OF THE SOUTH SEAS 259 



there, but you could n't cheat him. 'E 'd myke a Glas- 

 gow peddler look sharp in buyin' or sellin'." 



The Christchurch Kid was himself strictly conven- 

 tional, and had been genuinely shocked by Darling's 

 practices, and especially by his striking resemblance to 

 the Master as portrayed by the early painters, and by 

 Munkacsv in Christ Before Pilate. 



" 'E was all right," he explained to me as we climbed, 

 "but 'e ought to been careful of 'is looks. I was 'ard up 

 'ere in Papeete once, and was sleepin' in an ole ware'ouse 

 along with others. Darling slept on a window-sill, and 

 'e used to talk about enjoyin' the full sweep o' the trade- 

 wind. We doubted that, an' so one night we crept up- 

 stairs and surprised him. 'E was stretched out on a 

 couple o' sacks, and a reg'ler gale was blowin' on him. 

 'E bathed a couple o' times a day in the lagoon or in 

 fresh water, but 'e believed in rubbin' oil on his skin, and 

 when a bloke is all greasy and nyked, 'e looks dirty. 'Is 

 whiskers were too flossy in the tropics." 



It took all my wind to reach the Eden, a couple of 

 miles from our starting-point, and we were on all fours 

 part of the way. 



" 'E could run up here like an animal," declared the 

 fighter. "Once when a crowd of us went to visit 'im, 'e 

 ran up this tr'il a'ead of us, and when we arrived all 

 winded, blow me up a bloomin' gum-tree if 'e 'ad n't a 

 mess of feis and breadfruit cooked for us." 



We came to a sign on the trail. "Tapu," it said, 

 which means taboo, or keep away; and farther on a 

 notice in French that the owner forbade any one to 

 enter upon his land. 



" 'E 's a cryzy Frenchman with long whiskers," said 



