"Ah, monsieur, what a joy to hear those well-known inquiries in my ear once more.

I hasten to gratify your legitimate curiosity.

Name: Peyron; Christian name: Jules; age: forty-one; occupation: convict, escaped from New Caledonia." Under any other circumstances that last qualification might possibly have been held an undesirable one in a new acquaintance.

But on the island of Boupari, among so many heathen cannibals, prejudices pale before community of blood; even a New Caledonian convict is at least a Christian European.

Felix received the strange announcement without the faintest shock of surprise or disgust.