The sale of drink is in this group a measure of the jealousy of traders; one begins, the others are constrained to follow; and to him who has the most gin, and sells it the most recklessly, the lion’s share of copra is assured.  It is felt by all to be an extreme expedient, neither safe, decent, nor dignified.  A trader on Tarawa, heated by an eager rivalry, brought many cases of gin.  He told me he sat afterwards day and night in his house till it was finished, not daring to arrest the sale, not venturing to go forth, the bush all round him filled with howling drunkards.  At night, above all, when he was afraid to sleep, and heard shots and voices about him in the darkness, his remorse was black.

‘My God!’ he reflected, ’if I was to lose my life on such a wretched business!’ Often and often, in the story of the Gilberts, this scene has been repeated; and the remorseful trader sat beside his lamp, longing for the day, listening with agony for the sound of murder, registering resolutions for the future.  For the business is easy to begin, but hazardous to stop.  The natives are in their way a just and law-abiding people, mindful of their debts, docile to the voice of their own institutions; when the tapu is re-enforced they will cease drinking; but the white who seeks to antedate the movement by refusing liquor does so at his peril.

Hence, in some degree, the anxiety and helplessness of Mr. Rick.  He and Tom, alarmed by the rabblement of the Sans Souci, had stopped the sale; they had done so without danger, because The Land we Live in still continued selling; it was claimed, besides, that they had been the first to begin.  What step could be taken?  Could Mr. Rick visit Mr. Muller (with whom he was not on terms) and address him thus:  ’I was getting ahead of you, now you are getting ahead of me, and I ask you to forego your profit.  I got my place closed in safety, thanks to your continuing; but now I think you have continued long enough.  I begin to be alarmed; and because I am afraid I ask you to confront a certain danger’?  It was not to be thought of.  Something else had to be found; and there was one person at one end of the town who was at least not interested in copra.  There was little else to be said in favour of myself as an ambassador.  I had arrived in the Wightman schooner, I was living in the Wightman compound, I was the daily associate of the Wightman coterie.  It was egregious enough that I should now intrude unasked in the private affairs of Crawford’s agent, and press upon him the sacrifice of his interests and the venture of his life.  But bad as I might be, there was none better; since the affair of the stone I was, besides, sharp-set to be doing, the idea of a delicate interview attracted me, and I thought it policy to show myself abroad.