The Ebb-Tide: Unabridged

The Ebb-Tide. A Trio and a Quartette is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. Three beggars operate in the port of Papeete on Tahiti. They are Herrick, a failed English businessman; Davis, an American sea captain disgraced by the loss of his last ship; and Huish, a dishonest Cockney of various employments. One day they see THE opportunity to steal a ship and its cargo, but being trapped into an insurance scam, their hopes prove to be in vain. They end up on an island where they try to plunder Attwater, a devout Christian, who has been harvesting pearls there for many years with the help of native workers. Attwater proves to be ruthlessly violent while talking always of Jesus' forgiveness. He alternately repels and fascinates the other characters, and reflects Stevenson's own conflicted feelings about Christianity.