“Uli!” shouted the skipper to the native steersman. “Here! Soro na sila, some of you!” and as they slacked off the sheet he drew me aft out of the waist, and continued.
“Well, as soon as we touched, I jumped out and waited for him.
“‘What have you come for?’ says he.
“‘Stress of weather and short provisions,’ I says. Then he stood looking at me for about a minute, while I opened my book again. After a bit he turned round, and went into his lean-to. When he’d gone in I come up to the door. There was a mat or two on the bed-place, but the floor was bare gravel, and the table an old packing-case nailed on two sticks stuck in the ground.
“‘What d’yer want?’ he says, when I looked in.
“‘Nothing,’ says I, and sat down in the doorway. After a bit he says, ‘To-day’s the third of June, and a Thursday, else you couldn’t have landed. Who’s Governor now?’
“‘Des Vœux,’ I says.
“‘Never heard of him,’ says he; ‘thought Gordon was. What’s copra?’
“‘Ten pound five in Levuka.’