give him a beating. He is easy
to beat when he is in drink."

She doubled up her fist, and such were her Amazonian proportions and the
determination in her face that Grief knew the council would be called.
So akin was the Fitu-Ivan tongue to the Samoan that he spoke it like a
native.

"And you, Uiliami," he said, "have pointed out that the soldiers have
demanded coin and refused the paper Fulualea has offered them. Tell them
to take the paper and see that they be paid to-morrow."

"Why trouble?" Uiliami objected. "The king remains happily drunk. There
is much money in the treasury. And I am content. In my house are two
cases of gin and much goods from Hawkins's store."

"Excellent pig, O my brother!" Sepeli erupted. "Has not Davida spoken?
Have you no ears? When the gin and the goods in your house are gone, and
no more traders come with gin and goods, and Feathers of the Sun has run
away to Levuka with all the cash money of Fitu-Iva, what then will you
do? Cash money is silver and gold, but paper is only paper. I tell you
the people are grumbling. There is no fish in the palace. Yams and
sweet potatoes seem to have fled from the soil, for they come not. The
mountain dwellers have sent no wild goat in a week. Though Feathers of
the Sun compels the traders to buy copra at the old price, the people
sell not, for they will have none of the paper money. Only to-day have I
sent messengers to twenty houses. There are no eggs. Has Feathers of the
Sun put a blight upon the hens? I do not know. All I know is that there
are no eggs. Well it is that those who drink much eat little, else would
there be a palace famine. Tell your soldiers to receive their pay. Let
it be in his paper money."

"And remember," Grief warned, "though there be selling in the stores,
when the soldiers come with their paper it will be refused. And in three
days will be the council, and Feathers of the Sun will be as dead as a
dead pig."

VI

The day of the council found the population of the island crowded into
the capital. By canoe and whaleboat, on foot and donkey-back, the five
thousand inhabitants of Fitu-Iva had trooped in. The three intervening
days had had their share of excitement. At first there had been much
selling from the sparse shelves of the traders. But when the soldiers
appeared, their patronage was declined and they were told to go to
Fulualea for coin. "Says it not so on the face of the paper," the
traders demanded, "that f