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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38061-8.txt b/38061-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4be441e --- /dev/null +++ b/38061-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11212 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of White Fire, by John Oxenham + +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: White Fire + +Author: John Oxenham + +Illustrator: G. Grenville Manton + +Release Date: November 19, 2011 [EBook #38061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE FIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + +[Frontispiece: THEY WENT ON STEP BY STEP, WITH EYES FOR EVERY ROCK AND +BUSH (missing from book)] + + + + + + +WHITE FIRE + +BY JOHN OXENHAM + + + +WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS + +BY G. GRENVILLE MANTON + + + + _Adversity doth make men strong, + Yet stronger still I count the man + Who can sustain prosperity unspoiled + And turn it to high uses._ + + _The white fire of a great enthusiasm + is the mightiest force in the world._ + + + + +TORONTO + +THE COPP CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED + +1905 + + + + +WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + + GOD'S PRISONER + RISING FORTUNES + A PRINCESS OF VASCOVY + OUR LADY OF DELIVERANCE + JOHN OF GERISAU + UNDER THE IRON FLAIL + BONDMAN FREE + THE VERY SHORT MEMORY OF MR. JOSEPH SCORER + BARBE OF GRAND BAYOU + A WEAVER OF WEBS + HEARTS IN EXILE + THE GATE OF THE DESERT + + + + +TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF + +James Chalmers + + GREAT HEART OF NEW GUINEA-- + "GREAT HEART THE TEACHER, + GREAT HEART THE JOYOUS, + GREAT HEART THE FEARLESS, + GREAT HEART OF SWEET WHITE FIRE, + GREAT HEART THE MARTYR.... + _Nor dead, nor sleeping! He lives on, his name + Shall kindle many a heart to equal flame. + A soul so fiery sweet can never die, + But lives, and loves, and works through + all eternity._" + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I + +MISS INQUISITIVE + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAN + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN'S MAN + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SHAMELESS THING! + + +CHAPTER V + +LEAP YEAR + + +CHAPTER VI + +A SUDDEN WIDE HORIZON + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOME ODD FURNISHINGS AND A HONEYMOON + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GOING STRONG + + +CHAPTER IX + +ARMS AND THE MAN + + +CHAPTER X + +A BLACK OBJECT-LESSON + + +CHAPTER XI + +TOO LATE + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FLAMING SWORD + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MAN'S MAN'S MAN + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CLIPPING A BLACKBIRD + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHERE THOU GOEST + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FIRST FRUITS + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SETBACKS + + +CHAPTER XIX + +FORWARD + + +CHAPTER XX + +MANY FORMS OF GRACE + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MIGHT OF RIGHT + + +CHAPTER XXII + +PAX + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE SCOURGE OF GOD + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +GAIN OF LOSS + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE LIFTING VEIL + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE GENTLE MARTYR + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PEACE WITH A SPEAR + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +NO THOROUGHFARE + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE ACT OF GOD + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WIPED OUT + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +REVERSIONS + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +FROM THE BEGINNING + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +SALT OF THE EARTH + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THEY WENT ON STEP BY STEP, WITH EYES FOR EVERY + ROCK AND BUSH (missing from book) . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +WAVED HIS HAND TO HER, AND RECEIVED AN ANSWERING WAVE + +ONE SIGN OF FLINCHING AND IT IS FINISHED + +"MY LIFE IS FORFEIT TO THE PAST" + +"AND HE HAS REALLY HAD THE AUDACITY TO ASK YOU TO MARRY HIM" + +SHE HAD LONG AND PEREMPTORY INTERVIEWS WITH HER LAWYER + +BLAIR CALLED FOR THE MATE AND TOLD HIM CURTLY + WHAT HE HAD ALREADY TOLD THE CAPTAIN + +"WE SHALL SEE THEM AGAIN," SAID CAPTAIN CATHIE (missing from book) + +IT MIGHT BE FOR THE LAST TIME + +STEPS ON THE ROAD TO SALVATION + +"HELLO! WHAT'S THIS?" + +"QUITE HAPPY, JEAN?" ASKED BLAIR + +PEACE WITH A SPEAR + +"_MISSIONARIES_! WELL I AM ----!" + +BLAIR SPRANG UPRIGHT INSTINCTIVELY + +WAVED HER FAREWELLS FROM THE SHORE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MISS INQUISITIVE + +She was so dainty a little figure that the bare-armed women in the +doors of the lands and closes turned and looked after her with +enjoyment untinged even with envy. They scratched their elbows and +commented on her points with complacent understanding. + +"None o' your ten-and-six carriage paid in that lot, I'm thinking, Mrs. +O'Neill," said one. + +"Thrue for ye, Mrs. Macfarlane. Purty as a daisy, she is. It's me +that wud like to be on tairms with her maw when she's done with 'em." + +And a decidedly pretty little figure the small girl made, in her +stylishly pleated blue serge, jaunty tam, natty leather belt, and +twinkling brown shoes, and her absolute unconsciousness of anything +unduly attractive in her appearance. + +Her determined little face was set strenuously. She looked neither to +the right hand nor to the left, beyond a glance now and again for +landmarks. And above all, and most inflexibly, she never once looked +behind her; for she was bound upon an adventure, and her reward lay on +ahead. + +"Past the cemetery gates," she said to herself. "Up a brae. Past a +pond and up a cinder path. That's all right! That must be the woollen +mill, and that's the paper-mill, and that splashing white must be the +Cut." + +As she took the cinder path, the gates of the two mills opened, and a +flood of hurrying girls came down towards the town, mostly in bunches, +laughing and joking, some with linked arms, some few solitary. Then +followed boys and men, with dinner in their faces, and an occasional +word fired at the girls in front. + +The girls all fell silent, and resolved themselves into devouring eyes, +as the dainty little figure stepped briskly past them. There were +spasms of longing among them; they buried them under bursts of wilder +laughter. The men and boys glanced at her out of the corners of their +eyes, and did not understand why the sky looked bluer and the sunshine +brighter than it had done a moment before. + +She came, presently, to a dividing of the ways, where the roads +branched to the two mills, made a short reconnaissance of the flashing +chute she had seen from below, then turned to the right, past the +paper-mill and the manager's house, past the clump of fir-trees, and +came out on a footpath by the side of which the rushing brown waters of +the Cut hurried down to the mills and reservoirs. + +"O-o-o-oh!" said the small girl rapturously, and her face was an +unconscious Te Deum. + +And well it might be, for she had a great appreciation of the +beautiful, and she was enjoying her first full glimpse of one of the +finest sights in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland and the +adjacent Cumbraes. + +"O-o-oh!" and she sat down to enjoy it. + +Below her to the right rose the smoke of the town and the ceaseless +clangour of the ship-building yards. A movement would have hidden them +from her. But she did not move; she neither saw nor heard them. Her +eyes were fixed absorbedly on the mighty panorama beyond: the lovely +firth, blue as an Italian lake, and all alive with traffic; energetic +little river steamers racing with rival toys; slow coasters toiling +along like water-beetles; a great black American liner at the Tail of +the Bank; the great grey guardship with its trim official lines and +hovering launches; and farther out, near the opposite shore, the white +sails of yachts flashing in the sun like seabirds' wings. And +beyond--the hills, the mighty hills of God. She had known the hills in +a general, wholesale way for long enough; but she knew now that she had +never known them before. From this lofty vantage point she saw them +now for the first time in all their grandeur and beauty, and they +overwhelmed her. + +Such a mighty array of giants: green, rounded hills; rugged brown +hills, flushed with the purple of the heather; grey mountain peaks +piled fantastically against the unflecked blue sky; bosky glens; dark +patches of forest land; and all about them, down below, the silent +strength of the sea, lapping the feet of the recumbent giants, creeping +up among their sprawling limbs, and cradling the mighty bulks with +tender caresses! + +The girl sat for a long time drinking it all in, to the tune of the +swirl and bubble and tinkle of the swift brown water behind her. Then +she got up and went on along the path, which disclosed fresh beauties +of the larger view at every step. She went on and on, heedless of +everything but the wide, vast prospect and her own mighty enjoyment of +it. She had some lunch in her pocket; she forgot it. The air was so +sweet and strong that she felt no fatigue. She had walked for over an +hour in this new heaven of delight, when she came tumbling to earth in +truly feminine fashion. + +The path followed the Cut round the folds and wrinkles of the hillside. +At times, on in front, it disappeared into the sky. She was nearing +one such sharp turn, when a pair of mighty horns came wavering round +it, and behind the horns an evil monster all in black and with baleful +eyes. At sight of her it gave an angry bellow and pawed the ground. +Alongside her was a small stone erection like an unfinished hut, on a +little platform, below which white water trickled down a glen full of +ferns and trees. She clasped her hands, gave herself up for lost, and +dropped out of the monster's sight behind the one end wall of the hut. + +Then a boy's voice rang out full and clear-- + +"Ah, beast! Bos ferocissime! Get out o' that, or I'll do for you. +What's taken you to-day, you old villain?" + +Then followed more forcible argument in the shape of stones, and, with +grateful twitches of her clasped hands, the small girl saw her +discomfited enemy go crashing down the hillside among the whins and +ferns and rolling rocks. + +The beast was evidently possessed of an unusually perverse disposition +that day. It looked up once at the girl behind the wall, and made some +spiteful remark, which elicited a dissuasive "Would you?" and another +shower of stones from its keeper. Then it went galloping away on the +sides of its feet along the steep hillside. The boy, with an +exclamation, sprang down after it, and the girl caught sight of him for +the first time--a sturdy little figure, with light hair and unlimited +energy. He chased the beast with boyish objurgations, which broke out +with new vigour when the chase led through a piece of black swamp, with +the natural results to the pursuer. + +He came back presently, hot and muddy, whistling like a blackbird. + +She was just about to get up and go on, when she heard him jumping down +into the little glen below, and she craned over to see what he was +about. + +He scrambled down to a small round natural basin in the rock, threw off +his jacket and waistcoat, unbuttoned his flannel shirt, and proceeded +to a mighty wash. + +He seemed to revel in it so exceedingly that the girl sat and watched +him with enjoyment. He had no towel, so did not waste any time in +drying himself, but allowed the sun and wind to do their duties. Then +he came clambering up the slope again. There was a large flat stone in +front of the embryo cabin. He came and sat down on it, and remained +there so long and so quiet that at last she moved slightly and peeped +round to see what he was doing. + +And what he was doing was so very astonishing that she gave an +involuntary gasp of amazement. + +He was lying flat on his stomach, with a tattered book open in front of +him. On the flat slab was a diagram drawn with the chunk of chalk he +held in his hand, and he was studying it so intently that he did not +hear her till her shadow fell across his work. + +"Hello! Where did _you_ come from?" and he jumped up and stood staring +at her. He was not aware of it, but he was dimly perceptive of the +fact that she was very nice-looking. He remembered later--when her +face evaded him--that she was very prettily dressed. + +"From behind there," she said. "That nasty bull frightened me." + +"He's a stupid beast." And then, suddenly bethinking himself, "Have +you been there ever since?" + +The girl nodded. She liked the look of him. His jacket and trousers +were rough and well worn, but his face was wonderfully bright and +clean. She did not know when she had seen a boy's face she liked so +much. There was such a glow in it, and his blue eyes were so fearless +and looked at her so very straight. She did not know very many boys, +and did not care much for any of those she did know. They were always +either teasing or silly, and always abominably selfish. Somehow this +boy did not seem any of those things. + +"You'd no right to watch a gentleman washing himself." + +"You're not a gentleman, and I couldn't help myself. At least----" + +"You're not a lady, and you could have gone away quite well. It's a +good thing for you I didn't have a bath in the big pool there. You'd +have watched just the same, I suppose, Miss Inquisitive!" + +"Oh!" she said sharply. "You rude thing! How did you know?" + +"Know what?" + +"That! Miss---- what you called me just now." + +At which he laughed out loud, a great merry laugh that did one good to +listen to, and showed a set of sound white teeth and a quick +apprehension. + +"Is that what they call you at home?" he asked, with a mischievous +twinkle. + +"My aunties call me that. Father says 'Want-to-know gets on.'" + +"He's right," said the boy, with a blaze in the blue eyes. "I like +your father better than your aunties. Where were you going when the +beast stopped you?" + +"Right along there," she nodded. + +"All the way to the Sheils? It's a gey long way for a bit lassie like +you." + +"I'm not a bit lassie. I'm thirteen." + +"Really! You're young for your age!" + +She was somewhat doubtful about this remark, but it felt like a +compliment, so she let it pass. + +"What's your name?" she asked. + +"Kenneth Blair. What's yours?" + +"Jean Arnot. How old are you?" + +"I'll be fifteen next July." This was August. + +"What's that you were drawing? Is it a windmill?" staring intently +down at it. + +"A windmill!"--with unutterable scorn. "And you say you're thirteen! +That's Euclid--Prop. 47. It's a thumper too." + +"I haven't begun Euclid yet," she said meekly, and regarded him with a +face full enough of questioning to amply justify her nickname. "Will +you please tell me something?" + +He began to laugh, and she knew that "Miss Inquisitive" was on the tip +of his tongue. He only nodded, however. + +"Do all the herd-boys about here do Euclid?" + +"I d'n' know. There's nothing to stop them if they want to." + +"Why do you speak so differently from most other boys? You speak +almost as well as I do." + +A smile flickered in his face for a second, but died out, and he said +quietly-- + +"That's easily told, anyway. My father was schoolmaster at +Inverclaver. He taught me." + +"And does he teach you still? Where is he schoolmaster now?" + +He looked at her a moment in silence, and then said-- + +"I don't know. He's dead." + +"Oh! But he can't be a schoolmaster anywhere if he's dead. I'm so +sorry. And of course he can't teach you either." + +"I don't know," said the boy slowly. "I think sometimes----" + +But she was off on another scent. + +"What are you going to be when you grow up?" + +"Ah!"--with animation. "I'm going to be a big man." + +"You can't make yourself that. You're not very big now." + +"I've not done growing yet, and I'm very strong, and I've never been +ill in my life. Besides----" + +"I've just had measles and whooping-cough. That's why I'm here." + +He nodded, as much as to say, "Yes, that's just the kind of thing girls +would have"; and went on, "And then I'm going to be an explorer." + +"O-o-o-h!" with snapping eyes. "Where?" + +"I don't know where. Anywhere where nobody's ever been before." + +She devoured him with hungry appreciation. His face was so very clean, +so radiantly bright, and the sparks in his blue eyes kindled answering +sparks in her own. For she too possessed a lively imagination, and a +spirit many times the size of her body. + +"But will you be able to? Are you very rich?" + +"Rich? No, I'm not rich, but I'm not that poor either--not just now. +I bought this last week," with a touch of superior pride, as he hauled +out a Latin grammar, sixth-hand, but still boasting covers. "When I've +finished it I'll feel poor till I get the next. But that's not yet." + +"Wouldn't you like to be very rich?" + +"I d'n' know. I never tried it." + +"My father is very rich." + +"Is he? And what are you going to do when you grow up?" + +"Oh, I'm going to be a lady." + +"Yes, that's about all you can be, I suppose," he nodded, and looked +really sorry for her. + +"I shall be very rich, and I shall do just what I like--except darning +and needlework. They're hijjus!" + +"Hideous," he said, with a touch of pedantic reproof which consorted +oddly with his jacket and trousers. + +"I always say 'hijjus' when it's quite too awful and past words. How +would you like to be a manager of one of my father's mills?" + +"I don't know," he said, regarding her doubtfully. "I'm thinking +perhaps I wouldn't make a very good manager. Not yet." + +Then her hand happened to touch her pocket, which reminded her of her +lunch. + +"Are you hungry?" she asked. "I'll sit down here and you shall have +some of my lunch, and you shall tell me the names of all those hills +and lochs opposite. Aren't they splendid?" + +"Ay, they're grand. I've been watching them for a year now." + +She wrestled her dainty little packet out of her pocket, and sat down +on a rock looking out over the wonderful panorama in front. The boy +sat down on another rock and hauled out a piece of newspaper in which +were wrapped some broken pieces of thick oatcake and some rough +fragments of cheese. + +"Do you like oatcake and cheese?" she asked. + +"Rather!" + +"Won't you have some of my sandwiches?" she said politely, but not +without anxiety. + +He looked at the delicate provision, and said stoutly-- + +"No, thank you. I like this best." + +And, as the little lady possessed the dainty but vigorous appetite of +the fully-restored-to-health-and-got-to-make-up-for-lost-time, and as +she was only thirteen, she was not rude enough to press him unduly. + +"Now tell me the names of all those hills and lochs," she said, and he +proceeded to tell her all she wanted to know. + +"Yon's Dumbarton,"--between bites; "you can see Glasgow some days," and +she regarded him doubtfully. + +"And yon's the Gare Loch. That big fellow with the shoulders is Ben +Lomond. The one humped up like this is The Cobbler. That other big +one is Ben Ihme. That's Loch Long and a bit of Loch Goil, and yon's +Holy Loch and Ben More." + +When she had eaten her tiny sandwiches, and her two small cookies with +jam inside, and her two biscuits, and had learned the names and +personal peculiarities of all the hills and lochs, and he had finished +the last crumbs of his oatcake and cheese, he convoyed her past the +black menace down below, as far as the next stone dyke, and told her +how she could shorten her journey by cutting across some fields, and so +get down to the Inverkip road, and eventually to Ashton and the "caurs." + +He watched the sprightly little figure, with the gleaming mane of hair +and swinging skirts and twinkling brown shoes, till she reached the +next distant corner, waved his hand to her, received an answering wave +from her, and turned back to his life--his unruly beasts, his treasured +Euclid and Latin grammar, his dreams, his hopes, and ever so much more +than he knew. + +[Illustration: Waved his hand to her, and received an answering wave.] + +But Prop. 47 was not amenable that afternoon. He smiled at thought of +the windmill, and looked up to see her standing before him with her +sweet childish face and questioning eyes. He thought much of the +winsome little lady, both then and for a long time afterwards. He +scanned the winding path by the Cut each day in hopes that she might +come again. But she was away home to London, and at last only a memory +of her remained, and that growing dimmer and dimmer till it was little +more than a sentiment--simply the warm glow of a pleasant impression. + +And she? Ah, she wrought better than she knew that day. + +For when she got home from her great adventure, and had been duly +scolded by her aunts for undertaking so much, when they had only +expected her to go up to the Cut and down again in a couple of hours or +so--when she reached home, old Mr. MacTavish, the minister, was there, +and he rejoiced in her prattling tongue, and delighted in drawing her +out. + +She enlarged upon the very uncommon herd-laddie she had met up on the +Cut,--on his satisfactory looks, his unique cleanliness, his +fearlessness in the matter of wild beasts, his understanding, and his +aims in life. Her thoughts were full of him, and when Miss Jean Arnot +had something on her mind her little world was by way of hearing of it. + +Old Mr. MacTavish had been a herd-laddie himself in his time. + +_Suffecit!_ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAN + +Ten years later Miss Jean Arnot was visiting her aunts in Greenock +again. Not but what she had been there many times in between, but this +is the only occasion of which we need take note. + +There had been many changes in these ten years. + +For one thing, Jean's father was dead, and she was a very wealthy young +woman. In many respects she was still very like the little Jean of +earlier times. Her face was still the sweet, long oval of her +childhood, though the features were more pronounced and matured. But +the chief impression it left upon you was still that of eager +questioning, a great longing to know, tempered somewhat by years and +freedom from all material care. "Want-to-know" was getting on in +years--twenty-three, a great age--but there were still mysteries of +life which she had not solved, wherein she found matter for surprise at +times. + +But life ran very smoothly and pleasantly with her. She went out a +little, and entertained a little in return, travelled much, and was not +wanting in good deeds and charity. Her income was about ten times as +large as was really good for her, and if she gave munificently she +never missed what she gave, so that the recipients were the sole +beneficiaries of her giving. + +She had hosts of friends, phalanxes of admirers; could have had hosts +of aspirants to a still closer relationship, but so far would have none +of them. She was enjoying herself exceedingly, and fulfilling in their +entirety the aspirations of her childhood. She was a lady, she was +rich, and she was doing as she liked--and she had not touched a needle +since she came into her kingdom. + +That was the natural rebound, for Aunt Jannet Harvey, a famous +needlewoman and housewife herself, had rigorously insisted--so long as +she was in power--on her niece learning the minor as well as the major +accomplishments of a gentlewoman, such as had obtained during her own +long apprenticeship to that high estate. And that is how it came to +pass that Miss Jean Arnot, wealthy heiress and society lady, really +knew a very great deal more about some things than you would have +imagined from the casual sight of her at dance or opera. + +The moment she was free, and a woman of herself, she relegated the +"hijjus" things to what she considered their proper place in the +economy of her life, and, later, dug them up out of their dusty corners +gratefully, and Aunt Jannet was justified. + +Aunt Harvey--Aunt Jannet Harvey, to distinguish her from Aunt Lisbeth +Harvey--had lived with them and mothered her since her own mother died, +when she was a very small child indeed. Aunt Jannet was really her +mother's aunt, early widowed and childless, a wise and placid old +lady--old, that is, in the eyes of effervescent three-and-twenty--with +somewhat rigid ideas of right and wrong, toning slowly, by course of +time and easy circumstance, into a tolerant acceptance of things as +they came. Her husband had been a professor in Edinburgh, and the +society he and she had enjoyed in the modern Athens, thirty years +before, was her standard of what society ought to be. She was, +however, each year becoming more reconciled to the disparities of the +lighter age with which John Arnot's great success in life had forced +her into contact. And Jean had been to her as her own daughter would +have been, if she had had one, since the day she first took charge of +her and began to endeavour to answer some of her questions, and quietly +to shelve others for more suitable occasion of discussion. For little +Jean Want-to-know had a most active brain and an insatiable curiosity, +and never hesitated to ask for fullest details of anything she did not +understand; and the wonderings and questionings of such a child have no +bounds at times, and are almost impossible of control, either from the +inside or the outside. + +Jean made a point of spending a part of each year in Scotland, wherever +else she and Aunt Jannet might wander at other times. On such +occasions Aunt Jannet went to Edinburgh and lived again in the past, +but in a yearly narrowing circle, so far as the personal element was +concerned, and Jean went to Greenock and queened it over her aunts +there. + +She was a great enjoyment, a continuous ripple of excitement, to their +ordered household; and since they no longer sat upon her and answered +her erstwhile inconvenient questions by gentle snubs and nicknames, the +times she spent with them were times of great enjoyment to her also. + +She rather patronised them, of course, which was perhaps inevitable; +for she lived twenty to their one, and, moreover, possessed the means +to do it and a will that carried all before it. + +She insisted, for instance, on paying for her board and lodging, and on +a tariff of her own fixing, whenever she came to stay with them, and +flatly declined to come on any other condition. They were +independent-minded, and declined to be dictated to in such a matter by +a small thing whom they had known in frocks with skirts only thirteen +inches long. She promptly scandalised them by going to the Tontine and +putting up there. Then they gave way, and she had them. After that +she was capable of anything, and they submitted to all her whims, which +were always pretty and thoughtful ones, and--she assured them, just as +they had been wont to assure her in the days of the thirteen-inch +frocks--entirely for their own good and happiness. She salved the +cicatrice of the Tontine wound by carrying them all off _en masse_ to +the Riviera for a month; and Aunt Jean, after whom she was named, +gravely suggested the advisability of frequently opposing her ideas, +since the outcome was so eminently agreeable. + +Then she was always making them presents, at which their independency +kicked, but in which, nevertheless, they could not but own to enjoyment. + +But the girl was right, after all. She had much too much, and they had +only enough, and that only with clever handling; and they would no more +have accepted bald gifts of money than they would have burned down +their house and claimed double the value of the furniture. + +Jean and her visits, and their visits to her, and with her to hitherto +unattainable places, were the high lights of their lives. They loved +her dearly, rejoiced in her greatly, were proud of her, and wondered +much when it would all come to an end in the centering of her thoughts +and affections on one sole and--they fervently hoped, but were not +without misgivings, because of her wealth and her impulsiveness--worthy +man. + +They made ingenuous little attempts at sounding her on that subject, +but she was much too clever for them, and skilfully eluded all +approaches which might tend, even remotely, to any self-revelations. +That there were no revelations to make only added piquancy to the game, +from her point of view, since it kept the aunts in a state of perpetual +mystification, and held no pitfalls. + +Among many other changes she had seen in the last ten years, old Mr. +MacTavish had retired long ago, and a younger man occupied his pulpit, +and, strange to say, gave satisfaction in it. + +The Rev. Archibald Fastnet was so exactly the opposite of his +predecessor that it might have seemed impossible that where the one had +pleased the other should do so. Mr. Fastnet was young, and he believed +in--as he put it--making things jump. And he made both things and +people jump at times. He was full of enthusiasms which were generally +at white heat and--which is more unusual--remained so. The older +generation said he kept them on the perpetual "kee-vee" to see what he +would do next; the younger people enjoyed him and the service he +exacted from them. And on Sundays they all, old and young, always +turned out both morning and evening, since it invariably came to pass +that, if they missed a service, something happened which made them feel +out of the running for the whole of the following week. When Jean +Arnot was at Greenock she did as good Greenockians do, and went to +church twice every Sunday and one evening in the week as well. + +The Rev. Archibald never failed to furnish her with a certain amount of +quiet amusement, and, apart from other feelings, she always went in +expectation and was rarely disappointed. + +On this particular Sunday morning Mr. Fastnet had prepared a little +surprise for his people, which turned out, as his arrangements +generally did, a perfect success. It also afforded Jean Arnot the +surprise of her life, and she never forgot it. + +You can forget many things in ten full years. If, for instance, you +yourself had met a person informally ten years ago, and spent half an +hour with him, just incidentally hearing his name, it is doubtful if +you would recall him very distinctly if he presented himself suddenly +before you after the ten years had passed. + +Jean felt a rustle of surprise among her aunts in the pew, and she saw +that two men passed up into the pulpit where the Rev. Archibald lorded +it alone as a rule. The voluntary ceased, and he stood up, beaming all +over, as usual when he had something unusually delectable up his sleeve +for them. + +"Instead of speaking to you myself this morning," he said, "I have +asked our friend Mr. Blair to say a few words to us. We all take a +fatherly and motherly, and I may say a sisterly and brotherly, interest +in Mr. Blair. Perhaps some of us regret that none of us has taken a +still nearer and dearer-than-all-otherly interest in him"--at which +Fastneticism a smile rippled round. "Our young friend leaves this week +to begin his work in the South Seas, where, as you know, he is about to +join that valiant bearer of light into outer darkness, John Gerson, in +his noble work. You will, I know, appreciate with me this chance--it +may be the last chance--of hearing our young standard-bearer's voice +before he passes beyond the fringes of the night." + +Then he came down, and took his seat in a front pew and enjoyed a +preacher's holiday. + +And, after a pause, and very quietly, young Blair rose in the pulpit +and gave out the hymn. + +So far Jean Arnot had been only interested and amused. But the sound +of his voice, clear and round and full as an organ tone, made her jump +with surprise. He had spoken quite naturally, but there was a ring in +it that told of immense possibilities behind, and there was something +in it that plucked at some hidden chord of Jean's memory and set it +humming as a harp-string responds to a bugle note. + +She stared at him eagerly. Had she ever by any possibility met him +before? She could hardly have forgotten it if she had, she thought. +For he was a young man of most striking appearance. Tall, +square-shouldered and broad-chested--a commanding figure in truth. It +occurred to others besides Jean that if the natives needed more +forcible arguments than words for their conversion, here was a likely +man for the work. Light-haired and clean-shaven, his face seemed to +glow with an inner radiance--a masterful face, and grave. His eyes +were wonderfully magnetic; fearless and steadfast, they made you jump +as their glance crossed your own. Jean had just jumped, so she knew. + +Now who was this? Surely she had met him before somewhere. + +Remember it was ten years since she had seen him, and then only for +half an hour, and under very different conditions, and she had never +heard his name since. + +She ordered her brain, or her heart, or whichever of her inner servants +it was that held the key, to go find it, and sat gazing at him to give +them such light as that might afford. But the clue evaded her till he +was near the end of his quiet, forceful talk. + +He had told them of his hopes, and the plans he and Gerson hoped to +carry out--"The grandest man I have ever met, a most noble Christian +gentleman," he said, in a burst of enthusiasm. He asked them for their +help, their prayers, their sympathetic remembrance, their money--since +the work had to be maintained from the outside, and even missionaries +must live. + +He spoke very simply, with no ornate periods or calculated sentences; +but his voice was like a trumpet, and his eyes were like stars, and his +words were illuminating and full of power, and now and again were flung +out white hot from the glowing heart within. Though he spoke for the +most part so restrainedly, now and again the brake would slip, and the +sweet, white fire of a great, enthusiastic soul would flame through. + +Perhaps he was a trifle over-confident of success--that is one of +youth's glories and pitfalls; but there was no doubt that his whole +heart was in his work--that here, for once at all events, a square man +had found his own square hole. + +"It was always the great hope and desire of my boyhood to go out into +these unknown lands," he was saying. "Though perhaps at that time the +inducement was chiefly the unknown, and the inhabitants, I fear, +appealed to me more as possible hindrances than inducements. When I +tended my uncle's cattle on the hillsides of the Cut----" + +And then she knew him, and she sat up with a jerk, and stared at him as +though she had only that moment awakened to the fact that he was +speaking. + +And such, to some extent, was the fact. She had been interested and +puzzled. Now, in a moment, it was a new man she was looking at and +listening to--a new man, but an old friend. And she was sitting on one +piece of rock eating cookies, and he was sitting on another munching +oatcake and cheese, and he was saying, "I'm going to be an explorer." + +It was very wonderful--though she remembered that she had recognised +him, even then, as a boy of different texture from most other boys. +And so he had got what he wanted--the greatest prize a man may win, she +supposed: to desire vehemently a certain lofty course in life, and to +attain to it. + +And she? Yes, she remembered. She was going to be rich, and a lady, +and do as she liked. Truly hers was but a poor attainment compared +with his. + +She did not hear much more of what he said, though she was gazing +fixedly at him all the time. Her mind was away back to the hillside by +the Cut, and it was only when they stood up to sing the last hymn that +mind and body came together again. + +Mr. Blair came down to shake hands with his many friends, and most of +the people went forward for that purpose, Jean's aunts among them, and +she with them; and as they sat at the back they were among the last to +reach him. + +She was shaking hands with him, and the straight blue eyes looking into +her own set her heart jumping. + +"Ah!" said the Rev. Archibald, all one vast beam of satisfaction at the +general enjoyment of his little surprise. "Now we have you, Blair. +This lady, at all events, you can't claim as an old friend, though I am +quite sure she is a well-wisher." + +Blair still held her hand and looked steadfastly into her eyes. + +"This is----" began Mr. Fastnet, and was stopped abruptly by a +peremptory gesture of Miss Arnot's other hand. + +"Yes--I think so," said the young man, breaking suddenly into a smile +of enjoyable reminiscence, "Miss--Jean--Arnot? Or possibly now +Mrs.----?" + +"Jean Arnot is still good enough for me, Mr. Blair," she said brightly. +"How wonderful that you should remember me all these years!" + +"Why more wonderful than that you should have recognised me, Miss +Arnot? We are both a good deal changed since last we met." + +"Why, what's all this?" said the Rev. Archibald jovially. "I had no +idea you knew Miss Arnot, Blair." + +"We met once, ten years ago, up on the Cut--and had lunch together," +said Blair, with a smile. "I was keeping Highland cattle from goring +little girls, and Miss Arnot was exploring. We have both travelled far +since then." + +"You much the farthest," she said quietly, "and going still farther. I +congratulate you very heartily. It is what you desired then. Do you +remember telling me?" + +"Yes. I am very grateful." + +Blair's thoughts were full of her. As they went home he quietly led +Fastnet on to speak about her, and offered him the best inducement to +plentiful speech in the appreciation with which he listened. + +Fastnet enlarged upon her great wealth and generosity, her cleverness +and culture, her independence of thought and deed, and incidentally +mentioned that he had seen or heard some rumour of her possible +marriage with Lord Charles Castlemaine, second son of the Duke of +Munster, but he could not say what truth there was in it. + +As a matter of fact, Jean Arnot would as soon have thought of marrying +the ticket-collector at Monument Station as Lord Charles Castlemaine. +The gentleman with the snips at Monument Station is doubtless a most +worthy individual, but I know absolutely nothing whatever about him. +Jean Arnot knew exactly as much, and one does not, as a rule, marry a +man one knows absolutely nothing about, nor--a man about whom one knows +considerably more than is to his credit. Jean Arnot knew a good deal +about Charles Castlemaine, and there was not the slightest danger of +her marrying him. + +"Is he a good sort?" asked Blair. + +"Much what dukes' younger sons mostly are, I imagine. The elder +brother is not strong, so if it comes off you may perhaps count among +your well-wishers a duchess sooner or later." + +"Miss Arnot's good wishes would weigh more with me than those of all +the duchesses in the land," said Blair quietly. "There is something +very taking in her face--it is so bright and eager." Then he laughed +at his thoughts. "I remember, that day up on the Cut, I quite +accidentally hit upon a nickname they used to her at home--Miss +Inquisitive--and she flared up at me like a rip-rap. She was always +wanting to know, I believe." + +"She is still," said Fastnet, laughing, "though she must have learned a +good deal in all these years. She told me once that she was born +curious, and that she was especially curious to know all about what +came after this life. She said she thought the thought that she was +going to solve that greatest of all puzzles would take away all fear of +death when the time came. That was just after I came here. She must +have been about fifteen then." + +Blair's time was very short. He left that afternoon for Edinburgh to +spend his last two days with his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish. +He was to join Mr. Gerson in London on Wednesday and sail on Thursday. + +Mr. MacTavish had been a father to him from the time he walked along +the Cut--the very day after little Jean Arnot's prattle had set him on +the boy's track--and found him, prostrate on the flat stone, still +wrestling with Prop. 47. + +He had been just there himself when a small boy, struggling against the +retarding clay of a narrow agricultural home. He knew the sturdy +independence that would be in the boy; and, in his own full knowledge, +went to work warily. The slightest hint of charity, and the shy, proud +one would be off. + +So he never mentioned Jean, met the boy on his own ground as a +perfectly new acquaintance, gradually won his confidence and his heart, +guided, led, and finally enabled him by his own exertions to obtain a +bursary and proceed to college. With that, nothing could keep him +back. His heart was in it, his aims were high, and his course was a +triumphal progress. He had learned, as a boy, that greatest of +lessons--how to learn. The rough experiences of his boyhood on the +hillside had given him splendid health and a body that never tired. He +was tough as wire, and, among other things, was known at college for +that passion for personal cleanliness which, in its earlier days, had +helped to introduce him to Jean Arnot on the hillside. He had, quite +early--as soon, indeed, as he perceived the possibility of attaining to +it--fixed on the mission-field as offering what his soul yearned for. +Perhaps at first it was the unknown that drew him. No matter. By +degrees the known outrivalled the unknown, the greater absorbed the +less, and his heart was fixed on the highest of all high work. + +In these ten years he had learned mightily. Head, heart, and hand had +toiled incessantly, and never felt it toil, since it was only the +natural satisfaction of a great heart-craving. Then he had come across +Gerson, home on leave for the first time in twenty years. Their hearts +and eyes struck sparks the first time they met. + +"That is a man!" said Gerson, "and I'll have him if I can get him." + +"That is a saint and a hero!" said Blair. "I'm his man if he'll have +me." + +After that no power on earth could have kept them apart, and on +Thursday they were to sail together for the outer fringes. Gerson was +busily bidding his friends goodbye. + +"You may hear of me from time to time. You'll never see me again--this +side the veil at all events. We'll hope to meet on the other side," he +said heartily, and grudged every day that lay between him and his work. + +Blair, in telling Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish of his reception at the +Greenock church, incidentally mentioned Miss Arnot, but doubted +evidently whether they would know anything of her. + +But the old man laughed gently, and said, in his quiet, old-fashioned, +precise way, which was the very antithesis of the Rev. Archibald's +jovial utterances: "I will explain to you now, my dear boy, what at the +time I deemed wisest to treasure within the repository of my own heart. +It was from Miss Jean Arnot that I first heard about you. It was in +consequence of her delighted account of her meeting with you, and the +Euclid and the Latin grammar, that I sought you out on the hillside and +tendered you the helping hand of which you have made such excellent +use." + +"It was Miss Arnot?" said the young man in amazement. + +"Truly, yes! Though I do not for a moment suppose she knows anything +whatever about it. I certainly never told her, and I never told you, +because I had been a studious herd-laddie myself, and I knew what shy +and hypersensitive colts they are, and the delicacy necessary to their +proper handling." + +"I thank you for telling me now, sir. It is as I would have it." + +"I believe it would please her to know what you told me, sir," Blair +broke out abruptly a little later on, and the old gentleman smiled at +the evidence of the track of his thoughts. + +"I will write and tell her, if you like, if you really think the +knowledge would afford her any gratification." + +"I think it would, sir." + +And so Jean Arnot received two notes which gave her very deep pleasure. +And the shorter one of the two said simply:-- + + +"You will have learned by this time, from my dear old friend and second +father, what I myself only learned three days ago--that it was your +unconscious hand that set my unconscious feet on the ladder. I rejoice +to know that it was so. The knowledge of it would be an additional +spur, if any spur were needed. Time may come, however, when the +remembrance of your kindness and all it has done for me, unconscious +though it was, may nerve me for some critical passage in the life in +front, for we are going among perilous peoples. It is not likely we +shall ever meet again, but, having learned how this matter stood, I +could not leave home without tendering you my most grateful and hearty +thanks. + +"That your life may be a wide, and bright, and beautiful, and happy one +will be the prayer of + +"Yours faithfully, + "KENNETH BLAIR." + + +"He is a good man," said Jean thoughtfully, as she folded the letter +and put it carefully into a special corner of her desk, and then +immediately took it out again and re-read it. "May God go with him +also!" + +She read in the papers next day of his sailing in company with John +Gerson, the prophet of the Dark Islands, and was surprised to discover +in herself a curious feeling of loss, as though something had gone out +of her life. Which, considering all the circumstances of the case, was +distinctly odd, you know. + +She had only met him twice in her life; for ten years she had hardly +given him a thought; and yet his going left a little blank in a life +which was quite unaccustomed to anything of the kind. + +But the sudden sight of him in all his quiet strength of attainment, +and the knowledge of what it all meant to him, together with this new +understanding of how it had all come about, and of the share she +herself had unconsciously had in the making of him--well, perhaps after +all it was not so odd. For she had felt a sudden glow of participation +in his triumph, a sudden sense of increase such as no procurement of +her wealth had ever brought her--and now it was as suddenly gone, and a +blank remained. + +She caught herself thinking of him oftener than she had ever thought of +any man before, and she said to herself in surprise-- + +"Goodness gracious me! why does that herd-laddie stick in my brain so?" + +A quite dispassionate dissector of the emotions and their origins might +have come to the conclusion that it was, after all, only a case of the +heart performing its natural function of feeding the brain. For the +heart is the life. + +She laughed at herself; but the herd-laddie remained in her thoughts, +and one day, before she went south, she actually found herself sitting +on that very same piece of rock where she had sat ten years before, and +in imagination he sat on the adjacent rock, munching his thick oatcake +and broken pieces of cheese. + +"What a greedy little pig I was!" she said to herself, as she sat +leaning forward with her chin in her hand. "But I don't believe he'd +have taken a bite from me, however much I'd wanted him to." + +She looked at the slab where the windmill had been, and at the pool +where the gentleman had washed. He looked as if he had been +strenuously washing ever since. What a radiant face he had! It did +not come from much washing, she knew; but somehow the two things linked +themselves in her mind. It was the white fire inside that lit up the +outside: a real man--a man to trust infinitely--a man to---- + +She sat looking out over the mighty panorama of hills and lochs and +mountains opposite--"Gare Loch, Loch Goil, Loch Long, Ben Lomond, Ben +Ihme, The Cobbler, Holy Loch." She knew most of them still. How the +sight of them all brought him back to her! And, in all probability, he +would never see them again. "We are going among perilous peoples." + +Well! he had done very wonderfully; he was fulfilling the highest +aspirations of his boyish heart. + +And she? She was a lady, and very rich, as she had said she would be. +And she remembered the touch of scorn with which the herd-laddie had +said, "Yes, that's about all you can be, I suppose." + +Close behind her the swift brown waters of the Cut hurried headlong to +the town--one long, unceasing blessing. "Men may come and men may go, +but we go on for ever," sang the bubbling waters against the rough rock +walls of their narrow way. + +"Surely I am one of the most useless of God's creatures," said Jean +Arnot, as she wandered slowly back towards the paper-mill and home. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN'S MAN + +Unflecked blue sky above, with a blazing white sun in it. A mighty +mountain peak, with bald summit, seamed sides mantled with greenery, +and round its waist, where it sat in the water, a narrow band of +gleaming white sand and tufted cocoa-palms, like an Island woman's +girdle. A smooth, dark, ruffled mirror of lagoon; and farther out, +with gaps here and there, a barrier reef on which the hungry sea chafed +and roared in ceaseless thunder. Two white men and a menacing crowd of +brown ones. + +"Ready?" asked the elder of the two men. + +He was tall and thin, white-haired and grey-bearded, and his eyes shone +like stars. His face was bronzed with much sun. There was a glow in +it which did not come from the sun, a mighty determination which did +not come from mere strength of will, a sweet white soul-fire which had +made him a power throughout the islands of the Southern Seas. + +"I am ready," said the younger man. + +His face was brown also, but not bronzed. There was a lighter patch of +tightened skin above each cheek-bone. His jaw was set so grimly that +it looked aggressive. His lips were tightly closed. His eyes were +unnaturally wide at the moment. He looked slightly raised--fey, in +fact, as a man looks when he and death meet face to face in a narrow +way. + +In front, the crowd of Islanders stood waiting for them at an angle of +rock where the white beach curved round into the land. They carried +clubs and spears, and swung them restlessly. Behind, on the smooth +reflexive swell of the lagoon, a white boat, just pushed off from the +shore, rode like a seabird with wings outstretched for swoop or flight. +Farther out a waiting schooner, whose white sails shivered softly to a +head breeze. + +"Remember, my son," said the elder man quietly, "one sign of flinching +and it is finished. Now let us go." He bared his white head and said +softly, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit," +and went up towards the dark men like the courteous Christian gentleman +he was. The younger man did the same. + +[Illustration: One sign of flinching and it is finished.] + +The natives drew back round the rock; the white men followed. The men +in the boat watched intently, and then listened and gazed at the angle +of the rock. Their orders were to wait. + +The two men passed out of sight, the elder, quiet and calm, as if going +for a stroll in his mission garden, the younger, strung to martyr +pitch, ready to endure to the utmost. The islanders retreated foot by +foot; the white men followed steadily. Then, suddenly, clubs whirled +and spears bristled, and the brown men turned and rolled on the white +like a flood, and parted them. + +The elder man stood and eyed them steadfastly. He had been through it +many times before. Death and he had been old friends and +fellow-travellers for many a year, and the passing of The Gate was to +him but the entrance to a larger life. He spoke to them in words he +thought they might understand. For a moment the two men were like two +white rocks in a foaming mountain stream. Brown arms, clubs, spears +whirled about them. Not one man in ten thousand could have stood it +unmoved. + +The white-haired man was such a one. He stood. The younger man's face +broke; the strings had been drawn too tight. He cast one swift glance +round. + +In an instant the silvery crown beside him ran blood, and disappeared. +With bent head inside his folded arms the younger man dashed at the +throng, and sent the brown men spinning, as he had sent men of a +brawnier breed spinning on the football field at home. He burst +through them in spite of blows and cuts. He was close up to the wild +eddy under which his old friend lay when a well-flung club caught him +deftly in the neck and brought him down in a heap. The brown men +danced madly, and let their shouts go up. They took the younger man by +the heels, and dragged him to where the body of the elder lay, and +flung him down on top of it. Then the sailors from the boat burst on +them with a yell, and sent them scattering. + + +It was days before he recovered consciousness, weeks before he could +lie in a chair on the verandah of the distant mission-house--weak from +loss of blood, weaker still in other ways. + +They tended him lovingly. There were gracious women there who +ministered to him like angels. To them he was hero, saint, martyr but +once removed. To himself----! + +He was almost too weak to think about it yet. He was hacked to pieces, +and bruised to pulp. When he tried to move, it seemed to him that not +one sound inch of flesh was left him. When he tried to think, all the +little blood that was left in him rushed up into his head and set it +humming and buzzing, and dyed his face crimson under the partly +bleached tan. + +His mind was still in a state of confusion; his thoughts were almost as +broken as his body. He remembered facing the bristling brown men. He +could see their shaggy heads and twisted faces, their white teeth, +their gleaming eyes, and the whirl of their brandished weapons. After +that all was blurred, and broke off into sudden darkness. He had a dim +remembrance of intense strain and a sudden snap. He groped for the +ends of the broken threads, but they were hidden in the outer void. He +was still very weak. + +He accepted gratefully all that was done for him, but for the most part +lay in silence. His sufferings were great, but no word of complaint +ever passed his lips. If he had permitted himself any such, it would +have been that he still lived when his leader died. To all he was a +monument of patient resignation. + +So great was his depression, and so slow his recovery, that it was +decided at last to send him home, as the only hope of full +recuperation. He acquiesced, as he had done in everything they +suggested, but in this matter with evident reluctance. He thought it +unlikely he would ever return. His heart had been in the work, but he +had been tried and found wanting. The work, he said to himself, was +for abler and more faithful hands. + +So the mission schooner carried him to the nearest port of call, and in +due course he was lying in a deck chair carefully swathed in plaids, +and the great steamer bore him swiftly homewards. + +The story of the martyrdom and of his heroic defence of his old friend: +how they two had gone up alone to the peaceful assault of an island of +the night; how he had fought for his leader till he could fight no +longer, and had fallen at last wounded to death across his dead +body,--it had all preceded him. The very sailors were proud to have +him on board. The officers made much of him in an undemonstrative way. +The ladies fluttered round his chair like humming-birds, and loaded him +with attentions. + +And he suffered it all in silence. He was still very weak. How could +he turn his sick soul inside out to these strangers, and what good to +do so? + +He had not yet decided what course to take when he got home. He had +thought and thought, till he was sick of thinking, sick of himself, +sick of life. Ah! why had he not died with the brave old man out there +on the shore of the creek behind the rocks? Why had his nerve given +way at that supreme moment? Why had this bitter cross been laid upon +him? Far better to have died--far easier, at all events. But easier +and better run opposite ways as a rule, and have little in common. + +Should he confess the whole matter, and retire from the field and find +some other way of life? Truly he felt no call to any other work. This +had been the one desire of his life; he had grown from youth to manhood +in the hope of it. He believed he could still be of service when once +he got over the effects of his present fall. Should he not rather bury +the dead past, with God as only mourner, and start afresh?--to fail +once more when the strain came again, he said to himself with exceeding +bitterness. He grieved over his lapse as another might grieve over a +deliberate crime. But he postponed any final decision as to the future +till he should feel stronger in mind and body. + +There was a noted writer on board, a realist of realists. He sought +impressions at first hand. He cultivated the sick man's acquaintance, +greatly to his discomfort. + +"Mr. Blair," he said, sitting down by his side one day, "I would very +much like to know just how you felt, and what you thought of, when you +were fighting those brown devils. Won't you tell me?" + +And the sick man roused himself for a moment, and looked at him with +that in his eye which the other comprehended not, and said slowly, "I +felt like the devil and I thought of the devil," and not another word +would he say. And the writer pondered much on the saying, but never +got to the bottom of it or knew how true it was. + +His people met him at the landing-place, the reverend father and the +white-haired mother, proud to be known even as the foster-parents of +such a son, grateful for one more sight of him in the flesh. How could +he break their hearts by telling them what a broken reed their trusted +one had proved? They rejoiced over him greatly, and said to one +another that as his strength came back the cloud that lay on his +spirits would be lifted. Their gentle encomiums stung him like darts. + +But, by degrees, broken body and broken spirit were healed. Slowly and +thoughtfully he made up his mind that the past should be past. He +would go out again. He would take his stand in the forefront of the +battle in the hope of an honourable death--for he held his life forfeit +to the past. + +Decision brings a certain peace of mind. He was happier than he had +been since he leaped out of the white boat on to the shore of the Dark +Island that morning--so long ago that it seemed to belong to a previous +life. + +The old people said God-speed to his decision. They had possessed him +once again after giving him up for good. It was more than they had +ever hoped for. They were thankful. + +All interested in mission work hailed his decision with enthusiasm. He +was common property and too big to be monopolised by any one sect. +They had not been able to make one quarter as much of him as they had +wished. He had quietly declined to be fêted and lionised. They +considered he carried his modesty to too great an extreme. They would +have made capital out of him and kindled fresh enthusiasms for the +cause by the sight and sound of him. It was with the greatest +difficulty that he avoided it all, using the plea of ill-health till +his bodily appearance would no longer countenance it. + +Once his decision was made known, however, they decided to drag him out +of his retirement, and by dint of persistent importunity prevailed on +him at last to appear at a public meeting. He consented with +reluctance, and only because it was represented to him as a matter of +duty. + +As the time drew near he began to fear that he was in for more than he +had expected. But he had given his word, and he would not draw back. + +There were clever men at the head of the movement. Thousands of +interested men and women were hungering for a sight of the +almost-martyr. They had seen his portrait in the illustrated +papers--how joyously the old mother had responded to the many requests +for it!--but they wanted to see him with their eyes and hear him with +their ears, and the younger folk were to remember all their lives that +they had done so. And so, without going into details with him, the +leaders of the various societies quietly arranged matters on a generous +scale. There were men of imagination among them too, and they prepared +a dramatic touch for the meeting which they calculated would make it go +with a swing. It went beyond their expectations. + +When the young missionary stepped on to the platform he stopped short, +and for a moment looked almost as fey as he had done when he leaped out +of the white boat that morning on the beach of Dark Island. But there +must be no drawing back. He had flinched once--never again! + +The chairman of the meeting was a philanthropic Cabinet Minister. As +he welcomed the hero of the hour the great audience rose and waved and +shouted. + +The young man clasped the chairman's welcoming hand as though he were a +drowning man, and that hand the one only hope of safety. Then he sank +into the chair provided for him, and dropped his face into his hand. + +All this was torture to him. Why could they not have let him go out +quietly to his work, to his death? No bristling mob of savages that +ever could confront him was half so appalling to him as that great +well-dressed crowd of enthusiastic men and women and children, gathered +to do him honour. Honour! And he before God a dishonoured man--a man +who had failed when the pinch came. He groaned in his heart, and +wished that he had not come. + +But the chairman was speaking, speaking of him, and what he had +done--what he was supposed to have done--in warm, appreciative words +and flowing periods, and the audience was as still as a flower-garden +on a summer afternoon. In the young man's soul there was a great +stillness also, a stillness equal almost to that which had fallen on +him when he came out of the shadows and lay in the verandah of the +mission house. + +His eyes wandered unseeingly over those solid banks of faces, all +turned on him in eulogy of what he had not done. Those thousands of +eyes seemed to pierce his soul. + +One face caught his attention and held it, the face of a girl sitting +in the third row from the front. Even in his agony he recognised it, +as how could he help when it had been so constantly with him in his +thoughts. The smooth white brow, like a little slab of polished ivory; +the level brows; the large dark eyes looking up at him with something +akin to reverence--the beautiful eyes with lustrous points in them; the +sweet oval of the lower part of the face; the firm little chin and +slightly parted lips, emphasising the old inquiring look which he knew +so well: it was a face any man might remember with gratitude for the +mere sight of it. It was the face he had at once longed for the sight +of and feared to meet, since ever the thought of coming home had been +suggested to him. And now here it was, more beautiful than even his +dreams of it--inquiring, hopeful, trustful. And he must satisfy the +inquiry--and dash the hope, and shatter the trust for ever. Oh, it was +hard! It was grievously hard! His life laid down then and there would +have been a small price to pay for the confirmation of her belief in +him. And he must destroy it and still live on! + +But what was this? The chairman had turned to him in his speech, the +flower-garden in front had suddenly become a fluttering snowbank. + +"Mr. Blair does not happen to belong to that particular section of the +Church to which I belong, and which, as the State Church of the realm, +retains, and rightly retains, within its own hands the appointment of +its own high officers. There are some of us who, as we grow older, and +perhaps wiser, regret more and more that any differences should remain +among the followers of Christ. We would fain see them done away with. +We would cast down all fences and walls of partition, and meet our +Christian brothers and sisters on an absolute equality, on the common +platform of love and service to the one Master. + +"This meeting to-night, of many sects with one common object, is one +step in the right direction--a great step. And here is another. The +necessity for a supreme hand and head in the guidance of the mission +enterprises of the Outer Islands is apparent to all. For such a +position we require a man of tried courage and endurance, a man who can +look death in the face without flinching, a man who holds his own life +of small account, and who is ready at any moment to lay it down in the +service of the cause he loves. Of such stuff martyrs are made. That +the man who has given us such signal proofs of his fidelity and courage +should be chosen for so onerous and so honourable a post is a matter of +great satisfaction to us all. Mr. Blair, as all the world knows, has +proved his fitness in a time of grievous danger and perplexity.--a time +which I do not hesitate to say would have tried the nerve of any man to +breaking-point, under a strain which might have broken any ordinary +man, and small blame to him. But here"--and he laid his hand upon +young Blair's shoulder--"we have the one man who did not break down, +and it is this man whom we would rejoice to recognise as the first +bishop of the Outer Islands. I am authorised to request Mr. Blair's +acceptance of this arduous and honourable post, without reference to +any question of form or creed. And that request is made, not in the +name or on behalf of my own Church only, but in the names and on behalf +of all the Churches represented by the missions to the Outer Islands. +It is a common point of union. Mr. Blair's acceptance of the post +will, perhaps, be one step towards that greater union of the Churches +to which we look hopefully forward, and I earnestly hope that he will +see fit to accept this joint and unanimous request of the Churches." +And he sat down with glowing face amidst thunders of applause. + +And Kenneth Blair? Oh! why could they not have left him to work out +his redemption in quietness and silence? Now it was not possible. +Those thousands of eyes burnt into his soul. The words he had listened +to pierced him like two-edged swords. Silence was no longer possible. +To accept all this, as if it were his rightful due, was to hang a +millstone round his neck which would drag him down to perdition. + +When the tumult died at last into silence, the young man got up and +stood and gripped the railing of the platform. + +His face was white and set. "A man of indomitable will," they said. + +His eyes burnt with a gloomy fire. "He has seen strange and terrible +things," they said. + +He swayed slightly once or twice before he found his voice. "He has +been very near to death," they said. + +And then he began to speak, quietly, as one who might need all his +strength before he was done; but there was a timbre in it, born of +outdoor speaking, which carried to the remotest corner, and a thrill in +it which found its way to every heart. And, of all that great +assembly, the only face he saw with any distinctness was the face of +the girl in the third row, with its calm brow and its lustrous +up-glance. He spoke to it. He watched it. If he could convince that +one face of all that was in him, he felt that it would be well with him. + +In his emotion he overlooked all formalities. He found his voice at +last, and said, "My friends, the words I have just been listening to +have been to me as sword-thrusts through the heart." + +The silence was intense. Every ear and every eye was upon him. He saw +only the calm, sweet face of the girl in the third row. + +"I have a very terrible confession to make to you. Had I known what +was intended this evening I should not have been here, but no slightest +word of it reached me. My sole desire has been to get back to my work +out yonder, and to lay down my life in it. I have been told that I am +a man of courage and endurance ... of tried nerve ... of unflinching +fidelity. There was a time when I too believed this of myself." He +spoke very slowly and with a solemn impressiveness which those who +heard it never forgot to the last day of their lives. "But between +that and this there is a deep gulf ... and at the bottom of that gulf +lies the dead body of my dear friend and chief. His death lies at my +door." + +An almost imperceptible movement ran through the audience, as though a +cold breath shook it with a simultaneous chill. The face of the girl +in the third row remained steadfastly calm. If anything, it seemed to +glow with a deeper intensity of hopeful inquiry. "Say what you will, I +believe in you!" it said. + +"The whole truth of what happened on that dreadful day has never been +told. I will confess that I had dared to hope that it might never need +to be told--that it might lie between myself and God--that I might be +permitted by Him to work out my redemption on the field of my failure, +chastened, and perhaps strengthened, by what has passed. For, at a +vital moment, when the flinching of an eyelid meant disaster, I ... +flinched. + +"This is what happened. As we went up towards the savages that day, my +dear old friend asked me if I was ready. I was ready. I said so. He +said, 'Remember, one sign of flinching and it is finished,' and we went +up and round the corner. We were going, as I believed, to certain +death, and I was ready--at least, and truly, I believed so. When the +savages rushed in upon us, the horror of it broke upon me like a +deluge. I glanced round to see if there was no possible way of escape +for us. But there was no way. My dear old chief's head was crimson +already with blood, and he went down among them. I burst through--and +I know no more. They tell me my body was found on top of his. It may +be so. How it got there I do not know. What I do know is--that at +that supreme moment, when I believed myself to be strong, I found +myself weak. When I believed myself ready for a martyr's death, I +tried to escape by shameful flight. I was weighed and found wanting, +and the remembrance of it has seared my heart like molten iron, night +and day, since ever I came to myself. Whether we should have won +through if I had remained firm, God only knows. But--I flinched and +fled. It seems to me now that I would sooner die a hundred such deaths +as I fled from then than stand here before you all and confess my +default. I can accept no honours. Honours!" with a despairing lift +and fall of the hand. "I can accept no position based on so terrible a +misconception. All I ask, and I ask it with the deepest humility, is +that I may be allowed to go out there again. My life is forfeit to the +past. It shall be spent--if it be God's will, it shall be laid down +joyfully--in the service to which I believe He called me, and from +which I do not believe He has expelled me." + +[Illustration: "My life is forfeit to the past."] + +He sat down and covered his face with his hands. There was a momentary +silence. The chairman did not quite know what to do. The face of the +girl in the third row was ablaze with emotion; the dark eyes were +swimming. She glanced restlessly about to see what was going to +happen; she looked like springing up herself with flaming words. But +another did it. A tall, white-haired man, with a flowing white beard +and a face like brown leather, stood up on the platform, and said, in a +voice that went straight to all their hearts-- + +"My friends, we have all heard. Some of us understand, because we have +passed through that same dark valley as our young friend. Dare I, in +all humility, remind you that a Greater than any shrank from the +supreme moment, and prayed, with agonies no man may conceive of, that +His bitter cup might pass from Him? I tell you, gentlemen," he cried, +in a voice that rang like a trumpet, "that in doing what he has done +here this evening our friend has proved himself a man among men. He +has said that a hundred savage deaths appear to him less terrible than +the confession he has just made. And it is a true saying. Ask your +own hearts. I could prove to you that no man can answer absolutely for +himself at such a moment; but I will not even argue the point. Our +friend has been through the fire. He has been through God's mill. He +has been hammered on God's anvil. I tell you that he is true metal. +He has proved it here and now. I hold it an honour to grasp his hand +and bid him God-speed." + +He stretched a sinewy, leather-brown hand to Blair, and the young man +gripped it with a new light in his face, and the two stood facing one +another. + +Still holding the young man's hand, the old one turned to the front +again. + +"If you agree with me that this is the man we want for the work out +there, rise in your seats." + +His voice had rung like a bugle-call through the outer darknesses of +the earth; his name stood but little lower than God's to tens of +thousands who dwelt there, and was held in reverence wherever the +English language was spoken. That great audience rose to his call as +if a mine had exploded beneath it. His eyes shone with the light the +black men knew and loved. + +"Let us pray," he said; and the young man fell to his knees beside his +chair and dropped his head into his hands again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SHAMELESS THING! + +The night that followed that meeting at Queen's Hall was the most +tempestuous time Jean Arnot ever passed through. + +The dramatic events of the meeting had shaken her hidden soul out of +its sanctuary. She was thankful to get home intact--so far, at all +events, as outward appearances went. + +She went at once to her own room. She locked herself in, and paced the +floor till she could pace no more. + +She could order her steps, but not her thoughts, and her thoughts took +wings and climbed lofty heavens of white-piled clouds, and the +white-piled clouds were all rosy-tipped, because the thoughts that +scaled them came straight from her heart and were tinged with the rosy +gold of her heart's desire. + +Oh, wonderful! wonderful! The great big soul of him! Was there a +nobler man on earth? + +How easy to have let it pass! to have kept it between God and himself +only! to have worked out his redemption in secret! But he could not, +because he was a true man--the truest man ever born, and the bravest. +Oh the great, big, noble soul of him! + +To and fro she paced, and, no matter where she looked, his white, set +face and blazing eyes looked out at her in that agonised strenuity of +appeal which had stirred her so in the hall, stirred her to the depths +till she had had difficulty in sitting still. It had seemed to her as +though he lost sight of all those straining thousands and spoke only to +her--as though they were all nothing, and she the whole world. Had he +recognised her, she wondered, or had he perceived, in spite of the +disguisement of her steady face, the intensity of her sympathy, and had +clung to it as to a one and only hope? + +And as she paced, and sank down into her chair, which had lost all its +ordinary sense of comfort, and started up and paced again, there sprang +up in her heart a great golden-glowing purpose--a purpose that trapped +her breath and set her gasping when first it peeped out, but which grew +like an escaped genie, and filled the world of her thoughts before she +knew, and was never to be confined within bounds again. + +An unheard-of thing! An incredible thing! A shameless thing! + +Nay, not that--and yet--yes! yes! Shameless indeed, for shameless +meant without sense of shame, and no sense of shame had she--glory +rather. + +An unmaidenly thing, then! That without doubt, but not without +precedent, and circumstances make laws unto themselves. + +But, whatever it was or was not, it grew and grew, stronger and +stronger, and ever brighter in its glowing, golden rose. + +As she paced to and fro it seemed to her that her path in life had +suddenly flashed out before her on the darkness of the night. It was +limned in lines and letters of fire, and they cried to her to follow, +follow, follow. + +And now, as she thought it all out, with tightened lips, and crumpled +brow, and eyes that shone, it came home to her, like a revelation, that +all her life had been working up to this starry point. + +She thought long and deeply, and then turned up the light and sat down +to her writing-table with a purposeful face. It was done in a +moment--a couple of lines. But a single word has changed the destiny +of a nation before this. Weighty things, words, at times! Live shells +are playthings to them. + +She folded and addressed her letter, and then pondered the best way +over a difficulty. She wrote two more lines and enclosed them with her +original letter in a larger envelope, and addressed it, and then she +laid her white forehead on the packet for a moment as it lay on the +table. And then, like one whose ships are burned, or whose golden +bridge is built, she altered the indicator outside her door, so that +her maid would call her at seven, and went to bed. Once, before she +got to sleep, she smiled to herself and almost laughed out, as she +suddenly remembered that it was Leap Year. Then she cooled her burning +cheek on the other pillow and went to sleep, and slept soundly, for she +had been living at high pressure these last few hours, and the morrow +would need all her strength. + +When the maid brought up her cup of tea in the morning, she handed her +the letter which had stood on the table by her bedside all night, with +these precise directions: "Tell William"--the groom--"to ride into the +city and deliver that letter. The answer he will take to whatever +address may be given him." + +She got up and dressed, and went out for a quick walk in Kensington +Gardens. At breakfast Aunt Jannet Harvey commented on her appearance. + +"Why, child, what a colour you've got! What took you out so early?" + +"I've been bathing in dew and early sunbeams, auntie." + +"I couldn't sleep all night for thinking of that young man and his +savages. It appears to me that that is a very great man, Jean. If he +lives he will do very noble work. It needed a big soul to face that +crowd and tell that story as he did it." + +"Yes," said Jean. She had never discussed Kenneth Blair with Aunt +Jannet Harvey, not to the extent of one single word. + +After breakfast she found it difficult to settle down to any of her +usual avocations. She could neither read nor play, and she declined to +go out. Aunt Jannet Harvey expressed the opinion that such early +rising did not suit her, and Jean confirmed her views by going upstairs +to her room and wandering about there at a loose end and doing +nothing--nothing but think, think, think. + +Her maid brought her word that William had returned, having executed +his mission in full; and please would Miss Arnot ride in the afternoon? + +Miss Arnot would neither ride nor drive that afternoon, nor would she +require the brougham in the evening. Mary would please ask Mrs. Harvey +if she wished to drive in the afternoon. If not, the men's services +would not be required. