on
the faces of the purchasers, and the same difficulty in getting change.
As like as not you had to take it--the change--in the form of Jews'
harps, screw eyes, or anything small and handy that happened to be near
by. It was the most lightning performance Apia had ever witnessed, and
the captain carried it off in a brisk, smiling way, as though it was the
best joke in the world, and he was only doing it all for fun.

Unfortunate captain! Unhappy destiny that brought in the mail cutter two
days ahead of schedule! Thrice unlucky popularity that found thee
basking in the sunshine of woman's favor instead of on thy four-inch
deck! The pilot signaled the mail; Skiddy put forth in his consular
boat, intercepting the cutter in the pass, and receiving (on his head)
his own especial Government bag. The proximity of the _Southern Belle_,
and the likelihood of Satterlee being at home, caused Skiddy to board
the ship and open the bag on her quarter-deck. One stout, blue, and
important-looking letter at once caught his eye. He opened the stout,
blue, and important-looking letter, and----

There were no white men in the crew of the _Southern Belle_. They were
all Rotumah boys, with the exception of Ah Foy, the Chinese cook. This
amiable individual was singing over his pots and pans when he was
suddenly startled by the apparition of Skiddy at the galley door. The
little consul was deathly pale, and there was something fierce and
authoritative in his look.

"Come out of here," he said abruptly, "I want to talk to you!"

The Chinaman followed him aft. He had a pretty good idea of what was
coming. That was why he was sewn up with two hundred dollars in hard
cash, together with a twenty-dollar bill under his left heel. He began
to cry, and in five minutes had blurted out the whole thing.
Self-preservation is the first law, and he had, besides, some dim
conception of State's evidence. Skiddy made the conception clearer, and
promised him immunity if he would make a clean breast of it. This the
Chinaman forthwith did in his laborious pidgin. A good part of it was
incomprehensible, but he established certain main facts, and confirmed
the stout, blue, important-looking letter. As Satterlee came off on a
shore boat, pulling like mad, and then darted up the ladder in a sweat
of apprehension, he was met at the top by Skiddy--not Skiddy the
friend, but Skiddy the arm of the law, Skiddy the retributive, Skiddy
the world's avenger, with Seniko