OF THE SOUTH SEAS 291 



large package of fish in the surrey, and all around there 

 were other packages of them. The men had been sell- 

 ing to those who came to Fa'a for them, the law extend- 

 ing only to the market in Papeete. 



The strikers hawked the fish in town the next day, 

 but this was immediately forbidden. Hungry for fish 

 — the Tahitians have one word meaning all that — though 

 the people were, few could drive out to Fa'a to fetch 

 them. Within Papeete fish were mysteriously nailed 

 to the trees at night, and over each was a card with the 

 letters, "I. W. W." 



Again a meeting of the council of state was called, 

 and at it M. Lontane revealed the meaning of those 

 cabalistic letters and the leadership of Kelly. He had 

 tracked down the fishermen and found their headquar- 

 ters at the dance hall. 



At the Cercle Bougainville there was an uproar. 

 Merchants drank twice their stint of liquor in their in- 

 dignation. Syndicalism was invading their shores, and 

 their already limited labor supply would be corrupted. 



I could not picture too seriously the wrath of the 

 honest traders at the traitorous conduct of Kelly, "a 

 white man," as told by M. Lontane. I was upbraided 

 because of Kelly being an American with an Irish name. 

 Lying Bill said it was "A bloody Guy Fawkes plot." 



M. Lontane took full credit for the discovery of what 

 he termed "A complot that would rival the Dreyfus 

 case." 



He struck his chest, and asked me sternly if I knew of 

 M. LeCoq, the great detective, of Emile Gaboriau. 



Kelly was arrested in the midst of his dancing soiree 

 at Fa'a. He was put in the calaboose, and when he 



