an, who is young and
personally pleasing, as a tool and scapegoat for another, and these are
tempted to suppose that, with a new and firm Chief Justice, he might yet
redeem his character. He would require at least to clear himself of the
affair of the rouleaux, or all would be against him.--I am. Sir, your
obedient servant,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

IV

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "TIMES"

_Samoa, June_ 22, 1892.

Sir,--I read in a New Zealand paper that you published my last with
misgiving. The writer then goes on to remind me that I am a novelist,
and to bid me return to my romances and leave the affairs of Samoa to
sub-editors in distant quarters of the world. "We, in common with other
journals, have correspondents in Samoa," he complains, "and yet we have
no news from them of the curious conspiracy which Mr. Stevenson appears
to have unearthed, and which, if it had any real existence, would be
known to everybody on the island." As this is the only voice which has
yet reached me from beyond the seas, I am constrained to make some
answer. But it must not be supposed that, though you may perhaps have
been alone to publish, I have been alone to write. The same story is now
in the hands of the three Governments from their respective Consuls. Not
only so, but the complaint of the municipal council, drawn by two able
solicitors, has been likewise laid before them.

This at least is public, and I may say notorious. The solicitors were
authorised to proceed with their task at a public meeting. The President
(for I was there and heard him) approved the step, though he refrained
from voting. But he seems to have entertained a hope of burking, or, at
least, indefinitely postponing, the whole business, and, when the
meeting was over, and its proceedings had been approved (as is
necessary) by the Consular Board, he neglected to notify the two
gentlemen appointed of that approval. In a large city the trick might
have succeeded for a time; in a village like Apia, where all news leaks
out and the King meets the cobbler daily, it did no more than to
advertise his own artfulness. And the next he learned, the case for the
municipal council had been prepared, approved by the Consuls, and
despatched to the Great Powers. I am accustomed to have my word doubted
in this matter, and must here look to have it doubted once again. But
the fact is certain. The two solicitors (Messrs. Carruthers and Cooper)
were actually cited