Summary

Chapter 45-52

Captain Nichols described to narrator how he met Strickland. He first saw Strickland at a homeless shelter. Later, captain took him to a soup kitchen for breakfast. The two tramps got odd jobs when they can, often went hungry, but all the same spent together. Some time later they started staying at the home of Tough Bill, where an old sailor booked sailors jobs on ships coming through. Bill gave Strickland traveling papers so he could leave the country. Captain described the South Sea islands to Strickland, who decided that this was the route to the painting paradise he had been seeking. However, the next few voyages to come through were bound in the opposite direction, but one day fortune smiled on him and he left the Captain Nikolas. Then the narrator said that the facts of life beyond Strickland had only with the words of other people. One of them, a French Jew named Cohen, who happened to be a picture Strickland. He said that Strickland was working for a plantation overseer, which allowed him to draw in his spare time.

The storyteller met with Mrs. Johnson. She also knew Strickland. The women told the narrator that she invited Strickland to marry native woman named Ata. At first he refused, saying that he had a wife in England, but then agreed. They lived together near Papete and only occasionally frequented there for groceries. Here Strickland continued his work.