t ten feet removed from the players,
but kept his eyes on the money. They played with notes, five francs
being the smallest, and the others twenties and hundreds. The chief
smiled whenever Count Polonsky drew in a heap of these, and when one
fell on the floor, he scrambled under the table to prevent it being
blown on the rocks. The Javanese served the drinks, and a crowd of
natives watched curiously the shifting vantages from a respectful
distance.

It was three o'clock when the scores were settled, and, the chief
leading with a lantern, we tramped through the great cocoanut-grove
to his residence.

Landers and I each took a bed, I being warned to be forehanded by my
experience in Moorea, where I slept on the floor. The chief retired,
and Polonsky went off with his arm about his inamorata's waist,
she having apparently awaited his return. When Llewellyn and McHenry
appeared half an hour later, having emptied a bottle reminiscent to
McHenry of his father's liking for Auld Reekie, they were discomfited
by the beds being all occupied, the other two having been early
claimed by two men who ate and drank and immediately slept.

When I awoke, the sun was up half an hour, and Landers and I went
for a bath in the brook. We found a pool famed in the legends of the
natives. In the olden days the kings and chiefs would have made it
tabu to themselves.

Landers had on a pareu only, his two hundred and fifty pounds of
bone and muscle a refreshing sight, and his eyes as bright as if he
had had the prescribed eight hours. They looked at him, sighingly,
the young women of the village, even at this hour busied cooking
breadfruit or fish and coffee; and Landers flirted with each one and
in Tahitian called out words which made them laugh, and sometimes
hide their heads coquettishly.

"I dated them all," he said to me when we were under the water. We
threw off our garments at the edge of the pool and plunged in. The
water was as soft as milk and as clear as crystal, cool and
invigorating. I drank my fill of it as I swam.

Breakfast we had in the chief's house, the remains of the amuraa
rahi of the night before. The chief drank coffee with us, and when
we had gone to sit on the veranda, his eight children and wife took
the board. I talked with Teriieroo a Teriieroterai for half an hour
in French. He was thirty-eight years old, very engaging, and had
several grandchildren.

"Eh bien," he said to my question, "I will tell you. I was