"The Ebb-Tide: A Trio And Quartette" by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne is a novella published in 1894. Three desperate beggars in Tahiti—a failed English businessman, a disgraced American sea captain, and a dishonest Cockney—seize control of a plague-stricken ship carrying champagne, planning to steal it. Their scheme unravels when they discover the cargo is fraudulent and encounter a mysterious, violent English pearl harvester on a remote island. What follows is a dark tale of moral corruption, failed redemption, and the clash between greed and faith. (This is an automatically generated summary.)