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LEAP YEAR + +Kenneth Blair received Miss Arnot's note as he sat at breakfast in the +pleasant room of the quiet little hotel overlooking the Embankment, +where he was staying in company with Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish. He was to +them as one come back from the dead, and they grudged every minute he +was out of their sight. + +The incidents of the previous night had been rather wearing on them +all, and they were later than usual that morning, and, at that, +dallying over an enjoyment that would soon be of the memory only. + +The rare colour filled his pale face as he read the two lines of Miss +Arnot's note, and he read them several times, as though frequent +perusal might provoke interpretation. + + +"DEAR MR. BLAIR,-- + +"I have an urgent wish to speak with you. Will you do me the favour of +calling here at 3 p.m. to-day? + +"Yours sincerely, + "JEAN ARNOT." + + +"I wonder what she wants?" he said meditatively, and handed the note to +the old people. "I don't think I want to see anybody." + +"I think you must comply with her request, my boy," said Mr. MacTavish. +"She has more than ordinary claims upon your consideration, you know." + +Blair nodded, and winced involuntarily. It went a good deal deeper +than the old man knew, and after last night he did not feel quite +himself again yet. He had a morbid dread of hero-worship, and though +the outward man was healed and shaping well again, the inner man still +felt woefully sore and bruised and humbled. + +"She was there last night; she sat about three rows from the front," +said Mrs. MacTavish. "I wish you could have seen her face while you +were speaking, Kenneth. It was like the face of an angel." + +Kenneth had seen it, and nothing but it, and the thought of it made it +none the easier for him to comply with her request. + +He said quietly: "Well, I'll think about it, and see how I happen to be +situated for three o'clock. I have to see Mr. Campbell at eleven in +Moorgate Street. If he has any appointments for me, I might be unable +to go, in which case I'll send Miss Arnot a wire." + +But Mr. Campbell knew how short his time was, and so occupied as little +of it as possible; and three o'clock found him at Miss Arnot's dainty +little house in Knightsbridge, overlooking the Park. + +He had hesitated--as an intelligent moth might flutter warily just +outside the heat radius of a candle-flame--strongly tempted, desirous, +but doubtful. + +For she had occupied much, very much, of his thoughts--too much, he had +angrily said to himself at times--since ever he learned the part she +had had in the making of him. And quite apart from that, she was so +very charming in herself. It could hardly be in the power of any man, +he thought, to be much in her company and not have longings for still +closer acquaintance and companionship--and such things were not for +him. His way lay among the shadows of the outer night, and it must of +necessity be, outwardly at all events, a somewhat lonely way. +Companions he would doubtless have, and the best of all high company. +But home, wife, child--these were not for him. In his mind's eye he +saw the white beaches, and towering cliffs, and black bosky gorges of +the Dark Islands, and the thunder of the surf was in his ear. And in +his heart he said bravely, "My home, my wife, my children!" + +But his thoughts were never far from her, and now that, in spite of +himself, he was to meet her face to face, they gathered head and had +their way in spite of him. + +He had often wondered why she had not married. She was still young, of +course; but, after all, twenty-five was not so very young for an +unmarried lady of such unusual possessions of mind, body, and estate. + +She possessed, he could well believe, an independent spirit. Had she +not, even at thirteen, told him that one of her aspirations was to do +as she liked? + +He had recognised her instantly, and with a start, the previous night. +That was before the drama became exciting. And he had wondered then if +she had changed her name since last he saw her, or whether "Jean Arnot +was still good enough for her." + +And what could she possibly want to say to him? + +Possibly--quite likely--in the excitement of the evening's proceedings +she had felt an impulse to do something more for the mission cause than +she had done hitherto. + +That was it, no doubt. Well, they could do with Miss Arnot's +assistance. Funds were never too ample for the work that cried aloud +to be done. + +He was evidently expected. The maid led him along the hall, through +green baize doors, down a passage, into the library, a beautiful and +cosy room such as he had imagined wealthy people might possibly +possess, if, in addition to all their other possessions, they possessed +a love of books. It overlooked the garden and the Park, and was as +bright and secluded a little holy of holies as the most devoted +worshipper of the sacred flame might desire. The Island Mission houses +were--not exactly geographically perhaps, but in every other attribute +and particular--the absolute antipodes and antithesis of this charming +little sanctum. The walls were lined with bookcases full of richly +bound books, the table was strewn with books and magazines, among +which, and queening it over them all, stood a great night-blue bowl of +white lilac, filling the room with the perfume of the spring. There +was a cheerful little fire of mixed peat and logs on a flat hearth, +with brass dogs and chains. A sudden whiff of the peat, as he passed +the hearth, carried him in an instant back into his boyhood. + +He glanced at the bountiful shelves, with the hungry look of the +student whose pocket had never at any time been able to keep pace with +his appetite. For knowledge of books is good, and possession of books +is good, but knowledge and possession combined are still much better. + +He was standing looking out into the garden whence the lilac had come, +when Miss Arnot came quietly in. + +He turned and bowed. He had made up his mind to hold himself tightly, +but her welcoming hand drew forth his own, and carried his first line +of defence in a walk-over. + +"It was good of you to come," she said impulsively, "and I thank you. +I know your time is very short, and you must have much to do." + +"Yes, there is much to do," he said very quietly. "But I am grateful +to you for, at all events, affording me another opportunity of thanking +you in person----" But she stopped him with a peremptory little hand. + +How beautiful she was, with her wistful face and commanding little +ways! There was even more than usual of strenuous inquiry in those +shining eyes of hers. + +"You are going back on the first of May?" + +Her speech was more rapid than usual. He saw that she was excited. +Probably the remembrance of last night's meeting still held her, he +thought. + +"Yes, on the first of May. And then----I hardly think it likely I +shall ever return to England." + +"But why?" she jerked, in her old, quick, want-to-know way. + +"Well--you see--I really feel as if I had no right to be here at all. +By rights I ought to be lying under a cairn on the beach of Dark +Island." + +"Oh, but that is simply morbid, and the result of your long illness. +You will not feel that way long." + +"I hope not. The work is crying to be done. Perhaps, after all, I +shall be able to help it more above ground than below." + +"Of course you will. Don't you find it dreadfully lonely out there, +with none but black people about you?" + +"They are very fine people, some of them. And the loneliness only +nails one the tighter to the work. Besides there are----" + +"Has it never struck you that you might possibly help it quite as much +by remaining here as by going out again?" + +Oh, Jean! Jean! + +"Never," he said, with a slight flush. "My work lies there, and I hope +to give my life to it, and to give it up for it if need be, as my dear +old friend gave his." + +"But there are others who could do the work just as well, are there +not?" + +"Many, I hope. I hope many will." + +"And, if I understand aright, Missionary Societies are always short of +funds, and the work is hindered, or at all events progresses more +slowly, in consequence." + +"I have my own views as to that," he said quietly. + +"Won't you tell me what they are? I am greatly interested." + +"They are not shared by many of my friends, and I do not obtrude them. +I believe that the work is God's work, and when He sees fit to provide +larger ways and means, larger ways and means will be forthcoming. If +we had all the money we wanted, we might lose our heads, and go ahead +too fast--scamp the work perhaps, and prove but jerry-builders in the +end. One cannot forget that it has taken Christianity eighteen hundred +years to arrive at its present position, and that for long periods it +lay almost dormant; whereas, if the Founder had deemed it best to +accomplish the work at one stroke, He could have done it." + +"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "I don't think I ever looked at it in +that light before. And you are quite determined to go back?" + +"Quite determined--only too grateful for the chance." + +"And nothing would keep you here?" + +"Nothing that I can imagine--except absolute incapacity for the work." + +"You would not stop even if"--and she bent forward, with hands tightly +clasped to prevent them jumping visibly before him, and eyes that shone +like stars. God! how beautiful she was!--"if I begged you to do so?" + +He jumped up hastily. + +"If you----? If you begged me to--what?" + +And her bright eyes, fixed intently on his lean face, caught the sudden +fierce clench of the teeth inside, which threw the cheek-bones into +bolder prominence. She noted it--she could almost hear the grinding of +his teeth; and the game was in her hands. She had the advantage of +understanding what the game was, while he was completely in the dark. + +He stood gazing down at her for a moment, and then said more quietly-- + +"I'm afraid I don't quite understand. Perhaps my illness has dulled my +brain somewhat." + +"No, it hasn't, Mr. Blair. I was asking you in cold blood if you would +not stay in England and marry me, and use my money from here for the +furtherance of the cause out there." + +He stared at her still with all his great heart in his eyes--all of it +that was not jumping in his throat like a baby rabbit. + +He gazed down at her for another moment, then bent suddenly before her +and took her hand and kissed it, and said huskily and in jerks--between +the rabbit-kicks-- + +"You will think no ill of me--if I go--at once. I dare not stop----" + +But she had gripped his hand and held it tight, and stood holding him, +and her face shone and her eyes. + +"Then--will you take me with you, Kenneth?" + +"Take you with me?" Her rings cut into her next fingers under the +fierceness of his sudden grip, and she could have sung aloud, for the +grip came right from his heart and told his tale to her. "Do you mean +it--Jean?" + +"Surely." + +And yet he had a doubt. You must bear with him. You see, he had been +half inside the gates of death, and--well, the proceeding _was_ +distinctly out of the common run of things. + +"Is it myself--or the work?" he asked almost fiercely. For the thought +had flashed across him--and not unnaturally--that this was but one more +result of the excitement of the meeting last night. She had been +shaken out of her usual discretion and decorum, had probably lain awake +all night, and---- + +But her eyes were steady as stars, and as bright, as she said-- + +"Both! But yourself first. I liked you the first time we met. I +loved you the second. I have never ceased to think about you. Your +going away left a blank in my life. After last night I love and trust +you more than ever, if that be possible. Last night my way was made +clear to me." + +"Now, glory be to God!" he cried, and kissed the wistful lips that +looked as if they had been waiting long for just that seal to the +compact. And then he sat down suddenly and covered his face with his +hands, as though what was in him was not even for her eyes. + +She sank down on to a footstool beside his chair, and noticed how white +his hand was compared with the great, strong brown hand which had held +hers that day in the Greenock church. + +He was himself again in a moment--or suppose we say he came back from +where he had been--and his face was full of the old radiant glow as he +raised it to look at her. + +"It _is_ real, isn't it?" he asked in a light-hearted, boyish way. + +"I'm real," she said, smiling back at him. "You seem not quite +yourself." + +"Did you ever try to imagine what it would feel like to have every +single desire of your heart suddenly granted to you all in a lump?" + +"I don't think I ever did. It sounds as if it might be too much for +one." + +"It is--almost. And you wonder if it is real and true, or only a vain +imagining. Jean, is it true that you care for me?" + +"No--love you, Ken,--dearly--every inch of you." + +"And that you are going to marry me?" + +"If you ask me properly." + +"Jean, will you marry me and come out with me and share my work?" + +"I will!" + +He gazed at her steadfastly, and said softly-- + +"Thank God! it is true!" + +He enjoyed that full sunshine of felicity for close on five minutes, +and then said more soberly-- + +"Do you quite understand, dear, all that you are giving up? Life out +there----" + +"It is enough for me at present to realise what I have gained. Can you +not understand, dear, that to a woman the time comes when the heart's +love of one man is more to her than all the rest of the whole wide +world? Life touched its highest with me when you made my fingers bleed +a few minutes ago." + +"I made your----" and he snatched her hands and saw the tiny wounds. +"Oh, forgive me! I did not know----" and he kissed them tenderly. + +"Sweet wounds!" she said. "They told me more than all you have +forgotten to tell me--all that I was aching to know." + +"And you really care for me like that, Jean? For me! Is it possible? +I wonder why?" + +"Perhaps God had something to do with it. It is so very good that it +must be from Him." + +"Yes," he said emphatically. + +"And now--when are you going to tell me that you care a little for me, +and are not just taking me because I threw myself at your head and you +could not help yourself?" + +"Oh, Jean! Jean! you knew--though how I cannot tell. You have been +shrined in my heart since that second time we met, but I knew it was +hopeless----" + +"Clever boy! And you hardly knew me then." + +"I knew your eyes the moment I looked into them, and they have never +left me since." + +"Such common brown eyes! But you didn't know what lay behind them?" + +"The most beautiful eyes in the world." + +And by degrees they settled into quiet talk of the future. + +He still feared she did not fully understand all she was giving up, and +conscientiously endeavoured to make it clear to her. + +She listened to please him, and because it was sweet to hear him, for +all his thought in the matter was for her and her well-being. + +So she let him go on; and when he had exhausted all his arguments, she +said quietly-- + +"It is all nothing and less than nothing, dearest, compared with the +rest. Where you go I go. Your work shall be my work, and your people +my people, and nothing but death shall part us." + +And with a heart that seemed like to burst for very fulness of joy in +her, he said, "Amen!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A SUDDEN WIDE HORIZON + +"Mr. Blair! The young man who spoke at the meeting the other night? +Why, I didn't even know that you knew him, Jean!" said Aunt Jannet +Harvey, gazing at her in wide-eyed wonder. + +"Oh, I've known him since I was thirteen!" + +"And you never spoke to me about him! Why I don't remember your ever +even mentioning his name!" + +"I don't believe I ever did. We will make up for it now, auntie." + +"And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry him?" + +[Illustration: "And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry +him."] + +"Yes, auntie,"--very meekly. + +"And you've said 'yes,' and you're going out with him to the South +Seas?" + +"Yes, auntie." + +"Well, child, let me tell you what I think about it. I think you might +have looked much higher, and fared very much worse. He struck me the +other night as a very noble young man indeed, and I wondered then why +he hadn't made some woman happy. I believe you will be very happy, +Jean, unless those cannibals kill you and eat you." + +"If they eat us both at the same time I don't care," said Jean boldly. +"Yes, I shall be very happy, auntie, for he is the best man in the +whole world." + +"And when do you go?" + +"Our marriage will make some changes in his plans, of course, and he is +seeing the Society people to-day about an extension of leave. We +discussed it all yesterday--at least, all that we had time for. He is +full of plans--such glorious plans! It is a grand thing to be a man, +and to be built on a great big scale, and to have glorious ideas----" + +"And the means to carry them out! And when did you say you'd be going?" + +"In about six weeks probably. You see, he wants to buy a steamer for +his work among the Islands, and we shall go out in her." + +"I shall be quite ready," said Aunt Jannet Harvey "I shall want two or +three new dresses suitable to the climate----" + +"You, auntie? You will go too?" + +"Why, of course, child! You'll need me more than ever out there. +Suppose you fell sick. Suppose--oh, I can look ahead farther than you +can, perhaps! I can see a hundred ways in which I can be useful to +you. And you don't need to fear that I'll be in your way--I'll see to +that. But I'll be within reach when I'm wanted; and I've always had a +hankering to see those outside parts of the world. It was my dear +James's dream too. He was a great botanist, when he had any time to +spare from his logic. He'll be glad to think the chance has come to me +at last." + +And so when Blair came back next day from an exciting time in the city, +Jean solemnly announced-- + +"You'll only find out by degrees all you've undertaken, young man. +You've got to marry Aunt Jannet Harvey as well." + +"Polygamy is still practised out there," he said heartily. "As a +matter of policy we have to countenance it at times; but we set our +faces against it, because it does not work well. If this means that +Mrs. Harvey has consented to accompany us----" + +"Consented? She proposed it, or rather took it for granted, and won't +hear a word against it." + +"Then my heart is lightened of one of its cares, and I am truly +grateful to Aunt Jannet"--and Aunt Jannet was his from that moment. +"God surely put the thought into your kind heart," he said, as he wrung +the capable old hand warmly. "You will be more to Jean out there than +words can tell. I thank you with all my heart." + +"I knew it," said Aunt Jannet, with emphasis. "I wanted to ask you, +Mr. Blair----" + +"Kenneth, surely, now, Aunt Jannet!" + +"Surely!--Kenneth--what the ladies wear out there." + +"Well, the native ladies don't wear much, and the ladies of the +missions wear much what you would here, if you cared only for use and +comfort, and nothing for fashion. They always look very neat and +clean"--at which Jean smiled reminiscently. + +"I see," said Aunt Jannet. "Jean and I will lay our heads together. I +think we can live up to that standard, at all events." + +He had a cup of tea with them, and then ran along to the hotel to bring +old Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish over to dinner. And after dinner they sat +and talked and talked, and he laid some of his ideas and plans before +them, and had only just begun when it was time for the old people to go +home to bed. For his plans and ideas were blossoming in the golden +sunshine like an orchard kept back by a late spring, and flung suddenly +into the quickening warmth of coming summer. + +He had gone down that morning to see the secretary of the Society which +had originally sent him out, and to whom he still felt officially +bound, to inform him of the changes in his plans which his marriage +would bring about, and to request an extension of leave. + +There happened to be a full meeting of the committee in session when +his name was brought in, and the secretary at once suggested his +introduction to the meeting. And so, when Blair was shown into the +board-room, expecting to meet Mr. Secretary alone, he found some fifty +ladies and gentlemen eagerly awaiting him. + +The great glad light in his face--the light that Jean Arnot had helped +to rekindle--drew all their eyes. They whispered among themselves that +the Queen's Hall meeting had done him good after all. Some of them had +been fearing the effects of such tremendous emotion on a weakened body. + +The chairman, the noble head of a house devoted to good deeds, gave him +hearty welcome, and said the committee would be delighted to hear any +further details he would like to give them of his work or future plans +in the Dark Islands. + +Blair jumped up as the old man sat down. + +"I came, sir," he said, "on a very definite errand--to ask for a slight +extension of my stay here." + +"It is granted, my dear sir, before you put any limit to it," said the +old man cordially. "Every member of this committee feels, I am sure, +that the matter may be safely left in your own hands. We know also +that you are anxious to get back to your work. I will only express the +hope that it is not through any relapse in health that you think it +necessary." + +It certainly did not look like it, as Blair, with a smile that would +not be controlled, said-- + +"I am glad to say it is not a matter touching my health, though one +that very intimately affects my happiness and well-being. Since that +somewhat trying meeting in Queen's Hall a piece of very great +good-fortune has come to me----" + +"Good indeed to set such a light in his face!" thought they, and hung +upon his words. + +"Miss Arnot has consented to become my wife and to join me in the work +out there." + +"Miss Arnot!--Jean Arnot!"--a buzz of excitement ran round. For Miss +Arnot was a personage of importance, known alike for her beauty, her +wealth, and her good deeds. Rumour, indeed, had fixed upon Miss Arnot +as the mysterious donor for the last two years of a £1,000 note each +year for the special benefit and use of the South Sea Mission. + +And he was going to marry Miss Arnot, and she was going out with him! +No wonder there was a light in his face! + +But he was speaking again. + +"You will see, sir, at once that this happy circumstance brings about +many changes in my plans and hopes. The vista of usefulness which it +opens before me--before us, may I say?--is magnified one hundred-fold. +Miss Arnot dedicates her fortune, herself, and her enthusiasms to the +work. There is a mighty field out there. It is not white to the +harvest--it is black as darkest night. By God's help we hope to lift +the fringes and let in some rays of His blessed light. I shall have +the opportunity of discussing my ideas in detail with your secretary. +But broadly speaking, this is how they point. We contemplate +purchasing and fitting out a steamer suitable for mission-work among +the Islands, and going out in her ourselves. We would like several +assistants, married or unmarried--but big men, please! Big heads are +good, and big hearts are better, but best of all if they are contained +in big bodies. You have no idea what a vast impression a big man makes +on those big Islanders compared with a small man. As to the size of +the ladies, I would not venture to offer any suggestions. But the men +should be--must be--big men. One further matter, sir, and I have done. +Those Islanders must come under the protection of the British flag at +once. And I want--you will not misunderstand me if I go the length of +saying _I must have_--the appointment of Commissioner or Deputy +Commissioner, or any position that will give me the official right to +deal with certain matters which block our way out there. + +"The wrongs the people of some of those Outer Islands suffer, from the +scum of the earth who prey upon them, to their utter ruin of body, +soul, and spirit, are almost incredible. + +"I could tell you facts--bald, brutal facts--concerning the labour +traffic carried on there which would make you shudder and doubt my +veracity. But I have seen these things with my own eyes, and heard +them with my own ears, and been powerless to stop them. + +"Now, by God's help, and Miss Arnot's, I will wage war on these +doings--hot war--yes, red-hot war with Maxim and Lee-Metford, if +necessary"--his voice rang out militantly--"on those who do these +dreadful deeds. Those hideous wrongs shall cease, and those poor +kinsfolk of ours--God's children as much as we, though they know it not +yet--shall have their chance. I would of course prefer to act +officially in the matter; but, officially or not, act I shall. + +"This may seem to you strange talk for a peaceful man. I have a +precedent. As long as I tread in the Master's steps I shall not go far +wrong." + +He sat down, and they cheered him to the echo. They had heard many +noble men and women speak in that room; but I doubt if they had ever +heard words which gripped their hearts as these had done. + +The news of the approaching marriage of the penniless young missionary +to the great heiress, Miss Arnot, spread rapidly and evoked much +comment, candid, caustic, congratulatory, from Jean's friends and +otherwise. + +"Clever man, that young sky-pilot!" + +"Absolutely thrown herself away, my dear, and actually going to live +among naked savages!" + +"Trust the missionary to feather his own nest. Why should he lose +sight of No. 1 while saving brother man?" + +"The missionary man has done himself well. Poor rich Miss Arnot!" + +"Oh, well, you know, she's twenty-seven if she's a day, and when a girl +gets to twenty-seven----! And they say he's exceedingly good-looking. +Still, don't you know----" + +These behind her back. And to her face: + +"He's simply charming, dear. I envy you--I do indeed! + +"He's a splendid fellow, Miss Arnot. You will be very happy together." + +"My dear,"--this from a very old lady, bearing a very old title, whose +early married life had been a hideous martyrdom--"you have chosen very +wisely. He is a noble Christian gentleman, and he would lay down his +life for you. Believe me, dear, compared with what you have got, all +the wealth of the world and all its titles are nothing but dust and +ashes and misery. I know it!" + +And everybody else knew that she knew it. And Jean kissed her very +tenderly. + +And Mr. Punch, when he heard of the matter, in his playful little way +quoted: + +"Doän't thou marry for munny, but--goä wheer munny is." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOME ODD FURNISHINGS AND A HONEYMOON + +Aunt Jannet Harvey's wardrobe was rapidly approaching completion. + +She and Jean had had a busy six weeks. They had neither of them ever +been quite so busy in all their lives before, and the curious thing was +that it seemed to agree with them mightily, and they, both one and the +other, had visibly renewed their youth under the demands made upon them. + +Aunt Jannet developed new and surprising traits of character every day; +and as for Jean, the days were not half long enough for the joy of life +that lay in wait for each one as it came. + +She and Kenneth Blair had been quietly married by special licence a +month ago, and the sight of their faces, wherever they had been since, +had brought new ideals and new possibilities of life to all who looked +upon them--all except the cynics and philosophers of Jean's former +world, of course. + +"Quite so!" said they. "But just wait till the bloom is off the +honeymoon, and she finds herself all alone with her little tin god +among the savages! Then she'll find out what's what and sigh for the +vanished fleshpots and fripperies." + +But there were no signs of incipient sighing about Mrs. Kenneth Blair +at present, anyway. She had always been sweet and charming, with a +wistful eagerness in her face that filled you with a desire to do for +her any mortal thing she might require at your hands. There was still +something of that about her, but it was almost hidden now beneath the +radiant happiness which enveloped her. + +She had urged Blair to a speedy wedding--where no urging whatever was +needed--for the delight of spending their last weeks at home, in the +house where most of her life had been passed. She had had long and +peremptory interviews with her lawyers, making wise provision for all +possible eventualities, so far as it was possible to foresee them. It +was not till she was half-way across to the other side of the world +that the aunties in Greenock, and old Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish, and +several other old friends, learned what she had been up to, and then +she was well out of their reach. + +[Illustration: She had long and peremptory interviews with her lawyers.] + +And every day since, she and her husband had been out in the +market-place with open purse and very definite ideas as to their +requirements, and the things they had bought were very extraordinary +and about as different from the usual purchases of newly-married +couples as they possibly could be. + +_Item_.--One 300-ton auxiliary schooner, built to Class 17 A.1., by +Scott & Sons, Greenock; dimensions 143 O.A.; 23-½ ft. beam; 13 ft. +draught; 7 ft. headroom, etc. A handsome, roomy boat, stoutly built +for comfort and long voyages to the order of a financial magnate, whose +health unfortunately broke down before she was quite ready for him, and +forced him to seek more genial climatic, and other conditions, in +Argentina. + +Mr. and Mrs. Blair ran up to Greenock to inspect her, found her exactly +to their liking, settled the matter in five minutes in the office +inside the big gates, christened her the _Torch_ with a hastily +procured bottle of champagne, gave orders for the duplication of every +piece of machinery she contained; walked out of the big gates +ship-owners, and dropped in on the astonished aunties in Brisbane +Street and announced that they had come for a cup of tea and to stop +one night. + +They stopped more than one night, however, for after tea Blair walked +in to see the Rev. Archibald for a last talk and a pipe of peace. And +when the Rev. Archibald recovered wind and wits from the rapid details +Blair gave him of the work he was engaged on, he at once offered to +find him a crew through some of the members of his church. Blair +desired nothing better, and in five minutes the maid of the Manse was +skipping through the dripping streets with kilted skirts to summon to +instant conference some nearer members who might be able to advise in +the matter. He laid his plans before them, told them to a hair the +kind of men he required both for officers and crew, and went back to +Brisbane Street in due course, comfortably assured in his own mind that +within two days the _Torch_ would be fitted with a crew worthy of her +and the work for which she was destined. + +Next day the ship-owners went out for a walk, and did not return till +close on tea-time. + +They had been on their honeymoon trip: past the cemetery gates, up the +brae between the brown stone houses, past the pond, up the cinder path, +and along that glorious walk, with the swift brown water of the Cut +swirling past to its appointed work in mills and town, on the one side; +and on the other, across the brimming firth, the everlasting hills, +grey and green and purple and black, as the sunshine chased the shadows +to their hiding-places in the glens; the full sea welling about their +feet, now green, now blue; and the sky overhead bluest blue after the +rain, with piles of snowy cloud passing along in solemn silence like a +procession of the chariots of God. + +They did not speak much, hardly a word, but walked hand in hand like a +pair of country lovers, till they came to where a flat stone lay +alongside the beginnings of a cabin. + +And there they stopped; and looking into one another's faces by a +common impulse, put their arms round one another's necks and kissed, +with brimming hearts, and eyes that saw none of the glories around +because of the glory within them, which was too much for either sight +or sound. + +The happy tears were running down Jean's cheeks, but they were +swallowed up in reminiscent smiles as her husband seated her gently on +one projecting rock and himself on the other. + +"This is my twelfth birthday," he began; and when Miss Inquisitive +looked at him out of her sweet brown eyes, still soft from their recent +shower, he explained: "To all intents and purposes my life began that +day I met you here, though there had been a previous troubled life in +which my dear father gave me all he had to give--the desire to learn." + +"And I am about two years old," she said, smiling; and when she saw +that he did not understand, explained: + +"After meeting you again that second time in the church, when you +hardly recognised me----" + +"I knew you the moment I looked into your eyes." + +"I came up here the next day--I did not know why, but something drew +me, and I came. And I sat down here on this stone, and saw you sitting +on that stone munching oatcake and cheese, and thought what a greedy +little pig I was not to have made you take some of my sandwiches----" + +"You couldn't have made me. I wouldn't have touched one for----" + +"I know. But I ought to have made you, all the same. And then I +thought of you as you were now--that is, then, you know--and what a +great, big, strong soul and body you had become, and what great things +you were going to do, and how you had got your heart's desire. And +then I thought of myself, and the little I had done with all my +opportunities. And after that you insisted on coming into my thoughts +at all times, and I could not get rid of you. And then you sailed, and +I knew I should never see you again, and life felt hollow and hopeless. +And then I saw in the papers about your being murdered. And then you +came home, and--here we are. And oh, Ken! it is almost too good to be +true." + +"Not a bit of it, my dear; it is only just beginning." + +Then he drew out two parcels from his pockets, and hers contained some +neat little sandwiches and cookies with jam inside, and his contained +oatcakes and cheese. + +And, being in a raised mood, she laughed till she cried at his oatcakes +and cheese, and then insisted on dividing up equally all round, and +vowed that his fare was quite as good as her own. + +"Of course it is," he said. "I knew that all the time. A boy on the +hillsides who can't enjoy oatcakes and cheese would deserve to go +empty." + +When they had eaten, they still sat looking out over the water at the +hills and lochs opposite. In all likelihood they would never see that +fairest of scenes again, and they could not have too much of it. + +And after they had sat a long time in silence, Blair, leaning forward +with his arms on his knees and his eyes drinking in great draughts of +delight, said, suddenly--but slowly, as though the words had to be +called, or recalled, from afar, and said them, not to her or for her, +but to and for something quite outside them both--said them, in fact, +as though he were impelled to say them, and could not help himself-- + + "The hills of God stand fast and sure." + +The words described those hills opposite exactly. Then a pause, and +presently-- + + "His mighty promises endure + For ever and for evermore." + +Then he fell silent again, and thoughtful, and presently-- + + "His Mercy is a boundless sea, + For ever flowing, full and free." + +She saw it there before her just as he saw it. And after another +pause-- + + "Through Time into Eternity." + +She looked at him quietly and questioningly, but his gaze was fixed +absorbedly on the opposite shore. It seemed almost as if he had +forgotten her for the moment. She was content to watch him and to +listen to him-- + + "And as the wide blue sky above, + Encircling us where'er we move." + +There it was above them. The chariots had passed away. The sky was +unflecked blue-- + + "So is His all-enfolding Love." + +Then came a longer pause, and she thought he had ended, but she would +not speak. And presently he began again-- + + "For these, Thy gifts, we thank Thee, Lord! + Hills, sea, and sky, take up the word, + And thank Thee!--thank Thee!--thank Thee, Lord." + + +He sat still, gazing out intently at the hills and the sea and the sky, +and sat so long without a word that at last she spoke. + +"Whose is that, Ken? Surely he must have sat just here, and seen just +that." + +He turned slowly to her, as though he found it difficult to leave those +wonders beyond. + +"I really do not know, dear.... They seemed to come of their own +accord from somewhere. But whether I recalled them from somewhere +else, or whether they came hot from the anvil, I do not know. I do not +think I ever made a line of poetry in my life. There has been always +so much else to be done." + +"I think you must have made them," she said. + +Then, in turn, she had her own amusing little monologue. For she began +suddenly telling off the lochs and hills, just as he had named them to +her that other day--"Loch Goil, Loch Long, Ben More, Ben Lomond, The +Cobbler, Ben Ihme, Holy Loch!" + +"We shall often think of them when the prospect is a very different +one," he said quietly. "You never regret all that you are going to +leave behind you, Jean?" + +"Never for one moment, dear. I am taking with me, and going to, so +very much more than I leave behind, that my heart is full of gladness," +she said. "There is not room for the smallest shadow of a shadow of +regret." + +And they joined hands again and went on along the windings of the path, +in and out of the curves and dimples of the mountain's breast, till the +bold peaks of Arran rose purple in the distance, and they came to the +Sheils Farm. + +Blair's kinsfolk had long since left the place. He just took a look +round the familiar byres and stables, and poked his head into a room +whence a fresh-complexioned dairy-maid, in short blue skirts and bare +feet, was busily chasing hens. He came out with a reminiscent smile on +his face, and they turned down the hill towards Inverkip. He led her +by the short cuts his boyish feet had known so well; past the old +burying-ground, where the body-snatchers plied their gruesome trade and +the village folk sat up night after night to protect their dead; past +the gates of Ardgowan to the sea. And so along the shore road, with +the waves splashing up among the boulders on one side, and the dark +policies on the other, and the great trees meeting overhead; past the +sturdy white pillar of the Cloch into Ashton, and so at last home. A +honeymoon trip which neither of them ever forgot as long as they lived. + +"Well, you two," said Aunt Jannet, when they came in. "We began to +think you'd given us the slip and gone across the border without saying +goodbye." + +"We've been a long round," said Blair, "about----" + +"About twelve years," said Jean. + +"Then you must be starving. We expected you'd come home ravenous, and +provided accordingly." + +"We've been living on the fat of the land," laughed Jean; but they both +fell to all the same, and proved beyond doubt that high thought and +good living were by no means incompatible. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GOING STRONG + +That same evening a burly, middle-aged man came to the house and +requested audience of Mr. Blair. + +He bore the unmistakable hall-mark, and Kenneth liked the looks of him +and the ring of his voice. + +The two men eyed one another closely as they shook hands. + +"Mr. Duncan told me you were wanting a captain for your schooner, Mr. +Blair. I only heard it half an hour ago, and I've come straight." + +Blair nodded. "What are your qualifications? It is not everybody's +job, you know." + +"I know all about it, sir. And I think I'm the man for it. My name is +Cathie--John Cathie. I sailed my own ship as master for over fifteen +years. Quitted the sea three years ago because I'd made enough to live +on and the wife wanted me to stop ashore. She died six months ago. +I've neither chick nor child, and I want back to the water. When +you've spent thirty-five years with live water under your feet, the +land comes strange to you!" + +"Ever been in the South Seas?" + +"Spent ten years in the Island trade, sir. Know 'em like a book, from +the Carolines to the Paumotus; and if you can find a brown man in the +whole stretch that has a word against John Cathie I'll--well, you can +name your own forfeit." + +"And the white men?" + +"Ah--there! Most of 'em all right. Some I'd like to see strung higher +than Haman. But that kind's mostly yellow, though some are dirty +white." + +"Know the Dark Islands?" + +"At a distance. I never landed there. I was only a trader then." + +"And these men you'd like to see strung up like Haman, only more so, +Captain Cathie?" + +"You know them as well as I do, sir. Kidnappers, black-birders, +treacherous devils, scum of the earth. They don't have the times they +used to have, but they're not wholly cleared out yet in the outlying +groups. I'll be glad to give what time's left me to helping clear +them." + +"You're up to steam?" + +"Had five years of it." + +"Any hand with a Long Tom?" + +"Was gunner's mate for three years on the _Blenheim_ before I got +married, and we always carried guns in the Islands," and the bold blue +eyes snapped with a touch of puzzlement. "But--I thought it was a +missionary cruise you were bound on, Mr. Blair?" + +"I'm a new kind of missionary, Captain Cathie. The faithful shepherd +protects his flock. If the wolves try to steal his lambs, the wolves +must take the consequences." + +"By God, sir, I'm your man!" and the burly one jumped up with a flame +in his face, because he could not sit still under the hopes that were +in him. + +"I'm inclined to think you may be," said Blair. "You will understand, +Captain Cathie, that the master of our ship will be one of the most +important links in the chain. If you will look in about this time +to-morrow, you shall hear what we have decided." + +"Right, sir! I'll be here." He turned back when he had reached the +door. "If you should find some better man for captain, put me down for +chief mate, Mr. Blair; and if I'm not good enough for that, I'll go +before the mast sooner than be left out." + +Blair had already decided in his own mind, but in a matter of such +immense importance he could take no possible risks. His inquiries, +however, only confirmed the impression he had formed. When Captain +Cathie came hopefully in, the next night, the matter was settled on the +spot, and he went away a new man, gripping with feet and hands the +rungs of a new ladder. + +Blair laid his plans fully before him, and, so far as the schooner was +concerned, left him to carry them out. + +Then they were back in London, and the busy days sped past, scarce long +enough for all that had to be done in them. + +It was the necessary business with the Colonial Office that tried him +most severely. The Secretary accorded him an interview, received him +with gracious warmth, listened with interest to his views, agreed that +it would be a good thing for the Dark Islands to be accorded a +protectorate until the time was ripe for formal annexation, but---- +There were many buts, and they would have driven a less patient and +less determined seeker after other men's good to despair. There was +Australia; there was France; there was Germany; there was the +Opposition; there was that loud-voiced party in the land which screamed +at any extension of the Empire's shoes. + +But upon all and everything Blair quietly brought to bear his unique +personal knowledge of the conditions out there, a large common sense, +and an inflexible persistence that would admit of no rebuff or turning +aside. + +The minister smilingly accused him of being one-eyed as regards the +Dark Islands. + +"Absolutely!" said Blair quietly--"one-eyed, one-hearted, and +one-lived! Body, soul, and spirit I am for the Dark Islands, and I +want to do all that man can do. Give me the legal right and a +reasonably free hand, and, with God's help, I can do a great work out +there. I do not think it need cost you a farthing. I have a revenue +to start with of over £10,000 a year, and a considerable capital for +initial development purposes. Within five years, with reasonable +success, the islands will be self-supporting. But--I must have my +foundations sure, or I cannot build as I would." + +"The matter has already been debated among us, Mr. Blair," said the +Secretary. "The Earl of Selsea brought it up and has made it his +particular pet project. You seem to have captured his heart, and when +he takes a matter of this kind in hand he sticks to it like a bulldog. +But you can understand that there are many collateral issues, and we +have to consider them all. I understand exactly what you want and why, +and I promise you to do my utmost to bring it about. It may be some +months before it can be arranged. Meanwhile, no doubt, there is much +you can be doing to prepare the ground." + +"There is much to be done, sir, and I will set to work on the strength +of what you say. But the sooner it is definitely settled the better +for us all." + +"A very fine young fellow," said the Secretary to himself, before he +turned to another quarter of the globe. "The kind of man I could make +splendid use of if I had him to myself." + +But Kenneth Blair was another Man's man. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ARMS AND THE MAN + +The _Torch_ had been brought round from Greenock by Captain Cathie, and +was lying in the London Docks close alongside Wapping Basin, an object +of interest to all her neighbours. + +Captain Cathie's clock had gone back at least ten years since he and +Kenneth Blair struck hands in the drawing-room of the Aunties' house in +Brisbane Street. He was then a fine old specimen of the very best type +of retired mariner. Now he was a jovial young sea-dog, bristling with +energy, and overflowing with hearty goodwill to humanity at large. He +was Kenneth Blair's man to the backbone, and prepared to follow him to +the death. + +Jean delighted in him and he in her. She had taken Aunt Jannet Harvey +down to inspect her future home, and the ladies' comments had filled +Captain Cathie's cup to the brim and won his heart completely. + +Jean had asked him endless questions, but not one more than he +delighted in answering; and Aunt Jannet Harvey's characteristic +summing-up of the whole matter had been, "Child, I feel as if I'd +wasted half my life in never having been to sea before. I've always +had an idea that I knew something about neatness and comfort and +packing, but this"--with a wave of the hand which comprehended the +cabin she was standing in, and the _Torch_ generally, and Captain +Cathie--"this puts me to shame. I shall never want to live on shore +again," and Captain Cathie was repaid for all his labours. With full +understanding, and thirty years' experience, and no stinting as regards +money, he had laboured to adapt the ladies' rooms to their fullest +possible requirements. Their delight in all they saw assured him of +his success. + +A few days later Blair brought down a party of friends to inspect the +little ship, foremost among them the Colonial Secretary and the Earl of +Selsea, who had both come straight from a Cabinet Council where the +Dark Islands had been the rat in the pit. + +"We're getting on by degrees," said the Secretary in the train, as he +lit a cigar to counteract the atmosphere. + +"It's amazing what an amount of pig-headedness there is in the world," +said his friend. "You don't realise it in all its heart-breaking +stolidity till you run your own head against it." + +"That's so. But what can you expect when men like B---- are +pitchforked into the positions they occupy? I was at Eton with B---- +and at Oxford. He always was a fool and he always will be. He ought +to have gone into the Church." + +"I object! The Church needs the very best men it can get." + +"Well, then, into the Army. He couldn't have done much mischief in +either, and in the Army, at all events, there'd have been some chance +of his getting licked into some kind of shape. As it is, I always want +to get up and ask him to come outside into the park with me just for +ten minutes or so. It was the one argument that used to prevail with +him, and I've an idea it would yet. Anyway, it would do _me_ a heap of +good. He was born pig-headed and it's grown on him ever since." + +"If we can once get him to see things as----" + +"See? B---- never could see anything beyond the side on which his +bread was buttered. Some men are born dense, and some grow denser as +they grow older. B----'s both. He wants trepanning. Here's Mark +Lane, and there's your Angel Gabriel on the pounce for us." + +Angel Gabriel, in the person of Kenneth Blair, gave them hearty +welcome, and piloted them through slums and dockyards till they stood +on the deck of the _Torch_, where Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey, and +Captain Cathie, were already doing the honours to a goodly company. + +"It is a great enterprise you are bound upon, Mrs. Blair," said the +Secretary, as Jean expounded _Torch_ to him. + +"The grandest work in the world," she said exuberantly. "If you'll +only back us up and give us what we want." + +"Ah! if only it rested with me. But I'm only one." + +"Oh, come! Where am I?" asked Selsea. + +"That makes two," acknowledged the Secretary, who would willingly, in +the light of Jean's brown eyes, have taken all the credit to himself. + +"And we'll soon have the rest. As for B----, if he won't toe the line, +we'll worry the life out of him," which was a highly improper remark to +fall from the lips of a philanthropic nobleman. But then Jean Blair's +hopefully eager face and wistful eyes were upon him, and allowances +must be made. + +"I do hope you will," she said earnestly. + +"What, worry the life out of him?" laughed the Secretary. + +"H'm--yes,--if he won't toe the line." + +"Hullo!" said the Secretary, as he entered the deck saloon, an +exceedingly comfortable room, fitted in bird's-eye maple with fine +woven cane cushions and backs to the seats instead of saddlebags or +velvet plush. + +But it was not at the room itself at which he exclaimed, but at the +arm-racks ranged round the walls, empty at present, but full of meaning. + +"Yes," said Blair quietly. "Winchesters. They're down below with the +Maxim. Let me show you something else," and he led the two gentlemen +along the deck to a longboat, keel up, on a stand well forward. The +boat stood high and was covered with tarpaulin. + +"Do you care to peep under?" he asked. And the Secretary bent and +peeped, and straightened up again with raised eyebrows. + +"You mean business, evidently, Mr. Blair. That's an odd passenger for +a missionary ship." + +"She throws a 9-lb. shell a mile and a half," said Blair, "and Captain +Cathie is an old naval gunner. Yes, we mean business. But this +business"--patting the long gun's cover--"only in case of absolute +necessity. You quite understand the situation? I hope you have +confidence in me?" + +"I quite understand, and I have perfect confidence. Mr. Blair. I +believe for once the right man is in the right place. We will do +everything we possibly can to further your views. If we can't get all +we want, we can no doubt keep our eyes closed." + +Their visitors were delighted with all they saw, but all of them did +not see everything. Even if one is prepared to tackle one's problems +with an iron grip, it is not always highest wisdom to shake one's fist +in the face of the world. + +Blair showed them also the thousand and one other things he was taking +out, seeds and germs of civilisation, from which he hoped a mighty +harvest, and named many more which he would procure in Australia. He +limned his ideas lightly, and gave them even fuller glimpse than he had +ever yet done of his ultimate hopes; and, waxing eloquent, held them +spellbound at the magnitude of the far-reaching possibilities. And to +all, Jean's eloquent face and sparkling eyes played ready chorus, and +Lord Selsea and the Secretary went away deeply impressed with what they +had seen, and more with what they had heard, and most of all with what +they had been made to think and hope. + +"A very fine young fellow!" said the Secretary, as he neutralised the +sulphur again. + +"Ay!--a man, every inch of him. May he live to see his golden dreams +realised!" + +"I tell you what, Selsea, it's mighty refreshing to come in contact +with enthusiasm such as that running in harness with sound common +sense." + +"Big heart and level head--a fine combination!" + +"I feel as if I'd been a trip on the sea, or up on a mountain top. I +wish we could swop B---- for him. Half a dozen of him in a Cabinet +now--eh?" + +"My dear fellow, don't! The contrast is too painful." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A BLACK OBJECT-LESSON + +"It's a wonderful world!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey, for the four hundred +and fourteenth time since, one by one, the Forelands and Dungeness and +Beachy Head faded over the quarter as they ran down Channel. "And it +gets more and more wonderful the further you go. Jean, my dear, have +you ever in your dreams seen anything equal to that?" + +"Never!" murmured Jean, wide-eyed and breathless, lest the smallest +display of the ordinary functions of living should resolve into its +natural elements the ethereal vision before them. + +And yet it was only a tiny South Sea atoll, one of the myriad gleaming +gems that deck the bosom of the great southern ocean in clusters, and +strings, and ropes, and solitaires, from the Pelews to Pitcairn, of +visible beauty indescribable, and in some cases possessed of natural +latent treacherousness hardly second thereto. + +It was still dusky twilight when they three climbed the companion, to +taste the sweet of the dawn and watch the perpetual wonder of the +coming day. They had learned already to rejoice in the dawnings as the +purest and fullest revelations of Nature's exuberant largesse. The +sunsets were gorgeous and magnificent beyond compare, but they had in +them the elements of dissolution and decay, whereas the pure pearl +splendours of the dawn sang full and true of new birth, new hopes, and +the deep springs of life and joy. + +Anxious as he was to get to his life's work, and grudging every moment +and every league that lay between it and him, Blair had still felt it a +duty to afford Jean every possible enjoyment of travel which the voyage +could offer her. She was giving up much, she was going into outer +exile for his sake; the chance might never come again. She should see +all that was possible before the fringes fell behind them. And so they +had come by way of Suez, and touched at Bombay and Ceylon, and then +away to Australia and New Zealand, and then a great stretch round the +outer skirts of the Australs and Paumotus, with only such stoppages as +were absolutely necessary, and then straight for the work that awaited +them. + +"The rest of the Islands we can take by degrees," he said. "They will +be our holiday grounds in the years to come. But now I am anxious to +know what is going on in the Dark Islands. So very much may be +happening behind that black curtain." + +They were a gay and gallant company on board, not a long face among +them. They were going to whatever might await them of strenuous life +and heroic endeavour. No single one of them but was ready to lay down +his or her life in the cause that lay so close to their hearts, and +they found therein reason, not for doubts or fears, but wholly of +exaltation. It was a mighty work, and they rejoiced in being chosen +for it. + +Blair had selected for his fellow-workers, from among a host of +applicants, two young fellows whose qualifications satisfied him in +every respect, and whose special training supplemented the deficiencies +in his own. He is the wisest man who best knows what he knows least. +The man who knows everything is generally useless at a pinch. + +Well-equipped as he was in most respects--perfect, indeed, in the eyes +of his wife, as was only right and proper--no man had a deeper +appreciation of his own limitations than Blair himself. He had the +fiery heart for the righting of wrongs, and the clear head and strong +hand. But there were things beyond his ken--that is, in their very +fullest compass--and in choosing his co-workers he kept these steadily +in view. + +For instance, he had a fair knowledge himself of medicine and +rough-and-ready surgery. But he wanted very much more. And so Charles +Evans, a Devonshire man, and M.D. and M.S. of London, became his +medical right hand. + +Then he had himself a certain aptitude for languages and dialects. He +had picked up the _lingua franca_ of the islands rapidly. But he +wanted very much more. Charles Stuart, M.A., of Edinburgh, had made +languages the congenial study of a lifetime which ran to nearly +twenty-eight years. If any man could reduce phonetic elisions and +hiatuses to written and printed symbols, Stuart was that man. + +Then they were both big athletic fellows, runners and swimmers, great +at games of all kinds, and handy with their hands, and they were as +keen on letting light into the dark places of the earth as Blair +himself. And they had both got married, at Blair's suggestion, and to +the great satisfaction of the four people most immediately +concerned--Evans, the Devonshire man, marrying Alison Carmichael, +daughter of Dr. Carmichael of Edinburgh, and herself a medical student +of no mean pretensions, and withal a good-looking, hearty girl, full of +energy and spirits; and Stuart, the Scot, had married Mary Coventry, an +English girl, daughter of a professor in a Lancashire theological +college. She had a great natural aptitude for teaching, and was +governessing when Stuart fell in love with her. She had promised to +marry him when his circumstances should permit, and was cheerfully +facing that very indefinite future when Blair's offer of the coveted +post swept all the clouds away, and lifted her to a pinnacle of +happiness which she was only becoming accustomed to by degrees. + +With these four we have not very much to do. They proved most devoted +assistants and pleasant and helpful companions throughout. But this is +the story of Kenneth and Jean Blair, and if these others receive but +slight mention, it is not because their hearts lacked fire or their +lives incident, but simply through limitations of space. + +So the _Torch_ held three happy couples on their honeymoons, and Aunt +Jannet Harvey played mother-in-law to them all, and kept the whole ship +in high good-humour by her own energetic enjoyment of every smallest +item of the day's doings. + +Captain Cathie, by means of diligent search and stringent inquiry, had +secured a crew after his own heart, every man a Clydesman, and some of +them he had known since they were boys. + +They carried a full complement. Besides himself and the mate, there +were twenty men all told, stalwarts all, and Blair expected to find use +for every man of them. Besides the big white whale-boats at the +davits, there were two extra steam-launches in sections in the hold for +inter-island work, and there were other reasons why he wanted behind +him a thoroughly dependable band of tried white men instead of the +usual mixture of Kanakas. + +Forecasted shadows of those other reasons might have been found in the +way in which he set to work, during the long weeks that lay between New +Zealand and the Australs, to make marksmen of his peaceful crew. +Bottles, hung from the yards, or set afloat on the sea, were their +targets, and they most of them became fair shots. And one day Captain +Cathie turned a cask overboard and stuck a white flag in it, and when +it had floated almost out of sight he trained the long brown steel gun +amidships on it, and bent and squinted carefully, and kept them so long +in suspense, that the ladies screamed aloud when the gun did at last go +off, and the white water flashed up close alongside the white flag. + +"Within three feet, I should say, captain," said Blair, with the +captain's glass at his eye. "Your hand and eye have not lost their +cunning." And again and again the smiling captain displayed his +prowess. + +Another day he had the Maxim up and showed the men how to handle it. +And cutlass drill became as regular a part of the daily routine as the +fifteen-minute service that opened and closed the day. + +Strange traffic indeed for a ship dedicated to peace and the spreading +of the Light! But they all understood the meaning of these things, and +the necessities that might arise, and the advisability of being +prepared. For the very first Sunday night out from New Zealand, Blair, +in that quiet, masterful fashion of his, which carried conviction once +and for all into his hearers' souls and admitted of no shadow of a +doubt, had taken occasion to explain the why and the wherefore of these +apparent incongruities, and none of them ever forgot it. + +It was a windless evening after a blistering day. The sea was like +oil, with a long, slow, unbroken swell that set the little ship rolling +in solemn rhythmical fashion which Stuart, the man of tongues, had long +since dubbed heroic hexameters. And there, to the little company +sitting facing him on deck in the gathering darkness, with an +occasional sleepy "moo" from the farmyard in the bows, or the shrill +squeakings of discontented piglets, and an admonitory grunt from their +over-taxed mother, Blair described some of the things he had seen with +his own eyes, and others which he had had direct from his dear old +friend and leader, John Gerson, whose experience had been so much +vaster than his own. Their hearts boiled at the mere recounting of the +things he told them, and not a man or woman of them all but was ready +to answer his utmost bidding in the effort to put them down. + +"Ignorant these islanders are, and degraded, and the victims of +horrible superstitions and practices unspeakable," he said, in closing; +"but they have common living rights with the rest of us. Until those +rights are secured to them, and until they learn that a white face is +not necessarily the mask for a black heart, our work is futile. That +security, by God's help, we intend to bring to them. If we can do it +peacefully, I shall be grateful. If force is necessary, force we shall +apply. But remember--we are going, not to punish, but to protect. +Christ in righteous anger drove the defilers out of the Temple so that +the Temple might be clean. God's Temple is here also. To the extent +of our power and opportunity we will cleanse it, and by freeing these +simple folk from bodily perils, we will give them the chance to redeem +their souls alive." + +They had swept along on the steady west wind for weeks. Now and again +it dropped and left them rolling idly, with listless sails and jerking +masts. But it always blew up again in time, and sent them swinging +once more on their way, and at times it blew up so strong, and set up +such an awkward sea, that their lives were almost battered out of them. + +Blair, Evans, and Stuart apprenticed themselves to carpenter and +engineers, and learned many things they did not know before. The men +grew intimate with their rifles and cutlasses, the ladies talked much, +read much, and they all took regular lessons in Samoan, as a foundation +for the Polynesian tongues generally, from a native teacher who had +been sent over to Sydney to meet them at Blair's request. His name was +Matti, and he was a pleasing specimen of his kind, intelligent, +painstaking, and of infinite good temper, but of a most peaceful, not +to say lamb-like, disposition. + +Among the many other diversions of their long voyage, Evans one day +suggested that they should all be vaccinated, and was unmercifully +chaffed for the idea. + +"Isn't that like a young sawbones?" laughed Captain Cathie. "Just +because we've got a clean bill, and he's got nothing to do, he's after +making work just to keep his hand in." + +But Evans persisted that they were going they knew not where, and no +precautions ought to be omitted. And he talked so learnedly, and with +so grave a foreboding, that by degrees they came to think he was +perhaps right, and that it might be as well to be on the safe side of +possibility. So, one after another, they meekly submitted their arms +to the needle, and time came when they were glad of his persistence. + +"Wonderful!--wonderful!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey once more that +morning, in a whisper of concentrated rapture, and the others gazed at +the tiny atoll without speaking, lest a breath should destroy it. + +They had sighted the island the evening before, just a feathery fringe +on the rim of the sea; but Captain Cathie was a devout believer in the +enchantment of distance till full light of day should disclose possible +pitfalls. For in these Southern Seas Nature sometimes gets ahead of +the cartographers, and he had no desire to mark new reefs for the next +comers with the stark ribs of his ship. + +But now, in the dim of the dawn, they were wafting slowly towards it, +with intent to land there for vegetables and fruit and water, and it +grew visibly on their sight like a new-created thing. + +Until a moment ago it had lain in the shadows. Then the eastern +dimness softened, a mere quickening of hidden life, almost +imperceptible, felt rather than seen. Then a soft pulsation, a throb +from the heart of the coming day. The dimness trembled, a rosy +softness diffused itself, and suddenly the background of the sky was +filled with colour, palest green and tenderest rose and amber. And +these grew and grew and deepened into crimson and gold, with swathes of +diaphanous purple as the soft greens strengthened slowly into blue. +And as it was above, so it was below, all duplicated in the flawless +mirror of the sea. And there, between the upper and the lower glory, +lay the enchanted isle gleaming darkly in the broken lights--a ring of +feathery coco-palms and bosky undergrowth round an inner lagoon, a +placid lake outside it, and outside that, still another protecting ring +of reef dotted here and there with tiny feathered islets. A most +wonderful and entrancing sight, so fairy-like and fragile that Jean +felt it almost dangerous to breathe aloud. + +Then the sun soared up above the sea-rim, and the atoll solidified and +came out in its natural colours of dazzling white beach, and blue +lagoons, and greens of every shade, from the tender tints of the +budding palms to the cast-iron crests of the grey-boled giants, and the +huddled mixture of the undergrowth. It lost in beauty as it gained in +strength, but it looked more like solid land and less like a fairy +vision, more like possible fruit and vegetables and less like a +dissolving view. + +All the company was on deck by this time, and all eyes were fixed on +the island, as Captain Cathie in the bows conned the little ship slowly +towards a wide opening in the outer reef, with a vigilant eye for +hidden perils. + +He had told them from the chart that it was the Three-Ringed Island of +Atoa, but he had never been there himself and one could not be too +cautious. + +Then in the clear depths below them, as they crept slowly through the +water-gate, they could see the wonderful forestry of the branching +coral and the gleam of many-coloured shells, and the place was all +alive with fishes of every tint and hue, sailing and darting like +fragmentary rainbows. + +But Captain Cathie was staring through his glasses at the distant white +beach for signs of occupation, and found none. It was still early, +however, and the village might be round the bend of the island. He +carried the _Torch_ in as far as he deemed safe, and then, at the word, +the anchor plunged and the chain ran merrily out, and the little ship +rode at rest for the first time in many days. + +"Who is for the shore?" cried Blair, in the voice and manner of a jolly +schoolboy offering treats. + +They were all for the shore. After three weeks of continuous sailing +the feel of solid ground under one's feet would be a novelty. + +"Though I expect," said Aunt Jannet Harvey, "it'll be as hard to walk +straight at first as it was not to walk crooked on the ship. I've got +so used to walking on the sides of my feet, and balancing to the +rolling, that I've almost forgotten what it feels like to walk any +other way." + +In ten minutes they were all speeding shorewards in one of the white +whale-boats, and when Aunt Jannet Harvey cumbrously made the close +acquaintance of the white beach, she found her feet no whit behind +those of her younger companions in their eager activity. + +They all stamped up the crunching coral with merry talk and laughter. +Aunt Jannet Harvey stood at the foot of her first really intimate +coco-nut tree, and gazed up the slim spire to the great benignant +fronds and hanging fruit, with such intention of longing, that Jean, in +a convulsion of laughter, cried-- + +"Do try it, auntie! I'm sure you could manage it if you tried hard." + +"And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, Aunt Jannet!" +laughed Blair. + +They left her still gazing, and scattered, Jean and Mary Stuart and +Alison Evans diving into the undergrowth after armfuls of greenery and +trailing vines, and twittering like escaped birds when, now and again, +they came on treasure-trove of scarlet hibiscus blooms glowing on the +green like fiery stars--or splashes of blood. + +The men pressed on at once up the ridge to get a general view of their +surroundings, and Captain Cathie, with a couple of his men, pulled +slowly down the lagoon in search of the village. + +He heard the merry calls of the explorers, and wondered at the absence +of any sign of life on the island. The very sight of an approaching +ship used, in his time, to bring the population to the beach. But +things had changed of course since then, and byways had become highways. + +The white boat jerked slowly along round the bend, and the voices +ashore grew less distinct. And suddenly his lips pinched and his brow +crumpled, and he gazed ahead with a fixed, angry glare which set his +men wondering what they were coming to, and carried their chins to +their shoulders unconsciously. + +A stretch of white beach, a bristle of black posts jutting out of the +cleared ground above--that was all. But Cathie's experience read them +like three-feet letters on a city hoarding. + +He threw up one hand and jammed the tiller hard down with the other. + +"Round with her, boys!" and they were swinging back up the lagoon to +get the women aboard again. For there might be sights in the brush +along that ridge to shock the souls of men. + +Blair, Evans, and Stuart, with Matti, the Samoan, and the rest of the +boat's crew, climbed the backbone of the island, whose highest point +attained an altitude of perhaps thirty feet. + +They were standing looking across the flawless mirror of the central +lagoon, when the Samoan broke out suddenly, "Sirs, I presume advice. +Return fortwit to ship. This place is not good," and when they all +turned on him in surprise, they found his brown face strained and +pallid with fear, his eyes starting, and his nose dilated like a +startled stag's. + +"Why, Matti, what's wrong?" said Blair. + +The brown man shook his head. + +"I know not, sirs," and his white teeth chattered so that his chin +wagged visibly. "There is evil abroad. It is in the air, in the +tree-tops." + +They looked up for sign of the evil, but saw only the heavy plumes of +the coco-palms nodding mournfully in the breeze. Down below the air +seemed heavy and somewhat sickly, and so far they had seen no sign of +life on the island. + +"The place seems deserted," said Evans. + +"We will go on along here a bit further," said Blair, "and if there is +nothing more to be seen, we'll turn back I'm afraid it's a poor +look-out for fruit and vegetables," and they tramped on in silence, +Matti well in the rear, reluctant to go, still more reluctant to be +left. + +And presently the brush thinned, and they came out on the clearing, and +Blair stopped abruptly with a face as strained as Matti's, but grimmer +and whiter, and Matti, stumbling up to the rear, gave a groan as though +to say, "I knew it." + +"God help us!" said Blair through his teeth, for they had found what +Cathie had feared. + +The blackened posts of the houses stuck up starkly through the sand as +though in mute and pitiful appeal. Beneath them were heaps of +wind-blown ashes barely covering that which they had mercifully hidden. +And among the mounds as they drew near was a sound of rustling and +stealthy movement, and here and there monstrous crabs, too gorged to +move almost, essayed escape into their temporary burrows. + +The newcomers stared wide-eyed and horror-stricken. Blair had seen it +all before, and the grim white of his face gave place to grim red and +black as his heart drummed furiously with righteous indignation. + +"This is the horror we have come to fight," he said hoarsely. "This is +what I told you of. Now you see it with your own eyes. The place has +been swept bare by kidnappers. These died in defence of their homes +and wives and children. Let us get back. It is no sight for the +women." + +He waved them away, but something caught his eye, and he went forward +and bent over it with tight-pinched face for a moment, and then turned +abruptly and followed the others. + +But, even as he turned, a shriek from the lower brush told that it was +too late to save the women from some visible knowledge of what had +taken place. They turned and ran back along the ridge. + +Mary Stuart, reaching for a flower, saw at her feet what she took for a +fallen coco-nut, and stooped to pick it up, and then screamed aloud and +sat down suddenly with a sick, white face. The others hurried up, +Alison Evans and Aunt Jannet Harvey reaching her first. + +"What is it, dear?" asked Aunt Jannet, and then she saw, and sat down +heavily beside her. + +Alison had her nerves under better control. She had seen little dead +bodies before, but the sight of a murdered child is a shock to any +woman. Her face was white and rigid, but she had her wits about her +also. + +"Take them all away," she whispered fiercely to Aunt Jannet Harvey, and +Aunt Jannet, just needing that spur, scrambled up and gripped Mary +Stuart by the shoulder and dragged her away as Jean came running up, +asking, "What is it? What's the matter?" + +"Come away, child!