to perfect himself as a political
orator. Personally I admit that I relied more on the terrors of Tommy to
safeguard us from theft and other troubles than I did upon those of the
native taboo and the priestly oaths.

The end of it all was that we left our ship, having padlocked up the
door (the padlock, we explained, was a magical instrument that bit worse
than Tommy), and moved inland in a kind of triumphal procession,
priests and singers going before (the Orofenans sang extremely well) and
minstrels following after playing upon instruments like flutes, while
behind came the bearers carrying such goods as we needed. They took
us to a beautiful place in a grove of palms on a ridge where grew many
breadfruit trees, that commanded a view of the ocean upon one side and
of the lake with the strange brown mountain top on the other. Here in
the midst of the native gardens we found that a fine house had been
built for us of a kind of mud brick and thatched with palm leaves,
surrounded by a fenced courtyard of beaten earth and having wide
overhanging verandahs; a very comfortable place indeed in that delicious
climate. In it we took up our abode, visiting the ship occasionally to
see that all was well there, and awaiting events.

For Bickley these soon began to happen in the shape of an
ever-increasing stream of patients. The population of the island was
considerable, anything between five and ten thousand, so far as we
could judge, and among these of course there were a number of sick.
Ophthalmia, for instance, was a prevalent disease, as were the growths
such as Marama had suffered from, to say nothing of surgical cases and
those resulting from accident or from nervous ailments. With all of
these Bickley was called upon to deal, which he did with remarkable
success by help of his books on Tropical Diseases and his ample supplies
of medical necessaries.

At first he enjoyed it very much, but when we had been established in
the house for about three weeks he remarked, after putting in a solid
ten hours of work, that for all the holiday he was getting he might as
well be back at his old practice, with the difference that there he was
earning several thousands a year. Just then a poor woman arrived with a
baby in convulsions to whose necessities he was obliged to sacrifice
his supper, after which came a man who had fallen from a palm tree and
broken his leg.

Nor did I escape, since having somehow or other established a repu