he silence was heavy with menace.

"In two years he was a ruined man. He'd lost everything he'd saved in a
quarter of a century. I broke him, and at last he was forced to come to
me like a beggar and beseech me to give him a passage back to Sydney."

"I wish you could have seen him when he came to see Mr Davidson," said
the missionary's wife. "He had been a fine, powerful man, with a lot of
fat on him, and he had a great big voice, but now he was half the size,
and he was shaking all over. He'd suddenly become an old man."

With abstracted gaze Davidson looked out into the night. The rain was
falling again.

Suddenly from below came a sound, and Davidson turned and looked
questioningly at his wife. It was the sound of a gramophone, harsh and
loud, wheezing out a syncopated tune.

"What's that?" he asked.

Mrs Davidson fixed her _pince-nez_ more firmly on her nose.

"One of the second-class passengers has a room in the house. I guess it
comes from there."

They listened in silence, and presently they heard the sound of dancing.
Then the music stopped, and they heard the popping of corks and voices
raised in animated conversation.

"I daresay she's giving a farewell party to her friends on board," said
Dr Macphail. "The ship sails at twelve, doesn't it?"

Davidson made no remark, but he looked at his watch.

"Are you ready?" he asked his wife.

She got up and folded her work.

"Yes, I guess I am," she answered.

"It's early to go to bed yet, isn't it?" said the doctor.

"We have a good deal of reading to do," explained Mrs Davidson.
"Wherever we are, we read a chapter of the Bible before retiring for the
night and we study it with the commentaries, you know, and discuss it
thoroughly. It's a wonderful training for the mind."

The two couples bade one another good night. Dr and Mrs Macphail were
left alone. For two or three minutes they did not speak.

"I think I'll go and fetch the cards," the doctor said at last.

Mrs Macphail looked at him doubtfully. Her conversation with the
Davidsons had left her a little uneasy, but she did not like to say that
she thought they had better not play cards when the Davidsons might come
in at any moment. Dr Macphail brought them and she watched him, though
with a vague sense of guilt, while he laid out his patience. Below the
sound of revelry continued.

It was fine enough next day, and the Macphails, condemned to spend a
fortnight of idleness at Pago-Pago, set ab