my came and burned his store.
When I declined to sell, this Feathers of the Sun fined me once more and
promised to burn the store if again I offended. So I sold all that was
on the shelves, and there is the box full of worthless paper. I shall
be chagrined if you pay me my salary in paper, but it would be just, no
more than just. Now, what is to be done?"

Grief shrugged his shoulders. "I must first see this Feathers of the Sun
and size up the situation."

"Then you must see him soon," Ieremia advised. "Else he will have an
accumulation of many fines against you. Thus does he absorb all the
coin of the realm. He has it all now, save what has been buried in the
ground."

III

On his way back along the Broom Road, under the lighted lamps that
marked the entrance to the palace grounds, Grief encountered a short,
rotund gentleman, in unstarched ducks, smooth-shaven and of florid
complexion, who was just emerging. Something about his tentative,
saturated gait was familiar. Grief knew it on the instant. On the
beaches of a dozen South Sea ports had he seen it before.

"Of all men, Cornelius Deasy!" he cried.

"If it ain't Grief himself, the old devil," was the return greeting, as
they shook hands.

"If you'll come on board I've some choice smoky Irish," Grief invited.

Cornelius threw back his shoulders and stiffened.

"Nothing doin', Mr. Grief. 'Tis Fulualea I am now. No blarneyin' of
old times for me. Also, and by the leave of his gracious Majesty King
Tulifau, 'tis Chancellor of the Exchequer I am, an' Chief Justice I am,
save in moments of royal sport when the king himself chooses to toy with
the wheels of justice."

Grief whistled his amazement. "So you're Feathers of the Sun!"

"I prefer the native idiom," was the correction. "Fulualea, an' it
please you. Not forgettin' old times, Mr. Grief, it sorrows the heart
of me to break you the news. You'll have to pay your legitimate import
duties same as any other trader with mind intent on robbin' the gentle
Polynesian savage on coral isles implanted. ----Where was I? Ah! I
remember. You've violated the regulations. With malice intent have you
entered the port of Fitu-Iva after sunset without sidelights burnin'.
Don't interrupt. With my own eyes did I see you. For which offence are
you fined the sum of five pounds. Have you any gin? 'Tis a serious
offence. Not lightly are the lives of the mariners of our commodious
port to be risked for the savin' of a penn