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diff --git a/29621-8.txt b/29621-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c28474b --- /dev/null +++ b/29621-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9201 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas, by +Lloyd Osbourne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas + +Author: Lloyd Osbourne + +Release Date: August 6, 2009 [EBook #29621] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD JUSTICE: STORIES OF SOUTH SEAS *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Barbara Kosker and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +WILD JUSTICE + + + + +[Illustration: "'Jack,' she said suddenly, 'you come along with us.'"] + + + + + WILD JUSTICE + + STORIES OF THE SOUTH SEAS + + + + + BY + + LLOYD OSBOURNE + + AUTHOR OF "BABY BULLET" + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + NEW YORK :: MCMXXI + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1906, 1921, BY + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +PREFACE + + +Deep in every heart there seems to be a longing for a more primitive +existence; and though in practice it is often an illusion, the South +Seas lend themselves better to such dreams than any other part of the +world. There are fewer races more attractive than the Polynesians. +Frank, winning, gay and extraordinarily well-mannered, the higher types +are often remarkably good-looking, and scarcely darker than Southern +Europeans. Some aspects of their life are truly poetic. Half naked, with +flowers in their hair, and just sufficient work to keep them in superb +physical condition, they have an almost unlimited leisure to share with +the wayfarer in their midst. And dirt, that greatest of all human +barriers, is nonexistent. No people are cleaner; none have so intense a +personal self-respect. One wonders sometimes whether it is not the white +man who is the savage, and these in some ways his superiors. + +I went to the Pacific when I was a boy of twenty, remaining there till I +was twenty-eight. For two years I sailed in various ships, visiting not +only all the principal groups, but stopping at many a lost little +paradise like Manihiki, Nieue or Gente Hermosa, which lie so lonely and +apart that the rare stranger is greeted with open arms. Then, settled +in Samoa, I learned the language as only the very young can learn it, +and incidentally had a small part in the civil wars of that period. I +was brought into intimate contact with many powerful chiefs, and became +so wholly a Samoan that I once barely escaped assassination. I certainly +have some claim to know South Sea life from the inside--from the +native's side--and this must be my excuse for the present volume. + +That my stories should deal so often with the loves of white men and +brown women is inevitable. The white man and the brown girl--that is the +oldest story in the South Seas and the newest. The children of the sun +are very easy-going; their standards are not our standards; they live +for the moment, and love as lightly. It is often the white man who +suffers, and not the maid with the sparkling eyes and radiant smile. He +may take regrets away with him; perhaps one of those inner wounds that +never heal, while she marries a native missionary and lives happily ever +afterwards. Polynesians always live happily ever afterwards, no matter +what happens. + +Yet do not think I am disparaging them. They probably have as much to +teach us as we them. Courtesy, kindliness, good humor, a charming +acceptance of life, and if the need comes for it an intrepid courage, +all these, and more, are theirs. As I see the faces of my old friends +through the mist I feel an undying affection for them. I shared their +lives, their secrets, their happy days and their tragic days "in the +diamond morning of long ago." I was the confidant in many a runaway +match; was the writer of war epistles that the bearer was directed to +eat if pursuit grew too hot; I had a little domain of my own where my +word was law--an "out-island" village, living in a perpetual feud with +its neighbors. Was this really myself--this tall youth in the +whale-tooth necklace and girded tappa marching with his brother chiefs +in stately procession? Incredible--yet it was. Was it I whose hand was +kissed by this stalwart warrior whom I see flinging himself from his +horse and running towards me with the sun glinting on his +cartridge-belt? Incredible--yet it was. Was it really I, at the helm of +that boat, the leader of twenty young men who were to play cricket by +day and dance by night, halfway round Upolu? Incredible--yet it was. + +"Ina o mulumuluina o'u vae i le suasusu; na faapunaia mai foi e le papa +tafe suauu mo a'u." + +My publishers have been encouraged to reissue the present volume, +enlarged by the addition of several new tales. Whatever their demerits +may be, my stories are at least true to a picturesque and little known +life that is fast passing away. + + LLOYD OSBOURNE + + + + +CONTENTS + PAGE + + THE RENEGADE 1 + + THE SECURITY OF THE HIGH SEAS 55 + + FORTY YEARS BETWEEN 86 + + O'S HEAD 113 + + PROFESSOR NO NO 142 + + CAPTAIN ELIJAH COE 162 + + MR. BOB 192 + + OLD DIBS 216 + + THE LABOR CAPTAIN 274 + + A SON OF EMPIRE 297 + + CLOUD OF BUTTERFLIES 316 + + BEN 339 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + FACING PAGE + + "'Jack,' she said suddenly, 'you come along with us'" _Frontispiece_ + + "In an instant she was tumbling backward" 52 + + "Jack leaped to his feet, white and speechless" 98 + + "'This is a black business, Silver Tongue,' I said" 118 + + + + +THE RENEGADE + + +I + +It was two o'clock in the afternoon, and from her uneasy anchorage in +the pass the German man-of-war struck the time, four bells. Overhead the +sun shone fiercely through a mist of fire; below, the bay gave back a +dancing glare; on the outer reef the long breakers foamed and tumbled, +white as far as the eye could reach. From his perch beneath the bows of +the _Northern Light_ a sailor, paint brush in hand, was slowly wearing +out the day--a brown-bearded, straight-nosed, handsome man of thirty, +his red shirt open to the waist, his bare arms stained with the +drippings of his brush. Astride of his plank, which hung suspended in +midair by a block and tackle at either end, the seaman faced the task +that seemed to have no end. For a week he had been at it, patch by +patch, working his way round the bark, while the bells had struck on the +man-of-war and the sun had risen and set. + +As he swept his brush across the blistered wall in front of him, he +wondered moodily whether fate had nothing more in store for him than +this. Was he to finish as he had begun, a common sailor, doing forever +what others bade him?--painting other people's ships, pulling other +people's ropes, clinging at night on other people's yards to take in +other people's sails, facing tempests and squalls, reefs, lee shores, +and all the vicissitudes of the deep--for others! He laid down the brush +beside him, and in a somber reverie looked toward Apia. His eyes +scarcely took in the bigger buildings that were dotted here and there +round the circumference of the beach: the stone cathedral, the great +yellow warehouses of the Firm, the two hotels, the consulates, churches, +and stores. What attracted him, what held him in a sort of spell, were +the lesser roofs showing through the green of trees and gardens, the +tiny cottages on the outskirts of the town, or others still farther +back, scattered and solitary on the wooded hills. Was he, then, never to +possess a house of his own nor a yard of earth? Was the sea, the +accursed sea, to claim him till he died? What had he done, he asked +himself, that others drew all the prizes and left him but the +blanks--that they should stay ashore and prosper--that they should marry +and have children round them, while he drudged at sea alone? Those +traders, clerks, saloon-keepers, those mechanics, carpenters, +shipwrights, smiths, and stevedores, how he envied them! envied their +houses, their wives, their children, their gardens, their soft and +comfortable lives, everything that made them so different from himself; +he, the outcast, with no home but his musty bunk; they, the poorest, +kings beside him. + +It was the sea, he said to himself--the sea, that took all and gave +nothing; the sea, mother of all injustice and misery; the sea, whose +service was to tie oneself to the devil's tail and whisk forever about +the world, sweating in doldrums, freezing in snow squalls, hanging on to +lashing yards, blinded, soaked, benumbed, the gale above, death below. +And yet even here there were some, no better indeed than he, who grasped +the meager prizes that even the sea itself could not withhold; prizes +that he could never hope to touch--the command of ships, the right to +tread the quarter-deck, the handle to one's name. How did they do it, +these favored ones of fortune? How did Hansen, that stinking Dutchman, +ever rise to be the master of the _Northern Light_?--and that swine +Bates, the mate, who already had the promise of a ship?--and Knight, the +second mate, a boy but twenty-two, yet whose foot was even now on the +upward ladder. + +"Jack Wilson," said the sailor to himself, "Jack Wilson, you're a fool!" + +Having several times delivered himself of this sentiment, always with an +increasing heartiness of self-contempt, he slapped on some more paint +and began to whistle. But the whistle died away again, for a little +house was peeping through the trees at him, and he remembered how he had +seen it from the road, embowered in flowers, with the river flowing at +its foot, a cool, snug, inviting little house, with green blinds, a +pigeon cote, and a flight of steps descending to the bathing pool. How +happy, no doubt, that fellar that owned it--a fellar with a regular job; +a wife, maybe, and kids to swing in that there contraption under the +mango; a fellar, as like as not, no better than himself; and yet----! + +"Jack," he said huskily to himself, "how the hell have you missed it +all?" + +"Women and drink," came the answer. "Women and drink, Jack, my boy." + +In the course of his long and wandering life how often had he been paid +off; how often had he felt his pockets heavy with the gold so arduously +toiled for; how often had he vowed to himself that this time he would +keep it! And had he kept it? Never! + +There had been windfalls, too; money that had come easily; double +handfuls of money that he had tossed in the air like a child, to see it +glitter. Sixteen hundred dollars from a lucky whaling cruise; seven +hundred dollars, his share for salvaging the derelict steamer _Shore +Ditch_; sixty-six pounds eight and fourpence that the passengers had +raised for him when he saved the girl at Durban--that, and a gold medal, +and a fancy certificate with the British and American flags intertwined. +That medal! It had gone for a round of drinks and five dollars for a +wench. And the fancy certificate! Thunder! he had left it on the +_Huascar_ when he had taken leg-bail of the Chilanean navy. + +"Women and drink, Jack Wilson!" + +That's where it has gone, every dollar of it. To the sharks and +bloodsuckers of seaport towns; to the tawdry sisterhood that spun their +nets for Jack ashore; to those women that wheedled the seaman's last +cent, and laughed to see him starving in the streets. It was for these +he worked, then! It was for these he was even this minute painting the +bloody bark; for rumsellers and harlots! He repeated the words to +himself as he looked at his torn nails and blackened hands. For +these--by God, for these! He felt within himself the welling of a great +resolution, of a great revolt. He would reform. He would save his money. +He would live straight. When they were paid off at Portland there should +be two hundred dollars coming to him--two hundred dollars, more or less. +He would put it in the bank, and get a shakedown in one of them model +lodging houses. He would turn in at night with "Jesus, lover of my soul" +in worsted work above his blessed head, and in the morning he would +plank down his fifteen cents and begin the day with gospel tea. He would +be a man! Yes, sirree, a man! Not a hog! + +Then in his mind's eye he saw himself rolling down the street, a girl on +either arm, the gaslights dancing in his tipsy head. He would meet a +shipmate and drop in somewhere for a drink; another shipmate and another +drink; and then, the party growing as it went, a general adjournment to +one of them hurdy-gurdies. Here they would dance and drink and sing and +whoop it up like hell, till--till--Yes, that's what would happen. That's +what always happened. Them good resolutions always ended that way--in +smoke. He had made them, man and boy, these fourteen years. He would +make them, he supposed, until the day he died. And keep them? No; he was +a hog; he would go on like a hog; he would die a hog--a durned, low, +dirty, contemptible hog! + +He spat in the water to emphasize his self-disgust, cursed the infernal +sun, and then, dipping into the pot again, continued his job. + +Turning round to rest his arms, he perceived, beneath the deep shade of +the Matautu shore, the first sign of animation in that sleepy +settlement. A crowd of natives were straggling out to a whaleboat that +was apparently being made ready for sea. Men and girls were wading to +it, with baskets of food, kegs of beef, a tin of biscuit, and a +capacious chest. A couple of children bailed frantically in the stern +sheets, while a shrill old woman slid over the gunwale with a live pig +in her arms. Strange packages of _tapa_ cloth were carried out; bundles +of mats, paddles, guns, a tin of kerosene, a huge stone for an anchor, +a water demijohn, more pigs, a baby, and a parrakeet in a bamboo cage. +These were all thrown in, and stored with noisy good-humor and a dozen +different readjustments. The baby, in turn, was given the bow, the +stern, the center, as though nothing would satisfy it. A pig broke loose +and was hilariously recaptured. A dejected, thin person, somewhat past +middle years, in what seemed no costume but his native skin, retired +shoreward with the parrakeet. An old chief, his head white with lime, +after a prolonged nose-rubbing with those on shore, marched out to the +boat, carrying an umbrella above his stately head. There were more +farewells in shallow water, more running to and fro; a brief +reappearance of the undecided parrakeet. The young men took their places +at the thwarts, the old chief settled the tiller on the rudder head, the +women, girls, and children crowded in wherever they could, and then, +amid shouts and cheers, the paddles dipped and the boat moved slowly +seaward. + +Wilson watched it all with sullen envy. How was it that these brown +savages were free, and he barnacled to a slab-sided bark? Was he not a +white man, and their superior? Did he not look down at them from the +heights of the world's ruling race, kindly, tolerantly, contemptuously, +as one does on children? And yet who had the best of it, by God? Listen +to the dip of the paddles; hear the mellow chorus that times the +rowers' strokes; not a care on board, not a face that was not smiling! +His white superiority! They might have it! His lonely and toiling life! +What fool among them would exchange with him? His wages? Look at _them_! +They had none and wanted none; and as like as not they were putting to +sea without a dollar among the crowd. Civilization--hell! He would give +all his share of it for a place in that there boat, to drive a paddle +with the rest of them; to be, what he wished to God he had been born, a +durned Kanaka! + +The whaleboat drew swiftly toward him as though to go beneath the bark +on her way to the pass. The paddles leaped to a rousing song and crashed +in unison on the slopping gunwales. Dip, swish, bang! and then the +accentuated thunder of forty voices, the men's hoarse and straining, the +women's rich, falsetto, and musical. In the stern the old chief swayed +with every rush of the boat, one sinewy hand clinched on the tiller, the +other enfolding a little child. In the bow a handsome boy stood erect +and graceful, throwing a rifle in the air and dancing to the song of his +comrades. Dip, swish, bang! On they came with an increasing roar, the +white water splashing under their bow. + +Wilson dropped his brush and looked on with open mouth. Great Cæsar! he +knew that old fellar in the stern. He had smoked pipes with him in the +Samoa house by the bridge. And that girl there, who was waving and +shaking her hand to him, that was little Fetuao, the daughter, who used +to look at him so shyly and laugh when she met his eyes; little Fetuao, +that he had given the dominoes to, and that dress from the Dutch firm, +and them beads! Fetuao! Wasn't she pretty as she stood there in the boat +calling to him; so slim and straight, with her splendid hair flying in +the wind, and her brown bosom open to the sun! Pretty! My God, she was a +spanking beauty, that girl! + +The boat came to a stop beneath him; the paddles backed, and Wilson, +with some embarrassment, received the stare of the whole party below. + +"Poor white mans work all time!" exclaimed Fetuao, standing on a thwart +to raise her head to the level of his foot. + +"Like hell!" said Jack. + +"Kanaka more better," said the girl. + +"A damn sight!" agreed Jack. + +"Jack," said Fetuao, "I go home now, and never see you no more. Good-by, +Jack!" + +She raised her little hand, which the sailor clasped in his big one. Her +tender, troubled eyes met his own; her mouth quivered; her fingers +tightened on his palm. + +"Jack," she said suddenly, "you come along us, Jack." + +"Do you mean it, puss?" he said eagerly. "Do you mean it?" + +"Oh, Jack, you come, too," she pleaded. + +"You come--that's good!" cried the old chief. + +Jack, in a dream, looked above him and met the sour glances of Hansen +and Bates, whom the noise had brought to the ship's rail; then he looked +below into the girlish face upraised to his. For better or worse, his +resolution was taken. They might keep his chest; they might keep his +wages; their stinking ship might sink or swim for all he cared. They +were welcome to what Jack Wilson left behind him, for Jack Wilson at +last was FREE! He dropped lightly into the boat beside Fetuao, and with +one arm around her naked waist he shouted to the natives to shove off. + +"_Fo'e!_" cried the chief, and the paddles moved again. + +Above their heads the astounded captain clutched the arm of the +astounded mate, and pointed wildly after the deserter. + +"---- ----!" exclaimed Hansen. + +"The ---- ---- ---- ----!" roared Bates. + + +II + +Jack landed in Oa Bay, the possessor, except for the clothes upon his +back, of nothing but his rugged health, his stout heart, and a +determination to make good his footing with his new friends. He +remembered drawing apart from the others, as the welcoming throng came +down to greet them in the dusk, forlornly struggling with his +embarrassment and the penetrating sense of his own helplessness and +isolation. Would he ever forget, standing there as he did, unremarked, +solitary, shivering in his rags, the soft hand that felt through the +darkness for his own, the voice so gentle, low, and sweet that whispered +to him, "Come, Jack, you my white mans now!" + +This was the beginning of Jack's new life. He became a member of the +chief's family, sleeping with the others at night on the outspread mats, +and taking his share, by day, of all the work and play of the little +Samoan village. He weeded _taro_, he carried stones for the building of +the new church, he helped to lay out nets, he speared fish, he played +cricket and _ta ti'a_. By nature neither an idler nor a shirk, he was +consumed, besides, with a desire to repay the kindness and hospitality +of his hosts; and the old chief, his friend from the start, now became +his captain, to whom he rendered the unquestioning obedience of a +seaman. And old Faalelei, whose loose authority was often disregarded by +his own subjects, delighted in the possession of this stalwart white, so +willing, so eager, so ingenious in the mending of boats and nets--a man +to whom the mechanism of a gun had no secrets, and in whose hands a +single hatchet became a tool chest. + +Living thus among the only mild, courteous, and refined people he had +ever known, Jack insensibly altered and improved. His loud voice grew +softer, his boisterous laugh less explosive, and his rough ways gave +place to a clumsy imitation of Samoan good manners. Little by little the +uncouth sailor patterned himself on the model of his new friends, and +he, whose every second word had been an oath, whose only repartee a +blow, now set himself to learn the most ceremonious language in the +world, and the only one, perhaps, in which one cannot swear! + +And Fetuao? When he had first taken up his abode in Faalelei's house he +had never doubted, seeing the girl's extravagant affection for him, and +knowing the laxity of the native people, that it would not be long +before he might form with her one of those irregular connections so +common in the islands; and, indeed, it grew daily more plain to him that +he had but to ask to have. But Jack, not a little to his own +astonishment, and stirred by undreamed-of instincts and undreamed-of +scruples, put the idea from him with a hesitation he could hardly +explain to himself. In his wicked and lawless past he had known every +kind of woman but a good woman; he had seen, in a thousand water-side +dives, every variety of feminine degradation and feminine shame, and had +sounded in his time all the squalid depths of sailor vice. With the +memory of these unspeakable contrasts, Fetuao's freshness, purity, and +beauty shone with a sort of angelic brightness. No, by God, she should +never come to harm through him; and, clenching his huge hands together, +he would repeat these words to himself when he sometimes felt his +resolution falter. For the sailor, who never until then had known a +modest woman, who had starved his whole life long for what his money +could never buy, whose heart at thirty was as virgin as a boy's, now +found himself moved by a sublime passion for the only creature that had +ever loved him. + +For she did love him; of that, indeed, he had never the need to reassure +himself; and in the knowledge of her love he became, almost in spite of +himself, a better man. In her girlish self-abandonment Fetuao lacked the +artifices which older women would have used; she never thought to guard +herself, or to coquette with him. At night, as they walked hand in hand +about the village, or sat close together on some log or boat, she would +take his arm and draw it around her; she would lay her head against his +breast; she would press herself so close to him that he could hear her +beating heart. There was much of the mother in her love for him. He was +her great baby, to be caressed, kissed, crooned over, to be petted and +encouraged. Her tender laughter was always in his ears; she corrected +him as she might a child, with a sweet seriousness, and an implication +that his shame was hers whenever he blundered in Samoan etiquette; she +prompted him and pushed him through scenes of trying formality, and +drilled him assiduously in politeness. + +In the moonlight, when they were alone together, she taught him how to +receive the _'ava_ cup; how to spill the libation to the gods; how to +invoke a proper blessing on the company. She taught him how to say "_O +susunga, lau susunga fo'i_," on entering a strange house; how to pull +the mat over his knee to express his fictitious dependence; how to join +in the chorus of "_Maliu mai, susu mai_" when others entered after him; +how, indeed, to comport himself everywhere with the finished courtesy of +a Samoan chief. + +Thus the bright days passed, and months melted into months, and still +Jack remained an inmate of Faalelei's household. At first he had +accepted this strange life as a sort of holiday, never doubting but +that, in the end, he must turn his back on these pleasant people, and +see, from a dizzy yardarm, their exquisite island sink forever behind +him. The place thus possessed for him the charm of something he was +destined soon to lose, and he clung to it as a man clings to his fading +youth, with a sense that it is slipping from him. He sighed as he +thought of the forecastle that he knew somewhere awaited him; how he +would recall those still nights in Oa when he would be roused by the +boatswain's handspike on the hatch, and the hoarse cry of "All hands on +deck!" + +One day, when he was out in Faalelei's boat, an accident occurred that +came very near to being the end of Jack. They were pursuing a school of +bonito, and Pulu, the chief's brother, was standing in the bow with a +stick of dynamite and was in the nick of letting it fly when it exploded +prematurely in his hand. Pulu was killed, the rickety old boat parted +and sank, and Jack, with his shoulder laid open to the bone, was towed +in by a neighboring canoe, and carried up to the house. They laid him on +the floor, pale and groaning, while the children ran out screaming for +Fetuao. She came in like a whirlwind, still wet from the river, and +threw herself on her knees beside him. With passionate imperiousness she +made the rest of the household wait upon her bidding as she busied +herself in stanching the flow of blood and in picking the splinters from +the wound. Jack knew how wont she was, in common with all Samoans, to +shrink from disagreeable sights. It touched him to see how love had +conquered her repugnance; nor could he resist a smile when she began to +tear her little wardrobe into bandages, those chemises and _lavalavas_ +that she used to iron under the trees, and put away with such care into +the camphor-wood chest with the bell lock. + +For the better part of a fortnight Jack lay where they had placed him on +the mats, undergoing, with intermissions of fever and delirium, the +tedious stages of convalescence. Fetuao seemed never to leave him, +attending to his wants, brushing away the flies, feeding and washing him +with an anxious solemnity that at times almost awed the sailor. Her +brilliant eyes, as black and limpid as some wild animal's, watched him +with an unceasing stare. He often wondered what was passing in her +graceful head as he lay looking up at her, too weak to speak, the drowsy +hours succeeding one another in an unbroken silence. Once, when he ran +his hand over his face and recollected with a pang how old and ugly he +must seem to her, she had understood the sigh that expressed his own +self-disgust, and had bent over and kissed him on the lips. From that +moment his love for her deepened into an emotion transcending anything +he had ever felt before. He saw now that to separate himself from her +would be to break both their hearts; that, for good or evil, he was hers +and she his; that fate had indeed joined them forever. + +When at last he grew strong enough to walk, he went with her across to +the native pastor's house, where together they stood up before the Rev. +Tavita Singua and were married. This was the prelude to another and more +binding ceremony before the American Consul in Apia, whither they both +went in a canoe borrowed from Faalelei. The official books were +withdrawn from the safe and the thirty-six Americans in Samoa were +increased by two new names: "Jack Wilson, aged thirty-one, birthplace +Bath, Me., occupation seaman, present residence Oa Bay; and Fetuao +Wilson, supposed to be seventeen, daughter of Faalelei, chief of Oa Bay, +his lawful wife." (See Consular Marriage Record, p. 18.) + +As he stood there before the consul, painfully conscious of his bare +feet, of his unkempt and ragged appearance, of the contrast between +himself and that benignant official, he timidly brought up the subject +of the fee. No doubt there is some kind of damage, he said, and might he +leave this ring--his mother's wedding ring--in pawn until he might earn +a little money and square the matter? The consul took the ring, looked +at it a moment without a word, and then in a rough, friendly way seized +Fetuao's hand and slipped it on her finger. + +"I think it belongs here," he said. + +"But the fee," said Jack. + +"Oh, damn the fee!" said the consul. + +With that he went into an inner office and returned with a sheepish air, +as of a man about to do something he was ashamed of. + +"Here's ten dollars," he said. "Take it; it's a wedding present, you +know. I never married anybody before." + +Jack refused the gift a little ungraciously, though his voice trembled +in doing so. + +"Have a drink, then?" said the consul. + +"No, I thank you, sir," Jack blurted out. + +Embarrassment in a cloud descended on all three. The consul, like the +worthy fellow he was, wished to do something for these waifs, and his +eyes roved about the big, hot room in search of he knew not what. Jack +and Fetuao, no less ill at ease, stood close together and waited +submissively. Finally, noticing the new boat flag lying on his desk, the +consul took it up in both his hands. "Wilson," he said oratorically, +"this is my flag, and your flag, and it is now Mrs. Wilson's flag, for +I've made her as good an American as the pair of us. Take it along with +you, and if you have children, bring them up to love and honor Old Glory +as we do, and teach them at your knee what it stands for--freedom, +justice; and equal rights for every man born under it. And if there +should ever be any trouble here--war, riot, or any little +unpleasantness--just hoist it above your house, and its bright folds +will protect you as though the whole U-nited States army lay in a +mighty camp around you!" + +Jack took the flag respectfully, much impressed by the consul's speech, +and tremendously pleased, besides, that Fetuao should see that an +American, even a common, low-down American seaman like himself, counted +for something in the official world. Would a Britisher, or one of those +stinking Dutchmen, have acted like this consul did? _His_ consul, by +God!--and his breast heaved with gratitude and patriotic fervor. +Afterwards, when Fetuao and he ate their lunch under a tree, he spread +out the consul's gift on the ground beside him, and the words freedom, +justice, and equal rights boomed sonorously in his ears. To Fetuao, in +her simplicity, the bunting appeared a sort of sanction or certificate +of their civil marriage; and when she returned home she explained that +it was all settled, the _faamasino_ having written their names in the +book and given them the _fua Ameleke_! + + +III + +Three years passed. Jack rubbed his eyes and wondered what had become of +them; and he read the answer to his question in his coffee bushes, now +breast high and crimson with fruit, in his trellised vanilla already so +exacting and so profitable, in his sturdy breadfruit trees thickening +with every rain, in the patches of bananas, _taro_, yams, _'ava_, +egg-plant, sweet potatoes, pineapples, and sour-sops that were set out +so trimly in the plantation his ax had won from the primeval forest. His +house, too, had drawn not a little on his capital--his capital of +strength, skill, and perseverance--but he grudged neither time nor labor +in making it the best in Oa. For a house is an important matter to a +family man, even if it weren't a paying thing like vanillar, nor capable +of helping a fellar along like a cow or a boat. It paid you back in its +own way--a mighty good way, too--and it grew to be a part of you, like +your wife, if you weren't a poor, lone, seafaring slob without one. + +Of course, it wasn't much of a house, being a sort of beehive-shaped +concern with a thatched roof a foot thick and open all round the sides +when the cocoanut curtains was hysted. But when these were pulled down +at night, and you were a-setting in one of your own home-made chairs +with your wife on your knee, the night breeze rustling overhead and the +breakers moaning a mile away on the outer reef, it made you sort of feel +like things had come right at last, and that for two cents you'd plank +right down on your knees, then and there, and thank God, by God! + +All this had not been accomplished without work, but then it was work +for himself, and not for others. Jack had never known before what it was +to enjoy the fruit of his own labor; he had always been a cog in the +blind machinery of other people, exchanging so much toil for so much +money. Now that he could see his little plantation grow and prosper +beneath his hands, every hour repaid with nature's usury, he began to +feel the elation that a man finds in independence. At first Fetuao had +entered but half-heartedly into his plans; she would sit on a log and +watch him with mirthful wonder as he swung his ax on the land Faalelei +had given them; and when, for a spell, he took a place beside her she +would tenderly wipe the sweat from his forehead and look at him with +perplexity. Work, yes, that, as the preacher said, was the curse of +Adam; but this daily persistency was not understandable. Had not +Faalelei plenty for them both? And if one _taro_ sufficed, why be at the +pains to plant two? + +But little by little it began to dawn on her that there was another side +to this feverish devotion to work. Jack took a load of yams to Apia, and +came back with fifteen silver dollars and a bolt of print for a dress. +He went again, and returned with a sewing machine, a pack of cards, and +a bottle of trade scent; still another trip, and lo! he towed behind him +a fine new boat with _Fetuao_ painted on the stern. Then she at last +succumbed to the fascination of the white way. _Paga!_ There were +dollars in the ground, and for the asking they could be made to grow. +This lesson learned, Fetuao threw off her indifference and became as +ardent a planter as her unwearied husband. Lying in his arms at night, +her talk ran continually on the theme of which neither ever tired. Not a +dollar was earned but was thus laid out in advance, with eager +questioning and debate. The cow was bought, the horse, the chickens, the +wire for fencing. It was a game in which each played a part with +enduring zest; a game with a constant round of prizes and enjoyment; a +game in which green nature was the board and every plant and tree a +piece. At sundown they knew no pleasure like that of wandering hand in +hand through the paths of their little estate, two poetic peasants, +filled with love for each other and immeasurably content. + +Thus the days passed in increasing satisfaction and prosperity, days so +rare in the life of any man when he says to himself, "I am happy." To +Jack, these three words, never spoken, but somewhere within him +articulate and peremptory, these three words almost overwhelmed him with +their significance. He trembled for this treasure, so elusive, so +transitory, perhaps, so surely ill deserved; he grew humble with the +thought of his own unworthiness, and, though no believer in the +ordinary sense, he began to feel the first stirring of religion. When +Fetuao, with sweet shame, laid her head against his shoulder and told +him of her impending motherhood, he kissed her, comforted her, and then, +rising to his feet, he sought the solitude that at such a moment he felt +he could not share even with her. In one of the unfrequented corners of +the bay, a narrow beach shadowed by the forest and faced by the open +sea, he threw himself upon his knees with a passionate thankfulness that +seemed to find its expression in this act. Knowing no prayer, addressing +no God, he simply gazed above him in the sky, in a rapt, dumb gratitude. + +As he walked home he thought of his own parents, long since dead; of +their hopes, their cares, their humble unfulfilled ambitions, now dead +with them. He perceived himself, now for the first time, a link between +the past and the future, the heir of bygone generations, generations +that had loved, and suffered, and struggled, to no other end than that +he might live--he, and the sister he had neither seen nor heard from in +fourteen years. Hell! he ought to write to Amandar. Families oughtn't to +drift apart like that. It was a shame, a durned shame, and it came over +him with a shock that she, too, might be dead. He took a sheet of paper +and a pencil, and with heaving breast and overflowing heart thus broke +the silence of those long years: + + OA BAY, SAMOA, May 14, 1899. + + DEAR SIS, You will be surprised to get a letter + from me after all this time. I am well and hope you are + enjoying a simillar blessing. I am married now and left the + sea. I suppose Joe is a man along in middle life now and you + a handsome mattron with a family. This is a good country but + hot. + + Ever your affectionate brother JACK WILSON. + + P. S.--I often think of Pa and Ma and the old days. + +Not long after, Jack sailed into Apia with a load of copra and his +letter for the outgoing mail. The town was in an uproar, and cracking +like the Fourth of July. Jack wondered what in thunder it was about, as +he landed at Leicester's wharf and discovered the postmaster lying +underneath the post office in a nest of sand bags. Crawling in after the +functionary, Jack handed him the letter. + +"That's for America," said Jack. + +"Five cents," said Leicester. + +"What's all this corrobborree?" asked Jack. + +"It's war, that's what it is," said Leicester, weighing the letter in a +tin scale. + +Jack's jaw fell. For a month past he had heard rumors of a native war, +but he had resolutely closed his ears to all that Fetuao was so +insistent to tell him. It was none of his business, he had said to her +uneasily. He wasn't no politician, and all he asked of anybody was to be +let alone; and with that he had tried to put the matter by as something +imaginary and disquieting, which, if boldly ignored, would disappear of +itself. + +"Say, Mr. Leicester, what in hell is it about?" he inquired. + +"If you went to the bottom of it you would find Dutchmen," said +Leicester grimly. + +Jack cursed the meddling scoundrels. + +"They want Mataafa for king, just because he has a majority of two +thousand votes," said Leicester. + +"There sounds to be something in that," said Jack faintly. + +"Nothing at all!" exclaimed Leicester. "Just speciousness, that's what I +call it. The other fellow, Tanumafili, is a nice-appearing boy from the +missionary college, and being above wire-pulling and promising +everything to everybody, he hasn't any following to speak of. But he's a +good, decent Protestant boy, and will make a fine king." + +"Oh, ho!" said Jack, beginning to see how the wind lay, "and so the +other dodger's a Catholic?" + +"A rank, bigoted Catholic," said Leicester hotly. "That's what makes +the missionaries so wild against him, and likewise the British and +American officials." + +"They won't let him be king, then?" asked Jack. + +"He's a rebel," said Leicester, "and they've posted proclamations +against him on every cocoanut tree around the beach." + +"And the natives, they won't let Tanumafili be king neither?" said Jack. + +"That's him they're chasing into the sea this minute," explained +Leicester. + +Jack looked perplexed. "I don't see why the Kanakas shouldn't have the +king they fancy," he remarked. + +"To hear you talk, one would think you was a bloody Dutchman yourself," +said Leicester. + +"But the majority--" said Jack, "them two thousand----" + +"The Chief Justice ruled them out on a technicality," said Leicester, +"and if the Supreme Court ain't right, who is? Do you think he's going +to give over this country to a papist? No, the only king here is +Tanumafili, and the men-of-war will reinstate him at the muzzle of their +guns. Then we'll see who's who in Samoar!" + +Jack made his way across the street to the store where he usually sold +his copra. Bullets were pattering on the roof, and the trader himself, a +portly German in gold spectacles, was palpitating in a bomb-proof. + +"I hope Mrs. Meyerfeld is well," said Jack, who in Samoa had grown +punctilious. + +"Oh, mein Gott!" exclaimed Meyerfeld. + +"And the children?--" inquired Jack, "Miss Hilda and Miss Theresa?" + +"Oh, mein Gott!" said Meyerfeld. + +"I have brought you forty bags of copra," said Jack. + +"Oh, mein Gott!" said Meyerfeld. + +"Don't you want it, then?" inquired Jack. + +"Hear the pullets," quavered Meyerfeld. + +"But forty bags," said Jack. + +"I've no man, no noding," groaned the trader. + +"Gome again negst week. Gome again after de war." + +"I'll put it in the shed myself," said Jack. + +He went out into the empty street and looked about him. The firing was +going on as hotly as ever, but except for a single limp figure, face +down in the dust, he failed to see the least sign of the contending +parties. From the direction of the Mulivai bridge he heard bursts of +cheering, with intermittent lulls and explosions as the battle rolled to +and fro. War on so small a scale is startlingly like murder, and Jack +shuddered as he went up to the corpse and turned it over. He returned to +his boat, and in a fever of activity unloaded his forty bags and +trundled them in batches into Meyerfeld's copra shed across the road. It +took half a dozen trips of the little flat-car to accomplish this task +single-handed, and then there was the further delay in weighing each bag +and checking off the contents on a bit of paper. Nor was this all, for +he had to make a copy, besides, and tack it on the warehouse door with +the inscription, "Taly and find correct John Wilson." + +This done, he dropped into his boat and hoisted the sails, weary, +heartsick, and anxious for what the future might have in store for him. +Passing to leeward of the British man-of-war, he saw her decks swarming +with refugees, her crew grouped about the guns, and an officer in the +fore-crosstrees sweeping the town with his glass. A gust of wind carried +down to him the sound of children crying, and with it an +indistinguishable humming, at once menacing and dejected, like the sigh +of an impending gale. It echoed in his ears long afterwards, the most +poignant note in war, the voice of the herded, helpless multitude. + +He reached Oa in the gray of the morning, and the grating of his boat's +keel in the sand brought out Fetuao to meet him. She could not restrain +her joy at the sight of him, kissing his hands and clinging to him as he +took out the sails and oars and carried them up to the house. She never +seemed so sweet to him, never so girlish and charming in her fresh +young womanhood as in that dawn of his home-coming. To hear her laugh, +to see her eyes sparkle, to feel her warm breath against his cheek, all +transported him into a state of unreasoning security. Apia and its +blood-stained streets faded into the immeasurable distance; the war, and +all the attendant horrors that had haunted him, now seemed for a moment +too remote to even think of. What had he to fear, here on his own +hearthstone, with his dear wife beside him, in another world from that +he had so lately quitted? If there was trouble, wouldn't the consuls +settle it, them and the treaty officials whose job it was to run the +blessed group? He had never been no politician himself, and he wasn't +agoing to begin now. Let them worry as was paid to worry. + +"Fetuao," he said, "where is the flag the _faamasino_ gave us when we +were married in Apia?" + +"_O i ai pea i le pusa_," she returned. + +"Get it out, my pigeon," he said, "for I mean to hoist it above the +house for a protection. And tell me, Fetuao," he went on, "what before I +have never asked thee: on what side are thy people in this misa of +Mataafa and Tanumafili?" + +"For Mataafa," she returned. "Dost thou think that Samoa wants this +untattooed boy from the missionary college? Why else did Faalelei and +the young men go last month to Apia to be numbered for Mataafa, the +whites promising that he who had most voices should be king? And when +all Samoa cried out 'Mataafa!' at the numbering place (all except the +little handful of the Tuamasanga), lo! the word was given that +Tanumafili was appointed after all, and that the white manner of choice +was to be disregarded!" + +Jack sighed as he took the flag and went out with it. He realized that +his old life was at an end, and that a new one, full of uncertainty and +danger, was to date from the time he hoisted this bit of bunting. He +trimmed a straight piece of _fuafua_ for a staff, and as he did so he +cursed the missionaries for meddlers and the treaty officials for crazy +fools. When the flag was at last in place, Fetuao and he drew away to +get a better view of it from the beach. Standing there, in silence they +watched the vivid colors flaunt and flutter against the wooded hills +behind, while Jack, with a seaman's instinctive reverence for the flag, +bared his head, and Fetuao clapped her hands with delight. + +"Is it not beautiful!--" she cried, "as starry as the nights before we +were married, Jack, when we used to walk together, here and there, like +uncaring children." + +Her husband did not answer; and as she turned and looked up into his +face she saw that his eyes were wet with tears. + + +IV + +The two months that followed were the most terrible in the history of +Samoa. A handful of exasperated whites--treaty officials, missionaries, +and consuls--were determined to foist Tanumafili on the unwilling +natives of the group, and backed by three men-of-war, they declared +Mataafa a rebel and plunged the country into a disastrous and sanguinary +war. England and America, in the person of their respective naval +commanders, vied with one another in their self-appointed task; and +while the Germans stood aloof, protesting and aghast, our ships ravaged +the Samoan coast, burning, bombarding, and destroying with +indiscriminate fury. In this savage conflict, so unjust in its +inception, so frightful in its effects on an unoffending people, the +Samoans showed an extraordinary spirit in defending what all men hold +most dear. Driven from the shore by our guns, they massed their warriors +behind Apia, and on ground of their own choosing gave obstinate battle +to the invaders. + +It is not the writer's purpose to follow the varying stages of this +ignoble quarrel, in which blood flowed like water in our vain attempts +to force the unwilling Samoans to accept a Protestant divinity student +for their king. This little war, so remote, so ill understood at home, +so brief, violent, and unjust, swept over the islands like a hurricane. +Abruptly begun by headstrong naval officers and officials on the spot, +it was as abruptly ended by peremptory orders from London and +Washington; but the interval (necessarily a long one) before the news +could go out and the orders return halfway round the world, was +sufficient to reduce Samoa to the verge of ruin. + +In such a country, without roads, telegraphs, or newspapers, where rumor +passes from mouth to mouth, and facts, in the process, get twisted out +of all recognition, war brings with it a period of agonizing ignorance, +when anything is told and anything believed. To Jack this waiting became +almost intolerable; his suspense, and the uncertainty of those dreadful +days, told on him with an augmented force, so that he grew thin and +started at a sound. Through an unseen channel the news of fighting +persistently trickled into Oa; more battles; more villages bombarded; +such an one wounded, such an one killed, with stories of the increasing +ruthlessness of the British and Americans. On some days the sound of +cannon could be plainly heard from leeward, the signal for the women and +children to crowd with their pastor into the church, and for the +men--the scanty remnants that still remained--to grasp their rifles and +melt into the forest. + +But as time passed, and one false alarm was succeeded by another, Jack +plucked up a little heart. He began to make allowance for native +exaggeration and laughed at his own former fears. If the men-of-war +should come to Oa, were they likely to bombard an undefended village +full of women and children, or burn, pillage, and destroy as mercilessly +as he had been told? Bah! a pack of Kanaka lies, the gradual distortion +of the truth as it passed along the line, until one burned house became +a hundred and one village the whole coast of Atua! He went back to his +neglected plantation, now overgrown with weeds, and set to work again +with a determination not to borrow trouble. But, in spite of himself, he +would find himself listening for the sound of cannon, laying down his ax +or his bush knife in a panic and running back to the shore to make sure +that nothing had happened in the hour he had been gone. + +It was during one of these mornings in the bush, a morning singularly +free of the apprehensions which usually beset him, that Fetuao came +rushing through the bananas where he was at work, crying out, "_Manuao, +manuao!_" Together, without exchanging a single word, they flew headlong +to the beach, never stopping until they took shelter beneath the eaves +of their own house. Yes, there was the man-of-war, a Britisher with +yellow funnels, well outside the reef, towing behind her a flotilla of +boats chock-a-block with natives. The red head-dresses of their crews +showed them to be the followers of Tanumafili, and a couple of +unmistakable pith helmets in the stern of the biggest betrayed the +presence of directing white men. At the tail of the boats was a large +steam launch flying the stars and stripes, the American contribution to +the little fleet. + +Jack breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of his own flag. Wherever +that flew he knew that he and his were safe. By George! everybody in Oa +Bay was safe so long as they didn't try to make a fight of it; and he +could have laughed to see the terrified women scooting for the church, +the children bawling at their heels. The fools, what had they to fear? +American officers were not the kind to fire on women and children, nor +were they likely to look on mum-chance, and let the lime-juicers do it +neither. No, sirree! + +The man-of-war slowed down her engines and came almost to a standstill. +There was a sudden flash from one of her sponsons, a puff of smoke, and +then the roar of a six-inch gun. The shell struck a palm not a hundred +yards from where Jack was standing, and with a loud explosion took off +the entire top as neatly as though a knife had sliced it. + +"Good God!" cried the sailor; and the words were scarcely out of his +mouth before he heard the venomous rush of another shell. Jack could +not believe his senses. What! no warning, no notice beforehand; not +even ten minutes to allow the women and children to get out of danger! + +Bang! The church this time! He clutched Fetuao as he saw the shower of +cement and rocks, and the frenzied flight of its occupants for safety. +If that shell had gone through the window instead of striking the +corner---- + +Bang! + +"Run! run!" cried Fetuao, and without even waiting for him to follow or +turning round to see that he did so, she darted through the house and +disappeared. But Jack, in a white heat of indignation, folded his arms +and remained doggedly where he was. Let them shoot, the skunks! Let them +shoot, the stinking cowards! This was his house, and he would remain +beside it until the crack of doom, shells or no shells. He would stand +off them fire-bugs and looters when they landed, and tell them officers +what a plain American citizen thought of them. He wasn't afraid of the +swine. By God! he would like to boot the raft of them. He shook his fist +in their faces, he did; and as for that villainous launch rolling idly +in the swell while the big bully fired on the defenseless town, he spat +to express his disgust for it. + +The bombardment, like a salute, continued with regular intermissions +between each gun. The marksmanship was poor, many of the shells falling +short or bursting prematurely in midair. Except for the church, which +was twice struck, and the chief's house that was set on fire, the damage +done was inappreciable; and Jack, whose heart at first had been in his +mouth, now grinned with derision as he watched for the recurring +flashes. + +"The Chilaneans could do better nor you!" he cried. + +"Jack," whispered a voice beside him, and there was Fetuao back again in +a state of the sweetest contrition and remorse. He took her in his arms +and kissed her; and then, like a pair of lovers, they held each other's +hands and shrank close together as the shells burst over the village. + +The firing lasted for an hour, and then the flotilla of boats, preceded +by the American launch, passed in procession through the break in the +reef, and headed for Jack's house. + +"Oh, it's the flag they see!" cried Fetuao, and she besought Jack, with +tears in her eyes, to haul it down. + +"Never!" he said, grinding his teeth. + +There were some three or four hundred men in the boats, and as they +raced in, cheering and yelling at the top of their voices, Jack quailed +in spite of himself. But outwardly, at least, he showed no sign of +agitation, standing like a rock before his house and facing the storm +that was about to burst. + +It wasn't for himself that he was afraid, not so long as that +puffing-billy of a steamboat held the lead, and the grand old flag +streamed out behind her. The jackies would see him through this +business, whatever deviltry they might inflict on the rest of the +unfortunate village, for blood's thicker than water every time, and +Americans stand together all the world over. He wasn't no politician nor +side-taker, and it was all the same to him whether he had a missionary +king or a benighted papist. All he asked of anybody, by God! was to be +let alone, though this broadsiding of defenseless people made him sick +at the stummick, it did. + +The launch came bumping into shallow water, blowing off clouds of steam +as her crew jumped out with their rifles and waded ashore, while the +Tanumafili boats, dashing up in quick succession, amid a furious and +ever-deepening uproar, discharged in their turn cargo upon cargo of +shrieking warriors. In the indescribable commotion that followed there +seemed to be no prearranged plan nor any settled order of operation. The +Tanus scattered in a dozen noisy parties, looting and burning the +houses, barking the breadfruit trees, shooting the pigs and horses, +devastating with diabolical thoroughness the inland plantations that +sustained the village. The Americans, fearful of ambuscades, stuck to +the shore and systematically destroyed the boats, which for a mile or +two were drawn up on the edge of the beach. These boats, in a country +without roads, are as much a necessity to a man as the house which +shelters him. They often represent the hoardings of years, and are not +seldom the result of a stern frugality and self-denial; they constitute, +indeed, the only wealth of Samoa, and in them is invested the united +savings of the whole population. In Oa these boats numbered perhaps a +hundred, or a hundred and twenty in all, which, under the direction of a +red-faced boatswain with a package of dynamite sticks, were one by one +blown to pieces, and the shattered boards drawn into heaps and fired. +That day the whole of Oa went up in smoke and flame. Nothing was spared, +not even the church, nor the school, nor the pastor's house; not a canoe +nor a dugout; not a net, nor a fish trap, nor a float; not a pig, a +horse, nor a chicken. The boundary walls, emerging black and desolate +above the embers of the village, alone survived the universal waste. + +Jack's boat, being the nearest, was the first to be singled out; and as +the blue-jackets began to bore it with auger holes in which to place the +dynamite, he walked down to the petty officer and roughly bade him leave +it alone. "Hold on, there!" he said. "That's my boat!" + +The boatswain looked him up and down. "You get out of this!" he said. + +Jack twitched the auger from one of the seamen and flung it into the +lagoon. Then, seizing a rifle from the heap lying on the ground, he +whirled it round his head like a club and advanced furiously on the +boatswain, who pulled out a six-shooter and leveled it at his head. Even +as he did so, one of the officers came running up, waving his sword and +shouting; while Jack, confident that he had nothing now to apprehend, +dropped the rifle and turned to meet him. He had scarcely got so far as, +"Please, sir, this boat is my property," when a scream from Fetuao +warned him that the natives were rushing his house. Abandoning the boat, +he ran back to face this new danger, which, of the two, was so +infinitely the worse. His first instinct was to snatch a hatchet and +kill one of the half-naked plunderers, but Fetuao, catching his hands, +held him back, and the impulse passed as he realized his utter +helplessness. With smarting eyes and a heart that seemed to burst within +his breast, he saw his house gutted of everything--his chests torn open, +his tools taken, his wife's poor finery divided, and her twenty-dollar +sewing machine the subject of a wrangle that ended in its being smashed +under the butt of a gun. It was horrible to look on, impotent and +raging, and see the fruit of three years the prey of these yelling +savages; to realize that he must begin again from the bottom; that all +his labor, and care, and thrift, had gone for nothing. Not daring to +leave Fetuao behind, he took her with him and started off to find the +officer to whom he had at first complained. His protest had not +apparently been very effective, to judge from the torn fragments of the +boat now blazing in a bonfire, and he was hardly encouraged to make a +second attempt. However, slim as the chance was, it was now the only +thing left to do. Surely it was not possible that they would let his +house be looted and fired with the others! + +The officer, a thin young man with a cigar, was standing in the shade of +a palm. + +"Mister," said Jack timidly, for somehow all the fight had oozed out of +him, "Mister, they're looting my house up there!" + +"Well?" said the officer. + +"I'm an American," said Jack. + +"Well?" said the officer. + +Jack regarded him helplessly. "Can't you do nothing for an American?" he +asked. + +"Not for a damned beach-comber," said the officer, turning on his heel. + +Jack did not attempt to follow or to pester him. He knew when he was +beat. He sat down on the nearest log, and making room for Fetuao beside +him, drew out his pipe, filled it and began to smoke. The girl tried to +speak to him, but he would not answer. She whispered to him that their +house was burning, and he never even turned his head to look. She took +his hand, but he snatched it impatiently away, refusing to be +comforted. Thus he remained for hours, sullen and half-stupefied, until +the returning Tanus embarked again, and the launch, with jubilant +whistles, led the flotilla back to the man-of-war. It was only when the +ship was out of sight that Jack rose, stretched himself, and breathed +the profound sigh of a man who has endured and has survived the most +terrible experience of a lifetime. + +With slow steps, and many expressions of anger and resentment, Fetuao +and he walked through the village, gazing with bitter curiosity at the +ruins that everywhere surrounded them. They made their way to their own +little plantation, to find it devastated like the others, the breadfruit +trees ringed, the coffee bushes torn up by the roots, the _taro_, +bananas, and vanilla cut to pieces. In the paddock the cow and calf lay +dead in a pool of blood; of the dairy, half-set in the stream, nothing +remained but some stumps and smoking ashes; under a felled mango tree +they saw the protruding hoofs of Fetuao's mare, Afiola. + +Returning with a few bananas they managed to find in the plantation, +they built a fire and roasted them within a few feet of where, that +morning, their house had stood. Though nothing now was left of it but +some charred wood, the place was still home to them. As Fetuao moved +forlornly about, picking up a few trifles that had been dropped or +thrown away by the invaders--a comb, a spool of thread, a flatiron, a +book or two with the covers scorched off--she lifted up a grimy rag and +tossed it, with a little gesture of disdain, at her husband's feet. He +spread it out and saw that it was the consul's flag, the flag he had +flown above his house with such confidence in its protection; the flag +which, until then, he had always reverenced. + +Jack slowly tore it into pieces. + + +V + +Nothing is stranger than the effect of the same misfortune on different +natures. To Jack, arrested in the full tide of his petty activities, it +was absolutely overwhelming. When everything he possessed was swept +away, and with it the