I had not been in Tahiti long before I met Captain Nichols.He came in one morning when I was having breakfast on the terrace of the hotel and introduced himself.He had heard that I was interested in Charles Strickland,and announced that he was come to have a talk about him.They are as fond of gossip in Tahiti as in an English village,and one or two inquiries I had made for pictures by Strickland had been quickly spread.I asked the stranger if he had breakfasted.

　　‘Yes;I have my coffee early，’he answered,‘but I dont mind having a drop of whisky.’

　　I called the Chinese boy.

　　‘You dont think its too early?’said the Captain.

　　‘You and your liver must decide that between you’,I replied.

　　‘Im practically a teetotaller’,he said,as he poured himself out a good halftumbler of Canadian Club.

　　When he smiled he showed broken and discoloured teeth.He was a very lean man,of no more than average height,with grey hair cut short and a stubby grey moustache.He had not shaved for a couple of days.His face was deeply lined,burned brown by l......