate 

 her meals with her lover while Pincher commanded on 

 deck. At a port in Peru the pirate sold the cargo, and 

 taking his mistress ashore, he disappeared for good and 