routine that for three years had kept him busy and +content, he knew not what to do nor which way to turn. Sunk in apathy, +he spent whole days in dully mourning for what he had lost. He would +have starved had not Fetuao forced him to follow her into the mountains, +where, under her direction, he dug _tamu_ and climbed the trees for wild +chestnuts; while she, with deft hands and a little tangled bunch of +weeds, caught prawns in the pools and streams. At her bidding he made a +tiny hut of cocoanut branches, a clumsy canoe good enough to fish with, +and nets from the sinnet she taught him how to twist out of cocoanut +husks. She even sent him back to work in the plantation, for the bananas +at least could be saved, and there was a well of sprouting yams and some +_tingapula_ that had somehow escaped destruction. But Jack's spirit was +broken; the old incentive was gone; he could not revive the energy, the +zest, the interest that before had never failed him. He did what Fetuao +bade him and no more, and the days, once so short, seemed now never to +end. + +One morning early he was awakened by the murmur of voices in the dark, +and on going to the door of the hut he was surprised to see Fetuao's +brothers, Tua and Anapu, Mele her uncle, Lapongi the orator, and a dozen +others, some of them boys not yet tattooed. In answer to his questions +Tua told him that a messenger had come for them with orders to at once +join the Mataafa forces behind Apia. + +"And thou also, Jack," said Lapongi the orator, "for every man now is +needed to withstand the fury of the whites." + +Jack, as usual, turned to Fetuao. + +"We shall both of us go," said she, "I to carry water for the wounded, +thou with the _muaau_, a rock of strength and terror." + +Jack made no protest. Hell! what did it matter where they went? Munching +the food that was handed him, he looked across the bay, now silvering +in the dawn, and wondered whether he was not seeing it for the last +time. + +It was late at night when they passed the outposts and reached the +Mataafa camp, which stood on a high plateau overlooking Apia. Below them +the search-lights of the men-of-war moved restlessly about, shining at +times with a bewildering brilliancy into their very faces; and from the +little war-encompassed capital there rose a distant drumming and bugling +as the missionary boy king, unsafe even under the guns of Britain and +America, took his precautions against a night attack. After the +stillness of Oa there was something confusing in the stir and bustle of +Mataafa's big camp--in the constant passing of armed men, the change of +guards, and the rousing choruses around the fires. There was, besides, +an atmosphere of recklessness and gayety, engendered by excitement, by +danger, by the very desperation of their cause, that could not long be +resisted by even the most impassive recruit. Jack alone, of his whole +party, remained indifferent and unmoved; but his wife, all of the savage +in her rising to the surface, grew intoxicated almost to the point of +delirium. + +Ordinarily so demure and quiet, she became from henceforward a creature +of another clay. Whirling her ax and dancing almost naked at the head of +the Oa contingent, she led it wherever it was sent, daring bullets and +shells with smiling intrepidity. In her wild beauty an artist might have +taken her for the spirit of war itself, as she moved undaunted along the +firing line, or with biting reproaches drove up skulkers from the rear. +Like some untried actress bringing down her house, she was overborne +with her own success; and the more she was praised the more +extravagantly and unflinchingly she exposed herself. Under the stress of +those fierce emotions her character in every way underwent a change for +the worse. In war time, death, always in the air, seems to annihilate +with its dark shadow all the bonds that bind society together. Life, +hitherto so assured, of a sudden becomes the most transient of human +gifts, to be enjoyed with a feverish heedlessness before it vanishes +forever into the unknown. Thus Fetuao found and accepted a dozen lovers +among her men, and while still according her husband the first place, +she yet permitted them liberties and familiarities that they were not +slow to take advantage of. + +Deep in every woman's heart there is a love for the men of her race, a +love motherly and pitiful, that will bring the tears to her eyes at the +sight of a passing regiment and cause her to passionately mourn the +unknown soldier dead. This sentiment, this instinct, is a thousandfold +intensified on the bloody field itself. The pang when those brave +fellows fall is inexpressible; her pride is strangely humbled, and in +her mad exaltation she shrinks from nothing, and makes a virtue of her +own abandonment. + +Jack followed Fetuao everywhere, a despondent, woe-begone figure, who, +amid the hail of bullets and the yells of contending warriors, lay or +ran or advanced with the others in a black preoccupation. He had not a +spark of interest in the struggle; his thoughts were forty miles away in +that ruined home, with his plants, and trees, and shrubs, his cow, and +his chickens. What victory could give them back? What terror had a +defeat for one who had already lost his all! He lived in the past, in +those frugal, thrifty, laborious years; for the present he had but an +indifference, an apathy, that he had not even the desire to shake off. + +He became the butt of the warriors, who brought him their rifles to mend +and called him a coward for his pains. They envied him Fetuao, who, for +all her flirtations, slept every night by his side and was not happy +when he was out of her sight. They nicknamed him her "Paalangi dog," and +would whistle to him derisively and shout, "Come 'ere!" secure in the +chronic absent-mindedness that had become a joke to them all. When he +answered, as he always answered, "Eh, what?" and raised his vacant, +moody face, there would be an outburst of laughter, in which he himself +joined with a mirthless geniality, like a man unbending to a lot of +children. If a shell went off some one was sure to cry, "Eh, what?" and +this phrase, together with a mimicry of Jack's slow, dejected utterance +of it, became the stock pleasantry of the camp humorists, who brought it +out on all occasions. + +The conflicts about Apia were mostly affairs of outposts, a pressing in +and a pressing back of the pickets on either side. The naval commanders, +in spite of repeated bombardments and the enormous havoc they wrought +along the coasts, found themselves hardly able to do more than hold +their own against the Mataafa army. The safety of Apia was constantly in +jeopardy, though barricades were thrown up in the streets and three +hundred men landed from the ships. A desperate night attack on the main +guard at the Tivoli Hotel betrayed the weakness of the whites to friends +and foes alike, and redoubled the anxiety of the admiral and captains. +It was plain that no decisive blow could be struck pending the arrival +of the reënforcements that had been urgently cabled for from New +Zealand, unless a better use were made of the missionary levies on the +spot. These loose native organizations were accordingly broken up, +consolidated into a single compact force of eight hundred men, well +armed and well drilled, and placed under the absolute command of a naval +lieutenant. + +This fine force, supported by whites and Maxims, was counted on to +retrieve the situation and drive Mataafa from his mountain stronghold. +The plan for a joint attack was accordingly drawn up. A quota of seamen +and marines, with a couple of machine guns, was to form the center of +the little army, while the native brigade on either wing was to advance +simultaneously, lap round and outflank the Mataafas. This operation, +covered by a terrific bombardment from the three ships of war, was +forthwith begun; on its success was staked the hopes of the little +clique who had so lightly adopted the cause of a divinity student of +seventeen, against the vote and wish of well-nigh all Samoa. + +On that day the Oa party held the center of the Mataafa line, a stone +wall stretching across a wide clearing to the forest on either side. It +was the post of honor, for it crossed the road up which the enemy were +toiling with their guns, and guarded the headquarters of the patriot +king, not a hundred yards behind. In the trampled grass two hundred men +sat or lay with their rifles in their hands and listened to the measured +periods of the orators exhorting them to remember their wrongs and die +fighting. These old men, white-haired, scarred with the wounds of bygone +battles, their wrinkled hands clasping the staves on which they leaned, +never winced as the shells whistled above their heads, nor abated by a +hair's breadth their tone of strident warning and encouragement. At +such a distance, and against a target six hundred feet above the sea +level, the men-of-war made poor practice and did little more than waste +their ammunition. But the shattering detonations of their guns, and the +thundering echoes rolling and re-rolling round the bay, made pleasant +music for their crews ashore. It seemed incredible that such +earth-shaking explosions could be wholly without effect, and the tired +seamen sweating up the hill were kindled by the thought that the rebels +were already suffering heavily and likely to run at the first encounter. + +Sitting listlessly on a boulder, Jack scarcely took in the fact that +anything out of the way was about to happen. His only concern was not to +be too far from Fetuao, and so long as he had her in his sight he was +dumbly content. He was as solitary among the thronging warriors as any +castaway in mid-ocean, and his patient, stolid, inexpressive face, grown +older in a month by a dozen years, was the only one which failed to +reflect the coming conflict. Fetuao, on the contrary, was on fire from +top to toe; her saucy tongue was loosened, and her bright eyes dancing +in wild excitement. Joking and laughing in the roaring circle of her +admirers, she matched her quick wit against them all in a victorious +scream of banter and repartee. + +Suddenly a shot rang out in the lower woods; then two, with a faltering +third; then a scattered volley like a bunch of firecrackers going off at +once. A score of men showed at the turn of the road doubling back for +dear life, the pickets who had been dislodged and driven in by the +advancing whites. They had hardly leaped the wall, panting, and +crouching with the main body behind it, when the machine guns wheeled +into the open and began to fire. In the first murderous crash it seemed +as though nothing human could withstand them, and the blue-jackets, +dotted here and there in the grass, raised an exultant yell, and some +even sprang up in anticipation of the call to charge. But the men that +worked the guns had to stand exposed and helpless before a fire more +galling than their own. They began to drop, and those who were unhurt +disconcertedly turned and ran. A couple of officers sprang out of the +grass to take charge of the abandoned guns, managing in their flurry to +jam them both. For a minute they tinkered and hammered at the choked +mechanism, exposing themselves, as they did so, to the concentrated +volleys of a hundred Samoan rifles. Of a sudden, one clapped his hand to +his breast and sank on his knees; his comrade caught him round the body +and dragged him back, leaving the guns, now silent and useless, to shine +innocuously in the sun. + +All this while the woods on either hand reverberated with the volleys +and the cheers of an extended battle, and a haze of powder smoke +drifted above the tree tops. No one knew how the day was going, and the +most conflicting rumors ran like wildfire through the Mataafa lines +together with the names of such an one killed and such an one wounded. +Dodging the bullets, Fetuao flitted about with water for the parched +fighters, passing the news and rolling cigarettes for such of the +wounded as were not too far gone to care for them. Occasionally she +ferreted out a trembling wretch in the rear and drove him to the front +with taunts; or, if he were too panic-stricken to get up, she had no +compunction in thrashing him with a stick until he did so. The little +savage was beside herself as she danced and sang like a wanton child in +the rain--a rain of Martini and Lee-Remington balls stinging the air all +about her. + +After the machine guns were put out of action the fight became a rifle +duel, which went on briskly for upward of an hour. Again and again the +whites rose in the grass, blundered forward and took cover, each rush +stemmed by the Oas, who, darting up from their wall, gave volley for +volley at point-blank range. Standing in a slop of blood, their great +naked feet trampling the dead and writhing bodies of their comrades, +they rivaled the rocky wall itself in the unflinching obstinacy of their +resistance. It was then the battle reached its deadliest stage, more +falling in those terrible minutes than during the whole previous course +of the action. There was no shouting, no cheering, but with clenched +teeth each man held his place and panted for the supreme moment that +should spell either victory or rout. That moment came with the bugle +call to charge, when the whites, rising for the last time, flung +themselves forward with bayonets fixed. On they came, crimson-faced, +mouths open, British and Americans in a pellmell rush like a rally of +boys at football. Even as they did so, Fetuao leaped bolt upright on the +wall, and swinging her carbine round her head, opposed her slender body +to the whole attack. In an instant she was tumbling backward with a +bullet through her throat, and as she lay coughing and strangling in the +mire, Jack ran forward with a cry and caught her in his arms. There she +died, amid the crash and roar of a hand-to-hand fight, jostled and +stumbled on, her little hot hands clinging to his in the convulsive +grasp of dissolution. + +Jack sprang up like a madman. He had no thought in his dizzy head but +vengeance--vengeance, sudden, bloody, and swift. He plunged into the +thickest of the fray, cursing and raving as he opened a path with his +brawny shoulders. A seaman tried to drive him through with a bayonet, +but he caught the fellow round the neck and throttled him; he wrenched +away the weapon and stabbed out with it right and left, with a strength, +skill, and ferocity that nothing could withstand. He was fired at +again and again; his ashen face was twenty times a target, once at so +close a range that the powder burned his very skin. As the line swayed +to and fro in that desperate final struggle, there was a hoarse cry +against him, constantly repeated, of, "Shoot that white man!" "Kill the +renegade!" But Jack, seemingly proof against bullet and sword, stood his +ground like a lion and clubbed the butt of his gun into the faces of his +foes; and when the whites, at last losing heart, began to weaken and +fall back, it was Jack that led the Samoan charge, waving a dripping +bayonet, and bellowing like a maniac for the rest to follow him. + +[Illustration: "In an instant she was tumbling backward."] + +He stopped beside the guns, laughing wildly to see the blue-jackets +scattering like rabbits down the hill, and throwing away their rifles, +water bottles, and accouterments in their precipitate flight. There were +wounded men lying all about him, groaning, some of them, and calling out +faintly for help; but, hell! what did he care! Let them groan, the +skunks; let them remember the women and children they had bombarded, and +the houses they had burned, and the honest hearts they had broken! To +hell with them! Besides, for the matter of that, he was feeling sort of +sick himself--sort of numb and shivery--and he staggered like a drunken +man as he went slowly back up to the wall. It was all he could do to +straddle the blamed thing, and then it was only with the help of a +wounded Samoan who took his hand. The Kanaka, dizzily seen through a +kind of mist, was no other than Tua; together, like men in a dream, they +searched for Fetuao's body; and dragging it out of the shambles where it +lay, they tried to clean away the blood with wisps of grass. Jack was +sitting with the girl's head in his lap when he began to sway unsteadily +backward and forward, feeling strangely sleepy and cold. He moaned. He +gasped. Hell! they must have plugged him somewhere, after all. And then +he rolled over--dead. + + + + +THE SECURITY OF THE HIGH SEAS + + +Things had been dull in Apia before the arrival of Captain Satterlee in +the _Southern Belle_. Not business alone--which was, of course, only to +be expected, what with the civil war being just over and the Kanakas +driven to eat their cocoanuts instead of selling them to traders in the +form of copra--but, socially speaking, the little capital of the Samoan +group had been next door to dead. Picnics had been few; a heavy dust had +settled on the floor of the public hall--a galvanized iron barn which +social leaders could rent for six Chile dollars a night, lights +included; the butcher's wedding, contrary to all expectation, had been +strictly private, and might almost have slipped by unnoticed had it not +been for a friendly editorial in the _Samoa Weekly Times_; and with the +exception of an auction, a funeral, and a billiard tournament at the +International Hotel, a general lethargy had overtaken Apia and the +handful of whites who made it their home. + +As Mr. Skiddy, the boyish American consul, expressed himself, "You +can't get anybody to do anything these days." + +Possibly this long spell of monotony contributed to Captain Satterlee's +pronounced and instant success. The topsails of the Southern Belle had +hardly more than appeared over the horizon, when people began to wake up +and realize that stagnation had too long held them in its thrall. +Satterlee was not at all the ordinary kind of sea captain, to which the +Beach (as Apia always alluded to itself) was more than well acquainted. +Gin had no attractions for Captain Satterlee, nor did he surround +himself with dusky impropriety. He played a straight social game, and +lived up to the rules, even to party calls, and finger bowls on his +cabin table. He was a tall, thin American of about forty-five, with +floorwalker manners, grayish mutton-chop whiskers, and a roving eye. The +general verdict of Apia was that he was "very superior." His superiority +was apparent in his gentlemanly baldness, his openwork socks, his +well-turned references to current events, his kindly and indulgent +attitude toward all things Samoan. He deplored the rivalry of the three +contending nationalities, German, English, and American, whose official +representatives quarreled fiercely among themselves and mismanaged the +affairs of this unfortunate little South Sea kingdom, and whose +unofficial representatives sold guns and cartridges indiscriminately to +the warring native factions. Satterlee let it be inferred that the rôle +of peacemaker had informally settled upon himself. + +"In a little place everybody ought to pull together," he would say, his +bland tolerance falling like balm from heaven, and he would clinch the +remark by passing round forty-cent cigars. + +The _Southern Belle_ was a showy little vessel of about ninety tons, +with the usual trade room in the after part of the ship, where the +captain himself would wait on you behind a counter, and sell you +anything from a bottle of trade scent to a keg of dynamite. He never was +so charming as when engaged in this exchange of commodities for coin, +and it accorded so piquantly with his evident superiority that the +purchaser had a pleasant sense of doing business with a gentleman. + +"Of course, I might run her as a yacht, and play the heavy swell," he +would remark. "But, candidly, I like this kind of thing; it puts me on a +level with the others, you know; and then it's handy for buying +supplies, and keeping one in touch with the people." With this he would +give you such a warming smile, and perhaps throw in free a handful of +fishhooks, or a packet of safety matches, or a toothbrush. Indeed, apart +from this invariable prodigality, his scale of prices was ridiculously +low, and if you were a lady you could buy out the ship at half price. As +for young Skiddy, the American consul, the bars in his case were +lowered even more, and he was just asked to help himself; which young +Skiddy did, though sparingly. Captain Satterlee took an immense fancy to +this youthful representative of their common country, and treated him +with an engaging mixture of respect and paternalism; and Skiddy, not to +be behindhand, and dazzled, besides, by his elder's marked regard and +friendship, threw wide the consular door, and constantly pressed on +Satterlee the hospitality of a cot on the back veranda. + +The captain professed to find it remarkable--which, indeed, it was--that +a boy of twenty-six should have been intrusted with the welfare of so +considerable a section of Samoa's white population. The roll of the +consulate bore the names of thirty-eight Americans, not to speak of a +thirty-ninth who was soon expected, over whom the young consul possessed +extraordinary powers withheld from far higher posts in far more +important countries. Young Skiddy, on a modest salary of two hundred +dollars a month and a house rent-free, was supposed, if need be, to +marry you, divorce you, try you for crimes and misdemeanors, and in +extreme cases might even dangle you from the flagstaff in his front +yard. + +He had been very seldom called on, however, to use these extensive +powers. In three years he had married as many couples, helped to baptize +a half-caste baby, held an inquest on a dead sailor, bullied a Samoan +army off his front grass, and had settled a disputed inheritance +involving five acres of cocoanuts. This, of course, left him with some +spare time on his hands, which, on the whole, he managed to get through +with very tolerable enjoyment. But until the date of Captain Satterlee's +arrival he had never had a friend, or at least so it seemed to him now +in the retrospect. His official colleagues were out of the question--the +standoffish Englishman, the sullen German, the grotesque Swede who held +the highest judicial office. No, there was not the little finger of a +friend in the whole galaxy. And elsewhere? Not a soul to whom one could +give intimacy without the danger, almost the certainty, of its being +abused. No wonder, then, that he turned to Satterlee, and grasped the +hand of fellowship so warmly extended to him. + +The little consul had never known such a man; he had never heard such +talk; he had never before realized the extent and splendor of the world. +Sitting in the cabin of the _Southern Belle_, often far into the night, +he would give a rapt attention to this extraordinary being who had done +everything and seen everything. Paris, London, Constantinople, New York, +all were as familiar to Satterlee as the palm of his hand, and he had +the story-telling gift that can throw a glamour over the humblest +incident. Not that his incidents were often humble. On the contrary, in +his mysterious suggestive fashion he let it be inferred that his bygone +part had been a great one. He would offer dazzling little peeps, and +then shut the slide; a chance reference that would make his hearer gasp; +the adroit use of a mighty name, checked by a sudden, "Oh, hold on--I'm +saying more than I ought to!" You felt, somehow, that to have roused the +interest of this powerful personage was to insure your own career. With +a turn of his hand he was capable of gratifying your wildest ambition. +He had remarked your unusual capacity, and had quietly determined it +should be given proper scope. When and where and how were to be settled +later. These questions you left confidently to Satterlee. It was enough +that you were informed, in those fine shades of which he was a master, +that your day would surely come. On leaving Satterlee you walked on air +without knowing exactly why; or rather Skiddy did, for by "you" I mean +the little consul. + +It is a sad commentary on human nature that it is so easily deceived. A +glib tongue, an attractive manner, a few hundred dollars thrown +carelessly about, and presto! you have the counterfeit of a Cecil +Rhodes. We are not only willing to take people at their own valuation, +but are ever ready to multiply that valuation by ten. Obtrude +romance--rich, stirring romance--into the lives of commonplace people, +and they instantly lose their heads. Romance, more than cupidity, is +what attracts the gold-brick investor. + +Of course, Satterlee was a poser, a fraud, a liar; the highest type of +liar; the day-dreaming, well-read, genuinely inventive, highly +imaginative, loving-it-for-its-own-sake liar. But to Skiddy every word +he said was Gospel-true. He never doubted the captain for an instant. +Life grew richer to him, stranger and more wonderful. It was like a +personal distinction--a medal, or the thanks of Congress--that Satterlee +should thus have singled him out. His gratitude was unbounded. He felt +both humble and elated. His cup was brimming over. + +Let not his credulity be counted against him. After all, he was not the +only admirer of the captain. Did he not see Satterlee lionized by the +Chief Justice and the rest of his brother officials; publicly honored by +the head of the great German company; called to the bosom of both the +missionary denominations? Was not all Apia, in fact, regardless of sex, +creed, or nationality, acclaiming Satterlee to the skies, and vying +among themselves for the privilege of entertaining him? Never, indeed, +were there so many picnics, so many parties, such a constant succession +of dances at the public hall. Even the king was galvanized into action, +and, to the surprise of everyone, gave a sort of At Home, where +Satterlee was the guest of honor, and received the second _kava_ cup. A +half-caste couple, who before had barely held up their heads, sprang +into social prominence by getting married under the direct patronage of +the popular captain, and thus rallying to their visiting list all the +rank, fashion, and beauty of Apia. + +It was a delirious month. There was an event for almost every night of +it. The strain on the half-caste band was awful. Miss Potter's millinery +establishment worked night and day. Of a morning you couldn't find a +lady on a front veranda who wasn't stitching and sewing and basting and +cutting out. And the men! Why, in the social whirl few of them had time +to sober up, and the sale of Leonard's soda water was unprecedented. + +As the time began to draw near for the monthly mail from San Francisco, +Satterlee got restless and talked regretfully of leaving. He gave a +great P.P.C. bargain day on board the _Southern Belle_, where sandwiches +and bottled beer were served to all comers, and goods changed hands at +astonishing prices: coal oil at one seventy-five a case; hundred-pound +kegs of beef at four dollars; turkey-red cotton at six cents a yard; +square face at thirty cents a bottle; and similar cuts in all the +standard commodities. There was no custom house in those days, and you +were free to carry everything ashore unchallenged. A matter of eighty +tons must have been landed all round the beach; and the pandemonium at +the gangway, the crush and jostle in the trade room, and the steady +hoisting out of fresh merchandise from the main hold, made a very +passable South Sea imitation of a New York department store. At any +rate, there was the same loss of temper, the same harassed expression on +the faces of the purchasers, and the same difficulty in getting change. +As like as not you had to take it--the change--in the form of Jews' +harps, screw eyes, or anything small and handy that happened to be near +by. It was the most lightning performance Apia had ever witnessed, and +the captain carried it off in a brisk, smiling way, as though it was the +best joke in the world, and he was only doing it all for fun. + +Unfortunate captain! Unhappy destiny that brought in the mail cutter two +days ahead of schedule! Thrice unlucky popularity that found thee +basking in the sunshine of woman's favor instead of on thy four-inch +deck! The pilot signaled the mail; Skiddy put forth in his consular +boat, intercepting the cutter in the pass, and receiving (on his head) +his own especial Government bag. The proximity of the _Southern Belle_, +and the likelihood of Satterlee being at home, caused Skiddy to board +the ship and open the bag on her quarter-deck. One stout, blue, and +important-looking letter at once caught his eye. He opened the stout, +blue, and important-looking letter, and---- + +There were no white men in the crew of the _Southern Belle_. They were +all Rotumah boys, with the exception of Ah Foy, the Chinese cook. This +amiable individual was singing over his pots and pans when he was +suddenly startled by the apparition of Skiddy at the galley door. The +little consul was deathly pale, and there was something fierce and +authoritative in his look. + +"Come out of here," he said abruptly, "I want to talk to you!" + +The Chinaman followed him aft. He had a pretty good idea of what was +coming. That was why he was sewn up with two hundred dollars in hard +cash, together with a twenty-dollar bill under his left heel. He began +to cry, and in five minutes had blurted out the whole thing. +Self-preservation is the first law, and he had, besides, some dim +conception of State's evidence. Skiddy made the conception clearer, and +promised him immunity if he would make a clean breast of it. This the +Chinaman forthwith did in his laborious pidgin. A good part of it was +incomprehensible, but he established certain main facts, and confirmed +the stout, blue, important-looking letter. As Satterlee came off on a +shore boat, pulling like mad, and then darted up the ladder in a sweat +of apprehension, he was met at the top by Skiddy--not Skiddy the +friend, but Skiddy the arm of the law, Skiddy the retributive, Skiddy +the world's avenger, with Seniko, his towering cox, standing square +behind him. + +"John Forster," he said, "_alias_ Satterlee, I arrest you in the name of +the United States, on the charge of having committed the crime of +barratry, and warn you that anything you say now may be hereafter used +against you." + +It was a horrible thing to say--to be forced to say--and no sense of +public duty could make it less than detestable. Skiddy almost whispered +out the words. The brutality of them appalled him. Remember, this was +his friend, his hero, the man whose intimacy an hour before had been +everything to him. Satterlee gave him a quick, blank, panicky look, and +then, with a pitiful bravado, took a step forward with an attempted +return to his usual confident air. He professed to be dumfounded at the +accusation; he was the victim of a dreadful mistake; he tried, with a +ghastly smile, to reassert his old dominion, calling Skiddy "old man" +and "old chap" in a shaky, fawning voice, and wanting to take him below +"to talk it over." But the little consul was adamantine. The law must +take its course. He was sorry, terribly sorry, but as an officer of the +United States he had to do his duty. + +Satterlee preceded him into the boat. The consul followed and took the +yoke lines. They were both dejected, and neither dared to meet the +other's eyes. It was a mournful pull ashore, and tragic in the +retrospect. A silence lay between them as heavy as lead. The crew, +conscious of the captain's humiliation, though they knew not the cause, +felt also constrained to a deep solemnity. Yes, a funereal pull, and it +was a relief to everyone when at last they grounded in the shingle off +the consulate. + +Skiddy had a busy day of it. Leaving the captain at the consulate under +guard, and sending off Asi, the chief of Vaiala, together with ten +warriors armed with rifles and axes to take charge of the _Southern +Belle_ and her crew, he walked into Apia to make arrangements to meet +the painful situation. Single-handed he had to rear the structure of a +whole judicial system, including United States marshals, a clerk of +court, four assessor judges, and a jail. His first steps were directed +toward a little cottage on the Motootua Road, the residence of Mr. +Scoville Purdy, a goaty, elderly, unwashed individual, who formed the +more respectable half of the Samoan bar. Mr. Purdy was forthwith +retained by the United States Government, and the papers of the case +left in his hands. Skiddy next sought out Mr. Thacher, the other half of +the bar, and directed him to defend the prisoner. Then he bent his mind +to the consideration of jails, of which Samoa boasted two. + +The municipal jail was a two-roomed wooden shed, sparingly furnished +with a couple of tin pails. Humanity forbidding the incarceration of +Captain Satterlee in such a hovel, the little consul passed on to +Mulinuu, where the general Samoan Government held sway. The jail here +was on a more pretentious scale. It consisted of a rectangular +inclosure, perhaps sixty feet by forty, formed by four eight-foot walls +of galvanized iron, and containing within five or six small huts of the +kind that shipwrecked seamen might build on a desert island. In fact +that was just about what they were, and as foul and repulsive as the +real article. Owing to financial stringency the Samoan Government was +unable to house or feed its prisoners, who for both these reasons might +well be described as castaways. These unfortunates were absent at the +time of Skiddy's visit, employing a very languid leisure on the +improvement of the roads; and the consul could not have penetrated the +jail at all had it not been for the king, who, on being appealed to, was +obliging enough to lend the diplomat his spare key. + +Skiddy stood and regarded the place with an immense depression. It would +not do at all. It was no better than a cattle pen. He was about to turn +away, when the two Scanlons appeared on the scene, their keen noses +having scented out a job. The Scanlons were burly half-castes, of a +muddy, sweaty complexion, whose trustworthiness and intelligence were +distinctly above the average. The Scanlon brothers, to any one in a +difficult position, could be relied upon as pillars of strength. There +was nothing a Scanlon brother wouldn't do, and do well, for two dollars +and fifty cents a day. Mind and muscle were both yours--Scanlon mind and +muscle--for this paltry and insignificant sum; and the consul, in his +quandary, welcomed the stout, bristly haired pair as though they were +angels from heaven. + +In less time than it takes to write, Alfred Scanlon was appointed a +United States marshal, Charles Scanlon an assistant United States +marshal, and the arrangement was made with them to take full charge of +Captain Satterlee during his trial. He was to live in their cottage, +have his meals served from the International Hotel, and, while carefully +guarded night and day, was to be treated "first class" throughout. + +"The law of the United States," boomed out little Skiddy, "assumes that +a prisoner is innocent until he is actually convicted. I want both of +you to remember that." + +The Scanlons didn't understand a word of what he said, but they saluted, +and looked very much impressed. When you bought a Scanlon you got a lot +for your money, including a profound gravity when you addressed him. It +was the Scanlon way of recognizing that you were paying, and the +Scanlon receiving, two dollars and fifty cents a day! + +At the head of his two satellites, who kept pace respectfully behind +him, Skiddy next directed himself to find Dillon. Dillon was a variety +of white Scanlon, though of an infinitely lower human type, who kept a +tiny store and cobbled shoes near the Mulivae bridge; and who, from some +assumed knowledge of legal procedure, invariably acted as clerk of the +court--any court--American, English, or the Samoan High. You associated +his heavy, bloated, grog-blossomed face, and black-dyed whiskers, as an +inevitable part of the course of justice. It was his custom to take +longhand notes of all court proceedings, as, of course, stenographers +were unknown in Apia; and at times it would seem as though all Samoan +justice boiled down to dictating to Dillon. As a witness, you never +looked at the judge; you looked at Dillon, and wondered whether he was +taking you down right. A careful witness always went slowly, and used +the words that Dillon was likely to understand. + +Dillon having been found and engaged, the next procedure was to appoint +the assessor judges, of whom the consular instructions insisted on there +being four. This weighty matter seemed to require the cooperation of the +vice consul, Mr. Beaver, a highly respected quack doctor, whose +principal nostrum was faith cure plus hot water. After arguing away +your existence, which he always could do with extraordinary fluency, he +would plunge you into a boiling bath till your imaginary skin turned a +deep imaginary scarlet, and then send you home with some microscopic +doses of aconite. The best that could be said of him was that he never +really harmed anybody, scalded the poor for nothing, and was willing +(and even pressing) to turn over serious cases to the regular +practitioner, Dr. Funk. + +There were twenty-seven American citizens on the consular roll of male +sex, sound mind, and above twenty-one years of age. Four of them lived +far from Apia, and were therefore unavailable. Two more, as known +deserters from the United States navy, were considered unworthy of the +judgment seat. Forged or suspected naturalization papers threw out +another five. This reduced the residuum to sixteen, whose names were +written on slips of paper, thrown into a pith helmet, and tumbled +together. The first four withdrawn constituted the assessor judges, who +were at once warned by messenger to be in attendance at the consulate at +ten the next morning, or be punished for contempt. + +What a stir was made in the little town as the news went round! +Satterlee, the cherished, the entertained, the eagerly sought +after--Satterlee, had been discovered to be a pirate! The _Southern_ +_Belle_ was no _Southern Belle_ at all, but the _James H. Peabody_! He +had shipped as supercargo, putting in a thousand dollars of his own to +lull Mr. Crawford's suspicions, and then had marooned the captain and +mate on Ebon Island, and levanted with the ship! Heavens! what cackle, +what excitement, what a furious flow of beer in every saloon along the +beach! It was rumored that the great bargain-day sales might be +canceled; that the goods might have to be returned; that not a penny of +compensation would be paid to the unlucky purchasers. Then what a +rubbing off of marks took place, what a breaking up of tell-tale cases, +what a soaking off of tags! The whole eighty tons disappeared like +magic, and you could not find a soul who would even confess to a packet +of pins! + +The trial took place in the large office room of the consulate. The big +front doors stood open to the sea, where a mile away the breakers tossed +and tumbled on the barrier reef. The back door was kept shut, to keep +out the meaner noises of domesticity, but at intervals in the course of +the trial you could hear the deliberate grinding of the consular coffee; +the chasing of consular chickens; the counting of the consular wash; +shrill arguments over the price of fish--a grotesque juxtaposition that +seemed to make a mock of the whole proceedings. + +The consul, in well-starched white clothes and pipe-clayed shoes, sat +on a dais beneath the crossed flags of his country, giving the effect of +an elegant and patriotic waxwork. Below him were the four assessors, +sunburned, commonish, seafaring men, with enormous hands that they did +not know what to do with, who moved uneasily in their chairs, and looked +about for places to spit--and then didn't dare to! One, whose brawny +arms far exceeded the shrunken sleeves of his jumper, unbared to view on +his hairy skin the tattooed form of a naked mermaid. A table stood in +the center of the uncarpeted room, with a lawyer on either side--Purdy, +the goaty-haired, messy, elderly man, half-blind, sharp-voiced, rasping +out his case; opposite him, Thacher, a slinky, mean-looking young man, +who was reputed to have left New Zealand under a cloud. He looked what +he was, a cheap lawyer's clerk, of the pinched, hungry variety one sees +in gloomy anterooms. At the head of the table was Dillon, the +everlasting dictatee, his dyed black whiskers drooping in the heat, who +raised a fat hand from time to time as a brake on outstripping tongues. +And there the captain, the cause of all this singular assembly, tilting +back in his chair, or occasionally leaning over to whisper into his +counsel's ear--spare, angular, careworn--with his grim mouth and +resolute air, as though the soul within him refused to be cowed by such +droning tomfoolery. + +Beside the front door was a shabby basket-work sofa, where members of +the public were entitled to sit. They would tiptoe in, these members of +the public, furtively, as though expecting to be shot on sight, the +bolder ones perhaps exchanging a whisper, the weaker brethren silent, +and trembling if they caught an official eye. Outside, on the steps of +the broad veranda, the brothers Scanlon lolled and slumbered, with +pewter stars on their sweaty breasts, enjoying the deep contentment that +comes with two dollars and fifty cents a day. + +The trial lasted two days, but judgment was held over for the third. The +case against Satterlee was complete. The San Francisco affidavits, +properly made out by competent hands, were confirmed by the confession +of Ah Foy, the cook, who (besides Satterlee) was the only present member +of the original crew. Satterlee set up the lame defense that he had +purchased the vessel from Crawford, and was therefore her actual owner. +He was sworn, and gave evidence accordingly, but Purdy's +cross-examination left him without a leg to stand on. He cut a pitiful +figure as he floundered and lied and contradicted himself under the lash +of that relentless tongue, miring himself ever deeper with explanations +that did not explain, and agitated references to a "conspiracy" whose +object it was to ruin him. No, the only thing to be considered was the +degree of punishment that would adequately offset his crime. + +On the reassembling of the Court on the morning of the third day, little +Skiddy, from the majesty of the dais, summed up the case at length. It +covered nine sheets of foolscap, and had cost him hours of agonizing +toil. Beginning with a general rhetorical statement about the "policy of +nations" and "the security of the high seas," he descended by degrees to +the crime of barratry--or, in plainer English, the theft of ships. He +looked at barratry from every side, and the more he looked the less he +seemed to like it. It was the cradle of piracy; it destroyed the +confidence of owners; barratry, if frequently repeated, would shake the +whole commercial structure. A person who committed barratry would commit +anything. In this manner he went on and on, reviewing the evidence of +the case, destroying the whole fabric of the defense, dwelling at length +on the enormity of the entire transaction. The _James H. Peabody_ had +been deliberately seized. The prisoner had lawlessly converted her, the +property of another, to his own base uses. He had broken into the cargo +and shamelessly sold it as his own. He could plead neither the +extenuation of youth, nor ignorance, nor the urging of others. He had +conceived the crime, and had carried it out single-handed. The Court +could not accept the contention that Ah Foy, the Chinaman, had been in +any sense a confederate or an accomplice. The Court dismissed the charge +against Ah Foy. But, after mature deliberation, its unanimous judgment +was that John Forster, _alias_ Satterlee, was _guilty_. The Court +sentenced John Forster, _alias_ Satterlee, to _ten years' penal +servitude_. + +Purdy popped up with some question as to the scale of court fees. +Thacher winked at Dillon, and began to roll up his papers. Skiddy +descended from the dais and became an ordinary human being again. The +captain, leaning forward in his chair, gazed absently out to sea. The +Scanlon brothers appeared, officiously wanting to know what they were to +do next. Skiddy was unable to tell them, except that they were to stay +by the prisoner until he could consult with the authorities. He put on +his hat, lit a cigar, and forthwith departed. + +The President was kind, the Chief Justice urbane. The income of the +kingdom barely sufficed for their two salaries, and they judged it +incumbent (as they could do nothing else) to be as polite as possible to +the American consul. But jails? Oh, no, they couldn't oblige Skiddy with +a new jail! He was welcome to what they had, but it wasn't in reason +that he could expect anything better. Skiddy said it was a hog-pen. The +President retorted that the king's allowance was eight months in +arrears, and that the western end of the island was still in rebellion. +Jails cost money, and they had no money. Skiddy declared it was an +outrage, and asked them if they approved of putting a white man into a +bare stockade, with none of the commonest conveniences or decencies of +life? They were both shocked at the suggestion. The pride of race is +very strong in barbarous countries. A white man is still a white man +even if he has committed all the crimes in the calendar. The Chief +Justice very seriously pointed out that it would disgrace them all to +confine Satterlee in the stockade, and force him to mix with the dregs +of the native population. Surely Mr. Skiddy could not consider such a +thing for a moment. Mr. Skiddy wanted to know, then, what the deuce he +was to do? The Chief Justice benignantly shook his head. He had no +answer to that question. The President murmured suavely, that perhaps +next year, with an increased hut tax, and the suppression of the +rebellion, the Government might see its way to---- + +"Next year!" roared Skiddy. "I want to know what I'm to do +NOW!" + +The two high officials gazed at him sadly. It was a great peety, they +observed (with an air of gentle complaint), that Mr. Skiddy should have +embarrassed the government at a time when its whole position was so +precarious. Had he not better refer the matter to Washington? Doubtless +Washington, recognizing the fact that---- + +Skiddy flung himself out, lest his anger should get the best of him. He +went and had another look at the jail, and liked it even less than +before. Faugh! it was disgusting! It would kill a white man in a week. +It would be nothing less than murder to put Satterlee into it. He +returned to the consulate to talk over the matter with the trusty +Scanlons. + +Would they consider a monthly arrangement on a reduced charge, giving +Satterlee the best room in their cottage, and pledging themselves that +he should never quit the confines of their three-acre cocoanut patch? +The half-caste brothers fell in joyfully with the suggestion, and their +first wild proposals were beaten down to forty dollars a month for +custodianship and fifteen dollars for the room and the transport of +Satterlee's food from the International Hotel--fifty-five dollars in +all. Thirty dollars a month for the hotel raised the grand total to +eighty-five dollars. Skiddy wondered ruefully whether Washington would +ever indorse this arrangement, but in his desperation he couldn't see +that he had any other choice. He would simply _make_ Washington indorse +it. It was with great relief that he saw the captain's departure from a +corner of his bedroom window, and felt that, for the moment, at least, +he had a welcome respite from all his perplexities. + +He put a captain and crew on board the _James H. Peabody_, and packed +her back to San Francisco, at the same time apprising the State +Department by mail, and begging that a telegraphic answer might be sent +him in respect to Satterlee's imprisonment, and the expense it had +necessarily entailed. He calculated that the telegram would catch an +outgoing man-of-war that was shortly due. The consular salary was two +hundred dollars a month, and if the eighty-five dollars for Satterlee +was disallowed, the sum was indubitably bound to sink to one hundred and +fifteen dollars. Deducting a further fifty, which little Skiddy was in +the habit of remitting to his mother, a widow in narrow circumstances, +and behold his income reduced to sixty-five a month! It was hardly +surprising, therefore, that Skiddy waited on pins and needles for the +Department's reply. + +In the course of weeks it came. + + _Skiddy U S consul apia samoa satterlee case the department + authorizes charge for food, but none for custody or lodging, + bronson assistant secretary._ + +This was a staggering blow. It definitely placed his salary at +ninety-five dollars. He sat down and wrote a stinging letter to the +Department, inclosing snapshot pictures of the jail, the prisoners, the +huts, and other things that cannot be described here. It evolved an +acrimonious reply, in which he was bidden to be more respectful. He was +at liberty (the dispatch continued), if he thought it advisable as an +act of private charity, to maintain the convict Satterlee in a +comfortable cottage, but the Department insisted that it should be at +his (Skiddy's) expense. The Department itself advocated the jail. If the +situation were as disgraceful as he described it, ought not the onus be +put on the Samoan Government, and thus place the Department in a +position "to make strong representations through the usual diplomatic +channels"? + +"But in the meantime what would happen to Satterlee?" returned the +consul in official language, across six thousand miles of sea and land. + +"You are referred to the previous dispatch," retorted the Department. + +"But it will kill him," said Skiddy, again crossing an ocean and a +continent. + +"If the convict Satterlee should become ill, you are at liberty to send +him to the hospital." + +"Yes, but there isn't any hospital," said Skiddy. + +"The Department cannot withdraw from the position it took up, nor the +principle it laid down in Dispatch No. 214 B." + +Thus the duel went on, while Skiddy cut down his cigars, sold his riding +horse, and generally economized. A regret stole over him that he hadn't +sentenced Satterlee to a shorter term, and he looked up the Consular +Instructions to see what pardoning powers he possessed. On this point +the little book was dumb. Not so the Department, however, to whom a hint +on the subject provoked the reply, "that by so doing you would stultify +your previous action and impugn the finding of the Consular Court. The +Department would view with grave displeasure, etc.----" + +Satterlee soon made himself very much at home in the Scanlon prison. His +winning personality never showed to better advantage than in those days +of his eclipse. He dandled the Scanlon off-spring on his knee; helped +the women with their household tasks; played checkers with the burly +brothers. He was prodigiously respected. He gathered in the Scanlon +hearts, even to uncles and second cousins. You would have taken him for +a patriarch in the bosom of a family of which he was the joy and pride. +He received the best half-caste society on his front porch, and +dispensed Scanlon hospitality with a lavish hand. These untutored souls +had no proper conception of barratry. They couldn't see any crime in +running away with a schooner. They pitied the captain as a bold spirit +who had met with undeserved misfortunes. The Samoan has ever a +sympathetic hand for the fallen mighty, and the hand is never empty of a +gift. Bananas, pineapples, _taro_, sugar cane, _palusami_, sucking pigs, +chickens, eggs, _valo_--all descended on Satterlee in wholesale lots. +Girls brought him _leis_ of flowers to wear round his neck; anonymous +friends stole milk for his refreshment; pigeon hunters, returning +singing from the mountains, deferentially laid their best at his feet. +Nothing was too good for this unfortunate chief, who bore himself so +nobly, and had a smile and a kind word for even the humblest of his +admirers. + +On Sundays Skiddy paid the captain a periodical visit. He would bring +the latest papers, if there were any, or a novel or two from his scanty +stock. Their original friendship had died a violent death, but a new one +had gradually risen on the ashes of the old. Skiddy had no more +illusions in respect to this romantic-minded humbug and semi-pirate; but +the man was likable, tremendously likable, and, in spite of himself, the +little consul could not forbear suffering some of the pangs of remorse. +The world was so big, so wide, with such a sufficiency of room for all +(even romantic-minded humbugs and semi-pirates), and it was hard that +Providence should have singled him out to clip this eagle's wings. There +was something, too, very pathetic in Satterlee's contentment. He +confided to Skiddy that he had never been so happy. With glistening eyes +he would discourse on "these simple people," "these good hearts," "this +lovely and uncontaminated paradise, where evil seems never to have set +its hand," and expatiate generally on the beauty, charm, and +tranquillity of Samoan life. He dreaded the time, he said, when a +ruthless civilization would sweep it all away. + +Satterlee and he took long walks into the mountains, invariably +accompanied by a Scanlon brother to give an official aspect to the +excursion. It maintained the fast-disappearing principle that Satterlee +was a convict and under vigilant guard. It served to take away the +appearance, besides (which they might otherwise have presented), of two +friends spending a happy day together in the country. A Scanlon brother +stood for the United States Government and the majesty of law, and +propriety demanded his presence as peremptorily as a chaperon for a +young lady. A Scanlon brother could be useful, too, in climbing cocoanut +trees, rubbing sticks together when the matches were lost, and in +guiding them to noble waterfalls far hidden in the forest. + +In this manner nearly a whole year passed, which, for the little consul, +represented an unavoidable monthly outlay of fifty-five dollars. He got +somewhat used to it, as everybody gets somewhat used to everything; but +he could not resist certain recurring intervals of depression when he +contrasted his present circumstances with his bygone glory. Fifty-five +dollars a month made a big hole in a consular income, and he would gaze +down that ten-year vista with a sinking heart. But relief was closer at +hand than he had ever dared to hope. From the Department? No, but from +Satterlee himself. + +The news was brought to little Skiddy early one morning. Alfred Scanlon, +with an air of gloom, deprecatingly coughed his way into the bedroom, +and handed the consul a letter. It was written on pale pink note-paper, +of the kind Samoans like best, with two lavender love birds embossed in +the corner. It was from Satterlee. The letter ran thus: + + DEAR FRIEND: _When this reaches you I shall be far + to sea. My excuse for so long subsisting on your bounty must + be laid to my ignorance, which was only illuminated two days + ago by accident. I had no idea that you were paying for me + out of your own private purse, or that my ease and comfort + were obtained at so heavy a cost to yourself. Regretfully I + bring our pleasant relations to an end, impelled, I assure + you, by the promptings of a heartfelt friendship. I loved + the simple people among whom my lot was cast, and looked + forward, at the termination of my sentence, to end the + balance of my days peacefully among them. The world, seen + from so great a distance, and from within so sweet a nest, + frightened me, old stager that I am. God knows, I have never + seen but its ugliest side, and return to it with profound + depression. Kindly explain my abrupt departure to the + Scanlons, and if you would do me a last favor, buy a little + rocking-horse that there is at Edward's store, price three + dollars, and present it in my name to my infant goddaughter, + Apeli Scanlon. To them all kindly express my warmest and + sincerest gratitude; and for yourself, dear friend, the + best, the truest, the kindest of men, accept the warm grasp + of my hand at parting. Ever yours,_ + + JOHN SATTERLEE. + +"It must have been the Hamburg bark that sailed last night," quavered +Scanlon. + +Of course, Skiddy blew that Scanlon up. He wiped the floor with him. He +roared at him till the great hulking creature shook like jelly, and his +round black eyes suffused with tears. He made him sit down then and +there, swore him on the consular Bible, and made him dictate a +statement, which was signed in the presence of the cook. This +accomplished, Alfred was ingloriously dismissed, while the consul went +out on the back veranda, and sat there in his pajamas, to think the +matter over. + +It seemed a pity to rouse the Department. The Department's interest in +Satterlee could at no time have been called brisk, and it had now ebbed +to a negligible quantity. But it would be just like the Department to +get suddenly galvanized, and hysterically head Satterlee off at Hamburg. +This would mean his ultimate return to Samoa, and a perpetual further +outlay of fifty-five dollars from a hard-earned salary. No, he wouldn't +worry the Department.... Let sleeping dogs lie. There were better ways +of spending fifty-five dollars a month. + +That night the consul had champagne at dinner, and drank a silent toast: + +"Good luck to him, poor old devil!" + + + + +FORTY YEARS BETWEEN + + +"What am I to enter in the log, sir?" asked Mr. Francis, the first +lieutenant. + +"There's an old-fashioned word for it," said Captain Hadow grimly. + +"Had it been my brother it couldn't have hurt me more," said Mr. +Francis. + +"Everybody loved that boy." + +"It will break his father's heart, sir." + +"A deserter, by God!" + +"He had everything in the world," said Francis, in the tone of a man who +himself had fought hard for every step. "He had influence, money of his +own, brains, a splendid professional future, everything!" + +"All thrown away like that," said Captain Hadow, with a gesture of his +hand. + +"And the handsomest fellow I believe I ever saw," said Mr. Francis. + +"The pick of the basket," agreed Hadow. + +"And to think," continued Mr. Francis, "that I must sit down at my desk +and write: 'Past Midshipman John de Vigne Garrard, Deserter.'" + +The pair were pacing the quarter-deck of H.M.S. _Dauntless_ as she lay +at anchor within the reef. It was at Borabora, one of the Society +Islands, and the time forty years ago. The wonderful old rock, rising +sheer naked and frowning from the bluest water in the world, seemed to +those at its foot as though it were holding up the very sky itself. +Precipice upon precipice dizzily scaled the basaltic heights, giving +here and there, on little shelves and crannies, a foothold for a vivid +vegetation. The peak itself, a landmark at sea for ninety miles around, +was half-hidden in the gloom of squalls and scud, and sometimes, for a +moment, it would be altogether lost to view in the fierce murkiness of +driving rain. Below the mountain, on the flat shore of the lagoon, an +uninterrupted belt of palms concealed the little villages of the +islanders. Here, in idyllic peace, a population of extraordinary +attractiveness, gentleness, and beauty led their life of secluded ease. +Money was all but unknown; food could be had in abundance for the most +trifling labor; clothes could be stripped from the bark of trees. +Nature, giving with both hands, was repaid with an usury of poetry and +song; and these happy people, children forever at heart, well mannered, +gay, and instinct with an untamed nobility, bore themselves with the +grace of those whom the gods loved. + +"As like as not he is watching us now from somewhere up there," said the +captain, sweeping the summits with his glass. + +"I doubt it, sir," returned Mr. Francis. "It's my conviction he isn't a +cable's length behind the village." + +"Did you offer the reward?" asked the captain. + +The first lieutenant looked embarrassed. + +"I told you to offer fifty pounds," said the captain tartly. + +"I ventured to raise it to a hundred, sir," said Mr. Francis. "We talked +it over in the wardroom, and we thought we wouldn't risk the boy for a +matter of a few pounds between us." + +"I wonder if the mess would have done the same for _me_?" observed the +captain. + +"We hardly look forward to your putting yourself in that position, sir," +said Mr. Francis. + +"No, by God!" said the captain. "When I quit her Majesty's service it +will be neither for pique nor for love." + +"No, indeed, sir," agreed the first lieutenant. + +"I've had my follies, too, Mr. Francis," said the captain. "Every man +who is worth anything has some time or other made a fool of himself +about a woman. I don't pretend to be better than my neighbors. I can't +forget I was once young myself." + +"I'm afraid even a hundred pounds isn't going to fetch him," said Mr. +Francis. "I could see it in the king's eyes he meant to keep the boy." + +"The lady in the case is the king's sister, I suppose--" said the +captain, "that tall slip of a girl who was always making such +sheep's-eyes at Jack. Gad! I don't wonder he preferred a bower in Eden +with her to the steerage of a man-of-war and a pack of young devils +incarnate! Who knows what might not have happened if she had made +sheep's-eyes at me, Mr. Francis!" + +"Very true, sir, very true," returned Mr. Francis, who had no sense of +humor. + +"She's about the sweetest thing I ever saw," went on the captain. + +The two men laughed. + +"I hope to goodness he'll be the only one," said Mr. Francis. "The fact +is, the whole ship's in love; even the lower deck is off its feed; the +boatswain says they're messing up the rigging with true-lovers' knots, +and I'm told the marines are writing poetry." + +"Ah, if it had been anyone but him!" exclaimed the captain. + +"It's horrible to call him a deserter," said Francis. + +"Don't let's do it," said the captain. + +"We have to say something, sir," returned the first lieutenant +helplessly. + +"One can always lie, I suppose," said Hadow. + +"There's nothing I wouldn't do myself for Jack Garrard," volunteered Mr. +Francis. + +"Why not say he was kidnapped here by the hill tribes?" said Hadow. "We +aren't certain sure he wasn't, and no one can deny but what he might +have been." + +"But the admiral would be bound to inquire into it," said Mr. Francis. +"Sooner or later he'd send a ship." + +"Trust Jack to do his own lying when she gets here," said Hadow. +"Besides, he'll be sick of the whole thing by that time and only too +glad to step aboard." + +"But won't we be asked why _we_ didn't rescue him?" asked Francis. + +"No, no--I have it!" cried the captain. + +"It's certainly a case for stretching a point, sir," said Mr. Francis. + +"Enter in the log," said the captain, speaking slowly and thoughtfully, +"that Passed Midshipman John de Vigne Garrard, failing to report himself +at the expiration of his leave, was afterwards discovered to have been +kidnapped by the hill tribes of Borabora Island. On my threatening to +land a party to recover him, I was dissuaded by King George, who cleared +himself of any personal responsibility in the matter, and who promised, +if only I would give him time, to recover the man without bloodshed or +any cost to her Majesty's Government. The king urged that the use of +force would imperil the officer's life, which otherwise he had every +confidence would be spared." + +"Very good, sir," said Mr. Francis. + +"You'll give old George a flaming character," added Hadow. + +"Very good, sir," said Mr. Francis. + +"Pile it on about his reverence for the Queen, and the way he gave beef +to the ship," said Hadow. + +"And what then, sir?" inquired Mr. Francis. + +"Well, you know," went on Hadow, "my orders down here leave me a pretty +wide latitude. You can't tie down a surveying ship in wild waters the +way you can a simple patrol. By God, sir, I'll put the ship back here in +nine months and retake Master Johnny Garrard." + +"If he has any realization of his position he will then go down on his +knees and thank you, sir," said Mr. Francis. + +"He's more likely to come aboard whistling!" exclaimed the captain. + +"Of course, it will involve a little--insincerity," said Mr. Francis. + +"You mean we'll have to lie like hell!" said the captain. + +"Well, yes," observed Mr. Francis. + +"I hope that's understood," said the captain. "But I can't bear to see a +fine lad ruined for a bit of squeamishness. Were he thirty he might go +hang; but nineteen--Good Lord! one must have a little mercy." + +"Where would any of us be now, sir," said Mr. Francis, "if we had each +of us received full measure for a boyish error?" + +"I know I was a rotten bad egg myself," said Captain Hadow. + +"If I may say it without offense, sir," said Mr. Francis, "I think you +are taking a very noble course in respect to this unfortunate lad." + +"Of course, I don't want you to think I justify desertion," said Hadow +quickly, not ill pleased at the compliment. "Gad, sir, it's a shocking +thing; bar actual cowardice, I positively know nothing worse. Were Jack +my son, I'd rather see him stretched dead at my feet. I tell you, Mr. +Francis, that when I first heard the news I was stunned; I felt myself +trembling; the dishonor, the infamy of it struck me here." Captain Hadow +laid his hand on his heart. + +Mr. Francis nodded a silent assent. + +"But we'll save him!" cried the captain. "We won't permit this ugly +business to blast his life." + +"You may count, Captain Hadow, on our most loyal and hearty support," +said Mr. Francis. + +"Thank you," said the captain; "and you will pass the word along that +the subject is one not to be discussed." + +"Quite so, sir," said the first lieutenant. + +"Not a word!" exclaimed the captain; "and of course you will cancel the +reward before we sail. You might even coach old George a bit about the +hill tribes. But, of course, not a whisper that we're ever coming +back." + +"No, sir," said Mr. Francis. + +"That must go no farther than you and me," said Hadow. + +"It shall not, sir," returned the first lieutenant. + +"We shall sail to-night at the turn of the tide," said the captain. + +"Very good, sir," said Mr. Francis. + +It was not nine months--it was fifteen, and some days to spare--before +the _Dauntless_ again raised the peak of Borabora and backed her +mainyard off the settlement. In the course of that eventful year and a +quarter she had zigzagged the whole chart of the eastern Pacific; and +from French Frigate Shoals to Pitcairn, from Diamond Head to Little +Rapa, she had sounded and plotted reefs innumerable, and had covered, +with a searching persistency, vast areas of blue water dotted with e. +d.'s and p. d.'s.