We might have thought that he had not heard,or not understood;only that we found ourselves the subject of a constant study.As we sat at meals,he took us in series and fixed upon each,for near a minute at a time,the same hard and thoughtful stare.As he thus looked he seemed to forget himself,the subject and the company,and to become absorbed in the process of his thought;the look was wholly impersonal;I have seen the same in the eyes of portrait-painters.The counts upon which whites have been deported are mainly four:cheating Tembinok',meddling overmuch with copra,which is the source of his wealth,and one of the sinews of his power,'PEAKING,and political intrigue.I felt guiltless upon all;but how to show it?I would not have taken copra in a gift:how to express that quality by my dinner-table bearing?The rest of the party shared my innocence and my embarrassment.They shared also in my mortification when after two whole meal-times and the odd moments of an afternoon devoted to this reconnoitring,Tembinok'took his leave in silence.Next morning,the same undisguised study,the same silence,was resumed;and the second day had come to its maturity before I was informed abruptly that Ihad stood the ordeal.'I look your eye.You good man.You no lie,'said the king:a doubtful compliment to a writer of romance.
Later he explained he did not quite judge by the eye only,but the mouth as well.'Tuppoti I see man,'he explained.'I no tavvy good man,bad man.I look eye,look mouth.Then I tavvy.Look EYE,look mouth,'he repeated.And indeed in our case the mouth had the most to do with it,and it was by our talk that we gained admission to the island;the king promising himself (and I believe really amassing)a vast amount of useful knowledge ere we left.