‘Tenez,voil le Capitaine Biunot’, said Tiaré,one day when I was fitting together what she could tell me of Strickland.‘He knew Strickland well;he visited him at his house.’

　　I saw a middleaged Frenchman with a big black beard,streaked with grey,a sunburned face,and large,shining eyes.He was dressed in a neat suit of ducks.I had noticed him at luncheon,and Ah Lin,the Chinese boy,told me he had come from the Paumotus on the boat that had that day arrived.Tiaré introduced me to him,and he handed me his card,a large card on which was printed René Brunot, and underneath,Capitaine au Long Cours. We were sitting on a little veranda outside the kitchen,and Tiaré was cutting out a dress that she was making for one of the girls about the house.He sat down with us.

　　‘Yes;I knew Strickland well’,he said.‘I am very fond of chess,and he was always glad of a game.I come to Tahiti three of four times a year for my business,and when he was at Papeete he would come here and we would play.When he married’－Captain Brunot smiled and shrugged his shoulders－‘enfin, w......