Fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and ice came to this house every day, and
he paid for none of it. It was part of his graft from the various
merchants. And all the while, with tears in his eyes, he bemoaned the
vile treatment I was receiving from the gang. No, I did not fall among
thieves. I went to Tahiti.
"But when the robbers fell to cheating one another, I got my first clues
to the state of affairs. One of the robbed robbers came to me after
dark, with facts, figures, and assertions. I knew I was ruined if I went
to law. The judges were corrupt like everything else. But I did do one
thing. In the dead of night I went to Ericson's house. I had the same
revolver I've got now, and I made him stay in bed while I overhauled
things. Nineteen hundred and odd francs was what I carried away with me.
He never complained to the police, and he never came back on board. As
for the rest of the gang, they laughed and snapped their fingers at me.
There were two Americans in the place, and they warned me to leave the
law alone unless I wanted to leave the _Miele_ behind as well.
"Then I sent to New Zealand and got a German mate. He had a master's
certificate, and was on the ship's papers as captain, but I was a better
navigator than he, and I was really captain myself.
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