act.

"What is your name?" he asked abruptly.

The skipper's face puckered and he gave a cunning chuckle. He looked
then malicious and horribly vulgar.

"It's such a damned long time since I heard it that I almost forget it
myself. But for thirty years now in the islands they've always called me
Red."

His huge form shook as he gave a low, almost silent laugh. It was
obscene. Neilson shuddered. Red was hugely amused, and from his
bloodshot eyes tears ran down his cheeks.

Neilson gave a gasp, for at that moment a woman came in. She was a
native, a woman of somewhat commanding presence, stout without being
corpulent, dark, for the natives grow darker with age, with very grey
hair. She wore a black Mother Hubbard, and its thinness showed her heavy
breasts. The moment had come.

She made an observation to Neilson about some household matter and he
answered. He wondered if his voice sounded as unnatural to her as it did
to himself. She gave the man who was sitting in the chair by the window
an indifferent glance, and went out of the room. The moment had come and
gone.

Neilson for a moment could not speak. He was strangely shaken. Then he
said:

"I'd be very glad if you'd stay and have a bit of dinner with me. Pot
luck."

"I don't think I will," said Red. "I must go after this fellow Gray.
I'll give him his stuff and then I'll get away. I want to be back in
Apia to-morrow."

"I'll send a boy along with you to show you the way."

"That'll be fine."

Red heaved himself out of his chair, while the Swede called one of the
boys who worked on the plantation. He told him where the skipper wanted
to go, and the boy stepped along the bridge. Red prepared to follow him.

"Don't fall in," said Neilson.

"Not on your life."

Neilson watched him make his way across and when he had disappeared
among the coconuts he looked still. Then he sank heavily in his chair.
Was that the man who had prevented him from being happy? Was that the
man whom Sally had loved all these years and for whom she had waited so
desperately? It was grotesque. A sudden fury seized him so that he had
an instinct to spring up and smash everything around him. He had been
cheated. They had seen each other at last and had not known it. He began
to laugh, mirthlessly, and his laughter grew till it became hysterical.
The Gods had played him a cruel trick. And he was old now.

At last Sally came in to tell him dinner was ready. He sat down in front
o