ddle of the court
for the card-party, and saw the honours shuffled and dealt, and
Tembinok' deliberating between his two hands, and the queens losing
their tobacco. Then these also were scattered and extinguished; and
their place was taken by a great bonfire, the night-light of the palace.
When this was no more, smaller fires burned likewise at the gates. These
were tended by the crones, unseen, unsleeping--not always unheard.
Should any approach in the dark hours, a guarded alert made the circuit
of the palisade; each sentry signalled her neighbour with a stone; the
rattle of falling pebbles passed and died away; and the wardens of
Tembinok' crouched in their places silent as before.

CHAPTER IV

THE KING OF APEMAMA: EQUATOR TOWN AND THE PALACE

Five persons were detailed to wait upon us. Uncle Parker, who brought us
toddy and green nuts, was an elderly, almost an old man, with the
spirits, the industry, and the morals of a boy of ten. His face was
ancient, droll, and diabolical, the skin stretched over taut sinews,
like a sail on the guide-rope; and he smiled with every muscle of his
head. His nuts must be counted every day, or he would deceive us in the
tale; they must be daily examined, or some would prove to be unhusked;
nothing but the king's name, and scarcely that, would hold him to his
duty. After his toils were over, he was given a pipe, matches, and
tobacco, and sat on the floor in the maniap' to smoke. He would not seem
to move from his position, and yet every day, when the things fell to be
returned, the plug had disappeared; he had found the means to conceal it
in the roof, whence he could radiantly produce it on the morrow.
Although this piece of legerdemain was performed regularly before three
or four pairs of eyes, we could never catch him in the fact; although we
searched after he was gone, we could never find the tobacco. Such were
the diversions of Uncle Parker, a man nearing sixty. But he was punished
according unto his deeds: Mrs. Stevenson took a fancy to paint him, and
the sufferings of the sitter were beyond description.

Three lasses came from the palace to do our washing and racket with Ah
Fu. They were of the lowest class, hangers-on kept for the convenience
of merchant skippers, probably low-born, perhaps out-islanders, with
little refinement whether of manner or appearance, but likely and jolly
enough wenches in their way. We called one "Guttersnipe," for you may
find her image