ng peacefully and comfortably in their
communistic society, coveting nothing from each other as there was
plenty for all, eager to do honor to a strange guest who, they hoped,
would teach them many useful things.

CHAPTER XXVI

A visit to Typee; story of the old man who returned too late.

I said, of course, that I must visit Typee, the scene of Porter's
bloody raid and Herman Melville's exploits, and while I was making
arrangements to get a horse in Tai-o-hae I met Haus Ramqe,
supercargo of the schooner _Moana_, who related a story concerning
the valley.

"I was working in the store of the Soceite Comerciale de l'Ocean in
Tai-o-hae when the _Tropic Bird_, a San Francisco mail-schooner,
arrived. That was ten years ago. An old man, an American, came into
our place and asked the way to Typee.

"'Ah,' I said, 'you have been reading that book by Melville.' He
made no reply, but asked me to escort him to the valley. We set out
on horseback, and though he had not said that he had ever been in
these islands before, I saw that he was strangely interested in the
scenes we passed. He was rather feeble with age, and he grew so
excited as we neared the valley that I asked him what he expected to
see there.

"He stopped his horse, and hesitated in his reply. He was terribly
agitated.

"'I lived in Typee once upon a time,' he said slowly. 'Could there
by chance be a woman living there named Manu? That was a long time
ago, and I was young. Still, I am here, and she may be, too.'

"I looked at him and could not tell him the truth. It was evident he
had made no confidant of the captain or crew of the _Tropic Bird_,
for they could have told him of the desolation in Typee. I hated,
though, to have him plump right into the facts.

"'How many people were there in your day?' I asked him. He replied
that there were many thousands.

"'I lived there three years,' he said. 'I had a sweetheart named Manu,
and I married her in the Marquesan way. I was a runaway sailor, and
one night on the beach I was captured and taken away on a ship. I
have been captain of a great American liner for years, always
meaning to come back, and putting it off from year to year. All my
people are dead, and I thought I would come now and perhaps find her
here and end my days. I have plenty of money.'

"He seemed childish to me--perhaps he really had lost mental poise
by age. I hadn't the courage to tell him the truth. We came on it
soon enough. Y