around the white men
till the gate was reached, and then fell back.

The girl stepped forward, and taking the trader's hand, bent her
forehead to it in token of submission.

"The key of this thy house, Tamu," she murmured in the native tongue, as
she placed it in his hand.

"Enter thou first, Loise," and he waved it away.

A faint smile of pleasure illumined her face; Baldwin, rough and
careless as he was, was yet studious to observe native custom.

The white men followed her, and then in the open doorway Baldwin
stopped, turned, and raised his hand, palm outwards, to the throng of
natives without.

"I thank thee, friends, for thy welcome. Dear to mine ears is the sound
of the tongue of the men of Rikitea. See ye this young man here. He
is the son of my friend who is now dead--he whom some of ye have seen,
Kapeni Paraisi" (Captain Brice).

A tall, broad-shouldered native, with his hair streaming down over his
shoulders, strode up the steps, and taking the young man's hand in his,
placed it to his forehead.

"The son of Paraisi is welcome to Rikitea, and to me, the chief of
Rikitea."

There was a murmur of approval; Baldwin waved his hand again, and then,
with Brice, entered the house.

Outside, the boy and girl, seated on the verandah steps, talked and
waited for orders.

Said Maturei, "Loise, think you that now Tamu hath found thee to be
faithful to his house and his name that he will marry thee according to
the promise made to the priests at Tenararo when he first brought thee
here?"

She took a thick coil of her shining black hair and wound it round and
round her hand meditatively, looking out absently over the calm waters
of the harbour.

"Who knows, Maturei? And I, I care not. Yet do I think it will be so;
for what other girl is there here that knoweth his ways, and the ways
of the white men as I know them? And this old man is a glutton; and, so
that my skill in baking pigeons and making _karri_ and rice fail me not,
then am I mistress here.... Maturei, is not the stranger an evil-looking
man?"

"Evil-looking!" said the boy, wonderingly; "nay, how canst thou say that
of him?"

*****

"What a jolly old fellow he is, and how these people adore him!" thought
Brice, as they sat down to dinner. Two or three of the village girls
waited upon them, and in the open doorway sat a vision of loveliness,
arrayed in yellow muslin, and directing the movements of the girls by
almost imperceptible motions o