,
pliers about the islands--and it just went against their instinct
that anyone should forsake so much as a dog. If they'd known you had
forsaken a man, you Foe, they'd have tarred and burnt you.

"--Captain Hales, as it happened, hadn't caught the barking or any
faint echo of it: the reason being that he was hard of hearing,
although in the rest of his senses sharper than all his crew rolled
together, and in wits or at a bargain a match for any trader between
Chile and Palmerston. Also I have heard it rumoured that he had run
a bit wild in his youth, found himself within the law or outside of
it (I forget which), and come down to the South Pacific for the
good of his health. But that was many years ago. He was now a
middle-aged man, and had learnt enough about these waters to call you
a fool if you suggested by way of flattery that what he didn't know
about them wasn't worth knowing.

"--Something, at any rate, in his past had turned him into a silent,
brooding man, seldom coming out of his thoughts until it came to a
bargain, when he woke up like a giant from sleep. His deafness
helped to fasten this silent habit deeper upon him. Also he was
touchy about his deafness: didn't like at any time to be reminded of
it; and was apt to fly into a sudden rage if anyone brought up a
reminder, even by a chance hint. And that, belike, was the main
reason why he alone on board--barring yourself, Foe--never heard tell
of this barking which he had missed to hear with his own ears.

"--And now for one thing more, Foe--and it'll make you squirm by and
by! Like most deaf men he was a bit suspicious: and looking at you
sideways as you came on board--what with one thing and another, not
liking missionaries as a line in trade, and, in particular,
mistrusting the cut of _your_ jib, he thought things over a bit and
altered his helm.

"--I'll explain. You see, you not only came aboard looking what you
are, but you came aboard fairly slimed over, in addition, with all
that had ever been told or guessed against Buck Vliet's missionary.
The stories didn't agree about his sect: but they agreed that Vliet,
though a ruffian, hadn't marooned the man just for fun--that he must
have been a hard case somehow. The stories might vary concerning
Vliet's reasons: but they agreed that the man hadn't come to it by
sheer over-prayerfulness: and the conclusion was--reasonable or
unreasonable--that you, Foe, must have been a bad potato somehow,