The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13

Mr. Loudon Dodd, though he was new to the group of the Marquesas, was already an old, salted trader; he knew the ships and the captains; he had assisted, in other islands, at the first steps of some career of which he now heard the culmination, or (vice versâ) he had brought with him from further south the end of some story which had begun in Tai-o-hae. Among other matters of interest, like other arrivals in the South Seas, he had a wreck to announce. The John T. Richards, it appeared, had met the fate of other island schooners.

"Dickinson piled her up on Palmerston Island," Dodd announced.

"Who were the owners?" inquired one of the clubmen.

"O, the usual parties!" returned Loudon, "Capsicum and Co."

A smile and a glance of intelligence went round the group; and perhaps Loudon gave voice to the general sentiment by remarking--

"Talk of good busines