and tender-eyed girls--and ask them to sing
to him; and in their soft semi-Tahitian dialect they would sing the old
songs that echoed in the ears of the desperate men of the _Bounty_ that
fatal dawn when, with bare-headed, defiant Bligh drifting astern in his
boat, they headed back for Tahiti and death. *****

Four months had passed when one day the strange white man, with Lupton's
children, returned to the village. As they passed in through the doorway
with some merry chant upon their lips, they saw a native seated on the
matted floor. He was a young man, with straight, handsome features,
such as one may see any day in Eastern Polynesia, but the children,
with terrified faces, shrank aside as they passed him and went to their
father.

The pale face of the Silent Man turned inquiringly to Lupton, who
smiled.

"'Tis Mameri's teaching, you know. She is a Catholic from Magareva, and
prays and tells her beads enough to work a whaleship's crew into heaven.
But this man is a 'Soul Catcher,' and if any one of us here got sick,
Mameri would let the faith she was reared in go to the wall and send
for the 'Soul Catcher.' He's a kind of an all-round prophet, wizard, and
general wisdom merchant. Took over the soul-catching business from his
father--runs in the family, you know."

"Ah!" said the Silent Man in his low, languid tones, looking at the
native, who, the moment he had entered, had bent his eyes to the
ground, "and in which of his manifold capacities has he come to see you,
Lupton?"

Lupton hesitated a moment, then laughed.

"Well, sir, he says he wants to speak to you. Wants to _pahihi_ (talk
rot), I suppose. It's his trade, you know. I'd sling him out only that
he isn't a bad sort of a fellow--and a bit mad--and Mameri says he'll
quit as soon as he has had his say."

"Let him talk," said the calm, quiet voice; "I like these people, and
like to hear them talk--better than I would most white men."

*****

Then, with his dark, dilated eyes moving from the pale face of the
white man to that of Lupton, the native wizard and Seer of Unseen Things
spoke. Then again his eyes sought the ground.

"What does he say?" queried Lupton's guest.

"D------rot," replied the trader, angrily.

"Tell me exactly, if you please. I feel interested."

"Well, he says that he was asleep in his house when his 'spirit voice'
awoke him and said"--here Lupton paused and looked at his guest, and
then, seeing the faint smile of amused i