took the
especially irritating form of fair dealings with some thousands of
brown-skinned natives and no dealings at all with any man of his own
color--except to beat him at strict business and then to sell him as
much villainous liquor as he could at the highest possible price. As he
leaned there indolently in his doorway with arms folded and cheroot
between his thin lips he could measure his own land as far as he could
see on either side, a small part of his holdings in plantations and
trading stations throughout the archipelago. Offshore, behind the only
good strip of barrier reef and near the only navigable channel on the
south coast, lay anchored his _Likely Jane_, flagship of a smart little
navy. His gang of boys was hustling cargo out of her in surfboats, and
both boys and boats were the handiest and ablest that could be found
anywhere for that ticklish work. He had only to turn his head to view
the satisfactory bulk of his sheds and dependencies, solid, new-painted.
The house at his back was trim, broad, and comfortable, and in the
storeroom underneath lay thousands of dollars' worth of assorted trade
goods, all of which would eventually become copra and great wealth.

This was the man, decidedly in possession of his own legs and able to
stand and to navigate on the same, to whom Junius Peabody appealed in
his wretched need....

Junius stumbled up to the steps. The burst had marrow-drawn him, his
lungs labored pitifully as if he were breathing cotton wool. It was hot,
for the sun had sprung wide like an opened furnace gate, but he had not
started a pore.

"I've been robbed," he wheezed, and pointed a wavering hand. "Those
chaps there--robbed--!"

Bendemeer glanced aside up the strand after the disappearing ruffians
and then down at the complainant, but otherwise he did not move, only
stayed considering from his lean, leathery mask, with still eyes,
outward-looking.

"What do you care?" he said idly. "You'll be dead in a month anyhow."

Junius gaped toward him dizzily. The fellow was the local authority and
besides had taken his money. He could not believe that he had heard
aright. "But, say--they've stolen my property!"

Bendemeer shot a blue ring of smoke into the sunshine. "In that case
you've lost it. They're heading for the Rocks, and once they've gone to
earth there you never could find them--you'd be torn to pieces if you
did."

He nicked the ash of his cheroot in a pause. "I suppose you mean I