[1] She had twice taken the ground, once so hard and +fast that she had shifted her guns and lightered a hundred tons of +stores among the gulls and mews of a half-sunken reef; she had had an +affair with the unruly natives of the Walker Group, and had blown a +village to fragments, and not a few of the Walkers themselves into a +land as uncharted as their own; she had tried a beach-comber for +murder, and had dangled him at the main yardarm, giving him later on a +Church of England service, a hammock, and the use of a cannon ball at +his feet; she had poked her nose into cannibal bays, where women of wild +beauty and wilder license swam off to the ship in hundreds until the +marines drove them back with muskets, and fired at their own comrades, +who in their madness leaped into the water and were floated ashore in +the arms of naked girls; she had lain for weeks in enormous atolls, +where the only life was that of birds, and the silence was unbroken save +for the long roll of the surf, and at night the ghostly scurrying of +turtles over the sand; she had been everywhere in those labyrinthine +seas, those haunts of romance and mystery, with love, danger, and death +always close aboard. + +It was morning when Hadow raised the island, a fleecy speck of cloud +against the sky line, and he shortened sail at once and lingered out the +day so as to bring him up to it by dark. After supper every light on +board was doused, and the great hull, gliding through the glass-smooth +water, merged her steep sides and towering yards and canvas into the +universal shadow. With whispering keel and a wind so fair and soft that +one wondered to see the sails stiffen in the bolt ropes, the man-of-war +stole steadily to leeward, with no sound but the occasional creak of +cordage, or the hoarse murmur of voices from the lower deck. Hadow +himself, pacing the quarter-deck in his boat cloak, was lost in reverie, +while the wardroom and the steerage in unredeemed darkness held nothing +but dozing men. + +By ten the ship was hove to close ashore, and the lights of the little +settlement glimmered through the palms. The warm night, laden with +exotic fragrance and strangely exciting in the intensity of its +stillness and beauty, hid beneath its far-reaching pall the various +actors of an extraordinary drama. With pistols buckled to their hips, +Brady, Winterslea, Hotham, and Stanbury-Jones, four officers of the +ship, together with Hatch, a flinty-faced old seaman who could be +trusted, all slipped down the ladder into the captain's gig and pulled +with muffled oars for the break in the reef. Picking their way through +the pass, with the surf on either hand roaring in their ears, they +slowly penetrated the lagoon and headed for the king's house. The +shelving beach brought them to a stop, and all jumping out to lighten +the boat, they drew her over the shingle and made her painter fast to a +_pandanus_ tree. Then, acting in accordance with a preconcerted plan, +Winterslea was sent forward to track down their prey, while the rest +huddled together to await his return. + +Ten minutes, twenty minutes passed in palpitating suspense. A girl drew +by wreathed in flowers; she looked out to sea, then up at the stars, and +shrank again into the shadow. From the neighboring houses there came the +sound of mellow voices and of laughter. A pig rooted and rustled among a +heap of cocoanut shells. Half an hour passed, and from far across the +water, as faint and silvery as some elfin signal, the ship sent her +message of the time: six bells. + +Panting and crouching, Winterslea groped his way among them. + +"Come," he said. + +They followed him in silence, unloosing their holsters and grimly ready. +A pair of handcuffs clinked in Hatch's jumper. They inhaled the deep +breath of tried and resolute men inured to danger, and accustomed to +give and to receive an unflinching loyalty. + +Winterslea, with keen perception, led the way like a bloodhound, +skirting lighted houses and following devious inland paths. The +comparative openness of the village began to give way to the ranker +undergrowth of the plantations behind it. The path sank into a choking +vegetation that stood on either side and brushed their faces as they +followed in single file. A fallen tree gave them the passage of a +stream. + +"There!" said Winterslea. + +The path opened out on a little clearing among the trees, and showed +them, set on high, the out-lines of a native house. Like all Tahitian +houses, it was on the model of a bird cage, and the oval wall of +bamboos, set side by side, let through vertical streaks of light from +the lamp or fire within. As the whole party drew nearer, they heard, +deep below them on the other side, the pleasant sound of falling water, +and realized the cliff they were mounting overlooked a little river at +its foot. Here, in exquisite seclusion, Jack Garrard had chosen the spot +for his moral suicide. + +Creeping up to the house and looking through the cracks of the bamboos, +his comrades had view of him within. Dressed like a native in _tapa_ +cloth, with bare chest, and flowers in his tawny hair, the handsome boy +was seated in a hammock. With her head against his knee, a beautiful +girl was looking up into his face, one hand locked in his. In that land +of pretty women she was the one that outshone them all--Tehea, the +sister of the king, for whose sweet favor every man on board had sought +in vain. And here she was, with her long hair loosened and her eyes +swimming with love, looking up at the lad who had given name and honor +to win her heart. The pair were hardly more than children; and Brady, a +sentimentalist of forty, with red hair, sighed as he peeped through the +eaves and thought of his own dear girl at home. + +Garrard laid down the pipe he had been smoking, and, in happy +unconsciousness of any audience but the woman at his feet, began to +sing. His voice had always been his greatest charm, and the means of +gaining him the friendship of men much older than himself. It had won +Hadow; it had won Francis. There was not a blue-jacket on board the +_Dauntless_ but whose eyes had moistened under the spell of Jack's clear +tenor. No one could render with such delicacy, purity, and sentiment +those ballads, now so old-fashioned, that used to solace our seafaring +fathers in the fifties. + +Jack lay back in the hammock, and with wonderful tenderness and feeling +sang "Afton Water," repeating the last verse several times over. It was +plain that something in it, some phrase or line, had deeply moved him, +for he suddenly bent over and laid his face in his hands, shaking with a +strange emotion. Tehea rose, and throwing her arms round his neck and +forcing away his hands, pressed her lips to his wet eyes. Even as she +did so Brady gave the signal for the whole party to move round to the +entrance. He passed through first, the others close behind him. Jack +leaped to his feet, white and speechless, his wide-open eyes those of an +animal at bay. Brady, Winterslea, Stanbury-Jones, Hotham, Hatch, the +familiar faces, daunted him like the sight of ghosts. Friends no longer, +they were now avengers, with the right to track him down and kill him. + +[Illustration: "Jack leaped to his feet, white and speechless."] + +"Jack!" cried Brady in a stifled voice. + +The lad took a step back. The girl moaned, and tried to run between +Hatch and Stanbury-Jones. The old seaman caught and shook her like a +dog, tearing away the whistle she put to her lips and dashing it on the +floor. Jack put up his hand and snatched a pistol hidden in the thatch +of the roof. Brady, on the instant, leveled his own and thundered out: + +"Drop it, or I'll shoot!" + +"Shoot, and be damned!" returned Jack, and with that he turned his +pistol on himself, and, placing the muzzle against his forehead, pulled +the trigger. + +It missed fire. + +Before he could try again Brady had caught him round the neck, while +Hatch, resigning the girl to Stanbury-Jones, ran in and snapped the +handcuffs on his wrists. + +"Jack," cried Brady, "we aren't going to hurt you. We're rescuing you +from the hill tribes. Man, you're saved!" + +"You never was no deserter," said Hatch. + +"Mind you back us up, old fellow," said Winterslea. + +"Give us your fin, boy," said Hotham. + +It was some time before Jack could pull himself together. When at last +he did so, and began to appreciate the generosity of his captain and +shipmates and their astounding concern to save him from the penalty of +his crime, he underwent one of those reactions when despair gives way to +the maddest gayety. He swore at Hatch, and made him take off the irons; +he got out a bottle of white rum and forced them all to drink his +health; he kept them in a roar with the story of his adventures, and +laughed and cried in turn as he described his life ashore. + +"What does she want?" demanded Brady, as Tehea insistently repeated some +words in native. + +"She says," said Jack, calmly picking up the whistle from the floor and +touching it to his lips, "she says I've only to blow this and you will +all be dead in five minutes." + +A hush fell upon the company. + +Jack, with an oath, flung the whistle from him. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I am grateful. I am damned grateful! If I live I +shall try and repay each one of you. I shall try and be a better man. I +shall try to be worthy of your kindness." + +He went round and shook hands solemnly with every one of them. "Damned +grateful!" he repeated. + +"Let's be off," said Brady. + +"Now, lad, your word of honor," said Winterslea. Jack looked about him +helplessly. + +"I suppose I've no right to ask such a thing," he said. "I know how good +you've been to me already, and all that. But--but, gentlemen, she's my +wife. I love her. I shall never see her again. May I not entreat a +minute to myself?" + +"No," said Brady. + +Jack went over to Tehea and took her hand. He put his arms about her, +and, unashamed before them all, pressed her comely head against his +breast. He tried to explain the inexorable fate he was so powerless to +resist; in incoherent whispers he told her he would break his chains and +return to her, free in the years to come to devote his life to the woman +he loved. He called her the dearest names, and begged her not to forget +him. But she, with a perception greater than his own, swept away these +despairing protestations with disdain. The daughter of one king, the +sister of another, could she not meet force by force? These fierce +intruders, with their rough voices and drawn pistols, who were they, to +threaten a princess of the royal blood and carry away her lover before +her eyes? If they were strong, she was stronger; and what ship cannon, +she asked, however murderous or far-ranging, could penetrate those +mountain recesses whither she would carry him before the morning? Ah, +she said, it was for him to choose between her and them; between Britain +and the island; between love and the service of the white Queen beyond +the seas. + +"I have chosen," he said. + +Her eyes flashed as she freed herself from his arms. + +"I am hateful in my own sight for having loved you," she said. + +"Will you not even wish me well, Tehea?" he asked. + +"No," she cried, "I hope you will die!" He turned away. + +"_Siati!_" she cried after him in agony. + +He turned back to her, downcast and silent. + +"Remember," she said with sweet relenting, "that wherever thou goest, +however many the years that may divide us, however wide the waters or +the land, I shall be here waiting for thee, here in this house of our +happiness; and if I die before thou comest here thou wilt find my +grave." + +"Tehea," he said, "as God sees me, some day I shall return!" + +She took his hands and looked up into his face with such poignant +longing and tenderness, that Jack's comrades, already uncomfortable +enough, were quite overborne by the scene. Tough old Hatch snuffled +audibly, and Brady could hardly speak. + +"Come, come, lad," he cried huskily, "you mustn't keep us longer!" + +Jack unclasped the girl's hands and suffered himself to be led away by +his comrades. Stumbling and falling against one another in the dark, +they made shift to find the uncertain path, Winterslea, in the lead, +coo-eeing like a bushfellow for them to follow. Little by little they +gained the sleeping village, and pressed on to the beach beyond, where +their boat was already afloat on the incoming tide. They took their +places without a word and pulled out in the direction of the ship. In +the pass, rising and falling in the heavy swell, they burned a blue +light, which the _Dauntless_ answered with another, and ran up a +masthead lantern to guide them. A few minutes later they clambered up +the ladder, the boat was hoisted in, and the boatswain's whistle was +rousing the watch on deck: + +"Mainsail haul!" + +By morning the island had sunk behind them, and standing on the dizzy +main-royal yard with one arm round the mast, Jack could make out nothing +but a little cloud on the horizon. + +At sixty, John Garrard was a post captain, a Knight Commander of the +Bath, and within a year of receiving flag rank and the command of a +fleet. His career had been more than distinguished, and he had won his +way to the front as much by his fine personal qualities as by his +invariable good judgment and high professional attainments. He had +earned the character of a man who could be trusted in situations +involving tact, temper, and diplomatic skill; and no captain in the navy +was more confidently ordered to those scenes of international tension, +which, in spite of statesmen, so often arise in some distant place to +menace the peace of the world. + +He had never married, and when rallied on the subject was wont to say +with a laugh that the sea was his only mistress. No one had ever +ventured to question him much further, though his friends were often +piqued, especially the women, as to an implied romance in the captain's +earlier life. It was known he supported two old-maid sisters, the Misses +Hadow, the impoverished daughters of his first commander; but in view of +his considerable private fortune this drain on his resources seemed +scarcely the reason of his renunciation. Nor did it seem to his admirers +that any woman could have had the heart to refuse him, for even at sixty +he was a noticeably handsome man, and was endowed, besides, with more +than the advantage of good looks, a charm of manner, a distinction, a +captivating gallantry that made him everywhere a favorite. + +He was in command of the _Inflexible_ battleship, one of the Australian +squadron, when she developed some defects in her hydraulic turning gear +and was ordered home to England by Admiral Lord George Howard for +overhaul. The captain's heart beat a little faster as he realized his +course would take him south of the Societies. He spread out the chart on +his cabin table and sighed as he laid his finger on Borabora. He shut +his eyes, and saw the basaltic cliffs, the white and foaming reefs, the +green, still forests of that unforgotten island. He was a boy once more, +with flowers in his hair, wandering beneath the palms with Tehea. How +often had he thought of her during all these years; the years that had +left him gray and old; the years that had carried him unscathed through +so many dangers in every quarter of the world! For him she was still in +her adorable girlhood, untouched by time, a radiant princess in her +radiant isle, waiting by the shore for his return. It shocked him to +remember she was not far short of sixty--a fat old woman, perhaps, +married to some strapping chief, and, more than likely, with grown +children of her own! How incredible it seemed! + +But a word, and he might land and see her. But a word, and the questions +of forty years might yet be answered--answered, yes, to shatter, as like +as not, with pitiless realities the tender figment of a dream. No, he +said, he dared not expose himself to a possible disillusion, to play +into the hands of sardonic nature, ever mocking at man. No; but he would +carry his ship close inshore and watch from the bridge the unfolding +bays and tiny settlements of that lost paradise, and then, dipping his +flag to his vanished youth, he would sink over the horizon, his memory +thrilled and his sentiment unimpaired, to set his face for England. + +Dawn was breaking as he slowed down to leeward of the island and watched +the shadows melt away. It was Sunday, a day of heavenly calm, fresh yet +windless, with a sea so smooth that the barrier reefs for once were +silent, and one could hear, far across the hushed and shining water, the +coo of pigeons in the forest. Under bare steerage way, with the leadsman +droning in the fore chains, the ship hugged the shore and steamed at a +snail's pace round the island. On the lofty bridge, high above the +wondering faces of his command, the white-haired captain, impassive, +supreme, and solitary, gave no sign of those inner emotions that were +devouring him. Along the shore the sight of the battleship brought out +here and there a startled figure or a group; a couple of laughing girls, +astride on ponies, raced the _Inflexible_ for a mile, and then, their +road ending in a precipice, threw kisses with their saucy hands; little +children ran out into the lagoon, shouting with joy; old men, in Sunday +_parius_ and with black Bibles under their arms, turned their solemn +eyes to seaward and forgot for a moment the road to church. A white man, +in striped pajamas, was surprised at morning coffee on the veranda of +his little house. He darted inside, and reappeared with a magazine rifle +which he emptied in the air, and followed up his courtesies by raising +and lowering a Union Jack the size of a handkerchief. The battleship +dipped her stately white ensign in acknowledgment, as a swan might +salute a fly, and swept on with majesty. + +With every mile the bays and wooded promontories grew increasingly +familiar as Sir John was borne toward Lihua, the scene of his boyish +folly. He looked ashore in wonder, surprised at the vividness and +exactness of his recollection. He might have landed anywhere and found +his way through those tangled, scented paths with no other guide but +memory. There was Papaloloa with its roaring falls; there, the ti'a a +Peau where he had shot his first goat; yonder, the misty heights of +Tiarapu, where Tehea and he had camped a night in the clouds in an air +of English cold. It was like a home-coming to see all these familiar +scenes spreading out before him. He looked at his hands, his thin, +veined, wrinkled hands, and it came over him with a sort of wonder that +he was an old man. + +"That was forty years ago," he said to himself. "Forty years ago!" + +And yet, by God! it all seemed like yesterday. + +As Lihua opened out and he perceived, with an inexpressible pang, the +thatched houses set deep in the shade of palms and breadfruit trees, he +felt himself in the throes of a strange and painful indecision. He paced +up and down the bridge; he lit a cigar and threw it away again; he twice +approached Captain Stillwell as though to give an order, and then, +still in doubt, turned shamefacedly on his heel. + +"By the deep nine!" came the hoarse murmur of the leadsman. + +It lay with him to stop the ship or not; a word, and she would come +shivering to a standstill; a word, and the boatswain would pipe away his +gig and the crew would be running to their places. His heart ached with +the desire to land, but something, he knew not what, withheld the order +on his lips. Let him remain silent, and the opportunity would pass away +forever; it was passing now with every turn of the propeller. Had he not +told her he would return? Had he not whispered it that night when they +were torn apart? Did he not owe it to her to keep the promise of forty +years, a promise given in the flush of youth and hope, and sealed with +scalding tears? + +His resolution was taken. He ordered Captain Stillwell to stop the ship +and lower a boat. + +"I am going to treat myself to a run ashore," he said by way of +explanation. + +The vessel slowly stopped. The covers were whipped off the gig. She was +hoisted out and lowered, the crew dropping down the ladder into their +places at the peep-peep-peep of the whistle. + +"I leave the ship," said Sir John, not to convey a fact patently +obvious, but in obedience to a naval formula. + +He was landed at a little cove where in bygone days he had often whiled +away an hour waiting in charge of Hadow's boat. It gave him a singular +sensation to feel the keel grate against the shingle, and to find +himself once more setting foot in Lihua. He drew a deep breath as he +looked about and noticed how unchanged it all was. There were some new +houses in new places, and grass on the sites of others that were +endeared to him in recollection; but it was Lihua, after all, the Lihua +of his boyhood, the Lihua of his dreams. For a while he strolled about +at random, walking with the phantoms of the past, hearing their +laughter, seeing their faces, recalling a thousand things he had +forgotten. + +It came over him with a start that the village was empty. Then he +remembered it was Sunday, and they were all in church. Thank God, there +was none to watch him; no prying, curious eyes to disturb his thoughts. +But they would soon be out again, and it behooved him to make the best +use of his solitude while he might. He struck inland, his heart beating +with a curious expectancy; at every sound he held his breath, and he +would turn quickly and look back with a haunting sense that Tehea was +near him; that perhaps she was gazing at him through the trees. He +approached his old home through overgrown plantations. It awed him to +part the branches and to feel himself drawing nearer at every step to +the only house he had ever called his own. As he heard the splashing +waterfall he stopped, not daring for the moment to go on. When at last +he did so, and mounted the little hill, he found no house at all; +nothing but ferns and weeds, man-high. He moved about here and there, up +to the armpits in verdure, in a sort of consternation at discovering it +gone. + +His foot struck against a boulder. + +He had forgotten there were any rocks on the hill. He moved along, and +his foot struck again. He pressed the weeds back and looked down. He saw +a tomb of crumbling cement, green with age and buried out of sight under +the tangle. + +It had never occurred to him before that Tehea might be dead. + +He held back the undergrowth again and peered into the depths. Yes, it +was the grave of a chief, or of a woman of rank, one of those artless +mounds of cement and rock that the natives, with poetic fancy, used to +call _falelauasi_, houses of sandalwood; _oliolisanga_, or the place +where birds sing; or, in vulgar speech, simply _tuungamau_, or tombs. +These words, unspoken, unthought of for forty years, lost, overlaid, and +forgotten in some recess of his brain, now returned to him with +tormenting recollection. He laid both hands on the thick stem of a shrub +and tore it out of the ground. He seized another and dragged it out with +the same ferocity. It was intolerable that she should suffocate under +all this warm, wet jungle; he would give her air and sunshine, she that +had loved them both; he would uncover the poor stones that marked her +last resting place; he would lay bare the earth that wrapped her dead +beauty. + +He worked with desperation until his hands were bleeding, until his eyes +were stung and blinded with the streaming sweat. Dizzy with the heat, +parched with thirst, and sick with the steam that rose from the damp +ground, he was forced again and again to desist and rest. He cut his +waistcoat into slips and bound them round his bloody hands; he broke the +blades of his penknife on recalcitrant roots that defied the strength of +his arms; he labored with fury to complete the task he had set before +him. Here he stood, within four walls of vegetation, the sky above him, +the cracked and rotted tomb below, satisfied at last by the +accomplishment of his duty. The gold on his sleeves was dirty and +disordered; one of his shoulder-straps dangled loose from his sodden +coat; his trousers were splashed with earth. But for the moment the post +captain was forgotten in the man, as he mused on the tragedy of human +life, on the mysteries of love and death and destiny, on his own +irrevocable youth now so far behind him, when he had forfeited his honor +for the dead woman at his feet. He called her aloud by name. He bent +down and kissed her mossy bed. He whispered, with a strange conviction +that she could hear him, that he had kept his promise to return. + +Then, rising to his feet, he turned toward the sea and retraced his +steps. The people were still in church, and the village was deserted as +before. He walked swiftly lest they might come flocking out before he +could reach his boat, to torture him with recognition, with the +questions they would ask, with their story of Tehea's death. Then he +laughed at his own fears, remembering his white hair and the intervening +generation. Time had passed over Borabora, too. The world, he +remembered, was older by forty years--older and sadder and emptier. + + * * * * * + +He swung himself up the ladder, mounted the bridge, and put the vessel +on her course. The telegraph rang, the engineers repeated back the +signal, and the great battleship, vibrating with her mighty engines, +resumed once more her ponderous way. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: "Existence doubtful; position doubtful," familiar +contractions still on any Pacific chart.] + + + + +O'S HEAD + + +Silver Tongue loved Rosalie, and Rosalie loved Silver Tongue, and ever +since they had first met at the Taufusi Club dance their friends had +seen the inevitable finish of their acquaintance. They were invited +everywhere together, and the affair had progressed from the first or +furtive stage to the secondary or solemn Sunday drive about the Eleele +Sa. The third, that of carpenters adding a story to the bakery and +dressmakers hard at work in Miss Potter's little establishment, was +looming up close in view. + +Never was a match in Apia that gave a rosier promise of success. Silver +Tongue, so called by the Samoans on account of his beautiful voice (but +who in ordinary life answered to the homelier appellation of +Oppenstedt), had been making a very good thing out of the Southern Cross +Bakery, and was regarded throughout Apia as a man of responsibility and +substance. He was a tall, spare German of about forty, who, like the +most of us, had followed the sea before fate had brought him to the +islands, there in years gone by to marry a Samoan maid and settle down. +The little Samoan had died, leaving behind her nothing but a memory in +Silver Tongue's heart, a tangled grave in the foreign cemetery, and a +host of relations who lived in tumble-down quarters in the rear of the +bakery. In one way and another these hungry mouths must have been a +considerable drain on Silver Tongue's resources; and though they feebly +responded to his bounty--one by driving a natty cart and delivering hot +morning rolls, and another by pilfering firewood for the furnace--the +account (if one had been made) was far from even. But to any objection +to this Quixotic generosity Silver Tongue had a reply ever ready on his +lips. "I lofe dem like my fader," he would say in his deep, fluty voice, +and the conversation was seldom carried further. When it was--by some +one ill advised enough to do so--Silver Tongue would flare up, and +recall with flashing eyes and a face crimson with indignation the +ten-year debt of gratitude he owed his dead wife's _ainga_. + +Indeed, if Silver Tongue had a fault it was a certain moroseness and +fierceness of temper, a readiness and even an apparent pleasure in +taking offense, that made him somewhat of a solitary in our midst and +threw him more than ever on the companionship of his own Kanakas; so +that at night, when one had occasion to seek him out, he was usually to +be found on the mats of his native house, smoking his pipe or playing +_sweepy_ with his bulky father-in-law, Papalangi Mativa. I doubt if he +had another intimate in Apia besides myself, and though I must confess +we often disagreed, and once or twice approached the verge of +estrangement, I was too much his friend and too mindful of the old days +on the _Ransom_ to let such trifles come between us. + +I was, besides, Rosalie's friend as well, for old Clyde, her father, had +died in my arms at Nonootch, and with his last breath had consigned her +to my care. This obligation, rendered sacred by an association that +extended back to the days of Steinberg and Bully Hayes, when in the +_Moroa_ and the _Eugenie_ we had slept under the same mats and had +played our part together in the stirring times of Stewart and the great +Atuona Plantation--this obligation, I say, I met easily enough so long +as Rosalie was a child and safe in the convent at Savalalo. But when she +grew to womanhood and went to live with her relations in their shanty +near the Firm, I began to experience some anxiety in regard to her. Her +relations, to begin with, were not at all the kind of natives I liked. +They had been too long the hangers-on of the Firm, and had seen too much +of a low class of whites to be the proper guardians of a very pretty +half-caste of eighteen. They had an ugly name, besides--but I won't be +censorious--and it may have been all beach talk. But they were certainly +a whining, begging lot, the girls bold and the men impudent and saucy, +and I never saw Rosalie in their midst but it made me heartsick for her +future. + +I did the little I could, and let it be pretty well understood about the +beach that the man who played fast and loose with her would have to +reckon with old Captain Branscombe. And then I got the missionary ladies +to take her up, and as I never stinted a bit of money for her dresses +and what not (as though Clyde's daughter wasn't worthy of the best in +the land), she made good headway in what little gayeties took place in +the town. Of course, I went about to keep an eye on her--that is, when +they asked me to their parties, which wasn't always; and I remember once +making very short work of one fellow, a labor captain from the Westward, +who seemed bent on mischief till I took him out in the starlight and +showed him the business end of my gun. To tell the truth, I never had a +peaceful moment till he up anchor and cleared, for he was a good deal +the kind of man I was at thirty, and he hung on in spite of me, keeping +half the family in his pay while I kept the other, and he even landed +the last night with muffled oars, when, instead of finding Rosalie on +the beach to fly with him, he ran into _me_, laying for him under an +umbrella! + +There were many who said I was in love with the girl myself, which, as +like as not, was true; for she was one of those tall, queenly women, +with a wonderful grace to anything she did, and magnificent dark eyes, +and a way of smiling,--brilliant, arch, and tender--that made even an +old stager of sixty remember he still wore a heart under his jumper. +Yes, I had a pretty soft spot for Rosalie, though I had sense enough to +know that God had never meant her for an old sea horse like myself. And +lacking me--whom the weight of three-score years had put out of the ring +(not but what I'm a pretty game old devil yet)--I could see nobody in +sight I preferred half so much as Silver Tongue. + +So there was the situation till the war of Ninety-three came along to +jumble us all up and knock everything to spillikins. Oppenstedt in love +with Rosalie; Rosalie in love with Oppenstedt; Bahn and old Taylor +working on the second story of the Southern Cross Bakery; Miss Potter +doing double tides at the trousseau, and I, the friend of both, with a +six-hundred-dollar piano on the way from Bremen for their wedding +present. A fair wind, port in sight, and (say you) everything drawing +nicely alow and aloft. So it was till that wretched fight at Vaitele, +when the Vaimaunga came pouring in at dusk, bearing wounded, chorusing +their songs, and tossing in the air above them the heads of their dead +enemies. It made me feel bad to see it all, for to me these people were +children, and it seemed horrible they should kill one another; and it +made me sicker still to watch the wounded carried into the Mission and +stretched out in rows on the blood-stained boards. Though not a drinking +man, I braced up at Peter's bar and then went on to pass the time of day +with Oppenstedt. + +I found him, as usual, on the mats of the native house, glumly smoking a +pipe and talking politics with Papalangi Mativa. His lean, dark, +handsome face was overcast, his eyes uneasy, and had I not known him for +a brave man I should have thought that he was frightened. He was +certainly very curt and short in greeting me, and I had a dim perception +that my visit was unwelcome. + +"This is a black business, Silver Tongue," I said; though, to be exact, +I called him Leoalio, which means the same thing in native. + +"Plack!" he exclaimed. "It's horrible! It's disgusting! They have been +cutting off beople's heads!" + +"Fourteen by one count," I said; "twenty-two by another." + +"Gabtain," said he with a look of extraordinary gravity, "dere's worse +nor that!" + +"Worse?" I said. + +"I have it straight from Papalangi Mativa himself." + +"Have what?" I asked. + +"Excellency," said Papalangi Mativa, "perhaps it is not high-chief-known +to thee that I and mine come from a noble Savai'i stock, and that the +son of my mother's sister, a stripling named O, numbered himself among +the enemy and was to-day killed and his head taken on the field of +Vaitele." + +[Illustration: "'This is a black business, Silver Tongue,' I said."] + +"_Aue!_" I said, which in Kanaka is being sympathetic. + +"Dat is not all," said Silver Tongue. "Listen, gabtain!" + +"I'm listening," I said. + +"The warrior that killed O was To'oto'o, the _matai_," continued +Papalangi Mativa with the air of one announcing the end of the world. + +"To'oto'o!" I said in all innocence. + +"To'oto'o," cried Silver Tongue; "why, Rosalie's uncle, the _faipule_, +in whose house this very minute the head of my murdered relation lies!" + +"'Pon my soul," I exclaimed, "this is really unfortunate!" + +"Unfordunate!" cried Silver Tongue; "is it with such a word you describe +two hearts broken, two lives plasted, the fairest prospect with suddenly +crash the curdain led down!" + +"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. "It's disagreeable, I +admit, but I can't see what difference it can make to you and Rosalie." + +"An Oppenstedt," said Silver Tongue, "could never indermarry with the +family of a murderer, and least of all with a family that had the head +of my dead wife's relation cut off and carried with gapers and cries of +joy down the main street of Apia and past my place of peeziness!" + +"Do you mean to say it's all off with you and Rosalie?" I demanded. + +Silver Tongue nodded grimly. "All off," he said. + +"And you're going to break my girl's heart," I cried with what I think, +under the circumstances, was a very justifiable indignation, "because +the son of the aunt of your father-in-law has had his head cut off by +poor Rosalie's adopted uncle?" + +"That's right," said Silver Tongue. + +"Old friend," I said, "let me go before I say something I might regret." +I got up without waiting for any answer and strode into the street, too +consumed with anger to utter another word. I walked along the beach, +stopping here and there to discuss the news of the battle with those of +my friends I happened to meet, until at last I passed Savalalo and drew +near To'oto'o's house at Songi. Rosalie was standing at the gate, and +when she saw me she ran up, threw her arms round my neck and kissed me. +I had never known her so excited or so gay, and even in the dark I could +see that her beautiful eyes were shining. + +"Captain," she said, giving me a hug, "nobody will ever say a word +against To'oto'o again, or try to belittle him as they used to, just +because he's poor and lives on Seu's land, for to-day he fought like a +lion and covered himself with glory!" + +"Took a head, or something?" I said. + +"A hero!" she exclaimed. "They are composing a song in his honor; all +Songi is ringing with his name; and he was complimented for his valor by +the President and Chief Justice! You must come in and see it at once." + +"See what?" I asked. + +"The head!" she cried. + + * * * * * + +I haven't the heart to write how the news was broken to Rosalie, who +steadfastly refused to believe the truth until she had heard it from +Silver Tongue himself. I had hoped he might relent, with a night to +think it over and a letter from myself in the morning pointing out his +injustice and folly. Perhaps, now I remember it, that letter was a +mistake. It was a trifle warm in spots, and I dare say I let a natural +irritation get the better of me. Be that as it may, Oppenstedt was deaf +to reason and protested with undiminished vehemence that he refused to +ally himself with the family of a murderer. Indeed, so ridiculous did he +get on the subject that he sent to Sydney for a tombstone (I daren't +write headstone, though it was one, about the size of a silk hat) and +put it behind the bakery above the spot where O's head was buried in a +gin case. + +When a girl has gone a certain length she seems less able than a man to +withstand a disappointment in love. Silver Tongue simply clenched his +teeth, withdrew from the Concordia Club and the Wednesday night bowls at +Conrad's, and went on baking bread and rolls much as usual. Poor Rosalie +drooped like a flower in the sun, and though she had pride enough to act +a part and show a becoming spirit before the world, she had received a +wound that I sometimes feared might prove mortal. I sent her to Tonga +Taboo for a month, and she came back no better, her eyes black ringed +and her cheeks hollow, and her smile (always to me the most beautiful +smile in the world), with a curious, haunting pathos that I remember so +well in the old slaving days among the Line women in their chains. + +You must not think I tamely acquiesced in this state of affairs, or +allowed my old friend an undisturbed possession of the Kanaka quarters +behind the bakery. Late or early I gave him no peace, and plagued him, I +dare say, to the very verge of distraction. But I might as well have +tried to argue with his bread or soften his brick furnace for any +impression I succeeded in making upon him. In his crazy obstinacy he +would listen to nothing, and I would find myself, after one of these +interviews, in a state of indescribable exasperation and determined +never to go near him again. + +One night, when I was up at Malifa calling on a dear good friend of +mine, Sasa French, a charming and most accomplished young native lady, +our talk happened to run for the thousandth time on this vexing matter +of Rosalie and Silver Tongue. All of a sudden an idea came into Sasa's +pretty head--one of those brilliant, clever, feminine ideas--that seemed +to us, in that triumphant moment, to be the means of untangling all our +difficulties. Though it was eight o'clock, and there was the risk of +gossip in my driving Sasa French alone about the Municipality at such an +hour, I put her into my buggy, whipped up my horse, and set a straight +course for Seumanutafa, the high chief of Apia. He laughed a good deal, +demurred somewhat, and was finally persuaded to squeeze his Herculean +dimensions into the trap and start off with us for To'oto'o's house at +Songi. Here, after the usual ceremonious exchanges, the womenfolk and +children melted away and left us alone with To'oto'o, whose ferretty +eyes betrayed no small degree of curiosity and alarm. This man was one +of the few Samoans I never liked. He was a gaunt, dangerous, +crafty-looking customer of about fifty, and I never had had any use for +him since he had stolen my tethering rope one evening when I was calling +on the king. Well, to get on with my story, we talked about the weather, +and the war, and what an ass the Ta'ita'ifono was, and finally got round +to the matter in hand. + +Seumanutafa began mild, for he was a past master in the art of +graduation, and thought to go slow at first. To'oto'o was informed that +he had to make _ifonga_ for the death of O and be carried on the morrow +by the _taulelea_ to Papalangi Mativa's house behind the bakery. This +_ifonga_, as they call it, is a sort of public humiliation to expiate a +fault, and nobody's very keen about doing it unless they have to--for it +involves rubbing dirt in your hair, and singing small, and suffering a +sort of social eclipse for a week or two afterwards. To'oto'o's face +grew several shades darker at the suggestion, and though I promised him +twenty dollars out of hand for himself and two kegs of beef and three +tins of biscuit by way of peace offering to Papalangi Mativa, he hemmed +and hawed and finally said no. + +Then Sasa bore a hand and spoke beautifully of Rosalie, and how this +unfortunate business of O's head had divided her from Silver Tongue. + +"If thou makest peace with his _ainga_," said Sasa, "lo, what is there +left for the white man to say? His bond is that of marriage; theirs, +that of blood; and if the last be satisfied, what room is there for the +former to complain?" + +"But to be carried like a pig through the public street!" cried +To'oto'o. "Preferable far would be death itself than that the son of +chiefs should be thus degraded, and his name become a mock throughout +the Tuamasanga!" + +"O To'oto'o," said Seumanutafa, "we know thee for a brave man, and that +thou tookst this head in open battle, even as David did that of Goliath, +and I swear thee thy honor shall remain undimmed for all the seeming +appearance of humiliation. Besides, is it not written in the Holy Book +that thou shouldst turn the other cheek to the smiter? Is it not said +also that blessed is the peacemaker, and that the meek shall inherit the +earth?" + +"Weighty is my grief and pain," said To'oto'o, "but what your Highness +asks of me is impossible!" + +"O To'oto'o," said Seumanutafa, "this house is mine; this land is mine; +the plantation _i uta_ is mine also. Thou livest under the shadow of my +power, and it is meet thou shouldst pay in service for the bounty thou +hast so long enjoyed. First I spoke to thee as one brave man to another; +then as a Christian to a fellow-Christian; now I command thee as thy +chief, and verily thou shalt obey!" + +"And I will add to that twenty, making it twenty-five," I said. + +"And Rosalie shall marry her Silver Tongue after all," said Sasa. + +To'oto'o argued a little more for form's sake, and blustered somewhat +about the Chief Justice, and how he would fight the matter out in the +courts; but Seumanutafa's tone grew peremptory, and the old fellow +finally gave way all round. Then _'ava_ was brought in, the +arrangements made for the morrow, and we at length said _tofa_ on the +threshold, well pleased with our night's work. + + * * * * * + +I wish you could have seen us next day going through the town in a +little procession, headed by To'oto'o lashed to a pole and borne by a +crowd of retainers. There was a flavor of the burial of Sir John Moore +about the whole business--especially the hush--and not a funeral note +being heard; we marching with measured tread, the municipal police +bringing up the rear, and Seumanutafa in the center, nearly seven feet +high, and bearing a white umbrella above his stately head. + +Silver Tongue was standing in the front of his shop having an +altercation with the Chief Justice about a ham (for he did a little in +groceries as well as baked) as we hove in sight and began to file down +the lane to Papalangi Mativa's quarters behind the Southern Cross +Bakery. I suppose Silver Tongue thought our man was hurt, or something, +for he came running after us with a bottle of square-face and a packet +of first aid to the wounded, elbowing his way excitedly through the +crowd to where we had deposited To'oto'o at the feet of Papalangi +Mativa. He was the most astonished baker in the South Seas as he saw who +lay there in the jumble of beef and biscuit, and for a moment was too +stupefied to let out a word. + +I don't mean to go into the speech-making part of the performance, for +what between Seumanutafa and Papalangi Mativa, and the talking-man Sasa +had lent me for the occasion, and a divinity student who happened along, +and somebody who said he was Fale Upolu and spoke for the entire Group, +and an aged _faipule_ from the Union Islands who seemed to have some +kind of a grievance about his father's head, and the Chief Justice who +had to butt in with the capitation tax--we were kept there a matter of +three hours or more, until at last the principals officially made it up, +To'oto'o was forgiven, and everything ended happily. + +"Now, Silver Tongue," I said as the meeting dispersed, "we'll consider +that head affair canceled, and if you'll come over to my house to-night +I dare say you'll find Rosalie sitting on the front veranda!" + +"And do you for a moment think," he said with a strange, writhen smile, +"dat all dis talk and domfoolery will a gruel murder undo, and the young +man cut off in his brime restore? Weel those lips, so gold in death, +stir, think you, in the box where we laid him? Will my dead wife's +family be less bereaved because of two kegs of peef and three tins of +biscuit, or Rosalie's family less disgraced because her uncle was triced +through the streets like a big? No, Gaptain Branscombe, I'm only a poor +paker, but I'd count myself a traidor to my family were I to dake a +murderess for my pride!" + +"Rosalie isn't a murderess," I said. + +"I meant niece of a murderer," he returned. + +I was too speechless with indignation to utter another word. In the +course of sixty years on this planet I've seen many kinds of men, and +I've learned to detect in some a certain look about the eyes--a curious +light and a far-away dreaminess of expression--that seems always the +sign or mark of an unflinching obstinacy. I remember that self-same look +on Brand's face as we lay all flattened on the water tanks of the +_Moroa_, and he blew the main deck off the ship together with three +hundred human beings; and I guess the Christian martyrs had it, too, +when lions tore them to pieces and bulls kited them on their horns in +the Colosseum. Anyway, it was as plain as daylight that I had lost my +time and money in bothering about Oppenstedt, and that I might as well +give him up as the most incorrigible, stiff-necked, self-opinionated, +blunder-headed ass and lunatic this side of Muggin. + +I gave him a wide berth after this, and took the other side of the +street when I saw him coming; while he, for his part, would have +cheerfully run a mile for the chance of avoiding me. I had cares of my +own, too, about this time, what with the loss of the _Daisy Walker_, and +my libel suit with Grevsmuhl, and other things to think about than that +of bringing twin souls together. So the days drifted on and months came +and went, and it seemed all over for good between Rosalie and Silver +Tongue. Then that labor captain turned up again, him I had had trouble +with before, a black-eyed, fierce, handsome little fellow, who was +hotter than ever after my girl. Rosalie was just in the humor to do +something awful, for she was desperately unhappy, with spells of wild +gayety between, and a recklessness about herself that frightened me more +than I can tell. She laughed in my face when I warned her about the +labor captain, and told me straight out she was only a half-caste and it +didn't matter what became of her. And from the way she carried on and +got herself talked about from one end of the beach to the other, it +began to look as though she meant what she said. Altogether I felt +pretty blue about her, and savage enough against Silver Tongue to +have--Well, what on earth could I do? What could anybody do? Why had God +ever made such a silly ass of a baker? + +One day I got a note from Sasa French that took me up to Malifa at a +tearing run. Scanlon, the half-caste policeman, was there, and when I +had listened to his story I threw my hat in the air and shouted like a +boy, and Sasa and I waltzed up and down the veranda to the petrifaction +of two missionary ladies who happened to be passing in tow of some +square-toes from the Home Society. Sasa and I plumped into a buggy, and +with Scanlon on horseback pounding behind us we made all sail for +Seumanutafa's. Bidding him follow, we then raced off to Mulinu'u, where, +sure enough, we found a young man named Tautala in one of the houses, +who brought out the music box and very soon satisfied me as to the truth +of what Scanlon had said. Then at a slower pace, so that Tautala might +keep up with us, we walked to To'oto'o's house and taxed him with the +whole business! + +At first he made some show of denying it, but what could he say with +Scanlon and Tautala in risen witness against him? He tried to refuse to +come with us (which would have spoiled everything), until Scanlon took a +hand in the fray and let his imagination run riot about the law, which, +as he was the official representative of it and wore a pewter star on +his breast, soon settled To'oto'o's half-hearted objections. If anything +else were wanted, it was the arrival at this juncture of Seumanutafa at +the head of a dozen retainers, who added the finishing stroke to the +little resistance To'oto'o had left. Then we all started off for the +Southern Cross Bakery, and, as we walked slowly and naturally, attracted +a good deal of attention; and as we told every one we met where we were +going to, and why, we grew and grew until, as I looked down the +procession, I couldn't see the end of it. The Chief Justice was sucked +in. Likewise the President. Marquardt, the chief of police, joined us; +Haggard, the land commissioner; some Mormon missionaries; two lay +brothers from the school; a lot of passengers from the mail boat, with +handkerchiefs stuck into their sweaty collars; Captain Hufnagel on +horseback, with a small army of Guadalcanaar laborers; half the synod of +the Wesleyan church in white _lavalavas_ and hymn-books; a picnic party +that had just returned (not wholly sober) from the Papase'ea; +blue-jackets from the _Sperber_; blue-jackets from the _Walleroo_; three +survivors of the British bark _Windsor Castle_, burned at sea; a German +scientist in Jaeger costume, with blue spectacles and a butterfly net; +six whole boatloads of an _aumoenga_ party from Manu'a; a lot of +political prisoners on parole; two lepers, and Charley Taylor! + +It was well we had brought Marquardt with us, for he and his police +caught the humor of the thing, and on reaching the bakery formed us up +in a great hollow square with one side blank for Silver Tongue, who +stood and gazed at us transfixed from the shade of his veranda. Then +Seumanutafa, Sasa, Scanlon, Tautala, To'oto'o, and I broke ranks and +marched up to him. + +"Old man," I said, "if you were to think a year you'd never guess what +brought us here to-day!" + +"It's O's head again," he said, grinding his teeth and casting a +vitriolic glance at To'oto'o, "and if there was any law or order in this +Godforsaken land"--he looked daggers at the Chief Justice as he said +this--"that fellar would have got short jift for murdering my +fader-in-law's aunt's son!" + +"He didn't murder him," I said. + +Silver Tongue's jaw fell. He looked at us quite overcome. For a minute +he couldn't say a word. + +"Oh, but he deed!" he said at last. + +"It was Tautala that killed him," I said, indicating the young man we +had brought from Mulinu'u, "and it turns out he sold your relation's +head to To'oto'o for seven dollars and a music box." At this, smiling +from ear to ear, Tautala held up the music box to public view, and would +have set it going had not something fortunately caught in the works. + +"It's a lie!" gasped Silver Tongue. "It's a lie!" + +"Scanlon himself was at the battle," I went on, "and he saw the whole +thing and was a witness to Tautala getting the seven dollars, and he +made To'oto'o pony up four dollars more as the price of his own +secrecy." + +"Four dollars," ejaculated Scanlon. "That's right, Captain Branscombe. +Four dollars!" + +"So, if you are angry with anybody," I said, "you ought to be angry +with Tautala. All To'oto'o did was to buy a little cheap notoriety for +eleven dollars and a music box." + +I never saw a man so stung in all my life as Oppenstedt. The eyes seemed +to start from his head, and he glared at To'oto'o as though he could +have strangled him. Tautala was quite forgotten in the intensity of his +indignation toward Rosalie's uncle. You see, he had been hating To'oto'o +ferociously for six months, and couldn't switch off at a moment's notice +on an absolute stranger like Tautala. Besides, his hatred for To'oto'o +had become a kind of monomania with him, and now here I was telling him +what a fool he had made of himself, and proving it with two witnesses +and a music box. No wonder that he was staggered. + +"Now, old fellow," I said, "we'll call bygones bygones, and maybe you'll +let us see a little more of you than we've been doing lately." + +"You mean Rosalie, of gourse," he said, snapping the words like a mad +dog. + +"Yes, Rosalie," I said. + +"Gaptain Branscombe," he said, his face convulsed with passion, "that +gossumate liar and hybocrite has made such a thing impossible. Far rader +would I lay me in the grave--far rader would I have wild horses on me +trample--than that I should indermarry with a family and bossibly +betaint my innocent kinder with the plood of so shogging and +unprincibled a liar. A man so lost to shame, so beplunged in cowardice +and deceit that he couldn't his own heads cut off, but must buy dem of +others, and faunt himself a hero while honest worth bassed unnoticed and +bushed aside." + +"It was honest worth that chopped off the head of your father-in-law's +aunt's son!" I said. + +"Gaptain," he returned, "there are oggasions when in condrast to a +liar--to a golossal liar--to one who has made a peeziness of systematic +deception--a murderer is a shentlemans!" + +"Oh, you villain baker!" cried Sasa, joining in. "You make _tongafiti_. +You never want marry the girl at all. All the time you