The Belted Seas

because Fu Shan and the agent at 'Frisco kept me sitting around collecting barnacles. They didn't seem to know what they wanted me to do

beard. He hadn't changed so much, except that he looked older and had a chin beard and wore a long black coat and plush vest. He looked at the Good Sister, and he

he'd done it. I judged his family name had been collecting barnacles, till it wasn't worth cleaning maybe, or maybe he was a fugitive or exile from Corazon, or maybe he'd specul

Street, and ask the agent. Then he'll say he don't know. Then you'll tell him he's a thre

and went off up Market Street. By-and-by the

chartered the Good Sister. Get her ready. Mr. Phip

lery, guns, clothes, neckties, and silk handkerchiefs, and cheap jewelry. He'd go in and ask for a drygoods box. Then he'd potter around the shop till the box was full. He'd buy out a show case of goods, and maybe he'd buy the show case. He bought barrels full of old ma

ths. Send me news when you get a chance, and come back by Honolulu for directions. He's a lu

on buying chandeliers and chess-boards and clocks and women's things, such as dresses and ostrich-feathers hats, and baby carriages, and parasols, and an

you might

he felt in his pocket and pulled out a bunc

ome front porches, ready made, with door-knock

the tide on a Saturday night,

At first I thought he'd gone lunatic of late, and then again when he show

ning clouds. He'd talk and speculate, sometimes shrewd, and then again it was like a matter of adding a shipload of pirates to the signs of the zodiac, and getting the New Jerusalem fo

you.' Where? I says, 'In the beyond.' Then I took a map, Tommy, and looked over the world; I examined the globe; I took stock of the earth, and compared lands, seas, climates. The likeliest-looking place appeared to be the South Pacific Ocean. Why? It appeared to be, in general, beyond. It was the biggest thing on the map. It was tropical. Palm-trees, spicy odours, corals, pearls. 'All right,' I says: 'J. R., it wouldn't take much to be a millionaire in those unpolluted regions. You'd be a potentate. You'd wear picturesque clothes, and lie on poppies and lotuses. You'd be a Solomon to those guileless nations. You'd instruct their ignorance and preserve their morals. You'd lead their armies to victory on account of your natural gifts. You'd have your birthdays celebrated with torch-light processions. You'd be a luxurious patriot.' Now that's a pleasant way of looking at it. But it seemed to me the likeliest thing was to go out as a trader. Now as to trading. Sitting on a stool and figuring discounts is business,

"Course

th the other hand toward the moon and sea-"look at this here hemisphere. It's big and still. The kinks and creases of me are smoothing out. I'm exp

is chin beard, sitting on deck in a red plush-covered easy-chair, with his feet on

one side," he says, "and left ragged on th

ou might say, when he ought to have galloped, and sometimes he'd gallop when he ought

his eyes, one blind, and the other calm and calculating, and absent-minded. He'd sit with his cigar tilted up in one corner of his mouth, and his hat tilted forward, and whittle sticks. He'd talk with anybody, but mostly with me and Kamelillo, whom he appeared to be a

"here is the l

r routes all mark

y you can't tell what it belongs to." No more you could. The name appeared to be dropped down there so that section of the Pacific wouldn't look so lonely. I brought out the ship's

nd Kamelillo didn't know, but looked as if he m

ow there's likely to be natives

e only coral c

,' anyway," he says. "A man don't put 'L

along the bottom of it and around the curve of "U," and up the inside on the right, where the ship's chart had an island, but we missed it, if it was there. The

y '

nd in the neighbourhood, but somewhat to the north. Likely Craney's notion of coasting the edge of the letters was as good as any. I neve

n and stood looking at us. Some of them swam out a little, or paddled on a log, and then went back. There was a splashing and calling all night, and fires shining on the beach. Kamelillo thought he'd been there before, but he didn't remember when; but if he had, it s

ulate; and he sat on deck in his red plush chair till past twelve, smoking fat cigars and staring at the shore. The next day he had up three or four cases from the hold. There was a crowd waiting for him on the beach, and I saw him tying the boxes on poles, and some of the barbarians shouldered the poles, and they all went off in procession. I didn't ask him when he'd come back, and he didn't come for near a week. Only every day there would be a native come down and dance arou

and farther up was more open country and some hills beyond thickly wooded. I judged the island was twenty miles north and south, but co

ead. I guess it's a good thing. I bought it anyway. Julius R." And while I was thinking it over, and thinking sometimes these men that claimed they'd got a point of view were really lunatic, Craney came b

votes, I gathered the ballot was tolerable corrupt, and if it was inheritance, I took it the late royalty had so many heirs they were common like anybody else. But everybody was busy, and it looked as if business would be dull for me, and they told me it was no use trying to be neutral

n to each party

akes a speech of half an hour, Kamelillo gives a grunt to cover most of it, and

middle of 'em and

a peaceful intervie

f 'em had a shirt. He was old, too, and had chicken bones in his hair, and, it was curious, but he knew considerable English, an

r yourself. Now I'll show you. Each of you five take one spear and one shie

that was a good thing. The five candidates were doubtf

ining years. I'll guarantee you that. You stay quiet.' Then I knocked o

it over. By this time the others were willing to figh

t harrow your feelings as mine were harrowed. I won't puncture you with thrills as I was punctured. We burie

out, and when you're through, anything that's left ca

want to fight any more that week. I knocked open the boxes and spread the goods, and then they acted

you put on your claims? State

ts, and bottles of bay-rum. I never saw folks act happier. I bought up the claims. I sc

aims he's a monarch in these regions, he shall be skinned and melted.' And they all cried: '

ong with monarchs, anyway. The men forward were working by lantern, hauling u

at's more, it's most of the male population, including nobility and masses. I'll show 'em. The ol

me, and maybe they'll be hostile. Very good. You come back with 'em and you watch me. You're an old friend of me, Tommy. You're a ma

dding him good-bye on the beach. He appeared to have most of the public to carry up

agent in San Francisco, which agent was irritating on account

vice of bearers. They have

or Phipp!

