The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-27

trouble from natives that have drunk at
my place." he replied.
That is all | ask" said /, and showed
u was not by Immediately offering to try
his stock
So far as it was any way critical our in
thenceforth, ceased to regard me as an
emissary from his rivals, dropped his de-
iensive attitude, and spoke as he believed.
could make out that he would already,
had he dared, have stopped the sale him.
sell. Not quite daring, it may be i'm
agined how he resented the idea of inter-
terence from those who had 10y his own
statemenO first led him on, then deserted
HIM In the breach, and now (sitting them
selves In safety egged him on to a new
peril, which was all gam to them,
all loss to him. / asked him what he
thought of the danger from the feast.
Il think worse of it than any Of you, }"
he answered. "They were shooting around
here last night and heard the balls, too.
| l said to myself, that's bad What gets
me is why you should be making this row
up at your end. | should be the first to
| 60"
1t was thoughtless wonder. The con-
| ISOLATION of being second is not great; the
fact. not the order, of going-there was
| our concern
We were talking pleasantly when a
| third, in the person of Mr.. Williams, was
| added to our party. He came; he de-
| canted his loquacity, talking by the yard !;
| great words, much manner, no signifi-
| canoe. In part he talked for the mere
love of talking, in part to put value on
himself by opposition, and in part, we
| may suppose he was really Tin Mr.. Null
! ler's formua) afraid of his life. His OBJ
stinacy was cannon-proof; he planted his
feet apart and brayed. 1t was in vain TO
| answer him, for he talked at random, and
it.was only by leaving that | could bring
the absurd and irritating business to a
| stop. And yet the last few speeches are
! perhaps worth concentrating for the
| love of fun.
"Mr. Stevens wants to buy your drink, !"
| objected Muller, who still chung to argu-
| ment, where only stick would have been
| useful.
ooh, that's impossible" said Mr.. Will
| Jams.
Refuse If you like" said 1 who re-
| garded him as vain thing.
81 only refuse upon considerations, dis
| tinguished Mr.. Williams
rose to go. 81 take no interest in your
motives. leave you to your boss, said
| grimly.
But my spiritsl" he cried, in rapture
THAT can't be done! My brandy is that
| expensive that nobody can afford to buy
| it,"
| So once more I left him talking It
| seems to me If l ever return / shall find
| him talking still. Fancy hears even now,
| over great interval of seas and from be-
| yond the line and the meridian that con-
| tinuous voice of speech.
| We sat deep into the night like pack of
| schoolboys, preparing the revolvers and
| arranging plans against the morrow. 1t
| promised certainly TO be busy and event.
| full day. The old men were to be sum-
moned to confront me on the question of
the tapu; Muller might call US at any
moment to garrison his bar; and suppose
| Muller to fail, we decided in a family
council to take the matter in our own
| hands, seize the Land-We-Live-In at the
| pistols mouth, and make the polysyllabic
| Williams dance to new tune. AS L re-
call our humor, l think it would have
| gone hard with the mulatto.
Thursday, July A.-It was as well,
and yet it was disappointing, that these
| thunder clouds rolled of in silence.
| Whether the old men recoiled from an
interview with Queen Victoria's son,
| whether Muller had secretly interviewed,
or whether the step flowed naturally
from the fears of the king and the near
ness of the feast, the tapu was early that
| morning REINFORCED, not day too soon;
from the morrow the boats began to ar
rive thickly, and the town was filled with
| the big, rowdy vassals of Karitch.
| The effect fingered for some time on the
minds of the traders. 1t was with the ap-
| proval OF all present that L helped to
draw upa petition to the United States
praying for law against the liquor trade
in the Gilberts, and it was at this request
| that added, under my own name, brief
testimony of what had passed. Useless
pains, since the whole reposes, probably
| unread and possibly unopened, in a
| pigeonhole at Washington City.
Sunday, July 27.-This day we had the
| afterpiece of the debauch. The king and
| queen, iii European clothes and followed
| by armed guards, attended church for the
first time, and sat perched aloft. in pre-
| carious dignity, under the barrel hoop.
Before the sermon his majesty clambered
from the dais, stood lopsidedly upon the
| gravel floor, and in few words abjured
| drinking. The queen followed suit with
| yet briefer allocution. was then offered
| an opportunity TO add my quota, but like
| Mr.. Williams, refused, upon consideration.
All the men in church were next addressed
in turn; each held up his right hand; and
the affair was over-throne and church
were reconciled.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
The last and best excursion of the season
4 I'll A.