s a moment with blank eyes, and, having recognised his
visitors, sank again upon the mats. So Eglon looked on Ehud.

The justice of facts is strange, and strangely just: Nakaeia, the author
of these deeds, died at peace discoursing on the craft of kings; his
tool suffers daily death for his enforced complicity. Not the nature,
but the congruity of men's deeds and circumstances damn and save them;
and Tebureimoa from the first has been incongruously placed. At home, in
a quiet by-street of a village, the man had been a worthy carpenter,
and, even bedevilled as he is, he shows some private virtues. He has no
lands, only the use of such as are impignorate for fines; he cannot
enrich himself in the old way by marriages; thrift is the chief pillar
of his future, and he knows and uses it. Eleven foreign traders pay him
a patent of a hundred dollars, some two thousand subjects pay capitation
at the rate of a dollar for a man, half a dollar for a woman, and a
shilling for a child: allowing for the exchange, perhaps a total of
three hundred pounds a year. He had been some nine months on the throne:
had bought his wife a silk dress and hat, figure unknown, and himself a
uniform at three hundred dollars; had sent his brother's photograph to
be enlarged in San Francisco at two hundred and fifty dollars; had
greatly reduced that brother's legacy of debt; and had still sovereigns
in his pocket. An affectionate brother, a good economist; he was besides
a handy carpenter, and cobbled occasionally on the woodwork of the
palace. It is not wonderful that Mr. Corpse has virtues: that Tebureimoa
should have a diversion filled me with surprise.

CHAPTER III

AROUND OUR HOUSE

When we left the palace we were still but seafarers ashore; and within
the hour we had installed our goods in one of the six foreign houses of
Butaritari, namely, that usually occupied by Maka, the Hawaiian
missionary. Two San Francisco firms are here established, Messrs.
Crawford and Messrs. Wightman Brothers; the first hard by the palace of
the mid town, the second at the north entry; each with a store and
bar-room. Our house was in the Wightman compound, betwixt the store and
bar, within a fenced enclosure. Across the road a few native houses
nestled in the margin of the bush, and the green wall of palms rose
solid, shutting out the breeze. A little sandy cove of the lagoon ran in
behind, sheltered by a verandah pier, the labour of queens' hands. Here,
wh