Krause had had his store packed from floor to roof
with trade, the natives would rather have come to me than to him, for
as I have said, they all--even those in his own village of
Taritai--disliked him for his domineering German-like manner, and his
contemptuous disregard of their feelings, whilst I was _persona grata_
with them from the day I landed. But I had never yet, in all my ten
years' experience of the South Seas, either seen, or heard, of any
"Dutchman"--as we English and American traders call all Teutons--who was
liked by the natives.

I closed up my account-books, and, lighting my pipe, considered the
situation. Firstly, I was certainly breaking my engagement with my
employers by leaving the island without giving them "due notice of one
month"; but as I could only communicate with them once in eight months,
when they sent a ship round the group, that particular item in my
agreement did not disturb my mind to any great extent. Secondly,
there was a nice little sum of money due to me--oyer three hundred
pounds--which in all probability I should never get if I awaited my
firm's good pleasure to pay me, unless I went to Sydney and brought
legal pressure to bear on them. Would not I be perfectly justified
in paying myself my salary and commission out of the money in my
possession? They would certainly look on me as an ass of the first water
if I did not--of that I was sure. But again, I must not leave it in
their power to say that "Jim Sherry had bolted from Tarawa," and had not
acted squarely with them.

Niabon, I knew, could both read and write English fairly, so of course
could Mrs. Krause. The latter would be at Utiroa in a few hours, and
instead of starting them at sewing sails I would get them to make an
exact copy of every entry in the station books from the day I took
charge to the day we left the island. This copy I would leave behind,
and take the books themselves with me. The idea was a good one, and
later on I was glad it occurred to me.

The whaleboat was my own, and as I thought of her, I felt pleased that
my employers, who were as mean as Polish Jews, would not get to windward
of me as far as she was concerned. I had bought her from the captain of
an American whaler, intending her for my own personal use and pleasure
as a fishing boat, naturally expecting that the firm would provide me
with a boat for trading purposes, _i.e._, to send around the lagoon
and collect copra. The boss supercargo, how