say something +different. Oh, you bad mans, you break girls' hearts--and serve you +right somebody cut your head off!" + +"Wish they would," I said, out of all patience with the fellow. "First +he can't marry Rosalie because her uncle's a murderer. Now he can't +marry her because her uncle's a liar. Disprove that, and he'd dig up +some fresh objection!" + +"I lofe her! I lofe her!" protested Silver Tongue. + +"Come, come," I said, "you aren't marrying the girl's adopted uncle." + +"A traidor to my family? No, gaptain, dat is what I can never be," said +Silver Tongue. + +"Traitor--nothing!" I said. + +"Oh, the silly baker!" said Sasa. + +"He speaks like a delirious person," said Seumanutafa. + +"Now about that ham," said the Chief Justice, belligerently coming +forward and speaking in rich Swedish accents, "when I send my servant +for a ham, Mr. Oppenstedt, I want a good ham--not a great, coarse, fat, +stinking lump of dog meat----" + +"Let's go," I said to Sasa; "Captain Morse is holding back the _Alameda_ +for a talk, and I know there's an iced bucket of something in the corner +of his cabin." + +"Wish the dear old captain would land and punch his head off!" said Sasa +vindictively. + +"Whose head?" I asked. + +"Silver Tongue's," she returned. + + * * * * * + +Sasa had always plagued me to get up a moonlight sailing party on the +_Nukanono_, a little fifteen-ton schooner of mine that plied about the +Group. From one reason and another the thing had never come off, though +we had talked and arranged it all time and time again. Now that I had +remasted her and overhauled her copper and painted her inside and out, +the subject had bobbed up again; and as I couldn't make any objection, +and as the moon for the first time in seven years had happened to be +full at the same moment when the vessel happened to be free, Sasa +informed me (in the autocratic manner of lovely woman dealing with an +old sea horse) that the invitations were out, the music engaged, and +that my part was to plank down fifty dollars, keep my mouth shut, and do +what I was told. + +I perceived from the beginning that there was something queer about the +trip, for Sasa, usually so communicative, could scarcely be induced to +speak of it at all; and then when she did it was with such a parade of +mystery and reserve that I felt myself completely baffled. However, like +the jossers in the poem, it wasn't for me to reason why, and so I +obediently ran about the beach, did what I was bidden, and discreetly +asked no questions. I confess, though, that on the day itself my +curiosity began to reach the breaking point, when I was told, with +gentle impressiveness, that I was to remain in my house till the minute +of nine forty-five, pull off quietly to the _Nukanono_, board her by the +fore chains, and crouch there in the bow till I was told to get up! + +It was a glorious moonlight night as I got into Joe's boat and saw the +_Nukanono_ across the bay, her loosened sails flapping in the first +faint breath of the land breeze, and her booms sparkling from end to end +with Chinese lanterns. The water was like black glass, the outer reefs +were silent, and the downpouring air from the mountains was fragrant +with _moso'oi_, and so warm and scented against the cheek that I doubt +not but what you could have smelled Upolu ninety miles to leeward. As +we drew nearer, the sound of girls' laughter, the tuning of musical +instruments, the hum and talk and gayety of a large company, floated +over to us from the schooner's deck, wonderfully mellowed by the +intervening water and (as it seemed to me) softened into a sort of +harmony with the night itself. + +However, I did not allow these reflections to put me off my duty or make +me forgetful of the strict commands I had previously received from Sasa. +I came up softly under the bow of the _Nukanono_, dismissed Joe in a +whisper, and climbed silently to my appointed station. I had not been +there a minute when I felt Sasa's hand on my shoulder and heard her say +softly in my ear, "_Malie_," which in Samoan means good or well done. +Then she slipped away, and I heard her with sweet imperiousness ordering +about the crew and bidding them slip the moorings. We had hardly got +steerage-way when I heard a commotion aft, a choking, angry voice, that +sounded through the hubbub like Silver Tongue's, a quick, fierce, +violent struggle, and then suddenly the companion hatch went shut with a +bang. Even as it did so the fore-hatch followed with a crash, and +everybody began to cheer. From below there rose the sound of thumping, +smothered Teutonic protests, and a long, poignant, and unmistakably +feminine wail. + +"All finish, captain," said Sasa, coming up to me cheerfully. + +"Would you mind telling me what it's all about?" I asked. + +"Just a little _tongafiti_ to bring loving hearts together," said Sasa. +"They threw Silver Tongue down the after hatchway, while me and the +girls we pushed Rosalie down the forehold. There they are, all alone in +the dark, with five hours to make it up!" + +I could not help laughing at Sasa's plan, especially when under my feet +I began to hear more frenzied thumping and more feminine wails. Then I +recollected there wasn't five feet of headroom below, and that the +place, even with the hatches off, was hot enough to boil water in. + +"They'll die down there, Sasa," I said. + +"No fear," said Sasa. "Rosalie is half Samoa, and as for Silver +Tongue--if he get roast like his own bread nobody care a banana." + +"But, Sasa--" I protested. + +"Now you go flirt with some my girls," she said, "and don't bother your +old head about nothings!" + +"But, my dear girl--" I protested. + +"They'll do very nicely, thank you," said Sasa, interrupting me, "and if +they're hungry, isn't there ham sandwich? And if they're thirsty, isn't +there claret punch in a milk can? And as for lights--true lovers don't +want no lights!" + +"Well, Sasa," I said, "I dare say it's a bright idea, and that you +deserve the greatest credit for arranging it all; but for the lord's +sake, let me off the ship before you remove the hatches." + +"Oh, no," said Sasa, "everybody stay and see the fun!" + +Fun, indeed, I thought, as I heard a terrific pounding below, and an +uproar that would have been creditable to a sinking liner. The deck +shook with sledge-hammer blows, and a lot of glasses tumbled off one of +our improvised tables. Then we heard what was obviously a revengeful +wrecking of the whole ship's interior--the smashing of crockery and +lamps, a tramping and a kicking and a throwing down of everything that +was loose or could be wrenched off, together with a hollow, +reverberatory boom of German profan---- No, I won't be unjust, and one +really couldn't hear well. Sasa stamped on the deck with her little foot +and cried out: "Be quiet, you silly baker!" But the silly baker only +roused himself to a renewed ferocity, and, instead of calming down, went +off again like twenty-five bunches of firecrackers under a barrel--and +large firecrackers, too. + +Off and on he must have kept this up for more than an hour; then at +length he subsided, finding, I suppose, that one German baker, however +infuriated, was unable to make an impression on a three-inch deck. By +the end of the second hour we had forgotten all about him, for heeling +over in the pleasant breeze, and what with singing and telling stories +and flirting in the moonlight we were all too happy and too busy to take +thought of the stifling lovers below our feet. Occasionally I had a +haunting sense of a day of reckoning, but I held my peace and forebore +to disquiet my pretty hostess, who was the life and soul of the whole +party aboard, and whose silvery laughter chimed in so sweetly with the +tropic night and the rippling gurgle of water along our keel. + +It was past three o'clock when we picked up the Mission light and ran +back to our moorings off the Firm. Then the question arose as to who +would uncage our love-birds and bear the first brunt of Silver Tongue's +explosion. I confess I was very little eager for the job, and felt a +peculiar sinking in the region of my watch pocket as we unlocked the +after-hatch and rolled it softly back, Sasa, with a bull's-eye lantern +penetrating the gloom with a dazzling circle of light. It fell on the +figures of Rosalie and Silver Tongue seated on a settee and locked in +each other's arms. Rosalie was asleep, with her graceful head lying on +Silver Tongue's breast and her long lashes still wet with tears. The +baker, his face crimson with heat and streaked with rivulets of +perspiration, looked up at us grimly through a sort of mist. I waited +for him to spring to his feet and throw himself like a lion on my +shrinking form; but, instead of doing so, he pressed his arms closer +round Rosalie and smiled--yes, by Jove, smiled--and, if you'll take the +word of a retired master mariner, winked, with a peculiar, tender and +calfish expression that in anybody else would have been called skittish. + +"How goes it, old man?" I said. + +"Gaptain," he returned in the tone of a clarionet tootling a love +passage in grand opera, "me and Rosalie invites you all to the Bublic +Hall Thursday night to dance at our wedding!" + + + + +PROFESSOR NO NO + + +It was years ago that he came to Uvea (said little Nofo, as we sat side +by side on a derelict spar and watched the sun go down into the +lagoon)--years and years and years ago, when I was an unthinking child +and knew naught of men nor their crooked hearts. He was a chief, of wild +and strange appearance, with a black beard half covering his piglike +face; a thin, bent, elderly chief, with hairy hands, and a head on which +there was nothing at all, and teeth so loose in his mouth that at night +he laid them in a cup beside him. He was landed from a ship that +forthwith sailed and was never seen again--he and three tents, and a +boat and innumerable boxes, all numbered from one to a thousand, and a +nigger named Billy Hindoo to care for him and cook. + +The Government gave him a piece of land next the lagoon, where he +pitched his tents and lived; and they put a taboo round the land so that +none might cross, and also a notice on a board, saying, "Be careful of +the white man." Here he unpacked his things, and arranged a place for +Billy Hindoo, and another place, open at the sides, where at a table he +was daily served with sardines and bottled beer. He was named Professor, +and his occupation, unlike that of all other white men, was to look at +dead fish through bits of glass. He was a man of no kindness nor +accomplishments, meanly solitary, and, in spite of two pairs of +spectacles worn the one on the other, he was almost blind besides. Were +you to come near him, he would scream out, "No, no!" Were you even to +touch his bits of glass, or finger his sticky shadow pictures in the +pool, he would run at you, crying, "No, no!" Were you to approach him as +he bathed in the lagoon, marveling at his unsightliness, he would beat +the water like one delirious, and scream again, "No, no!" So, in time, +his name became changed from Professor into No No, or, as many called +him in one word, Professor No No; and we all grew to hate him, as did +also Billy Hindoo, who was generous and loving, and gave away +unstintedly sardines and biscuit to those he favored. + +But Professor No No, unexpectedly returning in his boat with a new dead +fish no bigger than that (a fish, too, of so little worth that one +couldn't eat it without feeling ill for the succeeding week), discovered +Billy Hindoo dividing a tin of biscuit among the girls with whom he had +made friends. The rage of Professor No No was without limit, and he ran +at Billy Hindoo and choked him with his hairy hands, and beat him over +the body with a stick, and drove him away with execrations. Then he sat +down at the table and drank bottled beer, and held up the fish to his +blind eyes, and at intervals shouted out, "No, no; No, no," as we all +crowded about the taboo line, watching and wondering. + +The next day Billy Hindoo came back, but Professor No No repelled him +with a stick, having counted the beer and the sardines and the biscuit, +and found many missing. Then Billy Hindoo sought a place in the house of +Tamua, and being a man of subtle mind, though without paper on which to +write, carved the date of his rejection on a tree, together with the +names of witnesses who had seen him struck. He would fain have brought +suit against his master before the ancients, but they were afraid of +men-of-war, and thought it ill to interfere. But the anger of Billy +Hindoo surpassed that of a woman whose man has cast her off; and, +baffled in one direction, he redoubled his efforts in another, telling +tales about Professor No No that made the strongest shudder to hear +them; how, indeed, he was Antichrist, and that his coming to Uvea had +been foretold in Revelations. Whether this was true or false, it was +evident that Professor No No believed not in God; for it was seen he +went never to church, and remembered (when strangers asked him if he +were a missionary) that he would grow beside himself and roar, "No, +no!" snorting like a suffocating person. + +Now there lived in the village a chief named Malamalama, a young man who +owned a fine house and much land, and was withal so handsome and gay +that there was scarce a woman but whose eyes shone at the sight of him. +And Malamalama's wife was named Salesa, and the strange thing about +Salesa was that she was white. Her father had been a _papalangi_, and +her mother (who came from another island to the southward) a half-white; +and Salesa, the child of the two, was fairer than either, and a girl, +besides, of wonderful beauty. It was this that found her favor in +Malamalama's sight, for she was without family, and what Kanaka blood +she possessed was that of slaves; but the chief must needs have his way, +being a man of imperious temper and willful under advice; and so the +little out-islander was married to him and elevated to the rank of +chieftainess. + +Then her arrogance and pride, previously concealed by the humbleness of +her station, broke out with the fierceness of consuming flames. Were you +to pass her on the road and say, "_Talofa, Salesa_," she often deigned +not to return your greeting; and when people came to her house she did +not like, she would say to them, "Go away," like that, so that everyone +was insulted and retired with darkened faces. Of course, she was not +utterly without friends, women of contemptible spirit who fawned on her +like dogs, saying, "Lo, is she not beautiful?" But they were only a +handful, and by degrees grew less and less, for she was as mean with her +property as Professor No No, and made the most trifling returns for pigs +or costly presents. So in time she was left alone in her fine house, and +though she had a sewing machine and a musical box, and goldfish in a +glass jar, and an umbrella with a glittering handle, she spent her days +in yawning, and her nights in telling Malamalama what a fool she had +been to marry him. + +After the manner of men, Malamalama's love increased in the proportion +of her disdain, and there was nothing he would not do to try and please +her. He took her on board every succeeding ship, and remained for hours +in the trade room while she spent the price of many tons of copra and +pearl shell in filling a chest with purchases, saying, in her +presumptuous way, "Give me twenty fathoms of this; give me forty fathoms +of the other. This silk is good, lo! I will take a bolt." And +Malamalama, who perhaps wanted an anchor for his boat, or a little, +tiny, trifling pea-soupo of paint, had perforce to do without either, +and paddle ashore again, poorer, indeed, than many of his serfs and +dependents. + +On these occasions also Salesa showed a lawless deportment among the +whites that put her good name in jeopardy and caused many to wonder and +gossip. She would sit at the cabin table and drink beer and eat +sardines, saying saucily, "Me white mans, too," as she joked and laughed +with the captains and supercargoes. Or, if some one put his head down +the hatchway, she would call out, "Oh, the Kanaka dog! Go 'way, you +peeping Kanaka dog!" Whereat the whites would slap her on the back, and +it was said they even placed her on their knees and kissed her. Be that +true or false, Malamalama grew to hate the sight of a ship; and +sometimes, when he and Salesa went on board together, he showed her a +sharp knife, and said, "Be careful, you wicked white woman, or I shall +kill you." + +She was as changeable as a little child, and had humors, too, of +tenderness and contrition, when she would put her arms round her +husband's neck and be-darling him, saying, "I love you! I love you!" and +bemoan her contrariness and the fact that she was white. For though she +was born and bred with us, she felt she was not of our race; and +sometimes she would say to Malamalama when he reproached her, "Sell me +to one of the captains for a whaleboat and let me go." But Malamalama +only loved her the more, and his handsome face grew sullen and angry as +he threatened again to kill her if she misbehaved. + +Now when Professor No No came to live with us on the lagoon, Salesa was +beside herself with curiosity, and heaped presents on Billy Hindoo in +order to learn about his master. But Billy Hindoo knew nothing but his +own stutter, and though he took the presents and came constantly to +Salesa's house, very little in the way of information was accomplished. +At last, greatly daring, Salesa arrayed herself in her finest clothes, +and with servants carrying gifts of pigs and chickens, went down to the +lagoon to pay a visit to the stranger. She found Professor No No sitting +at his table, looking at dead fish through bits of glass, and he never +turned round as the party halted at the taboo line and coughed +deprecatorily in order to attract his attention. Then Salesa, who feared +neither devil nor man, took the baskets in her arms and stepped across +the taboo, saying in a voice of sweetness, "Professor No No! Professor +No No!" + +He sprang from the table and rushed at her, waving his arms, and +screaming as was his wont, "No, no! No, no!" while she, overcome with +terror, dropped the gifts and fled like a sea mew on the wings of the +wind. That night all Uvea joked about her discomfiture, while she sat in +her house and cried, and Billy Hindoo was invited everywhere to tell the +story in the antics that served him in the place of a tongue. But once +Salesa had set her heart on a thing she never faltered nor turned aside; +and though she waited and waited, it was not as one conquered or +resigned. When the quarrel came between Billy Hindoo and his master, +she saw the means, in Professor No No's desolation and abandonment, of +obtaining the satisfaction of her purpose. For the white man, thus left +to himself, grew increasingly dirty and uncared for; and his camp, once +so clean under the care of Billy Hindoo, became as a pigsty of empty +cans and bottles. Nothing therein was washed, and the savor of Professor +No No and his camp blew noisomely across the taboo line as one walked to +leeward. + +One day, after spying out that he had already sailed out for more fish +to look at through bits of glass, Salesa crept into the settlement and +began to make it clean again. She carried away all the tins and bottles; +she swept the disordered grass; she entered the professor's tent, +filling his water-bottles, making his bed and decorating it with flowers +and _laumaile_. Then, as she had so often watched Billy Hindoo from a +distance, she spread the table with a clean cloth, and on it she placed +a bottle of beer and a tin of sardines under a wire netting and three +ship's biscuits in a row. Then she went back and hid in the undergrowth, +waiting and waiting, like a warrior in an ambush. + +But Professor No No made no sign as he landed from his boat, nor did he +seem to perceive that anything unusual had taken place in the time he +had been gone. He drank the bottle of beer and ate the sardines and +biscuit, never troubling himself whence they had come; and while Salesa +waited and waited with a suffocating heart, he looked at dead fish +through bits of glass. But day by day she returned to his camp with the +assiduity of a mother to her nursing child; and by degrees growing +bolder with custom, she no longer watched until Professor No No had +departed, but moved here and there about his land, secure by reason of +his blindness and preoccupation. Like a wild animal to whom one +approaches with gentleness and precaution, thus it was with Professor No +No in the hands of Salesa. First he saw her only at a distance as she +cleaned and swept; then a little closer as she spread his table and laid +out his bottle of beer and the sardines and biscuit; then it came about +that she even touched him with impunity, and sat beside him in a chair +as he continued to look at dead fish through bits of glass. At last she +dared to speak, telling him softly the names of the dead fish, which he +wrote down in a little book, and informing him also that her name was +Salesa, and that she loved him. + +And she, so defiant and proud, became as another person; so that she was +kind not only to Professor No No, but to others whom she had previously +treated with contumely. She carried the white man's packages when he +went abroad, his photograph box and all manner of apparatus and tools, +and the bottle of beer and the sardines for his well-being, never +heeding the sun nor the fiery sand. She sat with him daily in his boat, +baiting his hooks and catching fish likewise, and grew wise also in +looking at them through bits of glass, so that he no longer ran at her +and cried, "No, no!" when she touched his things. On the contrary, her +wisdom increased in such matters, becoming in time even as his own, so +that she also took photographs, and hammered off pieces of coral from +the reef, and grew excited over little, common, worthless fish that +stung you if you touched them. + +It is not to be supposed that Malamalama watched with any equanimity +this increasing friendship between Professor No No and his wife, or that +the constant tale of scandal and evil-doing fell on heedless ears. He +beat Salesa repeatedly with a stick, and she bit him in return all over +his beautiful body; and their fine house, once the envy of all Uvea, +reechoed distressfully with screams and blows. But the madness of a +woman for a man is not thus to be set aside, and the more Malamalama +beat her with a stick, the more ardent grew her love for Professor No +No; and when he talked with her and argued, she would answer unabashed +that whites were whites and Kanakas were Kanakas, and that it was ill to +mix the oil and water of the races. + +"But he is overgrown with hair like a dog," said Malamalama, "except on +his head, which glistens like a sting ray in the sun, and he is +altogether hideous and frightening. It is not reasonable that anyone +should prefer him to me." + +"But there is that in his head which makes him beautiful," said Salesa. + +"Lo! I have things in my head also," said Malamalama, "and I pass my +life, besides, like a man, diving for shell, and cutting copra on my +property, and attending to the affairs of the church where I am deacon, +and finding everywhere a better employment than that of looking at dead +fish through bits of glass." + +"Malamalama," said Salesa, "divorce me and let me go, and take thy +choice of all the maids of Uvea in my stead. Professor No No loves me +not, but I am his bondslave in love, and care for no other man but him." + +Now this was very good advice, and the chief would have done well to +follow it. But there is in men a pride about their women that blinds +their eyes to sense, and Malamalama, instead of heeding, grew, on the +contrary, morose and willful. He listened more greedily than ever to +Billy Hindoo, and to the tales the nigger brought him constantly of +Salesa's misdoing; for Billy Hindoo was crazed with anger against his +master, and against the woman who had so successfully supplanted him, +and was eager to revenge himself on both. And one day he brought not +only a new tale, but a bottle of gin he had managed to pilfer from the +camp of Professor No No. + +Malamalama began to drink the gin, and the more he drank the more he +began to feel the aching of his spirit. He stopped the passers-by and +told them of his wrongs; he rolled over in the road, so that he was all +dirty, calling out curses on his wife and Professor No No. He cried and +cried, and staggered about and shouted, and rushed hither and thither, +exclaiming, "I will kill them! I will kill them!" And all the while he +drank of the gin with an increasing fury, so that he went at last and +got his rifle and four boxes of cartridges and walked unsteadily toward +the lagoon, weeping and laughing and beating the air with his loaded +gun. And I, then only a little child, followed him at a distance, +wondering and mocking with the others. + +Now on this occasion it happened that Salesa was away in the boat, and +Professor No No, all alone, was sitting at his table and looking at dead +fish through bits of glass. Malamalama stopped at the taboo line, not +daring to cross it, and withheld, besides, by the notice on the tree; +and he was so tipsy with the gin that he could barely shout, nor hold +the gun up to his shoulder. But he fired, as straight as he could, in +the direction of Professor No No, and shattered a glass barrel of dead +fish at his elbow. Professor No No leaped in the air, so that at first +we thought, erroneously, that he had been hurt; and he ran this way and +that, dodging the bullets from Malamalama's gun. He seemed to believe +that the taboo gave him protection, for, instead of bolting into the +undergrowth, he raced around and around in a circle, and then inside +this tent and that, so that it was laughable to watch him popping in and +out like a terrified rat. And Malamalama, so overcome with gin that he +could barely see, fired and fired and fired from the four boxes of his +cartridges. Then, when all was finished, he rose and went home, while +the children crowded the line and shouted, "Professor No No, art thou +dead?" + +That night there was a meeting of the ancients in the speak-house, and +all the culprits were there under guard to receive a judgment. +Malamalama was fined one dollar for being drunk and fifteen dollars for +firing unwarrantably at Professor No No; and Professor No No was fined +fifteen dollars for having won Salesa from her husband; and Billy Hindoo +was fined fifteen dollars for having given the gin to Malamalama and for +the mischief he had caused with his lying tongue; and Salesa was +surrendered to the matrons of the village to receive a lashing for her +misconduct. Then Tanielu, the pastor, prayed that God's wrath might be +averted from so wicked a village, and made a beautiful parable about the +Garden of Eden and the serpent. + +One might have thought that this would have healed the matter, and that +a punishment so nearly equal would have been submitted to with humility +and grace. But, on the contrary, the quarrel went from bad to worse, so +that Tanielu, the pastor, would say sorrowfully from the pulpit that +Uvea was like another hell, but with four devils instead of one. +Malamalama, once a pillar of the church, was degraded from the rank of +deacon and expelled, becoming speedily dissolute and abandoned, opening +his house for forbidden dances, and taking new wives in shameless +succession; and Salesa, her pretty body red with stripes, found no +consolation whatever in her white darling, who ran at her repellingly, +shouting "No, no!" like a lion; and Billy Hindoo, of whom everyone had +tired on account of his light fingers and calumniating tongue, grew +increasingly burdensome to his adopted family, and spent most of his +time in stoning Professor No No from a safe distance and demanding his +wages even to that day, together with a passage at once to the white +country. + +During this season no ship at all came to Uvea, though Professor No No +watched unceasingly for one, and likewise Billy Hindoo, and likewise +Malamalama, the chief; and Tanielu prayed and prayed and prayed without +end, "Lord, send Thou speedily a vessel and rid us of these intruders." +The white man, for all his wisdom, was cowardly beyond belief, and so +fearful of Malamalama that the sight of Salesa made him tremble +forthwith with apprehension. And she, repelled by her husband and +dependent on the bounty of those that despised her, became as one lost +to all propriety, and would run at Professor No No and clasp him in her +arms and cherish him, he fighting and resisting with all his might, +crying "No, no!" in a terrible voice. Were he to unmoor his boat, lo! +she was there swimming in its wake and demanding to be taken in, lest +she drown; were he to sit down and quietly look at dead fish through +bits of glass, lo! there also was she beside him in a chair; were he to +slumber in a shady place during the afternoon, he would awake with his +head in her lap or with her kisses against his lips. + +So weak, indeed, was his heart, that he was not even grateful for her +assistance against Billy Hindoo, who came constantly, this day and that, +with unfailing regularity, to throw stones at his former master and cry +threateningly, "Hi, yi! give me wages even to this day, and return me to +the white country according to thy covenant." Then it was that Salesa +would throw stones back again, or would hide in the bushes and try to +strike the nigger with a knife, saying in mockery as she sprang at him, +"Hi, yi! take that!" And once she came to him so close that she slashed +him across the breast, and he hastened bleeding before the ancients and +vociferously complained. Then she was whipped again by the matrons, and +Billy Hindoo was fined for throwing stones, and Professor No No was +fined yet a second time for stealing away Malamalama's wife, and +Malamalama was fined for leading a life of infamy and riot, and Tanielu +said again from the pulpit, "Hasten, Lord, or Thy servants perish!" + +Thus the days passed in unending strife and bitterness, terrible now to +be recalled. When Malamalama took a new wife, the former wife's family +would lie in wait and try to kill him; and other husbands, before +exemplary and well conducted, growing restive to see him so successful +in his unbridled wickedness, took in their turn the pick of the village +maids, propagating hatred and disorder the like of which had never +before been known in Uvea. Then the drought came, and the young nuts +shriveled on the trees, and the sky, as far as one's eye could reach, +remained like shining copper, without a breath. It was plainly seen that +God, in anger, was laying His hand heavily on Uvea; and lo! He spoke +through the pastor Tanielu, saying, "Repent, repent, or else ye perish!" + +There was a great meeting of the ancients in the speak-house; and one +ancient spoke for Malamalama, and another ancient spoke for Salesa, and +another ancient spoke for Professor No No, and still another ancient +spoke for Billy Hindoo; and the whole matter was inquired into from the +first day and debated in turn by all the ancients, and a final judgment +at length arrived at. Malamalama was confirmed in his latest marriage, +swearing with his hand on the Holy Book that in future he would cease +his evil and cling to her, giving a fine mat by way of reparation to +each of her predecessors; and Salesa was declared divorced from +Malamalama, and she and Professor No No were ordered to marry themselves +forthwith before the pastor Tanielu; and Billy Hindoo was commanded to +go back to his master and remain within the taboo line under pain of +death, and an ancient was appointed to visit him daily to lash him if he +misbehaved even in the smallest matter; and then the whole meeting +prayed first for rain, and then that God might send a ship. + +When the new arrangement was with difficulty explained to the white man, +he was as one crazed, waving his arms and screaming out "No, no!" +without cessation; and he persisted thus, to the scandal of everyone, +until Tanielu, losing patience, struck him like that on the head and +married him immediately to Salesa, whose face shone with contentment and +happiness. In this manner Professor No No and Salesa and Billy Hindoo +were escorted homeward to their camp; and then everyone breathed with +relief and congratulated one another on so peaceful and satisfactory a +settlement. + +But the ancients were still in their places when Salesa returned, saying +that Professor No No had repulsed her; and behind her was Billy Hindoo, +equally repulsed, who said his master refused to pay him his wages to +that day or to send him back at once to the white country according to +the covenant; and behind them both was Professor No No with his head +tied in a towel, where the pastor had hurt him, cursing and reviling +like a maniac. + +Then the ancients held another meeting; and lo! it was a secret meeting; +and Tanielu spoke for God, and everyone made speeches in turn; and it +was recalled, with eloquent outbursts, how peaceful and happy Uvea had +been in the days preceding Professor No No's arrival. There were some +who wanted to have him killed as a punishment; and others who voted +against Salesa, saying it was she who was at fault; and still others who +burned with resentment against Billy Hindoo, declaring that he was the +worst of all. Thus, like a battle rolling to and fro, Salesa, Professor +No No, and Billy Hindoo were each in turn imperiled; and when day broke, +their fate, though they knew it not, had been finally settled by the +ancients. + +Professor No No's boat was carried by twenty men from the lagoon shore, +where it lay, over to the ocean beach; and with it was borne sardines +and biscuit and beer from the white man's store; and the glass barrels +were emptied, many of them, of their dead fish, being washed and +refilled with fresh water from the spring, and their glass tops fastened +tightly with cocoanut sinnet. Then, when everything had been made ready, +Billy Hindoo was forced to seat himself in the bow of the boat; and in +the stern were put Salesa and Professor No No, side by side, the center +being filled with the cargo of provisions and water. + +And Salesa laughed and joked with the men, begging them to take out +Billy Hindoo, or to give him a boat of his own; and saying wildly, when +denied, that she was going where none might whip her now, to find a +beautiful island whereon to live with her husband. But the white man was +convulsed with fear, and said nothing in the making ready of the boat, +not even "No, no" when Salesa put her arms round him and kissed him +again and again on the lips; and Billy Hindoo shook like a wet dog in +the bow, whimpering, "Hi, yi! me British subject! me no likey!" babbling +deliriously besides of his wages even to that day, and of the +unfulfilled covenant with its passage to the white country in a ship. + +Then the sail was hoisted and the sheet put into Salesa's hand; and in +this wise the boat was shoved into deep water, and her bow headed +straight to seaward. Then Tanielu fell on his knees and prayed that Uvea +might be delivered forever and ever of such an infliction; and the young +men formed a line with their rifles, ready to shoot if the voyagers +showed the least sign of coming back; and across the waves one could see +Salesa supporting Professor No No as the boat lay over in the wind, and +her mocking laughter was borne back to us. And we waited and waited and +waited as it became a diminishing speck against the sky; and waited and +waited and waited until it disappeared. Then, lo! there were explosions +of thunder and lightning, and the rain descended in torrents, and the +little children all threw off their clothes and ran about rejoicing in +the wet, while the elders looked at one another, and said, "Lo, Uvea is +delivered!" + + + + +CAPTAIN ELIJAH COE + + +Puna Punou lies in 14th South exactly, though the writer keeps back the +longitood for reasons that will soon be understood by the gentle +reader--if the gentle reader is patient and won't skip. Not that there +is any buried treasure there, or any foolishness of that kind; it's +girls mostly, and pearl shell and cocoanuts, that Puna Punou produces, +and you don't need no chart with red crosses from my dying hands to find +any of them. But Mrs. Tweedie is still alive, and likewise Elijah Coe, +and I'd be acting like the son of a sea cook if I did a hand's turn to +hurt either. Of course it's an old story now, going back to the days +before the bottom had dropped out of copra, and there was still money to +be made in beach-la-mar and fungus. Oh, my, yes! a long time ago, before +steam ever got into the Group, before law and order and compulsory +vaccination, and an hour and a half of Deputy Commissioner every nine +months. + +It was always a mighty fine island to look at, rising sheer from the sea +to basaltic cliffs, and high needlelike pinnacles, and forested solid +from the water's edge to almost the top; and off the main settlement of +Fale a Lupo there was good holding ground in six fathoms. A tidy little +island, indeed, and I'd never raise it of a dawn, and all its palms and +beaches and little basket-work houses peeping out of the deep shade, but +I'd feel glad all over again that it was there, and breathe in the +fragrant smell of it like a child happy at getting home from school. I +guess the people there helped a lot, too, for they were the handsomest +in the Pacific, and it was a regular port of call for the whalers to +take in green stuff, girls, fresh water, and firewood. + +In the old days it was the Rev. John Geer who ran the missionary mill, +and taught the heathen to put their pennies in the plate and wear +pants--not that they ever did the last to any alarming extent, except in +the annual reports that were sent back to be printed East; while Mrs. +Geer she homeopathed the island and inculcurated the principles of +female virtoo in the young. But after twenty-one years of it the Geers +returned home to Connecticut, and the Tweedies were landed from the +_Olive Branch_ barkentine, to take their places in that section of the +world's vineyard. + +Tweedie was a hay-colored little man, narrer chested and tallowy, but if +ever there was a copper-riveted Christian from Christianville I guess he +was _it_! Meek! Why he was happy to get slapped, he was that pleased to +turn the other cheek; and if you took away his cloak, he was the kind of +fellar who wanted you to take his panjammers extra. Had no spirit at +all, and the Kanakas walked over him scandalous. But it was his wife I +wanted to tell about, Alethea Tweedie; for if ever there was an angel +from heaven, with the prettiest blue eyes, and hair like streaming gold, +and the cherriest lips you ever saw out of a chromo, and teeth whiter +than--than--(it don't sound right to say a shark's) it was that peerless +creature. + +How Tweedie could have captured such a bang-up stunner was hard to +understand then, and harder afterwards. A king on his throne might have +been glad to win Alethea Tweedie for his queen, and captains and +supercargoes would have knifed each other for a single smile, if she had +been the kind to lead them on--which, Lord bless me! was the last +thought she had in her curly head. I suppose she came from one of them +little places back East where it's all women for miles, and they rate +anything a man that can raise a whisker! Thrown away, that's what the +beach called it, and misdoubted whether Tweedie wasn't a girl, too, only +with drill trousers instead of panties. + +In all them brown faces and tanned leathery white ones you can imagine +what a pink rosebud she seemed to be; and it wasn't like that she +stopped at that, for she could sing like a nightingale and talk to beat +the band; and her laugh itself was like music, sounding long afterwards +in your ears at sea. Hit? Jimini Christmas, I should say I was hit! Am +still, for that matter, with just the memory of her, though twenty years +have come and gone, and I loved the ground her little feet walked on. +Not that there was anything out of the way in that. We all did, down to +Portuguese Joe, and Billy Jones's cousin; and as for Elijah Coe, he +simply give one yelp and keeled over! + +Coe was the captain and owner of the _Peep o' Day_ topsail schooner, and +had been trading about the Group for a matter of eight years. In all my +seafaring days I never saw his match for dare-deviltry or courage, +though a quieter man to look at there never was. He was about forty +years old, tall and lean, with a nose on him like a hawk; and to see him +stripped you'd think he was a boy, he was that straight and well set up. +A fine man to look at, very quick on his pins, and kind of proud and +silent in company like he was mostly thinking of something else. I +reckon perhaps he likely was, for he was splendidly educated, with rows +on rows of books in his cabin, and a cyclopediar six feet long. The mate +said he knew everything in it up to R, not to speak of working lunars in +a saucer of quicksilver, and reckonizing squid by its Latin name. + +No one knew how he had got the money to buy his ship, which was a +remarkable fine vessel and fitted up regardless. Some said there was +once a name on the brass bell aft, which had been filed down careful and +worked over with emery paper afterwards; but I never could see no sign +of it myself, though I never went aboard but I took a good look; and +others who said it was Labor. He certainly knew a lot about the +Westward, and I heard him, one day, giving Captain Rick the directions +to enter Port McGuire by. But you know what a place the beach is for +talk, and, anyway, heaps of good men and highly respected have been +Blackbirders in their time, and I never could see no harm in the trade +myself. But the gossip was that he had flown the Peruvian flag and +emptied whole islands, though I never believed a word of it myself. It +was remarkable, too, how he kep his people, and how they looked up to +him, which wouldn't have been the case if he had been like they +represented. There was John Rau, the mate, a bullet-headed Belgian, who +used to walk just like _he_ did and copy all his little ways slavish, +reading the cyclopediar, too, and stopping at R from discipline. And +Lum, the China cook, a freak of a fellar, with coal-black hair all round +his head like a girl's, and who'd out-Coe Coe till you'd split. The rest +of the crew was just the usual thing--Rotumah boys, an Highwayman or +two, and some Nieues--sometimes the same, sometimes different--like on +any island vessel. + +It was some time before Captain Coe got on to the Tweedies, or Alethea, +as I suppose I ought to say, for nobody ever took no particular stock in +the _he_-Tweedie. He ran acrost her first when he was ashore doctoring +some of his native friends, and handing out pain-killer and salts +unstinted. They walked home together to the Mission house, standing a +long time at the door, and he talking with his hat off. He must have +been well brought up and used to meeting ladies, for anybody could tell +by her face that she was pleased. She didn't seem the least bit eager to +let him go, and once she took his Tahiti hat and held it in both her +hands like she would prevent him. And he didn't seem to want to go +neither, though he wrastled for his hat, very perlite and gay, and I +could see the glisten of her white teeth through the spyglass. + +The next day he called in state, with the skull of a shark in a silk +handkerchief, and a man carrying a crate of onions. Oh, it may sound +common to you, but it's like sending flowers to your lady-love in Puna +Punou, and I've seen a year pass without the sight of one! I guess he +walked in on velvet, and it is certain he stayed nigh two hours, for I +timed him myself from the deck of the _Ransom_--the beach being a great +place to take notice, as I have said already--and what was our feelings +when next Sunday the captain marched into church--yes, sir--in crisp new +panjammers and a polkadot neckerchief; and I'm blest if John Rau wasn't +there, too, likewise polka-dotted; and that there Chinaman tagging along +behind, rigged the same, only with earrings extra, and taking a back +seat out of respeck! Afterwards they all went up to the Mission house in +a body, Tweedie jumping in with an address, and everybody singing except +the Chinaman, who was made to stop! + +You mustn't think for a minute that we traders knew the missionary or +that he knew us, or that the beach took any part in this except at a +distance. There's no love lost between missionaries and traders. That's +what made it so strange to see Captain Coe going the way he did, and +taking up with all that nigger-loving and "Johnny, how's your soul?" We +could only see one reason, and that was Alethea Tweedie; and the betting +was about even whether he'd pull it off or not. But if we didn't _talk_ +to the Tweedies, I guess there was mighty little that went on there we +didn't know of--whether it was turtle steak for breakfast, or the tiff +they had about her wearing too gauzy a dress at the party Coe gave +aboard the _Peep o' Day_. + +He did it up in style, with bunting and Chinese lanterns and the king, +and afterwards there was fireworks. Oh, my, yes! a regular blow-out, +with the crew in new jumpers and two boatloads of flowers and _moso'oi_! +We all asked one another where it was going to end, what with the picnic +next day, and him always at the Mission house. But we might have saved +our breath, as far as any scandal was concerned, for, instead of up +stick and away, with the lady locked in his cabin, like some of the +beach had fondly hoped, what did Coe do but turn missionary himself! Got +religion, by God! till you couldn't have known him for the same master +mariner; while John Rau and Lum, not to be behindhand neither, cavorted +into the holy swim with a whoop and a bang! The captain went off +terrific--like everything he did--making Billy Jones's cousin marry his +wife, and Peter Extrum marry _his_; and there was more half-caste +baptizing and squealing and certificating than I remember since the +tidal wave of Eighty-one! + +Coe put it all down to conviction and a change of heart, but anybody +could see it was Alethea Tweedie who was _his_ religion. When he prayed, +which he used to do tremendous, it was all the time to Mrs. Tweedie; and +when he said the kingdom of heaven, you knew mighty well that to him it +was the coral Mission house on the hill. He put her on a pedestal a mile +high, and kept her at the top by worshiping so hard at the bottom. I +guess she couldn't have got off without stepping all over him, and was +just forced to be a saint whether she wanted to or no. Not but what she +was as good as gold, and a pattern for any young white woman to go by, +but her eyes always kind of melted when she looked at Coe; which was no +wonder, as he stood six feet high and straight as a dart, and every girl +in the island was wild about him; and she had an imperious little way of +treating him like he was a favorite dog who she was proud to show off +being master of. She sent him her canary, which was all she had in the +world except her clothes, and wrote a little piece how it would sing to +him at sea and soothe his rugged bosom. + +This wasn't all he got neither, for she was a great one with her needle, +and did texts better nor a Sailors' Home. Coe's cabin was more like a +little Bethel than the inside of a trading ship, for there was six of +them, and a red worsted dog extra, playing with a blue worsted ball, and +"Jesus, Lover of my Soul" and "Where is my Wandering Boy To-night?" The +biggest joke of all was in the trade room, where there was "Honesty is +the Best Policy," and "God Sees You"; and the boys guyed Coe about it +unmerciful till he laid out Tom Dawlish with a fancy lamp, and said a +gentleman ought to know where to stop. He was an awful thin-skinned kind +of Christian when it came to any remarks being passed on Mrs. Tweedie, +and Tom has a scar there to this day, though Coe made it up to him +afterwards with a melodian worth nine dollars. + +But Coe wasn't the only dog around the Mission house. Mrs. Tweedie +started up another, a scamp of a chief named Afiola. In every community +there's some fellar who's at the root of all the mischief that happens, +so that if anybody gets speared of a dark night, or a girl is missing +from home, you know just where to look for who done it. In Puna Punou +you looked for Afiola, and the chances were you'd find him drunk on +orange beer and laying for trouble with a gun. Oh, yes, indeed, there +was two to his credit, to my certain knowledge, murders both, and I'll +bet a ton of shell to an old hat besides that he had a hand in taking +off the Chinaman at Oa Bay. A regular bad lot, and, like every big +scalawag, every little scalawag had to tail along with him, too, for +company and mutual protection; so his houses was the kind of Bowery of +Puna Punou, with the whalers going to him to buy girls, and all that. + +There were higher chiefs than Afiola in the settlement--five or six of +them, at least, not to speak of the king--but none of them seemed able +to do a thing to stop him. They were all a slack lot at any time, and +thought excommunicating him enough, and taking away his communion +ticket. I guess he had been out of the church for a matter of six years, +and, as I said before, he was the scandal of the place and a terror. +They were all dead scared of him, that was the truth, and, though his +following was small, they were ugly customers and well armed, and could +line up a dozen rifles in the twinkling of an eye. We often talked it +over among ourselves how to break the gang up, but, as he always left +the whites alone, and was even a favorite with the worst, it ended like +it begun--in smoke. + +This Afiola wasn't of any particular age, because the natives don't know +when they are born, and have nothing to go by like dates and sich. I +suppose Afiola was somewheres around thirty, for he had two children, +about eight or nine each, a girl and a boy, who lived with him in his +house, together with Talavao, his old mother, Sosofina, his aunt, Oloa, +his uncle, his brother Filipo, and a raft of other blood relations whose +names I disremember. Like all the chiefs of Puna Punou, Afiola was a +tall, fine-looking man, very vigorous, lordly, and pleasant spoken, and +if it weren't for his pock-marked face and the wickedest eyes I ever saw +in a man's head, you would have said he was a perfect gentleman, and +handsome, as Kanakas go. I had never had a bit of trouble with him +myself, and whenever I put business in his way he had always come down +prompt with pigs and mats and _masoa_. + +It was a long time before he took any notice of the Tweedies, not going +to church, and always busy raising a little hell somewheres. But when it +came, it came with a bang and no mistake, and, my stars, if he didn't +pull in the slack! He made up to the Mission house like he was their +long-lost brother; threw fits of reformation till they took him back +into church membership again; and not a blessed day passed but it was +pigs or chickens or sugar cane or pineapples at the Mission-house door, +and please, might their servant Afiola approach their Excellencies! It +was as good as a play to see the rascal winding them around his little +finger and doing injured innocent on their front stoop. To hear him gas, +you'd think there was a conspiracy to run him out of Fale a Lupo; and +even when he owned up to some of his misdeeds, it was like a compliment +to the Tweedies for having yanked in such a black sheep. I read +somewheres that the road to success is to trade on people's weaknesses, +and the soft spot with the Tweedies was their desire to make a +thundering success and leave all their predecessors in the soup. After +having captured the chief white sinner, Elijah Coe, they were now +hauling in the boss brown one, Afiola, and I guess they felt as pleased +as a fellar who's bought a ton of shell for a condemned army musket. + +My, but they were good to that man, forever inviting him to breakfast or +that, and sending for him first thing if they were in a fix! It was all +Afiola this, and Afiola that; and he got texts, too, from Mrs. Tweedie, +and red worsted dogs, and "God Bless Our Home." By the time they had +engineered him into shoes and pants, no one daring to laugh for fear +he'd shoot them, they promoted him deacon, and put him on the committee +for reroofing the church. Of all mutton-headed proceedings, I never saw +the like, specially as he hoodwinked them right along, and acted worse, +even, than before. You can imagine Captain Coe's feelings when, rounding +up a three months' cruise, he found this six-foot-three of black devil +and hypocrite snugged in the Mission house like a maggot in a +breadfruit. They say he went on awful, speaking out the truth before +them all, and daring Afiola to deny it. But Mrs. Tweedie she got him +outside on the veranda, walking up and down with her arm through his, +and pleading and going on and begging to beat the band. It shows the +power she had over him, that at last he went in and asked Afiola's +pardon, and the next day sent him a case of kerosene by way of +reparation. I suppose if she had told him to go on his knees he would +have done it, being that crazy to please her in everything. + +On second thoughts, however, and after hearing how Afiola had been +kicking up, he went to the king and tried to stiffen him to take a stand +against Afiola, volunteering to do the job himself, if supported, and +proposing to exile the fellar to Makatea, and disperse the rest of the +gang about the Group gratis in the _Peep o' Day_. He said otherwise he +was afraid to leave Puna Punou with such a scoundrel loose, and +threatened to write to Sydney for a man-of-war. But Maunga the king was +a saphead and a coward, and he couldn't see it Coe's way at all; and not +having the sense to keep his mouth shut, what does he do but traipse +around the settlement, telling everybody what the captain said and +wanted. + +After that the Mission-house door was shut in Coe's face, and when Mrs. +Tweedie passed him on the road it was with her pretty head in the air, +and not looking. This nearly broke the captain's heart, and if you've +ever seen a dog as has been kicked out by his master, you can picture +Coe for yourself. He got very down and miserable, and talked some of +chucking the Group altogether and going back to the Kingsmills, or even +further, and how Henderson and Macfarlane were going to put on a steamer +and run us all out. He tied up the _Peep o' Day_ at a hundred and forty +dollars a week and nothing coming in, making the excuse she was foul and +the copper needing cleaning; and when you saw nothing doing and asked +why, he flared up and said you could go to hell! And all this, if you +please, for the privilege of seeing Afiola sailing up to the Mission +house and being honored guest, and Mrs. Tweedie smiling her prettiest, +_vice_ Elijah Coe, fired! We fully thought he'd backslide onto +square-face and female society, but, if anything, he grew more +missionary than ever, and nearly lammed the life out of Freddy Rice for +speaking disrespectful of the Virgin Mary! You see, Coe's religion, +being as it was Mrs. Tweedie, didn't make no proper distinction between +sects, and he just stood up for anybody who had his name in the Bible! + +Then thinking, I dessay, that absence makes the heart grow fonder, he +went to sea again and put in a spell of two months about the Group; and +when he got back he dressed up in his best with a red silk handkerchief +around his neck, sailor fashion, and a crimson sash and patent-leather +shoes, and the rest of him white drill, and went a-calling on the +Mission house to see if he couldn't break into society again. But there +was a wicked streak in Mrs. Tweedie, for all her pretty face and golden +hair, and being too good a woman to love anybody but her husband, she +found a queer kind of satisfaction in hating Coe, or pretending like she +did, and driving him half-mad with the things she said to him. She +regularly led on the captain to admit he loved her, and then jumped on +him with both her little feet for saying it, till the poor fellar +stumbled out of the house feeling he had disgraced himself awful and was +never to come back no more. + +She wrote him letters afterwards on scented pink paper, which made him +spend days and days with his head leaning on the cabin table, wanting +the worsted dog back, and the canary, and saying she would tell her +husband; and then saying he might keep them and she wouldn't! If he had +treated her just like a Kanaka girl who was dead stuck on him, I guess +he would have found out that women are much the same, whether with +golden hair or coal-black, and that there is much the same colored devil +in every one of them. But to Coe, Alethea Tweedie wasn't no human being +at all, but an angel straight from heaven, and to think the angel hated +him was almost more than he could bear. + +He turned crankier than ever, working off steam on Rau and Ah Lum, with +twenty-five cents for every swear, and nothing at night but hymns. But I +guess Rau and the China boy would have gone on their knees and kowtowed +to a sting ray if Coe had told them to, for they didn't have no more +wills of their own than a child unborn, and everything he said, went. If +he had turned pirate, they would have followed him just as meek, and +would have scuttled ships and made passengers walk planks with the same +devotion and zeal to please him! + +But all this was by the way, so far as it availed the captain with Mrs. +Tweedie, who passed him on the road as cold as ever, and received the +swear-money disdainful, and never said "thank you" for it, though there +was eighteen dollars in the bag and the biggest share Coe's. Afiola +himself had been getting out of favor for two months. He couldn't +manage to be deacon of the church one day, and the next pirating along +the coast mad drunk on orange beer; besides, the Tweedies were getting +to talk native now, and got more the hang of what was going on around +them. So they give Afiola a sort of drumhead court-martial, and bounced +him unanimous, and all the pent-up deviltry of the man came out of him +at one lick, like touching off a dynamite cartridge. Tweedie preached +against him from the pulpit; the other chiefs, slow as they had been to +move before, now waked up a bit, and there was a general feeling in the +respectable part of the native community that he was pushing things too +far. You see, he had named one of his pigs after the king, and there was +more scandal over that than for all the crimes he had been guilty of; +and there was a razor-backed yaller one for Tweedie, and an old sow for +the queen, and porkers for the princes, and he passed insulting remarks +on them till the Kanakas went wild--those that weren't of Afiola's own +family, I mean; and Afiola would laugh and laugh till his great pocked +face grew a dirty crimson, laying on a mat with a Winchester beside him, +and sniggering as they'd bring him orange beer in a calabash. + +I guess he thought he'd wind up by pulling off the biggest thing yet, +for he had a kind of pride of wickedness in him, and gloried in being +the bad man of Puna Punou. He wanted to top it all now, and do something +that tremendous that it would shake the whole island from Fale a Lupo to +Diamond Rock. Anyway, whatever he thought or didn't think, what he did +was to waylay Mrs. Tweedie one morning about ten, as she was going over +to visit the native pastor's wife, who was sick; and, tying her hands +and feet together with sinnet, he put her in a hammock and carried her +off up the mountain; and this, if you please, in open daylight, with +scores of people looking on, while she screamed and struggled and +fought, and they helpless to do anything against the line of Afiola's +rifles--and Tweedie himself not four hundred yards away, organizing a +Y.M.C.A. for untattooed boys, and explaining how they was to play basket +ball, and learn arithmetic nights! + +When I heard the news, which was right off and the moment after it +happened, I had only one idea in my head, and that was to reach Captain +Coe as fast as the paddles could race me off to the schooner. It is in +them moments that the strong man looms up like a mountain and one's cry +is for a leader. But it seemed for a spell like it was a knock-out blow +for Coe, and that he couldn't grapple with the thing at all, moaning and +grinding his teeth, and tearing the red-dotted handkerchief off his neck +like it choked him. When I tried to talk, he swore at me terrible, +saying he wanted to think, by God! and I was to shut my bloody face; and +ordering the mate and the Chinaman into the lazarette to get out the +arms. There was a big store of them, which the pair got out on their +hands and knees, the place being cramped and low and the guns furthest +in; and they broke open boxes of cartridges on the cabin floor till they +ran all over. Then Coe ordered the whaleboat cleared and went ashore +with nigh all hands, every one of them with a loaded rifle, and he with +a twelve-bore gun; and if you ever saw the light of hell in a man's +eyes, it was Coe as he formed us up on the beach and headed inland in a +crowd. The whole settlement was buzzing like a hornet's nest, and they +were beating a wooden drum in front of the king's house, and everybody +was running every which way, telling the news, and how Mrs. Tweedie had +been carried off by Afiola, and all screaming out at once, like natives +do when excited. + +Finding Afiola would be about as easy as the needle in the haystack, and +the crews of a hundred _Peep o' Days_, and all the warriors of Fale a +Lupo besides, couldn't have tracked and cornered him up the mountain. I +thought Coe was acting like a hot-headed crazy fool to try, for they +were bound to see him first, and could always hide if we got too close, +or fight if need be, with all the points of the game in their favor. But +that wasn't what he meant to do, not he, but surrounded Afiola's two +houses, and took out everybody in them--Talavao his aunt, Oloa his +uncle, Filipo his brother (who was sick on a mat), and Afiola's two +children, Mali and Popo, and a raft of men and women, to the number of +twenty or more all told. They were scared blue at the sight of the +cocked rifles, and held up their hands like lambs for the Chinaman to +rope them, which he did like lashing a chest and about as tender, the +tears streaming down the women's faces. But there wasn't a spark of +compassion in Elijah Coe, and he never give them a thought. + +He was at a white heat, and his finger was just itching on the trigger +of his gun, and he never started for the beach till all the Bowery was +crackling in smoke and flame. Not that our eighteen or twenty was the +whole of Afiola's family in the settlement. I guess there was several +hundreds of them altogether, taking it fine and large, retainers, +hangers-on, and connections of one kind and another; but Coe's boldness +took them by surprise, and not being in the secret of Mrs. Tweedie's +carrying off, they weren't prepared or anything. But even in the time we +were tying up the prisoners they began to turn ugly and bunch together +and hoot, and all the way back to the beach it was touch and go whether +they wouldn't rush us. + +Not a soul durst ask Coe what he meant to do as we pitched into the +water and shoved off, him sitting there so grim and fierce, with his +eyes smoldering in his head like coals; but there was no sound but the +straining of the rowlocks, and a whimper or two from the women, and the +swish and gurgle of the water along the keel. I'll never forget that +boat ride if I live to be a hundred; the drums rolling and re-rolling +around the bay, and that strange humming of voices behind us like the +wind in the rigging of a ship, and Coe and the Kanakas and the Chinaman +and John Rau and the men pulling. But as for Coe's plan, we weren't long +kept waiting for what it was. The prisoners were bundled into the ship's +waist, with Lum to stand over them, while the mate got out the kedge and +brought the schooner broadside on to the mountain. Then they bent a +noose and ran up old Oloa between the masts. It was no fancy hanging +with a drop calculated to his height, but just the old-fashioned kind, +slow and awful, and if the steward hadn't come round with a tray of +glasses and some square-face I guess I would have just sunk right down +where I was. The crew made one panic-stricken gallop for the side, and +popped over, nobody trying to stop them, though Rau asked, quite calm, +was he to shoot, and the captain said No. The Nieue steward was the only +one that didn't go, but crouched down in the scuppers with his teeth +chattering. + +Then Coe leaned over the rail and talked to the prisoners in the waist; +told them that he was going to string up one an hour, children and all, +till Mrs. Tweedie was brought back safe; and he ordered Lum to cast +loose one of the old women so that she might swim ashore and carry the +news. My, if she wasn't over that rail like lightning, and striking out +for home with her skinny arms! Coe knew mighty well that Afiola had a +string of people up the mountain keeping him informed of everything that +happened--the Kanaka telegraph, we used to call it. Then, besides, up +there they could see for miles, and Coe had kedged the schooner acrost +the fairway so that Afiola might reckonize his relations in the rigging. +You might wonder that such an unmitigated black villain would care what +Coe did, so long as he had his wicked way with Mrs. Tweedie, and a whole +trackless mountain to lose himself in; but there's an awful soft streak +in Kanakas for their own blood, and we had his whole family in our +hands, not to speak of the two kids. It seemed almost like a waste of +lives to look up and see not a speck, or the least sign whatever, that +was hid under the tree tops, and it was hard to convince oneself that +Coe was doing the right thing, and that from those rocky cliffs there +was sharp Kanaka eyes taking us all in, with Alethea Tweedie tied hand +and foot, and Afiola in a sweat about his children. + +The captain sat on a chair at the forrard end of the house, smoking a +cigar, and occasionally searching the woods with his binoculars. There +was a stack of loaded rifles beside him, and a keg of dynamite with a +loose lid to it. Some of the sticks had touch-and-go fuses to them, +ready to throw if they tried boarding; and sometimes he would take out +his watch and look at it hard, and every time he looked the people in +the waist would set up a kind of a wail. At one o'clock we ran up +Filipo, Afiola's brother, and settled down to another spell of waiting. +Somewheres along of three bells we saw them getting a boat out by Pita's +house, and lo and behold! it was Tweedie, with the native pastor and a +divinity student named Henry to pull him. When they were close enough to +talk, he fell on his knees in the boat, though it was half full of bilge +and slopped all over him; and he besought Captain Coe, by all that was +holy, to stop murdering the innocent, and rattled on fast and scolding +like he was in the pulpit. We was to leave it to God, he said, and went +on like we was worse nor Afiola, the pitiful hound, like it wasn't his +own wife we was doing our damnedest to save. + +Captain Coe let him have his say, and then he leaned over the ship's +side, holding to the starboard shrouds with one hand and taking the +cigar out of his mouth with the other, and told him, with a most +deliberate spit, as how he was going on with one every hour till Mrs. +Tweedie was brought back safe and sound, and when he used up them he had +aboard, how he was going to land for more. He didn't speak it particular +loud, and you might have thought he was talking what a hot day it was; +but there was that in his voice I've never heard before or since, and +you knew he'd live right up to every word he said. I guess the pastor +and the student understood a little English, for when Coe finished they +laid on to their oars like mad, and headed the old sieve for shore +again, Tweedie in the bilge and still protesting. + +At two o'clock we turned off Sosofina, Afiola's aunt. We now had three +aloft, and as we rolled gently broadside on to the swell they'd swing +together and swing apart till you didn't care to look at them. That hour +from two to three was the very longest I ever spent in my life. It was +the hottest time of day and the sun beat down unmerciful, the pitch +running in the seams, and the awnings being stripped off to better fight +the ship, if need be. The steward passed round sardines and buttered +biscuit, and I recollect the Chinaman wolfing his right out of the can +and tipping it cornerwise to drink the ile. Bar Coe, he was the coolest +customer of the lot, which was the more remarkable, as he was a +mild-mannered man ordinarily, given to playing the China fiddle to +himself, and very obliging if you wanted fresh yeast or the way he +curried pigeon. Rau, the Belgian, with his hairy arms and stubby figure, +struck one somehow as being more in his element in so wild a business, +and you took his calm for granted, like a soldier serving a gun and +doing what he's told. If Coe had ordered him to set off the dynamite and +blow up the ship, he would have said "Aye, aye, sir!" and obeyed, +respectful and willing, like the first-class seaman and navigator he +was. He had served in the Belgian navy, and the habit had stuck to him. +But in all of us, after all--me and Lum and John Rau and the Nieue +steward--it was Coe's spirit that had raised us to this pitch, and he +had blown a little of his own breath into every one of us. We were all +Elijah Coe's that day, and it was only afterwards it came over us how +different we had acted from our proper selves. + +Well, as I said, it was drawing toward six bells, and we were keyed up +tremendous, as we might expect to see the result of our work now any +minute; and it was a shuddering thing to think of sending up another, +and him a child. We all watched Coe out of the corner of our eye as he +went on smoking his cigar, and every time he took out his watch and +looked at it it seemed like my heart stopped beating. + +"Three o'clock, boys!" he says, rising business-like from his chair, +while Lum looked up expectant, and my gizzard seemed to shrink inside +me. "Three o'clock, boys!" + +He hadn't no more nor got the words out of his mouth when Rau ripped out +there was a canoe coming off, and we all ran pellmell for the rail. Sure +enough, there was an outrigger aiming straight for us, and the fellar in +it was bent double and paddling that fast that the water spurted at the +bow like it was a race. When he got within a cable's length he stopped, +and waved something he had in his hand, and shouted a lot of stuff we +couldn't make head or tail of. Coe made motions to him to come nearer, +and Rau and me did the same, till the fellar got back something of his +nerve, paddling with one hand and holding the little board aloft in the +other (like he might a flag of truce), and venturing toward us slower +and slower, till at last Coe reached down and took the thing from him +standing up. + +It was a slab of fresh-cut _fuafua_, about a foot long by three inches +wide, and on it, written, as I heard afterwards, in blood and spit and +gunpowder, was a message from Mrs. Tweedie herself--not many words on +it, and them printed, for she only had a pointed stick by way of a pen, +but saying as how she was unharmed and was being brought back fast, and +please, he wasn't to trice up any more of Afiola's family. + +The captain read it aloud to us about a dozen times, and then, his face +working so he couldn't speak no more, he gripped hands with me, and then +with John Rau, and not forgetting the Nieue steward, and then he went +down the forward ladder, and I'm blest if he didn't put his arm round +the Chink, and burst out sobbing--yes, sir, like a great overwrought +girl, sitting on the tool chest, limp as a rag, and wiping his eyes with +the cuff of his blue-striped panjammers, the Chinaman, patting him like +he might a dog, saying, "Poor captain! Never you mind, captain! She all +lite now, captain," while the prisoners broke out in a big gabble of how +they were saved, and piped up with a hymn. + +He wasn't the man to take anything for granted, however, and after he +had sort of pulled himself together and got his second wind, so to +speak, he cast loose a couple more with a message that he had to have a +letter on paper from Mrs. Tweedie herself, countersigned by the king, +that she was at home, safe, and no harm done. He might have saved +himself the trouble, for they hadn't been gone ten minutes before she +came off herself, queening it in the stern of the king's great _alia_, +seventy feet long, with Tweedie and Maunga, and the princes, and eighty +men chorusing to the paddles, with drums aft, and a young boy dancing in +the bow and keeping time with a rifle. Except for her paleness, which +was like marble, and the bloody marks of the sinnet on her pretty +wrists, you wouldn't have taken her for much different than usual; and +she skipped up the ladder as sprightly as you please, and made a bee +line for Elijah Coe like a schoolgirl running to her pa for the +holidays. + +She wanted to throw herself on her knees and kiss his hands; and when he +forced her up, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him, saying +he was her preserver, and how he had saved her from worse than death, +and so overflowing and grateful and outspoken that nobody knew where to +look, least of all the captain, who turned all colors, and couldn't say +anything but "You're welcome," like a ninny. + +We cleared a little space for Tweedie to pray in, which was his way of +celebrating, and couldn't very well be prevented, and the king followed +with a speech what he'd do to Afiola when he caught him--the tarnation +liar! The crew came off, swimming in ones and twos to beg for pardon, +and the prisoners were unbound and given three crates of biscuit and +three barrels of pork and some boat sails to wrap the corpses in, and +there was more hurrah-boys and good feeling and port wine in the cabin +than you could ever have thought possible under the circumstances. + + * * * * * + +Was that all? Well, for a time it was, Coe slipping out at dawn on the +ebb with a cargo of Afiola rapscallions he was to drop, one here, one +there, all around the Group, we having no further use for them in Puna +Punou. + +The measles struck us shortly afterwards in a Tahiti bark, and it +carried off a sight of people, Afiola included, who was in a sort of +armed hiding on the other side of the island. Tweedie, too, who had +always been a complaining whelp, started up a cough about this time, and +died. Of course, this wasn't right off, but spread over a matter of +eighteen months or more, Coe coming and going regular in the _Peep o' +Day_, and Mrs. Tweedie more blooming than ever. + +Coe turned up from Sydney, where he had gone for a general refitting and +overhaul, just as Mrs. Tweedie was taking her passage in the _Olive +Branch_, missionary auxiliary barkentine for Honolulu. None of the +saints would have a word to say to him, calling him "the man of blood," +and ordering him off the ship, as he stood his ground and wouldn't budge +even when the anchor was apeak and the barkentine under steerage way. +But he kept singing out for her while they tried to hustle him over the +side and into his boat, and the more they hustled the louder he shouted, +"Mrs. Tweedie! Mrs. Tweedie!" till at last she heard him in her cabin +below, and came running up, smiling, and arranging her hair with her +hands. + +It was a tight place for Coe, having to do his courting while they were +moving him on like the police; but, for all that, when he went down the +ladder it was with Mrs. Tweedie with him, and they pulled ashore and +were married by the Kanaka pastor, and went a-honeymooning in the _Peep +o' Day_, bringing up in Papiete three weeks later, to buy her some +clothes, for every stitch to her name was beating up to Honolulu in the +_Olive Branch_. + + + + +MR. BOB + + +Far away in the western Pacific, in that labyrinth of coral reefs and +low, palm-rimmed isles floating between the blue of heaven and the +deeper blue of sea, known to the pajama-clad, ear-ringed traders as "the +Group," and to the outer world as Micronesia--here, one burning morning +there arrived a visitor from "Home," who descended, not from some tubby +bark or slant-masted schooner, but Godlike from the glorious stars +themselves--Christmas Day! + +The Rev. Walter Kirke looked out moodily from beneath the eaves of his +basket-work house, and his heart sank as he gazed across the sweltering +strip of water, twenty miles wide, that divided the island of Apiang +from its neighbor, Tarawa. His brother in the Lord across the strait, +the perpetually unfortunate Titcombe (the Rev. J. B. Tracy Titcombe, +M.A., Cam.), had sent in a proa with a message of such urgency and need +that delay, let alone refusal, was utterly out of the question. + +"The king has broken all his promises," wrote Titcombe, in a hand +illegible from distress and agitation. "He threatens to burn the new +church, flog the members, and spear personally the leading lights of +our infant congregation. Yesterday, on my remonstrating with him, he +gave me twenty-four hours to leave the island, calling me at the same +time a sting ray, a detached jellyfish--a white squid, together with +some other local expressions of a highly wounding and contemptuous +nature. The tiny fold is terrorized, and Thomas Najibika, my deacon and +right-hand man, is in hourly apprehension of a massacre. My wife and +little Kenneth are down with fever, and this, together with my halting +knowledge of the native language, has put me at such a disadvantage that +I have no alternative but to appeal to you. For Heaven's sake, please +come instantly and exert yourself on my behalf, or else we may lose +Tarawa for good, and put back the good work by a dozen years." + +"We'll have to go, dear," said Kirke to his pretty wife. + +"Yes, we'll have to go," she assented sadly. + +She could not help feeling cross with the Titcombes for always muddling +things--a little unjustly, perhaps--for her own missionary path had ever +been so easy and untroubled. Mrs. Kirke was a woman of marked beauty, +whose sweet imperiousness, sympathy, humor, and tact made her the adored +of the islanders. She not only spoke native well, but with a zest and +sparkle, a silver ripple of irony, ridicule, and good-fellowship that +carried everything before it. No kings ever bothered Mrs. Kirke. Even +the redoubtable Tembinok, with forty boats full of armed savages, had +been stemmed in his Napoleonic career and turned back by her from his +projected invasion of Apiang--presenting the missionary's wife, on his +departure, with a gold-inlaid Winchester that was the apple of his eye. + +"I shall make Karaitch smart for this!" she said vindictively. "I +sha'n't let him off with less than twenty tons of copra for my girls' +school; and he'll have to apologize, too, and swear on a shark's head to +behave for a year." + +"We can't all have such intrepid little wives," said Kirke, putting his +arm fondly about her. Experience had shown him that in native questions +she was always as good as her word, and it was with a kind of proud +humility he conceded her the place he was so much less able himself to +fill. He had not the faintest apprehensions about the Tarawa matter. Ada +would bring the king to heel in fifteen minutes, and in twenty there +would be the dawn of a new peace, with stately apologies, gifts of +turtle and bonito hooks, endless and troublesomely idiomatic +compliments, and incidentally a little friction with the Titcombes, who +would certainly resent being saved so easily. + +No, Kirke wasn't afraid of Karaitch. Ada would settle Karaitch out of +hand. What he dreaded was that twenty miles of water under the noonday +sun, and the problem of Daisy--Daisy, their little girl of eight, who +was playing so contentedly on the floor with the presents Santa Claus +had just brought her. + +"Oh, Walter, I can't let Daisy go again!" cried Mrs. Kirke. "Last time +she nearly died in the boat, and you know she wasn't really herself for +weeks and weeks afterwards." + +Daisy heard her name being spoken, and looked up. Her sleek little head +and round brown eyes gave her the look of a baby seal. Such a happy baby +seal that morning, with a five-shilling magic lantern, twelve biblical +slides, a dolly that could squeak in the most lifelike manner, and a +darling little chair! + +"But leave her?" questioned Kirke, with a hopeless gesture of his hand. +"And that with the island full of mutineers, and Heaven only knows +to-day what deviltry and carousing?" + +Mrs. Kirke thought awhile. + +"Twenty miles over there--three hours," she said at last; "an hour to +straighten out the king--four hours; three back, makes seven. That means +being home by sundown. We can trust Nantok all right to take good care +of her, and then I'll get Peter to send down an armed guard." + +Kirke acquiesced in silence. He was a tall, thin man, not over-clever, +whose fervent Christianity was strangely at variance with a +constitutional inclination to see the darker side of things. He +distrusted Nantok, distrusted the king's guard, felt a profound +apprehension of that jeering, boisterous mob of sailors, who pigged +together in Rick's old boatshed, and were numerous enough to defy every +law of the island. It was terrible to him to leave his little girl in +such company. Yet he recalled his last trip across the strait, when she +had fainted with the heat--fainted again and again--as they had +attempted, with such distress and agony, to screen her from a glare as +pitiless as a furnace. He remembered dipping her, naked, all but +lifeless, into the milkwarm water, till up from the transparent depths +the swift, bluish glimmer of a shark warned him to snatch her in. +Remembered the hopelessness of it, the terror, the despair, he himself +bending to an oar, and offering every inducement his mind could think of +to incite his crew to pull their hearts out. No, all that was a +nightmare to look back on--never, never to be repeated. + +Daisy was called over and the situation explained to her. Like all only +children, living constantly in the society of her parents, and sharing +their talk and plans, she was precociously old for her age, and more +serious and thoughtful than a little tot ought to be. Though her lower +lip trembled, and her eyes flooded with tears, she put on a brave face +to it, and protested her willingness to remain with Nantok and be a good +little girl. + +"And mamma and papa will be back at dusk; and if they are detained, you +mustn't be the least bit worried about them; and you'll let Nantok put +you to bed at eight; and if you wake up and feel frightened, you are to +remember the army outside, guarding you in your sleep like a little +princess!" + +"And Dod, too," added Daisy piously, though inwardly pleased to have the +army as well. + +"Oh, my lamb!" cried Mrs. Kirke, clasping her to her breast. "It breaks +mamma's heart to leave her little girl on Christmas Day!" + +Altogether it was a damp moment in the Kirke family, and even the +missionary's eyes were suspiciously moist as he knelt beside his wife +and talked hurriedly about the magic lantern, and the dolly, and what a +jolly evening they'd all have when they got back from Tarawa. + +Preparations were soon made. The whaleboat was got ready, and manned by +a stout crew of such recent Christians that the demons of the strait had +first to be appeased by two tins of salmon and six biscuit, paid +secretly in advance to Nebenua, the devil-priest. Then, when all was +ready, even to the breaker of brackish water, a forty-pound tin of +biscuit, two hundred fresh nuts, medicine chest, compass, and five +pounds of niggerhead tobacco by way of petty cash, the whole expedition +was tantalized and held back by the non-arrival of the guard, who were +frenziedly searching for their boots. Why the army was so ruthlessly +condemned to wear boots, is a question that was often asked and never +properly answered. Nobody else wore boots--not even the king; but the +military caste is proverbially dressy, and it is enough to say that the +armed forces of Apiang set immense store by their boots. + +At last they arrived, boots and all, a straggling, hobbling party of +seven, with cartridge belts and rifles. Little Daisy was formally put in +their charge; solemn pledges were given and accepted; a keg of beef, to +be subsequently presented, was hedged about with innumerable +restrictions. That keg--like liberty--was to be at the price of eternal +vigilance. And then, when everything had been said, and explained, and +threatened, the whaleboat hoisted her anchor--a coral stone--and set a +straight course for Tarawa. + +It was a long day--a very long day--quite the longest day in Daisy's +tiny life. She successively exhausted the magic lantern, the dolly, and +the chair. She went out and prattled with the army where they sprawled +under the lee of the kitchen, smoking endless _pandanus_ cigarettes. She +helped Nantok prepare lunch--a bowl of chocolate made with condensed +milk, and hot buttered toast. After lunch she had a nap with Nantok on +the mats, and after that again an exciting talk about the great massacre +on Tapatuea, where all Nantok's people had been killed during that +Kanaka Saint Bartholomew's. Then out to the army again, and checkers, +which the army played amazingly well, beating her so often that even +this pastime palled. Then---- + +Oh, what a sigh! + +The sleek little seal was aweary, aweary. The house was so empty, so +still, and there was such a void in that aching baby heart! She went +into papa's room and cried on his bed. He would be drowned in the +strait; savage old Karaitch would shoot him with a gun; he would be +blown out to sea like Mr. Pettibone the beach-comber. The hot tears +scalded her cheeks. She had always liked Mr. Pettibone. Papa called him +a proff--proff--proff something, but he had always been so jolly, and +his red face and funny little blue eyes rose before her out of the mist. +She cried over the lost Pettibone; over Tansy the cat, that had died +from eating a lizard; over Nosey, her pet chicken, that Nantok had +killed by mistake one night for supper; cried over papa and mamma, far +away in the whaler--totaled up all the little sadnesses of her little +life, meting out tears to every one. And then, feeling greatly +refreshed, she went out on the front porch, and wondered what she should +do next. + +Down the shore, about a mile away, there were others who found time less +heavy on their hands. At the Land We Live In, a one-roomed saloon which +catered for a permanent white population of thirteen, and a transient +one that varied from a cutter to a full-rigged ship--at the Land We Live +In Christmas was being celebrated in a rousing fashion. To begin with, +there were the mutineers of the _Lord Dundonald_, twenty-two strong, +with plenty of money still to spend. Their revolt against authority had +not been without some redeeming features, and an unbiased critic would +have found it hard to blame them. After twenty-seven days and nights at +the pumps of a four-masted sieve, the Lords had struck in a body, and +forced the captain to abandon the ship and set out in three boats for +Apiang. Here they double-dyed their crime by compelling the wrathful +master to pay them their wages to date, from six hundred and thirty-nine +pounds he had taken with him from a vessel he had fondly hoped to pump +to China. Captain Latimer, with the three mates, the carpenter, and one +of the hands, had sailed away south in the longboat, vowing yardarms and +a man-of-war, and when last seen was sinking over the horizon in the +direction of the Fiji Islands. + +Well, here they all were in the Land We Live In, together with Tom +Holderson, Peter Extrum, Eddy Newnes, and Long Joe Kelly, all of Apiang; +Papa Benson, of Tarawa; Jones and Peabody, of Big Muggin; and crazy old +Jimmy Mathison, of nowhere in particular--unless it were the nearest gin +bottle; and it was a rip-roaring Christmas, and no mistake, with +bottled beer flowing like water, and songs and choruses and clog dances +and hornpipes; and Papa Benson (in earrings and pink pajamas) a-blowing +enough wind through his concertina to have sailed a ship. And there were +girls, too, seven or eight of them, in bright trade-cotton Mother +Hubbards--a bevy of black-eyed little heathen savages, who bore a hand +with the trays, and added their saucy laughter to the general gayety, +helping out Larry the barkeep as he drew unending corks or stopped to +wipe the sweat off his forehead, saying, "Genelmen, the drinks is on +Billy," or Tommy, or Long Joe, or whoever it was that was treating. + +Suddenly, at the door, which had been kept shut to prevent the natives +from assembling and peering in--suddenly, at the door, there was heard a +faint, faint knock. The concertina stopped. Fritz, the Dutchman, said +"Hoosh!" and raised his pipe for silence. The knock was repeated. Quiet +descended on the Land We Live In. Larry looked up from his bottles, and +in a rough and belligerent voice called out, "Come in!" + +The invitation was hesitatingly obeyed, and there stood Daisy Kirke on +the threshold, a sweet, faltering figure, with her guard, boots and all, +lined up in the roadway. Hardly a soul in the room knew there was a +little white girl on the island; and the sight of Daisy, with the red +ribbon in her hair, her dimity frock, her long stockings and pinafore, +was as startling as it was unexpected. + +"Howdy-do, evver'body?" said she. + +There was an embarrassed silence. + +"I know you better than you do me," went on Daisy confidentially, +proving it with her forefinger. "That's Tommy, the cabin boy; and +yonder's Mr. Mathison, the beach-comber; and you"--indicating a giant of +a man with an aquiline nose and a square-cut beard--"you are Mr. Bob +Fletcher, the ringleader!" + +A giggle of subdued merriment ran round the room. An instinctive respect +kept it within bounds, or perhaps it was Bob Fletcher's fierce and +warning look that cowed any incipient rowdyism. The brawny mutineer set +her on his knee, and, in a voice harshened by thirty years' service +before the mast, asked her deferentially if she fancied a glass of +syrup? + +"No, thank you," said Daisy politely; and then, addressing everybody in +general, "papa and mamma's gone to Tarawa!" + +"Now, if that ain't too bad!" put in Bob sympathetically. + +"And so it just occurred to me," went on Daisy, "to do something nice to +surprise them when they came back." + +A profound silence greeted this remark. The devil's love of holy water +is a craving compared to the amount of love lost between a South Sea +missionary and the rough white element that mocks his labors at every +turn. It was the custom of the Lord Dundonalds, moreover, to hoot the +Rev. Walter Kirke whenever they met him. It was a recollection of this +that made the present situation so piquant and humorous. + +"Besides, it seems too bad," continued Daisy, "that the natives should +have such a fuss made over them, while all you white gentlemen are left +out in the cold. It must look queer to Dod, and I don't believe He likes +it!" + +"Everything for the niggers--that's right," muttered Tom Extrum +bitterly, "and not even a six-months-old newspaper for the likes of us!" + +"You don't look so werry wicked," said Daisy, taking in the room with a +comprehensive glance, and putting an arm around Mr. Bob's neck, as +though confident of having at least one friend among the company. "I +wonder if you wouldn't all like to come along to my house, and play with +my magic lantern, and--and--organize a Band of Hope?" + +She was abashed by the roar of laughter that followed the proposal. Papa +Benson flung himself on the floor and rolled over and over. Long Joe +uttered whoops of delight. Even Mr. Bob shook with speechless mirth, +till the veins on his forehead stood out like strings. Never in all its +history was there such a hullabaloo in the Land We Live In. As the +rumpus died down something very like remorse overwhelmed the roisterers +as they saw Daisy's flushing, quivering little face, hot with +mortification. + +It was Mr. Bob who sprang to the rescue before the brimming tears could +fall. + +"I'm on!" he shouted, rising to his feet with unexpected enthusiasm. +"Now, then, boys, who says 'Aye, aye' for the Band of 'Ope?" + +A good part of the crowd would have preferred to stay by their spree; +but so contagious is example and so sheeplike the sailor nature, that +the whole room fell in with Bob, and answered his call like one man. + +He swung Daisy up on his shoulder, where, from that dizzy perch, she +looked back shyly at the noisy pack behind her. Secure in the conquest +of the ringleader, whom intuitively she felt stronger than the rest, and +kinder and more resolute, with a heart beneath his rough exterior as +simple and childlike as her own, she managed to keep up her courage in +spite of the loud, frightening laughter and the tipsy boisterousness and +horseplay that marked the inception of the Band of Hope. Her +satisfaction was suddenly checked, however, by the sight of the Kanaka +girls joining the procession and making as though to follow. + +"No, they mustn't come!" she cried out jealously. "Please, Mr. +Mathison, tell them they mustn't come! This is to be for men only!" + +"Turn them back!" thundered Bob. "Don't yer 'ear the little lady's +_h_orders? Scamper, ye jades!" + +Papa Benson struck up a quickstep on the concertina, and, marching +beside Bob Fletcher, helped to lead the van. The mutineers, +beach-combers, and traders fell in two by two. The rear was brought up +by the guard, loutish, hobbling, and out of step, bearing their rusty +Springfields at all angles. In this fashion they made the missionary's +house, swarmed into the neat bare inclosure of coral sand, and invaded +the silent rooms. + +A terrible irresolution was stealing over Daisy. Twelve slides, +representing the wanderings of Saint Paul, began to seem too trifling a +means of holding the attention of this enormous and expectant crowd. +Besides, it came over her with a shock that she was a little hazy about +Saint Paul; and then there were disturbing questions of sheets and +darkened windows, and how to make it work. It was with dismay, verging +on despair, that she saw the serried ranks of her recruits crowding the +room to bursting, and all regarding her with humorous anticipation. But +good Mr. Bob, holding her in his lap, and stroking her hair with an +enormous red hand, showed a most comforting disposition to himself take +the breach. At any rate, he roared for silence; told Mr. Mathison he'd +cut his liver out if he didn't belay with them there remarks, and +assumed a tone of authority that calmed the tumult of Daisy's +misgivings. + +"Friends," he said, "and mates, and respected genelmen _h_all, we are +here, two and three gathered togetherlike, for the purpose of +_h_organizing a Band of 'Ope." + +"Local Number One," interrupted Billy Dutton, the donkey-man, who had +had some trades'-union experience. + +"Band of 'Ope, Local Number One," continued Mr. Bob, receiving the +suggestion in an accommodating spirit. "And it is with great pleasure I +propose the name of _h_our first president, Miss Daisy Kirke, of +Apiang." + +Then, my stars, wasn't there a cheer! Daisy hung her head, nestled +closer to Mr. Bob, and felt all the joy of good works promptly bearing +fruit. + +"I don't see no reason," went on Mr. Bob, "why a false modesty, that 'as +been my _h_unfailing 'andicap through life, should prevent me from +nominating myself as your _h_esteemed vice president. I do not wish to +seem a-soaring too 'igh, or reaching out for honors that belong to +_h_abler 'eads nor mine; but I'll take the sense of the meeting in a +kindly spirit, and will abide peaceable by a show of 'ands!" + +When the applause had subsided, Billy Dutton sprang up, and wanted to +know "what about a recording seckitary?" + +"I don't see no 'arm in the honorable genelman _h_assuming the job +'isself," said Mr. Bob, "if 'e thinks 'e's sufficient of a speller, and +won't run the band into 'orrible extravagances for 'igh-priced wines and +luxuries. The assessments of this band is going to be low, and the diet +plain. Who says Brother Dutton ain't the man for the place? Is it you, +Mr. Riley, I see raising your fist agin him? Oh, only to ax a question. +Well, one thing at a time, Brother Riley. Does the meeting _h_endorse +Mr. Willum Dutton for recording seckitary?" + +The meeting did, vociferously and with cheers. Daisy ran and got her +slate for the recording seckitary, who thereupon (after first inscribing +the names of the office bearers in a shaky print) began to draw a +wonderful picture of a pirate ship. + +"Afore listening to the plans of our valued president," said Mr. Bob, "I +propose myself to _h_offer up a few general remarks on 'Ope! Me and 'Ope +is old friends, genelmen. We set sail together from the port of London, +'Ope and I, when I was a bright-faced boy that 'igh! We've bunked in +together, fair weather and foul, coming on this thirty year. We 'ave set +in our time, me and 'Ope, on the bottom of a capsized schooner, ore +laden out of Mazatlan, with our tongues 'anging out like the tails of +some vallyble new kind of a black dorg. 'Ope and I took the Chainy +coast once on a chicken coop. 'Ope and I, when we 'ad the dollars, blew +them in right royal. 'Ope and I, when we 'adn't none, tightened our +belts and cheered each other _h_up. Looking back over all them years, I +want to stand _h_up and testify right 'ere to the best friend of the +sailorman, bar none, and p'r'aps the _h_only one he ever truly 'ad--and +that's 'Ope, God bless her!" + +Amid the ensuing uproar, which jarred the walls of that prim missionary +residence like an explosion of dynamite, spilling plates off dressers +and cock-billing texts, and arresting the astonished clock at four +forty-six, little Daisy was trying to nerve herself to address the +assembled company. The unforeseen docility of the band had put new ideas +in that sleek, baby-seal head. Odds and ends of tracts and storybooks +recurred to her. Infantile ambitions awoke and clamored. But it was +daunting, just the same, to confront those rows of eyes, and those great +big, unshaved, shaggy-looking faces, all keenly waiting for her to +speak. + +"Now, then, little lady," said the vice president, "'ere's your Band of +'Ope, a-panting to set its 'and to the plow!" + +Daisy cleared her throat. Pride and timidity struggled with each other +in that eager little countenance. Had it not been for an encouraging +squeeze from Mr. Bob, who knows but what she might have burst into +tears, and disgraced herself before the whole band. But the squeeze, +coming exactly at the right time, averted so mortifying a catastrophe. + +"My dear friends," began Daisy, catching with unconscious mimicry some +of the rounded tones of her father's voice--"my dear, kind friends!" + +"Well, go on," cried Mr. Bob; "that's a swell start! That's the way to +wake them up!" + +"Hear! hear!" (This from a dozen places.) + +"I have called you togevver," went on Daisy bravely, "so we might enjoy +the travels of Saint Paul, which belongs to the magic lantern Santa +Claus brought me this morning for Christmas, because I'm such a good +little girl. Saint Paul was a kind of a sailor, too, and got +shipwrecked, like Mr. Bob, in an awful storm. I used to know all about +Saint Paul, but somehow I've got mixed up about him since. Perhaps one +of our members will oblige, so we'll know what the slides are about when +we get _w_ound to them?" + +There was a profound silence. No one volunteered. Billy Dutton, looking +up from the pirate ship, to which he was adding some finishing touches, +said he was afeared the president would find them a sad, ignorant lot of +ignorpotammusses. + +"Then we'll just have to get along without Saint Paul," said Daisy +regretfully. "Perhaps it is as well, too, for Bands of Hope isn't only +for amoosement, but to do good, and help uvvers, and carry the glad +tidings right and left into the darkest corners of the earth." + +"Gee-whilikins!" exclaimed Sammy Nesbit, "where's this we're fetching up +to, mates?" + +"Silence! _H_order! Shut your face! Dry up, there, Sammy!" roared the +Band of Hope. + +"I was finking," went on the president, confidentially and undisturbed, +"why a nice little surprise for papa wouldn't be as good an idea as any. +It's an awful long way to Tarawa and back, and papa's never been werry +strong since the fever he got in New Guinea, before he married mamma +with Mr. Chalmers." + +"Wot sort of a surprise _h_exactly?" asked the vice president with an +expression of some doubt. + +"Putting up mottoes _w_ound the walls," returned Daisy, "and green +branches and palm leaves and texes and Merry Christmas, like grandpapa's +in Devonshire, when I was a little tiny winy girl. And papa will be so +pleased and happy and surprised that I know he'll just love it, and +won't never feel tired at all!" + +The Band of Hope, who seemed given to singular and inextinguishable fits +of laughter, promptly went off into another paroxysm; and laughter with +the Band of Hope was no drawing-room performance, no polite titter +behind an upraised hand. When the Band of Hope laughed, it rolled on the +floor, beat its clenched fists against neighboring backs, screamed, +huzzaed, cat-called, kicked pajama legs in the air, and shook the +pictures off the walls. Mr. Bob seemed to be the only one who knew how +to behave, but even Mr. Bob grew crimson in the face, and choked, and +opened his mouth till you could see way down his froat. + +"Genelmen," he said, when at last he had somewhat recovered, "you've +listened to our _h_orders, and I'll _h_only remind you that them that +_h_ain't with us is agin us, as Saint Paul says. Back-sliders and goats +may return to the bar, but me and the fleecy sheep is agoing to see this +thing through, and do our dooty _h_under the regilations by Board of +Trade _h_appointed. Goats, as I said afore, will kindly rise and step +out!" + +"We ain't no blooming quitters," spoke up Billy Dutton. "Goats, nothing, +you wall-eyed old ram! You want to cinch all the texes for yesself, and +make a running with our lovely president. But we are on to you, Bob +Fletcher, and I voice the sentimomgs of the whole band when I says with +Saint John, in the forty-first epistle to the Proosians, 'Wot you put +your fist to, that do it with all yer might!'" + +"Aye, aye!" chorused the band with boisterous approval. + +"Then _h_up and work, you devils!" exclaimed the vice president. "Pull +out that table, Mack; and you, there, bear a 'and to 'elp 'im, 'Enery. +Set _h_up the little chair, Williams! Easy with Saint Paul, you, Tommy, +or you'll crack him sure--and lay the whole caboodlum on the shelf, +_h_out of 'arm's way! Lively, lads--lively!" + +Bob lifted Daisy in his arms, and carrying her to the table, installed +her comfortably in the little chair. + +"Captain's bridge," he said; "and if anything ain't right, or just +_h_according to your _h_idears, you sing out to the lower deck, loud and +'earty; only mind you don't get _h_excited and spill orf!" + +Daisy's eyes danced, and her timidity all vanished as she saw the jovial +and obedient band grouping together and hotly discussing the proposed +decorations. Distances were measured with tarry thumbs. A party of six +was told off to climb the cocoa palms across the road; while another, +shouting and hallooing like schoolboys, was dispatched to Holderson's +station to get sinnet. There was a noisy wrangle over spelling. "I never +seed it like that," said one, squinting over Billy's slate, "and I don't +believe nobody else ever did neither." "For the love of Mike," roared +another, "let's stick to them words we're all agreed on, and keep off of +that thorological grass!" "Man and boy, I've been to sea this thirty +years," exclaimed Mr. Bob with crushing vehemence, "and there warn't no +T in Christmas then, and there ain't now! C-R-I-S-S-M-A-S, you +son of a sea cook, and I know _h_every letter of it like the palm of me +'and!" + +In a corner, dispassionately aloof from all the bustle and argument, +Papa Benson, that venerable dandy of the pink pajamas, pumped up the +concertina, and drew melodiously on his ancient repertoire. To the +inspiring strains of "In Her Hair She Wore a White Camellia," "Oh, +Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out To-night?" and the "Mulligatawny +Guards," the good work progressed with sailorlike speed and system. The +bare, dreary room grew gay with greenery. Stitched to the matting walls +with sinnet there appeared letters, words, and finally complete +inscriptions: PEAS ON ERTH AND GOODWILL TOWARDS MAN; DAISY +KIRKE, THE SEAMAN'S STAR; MERRY CRISSMAS, and GOD BLESS OUR HOM. + +Daisy clapped her hands with delight, and did not stint her praise or +approval. Occasionally she would stand up on the "bridge" to anxiously +point out a crooked letter, or call attention to a doubtful spelling; +and her little heart overflowed with satisfaction at the brisk "Aye, +aye, Miss!" that greeted her smallest criticism. Mr. Bob worked like a +horse, and not only made things jump, but kept a sharp watch as well on +the unguarded utterances of his mates. Once, at some remark of Mr. +Tod's, he flared up like a lion, and stepping close to Mr. Tod, with +his fist clenched, said, "Drop that, Toddy--d'ye 'ear--drop it!" and +stared at him so fierce and splendid, that Mr. Tod fell back and mumbled +something about "No offense," and "It kinder ripped out unbeknownst, +Bob, old cock!" + +By the time it was all finished dusk was falling. The room had been +beautifully swept out, and likewise the porch, and Mr. Bell was in the +act of dancing a fascinating clog to Papa Benson's "Soldier's Joy" on +the concertina, when Nantok rushed in, shouting that Mr. Kirke was +coming. And, indeed, she had no sooner given the news than it was +confirmed by the whaler's crew, whose voices could be heard far across +the water, lustily singing at their paddles. + +A sort of consternation descended on the Band of Hope. "Hell!" exclaimed +Mr. Dutton, and dropped his broom with a crash. There was a mad scurry +to escape. The little president was forgotten in the pellmell rush, and +from the height of her table she perceived her friends flying away +without a word of farewell. No, not all. The faithful Mr. Bob, quiet and +masterful even in that panicky moment of the missionary's return, came +up to her, and taking her hand in both his own, nuzzled it long and +lovingly against his cheek. + +"Little Daisy," he said, and his voice sounded kind of strange and +different, "I want you to give a message to your pa--a message from me, +you say to 'im--and that is, 'e'll never 'ave no more trouble with the +boys down the shore. And if any of them gets fresh, or gives 'im any +lip, or 'oots--you tell 'im this, Daisy--I'll break every bone of 'is +body, so 'elp me, Moses. And it _h_ain't because of 'im, or anythink the +like of that, but because he's the father of the darlingest little gal +that _h_ever breathed, and the sweetest and the dearest." + +Daisy flung her arms around his neck and kissed him; and as her face +pressed his, rough as mahogany and hairy as a mat, she felt it all wet +with tears. + +Daisy was still wondering what it was that could make Mr. Bob cry, when +he suddenly let her go, and walked out of the door in his funny, heavy, +lurching sea walk, looking straight before him, and unheeding the "Happy +Noo Year, Mr. Bob!" she called after him in a pitiful little voice. + +"Poor Mr. Bob!" said Daisy to herself; and then, happening to put her +hand to her hair, she discovered that the red ribbon was gone! + +"He must have stole it for a keepsake when I was kissing him!" she +exclaimed. "Oh, you bad, bad Mr. Bob!" + +But her eyes sparkled nevertheless, as she ran out to greet papa and +mamma. + + + + +OLD DIBS + + +His beginnings was a mystery, where he come from a conjecture, and his +business in Manihiki Island one of them things that bothered a fellow in +his sleep and yapped at his heels when he was awake. Captain Corker had +picked him up at Penrhyn, and the trader there said he had been landed +from a barkentine, lumber laden, from Portland, and from there back +there was a haze on his past thicker than Bobby Carter's. Leastways, +with Bobby there was his forty-five different stories to account for the +leg-iron scars on his ankles, but with Old Dibs you hadn't even that to +chew on. Nothing but five large new trunks and the clothes he stood in. +Remarkable clothes, too, they were, for a coral island in the mid +Pacific, being invariably a stovepipe hat and a Prince Albert coat, with +trousers changing from pearl gray to lead color, with stripes, till +you'd think he'd melt! + +He was a fine man to look at, about sixty years of age, very portly and +pleasant spoken, and everything he said sounded important, even if it +was only about the weather or why cocoanut milk always gave him cramps. +He said his name was Smith. People who change their names seem always +to change it to Smith, till you wonder sometimes they don't choose +Jones, or maybe Patterson, or Wilkins. But you'll notice it is Smith +every time, though we always called him Old Dibs, because of the money +that he had and threw around so regardless. + +My first sight of him was on the front porch, mopping his forehead, and +asking whether he might have board and lodging by the week. I told him +that we hardly carried style enough for a gentleman like him, but all we +had he was welcome to--and if not too long--for nothing. He seemed +pleased at this, and more pleased still when he looked over our big +bedroom and noticed my wife's smiling, comely face. She's only a Kanaka +girl, but I wouldn't trade her for a million. And he laid down a shining +twenty-dollar gold piece and asked if that would do every Tuesday? + +Now I am as fond of money as any man, but I'm not a pirate, and so I +said it was too much. But he wouldn't take no denial, and flung it down +on the trade-room counter again, saying he counted it settled. Then I +turned to with his trunks, told my wife to bundle out into the boatshed, +and opened beer. + +"Making a long stay, sir?" said I. + +"I hardly know, Bill," he said. (I had told him my name was Bill.) "I +hardly know, Bill," and with that he heaved a tremendous sigh. + +"We don't often have visitors here," I said. "The last was eighteen men +of the British bark _Wolverine_, in boats, from French Frigate Shoals, +where they were cast away." + +"I'm looking for a quiet place to end my days in," he says. + +"Well, I guess you've found it," I says. + +"It looks as though I had, Bill," he answers, gazing seaward where the +palms was bending in the trade breeze and there was nothing but the +speck of Captain Corker's schooner beating out. I could see he was +pretty downhearted, and though I set the music box going to cheer him +and asked if he fancied a nice mess of gulls' eggs for supper, it wasn't +no good, and finally he went into his room and set out the rest of the +day on one of the trunks. + +I went along the same evening to talk it over with Tom Riley, the other +trader in Manihiki, who, in spite of our being in opposition and all +that, was more like my own born brother than a rival in business. We +never let down the price of shell or copra on each other, and lined up +shoulder to shoulder if a third party tried to break in, and so we had +enough for both of us and a tidy bit over. Tom was afire to hear all +about Old Dibs, and had been getting bulletins the whole afternoon from +the Kanakas, down to the twenty dollars and the five trunks, and even +the way he sighed. + +Tom knew right away he was a defaulter, and said we were in powerful +luck to have got him. It was fine of Tom to take it like that, for what +luck there was was mine, and he said he'd help out with chickens and +fresh fish and some extra superior canned stuff he had, so that Old Dibs +would be comfortable and want to stay. Tom was a good deal like that +professor who could make a prehistoric animal out of one prehistoric +bone, and then, when later on they discovered the whole beast entire, it +was head and tail with the one he had drawn on the blackboard. And by +the time the square-face had made a second round, Tom's fancy had flown +higher than a yellow-back novel, Old Dibs being dead, blessing me with +his last breath and making me the heir of all his riches! + +Tom walked home with me, still talking, for we had now bought a +ninety-ton schooner with my legacy, me captain and him supercargo, and +we had taken out French naturalization papers so we might be free of the +Paumotu and Tubuai groups. When we said good night, whispering so as not +to disturb Old Dibs, who was snoring out serene, it had grown to be a +fleet, with headquarters at Papiete, and a steam service to 'Frisco! We +were a pair of boys, both of us, and could make squid taste like lamb +chops just by telling ourselves it was so! + +I reckon Old Dibs was a little suspicious of me and Tom, and small blame +to him for that, the Islands being pretty full of tough customers, with +never no law nor order nor nobody to appeal to in trouble unless it was +your gun. He made me put a stout bolt on his door and chicken wire over +the windows, and always slept with the lamp burning in his room; and it +was noticeable, too, that he never cared to wander far away from the +house. He was given to playing the flute in the stern of an old +whaleboat, which was drawn up near the station with a cocoanut shelter +over it. He never went anywhere, except to the native pastor's (Iosefo +his name was). I suppose he felt a kind of protection in him--Iosefo +being the nearest thing to an official in the island--and he made +himself very solid in that quarter, giving to the church lavish and +going there every Sunday. He always come back from them visits with a +ruminating look in his eye, and the first thing he did was to make a bee +line for his room, like somebody might have been tampering with his +trunks. + +Finally one day he took me aside and said: "Bill, that Iosefo is a very +agreeable man, and if it would be the same to you, I'd like to have him +a little about the house." + +"Why, Mr. Smith," I said, "you needn't have troubled to ask me that; any +friend of yours is welcome, I am sure, and I never saw no harm in +Iosefo, even if he is a missionary." + +I thought he meant to have the fellow in to talk with him or play +checkers, to while away the time that hung so heavy on his hands. But it +wasn't this at all--except for a halfway pretense at the beginning. No; +he paid Iosefo ten dollars a week, for what do you think? To sit on one +of his trunks (_the_ trunk, I reckon) from seven in the morning till six +at night, barring service time Sundays. Yes, sir; nothing else than a +squatting sentry, mounting guard over the boodle inside the trunk and +protecting it from me! I wonder what the home missionary society would +have said to see Brother Iosefo yawning all day on the top of a trunk, +or writing his sermon on his knee, Saturdays! + +At first I felt pretty hot about it, for it smacked too much of setting +a thief to catch a thief, or at least offsetting the pastor and me like +the compensating idea of a ship's chronometer; but my wife liked the +respectability it give us before the natives; and Tom said my resenting +it would be like putting the cap on my head. So I acted like I didn't +give a whoop, the one way or the other. + +And then it wasn't easy to be anything but fond of Old Dibs, for he was +a nice man to live with, never turning up his nose at the poor food we +give him, and always so kind and polite to Sarah, my wife, that she +fairly idolized him. He was a real gentleman through and through, and if +his money (he called it his "papers," his valuable "papers") weighed +heavy on his mind, I guess I'd have been no better in his shoes, having +to trust to strangers who might cut your throat. He had the whole island +to roam over now, instead of being cooped up like a chicken in a coop, +and we all noticed what a change in him it made for the better, throwing +off flesh, and not panting so heavy between the spells of his flute, and +walking with his head in the air like the island belonged to him. + +He wasn't much of a fluter, playing mostly from notes, and often picking +them out so slow that you'd forget what the tune began like. He despised +simple things like "Way Down Upon the Suwanee River," and the difficult +things seemed to despise _him!_ But he stuck at it indefatiguable, and +blew enough wind through his flute to have sailed a ship. After +breakfast in the morning, which he took in his panjammers like me, he +would dress himself up nice in his Prince Albert, give his topper a +wipe, and start away with the flute and a roll of music in a natty +little case, like he was off to the Bank for the day. The only thing +that ruffled him any was the children, about eighty of them, who always +went along, too, and set in a circle around him when he played. I told +him they'd soon tire of tagging after him, which he said he was mighty +glad to hear; but if it was flies, they couldn't have been more +pertinacious. I spoke to the king about it, and Old Dibs he complained +to Iosefo, but it only seemed to whoop it up and add to the procession. +The king said if he'd just flute in one place, he would put a taboo +around it which neither children nor grown-ups would cross; but Old Dibs +said that the looking on, even from a distance, would be quite as +disturbing as being sprawled all over; and so the children followed him +unabated. + +Then I had a happy thought, and suggested the graveyard! This was a +walled-in inclosure, perhaps a hundred feet each way, on the weather +side of the island, and on a windy day, with the surf thundering in, it +was the lonesomest spot where a man could find himself. The natives left +it alone at all times, except to bury somebody, and none of them came +nearer to it than they could help. The Kanakas have a powerful dread of +spirits, and even in the daytime they'd give the place a wide berth. The +walls, too, being about seven feet high, prevented the children from +peeking in, except at the gateway, which was so narrow that it was easy +to get out of view. + +Old Dibs perked up at this and cottoned to the idea tremendous; and the +graveyard soon become his regular stamping ground, except when there was +a funeral. He rigged up a little shelter for himself in the center, with +a music stand I made for him out of scantling; and often he took his +lunch in his pocket and spent the whole day. Not a child ventured to +show himself, and he had it as much to himself as though he owned it; +and he could lay his stovepipe down now without any fear of its being +greased up or sat on. It led to his asking a raft of questions about the +natives and their superstitions, and how none of them ventured to go +near the place unless in a big party. He came back to that again and +again, and always with the same interest. I ought to have suspected what +was running in his head, but I didn't. In fack, we had all settled down +now like we had always lived together, and I didn't bother any more +about him, or what he said or did, than if he had been my wife's father! +It was a good deal like having a rich uncle to stay with you, and after +the first excitement you took it all as a matter of course. + +Even Iosefo, sitting on the trunk in the bedroom, became one of them +things that ran into habit; and in some ways it was a good idea, too, +for it brought custom to the store, what with the deacons coming over to +talk about church affairs, and the Committee on Ways and Means meeting +there regular. Even the gold twenty every week settled down in the same +channel of routine, and I didn't bite it any more, as I used to do, nor +hold it in my hand wondering where it come from. I just put it away with +the rest and thought no more about it. The only concern of me and Sarah +was to feed up the old fellow to the best of our ability and try and +make him pleased. + +We had been running along like this for I don't know how long, when one +night, toward the small hours, a singular thing happened. I was sleeping +very light, and I woke up all of a sudden and saw Old Dibs standing in +the doorway! He had a candle in his hand and bulked up enormous in his +red silk dressing gown, and there was a wild look on his unshaved face. + +I held my breath and watched him through my half-shut eyes--watched him +for quite a spell, till he softly tiptoed away again in his naked feet, +and I heard the door close behind him in the house. I waited a long +while wondering what to do, and what there could be in the boatshed to +bring him out at such an unlikely hour. At first I was for getting my +rifle and sitting up the balance of the night; but then, as I waked up +more and tried to think it out, it seemed that he had a better right to +be afraid of me than me of _him_. It couldn't be to do me no harm, I +reckoned, but probably to assure himself that I was asleep. + +He was plainly up to something, and it was equally plain he didn't want +me to know it. So I got out of bed--if you can call a stack of mats and +a schooner's topsail a bed--and lit out to see what was doing. It was no +good trying to get into the house, for Old Dibs had nailed the keys and +handed them out every morning through the winder when I went to take him +his shaving water. But the curtains of the bedroom weren't extra close, +and if I could get up on the veranda without too much of a creaking I +knew I could see in all right. There's a lot of cat in a sailor, even to +the nine lives and the dislike of getting wet, and I was soon on my +knees at the sill, taking in the performance. + +The room was lit up as usual, and all the big five trunks were open, +with Old Dibs diving into them like he was packing for the morning +train. Leastways, that was my first thought; the second was, that +something stranger than that was up, and that people didn't usually go +traveling with an outfit of pinkish paper cut into shavings. You've seen +them, haven't you?