Woman he smart all the same man.  My woman’ (glancing towards his wives) ’he good woman, no very smart.  I think Miss Stlevens he is chiep all the same cap’n man-o-wa’.  I think Miss Stlevens he rich man all the same me.  All go schoona.  I very sorry.  My patha he go, my uncle he go, my cutcheons he go, Miss Stlevens he go:  all go.  You no see king cry before.  King all the same man:  feel bad, he cry.  I very sorry.’

In the morning it was the common topic in the village that the king had wept.  To me he said:  ’Last night I no can ’peak:  too much here,’ laying his hand upon his bosom.  ’Now you go away all the same my pamily.  My brothers, my uncle go away.  All the same.’  This was said with a dejection almost passionate.  And it was the first time I had heard him name his uncle, or indeed employ the word.  The same day he sent me a present of two corselets, made in the island fashion of plaited fibre, heavy and strong.  One had been worn by Tenkoruti, one by Tembaitake; and the gift being gratefully received, he sent me, on the return of his messengers, a third—­that of Tembinatake.  My curiosity was roused; I begged for information as to the three wearers; and the king entered with gusto into the details already given.  Here was a strange thing, that he should have talked so much of his family, and not once mentioned that relative of whom he was plainly the most proud.  Nay, more:  he had hitherto boasted of his father; thenceforth he had little to say of him; and the qualities for which he had praised him in the past were now attributed where they were due,—­ to the uncle.  A confusion might be natural enough among islanders, who call all the sons of their grandfather by the common name of father.  But this was not the case with Tembinok’.  Now the ice was broken the word uncle was perpetually in his mouth; he who had been so ready to confound was now careful to distinguish; and the father sank gradually into a self-complacent ordinary man, while the uncle rose to his true stature as the hero and founder of the race.

The more I heard and the more I considered, the more this mystery of Tembinok’s behaviour puzzled and attracted me.  And the explanation, when it came, was one to strike the imagination of a dramatist.  Tembinok’ had two brothers.  One, detected in private trading, was banished, then forgiven, lives to this day in the island, and is the father of the heir-apparent, Paul.  The other fell beyond forgiveness.  I have heard it was a love-affair with one of the king’s wives, and the thing is highly possible in that romantic archipelago.  War was attempted to be levied; but Tembinok’ was too swift for the rebels, and the guilty brother escaped in a canoe.  He did not go alone.  Tembinatake had a hand in the rebellion, and the man who had gained a kingdom for a weakling brother was banished by that brother’s son.  The fugitives came to shore in other islands, but Tembinok’ remains to this day ignorant of their fate.