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"Six months later he was gone. Nina bore the loss like the thoroughbred she was. She was expecting a baby in a few months' time. I wanted her to return to Papeete, but she was not to be moved from their little home in Vaihiva. I didn't insist overmuch, then, for she was in excellent hands, with a native family, friends of mine, living close by. However, I made her promise to come to the hospital here well before the time of her confinement.

"Those plans went for nothing. I was to fetch her in my launch, on the Monday, I think it was. Three days before this a storm broke that came close to being a hurricane; it was one of the worst I remember here. I went to Vaihiva the moment wind and sea would let me, but I was too late. Nina had died in childbirth in the midst of the storm, and her baby with her."

Tyson was silent for some time. "Tell young McLeod as little of this as you like," he said. "One thing you can say with truth: his father and mother loved Vaihiva. They were as happy there as his health would let them be. George was too small, of course, to remember much about it. By good luck, he was not with his mother at the time of her death."