--the kind of packing they put into music boxes, fine +toys, and the like, flummoxy twisted paper ravelings that protect the +varnish and have no weight to speak of. Well, that was what was in them +trunks, and Old Dibs was pawing it out till it stuck up in the room, +yards high, like a mountain. Occasionally he seemed to strike something +harder than paper--something that would take both his hands to lift--and +it was only a little clinking canvas bag that big. + +Money? Of course it was money! And he was stacking it in a leather +dress-suit case laid on the floor next his bed. + +You could see he was nervous by the way he kept looking behind him; and +once, when a rat ran across the attic, he jumped awful and the whole +floor shook. It was a queer sensation to look right into a man's eyes +and him not see you, which I did with Old Dibs again and again as he'd +stop and listen. I ought to have said that one of the trunks was clothes +all right, but even here there was three or four bags of coin, which he +got out and added to the others. + +Then he counted the bags and tried to turn the top of the suit case on +them, but couldn't manage it. He arranged them first this way and then +that way, but there was always about a dozen outstanding. The canvas +itself was very coarse, and there was lots to spare, the slack being +turned over and over, and tied with heavy twine extra. Then he took them +all out, and slitting them open, just let the stuff rip naked. + +Lord! but it was a dandy sight, a dazzle of double eagles cascading like +a river, and so swift that you couldn't pretend to count them! He seemed +satisfied to go on like that, cutting one open after the other, till the +suit case brimmed up solid. There was fifty-eight bags in all, and the +Lord only knows how much in each; but, as I said, it took both his hands +to lift a single one. I reckon I didn't know there was so much money in +all the world, and it came over me afresh how fond I was of Old Dibs, +and how good I was going to be to him. + +When the last bag was emptied he thought he'd put back the suit case +into one of the trunks, never recollecting that he might as well have +tried to lift a locomotive. Then he laid hands on just the handle at one +end, and he couldn't even shift it. You disremember how heavy gold is, +seeing so little of it, and counting a hundred dollars a fortune. But he +had there, considering the trunks weighed the usual amount, say about a +hundred and fifty pounds each, and gold at nearly twenty dollars an +ounce--well, the next day Tom worked it out to about two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars. + +Think of it! With nothing between it and me but some chicken wire and an +old gentleman in a dressing gown! It would have seemed a snap to some +people, but I never made a dishonest dollar in my life--except in the +way of trade, and then it was to natives (who water copra on you and +square the difference); and he was in no more danger of harm than if it +had been Lima beans. + +Then--to get along with my yarn--he took the comforter off the bed, and +setting it down flat on the floor, begun to cover it with double +handfuls ranged in rows, till he had worked down the suit case to where +he could lift it. He carried it over to the nearest trunk, placed it +snug in the bottom, and started to load it up again from the stacks on +the quilt. I don't know how long he took to do it, but it was quite a +time, and he looked pretty well tired out when it was over, and he sat +back in the rocker and rocked--me still glued at the winder--and he +reached out for his flute and put it to his lips (though he didn't blow +into it), and worked his fingers like he was playing a piece. After a +time he laid it down, and drawing his dressing gown closer around him, +took another go at filling up the trunks again with the paper packing. + +This seemed a good time for me to skip, which I did more cautious than +ever, my heart beating that loud I wonder he didn't hear me. I felt for +my pipe in the dark, and went out under the stars to the edge of the +lagoon, to think it all over. You might wonder what I had to do with it +unless it was to make away with him and scoop the pool for me and Tom; +but, as I said before, I wasn't that kind of a man, and millions +wouldn't have made no difference. But I was in a sort of tremble for the +old fellow himself, for what was he doing alone with it in the far +Pacific, unless there were others after him, hotfoot? + +Wherever there's a carcass there's sharks to eat it, though you may have +sailed a week and not seen a fin; and human sharks have the longest +scent of any, especially when they have the law on their side and courts +of justice behind them. I wanted to keep the money in the family, so to +speak, and I was not only unwilling to harm Old Dibs myself, but I +didn't want no others to harm him neither. + +I talked it over with Tom next morning, till the eyes nearly bulged out +of his head. Tom was less of a pirate even than me, but he had to have +his fling in fancy, being, as I said, one of them natural-born yarners, +and he never got back to earth till we had poisoned Old Dibs (wavering +between Rough on Rats and powdered glass), covered up all traces of the +crime, divided the money equal, and sailed away West in his five-ton +cutter, to bring up at last in one of the Line islands. After arranging +it all to the last dot, even to the name of our ninety-ton schooner, and +the very bank in Sydney where we'd lay the stuff in our joint names, he +said there was only one thing to do, and that was to warn Old Dibs, and +arrange some kind of a scheme to protect him. + +"They are bound to run him down," said Tom. "A man that skips out with +nothing, and a man that skips out with a quarter of a million, are in +two different classes; and it wouldn't surprise me the least bit if +there was six ships aiming for Manihiki simultaneous." + +By the time I started back to find Old Dibs I was worked up to quite a +fever, and I'd keep looking over my shoulder expecting every minute to +see one of them six ships in the pass. He had finished breakfast and had +gone, and so I followed him over to the weather side, where, as usual, +he was sitting under his tarpaulin in the graveyard, tootling for all he +was worth. He looked up, a little surprised to see me, and I guess ships +were running through his head also, for that was his first question. + +I sat down on a near-by grave. + +"The fack is, Mr. Smith," I said, very meaningly, "you paid me a little +visit last night and I paid you one." + +"Oh, my God!" he said, turning whiter than paper, and the voice coming +out of him like an old man's. + +"There's no 'my God' about it," I said. "But me and Tom Riley's been +talking it over, and we'd like to bear a hand to help you." + +"It's mine," he said, very defiant, and trembling. "It's mine, every +penny of it, and honest come by." + +"No doubt," I said, "but would I be guessing wrong if there were others +who didn't think so?" + +"There _are_ others," he said at last, seeing, I suppose, that my face +looked friendly, and realizing that me and Tom would hardly take this +tack if we meant to massacre him in his sleep. + +"Mr. Smith," I said, "you never had two better friends than Bill Hargus +or Tom Riley." + +He laid down his flute. + +"I'd never feel in any danger with that good wife of yours about," he +said. It didn't seem quite the right remark under the circumstance, but +there was a power of truth back of it. That girl of mine was regularly +struck on Old Dibs, and, being a Tongan, was full of the Old Nick, and +would have bit my ear off if I had lifted my hand to him. The two of +them had patched up an adoption arrangement, him being her father, and +she used to play _suipi_ with him, and taught him to repeat Psalms in +native. It's only another proof how women are the same everywhere, and +how far it goes with them to be treated with a little respeck and +consideration. + +"You have a plan?" he says. "Well, Bill, what is it?" + +"It's a plan to get a plan," I said. "What chance would you have as +things are now?" + +"Chance?" he inquires. + +"You'd be in irons and aboard, before you'd know what had happened to +you," I said. + +He looked at me a long time and then heaved a sigh. + +"I'd do for myself first," he said. "They'll never put me in the dock so +long as I have a pistol and the will to use it on myself." + +"I think me and Tom could improve on that," said I. + +"This island's too small to hide in," he said. "No background," he said. +"I was looking for a place where there was mountains and inland +country--and maybe caves." + +"You never could make a success of it by yourself," I said. "You +couldn't in an island made to order, with electric buttons and trapdoors +let into the granite. But me and you and Tom might, and if you've the +mind to, we will." + +He was kind of over his panic by this time, and I guess he saw the sense +of it all. + +"Bill," he said, "it's a weight off my mind to have you know the truth. +Fetch along Tom, and I'll do anything you two say, for I've nearly split +my old head trying to find a way out; but what could I do single +handed?" + +"Tom's a corker," I said. "He's got an imagination like a box factory. +If I was in a tight place like yours, I'd sail the world around just to +find Tom Riley." + +"Let's call him in, then," he says, "for, as things are now, if they +should strike this island, I'm a dead man!" And with that he took up his +flute again and fluted very thoughtful and low, while I made a line for +Tom's station. + +Tom was as happy as a lawyer with his first case. He hurried along, with +a bottle of beer in each pocket and a memorandum book to write in, and +just gloried in the whole business. It was like one of his own yarns +come true, and he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. +He took hold right off; and it was pleasant to watch Old Dibs setting +back on a grave, with the comfortable air of a man that's being taken +charge of by experts. I won't go into all that we arranged and didn't +do, it being enough to say what we _did_, Tom beginning a bit wild about +putting contact mines in the channel and importing a submarine boat from +Sydney, and coming down gradual to what the poet calls human nature's +daily food. This was, to rig a platform in a giant _fao_ tree that stood +in the middle of the island, about three miles down the coast, and fix +it up with food and things, for Old Dibs to camp in. + +The idea was to hide him till dark in the attic of my house, and then to +put him up the tree for as long as the ship stayed by us. Tom said I +could easily stand off my house being searched for a few hours, even if +it was a man-of-war that come, telling them they might do it to-morrow. +Then Tom said we'd have to take Iosefo, the native pastor, into it part +way, making him preach from the pulpit and order the people to deny all +knowledge of Old Dibs if they were asked questions about him by +strangers. Tom said the important thing was to gain the first day's +start; for though it wasn't in reason to expect the whole island, man, +woman, and child, to keep the secret, we might be pretty sure it +wouldn't leak out under twenty-four hours. Then, last of all, we were to +make away with all Old Dibs's trunks, packing what clothes he had, and +that into camphor-wood chests, which would occasion no remark, specially +if they were covered over on the top with trade dresses and hats, and +such like. + +Old Dibs liked it all tiptop, and, more than anything, Tom's honest, +willing face; but he shied a bit when we walked along to the tree in +question, and looked up sixty feet into the sky, where he was to hang +out on his little raft. + +"Good heavens, Riley!" he says, "do you take me for a bird, or what?" + +But Tom talked him round, showing how we'd rig a boatswain's chair on a +tackle, and a sort of rustic monkey-rail to keep him from being dizzy, +and had an answer ready for every one of old Dibs's criticisms. Tom and +me, having been seafaring men, couldn't see no trouble about it, and the +only thing to consider serious was how much the platform might show +through the trees, and whether or not the upper boughs were strong +enough to hold. We went up to make sure, straddling out on them, and +bobbing up and down, and choosing a couple of nice forks for where we'd +lay the main cross-piece. Tom tied his handkerchief around a likely +bough, to mark the place for the block and give us a clean hoist from +below, and we both come down very cheerful with the prospect. + +Old Dibs seemed less gay about it, and had thought up a lot of fresh +objections; but Tom said there was only one thing to worry about, and +that was whether the whole concern wouldn't show plain against the sky. +We got off a ways to take a look, and very unsatisfying it was, too. A +big, leafy tree seems a mighty solid affair, till you stand off and look +right through it; and Old Dibs was for giving up the idea and trying the +cellar, which was Tom's other notion. But the tree business appealed to +Tom more, and he explained how we'd paint the contraption green, and how +people, when they were walking, never looked up, but ahead; and how +unwholesome a cellar would be, and likely to give Old Dibs the +rheumatics; not to speak of pigs rooting him out, and no air to speak +of. + +"Then think of the view," said Tom, who was as happy as a sand boy and +in a bully humor, "and so close to the stars, Mr. Smith, that you can +pick them down for lights to your cigar!" + +Old Dibs smiled a sickly smile, like he was unbending to a pair of kids. + +"Have it your own way, then, Riley," says he, "but you're responsible +for the thing being a success, and don't look for me to dance tight +ropes or do monkey on a stick." + +"I'd engage to put a cow up there," said Tom, not overpolite, though he +meant no harm, "or a parlor organ, with the young lady to play it." + +"Mr. Smith," said I, "you'll only need shut your eyes and trust to us, +and take it all as it comes." + +"Boys," said Old Dibs, kind of solemn and helplesslike, "you'll do the +square thing by me, won't you? You won't sell an old man for blood +money? You won't get me up there and then strike a trade with them +that's tracking me down?" + +You ought to have seen Tom Riley's face at that! I was afraid there +would be a bust-up then and there. But all he did was to walk faster +ahead, like he didn't care to talk to us any more, and gave us the broad +of his back. Old Dibs ran after him and caught his arm, panting out he +was sorry and all that, and how Tom was to put himself in his place, +with the whole world banded against him. I felt sorry to see the old +fellow eating dirt, and trotting along so fat and wheezy, with Tom +almost pushing him off like a beggar, and it was like spring sunshine +when Tom turned square around and said: + +"Hell! that's all right, Mr. Smith." And I guess it was Old Dibs's face +that needed watching, it was beaming and happy, specially when they +shook hands on it, and we all three walked along abreast, like a father +and his two sons on the way to the bar. + +Tom didn't let grass grow under his feet, and he went at it all with a +rush, beginning first of all with Iosefo, the Kanaka pastor. Natives +are never so helpful and willing as when you're egging them on to do +something they shouldn't, and he fell in with the preaching idea, and +wanted to start right away. But they finally decided it had better be a +monthly affair, so the natives shouldn't lose track of it, and Iosefo +commenced the first Sunday. Anybody that gave away Old Dibs was to have +his house burned in this world and his soul in the next; and Iosefo laid +it on thick about our all loving him, and what a friend he has proved +himself to the island; and when he reached the point where he announced +that Old Dibs had contributed fifty dollars toward the fund for the new +church, you could feel a rustle go through the whole congregation, and a +general gasp of satisfaction. Iosefo drew a fancy picture of Judas +hanging himself, and brought it up to date with Old Dibs, and what a +scaly thing it was to do anyway. He let himself rip in all directions, +even to the persecutions in what he called the White Country, which he +said Old Dibs had endured for religion's sake, and how he had been +thrown to the lions in the Colossium. + +Old Dibs sat there as smug as smug, little knowing how the agony was +being piled on his bald head; and just when Iosefo was making him cow +the lions with a glance, Old Dibs took the specs off his nose and wiped +them, while everybody was worked up tremendous to know whether he had +been eat or not. Iosefo was no slouch when he once got his hand in, and +carried it over to the next number like a story in a magazine, the +Kanakas all going out buzzing, wishing it was Sunday week, and eyeing +Old Dibs with veneration. + +The platform was number two on the list, and me and Tom, with the +measurements we had taken in the tree, made a very neat job of it, and +painted it green topside and bottom. We laid it together in Tom's shed, +and got in Old Dibs to see if it would fit him, which it did beautiful, +being six foot six by two and a half. Tom explained we'd put a natty +railing around it, likewise painted green, and carry a width of fine +netting below, so that pillows or things shouldn't slip overboard. Tom +was hurt at Old Dibs not being more enthusiastic, and finally said: +"Hell! Mr. Smith, what are you sticking at?" + +"It'll never sustain the coin," said Old Dibs, jouncing up and down on +it like a dancing hippopotamus. + +"You weren't meaning to take that up, too?" cries Tom. + +"I thought that was part of the scheme?" said Old Dibs. "Why, you said a +whole cow yourself. Didn't he, Bill?" + +This was a facer for Tom, but all he asked was how much money there +was. + +"It weighs hundreds of pounds," said Old Dibs, very sly, and not wanting +to name figgers. + +We neither of us could very well blame the old gentleman for not wanting +to trust us with a quarter of a million dollars while he was up a tree +like a canary bird; and so Tom or I didn't say what was in our minds, +which was to bury it somewheres. In fact, there was a longish silence, +till I suggested using some two-inch iron pipe I had at home, instead of +the light boat spars Tom had cut for the purpose. + +"And as for the money," said I, "why not have a locker for it at each +end, with the weight resting against the forks, and maybe a little room +extra for Mr. Smith's toothbrush and toilet tackle?" I minded the size +of the suit case I had last seen the stuff in, and showed Tom about what +was wanted. + +"But that'll cut him off at each end," objected Tom, looking at Old Dibs +like he was measuring him for a coffin, "and you know yourself six foot +six is the most we can allow." + +"Oh, I don't mind shortening up a bit," said Old Dibs, laying down to +show how easy it might be done, and eager to be accommodating. + +"And I'd propose chicken wire instead of net," says I to Tom, noticing +how the old gentleman bulked outboard. "He's putting a strain on that +worse nor a live shark." + +Tom said he thought so, too, and him and I put in half a day making the +platform over, while Old Dibs crossed over to the graveyard and fluted +away the rest of the afternoon. We waited for the full moon before +getting it into the tree, for daytime was out of the question, and Tom +and I managed it very well, and to both our satisfaction. The tropic +moon is a whale of a moon, and you can almost see to read by it, and it +wasn't the want of light that bothered us any. The trouble was more to +get it level and lash it proper with zinc wire. But we finished it up in +style, with a second coat of green paint everywhere except the bottom, +and, though I do say it myself, it was as snug a little crow's nest, and +as comfortable and strong, as though it had been made by people +regularly in the business. We rigged the tackle, too, and tried out the +Manila rope with the boatswain's chair, and would have sent up Old Dibs +on a trial trip if we hadn't feared he'd never make another. So we let +it go at that, he paying us one hundred dollars for our trouble, and +expressing himself mighty well pleased. + +I reckon perhaps he was, for we fixed up the attic, too, and had +everything in train so that there wouldn't be no hitch when the time +come. Tom got kind of sore waiting for it, for after having put so much +work into the thing he naturally wanted to see it used, and it galled +him to wait and wait, with nothing doing. But Old Dibs took it more +cheerful, and minded a good deal less about its being wasted; and as the +months run on, he seemed to think he was out of the woods, and perked up +wonderful. + +Not that he wasn't careful, of course, or that Iosefo let down on the +preaching; for nobody could be sure what day or what minute the pinch +mightn't come. He grew quite familiar with the attic part of it, +scooting up there whenever we raised a sail, and remaining for days at a +time when a ship was in port. We had a fair number of them, off and +on--the missionary bark, the _Equator_, Captain Reid; the _Lorelei_, +Captain Saxe; the _Ransom_, Captain Mins; the _Belle Brandon_, Captain +Cole; the brigantine _Trenton_, in ballast, calling in to set her +rigging; the cutter _Ulysses_, with supplies for Washington Island, and +the Seventh-Day Adventist schooner _Pitcairn_, with her mate dying of +some kind of sickness. They buried him ashore, and then went out again, +after giving us the precise date at which the world was coming to an +end, and saying what a hell of a poor millennium it was going to be for +anybody save _them_! Oh, yes, the usual straggle of vessels that +happened our way, with months between; and, once, the smoke of a steamer +on the horizon. + +Perhaps a matter of eighteen months altogether since Old Dibs first +landed, and day followed day, like it might have gone on forever. One +wouldn't have remarked any particular change in him, except that his rig +was getting shabbier and the shine was coming off the stovepipe--and +perhaps some improvement in the flute. This, an extra bulk, and a kind +of contented look he hadn't wore before, was what life on the island had +done for Old Dibs; and he branched out a bit in the line of household +favorite, cutting kindling wood for Sarah, gutting fish, scraping +cocoanut for the chickens; and the pair of them would sit and gossip for +hours about the neighbors--how Taalolo had driven his wife out of doors, +and the true inwardness of the king's quarrel with Ve'a, and why the +Toto family was in ambush to cut off Tehea's nose. He could talk better +native than I could, and he was made a pet of everywhere around the +settlement, and there was seldom a pig killed but what they'd bring him +the head out of respeck. Not that he wasn't as regular as ever at the +graveyard; but he had kind of shook in, so to speak, and nobody gave a +feast but what he sat at the right hand and divided honors with the +pastor and the king. + +One afternoon, from the bench, I heard them raise a cry of "_Pahi, +Pahi_," and I run out of the copra-shed, where I was weighing, to see a +schooner heading in. She was a smart-looking little vessel of fifty or +sixty tons, and she come up hand over hand, making a running mooring +off the settlement. Tom and I was waiting for her in a canoe, Old Dibs +meanwhile climbing into the attic and dropping the trapdoor, with "Under +Two Flags" and a lamp to support the tedium. That was getting to be +routine now, and his last words were to buy all the books and papers we +could lay our hands on, and not forget Sarah's list of stores she was +out of. Bless my soul! he was always mindful of them things, and it was +always _carte blanche_ in the trade room for anything she fancied. + +Well, we climbed aboard, and they told us she was the Sydney pilot boat +_Minnie_, under charter to two gentlemen aboard who had an option on one +of Arundel's guano islands. They had struck a leak in their main water +tank, and were in for repairs and filling up fresh. + +Tom and me got more of a welcome than seemed quite right, captains +usually being shortish with traders till the gaskets are on; but in this +case it was all so damn friendly that I nudged Tom and Tom nudged me. We +all trooped below to have a drink in the cabin, and the two guano +gentlemen were introduced to us, and likewise another they called their +bookkeeper. All three of them were hulking big men, very breezy and well +spoken, with more the manner of recruiting sergeants soft-sawdering you +to enlist than the ways of people high up in business. Mr. Phelps, who +took the lead, did several things to make me chew on, and he shivered +over his "h's" like he had been brought up originally without any. He +was so genial, that if you had any money in your pocket you would have +held on tight to it, and taken the first opportunity to get out. And his +big hearty laugh was altogether too ready and his manners too free, and +when he clapped me on the back I felt glad to think Old Dibs was tight +in his attic, and his tree in good running order. + +"Very little company hereabouts?" he asked, filling up our glasses for +the second round. + +"Nothing but us two," says Tom. + +"My wife's father is somewhere down this way," volunteered Mr. Phelps. + +"You don't say!" says I, nudging Tom again under the cuddy table. + +"A fine old gent," went on Mr. Phelps, "but he met misfortunes in the +produce commission business, and had to get out very quiet." + +"Too bad!" said I. + +"It grieves my wife not to know where he is," continued Mr. Phelps, "she +being greatly attached to her father, and him disappearing like that; +and she told me not to grudge the matter of fifty pounds to find him." + +"There's a lot of room in the South Seas to lose a produce commission +merchant in," says I. + +"Here's a likeness of him," says Mr. Phelps, taking a photograph out of +his pocket, while four pairs of eyes settled on Tom and me like gimlets, +and there was the kind of pause when pins drop. + +"A very fine-appearing old gentleman," says I, starting in spite of +myself when I saw it was a picture of Old Dibs. + +"Give us a squint, Bill," says Tom, taking it out of my hands as bold as +brass. And then: "I've seen that face somewhere; I know I have. Lord +bless me, wherever could it have been?" And he looked at it, puzzled and +recollectful, me holding my breath, and the rest of them giving a little +jump in their seats. + +Tom brought his fist down on the table with a blow that made the glasses +ring. + +"It was on the _Belle Brandon_!" he cried out, very excited. "A stout +old party, fair complected, who played the flute." + +"That's him!" cried Phelps, half-starting from his chair. + +"I reckon he must be up Jaluit way," said Tom coolly, "Captain Cole +being bound for the Marshalls at the time." + +I could feel them shooting glances all around us. + +"It's remarkable your friend here doesn't remember him," says the one +they called Nettleship, indicating me with the heel of his glass. + +"I didn't happen to get aboard the _Brandon_," says I. "What was I +doing, Tom? I disremember." + +"That was when you was laid up with boils," says Tom, as ready as +lightning. + +"So it was," says I. + +"You didn't happen to pass any talk with him?" asks Mr. Phelps of Tom. + +"Nothing particular," says Tom. + +"Even a little might help us," says Mr. Phelps. "See if you can't +remember." + +"Oh! he said he was looking for a quiet place to end his days in," +answers Tom. + +"I wonder that this here island wasn't to his taste," says Mr. +Nettleship, with a quick look. + +"Oh, it was," says Tom unabashed, "only Captain Cole broke in and said +he knew a better." + +By this time nearly all our heads were touching over the table, except +the one they called the bookkeeper, who had run for a chart. + +"Did he call the island by any particular name?" inquires Mr. Phelps. + +"I think he said Pleasant Island," says Tom, "because I mind the old +gentleman saying it must be a pleasant place with such a name and I said +I had been there, but the holding ground was poor." + +The bookkeeper laid the chart on the table, and the captain found +Pleasant Island with his thumb. + +He was about to say it was a ten days' run leeward, when he broke off +sudden with "ouch" instead, being kicked hard under the table, and +pretending it was the beginning of a cough instead. + +"I'm looking for a change of weather at the full of the moon," remarks +Tom, "and you'd be wise to take this good spell while it lasts." + +I guess Tom overdid it this time, and I gave him hell for it when we +went ashore, for I saw the change on Phelps's face, and that he suddenly +suspicioned Tom was playing double. + +"Business comes first," he says, rolling up the chart, "and though I +would like to find him, just for my poor wife's satisfaction, I can't go +wild-goose-chasing all over the Pacific for a woman's whim." + +Tom was beginning to feel that he had overdone it, too, and roused more +suspicion than he had laid; so he thought to make it up by losing +interest in Old Dibs, and what was Fitzsimmons doing now, and was it +true that John L. had retired from the ring? But he didn't seem to +recover the ground he had lost, and I judged it a bad sign when we went +up the companion for Phelps to say, kind of absent-minded, that he'd go +two hundred and fifty pounds for his father-in-law, alive or +dead--raising it to five hundred as we dropped over the side. + +We pulled first to Tom's house, so as to divert suspicion, and from +there I went along by myself to tip off the news to Old Dibs. When I had +given the knocks agreed on, three sets of four, he drew back the trap, +and asked very cheerful how I had made out with the books and papers. + +"Good God, man, they're here!" says I. + +"Who's here?" he asks, incredulous. + +"A whole schooner of detectives from Sydney," says I. "They say they're +buying guano islands, but there's already five hundred pounds out for +you, dead or alive." + +His great fat hand began to shake on the trap. + +"Never you mind, Mr. Smith," I says reassuring. "Tom will be due here at +midnight, and then we'll run you up your tree." + +But that didn't seem to soothe him any, and he quavered out he would be +better where he was. But I said they'd rummage the whole island upside +down before they were done, and all he had to do was to lay low, not +worry, and let me and Tom handle the thing for him. + +He reached down his hand through the trap, and I shook it, he saying, +"God bless you, Bill--God bless you!" And then it went shut, and I heard +him blow out the lamp. + +The next step was to take my old girl into the secret, she being a +Tongan, as I've already said, and as true as steel. She didn't say much, +but I guess it would have done Old Dibs good to have seen her eyes +flash, and the way her teeth grit, and how quick she was to understand +her part--which was, to pack his clothes in camphor-wood chests under a +top dressing of trade. Old Dibs made no bones about giving her the keys, +while I took it on myself to tell Iosefo the enemy had arrived, and he'd +better move about the village warning everybody of the fack. It was well +I did so, for Phelps and Nettleship and the rest come ashore soon +afterwards with their pockets full of trifles for the children and the +girls, and they strolled about the settlement, stopping to rest and +drink cocoanuts in the different houses. Phelps had brought the +photograph along and showed it right and left, asking if they had ever +seen anybody like that. I guess some of them would have cried out if it +hadn't been for the pastor joining the party, like he wanted to do the +honors of the island, telling the natives beforehand about the +photograph, and shooing off the children when they come too close to it. +The whites probably thought he was talking what nice folks they were, +for he had a kind of bland missionary way of talking, though he was +really calling them the sons of Belial, and saying how the person who +gave Old Dibs away would have his house burned and go to hell. + +The pastor did yeoman's service that day, and at sundown they all went +back to their ship, very grumpy and dissatisfied, returning no wiser +than when they'd come. Iosefo held a service afterwards to rub it in, +and the king spoke at it, and likewise the chiefs, and so in our +different ways we all pulled together for the common good. They had +quite a jollification that night on the schooner, singing songs and +playing some kind of a hurdy-gurdy on deck, and the sound of it come +over the water very pleasant to hear. I sneaked off in a canoe toward +ten o'clock, to make sure it wasn't a blind, but there was no +misdoubting what they were up to. They were all drunk, and getting +drunker, and I couldn't but think what a poor, tipsifying set of sleuths +they were, and how different from Sherlock Holmes in the book. I lay for +nearly an hour under their quarter, to hear what I could hear, and all I +got was the odds and ends of some smutty stories, and once being very +near spit on the head. + +When I got back to the station there was Tom to meet me, it being eleven +now, and the village fast asleep. We overhauled the gear to make sure it +was all in order, Sarah making up a basket of provisions for the old +man, together with his toothbrush, comb, panjammers, blanket, a demijohn +of water, and a bottle of gin. She said he had eaten no dinner, groaning +and carrying on awful, wanting her to shoot him with his pistol and end +it all. But he seemed to have pulled himself together by the time we +were ready, for he let himself down from the attic quite spry, and made +us all laugh by the remarks he passed. But one could see he just forced +himself to do it, and his face looked powerful haggard and flabby in the +lantern light, and he moved queer on his legs, like a push would have +sent him over. + +I had a little two-wheeled truck that I used about the store to run bags +of shell about in, and copra, and on this we put the treasure, eight +bags of it, each one as heavy as could be lifted comfortably. Old Dibs +insisted on cutting one open and serving us out a double handful each, +not forgetting a share for Tom's wife as well as mine, and saying, "Take +it, and God bless you, my dear, kind friends!" We dropped it into my +tool chest, and threw the key on the floor of the bedroom, meaning to +divide up equal later on. + +We rigged a sort of rope harness to the truck, giving Tom the handles to +steer by, while Old Dibs, Sarah, and me did tandem in front. The +boatswain's chair and the coil of Manila rope were lashed down on the +load, as well as the basket of provisions, Sarah carrying the demijohn +in her hand, Old Dibs the gin and "Under Two Flags," while I led the way +with the lantern. + +My, but we must have made a queer sight as we plowed through the +darkness, Tom bearing down on the handles and fighting to keep the truck +on an even keel, Old Dibs grampussing along as wheeler, and Sarah and me +tugging like battery mules! Of course everybody knows that gold is +heavy, but when you run into the hundred thousands it becomes pig-iron +heavy, cannon heavy, house-and-lot-and-barn heavy! It nearly pulled the +hearts out of us to keep that truck moving, specially in the sand before +we struck a harder going. + +I thought time and again it was going to prove the death of Old Dibs. He +was always laying down in his harness like a done-up Eskimo dog in the +pictures, and having to be fanned alive again. But when we'd propose to +cut him out, he'd say No, and stagger to his feet, showing a splendid +spirit and cart-horsing ahead till his poor old breath came in roars. + +It was a thankful moment when we got to the tree, where me and Tom, +after a spell of rest, jumped in together with a will. It was no slouch +of a job to get that tackle in position, the block being iron shod and +heavy, the rope inch Manila, and the night as black as the pit of +Tophet. Tom went aloft first, with a coil of light line, having to feel +his way for the place we had marked with the handkerchief, and +threatening more than once to come down quicker than he had gone up. The +handkerchief had rotted off, or blown away long since, and it bothered +Tom not a little to find where it had been. But at last he did so, +dropping his line for the lantern, according to the plan we had arranged +beforehand, so as to avoid all shouting and noise. When he had placed +the lantern to his satisfaction, the line came straggling down again +for the block and the gear to make it fast with, and when this was done +the inch Manila went up, and everything was ready. + +It showed how well Tom and I had thought it out, that there wasn't a +single hitch, except for the lantern blowing out and Tom having no +matches, I going up to see what was delaying him, and having none +neither. Then we changed places, Tom being a heavier man to pull, and I +remaining aloft to handle the freight as it came along. They made the +boatswain's chair fast below, and sent her up with the first load--two +bags of coin--getting it on a level with the platform by the lantern +marking the place. I stood on the platform and had no trouble in yanking +the stuff in; and this went right along like a mail steamer, till it was +all up, and it came old Dibs's turn. + +But he just took one look at the boatswain's chair, and said "Nit," +laying down on the ground when they tried to persuade him into it, and +rolling over and over in desperation. We argufied over him for an hour, +and it seemed all to no purpose, he refusing to budge an inch, saying he +weighed two hundred and twenty pounds, and was better off in the attic. + +Time was running away on us, and me and Tom got tired of saying the same +things over and over, and always getting the same answers, and finally +we lost our tempers, and said we'd go home. Then he said he'd come +home, too, and we said No, we had washed our hands of him. Then he said +he was only a poor old man and would blow his brains out, and we said he +might, if he wanted to. Then, when we had gone about twenty paces, he +come lumbering after us, saying, "For God's sake, stop!" and swearing he +would go up peaceful, and make no more trouble. + +We tied him in like a baby in a high chair, I going up to receive him, +while my wife and Tom laid on to the rope with a yeo-heave-yeo under +their breaths. All the fight had clean gone out of him, and the only +thing he did was to squeal a little when he bumped against the trunk, +and tried to fill up with air to make himself lighter. But he reached +the top all right, and I landed him very careful, he squatting down on +the floor and saying, "Oh, my God!" I was too busy clearing away, and +letting the block down to Tom, for me to hear much else he said, but +when I was through and went to take a last look at him, he seemed quite +snug and contented, and glad he had come. He shook hands very grateful, +looking for me to come back the following night and report, I to make an +owl signal like we had agreed on previously. + +I wished him happy dreams, and come down, all three of us setting out +for home with the truck and the gear, my wife in a tantrum at our having +threatened to desert Old Dibs when he acted so cowardly. Tom made it +worse by saying the Kanakas were losing all respeck for whites, and if +_he_ was married to a Tongan, and was spoken to like that, he'd quit--by +gum, that's what _he'd_ do! Then she said it would serve me right if she +went away in the schooner with the white men, and I would never see her +again. And I said, "Oh, dear, but I'd feel sorry for the white man that +got you!" Then she said she'd give all the gold Old Dibs had made her a +present of to be back home in Tonga; and then I said I'd gladly add mine +to hers. And when Tom added his, I thought we were in for a race war. + +We all got back pretty cross and tired, but a little beer put heart in +us; and I pulled her down on my knee and said she was the only girl in +the world, and that I wouldn't trade her for a ten-ton cutter; while Tom +counted out the money Old Dibs had given us previous, and said we were +all a pack of fools, and that he was as fond of Sarah as anybody. So +peace descended like a beautiful vision, and there was four hundred and +forty dollars for each of us, with a twenty over that we tossed for, and +engineered to let Sarah win. Tom said we might shake hands on a good +night's work, and went home in high spirits, jingling his money in a +bandanner. + +It wasn't long after breakfast the next morning when I heard a great +stamping and tramping out in front, and there, if you please, was the +whole schooner party, Phelps, Nettleship, the bookkeeper, and the +captain. They had thrown off the mask now, and Phelps had a warrant a +yard long for the apprehension of Runyon Rufe, which he read aloud to +me, while the others listened with their hats off like it was church. + +"I thought you gentlemen were in the guano business," says I, when he +had finished. + +"We're in the Runyon Rufe catching business," says Mr. Phelps, very +genial, "and we trust you will not oppose the officers of the law in the +exercise of their functions." + +"I don't want to oppose anybody when it's four to one," says I, equally +genial, "though may I make so bold as to inquire who is Runyon Rufe and +what's he done?" + +"Never heard of Runyon Rufe!" says Nettleship, like it was George +Washington or Alfred the Great. + +"Here it is, better than I can tell it," said Mr. Phelps, handing me a +printed proclamation: + + TEN THOUSAND POUNDS REWARD. + + RUNYON RUFE, Banker and Company Promoter, wanted + for gigantic frauds in connection with the Invincible + Building Society, the Greater London Finance Syndicate, + Suburbs Limited, and other undertakings. Fled to the United + States, where he had previously put by sums aggregating two + hundred thousand pounds; resisted extradition; forfeited his + bail; was traced to Portland, Oregon, and thence to Penrhyn + Island, South Pacific, where all clews as to his whereabouts + were lost. + + Aged sixty-three; height, five feet nine inches; imposing + appearance; weight, fifteen stone and over; fair complexion; + brown eyes, with bushy, gray eyebrows; scanty gray hair; of + a plethoric habit, and with a noticeable hesitancy of + speech. When last seen was well supplied with money, and was + heard declaring his intention of making his way toward the + lesser-traveled islands of the Pacific Ocean. + + The above reward, in whole or in part, will be paid by + Houghton & Cust, No. 318 George Street, Sydney, New South + Wales, on receiving information that will lead to the arrest + of the said Runyon Rufe. + + Traders and others are cautioned against harboring the + fugitive, or aiding and abetting his escape from the + officers of justice. + +I read it three times and then handed it back. + +"Show me where to sign," says I. + +"We have to go through the disagreeable formality of searching these +premises," said Mr. Phelps, disregarding my joke, "and if you have no +objections we shall begin now!" + +"And suppose I _did_ have an objection?" I asked. + +"We'd search them just the same," said Mr. Phelps, grinning. + +I was in two minds what to do; but I noticed the bookkeeper's lip was +cut, and there was dried blood on Mr. Nettleship's knuckles, and it +didn't seem good enough. I saw they had begun on Tom first, and that +decided me to take water with my formality. + +"Walk in," says I. + +They didn't wait for a second asking, and a minute later were poking and +rummaging all through the place. They thought I might have hid him +somewheres, and turned over everything to that end, not opening as much +as a chest or pulling out a single drawer. It wasn't much pleasure to +look on and see them doing it, but I had to take my medicine, and it was +common sense to appear cheerful about it. They crawled into all kinds of +places, and backed out of all kinds of others, and tapped the walls to +see if any was hollow, and turned over sacks of pearl shell and copra, +and sneezed and swore and burrowed and choked, till at last Mr. Phelps +really found something, and that was a centipede that bit him. This +brought them all out on the front veranda again, where I had to pretend +I was sorry, which I was--for the centipede. + +I asked what they were going to do next, and they said, "Get aboard and +bathe it with ammoniar"; and I said, "No, I meant about Runyon Rufe"; +and Mr. Phelps he give me a wicked look, and said that they'd lay him by +the legs before long, together with a few white trading gentlemen, +maybe, to keep him company; and I said, "Oh, dear, I hope that isn't any +insinuation against present company!" and he said, "the present company +might put the cap on if it fitted them"; and I said "if he couldn't keep +a civil tongue in his head he had better get off my front stoop"; and +he said "he wouldn't demean himself by bandying words with a +beach-comber," and went off sucking his hand, with the others crowding +around him, and asking him how it felt now. + +I suspicioned there had been a leak somewheres, and was surer than ever +when Tom came around with his eye bunged up where Nettleship had hit +him. And it certainly looked black that they made no appearance of +moving, raising an awning over the quarter-deck, and bringing up tables +and swinging hammocks like it was for a week. The pastor had told Tom +that one of the children had reckonized Old Dibs's photograph, and +clapped his hands before he could be stopped, crying out, "Ona! Ona!" +the name Old Dibs went by among the Kanakas. + +We put in a pretty anxious day, for they began a systematic prowl all +over the island, obviously dividing out the territory and doing it +simultaneous. That night they set a watch on my house and Tom's, the +news coming in from Iosefo, who had spies out watching them. It was +regular wheels within wheels, and I couldn't but wonder how poor Old +Dibs was faring up his tree, waiting and waiting for us to come! + +The next day they prowled harder than ever, this time the crew joining +in, mate, cook, cabin boy, and four hands. Like was natural, they made +me and Tom's first--the crew, I mean--and we both had the same happy +thought, square-face. The mate went off with only three drinks in him, +taking the cabin boy with two, but the rest of them sucked it in by the +bucket, and the fartherest any of them got away was a hundred yards, and +him with a bottle in his hand. They were a pretty ugly crowd by +nightfall, refusing to go back to the ship when ordered, and roaring and +yelling about the settlement to all hours. The afterguard still kept tab +on me and Tom, however, and so yet another night passed without our +daring to make our date with Old Dibs. But in the morning they lost all +patience, rounding up the crew with handspikes, and all going off to the +schooner with half of them in irons. Phelps and Nettleship helped to get +up anchor themselves, and toward nine o'clock we had the blessed sight +of their heels, beating out of the lagoon against a stiff trade. + +It was hard to have to wait the balance of the day doing nothing, for we +might need the tree idea again, and it would have been a mug's game to +have given away the secret to the Kanakas. Tom and me both felt +considerable rocky, besides, from having drunk so much gin with the +schooner's people; for though we had held back all we could, and had +tipped our glasses on the sly, we couldn't seem too behindhand in +whooping it up with them. But we were dead dogs now all right, and the +main part of breakfast and dinner was the buckets of water we poured +over each other's heads. It was what you might call a very long day, and +it seemed like the sun would never set, for we were both of us in a +sweat about Old Dibs, and more than anxious how he had made out. + +Then sundown came, and dusk, and night itself, and still another long +spell for the Kanakas to go to sleep, which it seemed as though they +never would. Yes, a long day, and a long, long evening, and it was like +a whole week had passed before we stood under the tree and owly-owled to +Old Dibs. + +It was a mighty faint answer he gave back, and when me and Tom had +rigged up the chair again we found we had a sick man on our hands. The +exposure had nearly done for him; that, and the fear of being caught, +and all the water having leaked out of the demijohn, which he had stood +on its side the better to hide it. He was that weak he could hardly sit +up, and was partly off his nut, besides, wanting to telephone at once to +Longhurst, and mixing up Tom with the Public Prosecutor. + +He would put his poor old trembling hand across his forehead like he was +trying to wipe all this away, saying, "Is that you, Tom Riley?" and, +"Bill, Bill," like that. It was no easy matter to get him down, for he +almost needed to be lifted into the boatswain's chair, and couldn't as +much as raise a little finger to help himself or hold on, and once we +nearly spilled him out altogether. Fortunately, my old girl had brought +some hot coffee in a beer bottle, and this was just like pouring new +life down his throat. Our first business was to get him home and tuck +him in, returning and making a second trip of the treasure, and winding +up all serene about two in the morning, with Old Dibs sitting up in bed +and eating fried eggs. + +When Iosefo reported next morning, Old Dibs paid him a hundred dollars +and dispensed with his services, saying that though he'd always be glad +to see him around as a friend, he had no more call to keep him sitting +on the chest. This made Tom and me feel good, for it showed he trusted +us now, which he had never quite done before. In a day or two he was +almost as lively as ever, out in the graveyard playing on his flute, and +attending to church work on committee nights the same as before. + +But there was a big change in him for all that, and me and Tom got it +into our heads that he wasn't going to live very long, for he had that +distressed look on his face that showed something wrong inside. He used +to run on talking to himself half the night, and once he burst in to +where I was asleep, saying he had seen me at the treasure chest, prizing +off the lid, and what did I mean by it? After having lived together so +long and comfortable, it wasn't very pleasant to see him going crazy on +us--and going crazy that way--being suspicious we meant to rob and kill +him, and all of us being in a conspiracy. He told the pastor he was +afraid of his life of Tom and me, and if it wasn't for Iosefo he would +be fearful to stay in my house a minute; and he told Tom _he_ was the +only friend he had; and then said the same to me, warning me against Tom +and Iosefo, saying they were at the winder every night trying to break +in. And all this, maybe, on the very self-same day, the three of us +comparing notes and wondering where it was all going to end. + +It ended sooner than any of us expected; for one morning, when Sarah +went to take him his coffee, his door was locked, and for all our +hammering we couldn't raise a sound. I broke it in at last, expecting +that he'd rise up and shoot me, and dodging when it went inward with a +crash. But there was nobody to shoot, the room being stark empty, and +the only thing of Old Dibs his clothes on a chair. We were at a loss +what to do, and waited for half an hour, thinking he might turn up. +Then, real uneasy in our minds, we went out to look for him. He wasn't +anywhere near the house or the beach, and as a last resort we went +across the island to the graveyard, thinking perhaps he had taken it +into his head to have a before-breakfast tootle on the flute. We found +him, sure enough, in the middle of the graveyard, but laying forward in +his old crimson dressing gown, dead. + +Yes, sir, cold to the touch like it had been for hours, and holding a +blackened lantern in his poor old fist--dead as dead--face down in the +coral sand. We rolled him over to do what we could for him, but he had +passed to a place beyond help or hurt. I went back for Tom in a +protuberation, saying, "My God! Tom, what do you think's happened?