OF THE SOUTH SEAS 525 



ing scheme for money-making, he tried to soften the 

 asperities of the interchange; 



"Wa'ss mallah, Mis' Le'llyn?" he asked. "Ev'ybody 

 fliend fo' you. Nobody makee tlouble fo' you 'bout 

 Davie. My think 'm dhnkee too muchee, too muchee 

 vahine, maybe play cart, losee too muchee flanc. He 

 thlinkee mo' bettah finish." 



The words of Fung Wah were poison in the ears of 

 Llewellyn. He leaned forward and, raising his fore- 

 finger, pointed it at the Chinese. 



''Aue! You hold your damned yellow mouth!" he 

 said huskily. "I '11 get out of the islands if you people 

 keep up this any longer. I 'm sick of it all. That old 

 liar Morton has made my good name black in Tahiti. 

 Everybody knows the Llewellyns. God damn him! I 

 ought to have killed him when he threatened me in the 

 Tiare!" 



He took my untouched glass of Dr. Funk, and gulped 

 the mixture, nervously. Then he stood up unsteadily. 



"I don't get any sleep," he said, as if to himself, 

 wearily. "I 'm going to my shop and lie down." 



He moved heavily down the stairs, and we breathed 

 relief. 



"Too muchee Pernoud!" Fung Wah commented. 



"No, Fung Wah, you 've sized 'im wrong," answered 

 Lying Bill. " 'E 's seein' things. 'E 's put enough 

 absint' down his throat, but 'he 's proper used to that. 

 Let 's take the matter up, an' consider it like ol' Raoul, 

 the lawyer, did when Murray killed the gendarme at 

 Areu. David 's a young kid, an' wild, an' without any 

 good home like you an 'me 've got, an' runnin' round 

 the Barbary Coast in Frisco, with those bloody vam- 



