ed, releasing the sailor's hand
and leaning eagerly forward.

"Me sail along Missie Lackalanna her schooner _Miele_. We go Tahiti,
Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora-Bora, Manua, Tutuila, Apia, Savaii, and Fiji
Islands--plenty Fiji Islands. Me stop along Missie Lackalanna in
Solomons. Very soon she catch other schooner."

"He and I were the two survivors of the wreck of the _Huahine_," Tudor
explained to the others. "Fifty-seven all told on board when we sailed
from Huapa, and Joe and I were the only two that ever set foot on land
again. Hurricane, you know, in the Paumotus. That was when I was after
pearls."

"And you never told me, Utami, that you'd been wrecked in a hurricane,"
Joan said reproachfully.

The big Tahitian shifted his weight and flashed his teeth in a
conciliating smile.

"Me no t'ink nothing 't all," he said.

He half-turned, as if to depart, by his manner indicating that he
considered it time to go while yet he desired to remain.

"All right, Utami," Tudor said. "I'll see you in the morning and have a
yarn."

"He saved my life, the beggar," Tudor explained, as the Tahitian strode
away and with heavy softness of foot went down the steps. "Swim! I
never met a better swimmer."

And thereat, solicited by Joan, Tudor narrated the wreck of the
_Huahine_; while Sheldon smoked and pondered, and decided that whatever
the man's shortcomings were, he was at least not a liar.

CHAPTER XV--A DISCOURSE ON MANNERS

The days passed, and Tudor seemed loath to leave the hospitality of
Berande. Everything was ready for the start, but he lingered on,
spending much time in Joan's company and thereby increasing the dislike
Sheldon had taken to him. He went swimming with her, in point of
rashness exceeding her; and dynamited fish with her, diving among the
hungry ground-sharks and contesting with them for possession of the
stunned prey, until he earned the approval of the whole Tahitian crew.
Arahu challenged him to tear a fish from a shark's jaws, leaving half to
the shark and bringing the other half himself to the surface; and Tudor
performed the feat, a flip from the sandpaper hide of the astonished
shark scraping several inches of skin from his shoulder. And Joan was
delighted, while Sheldon, looking on, realized that here was the hero of
her adventure-dreams coming true. She did not care for love, but he felt
that if ever she did love it would be that sort of a man--"a man who
exhibited," was his