--Old +Dibs's dead in the graveyard!" I guess the old man had never been so +close to Tom as he had been to me, boarding in my house and almost a +father to me and the wife, for Tom took it awful cool, and asked almost +the first thing about the money. + +"You and me will divide on that," he says. + +"Sure," I says, "but that can stand over till afterwards, Tom." + +"Stand over, nothing!" he says, very sharp; and with that we both set +off running for my house. + +It was a jumpy thing to enter that darkened room, with the feeling you +couldn't shake off that Old Dibs was peering in at us, and that every +minute we'd hear his footstep, everything laid out just as he had last +touched them, and almost warm, even to his slippers and his collar and +the old hat against the wall. But it made no more difference to Tom than +if it had been his own hat, and he tramped in like a policeman, saying, +"Where is it, Bill?" + +"In one of them two camphor-wood chests," says I. + +He lifted up one of them by the end and let it fall ker-bang! + +"Not here," says he. + +"Try the other," says I, with a sudden sinking. + +He let that crash, too, and turning around, looked me in the face. + +"Good God, Tom!" said I. + +"Just what I suspected all along," said Tom, as savage as a tiger. "He's +made way with it!" + +We didn't stop to speak another word, but rummaged the whole room upside +down. + +"He's buried it," says Tom, savager than ever, "and what kind of a +bastard was you to let him?" + +"It was none of my business," says I. + +"None of your business!" he repeated, screaming out at me like a +woman--"to have a quarter of a million by the tail and let it go? You +might have been slack about your own half, but it was a swine's trick +not to keep track of mine!" + +"He can't have taken it very far," I said. + +"Not far!" yelled Tom, making an insult of every word I said. "Why, what +was to prevent him lugging away a little this day and that, till the +whole caboodle was sunk in a solid block? What do you suppose he was +doing with the lantern, you tom-fool? Planting it, of course--planting +every dollar of it, night after night, while you were snoozing in your +silly bed." + +"If it's anywhere it's in the Kanaka graveyard," says I. "I'll go bail +it's within ten feet of where we found his dead body." + +"Did you stake the place?" says Tom. + +I was ashamed to tell him I hadn't even thought of the money, being +struck all of a heap, and always powerful fond of Old Dibs. + +"It would serve you right if I made you dig up the whole graveyard, +single-handed," said Tom; "and if you had a spark of proper feeling, +Bill Hargus, you'd fall on your knees and beg my parding for having +acted like such a damned ninny!" + +I would have answered him back in his own coin if I hadn't felt so bad +about it all, and rattled, besides. I had punched Tom's head often and +often, and he had punched mine; but I was staggered by the money being +missing, and the loss of it just seemed to swallow up everything else. +Somehow, it had never seemed _my_ money till then, and the more I felt +it mine the more galling it was to give it up. Tom relented when he saw +how cut up I was, withdrawing all the hard things he had said, and going +on the other tack to cheer me up. He said he was just as big an ass as I +was, and came out handsome about its being both our fault, and how it +didn't matter a hill of beans anyway, for we'd soon get our spades on to +it. It stood to reason it couldn't be far away or buried very deep, and +a little fossicking with an iron ramrod would feel it out in no time. + +Well, we gave Old Dibs a good send off, Tom and me making the coffin, +and we buried him in a likely place to windward of the Kanaka graveyard. +Tom wouldn't have him _inside_, for fear the natives might chance on the +treasure themselves, and we put a neat fence around the place, with a +priming and two coats of white paint, and a natty gate to go in by with +brass hinges. The whole settlement turned out, Iosefo outdoing himself, +and the king butting in with an address, and everything shipshape and +Bristol fashion, as sailors say. We didn't have no flowers, and the +whole business was sort of home-made and amateur, but Sarah made up for +the lack of them by pegging out the grave with little poles, and +streamers which gave quite a gay look to it, and fluttered in the wind, +very pretty to see. + +Then Tom and me started in our digging operations on a checkerboard +plan, very systematic, with stakes where we left off, working by night +so as not to rouse the natives' ill will. Or, I ought to have said, two +nights, for I guess we didn't cover up our tracks sufficient, and they +got on to it. We discovered this in the form of a depitation of chiefs +and elders, who give us warning it had to stop ker-plunk! They said +they wouldn't allow their graveyard torn up, and altogether acted very +ugly and insulting. Tom and I had to sing small and put in a holiday +neither of us wanted, for the Kanakas had the whip hand of us, and I +never saw them so roused. Tom at first tried to carry it off with a high +hand, informing them that he was a British subjeck, by God! and was they +meaning to interfere with a British subjeck? But I couldn't see how that +gave him any right to dig up Kanaka graveyards for money that didn't +belong to him, and so I smoothed them down and out-talked Tom, saying it +shouldn't happen again, and I was glad they had mentioned it! + +We waited a few weeks for the storm to blow over, and then begun again, +this time more cautious than before by a darned sight. We thought we +were managing beautifully, till the next day, when we went out fishing +in Tom's boat and come back to find both our stations burned to the +ground, and all our stuff stacked outside the smoking ruins, +higgledy-piggledy! + +This was getting it in the neck, and we saw we were beat. We ran up a +couple of little shacks and settled down to ordinary trading again, with +what good spirits you can imagine. We didn't even dare walk on the +weather side of the island, lest they'd carry out their next threat, +which was to shoot us; and the only revenge we had was raising prices +on them and monkeying with the scales, winning out in both ways. But it +was a poor set off to a quarter of a million of cold coin where almost +we could lay our hands on it, and if there was in the whole world a +human being more blue and miserable than me, it was Tom Riley. Then, to +make matters worse, the whole thing was common property now, the Kanakas +knowing as much as we did, and more, and the news was passed along to +every ship that came--all about Old Dibs and the money in the graveyard. +You might be surprised the natives didn't take a leaf out of our book +and dig it up for themselves; but you'll never really civilize a Kanaka +if you try a thousand years, and they wouldn't have turned up their dead +grandmothers and fathers and aunts for all the gold in the Bank of +England--being sunk in superstition and slavishly afraid of spirits and +the like. + +We had to sit with folded hands and pretend to be pleased, while every +ship that called had to take its whack at the graveyard. First it was +the _Lorelei_, getting off scot-free with only a taboo; then it was the +_Tasmanian_, with a bullet through the captain's leg; then the cutter +_Sprite_, with concussion of the brain. I never saw the Kanakas drove so +wild, till at last, when there was a ship off the settlement, they'd set +an anchor watch on the graveyard and do sentry go with loaded guns. + +Then one fine day a French schooner from Tahiti ran in, unloaded sixteen +men armed with rifles and carrying pickaxes and spades, who marched +across the island singing the "Marseillaise," and proceeded to take up +the whole place. The natives rallied with everything they could lay +their hands on, from Winchesters to fish spears, and my, if they didn't +chase out them Frenchmen at the double! They got away, leaving one dead +and carrying three, making a bee line for the beach, the schooner +covering their retreat with a blazing Nordenfeldt. They were in such a +hurry to be gone that they cut away their moorings with an ax, and I had +the privilege, later on, of buying their anchor, second hand, for ten +dollars in trade. + +The natives got wilder than ever after this, and were almost afraid to +die, lest they'd be dug up again and their bones cast to the winds. From +being the most orderly island in the Pacific, Manihiki slumped to be the +worst; and it got such a name that ships were scared of coming near it; +and once, when Tom and me went out in a whaleboat toward a becalmed +German bark, hoping to raise a newspaper or a sack of potatoes, they +opened fire on us and lowered two boats to tow away the ship. Tom and me +got mixed up in the general opinion of the place, which was stinking bad +and what they called a pirates' nest, and an English man-of-war came +down special to deport Tom. I never was so glad in my life to be an +American, for, though the captain gave Tom what he called the benefit of +the doubt, they fined him two hundred and fifty dollars and slanged him +like a nigger. + +The last straw was the visit of a French man-of-war, that opened +broadsides on us without warning, and then landed and burned the +settlement, including everything me and Tom owned in the world, except +the clothes we stood in and the cash we snatched on the run. This was on +account of the "outrage" on the Tahiti schooner. + +Tom said the island was becoming a regular human pigeon-shoot, and +wondered where the lightning would strike next; and we both grew clean +sick of it and in a fever to get away. There was not even the temptation +of Old Dibs's treasure to keep us now, for the natives all got together +and heaped up the graveyard solid with rock to the level of the outside +walls, and floored the top with cement six inches deep, putting in a +matter of a thousand tons. It was as solid as a fortification, and +pounded down, besides, with pounders, like a city street; and if ever +there was money in a safe place and likely to stay there undisturbed, I +guess it was Old Dibs's. + +It was a happy day for Tom and me when the _Flink_ dropped anchor off +the settlement, and we patched it up with the captain to give us a +passage to the Kingsmills, to begin the world again. It had always lain +sort of heavy on my wife that we hadn't put up a name over old Dibs's +grave, and now that we were going away with that undone she reproached +me awful. You see, I had promised her something nice in the marble line +from Sydney, and kept putting her off and off in the hope she'd forget +it. She had been remarkably fond of the old fellow, as, indeed, so was +I, and she said it was a shame to go away forever with this unattended +to. I didn't have no time for anything fancy, nor the ability neither, +but as the ship lay over for a couple of days I made shift to please her +with a wooden slab. We went over and set it up about an hour before we +sailed, and for all I know it may be there yet. Some folks might kick at +the inscription, but he had always been mighty good and kind and +free-handed to us, and you must take a man as you find him. This was how +it run: + + SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF RUNYON RUFE BANKER AND + PHILANTHROPIST ERECTED BY HIS SORROWING FRIENDS + + + + +THE LABOR CAPTAIN + + +It was a wild March day, and the rising wind sang in the rigging of the +ships. The weather horizon, dark and brilliant, in ominous alternations +showed a sky of piled-up cloud interspersed with inky patches where +squalls were bursting. To leeward, the broad lagoon, stretching for a +dozen miles to the tree-topped rim of reef, smoked with the haze of an +impending gale. Ashore, the palms bent like grass in the succeeding +gusts, and the ocean beaches reverberated with a furious surf. The great +atoll of Makin, no higher than a man, no wider than a couple of +furlongs, but in circumference a sinuous giant of ninety miles or more, +lay like a snake on the boisterous waters of the equator and defied the +sea and storm. + +Within the lagoon, and not far off the settlement, two ships rocked at +anchor. One, the _Northern Light_, was a powerful topsail schooner of a +hundred tons; straight bowed, low in the water, built on fine lines and +yet sparred for safety, the sort of vessel that does well under plain +sail, and when pressed can fly. The other, the _Edelweiss_, was a +miniature fore and after of about twenty tons, a toy of delicacy and +grace, betraying at a glance that she had been designed a yacht, and, +in spite of fallen fortunes, was still sailed as one. The man that laid +her lee rail under would get danger as well as speed for his pains, and +in time would be likely to satisfy a taste for both by making a swift +trip to the bottom. + +The deck of the _Northern Light_ was empty save for the single tall +figure of Gregory Cole, captain and owner, who was leaning over the rail +gazing at the _Edelweiss_. He was a man of about thirty, his tanned, +handsome face overcast and somber, his eyes, with their characteristic +hunted look, fixed in an uneasy stare on his smaller neighbor. + +He had never known how passionately he had loved Madge Blanchard until +he had lost her; until after that wild quarrel on Nonootch, when her +father had called him a slaver to his face, and they had parted on +either side in anger; until he had beaten up from westward to find her +the month-old wife of Joe Horble. Somehow, in the course of those long, +miserable months, he had never thought of her marrying; he felt so +confident of that fierce love she had so often confessed for him; he had +come back repentant, ashamed of the burning offense he had then taken, +determined to let bygones be bygones, and to begin, if need be, a new +and a more blameless way of life. It was natural for the girl to side +with her father; to resent her lover's violence and temper; to show a +face as cold as his own when he said he would up anchor and to sea. +Fool that he had been to keep his word! fool that he had been to tear +his heart to pieces out of pride! fool that he had been to let it stand +between him and the woman he loved! His pride! with Madge now in Joe +Horble's arms! + +He cursed the fate that had brought him into the same lagoon with the +_Edelweiss_; that had laid his ship side by side with Joe's dainty +schooner; that shamed and mocked him with the unceasing thought that +Madge--his Madge--was aboard of her. He paced up and down the +quarter-deck. He had more than a mind to get to sea, but the gloom to +windward daunted him, and he ordered out the kedge instead and bade the +mate strip the awnings off her. By Jove! if things grew blacker he'd +house his topmasts. Then he looked again at the little _Edelweiss_, and +tried to keep back the thought of Horble sitting there below with Madge. + +He had to see her. He was mad to see her. The thought of her tortured +and tempted him without end. Suppose she, too, had learned that love is +stronger than oneself; that the mouth can say Yes when the heart within +is breaking; that she, like himself, had found the time to repent her +folly? Was he the man to leave her thus; to acquiesce tamely in a +decision that was doubtless already abhorrent to her; to remain with +unlifted hand when she might be on fire for the sign to come to him? +No, by God! he'd beg her forgiveness and offer her the choice. Yes or +No! It was for her to choose. + +He jumped into the dinghy and pulled over to the schooner. Small at a +distance, she seemed to shrink as he drew near her, so that when he +stood up he was surprised to find his head above the rail. So this was +Horble, this coarse, red-faced trader, with the pug nose, the fat hands, +the faded blue eyes that met his own so sourly! + +"Captain Horble?" said Gregory Cole. + +"Glad to see you aboard," said Horble. + +They shook hands and sat side by side on the rail. + +"Where's Madge?" said Gregory. + +"Mrs. Horble's ashore," said the captain. + +"I'm afraid I can never call her anything but Madge," said Gregory, +detecting the covert reproach in the other's voice. + +Horble was plainly ill at ease. His face turned a deeper red. He was on +the edge of blurting out a disagreeable remark, and then hesitated, +making an inarticulate sound in his throat. Like everybody else, he was +afraid of the labor captain. + +"Crew's ashore, too," said Gregory, glancing about the empty deck. + +"There ain't no crew," muttered Horble. + +"Thunder!" cried Gregory. "Do you do it with electricity, or what?" + +"Me and Madge runs her," returned Horble. + +"Do you mean to say she pully-hauls your damn ropes?" exclaimed Gregory. + +"Yes," said Horble. "What's twenty tons between the two of us?" + +"And cooks?" said Gregory. + +"And cooks," said Horble. + +"You don't believe in lapping your wife in luxury!" exclaimed Gregory. + +"Madge and I talked it over," said Horble. "I was for trading ashore, +but her heart was set on the schooner. I can make twice the money this +way and please her in the bargain." + +"I know she can sail a boat against anybody," said Gregory, wincing at +the remark. + +Horble spat in the water and said nothing. His fat, broad back said, +plainer than words: "You're an intruder! Get out!" + +"I believe she's aboard this very minute," said Gregory with a strange +smile. + +"She's ashore, I tell you," said Horble sullenly. + +"I'll just run below and make sure," said Gregory. + +He slipped down the little companion way, looked about the empty cabin +and peered into the semi-darkness of the only stateroom. + +"Madge!" he cried. "Madge!" + +Horble had not lied to him. There was not a soul below. But on the cabin +table he saw Madge's sewing machine and a half-made dress of cotton +print. She had always been fond of books, and there, in the corner, was +her little bookcase, taken bodily from her old home in Nonootch. +Scattered about here and there were other things that brought her memory +painfully back to him; that hurt him with their familiarity; that caused +him to lift them up and hold them with a sort of despairing wonder: her +guitar, her worn, lock-fast desk; the old gilt photograph album he +remembered so well. He sat down at the table and buried his face in his +hands. What a fool he had been! What a fool he had been! + +He was roused by the sound of Horble's footsteps down the ladder. With +his head leaning on his hand, he looked at the big naked feet feeling +for the steps, then at the uncouth clothes as they gradually appeared, +then at the fat, weak, frightened face of the man himself. He grew sick +at the sight of him. Would Horble strike him? Would Horble have the grit +to order him off the ship? No; the infernal coward was getting out the +gin--a bottle of square-face and two glasses. + +"Say when," said Horble. + +"When," said Gregory. + +Horble tipped the bottle into his own glass. A second mate's grog! One +could see what the fellow drank. + +"Here's luck," said Gregory. + +"Drink hearty," said Horble. + +"Joe Horble," said Gregory, leaning both elbows on the table, "there's +something you ought to know: I love Madge, and Madge loves me!" + +Horble gasped. + +"She's mine!" said Gregory. + +Horble helped himself to some more gin, and then slowly wiped his mouth +with the back of his hand. + +"You're forgetting she's my wife," he said. + +"I'll give you a thousand pounds for her, cash and bills," said Gregory. + +"You can't sell white women," said Horble. "She ain't labor." + +"A thousand pounds!" repeated Gregory. + +"I won't sell my wife to no man," said Horble. + +The pair looked at each other. Horble's hand felt for the gin again. His +speech had grown a little thick. He was angry and flustered, and a dull +resentment was mantling his heavy face. + +"I'll go the schooner," cried Gregory. "The _Northern Light_ as she lies +there this minute, not a dollar owing on her bottom, with two hundred +pounds of specie in her safe. Lock, stock, and barrel, she's yours!" + +Horble shook his head. + +"Madge ain't for sale," he said. + +"Please yourself," said Gregory. "You'll end by losing her for +nothing." + +"Captain Cole," said Horble, "Madge has told me how near it was a go +between you and her, and how, if you hadn't cleared out so sudden the +way you did, she would have married you in spite of old Blanchard. But +when you went away like that you left the field clear, and you mustn't +bear me no malice for having stepped in and taken your leavings. What's +done's done, and it's a sorry game to come back too late and insult a +man who never did you no harm." + +"Oh!" said Gregory. + +"If you choose," continued Horble in his tone of wounded reasonableness, +"you can make a power of mischief between me and Madge. I don't think it +comes very well from you to do it; I don't think anything that calls +himself a man would do it; least of all a genelman like yourself, whom +we all respeck and look up to. Captain Cole, if you've lost Madge, you +know you can only blame yourself." + +"I don't call her lost," said Gregory. + +"Captain Cole," said Horble, calmly but with a quiver of his lip, "we'll +take another drink and then we'll say good-by." + +"I'm not going till I see Madge," said Gregory. + +Horble began to tremble. + +"It's for Madge to decide," added Gregory. + +"Decide what?" demanded Horble in a husky stutter. + +"Between you and me, old fellow," said Gregory. + +"And you've the gall to say that on my ship, at my table, about my +wife!" exclaimed Horble, punctuating the sentence with the possessive. + +"Yes," said Gregory. + +Horble sat awhile silent. He was obviously turning the matter over in +his head. He said at last he would go on deck and take another look to +windward. + +"There's a power of dirt to windward!" he said. + +Gregory, left to himself, edged closer against the bulkhead. He felt +that something was about to happen, and he was in the sort of humor to +never mind what. It did not even worry him to think he was unarmed. + +The companion way darkened with Horble's body, and the big naked feet +again floundered for the steps. As they deliberately descended, Gregory +changed his place, taking the corner by the lazarette door, where, at +any rate, he could only be attacked in front. Horble's face plainly +showed discomfiture at this move, and his right hand went hurriedly +behind his back. Gregory was conscious of a belaying pin being whipped +out of sight, and in an instant he was roused and tense, his nostrils +vibrating with a sense of danger. The two men stared at each other, and +then Horble backed into the stateroom, remarking with furtive +insincerity, "There's a power of dirt to windward!" This said, the door +went shut behind him. Gregory sprang to his feet and burst it open with +his powerful shoulders, crushing Horble against the bunk, who, pistol in +hand, fired at him point blank. The bullet went wide, and there was a +sound of shattering glass. Gregory's hands clenched themselves on +Horble's, and the revolver twisted this way and that under the double +grasp. Horble was panting like a steam engine; his lower jaw hung open, +and he cried as he fought, the tears streaking his red face; there was +an agonized light in his eyes, for his forefinger was breaking in the +trigger guard. A hair's breadth more and he could have driven a bullet +through his opponent's body; a twist the other way--and he moaned and +ground his teeth and frenziedly strove to regain what he had lost. +Suddenly he let go, snatched his left hand clear, and throttled Gregory +against the wall. Gregory, suffocating, his eyes starting from their +sockets, his mouth dribbling blood and froth, struggled with supreme +desperation for the pistol. Getting it in the very nick of time, and +eluding Horble's right hand, he fired twice through the armpit down. + +Horble sank at the first shot, and received the second kneeling. Then he +toppled backward, and lay in a twitching heap against the drawers below +the bunk, groaning and coughing. Gregory, with averted face, gave him +another shot behind the ear, and another through the mouth, and then +went out, sick and faint, shutting the stateroom door behind him. He sat +for a long time beside the table, absolutely spent, and still holding +the revolver in his hand. He was shaking in a chill, though the +temperature was over eighty, and the cabin, when he had first entered +it, had seemed to him overpoweringly hot and stifling. He warmed himself +with a nip of gin. He looked over his clothes for a trace of blood, and +was thankful to find none. He took off his coat; he examined the soles +of his shoes. No blood! Thank God, no blood! + +He went on deck and cast the revolver overboard, standing at the +taffrail and watching it sink. Even in the time he had been below the +wind had risen; it was blowing great guns to seaward, and the lagoon +itself was white and broken as far as the eye could reach. Aboard his +own schooner they were busy housing the topmasts, and the yeo-heave-yeo +of straining voices warned him that Cracroft was hoisting in the boats +and making everything snug. + +Gregory leaned against the wheel and tried to think. To throw Horble's +body overboard would be to accomplish nothing. The blood, the shot +holes, the disordered cabin, would all betray him. To scuttle the +schooner with a stick of dynamite was a better plan, but that involved +returning to the _Northern Light_, with the possibility of Madge coming +off in the interval and discovering the murder for herself. No, the risk +of that appalled him. Besides, whatever happened, he had another reason +for keeping the truth from Madge. The fact of Horble's death, even if +she thought it accidental, would shock her to the core. It was +inconceivable that she would feel anything but horror stricken, whether +she judged her former lover innocent or not. She might even undergo a +terrible remorse. At such a moment how little likely she would be to +give way to him! Of course she would refuse. Any woman would refuse. +Every restraining influence would be massed against him. No, his only +hope lay in getting her aboard his schooner and out of the lagoon before +the least suspicion could dawn upon her. Once away, and it might be two +years before she might even hear of Horble's death. Once away, and the +empty seas would keep his secret. Once away---- + +He studied the weather with a new and consuming anxiety. How could he +manage to get out at all, or pick a course through the middle channel! +It was thick with coral rocks, and in a day so overcast the keenest eye +aloft would be at fault. And outside, what then? By God! it was working +up to a hurricane. To run before it would be courting death. Hove to, he +would be cramped for room, with three big islands on his lee. In his +lawless and desperate past he had taken many a fall with fortune; he +was accustomed to weigh the danger of perilous alternatives; he knew +what it was to hazard everything on his own vigilance and skill, and to +bear with a sailor's fatalism the throw of those dread dice on which his +own life had been so often staked. But to stake Madge's life! Madge, +whom he loved so dearly! Madge, for whom he would have died! And yet +there was something sublime in the thought of taking her in his arms and +driving before the gale, the storm sails treble reefed on the bending +yards, the decks awash from end to end, Madge beside him, the pitchy +night in front, the engulfing seas behind; to swim or sink, to ride or +smother, accepting their fate together, and, if need be, drowning at the +last in each other's arms. + +He looked toward the settlement and saw a crowd of natives pushing a +whaleboat into the water; looked again, and saw old Maka taking his +place in the stern sheets and assisting a woman in beside him. The +woman! It needed no second glance to tell him it was Madge. He had never +counted on her coming off in company. Fool that he was, he had taken it +for granted that she would be alone. Everything, in fact, turned on her +being alone. Then, with a start, he remembered his own dinghy, and how +it would betray him. He had made it fast on the schooner's starboard +quarter, near the little accommodation ladder. Going on his hands and +knees, lest his head should be seen above the shallow rail, he unloosed +the painter, worked the boat astern, and drew it in again to port. Then +he crouched down in the alleyway and waited. + +A few minutes later and the whaler was bumping against the schooner's +side. It might have been bumping against Gregory's heart, so agonizing +was the suspense as he lay breathless and cramped between the coffinlike +width of house and rail. + +"It was kind of you to bring me off, Maka," said Madge. + +The old Hawaiian laughed musically in denial. "No, no!" he cried. + +"You must come below and see the captain," said Madge. + +Gregory was in a cold sweat of apprehension. + +"Too much storm," said Maka doubtfully. "I go home now, and put rocks on +the church roof." + +"Five minutes won't matter," said Madge. + +Again Gregory trembled. + +"More better I go home quick," said Maka. "No rocks, no roof!" + +The boat shoved off, the crew striking up a song. Madge seemed to remain +standing at the gangway where they had left her. Gregory felt by +instinct that she was gazing at the _Northern Light_, and that as she +gazed she sighed; that she was lost in reverie and was loath to go +below. + +He rose stiffly from his hiding place. Even as he did so it came over +him that he was extraordinarily tired--so tired that he swayed as he +stood and looked at her. + +"Madge!" he said in almost a whisper. "Madge!" + +She turned instantly, paling as she saw who confronted her. + +"Greg!" she cried. + +For a moment they stared at each other speechless. Then he leaped on the +house and ran to her, she shrinking back from him as he tried to take +her hands. + +"You must not!" she cried, as he would have kissed her. "Greg, you must +not! I'm married. It's all different now." + +He tried to put his arms around her, but she pushed him fiercely back. +Her eyes were flashing, and her bosom rose and fell. + +"I'm Joe's wife," she said. + +Then, from his face, she seemed to divine something. + +"What have you done to Joe?" she cried. She would have passed him, but +he stopped her. + +"No, no!" he protested. + +"Let me go, or I shall call him," she broke out. "You sha'n't insult me! +You sha'n't kiss me!" + +He was kissing her even as he held her back, even as she fought and +struggled with him--on the lips, on the neck, on her black, loosened +hair, now tangling and flying in the wind. He was so weak that she soon +got the better of him--so weak and dizzy that he did not guard himself +as she struck him on the mouth with her little doubled-up fist. + +He put his hand to his lip and found it bleeding. He showed her what she +had done. She drew back, and regarded him with mingled pity and +exultation. + +"Now will you let me go?" she cried. + +"Madge," he returned, "Joe's drunk in his berth. I made him drunk, +Madge. I had to talk to you alone, and there was no other way." + +She was stung to the quick. Her husband's shame was hers, and it was +somehow plain that Horble had been at fault before. She never thought to +doubt Greg's word, though his callousness revolted her. + +"What is it you want to say?" she said at last in an altered voice. + +"To ask you to forgive me." + +"For what? for taking advantage of Joe's one failing?" + +"No; for leaving you the way I did." + +"I'll never do that, Greg--never, never, never!" + +"Your father----" + +"Don't try and blame my father, Greg." + +"I blame only myself." + +"Why have you come back to torture me?" she exclaimed. "You said it was +forever. You cast me off, when I cried, and tried to keep you. You said +I'd never see you again." + +"I was a fool, Madge." + +"Then accept the consequences, and leave me alone." + +"And if I can't----" + +She looked him squarely in the eyes. "I am Joe's wife," she said. + +"Madge," he said, "I am not trying to defend myself. I'm throwing myself +on your mercy. I'm begging you, on my knees, for what I threw away. +I----" + +"You've broken my heart," she said; "why should I mind if you break +yours?" + +"Madge," he cried, "in ten minutes we can be aboard the _Northern Light_ +and under weigh; in an hour we can be outside the reef; in two, and this +cursed island will sink forever behind us, and no one here will ever see +us again or know whither we have gone. Let us follow the gale, and push +into new seas, among new people--Tahiti, Marquesas, the Pearl +Islands--where we shall win back our lost happiness, and find our love +only the stronger for what we've suffered." + +She pointed to the windward sky. "I think I know the port we'd make," +she said. + +"Then make it," he cried, "and go down to it in each other's arms." + +For a moment she looked at him in a sort of exaltation. She seemed to +hesitate no longer. Her hot hands reached for his, and he felt in her +quick and tumultuous breath the first token of her surrender. Herself a +child of the sea, brought up from infancy among boats and ships, her +hand as true on the tiller, her sparkling eyes as keen to watch the luff +of a sail as any man's, she knew as well as Gregory the hell that +awaited them outside. To accept so terrible an ordeal seemed like a +purification of her dishonor. If she died, she would die unstained; if +she lived, it would be after such a bridal that would obliterate her tie +to the sot below. Then, on the eve of her giving way, as every line in +her body showed her longing, as her head drooped as though to find a +resting place on the breast of the man she loved, she suddenly called up +all her resolution and tore herself free. + +"I'm Joe's wife!" she said. + +Gregory faltered as he tried again to plead with her; but in his mind's +eye he saw that stiffening corpse below, lying stark and bloody on the +cabin floor. + +"You gave me to him," she burst out. "I'm his, Greg. I will not betray +my husband for any man." + +Again he besought her to go with him. But the moment of her madness had +passed. She listened unmoved, and when at last he stopped in despair, +she bade him take his boat and go. + +He sat down on the rail instead, his eyes defying her. + +She stepped aft, and his heart stood still as she seemed on the point of +descending the companion. But she had another purpose in mind. Throwing +aside the gaskets, she stripped the sail covers off the mainsail and +began, with practiced hands, to reef down to the third reef. Then she +went forward and did the same to the forestaysail. A minute later, +hardly knowing why or how, except that he was helping Madge, Gregory, +like a man in a dream, was pulling with her on the halyards of both +sails. The wind thundered in them as they rose; the main boom jerked +violently at the sheet and lashed to and fro the width of the deck; the +anchor chain fretted and sawed in the hawse hole; the whole schooner +strained and creaked and shook to the keelson. Gregory, in amazement, +asked Madge what she was doing. + +"Going to sea, Greg," she said. + +"Alone?" he cried. "Alone?" + +"Joe and I," she said. + +It was on his tongue to tell her Joe was dead; but, though he tried, he +could not do so. It wasn't in flesh and blood to tell her he had killed +her husband. He could only look at her helplessly, and say over and +over again, "To sea!" + +"Greg," she said, "I mean to leave you while I am brave--while I am yet +able to resist--while I can still remember I am Joe's wife!" + +"And drown," he said. + +"What do I care if I do?" she returned. "What do I care for anything?" + +"If it's to be one or the other," he said, "I'll go myself. With my big +schooner I'd have twice the chance you'd have." + +She put her arms round his neck and kissed him. "You sweet traitor," she +said, "you'd play me false!" + +He protested vehemently that he would not deceive her. + +"Besides," she said, "I could risk myself, but I couldn't bear to risk +you, Greg." + +He tried a last shot. The words almost strangled in his throat. + +"And Joe?" he said. "Have you no thought of Joe?" + +"Joe loves me," she said--"loves me a thousand times better than you +ever did. Joe's man enough to chance death rather than lose his wife." + +"But I won't let you go!" said Gregory. + +"You can't stop me," she returned. + +He caught her round the body and tried to hold her, but she fought +herself free. His strength was gone; he was as feeble as a child; in +the course of those short hours something seemed to have snapped within +him. Even Madge was startled at his weakness. + +"Greg, you're ill!" she cried, as he staggered, and caught at a backstay +to save himself from falling. He sat down on the house and tried to keep +back a sob. Madge stooped, and looked anxiously into his face. She had +known him for two years as a man of unusual sternness and self-control; +obstinate, reserved, willful, and moody, yet one that gave always the +impression of unflinching courage and resolution. It was inexplicable +now to see him crying like a woman, his square shoulders bent and +heaving, his sinewy hands opening and shutting convulsively. + +"You're ill," she repeated. "I'll go down and fetch you something." + +This pulled him together. "I'm all right, Madge," he said faintly. "I +suppose it's just a touch of the old fever. See, it's passing already." + +She watched him in silence. Then she stepped forward, dropped down the +forecastle hatchway, and reappeared with an ax. While he was wondering +what she meant to do, she raised it in the air and crashed it down on +the groaning anchor chain. It parted at the first blow, and the +_Edelweiss_, now adrift, blundered broadside on to leeward. + +Madge ran aft, brought the schooner up in the wind, and cried out to +Gregory to get into his boat. + +He said sullenly he wouldn't do anything of the kind. + +She lashed the wheel and came up to him. + +"I mean it, Greg," she said. + +"You are going to your death, Madge," he said. + +"Get into your boat!" she repeated. + +He rose, and slowly began to obey. + +"You may kiss me good-by, Greg," she said. + +She put up her face to his; their lips met. Then, with her arm around +him, she half forced, half supported him to the port quarter, where his +boat was slopping against the side. He wanted to resist; he wanted to +cry out and tell her the truth, but a strange, leaden powerlessness +benumbed him. He got into the dinghy, drew in the dripping painter she +cast after him, and watched her ease the sheet and set the vessel +scudding for the passage. With her black hair flying in the wind, her +bare arms resting lightly on the wheel, her straight, girlish, supple +figure bending with the heel of the deck, she never faltered nor looked +back as the water whitened and boiled in the schooner's wake. + + * * * * * + +Gregory came to himself in his own cabin. Cracroft, the mate, was +bending over him with a bottle of whisky. The Malita steward was chafing +his naked feet. Overhead the rush and roar of the gale broke pitilessly +on his ears. + +"The _Edelweiss_!" he gasped; "the _Edelweiss_!" + +"Went down an hour ago, sir," said Cracroft grimly. + + + + +A SON OF EMPIRE + + +Raka-hanga is a dot of an island in the mid-Pacific, and so far from +anywhere that it doesn't belong to a group--as most islands do--but is +all by its lonesome in the heave and roll of the emptiest ocean in the +world. In my time it was just big enough to support two traders, not +counting old man Fosby, who had sort of retired and laid down life's +burden in a Kanaka shack, where if he did anything at all it was making +bonito hooks for his half-caste family or playing the accordion with his +trembly old fingers. + +It was me and Stanley Hicks that divided the trade of the place, which +was poor to middling, with maybe a couple of hundred tons of copra a +year and as much pearl shell as the natives cared to get. It was deep +shell, you understand, and sometimes a diver went down and never came +up, and you could see him shimmering down below like the back of a +shark, as dead as a doornail. Nobody would dive after that, and a whole +year might pass with the Kanakas still holding back unless there was a +church assessment or a call for something special like a sewing machine +or a new boat. It averaged anywhere from five tons to sixty, and often, +as I said, nothing at all. + +I had got rooted in Raka-hanga, and so had Stanley Hicks, and though we +both had ideas of getting away and often talked of it, we never +did--being like people half asleep in a feather bed, with life drifting +on unnoticed, and the wind rustling in the palms, and one summer day so +like another that you lost count of time altogether. + +You would have to go far to see a prettier island than Raka-hanga, or +nicer, friendlier, finer-looking people; and when I say they never +watered their copra on us, nor worked any of those heartbreaking +boycotts to bring prices down, you can realize how much out of the +beaten track it was and how little they had yet learned of civilization. +They were too simple and easy-going for their own good and that's a +fact, for they allowed David, the Tongan pastor, to walk all over them, +which he did right royal with his great, fat, naked feet; and when +anything didn't please this here David nor the deacons, they stuck him +or her in the coral jail and locked the door on him--or her--as the case +might be and usually was. + +We were what might be called a republic, having no king and being +supposed to be ruled by the old men, who met from time to time in a +wickerwork building that looked more like a giant clothes-basket than +anything resembling a house. Yes, Raka-hanga was an independent country, +and no flag floated over us but our own--or would have if we had had +one, which we hadn't. Of course Stanley and I knew it could not last +like this forever, and even the natives weren't unprepared for our being +annexed some day by a passing man-of-war--though all hoped it would go +on as it was, with nobody interfering with us nor pasting proclamations +on trees. It is all very fine to see "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN" _or_ +"VIVE LA REPUBLIQUE" at the bottom of a proclamation, but +Stanley and I knew it meant taxes and licenses and penal servitude if +you did this or failed to do that, and all those other blessings that +are served out to a Pacific island when one of the great powers suddenly +discovers it on the map. + +Our republic was more in name than anything else, for old David, the +missionary, ruled the island with a rod of iron, and was so crotchety +and tyrannical that no Kanaka could call his soul his own. Every night +at nine he stood out in front of his house and rang a hand bell, and +then woe betide any one who didn't go to bed instanter and shut up, no +matter if it were in the full of the moon and they in the middle of a +game of cards or yarning sociable on an upturned boat. + +One had to get up just as military and autocratic--and as for dancing, +why the word itself could hardly be said, let alone the actual thing, +which meant the jail every time and a dose of the pastor's whip thrown +in extra. It was a crime to miss church, and a crime to flirt or make +love, and the biggest crime of all was not to come up handsome with +church offerings when they were demanded. If you will believe me it was +a crime to _grieve_ too much if somebody died--if the dead person were +married that is, and if you were of the opposite sex and not closely +related! + +As I said before, the natives were so easy-going that they took it all +lying down, and allowed this here David to swell into a regular despot, +though there must have been coming on two thousand of them, and him with +nothing but his bell and his whip and his big roaring voice. Naturally +he did not dare interfere with us white men, though Stanley and I toed +the line more than we liked for the sake of business and keeping clear +of his ill will. The only one who wasn't scared of the old Tartar, and +stood right up to him, was a hulking big Fijian, named Peter Jones. +Nobody knew how he came by that name for there wasn't a white drop in +his body, he being unusually dark and powerful and full of the Old Nick, +and with a mop of hair on him like you never saw, it was that thick and +long and stood out on end all round his head which was the Fiji fashion +of wearing it. + +Peter could lick his weight in wildcats, as the saying goes, and was +always ready to do it at the fall of a hat. He was a bullying, +overbearing individual and had terrorized his way into a family and +married their daughter, helping himself promiscuous, besides, to +anything he fancied, with nobody daring to cross him nor complain. +Stanley and I were afraid of him and that's the truth, and gave him a +little credit for peace and quietness' sake, which was well worth an +occasional can of beef or a fathom or two of Turkey cotton. + +Once, when there was a ship in, he got most outrageously drunk, and +rolled about the village, singing and yelling--swigging from the bottle +he carried and stumbling after the girls, trying to hug them. If ever +there was a scandal in Raka-hanga it was the sight of this +six-foot-three of raving, roaring savage, rough-housing the place upside +down and bellowing insults at the top of his lungs. But nothing was done +to stop him till the liquor took its course, and then old David, he +gathered the Parliament about him, and ran him into the jail with a +one-two-three like a sack of oats. + +But Peter Jones was none of your stand-up-at-the-altar-and-repent-boys, +being a white man by training, if not by blood, and after he had sobered +up, what if his wife didn't smuggle him in a knife, and what if he +didn't dig his way out! Yes, sir, that's what Peter Jones did--dug +through the gravel floor and tunneled out, rising from the grave, so to +speak, to the general uproar and hullabaloo of the entire settlement. +Then--no one stopping him--he armed himself with an old Springfield +rifle and an ax and a crowbar, and the cry went up he was going to +murder the pastor, with the children running along in front and the +women screaming. + +But Peter wasn't gunning for any missionary, which even in Raka-hanga +might have had a nasty comeback--the natives being mild but not cowards, +and beginning to buzz like hornets and reach for their shark-tooth +spears. No, what Peter was inflamed against was the coral jail, which he +set at most ferocious with crowbar and ax until it was nothing but a +heap of rubbish. Then he shot holes through the galvanized roofing, and +burned it in a blazing fire along of the iron-studded door and window +framing. By this time the missionary was trying to raise the multitude +against Peter, but they were none too fond of the coral jail themselves +and did nothing but hoot and shout like a pack of boys at a circus, +which indeed it was and enough to make you split your sides laughing. +After that Peter was let alone and nobody dared cross him, no matter +what he did. + +But this is all by the way to give you an idea of what Raka-hanga was +like, and make the rest of the yarn the easier to understand. I shall +always feel sorry all my life that Stanley and I were off fishing on the +windward side of the island and thereby missed Clemm's arrival in the +lagoon, which was well over before we got there, with the stern of a +ten-oared boat heading for a man-of-war, and Clemm himself standing +kind of helpless on the beach in the midst of all his chests and boxes +and bedding. + +He made a splendid appearance in his white clothes and shirt and +pipe-clayed shoes and pith-helmet, being a short, thick-set man with +gray hair and a commanding look. When we came running up he spoke to us +very grand, though genial, saying: "Gentlemen, I am the new Resident +Deputy Commissioner, and I call on you to assist me raise the flag and +annex this island in the name of her Royal and Imperial Majesty, Queen +Victoria!" + +At this he took his hat off, and we did the same, though I am an +American, and then went on to tell us that he had just been landed by +H.M.S. _Ringarooma_ to take possession of the island, and would we +kindly inform the natives and escort him to the king. + +On learning we were a republic and that it would take time to assemble +the old men, he condescended to accept my hospitality for a spell, and +was most pleased and gracious at the little we could do in his honor. +Meanwhile messengers were sent to gather in the chiefs and tell them the +great news, and how the Commissioner was soon coming to meet them in the +"Speak-house," as the natives called the wickerwork. Mr. Clemm said the +_Ringarooma_ had been sent under hurry orders to annex right and left in +order to forestall the French, who had broken their international +agreement and were hoisting their flag all over the place. He also +explained that was the reason why the man-of-war could not stop, it +being a neck-and-neck race between her and the French which could reach +the Tokelaus first. Between drinks he likewise showed us his commission, +which was written very big and imposing on crinkly paper, with seals, +where he was called "Our well-beloved and right trusty James Howard +Fitzroy Clemm, Esquire,"--as well as the flag he had brought with him, +which was an eight-by-twelve ensign, with the halyards all ready to run +it up. + +I can tell you Stanley and I were mighty proud to escort the Deputy +Commissioner to the Parliament, which we did slow and stately in our +best pajamas, with the natives reverencing him as he passed and eying us +two most respectful. The old men were there in rows, and also David, the +pastor, who took the interpreting out of my hands and as usual hogged +the whole show. Perhaps it was as well he did, for he had a splendid +voice and a booming way of speaking that suited the grandeur of the +occasion. + +Then Mr. Clemm's commission was read aloud, first by him in English and +then by David in Kanaka, and afterwards the Commissioner made a rousing +speech, all about the loving English and the low, contemptible French, +and at the end he asked everybody to hold up his right hand who wished +to be a loyal, faithful, obedient subject of the Great Queen. + +Up shot every hand most grateful at the narrow escape they had had of +being French; and then outside it was again repeated, even the children +holding up their little paws, and the flag hoisted temporary to a +coconut palm amid shouts of rejoicing led off by Stanley and me and +Peter Jones who had followed along after us. + +The next question was where to lodge the Commissioner till a proper +house could be built for him, and he showed he wasn't a gentleman to be +trifled with by cutting short their jabber, and choosing Fono's, which +was the finest in the settlement, and ordering him to clear out, bag and +baggage--which Fono didn't want to do and objected very crossly till +Peter Jones snatched up a rock and ran at him like he meant to pound his +head in. This pleased Mr. Clemm so much that he right off appointed +Peter marshal of his court at a salary of forty dollars a month, and put +him in charge of shifting his things into his new quarters. + +I took the liberty of warning Mr. Clemm against the Fijian, but he only +threw back his head and told me most cutting to kindly mind my own +business. But any rancor I might have felt at this disappeared when he +made me clerk of the court, and Stanley tax collector, each at a salary +of sixty dollars a month, with David "Native Adviser and Official +Interpreter" at the same figure. + +This was the beginning of the new government, with everything old done +away with, and the first official sign of it was a brand-new, +white-painted flagpole with crosstrees and ratlines in front of the fine +big house that was next built for the Commissioner to live in. The +natives had to do this for nothing, supplying forty men, turn and turn +about, though the galvanized iron, hardware, paint, varnish and what not +were bought of Stanley and me, and paid for in taxes. It was a very fine +place when done, with a broad veranda in front and an inner court +behind, where Mr. Clemm used to lie in a striped hammock, waited on hand +and foot. + +But I fancy the wicked French couldn't have taxed the Kanakas any harder +than Mr. Clemm did, which was the best thing in the world for them, +considering how slack they were by nature and not given to doing +anything they could help. It only needed a little attention to double +the copra crop of the island, not to speak of shell--so that the taxes +were a blessing in disguise, the natives being better off than they had +ever been before. Of course they didn't like it and put up a great deal +of opposition till Mr. Clemm raised a Native Constabulary of seven men, +commanded by Peter Jones, and all of them armed any way he could, +including Stanley's shotgun and my Winchester repeater, old man Fosby's +Enfield and several rusty Springfields pounced on here and there as +against the law to own them. + +They were tricked out very smart in red _lavalavas_ and white drill +coats, and being all of them of the obstreperous, no-good class like +Peter, they were soon the terror of the island. Not that Mr. Clemm +didn't keep them tight in hand, but when it came to an order of court or +any backwardness in taxes he never seemed to care much whom they +plundered and beat, which was what they reveled in and thirsted for the +chance of. + +Old David was the first to feel the weight of authority, and I believe +his job of Native Adviser was merely a plan to keep him in good humor +till Mr. Clemm was ready to squash him, which Mr. Clemm did three months +later most emphatic. The Kanakas were forbidden to contribute to the +church, and the pastor's private laws were abolished, and there was no +more excommunicating nor jail for church members nor any curfew either. +The natives went wild with joy--all except a few old soreheads that are +always to be found in every community--and the only folks who were now +forced to go to church were the Native Constabulary, who lined up +regular to keep tab on what the missionary preached, and arrest him for +sedition in case he let his tongue run away with him. + +In private, however, old David made all the trouble he dared, and tried +to hearten up his followers by saying there would be a day of reckoning +for Mr. Clemm when the missionary vessel arrived on her annual +visit--at which the Commissioner pretended to laugh but couldn't hide he +was worried. Leastways he asked a raft of questions about the _Evangel +of Hope_, and that with a ruminating look, and about the character of +the people in charge which were Captain Bins and the Reverend T. J. +Simpkins. The _Evangel of Hope_ never stayed any longer than to land a +few stores and hymn books for the pastor and take off what copra and +shell he had acquired by way of church subscriptions. At that time she +was about due in two months, and we all laughed at the empty larder she +was going to find, though, as I said, Mr. Clemm seemed worried, +remarking it was hard to be misrepresented and slandered when his only +thought was for the good of the island. + +He was certainly upsetting things very lively and bossed the island like +it belonged to him. If the natives could play all they wanted, now that +David was deposed, they had bumped into something they had never known +before and that was--work. The Commissioner couldn't abide laziness in a +Kanaka, and went at them terrific, building a fine road around the +island and another across it, with bridges and culverts, where he used +to ride of a sundown in a buggy he had bought off Captain Sachs of the +_H. L. Tiernan_, with men tugging him instead of horses, and the Native +Constabulary trotting along in the rear like a Royal Progress. + +He built a fine-appearing wharf, too, and an improved jail with a cement +floor, and heaven help anybody who threw fish-guts on the shore or +didn't keep his land as clean as a new pin. There was a public well made +in the middle of the settlement, with cement steps and a white-painted +fence to keep away the pigs, and the natives, though they hated to work, +were proud, too, of what they had done, and I doubt if they had ever +been so prosperous or freer of sickness. I know Stanley and I doubled +our trade, in spite of having to take out heavy licenses, which meant +that not only we, but everybody else were that much better off. Petty +thieving disappeared entirely, and likewise all violence, and one of the +Commissioner's best reforms was a land court where titles were +established and boundaries marked out, that stopping the only thing the +Kanakas ever seriously quarreled about. Six months of the Commissioner +had revolutionized the island, and few would have cared to go back to +the old loose days when your only Supreme Court was the rifle hanging on +your wall. + +Well, it grew nearer and nearer for the _Evangel of Hope_ to arrive, and +Mr. Clemm he began to do a most extraordinary thing, which was nothing +else than a large cemetery! Yes, sir, that's what Mr. Clemm did, tearing +down five or six houses for the purpose on the lagoon side, nigh the +wharf, and planting rows on rows of white headstones, with low mounds +at each, representing graves. There must have been a couple of hundred +of them, and often it was a whitewashed cross instead of a stone or +maybe a pointed stake--the whole giving the impression of a calamity +that had suddenly overtaken us. + +It was no good asking him what it was for; the Commissioner wasn't a man +to be questioned when he didn't want to be; all he said was that Stanley +and I were to stick inside our stores when the ship came and not budge +an inch till we were told. With us orders were orders, but the Kanakas +were panicky with terror, and that cemetery with nobody in it seemed to +them like tempting Providence. It took all of Mr. Clemm's authority to +keep them quiet, and it got out that the Commissioner was expecting the +end of the world, and the graves were for those that wouldn't go to +heaven! Kanakas are like that, you know--spreading the silliest rumors +and making a lot out of nothing--though in this case they couldn't be +blamed for being considerable scared. But Mr. Clemm knew how to turn +everything to account, and on the principle that the church was the +safest place to be found in on the Day of Judgment, ordered that +everybody should go there the moment he fired three pistol shots from +his veranda. I noticed, however, that the Native Constabulary seemed to +be taking the end of the world mighty calm, which looked like they had +been tipped off ahead for something quite different. + +But the meaning of the cemetery appeared later when one morning, along +of ten or so, my little boy came running in to say the _Evangel_ was +sighted in the pass. Of course, I stuck indoors, mindful of +instructions, though that didn't prevent me from looking out of my upper +window and taking in all that happened. The first was a tremendous +yellow flag raised on the Commissioner's staff, and the second were +those three pistol shots which were to announce the Day of Judgment. +Then you ought to have seen the settlement scoot! There was a rush for +the church like the animals at the Ark, though old David, the pastor, +wasn't any Noah. Him and the deacons were led down to the jail and +locked in, and then Peter Jones and his constables divided into two +parties--three of them returning to the church, while the other three +with Peter got a boat ready, with another yellow flag in the stern. + +By this time the missionary vessel was well up under a spanking spread +of canvas, with the water hissing at her bows and parting white and +sparkling in a way dandy to watch. You could almost feel her shiver at +the sight of Peter's yellow flag rowing towards her, and through the +glass I noticed a big commotion aboard, with half a dozen racing up the +rigging and making signs at those below. It was plainer than words that +they had seen the cemetery and were struck of a heap, which was no +wonder considering how new and calamitous it looked, with them rows on +rows of neat little headstones and nicely mounded graves. + +She never even dropped her anchor nor lowered her gangway, but hove to, +short; and when Peter came up he was made to lay on his oars and keep +his distance, yelling what he had to say with both hands at his face +while the captain he yelled back with a speaking trumpet. Of course I +didn't hear a word, but it was easy enough to put two and two together, +remembering the sea meaning of a yellow flag which is seldom else than +smallpox. Yes, that was why we had all took and died in the new +cemetery, and that was why the settlement looked so lifeless and +deserted! After no end of a powwow they hoisted out a boat, and when it +was loaded to the gunwales with stores and cases, it was cast off for +Peter to pick up and take in tow. It held half a ton of medical +comforts, and I often had the pleasure of drinking some of them +afterwards on Mr. Clemm's veranda, where we all agreed it was prime +stuff and exactly suited to our complaints. + +What old David thought of it all through the bars of the coral jail can +only be left to the imagination. He had been banking on the _Evangel_ to +turn the scales against Mr. Clemm, and there she was heading out of the +lagoon again, not to return for another year! We celebrated it that +night with medical comforts unstinted, while the natives they +celebrated, too, thankful to find the world still here and the Day of +Judgment postponed. Old David wrote a red-hot protest, countersigned by +the deacons, and not knowing what else to do with it, sealed it in a +demijohn and threw it into the sea, where like enough it still is, +bobbing around undelivered to the missionary society and still waiting +for the angels to take charge of it. + +Mr. Clemm's next move was to start building a small cutter of twenty +tons, which he named the _Felicity_ and charged to the government as an +official yacht. Old man Fosby had been a shipwright in years gone by, +and under his direction the Kanakas made a mighty fine job of the little +vessel, which was fitted up regardless and proved to be remarkably fast +and weatherly. She was the apple of the Commissioner's eye, with a crew +of four in uniform, and a half-caste Chinaman named Henry for captain, +whom he had persuaded to desert from a German schooner where he was +mate. Mr. Clemm was so fond of taking short cruises in the _Felicity_ +that we never gave his coming and going much thought, till one day he +went off and never came back! Yes, sir, clean disappeared over the +horizon and was never seen again from that day to this, nor the party +with him which included several very fine-looking young women! + +The natives took it like the loss of a father, which indeed it was, Mr. +Clemm being a grand man and universally beloved--kindly yet strict, and +always the soul of justice. After giving him up altogether for lost, we +put seals on his private effects, and Peter Jones took charge of the +government, advised by Stanley and me. It showed the splendid influence +Mr. Clemm had had that Peter had become quite a model, and instead of +breaking loose was all on the side of law and order. Our idea was to +hold the fort until a new Commissioner might be sent, and the only +slight change we made was to double our salaries. The natives had grown +so used to civilized government that they made no trouble, and we three +might have been governing the island yet if a man-of-war hadn't suddenly +popped in. + +It was the _Ringarooma_, the self-same ship that had landed Mr. Clemm +some eighteen months before, and Stanley and I were the first to board +her, meeting the captain at the break of the poop, just when he had come +down from the bridge. + +"I have the honor to report the disappearance of Deputy Commissioner +James Howard Fitzroy Clemm," said I. "He sailed from here on March +sixteenth in the government yacht _Felicity_, and has never been seen +nor heard from since." + +The captain, who was a sharp, curt man, looked puzzled. + +"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, as abrupt as a +thunderbolt. + +"Why, sir, you landed him yourself," said Stanley, "and the same day he +took possession of the island and hoisted the British flag." + +"Annexed us," said I. + +The captain frowned very angry, like if we were making sport of him we +should fast rue it. + +"I never landed anybody here but a fellow named Baker," he said. "I +deported him from the Ellice Islands for sedition, bigamy, selling gin +to the natives, suspected arson and receiving stolen goods. If he called +himself a Deputy Commissioner he was a rank impostor, and had no more +authority to annex this island than you have." + + * * * * * + +Months afterwards we learned that instead of being lost in the +_Felicity_ like we all had thought, Clemm had turned pirate in a small +way down to the Westward till the natives took and ate him at +Guadalcanaar. + + + + +CLOUD OF BUTTERFLIES + + +Behind Apia, on the edge of the Taufusi swamp, was a small collection of +huts, jumbled together in squalor and dirt, with pigs dozing in the ooze +and slatternly women beating out _siapo_ in the shade. It was a dunghill +of out-islanders, Nieues, Uveans, Tongans, Tapatueans, banded together +in a common poverty; landless people of other archipelagoes, despised of +the Samoans, and paying tribute to the lord of the soil--a few men in +war; a grudging hog in times of peace. + +Here lived O'olo, a boy of twenty, whose chief-like face, and fine manly +bearing marked him as one apart in that nest of outcasts. He was of +Tongan blood, though all he knew of his parents was that they had +escaped from Nukualofa at the time of the Persecution, and had died in +Samoa when he was a child. Old Siosi, who had adopted him, could tell +him no more than that; not that O'olo asked many questions, being +content to drift on the ocean of life, and careless of anything save +what belonged to the day. He weeded taro, occasionally worked for +thirty-five cents a day at the unloading of ships; stole bread-fruit and +bananas up the mountain, and slept peacefully at night on the stones of +Siosi's floor. + +If ever he envied the Samoans, the mood was brief, and seldom darkened +his spirits for long. To him the Samoans were a race above, with +splendid houses, and spacious lands, and a haughty contempt for such an +eat-bush at O'olo, the Tongan; and O'olo looked up at them mightily, and +respected them as a dog does a man, though sometimes he said: "I wish +God had made _me_ a Samoan"; and then the swamp appeared very dismal to +O'olo, and the huts mean and noisome, and the mallets seemed to be +pounding on his heart instead of the suddy bark. + +Now it happened that a new clergyman came to the coral church on the +other side of the coconut grove, and what was more important to O'olo +brought with him a lovely daughter. O'olo did not know how important it +was till he first met Evanitalina in the path, and was so suddenly +stricken with her beauty that he had hardly the sense to make way for +her to pass. Slim and graceful, with her glossy hair gathered at the +nape with a ribbon, and her bright _lavalava_ kilted to the knee, she +gave O'olo a glance as sparkling as moonlight on a pool, all her young +womanhood alive to his confusion, and quick to divine its cause. Though +her eyes had scarcely dwelt on him an instant, she had seen enough for +her heart to say: "_Panga!