"'Just a moment, McCarthy,' he says. 'I said: "Get her." You understand? Get her. And keep her. Was a man to try and escape on you, what would you do?' "'I 'd shoot,' I says. 'I 'd bring him in, alive or dead.' "'Well, shoot her.' "'Oh, gee, Chief!' I says. 'I can't shoot a woman.' "'Well, then, shoot yourself,' he says. 'At any rate, if you come home alone, come home cold storage. I 'll pay the freight. And that 'll be all,' he says. "I goes to Paris, and from Paris to Marseilles--" "That's all right, McCarthy," the district attorney waived. "It does n't matter how you went. Tell us what happened at Tahiti." "In Tahiti something tells me all is not right. The steamer I come on docks in the morning and leaves that afternoon, and I hopes to make it with Janssen. Maybe it's because I can't get their French and our consul is not a well man, but they delay me until the steamer goes and then I 'm left flat. The extradition papers must be in order, they say. But there is too much of this belle-prisoner stuff. "Well, all's finished and they takes me to her. 'Well, Janssen,' I says, 'we got you.' 'Now that you got me, what are you going to do with me?' she laughs; and every one laughs. Right away I see they 're all rooting for her, and they like me like a souse likes water. "Honest, Judge, I don't blame them. They's few white women in that place and, such as they are, they 're not lookers. And the Kanaka girls, for all they are pretty as a picture, they ain't human and they _ain't_ healthy, you know, as we white people think. Anna certainly had the looks, and was white, and had the pep, and they were all crazy about her. The Frenchmen are daffy about women, and they don't think nothing about a woman shooting a man--nothing at all. "So they smiles at me and they says, 'You must see our beautiful island before you sail away with the belle prisoner!' "'Your island is fine,' I tells them, 'and, no offense meant, but it's got nothing on Manhattan Island. And as for the belle prisoner,' I says, 'ain't you folks forgetting something? This dame is as nifty a little murderess as ever I sees.' "'It was a crime passional,' they says, and they shrugs their shoulders. "'Tell that to the judge,' I says. 'I 'm only the copper.' "'Well,' they say, 'unfortunately Monsieur will have to enjoy our island for three weeks. The next liner will not be here until then.' "'Oh, is that so?' I laughs. 'Well, let me tell you something. While you guys was examining the papers for your belle prisoner, I was doing a little scouting around the harbor. And they's a schooner leaving to-night for San Francisco. I guess that 'll do us all right.' "'Impossible!' They go wild. 'A lady cannot travel--' "'Cut the lady stuff,' I says. 'She's my prisoner.'