uffler coughed and spluttered overside. But the schooner could not hold
her lead. The little cutter made three feet to her two and was quickly
alongside and forging ahead. Only natives were on her deck, and the man
steering waved his hand in derisive greeting and farewell.

"That's Narii Herring," Grief told Mulhall. "The big fellow at the
wheel--the nerviest and most conscienceless scoundrel in the Paumotus."

Five minutes later a cry of joy from their own Kanakas centred all eyes
on the _Nuhiva_. Her engine had broken down and they were overtaking
her. The _Malahini's_ sailors sprang into the rigging and jeered as they
went by; the little cutter heeled over by the wind with a bone in her
teeth, going backward on the tide.

"Some engine that of ours," Grief approved, as the lagoon opened before
them and the course was changed across it to the anchorage.

Captain Warfield was visibly cheered, though he merely grunted, "It'll
pay for itself, never fear."

The _Malahini_ ran well into the centre of the little fleet ere she
found swinging room to anchor.

"There's Isaacs on the _Dolly_," Grief observed, with a hand wave of
greeting. "And Peter Gee's on the _Roberta_. Couldn't keep him away from
a pearl sale like this. And there's Francini on the _Cactus_. They're
all here, all the buyers. Old Parlay will surely get a price."

"They haven't repaired the engine yet," Captain Warfield grumbled
gleefully.

He was looking across the lagoon to where the _Nuhiva's_ sails showed
through the sparse cocoa-nuts.

II

The house of Parlay was a big two-story frame affair, built of
California lumber, with a galvanized iron roof. So disproportionate
was it to the slender ring of the atoll that it showed out upon the
sand-strip and above it like some monstrous excrescence. They of the
_Malahini_ paid the courtesy visit ashore immediately after anchoring.
Other captains and buyers were in the big room examining the pearls that
were to be auctioned next day. Paumotan servants, natives of Hikihoho,
and relatives of the owner, moved about dispensing whiskey and absinthe.
And through the curious company moved Parlay himself, cackling and
sneering, the withered wreck of what had once been a tall and powerful
man. His eyes were deep sunken and feverish, his cheeks fallen in and
cavernous. The hair of his head seemed to have come out in patches, and
his mustache and imperial had shed in the same lopsided way.

"Jove!" Mulhall m