ects rain at this time of year
anyway."

She looked from Macphail to his wife, standing helplessly in different
parts of the room, like lost souls, and she pursed her lips. She saw
that she must take them in hand. Feckless people like that made her
impatient, but her hands itched to put everything in the order which
came so naturally to her.

"Here, you give me a needle and cotton and I'll mend that net of yours,
while you go on with your unpacking. Dinner's at one. Dr Macphail, you'd
better go down to the wharf and see that your heavy luggage has been put
in a dry place. You know what these natives are, they're quite capable
of storing it where the rain will beat in on it all the time."

The doctor put on his waterproof again and went downstairs. At the door
Mr Horn was standing in conversation with the quartermaster of the ship
they had just arrived in and a second-class passenger whom Dr Macphail
had seen several times on board. The quartermaster, a little, shrivelled
man, extremely dirty, nodded to him as he passed.

"This is a bad job about the measles, doc," he said. "I see you've fixed
yourself up already."

Dr Macphail thought he was rather familiar, but he was a timid man and
he did not take offence easily.

"Yes, we've got a room upstairs."

"Miss Thompson was sailing with you to Apia, so I've brought her along
here."

The quartermaster pointed with his thumb to the woman standing by his
side. She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump, and in a coarse fashion
pretty. She wore a white dress and a large white hat. Her fat calves in
white cotton stockings bulged over the tops of long white boots in glace
kid. She gave Macphail an ingratiating smile.

"The feller's tryin' to soak me a dollar and a half a day for the
meanest sized room," she said in a hoarse voice.

"I tell you she's a friend of mine, Jo," said the quartermaster. "She
can't pay more than a dollar, and you've sure got to take her for that."

The trader was fat and smooth and quietly smiling.

"Well, if you put it like that, Mr Swan, I'll see what I can do about
it. I'll talk to Mrs Horn and if we think we can make a reduction we
will."

"Don't try to pull that stuff with me," said Miss Thompson. "We'll
settle this right now. You get a dollar a day for the room and not one
bean more."

Dr Macphail smiled. He admired the effrontery with which she bargained.
He was the sort of man who always paid what he was asked. He preferred
to be over-