The Ebb-Tide a trio and Quartette is written by two authors who are Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The book came out the year Stevenson passed away. In Tahiti's port city of Papeete, there are three beggars at work. They are Huish, a dishonest Cockney with several jobs, Herrick, a failing English businessman, Davis, an embittered American sea captain, and Herrick. One day, a champagne-carrying schooner sailing from San Francisco to Sydney off course lands in port with its crew members dead from smallpox. The American consul hires Davis to take charge of the ship for the duration of its journey because no one else is ready to take a chance on getting sick. Davis introduces the other two guys with a plan to take the ship, sail it to Peru, sell the cargo and ship, and then vanish with the proceeds. Once at sea, Davis and Huish begin consuming the cargo and are drunk virtually the entire time. Herrick, who has no prior experience at sea and whose conscience is much unsettled by the scheme but feels he has no other means to escape poverty, is left on his own to oversee the ship.