Pacific Tales by Louis Becke
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Pacific Tales
by Louis Becke
1897
TO
MY TRUE FRIEND AND GOOD COMRADE,
TOM DE WOLF,
I DEDICATE THESE TALES.
IN MEMORY OF THOSE OLDEN DAYS
WHEN UNDER STRANGE SKIES WE SAILED TOGETHER
IN WEATHER FOUL AND FAIR.
Savage Club, London, April 15, 1896.
CONTENTS
AN ISLAND MEMORY: ENGLISH BOB
IN THE OLD, BEACHCOMBING DAYS
MRS. MALLESON'S RIVAL
PRESCOTT OF NAURA
CHESTER'S "CROSS"
HOLLIS'S DEBT: A TALE OF THE NORTH-WEST PACIFIC
THE ARM OF LUNO CAPÁL
IN A SAMOAN VILLAGE
COLLIER: THE "BLACKBIRDER"
IN THE EVENING
THE GREAT CRUSHING AT MOUNT SUGAR-BAG
THE SHADOWS OF THE DEAD
"FOR WE WERE FRIENDS ALWAYS"
NIKOA
THE STRANGE WHITE WOMAN OF MADURO
THE OBSTINACY OF MRS. TATTON
DR. LUDWIG SCHWALBE, SOUTH SEA SAVANT
THE TREASURE OF DON BRUNO
AN ISLAND MEMORY: ENGLISH BOB
There was once a South Sea Island supercargo named Denison who had a Kanaka father and mother. This was when Denison was a young man. His father's name was Kusis; his mother's Tulpé. Also, he had several brown-skinned, lithe-limbed, and big-eyed brothers and sisters, who made much of their new white brother, and petted and caressed and wept over him as if he were an ailing child of six instead of a tough young fellow of two-and-twenty who had nothing wrong with him but a stove-in rib and a heart that ached for home, which made him cross and fretful.
But Denison hasn't got much to do with this story, so all I need say of him is that he had been the supercargo of a brig called the Leonora; and the Leonora had b