I have kept it carefully
locked."

"Been allowing Tui Tulifau too much credit?"

"On the contrary. There has been no credit at all. And every old account
has been settled up."

"I don't follow you, Ieremia," Grief confessed. "What's the
joke?--shelves empty, no credit, old accounts all square, storehouse
carefully locked--what's the answer?"

Ieremia did not reply immediately. Reaching under the rear corner of the
mats, he drew forth a large cash-box. Grief noted and wondered that
it was not locked. The Samoan had always been fastidiously cautious in
guarding cash. The box seemed filled with paper money. He skinned off
the top note and passed it over.

"There is the answer."

Grief glanced at a fairly well executed banknote. "_The First Royal Bank
of Fitu-Iva will pay to bearer on demand one pound sterling_," he read.
In the centre was the smudged likeness of a native face. At the bottom
was the signature of Tui Tulifau, and the signature of Fulualea, with
the printed information appended, "_Chancellor of the Exchequer._"

"Who the deuce is Fulualea?" Grief demanded. "It's Fijian, isn't
it?--meaning the feathers of the sun?"

"Just so. It means the feathers of the sun. Thus does this base
interloper caption himself. He has come up from Fiji to turn Fitu-Iva
upside down--that is, commercially."

"Some one of those smart Levuka boys, I suppose?"

Ieremia shook his head sadly. "No, this low fellow is a white man and
a scoundrel. He has taken a noble and high-sounding Fijian name and
dragged it in the dirt to suit his nefarious purposes. He has made Tui
Tulifau drunk. He has made him very drunk. He has kept him very drunk
all the time. In return, he has been made Chancellor of the Exchequer
and other things. He has issued this false paper and compelled the
people to receive it. He has levied a store tax, a copra tax, and a
tobacco tax. There are harbour dues and regulations, and other taxes.
But the people are not taxed--only the traders. When the copra tax was
levied, I lowered the purchasing price accordingly. Then the people
began to grumble, and Feathers of the Sun passed a new law, setting
the old price back and forbidding any man to lower it. Me he fined two
pounds and five pigs, it being well known that I possessed five pigs.
You will find them entered in the ledger. Hawkins, who is trader for
the Fulcrum Company, was fined first pigs, then gin, and, because he
continued to make loud conversation, the ar