NT 126

IX. THE WRECK OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ 139

X. IN WHICH THE CREW VANISH 154

XI. IN WHICH JIM AND I TAKE DIFFERENT WAYS 179

XII. THE _NORAH CREINA_ 194

XIII. THE ISLAND AND THE WRECK 210

XIV. THE CABIN OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ 222

XV. THE CARGO OF THE _FLYING SCUD_ 237

XVI. IN WHICH I TURN SMUGGLER, AND THE CAPTAIN CASUIST 251

XVII. LIGHT FROM THE MAN OF WAR 264

XVIII. CROSS-QUESTIONS AND CROOKED ANSWERS 278

XIX. TRAVELS WITH A SHYSTER 294

XX. STALLBRIDGE-LE-CARTHEW 317

XXI. FACE TO FACE 330

XXII. THE REMITTANCE MAN 338

XXIII. THE BUDGET OF THE _CURRENCY LASS_ 363

XXIV. A HARD BARGAIN 388

XXV. A BAD BARGAIN 402

EPILOGUE

TO WILL H. LOW 427

THE WRECKER

WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH

LLOYD OSBOURNE

PROLOGUE

THE WRECKER

PROLOGUE

IN THE MARQUESAS

It was about three o'clock of a winter's afternoon in Tai-o-hae, the
French capital and port of entry of the Marquesas Islands. The Trades
blew strong and squally; the surf roared loud on the shingle beach; and
the fifty-ton schooner of war, that carries the flag and influence of
France about the islands of the cannibal group, rolled at her moorings
under Prison Hill. The clouds hung low and black on the surrounding
amphitheatre of mountains; rain had fallen earlier in the day, real
tropic rain, a waterspout for violence; and the green and gloomy brow of
the mountain was still seamed with many silver threads of torrent.

In these hot and healthy islands winter is but a name. The rain had not
refreshed, nor could the wind invigorate, the dwellers of Tai-o-hae:
away at one end, indeed, the commandant was directing some changes in
the residency garden beyond Prison Hill; and the gardeners, being all
convicts, had no choice but to continue to obey. All other folks
slumbered and took their rest: Vaekehu, the native Queen, in her trim
house under the rustling palms; the