_ What a handsome youth"; and was filled with +a strange elation in which there was a dart of pain. + +On her return O'olo was still where she had left him, though in his +hand was a crimson _aute_ blossom that had not been there before; and +when she drew close he held it out, saying: "Oh, lady, here is a little +worthless gift!" She took it smiling, and put it behind her ear, and had +it been a pig or a fine mat no sweeter could have been her words of +gratitude, for Evanitalina had been well brought up, and courtesy was as +natural to her as breathing. + +"I am named O'olo," said the young man, "and if you like _aute_ +blossoms, every day shall I bring you some." + +"I am Evanitalina, the daughter of Samuelu, the clergyman," she +returned, "and I shall be glad of the blossoms, for as yet thy father +has tabooed no lands for our garden." + +Then O'olo realized she had mistaken him for the son of Amatuanai, the +chief, and while flattered he was also much cast down. + +"I am only a Tongan," he said, deprecatorily, shame halting his tongue, +"and I live yonder where you see that nameless-animal rooting in the +slough--though to God a Tongan is every bit as good as a Samoan, and the +only chiefs are those who are strong in faith." + +Evanitalina hastened to agree with him, though she was very disappointed +just the same, for he was so handsome, and had such pleasant manners, +and an air so noble and winning that she had never doubted he was of +rank. She herself was of the exalted I'i family, of Safotulafai, and +her grandfather was Tu'imaleali'ifano, and her great-grandfather had +been Tu-ia'ana. Yet as she went on, the memory of O'olo stayed with her +like the scent of frangipani, and for all he was a Tongan and without +land or position, she felt a great tenderness for him; and taking the +crimson flower she pressed it to her bosom, trembling with joy as she +did so, and saying to herself: "I love thee, I love thee, I love thee!" + +The next day they met again, and the next after that, and soon the +village gossips were all of a chatter, though not a word of it reached +the Reverend Samuelu nor his wife. But if Evanitalina dared not tell her +parents of O'olo, in her conduct at least she was as good as gold, and +every time she held a tryst with her sweetheart, she took her little +brother with her as convention demands; and Polo, bribed with sugar +cane, sucked and chewed at the pieces O'olo peeled for him, his shaven +head untroubled by the woes of his elders. They, alas, were very +wretched, for O'olo had saved up two dollars, which was what to get +married costs, and was urging Evanitalina to run away with him to Atua; +while she, with superior wisdom called his proposal that of a delirious +person, for how were they to live afterwards except slavelike on the +bounty of others? When he answered they could return to Siosi and the +swamp, her lip curled scornfully, and she reminded him she was of the +renowned I'i family, accustomed to dignity and ease, to whom the +settlement of out-islanders was hardly better than a wallow of +nameless-animals. + +Now, however true this might be, it was hurtful to O'olo's pride, and he +was often goaded into sharp retorts which invited others even sharper, +so that their passion might be compared to a mountain, up one side of +which they climbed in joy and gladness, to descend on the other in +alienation. Not that they loved each other any less; that, indeed, was +the most cruel part of it; and when at last they separated it was with +breaking hearts. + +The days that followed were heavy with sorrow, for each strove ardently +to pain the other, and with every stab thus inflicted there were two +wounds, one in the giver and one in the stricken person. O'olo spent his +two dollars in riot and debauchery, and when released from prison fell +into greater evil, so that his communion-ticket was withdrawn, and those +who missed taro, or chickens, or run-wild daughters used to say +darkeningly: "Lo, it is that Taufusi Tongan," and sought to waylay him +with an ax. + +Evanitalina, in her turn, encouraged the wooing of Viliamu, a +highly-connected young man, whose father was a Member of Parliament, and +who earned a dollar and a half a day in the explosion-water manufactory. +In this profession he was wondrous skilful, and could be seen daily +under a shed, directing the apparatus, and giving orders to his helpers +like a white man. A bottle of explosion-water held no more than half a +coconut, yet it was sold for ten cents, and it was a perplexity that +anybody liked it, for it shot up your nose like the rush of a bat, and +made you choke and sneeze, as Evanitalina discovered when once Viliamu +brought her some. But it was a fine thing to be able to make it, and +earn a dollar and a half a day, and dress magnificently, and give costly +presents; and though Evanitalina did not love Viliamu she admired him, +and accepted his gifts, and thought wickedly how it must afflict O'olo +to see her and Viliamu seated on the same mat, or with their heads side +by side on the same bamboo pillow. + +Nor was Viliamu her only suitor, for there was also Carl, the German +half-caste, who was captain of a schooner, and wore trousers and a black +sash, and owned valuable property in Savaloalo; Carl who called for her +almost every Sunday in a buggy, and took her driving like a white lady, +to Vailele or Vaitele or Utumapu; Carl of the ringing laugh, and jolly, +smiling face, and tattooed girl-fish on his arm, who could sing, and do +tricks with cards, and invent the funniest forfeits when they all played +games, and yet, who at leave-time never failed to say with seriousness: +"Oh, my pigeon, am I to love uselessly forever?" + +Again and again was Evanitalina drawn to take Viliamu, and then to take +Captain Carl, for Samuelu was always urging that a final decision be +come to, knowing the folly of maids, and the lack and fewness of worthy +men for husbands. But as she was on the brink, like a diver pausing +before the plunge, her eyes would alight on O'olo, smolderingly +regarding her from afar, and then her whole strength would turn to +water, and not for anything would she have married Carl, though all +Savalalo belonged to him, and all the ships of the sea; nor likewise +would she have married Viliamu, even had he owned the explosion-water +manufactory and been himself a Member of Parliament, for of her heart +there was but one master, and that was the Tongan. + +But, alas, there was no coming together, for O'olo in his despair had +put himself beyond all intercourse with those of honor, becoming a +terror and a scourge, and inhabiting the jail more frequently than +Siosi's roof-tree; and nightly, when he was free, he caroused with low +companions, drinking gin, and cooking stolen pigs, and eating stolen +taro, and saying in his infamy: "Why should I work for thirty-five cents +a day when all the Tuamasanga is mine?" + +Yet the rich food had no flavor in his mouth, and though the gin +maddened his spirit, it could not drown his wretchedness, for deep +within him, like a maggot in a bread-fruit, was the torment of love. +Sometimes in prison he would lower his head like a cow, and run at the +wall, exclaiming: "I will die, I will die!" And then he would fall, with +his beautiful hair all matted with blood, and his beautiful body next to +lifeless, though with his purpose unattained, owing to the thickness of +his skull. Surely no person in hell was ever more unhappy than O'olo, +and it is with grief one tells of him, for he was like a child, who, on +being refused a mango throws away his banana in wilfulness--and with +him, his banana was right conduct, and the respect of others, and the +laws of God, leaving him nothing save an aching spirit. + +Then the war came, with the Tuamasanga in an uproar from end to end, +every young man being called to arms, and troops pouring in from Tutuila +and the westward to join in the onslaught against Mataafa. The Taufusi +people, as foreigners, were not liable to the levy except for two +striplings by way of rent, both of whom were subscribed with +unwillingness, though neither was O'olo. This Evanitalina learned with +joy, for death was in the air and bloody fighting nigh at hand, and her +tenderness for O'olo, lying secret in her bosom, like a red-hot coal, +was fanned to the flame of agony. But no, he was fortunately in the +lock-up, and it was reported he had said scornfully of the war: "A +Tongan gentleman has no concern with the squabbles of dogs"; which, if +insulting, was not without the balm of reassurance to Evanitalina, +greatly dreading. + +One drowsy afternoon, however, as she was sewing under the eaves, alone +except for Polo, who had made a Mataafa soldier of the dog, and was +pretending, victoriously, to cut the animal's head off with a piece of +wood, as so soon, in reality, would be happening to living men, pierced +with wounds, and lying in their blood--one hot afternoon while nothing +stirred except the flies, and even these buzzed sleepily, Evanitalina of +a sudden was roused by the sound of steps, and looking up, beheld a +warrior advancing towards the house. His face was blackened with +charcoal, as is the custom, and about his hair was the scarlet scarf of +the Government, and against his skin glistened a belt of cartridges; and +his walk was fearless and proud, as befitted so handsome a man and one +of such noble mien. + +"_Talofa_," he said, and then Evanitalina gave a cry, for it was O'olo; +and with that cry, every thought vanished except her love, which rose +tumultuously within her like a wave bursting between rocks, and foaming +white over them, so that she could answer not a word to his greeting, +but stared uselessly at him like a dead person. + +"I am going to the war," explained O'olo, bending down on his beautiful +legs, and bringing his face so close to hers that his breath was on her +cheek. "Doubtless I shall die, for with many so brave it will be +difficult for me to excel them, though that is my intention at whatever +cost." + +"But how is it you are not in prison?" inquired Evanitalina, recovering +her voice, and speaking in a tremble. "The judge allotted you two +months, and lo, here you are with only sixteen days of it expended." + +At this O'olo's heart warmed, for it showed him how assiduous had been +Evanitalina's counting of his imprisonment, for it was exactly sixteen +days, even as she said, she tallying it every morning with a little +stone; and it spoke to him better than words of the endurance and +strength of her love, which, like his own, was as fathomless as the sea. + +"I was made free on this condition," he said, touching his rifle, "and +though to me the Government is nothing, nor the King, nor the quarrel +more than that of gulls on a rock, or the squeals of nameless-animals +over carrion, yet I consented for thy sake, Evanitalina." + +"My sake?" she exclaimed, astonished. "Were it to please me I would +implore thee to remain behind, though I thought my name had long ceased +to be anything to thee, and that I was utterly forgotten and cast +aside." + +"So did I try to make it," he said, "for no shark could have been more +cruel than thee to me, nor any bat more blind to worth, and because I +had neither lands nor family thou drovest me forth with contempt." + +"It was the insufficiency of the two dollars, O'olo," she protested, +"and not that of my love, which was unbounded; and if I merited +punishment for what seemed right to me, have I not received it, and +atoned a thousand times over for my fault? Did Viliamu gain me for all +his wealth and position, or did Carl the half-caste take me to wife? I +was truer to thee than ever thou wast to me, and nightly I wept, and +held the memory of thee in my arms, like a mother whose babe is dead. +And this I will do, if thou wilt return to jail, and break the covenant +of thy freedom--I will marry thee, and go live with thee in Siosi's +house, and forfeit rank and honor and the regard of all, reckoning them +as naught in the comparison of thy love." + +At this O'olo could hardly keep back his tears, so greatly was he +overcome; and his hand met Evanitalina's and clasped on hers, and his +chest shook like one grief-stricken at the death of a near relation. He +had learned many things since he had become bad, and knew better than +before the gulf that lay between an eat-bush like himself and a member +of the renowned I'i family. Our Lord in the desert was not more tempted +by the kingdoms of the world than he at that moment by Evanitalina, who +was offering herself in all her young beauty for his delight. + +But resolutely he put the devil behind him, saying: "I will not have +thee stoop to me, so that persons shall mock at thy choice, and the +parable of the pearl and the nameless-animal shall be repeated in the +Taufusi swamp. No! I shall make of this war a ladder, and reach glory or +die and to that I am determined as never was man before. If I come back +it shall be as one famous for prowess, bearing heads that I have taken, +and with chiefs eager to adopt me. Thus shall I return, an eat-bush no +longer nor despised, but a David who has slain his Goliath, with the +multitude applauding, and the greatest of the Tuamasanga vying to give +me the title of their son. Or, if not that, then shall I claim the land +God withholds not from every man, nay, not from the poorest or the +lowest, and the name of that land is the grave." + +At this Evanitalina sobbed, and clung pitifully to O'olo, and pressed +his head to her bosom, unmindful of decorum, and so consumed by misery +she was like a person in a fit. O'olo, too, was suffocated with sadness, +for it seemed a dreadful thing to die and be cast blood-stained into a +pit, he that was so handsome, and in the flood of his youth, with +perhaps his dissevered head tossing in the air amid shouts and triumph. +Indeed, so lost was he in wretchedness that he was taken unawares by +Samuelu on his way inland from a deacons' meeting, who, convulsed, +seized a coconut branch, and ran at him, crying: "Let there be a going, +thou worthless one! Fly, thou of the Belial family, and be quick with +it, else I shall whip thee hence like a cur!" And with that he whipped +and whipped at O'olo, departing, for the Tongan was too mannerly to +strike a clergyman, and one so greatly his senior, though his spirit +smarted worse than his body at the insult. Thus he passed from the sight +of Evanitalina, like a horse being chased from a bread-fruit plantation, +with no time to look back, or wave with his hand a last greeting. + +He marched the same day with the Vaiala contingent under the high-chief +Asi, and that night, shivering on the wet ground, O'olo had his first +taste of war. As to it he had many misconceptions, not reckoning on the +severity of the rule, or the trifling importance attached to a Tongan, +however lionlike his heart. He saw that he was one of many, a grain in a +heap of sand, who might at an order be kept in the rear, and never hear +the whistle of a bullet, or earn the chance of distinction. In the army, +too, little thought was taken of food, so that one banana was given for +breakfast, and for dinner a coconut, which O'olo found hard, he having +always been a hearty eater, and accustomed to _palusami_ and luxuries. +The monotony also, was unendurable, especially when the tobacco was +gone, and one was forbidden to move, being condemned to sit hungry and +distressed for a whole day at a time, sucking a white stone by way of +alleviation. To O'olo a white stone was very insufficient for +nourishment, and so he tried grass and weeds like Nebuchadnezzar, to +the undoing of his stomach, which dissatisfied, was afflicted with +cramps, so that he rolled and rolled in pain, and lamented loudly, till +Asi cried out: "Make that Tongan to cease from bellowing, or else the +enemy will surely discover us!" + +But let it not be said that O'olo was womanish or afraid, for on the +contrary he thirsted for battle like King David, whom he took for his +example, and his repining was due to the backwardness of his rulers and +the tightness of their leash. When at last the advance was ordered on +the Mataafa stronghold he was noticeable for his leaps of joy; and while +others wore an anxious appearance and showed uncertainty in their walk, +O'olo sang with exultation, and stepped out as though on his way to a +feast. + +The stronghold was of stone, and had been used by the Germans for the +retaining of cattle, and stood solitary on a hill with the land falling +away on every side. As it flashed and sparkled with the Mataafa fire it +was seen by O'olo to be a place not easy to capture, with much loss to +be experienced before ax could cross ax, and knife meet knife, in the +final charge; so that, with wisdom, he shot little in order not to tire +himself, and hugged the ground in a manner suggestive of terror rather +than boldness, for to be killed here was useless and foreign to his +purpose, fame resting in the fort, and there the heads to be taken. +Thus, when they sprang up at the call, he was unfatigued, with +cartridges still in his gun, and wind in his body, and up the hill he +raced with swiftness, so that scarcely two of his companions matched +pace with him, and those who had cried: "Coward, coward!" panted in his +rear, and perceived it was a hero they had mocked. + +Nor at the gateway was there any slackening of Tongan valor, and over it +O'olo scrambled, undeterred by rifle and ax, so that it was a miracle +that he stayed alive as he dropped within, even as Daniel into the +lion's den, beset by twenty, and he alone. It was like a tempest and he +in the center, and for lightning was the flame of the guns, and for +thunder the roar of their explosion, and for the raging sea the crash of +blows, given and taken, and the sobbing breath of men. Here the Tongan +rock withheld the enemy, while the army of the Government rolled over +the wall in a resistless torrent, and with tumult and fury beset the +Mataafas until they fled. Now, O'olo, with coolness, had already marked +an old chief of towering stature and magnificent appearance as the one +whose head he would take, unwishful of a boy's, or that of a person of +no importance, and him he pressed hard in the rout, and at last laid low +with the butt of his weapon, straddling his body, and prepared to hack +at his throat with his knife. + +The old chief, whose hurt had not bereft him of his senses, begged +piteously for his life in a voice choked by the weight of O'olo on his +chest, and troubled by the imminence of death; offering first ten cans +of biscuit, and then twenty, and then property and fine mats in +quantities unstinted. But O'olo, although it was like a beautiful dream +come true, dallied with the killing, being squeamish in regard to it, +and needing a space to confirm his resolution, he saying with derision: +"Thou pig-faced person, thou hast not the property thou namest, and even +wert thou the Lord of the earth, yet still would I take thy head!" To +which the fallen warrior made answer: "I am Tangaloa, the high-chief of +Leatatafili, in Savai'i, and the property I speak of is no myth, and all +of it thine if thou wilt spare me." To which O'olo replied: "And when I +should claim it, verily thou wouldst forget thy covenant, and order thy +young men to chastise me forth, they laughing at the cheat, and I with +neither head nor property, and the back of me lacerated with blows!" +Then the old chief fell into a great tremble, repeating: "No, no," his +flesh shrinking on his bones, and horror in his face; and as O'olo +looked down at him, making motions with his knife, the Tongan's thought +was suddenly moved into a new direction, and lo, it was like a burning +torch in a cavern, so bright it was in the darkness of his previous +purpose, he saying: "Oh, Tangaloa, there is a price, and that is my +adoption as thy son, and to that wilt thou pledge thyself in an oath +before God?" To which, overjoyed, the venerable warrior consented with +impetuosity, crying out that he would do so, and seeing in the proposal +the high-chief-hand of God, for had not his own son lately died? + +"And cherish me, and love me?" demanded O'olo with renewed motions of +his knife, he undesirous of showing too great a willingness, and +pretending indecision, besides doubting the chief's integrity. + +"As God sees me that I will perform," said Tangaloa, "and now in my +extremity I perceive the worth of true dealing with every man, for all +my past years stand in witness to my honor, and he who trusted me has +never been deceived." + +At this O'olo was reassured, and he repeated the oath for Tangaloa to +say after him, making it very full and exact, with nothing omitted; and +then he kissed the old man, beginning to feel for him the tenderness of +a son, he that had never had a father until this moment, and now having +gained one of the loftiest rank; and he raised him lovingly, and bound +his wound with a strip of cloth, and be-darlinged him, Tangaloa +returning his love, and saying again and again: "Blessed be God that He +has sent me a son for my protection." + +Nor were these words of empty import, for others of the victorious army +were much displeased at O'olo's clemency, and would have torn away +Tangaloa and killed him, had not O'olo resisted with lowered gun and a +threatening expression, so that he dared not leave his father for an +instant so greedy were the warriors for his head. All that day he +crouched beside him, with neither water to drink nor food to eat, +guarding Tangaloa preciously; and had it not been for the confusion that +attends the finish of a battle, and the lessening of authority that +follows, he would have been overpowered by a multitude, and all his +bravery wasted. But those who assailed him were without cohesion or +settled plan, and they were as dogs, rushing up to affright, and then +losing courage at O'olo's demeanor, which was fierce and unshaken, with +his rifle at the cock. + +It was a day terrible to remember in its heat and hunger and unbearable +thirst, with about them the headless dead, festering in the sun and +blackening, and over them the sky without a cloud, and always at their +hearts the dread of Asi and the chiefs, returning to kill them both. At +dusk it seemed as though O'olo could never get his father to his feet, +so destroyed was the old man by weakness and disinclination, and he was +as a sinking canoe, or a sting ray flopping on the reef, and abandoned +by the tide. But O'olo persevered, dragging and supporting him until +coconuts were reached, where he climbed a tree and threw down nui in +abundance; and as they drank the water they were greatly refreshed, and +with every bite of the rind, vigor returned, and with vigor, boldness. +Then Tangaloa said: "Let us pray"; and with that they both went down on +their knees, the old chief beseeching God for deliverance, and +repeating again and again his thankfulness for O'olo, and for the nuts. + +But all was far from finished, and there was much for God to do yet if +ever He destined them to gain the security of Savai'i; and O'olo +proclaimed his intention of hiding in the mountains, and going eastward +circuitously, and making no sign or stir until the close of the war, and +the withdrawal of the Tuamasanga from A'ana. To this Tangaloa agreed +without argument, resigning himself like a little child to O'olo's +guidance, and making no demur when the Tongan said: "Let us rise and go, +for by dawn we must be on the heights, and beyond pursuit." + +Thus determined, they took the plantation road upward, assisted by the +moon which was near its full; and toilsomely attaining the limits of the +cultivated land, buried themselves in the tomb of the forest. Here, with +groping and hurt, and frequent misdirection, they struggled on and on, +making of a watercourse their path, and at times so hidden in the defile +of rocks that it was as though the earth had closed over them. In this +manner were many hours spent until at last Tangaloa fell exhausted on a +bank of ferns, saying: "More I cannot do." Then O'olo built a fire to +warm his parent, who was perishing of cold, and rubbed his legs, and +shaped a bough for his pillow, and kissed him lovingly; and when the old +man said: "I am convinced we shall die"; he answered stoutly, "No, we +shall live, for God has not brought us thus far to desert us now"; at +which Tangaloa was comforted and went to sleep, while O'olo watched and +watched beside him, his heart much troubled by the evil of their +situation, and the frailty of the old chief, and the assailing doubts as +to whether, after all, they should ever escape. + + * * * * * + +The news of O'olo's desertion was variously twisted by the returning +troops, so that to Evanitalina, inquiring in anguish, there were as many +tales as men. Some would have it that they had seen him die, giving +details; others that he had run away from the battle, in wildness and +panic; others praised him truthfully for a hero, and as the first to +leap the fort. Of these there was a fewness, for the most preferred to +laud themselves or their relations rather than another, and accordingly +most of the chatter was scornful of O'olo, and to his discredit. But +Evanitalina knew that O'olo was no coward, and her misgiving was that he +was dead, which deepened with the passing of months, and no sign nor +token coming to prove the contrary. Viliamu, too, was assiduous in +declaring it, which he did with artfulness and pretended sorrow, urging +all the while his own suit, like a squid of apparent harmlessness on the +surface, but with its suckers enfolding venomously below. + +Never was a maid in sadder straits, widowed before she was a wife, and +unceasingly plagued by Samuelu to marry either Viliamu or Carl. She grew +thin, and when she walked it was like a sick person, staggeringly, and +once of so passionate a temper she changed to a gentleness that nothing +could disturb. The compassion of the other maids lavished itself upon +her, for they saw that she was dying of grief for her beloved; and at +night, when wooed under the stars, they spoke with tenderness of O'olo +and Evanitalina, and of their love so cruelly ruptured; so that every +one wept, even young men who previously had had neither consideration +nor sense, to whom a maid was a maid, were only she pretty, and who +would have hastened for another had the first died; which shows that +true love is like a seed, growing and becoming a tree, from which others +eat the fruit to their own improvement, and increased understanding. + +Every day Evanitalina grew more weak, yet unlike most sick persons, she +was without fear at her condition, even welcoming it, and saying: "Soon +I shall pass beyond the skies on my last _malanga_"; an once when she +saw a wilted _aute_, she said: "Such am I, once blooming and now +a-droop," and with that she plucked fiercely at the petals, and crushed +them in her hand, as though she were hastening her own extinction. + +One morning, shortly after prayers, as she reclined on a mat, with her +eyes raised to that far-away country of which she often spoke, while +Samuelu sat at the table, writing his sermon, there appeared on the +village green three old gentlemen of stately and impressive appearance, +bearing staves, who, stopping at that distance, inquired loudly whether +this was the house of Samuelu, the clergyman? Then being greeted, and +answered, "Yes," the three old gentlemen ceremoniously advanced, and +ranged themselves within the eaves, saying that they had come on a +wooing-party of sixty boats with Cloud-of-Butterflies, the young chief +of Leatatafili, who was seeking a wife. At this, marveling greatly, +Samuelu informed them they were mistaken as to the house, since his +highness Cloud-of-Butterflies was unknown to him, and he surely unknown +to Cloud-of-Butterflies. But the old orators replied, No, they were not +mistaken, and asked had he not a daughter named the Lady Evanitalina, +for it was for her that Cloud-of-Butterflies, in sixty boats, was at +hand to offer marriage. + +Then Samuelu's amazement redoubled, and even Evanitalina, previously +languid, looked up surprised, and in her face was a strange expression +like that of a startled pigeon; and on being asked in a becoming speech +whether she would condescend to receive the visitor and his gifts, she +answered with bewilderment that it was as her father wished, at which +Samuelu said, "Yes," with no great willingness, desiring to continue +his sermon, and dreading the outlay in _'ava_ for the reception of so +vast a company. Then the three old gentlemen excused themselves in +polished phrases, full of beauty and eloquence, and retired to inform +Cloud-of-Butterflies that the Lady Evanitalina was desirous that he +should come. + +Shortly afterwards there was the beat of drums, and the tramp of +multitudes, and the screaming of innumerable pigs borne on poles, and a +sound like that of an advancing army, thunderous and roaring. The eaves +of every house was black with onlookers, and there were white people, +galloping up on horses, astounded, and many others on foot, running. +Then, shaking the ground with its progress the procession marched into +view; and of pigs there seemed two hundred, and of men a number beyond +counting; and at the head were youths, throwing their rifles in the air +as they sang and danced. But of these things Evanitalina was scarcely +heedful, for with breathless body and quivering heart her whole +attention was on Cloud-of-Butterflies in the center of the pageant, who, +girded in a priceless mat, and wearing at his throat a whale-tooth +necklace, and surrounded with deference and honor, was not to her +Cloud-of-Butterflies at all, but O'olo, arisen from the grave, and +hastening to claim her for his bride. + + + + +BEN + + +I was in the bark Ransom, with twenty tons of trade aboard, and looking +for a station up in the Westward, when I fixed it up with Tom Feltenshaw +at Arorai Island to buy him out. It was a good little station, and far +better than I could have hoped for at the money I had to offer, with a +new tin roof and a water tank and a copra shed with a cement floor, and +an imported banana in an imported ton of earth to give a natty effect to +the back view--the front being all reef and dazzle and Pacific Ocean. + +Lonesome? Coffin-lid, nail-her-down, lonesome--why, of course! Was there +ever a coral island that wasn't? But there was copra in plenty; only one +other trader and him a boozer; quite a bit of pearl shell, and Tom's +book showing how he had cleared thirty-three hundred dollars in a year. +He had boils something awful, and for the last two years it had just +been a fight to stick it out. I came along when the boils had won all +along the line, with Tom ready to leave everything all standing in order +to get away. + +There hadn't been a ship in five months, and he had come mighty near +pegging out, having made his will and tacked it to the shed door, +besides giving the natives receipts in advance that he had died a +natural death, they being afraid some passing man-of-war might hold +them responsible and shoot up the island. + +We had settled everything, counted out the money, and shook hands when +Tom says, over a good-by nip of Square-face: "Oh, that girl of mine, +Ben,--you'll take care her, won't you?" + +"Girl?" says I. + +"She's broke in to cooking and washing and white ways," explains Tom, +"and it'd go against my conscience to feel I hadn't left her +comfortable." + +"Let's see her," I said. + +He called her in, and one glance at her settled the matter. She was +about eighteen, as slim and straight as a dart, and, by far and away, +the prettiest woman I had seen in the group. She stood there mighty +sullen as I sized her up, and admired her splendid black hair that was +bound by a red ribbon at the nape of her neck, very coquettish and +attractive. I've always liked that proud, to-hell-with-you look in a +girl, and it seemed to make her better worth having, like there was +something to master before you could have your will with her. Yes, it +was bargain day for me all right, and the store wasn't the only thing I +was getting cheap. + +"What she saying?" I asked, as she spoke something in Kanaka to Tom, +showing real pretty teeth. + +"She won't stay if you whip her," grins Tom. + +"Bless her heart, I won't whip her," I says, thinking to break the ice +by pulling her down on my knee. But she struggled like a wildcat, and +Tom, he suddenly turns red-hot jealous. + +"Leave that till I'm gone," he says, kind of choking. "If it wasn't for +these damn boils I should never have parted with her or the station." +Then after another nip he takes his bag of money, and calls out to the +Kanakas at the porch to carry his two chests down to the boat that was +laying there ready to take him aboard. He ups as though to kiss the girl +good-by, but she sprang back from him, as fierce as she had been with +me--fiercer, I guess; and when he caught her she turned away her head +like she hated him. Then he swore and stumbled out of the house without +another word or anything, while me and the girl stood side by side, both +of us in our different ways deserted, and slung together by the fate of +things. She didn't fight this time when I made free with her again, but +began to sob like her heart would break, while I squeezed and cuddled +her and watched the sinking topsails of the Ransom. + + * * * * * + +Women are always alike at bottom; it is only men that are different. A +bit of finery would make Rosie happy for a week. Her hair was an +everlasting job, so was her skin, which she kept out of the sun and +rubbed down very careful with oil. She took walks to see how the other +women wore the single bushy garment that they do in the Gilberts, the +fashion varying from time to time: now it is swung very jaunty from side +to side, now it's low and now it's high, and sometimes it's thick and +sometimes it's thin, and sometimes the modest-and-quiet is the dressy +way of it. She took care of the house very nice, and what few clothes +and things we had were arranged most tidy in three chests with bell +locks. I never hear a little bell ting-a-ling to-day but what it brings +those days back to me, with her so busy at our funny housekeeping. When +I coasted around the island, trading, she 'ud stay behind and guard the +place like a bulldog, and never took a thing except a little soap or +tobacco or maybe a tin of meat for her Pa, a nosing old gentleman +dressed in a mat, who always bobbed up when I was out of the way, being +discouraged at other times from living and dying with us. + +Yes, I got very fond of her--loved her, you might call it, for all she +was a little savage, and ate squid, and carried a shark-tooth dagger +against any of the girls that might show a fancy for me. In time I +taught her to play cribbage and checkers and dominoes, so that at night +we would sit very sociable under the lamp, she and I, with the surf +groaning on the outer reef, and it was more like a home than I'd ever +had in my wandering, lonely, up-and-down life. She was quick to learn, +and loving to beat the band, yet ever kind of imperious and saucy like I +belonged to her instead of its being the other way around. She had no +idea of white people--used to say they looked like Kanakas who had been +drowned for a week--and was most scornful how it was always copra, +copra, copra with us. It was just her way to tease me and make me cross, +for then she would snuggle up and ripple over with laughter and hold me +tight in her soft, round girlish arms, and say that I was _her_ copra--a +whole ship of it, and how she 'ud hang herself from a coconut tree if I +were to die--and by God, she would have done it, too, them Gilbert women +being great on love, and the thing happening often enough. + +Several years passed, and I can't recall a single word of disagreement +between us. She was all the world to me in those days, and I doubt if in +the whole group there was a pair so happy. Ben's Rosie, they called +her--the captains and supercargoes and mates that came our way--and they +all thought a lot of her, and brought her many a little present that +made her eyes sparkle--such pretty eyes as they were, and so full of +fun--gold fish, and rolls of silk, and music boxes or a trade hat. It +was always a standing joke that she was tired of me, and was going to +run away with them; and if they were quite old, like Captain Smith or +Billy Baker, there wasn't any length she wouldn't go to, even to hugging +them and playing with their whiskers right before me, and saying in her +sweet, broken English: "Oh, you poor old captain, with nobody to love +you--but never mind, I go with you this time, sure I go, and Bennie can +get a girl from Big Muggin, oh, so pretty, who bite him like a dog!" + +Then little Ben came, and for a time it looked as though he was going to +be quite a boy, and grow up. But at the end of twenty-one months, as he +was nearing his second birthday, he sickened and died; and we dressed +him up in his poor little best, and put him away forever in the coral. +Rosie took on about it terrible--so terrible that I think something must +have broken in her brain. She was never the same afterwards; not that +she was always mourning, I don't mean that--but she grew cranky and +queer and changed in every way. She would start into a fury at a word, +and throw things about, and scream. She would tell the most awful lies +about how I had treated her, and invent things that never took place. +Even on a dot of a coral island there is gossip and slander and a Kanaka +Mrs. Grundy, and Rosie was doing her best to ruin me, so that I was +avoided, and the King and the other high muck-a-mucks went to Tyson's, +the opposition trader, and tabooed my store till I didn't know which way +to turn. + +I ought to have sold out and quit, and left Rosie on the other fellow +like Feltenshaw had done me. But I loved her for what she had been to +me, and for the poor mite moldering under ground, and so just took my +medicine for a whole miserable year and let it go at that. Every +misfortune I've had in life I seem to trace to what was good and +generous in me. Certainly if I'd shaken her off then and there, I would +have been a happier man, and been saved things that have since almost +drove me mad. + +The upshot of it was that finally I did sell the station to a couple of +Chinamen--brothers--and I would like to say right here there never was a +whiter pair than these two, or any that stood up straighter to a +bargain. Once the main price was fixed, there was no haggling over +valuations, nor any backwardness or suspicion, though in the rush I was +in not to hold the schooner over long, it would have been easy to beat +me out of a hundred dollars or two. They pulled us off to the vessel--me +and Rosie and them three camphor-wood chests with the bell locks and a +big roll of mats and a keg of silver dollars--and an hour later six +years of my life had sunk with the palms, as lost and disappeared as the +schooner's wake in the sea behind us. + +After the Line Apia struck me as a wonderfully bustling, busy little +place, and I took to it like a man does who's had nothing but coral and +coconuts to look at till all the world seems nothing else. It came over +me what a prisoner I'd been up there, and how much I had paid in +unthought-of ways for that keg of Chile money. Rosie, too, brightened up +considerable with the novelty of it all, and was so gay and laughing and +like her old self that I was gladder than ever at having made the +change. + +It didn't take me long to size up conditions; and the better part of +that keg soon put me in possession of a two-story house and store in the +center of the town on the main street, with a pretty good stock taken +over from the widow of the man who had lately died there. I was hardly +what could be called a trader any more, what with a place so big and +fine, with a tramway running down to a shaky wharf, and a busted +bookkeeper coming in every Tuesday night to post my books. I was a South +Sea merchant now, and was reaping the fruit of all them lonely slaving +days on the Line. No more pajamas neither, but a clean, white suit every +day, and with Rosie perking up like she did, them were real good times +for me, and pleasant to look back on; and though I do say it myself, my +neighbors liked me and I was respected and looked up to, and I was +called the Gilbert Island Consul from the way I was always ready to +befriend anybody from there, whether white or native, even once going +before the Supreme Court and being complimented by the Chief Justice on +behalf of some Nonootch people whose wages were being held back. + +Then my ward run me for the Municipal Council, and I was elected by +twenty-two votes to four over Grevsmuhl; and I can tell you it made me +feel a mighty proud man to be honored like that and placed so high; and +if my head didn't swell I guess my heart did, to almost bursting, at +such a rise in life, and one so unexpected and undreamed of. It hardly +seemed it could be me the police touched their caps to, or the consuls +confabbed with about local affairs as they dropped in to buy a +toothbrush or a pair of socks--me who had landed there so short a time +before in my pajamas and kind of dazed at the size and noise of the +place after the silence of the Line--just common old me, with earrings +in my ears and gaping like a Rube. + +It meant a big uplift to me in every kind of a way, and I was a better +man for all that confidence and trust, and wanted like hell to show I +was worth it. The week after I was elected to the Council I married +Rosie proper and right, thinking a Councillor ought to set an example in +his community; and every one was very cordial to me about it, especially +in my own ward, where two or three of them even followed my lead, saying +that with the mail steamers now calling and the town generally on the up +grade, it was time to let go on the old, wrong way of things, and get +into line with civilization. + +Whether it was the change from the coral islands or the lavish new diet +or what, Rosie had been laying on flesh for a long time in a quiet, +unnoticed kind of way till finally she suddenly plumped up like a +balloon. My, but she grew something awful, a waddling, monstrous +mountain of a woman, with her eyes burying like a pig's, and the whole +of her shaking as she walked. She was ashamed to go out any more except +by night, sulking all day indoors, instead, and rocking in a hammock. +As I said before, she'd never been right since Benny's death, and though +she had pulled up for a time and acted very much improved she slumped at +last, and slumped worse than she ever had been. Her old surly fits on +the Line were nothing compared with the rampageous way she went on now, +and if there was ever a she devil on earth or a man driven plumb +distracted it was Rosie and me in our splendid house. + +When she was taken with those spells of hers she was nothing less than a +cursing, snarling, foaming maniac, and stopped at nothing to make me a +spectacle and a byword. Again and again she chased me out with an ax; +she would fling into the store with nothing over her but a single dirty +garment, and pull down whole shelves of stuff out of sheer devilment, +screaming with rage. She slandered everybody, and reflected on every +woman who was unfortunate enough to know us, so that I was sued twice +for defamation--or rather she--with verdict and damages, all that I +could do being to hold up my hands and tell the judge she wasn't +answerable for her actions. Hell, that was what it was--straight, +unadulterated hell--with no way out that I could see till I died or she. + +It was about this time I began to notice a fellow named Tyne on the +beach--a thin, tall, hungry-looking man in a derby hat, very shabby +black clothes, and no socks--who was said to be a busted doctor landed +off of a French bark. His name came up before the Council, but as he had +no papers or diplomas to show, and was hazy besides where he came from +and how, we refused to let him practice, and were insulted besides at +his daring to ask us. + +Well, one day this Tyne, he comes into my store, very hang-dog, and so +famished and shaky that I couldn't but feel sorry for him, and he asks +for the job of pushing my handcart around the beach, getting stuff out +of Customs, and making deliveries--he having heard I had fired my Nieue +boy for pilfering. + +"Fifty cents a day, Doc," I says. "It's hardly fit for a white man." + +"My God," he says, in a real gentleman's voice, "I'm starving. I'd push +anything anywhere for a bite of bread and a corner of a shed to sleep +in. Ain't there a spark of charity in this town for a white man who is +down on his uppers?" + +I answered him with a can of sardines and some pilot break, which he +went out and wolfed right there on the front stoop, and then came back +wanting to know where was the cart and what was he to do? This was first +how we got acquainted, Doc and me; and a remarkably finely educated man +he was, too, and I don't doubt for a minute all that he represented +himself. I fixed up a small shed for him with some mats, a tin basin and +a lamp; and after a day or two, seeing how willing he worked and how +faithful in spite of every one staring at a white man between the +shafts, I let him take his meals regular with me and Rosie like one of +the family. + +For all he was down and out, and trundled my things about the beach like +a donkey, in knowledge and everything he was miles above me and I knew +it--and he made it plain he knew it, too. He was not at all a genial +man, but had a rasping, bitter way about him, and a tongue as sharp as a +razor, and a line of talk as to how the world was made up of flats and +sharpers, all of them hypocrites, and how there wasn't but one sin--and +that was to be found out. He talked like the devil might be expected to +talk, there being no goodness or honor anywhere; and in some ways he +wasn't unlike him in looks as generally represented, being tall and +thin, with keen gray eyes that seemed to bore right through you, and a +wicked, sneering mouth like a slit across his face. + +Very soon he was doctoring natives on the sly for quarters and half +dollars and bonito hooks and tappa, and quite a row of bottles and +drug-store stuff began to accumulate along the ledges of the shed walls. +I didn't think it was my business to interfere as long as he let white +people alone, besides feeling sorry for him, and appreciating the way he +paid no attention to Rosie's outbreaks, sitting there like he was air, +and not passing a single remark--being, for all his faults, a gentleman +through and through. At last he chucked the handcart altogether, though +he went on messing with me and living in my shed, his Kanaka practice +growing very extensive. It grew and grew till finally the regular doctor +called a halt, and he was warned in an official letter, and told he +would get three months' imprisonment if he persisted. At this I thought +he would go back to the shafts again, though I didn't care to propose it +lest it should hurt his feelings. But instead he bought an accordion and +did nothing but play and play on it for days, beginning awful bad like +he didn't know one end of it from another, but improving wonderful till +it was dandy to hear him. + +I guess there was nothing Doc couldn't do if he tried, though why +accordion was more than I could answer. But it wasn't loafing that kept +him stuffed in a hot shed all day, wheezing polkas out of the +hurdy-gurdy, but a real good idea of improving on the handcart. What if +he didn't make a whole band out of himself, with a harness holding a +comb across his mouth, and a bass drum for him to kick with one foot and +a tambourine to frisk with the other. My, when he started off with "The +Stars and Stripes Forever" you might have thought he was six, with a +drum major prancing along in front! He give a demonstration that night +in the Tivoli Hotel, and drew the town; and when he come home it was +with a pocketful of silver and a couple of dates for a wedding and the +Kaiser's birthday. + +After that Doc became an institution, with a pretty Kanaka girl to carry +the drum and pass round the saucer; and every night when he hadn't a +special engagement he would make the round of the bars, picking up what +little he could. If there was a ship to be sold at auction, or a public +meeting to protest against a high-handed something, it got to be the +fashion to plaster the notice of it on Doc's back, him playing under a +tree for all he was worth with the sweat pouring down his face, while +all hands turned out to see what was the rumpus. He made money hand over +fist, and would have paid for his keep only I wouldn't have it. We had +grown to be sort of friends, him and me, from both having so much to +bear--for he was too proud and highly educated a man to like making a +monkey of himself, and it ground into him hard, and with me it was +Rosie, Rosie, Rosie. + +Oh, God, what things I had to put up with! What endless mortifications! +What everlasting, heartbreaking scenes and scandals! She got to +following me to Council meetings, bellowing like a wildcat, and clawing +the policeman who was ordered to put her out; and again and again I had +to leave in the middle to try and get her home, half the beach tagging +along with us, laughing and jeering till I could have died of shame. + +The day I resigned from the Council, being unable to stand it any +longer, I was sitting in the front room, with my head in my hands, when +Doc came in, and patted me on the back. + +"Too bad," he says, "too bad." + +"Oh, Doc," I says, "I'm the most miserable chap alive." + +"It's bound to end some time," he remarked. + +I shook my head. We had no means of taking care of lunatics, and that +was about what Rosie was. The Colonies all had laws, barring out +undesirables and such, even if a steamer would have taken her, which +none of them would. "I'll tell you what I'd do," said Doc. "I'd give +five hundred dollars to a labor-ship captain, put her aboard at night, +and leave it to him to land her in one of those islands where they eat +you for dinner." + +"I couldn't do that," I said. + +"Too fond of your money, eh?" he sneers. + +"Oh, Doc," I answered, "I'd give everything I possess, lock, stock and +barrel--and ten years of my life thrown in--to be decently quit of her." + +He smiled a bit incredulous. "Suppose an angel came down from heaven and +took you at your word," he says. "The next day you'd be beating Mr. +Angel out of his price--you know you would, and screaming worse than she +does at being held to your bargain." + +"Perhaps I would, Doc," I agreed, his manner of speaking somehow making +it feel very real; "it's hard to begin without a dollar and nothing but +the clothes you stand in. But downstairs in my safe I have two thousand +dollars in hard cash, American money, which the angel could take and +welcome." + +"That's a lot of money," he says, wondering like, "but it would be worth +it to you, wouldn't it?" + +"My God, yes," I says, rather regretting I told him about the safe, for +there was a shine in his eyes and a calculating look I didn't like. + +"And you wouldn't bilk the angel when he handed in his bill?" he went +on. + +"Oh, hell, Doc," I said, "what's the use of talking of angels? I've just +got to grin and bear it." + +"But you'd pay, wouldn't you?" he persisted. + +I said yes, just to stop his pestering; and after a couple of drinks off +of the sideboard he went away. That evening I locked myself in the +store, took the money out of the safe, and carried it up to the attic +where I hid it under an old mattress. I smeared a little varnish around +the combination lock with a rag, and next day I looked for finger marks, +but there weren't none. Yet I was still suspicious, and the money stayed +in the attic. Doc was too bright a man to have left home without a +reason. + +Things went on as usual for a long time--business middling, Doc rounding +up the bars, Rosie raising Cain occasionally, or snarling and muttering +in the hammock just as the humor took her. It was the damnedest life for +a man to lead, just pigging it and worse every day, with no order and +anything--a can of meat for lunch, a can of meat for dinner, and the +table left slovenly like it was. Then she fell kind of sick, and though +I felt sorry to see her doubled up and groaning, it had a good side to +it, for I got a Chinaman in to cook at forty dollars a month, and he +straightened things out fine and cleaned up the dirt of ages. I called +in Doctor Funk, the regular physician, and for a time Rosie improved, +getting well enough to nearly bite the cook's finger off when he tried +to stop her giving away a consignment of hams. But after a while she +took sick again, the cramps coming back worse than ever, and I let Doc +do what he could for her, which wasn't much, though better than Funk, +whose stuff didn't seem any more good and had lost its effect. + +Finally, early one morning, she was taken most awful bad, vomiting +blood, and twisting and twitching in a way horrible to see, she being so +mountainous fat, and gibbering crazily in the Gilbert language--all +about me and little Benny, and devils snapping at her toes, and a giant +squid what was dragging her down to drown. Then of a sudden she grew +very quiet, and Doc, looking close to her face, said, "Good God, she is +dead!" Yes, dead, just as Doctor Funk hurried in, glaring to see Doc +there, and saying something out loud about God damn quacks, and looking +and smelling savagely at the different bottles. Doc slunk out of sight, +and then Funk, he calmed down, and spoke to me very sympathetic and kind +as to what I was to do, and how, after all, it was a merciful release. + +I buried her the same day, that being the rule in the tropics, and the +better part of the town followed her to the grave in the foreign +cemetery, that being a kind of rule or custom, too, in Apia, as well as +everybody getting tight afterwards at the Tivoli bar. + +It was a strange feeling to come back to the house and to know that +Rosie was gone out of it forever, and that I had passed another big +landmark in my life. For all it was such a release, I was bluer than +blue, yet I won't deny I was glad, too, but in a frightened kind of way, +and half wishing again and again that she was back. Her running on about +Benny and me before she died stuck in my throat, and seemed awful +pitiful; and I remembered how pretty she once had been, and always such +a good, true wife, and how me and the little store was all the world to +her before sorrow broke her heart. + +I went upstairs, and sat looking out on the bay, thinking it all over, +and how in time death comes to every one of us, high or low; thinking, +too, that I was a free man now--a prosperous, respected, looked-up-to +man, and an ex-Councillor with a home that many a woman would consider +well worth sharing. I wondered if Miss Nelson up at the Mission would +consider a man as unrefined as I was and thirty-seven years old, she so +sweet and young and with such gentle, winning ways. She was a governess +to their children, and that made me think she would, for no woman likes +to be a dependent and at the beck and call of another. I sat there +dreaming of her, and of the place nicely fixed up, and of us driving out +of a Sunday to Vailele in a smart little buggy, with me reëlected to the +Council, and people saying: "How d'ye do, won't you drop in a +moment"--to me and Miss Nelson, married. + +If this sounds wrong, remember Rosie had been no wife to me for three +years--only a torment and a disgrace--and I deserved some credit for +having stood it like I did. I had never dared have such thoughts before, +though I'd often remarked what a pretty creature Miss Nelson was, just +like a man does without anything further in his head. Yet looking back +on it, and the few times she had been in the store when we had spoken +together, I kind of felt she liked me, and she had certainly never been +in any hurry to leave; with this much to go on, and the fact that she +always smiled at me most winsome the few times we passed each other on +the street, I couldn't help thinking I had made a start without my +knowing it, and that if I followed it up hard this dream of her and me +might be made to come true. + +I was turning this over in my mind when a squall of rain came tearing +along, the sky all black with it, and the roof hammering like a boiler +factory. In Samoa you needn't look out of the window to see if it is +raining. It comes down deafening, and the iron roars with the weight and +smash of it. This was how I didn't notice Doc till he stood right there +beside me. There was something awful strange and grave about him, and I +give a little jump I was that taken by surprise. + +He lit a cigar, and waited very impatient for the squall to pass; and as +he went to the window and beat a little tattoo on it with his finger +nail, I noticed he was all dressed up like I'd never seen him before. +Then he came back, looking at me very steadfast, and says: "Well, Ben, +you're out of the woods at last." + +"Yes, thank the Lord!" says I. + +"Same here," he says, meaning himself. "When the mail comes in to-night, +I'm off to San Francisco." + +"Why, Doc!" I cried out, utterly flabbergasted. + +"Yes," he says, "and for all I care, the whole damned island may sink in +the sea, and stay there, with nothing but coconuts and my old accordion +to mark the place and maybe one of the wheels of that bloody handcart." + +I was still knocked silly. + +"But, Doc," I says, "you can't have enough to pay your passage." + +Then he laughs. + +"A hundred and seventy-five ain't much out of two thousand," he says. + +"Two thousand?" I says, more mystified than ever. + +"Yes," he answers, facing me square. "The two thousand that you owe me, +Mr. Ben." + +I was just going to answer I didn't owe him nothing when the words +stopped midway on my tongue. I began to tremble instead--tremble till my +hands could hardly hold to my chair, till I couldn't keep my mouth from +dribbling. + +"It's a debt of honor," he went on. "You can repudiate it if you want +to, and snap your fingers in my face, but I trusted you, I got you out +of your mess, and now I ask you for my money." + +I couldn't answer anything, but looked at him speechless while he goes +to the door, peeks outside of it very careful lest any one might be +listening, and then comes tiptoeing back. It was so plain what he meant +to tell me that I managed to cry out, "No, no," and shook worse nor +ever. + +"You're a straight man, Ben," he says. "What you owe, you pay. I +wouldn't have risked it if I had had any doubt about that." + +I stumbled to the sideboard, poured myself out a big drink, never +minding what I spilled, and then went up to the attic where the bag of +money was still lying under the old mattress. I brought it down and give +it to him, only asking him not to count it as that was more than I could +bear. + +He made a grab for it, never saying a word, and as he went out of the +doorway that was the last I ever saw of him. + +Was I a fool to have paid him? Was it all a bluff, and just his hellish +ingeniousness for turning everything to account? Funk never questioned +she had died a natural death. Yet true or untrue, paying Doc that two +thousand dollars made me a murderer. In the bottom of my heart I believe +he did it, and there are nights when I wake up in a sweat of horror. But +wouldn't it have been a dirty act to bilk him of his money, all the more +as it would have been so easy? To this day I don't know whether I ought +to have paid or not, though if I hadn't it would have lightened my +conscience of a frightful load. But when I think that I always see him +closing the door and tiptoeing back, ready to whisper the truth. + +If it was the truth. + +Well, what would you have done? + + +THE END + + + + + +------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Some inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in | + | the original document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 19 counsul changed to consul | + | Page 29 counsul changed to consul | + | Page 64 pigeon changed to pidgin | + | Page 71 break changed to brake | + | Paqe 80 palisami changed to palusami | + | Page 81 annoymous changed to anonymous | + | Page 128 Colossium changed to Colosseum | + | Page 169 kep changed to kept | + | Page 188 forrard changed to forward | + | Page 190 Honolula changed to Honolulu | + | Page 191 Honolula changed to Honolulu | + | Page 199 beech-comber changed to beach-comber | + | Page 204 hullabulloo changed to hullabaloo | + | Page 321 Savalolo changed to Savalalo | + | Page 322 Savalolo changed to Savalalo | + | Page 326 that changed to than | + | Page 335 venemously changed to venomously | + | Page 346 Cousul changed to Consul | + +------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas, by +Lloyd Osbourne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD JUSTICE: STORIES OF SOUTH SEAS *** + +***** This file should be named 29621-8.txt or 29621-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/6/2/29621/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Barbara Kosker and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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