Then two years more went by,or perhaps three,for time passes imperceptibly in Tahiti,and it is hard to keep count of it;but at last a message was brought to Dr Coutras that Strickland was dying.Ata had waylaid the cart that took the mail into Papeete,and besought the man who drove it to go at once to the doctor.But the doctor was out when the summons came,and it was evening when he received it.It was impossible to start at so late an hour,and so it was not till next day soon after dawn that he set out.He arrived at Taravao,and for the last time tramped the seven kilometres that led to Atas house.The path was overgrown,and it was clear that for years now it had remained all but untrodden.It was not easy to find the way.Sometimes he had to stumble along the bed of the stream,and sometimes he had to push through shrubs,dense and thorny;often he was obliged to climb over rocks in order to avoid the hornetnests that hung on the trees over his head.The silence was intense.

　　It was with a sigh of relief that at last he came upon the little unpainted house,extraordin......