great deed! This is thy heart's
desire, Simi. To do such things as were done by the three men of whom
thou dreame----"

"What three men?" I whispered, and in an instant there flashed through
my mind the memory of the daring deeds of Jack Collier of Tahiti, of
tousle-headed Barney Watt of the _Ripple_, and big Cameron of Honolulu.
"Who are the three men of whom I dream?"

She pressed her hands to her bosom, and then turned her face, with her
eyes still closed, to mine.

"I do not know, Simi. I cannot see beyond as I can do sometimes; for I
am tired, and many other things are in my mind. But yet I can see one
man of the three whom thou dost so often think."

"Tell me, then," and I knelt beside the girl and looked upwards to her
face--"tell me of one man of the three. What is he like?"

"Simi, oh, Simi, be not too hard with me; for though I can see many
faces, they are new and strange to me. And they quickly become faint and
dim, and then vanish--but the sound of their voices seem to beat upon my
closed ears--and I cannot understand, Simi, I cannot understand."

I took her hand in mine and pressed it gently. I did not want to torment
the poor girl, but I did want to know something more of the one man of
the three of whom she had spoken.

"Can you tell me of the one man, Niabon?" I said gently. "Is he young
and strong, and of good looks?"

"He is not young, but is strong, and his eyes are deep-set and stern;
and a great red beard flows down upon his broad chest; his feet are
covered with boots that come to the knee, and he carries a stick in his
hand, for he is lame."

I started. I _knew_ whom she meant--it was Cameron of Honolulu, and had
the man been there himself, in his rough rig-out, and leaning on his
heavy stick as he walked, she could not have described him more clearly!

"No more shall I doubt you," I cried. "I will do all you wish."

She made no answer, but sat with eyes still closed, and her bosom gently
rising and falling as if she were asleep. Fearing that I should do her
some harm if I endeavoured to rouse her from what seemed to be a trance,
I went softly away, and with a strange feeling of exaltation tingling
through my veins, took down my roll of charts from my book-shelf, and
opening out No. 780--one of the four sheets embracing the North and
South Pacific--studied it carefully.

"I shall do it, I shall do it," I said aloud, and already I fancied
I could see my boat sailing into either Levuka