In the hole in the sand, covered over by fragments of metal roofing, Mapuhi and Tefara lay disputing.
"If you had done as I said," charged Tefara, for the thousandth time, "and hidden the pearl and told no one, you would have it now."
"But Huru-Huru was with me when I opened the shell--have I not told you so times and times and times without end?"
"And now we shall have no house. Raoul told me today that if you had not sold the pearl to Toriki--"
"--that if you had not sold the pearl, he would give you five thousand French dollars, which is ten thousand Chili."
"He has been talking to his mother," Mapuhi explained. "She has an eye for a pearl."
"And now the pearl is lost," Tefara complained.
"It paid my debt with Toriki. That is twelve hundred I have made, anyway."
"Toriki is dead," she cried. "They have heard no word of his schooner. She was lost along with the Aorai and the Hira. Will Toriki pay you the three hundred credit he promised? No, because Toriki is dead. And had you found no pearl, would you today owe Toriki the twelve hundred? No, because Toriki is dead, and you cannot pay dead men."
"But Levy did not pay Toriki," Mapuhi said. "He gave him a piece of paper that was good for the money in Papeete; and now Levy is dead and cannot pay; and Toriki is dead and the paper lost with him, and the pearl is lost with Levy. You are right, Tefara. I have lost the pearl, and got nothing for it. Now let us sleep."
He held up his hand suddenly and listened. From without came a noise, as of one who breathed heavily and with pain. A hand fumbled against the mat that served for a door.
"Nauri," came the answer. "Can you tell me where is my son, Mapuhi?"
Tefara screamed and gripped her husband's arm.
Mapuhi's face was a ghastly yellow. He clung weakly to his wife.
"Good woman," he said in faltering tones, striving to disguise his vice, "I know your son well. He is living on the east side of the lagoon."
From without came the sound of a sigh. Mapuhi began to feel elated. He had fooled the ghost.
"But where do you come from, old woman?" he asked.
"I knew it! I knew it!" screamed Tefara, rocking to and fro.
"Since when has Tefara bedded in a strange house?" came Nauri's voice through the matting.