charged than to haggle. The trader sighed.

"Well, to oblige Mr Swan I'll take it."

"That's the goods," said Miss Thompson. "Come right in and have a shot
of hooch. I've got some real good rye in that grip if you'll bring it
along, Mr Swan. You come along too, doctor."

"Oh, I don't think I will, thank you," he answered. "I'm just going down
to see that our luggage is all right."

He stepped out into the rain. It swept in from the opening of the
harbour in sheets and the opposite shore was all blurred. He passed two
or three natives clad in nothing but the _lava-lava_, with huge
umbrellas over them. They walked finely, with leisurely movements, very
upright; and they smiled and greeted him in a strange tongue as they
went by.

It was nearly dinner-time when he got back, and their meal was laid in
the trader's parlour. It was a room designed not to live in but for
purposes of prestige, and it had a musty, melancholy air. A suite of
stamped plush was arranged neatly round the walls, and from the middle
of the ceiling, protected from the flies by yellow tissue paper, hung a
gilt chandelier. Davidson did not come.

"I know he went to call on the governor," said Mrs Davidson, "and I
guess he's kept him to dinner."

A little native girl brought them a dish of Hamburger steak, and after
a while the trader came up to see that they had everything they wanted.

"I see we have a fellow lodger, Mr Horn," said Dr Macphail.

"She's taken a room, that's all," answered the trader. "She's getting
her own board."

He looked at the two ladies with an obsequious air.

"I put her downstairs so she shouldn't be in the way. She won't be any
trouble to you."

"Is it someone who was on the boat?" asked Mrs Macphail.

"Yes, ma'am, she was in the second cabin. She was going to Apia. She has
a position as cashier waiting for her."

"Oh!"

When the trader was gone Macphail said:

"I shouldn't think she'd find it exactly cheerful having her meals in
her room."

"If she was in the second cabin I guess she'd rather," answered Mrs
Davidson. "I don't exactly know who it can be."

"I happened to be there when the quartermaster brought her along. Her
name's Thompson."

"It's not the woman who was dancing with the quartermaster last night?"
asked Mrs Davidson.

"That's who it must be," said Mrs Macphail. "I wondered at the time what
she was. She looked rather fast to me."

"Not good style at all," said Mrs Davidson.

They beg