ht open eyes, who seemed a pleasant talker, but to the best of my recollection was one you might call obstinate. They showed me their

I says. "

nterest in parties in St. Louis, but it set me arguing again whether he was a lunatic, or had a point of view. And so, though I thought it might be they were going to be surprised when they came to

me we were a procession. We knew when we had arrived, for there appeared a long range of roofs through the stems of a palm grove, and a broad path led to it through bushes covered with red thick-scented flowers. It was King Julius's palace. The front of it was all one piazza, maybe two-hundred feet long and forty deep, with slim bamboo pillars; and men seemed to be still shingling one end of it with layers of plantain leaves. But the king was out in a so

with the thumb of one hand in the armhole of his vest, and the oth

n it! Better be careful. Why, the trouble is, the army ain't really disciplined yet. They'd jab you full of holes, when

. But I didn't see but he held the cards. Jessamine might arrest till he was blown. The crew of the Good

e waiters back of his chair, some men, some women. The warriors squatted in line out in front among the flowers. Whenever we were through with a dish, Craney would send the rest of it down to the warriors

is a special one. Mighty fond of drilling they are. Fact, 'most everybody's in th

e expected to know the law of this state touching the person of the king. Fact is, foreigners ain't allowed to arre

ow, J. R., it's no use. You're

ntain it, Jessami

rity of the States of M

papers. You can't have 'em. I won't give 'em to you. Trouble with you, Jessamine

remonstrating, "this isn'

ays Craney. "You don't permeate.

d back from the table, crossed his legs, stuck a thumb in th

o my circumference. You don't permeate my orbit. You don't get on to me. It was this way. I got up and looked out on the world. I says: 'J. R., it's clear you haven't enough cash for your ambitions. But you've got a opportunity. Throw it in. Be bold. If your conscience squirms, let it squirm. If it wriggles, let it wriggle. Take the risk. Expand to large ideas.' I took it. Say, I made parties unwilling investors in me. Now, then, there they

ity to settle the case. I'm told to go and brin

hty, Jessamine!" he says, "you're slow. Most mulish man I ever saw. Well, let it go. You can't do it. Recollect, attemptin

expected to settle, when he started, or he took all the chances that he never would. Maybe he cooked up the theory to suit things as they stood. Maybe not. I don'

alking it over. Breen said they'd better take the offer, and I

got to take him back. But you see, that isn't the point. The point is, here's where we

t where's

r. Now we're three to one. If he can usurp a crown,

doors opposite us, and sitting on mats in front was a fat man with little bones stuck at angles in his grizzled hair. He wore a pink shirt w

hang you for treason. If he's the government here, he's got a right to say what the la

rom the style he swore in he'd been intimate one time with seamen, and I judged; too, he felt dissatisfied. He said he was rightly chief of the island, and that man, all of whose grandfathers were low and disgusting, meaning Julius

nothing from them. I went ashore, but found no one about the huts there

valley to the open country, we saw no signs of fighting, nor any one moving about. Through the valley, as we went up it, there was no smoke from th

pitted with spears; and one man, who was wounded, lifted himself, and glared, and dropped again among the red flowers. Through the palm stems we saw the roofs of th

ards us. They came up to us, and said they had been in the woods hunting for the villagers who had run away, but found none. We

s they went off like gunpowder. Whether all of them yelled for battle and rebellion I don't know; some of them might have been yelling against it. They all yelled, and pretty soon they started hot-foot across the country for the palace, fighting some with each other, so I gathered they disagreed. There are corpses all along between here and the hill, and it was there I caught a cut in the arm. Breen and I agreed to slide out of it. We went and sat on the hillside and watched. Maybe J. R. had word of what was coming. He seemed to be ready for them. I judged the bodyguard met them just above here, and there was a grand mix-up, but w

t going to put up with the fat one. Instead of having it out then, they had all gone off to different corners of the island, the same as they used to do, and that suddenly. Kamelillo didn't know how it came about, and doubted if the candidates knew either. He said they were a "fool lot," and the king could settle them, give him time to hang the fat one. But it was no use now-"Too damn quick," he said. The women and children had all run to the woods in the beginning. Being asked a

three sides were heavy red curtains, and glass chandeliers hung from the rafters of the roof, and a row of mattresses covered with carpet was laid in front, maybe so that subjects could prost

open, and his breastbone split by a spear or h

rom under the cloth he held there against it, and ran down the little

but Craney didn't seem to hear, but m

etter cl

Now, we can't lea

d took position on each side, so that you could see it was according to discipline, and maybe they'd done it every da

plush chair with the curtains and chandeliers and the spearmen standing around it, and down the long room, like he was taking his leave of things he'd thought of, and things he'd been fond of, and things he'd hoped for, and things he'd meant

e. When I came away I left t

all right," but Kamelillo's notions of what was virtuous weren't civilised notions. A man ought to be h