--come away! It is a little murdered baby. Alison +is seeing to it, but it is quite dead. Let us get away. Here is the +boat and Captain Cathie." + +Everything was changed as the white boat plunged back across the lagoon +to the ship. The men's faces were hard and angry, the women's white +and pitiful. Alison Evans wept silently now. She had seen more than +the others, and that soft little head, crushed in by one murderous blow +against the tree, would haunt her dreams for nights to come. + +The sun shone as brightly as before, but there was something pitiless +in his unwinking glare. The sea was as placid and sparkling as before, +but there was a fawning treachery in its very smoothness. The palms +behind waved their feathers just as before, but now they were funeral +plumes. The very oars no longer chirped merrily in the rowlocks, but +croaked in a way that got on the women's nerves. And not one of them +spoke till they were safe aboard the ship. + +"Yes," nodded Blair to Cathie's look of interrogation, "we will go on +at once," and the anchor chain rattled up hoarsely, and they went +slowly and silently on their way, and left the beautiful island to its +dead. + +"I saw it from the water," said Cathie later to Blair, "and turned to +get the ladies away, but I was too late. Did you see anything to give +you any hint as to who it was, sir?" + +"Yes. Peruvians, I should say. There was one yellow man among the +dead, and they recruit mostly from these outer islands. Before God, +captain, I will put a stop to this kind of work, whatever the cost may +be." + +"We're with you, sir, every man of us. See those men's faces!" + +And grim and determined enough were the men's faces as they went about +their work. For those who had seen had told those who had not seen, +and the impression was a deep one. + +That night Blair called them all together, and spoke of the matter in a +way that went home and confirmed the spirit that had been roused in +them by that holocaust on the island. + +"It is devil's work, men," he wound up, "and, please God, we'll stop +it. Are you with me?" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" "That we are, sir!" "All the way, sir!" and so on, in +tones that left no mistake about it. + +"You can understand the effect of that kind of work on these islanders. +It is not often so clean a sweep is made as the one we saw this +morning. And where part are taken and part are left, can you wonder +that those who remain hate and fear the very sight of a white face? +Have they not reason? It will be our endeavour to stop these raids, +and, by protecting the islanders, gradually win them over to better +ways. Once we can make them see that we care for them, and think of +their welfare and not our own, half the battle is won. On the one side +we may have to fight--not our own countrymen, I am glad to say. These +raiders come mostly from the west coast of South America, and they go +to lengths which the Queenslanders rarely do. And, on the other hand, +in our dealings with the natives, we must remember what they have +suffered, what reason they have to mistrust us, and we must be very +forbearing and longsuffering. On the one side I want you--and I shall +need the whole-hearted assistance of every man of you--I want you to be +bold as lions, and on the other side as mild as milk. Only so can our +work be done, and it is a mighty work." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TOO LATE + +Following instructions, Captain Cathie shook out every stitch of canvas +the _Torch_ could carry, and laid her course dead for the Dark Islands. +They made good way, but their progress still seemed slow to Kenneth +Blair; for his fears outstripped the flight of the little ship, and, +anxious as he was to reach the Islands, he still almost dreaded the cry +that should tell of their sighting, in fear of what he might find there. + +And grounds for fear were not lacking. The Dark Islands lay some five +days distant, east by north--on the line, therefore, of the marauders' +way home. From the atoll they had already raided, he judged, from the +number of dwellings and general appearances, they might have got some +fifty or sixty souls, not more. Their holds would still be far from +full. If they had invaded the Dark Islands in similar fashion, it was +a stormy reception the next comers might expect. At best it would be a +negative welcome, and a matter of slow and cautious approach to their +few good graces; but if the islands had been raided, the work would be +thrown back for years, and all his hopes with them. He could scarce +eat or sleep for thinking of it, and the pricking off of their position +each day on the chart, and the calculation of the hours that still +intervened between them and full knowledge of how matters lay, were +matters of supremest interest and absorbing anxiety. + +He could settle to none of the ordinary routine, and his evident +upsetting, the causes of which they perfectly understood, disturbed +them all in like fashion. + +He spoke little, even to Jean, and she never once, by word or look, +expressed anything but the utmost sympathy and confidence in him. + +He tramped the deck day and night almost, with eager outlook over the +waste of waters ahead, and never a look behind unless at the seething +bubbles of their long, straight wake, which told of the speed and +directness of their flight. + +Once only, in these days of biting anxiety, he said to her-- + +"Dearest, I am poor company at present. Can you forgive me? I am on +the rack about these poor souls ahead. I cannot help fearing the +worst, and it means so very much to us." + +"I am with you, Ken, heart and soul. We can only pray for the best. +If what you fear has happened, all we can do is to do our best to right +it." + +He shook his head unhopefully. The idea had taken possession of him +that they would arrive only to find death and desolation and the wild +fury of revenge. + +"Even if it is so," said his comforter, "I can see possibility of good +coming out of the evil." + +"It will throw us back years," he said gloomily. + +"If your people have been carried off, we will follow them and release +them and restore them to their homes"--there were new sparks in his +eyes as she spoke like one inspired--"and that will give us the footing +it might take years to obtain." + +He kissed her hand. + +"You give me new hopes, whatever may have happened. That is what we +will attempt if the worst has taken place," and thereafter he +brightened up considerably, but relaxed no whit of his anxiety to reach +the islands. + +They swept gallantly along on the northern fringe of the westerly wind, +which maintained a propitious amplitude, and just before sunset on the +fourth day, the lucent rim where sea met sky was dented with a filmy +tooth which the sinking sun drew momentarily into view from the farther +distance, and Captain Cathie and Blair pronounced it Kapaa'a, the +highest peak in the Dark Islands. + +There was not much sleep on board that night, the morrow would be so +big with events. General opinion among the men ran somehow to a fight. +That was, perhaps, the natural tendency of the pent-up feelings of the +last few days. An outlet would be grateful, a violent outlet from +choice. When a man's feelings suffer maltreatment, the natural man +within him develops a violent desire to find relief in kicking, in +which last word is comprehended the whole known range of methods of +assault, with the exception, of course, of the circumscribed and +properly debarred use of the feet. + +They travelled warily that night, and the first of the dawn showed them +the peaks of Kapaa'a, bold and beautiful, dead ahead, and growing +bolder and still more beautiful with every graceful roll of the ship. + +They hung over the sides, every man and woman of them, and eyed their +future home with an eagerness which its outward aspect at once amply +satisfied and further quickened. + +For what they could see was grand in its opulence of crag, and cliff, +and gorge, and greenery. And the clouds which wreathed the higher +summits, and the gauzy films of mist, which floated along the hillsides +and hung reluctantly in the tree-tops, gave promise of still daintier +beauties in that which they held half hidden. + +They drew in cautiously to within a mile of the outer reef, and then, +not venturing the ship nearer till they should learn how matters stood +inside, Blair and Evans, with a crew of ten, eight to pull and two in +case of need, and Matti to interpret, shot through one of the openings +in the reef on the back of a long blue roller and made straight for the +white beach. They carried no visible arms, but each man of the crew +had his Winchester between his feet. + +The lagoon ran up into a spearhead of white sand, between two tall +cliffs opposite the widest opening in the reef, as though the constant +impact of the outer waves, tempered as it was by the compression of the +opening and the subsequent run across the lagoon, had forced the beach +inland at that spot. It was helped, however, by a river, which came +down between the hills and divided the white sandspear into two equal +parts. + +Here, according to usage and natural proclivity, a village should have +stood, but in this case did not. John Gerson had told Blair that other +morning, when they came racing up the lagoon in similar brave case, +that it lay up the valley near the taro fields. + +His heart beat painfully as, one by one, he picked up the points which +had charted themselves for ever in his memory. + +There, to the left of the stream, was where they landed. + +There was the rough scarp of rock round which they had followed the +bristling crowd to the death. + +There his former life had ended in turmoil and darkness, and the new +life had begun in twilight dimness and the painful groping after broken +threads. + +And yet, how mercifully he had been guided! The shadowed valley had +led, after all, to the fuller life and the mountain-top, and he bowed +his head gratefully. + +The white boat slid gently up the white beach, and so far their keen +outlook had seen no sign of hostile life. But experience had taught +him that appearances are deceptive, and that sometimes when least is +seen most is to be feared. + +They disembarked cautiously, and stood looking round. The palms about +the mouth of the valley waved sombre welcome, or it might be warning. +The thick brush below lay still and silent, but bright black eyes by +the hundred might be watching them from it. + +The very lack even of opposition was a menace, and suggestive of +trickery and ambush. + +"We will go round the point," said Blair at last. "And--yes, you must +take your guns, men. I would have preferred not, but we don't know how +matters stand." + +So, leaving two in the boat, the rest shouldered their guns, and the +little party went forward round the point where Kenneth Blair had been +once before in his life, and almost in his death. + +But no bristling mob confronted them this time. They went on step by +step, with eyes for every rock and bush, and ears alert, and every +nerve tight strung for the faintest hint of treachery, and Blair's face +crumpled somewhat at the menace of the silence and the solitude. + +Step by step they left the white beach and the friendly sea, and drew +in to the blank hostility of the woods. He would a thousand times +sooner have been confronted by the visible hostility of the natives. +For that which is visible and tangible one may hope to cope with and +subdue, but the invisible and intangible contain possibilities beyond +the compassing, and the elements of unreasoning fear. + +On one member of the party these were already having their effect. +Perhaps on others also, but not so perceptibly. The knowledge of +better things had not, in Matti, effectually eradicated the +superstitions of a lifetime. Terrors of which the white men had no +conception beat like bats about his soul, the indefinable terrors of +bygone ages of horrors and darkness. His face was green. He sweated +fears at every faltering step. His eyes bulged crablike in quest of +that which he dreaded to find. + +"Sirs, sirs!" he gasped, in an agonised whisper, "it is not good. I +counsel----" + +"Be quiet," said Blair. "We must see," and they went on warily, +expecting the sudden outleap of death at every step. + +But they saw nothing, heard nothing. That dreadful menacing silence +brooded over the place just as it had brooded over the atoll. A flock +of gay little paraquets whirred suddenly from the hillside and dived +into the bush ahead, and the silence and the spell of it were broken. +The paraquets started chattering and quarrelling like a school of +sparrows, and Blair's danger-pointed wits suggested to him that they +would not behave so if the brush was otherwise tenanted. + +With a last careful inspection of the hillsides he moved forward, and +the rest followed. There was a track through the brush, and the +trampled ground showed signs of much traffic. + +Five minutes more and they had found all they feared. + +The thicket thinned and widened towards the valley and they were +standing once more amid blackened ribs of houses, and heaps of ashes +from which thin wisps of smoke still curled lazily. They had arrived +too late! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FLAMING SWORD + +Blair's face was tighter and grimmer than ever as he took it all in, +and the faces of the rest were sympathetically hard. + +But this was no time to stand glooming. The wrong was done. Now to +see if it could be righted. + +He turned and led the way back to the boat, thinking too hard for +speech. He knew what had to be done, but there were disquieting items +in the programme for which he had been unable to make provision, and +which he would gladly have escaped. + +They would follow the marauders and rescue the victims--that he took as +settled. + +The settlement could hardly be a mild one, and he would fain have +spared the women the sight of it; but there was nothing else for +it--they could not possibly be left behind. + +The raiders had doubtless filled their holds here to the last man. But +there must be many left. They would be in hiding yet, but presently +they would come out of their retreats, full of grief and anger, and it +would go hard with the first white faces they encountered. The women +must go with them--that was one of his troubles. And the next, +supposing they caught these blood-thirsty and body-hungry rascals--and +catch them they would, if it took a month's circling round--what were +they to do with them when they had them? + +There would probably be fighting, though the results did not trouble +him. What he wanted was to put an end once and for all to this +horrible traffic. The only way that suggested itself as adequate and +final was to string them up to the yard-arm, every man-jago of them, +and whether that might be done with impunity was more than doubtful. +The only impunity he desired was for his future work. Morally, he +would feel justified. And whether or no, the spirit that was in him +would have borne lightly the burden of such a deed, even though its +outward results to himself were personally painful and disastrous. + +It took no more than two minutes after they had scrambled on board to +set things in motion. + +"We are too late," said Blair to the anxious waiters. "We follow at +once, captain. They will have filled up here, and will make straight +for home. Lay her straight for the Chincha Islands, please, and make +all speed possible." + +Captain Cathie had foreseen the possibility. He set their course due +east for the present, and spread his wings again to the last stitch, +and they swept away past the other islands, with no more than fleeting +glimpses of them in the mellow distance. + +Then Blair begged them to confer with him in the saloon, and laid his +difficulties before them. + +"I take it for granted we shall catch them," he said. + +"Certainly," said the captain. + +"I am distressed at thought of bringing you ladies into contact with +bloodshed and violence. But there is no help for it; it would not be +safe to leave you behind." + +"Certainly not," said Aunt Jannet Harvey emphatically. + +"We would not have been left in any case," said Jean. "Our places are +by your sides," and the others quietly endorsed her. + +"The next thing is this: we shall catch this ship, we shall rescue +these islanders, by force if necessary. What are we to do with the +crew and the ship?" + +"Hang them and scuttle her," said Captain Cathie, with decision. + +"That is one's natural first feeling, and possibly it would be the +wisest thing in the end. And yet----" + +"It is a question if we are justified in going that length," said +Charles Evans gravely. + +Stuart, too, shook his head doubtfully. + +"Fighting in so good a cause is one thing," he said slowly, "but +hanging in cold blood is another." + +"Exactly," said Blair. "And that is the point of my dilemma." + +"Do you know what will happen if you let 'em go?" said Cathie brusquely. + +"I'm afraid I do, captain. And yet--even then---- You mean, of +course, that they'll come back in larger force, and with a double +incentive--plunder plus revenge." + +"That's it to a T, sir, and you know it. There'll be no peace and +security till they're wiped out. Wipe 'em out at once and completely, +and you're all right till a new lot comes along, knowing nothing of +these others, except that they never came back. And when the new lot +comes we'll tackle them same way. I'm not by nature a bloodthirsty +man, but if there's one thing can set me afire, it's this kind of work. +I've seen so much of it. They're not men. They're scum of +hell--asking your pardon, ladies!" + +"Speak your mind, captain," said Aunt Jannet Harvey. "No good being +mealy-mouthed when it's a question of life and death. I think they +should be scuttled." + +"I've no doubt we all agree as to what we would like to have done, but +whether, in our position, we are justified in pronouncing and executing +judgment to the extent of death--it is a difficult matter to decide." + +"If you let one single man of them go, Mr. Blair, you're only breeding +future trouble." + +"I know it, captain. And yet--at times--I have seen the attempt to +clear the future of trouble lead only to greater. Is there no +alternative?" + +"There's alternatives," said Cathie gloomily; "but they're only +makeshifts--playing with nettles to get stung: you could fling all +their arms overboard, and threaten 'em with worse if they come back. +And they'll come. You could scuttle the ship and maroon 'em somewhere. +You could bring 'em all back here and make 'em work. But there's +trouble in it whatever you do, unless you hang 'em out of hand." + +"I'm afraid there is, and I would dearly like to rid the earth of them; +but----" + +And Evans and Stuart felt as he did. They lacked nothing in courage, +but to their minds this matter of essential right went deeper than any +mere question of courage or future trouble. + +Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart listened with grave, troubled +faces, but ventured no opinion. These were deeper waters than any they +had ever sailed on, and they felt rather out of their depths. + +"Well, we have some little time to think it over," said Blair, at last. +"If any illumination comes to any of us, let the rest have the benefit +of it. You will get all ready for what we may need to do, captain?" + +"All's ready, sir. Long Tom's loaded, and the men are keen to square +things with these rascals if we can come up with them." + +"I suppose even these terrible men may have wives and children waiting +for them at home," said Jean thoughtfully, as they rose. + +"Like enough, ma'am," said Cathie--"and so have the brown men." + +"Men like that have no right to have wives and children," said Aunt +Jannet Harvey, with vehemence past grammar. "If they have they'll be +better without them. They ought to be scuttled." + +Nevertheless, Jean's suggestion remained in all their minds. + +Never was such a bright look-out as the Torchmen kept for the +_Blackbirder_, as they dubbed the chase. The rigging was never free +from anxious gazers. It looked as though a flight of great birds had +lighted on the ship. + +Jean remarked on it to Aunt Jannet Harvey. + +"They're fine fellows and all of one mind. See how eager they are to +catch her." + +"Ay, ay!" said Aunt Jannet. "They'll find her if she's to be found," +and did not think it necessary to add that, through Captain Cathie, she +had offered five pounds to the man who first sighted the other ship. + +Blair walked the deck strenuously, mostly alone, occasionally with one +of the others. And the more he walked and the more he thought, the +more averse he became to the idea of hanging. + +"We're doing right for right's sake in freeing these islanders," he +said to Evans and Stuart one time. "If we hang those men I can't help +feeling we're doing wrong for right's sake, and there we come to the +old Jesuitical practice which we all condemn. We do a wrong in the +belief that it will save future trouble. I don't believe we're +justified. We've got to do what seems to us right now. The future is +in God's hands. If trouble comes, He will show us how to meet it." + +"That, I think, is highest wisdom," said Stuart. "If the trouble +comes, we shall meet it with clear consciences, and clear consciences +make stout hearts." + +"I'm with you," said Evans. "I'd like to see them wiped out as much as +Captain Cathie would, but I think we're on a higher plane in doing as +you suggest. You feel sure of catching them?" + +"Hopeful--and determined to do it, if it can be done. They've got at +most two days' start. Less, perhaps, for the village was still +smoking. They're heavily laden, and we are making good way. We cut +into a belt of calms and variables soon, and there we can take to +steam. And then--they don't know they're being chased. We do." + +There was, however, this one element of doubt in the chase: would the +raiders carry on due east, in order to get all possible out of the +fairly steady westerly winds,--thereby lengthening the distance they +had to cover, and having, after all, in the end, to encounter the +possibly adverse winds of the coast,--or would they take their chance +across the doubtful calm belt and make straight for the Peruvian coast? + +It was an even question, and the board on which the game had to be +played was several thousand miles square. + +Blair and Cathie discussed the matter in all its bearings. + +"What would I do if I was them?" summed up the captain. "Well, that +would depend too. If I had two or three hundred passengers aboard, and +each one worth so much alive and nothing dead, I'd want to get 'em home +alive as quick as possible. If I was well stocked with provisions I +might carry on with this wind for the coast. If I was anyways short +I'd probably try a beat straight for home. If we don't sight them in +two days we'll edge up north-east a bit; but I'm pretty sure they'll +keep this wind as long as they can, and chances are we'll sight them +within twenty-four hours. They're probably not hurrying, and we're +making every inch we can." + +But it was the morning of the third day before the welcome hail from +aloft brought every soul on board into the bows, to search for the tiny +mote on the horizon on which all their hopes were concentrated. + +It was a very early bird who had discovered the worm. He had gone up +aloft before the dawn, and, as the sun shot up, the rim of the sea was +lucent like the edge of a glass plate brimming with water. An almost +invisible flaw, a mere film against the light, was enough for the +practised eye, and his joyful "Sail ho!" turned the ship upside-down. + +Captain Cathie swung up alongside the look-out with his glasses, and +was presently on deck again beaming contentedly. + +"That's her right enough," he said. "A brig, and we're raising her +fast. You'll see her from below here inside an hour." + +"When shall we catch her up?" asked Blair anxiously. + +"Perhaps by three o'clock or so," said Cathie, after a moment's +consideration, but added cautiously, "if the wind holds," and, as if +resenting his doubt, the sails gave an ominous warning flap. + +"Right," said the captain, with a determined nod, and set the engineers +to work at once to get up steam. "We'd be as well to have it on +anyhow, to keep the weather gauge of him when we come up," and +presently the screw was churning the merry bubbles up astern, and the +chase was rising slowly on the horizon. + +The brig, however, had held the wind longer than they had. It was +mid-afternoon before they got within range of her, and she was still +drawing slowly along with sails that bulged and flapped in desultory +catspaws. + +"Shall I send a shot over her, just to show we mean business?" brimmed +Cathie. + +"No shots unless they're absolutely necessary, captain," said Blair. +"We'll hail her first. And I think you ladies had better go below. +Their answer may be lead." + +Aunt Jannet was for resisting. + +"I want to see," said she. + +"There may be things not for your seeing, Aunt Jannet," said Blair +quietly, "and other things besides. Please go with the others and keep +them from feeling nervous if you can." + +So the ladies went below, and we may imagine to what helpful +furtherance of patient waiting they betook themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MAN'S MAN'S MAN + +The sides of the _Blackbirder_ were lined with sallow, scowling faces, +as villainous a crew as ever gathered aboard one disreputable ship +since time began. + +They took in all the points of the trim little craft that nosed quietly +up within speaking distance; the British flag, to which they were by +nature antipathetic; the long brown gun forward, with its black mouth +pointing plumb for every shifty eye of them; the glancing barrels of +the Winchesters, and the steady determination of the men who carried +them; the covert menace of the whole silent display. Muttered +blasphemies rolled along the line of yellow faces, and the rumble of +them was heard aboard the _Torch_. + +"What you want?" shouted a burly figure, standing aft behind the +deckhouse. + +"Your cargo," replied Captain Cathie, patting the breach of his big gun +affectionately, and the objurgations aboard the enemy broke out afresh. + +"What you mean?" + +"You'd better come aboard here and we'll explain." + +"You better fetch me." + +"Very well," said Cathie, with joy in his face. + +He stooped behind his long gun for a moment, trained it carefully, and +instantly its angry bellow filled sea and sky, and sent the women below +to their knees. They heard a crash, aloft and below, aboard the +_Blackbirder_, and the yells of the men as they scattered to avoid the +falling spars. The smoke, drifting lazily away, showed the brig's +maintopmast nipped neatly at the crosstrees, and hanging with its yards +in a fantastic tangle of ropes to the deck. + +"That's the first time of asking," shouted Cathie. "Are you coming?" +and he bent behind his gun again. + +"I kom," and they saw the black-a-vised crew set to launching a boat, +with vicious side-glances at their oppressor. + +Presently the dirty boat and its dirty crew lay alongside, and the +burly one climbed slowly up the ladder they dropped for him. + +His small eyes glared viciously out of his bloated cheeks, "like a +hunted boar's," said Cathie afterwards. + +"Now then! You are pirate?" + +"Not at all--we're missionaries," said Cathie. + +"Missi----!" and the fat one came within measurable distance of +apoplexy. + +"You've stolen our people. We want them back. Do you understand?" + +But the _Blackbirder's_ English was limited, and the shock of meeting +missionaries of so strange a texture had bemused his wits. + +Blair begged Stuart to speak to him in Spanish, and the wandering wits +came back at sound of it. + +"Tell him," said Blair, "that the islanders he has kidnapped are our +people, and we intend to take them home again." + +And Stuart put it to him so. + +"If he makes any resistance we shall overcome it. What does he say?" + +"He asks how you're going to take them back." + +"We will see to all that presently. First, he will bring aboard here +all the arms they have over yonder," said Blair, and as that sank +through Stuart into the other's understanding, the little boar-eyes +gleamed more viciously than ever, and the fat body rumbled with +volcanic fires. + +"We will give him half an hour to deliver up the arms. If they are not +here then, his other mast will go. He will bring them over himself." + +The little eyes glared furiously round, but found nothing but grimmest +determination in the faces that hemmed him in. Possibly they did not +fail to note all the other points bearing on the question. He shambled +to the side with a growl in his throat, and got heavily into his boat, +and was pulled across to his ship, and immediately they heard the +simmering of a hot discussion tipped with sharp flakes of invective. + +"They don't like it," said Captain Cathie. + +The minutes passed. Now and again a scowling face turned their way, +and shot a venomous white-eyed glance at them, but there were no signs +of the arms coming over. + +"Five minutes more," shouted Cathie at last, bubbling with excitement, +and clapping the breech of his gun. "And, my goodness, I hope you'll +run it out! I want that other mast," he added softly. + +"Five minutes more," shouted Stuart in Spanish, so that there should be +no misunderstanding. + +Cathie stood watch in one hand, lanyard in the other, one foot tapping +restlessly. He hungered for that other mast, and the lesson its fall +would teach the yellow dogs. + +At last he closed his watch with a snap, stooped to the gun, and with a +roar and a rattling crash, and a blasphemous scatteration below, the +foretopmast shared the devastation of the mainmast. + +"Now we have them right as a trivet," said Cathie, "and they'll begin +to understand where they are." + +They understood, and five minutes later the boat shoved off again, +bringing the spoils of war, such part of them, at all events, as they +chose to surrender--some thirty muskets, as many cutlasses, and half a +dozen revolvers. + +"Now," said Blair, to the downcast captain of the _Blackbirder_, +through Stuart, "you will stop here. We shall tow you back to the +islands. When your cargo is discharged, you will be at liberty to go. +If you ever return on this errand, you will find us waiting for you. +Now, captain," to Cathie, and, at a sign from the captain, one of the +white whale-boats dropped to the water, and half a dozen men jumped +into her, carrying the coil of a stout hawser, which ran out over the +stern of the _Torch_ and was secured amidships. + +The _Torch_ herself swung into line ahead of the other, and the big +steel gun swung slowly round till her muzzle grinned threateningly +round each side of the mainmast. + +"Tell those men to get back, Stuart, and say the captain waits with +us," and the brig's boat pushed sulkily off. "Now, Stuart, you come +with me, and Matti. We will take revolvers, though we shall not need +them." + +Matti shivered into the boat, and Stuart and Blair followed with four +Torches carrying Winchesters, and pulled to the brig and climbed up +among the truculent crew, every man of which had his knife at his back +and hands that itched to get using it. + +Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he had already told +the captain, and added some special instructions for his own benefit. + +[Illustration: Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he +had already told the captain.] + +"First, make fast that hawser!" + +They did it to the satisfaction of the Torches, and at a call from +Blair the _Torch_ started slowly ahead, the hawser tightened, and every +solid thrust of the blades in the blue water cut an upward step in the +life of the Dark Islands. + +"Now, understand! There will be a hand on that rope night and day. If +there is any tampering with it you will hear from us. This +mess"--pointing to the dismantled masts--"you will not touch till we +reach the islands. Now I am going to inspect your cargo. How often do +you feed them?" + +"Twice a day." + +"Some of us will come across each time and see it done. I hold you +responsible. If they suffer, you will suffer. Understand? Now lead +the way! You"--to Stuart and the four Torches--"please keep your eyes +about you while I go below. Matti, you come with me." + +A grating, through which came a most horrible smell, was hauled up, and +the three went down into the inferno, and felt sick before their feet +quitted the ladder. For the mate was sick at this unexpected turn of +fortune, and Blair and Matti came near to physical sickness with the +stench. + +Blair clung to the side of the ladder and gazed mistily round. There +was little light, but the dimness seemed to come not so much from lack +of light as from superfluity of nastiness of every possible description +and human misery indescribable. The feel of the place was like a hot +breath from the pit. It closed silently upon one like the hand of a +crawling death. It dimmed the eyes, and choked the throat, and lay +like a weight on the heart. + +To breathe it seemed death, yet three hundred miserables breathed it +and lived, and by degrees his eyes discerned them and never lost the +sight. + +A great confused tangle of brown limbs and bodies, many entirely naked, +a forest of shock heads, a hypnotising multitude of dark eyes all +focussed on him, and all pitted with sparks of light from the opened +hatch--mostly men, a few women, no children--short panting breaths, +sighs, groans, the dull rattle of chains. + +"Have they been fed to-day?" gasped Blair, and pointed to his mouth. + +The mate nodded. + +Blair went two steps up the ladder and called to Stuart. + +"Tell them to feed and water these poor things instantly. Now, Matti, +ask them in all the tongues you know if there is any headman or chief +among them. And say we mean them well." + +Matti tried them without success in two or three dialects, but at last +hit upon one that evoked responsive movements in some of those nearest +the light. He felt his way, and at last got a word in answer, the +meaning of which he understood. + +Here a couple of men came down the ladder carrying baskets of what +looked like dog-biscuits, which they commenced handing round, one to +each prisoner, and the latter sprang to the limits of their tethers for +them, and snatched and worried them like dogs that had not been fed for +a week. Blair looked at the mate, but the mate looked elsewhere. + +It took a long time and many renewals to supply them all; but Blair +would not move till it was done, nor until every one had had a drink of +water. Then the interrupted conversation was resumed. + +Yes, there was a chief there, and Blair ordered the mate to release the +man and bring him forward. He came without eagerness, a tall, brown, +well-built man of middle age, with a gloomy, but not absolutely +forbidding face, pinched just now, perhaps with hunger, perhaps with +despair. Experience had taught him to expect nothing but evil at the +hands of white men. + +But even his dull misery could not but perceive a difference between +this clean, white-clad white man and those he had become accustomed to, +and he gazed at Blair with a note of sullen inquiry. + +"You are a chief?" asked Blair, through Matti. + +"I am a king," he said, answering Blair, and bestowing no look on +Matti, who, he perceived, was only a voice. And there was that in his +tone and manner which carried conviction in spite of the misery of his +condition. + +"We have come to set you free and to take you back to the island." + +And when the words beat through Matti's attempt at his dialect and got +into his brain, it was as though an electric shock had galvanised him +suddenly into new life. + +"Free?--the island?" he stammered, and stared, still doubting. "All?" +he asked. + +"Yes, all," and he turned and told the news to the rest in quick, +clipping words, and after a moment's amazed silence a shout went up, +and the fetid hole was filled with a deafening buzz of talk. + +It was only after anxious consideration of the point that Blair had +decided to tell them the good news. He grudged every lost soul there. +He would not lose one. There might be some given over to utter +despair, and there is no tonic like hope. + +"You will come with us," said Blair, to the discrowned king. + +The man looked back into the gloom, and then again at Blair, and spoke +eagerly. + +"He says one of his wives is there," said Matti. "She shall come also." + +The man pointed her out, the mate released her, and they climbed to the +blessed upper air, all a-tremble with eagerness. + +"Now, understand!" said Blair to the mate, through Stuart, so that all +could hear him: "when your cargo is discharged, you will be at liberty +to go where you will. If you attempt any treachery, we will blow you +to pieces. If you ever return to the Dark Islands, you do so at your +own peril," and he saw his guests into the boat and followed them. + +The woman was young and not uncomely, but subdued and apparently +somewhat dazed still at these sudden reverses of fortune. Neither +spoke a word as the _Torch_ slowed down for them to come aboard, but +the man's eyes roved to and fro in ceaseless questioning, and he seemed +to arrive at an intelligent understanding of matters. The long steel +gun claimed his attention the moment he reached the deck, and from his +instant glance across at the shattered hamper of the brig he evidently +associated the two things. + +Their only visible clothing was a native mat wrapped round the waist +and falling nearly to the feet, and the very first thing to do was to +cleanse them of the visible results of their 'tween-decks imprisonment. + +Blair led the man down to the men's bathroom, and turned on the taps +and filled the bath before his astonished eyes. He showed him also the +use of soap, by washing his own hands, and left him to complete his +toilet. He could not, however, forbear listening outside to hear how +he got on, and was rewarded at first by a long silence, then by several +tentative turnings on and off of the wonderful taps. Then a slight +splashing suggested an experiment with the soap; and finally grunts of +satisfaction and much wallowing told of savage man's enjoyment of the +amenities of civilisation, and the return to his natural cleanliness. +When he had had time to wash himself several times over, Blair knocked +on the door and went in, and found his guest lying full length under +water, with only his brown nose showing, and evidently feeling very +much better. + +He sat up and gurgled some words expressive of his feelings, and was +mightily astonished at the sudden disappearance of the water when the +plug was pulled up. He wanted to fill the bath again at once to see it +run out again, and Blair let him engineer a final sluice for himself. + +He was a much pleasanter companion after his wash. His fine brown skin +shone under the unusual treatment of a towel, and his hair stuck out +from his head like a twirling mop. He was about to assume his dirty +mat again, but Blair hauled out some clean towels, tied one round him +like a loin-cloth, draped another from his hips as he had worn his mat, +and threw another over his shoulders, and the man was dressed as he had +never been dressed in his life before. The towels happened to have +broad red bands along the edges, and moreover had fringes, and their +wearer was as proud of them as any Piccadilly dandy of his newest thing +in spring suits. + +Somewhat similar doings had been in course in the ladies' quarters, +but, thanks to Aunt Jannet Harvey's very determined, but equally +mistaken, good intentions, the results were less happy. + +Aunt Jannet believed firmly that decency as well as cleanliness were +first steps towards godliness, and she was too recent an arrival in the +equatorials, and perhaps also too conservative in her own ideas, to +understand that decency of attire is after all purely matter of custom. +To her, a girl dressed, or undressed, only in a ridi fringe which clung +precariously to her hips and fell half-way to her knee, was practically +unclothed. She did not know that it was death for a man to touch that +scant, precarious garment. Strange anomaly of the cannibal isles--a +dangling fringe of smoked coco-nut fibre a more stringent safeguard +than the multitudinous garments of civilisation! When Aunt Jannet did +learn that fact she thought considerably, and thereafter took a +somewhat wider view of things. + +Meanwhile, in the mistaken goodness of her heart, she had insisted on +arraying the newcomer in garments of her own, the most visible of which +was a light print dress, in which the poor creature looked almost as +uncomfortable as she felt. + +At sight of her transformation the brown man stared hard, and then +grinned vigorously, and the girl hotched and wriggled in disgustful +discomfort. She came up to the man and fingered his soft towels +wistfully. She spoke to him, and he instantly handed her the one he +had over his shoulder. She tore at the neck of her dress with evident +intention, and Blair begged Jean to take her away and provide her with +what towels she wished. + +"Well, I never!" began Aunt Jannet remonstratively. + +"That is a mistake that has wrought infinite mischief, dear Aunt +Jannet," he said. "Our work must begin inside, not outside. Meddle as +little as possible with manners and customs or you do more harm than +good." + +"My goodness me! It's absolutely indecent for a woman to go about with +nothing on but a towel. Don't tell me you allow them to eat one +another, Kenneth!" + +"Well, we break them off that as soon as we can. But in all these +matters we have learned that it is highest wisdom to hasten slowly." + +"Well, I----" + +But here the brown girl came back, all smiles and modest grace, clad in +red-fringed towels like the man, and even Aunt Jannet, in her heart, +could find no fault with her appearance. + +Then Blair called Matti, and, sitting on the deck by the new arrivals, +he quietly commenced his approaches towards the conquest of the Dark +Islands. + +Briefly--in the telling, though very much otherwise in the +extracting--this was what they learned. The man's name was Ha'o--which +he pronounced Hacho, the ch as in loch--and the woman's Nai or Na-ee. + +He was, he asserted, chief of that one of the Dark Islands which had +been raided by the brig. A number of the islanders had been enticed on +board with soft words and presents and then suddenly made prisoners. +The ship had then apparently sailed, but that same night the village +was burnt and he and the rest carried off. + +It was not easy to make him understand what had induced these other +white men to follow and bring them back. If they did really land him +on his own island again--of which he was by no means sure--he would be +their friend and brother. As for those others--looking venomously at +the captain of the brig, who was sitting amidships in gloomy +contemplation of the scurviness of fortune--he would ask nothing better +than to eat them if the chance offered. + +"You eat men, then?" asked Blair, through Matti. + +"Of course. Why not? Properly cooked they are excellent eating"--or +words to that effect. + +And Aunt Jannet Harvey and the other ladies shuddered and wondered, for +he did not by any means look the monster his words implied. + +Blair tried hard to convey to him the idea that they had come from the +other side of the world for the sole purpose of helping him and his +people; but that was too much for him--he could not comprehend it. + +He got tired of being questioned out of his depth, and strolled about +the ship, examining everything attentively. The long brown steel gun, +the revolving screw, the engines, and the smoke pouring out of the +funnel claimed his chief attention. During the next few days he hung +over the stern watching the revolving blades and the bubbling wake by +the hour, with absorbed and puzzled face, and every now and then would +lick his hand and hold it up to feel the air. There was little wind, +for Captain Cathie had purposely run up into the calm belt to lessen +the strain of the towage, but such as there was it was dead against +them, and the brown man could not understand it. As to the gliding +pistons and smooth-running wheels in the engine-room, they were white +men's magic of the most virulent description, and Matti himself +understood the business too little to be able to convey any clear idea +of the connection between them and the never-resting screw astern. + +For the rest, both the brown man and the girl found ample grounds for +wonder in the farm-yard in the bows--the contemplative cow, the +sullen-eyed young bull, the stolid goats, and the rooting piglets and +their mother, and the cocks and hens in their coops, and the men's pet +cat, which occupied their various bunks in turn, and accepted all their +attentions with the utmost complacence and gave nothing in return. But +of all the things that set sparks in the girl's wondering eyes, the +crowning delight was the piano in the saloon and the little harmonium +which was lashed alongside it. + +She would sit with her ear pressed tight to the frame and her eyes like +saucers as long as any one would play for her; and when her own slim +brown finger touched one of the white keys and elicited due response +she jumped with delight, and would have practised one-finger exercises +of her own composition all day and all night. There were other wonders +in reserve, but she had enough for the present, and more than enough. + +"She has an ear for music," said Jean to her husband one night. "She +was crouching by me during the singing, and I heard her humming the +tune quite nicely." + +"They are famous singers, some of them," said Blair. "I count a good +deal on working up to the citadel through Eargate." + +The _Blackbirder_ captain was lodged in an empty cabin, and had his +meals there. He had ample time for introspective musing, for none +cared to associate with him. + +In the middle of the first night Blair jumped up in a sweat of terror. +The idea had suddenly occurred to him that the hostage might make a +break for liberty or revenge by setting the ship on fire. He went +hastily to the spare cabin and found him snoring comfortably. +Nevertheless he sat there all night, and after that the man was never +left alone, day or night, till they finally got rid of him. + +Twice each day some of them, with Matti as interpreter, dropped down to +the brig and saw the islanders duly fed and watered, and said a word or +two of cheer to them. And day after day the sallow crew scowled across +at the quiet ordered life on board the schooner--the pleasant, friendly +relations, the morning and evening services on deck--and cursed sparks +into its vicious eyes; but ventured no more because of the ever-present +Winchesters and the black mouth of Long Tom which gaped hungrily at +them whenever they looked that way. + +Their weighted progress was slow. It was the evening of the sixth day +before the distant peaks of the Dark Islands bit up through the setting +sun, and on the morning of the seventh day they were steaming slowly +for the entrance to the lagoon. + +Ha'o and Nai had refused to lie down all night. All night long they +had hung over the bows, peering into the darkness in a fever of +anticipation which left them no words. When the flaming east lit up +the giant peak they knew so well, they could scarce contain themselves. +Cannibals they were and benighted heathen, but this was home, and there +was hope in them and for them. + +Captain Cathie, with admirable skill, and a couple of his whale-boats, +humoured the brig in, stern foremost, since she had no steerage-way on +her. He dropped her down the lagoon as close to the white sand spear +as he deemed advisable, then bade them drop their anchor and loose the +tow-rope, and heaved a sigh of content as his gallant little ship shook +herself free of that most undesirable partnership. + +He took up a position to seaward of the brig, and Blair, and Evans, and +Ha'o, with Matti and the usual guard in attendance, went on board of +her to discharge cargo. + +It was a thing to remember, one of the high times of life that stand +out in the past when other things have faded. + +A great shout went up from the chaotic mass of brown men as the +white-clad figures came down the ladder and Ha'o shouted the good news +to them. He had been across each day with whoever was going, and +Blair, watching carefully this corner-stone of his enterprise, had come +to think well of him. + +A thing to remember, indeed, as the brown figures came tumbling up the +ladder in batches. They fairly scrambled over one another in their +haste, and, after one wild glance round to make sure, flung themselves +headlong into the familiar waters, and made straight for the shore, +shouting breathlessly as they went, eager only to set foot on that +white beach once more. + +Blair had reckoned on carrying them ashore in the boats, but who would +wait for boats when the sparkling water called? + +That long string of urgently bobbing black heads from brig to +shore--first-fruits of victory--_spolia opima_ in very truth--was a +sight none of them ever forgot. The Torches laughed aloud with +enjoyment. Even the sullen-eyed Blackbirders watched with interest. + +Ha'o stood among the white men with wonderful self-control. Instinct +drew him to the water with the rest, but he would not. Even these few +short days on the higher plane had not been without their effect. He +had watched ceaselessly. He had seen much that was beyond him. For +the first time in his life, he had come across a force greater than his +own, which made for good and not for evil. There were stirrings within +him which he did not understand, but the first expression of them made +for restraint. + +When the stream of brown bodies ceased pouring out of the hatch, and +the last batch had leaped overboard with joyful shouts, Blair and the +others climbed down into the empty dimness to make sure that all had +gone. They found three lying with starting eyes, too weak to move and +fearful that they had been forgotten. These they wrapped in abandoned +mats and passed up on deck and lowered into one of the whale-boats. +Then a flying visit to the _Torch_ for Nai, and they sped to the shore. + +It was only when they all stood on the white beach that Ha'o, shaking +with excitement barely to be restrained, turned to Blair and, grasping +his hand in his own two trembling ones, carried it to his forehead and +said some words in a low voice. + +Blair glanced at Matti for enlightenment. + +"He says he is your man from this day, and will be to you as a +brother," said Matti, and the white hand and the brown gripped firmly +on the compact. Then Ha'o turned and walked rapidly towards the +village, and they went with him. + +So Ha'o of Kapaa'a became the Man's man's man. And the first sparks of +light for the Dark Islands leaped from the match that set fire to the +village thatch ten days before. + +So good comes out of evil, and no man may safely say this is good and +that is ill. For no man knows, save Him Who knows all things; and His +ways are so very different from man's ways that wisdom and experience +drive one only to the doing with one's might the thing that is in hand, +in the faithful hope that He will round the corners and shape the work +to its appointed end. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CLIPPING A BLACKBIRD + +Before we proceed to other matters, let us get rid of the _Blackbirder_. + +She lay like a black blot on the smooth swell of the lagoon, and till +we are quit of her the place will not feel clean. Civilisation, as +represented by the dismantled brig, was as foul a thing as any the Dark +Islands could show--not excepting even the terrors of the +feasting-places. For what the dark men did they did in their darkness, +and what the yellow men did they did in their light, and condemnation +goes with knowledge. + +And as it was here, so it was elsewhere. Vicious civilisation gashed +Nature with a broad red wound and trampled her to earth. Fortunately, +in this case there was healing and reparation. But it was not always +so. + +Blair and Cathie had had ample time during the return voyage to arrange +their plans, Blair's part in the discussions consisting chiefly of +acting as brake to the captain's whirring wheels. For Captain Cathie, +honest man, foresaw such certain trouble from letting the raiders go +that he would have strained many points to put it out of their power +ever to return. + +But Blair would have none of it. + +"I haven't a doubt that you are right, captain," he said, "but even +these men have got to have their chance. If they do come back, they +must take the consequences. We will deal with them then as may seem +best." + +So while Blair and Evans followed Ha'o towards the village, Captain +Cathie was busy in his own way. With his long brown gun menacing the +brig, he sent his other two boats over in charge of his mate and +Stuart, with instructions to deport the yellow men to a tiny crown of +rock where the wall of the reef had crept up a few feet higher than +elsewhere. It was a precarious lodging at best and uncomfortably damp, +for the great ocean rollers broke on the seaward side in ceaseless +thunder, and their spray lashed up to heaven, and came crashing over +into the lagoon, and the rock was always wet. Captain Cathie jocularly +expressed the opinion that the yellow men would be none the worse for a +bit washing, for not one of them looked as if he had known soap since +he was a kiddie. + +He sent by Stuart, on his own responsibility, the information that he +was going to disinfect their ship, and that if they were not all out of +it in ten minutes he would sink it with a shot between wind and water. +The yellow men turned green with apprehension, grabbed their meagre +belongings under the certain belief that they were leaving their ship +for good and all, and did as they were bidden. Then, leaving the +captain of the _Blackbirder_ in strict custody, Cathie pulled over to +the brig and proceeded to overhaul it with all the enjoyment of a +humanitarian highwayman going through his victim's pockets. + +Every bond and shackle they found was promptly tossed overboard. Every +ounce of trade they could find--cloth, beads, knives, and so on, which +might still be used for the enticement of unwary natives and the +replenishment of a depleted exchequer--was annexed as salve for native +wounds. Several rifles and revolvers, which the haste of the previous +surrender, or malice prepense, had overlooked, were now included. +Every keg of rum they could lay hands on was stove in and emptied into +the lagoon, and when the captain was fairly satisfied that he had +clipped the _Blackbirder's_ wings, for this voyage at any rate, and, as +he jocularly said, had given the yellow men a chance of practising +teetotal principles for a spell, though he feared the effect would only +be temporary, he returned to the _Torch_ and sent his boats to bring +back the prisoners from their damp roosting-place. + +He explained to the gloomy-faced captain of the _Blackbirder_ what he +had done, and why, and sent him back to his ship with instructions to +refit as quickly as possible, to take in what water he needed, and to +get away without delay, lest the natives should take it into their +heads to pay him in their own way for his maltreatment of them. + +"And tell him, sir," he said to Stuart, "that if I'd had my way I'd +have strung every man of them up to the yardarm, and if they ever come +back that's what they may expect, and I'll be delighted to have a hand +in it." + +When Blair and the rest came on board, they reported the village still +in ruins. No attempt had been made to rebuild it yet, and they had +seen no other natives than those who had come ashore from the brig. + +The atoll men and women had camped in a bunch among the ruined houses, +by starting a fire with a borrowed match and proceeding to cook some +taro from the adjoining fields. The Dark Island men had scattered +among the hills to find their friends and relatives, and to tell them +of their wonderful deliverance. + +Under the compulsion of the grinning long gun the Blackbirders worked +hard at their rigging, and the party on the _Torch_ sat and watched +them till the shadows chased the red glow of the sunset rapidly up the +hills, and work was over for the day. + +"It is very wonderful," was Blair's summing-up of the whole matter: +"good once more comes out of evil. If the arranging of matters had +been in our own hands, they could not have fallen more fortunately for +us. In the ordinary course of things we might have been years in +arriving at the position this catastrophe and its remedying have put us +into. Ha'o and Nai will, I think, prove staunch friends. They know we +desire nothing but their good. Through them we shall get all the rest +by degrees." + +"All I wish is that we'd hung those yellow blackguards, sir," said +Cathie, with lingering regret. "It would only have been right common +sense, after all." + +"Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey. + +"Well, well," said Blair. "It's generally easier to undo than to do. +But our aim is life, not death. We shall have all we can do to put new +life into our brown friends, without spending our energies and bruising +our consciences by choking the old life out of our yellow enemies." + +"All the same, sir, we'd have been safer for the future if those +rascals were rolling at the bottom of the sea than floating quietly on +top of it. If they don't come back here, they'll go somewhere else and +play the same game." + +"I'm afraid they will, captain; but all the same I don't see my way to +hanging them. If they come back here, as they quite possibly may----" + +"Will, sure," said the captain. + +"Well, if they do it will be our duty to protect the sheep from the +wolves." + +"I'm half hoping they'll try it on," said Cathie. "Yon long gun would +make fine play with 'em." + +In the morning Blair and the other men went ashore again. The ladies +begged to go too, but he thought it wiser to wait till they learned the +minds of the rest of the islanders. + +They found the atoll men busily at work running up shelters, and quite +content with their new surroundings. This was a place of infinitely +wider scope than their own circumscribed island, and they had no desire +whatever to go back to it. Knowing how intense the racial hatreds were +among the islands, Blair could only hope that Ha'o's influence might +suffice for their protection. + +He was wondering when any of the original inhabitants would turn up +again, when he saw a straggling company descending the hill, and at the +head of it Ha'o, easily recognisable by his costume of white towels. + +He waved his hand at sight of them, and quickened his pace. As he drew +near they saw that his face was very grim, and he began to speak so +rapidly and energetically that Matti could only wait and absorb the +sense of it without any attempt at translation. + +"There is trouble," said Matti, turning to Blair as the other paused +for breath. "In his absence, and thinking he was gone for good, his +brother has become chief, and he will not give up his place." + +"And what do the people say?" asked Blair, and Matti put the question. + +"They are divided. There were some who were never contented, and there +are some who always want change, and there are some who stand on one +side to see which party is strongest. Those who were with me on the +ship stay with me, and there are many others, but Ra'a"--Racha or Raka, +his brother--"has also many. It will lead to trouble." + +This was a quite unexpected development and obstacle. From his slight +knowledge of island ways, Blair foresaw that it was a matter that might +lead to constant strife. For there is no quarrel so bitter as a family +quarrel, and the tribe is but the family on a larger scale. + +"Come to the ship, Ha'o," he said, "and let us talk it over. Where is +Nai?" + +"She is with her people. She will come when I send for her. My other +wives my brother has taken, but I do not want them." + +"Is he likely to do anything unpleasant at once?" + +"No; at present everything is----." And with his hands he indicated +chaos. + +The situation was a grave one in some respects, though still far better +than it would have been had they landed entire strangers with all their +footing to win. + +It might even contain advantages, for Ha'o and his party would be +driven by stress of circumstances still closer to them, and there was +material enough to occupy them there for a long time to come. + +Captain Cathie was for grasping this nettle again in such a way as to +neutralise its sting. + +"If we tackle them at once, Mr. Blair, we can knock the brother out and +make things safe, and it'll maybe be the shortest cut in the end, and +cost fewest lives. You know what these brown fellows are when they get +to loggerheads among themselves. It's just Stewarts and Campbells over +again, and no peace till one side or the other goes under." + +Blair nodded. + +"I know, captain; but, all the same, we can't begin by killing the men +we want to convert. Gentle handling and patience may bring us to the +appointed end. It may take longer, but the end, I think, will be the +larger." + +But Captain Cathie shook his head, and Aunt Jannet Harvey shook hers in +unison. + +"Some things are best nipped in the bud," said she, "and it seems to me +that Mr. Ha'o has been very badly treated all round." + +"Well, we've done our best for him, and we'll go on doing it, but we +must do it in the way we think wisest." + +Ha'o himself now struck in through Matti, and his question was the very +natural one as to whether the white men, who had done so much for him, +would continue to do so, and help him to recover his rights. + +It took time and patience to explain to him that they would do +everything they could without fighting, unless the other side attacked +him, in which case they would help him and his people to defend +themselves. Ha'o saw no use for the other side except to be +killed--and possibly eaten. It was not possible as yet to make clear +to him their object in coming to the islands. The root idea was beyond +him. He had hoped with their help to smash the opposition out of hand, +and was inclined to resent this, as it seemed to him, very lukewarm +offer of defensive assistance. Blair, however, was at pains to +explain, as far as was possible, that they had come not to fight--at +which the brown man's eyes rested appreciatively on the long brown +gun--but to teach him and his people better things than fighting, and +that they would help him in every possible way--except, as Ha'o's face +plainly showed, in this one way, for which he would willingly have +foregone all the rest. + +Blair showed him the tribute exacted from the _Blackbirder_, and told +him the things were for himself and those who had been carried off with +him, and the black eyes sparkled greedily. + +Then Blair suggested that the first thing to do was to rebuild the +village, and asked him to allot them land where they could build their +own houses. At which Ha'o waved his hand regally over Kapaa'a and +said, "Choose!" + +They chose a spot at the head of the white sand spear, with the brush +curving round behind, and the little river gurgling alongside. A dozen +tall palms swung their crests above, in front lay the placid stretch of +the lagoon, and beyond it the reef, and the white jets of foam, and the +never-ending thunder of the breaking rollers. + +By way of setting a good example to the islanders, and no less to +impress upon the Blackbirders that they had come to stop, Captain +Cathie got out and sent ashore the frames of the houses they had +brought with them. One of the little steam-launches was got into +working order, and before nightfall was chuffing merrily back and forth +with load after load of necessaries, planks and beams and fittings; and +what with the work on board the _Blackbirder_, and the traffic between +the _Torch_ and the shore, and the doings on the beach, the lagoon of +Kapaa'a was livelier than ever it had been since time began. Deadlier +it had often been, but this was the beginning of the new life, and the +dawn came to the Dark Islands in such commonplace guise as doors and +windows, and chairs and tables and bedsteads. + +By Cathie's advice they built their houses on piles, with roomy +platforms under which the fresh sea breezes could blow at will. + +Every man who could be spared from the ship helped in the building, and +the work went on apace. Blair and Evans and Stuart, stripped to shirts +and trousers, carried and sawed and hammered with the rest, and spared +themselves not at all. The ladies would have come too, but reluctantly +obeyed orders, and stopped on board till the political horizon should +become somewhat more determined. + +Ha'o and his people, after watching the small beginnings of a work that +was far beyond their understanding, turned to their own business. +Blair had a quantity of spades and axes brought ashore, and gave them +to Ha'o for his building operations, and the effect on their spirits, +as their hands closed on the handles, was magical. They rushed to the +woods to try them, and when the white men went along presently to see +how they were going on, they found the village already getting into +shape. + +There had evidently been some argument with the atoll men, who had +thought to establish themselves on the old site, but they had now drawn +off, and were stolidly building shelters a short distance away, and +regarding with envious eyes the new tools of the island men. + +That was soon put right, and a supply of axes for themselves +transformed them into an excited, chattering crew, without a grievance +in the world. Food was plentiful, the taro swamp was there to their +hand, coco-nuts abounded, they had fire and water: what more could any +man want, unless it was a slice of brother man to add zest to the +feast? And at present both they and brother man were much too busy to +give the matter the necessary consideration. + +It took the _Blackbirder_ three days' hard work to clear away her +damaged spars and refit sufficiently for the voyage. Her sulky master +suggested a trip ashore to procure some new topmasts. Captain Cathie +urged him to go, but expressed doubts as to the probability of his +return; and on the morning of the fourth day, the launch having filled +their water barrels for them, the _Torch_ got up steam and towed her +enemy through the opening in the reef and out to a fair offing, and +then cast her off and lay watching till she was hull-down on the +eastward horizon. And the very last thing the scowling crew saw--for +that time, at all events--was the menacing black mouth of the long gun, +and Captain Cathie standing patting its big brown breech +affectionately, but in a most unpleasantly meaning way. + +"Well, thank God we're rid of them at last!" said + +Aunt Jannet Harvey with fervour, as the brig caught the breeze and drew +slowly away. + +"We shall see them again, ma'am," said Captain Cathie. + +[Illustration: "We shall see them again," said Captain Cathie (missing +from book)] + +"I wish we'd scuttled them," said Aunt Jannet. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHERE THOU GOEST + +The building operations were progressing apace, and so far they had +caught no more than distant glimpses of the malcontents, as they crept +cautiously about the hillsides to oversee what was going on below. The +proximity of the white men in such force kept them from any expression +of what might be in them, and Blair was not without hope that, if he +could only get time to develop his plans and demonstrate clearly the +advantages of the white alliance, they might still think better of it +and come in. + +Time, however, is what no man can count on. Cautious Captain Cathie, +as soon as he had seen the _Blackbirder_ fairly off, proceeded to "bolt +the front door," as he said, by running a stout hawser with a kedge at +each end across the opening in the lagoon. As this was buried by each +incoming roller, it would inevitably overturn any boat running in on +the swell, and he felt comparatively safe. + +Nevertheless, he paced the deck for several nights to make safer still. +For the _Torch_ was still the greatest factor in the enterprise, and +any accident to her would spell disaster to them all. + +That first night he was not without his fears of a possible attempt +from without. + +"You never know where you are with rascals like yon, until you've seen +'em hanging for an hour at the end of a rope," said he. "It would be a +mighty fine thing for them, and a mighty bad look-out for us, if they +crept in and caught us napping." And more than once he stood for +minutes at a time listening intently, under the impression that he +heard the cries of drowning men above the rhythmic roar of the outer +surges, and in the morning he looked eagerly about, but found nothing. + +He was also somewhat surprised at the complete absence of native +canoes, and had visions of such also creeping up in the darkness and +carrying his ship by assault. But the canoes had mostly been smashed +by the raiders, as a matter of precaution, when they enticed the +natives on board, and the rest they had destroyed when they came ashore +in the night, and the captain's fears were groundless. + +The ladies were allowed ashore for a time each day to inspect the +progress of their future homes, but they still slept on the schooner. + +Aunt Jannet Harvey demanded of Blair how long that kind of thing was to +go on, as they were all anxious to get to housekeeping again as soon as +possible, and Blair could only tell her that they could not hasten +developments, but that he hoped each day passed in peace might make for +healing. + +But the peace was suddenly broken. That which had befallen the head of +the community had equally struck its tail. Just as Ha'o, supposed to +be as good as dead, had been supplanted by Ra'a, so on a smaller scale +had most of his companions in misfortune. It was a matter only of +degree. The hurt was the same. + +Yams and taro do not come to maturity in a day. The rescued ones were +rebuilding the village on its old site, close to the taro fields. The +rebels on the hills and the perchers on the fence wanted their share of +the common goods. They ventured down by night, warily and in mortal +fear of more than Ha'o and his men, to procure them, and the fat was in +the fire. + +At first it spluttered in hot words. + +"We want our proper share of taro," said the hillmen, not without +reason. "You went away"--which was a provocative way of putting +it--"and left us to tend the fields, and now you come back and sit on +them." + +"The fields belong to the community. We are the community. Come back +into it and you will share with us. Where are our wives?" was the +answer. + +Some few, such as cared little who ruled so long as their stomachs were +filled, did come back, and Nai brought down a number of the women and +children, her towel costume and her descriptions of the white men's +wonders forming strong inducements to the others. But many stood out, +and the arguments developed from words to blows. Ra'a's men came down +in force by night to replenish their larders. Ha'o's men resisted. +One of the former got his head smashed in by an axe, and the feud was +complete. + +Blair did his best to prevent the rupture, but it was beyond him. Ha'o +was, not unnaturally, hot against the usurper and his followers, and it +was all the white men could do to persuade him from attempting a +_coup-de-force_ for the full rehabilitation of his fortunes. Under +Blair's forcible arguments, and a grievous shortage of weapons, he +agreed to postpone any active movement till his village was rebuilt. +Then, when time lay on his hands, Blair knew that it would be next to +impossible to restrain him. He hoped, however, that opportunity might +arise which would afford a chance of intervention with some hopes of +success. + +Meanwhile skirmishes went on almost nightly, and there came a time at +last when two of Ha'o's men, in repelling an attempt on the taro +fields, were speared and their bodies carried off. + +In the morning Ha'o came up, wearing his grimmest face. + +"They have killed my men," he said, through Matti. "Now I go to kill +them." + +Blair had been considering the matter ever since the report reached +him, and he had made up his mind what to do. + +To understand Kenneth Blair fully you must bear in mind all that he had +gone through, and the effect it could not fail to have upon him. + +Once in his life, in the face of imminent death, he had flinched and he +had never forgiven himself. To all the world outside he could be +tender and forbearing. To himself he was harder than iron. + +He would condone in another what he would never permit in himself. In +the intensity of his feeling on this matter even his strong common +sense was liable to be thrown somewhat off its centre. His only fear +was of himself, and in that fear he was liable to choose the hardest +and most dangerous path, lest a smoother one should prove but a pitfall +to his duty. + +In his somewhat morbid dread of doing too little he was constantly in +danger of doing too much. He was quite aware of it, and he held +himself tightly. But where two ways offered, it was almost inevitable +that he should choose the more dangerous and difficult. It was a +weakness, perhaps, but, after all, he was only human, and no man is +perfect. + +Just as the soldier on whom has rested an imputation of lack of nerve +will, when the chance offers, rush to seemingly certain death in order +to wipe off the reproach, so Kenneth Blair. It was the spirit of the +Six Hundred at Balaclava over again, save that, indeed, in their case +their courage had never been called in question, but only their utility. + +And so, when Ha'o came up, thirsting for his brother's life, Blair said +quietly-- + +"This matter must be settled without shedding of blood. I will go and +see Ra'a, and will do my best to persuade him either to come in or to +leave us in peace." + +"He will kill you," said Ha'o briefly. + +"I hope not. We shall see." + +"He hates the white men. The hardest thing he has against me is that I +ever had any dealings with those others." + +"Those men were yellow, I will show him what white men are." + +"He will kill you," said Ha'o once more. + +"I hope not," was all the reply he got. + +When the rest heard of his undertaking they also tried hard to dissuade +him from it--all except Jean, who sat silent and thoughtful. + +"It's risky," said Captain Cathie, with a gloomy shake of the head. + +"Few good things come without risk, captain--besides, I don't believe +it's as risky as you imagine." + +"It's simply suicidal," said Aunt Jannet Harvey. "It's just throwing +yourself away, Kenneth, and spoiling all your great plans, to say +nothing of Jean's life." + +"I shall go too," said Jean quietly. + +"You, Jean?" said Blair, with a catch in the throat and a sudden weight +at the heart. + +"Yes, dear. If you go, I go. If it is death for you it is death for +me in any case, and I would sooner it was together." + +A terrible temptation this to choose the easier path--on her account. +What right had he to drag her life into so great a danger? For +imminent danger there was, though he had made light of it. + +He halted, and she saw it, and understood much of what was in him. + +"Don't hesitate one moment on my account, Ken. I must go. It is +possible my being with you may help. It will show them, at all events, +that we mean them no ill." + +"We are in God's hands," he said quietly, but was visibly disturbed at +her insistence. + +Stuart and Evans also strove with him, but with no better effect. + +"The peace must be kept, if it is possible," he said. "And this seems +to me a possible way to it. I would sooner my wife had stopped behind, +but I quite understand her point of view. And--we are as safe there as +here." + +"You've no objection to my firing a blank round or two, Mr. Blair?" +asked Captain Cathie. + +"What's the idea, captain?" + +"Just to impress them with the fact that we're here behind you, sir. A +bang or two from the big gun will maybe have as big an effect as +anything you can say to them." + +"Well, I see no objection. All we want is to keep the peace. The big +gun may impress them, as you say." + +"You wouldn't take a dozen of the men with you, would you sir?" asked +the captain insinuatingly. + +But Blair shook his head at that. + +"That, I fear, would hardly carry the impression that I want to make. +I look on all these people as my parishioners. Sooner or later, please +God, they will be. But we must win them, captain; we can't force them." + +He walked the deck alone that night, long after all but the watch had +retired, and thought and thought. + +And at thought of Jean going into the peril of the morrow the +temptation was strong at times to find some other and less dangerous +way--for her sake. For himself he would not think twice. For her--ah! +for her he would think many times. And, after all, had he the right to +persist in his own way, even though he believed it to be the right way, +since it meant undoubted danger to her? + +But he found in such thoughts the visible cloven hoof of avoidance, +compounding, cowardice, and resolutely shut down upon them. For her +sake he could have wished that she had been content to stay quietly on +board, and let him face the danger alone. But duty called him with a +clear voice, and go he must, whatever came of it. + +And so it came that, very early the next morning, Kenneth Blair and his +wife Jean set out on a somewhat perilous journey. And with them went +Matti, the Samoan. And Matti by no means relished the undertaking, yet +compassed a fairly stout face, since it was a matter of duty and a +tangible business, with nothing ghostly about it, as yet at all events, +though as to what it might presently develop into he had his own very +grave doubts. + +They were surely as peaceful-looking an embassage as ever sought a +distrustful enemy. They were all in spotless white, and their only +visible weapons, beyond Jean's green-lined white sunshade, were some +small bundles containing presents, and a new axe and spade carried by +Matti. Blair, indeed, had a revolver in his hip pocket, but it was +only there because Jean was there. Had he been alone it would have +stayed behind. It was, no doubt, somewhat of an anomaly after his +confident "We are as safe there as here" of the previous night. But he +was very human, and, as I have said, no more perfect than you or I, +though an infinitely finer specimen than either of us. + +As they quitted the ship, the long gun thundered out over their heads, +and the noise of it bellowed up into the hills, and clanged to and fro +in the valleys. And when they touched the shore it bellowed again, and +went on bellowing at intervals like the threatening little monster it +was. + +Ha'o met them at the landing with some of his people, and shook his +head gloomily at their prospects. He offered to accompany them as far +as possible; but, as he bitterly said, they had not a spear among them, +nothing but the axes Blair had given them, and axes are of little use +against spears and poisoned arrows. + +But Blair would not hear of it. He begged him to keep his people at +their work as usual, and went on quietly through the disputed taro +fields, up through the yam plantations and banana groves, and stood for +a moment to look back over the lagoon, with the shapely little ship at +her anchorage, and the bursts of white foam along the reef behind. A +puff ball of white smoke fluffed out from her deck as they looked, and +the roar of it went past them into the hills. It was not by any means +impossible that they looked on it all for the last time. And Kenneth +Blair's heart was not light as he took Jean's arm through his own and +pressed it close to his side, and felt the trustful pressure of her arm +in reply. + +They understood one another fully. They had said all that needed to be +said. In this and in all they were one; and if this meant death, they +had no other wish than that it should be together. + +"You are very brave, Jean." + +"I am where I would be, and as I would be, Ken. We are in God's hands." + +"Amen!" he said, and lifted his hat and led her round the shoulder of +the hill. + +They did not know where they might come across Ra'a. + +"You will find him," Ha'o had said meaningly. + +So they climbed on and up, through tangled thickets of hibiscus and +branching matpandanus, under grey-boled palms, along bare patches of +rock, certain that scores of dark eyes were watching them, wondering +when and how their journey would end. + +The hills had echoed many times to the voice of the long gun, when, +from a clump of brush in front, a couple of bristling warriors rose +suddenly and barred their way. They carried long, thin, venomous +spears and heavy bows, and each had a bundle of arrows at his thigh. + +"Aoha!" said Blair quietly, and they stared grimly, first at him, and +then, and longer, at Jean. She sat down on a rock and opened her fan +and began to use it with an equanimity which covered a jumping heart. + +The climb had been somewhat exhausting, her face was radiant with +colour and a great wistful expectancy, and her eyes shone like southern +stars. She was a goodly sight to any man. To these brown men, who had +never in their lives seen anything like her, she must have seemed +almost more than human. After an appreciative glance at Matti's axe +and spade, they stared at her with stolid insistence. + +"Tell them we have come to speak with Ra'a. We bring him presents," +said Blair to Matti, and a conversation of clips and jerks ensued, and +in the result the brown men turned and led the way into the bush. + +They came at last to a number of houses which had a hasty and temporary +look about them, and were surrounded instantly by a buzzing crowd of +men, women, and children, Jean again the centre of attraction, and +bearing it, as before, with surprising equanimity. + +They almost mobbed her, and shouted their comments aloud from one to +another. Her sunshade, her fan, her dress, her face, her hair, her +hands, every bit of her was a new sensation, and they made the most of +it. + +Then sudden silence fell, as a tall man strode through the lane they +made before him, and stood in front of the strangers. + +"You are Ra'a?" asked Blair of him direct. + +"I am Ra-ch-ch-ch-a!" and his raucous name sounded worse in his own +throat than it had ever sounded to them before; and as he said it, so +it seemed to fit him. + +He was tall and well made, evidently younger by some years than Ha'o, +but his face was truculent and his eyes quick-glancing and shifty. + +They rested, however, on Jean, and under other circumstances, and from +a civilised man, Blair would have resented the look. + +"What do you want?" asked Ra'a harshly. + +And, through Matti, Blair answered him-- + +"We want peace between you and Ha'o"--and at the very mention of his +brother the other scowled--"and between your people and his." + +"It is you who have made the trouble. Why did you bring him back?" + +"If it had been you we would have brought you back just the same." + +"Ha'o is a fool to have dealings with white men." + +"Those others were not white men, they were yellow. They are not of +our tribe. We, too, hate the things they do, and we have come to stop +them." + +"You are all the same. If you hate them, why did you not kill them?" + +"We do not kill if we can help it. If they come again, we may have to +kill them." + +"Why is that noise?" as the voice of Long Tom bellowed in the hills +once more. + +"It is the voice of my big canoe." + +"It is only a voice. It does no harm." + +"When I choose. You saw the other big canoe's masts? It did that with +twice speaking." + +"What do you want?" asked Ra'a once more. + +"We have come from the other end of the world, where the people are all +white, to try and be of use to you." + +"We do not want you. We do quite well." + +"There are many things you do not know, many things you have not got. +Axes, spades," and he laid them down at the brown man's feet, "and +cloth, and beads, and fish-hooks, and knives"; and he opened the +bundles and gave them to him, and the black eyes round about snapped +greedily. "Very many things we have, and we would share them with you. +But we must have peace. If you will make things as they were before, +we will share all these among you, and many more. It is far better +than killing one another." + +There was a visible inclination in the crowd towards a share in the +good things, and Ra'a saw it and countered quickly. The man was a +savage and brutalised, but he did not lack brain. + +"We do not need your gifts. We can take them--all you have." + +"You cannot take them. My big canoe could blow you all to pieces. But +it has come to fight for you, not against you, and when it has done +fighting it will go back and bring many more things for you. But it +must be in peace." + +Ra'a, whatever else he was, was a diplomat. Truculent he was without +doubt, treacherous if it served him, and his word was probably of small +account; but such things are not unknown in even more accomplished +diplomatic circles. + +He saw the inclination of his people, and that he must go with the tide. + +"Give us our share of the things and we will be satisfied." + +"You shall have your share if it is peace. There must be no more +killing." + +"The taro and the yams belong to us also?" + +"Certainly. We will divide equally. If you will draw a line, we will +draw a line, and you and your people will keep to your side, and Ha'o +and his people will keep to his side." + +"We will draw the line and tapu it. When will you send the things?" + +"When the line is drawn. Will you come and draw it now?" + +"You will go--and you," he pointed to two of his men. "You will put in +tapu sticks and bring back what the white man gives you. Who is the +woman?" staring hard at Jean, who had managed to keep an unruffled face +in spite of the inquisition to which the women were subjecting +her--touching her hands, her face, her hair, and the puzzling +appointments of her dainty toilet. She had even induced one mother to +let her pat the head of one brown mite, who was mumbling its fingers +after reluctant teeth and stared at her with big round eyes. + +"She is my wife." + +"What is she wanting?"--a question evidently inspired by Jean's Miss +Inquisitive look, which showed strongly at times and was much to the +fore under the strain of the present interview. + +"She is wanting everything," said Blair, with a smile. "It is probably +that brown baby at present." + +"She can have it. Is she hungry?" + +"I don't think she is hungry, and she would not take the baby from its +mother." + +"Is she white all through?" + +"White all through," said Blair. + +"Have you any more in the big canoe?" + +"They are all married--except one." + +"I will marry her. How many coco-nuts will you take for her?" and he +stared appreciatively at Jean. + +"We do not sell our women. You would have to ask her yourself." + +And at last they got away without further compromising Aunt Jannet, and +very gratefully they went back by the way they had come, with full, yet +lightened hearts. For the way, though it had opened before them, and +now, to look back upon, seemed neither very difficult nor very +dangerous, had been a perilous one, and one where death might have +opened at their feet at any moment. + +They went in silence with over-full hearts. Blair did not in the +slightest delude himself with the idea that he had settled the matter +at one stroke. He was quite prepared to find the agreement turn out +but a temporary one, but it was a step towards the light to have +arrived at any understanding whatever. + +He was not surprised, also, to find Ha'o anything but satisfied with +the arrangement. He would have preferred wiping out Ra'a and the +malcontents, and settling the business at once on a sound and final +basis. + +With infinite difficulty Blair succeeded in showing him that those +others had rights as well as himself, even though they had wronged him, +and tried hard to inspire him with his own hope that matters would +eventually work out for the best. + +Ha'o, however, knew better. + +"Their hearts are like this," he said, laying his hand on a length of +twisted creeper dangling from an adjacent tree. "They are as grasping +as a convolvulus for the water. They will take all you will give them, +and they will keep the tapu just as long as it suits them." And he +said to himself, "But by that time we shall perhaps be ready for them"; +while Blair was thinking, "Every approach they allow us to make is a +point gained." + +The taro fields and yam plantations and banana groves were soon roughly +divided off in a fair equality, and sticks with plaited palm leaves set +up to warn off trespassers from either side. Then, with the idea of +impressing them to the utmost, Blair invited the two plenipotentiaries +to accompany him on board the big canoe to get the things he was to +give them. + +To this they demurred at first, though obviously desirous, and it was +only after much argument among themselves that they at last agreed, and +then only on condition that the white woman stopped on shore till they +were brought safely back. + +They stepped gingerly into the steam-launch at last, and eyed her +bustling, unaided progress with obvious but well-concealed amazement. +They were shown over the ship, the big gun was fired for them at close +quarters, they inspected the farmyard and the cat, and they finally +went home laden with gifts, and with new impressions enough to set +their brains spinning and their tongues wagging for a month to come. +And it is not likely that their stories lost anything in the retailing. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS + +"Aunt Jannet," said Blair, as they sat in great relief and content +discussing the day, when their visitors had left, "we had an offer for +you this morning." + +"An offer?--for me, Kenneth? Whatever do you mean?" + +"A brown gentleman desires to correspond with a white lady with a view +to matrimony. He wanted to know what we would take for you in +coco-nuts." + +"In coco-nuts indeed!" and Aunt Jannet bridled red. "And who was the +impudent fellow?" + +"Our enemy, our host, Mr. Ra'a. Jean made such an impression on him +that I fear the brown ladies' noses will be permanently out of joint." + +"H'mph!" with a snort of disgust. "He'd better keep out of my reach." + +"I told him he'd have to ask you himself." + +"I'd like to see him." + +"A hint to that effect will bring him along hotfoot, I've no doubt. +The matter is worth consideration," he said, with an assumption of +weightiness. "Royal alliance--union of opposing factions--peace +secured--a very good solution of our difficulties. Say, Aunt Jannet! +will you sacrifice yourself for the good of the community?" + +"Get along with you," said Aunt Jannet. "No naked brown cannibals for +me." + +The ice being broken with the factious ones, Blair and Stuart and +Evans, with Matti still necessary as interpreter, though they were all +rapidly picking up words and phrases of the island tongue, paid Ra'a +several visits and did their utmost to strengthen the slim foundations +of peace. + +Ha'o and his people, however, declined any active intercourse with the +rebels, and never ceased to warn the white men to be on their guard, +asserting that their present amenableness was only assumed and would be +thrown off as soon as no more was to be got by it. Blair judged that +likely enough, but gave no sign of it, and treated the others as though +he believed them in every way worthy of confidence. And Ha'o and his +people meanwhile went on steadily replenishing their houses, and +constructing the weapons without which they felt but half men and +wholly insecure. + +The mission-houses were completed and furnished. The farmyard was +transferred from the bows of the _Torch_ to suitable premises ashore, +and what with the discontented bellowings of John Bull--who was always +wanting something he hadn't got, though what it was neither he nor any +one else could make out--and the mellower remonstrances of his more +thoughtful consort, and the satisfied gruntings and squeakings of the +delighted piglets and their mother, and the bleating of the goats, and +the crowings and cluckings of cocks and hens, and the gabbling of geese +in the river pools, the little settlement began to assume a most +home-like appearance. + +The ladies rejoiced in the feel of solid earth once more, and +discovered endless delights in the nearer woods and along the beach. +Limits, however, had to be placed on their wanderings, till assurance +of good intent on the part of the outsiders was made doubly sure or +proved entirely worthless. + +Their nearest neighbours were the atoll community. These, not +unnaturally, felt somewhat doubtful as to the permanence of their +security among the discordant elements around them, and looked +anxiously to the white men for protection. Left alone they would +undoubtedly have been slaughtered and eaten out of hand, for human +flesh was still the choicest dish where the only other variations from +a vegetarian diet were occasional wood-pigeons, paraquets, and an +unreliable choice of fish. + +So far as Ha'o and his people were concerned, the atoll men were safe +enough for the present and until cause might arise. They had been +bed-fellows in misfortune and had shared a common deliverance, and so +they were allowed to work beside the others in the taro swamp and to +take their allowance of the fruits of the earth. + +But there was a spirit of fear and distrust abroad--the fear that walks +by night and makes light sleepers in palm-thatched houses, and no man +went abroad after dark if he could help it. + +With no little difficulty Blair succeeded in getting into communication +also with the fourth community in the neighbourhood--the sitters on the +fence, who were naturally at odds with all the others and would have +fared badly but for their numbers, and for the hope each side had of +eventually drawing them into their own folds. + +They were perhaps more dangerous to approach even than Ra'a. For Ra'a +was one, and his men obeyed his words. But these outlanders were many, +and each man did what seemed right in his own eyes, and kept on terms +with his neighbour and the community simply from motives of safety. In +going among them, therefore, the risks were multiplied. They took all +that was offered, however, and promised anything that was required of +them in hopes of more. + +But, obviously, four more or less distinct communities in one district +were at least three too many. It was like having four savage dogs at +large in one small back yard, and the proper thing to do was to get +some of them to move. + +Captain Cathie, coasting down the lagoon in the launch, had reported +several fine wide valleys opening up into the hills, and Blair +determined to try to induce some of the others to move farther down the +coast and start fresh settlements there. + +So far as Cathie had seen--and he was much too cautious to land until +he knew more about what he might meet ashore--these valleys seemed +unoccupied and capable of profitable occupation. + +But Ha'o, when the idea was mooted, only shook his head mysteriously, +and said they would never go there. No one lived there. No one ever +had lived there. Farther down there were scattered communities, but +the men rarely came up this way because they had made a practice of +eating them whenever they got the chance. Over the mountains also +there were villages, exclusive for the same reason. + +And when Blair suggested the idea to Ra'a and the others, and offered +to assist them in laying out taro fields and yam plantations, he was +met in the same way. He could get nothing more out of them. The +subject was so evidently distasteful that he determined to go and find +out for himself, if possible, what the objectionable features were. + +And so, very early one morning, he set off in one of the whale-boats, +with Matti and Stuart and four men, and they pulled quietly along round +the great frontlet of the hills till they came to the first opening +into the hinterland, some five miles from the settlement. + +Keeping a sharp look-out, they ran in on a fine white shell beach, and +took cautious way up a wide valley from which the hills rolled back in +long sweeping slopes, well bushed, and thick with palms. Gay flights +of paraquets flashed in and out of the bushes, and the soft crooning of +multitudinous wood-pigeons was like the humming of bees in a summer +garden. A broad stream flowed through the valley, widening into +silvery pools and glittering over broken shallows. + +"It's an ideal place," said Blair. "What on earth has kept them out of +it?" + +They passed cautiously on through the tangled undergrowth. In front +was the sound of falling waters, an intermittent drenching splash, now +heard, now lost, as though a raincloud burst and passed and came again; +otherwise a wide and perfect silence, which the droning of the doves +seemed but to accentuate. + +Through dense tangles of lemon hibiscus, and crowding paw-paws, and +stilted pandanus, and the gleaming boles of the palms, they saw the +valley widen into a great arc, and caught glimpses of mighty walls of +rock which marked the end of it. And presently they were standing +below, and gazing up in awed amazement. + +In the shadow of the cliff, with their backs to it and their faces to +the sea, sat a row of gigantic stone figures, gazing out In solemn +silence through the slow-waving tops of the palms, the ephemeral palms +which had grown and died in countless generations, and had crept +gradually nearer and nearer, since those grim figures first sat down +there, with their backs to the cliff and their faces to the sea. + +So huge were they that the gazers felt themselves pigmies in +comparison. Each grave head bent slightly forward as though listening +intently for something that should come up from the sea, and the great +stone hands were crossed reverently on the massive stone breasts. + +From the sheer edge of the cliff above leaped streams of sparkling +water, which broke in mid-air, and swung to and fro in the breeze like +veils of gauze, and swept constantly over the seated figures, and +wrapped them in fragmentary rainbows. + +In their grim everlasting expectancy the great stone gods were very +terrible to look upon, even with the eyes of understanding. More than +once the gazers found themselves glancing fearfully over their +shoulders towards the sea, lest perchance the long-delayed answer to +that unspoken questioning might be coming. The sudden confrontation +with these mighty relics of a long-vanished civilisation conjured up +thoughts which bated their words to whispers. + +"This accounts for it," said Blair softly. "What an amazing sight in a +cannibal island! What do you make of it, Stuart?" + +Stuart had been eyeing the monster nearest him with keenly critical +eyes. + +"Peruvian, I should say. Of the time of the Incas--or perhaps earlier +still. Yes, earlier probably. I see no suns. This is mighty curious, +you know. The present natives cannot be descended from them. They are +pure Polynesians. And yet"--following out his own train of +thought--"I'm not so sure. Ha'o and Nai and some of the others show +traces of something more. I have often wondered about it. This may +explain. These"--nodding at the silent figures--"or their makers, fled +their country, or perhaps got blown across, and founded a new +civilisation here. Then the old race ran to seed and got lost among +the dark men, and ages afterwards their cousins from the mainland come +across to kidnap them." + +"Odd enough to think of," said Blair, "and likely enough to be true. +What were these figures for, do you suppose? Worship?" + +"Worship, sacrifice. Down in the brush there we shall probably find +the remains of their houses." + +And they did, all overgrown and barely discernible, but ruins without a +doubt, and of a city of great buildings. By dint of peeling off the +superincumbent growths of the ages they even laid bare a piece of wall, +huge squared blocks from which the creeping mosses and lichens had long +since eaten out the mortar. + +"We shall never get them to live here, that's certain," said Blair. +"The place is alive with ghosts for them. It would be an uncommonly +safe place for a mission-station, if safety were the only thing. But +it's too far from the parish. I think we can use it, however," he +nodded thoughtfully, with some of his far-reaching schemes in view. +"How those little pigs would enjoy those big paw-paws!" + +They rambled about the valley, charmed with its wealth of fruit and +flower, gathered quantities of each as evidences of their visit, and +pulled back home. + +Every one was on fire at once to go and view the wonders of the valley. + +"To-morrow we will carry over a pair of goats and half a dozen piglets +and some geese. They will have rare times there. If they don't burst +themselves, they will multiply rapidly. By the time we have educated +our friends here to better taste in the matter of eating, the larder +will be stocked. It is better for them to hunt pigs and goats than +men. And the wilder the pigs and goats the better. They will carry +their own sauce with them," said Blair. + +"It's the very place I've dreamed of since I was six years old," said +Aunt Jannet, shedding her years. "Girls! we'll go over to-morrow, with +the geese and the goats and the piglets, and have a scramble and a +rummage." + +Which they did, and found even more than the men. For Jean, at cost of +a wetting, discovered a narrow entrance behind one of the figures, and +inside it a winding stone staircase which led up into its head, and +found that through the eyes of the god she could see all that went on +below. + +And one of the things she saw was Aunt Jannet Harvey wandering amazedly +in front of the great stone figures; and then in a moment the earth +opened and swallowed her up. For the good lady had stepped on a carpet +of beautiful green moss, and the carpet gave way beneath her and +precipitated her into a chamber of horrors full of skulls and dead +men's bones, whence she was extricated with difficulty and in a state +of extreme nervous tension by the men from the boat. Aunt Jannet's +taste for exploration was dulled somewhat by the incident, and they +went back home promising to return another day. + +The goats, pigs, and geese entered into their new possession with +delighted gabblings, bleatings, squeakings, and proved forthwith that +they could look after themselves without any outside assistance. + +Meanwhile, the two nearer-home communities had been taking their first +timid steps towards the light, in the very practical shape of +elementary lessons in carpentry. The white men's tools, in the skilled +hands of the ship's carpenter, appealed strongly to them. Their +various uses were speedily grasped--the tools also, unless he kept his +eyes about him, as John MacNeil very soon found out. He was inclined +to wrath and the bestowal of hard names, but it was simply human nature +in its most natural form, and he learned to circumvent them by using +only one tool at a time and never letting it out of his hand till he +put it back into safety with the others. The driving of nails, +especially when they were allowed to do it themselves, marked epochs in +their lives and on their thumbs. Screws and hinges were revelations to +them, the saw and the plane perpetual wonders, the grindstone an +endless delight. + +Blair watched them quietly, showed them the uses of the various things, +let them experiment for themselves, and was satisfied that his sawdust +and shavings would blossom into fruit. Their interest was excited, +they were taking in new ideas, more in a day than hitherto in a +generation; the rest would follow. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FIRST FRUITS + +Aunt Jannet Harvey's ideas of missionary work and methods differed +essentially from Kenneth Blair's. + +She wanted to be up and doing all the time. She was anxious for +visible fruit before the seed was fairly into the ground. In spite of +the practical common-sense which she brought as a rule to the ordinary +affairs of life, she was, in this matter, like a child with its first +garden, in danger of retarding by her very anxiety for progress. She +was inclined to be for ever hauling up the tiny shoots to see how the +roots were getting on. Or, to be more exact still, she was like a +child placed suddenly in charge of an overgrown patch with instructions +to reduce it to order. And Aunt Jannet's ideas ran to such strenuous +loppings and bindings and weedings, that the timid brown women and +round-faced, pot-bellied youngsters fled, white-eyed and panting, +whenever they caught sight of her. + +This greatly distressed the good lady, and served only to confirm her +views as to the urgent necessity for prompt and radical measures, just +as flight from a school-board officer but serves to accentuate the +chase. + +She wanted the women and children clothed and taught and transformed +into the outward semblance of civilised beings at once. She wanted a +church built, and a school. She wanted to teach the women sewing and +decency, and the children their letters and manners. + +And Blair, with his wider knowledge and experience, had to put his foot +down on every suggestion she made, and, gently and good-humouredly as +he tried to do it since he knew the warm heart that was at the bottom +of it all, found himself in constant collision with her. + +"Example first, Aunt Jannet," was his constant text, "then precept. +It's not the slightest use thinking of a church or a school yet. +They'll come all right when we're ready for them. And, really, you +must not try to dress any of those women and children again. You'll +kill them." + +"But they are so--so terribly naked, Kenneth." + +"Of course they are, and so they have been for thousands of years, +their forbears at all events, and you might just as well begin giving +them poison as insist on clothing them. If you want to kill them, +clothe them. If you want them to live, just let them go as they are." + +"But the men----" + +"Now you just leave the men to us. If you good ladies will just keep +on at your own proper work, and let these big brown children watch you +and see the pleasant results, you will be doing the very best thing +possible for them. Make friends with them, pick up all the words you +can lay hold of, and, in fact, get in touch with them all round as +quickly as possible. But we must lead them; we can't drive them." + +His own example was an inspiration to them all. Evans and Stuart +seconded him loyally, and by degrees the ladies, who one and all, Jean +included, sympathised considerably with Aunt Jannet in her not +unnatural discrimination in favour of clothing, desisted from their +well-meant efforts and grew accustomed to the scant attire of their +brown friends. + +They had no lack of personal cleanliness to combat, for which "Thank +goodness!" said Aunt Jannet more than once. "If they let you see +plenty of skin, it is at all events clean skin. If they'd stop rubbing +themselves all over with that nasty rotten coco-nut oil and wear some +decent clothes, I wouldn't have a fault to find with them--except in +their eating and a few other things." + +The mission-settlement lay on the left bank of the little river which +ran through the spear of white sand at the head of the bay. On the +other side of the river the mountains where Ra'a lived rolled up, +shoulder on shoulder, till the farther ones were lost to sight. Behind +the mission the ground lay level for a space, where the valley came +down to the sea, and here were masses of coco-palms and a great tangle +of undergrowth, and farther up, past the village, were the disputed +taro fields, and the yam and banana plantations. + +On the mission side of the river, behind the level lands, another great +hill flung one rough protecting arm into the sea a quarter of a mile +beyond the houses. The great ridge, full of cracks and cavities, as +though it had broken in its fall, shot right into the lagoon, and the +barrier reef started from its outermost point. On the other side the +great waves roared everlastingly up a white shell beach, but landing +there was impossible, as no boat built by man could survive the tumult +of the surf. + +This was the island bathing-place, and here, all day long, men, women, +and children were slipping and tumbling like seals in the creaming +rollers. They shot deftly through the combers before they broke, and +away out to sea, then came skimming back stretched flat on their +swimming-boards, sitting on them, standing on them, marvels of grace +and beauty, with shouts and laughter and life's tide at its fullest. + +It was their most rational enjoyment, and the finest possible outlet +for their activities. It kept them healthy and it kept them clean. + +It also led to friction between the various factions, just as the taro +fields had done. This was the only place available for surf-swimming +for many miles on either side. Until the late troubles it had been +common to all. Now the nearest dwellers, Ha'o's people and the atoll +men, monopolised it, and when the others desired to join the sport they +were received with taunts and jibes which came quickly to blows, and +Blair had to adopt the _rôle_ of peacemaker once more. + +Ha'o and his men would have kept the others from the surf, just as they +would have kept them from the taro swamps. But Blair would not have +it. He reasoned with them, talked to them and at them, in a voluble +mixture of Samoan, Kapaa'an, and English, and made them understand what +he meant if many of his words were beyond them. + +In a pow-wow of this kind, when his feelings ran far in advance of his +tongue, he could not wait for Matti's plodding interpretation, but +dashed at it himself, and surprised and tickled his hearers with his +white-hot vehemence. + +They were mighty arguers and had the advantage of the language, but he +brought them to his will by sheer force of insistence. He had right on +his side, and he would have them to it also. They grumblingly yielded +the shore on certain days of the week, and Blair rejoiced in this +further sign of growth and progress. + +Meanwhile, however, he knew that they were busily at work on the +preparation of arguments of a more forceful description, and he had +little hope of reaching his ultimate goal without these coming into +use. So small a spark might set them all aflame that it was useless +attempting to forecast it or to stifle it in advance. All he could do +was to endeavour, by every means in his power, to build up among them +the new influences which he and his friends represented, so that when +the time came they should count as factors in the case. + +The houses in the village were all more or less laughable imitations of +the mission-house, for they were as imitative as monkeys, so long as +imitation imposed no restrictions, and at sight of the white men's +houses they pulled down their own and began again with these as models. +And when they got to boat-building, the canoes of their fathers were no +longer good enough for them. Their new boats must follow the lines of +the white men's boats also, to Blair's great satisfaction, since it +entailed mighty labours, and while they were busy they were safe from +outbreaks on side issues. + +At the mission-station all worked alike; the men breaking up the ground +for plants and vegetables, and attending to the live stock, the women +doing the housework and cooking. All day long the house was surrounded +by an inquisitive throng, which watched keenly and commented fully and +frankly on everything it saw, and with whom the busy workers carried on +disjointed conversations, and picked up native words in exchange for +English ones, amid shouts of laughter at the multitudinous mistakes on +either side. + +Morning and evening the white men held a short service, and the brown +men and women caught up the hymn tunes and hummed them lustily, with no +slightest idea of what they meant, but with none the less enjoyment. + +The small harmonium had been brought ashore and was a huge delight, and +for a time a mighty mystery to them. Jean played it, and they could +not understand why it should sing when she touched the keys and remain +mute when they did the same. Then one cunning fellow, by dint of +persistent watching, caught sight of her feet moving beneath her dress, +and with an excited "Hi!" laid himself flat on his stomach with his +nose at her heels, and the mystery was solved. + +The novel tunes ran in their heads, some even of the incomprehensible +words, and it was strange indeed to hear a naked brown man chopping +away at a slab of timber and singing lustily, "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown +'im! kown 'im law-daw-faw!" Later on they heard that tune amid still +stranger surroundings, for the lilt and swing of it captured their +fancy, and they were at it morning, noon, and night--building their +boats, working in the taro fields, sweeping along on the tops of the +rolling combers, sitting outside their houses when the day's work was +done. + +There was a hopeful, homely sound in it, and those who sang with +understanding hoped fervently that in time the others might do so too. + +They were very children, these brown men and women, in their +light-heartedness, quarrelsomeness, and lack of restraint. Whatsoever +seemed good in their eyes at the moment, that they did, regardless of +consequences. Only at times, the innate savagery showed through, and +then they were to be feared. Like hot-headed children who had never +known restraint, there was no knowing what they would do, except that +it would certainly be something unpleasant to the offending one and +possibly to the bystanders. + +They were very magpies, too, in the snapping up of treasure-trove. + +"We won't call it stealing," said Blair soothingly to John MacNeil, the +carpenter, who was complaining for the twentieth time of missing tools. +"They don't look on it in that light, you see, John." + +"Thievin' blayguards!" said John dourly, minus another tool. + +"We'll teach them better soon. Meanwhile, leave nothing lying about if +you can help it, and give them no opportunities. They are so in the +habit of picking up anything they want that it's become part of their +nature." + +"Juist thievin' blayguards! I'd clour their heads if I could catch 'em +at it, but it'd need eyes all round to be upsides with 'em." + +And when, now and again, John did catch them at it, and proceeded to +clour their heads, they took it quite good-humouredly, and surrendered +their prize with a grin, and bore no malice. + +It was a strange right-about-face in the lives of the ladies, and many +a laugh they had over it. + +"Jean, my dear," said Aunt Jannet one day, when all four of them were +busily washing and wringing out clothes at the mouth of the river, +"this is a change from Hyde Park, isn't it?" At which, and the +incongruity of associations which sprang up in them at her words, they +all broke into laughter. + +Straight in front lay the placid stretch of the lagoon, pulsing softly +to the broken influx through the gap in the reef; beyond it, the crisp, +white leaping hedge of foam along the reef itself; beyond that, the +infinite expanse of sea and sky, and the far-away white line where +upper and lower blue met and kissed: on the one side, the bold green +shoulders of the mountain, feathered with slow-swinging palms, solemn, +mysterious, just a trifle threatening, since Ra'a lived there; on the +beach beyond, a mixed company of brown men and white, busy at +boat-building, with spasmodic outbreaks of "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown +'im!" to the tapping of the hammers: on the other side, the tumbled +rocks of the ridge and the ceaseless growl of the surf; behind them the +white houses of the mission, the bosky valley, peeps of native houses, +sounds of women's voices and children's laughter. + +"It is certainly a wider outlook," said Jean cheerfully. + +Then a slim brown and white figure stole up beside them, and became +immediately all brown, as Nai loosed her towel vestments and began to +wash them in the same way as the white women were doing. + +"And here is first-fruits," said Jean. "Good morning, Nai." + +"Mawin," smiled Nai, proud of her accomplishments, and spread her +towels to dry in the sun alongside the more complicated garments of +civilisation. + +The _Torch_ was away with Blair and Stuart on a tour of exploration +round the island, and possibly to one or two of the neighbouring ones. + +Blair had been waiting for the opportunity for some time past. Ha'o +had told him of communities on the other side of the island, and he was +desirous of getting in touch with them as soon as possible. + +The ladies had wished to go too, but he thought them better at home +till he had spied out the land himself. He intended to land at the +different villages, and the enterprise might not be without its +dangers. Of these he made light, however, and it was with tranquil +minds that those ashore waved their farewells in the early dawn, as the +_Torch_ slipped from her anchorage and wafted lightly down the lagoon. + +The times seemed in all ways propitious. Ha'o, indeed, would have +preferred that the white men's favours should have been kept all for +himself, but Blair was at pains to explain to him that nothing less +than the whole island, and if possible all the islands, would satisfy +him. In view of what he knew would follow sooner or later, he tried to +explain to the brown man that if it were possible to unite the various +communities on Kapaa'a under one paramount chief it would be for the +great benefit of all. + +To which Ha'o replied succinctly-- + +"Then we must kill Ra'a," and rose to the prospect. + +Ra'a had been quiescent for some time now. There was occasional +friction between members of the various factions, but nothing more than +was to be expected under the circumstances. They were simply +squabbles, resulting in no general disquiet, though symptomatic of the +underlying feeling that was abroad. + +Ha'o, however, never ceased his warnings. Ra'a he said feelingly, was +not to be trusted, and the only right and proper thing for the white +men to do was to join him in wiping him out, and the sooner the better. +And, simply from a political point of view, Blair could not but confess +to himself that the weight of evidence was in Ha'o's favour. For Ra'a +remained in truculent retirement, and doggedly rejected all efforts at +conciliation. Blair had gone up the mountain more than once since that +first time, and had done his utmost to win him over. Ra'a accepted all +his presents as his rightful due, but gave absolutely nothing in +return, not even worthless promises. He was the black cloud on the +horizon, and they could only hope that he would remain a cloud and not +develop into a storm. + +Each week that passed strengthened Ha'o's hands. Not only did it give +him time to arm and consolidate his own little community, but his +numbers were constantly increased by ones and twos, as the dwellers in +the hills took note of the advantages enjoyed by those on the shore +through their intercourse with the white men, and desired to share in +them. Ha'o permitted the return of these prodigals, since it was +better to have them under his hand than beyond his reach. He put +little faith in them, but had the wisdom to keep his feelings to +himself. Blair welcomed them as straws indicative of the current, but +Ha'o, better versed in the ways of his race, pushed on his preparations +for the conflict which he foresaw these very secessions would sooner or +later precipitate. + +When Blair told him of his impending trip of exploration, and tried to +induce him to come with them, Ha'o stated bluntly that he preferred to +remain at home. It was not impossible that he had it in his mind that +if anything happened in Blair's absence, he would have the freer hand +to act as he pleased. For the white men were ever on the side of +magnanimity, and magnanimity, where Ra'a was concerned, was to Ha'o +simple foolishness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SETBACKS + +So the _Torch_ slipped down the lagoon like a picture, and Nai and the +other ladies completed their laundry operations, and in due course the +red sun dropped into the sea, without the explosive hiss which seemed +inevitable, and night fell on the little community as peacefully as +usual. + +Evans conducted their evening service, and the attentive ring of brown +men and women round the platform of the house hummed the tunes gaily, +echoed the white "Amen" with the gusto of children after a long sermon, +and dispersed like big bumble-bees to their homes. + +Jean could not sleep that night. It was the first time she and Kenneth +had been separated, since their marriage, and she felt as lonely as the +circumstances demanded. She got up at last and slipped on a +dressing-gown, and went out and sat on the platform. + +The soft lip-lap of the water on the beach, and the distant growl of +the surf, were soothing, and she sat looking at the great new stars, +with which she was becoming friendly by degrees, and thinking of her +husband, and wondering how far he had got, and of the vast change her +marriage had made in her life. + +She had never for one moment regretted it. All her heaven on earth was +centred in Kenneth. So long as he remained to her, all the rest was +nothing. And before long they would begin to see the fruit of their +quiet sowing, the Dark Islands would be dark no longer, and they would +be living a quiet, happy life among a new and contented people. It was +a grand and glorious work. No, she had no regrets--since she had +Kenneth. + +On her right across the river, as she sat facing the sea, the mountain +loomed sombre and menacing--the hill Difficulty. Her thoughts ran back +to that trying morning when she and Kenneth faced the hill, and what it +held, all alone, not knowing whether they would ever come back alive. +Like many another hill on life's highway, its menace had been chiefly +in their own fears, and had disappeared on closer acquaintance. How +she wished that uncomfortable man Ra'a would go away, or be reconciled +to his brother, or do anything that would allow the community to settle +down in peace to its new life's work. + +She knew much of Blair's great hopes and large ideas, and how essential +he considered it that the islands should as soon as possible attain to +some kind of central government, so that they might unite in opposing +an inflexible front to any attempt at interference from the outside. +The Dark Islands for the Dark Islanders was his aim and object in life +at present, and this truculent savage on the hill there was keeping +everything back. She almost had it in her heart to wish Ra'a's speedy +and sudden death. + +Blair had often spoken of the evils that had followed the admission of +traders in others of the South Sea Islands--drink, disease, +dispossession--and how the communities were ruined before ever they had +a chance of better things. Yes, surely, she thought, if Ra'a could +meet with some happy accident, which would end him, it would be for the +good of the community at large. That was not a thought that would +commend itself to Kenneth, she knew, but she could not help thinking +it. What a mighty relief it would be if Ha'o walked in some morning, +and said, "Ra'a is dead." She felt as if she could almost forgive him +if he had done the deed himself. + +Then she thought she heard, a sound in the gloom of the hillside. She +strained into the darkness and listened intently. She heard nothing, +but still felt a sense of discomfort. After all, it might quite likely +be one of the natives prowling about, though, as a rule, their fear of +ghosts and evil spirits kept them indoors after nightfall, and it +needed very strong inducement to take them abroad. + +She was still peering towards the hill with puckered brow, when a +curdling, short-cut yell ripped the silence behind, in the direction of +the village, and in a moment pandemonium seemed loosed, and the night +was alive with horrors--screams and yells and all the turmoil of +warfare. + +That first deadly cry sent Jean flying inside for Aunt Jannet. The +good lady met her at the door of her own room with an anxious-- + +"What in the name of goodness----?" and then Alison Evans and Mary +Stuart came tumbling in upon them, and Evans called to them from the +ground outside to stop where they were, and they would be all right. + +It was not in human nature, however, to stand huddled in the dark, +asking one another questions which none of them could answer, when the +answer was shrieking outside, and they all crept, trembling, to the +verandah, and stood silently facing the danger, whatever it might be. + +They heard Evans quietly ordering his men, and felt safer. And beyond, +the shouts and yells waxed and waned and wavered to and fro. Once they +thought they were coming in their direction, and their hearts thumped +painfully. Then the tumult drifted away again, and at last passed +furiously towards the taro fields, and died away on the mountain-side. + +Then new sounds arose, cries of victory, little less blood-curdling +than the shouts of battle, and the ladies crept back into the dark +room, assured of their own safety, but with horrible premonitions of +what these might portend. + +Presently the shadowy darkness over by the river resolved itself into a +mob of black figures which came towards the mission-houses, leaping and +brandishing its newly-fleshed weapons, and shouting at the top of its +voice, in horrible incongruity, and the more horrible in that the tune +was perfectly correct, "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im! +Law-daw-faw!" + +They circled the fence, leaping and shouting and singing, and the men +of the yacht inside grasped their weapons to repel an onslaught. But +the brown men had had their fill of fighting for that night, and were +only there to advertise their victory. + +Evans said a word or two to them, but learned only that Ra'a had come +down from the hill and attacked the village, but that they had been +ready for him. They were too excited to be able to give any details +yet, and presently they drew off and went shouting and singing home. + +Jean, with something of a shock, remembered her ill-wishes for Ra'a, +and wondered with discomfort, now that the bald possibility faced her +so closely, if they had been realised. If they had, she would feel +almost as if she had had a hand in his death. + +Then a native drum began beating in the village, and the ceaseless +monotony of its deep, dolorous boom fretted their ears, and set their +hearts jumping, and jangled their nerves to the point of agony. They +covered their ears with their hands, they stuffed their fingers into +them, but the drum beat in through their temples. They clasped their +heads tightly to keep them from splitting, but the drum beat in all the +same. When it ceased abruptly at last, and they ventured to lift their +heads, they saw one another's pale faces in a faint gleam that stole in +through the windows. The darkness over the village was pulsing with +the glow of great fires, and as they glanced fearfully at one another +they knew that the same horrible thought was in all their minds. + +It was dawn before the noises died away, and Evans came in to them with +a grim, grey face. He said nothing, but nodded silently--and their +horror was confirmed. + +Yes, truly, it was a decided change from Kensington and Hyde Park. + +No soul from the village came near them that day, nor did any of them +venture out except Evans, who went along twice during the day to see +what was going on, but returned each time with pinched lips and a +despondent shake of the head. + +The following day the brown men were about again, but sluggishly, as +though the fight had used up all their energies, or something else had +clogged them. It was another two days before they settled down to +work, and even then they were not quite as they had been. + +Ha'o had kept away from them. When Evans came across him at last, he +endeavoured to get some particulars of the fight, and gathered that +Ra'a had probably watched the departure of the _Torch_, and thought it +an opportunity not to be missed. He had crept down in the dark, hoping +to surprise the village, and then make easy prey of the mission-houses +and their contents. Ha'o had foreseen the possibility of such an +attempt. Evans understood him to say that in Ra'a's place it was just +what he would have done himself. So he had men on the watch, and the +rest slept armed, and instead of a surprise, the hill-men walked into +an ambush--and paid. Ra'a himself had escaped, leaving a dozen or so +of his men behind. They had eaten them, said Ha'o, in a +matter-of-course way. Ra'a had gone farther into the hills, and to +follow him would be dangerous. And so to the boat-building once more, +and much singing of "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im!" which sounded more +than ever out of place under the circumstances. + +Nai also put in an appearance that day, and to such an extent does the +mind prejudice the eye, that it seemed to Jean and the rest that even +she was changed from what she had been. In a word, it was difficult to +look upon any of these sleek brown men and women without thinking with +disgust of the horrible orgies in which they had been indulging. Their +humanity seemed but skin deep, and just below it the wild beast lurked +and peeped through the glancing black eyes. + +Nor was it easy to conceal their feelings entirely, and perhaps Nai's +womanly intuition perceived a touch of frost in the atmosphere. She +stayed but a short time, and then went quietly away. + +"I'm sorry," said Jean, with a sense of discomfort; "but really I could +not feel towards her quite as usual." + +"Of course you couldn't--nobody could," said Aunt Jannet briskly. "If +I knew how to talk to them, I'd tell them what I think of the whole +business. I'd make their ears tingle, I warrant you." + +"I wish Kenneth was here. He would know just what to do." + +"He'll tell you, my dear, that it's no good talking to them. You must +just go slow, and break them off it by degrees. All the same, it would +be a relief to one's mind to give them a right good scolding." + +"They've been used to it all their lives, you see." + +"All the worse for them. They ought to be ashamed of themselves." + +"But that's just what they don't understand. Suppose a brown man came +over to England and remonstrated with us for killing and eating +beautiful little lambs and graceful cows----" + +"Fudge, child! Lambs and cows aren't human beings," grunted Aunt +Jannet. "They haven't souls." + +"I don't know that the fact of men having souls makes much difference +when it's only a question of their dead bodies being eaten. But I do +hope Kenneth can break them off it! It is too horrible! And one can't +help thinking of it every time one looks at them. Though I suppose it +was just the same before we came." + +"What they did before we came was not our fault. What they do now is, +and the sooner Kenneth puts a stop to it the better," was Aunt Jannet's +final word. + +Matters went on quietly--Evans and the men of the yacht clearing and +breaking up ground for trial plantings of various seeds, the brown men +busy on their boats to the tune of "Kown 'im!" the women, brown and +white, busy on their household duties, the children laughing and +screaming--till, on the seventh day, a brown runner came, fresh from +the surf behind the ridge, to tell them that the _Torch_ was in sight. +And instantly they dropped what they were at, to scramble up the +shoulder of the hill and wave their joyful welcome. Not a white man or +woman there but felt a new sense of security and hopefulness at sight +of her, and it was chiefly because on board of her was the wise head +and great heart to which they had all come to look for guidance and +inspiration in their work. + +It was a very joyful meeting when the anchor rattled down, and Blair +and Stuart and Captain Cathie jumped ashore from the whale-boat, and +the brown men welcomed them, outwardly at all events, with as much +gusto as the whites. + +And great stories Blair and the others had to tell of their doings out +beyond. The brown men and women crowded round the platform till late +into the night, laughing and chattering with appreciation of the white +men's volubility, though they could not understand a word of it all. + +It had been a most satisfactory trip. They had visited all the six +islands of the group, and had landed at various places on each of them. +They had found the natives suspicious at first, but amenable to +presents and open to their advances when they found nothing ulterior in +them. In fact, in several places, when the brown men found them +actually going away, without any attempts at kidnapping or otherwise +molesting them, they followed in their canoes for long distances +begging them to return. + +"It's a glorious field," said Blair, stretching out his arms +energetically as though to gather it all in at once, "if we can only +occupy it and fence it round before the degraders come. And we must, +for one of those islands given over to the devil would be like a plague +spot infecting all the rest." + +Then they told him of the happenings at home. He was startled at +Ra'a's outbreak and at thought of the consequences if it had proved +successful. + +"I hate the thought of coercing him or any one," he said thoughtfully; +"but until he either comes in, which I fear is hopeless, or is got rid +of in some way, he is going to be a terrible hindrance to our work." + +"Deport him to yon outer island, Mr. Blair, with such of his people as +stick to him," suggested Cathie; "then the rest will have peace." + +"Easily said, captain, and a good idea; but how?" + +"It would mean fighting, I suppose," said Cathie briskly, "unless +common-sense led him to give in quietly. Sometimes it pays best in the +long run to grip your nettle at once and grip it hard." + +"He'll never give in till he is forced to," said Blair. "Yet I can't +see my way to use our force against him. How can we preach peace to +these people if we begin by using the sword ourselves?" + +"If you give the rest peace, it may be better than preaching it," said +Aunt Jannet. "I agree with Captain Cathie. There'll be no peace till +that man is got rid of. And, for goodness' sake, do stop them eating +one another, Kenneth. I haven't enjoyed a meal since, and I can't look +at one of them without thinking that a day or two ago he was munching +one of his fellows." + +"We shall break them off it by degrees." + +"By degrees!--by degrees!" cried Aunt Jannet. "It is too horrible. +You ought to go straight to Ha'o and tell him we won't have any more of +it." + +"And suppose he said, as would be very natural, that he'd do as he +pleased? What would you do then, Aunt Jannet?" + +"I'd tell him if he didn't stop it I'd make him, or else we'd all go +away and leave him." + +"Ay, well, you see, we can't make him and we're not going away, so it's +no good telling him that. We must use our common sense. These people +have eaten human flesh all their lives. It is the greatest treat they +can have. If you argued the point with Ha'o, he would probably say +that, as between man and pig, man is the cleaner feeder of the two, and +therefore must be the better eating. When we have pigs enough, we'll +work them on to pork. Until we can get them on to something they like +as much, or, better still, get them to feel that man was not meant to +be eaten by man, I fear words won't go for much." + +"And do you mean to say that you'll pass the matter over without a +word, Kenneth?" asked Aunt Jannet. + +"I don't say that, and I don't intend to. But if you imagine, Aunt +Jannet, that a cannibal is going to give up his daintiest dish simply +for being spoken to, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." + +He made his first attempt against cannibalism the next day, and +returned from it with a humorous twinkle in his eye. + +"Well?" asked Aunt Jannet. + +"Well," said Blair, "Ha'o holds that it can't be wrong for him to eat +men when we do the same." + +"If he'll wait till he sees us doing it, I'll find no fault with him." + +"I assured him that white people never ate human flesh. And what do +you think was his proof that we did? He pointed to some of those +corned-beef tins with George Washington's head on the label, and said, +'There!' and nothing I could say would convince him that George +Washington did not represent the contents. He is under the impression +that we can our people at home for convenience, and carry them about +with us in that way. I assured him it was cow, but it was no use. He +could not believe anyone would kill such a beautiful animal as a cow +simply for food. He said he would give ten men for one cow any day. +So there we are, you see. It will be a matter of time. Meanwhile, I +suggest peeling George Washington off the rest of those meat tins!" + +"Well, I never!" said Aunt Jannet. "And Ra'a?" + +"He is as anxious as you and Captain Cathie to make an end of him; but +he acknowledges that it would be dangerous to follow him into the +hills, and would certainly mean considerable loss of life, so for the +present I have dissuaded him from it." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +FORWARD + +This is not a missionary chronicle, but simply a brief record of some +of the doings of Jean and Kenneth Blair. It is impossible, therefore, +to enter into anything like a detailed account of their work among +their chosen people, interesting as that would be. Only the more +salient points can be touched upon, such as stood out from the level of +hard, plodding, often dry and dreary work, as God's mountain +masterpieces stand out in our travel-memories, and remain with us when +the long level plains are forgotten. And just as the mountain's +grandeur is the record of Nature's strife and endurance, so these +salient points in a man's life as a rule mark battle-grounds and +commemorate strife--and sometimes victory. + +Kenneth Blair always found a vast and quite unique enjoyment in the +first beginnings of things. I myself have heard him express a +whimsically-veiled, but none the less profound, regret that it had not +been possible for him to be present at the very first beginning of all, +when "in the dim grey dawn of things, earth drew from out the void and +rounded to its shape." + +It was very characteristic of the man, and explains to some extent the +whole-hearted delight he found in his work in the Dark Islands. + +Here, if not a new-created world, was one sunk in nether gloom, to +which no glimmer of the light had yet penetrated. As regards things +spiritual, it was virgin soil--worse, it was a veritable swamp of +heathenism, a quagmire overlaid with the strangling growths and +festering remains of ages of superstition, cruelty, and thick darkness. +And this in one of the fairest spots on earth. + +You anti-missioners, who sit at home and mumble platitudes on the +needless waste of life and time and money, spent in the effort to lift +these outer fringes of the night, how very little you know! + +They are quite happy as they are, those outer ones, you say. Life +comes--and goes--easily with them. They have all they want. Why +disturb them? Why introduce upsetting notions? Why open their minds +to wants only to fill them at so heavy a cost? + +The answer is so simple. Would you see any child of yours condemned, +for no fault of its own, to sit in outer darkness, if at any cost to +yourself you could open the door to the light and warmth you yourself +enjoy? Would you refrain from opening the door to a neighbour's child, +to a stranger's child, to any child whatsoever, if your hand was on the +handle? + +These others are children also. In spite of their blue skies and +crystal seas and waving palms, they are buried in a darkness like unto +death. It is for us who rejoice in the light to help them towards it. +Our own great inheritance carries with it an inevitable and inalienable +obligation. Shirk it we may and do, cancel it we cannot. + +It was the recognition of this paramount duty, in perhaps somewhat +abnormal measure, that made Kenneth Blair what he was. He brought to +the work the white fire of a mighty enthusiasm which nothing could +damp, and which did one good to look upon. The spur of what he deemed +a former lapse urged him at times, perhaps, to extremes in the matter +of personal risk; but if any man ever carried the courage of his +convictions to their fullest limit, without a thought for himself, that +did Kenneth Blair. With it all a simplicity of manner which was never +at fault, because it assumed nothing; a natural gaiety and +high-heartedness which carried him bravely through many a difficult +place, and drew even the brown men to him; and a width of view, with a +long forward reach, which might have made a statesman of him, had he +not chosen this higher path. + +To see him at football on the beach with a shrieking crowd of brown +boys, himself as much a boy as the nakedest of the lot, was one thing. +And to see him pondering, or hear him unfolding to the others, his +plans for the Dark Islands, was quite another. + +He had seen the strange, and in some cases awful, developments of +civilisation in some of the other islands. He had pondered them for +years, and had studied cause and effect from germ to ultimate issue. +They were as warning lights to him. The wonderful chance which placed +in his hands the financial lever had awakened mighty hopes in him. In +his mind's eye he saw the Dark Islands enlightened, self-governing, +self-possessing, self-supporting--a prospect worth any man's life's +work. + +Of the preliminary clearing work, then, we will say little. It was dry +and dull and dreary enough at times to provoke Aunt Jannet Harvey to +active remonstrance at the apparent inactivity of the propaganda. But +the quiet work, confined as it was almost entirely to the presentation +of better ways of life by force of example, and the very occasional +dropping here and there of a seed of precept, began to show some small +signs of fruit at last. + +Within a very short time Nai's advanced notions in the matter of dress +had caught on, and instead of the precarious ridi fringe, towels, or, +in default of them, a strip of striped calico, had become the +fashionable female attire. Within six months the brown men were going +about fully clothed--in a loin cloth. + +"It's better than nothing," said Aunt Jannet. "It keeps them from +looking absolutely indecent anyway, and as for the children it doesn't +matter," for the children all flatly refused any attempt to clothe +them. Time after time she had made furtive experiments on them, but +they all proved abortive. They took her gifts of cloth and so on +willingly, but turned them to unexpected and unintended uses. + +Within six months the children were coming to school--some of them, and +irregularly--and were actually, in some cases, beginning to have vague +ideas as to why they came. It was not much, but it was in the right +direction. + +Within six months the white men had learned enough of the language to +be able, with their additional slight knowledge of Samoan, to +understand and make themselves understood--to some extent. And the +brown men, in exchange, had acquired a number of English words and had +added considerably to their repertoire of hymns--the tunes they picked +up marvellously, and the words they chattered like parrots. + +They had also learned to handle white men's tools with facility, and +they still stole them when opportunity offered, though not quite so +freely as at first. They had also seen marvellous things come up out +of the earth from the white men's plantings, and had learned to what +uses they could be put. They had seen wonders of the white men's +ingenuity, chief among which was the diversion of a rapid little +stream, which from time immemorial had flowed to the sea on the other +side of the ridge. By a very simple damming operation, to which the +cracks and cavities of the ridge readily lent themselves, the torrent +now came down the nearer side, and by means of a water-wheel, of John +MacNeil's construction operated a circular saw and various other +labour-saving appliances, and then flowed in a sparkling stream through +the middle of the mission settlement. The water-wheel and the circular +saw were endless enjoyments to the brown men, women, and children, and +they would sit watching them by the hour when they could have been more +profitably employed about their other affairs. + +Matters politic had also advanced somewhat. In place of three parties +in the close neighbourhood of the station, there were now only two. +Ra'a was still at large in the hills, but the leaderless faction had +gradually disintegrated, some few joining him, but the larger portion +returning by degrees to their allegiance to Ha'o, drawn thereto by the +manifest advantages of the white men's friendliness. + +And Ha'o himself had behaved well. Constant intercourse, even through +the misty medium of scarce understood tongues, with men like Blair and +Stuart and Evans, could not but have its effect on any man, and on this +clear-headed, sharp-witted savage the effects had been very marked. + +He was naturally intelligent, and, according to his lights, of a most +gentlemanly disposition. His understanding developed still more +through his observation of the white men and their ways. He recognised +their superiority in most things and, as headman of his tribe, was +emulous of their accomplishment. He lapsed at lengthening intervals +into his natural savageries, but, beyond this, never swerved by a +hair's breadth from his loyalty to the men who had restored him to his +home. + +Nai was rejoicing mightily in the possession of a sleek, plump, +black-eyed baby, the first son born to Ha'o. His other wives had given +him daughters, but since his return to the island, and their tardy +return to him, he had declined to have anything to do with any of them +beyond seeing that they were fed. Nai's community in his dangers and +sufferings had concentrated all his savage affections upon her, and now +she had justified him by giving him a son. + +Blair reposed great faith in these three, and counted on them as +corner-stones in the mighty future. + +The valley of the gods had proved a famous breeding-place. Goats and +pigs and ducks abounded there. The brown men had been introduced to +roast pig and goat flesh, and found it equal almost to man flesh. But +nothing would induce them to go there for it. + +So, with mighty labours, for the animals were become perfectly wild in +their freedom, a number of them were given the run of the island, and +the novel excitements of the chase bade fair to afford the brown men +full vent for the energies that had hitherto run in the direction of +battle and murder and sudden death. Certainly the newcomers played +havoc for a time with the taro fields and plantain and banana groves. +But this also made for good, since it involved fencing operations on an +extensive scale, and steady work tended to keep the devil of idle hands +at bay. + +"The curse of savagery is the lack of employment," was one of Blair's +maxims. "They get to fighting simply from having nothing else to do. +Get them to work, and it is a mighty step upwards." + +So, but for Ra'a, the recalcitrant, the reunion of the tribe on this +side of the island would have been complete. And this was so essential +to Blair's far-reaching plans for its safety and redemption that he +spared no pains to bring it about. + +At risk which could not be estimated, he went up alone into the hills +more than once to endeavour to reconcile the insubordinates to the +facts of the case. He guaranteed them life, liberty, and equal +advantages with the rest if they would return to their allegiance. +Failing that, he offered them safe conduct to one of the smaller, +thinly-populated islands, with supplies of tools, seeds, and animals, +and the assistance of one of his colleagues in turning these to account. + +But Ra'a would have none of it, and his dominant will so far was strong +enough to keep his turbulent crew from breaking away towards the +fleshpots. The loosing of the pigs and goats had provided them also +with food and sport, and, since collisions between the various hunting +parties were not infrequent, life was eminently tolerable, though it +lived on the point of death. + +On these embassies Blair had emphatically declined to take Jean with +him, on account of the indefiniteness of the journeying. Ra'a was +constantly shifting camp, and each time he had to be sought afresh, +with the imminent chance of the seeker meeting death in the quest. +Jean dreaded these lonely journeys terribly, but she acquiesced +sensibly, and each time bade him farewell in the full knowledge that it +might be for the last time. + +[Illustration: It might be for the last time.] + +She was, indeed, becoming reconciled to partings as incidental to the +missionary life. The _Torch_ was constantly coming and going among the +islands now, and sometimes the ladies were allowed to go and sometimes +not. Relations with the outlying tribes were progressing +satisfactorily. In most cases, after two or three calls with no +exhibition of cloven hoofs or ulterior designs on the part of their +visitors, the natives welcomed them in the most friendly fashion. In +some cases they still held back, and regarded them with suspicion and +distrust, but on the whole the tendency was towards confidence and +friendship. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MANY FORMS OF GRACE + +We have glanced at the higher phases of Kenneth Blair's character, the +more homely ones were no less strenuous and striking. + +Anything less like a saint in daily life one could hardly imagine. In +his love of fun and frolic he was a big, clean-hearted schoolboy, full +of jokes, and with a laugh that did one good to listen to and was as +infectious as the mumps. Out of harness, on the sands or in the sea, +with the brown men and boys and his own, or up the hills after pigs and +goats, he let himself go with an abandon which only helped to brace the +straps when he geared again. + +He set them to football, cricket, boxing, and fencing, for all of which +his foresight had made provision, kite-flying on a scale so gigantic as +to set the natives gaping, rowing, swimming--anything and everything +that might harmlessly take the place of the excitements their savage +natures craved, and which served at the same time to strengthen the +bonds between white and brown, he pressed into the service. + +The boxing-gloves and basket-hilted fencing-sticks became absolute +means of grace to the islanders. Here was scope for fighting to any +extent, with no ill results. They took to them amazingly, and what was +lacking in science was more than made up in zeal. And if these +fighting bouts filled specific wants of their own, they also provided +no less excellent entertainment for the onlookers. + +At first they put both gloves and sticks to the primitive service of +belabouring their opponents to the utmost capacity of their muscles, +and the sight of two stalwart brown men, clad only in boxing-gloves or +basket-hilt, pounding away at one another with every ounce that was in +them, and with never an attempt at defence, kept the white men in +paroxysms of laughter. But punishment even of so comparatively mild a +character as that soon led to more advanced ideas, and before long the +browns were a match for the whites, and were never tired of the sport. + +Captain Cathie, when he was not ranging the seas in the _Torch_, put +his men through their cutlass drill on the beach as regularly as if the +houses behind had been a coastguard instead of a mission-station, and +to the brown men this was a sight never to be missed. The measured +sweep and clash of the glancing steel fascinated them. Presently they +were asking for cutlass drill also, and it was not denied them. Such +things might to some seem roundabout steps on the road to salvation--to +Kenneth Blair they were very direct and important ones. + +[Illustration: Steps on the road to salvation.] + +With these brown men and women he was forbearing and long-suffering to +a degree which, in the opinion of some of his friends, passed +reasonable bounds. That, perhaps, only went to prove the breadth and +depth of his nature. He could flame, however, with the best when +occasion called, yet there was a righteousness in his anger which +lifted it above the common anger of smaller men. + +From whatever distant strain they drew, the girls of Kapaa'a were +undoubtedly good looking. Physically they were models of sinuous +beauty, wild, dark-eyed nymphs, with manes of flower-decked hair and +natural graces of action that came of ages of unfettered life and +limbs. Their pretty faces and kittenish ways might well play havoc +with the hearts--or say the fancies--of hot-blooded young sailormen, +and these coquettes of the ridi-fringe were no whit behind their kind +in the full appreciation of their powers. + +Blair saw the danger as soon as he saw the girls. He had a way of +looking facts square in the face without any blinking. He talked very +straight to his boys, pointing out the cons of the case with the utmost +frankness, and exhorting them to caution and restraint in their dealing +with the island women. That so few casualties occurred spoke volumes +for his moral grip over his men. + +The danger was very real, for the brown girls' estimation of the +attentions of the white men was open and unblushing, and tended to +irritation on the part of discarded brown lovers. + +Captain Cathie, in one of his bluffer moments, bluntly suggested +wholesale marriage as a preventive of irregularities, and the starting +of a new race on that basis, instancing the Pitcairners as typical +resultants. But Blair bade him postpone any such notions until the +islanders had at all events attained to some degree of civilisation. + +"Trained and educated, there is no reason why our island girls should +not make excellent wives," said he; "but the time is not ripe yet. +Nothing but bitterness and disillusion can come of the mingling of +natures so opposite. Meanwhile, if our lads can stand the test they +will be all the better for it." + +Nothing serious happened--outwardly at any rate, though it is not +impossible that a good deal went on of which the authorities were not +aware--until, one day, one of the men was missing, and no one knew--or +at all events would say--what had become of him. + +Captain Cathie discovered the lapsus when he had his men out for drill +on the beach. + +"Where's Sandy Lean?" he asked. + +No answer, but covert grins from the rest, and flashes of laughter from +the girls who were watching--laughter which evoked a growl from the +brown men. + +"Very well! We'll deal with Sandy afterwards. Fall in, men! +'Tention!" and the drill proceeded. + +When it was over, the captain questioned two or three of them as to +Sandy's probable whereabouts, but got nothing out of them. So he +marched over to Blair's quarters, where the four heads of the community +were hammering away at the language, Ha'o giving and receiving, and +Matti straightening out kinks. + +"Sandy Lean's away, Mr. Blair, and I can't get track of him," announced +the captain. + +"Ah!" and Blair drummed quietly on the table till the hot anger cooled. +"So that's come at last," he said presently. "I'm sorry. The man's a +fool, but as he has chosen, so he must lie." + +He explained the matter to Ha'o, who showed no surprise and still less +annoyance. His manner even implied that he looked upon the alliance as +an honour to Kapaa'a, and that any other view of it might be popularly +resented. + +"Can you find the man for us?" asked Blair. + +"What do you want with him?" asked Ha'o. + +"He must marry the girl." + +"I will find him," and next day he brought word that the fugitives were +camped lightly in the hills, in one of the houses vacated by the +dissolved third faction. + +Blair, Cathie, and Ha'o accordingly set off at once to straighten the +matter out, and a couple of hours' climbing brought them to the place. + +Sandy Lean's old mother in Greenock Vennel would surely not have known +him in his present estate. With the bonds and trammels of civilisation +he had lightly discarded also its outward and visible tokens. His only +clothing was a kilt of white cotton, whereby he was already paying +tribute to folly in the clouds of flies and mosquitoes which levied +toll on his white skin. In the hope of circumventing them, or with a +loverly idea of assimilation to his brown bride, he had smeared himself +with mud from the taro fields, and was now a motley pastel in black and +red and white. + +The sound of his voice, droning a comic song, drew them to the house, +where he lay flat on his back on a mat. By his side sat the brown +girl, doing her best to keep off the flies with a bunch of leaves. + +"Hoots, lassie, scat 'em!--scat 'em!" he broke out. "They nip like the +de'il himsel'. It's the kiss of a cold Scotch mist I'm wantin'." + +The dusky bride greeted the newcomers with a smile broad enough to +typify her happiness and victory. She had proved herself stronger than +the white men, and was satisfied with her prize. She had woven a +garland of crimson hibiscus into her dark hair and another round her +neck, and with her lustrous eyes and gleaming smile she made a very +pretty picture. In a playful mood she had also inserted a crimson +flower behind each ear of her captive, and when, at her warning word, +he sat up suddenly, he looked supremely silly and was aware of it. + +"So you've made your choice, Lean?" said Blair quietly. + +And Sandy glowered back at him with defiant confusion, while the flies +settled on his shoulders. + +"You're the first to fall away from us," said Blair, "and it would have +been better, I think, if you had waited. However, as you have decided, +so it must be. You have no wife at home?" + +"No, sir." + +"Very well. Stand up before me with the girl and take her hand." + +They stood up in their surprise, and he read the marriage service over +them, insisting on Sandy's responses and taking the girl's for granted, +since there was no possible doubt about her wishes. + +"Now," he said, when it was over, "she is your wife, and you are at +liberty to return to the village. Ha'o will see you married again +there according to the island custom, so that the people may understand +that you really are married. You have taken yourself off the ship's +books, of course, and you will have to support yourself and your wife. +I hope you will treat her well. No doubt her relatives will see to it +if you do not. It would, I think, be as well for you to keep in touch +with the mission, and we will do what we can to help you. You can have +tools and seeds. If you get into any trouble, come to me. Now +goodbye--and--see you treat that girl well." And they left the +newly-married couple to their honeymooning. + +It was some days before Mr. and Mrs. Sandy descended from the clouds to +the humdrum cares of life. Ha'o punctiliously performed over them all +the rites and ceremonies observable in marriage on Kapaa'a, and before +they were ended the bridegroom began to weary of all the fuss and to +long for the easier accommodations of civilised life. + +But Sandy's troubles were only beginning. With much labour he built +for himself and his wife a house of parts, and his wife's relatives +expressed themselves highly pleased with it, and immediately quartered +themselves there, not simply in very great contentment, but fairly +uplifted with their lot. They began to put on airs on the strength of +the lofty alliance, and at the same time to put off even such trifling +habits of labour and thrift as had hitherto supplied their daily wants +without any undue exertion. Sandy remonstrated verbally, and at times +otherwise, but custom was against him, and there was no shirking the +burden. The other men visited him pretty regularly, and gave him a +hand with his planting in their spare time; but in spite of his pretty +wife, with her odd, outlandish ways, the sight of his full house +offered them no inducements to follow his example. He was a standing +warning to the rest, and so was not without his uses. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MIGHT OF RIGHT + +Matters were progressing thus, surely if slowly, when a sudden sharp +stroke fell upon them--sudden, but not altogether unlooked for. + +With the individual as with the nation, peaceful times are growing +times; and yet, to both individual and nation, there come times of +stress and strife, when the slow upbuilding of the years is put sharply +to the test, and, surviving, is the stronger for the strain. Winter's +storms provoke the oak to deepest rooting. + +At times, indeed, too long a period of peaceful growth may lead to +over-fatness and deterioration. The nation and the man that waxes +over-fat grows lean of soul. But that is a side issue at the moment. +The little community on Kapaa'a was too near to its swaddling bands to +be in any danger of fatty degeneration. And yet the stressful time +that came to it made for good in every way. It had been striking roots +and feelers. Well for it that time had been given them to grip the +soil before the storm burst. As it was, they only gripped the tighter, +and the breaking of the storm cleared the air, and made for more +prosperous weather. + +Captain Cathie, in his capacity of watch-dog, had never for a single +moment relaxed his precautions at home, or his keen-eyed vigilance +abroad. When he was touring the islands, his glasses swept the horizon +continually, with a special eye to the east, which was the threatening +quarter. + +"Those yellow deevils will come back, as sure as we're here," was his +constant word. + +And so the beach was never bare of stacks of neatly-cut wood from away +up the valley, and the bunkers of the _Torch_ were always full, and the +men were regularly drilled, and Long Tom was ready to speak at a +moment's notice. + +Each day, when the _Torch_ lay at anchor in the lagoon, he took the +steam-launch, or, occasionally, one of the whale-boats, by way of +exercise for muscles, through the reef, to an offing whence he could +obtain wide views of the approaches to the islands. + +"In there," he would say, "I feel like a man with his back to the wall. +It's safe enough, but there's no telling what's behind it." + +And the wall was quite too high to climb, for the only eastward view +from the summit of the hill was of the higher ridge, which ran right +across the island, with only one possible passage, and that but a +narrow one. + +They used to mildly chaff the old man about his fears, but he took it +all with characteristic good humour. + +"Ay, ay, all right!" he would say. "Just you wait, and we'll see who +laughs last. When they come, it'll be no laughing matter, I'm +thinking." + +"They've probably forgotten all about us by this time, and have found +easier pickings elsewhere," said Blair. + +"That kind doesn't forget in a hurry, and they know they've only got to +break us up to get all the pickings here they want," said Cathie +stubbornly. + +And it was thanks to these ceaseless precautions that, when the time +came, they were not taken unawares. + +Cathie had run out in the launch one morning as usual, and presently +came plunging back through the passage with a haste that betokened the +unusual. + +"They're coming," he said quietly, as the others met him on the beach. + +"What, the nightmares?" said Blair, with a keen glance, for the captain +was not above a joke. + +"Ay, the nightmares, sure enough. A brig and two tops'l schooners +working up steady from the south-east. They'll carry a heap of men, +I'm thinking, and we'll have our hands full." + +"Right? How soon can they be here, captain?" + +"Wind's light--a couple of hours, I should say, at soonest." + +"Our old plans stand?" + +They had long since discussed the possible campaign, though not very +lately. + +"If they have as many men as I expect, we'll have to change 'em a bit. +Unless they're absolute fools, which it's as well not to reckon on, +they'll split and strike us more than one side at once. There's easy +landing the other side the island." + +"But a difficult way across." + +"They don't know that, and they'll trust to luck to get across once +they're ashore." + +"You can keep this side all safe with the _Torch_, I suppose, captain?" + +"Any quarter this time?" asked Cathie anxiously. + +"Make quite sure of their intentions first. Then, if they are what we +have reason to suspect, hit hard and end it." + +"I'll keep this side all safe," said Cathie briskly, "and when I've +cleared them here, I'll take a run round to the back and wipe 'em up +there too." + +"How many men can you spare us, captain?" + +"I can do with six besides those below," said Cathie, after a moment's +consideration. "Under steam we'll have the weather gauge all the time, +and we'll give 'em no chance to board." + +"That leaves us ten. Give us your ten best, captain, and see that each +man has a revolver in addition to his Winchester and cutlass. Better +beat up your men at once with the drum, Ha'o. What about Ra'a? Will +he rest quiet, or will he take advantage of the matter to attack us, or +will he help us?" + +"He won't help. He may attack. If we are beaten, he is chief," said +Ha'o, with a look which implied that the proper thing to do under the +circumstances was to wipe out Ra'a forthwith. + +"Run the ladies across to the Happy Valley at once then, captain, and +take Lean and his wife to look after them, if she'll go. Will you send +your women and children there too, Ha'o? They would be safe from Ra'a, +at all events." + +But Ha'o, knowing his people, shook his head. + +"They will not go." + +And so it proved. Fighting, the women understood, though they did not +like it, but spirits they neither understood nor liked, and they would +take no risks in such matters. They chose in preference to go up the +southern hill, where they could keep a look-out for Ra'a and could +scatter if he showed head. + +The ladies understood the necessities of the case. Their preparations +were quickly made, and within the hour they were landed in the Happy +Valley, with Sandy Lean, armed to the teeth, to guard them from any +stray yellow skins who might get in, an eventuality which was not at +all likely. Sandy's wife chose to go with her man, which was a +gratifying sign of moral improvement through marriage, and they tried +their best to get Nai and her baby boy to go too, but she would not. + +Captain Cathie saw to the armament of the land contingent, and gave +them a strenuous word or two of his own. Then he carried the _Torch_ +through the passage in the reef and lay waiting for his prey. + +Close upon a hundred men answered the call of the drum. They were +armed only with fire-hardened wooden spears and clubs, and the axes +they had used in more peaceful pursuits. But they had had no fighting +for some time past, they were defending their hearths and homes, and +with the yellow men keen in their memories, they were aching to be at +them. And the little band of heavily-armed whites gave both edge and +backbone to their courage and made them formidable. + +Blair, Stuart, and Evans carried Winchesters and revolvers. + +"Our cause is a just one," said Blair. "We will defend it by every +means in our power. These men's blood is on their own heads." And +there was that in all their faces which boded ill for the invaders. + +The only communication between the east and west sides of the island +was over a dip in the central ridge which, from its most prominent +feature, they had named One-Tree Pass. On the farther side the slope +was gradual and easy. On the mission side the ground was so broken, +and the ascent so precipitous, that for all ordinary usage the pass was +impracticable. No one ever dreamed of using it unless under most +urgent necessity. No more urgent necessity had ever arisen than this +present, and One-Tree Pass for once in its life became the active +centre of the island. + +The defending force scrambled up the broken way, and before it reached +the pass Long Tom was bellowing angrily behind them, and was answered +by another gun which sounded equally loud and defiant. The hill +shoulders, however, hid what was going on, and they could only hope +that Captain Cathie would be able to hold his own and something more. + +Blair placed his men among the boulders overlooking the pass, and crept +on along the ridge with Ha'o and Evans and Stuart, until they could +look out over the long, easy sweep of the hill to the farther sea. + +Opposite the landing-place lay the two schooners, with boats plying +rapidly between them and the shore. The landing had evidently been +disputed. The village was in flames and brown figures were creeping +cautiously up the hill. The beach was filling rapidly with men from +the ships. + +"It will be a couple of hours before they get here," said Blair, and +with instinctive foresight, in view of his greater work, "I wish we +could get hold of those brown fellows. If they know that we're +fighting their battle, it will pave our way with them later on." + +He put it to Ha'o, and eventually the latter slipped away down the +hillside, none too eagerly, to endeavour to intercept the fugitives and +bring them in, if it were possible. + +There was no difficulty in intercepting them. They were flying for +their lives. Bringing them in, however, was quite another matter. + +They recognised Ha'o, by his speech, as from the other side of the +island--hostile therefore, and not to be trusted; and it took all his +diplomacy, through the veil of a different dialect, to persuade the +first half-dozen to the venture. + +The sight of Blair, however, reassured them. They recognised him from +his calls in the _Torch_, and presently they were off along the hills +to bring in their fellows. + +Altogether about thirty terrified men and women came in. The women +were sent on down the valley. The men lay down among the rocks with +the defending party. + +Meanwhile the marauders had completed their landing and had begun their +march, like the shadow of a black cloud creeping slowly up the +hillside. Before them, urged on by blows from behind, crept two +reluctant brown guides with ropes round their necks. There was no fear +of the yellow men missing the pass. They toiled upward with stubborn +determination, and wasted breath in voluble commination of the length +of the way, when they could have employed it more usefully in +compassing it. + +And there was no possible doubt of their intentions. Slaughter and +plunder were written all over them, as plain to see as the nature of a +hyæna in the cut of its slinking face. + +Nevertheless, Blair would permit no attack unchallenged. As the +bristling crest of the black wave foamed cursing into the level of the +pass, he drew cautiously back under cover till the whole should be +there. When he struck, he would strike with all his might. This was a +nettle to be gripped hard, to be squeezed to pulp and trampled out of +sight. + +The yellow men flung themselves flat and cursed their wind back. And +the pass lay blank and bare and open under the glare of the sun. Not a +stone rattled, not a shadow moved. The one lone palm seemed cast in +brown. + +In due course, and with the aid of many curses, the marauders got to +their feet at last, and came pressing loosely along behind their +unwilling guides. They passed unchallenged the place where Blair knelt +behind a big rock. Below and on each side, pinched brown faces craned +anxiously over restless brown shoulders at him, eager for the word. It +was not till the motley crew had passed that he stepped out suddenly +from his cover, and stood, a tall white figure, in the sun-glare. + +"Hola!" he cried. "What are you after?" And instantly such a +villainous array of vicious yellow faces was turned on him as he had +never before in his life set eyes on. + +A babble broke out among them. + +"Dios! It is he!" + +"It is the fighting padre!" + +"It is the devil himself!" + +"Down with him!" + +"Our turn now, señor missionary!" + +And one answer to his question which needed no knowledge of bastard +Spanish for its translation. A sharp report, and a bullet buzzed past +his head. + +Other guns were rising to correct the insufficiency of the first. + +"Give it them, boys!" shouted Blair, and before the words were out of +his mouth, rocks and fire-pointed spears were raining on them, back and +front, and as they tried in vain to face both sides at once, there came +the quick crackle of the Winchesters and a ringing cheer from the +_Torch_ men at the end of the pass. + +The yellow men reeled under their flailing. The ground was cumbered +with bodies and the air with curses. The momentary panic drove them in +upon themselves and bunched them together. + +But the weak point about the thrown spear as a weapon of offence is the +fact that, once hurled, it is gone. The yellow men were an +undisciplined mob, Ishmaelites all, accustomed every man to fight for +himself and ready to fight at any moment, but their death dealers +remained in their hands, and they outnumbered the _Torch_ men by seven +to one. The Torches poured in volley after volley. The yellow men +tightened their defence and replied in kind; while the brown men danced +wildly among the rocks, and hurled stones and clubs, and were shot down +like rabbits. + +Blair's men were falling all round him. The sight was too much for +him. He snatched a club from the ground and sprang down the hillside. +In a moment the sides of the pass vomited brown men frenzied for the +fight. + +"Kown 'im!--kown 'im!--kown 'im!" they yelled, and hurled themselves on +the enemy. + +The _Torch_ men, reduced in number, fired one more round and came +racing in with their cutlasses. The yellow men replied, and then +clubbed their guns and thrashed wildly at the advancing tide. + +Under such conditions, and with the might of right as well as numbers +against them, the yellow men gave way and drifted back towards the +mouth of the pass, fighting stubbornly all the way. + +And Kenneth Blair forgot that he was a man of peace. He saw his brown +men falling all round him, ripped and bashed and broken, and he dashed +into that fight as he had dashed into many a more peaceful one on the +football field at home. He saw nothing at the moment but the vicious +yellow faces and shaggy heads of the despoilers. He knew nothing but +the necessity of demolishing them, and with his unaccustomed club he +smote with all his might at every head he could reach, as his forbears +long ago struck down the Northmen when they came wading ashore from +their beaked ships on the coast of Caledonia. + +The brown men eyed him with amazement, and yelled with unholy joy at +sight of his Berserk fury. The teacher was a man like themselves, and +could let himself loose like the rest of them. And Blair thought +neither of them nor himself, or of anything whatsoever, save the +necessity of ridding the island of the vermin that would pollute it. + +For once in his life he tasted the wild, mad joy of battle. + +His red club whirled and fell, and wherever it fell there fell a gap, +and in him raged a red fury which nothing could appease or oppose. + +He would surely have been a terrible sight to himself--his white face +set to slaughter, and smeared with blood from a bullet graze on the +temple, his white clothes spattered red, his eyes ablaze, and that +murderous red club whirling and smashing to the tune that plunged in +his veins. + +At the end of the pass, where it dipped towards the sea, the yellow men +broke, and it was over, so far as danger to the island was concerned. +But not by any means over as concerned the yellow men. Never yet did +enemy break and flee but prudence and restraint fled with him. +Cast-iron discipline may leash it in the bulk, but in the individual +the lust of death will out and have its way. The wild beast that lurks +in every man once roused is ill to curb, and hardest, maybe, in the man +not easily provoked. And here was no pretence of discipline. The +furies were afoot that day, and death and destruction were rampant. + +Blair found himself plunging down the hill path after a scattered mob +of yellow men. They were too breathless to curse. Their only hope was +the sea. + +The prey was escaping. Terror lent it wings stronger than the fury +behind. He hurled his dripping club among them, and one man fell. + +At one side, among the boulders, he caught a glimpse of Ha'o, all +aflame with battle, doing dreadful things with a dripping red axe. So +horrible did he look, so utterly inhuman and wholly possessed of the +devil, that Blair gasped at the sight. Then he stumbled to a rock and +dropped his bursting head into his hands--and came to himself. + +The pursuit sped on down the hillside. The yells and shouts died away +towards the sea. + +He raised his head at last, and his bloodshot eyes looked heavily after +them. + +"God forgive me!" he gasped. "I have been in hell." + +He jumped up with the idea of stopping the work he had started. But +that was impossible. As well try to stop the mountain snow in its +death gallop. The red fury had gone down the hill like an avalanche. +Until its force was spent it must run its course. + +Now that the fire had died out of him he found his legs trembling so +that he could hardly walk. He sank down again on his boulder and drew +his hand dazedly across his brow, streaking it horribly with fresh +smears of blood. + +He looked round him, at the blue sea, the white surge, the quiet ships. +He heard the shouts below. He saw a boat put off from the shore and +labour heavily towards one of the ships. + +"God forgive me!" he groaned once more. "I have been killing men." + +But the only man he was actually conscious of killing was the one at +whom he had hurled his club in his last spasm. And when he got up +heavily, and went down to him where he lay in the glare of the sun, he +found the man was not dead, and he was glad. He carried him carefully +to the partial shelter of a rock, and propped him up, and gave him +water from a runlet close by. He drank deeply himself, and washed his +hands and face and plunged his head under water. He noticed now for +the first time that his white jacket was spattered all over with blood. +He tore it off and flung it from him. + +The reaction which followed his temporary possession left him limp and +exhausted, and burdened with a heavy mental load which as yet he made +no attempt at lightening. + +Then he went slowly down the hill, and saw one of the schooners loosing +her sails in a hurried and shifty fashion. From that he gathered that +some of the invaders had escaped, and he was too unaccustomed a warrior +to regret it. + +The rest, who had followed the pursuit to the shore, were held back by +no such considerations however. To them the yellow men were enemies to +be smitten hip and thigh, to be destroyed root and branch. When they +reached the beach and saw the broken boat-load lumbering towards the +schooner, the _Torch_ men and a number of natives flung themselves into +one of the other boats and set off after them with the most final +intentions. + +The schooner caught the breeze and began to make way. The _Torch_ men +played on her with their Winchesters, a chance shot dropped the +helmsman, her head fell off, and she was theirs. Some of the yellow +men jumped overboard. For the rest--well, the Torches knew Captain +Cathie's views, and the islanders were of a like mind. + +Blair passed several dead men as he went down the hill, but saw no +wounded ones. As he neared the remains of the village he came upon the +bodies of the first victims of the invasion, brown men and women and +children. + +He had seen nothing of Evans and Stuart since the fight began. Evans +he had placed in command of the Torches; Stuart had been in charge of +the opposite side of the pass. + +The brown men were leaping about the beach inflated with their victory. +The _Torch_ men had anchored the one schooner and were now securing the +other. + +A sudden shout along the beach showed him a yellow man fleeing for his +life with half a dozen islanders after him. He had been hidden in the +bushes till they stumbled upon him. The sight of his twitching face +and agonised eyes remained with Blair for many a day. There had been +many such eyes and faces up there on the hillside, but he had had no +eyes to see them. Now he was himself, and would stop the dreadful work. + +He ran towards the man to succour him. But succour was the last thing +the other looked for in him. His long knife was in his hand. Escape +was hopeless, but here was a chance for a blow in return. He flew at +Blair like a wild cat, and drove the knife at his neck. Blair swerved +instinctively, and it went through his shoulder. The wild cat was on +him with gnashing teeth and flaming eyes, snarling, grappling, biting +him. + +They rolled over and over in the sand. Then sinewy brown fingers +gripped the other and tore him away, with a mouthful of Blair's shirt +between his teeth, and in a moment he lay still. + +Blair lay still also. The last things he remembered were the horror of +that animalised snarling grip, and a dreadful agony in the shoulder as +he rolled over in the sand with the knife still sticking in him. + +When he came to, he found himself the centre of a group of the island +men who were looking down on him with troubled faces. They gave a +shout when he opened his eyes, and presently he was sitting up showing +them how to bind up the wound with strips of his torn shirt. The knife +had been pulled out while he lay unconscious--for the sake of the knife. + +The _Torch_ men came leisurely ashore after securing the schooner and +found him so. He had lost blood freely both from head and shoulder, +and felt sick and dizzy. They made a stretcher out of a couple of oars +and a native mat, and at his request carried him at once up the hill to +the pass. + +He was anxious about the others; he had no recollection of seeing them +since the fight began. It seemed to him that since he picked up that +club and leaped down into the pass he had seen nothing but vicious +yellow faces and evil eyes, and broken heads, and bodies that suddenly +crumbled and fell. + +His mind was relieved by the sight of Evans as soon as they topped the +pass. And at distant sight of the stretcher Evans came running up with +an anxious face. + +"Serious?" he asked. + +"Don't think so. A jag through the arm and a scratch on the face, but +I felt sick and couldn't climb the hill. Where's Stuart?" + +"Back here. Got a bullet through the leg. No bones broken, but he +won't walk for a week or two." + +"Many others wounded?" + +"Two Torches, half a dozen natives, and a dozen of the yellow men. +Frightful blackguards they are too. Makes me wish they'd been killed +outright just to look at them." + +Blair nodded. He could not plead wholly guiltless in that respect. + +A dozen yellow men on their hands would be an anxiety and a burden. A +light affliction, however, compared with what might have been if the +invaders had caught them napping. And so they must make the best of +it, and be thankful for things as they were. + +"Now see here, boys," he said, sitting up on the stretcher. "We've had +our fight and by God's mercy we've won. I'm afraid we all lost our +heads a bit while it was on"--at which, and their recollection of him +in the fight, the sailors grinned--"and I think we cannot blame +ourselves for that. But these men who are left on our hands are tabu. +The islanders will kill them if they get the chance, and we must +prevent it. What is done in the hot blood of battle is done. But +killing in cold blood is murder. You have all fought valiantly. Don't +spoil it by any such doings. And, by the way, Evans, there's another +of them lying under a rock to the left of the path over there. You +might see to him. I flung my club after a bunch of them and this +fellow went down, but he was only stunned." + +"I'll go and bring him up at once, before the brown fellows come." + +"No news of Cathie, I suppose. When did his big gun stop?" + +"Over an hour ago. We've no news. I hope it's all right. I'd have +sent down but I'd no one to send." + +"Which of you boys will go for news?" asked Blair. "I doubt if we can +all get down to-night." + +"That you can't," said Evans. "It'll be a case of go easy for some +days for all you hipped ones." + +All the men volunteered at once. Every one of them was keen to know +what had been going on on the other side of the island. + +"You seem fairly fresh, Irvine. Tell Captain Cathie how we've gone on +here, and that casualties are not serious. If he can spare us some +more help we can do with it to get the wounded down. Ask him to send +word to the ladies also. They will be anxious about us all. And if he +can send us something to eat we'll be glad of it. I'm feeling empty +after it all." + +"I'll go after your half-deader," said Evans. "One of you come with me +in case he can't walk." + +But he was back empty-handed in a quarter of an hour. + +"Gone?" asked Blair, with a pinched face. + +"He's dead, but you didn't kill him. Some one came after you and split +his head with an axe." + +"Ah!" said Blair gloomily, "these others will fare the same unless we +see to it. We'll go to them, Evans, in case any of our brown friends +come prowling round." + +But the brown men were much too busy, and we may drop more of a veil +over their proceedings than the night did. Big fires were glowing +along the beach before it was dark, and no brown man came up the hill +that night. + +They went along to the temporary hospital Evans had made among the +rocks. The beds consisted of the softest patches of ground he could +find, and the only furnishings were the patients. He had hastily +bandaged their wounds, however, and all, except the yellow men, were +fairly cheerful. + +Stuart, indeed, became almost hilarious at sight of Blair as an invalid +also. + +"I was thinking ill of myself for getting hit," he said; "but since +you're in the same boat I feel better." + +"Glad to be of use," said Blair, "and very thankful things are no +worse. They might have been. There were more of them than I expected, +and they fought harder than their cause justified." + +"Even rats will fight in a corner," said Evans. + +Just before dark Captain Cathie came panting in on them, in the best of +spirits and with many rough words for the road. He had half a dozen of +his men with him, and they brought an ample supply of food. + +"Well, captain, how have things gone with you?" + +"We mustn't complain, sir. He'd brought a gun along as heavy as ours +and we had a fine set-to. But with our steam we had the weather hand +all the time and just waltzed round him. He did his best to board, but +we thought differently." + +"And how did it end? Where is he now?" + +Captain Cathie jabbed his finger downwards two or three times in +eloquent silence. + +"Sunk?" + +"Sunk with all aboard, big gun and all. No more trouble from that +quarter. We plugged him more than once below the water-line and we saw +he was settling down. But it came sudden at the end." + +"And you were not able to save any of them?" + +"We were not"--said Cathie emphatically, and after a moment's pause +added--"and what on earth would we have done with 'em if we had?" + +"We have about a dozen on our hands here--all wounded." + +"Humph!" grunted Cathie. + +"We couldn't very well kill them in cold blood, you see." + +"And what'll you do with 'em, Mr. Blair?" + +"I don't know yet. We'll have to think that over. Did you send word +to the ladies how things had gone all round?" + +"I went over myself with young Irvine and told 'em all about it. They +were all very thankful it was over and no more harm done." + +"And how is the _Torch_?" + +"Ah!" said the old man, with an aggrieved shake of the head, "she got +it pretty hot; that's why I couldn't get round to wipe out those +schooners. Both her masts are down, and she got a shot into the +machinery. The men are seeing what they can do to it. The masts we +can fit ourselves." + +"And you've no casualties?" + +"Some splinter wounds and some bit bruises from the spars. Nothing of +consequence, sir." + +"Well, we're very well through a nasty job, captain, and we've reason +to be thankful for it. Now suppose we have something to eat--I'm +starving." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +PAX + +It took some days to get matters shipshape after the general upheaval +of the invasion. + +For one thing, the brown men were much too busy on the other side of +the island to settle down to ordinary work. Most of the women and +children had joined them there, the villages were deserted, and there +was an intangible something in the mental and moral atmosphere which +made for depression. + +Blair sent Evans over to see Ha'o, and endeavour to bring him back to +his right mind. Evans returned downcast, and described what he had +seen only to Blair and Stuart. Aunt Jannet, if she had heard, would +have had a fit. + +The ladies were back in their own homes, and the crippled Blackbirds +were bottled up in the Happy Valley, under the wardership of Sandy Lean +and his wife and a small guard of _Torch_ men. It seemed like +desecration of the beautiful spot to use it as a prison, but it was the +only place in the island where the yellow men would be reasonably safe +from the brown ones. + +The stars in their courses fought for Joshua. In like manner the +strange, stern facts of life fought now for Kenneth Blair. The cloud +which had threatened his work with destruction broke in unexpected +blessing. The fight in One-Tree Pass was an epoch in the history of +Kapaa'a. + +In the first place it had brought into line--fighting line indeed, but +none the less permanent on that account--the various factions in the +island, and developed among them a hitherto undreamed-of community of +interests. Not by any means for the first time in history, a general +menace from without welded into one a diversity of hostile fragments, +and discovered to them an unexpected identity of ideas. On a +microscopic scale it was, in its results, the Franco-German war over +again. + +The men from the eastern coast, who had borne the first brunt of the +invasion, had lost everything, including their headman. But they had +found more than they had lost. They had found out that the western men +were not necessarily their enemies, and that both they and the white +men were ready to fight to the death to save the island from the grip +of the yellow men. + +They fully recognised that without the white men's help the marauders +would have had their will, and matters would in all probability have +gone very differently. In their way they were grateful, and by no +means blind to the advantages of the white alliance. That their +gratitude was based in no small degree on a sense of favours to come, +in no way lessened its utility as a factor in the solution of political +difficulties. + +They too would share the benefits reaped by the western men from the +white men's friendship, and when differences arose amongst them at once +as to the choice of a headman, it was the most natural thing in the +world to refer the rival claims to Blair, who might reasonably be +expected to be without local bias in the matter. + +The opportunity was too good to be lost. Blair was at pains to make +clear to them the great advantages which would accrue from the union of +all the communities under one head, and finally they argued the matter +out among themselves and agreed to accept Ha'o as chief, with local +headmen chosen by him and Blair. + +They reaped their harvest at once and were content. Their houses were +rebuilt, tools were given them, and they were initiated into the +mysteries of the new foods and fruits introduced by the white men. A +proper road was promised to further communication between the opposite +sides of the island, and, so far, the descent of the Blackbirds made +for good. + +In another and quite unexpected direction also the invasion wrought in +the direction of Blair's aims. + +They were all sitting on the verandah of his house one night, watching +the lightning play tremulously up and down the western sky, listening +to the surf, and discussing matters generally. Captain Cathie, in the +little leisure the refitting of the _Torch_ afforded him, was much +exercised in his mind as to what was to be done with the prisoners. +Aunt Jannet had just expressed the opinion that it was a very great +pity they had not all been scuttled. + +"It does seem a pity you could not have made a clean sweep of them like +Captain Cathie did, Kenneth," said she. + +"Well, you see, we couldn't kill them in cold blood, Aunt Jannet." + +"And now you've got them alive in cold blood what on earth are you +going to do with them?" + +"I see nothing for it but shipping them off home as soon as they are +fit to travel. What do you say, Cathie?" + +"I suppose there's nothing else for it," said Cathie gloomily. "We +don't want them here, and yet I'm loth to turn them loose." + +"I don't think they'll ever come back, after the reception they had +this time." + +"I don't know that they will, but they'll be at the same game somewhere +else. I look on them as I do on mad dogs--best got rid of." + +"Right!" said Aunt Jannet with emphasis. + +"The trouble is that men are not dogs, you see----" + +"That they're not. Dogs are mostly honest and good to look at," said +Aunt Jannet again. + +"We could put them on one of the schooners, and you could convoy them +part way home," said Blair to Cathie. "I really don't think we have +anything more to fear from them." + +"I can do all that," said Cathie. "But all the same I'd as lieve they +were none of them going home." + +"Why?" + +"Well, you never know. If ever they can do us a mischief you may take +your davy they'll do it." + +"I don't really see what they can do, captain." + +But Cathie only shook his head. Perhaps his ideas were too vague to +clothe in words. + +Just then a shadowy figure slipped out of the darkness under the house, +reached up, and rolled something softly along the platform towards them. + +"Hello! What's this?" said Cathie. + +[Illustration: "Hello! what's this?"] + +"A present--for Aunt Jannet, I should say," laughed Blair. "Some dusky +admirer bringing tribute." + +"A thankoffering to the wounded warriors," said Evans. + +"An unusually fine coco-nut," said Stuart, tipping it with his usable +foot. "Carefully wrapped in leaves, too." + +Captain Cathie picked it up, and began to open the bundle. Evans +struck a match, and match and bundle fell suddenly with a dull, dead +bump to the floor, and were followed by a quite involuntary and +seamanlike oath from the captain. + +"What is it?" cried the younger ladies in a breath. + +"Come away!" said Aunt Jannet hastily, and set the example herself. + +"It's a man's head," said Evans gravely, as he tried to light a lamp. + +And when the lamp was lit, and the bundle lay open in their midst, they +saw that he was right--it was the head of a man. + +An exclamation burst from Blair as he bent over the ghastly offering, +while the others wondered what it might mean. + +Was it a challenge?--a defiance?--a threat? + +None of these. + +"It is the head of Ra'a," said Blair at last. "I wonder who it was +that brought it? If we knew that, we might guess what it means." + +There had been no fighting of late between Ha'o's people and Ra'a's. +In fact, the quiescence of the latter during the other troubles had +been cause for congratulation. And since then everything had been +quiet in the villages--over-quiet, the quietness of repletion. Evans +had indeed begun to fear ill results from the over-indulgence of savage +appetites. + +"What do you make of it, captain?" asked Blair at last, as of one more +versed than the rest in heathen ways. + +"Hanged if I know!" said the old man, with a puzzled frown. + +"I take it, it is a sign of submission on the part of Ra'a's men," said +Blair quietly. "Ra'a himself would never have come in of his own +accord. His men have wanted to, and so they have brought him." + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Cathie. "It's just the thing they might do." + +And in the morning they sent up early for Ha'o, and showed him the +message, and asked his opinion. + +"Kenni is right," he said at last. "They submit." + +And presently he went boldly up the mountain-side and in due course +came back with Ra'a's followers in a straggling tail behind him. + +He explained afterwards to Blair that Ra'a's men had wanted for a long +time past to come in and enjoy all the benefits they saw the others +receiving, but Ra'a had held them back, telling them that the whites +were only tricking Ha'o and his people and would presently carry them +away. They had seen the arrival of the Blackbird ships, had watched +the fight at sea, and also that in the pass, and these had convinced +them of the good intentions of the white men. Finally they had taken +matters into their own hands and settled things their own way. + +And so the divisions in the island were healed by blood, and that which +had seemed like to wreck their hopes turned marvellously to their +highest good. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE SCOURGE OF GOD + +But there was trouble of a quite unexpected kind brewing. + +The yellow men in their lives had slain a certain number of the brown. +In their deaths they slew still more. + +The whites had hoped that, with the introduction of new food supplies, +the unnatural but deep-rooted native craving for human flesh would have +disappeared. The final rites of the battlefield shocked them +exceedingly, and words had so far failed to convince Ha'o and his +people of the error of their ways. + +"You eat pig," was Ha'o's blunt argument in reply, "and man is cleaner +than pig." + +There was, however, an argument in preparation for him with which the +white men had nothing whatever to do, but which drove home conviction +beyond dispute and in the most terrifying fashion. + +Ever since the fighting, and the subsequent orgies, the villages had +been unusually quiet. Even the wholesale submission of Ra'a's men +produced little excitement among them. + +"They are like snakes after a full meal," said Cathie. "They've eaten +too much, and it'll take 'em all their time to digest it." + +Evans, however, had his doubts. He hinted to Blair that he feared an +outbreak of sickness, but as yet could form no opinion as to its +character. The men had lost all their energy, the women were +depressed, the children listless. It was as though the strenuous +doings at One-Tree Pass had sucked all the life out of them. And Evans +went in and out of the houses with a keen eye for symptoms. + +It was about a fortnight after the fight that Blair, going up to the +village, met him coming hastily from it, and was startled at the sight +of his face. + +"What is it, Evans?" he asked. + +"It's come--I feared it, but could not be sure--smallpox." + +"God help us! ... How has it got here?" + +"I can only imagine," said Evans, with a quick, meaning look at him. + +"Good God! How very horrible!" + +"Yes. They'll have a lesson they'll never forget, and many of them +will never have the chance to. What about our wives, Blair? Shall we +send them away till it is over?" + +Kenneth Blair's lips pinched tight at the thought of it all, and he +walked heavily and in silence. + +"We are in God's hands," he said at last. "I think it must be left to +themselves to decide." + +"Then they will stop," said Evans decisively. + +"Yes, they will stop," said Blair. "God grant us a safe deliverance!" + +"Amen!" said Evans, and they walked in the shadow of the coming death. + +The ladies received the news with white faces but stout hearts, and did +not hesitate one moment. + +Their place was beside the men. They did not wait to count the cost, +though in each one of them was the dull, dread knowledge of what that +cost might be. Their duty was to these brown kinsfolk of their +adoption, and they were British born. + +Evans took charge of the defence with all the energy and skill that +were in him, and, possessing their souls in God, they all went quietly +into the fight, compared with which the battle of One-Tree Pass was +veriest child's play. + +The village was sheltered by the bush and the crowding palms. Every +man was taken off the dismantled _Torch_, and set to work building a +hospital on the beach, a long, open house of poles and palm-leaves, +through which the fresh sea breezes could blow at will. Soft springy +couches of palm-leaves were ranged inside, and the simple preparations +were complete. + +Not the smallest of the horrors and perplexities of the situation was +the wholesale nature of the seizure. Springing from one identical +cause, the results came all together. The hospital was filled before +it was finished, and the builders could not keep pace with the demands +for accommodation. + +Not one of Ra'a's people suffered--clear indication of the ghastly +origin of the evil. Blair induced them to return for the time being to +their village on the hillside, and such of Ha'o's people as showed no +signs of infection he camped temporarily on the opposite hill. Every +house from which the sick were carried was promptly burned. The brown +folk could not understand such radical measures, but they were scared +by the sights they saw, and they did as they were told. + +So suddenly had the catastrophe come upon them, and in so wholesale a +fashion, that their thoughts had had no time to travel beyond their own +immediate concerns. But when the work was steadily under way Blair +bethought him suddenly of their new allies on the east coast, and he +begged Captain Cathie to run round in the launch and see how matters +were going with them. + +Cathie returned in due course with a long face and the news that things +were just as bad there, and Stuart and his wife promptly offered to go +round and carry out the same measures as had been started at the home +settlement. They were given half a dozen _Torch_ men, whom they could +ill spare. Evans promised to come round as soon as he possibly could, +and the launch chuffed gallantly away to the relief of the still more +necessitous on the other side of the island. Stuart could still only +limp, and would have been better not to attempt even that, but the +healing of his own wound was a small thing compared with that which had +to be done. As a matter of fact he limped slightly for the rest of his +life in consequence--a most honourable limp. + +Then followed for all of them a time of patient endurance and endless +self-sacrifice, which, trying as it was, still wrought mightily for and +in them. + +They went to and fro in that long open shed with quiet set faces, +soothing and alleviating as far as these were possible, whispering hope +to the hopeless, and insisting inflexibly on the observance of rules in +which the only hope lay, rules the meaning of which these brown +children could not understand, and which they broke at every +opportunity. + +Death sat grimly down before them and laid siege to them, and the +little band of white-faced women and grim-faced men fought him day by +day and life by life, losing heavily but refusing to be beaten. + +They met one another with such cheerfulness as they could muster, and +even with quiet strained smiles at times, but ever with keen +apprehensive glances for what each feared any day to find in the other. +A time for the trying of souls, with none of the glamour and activities +of actual warfare, but with perils infinitely more appalling in their +insidiousness and impalpability. + +"Ech, Jean, my dear!" murmured Aunt Jannet Harvey one evening, as she +and Jean and Alison Evans met outside for a few full draughts of sweet +sea air. "It's terrible, terrible work. You're looking white; child. +I wish you were back in London." + +"I don't," said Jean cheerfully. "We're doing our appointed work, and +I feel as if I'd never done anything worth doing at home. Kenneth says +he believes this will be a corner-stone in the building up of the +island." + +"Ay, ay! Well, it's good to be able to take a hopeful view of things +when they're about as bad as they can be. And I don't see that they +could be much worse." + +"Oh yes, they could," said Jean quickly. "Some of us might have taken +it, which would be very much worse. We have to thank Mr. Evans for +that, Alison." + +"Charlie says he thinks we're through the worst," said Alison quietly. + +"I wish I could see it," said Aunt Jannet. + +"We have only had three deaths to-day, and most of the others are past +the crisis. It's been a terrible clearance. There's that poor little +baby crying again. I must go," and they separated to their various +duties. + +It was Nai's baby boy that cried, and it died in its mother's arms that +night. She yielded it sorrowfully to those who took away the dead, and +returned wearily to her husband's couch to keep the flies off him with +a palm branch. Nai herself had been too much occupied with her baby to +go with the others across the island after the fight, and she had not +developed the disease. The baby had taken it, however, and Nai had +nursed him and his father indefatigably, and now the boy was gone just +as his father turned the corner, and the little mother was +broken-hearted. They comforted her by telling her that Ha'o would +live, and she fanned away wearily to the tune of her sobs that would +not be kept in. + +Jean, as she flitted noiselessly to and fro, with cold water for this +one and medicine for that, and hopeful words for all, and special ones +for Nai, thought now and again of the mighty change her marriage had +wrought in her life, but never once regretted what she had done and all +she had left. And more than once the dreadful thought came upon +her--"Supposing Ken were to take the sickness and die and leave me +alone!" Ah, then she felt as though her world would fall to pieces, +and she prayed, as she had never prayed in her life before, that he +might be spared, or that they might go together. + +The one thing that wrought itself indelibly into all their memories was +the contrast between their hospital work and its setting. Inside the +long palm-thatched sheds--the moans and murmurs and restless movements +of the sufferers; the ever-fluttering fans which kept off the plague of +insects, and alleviated to some extent the pungency of the atmosphere; +the irresistible depression induced by the close presence of insidious, +crawling death. And outside--the implacable glare of the sunshine; the +smooth, slow-heaving, blue mirror of the lagoon; the metronomic roar +and long white flashes of the surge on the reef; the palms swinging +slowly and solemnly with a sound like the patter of falling rain; and +up above, the pale blue sky. Death in its most repulsive form, set in +a picture of surpassing beauty, which yet had in it something of +pitilessness from the very sharpness of the contrast. These things +they never forgot. + +They held no regular services at these times, for some were always on +duty. But there was much prayer among them, and when the watches +changed, the one in charge, Blair, Evans, or Cathie, would give his +band of helpers a few brave words to carry with them--grateful thanks +for perils past, hopeful prayers for safety in the hours to come. For +they never knew but what the evil seeds might even then be working in +any one of them, and they went with fear in their hearts though their +faith and hope were strong, and their faces were tuned to quietness. + +Evans wore himself thin with his ceaseless toils. As medical director +the burden of the fight was on his shoulders, and he divided himself +between the stricken camps in proportion to their needs. The going to +and fro consumed much time, though he himself maintained that it did +him good. But he showed the wear and tear so visibly at last that his +wife, who had had a medical training at home, insisted on taking over +the east coast hospital herself, and she joined Stuart and his wife +there. + +The epidemic ran its course, the dead were reverently wrapped in their +mats, weighted with rocks, and towed out to sea on a small raft, and +there committed to the deep. The convalescents began to creep about +the beach and show a languid interest in life. + +Ha'o was among the first to get into the sunshine. While none were +neglected, Blair and Jean and Nai had nursed him as though all their +lives depended on his recovery. And indeed, to Blair's thinking, very +much more than their simple lives depended on Ha'o. He looked on him +as the corner-stone of the work on Kapaa'a, and his death would have +been a terrible blow to them all. + +As Jean had said, he had great hopes that this sharp trial might also +turn to good. He tackled Ha'o the very first day he judged him well +enough for discussion. + +"This has been a terrible time, Ha'o, my friend. Have you any idea why +it came upon you?" + +"It was your new God sent it, I suppose," said Ha'o gloomily, with the +air of a child giving an expected answer with mental reservations of +his own. + +"God permits such things. If men will do wrong they must suffer. That +is how they learn to do right. If you want to bang your head against +this rock, God won't stop you. But the recollection of what you suffer +may stop you doing the same again." + +"What wrong did we do? You killed the yellow men too." + +"But we did not eat them. Not one of us has been ill. Not one of +Ra'a's people has been ill. They also kept apart." + +Ha'o looked sombrely out over the lagoon. He was thinking of his boy. + +"Kenni," he said presently, "I know you do not like us to eat men; but +our fathers did so, and their fathers, and never have we had this +crawling death before." + +"Perhaps it was to teach you and your people. See, Ha'o! We want you +to take your right place in the world. It was for that we came. It +was for that we beat off the yellow men who would have carried you +away. We are ready to give our lives to help you. But we must have +the foundations firm or we cannot build. You do not build a house on +running sand, nor a platform on cracking poles." + +"What do you want me to do?" + +"Promise me, here and now, that you will never eat man again, and that +you will make it tabu to your people. They will do what you say. They +are frightened. God never meant man to be eaten." + +"How do you know, Kenni?" + +"He forbade man even to kill man, but of the beasts He has provided He +said, 'Kill and eat.'" + +"You killed the yellow men," he said again. + +"To save you from them." + +"Then you did wrong too. Why did the crawling death not touch you?" + +"It is not right to kill men, yet if a man attacks you, and in +defending yourself he gets killed, the blame is his, not yours." + +"You never tasted man, Kenni, did you?" + +"No, never," said Blair, with an expression of disgust. + +"Then you cannot know how good he is. My people think there is nothing +equal to man--except woman or child, which are better still. But I +will promise you never to eat yellow man again, Kenni." + +"That is not enough. Unless you will give up eating man of any kind we +must go. We have provided other food. You cannot go hungry. The pigs +and the goats are all over the island. The paw-paws grow while you +sleep. You have taro and bananas, and breadfruit and coco-nuts. You +have the chance to become a nation, strong and powerful. You are sole +chief on Kapaa'a now. I would have you chief of the other islands +also. But if you prefer to eat man I can do nothing for you. It is +the foundation of all the rest that you give up eating man." + +"My little son did not eat of the yellow men, Kenni, but your God took +him. Why?" + +"It was the disease took him. It is the most terrible thing for +passing from one to another. Could you stand the thought of your +little son being eaten, Ha'o?" + +"My son? No! I would have died sooner than let him be eaten." + +"Yet you say other men's babies are good to eat." + +Ha'o looked at him, and then lay looking out over the lagoon. + +"See, Ha'o," said Blair at last, "if the thought of your little son +will turn you from flesh-eating, he will have done more for Kapaa'a in +the short time he lived than you have done in all your life, and we +shall remember Ha'o's little son always as the beginning of the better +times." + +The brown man lay thinking a long time and one may not know his +thoughts. But at last he said quietly-- + +"Twice you have saved my life and my people, Kenni. I am your man. +You must not go away. For the thought of my little son who is dead I +will give up eating man. I will become a nation." + +"And you will answer for the rest?" + +"I will answer for the rest. If any man eats man I will kill him." + +Ha'o kept his word, and so, in the death of his little son, the +foundations were laid in Kapaa'a, and the black cloud broke once more +in blessing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +GAIN OF LOSS + +With a clean bill of health, and Ha'o as supreme chief anxious to +become a nation, and therefore ready to follow the white men's ideas, +matters began to progress rapidly. + +The first thing to be done, as soon as the men could be spared from +hospital work, was to get rid of the Blackbirders. + +Captain Cathie, vehemently backed up by Aunt Jannet, would even now +have made short work of them. + +"Give 'em a fair trial and string 'em up," was his simple idea of the +justice that would meet the case. And "Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet +with energy. + +"I really don't think they're likely ever to come back, after the +lesson they've had this time," said Blair. + +"They wouldn't if I had my way," said Cathie grimly. "Vermin like that +is best stamped out when it's under your foot." + +"We stamped pretty hard last time. They'll recognise that the game is +not worth the candle." + +So, in due course, the larger schooner, which was the older and poorer +found of the two, was provisioned for the voyage, and the prisoners +were brought over from the valley and put on board of her. Blair and +Stuart and Cathie awaited them there, and, through Stuart, Blair told +them very explicitly what would happen if they ever showed face in +those waters again. Then the refitted _Torch_ towed them out to the +offing, and bade them make tracks for home, and followed them with +dogged restraint for three days to see that they did it, and the island +was once more purged of contamination. + +When the captain got back, Blair laughingly asked him if they had got +safely away, and Aunt Jannet eyed him with a spark of hope. + +"They're gone," said Cathie, with a gloomy nod. "I'd have felt better +if they'd gone by the shorter road." + +"You ought to have scuttled them, captain," said Aunt Jannet. + +Then followed many busy full days. First the village was rebuilt on a +plan Blair had thought out during his hospital watches. The bush +between the hills was all cleared away and burnt on the spot, leaving +only the palms standing, and on this open space, with the shallow river +brawling through the middle, the houses were built. Stereotyped lines, +both as to design and location, were purposely avoided, and the result +was eminently pleasing. Fresh plantations of taro and bananas were +started, pawpaw trees and breadfruit were put in wherever space +offered, and a close fence across the valley kept the pigs and goats +from intruding. + +The next great undertaking was the making of a decent road up to +One-Tree Pass, for the benefit of the east coast community. And at all +these works, brown men and white, Ha'o's people and the late rebels, +the atoll men, and the east coasters, high and low without exception, +toiled side by side, to the very great promotion of good feeling and +mutual understanding. The ladies, meanwhile, fostered among the women +and children all such imitative habits as were judged good for them, +and after the stress and storm the peaceful times made for growth and +enlightenment, and feelings of security and content such as Kapaa'a had +never known before. + +Of direct religious teaching there was no lack, though it still ran +more to practice than to precept. Native habits and customs were +interfered with as little as possible, save wherein they palpably ran +counter to Nature's own laws and made for deterioration rather than +uplifting. + +The white men held their services regularly, and made them as simple as +possible so that gleams of the light might penetrate dark hearts but by +no means dark understandings. The brown men, at their work in the +plantations, along the hillsides after the pigs and goats, and skimming +along the combers on the other side of the ridge, chanted merry hymns +whose meanings they understood not, but which did them no harm, and +were very good to hear. The women learned many things in their own +homes and in the mission houses, and the tubby, brown children +rollicked nakedly in the school-house, learned games in which they +delighted, and some of them were even beginning their ABC. + +"Charles, my son," said Blair to Evans, as they were all sitting in +usual conclave on the verandah one evening, "what do you say to +vaccinating the whole community, lock, stock, and barrel? All, I mean, +that did not have the plague. There may be some germs of it lurking in +hidden corners yet." + +"I'm willing, if you can bring them to it. I can take them in batches." + +"I'll speak to Ha'o. He can make them do pretty well anything he +pleases. I'm more and more thankful that he was spared to us." + +"And Nai too," said Jean. "She is a great help. The women do whatever +she tells them, and she's as bright as a needle. What do you think she +came to ask for to-day, Ken?" + +"No idea. Not a pair of shoes, I hope." + +"No--some hairpins! She wanted to do her hair like ours." + +"The eternal feminine," laughed Blair. "Well?" + +"I assured her that it looked far nicer hanging loose with flowers +stuck in it. But she was so disappointed that I had to give her the +pins. You won't recognise the women in a day or two, I expect." + +Blair explained the vaccination idea to Ha'o, and made it as clear as +the limitations of language and understanding of so abstruse a matter +permitted. + +"You would give them a little crawling death to keep them from having +it big?" said Ha'o, after much explanation. + +"Yes, that is what it comes to." + +"All those who did not have it before?" + +"Yes." + +"I will order it. It is right that Ra'a's people should taste it too." + +Exactly what he told them they never learned, but in due course a batch +of stalwart brown men came doubtfully into the compound, and watched +Evans with apprehensive, white-eyed glances as he deftly pricked and +bound up their arms, and sent them away looking doubtfully at their +white bandages, in evident expectation of speedy and unique +developments. + +They were in fine healthy condition and the operation was prosperous. +The bandage-wearers regarded them as badges of distinction. They +looked upon their inoculation as a ceremonial necessary to full +admission to the white alliance, and Blair was at once scandalised and +amused by a crowd clamouring round the house next day for similar +honours. + +"Kenni," they cried, "make us Christians too! Prick our arms and give +us our badges." + +So their arms were pricked and they got their badges, and were no +longer subject to the taunts of the favoured first batch, which had +nearly led to friction in the village the night before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE LIFTING VEIL + +Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart found the tubby youngsters, and +especially the little round, brown babies, irresistibly attractive. +Such merry, mischievous little imps the former, and each newcomer such +a wonder of soft, sleek, dimpled, black-velvet-eyed brownness, that +their hearts went out to them, and the mothers laughed at their doting +absorption and cackled strenuously and meaningly among themselves. And +Aunt Jannet, never having had any children of her own, knew more about +the rights and wrongs of their upbringing than any single mother ever +knew in this world before, and had to be restrained by main force at +times from putting some of her more strenuous theories into practice. +But the good-natured brown women came to understand even Aunt Jannet's +peculiarities in time, and to accept her efforts, so far as they +accorded with their own ideas, with something like appreciation. + +For educative purposes the children were, up to a certain age, left +entirely to the care of the ladies, and it would have been hard to say +whether pupils or teachers enjoyed most the time spent in nominal study +in the wide, open schoolroom, or the still merrier jinks on the beach +and river bank. + +If Jean Blair's quondam friends in London could have seen her at play +with her naked brown boys and girls on Kapaa'a front--well, in the +first place they would not have known her, and when they did they would +have renounced her acquaintance at once. + +For the purpose of opening their little minds to better things than +their fathers and mothers had known, she brought herself down to their +level, became almost one of themselves, romped and played and danced +with them, in the water and out of it, and captured all their hearts. +And she enjoyed this partial and temporary reversion to nature as she +had never enjoyed life before. The children learned many things +without knowing that they were being taught, and Jean herself learned +not a little also. + +Aunt Jannet looked on with surprise, and spasms of doubt at times--it +was all so different from her ideas of missionary work. But she had +much to occupy her in connection with the other women, and as regards +things generally she held an open mind, with a reserve of gentle +sarcasm in case these extremely odd ways should turn out worse than she +knew her own more precise methods would have done. + +The men took the older boys in hand and employed ways quite as +unconventional and with equally happy results, and the girls of size +were well left to the care of Alison Evans and Mary Stuart, whose +special training had fitted them excellently for the work. + +In addition to the extraordinary curriculum of their school, the men +were working hard at the new foundations of life in Kapaa'a. + +It was a beginning of things such as Kenneth Blair's soul delighted in. +He was at it night and day, and suffered no whit from all the hard +work. For it was better even than recreation, since to all intents and +purposes it was creation itself, the bringing of order out of chaos, +the evolution of new life. + +Ha'o, in the large hope of becoming a nation, worked with them hand to +hand, and heart to heart. Savage born and all untutored, he was gifted +with a sharp wit and a clear understanding, and he was a born ruler of +men. He was tall in stature, and his bearing they had noted even in +the hold of the _Blackbirder_. Of late his presence had seemed to +increase in dignity, possibly from his own large belief in the future, +possibly because they viewed him in the light of what they hoped to +make him. Whatever it was, his own people noticed it also, and even +the last returned prodigals never ventured to cross him. + +His confidence in the wisdom and good faith of the white men was +implicit. When he placed his hand in Blair's, the day they landed, and +proclaimed himself his man, and again when they discussed the delicate +subject of man-eating after his illness, he meant what he said and +stuck to it loyally. + +Not that he by any means assented at once to every suggestion they +made. He could argue like an Old Bailey lawyer, and until a matter was +explained to him so that he understood all the ins and outs, and the +ultimate end and aim of it, and saw from his own point of view just how +it would affect his people and himself, he would have none of it. + +He would listen politely, follow with the most patient intentness, +question till it was clear, argue-bargle occasionally, as Captain +Cathie put it, and then,--"Kenni, it is good. It shall be,"--and some +new brick was ready for the foundations. + +They all enjoyed an argument with Ha'o. The turns of his quick mind +were so odd and illuminating at times, that, as Evans said, it was +actually educational. + +Stuart especially delighted in him. + +"He's an absolute revelation," he said, "And I'm more and more certain +that there's more than ordinary savage blood in him. It's very queer +to think of, you know, Blair. It's a clear case of reversion." + +"And of evolution." + +"I wonder now, if, by any conjunction of circumstances, we in Great +Britain could ever go back like that." + +"Impossible. The very suggestion is horrible." + +"Nothing is impossible," said Evans. "The whole country might be +devastated by a pestilence, and the few survivors might lapse into +anything." + +"Unless the whole earth were devastated in the same way, the survivors +would have common sense enough to get back to their kind. But all this +won't help Kapaa'a boys, so let's get to business." + +They went very wisely to work, with the wisdom of long deliberation on +other men's failures and successes. They imposed no restrictions save +such as were absolutely necessary for the general well-being, and even +these made for freedom. For the freedom of savagery is bondage worse +than slavery. + +They promulgated through Ha'o simple rules for the protection of life +and property, and saw them carried out with the most rigid +inflexibility. Any disputes, and there were many, were brought before +the chief sitting in judgment on the verandah of his house on certain +days, with the white men in attendance to assist his deliberations. + +At first the _Torch_ men acted as police when necessary, and carried +out the orders of the court. But before long certain of the tribesmen, +becoming distinguished above their fellows for their sobriety of +conduct and general demeanour, were nominated to headships of sections, +and did all that was necessary. + +And Kapaa'a slept of a night, freed for ever from the stealthy terrors +of the dark. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE GENTLE MARTYR + +All these matters took time, and while their hands and hearts were full +of them there came to them certain other little matters which filled +both hands and hearts to overflowing. + +To Kenneth and Jean Blair was born a son, and a month later to Charles +and Alison Evans a daughter, and it is doubtful if anything in the +history of Kapaa'a had ever stirred the feminine portion of the +community to such a pitch of excitement and enthusiasm as did the +arrival of these little white strangers. + +"Now," said the brown women, with deeper lights in their lustrous eyes, +as they gazed admiringly on the little pink-and-white squirmers, "you +belong to us indeed, since you have borne children among us." + +And every day they made pilgrimages to the two new shrines, and sat +worshipfully, while the unconscious little saints performed their +morning ablutions and then lay gazing placidly out of their blue eyes +at the sights which no one else could see. Those striking blue +eyes--the blue of the sky up above--completed the capture of the +dark-eyed ones. There were blue eyes in plenty among the grown-up +whites, but never were blue eyes like these, and the dark eyes never +tired of gazing at them. + +Of the rapturous joy of the two mothers, and the deep thankfulness of +the fathers, there is no need to speak. For a time the new maternal +cares monopolised the former, and the latter went into their island +work with new high lights in their faces and with even greater vigour +than before. + +Aunt Harvey exulted in those babies as though she had had not a little +to do with bringing them about, and Mary Stuart gloated over them with +blushing cheeks and kindling eyes that told their own hopeful stories. + +Every man of the _Torch_ offered his services as nursemaid to carry +them about the beach, and the numbers of small brothers and sisters +they had all been in the habit of devoting their early years to was +simply marvellous. + +The christening ceremony--Kenneth Kapaa'a Blair and Alison Kaapa'a +Evans--was an occasion of high festival throughout the islands, and +Blair, with his life-work always large in his mind, turned it to +account. Aunt Harvey was not present at that high ceremony, to her +very great regret but more greatly to her honour. And this is how it +came about. + +Intercourse with the other islands had been constantly maintained by +the regular visitations of the _Torch_ and the quondam _Blackbird_ +schooner--renamed the _Jean Arnot_ and captained by Jim Gregor, first +officer of the _Torch_; but, compared with what had been done on +Kapaa'a, the advances had been small. + +Blair had, for a long while past, recognised the fact that the greatest +object-lesson he could possibly offer the other chiefs was the sight of +what was being done on Kapaa'a. But at the first suggestion of taking +them over in the ship to see for themselves, their suspicions were in +arms. That was an old trick of the white men's. They had all heard +how the brown men were decoyed on board the white men's ships under +wonderful promises, and never heard of again. They accepted all he +gave them, they listened to all he had to say, but sail away in the big +ship they would not. + +Here was a chance not to be missed. Surely never in this world was +there seen a younger pair of missionaries than Master Kenneth Kapaa'a +Blair--Kenni-Kenni to the natives--and Miss Alison Kapaa'a +Evans--Alivani--when they set out, in their frills and furbelows, to +wile the hearts of the brown men and women of the outer islands. + +Ha'o and Nai went with them, to add their persuasions and the argument +of their presence to the rest, and Aunt Jannet went because she knew +something untoward would happen to those babies unless her eye was on +them. + +Blair knew it would be no easy matter at best, and it was not. + +At Kanele, the first island they came to, the largest of the group +after Kapaa'a, about thirty miles away, the old chief Maru received +them with the heartiest of welcomes, and his old wife and her +daughter-in-law and all the other women went into raptures over the +blue-eyed babies. + +But when the subject of the visit was cautiously broached, the old man +stiffened at once with his natural suspicion and declined the +invitation on the spot, and nothing they could say would persuade him +to it. + +They stayed the night, however, and Ha'o had much talk with the old +man's son, a bright stalwart fellow over six feet high whose name was +Kahili. In the morning Kahili announced his intention of going with +the white men. Whereupon loud lamentations from his father and mother +and wife and children, who clung to him wherever they could grip, and +expressed their intention of anchoring him to his native soil at cost +of their lives. He reasoned with them good-humouredly at first, but +finally began to get angry at the exhibition, and the more they tried +to dissuade him the more determined was he to go. + +Then, suddenly, the old chief surprised them all by proposing a +bargain. If the white men would leave their grandmother--Aunt Jannet +Harvey to wit--as pledge of their honourable intentions, both he and +Kahili his son would go in the big ship, and when they returned safe +and sound the ship could take the grandmother away. + +Blair laughed so much over the old fellow's 'cuteness that he came near +to dispelling their suspicions. And the matter being explained to Aunt +Jannet, without undue insistence upon the maturity of her new dignity, +that good lady, with a somewhat forlorn attempt at nonchalance, +accepted the offer on the spot, and said she would stop. And what it +cost her no man may venture to say, for she had been looking forward to +the christening of Jean's boy as a white stone day in her life. + +"It's for the good of the work, Kenneth, so get away with them before I +change my mind," said she, bravely enough. + +"Oh, Aunt Jannet, I shall miss you so," from Jean, with a suspicion of +tears in her voice. + +"Not a bit, child. You'll have far too much to think of, and I'll be +perfectly all right here." + +"But--you----" for Jean knew all her longing in the matter. + +"I'll chum up with Mrs. Maru, and we'll be as happy as--h'm"--with a +glance at the native houses among the trees--"well, as things in a rug, +you know. You shall tell me all about it when I get back. Don't let +Ken forget to send for me." + +She kissed the babies as though she knew in her own mind that she would +never set eyes on them again, waved her adieus gallantly from the white +shell beach, and when the _Torch_ had swept out of sight round the +corner she went up into a thicket of lemon hibiscus, and had it out all +by herself there. Then she preened her ruffled plumes, and went down +and rated Mrs. Maru for the untidiness of her dwelling-place, till the +old lady regretted more than ever the exchange she had made. By +degrees, however, Aunt Jannet's natural goodness and masterfulness +overcame her disappointment. The two became capital friends, and +talked away at one another, on a twenty-five per cent. basis of +understanding, which left the most extraordinary views of the other's +life on each of their minds. + +Her self-sacrifice, however, bore excellent fruit. Old Maru and Kahili +proved admirable bait for Blair's fishing. Persuaded themselves to a +somewhat doubtful step, the step once taken they became most zealous +partisans of their new cause. Assured, by the solid fact of Aunt +Jannet's temporary residence on Kanele, of their own safety, they +laughed to scorn the fears of others as doubtful in the matter as they +themselves had originally been. + +Their assured confidence amounted well-nigh to boastfulness. + +"Look at us," they said, "we have no mistrust in going with the white +men. Put away your fears, and come along." + +The _Torch_ made a most prosperous collection, and returned to Kapaa'a +laden with dusky notables. + +It would have been difficult to imagine anything less like a Christian +martyr than Aunt Jannet Harvey, sitting opposite her hostess on Kanele, +conscientiously eating away at the food with which they kept her +supplied, wrestling strenuously with the intricacies of the Kanelese +dialect, and an object of extreme curiosity to all the other women, and +of wonderment to herself. But martyrs are found in the strangest +guise, and Aunt Jannet wrought well for Kapaa'a when she consented to +stop on Kanele that day. + +The strangers viewed with amazement the changes in Kapaa'a. They had +raided there aforetime, and fought more than one bloody battle on the +white beach of the lagoon. For Kapaa'a, the largest of the islands and +the richest, had always been an object of envy to the rest, and more +than one warrior chief of the outer isles had cast longing eyes upon +it, and had planned and schemed till he could attempt its conquest. + +Now they found it richer and stronger than ever in the white men's +alliance. They saw its comfortable homes, and large plantations of +strange new grains and fruits. They were introduced to the pleasures +of the chase. They ate piglet and wild goat, and found them good. +They tasted still deeper of the novel atmosphere of law and order, and +found these things also very good. + +They watched the boys at cricket and football, and the men, brown and +white, fencing and boxing as though their lives depended on it, and no +harm done. They watched the cutlass drill, and tingled to do likewise. +They saw the white men bowl over coco-nuts with their Winchesters at +many times the distance they could hurl a spear, and do the same again +quicker than they could wink, and for their benefit Long Tom bellowed +his loudest, and they heard the roar of him clang to and fro among the +hills. They compared the new Kapaa'a boats with their own, and they +sat open-mouthed and listened to the last squeals of an ironwood tree +from up the valley, as the circular saw cleft it into planks which they +could not have imitated with weeks of hardest labour. And--they saw +men sleep without weapons by their sides, and without fear. And these +things wrought powerfully upon them, and set them thinking. + +The christening feast of Kenni-Kenni and Alivani was long remembered in +the Dark Islands. Aunt Jannet Harvey always professed regret at having +missed it, but Kenneth Blair always assured her, with a great light in +his face, that in missing it as she had done she had rendered service +to the mission which no words could express. + +Aunt Jannet's exile ran into a longer term than she had expected, and +there were many anxious faces and apprehensive hearts in the island +villages before the _Torch_ came gliding quietly round the heads, and +dropped her passengers at their homes. + +They all came laden with presents, which already, before they landed, +inclined them favourably towards similar trips in the future. But they +brought with them also richer invisible freight of new ideas and new +hopes, which kept their tongues wagging for weeks afterwards, and set +their brains working. + +For the visit had not by any means been confined to sight-seeing and +enjoyment. The white men turned it to fullest account in the clear and +definite explanation of their views and hopes for the whole group of +islands, offering all an equal share in the new order of things on the +sole condition of union and cohesion. The higher matters which lay +closest to their hearts were touched on, but only lightly as yet. +Blair had no faith in outward conversion born of a hankering after +material good things. He had a firm belief in the advantages of +hastening slowly. Get the savages out of their savagery, open the dark +minds to the lower lights, and the higher would come in good time. + +He suggested regular meetings of the headmen on Kapaa'a, and the idea +was received with acclaim. Kapaa'a was a storehouse of good things. +They desired no better than to come there often. And in that he saw +the germ of a united nation. Ha'o, as the most advanced among them, +would naturally preside. Of Ha'o's loyalty and level-headedness he had +no doubt. He was years ahead of the rest already. Blair believed his +influence would grow, and in time make itself felt throughout the whole +group, and through Ha'o he hoped to win them all to the higher life. + +If on these highest matters of all he touched as yet but lightly, in +others, concerning their material welfare, he gave them some very +straight talk, by way of putting them on their guard against that which +might come any day. + +He told them that other white men would come offering to trade with +them, to buy their land, to do great things for them, and of such he +begged them to beware, and to allow him to deal with them. + +He told them just what had happened in other places, where grasping +white traders had pushed themselves in, bringing in with them drink, +disease, and dispossession. He showed them how they, the heads of the +communities, were responsible for their people. And he promised them +every advantage these other men could offer them without any of the +penalties. + +"What do these traders come for?" he asked them, and answered himself, +"To benefit themselves. And what do we come for? To benefit you. The +time may be close at hand when you will have to choose between us. As +you choose, so will your future be." + +So the notables went back to their island homes with much to think +about, and Aunt Jannet came back from Kanele, and Kenneth Blair and his +friends had good reason for high hopes of the future. + +It was a spring-time of hope for all of them. The work was prospering, +and their hearts were full of gladness. + +"Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair, as he came up quietly and sat down +beside her, where the sweet water ran into the salt, and the small +waves of the lagoon creamed softly up the white sand. + +[Illustration: "Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair] + +"Happy, dear? Could any one possibly be happier? Look at +that!"--Master Kenni-Kenni rolling gleefully on a white spread at her +feet in a state of nudity, and gurgling paroxysms of happiness. + +"He's a fine little fellow"--and he poked his son playfully in his fat +little stomach, provoking fat-creased laughter and dimples and more +gurgles. + +"He's the finest little fellow in the whole world, and he's yours and +mine, Ken. God has been very good to us, dear. I sometimes feel as if +we had no right to be quite so happy while----" + +"While?" + +"One can't help thinking of the poor little souls in the slums and +alleys at home. It really doesn't seem right, somehow. If we could +only bring them all out here----" + +"I wish it were possible, but it isn't. Meanwhile, this is our chosen +work, and by God's grace it seems like to prosper. I am very grateful +that you are content here, dear. After London----" + +"London! I'd give the whole of London for one curl of Kenni-Kenni's +hair. Isn't it beautiful? There never was any silk like it in this +world." + +"Never!" said Blair with conviction. + +Then Alison Evans and Mary Stuart came across to them, Mary carrying +Alivani. + +"We have come to worship too," said Alison. "I wish you'd order Mary +to give me my baby, Mr. Blair. I can hardly get touching her when +she's about." + +"Well, Jean won't let me have hers," laughed Mary in self-defence. + +"Jean was just valuing the whole of London Town against one curl of +that young man's hair. So you see what the whole of him's worth, Mary. +Oh yes, you may touch him, if you'll promise not to spoil a hair of his +head." + +Mary laid Alivani down on the white spread by Kenni-Kenni, and the two +gurgled and kicked in company, while she knelt over them with absorbed +face and happy lights in her eyes. + +"Jean was wishing she could bring all the poor children in London to +kick on the beach here," said Blair. + +"Yes. I often think how very much better off the children here are," +said Alison Evans. + +"In some respects." + +"In all respects, I'm inclined to think. Their fathers and mothers +almost worship them. Cruelty to children is unheard of. Bodily they +are miles ahead----" + +"And morally and spiritually?" he said, to draw her on. + +"I have seen children at home, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, almost as +benighted as these, and not half so pleasant to deal with. Now, with +the chances we are giving them, I think these are infinitely the better +off." + +"Under the new order of things, perhaps. But hitherto you must +remember that death dodged life round every corner here, and life broke +off very short at times. However, we cannot clean up all the world; +but, please God, we'll do our best with this little bit of it. And +now," jumping up, "I must get back to work, or your masters will be +calling me names. Don't kill those two infants with kindness, Mary." + +He stood looking down upon them all for a moment, while the women all +bent over the wrigglers on the white cloth. + +"Is it possible that not one of you ever feels a longing for the +fleshpots of Egypt?" he asked, with a smile. + +"Do we ever show any symptoms?" asked Jean. + +"You certainly do at the moment. You all three look as if you would +like to devour those children on the spot," and he went away to grind +out dialects with Matti and Ha'o. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PEACE WITH A SPEAR + +The work progressed favourably but not without occasional set-backs. +On Kapaa'a, where its supervision was most constant, the advance was +naturally greatest. On the outer islands the brown men and women were +effusive in their promises--in expectation of largesse. Like the +prodigals of all time, they were always ready to discount future +benefits--which they did not very fully understand and considered +somewhat problematic--for a trifle on account, which they understood +extremely well. But the moment their preceptors' backs were turned, +the promises were forgotten in immediate enjoyment of the reward. + +All this was only what was to be expected, and in no way disconcerted +the labourers in the field. Blair would rate the delinquents +good-humouredly for their shortcomings, and they would acknowledge them +like schoolboys, promise amendment, and break the promise before the +_Torch_ had rounded the Head. He felt himself in closer touch with +them, however, on each visit, and was satisfied. His plans and hopes +were very wide-reaching, and God's temples, natural, physical, or +spiritual, do not rise in a day. + +Occasionally there were more serious lapses, and these had to be dealt +with firmly but delicately, so thin were the cords by which he held +them. + +Aia, the smallest island of the group, lay a short five miles beyond +Kanele, sacred to the memory of Aunt Jannet Harvey. Aia had a +population of about fifty. Kanele three times as many. + +Blair and Jean and Kenni-Kenni landed on the latter one day, on one of +the regular rounds of visitation, and received the usual expectant +welcome from old Maru and Kahili and the rest. The women crowded +enthusiastically round Jean and her boy, while Blair talked to the men +and divided among them the things he had brought. They stopped on +shore several hours and were regaled with fruits and coco-nuts. When +they got into the boat the whole population lined the beach and waved +them farewells. + +"We really seem to be getting hold of them at last," said Blair, as +they rolled along towards the _Torch_. + +"They are very friendly and seem very glad to see us," said Jean, and +they went on to Aia. + +"Something wrong," said Captain Cathie, as the _Torch_ drew in. + +The village was not in its usual place. There were no people about. + +They landed cautiously, Blair and Cathie and half a dozen men, and +found the houses in ruins. With added caution they climbed the hill, +and in time came upon the villagers lurking in holes and crannies. + +Their story was simple. The very day after the _Torch's_ last visit, +the men of Kanele, headed by Maru and young Kahili, had come over in +their canoes and demanded the goods they had received from the white +men. These being refused, they proceeded to take them by force. The +Aia men were outnumbered and beaten, their village burned, and several +of them killed--and eaten. The rest had lived in the fear of death +ever since. + +Blair was a man of wrath that day. His first feeling was the same as +Captain Cathie's, in whom the natural man always ran strong. + +"Well, captain, what do you advise?" he asked. + +"I'd like to give those Kanele men a right good skelping," said Cathie +warmly. "Something they wouldn't forget in a hurry." + +"So would I, but I'm not sure of the wisdom of it." + +"Truckling beggars! Sweet as milk when we're there, and playing the +devil the minute our back's turned. They need a lesson." + +"We'll take the night over it. It's a serious matter." + +They walked the deck far into the night, with the big stars swimming in +the smooth black rollers, and the distant roar of the Aia surges, now +to port and now to starboard, as they beat gently to and fro in default +of anchorage. + +"In the first place," said Blair, summing up their ideas, "these people +are not safe here. Whatever we do or don't do, the Kanele men will +take it out of them as soon as we're gone. We must do our best to +persuade them to migrate to Kapaa'a. That will be a good thing for +them and a good thing for us. As to the Kanele men, the difficulty is +that we want to retain our hold on them. This affair only shows how +great the need is. And if we take measures against them--any measures +almost--we are like to weaken the small hold we have now." + +"All the same," said Cathie bluntly, "it won't do to let 'em think they +can carry on like this and nothing said about it. That'd be fair +provoking them to do the same again." + +"It's difficult to know just what to do," said Blair; and Jean down +below, with Kenni-Kenni nestling close in her arms, heard the four feet +tramping, tramping, slowly and heavily, to and fro, till she fell +asleep. They seemed to be still tramping whenever the _Torch_ gave a +sudden kick and woke her. But there was a sense of guardianship in the +very sound, and Kenni-Kenni's soft head against her heart was very +comforting. + +In the morning they set to work on the plans they had arrived at +overnight. + +Blair went ashore early, while Cathie prepared for his passengers. + +It did not need five minutes' talk to show the Aia men how unsafe their +position was. It was self-evident. But it took much talk and +persuasion to induce them to migrate to Kapaa'a. + +They saw the advantages. Some of them had been there already and seen +for themselves; but the brown men cling to their own bits of coral or +volcanic rock as strenuously as Highland crofter to his dripping +heather, or Irish peasant to his patch of bog. + +The women, however, had listened to those marvellous accounts of the +unheard-of security of life and property on Kapaa'a, and now they +joined forces with Blair and carried the day. By sunset they were all +aboard the _Torch_ with such belongings as the Kanele men had left +them. The _Torch_ beat to and fro again throughout the night, and not +a native closed an eye for the strangeness of it all, and in the early +morning Blair was ashore again on Kanele. He had assured Jean there +was no danger; but he left Captain Cathie behind--to look after the +crowd of brown men and women. + +He walked boldly up to old Maru's house, and found it still asleep. + +The old man started up wide awake at his call, and the look on his face +was a matrix of Blair's--detected wrong quailing before righteous wrath. + +"You know what I have come about, Maru," said Blair. "You have done +ill by Aia. Why?" + +"It was the young men. They desired more goods." + +"Call the young men. I will speak to them." + +But there was no need to call them. They had seen the _Torch_ and were +coming, and coming in expectation of possible trouble, for they all +came armed. + +"Yes, I see you know why I have come back," said Blair, as they +thronged about the house. "You have done wrong, and you have got to +answer for it. We came here to make life brighter by bringing +peace----" + +"We don't want peace. Fighting is very much better," growled one. + +"Oh, you are brave men! How many men were there on Aia? Twenty-five +at most. And how many of you went over? More than sixty. Oh yes, you +like fighting when the others are weak. How will you like it when you +are beaten and running for your lives into the hills? You have done +ill, and you must answer for it. Maru and Kahili will come with me to +Kapaa'a, and we will decide what shall be done." + +"Not me!" said old Maru, or words to that effect, and drew from its +hiding-place one of the axes Blair had given him, and began to swing it +gently in his hand. + +"If you do not come, we shall fetch you. It is for you to say. If we +have to fetch you, it will make trouble." + +Old Maru's axe swung gently to and fro, to and fro, as though hungering +to bite, but doubtful. + +"That would not serve you, Maru," said Blair quietly. "Though you cut +me in pieces, the rest would come and you would suffer the more. The +old times are past. We have come to give you better times. Peace you +shall have, though we have to bring it with club and spear." + +And just then Long Tom on the yacht bellowed his tremendous note, and +the brown men looked round apprehensively. + +"That is my big canoe speaking," said Blair. "But it is only a +warning. It can strike as hard as it talks. Will you save trouble by +coming, Maru?" + +"I will not go." + +"Then we shall come for you. I am sorry; but the wrong-doing is +yours.... Let no man lift his hand, or worse will follow," he said, as +a restless movement rustled among them. Then eyeing them steadily, he +passed through, not sure at what moment axe or club might fall on his +head. But so high was his look that no man, even of those he had +passed, found courage for the blow, and he walked down to the beach +alone. + +"I'm mighty glad to see you back whole," said Cathie, as Blair swung up +on deck. "I saw their clubs through the glass, and I misdoubted them. +They wouldn't come?" + +"No, they wouldn't come, so I promised to fetch them. Now we'll get +on, captain. First to land our passengers on Kapaa'a, and then as we +decided last night." + +Ha'o and the rest were mightily surprised at the size of the _Torch's_ +company. But the chief jumped to Blair's views at once. + +"You will soon become a nation at this rate, Ha'o." + +"I will deal well with them," said Ha'o. + +"And now as to the men of Kanele?" + +"We will make an end of them." + +"I want them as part of your nation, and dead men are no use. If we go +in force enough, I do not think they will fight. But they have broken +the peace, and they must have a lesson." + +"We will teach them with the spear. It will be a lesson for the others +also. When shall we start?" + +"The sooner the better; but first we must see the newcomers housed." + +That took two days, and then the _Torch_ and the _Jean Arnot_ sailed +with larger crews than they were in the habit of carrying. First round +the other islands, at each of which Blair and Ha'o landed and had a +talk with the headmen and explained their ideas to them. + +And much hard talking it took, in some cases, to carry their views. +But they were set on it, and they prevailed. + +From each village they enlisted the headman and certain of his +followers, from six to ten, according to the population, and in due +course came down on Kanele one hundred and fifty brown men and eighteen +whites, with Long Tom in reserve, and great hopes that so large a +display would suffice without any fighting. + +All the boats on Kapaa'a had been requisitioned for the debarkation, +and it was an imposing flotilla that drew in to Kanele beach that day +to bring peace at the point of the spear. And, composed, as the +gathering was, of the most discordant elements, it was yet all moulded +to one purpose by the strong will of one man, and by the very +differences that separated its units one from another. For each +component felt itself but a part of the whole, and in a minority which +left it no option but to work with the rest. + +Not a soul was to be seen on shore, but they knew that black eyes +watched stealthily from every cover. + +"Maru! Kahili! We have come for you," shouted Blair. "Here are Ha'o +of Kapaa'a, and Ruel of Anape----" and he recited all the names of the +head-men. "We will give you till the shadows are smallest to come in. +Then be it on your own heads!" and the great company sat down on the +beach to pass the time. + +"Will they come?" asked Blair of Ha'o. + +"They will come," said Ha'o. "They would have no chance against us, +and they are not fools." + +Blair seized the opportunity for more talk with the leading men from +the other islands. He showed them that none were safe if raiding were +permitted, not even the strongest, for against the strongest +combination might prevail. The only security was in union against +illdoers; and he rubbed that lesson into them till they were not likely +to forget it. + +Before the wheeling shadows had shortened the slim black lines of the +palms into their spreading crowns, a tumult broke out inland, and as +they all stood expectant, a mob, in which were many women, came +hurrying along, with old Maru and Kahili on its front like corks on a +swelling tide. + +"It is well," said Blair, as he went to meet them. "You have given us +much trouble, but you have saved yourselves more. Do you understand, +Maru, and you, Kahili, and all you men and women of Kanele, what this +great company means? It means that the old times are gone for ever, +and that the better times are come. If there is to be any fighting in +future, we of Kapaa'a and the islands round about will have our say in +the matter. Take those two to the boats," and at a sign from him a +file of Torches led the prisoners away. "There are others among you +who prefer war to peace," he said. "I want them also." + +This caused a hubbub amongst them, and much hot discussion, but at last +certain ones were evolved from the crowd, and pushed to the front +protesting, and to the number of ten he had them marched down to the +boats, amid the wailing of their women. + +"Now, listen!" cried Blair, waving down their cries with a peremptory +hand. "Is it to be peace or war henceforth?" + +"Peace," wailed the women, and the men stood silent. "Then let the +women bring here all the spears and clubs, for you will not need them." + +This was touching them on the raw, for the brown man's weapons are his +dearest possessions. + +But this was to be a lesson once and for all, and not for the men of +Kanele only. + +"I must have them," said Blair. "If you will not bring them, we must +get them ourselves. Which shall it be?" + +The men stood, stubborn and sulky. Some of the women on the outskirts +of the crowd began to trickle away. + +Then old Maru's wife crept up downcastly from the side of the throng, +carrying two long spears and a club, and cast them on the sand at +Blair's feet. + +"It is good, Maruaine," he said gently. + +"You will not kill our men, Missi?" she asked piteously. + +"I have come to make your lives happier, Maruaine. I will not hurt a +hair of their heads. But they must learn, and this is the first +lesson." + +Kahili's wife followed, and one by one the other women came, with more +spears and clubs, till the pile was a goodly one. + +Then he had a fire kindled beneath them, and the brown men watched its +easy lighting with a match with wonder, but twisted uneasily as the +weapons were consumed. + +[Illustration: Peace with a spear.] + +"Now, listen!" said Blair, when the crackling died down. "Maru and +Kahili, and the others we have taken will go with us to Kapaa'a for a +time, and will live with us there. We intend them no harm. They will, +I hope, learn many things amongst us, and then they will come back and +tell you of them. We wish your good, only your good, always your good. +But those who do ill, who break the peace, and rob their weaker +neighbours, will have to answer to us for it. Ha'o of Kapaa'a has +known us now a long time. He will tell you that we mean you well." + +And Ha'o stood out before them, tall and brown, and said, in a voice +that rang above the wash of the surf and the pattering of the palm +fronds-- + +"Kenni is my brother. He has done great things for Kapaa'a. Twice he +saved my life, and the lives of my people. Three times he risked his +own life, and the lives of his people. His blood has run for us. What +Kenni says and does is good. Any man who thinks otherwise I am ready +to talk to him," and it was evident to all that Ha'o's talk would be +strong, and to the point. + +Blair said a word or two to him, and he added-- + +"While Maru and Kahili are living with us, Maru's wife will be your +chief. She is a wise woman, and loves peace more than war. Has any +one anything to say against it?" + +No one at the moment desired to say anything against it, whatever they +might think or feel. + +"It is well," said Ha'o. "Let no man speak against it when we are not +here. Now you will bring us food, and then we will go home." + +Two very sober and thoughtful men were Maru and Kahili as Kanele sank +into the sea astern. They were treated, however, with every +consideration, and Blair was at much pains to explain his ideas to them +so far as concerned themselves. For the rest, it was curious to notice +how the men of each island kept themselves to themselves. There were +differences of dialect, of course, which interfered somewhat with +freedom of intercourse, but there were also lifelong memories of bloody +feuds which kept them apart. It was a mighty step towards better times +to see them there in peaceful toleration of one another's presence. +The dividing lines were at once the mark of the past and the sign of +the future. A year before they would have been at one another's +throats. + +On Kapaa'a the hostages received the same equal treatment with the +rest. They were given houses and tools, and shown how to use them. +They joined in the chase, and developed discriminating tastes in the +matter of fresh-killed pig and goat cooked in paw-paw leaves. They +were neither talked at nor preached at. They were simply allowed to +absorb the new atmosphere of law and order, and found it good. And in +due time they were returned to their own island new men, with the seeds +of still larger knowledge within them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +NO THOROUGHFARE + +It would be difficult to tell in words the exaltation of spirit which +possessed Kenneth Blair at the brave show the new order of things was +making in these Dark Islands of his choice. It was a beginning after +his own heart, and he rejoiced in it greatly. + +I can imagine what he must have looked like as he went about his +Master's business--clad always in white from head to foot, and carrying +always that high look of his, blazing with enthusiasm and the mighty +joy of life, which caught the eye and held it. Kekera--White Fire--the +brown men often called him, and he looked it to the life. + +He felt things growing under his hand, and his heart was full. A +beginning of beginnings and visible growth--what more could the soul of +man desire? + +Domestic concerns were prospering also. Mary Stuart had the +satisfaction of her heart in a little son, and Kenni-Kenni and Alivani +crawled neck and neck races on the white beach together. The schools +were full, for the teaching was so sheer a delight that the wriggling +brown bodies and glancing black eyes felt a day missed a day lost. If +ever learning came without tears it did to these. They were actually +beginning to use English words now and again in their talk and play--by +way of showing off at first, indeed, but presently as a matter of +course. And the larger children, their fathers and mothers, were +imbibing new ideas of all kinds at a revolutionary rate. They were +even beginning to put theirs into "Kown im!" and to show some knowledge +of what the words meant. + +And so far there had been no further disturbance from the outside; but +they were always on the look-out for it, and it came, and in the +expected shape. + +The Dark Islands lie far out of the ordinary track of commerce. For +that very reason, when once discovered, they offered unusual +inducements to such as found the usual fields too small, and too hot, +for their peculiar forms of immorality. The outposts of civilisation, +such as it is, have not infrequently been pushed forward by individuals +whom civilisation could no longer tolerate in its midst. It was such a +one who came out of his way--and incidentally out of the way of some +who ardently desired to lay hands on him--to bring the amenities of +commerce and civilisation to the Dark Islands. + +Old Maru, and his son Kahili, and the other hostages to law and order, +had returned to their homes full to the brim of new ideas and great +intentions, and Blair reposed great hopes in them. + +He and Cathie, on one of their usual rounds of the islands in the +_Torch_, came sailing round Kanele Head one day and were surprised to +find a ship at anchor in the bay. + +"Ah!" broke from them both at the sight. + +"So that's come," said Cathie. "Bound to sooner or later. Nip it +tight, sir, is my advice." + +He gave some orders to the mate, and they went ashore. + +A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach from Maru's +house to meet them. He was stout and evil-faced, with small blue eyes +and tangled hay-coloured beard and moustache, and the roll in his walk +seemed too pronounced to come entirely from much walking of slippery +decks. + +[Illustration: A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach.] + +"Morning," he said curtly. "Traders?" + +"No, sir. Missionaries in charge." + +"Gee-whilikins!" + +"Yes, very much so," and Blair pulled out his watch. The man needed no +investigation. His character was written all over him. "It is now +nine o'clock. I will give you till half-past ten to clear out of here. +If your anchor is not up by that time you will take the consequences. +Understand?" + +"Say, have you bought this island, mister?" gaped the other. + +"Yes, from the devil and all his works, so you clear out. It is now +two minutes past nine, and you've got eighty-eight minutes left." + +"Well, I'm----" + +"You will be if you don't stir your stumps." + +"And suppos'n I say I'll be hanged if I go." + +"I should consider it not unlikely. You certainly will if you stay." + +"Well, I _am_----! Was it _missionaries_ you said?" + +"That's what I said." + +"Very well, then," said the invader, pulling himself together, "I'll +see you eternally annihilated first." That was not his exact +expression, but it is printable and will suffice. + +"Eighty-six minutes left," said Blair quietly. + +Captain Cathie waved his hat three times to the _Torch_, and Long Tom's +angry bellow rolled up into the hills and lined the side of the trader +with curious faces. + +"_Missionaries_! Well, I _am_----" and he looked at them, and then at +the _Torch_ with the cloud of blue-white smoke drifting slowly away +from her deck, and then turned and humped his shoulders and went back +the way he had come, and Blair and Cathie followed him. + +They were all fast asleep at Maru's house, and not likely to waken in a +hurry, if the empty rum bottles scattered about were anything to go by. +There were some opened cases of trade lying about, and the scraps and +remnants of a feast--in addition to the inert forms of old Maru and his +wife, and Kahili and his wife, and some of their people. + +"Eighty minutes!" said Blair grimly, as he looked round on this undoing +of his work. + +"Say, mister, couldn't we come to some arrangement?" began the trader. + +"Certainly! The arrangement is that you up anchor and away +inside--seventy-nine minutes," with a glance at his watch. + +"I guess you'll pay for this 'fore you're done, mister. I'm an +American citizen." + +"Sorry to hear it." + +"And an American citizen don't stand bein' fired out like this and no +reasons given--not by a long sight!" + +"There are our reasons," said Blair, pointing to the heavy sleepers, +"and there are yours," and he pointed to the half-emptied case of rum. +"Seventy-eight minutes more!" + +The American citizen looked him over for a moment but found no hope of +amelioration in his face. + +"Well, I'm----" and he turned to the door and whistled shrilly to his +ship, and presently a boat came slouchily across to the shore. + +"Carry them things aboard," he ordered, and saw it done, and then +followed his men into the boat. + +Then he stood up in the stern and delivered himself luridly on +missionaries in general, and on this new kind, as represented by Blair +and Cathie, in particular. + +"You'll hear of me again, my sons, sure as my name's Hartford Crawley. +Yes, by thunder, you will, and don't you forget it!" was his +valediction with threatening fist, and they could hear him cursing all +the way to the ship. + +Blair and Cathie returned to the _Torch_. At half-past ten Long Tom +thundered a reminder to Mr. Crawley that his time was up, and before +the echoes died away, the trader's anchor was apeak and his sails were +dropping sulkily to the breeze. + +He headed slowly out to sea, and was surprised to find the _Torch_ do +the same. + +He took a notion towards the south. Long Tom barked angrily at him. + +He tried a move towards the north. Long Tom barked again. Due west +was his course, and they would permit him no other. + +All day long the _Torch_ followed him like a sheep dog, and at night +drew in so close that they could hear Mr. Crawley still swearing at +large. Fortunately, the moon was almost at the full, and he had no +chance of slipping away in the dark. For three days they dogged him +and kept him to his course. Then they ranged up within speaking +distance and delivered their final word, "These islands are not open to +traders. If you ever return you do so at your peril." Then they +turned and laid their course for Kanele. + +Arbitrary action, undoubtedly, but Kenneth Blair was the last man in +the world to shirk what he deemed his duty from any fear of possible +after consequences. + +Maru and the rest were in their right minds when they got back to the +island. They were full of excuses and explanations, but Blair said +little to them beyond emphasising the fact that these were the men he +had warned them against, and that their coming would make for evil +times among them. And old Maru, in the keen recollection of the very +bad head he had had the day after the trader's supper party was +disposed to think he was right. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE ACT OF GOD + +A full year of quiet progress left no monumental happenings to record. + +The islands were rising rapidly out of their original darkness, and the +hearts of the workers were as full as their hands. + +Growth in the homes had necessitated ampler accommodation for scholars +and worshippers outside. A church and two school-houses had been built +to supply the absolute want, and were in full use. + +The r and the capital H had got into "Crown Him!" and in some quarters +a visible understanding of the meaning of the invocation. + +Matters all round were progressing favourably. The bodily health of +the islands was good, morally and spiritually it was improving. Law +and order were striking slow roots into the shaky quagmire of custom +and superstition, and Ha'o was in fair way to become a nation. For the +headmen of the smaller islands came regularly to Kapaa'a for +consultation--and gifts--and his influence over them grew steadily. + +In all matters economic and politic Blair put Ha'o forward as head and +front. For himself, he desired nothing but the good of the people, and +he judged it best that the executive power should remain in native +hands so long as they continued capable and trustworthy. In these +matters Ha'o had justified him to the fullest, and had shown himself an +apt, not to say an ambitious, pupil. Feuds were of rarer occurrence, +and had even been brought to Kapaa'a for adjustment. Cannibalism was +no longer openly indulged in, even in the outer islands, and they were +hopeful that its day was past. + +Evans and his wife had been resident for some months past on Kanele, +Charles and Mary Stuart were on Anape, and the _Jean Arnot_ had had a +busy time going to and fro between the settlements. The _Torch_, with +Captain Cathie on board, had made a voyage to Sydney, carrying letters +home, and bringing back supplies and news. That was nearly twelve +months ago, and was the only communication they had had with +civilisation since they turned their backs on it. + +Kenneth Blair and Jean and Aunt Jannet Harvey and Captain Cathie were +sitting one evening on the platform of the mission house, enjoying the +well-earned rest of busy workers. Master Kenni-Kenni was crawling +about at their feet in light attire, with a strong band of knitted wool +round his sturdy body, to which a thin rope and Aunt Jannet were +attached, to keep him from falling overboard. + +The sun was sinking, red and misty, into a bank of cloud which lay +heavily across the western sky, though it still wanted an hour of +sunset. The lagoon was sombre red, the spouts of foam on the reef +gleamed dusty rose white, the hills behind were dull red bronze and the +mouth of the valley was filling with purple shadows. + +Cathie had been giving them the latest news of the Evanses and Stuarts, +whom he had just been visiting in the _Torch_, which, with the _Jean +Arnot_, now lay rolling sleepily over their own black shadows in the +lagoon. + +"Well," said Aunt Jannet, as she hauled Kenni-Kenni back from +destruction and the edge of the platform, which for the moment was the +limit of his ambition, "I've been hot in my life before, but to-day +beats everything. It was like an oven." + +"I had to start the engines to get home," said Cathie. "I came in by +the lower entrance and there wasn't a breath of air. But we'll have a +change soon, and a big one too if the barometer's anything to go by. +I've been getting out double cables and kedges to the rocks for both +the ships." + +"We wondered what you were busy at," said Blair. "You expect a heavy +blow?" + +"You never can tell, and it's best to be on the safe side. We've been +uncommonly lucky so far. But when the weather does get its back up +here it sometimes gets it pretty high----Hel--lo!" + +The arm of the hill which ran down into the water hid the seaward view +on that side. As Cathie spoke, a trim black vessel, with a thin trail +of smoke at its cream-coloured funnel, came silently round the point. + +They all jumped up at so unusual a sight and stood watching eagerly. + +"Service ship," said Cathie. "What on earth is she doing here?" + +At sight of the two ships in the lagoon the stranger slowed down, and +then her syren pealed shrilly across the water. + +"We'd better go and see," said Blair, and the two sprang down off the +platform and ran to the whale-boat drawn up on the beach. The _Torch_ +men and a crowd of curious natives were already there. + +"Now, lads, show the navy men how you can row," was the captain's +order, and in two minutes the white boat was bounding towards the +opening in the reef. It leaped the rollers and presently drew in to +the rows of bronzed faces which lined the side of the ship and looked +on approvingly. + +"This is Kapaa'a, I presume?" asked a tall man in a heavily-braided cap. + +"This is Kapaa'a," said Blair. + +"And is this Mr. Blair?" + +"I am Kenneth Blair. This is Captain Cathie." + +"Come on board, gentlemen." A ladder dropped over the side, and they +swung up to the deck. + +"Can we get inside there, captain?" asked the tall man. "And is there +anchorage? I don't much like the look of the weather and the barometer +is unusually low." + +"Yes, sir, it's going to blow, or I'm much mistaken. You can get in +all right. There's no bottom to that hole in the reef. But whether +you'll be better inside or outside, if it blows hard, I wouldn't like +to say. I've kedged both the schooners there, and I think they'll ride +it out." + +"And there's plenty of water and good holding?" + +"Plenty water to within a couple of hundred yards of the shore. The +shelf breaks there. Holding's fair. You'd better kedge same as we've +done." + +"Perhaps you'll con her in for us to what you consider a good position. +We shall be here for some time, and it'll be pleasanter inside. You'll +excuse me, Mr. Blair, for the moment. We'll have plenty of time to +talk when we get ashore," and he went up on to the bridge with Cathie, +and the big ship headed for the reef. She went weltering through the +passage with the big rollers roaring at her stern, and crept up under +lee of the southern ridge. Then the anchor went down with a plunge, +and the boats dropped lightly into the water to carry the kedges and +cables to the rocks. + +Blair stood watching observantly. The ship he saw was H.M.S. _Bonita_. +He casually asked one of the men, who happened to stand by him for a +moment, where they were from, and was told "Australia," and the +captain's name was Plantagenet Pym. Captain Pym had seemed a bit stiff +in his manner, Blair thought, but that style, he knew, often went with +a heavily-braided cap, and he thought no more of it. + +Presently the two captains came down from the bridge and approached him. + +"You will permit me to offer you such hospitality as the island +affords, captain?" said Blair. + +The other seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he replied, "Thank you, +Mr. Blair, I shall have to be ashore part of the time so I will avail +myself of your offer. I will accompany you in five minutes. Can I +offer you any refreshment--a glass of wine?" and on their declining +this he disappeared below. + +He was up again inside the five minutes, and with a word or two to his +senior lieutenant, descended the ladder into the whale-boat. + +"Your crew does you credit, captain," he said to Cathie, as the +proximity of the uniform braced every man of them to his best. + +"Picked men, every one of them, sir, and good men all," said Cathie +proudly, and every man felt himself a good inch taller. + +The dull red glow had faded off the hills and out of the sky. The +water of the lagoon was the colour of lead, with a sullen heave in it. +The jets of foam on the reef looked like the fangs of wolves against +the dark sky beyond. There were cold whispers in the air, and the +palm-trees on shore shivered audibly. The white mission-houses and +buildings gleamed chill white against the dark hill, but yet gave a +touch of comfort and civilisation to the scene. + +The crowding natives were greatly impressed by the sight of Captain +Pym. Ha'o underwent the process of presentation with extreme dignity, +and then Blair led the captain to his house. + +"Why--Mr. Pym!" cried Aunt Jannet, who was nearest the steps and so met +him first. "It is good of you just to drop in on us in this way," and +she shook his hand with a warmth that almost succeeded in infusing the +like into his response. + +"Yes, I've come over six thousand miles to call on you, Mrs. Harvey. +And how are you, Mrs. Blair? Still suffering exile with equanimity?" + +"No exile, no suffering, Captain Pym," said Jean brightly. "We are all +enjoying ourselves extremely, I assure you." + +"Well, I suppose one can bring one's mind to anything." + +"If it's the right kind of mind, you can," said Aunt Jannet heartily. + +There was just a touch of implication in her tone and manner that some +folks were not the happy possessors of that kind of mind. Captain Pym +stiffened back into officiality somewhat. + +"And you really experience no longings for London again, Mrs. Blair?" +he asked, metaphorically turning his back on Aunt Jannet, who +magnanimously went inside to see after supper. + +"Not the very slightest." + +"Marvellous!" + +"You see I have here what I had not in London You shall see my boy in +the morning. He's the finest little fellow in the world." + +"Ah! ... I suppose that fills many a want." + +"He fills our hearts so that there is no room for wants. Are you +making a long stay?" + +"That depends. A few days, at all events." + +"We shall have heaps of things to show you. All our work here, and +there's a wonderful valley down there with great stone gods that date +back to about the time of the flood. Some ancient race that used to +live here, they say. We will have a picnic there." + +"If I have time I shall enjoy it." + +In due course the time came, but Captain Pym enjoyed it less than he +had anticipated. + +"Now, good people, supper's ready, and you'll all catch your deaths if +you sit out there any longer," called Aunt Jannet from the doorway. +"We have been stewing with the heat all day," she added to Captain Pym, +"and now it's gone to the other extreme. I think you must have brought +a cold wind with you, captain." + +"We haven't had a breath all day. It looks like a spell of dirty +weather," said the captain. + +The wind was coming off the sea in cold gusts. A weary half moon was +bucketting through a rout of ragged clouds, which sped on over the +mountains as if in haste to hide themselves from some unseen pursuer. +In the gaps of the hurrying clouds the moon and a few stars shone +wanly, and in their dim, ineffective light, the water of the lagoon +tossed brokenly like a pan of boiling lead. The flying rags of cloud +came from the dark bank in the west into which the sun had dropped. It +was spreading upwards. The roar of the reef sounded harsher than usual +and full of threatening. There was a strange uncanny look and feeling +abroad. + +"We're certainly in for something," said Captain Cathie, as he stood +looking out to sea. "I've never seen it quite like this before. I +shall go and sleep aboard the _Torch_"--which did not add to their +cheerfulness. + +"You'll have some supper first, captain?" said Aunt Jannet. + +"Oh, yes, I'll make sure of some supper. If it's to be a fight I can +fight better on a full stomach than an empty one." + +So they went inside, and found it pleasant to close the door, which was +a very unusual thing with them. + +Captain Pym's manner during supper was still somewhat stiff and formal; +but he unbent enough to give them the latest astonishing news of the +outside world, the lack of which was the one thing they felt somewhat +at times. But it was only when the pipes were alight afterwards that +he disclosed himself. + +"You are wondering, no doubt, what brings me here, Mr. Blair," he said. + +"Well--yes, somewhat. You are the first visitor we have had." + +"Not quite. And it is because of those others that I am here." + +Blair looked at him in surprise. Captain Cathie nodded +understandingly, as though in confirmation of his own thoughts. + +"Certain complaints have been made to the Government concerning some of +your doings here, and they have sent me to look into the matter." + +"I--see. You refer to the kidnappers we put a stopper on----" + +"That complaint comes from Peru. There is one also from the American +government----" + +"Ah, yes--Mr.--What-was-his-name?--Crawley, was it? He promised we +should hear from him. Well, sir, we shall be glad to put our side of +the case before you. You shall see what we have done here since we +came, and no doubt you will appreciate our desire to safeguard our work +in every possible way. We have done no single thing we in any way +regret, and we would not hesitate to do the same again if occasion +should arise." + +"Ah," said Captain Pym, with a knowing official nod, "you gentlemen of +the cloth, when you get right away from any authority but your own, +sometimes go to extremes, and are perhaps tempted to magnify your +office somewhat." + +"That is quite impossible," said Blair quietly. "I consider my office +the very highest in the world. As far as in me lies I have worked up +to my ideal of it, and shall continue to do so. As to going to +extremes, we have simply defended our work from spoliation. That also +we shall continue to do." + +"Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet energetically, and Captain Pym frowned +officially at the pair of them. + +"Supposing, Captain Pym," broke in Cathie, by way of lightning +conductor, "you had an unarmed tender attached to your ship, and an +enemy stole up in the night and carried her off, crew and all, you +would consider yourself justified in following and bringing her back, +and taking payment out of the other side." + +"That's the way to put it," said Aunt Jannet. + +"The cases are not parallel, sir. That would be a _casus belli_, and I +should of course do my duty. You have no authority----" + +"Oh yes, we have," said Blair warmly. "The very highest"--and as +Captain Pym did not seem to appreciate that point, he added--"but, +apart from that, we have the endorsement of Mr. Annesley, the Colonial +Secretary. He and the Earl of Selsea were good enough to take very +great interest in our intended work here. I laid all my plans before +them, and they approved them. In fact, they spoke of a protectorate." + +"The Earl of Selsea is dead, and Mr. Annesley retired from office +twelve months ago." + +"Ah, that may account for things. I am very sorry to hear that. +However, we don't need the protectorate. Kapaa'a is almost on to its +own feet, and can speak for itself." + +"And what position does Mr. Blair occupy in the government?" asked Pym, +with a cynical touch in his voice. + +"None whatever, sir, and desires none. We have consistently worked +through the chief Ha'o, whom you met on the beach. Nothing has been +done without his approval. It is his elevation and his people's that +we desire, not our own, and I think I may say he is as keen on it as we +are." + +"From all accounts, however, your work has by no means been confined +entirely to the spiritual department, Mr. Blair; Long Toms and +Winchesters hardly come within the strict bounds of the missionary +calling." + +"The shepherd may use his crook to keep the wolves off his flock. Our +crooks consist, as you say, of Winchesters and a Long Tom. If we had +not had them we should not be here--nor would our flock. My ideas of +missionary duties may strike you as somewhat advanced, Captain Pym, but +then, you see, I have the advantage of knowing all the requirements of +the case. The very first essential to progress is peace, and you can't +procure it with words when you're dealing with elementary facts." + +"If we'd settled all those elementary facts at the start, as Captain +Cathie and I advised, we would have heard no more about them," said +Aunt Jannet, with a regretful shake of the head. "It's possible to be +too conscientious for this world." + +"We work for both, you see. I admit that a clean sweep would have +saved much trouble. But I couldn't bring myself to hanging them, +richly as they deserved it. As to the American citizen, his end and +aim was to introduce the drink traffic, and that we won't have at any +price. Not even under government orders." + +Their talk had been so vital that the waxing of the gale outside had +passed unnoticed, though the door was jerking at its latch and the +windows buzzed like bees. + +When the discussion came to a pause, Captain Cathie jumped up and went +to the window. + +"I'm off," he said quickly. + +"If Mrs. Blair will excuse me for to-night, I will go too," said Pym. +"If there is risk for the _Torch_ there is risk for the _Bonita_, and I +would sooner be on the spot." + +"I hope there is no danger," said Jean. "We have had many a big storm, +but the ships have never suffered." + +"Barometer's lower than it's ever been since we came here," said +Cathie, with a shake of the head; "and I've no doubt Captain Pym feels +as I do, that when you don't know what's in the wind it's as well to be +where you can find out." + +"Quite so," said Captain Pym, and Blair went down with them to the boat. + +They were nearly blown off their feet before they got to it, and the +waves that swept up the white beach were such as they had never seen on +it before. The rush of the wind in their ears dulled all other sounds. +In the spasmodic gleams of the moon through the ragged clouds they +could see the rollers sweeping over the barrier reef with unbroken +crests, and the usually placid lagoon was in a turmoil. + +"Can we manage it?" shouted Pym, in Cathie's ear. + +"Under the lee of the ledge there," shouted Cathie, and pounded on the +door of the men's house for his crew. + +Blair helped them down with the boat, saw them all soaked through +before they could get afloat, and then watched them toil away into the +lee of the protecting ridge of rocks. + +"They'll have their own to-do to get there," he said, when he got back +to the house. "The waves are coming right in over the reef. I never +saw anything like it." + +"Is this man going to make trouble for us, Ken?" asked Jean anxiously. + +"Oh, I don't think so. Don't worry about him, dear. He's a bit +bumptious and unsympathetic, but I think we can show him that we could +have done no less than we did. He doesn't trouble me in the slightest. +Whatever he does, our work stands and tells its own tale." + +In the morning it seemed to the unknowing as though the storm had blown +itself out. The wind had fallen, but the sky was heavy; dark grey +clouds boiled along close above mud-coloured waves, and the horizon lay +just back of the reef. The sun made a faint fight for a show, but +looked and felt out of place, and after pushing ghostly fingers through +stray holes in the clouds, and peeping at the water below, went into +retirement again. + +The two captains came ashore after breakfast, but when Jean expressed +satisfaction at the passing of the storm without any damage, Cathie +only shook his head. + +"Now, Captain Pym," said Blair, as they walked along towards the +village, "let me remind you that less than two years ago these people +were eating one another, and delighting in it. There has not been a +man eaten on Kapaa'a for over twelve months now. Here is the boys' +school. That is the girls'. As it is Sunday, they are all in church +waiting for us. Perhaps you will stop for the service. It is very +short and simple. Then we will go on and show you other evidences of +our work." + +The church was crowded, and when the brown men and women and children +sang "Crown Him!" at the full stretch of their lungs, most of their +black eyes were fixed on Captain Pym--to his great discomfort--as +though they applied the hymn specifically to him, which possibly some +of them did. + +After service Blair conducted him to the village, and on to the +plantations and taro fields, and even Captain Pym's official phlegm and +preconceived notions had to acknowledge that, for a country three years +ago buried in barbarism, the sights he saw were very striking. + +He did not say much. His feelings were at strife. He had come to +condemn, and he found himself forced to admit and admire. + +The plantations had by degrees crept a considerable way up the valley. +The party came back along the shoulder of Ra'a's hill, and as they came +towards the open a furious gust of wind carried them almost off their +feet. + +And then they saw the most appalling sight of their lives, and one they +never forgot. + +Out of the dim grey curtain of the west there appeared a monstrous +sinuous shape that reached from sky to sea, and came swirling towards +the island with an easy voluptuous grace that was full at once of +haphazard fortuity and most malign intention. + +They stood frozen. Blair suddenly gripped Pym by the arm. He could +not speak. + +Behind the first monster came another, and another, and another, all +reeling hither and thither like drunken demons, but all making straight +for the island. + +"Good God!" cried Pym, and instinctively put his hands to his mouth to +shout a warning to his ship, a shout that could not have carried five +inches. + +Then he commenced to run down the hill as he had never run in his life +before. His whole thought was for his ship and his men, Blair's and +Cathie's for the people below. + +Captain Pym reached the beach through a crowd of fugitives making for +the hillside. The monsters had been sighted, and panic was afoot. + +Blair and Cathie rushed down through the village, shouting-- + +"To the hills!" and sped on. + +Jean and Aunt Jannet Harvey, busy in the house, had seen nothing. The +two men dashed up the steps. Blair seized his boy under one arm, and +dragged his wife by the other. Cathie laid hold of Aunt Jannet, and +with a gasping word of explanation which only filled the women with +fear, and explained nothing, they ran for the southern hill, whose arm +ran out into the sea. + +Only when they had got half-way up it did they dare to turn and look. + +They saw Pym ramping alone on the beach like a madman. + +They saw the first of the hideous whirling monsters hop lightly over +the swollen reef without a pause and pirouette in the lagoon. Then a +blast of smoke whirled from the deck of the _Torch_, and the dull sound +of the gun went quickly past them. The monster writhed and broke, and +the pendulous head of it swept inland. The ships pitched at their +moorings till the kedge cables snapped and they seemed standing on +their sterns. The waves of the lagoon churned up to the platforms of +the mission-houses. + +"Good lad! Good lad!" shouted Cathie. + +Then the other three monsters, as though in answer to the challenge, as +though endued with malignant understanding and most devilish +determination, bent and swung and reeled over the reef and flung +themselves towards the ships. + +They saw Captain Pym suddenly throw up his hands above his head in a +gesture of utter impotence and despair, and then turn and make for the +hill. + +The watchers crouched in a crevice of the hillside and gazed +narrow-eyed, and their breaths came quick and short, not from the run +but because their hearts were in their throats and choked their +breathing. + +It was a most terrible sight. The powers of all evil--death, +destruction, and malignity--against the puny works of man. + +The three awful whirling shapes danced and swung in the lagoon, showing +off all their evil graces. Three ineffectual flashes broke from the +gunboat, but they avoided them with an easy swing, as though they +understood and were on their guard. They reeled towards one another +and seemed to take evil counsel together. Then, as though moved by one +mind, they swooped down straight on the ships. + +"Oh, cruel! cruel!" moaned Jean, clasping her boy to her and hiding her +face in him. + +Captain Cathie groaned as he watched, and then burst into incoherent, +and unusual, and most excusable blasphemies. + +Aunt Jannet and Kenneth Blair stared in dreadful fascination. + +For one of the whirling monsters reached the ships, picked them up, and +smashed them and itself together in one dreadful destruction. When the +wild welter settled down and permitted sight, the lagoon was bare save +for scattered fragments and struggling figures. + +Another of the awful things made for the opposite mountain side. They +saw it strike and break there. The solid earth crumbled and splashed +like mud, and palms and rocks slid down to the sea, while the swollen +hanging top of it swung away along the hillside belching ragged +torrents as it went. + +The remaining one went roaring past them like a great wounded beast, +and tore up the valley, breaking itself and scattering destruction +broadcast. They heard the final crash of it away up among the hills, +and a foaming torrent came sweeping down the valley carrying everything +before it. + +All this time the wind was blowing a hurricane, Such palms as were left +standing whipped and writhed in vain agonies. Some snapped like +carrots and lay still. The rain beat mercilessly on the fearful +watchers and bit like whips. Blair bent over his wife and boy to +shield them with his body. Aunt Jannet, dishevelled and grey, and +haggard, still peered out at the horrors in front. + +A sound from her, between a gasp and a groan, and a sudden terrified +clutch at his arm, brought Blair's face up to the crowning horror. + +There came a roaring from the sea the like of which was never heard +before. A mighty wall of water came rushing on the land to overwhelm +it. It leaped high over the ridge of rocks that lay like a protecting +arm round the nearer curve of the lagoon. The jets of it went +rocketting up to heaven, and the mighty ridged crest bristled like an +avalanche. + +Blair sprang upright instinctively, to face the danger standing, and +dug his fingers deep into the cracks of the rocks in front of him. + +[Illustration: Blair sprang upright instinctively.] + +The great wave broke on the solid earth with the crash of an +earthquake. It was half-way up the hillside, and the opposite hill was +suddenly shortened, and stood in the open sea. The valley was a +boiling waterway of hideous and inexpressible confusion. + +"It is the end of the world," gasped Aunt Jannet, and sank down, and +looked no more. + +"My God! My God!" groaned Cathie. + +"God help us all!" said Blair, and the rain whipped his face till it +seemed as hard and set as the neighbouring rocks. + +They spent the night there in extremest misery, sodden through and +through, chilled to the bone, faint with hunger. Even Kenni-Kenni was +damp, though two protecting bodies did their best to shelter him. And +all night long the only sounds in their ears were the hiss and rush and +roar of many waters, as the terrible sea went back to its deeps, and +the clouds discharged their ceaseless torrents, and the troubled land +got rid of its torment. + +And over and above the weariness of their bodies, their hearts were +sick within them at thought of the destruction of all their work and +all their hopes. For whether a soul besides themselves was left alive +they knew not. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WIPED OUT + +Jean and Aunt Jannet were dozing fitfully, fairly spent with the strain +and misery of it all. Cathie's grey beard was on his chest, but +whether he slept Blair could not tell. + +He himself sat on his rock, chilled to the marrow of his bones, and +watched with heavy eyes the slow birth of new life after the deadly +horrors of the night. And his heart was as cold as his body. + +He wrestled manfully with that which was in him, but surely man's faith +and courage were rarely put to sorer test. He had striven so hard, and +toiled so ceaselessly, at utmost stretch of hand and heart and brain, +and here, just as the harvest was ripening, it was all dashed into +nothing, as though by the stroke of an angry hand. Oh, it was hard, +hard, hard! + +But he fought out his fight singlehanded, and found himself--where +steadfast faith and undaunted courage have always firm footing. And a +spark of hope struggled up in him to meet the sun. The beginnings of +things had always had a charm for him. And here must be a new +beginning. They were back at first principles and the elementary facts +of life. But, truly, there is a mighty difference between a beginning +and a beginning again, and it calls for the best that is in a man to +begin again with the heart with which he began before. + +The rain ceased towards morning, the wind slackened, and when the sun +rose behind the hills the western sky shone opalescent, and the sea +below it was a cold, dark blue. The rollers were still of mighty size, +but the reef was spouting foam again, and the lagoon was heaving within +its usual bounds. + +But everything else was changed--everything except the bare ridge on +which they crouched. + +The village--gone as though wiped with a sponge off a slate. The +mission-houses, schools, church--not a plank left. And somewhere below +the smiling face of the lagoon lay all that was left of the ships and +the men who had been in them. + +Not all below, after all, for from his perch he could see the beach +strewn with fragments, human and otherwise. Right below him on the +hillside, John MacNeil's waterwheel turned busily in fruitless labour, +and its bare nakedness and useless fussiness added to the sense of +desolation and discomfort. + +Then the sun topped the hills, and cheered their chilled senses +somewhat. Blair and Cathie straightened themselves wearily, but +neither dared as yet look into the other's face, lest he should find +there only confirmation of his own worst fears. + +Kenni-Kenni, who had fared better than any of them, and was conscious +of nothing more than bodily discomfort, gave a hungry cry which woke +response in Cathie's breast. + +"Let us go down," he said. "Maybe we'll find something to eat," and +the two men scrambled down to the level, and walked over the soft mud +where the houses had stood, and searched with anxious eyes for +something that might stay their more pressing necessities. + +Blair turned up towards the valley. Cathie, with more prescience, +sought the beach, and presently a shout from him brought the two +together again. When they met, the captain was carrying the body of a +drowned kid under one arm, and a bundle of wood under the other. + +"Here's breakfast," he said, and did not think it well to mention that +he had found the kid lying between the bodies of two dead men, one +brown, the other white. + +The matches in their metal cases were all damp, but a few minutes' +exposure to the sun put that right, and they soon had fire, and kid +steaks grilling over it on pointed sticks. Then they helped the ladies +down and were presently eating, though, in spite of their hunger, each +one of them felt like choking at every mouthful. And there was no talk +among them, for they were sitting on the grave of their hopes. + +More than once Jean stopped feeding her boy and glanced questioningly +at the men, and then, as they ate stolidly, weighted with their +thoughts, she went on with her work. + +It was only when they had all quite finished, and sat as though +dreading what might come next, that she said-- + +"Are we all that are left, Ken? I thought I heard a cry just now." + +"Did you, dear? It is possible. There must surely be others. We will +go and see," and he and Cathie went off again towards the beach. + +"How's it up the valley?" asked the captain briefly. + +"Drowned out." + +The beach was a pitiful sight. Every step spoke of the catastrophe. +Bodies uncountable, white and brown, men, women, and children, pigs and +goats, broken coco-nuts, bruised fruit, wreckage from the ships and +plantations and houses. + +"By God! Mr. Blair, I cannot understand it," broke out Cathie in a +paroxysm, as he stood over the bodies of two of his men from the +_Torch_. "What had we done to deserve this?" + +"Cathie, Cathie! Come to your senses, man! This is no punishment of +God's. Rather let us be thankful we are still alive." + +"I'd almost as lieve be dead," said Cathie stubbornly. "Ships gone, +men gone, everything gone, and all our work undone. Say what you will, +Mr. Blair, it's bitter hard." + +"These," said Blair, raising his hands reverently over the dead at +their feet, "have gone home--beyond the reach of storms. The ships can +be replaced. If there are any people left, the work can be rebuilt. +If they are all gone, they are the better off, and they have gone +further than if we had never come here." + +"It's bitter hard, all the same----" + +And then a faint, muffled cry reached them, apparently from the ragged +hillside whose débris lay all over the beach, and they both ran towards +it. + +The cries were repeated, and led them at last to an out-jutting rock +round which the sliding earth had flowed and settled. + +"Where are you?" cried Blair. + +"Here!" came from under their feet, and they spied a small hole in the +earth, and set to work at once to enlarge it with their hands. + +Cathie ran down to the beach and came back with some pieces of wood +which made the work go quicker. The cries from the inside had ceased, +and they worked the harder, and at last they had the hole large enough +for Blair to get his head and shoulders in. + +With his hand he felt the body of a man fallen in a heap, and by great +exertions managed to drag it out through the hole. + +It was the body of Captain Pym, white and senseless. They carried him +down to the beach and dashed water in his face, and presently he came +to, and lay for a minute looking dazedly up at them. Then he sat up. + +"I apologise," he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness. "Been dead +and buried all night--thought of coming to life again bowled me out. +Saw you in the distance, and shouted and shouted--like being in a +coffin--just room to stand, but couldn't move, and been holding up that +hill all night. My God!" as it all came back on him. "What a horror +it has been! Are you the only ones left?" + +"I hope not," said Blair. "Can you walk? We've got a fire over there +and something to eat." + +"Bit shaky yet," said Pym, as he staggered along on their arms. "Never +expected to walk again in this life." + +"How was it?" + +"When I saw that devilish thing smash the ships, and the other coming +towards me, I made for the hill. I was just under that rock when it +broke. It was like being under Niagara, only worse. It jammed me flat +and beat the breath out of me. Then the earth came rolling down, and +cased me in tight except a hand's space through which I could breathe. +I've been seeing those ships go smash every minute since. God! It was +awful!" and he hung slackly on their arms and glanced over the placid +lagoon. + +Jean and Aunt Jannet gave him quiet greeting, as one come back from the +dead, and hastened to supply his wants. Blair and Cathie set off again +up the valley with tight faces. + +The havoc there was terrible. The cloud-burst and the great wave +together had swept it bare. They went some distance up and stood +looking round. It seemed incredible that so short a time could have +wrought so woful a change. + +The plantations were gone to the last stick and leaf. The very +hillsides were almost cleared of trees. The smiling valley of +yesterday was a stark empty pan, with deeply-scored sides and a sheet +of shining mud caking slowly at the bottom. + +"It will make good growing ground," said Blair. + +"If we'd anything to grow and any one to grow it for," said Cathie +gloomily. + +"We shall find some of them in the hills, I hope. Let us get on." + +And presently there was a shout up above on the hillside, and there +came down, at a pace that risked their necks, Jim Gregor of the _Jean +Arnot_ and young Irvine, who was on the _Torch_ when last they heard of +him. + +They whooped with joy and shook hands a dozen times with Blair and +Cathie, and were quite incoherent for many minutes. + +"We're right glad to see you, boys," said Blair, when they calmed down. +"Are there any more up there?" + +"Three more Torches, sir, and half a dozen Bonitas, and about a dozen +islanders, men and women, and a couple of children. Have you got +anything to eat?" + +"Yes. Go on to the water-wheel. You'll find food there. Where are +these others?" + +"Right by yon rock. We'll go back with you. Some of them are badly +bashed and can't walk without help." + +So they all climbed up, and came on the forlorn little company +crouching by the rock, and gave them new life by the very sight of them. + +The sailors plucked up heart at once, but the brown men were very +subdued and silent. Their eyes were still wide with terror when at +last they sat under the southern ridge and ate the food Jean and Aunt +Jannet found for them, supplemented by coco-nuts and bruised fruit from +the beach. + +All the men had strange stories to tell. Gregor and Irvine, and some +of the others, asserted that when the waterspout struck the ships they +were whirled up out of them and dropped into the lagoon some distance +away. Then, before they could swim ashore, the great wave caught them +and whirled them up into the valley, bruising them all more or less and +breaking some. The brown men were mostly sound of limb. They had fled +for the hills at the first sight of the spectral dangers outside. + +"Have you seen signs of any others?" asked Blair. + +Yes, they thought they had seen moving forms on the further hills, but +too far away to distinguish clearly. On which Cathie set them to +collecting driftwood from the shore, and piled it on the fire, with wet +brush and tangle on top, till the smoke rose in a dense column. + +"That'll bring them," he said, and in time they came dropping in, in +small companies, from their various hiding-places, and last of all came +one carrying a woman in his arms. + +And at sight of him, toiling through the new soft mud where the village +had stood, Blair sprang up and ran to meet him. + +"Thank God, you are left to us, Ha'o!" he cried as they met, but Ha'o +was as silent as the rest of his people. "Is Nai hurt? Let me help +you." + +Nai smiled wanly at him as he put his arms under her and took part of +the weight, and then her face crumpled with pain. + +They carried her gently to the fire, and laid her on the soft white +sand, and Jean and Aunt Jannet knelt beside her and saw to her wants. + +Captain Cathie, when he saw the increasing company, had made another +visit to their only storehouse, the beach, and came back this time with +a young pig and some bananas and coco-nuts, and some +carefully-sought-out paw-paw leaves for the benefit of the too-fresh +pork. + +Ha'o was too weary and too hungry for talk, and Blair and Cathie called +the militant members of the party to salvage work on the beach. +Gruesome work too, and not calculated to raise their spirits even after +a full meal, for every few steps brought them to the bodies of those +they had known alive and well the day before. + +These they drew up the sand for burial later. Meanwhile the orders +were to save everything they could lay hands on. Where everything had +been taken, the smallest find was of value. + +Fruits and shrubs especially Blair commended to their attention, and he +had a couple of dozen paw-paw trees and several rows of bananas planted +before sunset. + +Out of the piles of timber they secured, Cathie and Pym built lean-to +shelters among the rocks sufficient for the whole party. With the +coco-nuts and broken fruit, and the bodies of several pigs and goats, +they had food for several days, if only they could keep it in eatable +condition. By the time it was finished they would know more about +their actual circumstances. + +Jean informed her husband that Nai had an arm and leg broken, and he at +once sought out slips of wood and strips of garments, and put the +broken limbs into splints. + +Ha'o, after eating, lay thoughtful for a time, and then went down to +assist the salvage party. He dragged and carried in silence for some +time, but finally gave voice to his thoughts. + +"Kenni, why has this come upon us?" + +"You have had storms before, Ha'o." + +"But never a storm like this one, with whirling devils and waves like +rushing mountains." + +"I have heard of both before in other places, but I never saw them +myself till now." + +"Was it your God sent them, Kenni?" + +"Only in the same way that He sends everything, Ha'o--light and wind +and rain." + +"Why did He send this when we were doing our best to please Him?" + +"It came in the ordinary way of things. It was just a bigger storm +than usual." + +"We never had it like this before," said Ha'o, sticking stubbornly to +his point. "My people are saying it is your God sent it. If He is +that kind of a god we don't want Him." + +"How do you train your young men, Ha'o? By treating them softly? By +petting them, and giving them all things easy and pleasant?" + +"Nay, we toughen them, so that they may endure." + +"Exactly! Do you think that God knows less than you? He also wants +men who can endure even when the fight goes against them." + +That seemed to strike him. He went on stolidly hauling and carrying, +and at last said, bitterly-- + +"If He had left my people alive, Kenni, and not broken Nai, I would +have thought better of Him." + +"Let us be grateful for what is left, my friend. Nai will get better. +Many of our people are dead, but more are left than we think, perhaps." + +But Ha'o shook his head gloomily, and went on hauling and carrying, and +said no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +REVERSIONS + +Captain Pym was in that state of mind in which every man who loses his +ship finds himself, and from which his fellow in misfortune, Captain +Cathie, was slowly emerging. No slightest blame attached to him in the +matter, and he would have no difficulty in proving it. Nevertheless, +he was suffering exceedingly. The burden of his thoughts kept sleep +far from him, and, after tossing restlessly through the night on a by +no means uncomfortable couch of dried palm fronds, he got up very early +next morning to give his depressed spirits fresh air and wider space +than the confinement of the lean-to afforded them. Blair and Cathie, +worn out with hard work and anxieties, were still sleeping soundly. + +As Pym walked along the beach, he saw with surprise a thin curl of +smoke rising behind an angle of the hillside not far from the scene of +his coffining. + +When he came to the angle he stopped transfixed, and then set off at a +run to the huts. He caught Blair by the shoulder and roughly shook him +awake. + +"Blair," he cried hoarsely, "your brown devils are eating our men," and +Blair and Cathie were on their feet in a moment. + +Blair was not very greatly surprised, though not a little disturbed. +He had seen the upsetting the catastrophe had wrought in Ha'o, the most +advanced of all, and he had wondered if the rest would stand the strain. + +"It's a throw-back," he said, "but it's really not very surprising. +Where's Ha'o? Cathie, will you call the men?" + +He went quickly to the shed Ha'o had built for Nai, and found him there +asleep, and was to that extent relieved. He woke him quietly, and told +him what was going on. + +"Food is scarce, and will be scarcer," said Ha'o, when he arrived at an +understanding of the matter. "Everything is destroyed." + +"Better starve than live so," said Blair vehemently. "But everything +is not destroyed. We shall live somehow, and this has got to be +stopped. Come on!" + +He picked up a stick of wood from the drift, and set off at a run along +the beach. The others armed themselves in like manner and followed him. + +The brown men sprang up from their feast as they rounded the corner, +some of them still gnawing at chunks of flesh in their hands. + +Blair rushed at them like a blazing bolt. Several of them, for lack of +clubs, snatched brands from the fire. He paid no heed to their +weapons, but laid about him with his stick with such vigour that they +gave way before him, and the others, following his lead with hearty +good will, drove the brown men back, and finally put them to the run. + +"Now," said Blair, as he leaned on his stick, "there is only one thing +to be done. Pile all the rough wood you can find on to that fire. +Keep out anything that may be useful. We must burn all those bodies. +We can't take them out to sea, and if we bury them they'll dig them up." + +It was obviously the best thing to do, and they set about the gruesome +business at once. + +They made a mighty pile of firing and laid the bodies reverently on it, +and covered them with more wood, and more bodies and again more wood, +till they had to wait till the pile burned down, because of the height +of it and the heat. And their faces were pinched and their breaths +shortened, as they carried to the pyre the bodies of those they had +lived with in comradeship for so long, and they worked in silence. + +The only sound that was heard beyond the crackle and fall of the +burning wood, as the dense black smoke rolled up into the sky, was the +voice of Blair, as he stood to windward and quietly recited portions of +the service for the Burial of the Dead from time to time. And surely +never did the solemn words sound more weighty and full of meaning. + +"I am the resurrection and the life.... + +"Lord, Thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another.... + +"Thou turnest man to destruction.... + +"They are even as a sleep: and fade away suddenly like the grass.... + +"In the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.... + +"For we consume away in Thy displeasure.... + +"Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live.... He cometh +up and is cut down, like a flower.... + +"In the midst of life we are in death.... + +"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.... + +"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.... For they rest from +their labours...." + +None of them ever forgot that strange and somewhat ghastly service--the +hungry lick of the flames, blue and green and yellow and red from the +salt and tar, but almost unseen in the beams of the fully-risen sun; +the rippling lagoon; the sparkling white beach; the foam-jets on the +reef; the great blue sea beyond; the pitiful things the flames +consumed; and the rolling clouds of smoke which spread like a pall +along the scarred hillside. + +Aunt Jannet Harvey came hurrying round the corner to see what they were +at, and Cathie caught sight of her and sent her hurrying back surprised +at his brusqueness. For this was one of the things that may be told +but is better not seen. + +Ha'o had taken no part in these doings. He had no desire for human +flesh, but there was a doubtful look on his face, as though he thought +the proceedings wasteful and possibly to be regretted later on. + +The brown men stood in a clump at a distance and watched sullenly all +that was done. + +When the pile died down Blair went over to the chief. + +"Ha'o," he said, "go and speak to your people. Tell them that things +are as they were, and that flesh they shall not eat." + +"They will starve." + +"No, they will not starve. We will find them food." + +Ha'o looked at him doubtfully, but not without expectation. The white +men were so wonderful, that it was difficult to say what they could or +could not do, and Kenni never lied. + +Nevertheless, "Where, Kenni?" he asked. + +"We shall not starve," said Blair emphatically. + +The brown man looked searchingly at him for a full minute, and then +turned and strode away towards the others. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +FROM THE BEGINNING + +"Our brown folk have lost their heads for the time being," said Blair +to his wife, as they all stood round the huts. "They have gone off to +the hills. It is not very surprising. They will come back all right +in time. Captain Cathie, I want you to make a raft and take the ladies +and the sick--in fact, all but Gregor and Irvine--to the Happy Valley +for a time, till things straighten out a bit. You will, I think, find +food there, and the natives won't intrude on you." + +"And you, Kenneth?" said Jean anxiously. + +"I am going across to the other side of the island with Ha'o, to see +how they fared there. If food is plentiful we will bring some back +here for the women and children. They may have been washed out also. +If so we must get food from the Valley. We will drop in on you from +the upper end, but it is too rough a road for you and the sick men. +Will you join us, Captain Pym, or will you go and take care of the +ladies?" + +"Captain Cathie is quite equal to that, I am sure, Mr. Blair. With +your permission I will join you." + +"Can you induce Nai to go with the ladies, Ha'o?" + +"She will go," said Ha'o tersely. + +He was in a gloomy frame of mind through all these strange happenings +and the defection of his people. + +"Then the sooner we get to it the better." And under Cathie's +directions they all set to work on a raft. Timber and rope were not +wanting. + +"Take all you can, and especially what we can use for boat-building +later on," said Blair. "We shall have to get out of our hole +ourselves, and that, I think, is the way out." + +The brown women and children he set to collecting for themselves all +the food they could find along the shore. He also gave them some +lengths of rope, and bade them untwist it for fishing-lines and then +start fishing from the ledge with splinters for hooks. + +"You will probably find the bottom of the valley scoured out, Cathie," +he said; "but there should be both fruit and animals on the hillsides. +We may have to replenish the island from there." + +When the work was well forward, he set out with his little band to +cross the island by One-Tree Pass, and found the passage extremely +difficult. For the cloud seemed to have finally broken on the saddle +of the hills, and in many places the road they had built with such +labour and difficulty was washed completely away, and in other places +it was buried deep under slides of broken rock. + +They found their way over the ridge, however, and saw at once that the +deluge had wrought heavily on the further side also. The long slope +was deeply scored and furrowed, but there were houses and palm-trees +still standing down below, and they went on quickly to see how the +brown folk had fared. + +The villagers welcomed them heartily and received their news with +amazement. The storm above and the storm below had terrified them. +The water had come down the hill in cascades, but the long stretch had +dissipated much of its force before it reached them. Then the great +wave had swept across the beach and carried away all their boats. +Their palms and plantations had suffered heavily, and they had picked +up a number of dead pigs and goats, but otherwise there had been no +loss of life. They had not overmuch food, but what they had they were +quite willing to share with the others who had none. And Blair's +heart, still sore over the defection of the western men, was comforted +somewhat by their simple kindliness. + +They stayed the night, and Blair explained more fully the disasters on +the other side of the island and the temporary aberration of Ha'o's +people, and begged them, if there should be any attempt at raiding, to +treat the others as reasonably as might be, remembering what they had +gone through. + +They set off again very early in the morning, carrying such burden of +food as was possible on the rough road they had to travel, and reached +the huts by the sea before midday. The brown men had taken possession +and received them in sulky silence. + +Blair gave the food to the women and children, and to the men some bits +of his mind in his own special way. He acknowledged the direness of +the catastrophe, but bade them remember that the white men had suffered +equally and yet had not lost their heads or their heart. He told them +to be grateful for their lives, and assured them that there was no need +for despair. + +Blair's high spirits in the face of all difficulties, his forethought +and far-reaching grip of the necessities of the case, made a deep +impression even on Captain Pym's habitual and official phlegm. Under +stress of circumstance he found himself under the necessity of +rearranging his preconceived ideas. He became decidedly more human, +and perhaps more of a man, than he had been for many a year. + +He sounded Blair as to his hopes and intentions, and they discussed +matters freely. In furtherance of them, when they had rested, they all +set to work making another raft, and if the _Bonita_ men could have +seen their spick and span, stiff and starched captain, hauling and +lashing, with his coat off and his trousers up to the knee, it is +certain they would not have known him. + +They paddled their raft across the lagoon to the place where the ships +had lain before the storm, and after some searching found where the +_Torch_ and _Jean Arnot_ were lying. The great wave had probably +washed them inshore but the return had carried them out again. The +_Bonita_ had disappeared completely. She had probably been carried +over the edge of the shelf and lay in unfathomable depths. They could +see the other two dimly through the clear water, with the many-coloured +fishes darting in and out of their battered sides and broken raffle, +and Captain Pym's face pinched at the sight and at thought of it all. + +Ha'o was the most expert swimmer of the party, and had long since shown +that he could remain under water twice as long as any of the white men. +On him therefore the burden of discovery lay, and he appreciated with +the rest how much depended on his efforts. They had timber in quantity +from the broken boats and ships, but without tools they could turn it +all to no account. There were tools below there in the ships. Ha'o +was going down to find them. With tools in their hands the door of +deliverance would be at all events ajar. + +"You will most likely find them in the front part of our ship, Ha'o, +underneath where the big gun was," Blair told him. "If the gun has +fallen through, so much the better. It will help you," and Ha'o +nodded, and shot down through the clear water like a brown streak. + +He was up again presently and hung panting to the raft. The big gun +had gone out of sight through the side and bottom of the ship. He +would get inside next time. + +But it took many visits before he discovered anything, and then a +ringing cheer went up as he came to the surface with a saw in his hand, +and flung it on to the raft. + +"There are more things, but they are scattered," he told them, when he +had got his breath, and next time he took down with him one end of a +thin cord they had unravelled out of rope, and presently sent up by it +a heavy hammer, and came up himself with a chisel. It took many hours' +hard work, but at last they had enough to go on with, and Ha'o lay +panting on the raft, while the others paddled it slowly down the lagoon +to the Happy Valley. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +SALT OF THE EARTH + +The effect of the great wave in the Valley had been extraordinary. + +When last they were there the whole place was a tangle of luxuriant +undergrowth, ferns, mosses, lichens, pandanus, hibiscus, paw-paws, with +stately palms waving gracefully above. + +Now the bed of the Valley was bare. The growths and the undergrowths +had been torn off and swept away, and the newcomers were led +wonderingly through the uncovered ruins of the city built by the men +who set up the stone gods--along a wide street paved with stone blocks, +which ran up the middle of the Valley with the stream flowing through +it; past the foundations of great buildings; into an immense square +where the denudation had been less complete. A certain amount of mud +had silted down again on to the ruins. Nature was already at work +covering up the scar of her latest wound. And the great stone gods sat +gazing expectantly out to sea, as they had gazed when the city below +still teemed with busy life; as they had gazed through all the long +years since, while the ruins of the city slowly disappeared beneath the +touch of the healing hand. + +The first party had found strange quarters in the uncovered basement of +a building, which, from its size, had probably been a temple. It was a +great quadrangle, and the head of the wide roadway that led from the +sea ran right into it, and ended there. The upper end of the enclosure +rose ten feet or more above the level, and was composed of great +chiselled blocks of stone, and in this were cavernous square openings, +the entrances of which now served as houses for these houseless +strangers. They had appropriated four adjacent holes, and had made +themselves as comfortable as circumstances permitted. + +The whole place had been covered in with wild growth, but the great +wave foaming up the valley had swept it all bare. The apartments were +not uncomfortable except in one respect. They ran so far back into the +hillside that the ends of them had not yet been discovered. "And," +said Aunt Jannet, peering into the shadows which the firelight +quickened into ghostly life, "I'm always expecting something will come +out, and either frighten us to death or eat us alive." + +Ha'o stood it for one night, with crumpled face and quick-glancing +eyes, but next day he carried up some boards from the beach, and built +a tiny lean-to outside for himself and Nai, and they found life more +tolerable. + +Nothing ever came out of those mysterious passages for their undoing. +What dark uses they may have served in the bygone times they could only +surmise. One passage they followed till it issued in the cliffs behind +the stone gods. The others ran straight into the heart of the +mountain, with cross cuts leading round towards the city, and the uses +they might have been put to in the hands of a priestly oligarchy were +apparent. + +Captain Pym was fired with thoughts of hidden treasure, and spent many +odd hours searching for it. Blair laughed at the idea, and begged him +to keep it to himself, lest the men should catch the infection, and +waste on it valuable time which might be used to much better advantage. + +"Treasure is unlikely," he said. "If, as we suppose, these pioneers +were accidentally blown across, or fled for reasons, they would not be +likely to bring much with them." + +"All the same, they built mightily," argued Pym, and went on with his +search. All that he ever found, however, was a few flat beaten plates +of gold, and some golden ornaments, of no great value save as +curiosities. + +Captain Cathie reported a fair amount of fruit and palms still standing +on the hillsides, and pigs and goats enough to re-stock the island, in +time and with protection. Most of the other animals had disappeared +completely. + +"I'll take the men back to-morrow over the hill," said Cathie, in +excellent spirits at the prospect of the opening door, "and we'll bring +back another raft of timber. With the tools you've got we can make a +start anyway, and we can fish up more by degrees. There's timber +enough in the lagoon to build a new schooner." + +"Build us something that will float as far as the Marquesas or +Paumotus, and we'll soon have a new schooner, captain. But the first +thing I want is to get to Kanele and Anape to see how Evans and Stuart +have fared. If they came through pretty well we can get fresh stock +from them, both animals and plants." + +"I've got a lot of paw-paws for you on the beach, and some bananas and +plantains. Where will you plant, Mr. Blair?" + +"For the present in the mud of the old fields. It'll make splendid +growing ground. Later on, when we rebuild, we must get higher up. +We're not likely to have another deluge just yet, but what has been may +be, and we must take all precautions. When your boat is ready, and +we've had a trip round the islands, my idea is for you to run across to +the Marquesas and buy a schooner there, if you can lay hands on one, +and send her back by Gregor for our use while you're away. Then you go +on to Sydney and buy a new _Torch_ and everything we need, Long Tom, +Winchesters and all"--with a quizzical glance at Pym. "You know just +what we want, and you can have all the money you require." + +Captain Pym listened with surprise. His ideas of missionaries were +crystallising rapidly from the solution of scepticism into concrete +beliefs and admirations. He was not a man given to admiration of other +men, but he recognised in Kenneth Blair a master mind and an +indomitable spirit. He said little but thought much. + +Every one was at work soon after daylight. Cathie produced drowned +meat from an adjacent passage way, which he used as cold storage. Jean +and Aunt Jannet prepared the morning meal. Blair had planted two rows +of paw-paws and a number of bananas before breakfast, and Ha'o had +built his lean-to for Nai and brought in some fruit. + +Then Cathie built a small raft, and in due course Aunt Jannet Harvey +was seated on it with many startled exclamations, and wafted herself +uncouthly out into the lagoon. She was provided with two fishing lines +and a supply of bait, and a rope to the shore lest she should disappear +entirely from human ken, and she had instructions to catch all the fish +she could for the amplification of the larder. + +And Blair, when he had made sure of her safety, and turned to go up the +valley to cross the hills, could hardly contain himself at sight of her +face, in which determination to catch struggled desperately with horror +at thought of pulling the hooks out of what she caught. + +"This is a change from Kensington, Aunt Jannet, isn't it? You're quite +sure you won't tumble overboard?" had been his jovial parting word. + +"I'll t--try not, Kenneth. D--do you think it hurts them much to have +the hooks pulled out?" + +"If you leave them for a few minutes they'll die quite comfortably. +Then it won't hurt them. Anyway, you see we need them." + +So Aunt Jannet pursed her lips valiantly, and cast in the lines he had +baited for her, and watched him and Captain Cathie with one eye, while +the other waited on her lines in fear and expectation. + +They waved her an adieu at the turn of the valley, and in her attempt +to reply to it she frightened away a swarm of eager nibblers and nearly +fell overboard herself. + +"Yes," she said to herself, "it's a great change from Kensington. But +if that child Jean can stand it, I can. And she seems as happy as a +lark. That's partly Kenni-Kenni, of course. Oh dear, I've caught +something! Whatever am I to do now?" + +She looked wildly round for assistance, but the men were climbing the +hill, laden with provisions for the brown folk. So she tightened her +lips and hauled in her line, and at last drew her first fish on to the +raft. And then, after a pitiful look at its changing colours, she +turned her head away as far as she could, suppressed a strong +inclination to throw her victim back into the water, and waited for the +poor thing to die comfortably. + +When Jean and Kenni-Kenni came down to inquire how she was getting on, +she was quite herself again. + +"I've got a dozen or so," she cried. "I hope they are all fit to eat. +It's really quite interesting when you get used to it. If you like to +try your hand at it, Jean, haul me in and I'll take care of Kenni-Kenni +for a bit." + +The men were back before nightfall, very tired, but rich in timber, and +in high spirits at the recovery of more tools, and all with appetites +that disposed of Aunt Jannet's fish in a very much shorter time than it +had taken that good lady to catch them. + +Next day they laid the keel of their forlorn hope, and when that +ceremony was over, Blair and Ha'o started off again across the hills to +the old village, to endeavour to get the brown men to make a start on +their own buildings and plantings. Characteristically, they were +inclined to lie down under misfortune and let things take their chance, +and Blair, characteristically also, stated his intention of stopping +there till they got to work. He exhorted them to better heart both by +word and example, and Ha'o lent the weight of his authority, and, where +that failed, added the still weightier impulsion of physical force. +Authority weakens under disaster, but a bold heart and a heavy hand are +strong arguments, and, disaster or no disaster, Ha'o had no intention +of abating one jot of his seigneurial rights. He was chief still and +he let them feel it. + +"What is the good of planting?" said the brown men. "We shall be dead +before the fruit comes." + +"Oh no, you won't!" said Blair cheerfully. "There is fruit in the +Valley and fruit on the other side of One-Tree Pass, but in future +you'll have to go and get it for yourselves, and you can have all the +fish you want for the catching." + +"But we don't care for fish every day." + +"There are many things I don't care for myself, my sons, but when I +can't do better I put up with them. You must learn to be men." + +The actively mutinous spirit, which the opportunity of the day after +the storm had kindled in them, had passed with the passing of that +which had excited it. It had vanished in the smoke of the funeral +pyre, and Blair was grateful, for things might have been very +different. Instead of fighting the lethargy of despair they might have +had to defend themselves against its fury, and he was well content. + +He tried hard to get them to come over into the Valley, but that they +would not do. They would come to the hill top for such fruits as might +be brought there for them, and they would go over One-Tree Pass, but +into the valley of the stone gods not one of them would set so much as +a toe, and Ha'o himself could not make them. + +With all hands working heartily and at high pressure,--from Captain +Pym, who dropped the last remnants of his starch in the process, to +Aunt Jannet who, in the intervals of her other duties, picked oakum as +if she had been undergoing a term of imprisonment,--the boat building +made famous progress, and four weeks from the day the keel was laid the +Kenni-Kenni was launched--prevailed upon, at all events, and apparently +much against her will, to quit mother earth and take to the water. And +if she looked, as Captain Cathie admitted, something of a cross between +a washtub and a patchwork quilt, she was undoubtedly built strong and +would stand a good deal of knocking about. As to her sailing +qualities, they might have been better and they might have been worse, +and, as Cathie said, they had not started out to build a +cup-winner--which was perhaps just as well. + +There was an old candle-nut tree in a corner at the head of the Valley, +and they set out to stain the little ship dark red with a decoction of +its bark, but as the supply ran short the result was not altogether +happy. However, she floated on an even keel and was as tight as a +drum, forty feet over all, ten feet beam, decked all over and yawl +rigged. Spars and sails they had in plenty from the treasure trove of +the beach, and Captain Cathie undertook to take her all the way to +Sydney if need be. He also expressed the explicit intention of +overhauling the first ship or island he came across for a supply of +paint, all of one colour, sufficient to go all round her. + +Nevertheless, and in spite of her lack in such minor details, their +hearts were very full as they lined the beach, with their eyes on the +little ship, and in their ears Blair's voice ringing strong and true +with gratitude and hope, as he prayed God's blessing on the +accomplished work of their hands, and on the work she had still to do. + +When the ceremony was over, and Blair happened to be standing for a +moment alone, Captain Pym came up to him and wrung his hand heartily. + +"Blair," he said, and his old shipmates on the _Bonita_ would not have +known either his voice or the look on his face, "I'm glad I came here. +But for my poor fellows who are gone, I could almost say I'm glad I was +wrecked here. I have learnt a great deal," and Blair answered him with +a cordial grip and a beaming smile. + +On the morrow, Blair and Pym and Cathie and a crew of six, three +Torches, and three Bonitas, took leave of the rest and sailed for +Kanele. + +Jean felt this parting terribly, the little ship looked so small, so +uncouth, so unequal to emergencies. But she kept a brave face, and +waved her farewells from the shore with a fervent prayer for their +safety, and then went quietly about her work, with her own Kenni-Kenni +clinging to her skirts, while his namesake carried his father away +across the seas to possible dangers, to possible---- Nay, she would +have faith in that protecting hand which had brought them through so +many difficulties before, and to fear was to doubt. + +[Illustration: Waved her farewells from the shore.] + +So her heart sang valiantly, "God's in His heaven, all's well!" and +after that first hour her face was calm and hopeful, and she was +counting the days to their return. + +The secret passages of the old temple made capital homes. The men had +snatched odd moments from their other labours, and material from their +abundant stores, and had boarded off the interior darknesses and +ghostly possibilities, and had knocked together some rough tables and +stools. They had food enough, though they were all tiring somewhat of +fish, fish again, and always fish. Blair had laughingly assured them +it was good for the brain, and Aunt Jannet asserted that she was +getting so brainy that, unless a change of diet came soon, she would +not answer for consequences. But in reality there was very little to +complain of. The health of the whole party had been excellent, and +Blair's high spirits had permitted no one else's to droop for a moment. + +Jean had more than once suggested their return to their work among the +brown men and women. But, in view of this first trip round the +islands, to which he had been looking forward with much eagerness, +Blair judged it best for them to remain where they were. + +"As soon as we're rid of Captain Pym and Cathie and the rest, we'll go +back and tackle the work," he said. "The brown folks are getting on +all right in the meantime. They're actually beginning to learn how to +help themselves." + +"Jean, my dear," said Aunt Jannet, one day after the _Kenni-Kenni_ +sailed, "it's just wonderful the way you stand it all." + +"Stand it, Aunt Jannet? Why, what do you mean? What is there to +stand?" + +"Why--heaps. Look at your dress, for instance. And when one remembers +that you've got £10,000 a year or so!--yes, I say, it's just wonderful." + +"I've done my best with it, and it's very rude to comment on people's +clothes before their faces. Besides, your own is no better, and the +needle Captain Cathie made for you out of that fishbone was very much +better than mine." + +"Well, well," laughed Aunt Jannet. "It wasn't your dress I was +meaning, child----" + +"You're getting fish on the brain, dear. Isn't that enough to make any +woman happy?" + +That, of course, was Kenni-Kenni, whose great delight it was at this +time to rush through and through the shining stream that babbled across +the temple floor, kicking up diamond showers with his pink toes and +squealing with delight as the sparkling drops played round him. + +"Yes, it does one good just to look at him," said Aunt Jannet. "But I +do wish you could get him to wear some more clothes. He's----" + +"Clothes!" said Jean scornfully. "What does a boy like that want with +clothes?" + +Kenni-Kenni was developing rapidly. He had one day thrown a stone at a +little black pig which sought his acquaintance. And when the piglet +fled Kenni-Kenni came suddenly to the knowledge of his prowess and +thereafter became a mighty hunter of small pigs whenever chance offered. + +He had also, after considerable hesitation, thrown a pebble at one of +the stone gods, of which he had hither-to stood in much awe. And as no +ill results followed he had become bold and warlike, and thought +nothing of challenging the bearded sailormen to mortal combat. And +they delighted in him exceedingly, and had promised to teach him to box +and to swim as soon as the boat was finished. + +Nai was getting about again and would soon be as well as ever. The +broken arm and leg were mending, and never was invalid more tenderly +ministered to, or more grateful to her nurses. It was upon Ha'o that +the catastrophe seemed to have had the most lasting effect, and that, +after all, was perhaps not unnatural. The country was his, and the +people were his, and they had suffered terribly. His faith in Kenneth +Blair underwent no visible eclipse, however, and he laboured at the +boat-building with the rest. + +The days passed very slowly for those left behind, and when the limit +allowed for the voyage was exceeded by one day, two days, three days, +Jean's anxieties began to show head again. + +"Don't worry, child!" said Aunt Jannet. "That boat has probably proved +even slower than they expected. My only wonder was that it would sail +at all. Not one of them ever built a boat in his life before, and I'm +sure it looked a deal more like a big washtub with a cover on than a +ship. They'll turn up all right in time. If they'd been meant to be +drowned they'd every chance when all the rest were." + +And surely enough, on the eleventh day, the _Kenni-Kenni_ came wafting +slowly down the lagoon, having come in by the upper entrance and made a +short call on the brown men in the old quarters. + +They were all well and brought a full cargo of news and stock and +plants, and Blair himself was in the highest of spirits and hungry to +get to work on the new plantations. + +The other islands had suffered somewhat from the big wave, chiefly in +the matter of boats. The news of the dire happenings on Kapaa'a had +filled them with amazement. The Evanses and Stuarts, and all their +works and belongings, were flourishing mightily. They sent endless +condolences to Jean and Aunt Jannet and Nai and Ha'o, and had been for +embarking at once to their consolation. But as the _Kenni-Kenni_ was +to start on her longer journey as soon as she could be provisioned, +that was out of the question, as it would have been impossible for them +to get back home again. + +"Yes," acknowledged Captain Cathie, in reply to a pointed question of +Aunt Jannet's respecting the sailorly qualities of his boat, "I'm bound +to say she's not exactly what you might call a fast boat. But she's +sure, and if you give her wind enough and time enough she gets there +all right." + +They had a busy three days preparing for the long voyage. Captain +Cathie reckoned they might make the Marquesas in twelve days with good +weather. So they made provision for twenty, out of the stores they had +brought from Kanele and Anape. He had borrowed Evans's pocket compass, +but vowed he could find his way without it. + +"If we go west with a touch of south in it we're bound to hit either +the Marquesas or Paumotus," he said cheerfully. "You may look for that +schooner here in six weeks from to-day--that is, if there's one to be +had, and if I can find a trader who'll negotiate the drafts." + +Jean had been racking her brains as to how they were to get hold of +some of the money waiting to be used in London, for all her papers had +disappeared in the deluge. But Blair had thought the whole matter out, +and had brought over paper and pens and a bottle of ink. And among +them they drew up a number of documents which, with Captain Pym's +verification of the circumstances, would, they thought, procure for +Captain Cathie all the money he needed as soon as he reached Sydney, +and possibly before that. + +And a very busy man would Captain Cathie be, if ever he reached Sydney. +For he had to buy a new _Torch_ and a multitudinous cargo; engage new +hands--to a limited extent, however, this time, for henceforth they +hoped to utilise largely the services of the brown men; and last, but +by no means least, to provide, so far as money could do it, adequate +recompense for the families of the men whose lives had been given in +the service of the Dark Islands. So far as forethought and hard +thinking could do it they had attended to everything, and Captain +Cathie's programme might have daunted a less valiant man. + +And so, very early one morning, before the sun had topped the hills +behind, though the outer sea danced and sparkled merrily, there was a +great leave-taking on the white beach at the mouth of the valley where +the old village used to stand. The _Kenni-Kenni_ had brought them all +up the day before, with all their belongings, in a couple of trips, and +they were among their own brown people once more, ready and anxious to +be at their work again. + +The last hearty handshakes had been given and the last words said. The +shallop they had built for use with the larger boat, and which was to +be left behind, had just put Captain Pym and Captain Cathie on board. +The sails ran up, and the _Kenni-Kenni's_ nose turned determinedly for +the passage and the long journey westward. + +Kenneth Blair and his wife Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey stood in the +centre of a line of brown folk and waved the farewells and benedictions +their voices could no longer carry, and little Kenni-Kenni waved and +shouted because the others did. His namesake bobbed and rose to the +swell of the passage and was lost to sight behind the spouting jets of +the reef. + +The line of watchers on the beach climbed the hillside behind them, and +watched and waved till the white sails alone were visible, till they +became a tiny white speck, till they disappeared. + +Then Kenneth Blair kissed his wife very tenderly, for his heart was +very full. And he turned to the brown folk, and said-- + +"We will ask God's blessing on their journeying, for it means much to +us all, and then we will get to our work. Let us pray!" and the brown +folk bent their heads. + +On the little ship, Captain Cathie had given the helm to Jim Gregor, +and stood looking back at the peaks of the little land where he had +spent so many full days. + +And to him came Captain Pym, and said-- + +"That is one of the finest men I ever met, Captain Cathie. I count it +a privilege to have known him. He will do great things yet." + +"Yes, sir," said Cathie quietly, for the parting was still on him. +"The brown men call him White Fire, and so he is, and his wife's +another, and so is Mrs. Harvey. Salt of the earth, sir, every one of +them. If there were more like them the world would be a sight better +to live in than it is." + + + + +The Gresham Press, + +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, + +WOKING AND LONDON. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of White Fire, by John Oxenham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE FIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 38061-8.txt or 38061-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/6/38061/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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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: White Fire + +Author: John Oxenham + +Illustrator: G. Grenville Manton + +Release Date: November 19, 2011 [EBook #38061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE FIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="2"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +[Frontispiece: THEY WENT ON STEP BY STEP, WITH EYES FOR EVERY <BR> +ROCK AND BUSH (missing from book) +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t1"> +WHITE FIRE +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +BY JOHN OXENHAM +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS +<BR> +BY G. GRENVILLE MANTON +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<I>Adversity doth make men strong,<BR> +Yet stronger still I count the man<BR> +Who can sustain prosperity unspoiled<BR> +And turn it to high uses.</I><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<I>The white fire of a great enthusiasm<BR> + is the mightiest force in the world.</I><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +TORONTO +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +THE COPP CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +1905 +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +GOD'S PRISONER<BR> +RISING FORTUNES<BR> +A PRINCESS OF VASCOVY<BR> +OUR LADY OF DELIVERANCE<BR> +JOHN OF GERISAU<BR> +UNDER THE IRON FLAIL<BR> +BONDMAN FREE<BR> +THE VERY SHORT MEMORY OF MR. JOSEPH SCORER<BR> +BARBE OF GRAND BAYOU<BR> +A WEAVER OF WEBS<BR> +HEARTS IN EXILE<BR> +THE GATE OF THE DESERT<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +James Chalmers +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +GREAT HEART OF NEW GUINEA—<BR> +"GREAT HEART THE TEACHER,<BR> +GREAT HEART THE JOYOUS,<BR> +GREAT HEART THE FEARLESS,<BR> +GREAT HEART OF SWEET WHITE FIRE,<BR> +GREAT HEART THE MARTYR....<BR> +<I>Nor dead, nor sleeping! He lives on, his name<BR> +Shall kindle many a heart to equal flame.<BR> +A soul so fiery sweet can never die,<BR> +But lives, and loves, and works through<BR> +all eternity.</I>"<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +MISS INQUISITIVE +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE MAN +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE MAN'S MAN +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +A SHAMELESS THING! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +LEAP YEAR +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +A SUDDEN WIDE HORIZON +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +SOME ODD FURNISHINGS AND A HONEYMOON +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +GOING STRONG +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +ARMS AND THE MAN +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +A BLACK OBJECT-LESSON +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +TOO LATE +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE FLAMING SWORD +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE MAN'S MAN'S MAN +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +CLIPPING A BLACKBIRD +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +WHERE THOU GOEST +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XVI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +FIRST FRUITS +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +SETBACKS +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +FORWARD +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap20">CHAPTER XX</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +MANY FORMS OF GRACE +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +MIGHT OF RIGHT +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +PAX +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE SCOURGE OF GOD +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +GAIN OF LOSS +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE LIFTING VEIL +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap26">CHAPTER XXVI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE GENTLE MARTYR +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap27">CHAPTER XXVII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +PEACE WITH A SPEAR +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap28">CHAPTER XXVIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +NO THOROUGHFARE +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap29">CHAPTER XXIX</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +THE ACT OF GOD +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap30">CHAPTER XXX</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +WIPED OUT +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap31">CHAPTER XXXI</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +REVERSIONS +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap32">CHAPTER XXXII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +FROM THE BEGINNING +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +<A HREF="#chap33">CHAPTER XXXIII</A> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 15%"> +SALT OF THE EARTH +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</P> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-front"> +THEY WENT ON STEP BY STEP, WITH EYES FOR EVERY<BR> + ROCK AND BUSH (missing from book) . . . . . . . . . <I>Frontispiece</I> +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-011"> +WAVED HIS HAND TO HER, AND RECEIVED AN ANSWERING WAVE +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-031"> +ONE SIGN OF FLINCHING AND IT IS FINISHED +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-043"> +"MY LIFE IS FORFEIT TO THE PAST" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-060"> +"AND HE HAS REALLY HAD THE AUDACITY TO ASK YOU TO MARRY HIM" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-060"> +SHE HAD LONG AND PEREMPTORY INTERVIEWS WITH HER LAWYER +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-122"> +BLAIR CALLED FOR THE MATE AND TOLD HIM CURTLY + WHAT HE HAD ALREADY TOLD THE CAPTAIN +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-145"> +"WE SHALL SEE THEM AGAIN," SAID CAPTAIN CATHIE (missing from book) +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-200"> +IT MIGHT BE FOR THE LAST TIME +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-202"> +STEPS ON THE ROAD TO SALVATION +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-231"> +"HELLO! WHAT'S THIS?" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-263"> +"QUITE HAPPY, JEAN?" ASKED BLAIR +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-276"> +PEACE WITH A SPEAR +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-282"> +"<I>MISSIONARIES</I>! WELL I AM ——!" +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-301"> +BLAIR SPRANG UPRIGHT INSTINCTIVELY +</A> +</H4> + +<H4> +<A HREF="#img-331"> +WAVED HER FAREWELLS FROM THE SHORE +</A> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER I +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +MISS INQUISITIVE +</P> + +<P> +She was so dainty a little figure that the bare-armed women in the +doors of the lands and closes turned and looked after her with +enjoyment untinged even with envy. They scratched their elbows and +commented on her points with complacent understanding. +</P> + +<P> +"None o' your ten-and-six carriage paid in that lot, I'm thinking, Mrs. +O'Neill," said one. +</P> + +<P> +"Thrue for ye, Mrs. Macfarlane. Purty as a daisy, she is. It's me +that wud like to be on tairms with her maw when she's done with 'em." +</P> + +<P> +And a decidedly pretty little figure the small girl made, in her +stylishly pleated blue serge, jaunty tam, natty leather belt, and +twinkling brown shoes, and her absolute unconsciousness of anything +unduly attractive in her appearance. +</P> + +<P> +Her determined little face was set strenuously. She looked neither to +the right hand nor to the left, beyond a glance now and again for +landmarks. And above all, and most inflexibly, she never once looked +behind her; for she was bound upon an adventure, and her reward lay on +ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"Past the cemetery gates," she said to herself. "Up a brae. Past a +pond and up a cinder path. That's all right! That must be the woollen +mill, and that's the paper-mill, and that splashing white must be the +Cut." +</P> + +<P> +As she took the cinder path, the gates of the two mills opened, and a +flood of hurrying girls came down towards the town, mostly in bunches, +laughing and joking, some with linked arms, some few solitary. Then +followed boys and men, with dinner in their faces, and an occasional +word fired at the girls in front. +</P> + +<P> +The girls all fell silent, and resolved themselves into devouring eyes, +as the dainty little figure stepped briskly past them. There were +spasms of longing among them; they buried them under bursts of wilder +laughter. The men and boys glanced at her out of the corners of their +eyes, and did not understand why the sky looked bluer and the sunshine +brighter than it had done a moment before. +</P> + +<P> +She came, presently, to a dividing of the ways, where the roads +branched to the two mills, made a short reconnaissance of the flashing +chute she had seen from below, then turned to the right, past the +paper-mill and the manager's house, past the clump of fir-trees, and +came out on a footpath by the side of which the rushing brown waters of +the Cut hurried down to the mills and reservoirs. +</P> + +<P> +"O-o-o-oh!" said the small girl rapturously, and her face was an +unconscious Te Deum. +</P> + +<P> +And well it might be, for she had a great appreciation of the +beautiful, and she was enjoying her first full glimpse of one of the +finest sights in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland and the +adjacent Cumbraes. +</P> + +<P> +"O-o-oh!" and she sat down to enjoy it. +</P> + +<P> +Below her to the right rose the smoke of the town and the ceaseless +clangour of the ship-building yards. A movement would have hidden them +from her. But she did not move; she neither saw nor heard them. Her +eyes were fixed absorbedly on the mighty panorama beyond: the lovely +firth, blue as an Italian lake, and all alive with traffic; energetic +little river steamers racing with rival toys; slow coasters toiling +along like water-beetles; a great black American liner at the Tail of +the Bank; the great grey guardship with its trim official lines and +hovering launches; and farther out, near the opposite shore, the white +sails of yachts flashing in the sun like seabirds' wings. And +beyond—the hills, the mighty hills of God. She had known the hills in +a general, wholesale way for long enough; but she knew now that she had +never known them before. From this lofty vantage point she saw them +now for the first time in all their grandeur and beauty, and they +overwhelmed her. +</P> + +<P> +Such a mighty array of giants: green, rounded hills; rugged brown +hills, flushed with the purple of the heather; grey mountain peaks +piled fantastically against the unflecked blue sky; bosky glens; dark +patches of forest land; and all about them, down below, the silent +strength of the sea, lapping the feet of the recumbent giants, creeping +up among their sprawling limbs, and cradling the mighty bulks with +tender caresses! +</P> + +<P> +The girl sat for a long time drinking it all in, to the tune of the +swirl and bubble and tinkle of the swift brown water behind her. Then +she got up and went on along the path, which disclosed fresh beauties +of the larger view at every step. She went on and on, heedless of +everything but the wide, vast prospect and her own mighty enjoyment of +it. She had some lunch in her pocket; she forgot it. The air was so +sweet and strong that she felt no fatigue. She had walked for over an +hour in this new heaven of delight, when she came tumbling to earth in +truly feminine fashion. +</P> + +<P> +The path followed the Cut round the folds and wrinkles of the hillside. +At times, on in front, it disappeared into the sky. She was nearing +one such sharp turn, when a pair of mighty horns came wavering round +it, and behind the horns an evil monster all in black and with baleful +eyes. At sight of her it gave an angry bellow and pawed the ground. +Alongside her was a small stone erection like an unfinished hut, on a +little platform, below which white water trickled down a glen full of +ferns and trees. She clasped her hands, gave herself up for lost, and +dropped out of the monster's sight behind the one end wall of the hut. +</P> + +<P> +Then a boy's voice rang out full and clear— +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, beast! Bos ferocissime! Get out o' that, or I'll do for you. +What's taken you to-day, you old villain?" +</P> + +<P> +Then followed more forcible argument in the shape of stones, and, with +grateful twitches of her clasped hands, the small girl saw her +discomfited enemy go crashing down the hillside among the whins and +ferns and rolling rocks. +</P> + +<P> +The beast was evidently possessed of an unusually perverse disposition +that day. It looked up once at the girl behind the wall, and made some +spiteful remark, which elicited a dissuasive "Would you?" and another +shower of stones from its keeper. Then it went galloping away on the +sides of its feet along the steep hillside. The boy, with an +exclamation, sprang down after it, and the girl caught sight of him for +the first time—a sturdy little figure, with light hair and unlimited +energy. He chased the beast with boyish objurgations, which broke out +with new vigour when the chase led through a piece of black swamp, with +the natural results to the pursuer. +</P> + +<P> +He came back presently, hot and muddy, whistling like a blackbird. +</P> + +<P> +She was just about to get up and go on, when she heard him jumping down +into the little glen below, and she craned over to see what he was +about. +</P> + +<P> +He scrambled down to a small round natural basin in the rock, threw off +his jacket and waistcoat, unbuttoned his flannel shirt, and proceeded +to a mighty wash. +</P> + +<P> +He seemed to revel in it so exceedingly that the girl sat and watched +him with enjoyment. He had no towel, so did not waste any time in +drying himself, but allowed the sun and wind to do their duties. Then +he came clambering up the slope again. There was a large flat stone in +front of the embryo cabin. He came and sat down on it, and remained +there so long and so quiet that at last she moved slightly and peeped +round to see what he was doing. +</P> + +<P> +And what he was doing was so very astonishing that she gave an +involuntary gasp of amazement. +</P> + +<P> +He was lying flat on his stomach, with a tattered book open in front of +him. On the flat slab was a diagram drawn with the chunk of chalk he +held in his hand, and he was studying it so intently that he did not +hear her till her shadow fell across his work. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello! Where did <I>you</I> come from?" and he jumped up and stood staring +at her. He was not aware of it, but he was dimly perceptive of the +fact that she was very nice-looking. He remembered later—when her +face evaded him—that she was very prettily dressed. +</P> + +<P> +"From behind there," she said. "That nasty bull frightened me." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a stupid beast." And then, suddenly bethinking himself, "Have +you been there ever since?" +</P> + +<P> +The girl nodded. She liked the look of him. His jacket and trousers +were rough and well worn, but his face was wonderfully bright and +clean. She did not know when she had seen a boy's face she liked so +much. There was such a glow in it, and his blue eyes were so fearless +and looked at her so very straight. She did not know very many boys, +and did not care much for any of those she did know. They were always +either teasing or silly, and always abominably selfish. Somehow this +boy did not seem any of those things. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd no right to watch a gentleman washing himself." +</P> + +<P> +"You're not a gentleman, and I couldn't help myself. At least——" +</P> + +<P> +"You're not a lady, and you could have gone away quite well. It's a +good thing for you I didn't have a bath in the big pool there. You'd +have watched just the same, I suppose, Miss Inquisitive!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she said sharply. "You rude thing! How did you know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Know what?" +</P> + +<P> +"That! Miss—— what you called me just now." +</P> + +<P> +At which he laughed out loud, a great merry laugh that did one good to +listen to, and showed a set of sound white teeth and a quick +apprehension. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that what they call you at home?" he asked, with a mischievous +twinkle. +</P> + +<P> +"My aunties call me that. Father says 'Want-to-know gets on.'" +</P> + +<P> +"He's right," said the boy, with a blaze in the blue eyes. "I like +your father better than your aunties. Where were you going when the +beast stopped you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Right along there," she nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"All the way to the Sheils? It's a gey long way for a bit lassie like +you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not a bit lassie. I'm thirteen." +</P> + +<P> +"Really! You're young for your age!" +</P> + +<P> +She was somewhat doubtful about this remark, but it felt like a +compliment, so she let it pass. +</P> + +<P> +"What's your name?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Kenneth Blair. What's yours?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jean Arnot. How old are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be fifteen next July." This was August. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that you were drawing? Is it a windmill?" staring intently +down at it. +</P> + +<P> +"A windmill!"—with unutterable scorn. "And you say you're thirteen! +That's Euclid—Prop. 47. It's a thumper too." +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't begun Euclid yet," she said meekly, and regarded him with a +face full enough of questioning to amply justify her nickname. "Will +you please tell me something?" +</P> + +<P> +He began to laugh, and she knew that "Miss Inquisitive" was on the tip +of his tongue. He only nodded, however. +</P> + +<P> +"Do all the herd-boys about here do Euclid?" +</P> + +<P> +"I d'n' know. There's nothing to stop them if they want to." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you speak so differently from most other boys? You speak +almost as well as I do." +</P> + +<P> +A smile flickered in his face for a second, but died out, and he said +quietly— +</P> + +<P> +"That's easily told, anyway. My father was schoolmaster at +Inverclaver. He taught me." +</P> + +<P> +"And does he teach you still? Where is he schoolmaster now?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked at her a moment in silence, and then said— +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. He's dead." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! But he can't be a schoolmaster anywhere if he's dead. I'm so +sorry. And of course he can't teach you either." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," said the boy slowly. "I think sometimes——" +</P> + +<P> +But she was off on another scent. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to be when you grow up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!"—with animation. "I'm going to be a big man." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't make yourself that. You're not very big now." +</P> + +<P> +"I've not done growing yet, and I'm very strong, and I've never been +ill in my life. Besides——" +</P> + +<P> +"I've just had measles and whooping-cough. That's why I'm here." +</P> + +<P> +He nodded, as much as to say, "Yes, that's just the kind of thing girls +would have"; and went on, "And then I'm going to be an explorer." +</P> + +<P> +"O-o-o-h!" with snapping eyes. "Where?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know where. Anywhere where nobody's ever been before." +</P> + +<P> +She devoured him with hungry appreciation. His face was so very clean, +so radiantly bright, and the sparks in his blue eyes kindled answering +sparks in her own. For she too possessed a lively imagination, and a +spirit many times the size of her body. +</P> + +<P> +"But will you be able to? Are you very rich?" +</P> + +<P> +"Rich? No, I'm not rich, but I'm not that poor either—not just now. +I bought this last week," with a touch of superior pride, as he hauled +out a Latin grammar, sixth-hand, but still boasting covers. "When I've +finished it I'll feel poor till I get the next. But that's not yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't you like to be very rich?" +</P> + +<P> +"I d'n' know. I never tried it." +</P> + +<P> +"My father is very rich." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he? And what are you going to do when you grow up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm going to be a lady." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's about all you can be, I suppose," he nodded, and looked +really sorry for her. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be very rich, and I shall do just what I like—except darning +and needlework. They're hijjus!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hideous," he said, with a touch of pedantic reproof which consorted +oddly with his jacket and trousers. +</P> + +<P> +"I always say 'hijjus' when it's quite too awful and past words. How +would you like to be a manager of one of my father's mills?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," he said, regarding her doubtfully. "I'm thinking +perhaps I wouldn't make a very good manager. Not yet." +</P> + +<P> +Then her hand happened to touch her pocket, which reminded her of her +lunch. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hungry?" she asked. "I'll sit down here and you shall have +some of my lunch, and you shall tell me the names of all those hills +and lochs opposite. Aren't they splendid?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, they're grand. I've been watching them for a year now." +</P> + +<P> +She wrestled her dainty little packet out of her pocket, and sat down +on a rock looking out over the wonderful panorama in front. The boy +sat down on another rock and hauled out a piece of newspaper in which +were wrapped some broken pieces of thick oatcake and some rough +fragments of cheese. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you like oatcake and cheese?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Rather!" +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you have some of my sandwiches?" she said politely, but not +without anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +He looked at the delicate provision, and said stoutly— +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you. I like this best." +</P> + +<P> +And, as the little lady possessed the dainty but vigorous appetite of +the fully-restored-to-health-and-got-to-make-up-for-lost-time, and as +she was only thirteen, she was not rude enough to press him unduly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now tell me the names of all those hills and lochs," she said, and he +proceeded to tell her all she wanted to know. +</P> + +<P> +"Yon's Dumbarton,"—between bites; "you can see Glasgow some days," and +she regarded him doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"And yon's the Gare Loch. That big fellow with the shoulders is Ben +Lomond. The one humped up like this is The Cobbler. That other big +one is Ben Ihme. That's Loch Long and a bit of Loch Goil, and yon's +Holy Loch and Ben More." +</P> + +<P> +When she had eaten her tiny sandwiches, and her two small cookies with +jam inside, and her two biscuits, and had learned the names and +personal peculiarities of all the hills and lochs, and he had finished +the last crumbs of his oatcake and cheese, he convoyed her past the +black menace down below, as far as the next stone dyke, and told her +how she could shorten her journey by cutting across some fields, and so +get down to the Inverkip road, and eventually to Ashton and the "caurs." +</P> + +<P> +He watched the sprightly little figure, with the gleaming mane of hair +and swinging skirts and twinkling brown shoes, till she reached the +next distant corner, waved his hand to her, received an answering wave +from her, and turned back to his life—his unruly beasts, his treasured +Euclid and Latin grammar, his dreams, his hopes, and ever so much more +than he knew. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-011"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-011.jpg" ALT="Waved his hand to her, and received an answering wave." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Waved his hand to her, and received an answering wave. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +But Prop. 47 was not amenable that afternoon. He smiled at thought of +the windmill, and looked up to see her standing before him with her +sweet childish face and questioning eyes. He thought much of the +winsome little lady, both then and for a long time afterwards. He +scanned the winding path by the Cut each day in hopes that she might +come again. But she was away home to London, and at last only a memory +of her remained, and that growing dimmer and dimmer till it was little +more than a sentiment—simply the warm glow of a pleasant impression. +</P> + +<P> +And she? Ah, she wrought better than she knew that day. +</P> + +<P> +For when she got home from her great adventure, and had been duly +scolded by her aunts for undertaking so much, when they had only +expected her to go up to the Cut and down again in a couple of hours or +so—when she reached home, old Mr. MacTavish, the minister, was there, +and he rejoiced in her prattling tongue, and delighted in drawing her +out. +</P> + +<P> +She enlarged upon the very uncommon herd-laddie she had met up on the +Cut,—on his satisfactory looks, his unique cleanliness, his +fearlessness in the matter of wild beasts, his understanding, and his +aims in life. Her thoughts were full of him, and when Miss Jean Arnot +had something on her mind her little world was by way of hearing of it. +</P> + +<P> +Old Mr. MacTavish had been a herd-laddie himself in his time. +</P> + +<P> +<I>Suffecit!</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER II +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE MAN +</P> + +<P> +Ten years later Miss Jean Arnot was visiting her aunts in Greenock +again. Not but what she had been there many times in between, but this +is the only occasion of which we need take note. +</P> + +<P> +There had been many changes in these ten years. +</P> + +<P> +For one thing, Jean's father was dead, and she was a very wealthy young +woman. In many respects she was still very like the little Jean of +earlier times. Her face was still the sweet, long oval of her +childhood, though the features were more pronounced and matured. But +the chief impression it left upon you was still that of eager +questioning, a great longing to know, tempered somewhat by years and +freedom from all material care. "Want-to-know" was getting on in +years—twenty-three, a great age—but there were still mysteries of +life which she had not solved, wherein she found matter for surprise at +times. +</P> + +<P> +But life ran very smoothly and pleasantly with her. She went out a +little, and entertained a little in return, travelled much, and was not +wanting in good deeds and charity. Her income was about ten times as +large as was really good for her, and if she gave munificently she +never missed what she gave, so that the recipients were the sole +beneficiaries of her giving. +</P> + +<P> +She had hosts of friends, phalanxes of admirers; could have had hosts +of aspirants to a still closer relationship, but so far would have none +of them. She was enjoying herself exceedingly, and fulfilling in their +entirety the aspirations of her childhood. She was a lady, she was +rich, and she was doing as she liked—and she had not touched a needle +since she came into her kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +That was the natural rebound, for Aunt Jannet Harvey, a famous +needlewoman and housewife herself, had rigorously insisted—so long as +she was in power—on her niece learning the minor as well as the major +accomplishments of a gentlewoman, such as had obtained during her own +long apprenticeship to that high estate. And that is how it came to +pass that Miss Jean Arnot, wealthy heiress and society lady, really +knew a very great deal more about some things than you would have +imagined from the casual sight of her at dance or opera. +</P> + +<P> +The moment she was free, and a woman of herself, she relegated the +"hijjus" things to what she considered their proper place in the +economy of her life, and, later, dug them up out of their dusty corners +gratefully, and Aunt Jannet was justified. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Harvey—Aunt Jannet Harvey, to distinguish her from Aunt Lisbeth +Harvey—had lived with them and mothered her since her own mother died, +when she was a very small child indeed. Aunt Jannet was really her +mother's aunt, early widowed and childless, a wise and placid old +lady—old, that is, in the eyes of effervescent three-and-twenty—with +somewhat rigid ideas of right and wrong, toning slowly, by course of +time and easy circumstance, into a tolerant acceptance of things as +they came. Her husband had been a professor in Edinburgh, and the +society he and she had enjoyed in the modern Athens, thirty years +before, was her standard of what society ought to be. She was, +however, each year becoming more reconciled to the disparities of the +lighter age with which John Arnot's great success in life had forced +her into contact. And Jean had been to her as her own daughter would +have been, if she had had one, since the day she first took charge of +her and began to endeavour to answer some of her questions, and quietly +to shelve others for more suitable occasion of discussion. For little +Jean Want-to-know had a most active brain and an insatiable curiosity, +and never hesitated to ask for fullest details of anything she did not +understand; and the wonderings and questionings of such a child have no +bounds at times, and are almost impossible of control, either from the +inside or the outside. +</P> + +<P> +Jean made a point of spending a part of each year in Scotland, wherever +else she and Aunt Jannet might wander at other times. On such +occasions Aunt Jannet went to Edinburgh and lived again in the past, +but in a yearly narrowing circle, so far as the personal element was +concerned, and Jean went to Greenock and queened it over her aunts +there. +</P> + +<P> +She was a great enjoyment, a continuous ripple of excitement, to their +ordered household; and since they no longer sat upon her and answered +her erstwhile inconvenient questions by gentle snubs and nicknames, the +times she spent with them were times of great enjoyment to her also. +</P> + +<P> +She rather patronised them, of course, which was perhaps inevitable; +for she lived twenty to their one, and, moreover, possessed the means +to do it and a will that carried all before it. +</P> + +<P> +She insisted, for instance, on paying for her board and lodging, and on +a tariff of her own fixing, whenever she came to stay with them, and +flatly declined to come on any other condition. They were +independent-minded, and declined to be dictated to in such a matter by +a small thing whom they had known in frocks with skirts only thirteen +inches long. She promptly scandalised them by going to the Tontine and +putting up there. Then they gave way, and she had them. After that +she was capable of anything, and they submitted to all her whims, which +were always pretty and thoughtful ones, and—she assured them, just as +they had been wont to assure her in the days of the thirteen-inch +frocks—entirely for their own good and happiness. She salved the +cicatrice of the Tontine wound by carrying them all off <I>en masse</I> to +the Riviera for a month; and Aunt Jean, after whom she was named, +gravely suggested the advisability of frequently opposing her ideas, +since the outcome was so eminently agreeable. +</P> + +<P> +Then she was always making them presents, at which their independency +kicked, but in which, nevertheless, they could not but own to enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +But the girl was right, after all. She had much too much, and they had +only enough, and that only with clever handling; and they would no more +have accepted bald gifts of money than they would have burned down +their house and claimed double the value of the furniture. +</P> + +<P> +Jean and her visits, and their visits to her, and with her to hitherto +unattainable places, were the high lights of their lives. They loved +her dearly, rejoiced in her greatly, were proud of her, and wondered +much when it would all come to an end in the centering of her thoughts +and affections on one sole and—they fervently hoped, but were not +without misgivings, because of her wealth and her impulsiveness—worthy +man. +</P> + +<P> +They made ingenuous little attempts at sounding her on that subject, +but she was much too clever for them, and skilfully eluded all +approaches which might tend, even remotely, to any self-revelations. +That there were no revelations to make only added piquancy to the game, +from her point of view, since it kept the aunts in a state of perpetual +mystification, and held no pitfalls. +</P> + +<P> +Among many other changes she had seen in the last ten years, old Mr. +MacTavish had retired long ago, and a younger man occupied his pulpit, +and, strange to say, gave satisfaction in it. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Archibald Fastnet was so exactly the opposite of his +predecessor that it might have seemed impossible that where the one had +pleased the other should do so. Mr. Fastnet was young, and he believed +in—as he put it—making things jump. And he made both things and +people jump at times. He was full of enthusiasms which were generally +at white heat and—which is more unusual—remained so. The older +generation said he kept them on the perpetual "kee-vee" to see what he +would do next; the younger people enjoyed him and the service he +exacted from them. And on Sundays they all, old and young, always +turned out both morning and evening, since it invariably came to pass +that, if they missed a service, something happened which made them feel +out of the running for the whole of the following week. When Jean +Arnot was at Greenock she did as good Greenockians do, and went to +church twice every Sunday and one evening in the week as well. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Archibald never failed to furnish her with a certain amount of +quiet amusement, and, apart from other feelings, she always went in +expectation and was rarely disappointed. +</P> + +<P> +On this particular Sunday morning Mr. Fastnet had prepared a little +surprise for his people, which turned out, as his arrangements +generally did, a perfect success. It also afforded Jean Arnot the +surprise of her life, and she never forgot it. +</P> + +<P> +You can forget many things in ten full years. If, for instance, you +yourself had met a person informally ten years ago, and spent half an +hour with him, just incidentally hearing his name, it is doubtful if +you would recall him very distinctly if he presented himself suddenly +before you after the ten years had passed. +</P> + +<P> +Jean felt a rustle of surprise among her aunts in the pew, and she saw +that two men passed up into the pulpit where the Rev. Archibald lorded +it alone as a rule. The voluntary ceased, and he stood up, beaming all +over, as usual when he had something unusually delectable up his sleeve +for them. +</P> + +<P> +"Instead of speaking to you myself this morning," he said, "I have +asked our friend Mr. Blair to say a few words to us. We all take a +fatherly and motherly, and I may say a sisterly and brotherly, interest +in Mr. Blair. Perhaps some of us regret that none of us has taken a +still nearer and dearer-than-all-otherly interest in him"—at which +Fastneticism a smile rippled round. "Our young friend leaves this week +to begin his work in the South Seas, where, as you know, he is about to +join that valiant bearer of light into outer darkness, John Gerson, in +his noble work. You will, I know, appreciate with me this chance—it +may be the last chance—of hearing our young standard-bearer's voice +before he passes beyond the fringes of the night." +</P> + +<P> +Then he came down, and took his seat in a front pew and enjoyed a +preacher's holiday. +</P> + +<P> +And, after a pause, and very quietly, young Blair rose in the pulpit +and gave out the hymn. +</P> + +<P> +So far Jean Arnot had been only interested and amused. But the sound +of his voice, clear and round and full as an organ tone, made her jump +with surprise. He had spoken quite naturally, but there was a ring in +it that told of immense possibilities behind, and there was something +in it that plucked at some hidden chord of Jean's memory and set it +humming as a harp-string responds to a bugle note. +</P> + +<P> +She stared at him eagerly. Had she ever by any possibility met him +before? She could hardly have forgotten it if she had, she thought. +For he was a young man of most striking appearance. Tall, +square-shouldered and broad-chested—a commanding figure in truth. It +occurred to others besides Jean that if the natives needed more +forcible arguments than words for their conversion, here was a likely +man for the work. Light-haired and clean-shaven, his face seemed to +glow with an inner radiance—a masterful face, and grave. His eyes +were wonderfully magnetic; fearless and steadfast, they made you jump +as their glance crossed your own. Jean had just jumped, so she knew. +</P> + +<P> +Now who was this? Surely she had met him before somewhere. +</P> + +<P> +Remember it was ten years since she had seen him, and then only for +half an hour, and under very different conditions, and she had never +heard his name since. +</P> + +<P> +She ordered her brain, or her heart, or whichever of her inner servants +it was that held the key, to go find it, and sat gazing at him to give +them such light as that might afford. But the clue evaded her till he +was near the end of his quiet, forceful talk. +</P> + +<P> +He had told them of his hopes, and the plans he and Gerson hoped to +carry out—"The grandest man I have ever met, a most noble Christian +gentleman," he said, in a burst of enthusiasm. He asked them for their +help, their prayers, their sympathetic remembrance, their money—since +the work had to be maintained from the outside, and even missionaries +must live. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke very simply, with no ornate periods or calculated sentences; +but his voice was like a trumpet, and his eyes were like stars, and his +words were illuminating and full of power, and now and again were flung +out white hot from the glowing heart within. Though he spoke for the +most part so restrainedly, now and again the brake would slip, and the +sweet, white fire of a great, enthusiastic soul would flame through. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps he was a trifle over-confident of success—that is one of +youth's glories and pitfalls; but there was no doubt that his whole +heart was in his work—that here, for once at all events, a square man +had found his own square hole. +</P> + +<P> +"It was always the great hope and desire of my boyhood to go out into +these unknown lands," he was saying. "Though perhaps at that time the +inducement was chiefly the unknown, and the inhabitants, I fear, +appealed to me more as possible hindrances than inducements. When I +tended my uncle's cattle on the hillsides of the Cut——" +</P> + +<P> +And then she knew him, and she sat up with a jerk, and stared at him as +though she had only that moment awakened to the fact that he was +speaking. +</P> + +<P> +And such, to some extent, was the fact. She had been interested and +puzzled. Now, in a moment, it was a new man she was looking at and +listening to—a new man, but an old friend. And she was sitting on one +piece of rock eating cookies, and he was sitting on another munching +oatcake and cheese, and he was saying, "I'm going to be an explorer." +</P> + +<P> +It was very wonderful—though she remembered that she had recognised +him, even then, as a boy of different texture from most other boys. +And so he had got what he wanted—the greatest prize a man may win, she +supposed: to desire vehemently a certain lofty course in life, and to +attain to it. +</P> + +<P> +And she? Yes, she remembered. She was going to be rich, and a lady, +and do as she liked. Truly hers was but a poor attainment compared +with his. +</P> + +<P> +She did not hear much more of what he said, though she was gazing +fixedly at him all the time. Her mind was away back to the hillside by +the Cut, and it was only when they stood up to sing the last hymn that +mind and body came together again. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Blair came down to shake hands with his many friends, and most of +the people went forward for that purpose, Jean's aunts among them, and +she with them; and as they sat at the back they were among the last to +reach him. +</P> + +<P> +She was shaking hands with him, and the straight blue eyes looking into +her own set her heart jumping. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" said the Rev. Archibald, all one vast beam of satisfaction at the +general enjoyment of his little surprise. "Now we have you, Blair. +This lady, at all events, you can't claim as an old friend, though I am +quite sure she is a well-wisher." +</P> + +<P> +Blair still held her hand and looked steadfastly into her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"This is——" began Mr. Fastnet, and was stopped abruptly by a +peremptory gesture of Miss Arnot's other hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—I think so," said the young man, breaking suddenly into a smile +of enjoyable reminiscence, "Miss—Jean—Arnot? Or possibly now +Mrs.——?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jean Arnot is still good enough for me, Mr. Blair," she said brightly. +"How wonderful that you should remember me all these years!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why more wonderful than that you should have recognised me, Miss +Arnot? We are both a good deal changed since last we met." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what's all this?" said the Rev. Archibald jovially. "I had no +idea you knew Miss Arnot, Blair." +</P> + +<P> +"We met once, ten years ago, up on the Cut—and had lunch together," +said Blair, with a smile. "I was keeping Highland cattle from goring +little girls, and Miss Arnot was exploring. We have both travelled far +since then." +</P> + +<P> +"You much the farthest," she said quietly, "and going still farther. I +congratulate you very heartily. It is what you desired then. Do you +remember telling me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I am very grateful." +</P> + +<P> +Blair's thoughts were full of her. As they went home he quietly led +Fastnet on to speak about her, and offered him the best inducement to +plentiful speech in the appreciation with which he listened. +</P> + +<P> +Fastnet enlarged upon her great wealth and generosity, her cleverness +and culture, her independence of thought and deed, and incidentally +mentioned that he had seen or heard some rumour of her possible +marriage with Lord Charles Castlemaine, second son of the Duke of +Munster, but he could not say what truth there was in it. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, Jean Arnot would as soon have thought of marrying +the ticket-collector at Monument Station as Lord Charles Castlemaine. +The gentleman with the snips at Monument Station is doubtless a most +worthy individual, but I know absolutely nothing whatever about him. +Jean Arnot knew exactly as much, and one does not, as a rule, marry a +man one knows absolutely nothing about, nor—a man about whom one knows +considerably more than is to his credit. Jean Arnot knew a good deal +about Charles Castlemaine, and there was not the slightest danger of +her marrying him. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he a good sort?" asked Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"Much what dukes' younger sons mostly are, I imagine. The elder +brother is not strong, so if it comes off you may perhaps count among +your well-wishers a duchess sooner or later." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Arnot's good wishes would weigh more with me than those of all +the duchesses in the land," said Blair quietly. "There is something +very taking in her face—it is so bright and eager." Then he laughed +at his thoughts. "I remember, that day up on the Cut, I quite +accidentally hit upon a nickname they used to her at home—Miss +Inquisitive—and she flared up at me like a rip-rap. She was always +wanting to know, I believe." +</P> + +<P> +"She is still," said Fastnet, laughing, "though she must have learned a +good deal in all these years. She told me once that she was born +curious, and that she was especially curious to know all about what +came after this life. She said she thought the thought that she was +going to solve that greatest of all puzzles would take away all fear of +death when the time came. That was just after I came here. She must +have been about fifteen then." +</P> + +<P> +Blair's time was very short. He left that afternoon for Edinburgh to +spend his last two days with his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish. +He was to join Mr. Gerson in London on Wednesday and sail on Thursday. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. MacTavish had been a father to him from the time he walked along +the Cut—the very day after little Jean Arnot's prattle had set him on +the boy's track—and found him, prostrate on the flat stone, still +wrestling with Prop. 47. +</P> + +<P> +He had been just there himself when a small boy, struggling against the +retarding clay of a narrow agricultural home. He knew the sturdy +independence that would be in the boy; and, in his own full knowledge, +went to work warily. The slightest hint of charity, and the shy, proud +one would be off. +</P> + +<P> +So he never mentioned Jean, met the boy on his own ground as a +perfectly new acquaintance, gradually won his confidence and his heart, +guided, led, and finally enabled him by his own exertions to obtain a +bursary and proceed to college. With that, nothing could keep him +back. His heart was in it, his aims were high, and his course was a +triumphal progress. He had learned, as a boy, that greatest of +lessons—how to learn. The rough experiences of his boyhood on the +hillside had given him splendid health and a body that never tired. He +was tough as wire, and, among other things, was known at college for +that passion for personal cleanliness which, in its earlier days, had +helped to introduce him to Jean Arnot on the hillside. He had, quite +early—as soon, indeed, as he perceived the possibility of attaining to +it—fixed on the mission-field as offering what his soul yearned for. +Perhaps at first it was the unknown that drew him. No matter. By +degrees the known outrivalled the unknown, the greater absorbed the +less, and his heart was fixed on the highest of all high work. +</P> + +<P> +In these ten years he had learned mightily. Head, heart, and hand had +toiled incessantly, and never felt it toil, since it was only the +natural satisfaction of a great heart-craving. Then he had come across +Gerson, home on leave for the first time in twenty years. Their hearts +and eyes struck sparks the first time they met. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a man!" said Gerson, "and I'll have him if I can get him." +</P> + +<P> +"That is a saint and a hero!" said Blair. "I'm his man if he'll have +me." +</P> + +<P> +After that no power on earth could have kept them apart, and on +Thursday they were to sail together for the outer fringes. Gerson was +busily bidding his friends goodbye. +</P> + +<P> +"You may hear of me from time to time. You'll never see me again—this +side the veil at all events. We'll hope to meet on the other side," he +said heartily, and grudged every day that lay between him and his work. +</P> + +<P> +Blair, in telling Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish of his reception at the +Greenock church, incidentally mentioned Miss Arnot, but doubted +evidently whether they would know anything of her. +</P> + +<P> +But the old man laughed gently, and said, in his quiet, old-fashioned, +precise way, which was the very antithesis of the Rev. Archibald's +jovial utterances: "I will explain to you now, my dear boy, what at the +time I deemed wisest to treasure within the repository of my own heart. +It was from Miss Jean Arnot that I first heard about you. It was in +consequence of her delighted account of her meeting with you, and the +Euclid and the Latin grammar, that I sought you out on the hillside and +tendered you the helping hand of which you have made such excellent +use." +</P> + +<P> +"It was Miss Arnot?" said the young man in amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"Truly, yes! Though I do not for a moment suppose she knows anything +whatever about it. I certainly never told her, and I never told you, +because I had been a studious herd-laddie myself, and I knew what shy +and hypersensitive colts they are, and the delicacy necessary to their +proper handling." +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you for telling me now, sir. It is as I would have it." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe it would please her to know what you told me, sir," Blair +broke out abruptly a little later on, and the old gentleman smiled at +the evidence of the track of his thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"I will write and tell her, if you like, if you really think the +knowledge would afford her any gratification." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it would, sir." +</P> + +<P> +And so Jean Arnot received two notes which gave her very deep pleasure. +And the shorter one of the two said simply:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"You will have learned by this time, from my dear old friend and second +father, what I myself only learned three days ago—that it was your +unconscious hand that set my unconscious feet on the ladder. I rejoice +to know that it was so. The knowledge of it would be an additional +spur, if any spur were needed. Time may come, however, when the +remembrance of your kindness and all it has done for me, unconscious +though it was, may nerve me for some critical passage in the life in +front, for we are going among perilous peoples. It is not likely we +shall ever meet again, but, having learned how this matter stood, I +could not leave home without tendering you my most grateful and hearty +thanks. +</P> + +<P> +"That your life may be a wide, and bright, and beautiful, and happy one +will be the prayer of +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Yours faithfully,<BR> + "KENNETH BLAIR."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"He is a good man," said Jean thoughtfully, as she folded the letter +and put it carefully into a special corner of her desk, and then +immediately took it out again and re-read it. "May God go with him +also!" +</P> + +<P> +She read in the papers next day of his sailing in company with John +Gerson, the prophet of the Dark Islands, and was surprised to discover +in herself a curious feeling of loss, as though something had gone out +of her life. Which, considering all the circumstances of the case, was +distinctly odd, you know. +</P> + +<P> +She had only met him twice in her life; for ten years she had hardly +given him a thought; and yet his going left a little blank in a life +which was quite unaccustomed to anything of the kind. +</P> + +<P> +But the sudden sight of him in all his quiet strength of attainment, +and the knowledge of what it all meant to him, together with this new +understanding of how it had all come about, and of the share she +herself had unconsciously had in the making of him—well, perhaps after +all it was not so odd. For she had felt a sudden glow of participation +in his triumph, a sudden sense of increase such as no procurement of +her wealth had ever brought her—and now it was as suddenly gone, and a +blank remained. +</P> + +<P> +She caught herself thinking of him oftener than she had ever thought of +any man before, and she said to herself in surprise— +</P> + +<P> +"Goodness gracious me! why does that herd-laddie stick in my brain so?" +</P> + +<P> +A quite dispassionate dissector of the emotions and their origins might +have come to the conclusion that it was, after all, only a case of the +heart performing its natural function of feeding the brain. For the +heart is the life. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed at herself; but the herd-laddie remained in her thoughts, +and one day, before she went south, she actually found herself sitting +on that very same piece of rock where she had sat ten years before, and +in imagination he sat on the adjacent rock, munching his thick oatcake +and broken pieces of cheese. +</P> + +<P> +"What a greedy little pig I was!" she said to herself, as she sat +leaning forward with her chin in her hand. "But I don't believe he'd +have taken a bite from me, however much I'd wanted him to." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at the slab where the windmill had been, and at the pool +where the gentleman had washed. He looked as if he had been +strenuously washing ever since. What a radiant face he had! It did +not come from much washing, she knew; but somehow the two things linked +themselves in her mind. It was the white fire inside that lit up the +outside: a real man—a man to trust infinitely—a man to—— +</P> + +<P> +She sat looking out over the mighty panorama of hills and lochs and +mountains opposite—"Gare Loch, Loch Goil, Loch Long, Ben Lomond, Ben +Ihme, The Cobbler, Holy Loch." She knew most of them still. How the +sight of them all brought him back to her! And, in all probability, he +would never see them again. "We are going among perilous peoples." +</P> + +<P> +Well! he had done very wonderfully; he was fulfilling the highest +aspirations of his boyish heart. +</P> + +<P> +And she? She was a lady, and very rich, as she had said she would be. +And she remembered the touch of scorn with which the herd-laddie had +said, "Yes, that's about all you can be, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +Close behind her the swift brown waters of the Cut hurried headlong to +the town—one long, unceasing blessing. "Men may come and men may go, +but we go on for ever," sang the bubbling waters against the rough rock +walls of their narrow way. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely I am one of the most useless of God's creatures," said Jean +Arnot, as she wandered slowly back towards the paper-mill and home. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER III +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE MAN'S MAN +</P> + +<P> +Unflecked blue sky above, with a blazing white sun in it. A mighty +mountain peak, with bald summit, seamed sides mantled with greenery, +and round its waist, where it sat in the water, a narrow band of +gleaming white sand and tufted cocoa-palms, like an Island woman's +girdle. A smooth, dark, ruffled mirror of lagoon; and farther out, +with gaps here and there, a barrier reef on which the hungry sea chafed +and roared in ceaseless thunder. Two white men and a menacing crowd of +brown ones. +</P> + +<P> +"Ready?" asked the elder of the two men. +</P> + +<P> +He was tall and thin, white-haired and grey-bearded, and his eyes shone +like stars. His face was bronzed with much sun. There was a glow in +it which did not come from the sun, a mighty determination which did +not come from mere strength of will, a sweet white soul-fire which had +made him a power throughout the islands of the Southern Seas. +</P> + +<P> +"I am ready," said the younger man. +</P> + +<P> +His face was brown also, but not bronzed. There was a lighter patch of +tightened skin above each cheek-bone. His jaw was set so grimly that +it looked aggressive. His lips were tightly closed. His eyes were +unnaturally wide at the moment. He looked slightly raised—fey, in +fact, as a man looks when he and death meet face to face in a narrow +way. +</P> + +<P> +In front, the crowd of Islanders stood waiting for them at an angle of +rock where the white beach curved round into the land. They carried +clubs and spears, and swung them restlessly. Behind, on the smooth +reflexive swell of the lagoon, a white boat, just pushed off from the +shore, rode like a seabird with wings outstretched for swoop or flight. +Farther out a waiting schooner, whose white sails shivered softly to a +head breeze. +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, my son," said the elder man quietly, "one sign of flinching +and it is finished. Now let us go." He bared his white head and said +softly, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit," +and went up towards the dark men like the courteous Christian gentleman +he was. The younger man did the same. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-031"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-031.jpg" ALT="One sign of flinching and it is finished." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +One sign of flinching and it is finished. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The natives drew back round the rock; the white men followed. The men +in the boat watched intently, and then listened and gazed at the angle +of the rock. Their orders were to wait. +</P> + +<P> +The two men passed out of sight, the elder, quiet and calm, as if going +for a stroll in his mission garden, the younger, strung to martyr +pitch, ready to endure to the utmost. The islanders retreated foot by +foot; the white men followed steadily. Then, suddenly, clubs whirled +and spears bristled, and the brown men turned and rolled on the white +like a flood, and parted them. +</P> + +<P> +The elder man stood and eyed them steadfastly. He had been through it +many times before. Death and he had been old friends and +fellow-travellers for many a year, and the passing of The Gate was to +him but the entrance to a larger life. He spoke to them in words he +thought they might understand. For a moment the two men were like two +white rocks in a foaming mountain stream. Brown arms, clubs, spears +whirled about them. Not one man in ten thousand could have stood it +unmoved. +</P> + +<P> +The white-haired man was such a one. He stood. The younger man's face +broke; the strings had been drawn too tight. He cast one swift glance +round. +</P> + +<P> +In an instant the silvery crown beside him ran blood, and disappeared. +With bent head inside his folded arms the younger man dashed at the +throng, and sent the brown men spinning, as he had sent men of a +brawnier breed spinning on the football field at home. He burst +through them in spite of blows and cuts. He was close up to the wild +eddy under which his old friend lay when a well-flung club caught him +deftly in the neck and brought him down in a heap. The brown men +danced madly, and let their shouts go up. They took the younger man by +the heels, and dragged him to where the body of the elder lay, and +flung him down on top of it. Then the sailors from the boat burst on +them with a yell, and sent them scattering. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was days before he recovered consciousness, weeks before he could +lie in a chair on the verandah of the distant mission-house—weak from +loss of blood, weaker still in other ways. +</P> + +<P> +They tended him lovingly. There were gracious women there who +ministered to him like angels. To them he was hero, saint, martyr but +once removed. To himself——! +</P> + +<P> +He was almost too weak to think about it yet. He was hacked to pieces, +and bruised to pulp. When he tried to move, it seemed to him that not +one sound inch of flesh was left him. When he tried to think, all the +little blood that was left in him rushed up into his head and set it +humming and buzzing, and dyed his face crimson under the partly +bleached tan. +</P> + +<P> +His mind was still in a state of confusion; his thoughts were almost as +broken as his body. He remembered facing the bristling brown men. He +could see their shaggy heads and twisted faces, their white teeth, +their gleaming eyes, and the whirl of their brandished weapons. After +that all was blurred, and broke off into sudden darkness. He had a dim +remembrance of intense strain and a sudden snap. He groped for the +ends of the broken threads, but they were hidden in the outer void. He +was still very weak. +</P> + +<P> +He accepted gratefully all that was done for him, but for the most part +lay in silence. His sufferings were great, but no word of complaint +ever passed his lips. If he had permitted himself any such, it would +have been that he still lived when his leader died. To all he was a +monument of patient resignation. +</P> + +<P> +So great was his depression, and so slow his recovery, that it was +decided at last to send him home, as the only hope of full +recuperation. He acquiesced, as he had done in everything they +suggested, but in this matter with evident reluctance. He thought it +unlikely he would ever return. His heart had been in the work, but he +had been tried and found wanting. The work, he said to himself, was +for abler and more faithful hands. +</P> + +<P> +So the mission schooner carried him to the nearest port of call, and in +due course he was lying in a deck chair carefully swathed in plaids, +and the great steamer bore him swiftly homewards. +</P> + +<P> +The story of the martyrdom and of his heroic defence of his old friend: +how they two had gone up alone to the peaceful assault of an island of +the night; how he had fought for his leader till he could fight no +longer, and had fallen at last wounded to death across his dead +body,—it had all preceded him. The very sailors were proud to have +him on board. The officers made much of him in an undemonstrative way. +The ladies fluttered round his chair like humming-birds, and loaded him +with attentions. +</P> + +<P> +And he suffered it all in silence. He was still very weak. How could +he turn his sick soul inside out to these strangers, and what good to +do so? +</P> + +<P> +He had not yet decided what course to take when he got home. He had +thought and thought, till he was sick of thinking, sick of himself, +sick of life. Ah! why had he not died with the brave old man out there +on the shore of the creek behind the rocks? Why had his nerve given +way at that supreme moment? Why had this bitter cross been laid upon +him? Far better to have died—far easier, at all events. But easier +and better run opposite ways as a rule, and have little in common. +</P> + +<P> +Should he confess the whole matter, and retire from the field and find +some other way of life? Truly he felt no call to any other work. This +had been the one desire of his life; he had grown from youth to manhood +in the hope of it. He believed he could still be of service when once +he got over the effects of his present fall. Should he not rather bury +the dead past, with God as only mourner, and start afresh?—to fail +once more when the strain came again, he said to himself with exceeding +bitterness. He grieved over his lapse as another might grieve over a +deliberate crime. But he postponed any final decision as to the future +till he should feel stronger in mind and body. +</P> + +<P> +There was a noted writer on board, a realist of realists. He sought +impressions at first hand. He cultivated the sick man's acquaintance, +greatly to his discomfort. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Blair," he said, sitting down by his side one day, "I would very +much like to know just how you felt, and what you thought of, when you +were fighting those brown devils. Won't you tell me?" +</P> + +<P> +And the sick man roused himself for a moment, and looked at him with +that in his eye which the other comprehended not, and said slowly, "I +felt like the devil and I thought of the devil," and not another word +would he say. And the writer pondered much on the saying, but never +got to the bottom of it or knew how true it was. +</P> + +<P> +His people met him at the landing-place, the reverend father and the +white-haired mother, proud to be known even as the foster-parents of +such a son, grateful for one more sight of him in the flesh. How could +he break their hearts by telling them what a broken reed their trusted +one had proved? They rejoiced over him greatly, and said to one +another that as his strength came back the cloud that lay on his +spirits would be lifted. Their gentle encomiums stung him like darts. +</P> + +<P> +But, by degrees, broken body and broken spirit were healed. Slowly and +thoughtfully he made up his mind that the past should be past. He +would go out again. He would take his stand in the forefront of the +battle in the hope of an honourable death—for he held his life forfeit +to the past. +</P> + +<P> +Decision brings a certain peace of mind. He was happier than he had +been since he leaped out of the white boat on to the shore of the Dark +Island that morning—so long ago that it seemed to belong to a previous +life. +</P> + +<P> +The old people said God-speed to his decision. They had possessed him +once again after giving him up for good. It was more than they had +ever hoped for. They were thankful. +</P> + +<P> +All interested in mission work hailed his decision with enthusiasm. He +was common property and too big to be monopolised by any one sect. +They had not been able to make one quarter as much of him as they had +wished. He had quietly declined to be fêted and lionised. They +considered he carried his modesty to too great an extreme. They would +have made capital out of him and kindled fresh enthusiasms for the +cause by the sight and sound of him. It was with the greatest +difficulty that he avoided it all, using the plea of ill-health till +his bodily appearance would no longer countenance it. +</P> + +<P> +Once his decision was made known, however, they decided to drag him out +of his retirement, and by dint of persistent importunity prevailed on +him at last to appear at a public meeting. He consented with +reluctance, and only because it was represented to him as a matter of +duty. +</P> + +<P> +As the time drew near he began to fear that he was in for more than he +had expected. But he had given his word, and he would not draw back. +</P> + +<P> +There were clever men at the head of the movement. Thousands of +interested men and women were hungering for a sight of the +almost-martyr. They had seen his portrait in the illustrated +papers—how joyously the old mother had responded to the many requests +for it!—but they wanted to see him with their eyes and hear him with +their ears, and the younger folk were to remember all their lives that +they had done so. And so, without going into details with him, the +leaders of the various societies quietly arranged matters on a generous +scale. There were men of imagination among them too, and they prepared +a dramatic touch for the meeting which they calculated would make it go +with a swing. It went beyond their expectations. +</P> + +<P> +When the young missionary stepped on to the platform he stopped short, +and for a moment looked almost as fey as he had done when he leaped out +of the white boat that morning on the beach of Dark Island. But there +must be no drawing back. He had flinched once—never again! +</P> + +<P> +The chairman of the meeting was a philanthropic Cabinet Minister. As +he welcomed the hero of the hour the great audience rose and waved and +shouted. +</P> + +<P> +The young man clasped the chairman's welcoming hand as though he were a +drowning man, and that hand the one only hope of safety. Then he sank +into the chair provided for him, and dropped his face into his hand. +</P> + +<P> +All this was torture to him. Why could they not have let him go out +quietly to his work, to his death? No bristling mob of savages that +ever could confront him was half so appalling to him as that great +well-dressed crowd of enthusiastic men and women and children, gathered +to do him honour. Honour! And he before God a dishonoured man—a man +who had failed when the pinch came. He groaned in his heart, and +wished that he had not come. +</P> + +<P> +But the chairman was speaking, speaking of him, and what he had +done—what he was supposed to have done—in warm, appreciative words +and flowing periods, and the audience was as still as a flower-garden +on a summer afternoon. In the young man's soul there was a great +stillness also, a stillness equal almost to that which had fallen on +him when he came out of the shadows and lay in the verandah of the +mission house. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes wandered unseeingly over those solid banks of faces, all +turned on him in eulogy of what he had not done. Those thousands of +eyes seemed to pierce his soul. +</P> + +<P> +One face caught his attention and held it, the face of a girl sitting +in the third row from the front. Even in his agony he recognised it, +as how could he help when it had been so constantly with him in his +thoughts. The smooth white brow, like a little slab of polished ivory; +the level brows; the large dark eyes looking up at him with something +akin to reverence—the beautiful eyes with lustrous points in them; the +sweet oval of the lower part of the face; the firm little chin and +slightly parted lips, emphasising the old inquiring look which he knew +so well: it was a face any man might remember with gratitude for the +mere sight of it. It was the face he had at once longed for the sight +of and feared to meet, since ever the thought of coming home had been +suggested to him. And now here it was, more beautiful than even his +dreams of it—inquiring, hopeful, trustful. And he must satisfy the +inquiry—and dash the hope, and shatter the trust for ever. Oh, it was +hard! It was grievously hard! His life laid down then and there would +have been a small price to pay for the confirmation of her belief in +him. And he must destroy it and still live on! +</P> + +<P> +But what was this? The chairman had turned to him in his speech, the +flower-garden in front had suddenly become a fluttering snowbank. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Blair does not happen to belong to that particular section of the +Church to which I belong, and which, as the State Church of the realm, +retains, and rightly retains, within its own hands the appointment of +its own high officers. There are some of us who, as we grow older, and +perhaps wiser, regret more and more that any differences should remain +among the followers of Christ. We would fain see them done away with. +We would cast down all fences and walls of partition, and meet our +Christian brothers and sisters on an absolute equality, on the common +platform of love and service to the one Master. +</P> + +<P> +"This meeting to-night, of many sects with one common object, is one +step in the right direction—a great step. And here is another. The +necessity for a supreme hand and head in the guidance of the mission +enterprises of the Outer Islands is apparent to all. For such a +position we require a man of tried courage and endurance, a man who can +look death in the face without flinching, a man who holds his own life +of small account, and who is ready at any moment to lay it down in the +service of the cause he loves. Of such stuff martyrs are made. That +the man who has given us such signal proofs of his fidelity and courage +should be chosen for so onerous and so honourable a post is a matter of +great satisfaction to us all. Mr. Blair, as all the world knows, has +proved his fitness in a time of grievous danger and perplexity.—a time +which I do not hesitate to say would have tried the nerve of any man to +breaking-point, under a strain which might have broken any ordinary +man, and small blame to him. But here"—and he laid his hand upon +young Blair's shoulder—"we have the one man who did not break down, +and it is this man whom we would rejoice to recognise as the first +bishop of the Outer Islands. I am authorised to request Mr. Blair's +acceptance of this arduous and honourable post, without reference to +any question of form or creed. And that request is made, not in the +name or on behalf of my own Church only, but in the names and on behalf +of all the Churches represented by the missions to the Outer Islands. +It is a common point of union. Mr. Blair's acceptance of the post +will, perhaps, be one step towards that greater union of the Churches +to which we look hopefully forward, and I earnestly hope that he will +see fit to accept this joint and unanimous request of the Churches." +And he sat down with glowing face amidst thunders of applause. +</P> + +<P> +And Kenneth Blair? Oh! why could they not have left him to work out +his redemption in quietness and silence? Now it was not possible. +Those thousands of eyes burnt into his soul. The words he had listened +to pierced him like two-edged swords. Silence was no longer possible. +To accept all this, as if it were his rightful due, was to hang a +millstone round his neck which would drag him down to perdition. +</P> + +<P> +When the tumult died at last into silence, the young man got up and +stood and gripped the railing of the platform. +</P> + +<P> +His face was white and set. "A man of indomitable will," they said. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes burnt with a gloomy fire. "He has seen strange and terrible +things," they said. +</P> + +<P> +He swayed slightly once or twice before he found his voice. "He has +been very near to death," they said. +</P> + +<P> +And then he began to speak, quietly, as one who might need all his +strength before he was done; but there was a timbre in it, born of +outdoor speaking, which carried to the remotest corner, and a thrill in +it which found its way to every heart. And, of all that great +assembly, the only face he saw with any distinctness was the face of +the girl in the third row, with its calm brow and its lustrous +up-glance. He spoke to it. He watched it. If he could convince that +one face of all that was in him, he felt that it would be well with him. +</P> + +<P> +In his emotion he overlooked all formalities. He found his voice at +last, and said, "My friends, the words I have just been listening to +have been to me as sword-thrusts through the heart." +</P> + +<P> +The silence was intense. Every ear and every eye was upon him. He saw +only the calm, sweet face of the girl in the third row. +</P> + +<P> +"I have a very terrible confession to make to you. Had I known what +was intended this evening I should not have been here, but no slightest +word of it reached me. My sole desire has been to get back to my work +out yonder, and to lay down my life in it. I have been told that I am +a man of courage and endurance ... of tried nerve ... of unflinching +fidelity. There was a time when I too believed this of myself." He +spoke very slowly and with a solemn impressiveness which those who +heard it never forgot to the last day of their lives. "But between +that and this there is a deep gulf ... and at the bottom of that gulf +lies the dead body of my dear friend and chief. His death lies at my +door." +</P> + +<P> +An almost imperceptible movement ran through the audience, as though a +cold breath shook it with a simultaneous chill. The face of the girl +in the third row remained steadfastly calm. If anything, it seemed to +glow with a deeper intensity of hopeful inquiry. "Say what you will, I +believe in you!" it said. +</P> + +<P> +"The whole truth of what happened on that dreadful day has never been +told. I will confess that I had dared to hope that it might never need +to be told—that it might lie between myself and God—that I might be +permitted by Him to work out my redemption on the field of my failure, +chastened, and perhaps strengthened, by what has passed. For, at a +vital moment, when the flinching of an eyelid meant disaster, I ... +flinched. +</P> + +<P> +"This is what happened. As we went up towards the savages that day, my +dear old friend asked me if I was ready. I was ready. I said so. He +said, 'Remember, one sign of flinching and it is finished,' and we went +up and round the corner. We were going, as I believed, to certain +death, and I was ready—at least, and truly, I believed so. When the +savages rushed in upon us, the horror of it broke upon me like a +deluge. I glanced round to see if there was no possible way of escape +for us. But there was no way. My dear old chief's head was crimson +already with blood, and he went down among them. I burst through—and +I know no more. They tell me my body was found on top of his. It may +be so. How it got there I do not know. What I do know is—that at +that supreme moment, when I believed myself to be strong, I found +myself weak. When I believed myself ready for a martyr's death, I +tried to escape by shameful flight. I was weighed and found wanting, +and the remembrance of it has seared my heart like molten iron, night +and day, since ever I came to myself. Whether we should have won +through if I had remained firm, God only knows. But—I flinched and +fled. It seems to me now that I would sooner die a hundred such deaths +as I fled from then than stand here before you all and confess my +default. I can accept no honours. Honours!" with a despairing lift +and fall of the hand. "I can accept no position based on so terrible a +misconception. All I ask, and I ask it with the deepest humility, is +that I may be allowed to go out there again. My life is forfeit to the +past. It shall be spent—if it be God's will, it shall be laid down +joyfully—in the service to which I believe He called me, and from +which I do not believe He has expelled me." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-043"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-043.jpg" ALT=""My life is forfeit to the past."" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"My life is forfeit to the past." +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +He sat down and covered his face with his hands. There was a momentary +silence. The chairman did not quite know what to do. The face of the +girl in the third row was ablaze with emotion; the dark eyes were +swimming. She glanced restlessly about to see what was going to +happen; she looked like springing up herself with flaming words. But +another did it. A tall, white-haired man, with a flowing white beard +and a face like brown leather, stood up on the platform, and said, in a +voice that went straight to all their hearts— +</P> + +<P> +"My friends, we have all heard. Some of us understand, because we have +passed through that same dark valley as our young friend. Dare I, in +all humility, remind you that a Greater than any shrank from the +supreme moment, and prayed, with agonies no man may conceive of, that +His bitter cup might pass from Him? I tell you, gentlemen," he cried, +in a voice that rang like a trumpet, "that in doing what he has done +here this evening our friend has proved himself a man among men. He +has said that a hundred savage deaths appear to him less terrible than +the confession he has just made. And it is a true saying. Ask your +own hearts. I could prove to you that no man can answer absolutely for +himself at such a moment; but I will not even argue the point. Our +friend has been through the fire. He has been through God's mill. He +has been hammered on God's anvil. I tell you that he is true metal. +He has proved it here and now. I hold it an honour to grasp his hand +and bid him God-speed." +</P> + +<P> +He stretched a sinewy, leather-brown hand to Blair, and the young man +gripped it with a new light in his face, and the two stood facing one +another. +</P> + +<P> +Still holding the young man's hand, the old one turned to the front +again. +</P> + +<P> +"If you agree with me that this is the man we want for the work out +there, rise in your seats." +</P> + +<P> +His voice had rung like a bugle-call through the outer darknesses of +the earth; his name stood but little lower than God's to tens of +thousands who dwelt there, and was held in reverence wherever the +English language was spoken. That great audience rose to his call as +if a mine had exploded beneath it. His eyes shone with the light the +black men knew and loved. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us pray," he said; and the young man fell to his knees beside his +chair and dropped his head into his hands again. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER IV +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +A SHAMELESS THING! +</P> + +<P> +The night that followed that meeting at Queen's Hall was the most +tempestuous time Jean Arnot ever passed through. +</P> + +<P> +The dramatic events of the meeting had shaken her hidden soul out of +its sanctuary. She was thankful to get home intact—so far, at all +events, as outward appearances went. +</P> + +<P> +She went at once to her own room. She locked herself in, and paced the +floor till she could pace no more. +</P> + +<P> +She could order her steps, but not her thoughts, and her thoughts took +wings and climbed lofty heavens of white-piled clouds, and the +white-piled clouds were all rosy-tipped, because the thoughts that +scaled them came straight from her heart and were tinged with the rosy +gold of her heart's desire. +</P> + +<P> +Oh, wonderful! wonderful! The great big soul of him! Was there a +nobler man on earth? +</P> + +<P> +How easy to have let it pass! to have kept it between God and himself +only! to have worked out his redemption in secret! But he could not, +because he was a true man—the truest man ever born, and the bravest. +Oh the great, big, noble soul of him! +</P> + +<P> +To and fro she paced, and, no matter where she looked, his white, set +face and blazing eyes looked out at her in that agonised strenuity of +appeal which had stirred her so in the hall, stirred her to the depths +till she had had difficulty in sitting still. It had seemed to her as +though he lost sight of all those straining thousands and spoke only to +her—as though they were all nothing, and she the whole world. Had he +recognised her, she wondered, or had he perceived, in spite of the +disguisement of her steady face, the intensity of her sympathy, and had +clung to it as to a one and only hope? +</P> + +<P> +And as she paced, and sank down into her chair, which had lost all its +ordinary sense of comfort, and started up and paced again, there sprang +up in her heart a great golden-glowing purpose—a purpose that trapped +her breath and set her gasping when first it peeped out, but which grew +like an escaped genie, and filled the world of her thoughts before she +knew, and was never to be confined within bounds again. +</P> + +<P> +An unheard-of thing! An incredible thing! A shameless thing! +</P> + +<P> +Nay, not that—and yet—yes! yes! Shameless indeed, for shameless +meant without sense of shame, and no sense of shame had she—glory +rather. +</P> + +<P> +An unmaidenly thing, then! That without doubt, but not without +precedent, and circumstances make laws unto themselves. +</P> + +<P> +But, whatever it was or was not, it grew and grew, stronger and +stronger, and ever brighter in its glowing, golden rose. +</P> + +<P> +As she paced to and fro it seemed to her that her path in life had +suddenly flashed out before her on the darkness of the night. It was +limned in lines and letters of fire, and they cried to her to follow, +follow, follow. +</P> + +<P> +And now, as she thought it all out, with tightened lips, and crumpled +brow, and eyes that shone, it came home to her, like a revelation, that +all her life had been working up to this starry point. +</P> + +<P> +She thought long and deeply, and then turned up the light and sat down +to her writing-table with a purposeful face. It was done in a +moment—a couple of lines. But a single word has changed the destiny +of a nation before this. Weighty things, words, at times! Live shells +are playthings to them. +</P> + +<P> +She folded and addressed her letter, and then pondered the best way +over a difficulty. She wrote two more lines and enclosed them with her +original letter in a larger envelope, and addressed it, and then she +laid her white forehead on the packet for a moment as it lay on the +table. And then, like one whose ships are burned, or whose golden +bridge is built, she altered the indicator outside her door, so that +her maid would call her at seven, and went to bed. Once, before she +got to sleep, she smiled to herself and almost laughed out, as she +suddenly remembered that it was Leap Year. Then she cooled her burning +cheek on the other pillow and went to sleep, and slept soundly, for she +had been living at high pressure these last few hours, and the morrow +would need all her strength. +</P> + +<P> +When the maid brought up her cup of tea in the morning, she handed her +the letter which had stood on the table by her bedside all night, with +these precise directions: "Tell William"—the groom—"to ride into the +city and deliver that letter. The answer he will take to whatever +address may be given him." +</P> + +<P> +She got up and dressed, and went out for a quick walk in Kensington +Gardens. At breakfast Aunt Jannet Harvey commented on her appearance. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, child, what a colour you've got! What took you out so early?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been bathing in dew and early sunbeams, auntie." +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't sleep all night for thinking of that young man and his +savages. It appears to me that that is a very great man, Jean. If he +lives he will do very noble work. It needed a big soul to face that +crowd and tell that story as he did it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Jean. She had never discussed Kenneth Blair with Aunt +Jannet Harvey, not to the extent of one single word. +</P> + +<P> +After breakfast she found it difficult to settle down to any of her +usual avocations. She could neither read nor play, and she declined to +go out. Aunt Jannet Harvey expressed the opinion that such early +rising did not suit her, and Jean confirmed her views by going upstairs +to her room and wandering about there at a loose end and doing +nothing—nothing but think, think, think. +</P> + +<P> +Her maid brought her word that William had returned, having executed +his mission in full; and please would Miss Arnot ride in the afternoon? +</P> + +<P> +Miss Arnot would neither ride nor drive that afternoon, nor would she +require the brougham in the evening. Mary would please ask Mrs. Harvey +if she wished to drive in the afternoon. If not, the men's services +would not be required. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER V +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +LEAP YEAR +</P> + +<P> +Kenneth Blair received Miss Arnot's note as he sat at breakfast in the +pleasant room of the quiet little hotel overlooking the Embankment, +where he was staying in company with Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish. He was to +them as one come back from the dead, and they grudged every minute he +was out of their sight. +</P> + +<P> +The incidents of the previous night had been rather wearing on them +all, and they were later than usual that morning, and, at that, +dallying over an enjoyment that would soon be of the memory only. +</P> + +<P> +The rare colour filled his pale face as he read the two lines of Miss +Arnot's note, and he read them several times, as though frequent +perusal might provoke interpretation. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"DEAR MR. BLAIR,— +</P> + +<P> +"I have an urgent wish to speak with you. Will you do me the favour of +calling here at 3 p.m. to-day? +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Yours sincerely,<BR> + "JEAN ARNOT."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"I wonder what she wants?" he said meditatively, and handed the note to +the old people. "I don't think I want to see anybody." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you must comply with her request, my boy," said Mr. MacTavish. +"She has more than ordinary claims upon your consideration, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Blair nodded, and winced involuntarily. It went a good deal deeper +than the old man knew, and after last night he did not feel quite +himself again yet. He had a morbid dread of hero-worship, and though +the outward man was healed and shaping well again, the inner man still +felt woefully sore and bruised and humbled. +</P> + +<P> +"She was there last night; she sat about three rows from the front," +said Mrs. MacTavish. "I wish you could have seen her face while you +were speaking, Kenneth. It was like the face of an angel." +</P> + +<P> +Kenneth had seen it, and nothing but it, and the thought of it made it +none the easier for him to comply with her request. +</P> + +<P> +He said quietly: "Well, I'll think about it, and see how I happen to be +situated for three o'clock. I have to see Mr. Campbell at eleven in +Moorgate Street. If he has any appointments for me, I might be unable +to go, in which case I'll send Miss Arnot a wire." +</P> + +<P> +But Mr. Campbell knew how short his time was, and so occupied as little +of it as possible; and three o'clock found him at Miss Arnot's dainty +little house in Knightsbridge, overlooking the Park. +</P> + +<P> +He had hesitated—as an intelligent moth might flutter warily just +outside the heat radius of a candle-flame—strongly tempted, desirous, +but doubtful. +</P> + +<P> +For she had occupied much, very much, of his thoughts—too much, he had +angrily said to himself at times—since ever he learned the part she +had had in the making of him. And quite apart from that, she was so +very charming in herself. It could hardly be in the power of any man, +he thought, to be much in her company and not have longings for still +closer acquaintance and companionship—and such things were not for +him. His way lay among the shadows of the outer night, and it must of +necessity be, outwardly at all events, a somewhat lonely way. +Companions he would doubtless have, and the best of all high company. +But home, wife, child—these were not for him. In his mind's eye he +saw the white beaches, and towering cliffs, and black bosky gorges of +the Dark Islands, and the thunder of the surf was in his ear. And in +his heart he said bravely, "My home, my wife, my children!" +</P> + +<P> +But his thoughts were never far from her, and now that, in spite of +himself, he was to meet her face to face, they gathered head and had +their way in spite of him. +</P> + +<P> +He had often wondered why she had not married. She was still young, of +course; but, after all, twenty-five was not so very young for an +unmarried lady of such unusual possessions of mind, body, and estate. +</P> + +<P> +She possessed, he could well believe, an independent spirit. Had she +not, even at thirteen, told him that one of her aspirations was to do +as she liked? +</P> + +<P> +He had recognised her instantly, and with a start, the previous night. +That was before the drama became exciting. And he had wondered then if +she had changed her name since last he saw her, or whether "Jean Arnot +was still good enough for her." +</P> + +<P> +And what could she possibly want to say to him? +</P> + +<P> +Possibly—quite likely—in the excitement of the evening's proceedings +she had felt an impulse to do something more for the mission cause than +she had done hitherto. +</P> + +<P> +That was it, no doubt. Well, they could do with Miss Arnot's +assistance. Funds were never too ample for the work that cried aloud +to be done. +</P> + +<P> +He was evidently expected. The maid led him along the hall, through +green baize doors, down a passage, into the library, a beautiful and +cosy room such as he had imagined wealthy people might possibly +possess, if, in addition to all their other possessions, they possessed +a love of books. It overlooked the garden and the Park, and was as +bright and secluded a little holy of holies as the most devoted +worshipper of the sacred flame might desire. The Island Mission houses +were—not exactly geographically perhaps, but in every other attribute +and particular—the absolute antipodes and antithesis of this charming +little sanctum. The walls were lined with bookcases full of richly +bound books, the table was strewn with books and magazines, among +which, and queening it over them all, stood a great night-blue bowl of +white lilac, filling the room with the perfume of the spring. There +was a cheerful little fire of mixed peat and logs on a flat hearth, +with brass dogs and chains. A sudden whiff of the peat, as he passed +the hearth, carried him in an instant back into his boyhood. +</P> + +<P> +He glanced at the bountiful shelves, with the hungry look of the +student whose pocket had never at any time been able to keep pace with +his appetite. For knowledge of books is good, and possession of books +is good, but knowledge and possession combined are still much better. +</P> + +<P> +He was standing looking out into the garden whence the lilac had come, +when Miss Arnot came quietly in. +</P> + +<P> +He turned and bowed. He had made up his mind to hold himself tightly, +but her welcoming hand drew forth his own, and carried his first line +of defence in a walk-over. +</P> + +<P> +"It was good of you to come," she said impulsively, "and I thank you. +I know your time is very short, and you must have much to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, there is much to do," he said very quietly. "But I am grateful +to you for, at all events, affording me another opportunity of thanking +you in person——" But she stopped him with a peremptory little hand. +</P> + +<P> +How beautiful she was, with her wistful face and commanding little +ways! There was even more than usual of strenuous inquiry in those +shining eyes of hers. +</P> + +<P> +"You are going back on the first of May?" +</P> + +<P> +Her speech was more rapid than usual. He saw that she was excited. +Probably the remembrance of last night's meeting still held her, he +thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, on the first of May. And then——I hardly think it likely I +shall ever return to England." +</P> + +<P> +"But why?" she jerked, in her old, quick, want-to-know way. +</P> + +<P> +"Well—you see—I really feel as if I had no right to be here at all. +By rights I ought to be lying under a cairn on the beach of Dark +Island." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but that is simply morbid, and the result of your long illness. +You will not feel that way long." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope not. The work is crying to be done. Perhaps, after all, I +shall be able to help it more above ground than below." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you will. Don't you find it dreadfully lonely out there, +with none but black people about you?" +</P> + +<P> +"They are very fine people, some of them. And the loneliness only +nails one the tighter to the work. Besides there are——" +</P> + +<P> +"Has it never struck you that you might possibly help it quite as much +by remaining here as by going out again?" +</P> + +<P> +Oh, Jean! Jean! +</P> + +<P> +"Never," he said, with a slight flush. "My work lies there, and I hope +to give my life to it, and to give it up for it if need be, as my dear +old friend gave his." +</P> + +<P> +"But there are others who could do the work just as well, are there +not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Many, I hope. I hope many will." +</P> + +<P> +"And, if I understand aright, Missionary Societies are always short of +funds, and the work is hindered, or at all events progresses more +slowly, in consequence." +</P> + +<P> +"I have my own views as to that," he said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you tell me what they are? I am greatly interested." +</P> + +<P> +"They are not shared by many of my friends, and I do not obtrude them. +I believe that the work is God's work, and when He sees fit to provide +larger ways and means, larger ways and means will be forthcoming. If +we had all the money we wanted, we might lose our heads, and go ahead +too fast—scamp the work perhaps, and prove but jerry-builders in the +end. One cannot forget that it has taken Christianity eighteen hundred +years to arrive at its present position, and that for long periods it +lay almost dormant; whereas, if the Founder had deemed it best to +accomplish the work at one stroke, He could have done it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "I don't think I ever looked at it in +that light before. And you are quite determined to go back?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite determined—only too grateful for the chance." +</P> + +<P> +"And nothing would keep you here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing that I can imagine—except absolute incapacity for the work." +</P> + +<P> +"You would not stop even if"—and she bent forward, with hands tightly +clasped to prevent them jumping visibly before him, and eyes that shone +like stars. God! how beautiful she was!—"if I begged you to do so?" +</P> + +<P> +He jumped up hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"If you——? If you begged me to—what?" +</P> + +<P> +And her bright eyes, fixed intently on his lean face, caught the sudden +fierce clench of the teeth inside, which threw the cheek-bones into +bolder prominence. She noted it—she could almost hear the grinding of +his teeth; and the game was in her hands. She had the advantage of +understanding what the game was, while he was completely in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +He stood gazing down at her for a moment, and then said more quietly— +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I don't quite understand. Perhaps my illness has dulled my +brain somewhat." +</P> + +<P> +"No, it hasn't, Mr. Blair. I was asking you in cold blood if you would +not stay in England and marry me, and use my money from here for the +furtherance of the cause out there." +</P> + +<P> +He stared at her still with all his great heart in his eyes—all of it +that was not jumping in his throat like a baby rabbit. +</P> + +<P> +He gazed down at her for another moment, then bent suddenly before her +and took her hand and kissed it, and said huskily and in jerks—between +the rabbit-kicks— +</P> + +<P> +"You will think no ill of me—if I go—at once. I dare not stop——" +</P> + +<P> +But she had gripped his hand and held it tight, and stood holding him, +and her face shone and her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Then—will you take me with you, Kenneth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Take you with me?" Her rings cut into her next fingers under the +fierceness of his sudden grip, and she could have sung aloud, for the +grip came right from his heart and told his tale to her. "Do you mean +it—Jean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Surely." +</P> + +<P> +And yet he had a doubt. You must bear with him. You see, he had been +half inside the gates of death, and—well, the proceeding <I>was</I> +distinctly out of the common run of things. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it myself—or the work?" he asked almost fiercely. For the thought +had flashed across him—and not unnaturally—that this was but one more +result of the excitement of the meeting last night. She had been +shaken out of her usual discretion and decorum, had probably lain awake +all night, and—— +</P> + +<P> +But her eyes were steady as stars, and as bright, as she said— +</P> + +<P> +"Both! But yourself first. I liked you the first time we met. I +loved you the second. I have never ceased to think about you. Your +going away left a blank in my life. After last night I love and trust +you more than ever, if that be possible. Last night my way was made +clear to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, glory be to God!" he cried, and kissed the wistful lips that +looked as if they had been waiting long for just that seal to the +compact. And then he sat down suddenly and covered his face with his +hands, as though what was in him was not even for her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +She sank down on to a footstool beside his chair, and noticed how white +his hand was compared with the great, strong brown hand which had held +hers that day in the Greenock church. +</P> + +<P> +He was himself again in a moment—or suppose we say he came back from +where he had been—and his face was full of the old radiant glow as he +raised it to look at her. +</P> + +<P> +"It <I>is</I> real, isn't it?" he asked in a light-hearted, boyish way. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm real," she said, smiling back at him. "You seem not quite +yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever try to imagine what it would feel like to have every +single desire of your heart suddenly granted to you all in a lump?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I ever did. It sounds as if it might be too much for +one." +</P> + +<P> +"It is—almost. And you wonder if it is real and true, or only a vain +imagining. Jean, is it true that you care for me?" +</P> + +<P> +"No—love you, Ken,—dearly—every inch of you." +</P> + +<P> +"And that you are going to marry me?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you ask me properly." +</P> + +<P> +"Jean, will you marry me and come out with me and share my work?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will!" +</P> + +<P> +He gazed at her steadfastly, and said softly— +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God! it is true!" +</P> + +<P> +He enjoyed that full sunshine of felicity for close on five minutes, +and then said more soberly— +</P> + +<P> +"Do you quite understand, dear, all that you are giving up? Life out +there——" +</P> + +<P> +"It is enough for me at present to realise what I have gained. Can you +not understand, dear, that to a woman the time comes when the heart's +love of one man is more to her than all the rest of the whole wide +world? Life touched its highest with me when you made my fingers bleed +a few minutes ago." +</P> + +<P> +"I made your——" and he snatched her hands and saw the tiny wounds. +"Oh, forgive me! I did not know——" and he kissed them tenderly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sweet wounds!" she said. "They told me more than all you have +forgotten to tell me—all that I was aching to know." +</P> + +<P> +"And you really care for me like that, Jean? For me! Is it possible? +I wonder why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps God had something to do with it. It is so very good that it +must be from Him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +"And now—when are you going to tell me that you care a little for me, +and are not just taking me because I threw myself at your head and you +could not help yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Jean! Jean! you knew—though how I cannot tell. You have been +shrined in my heart since that second time we met, but I knew it was +hopeless——" +</P> + +<P> +"Clever boy! And you hardly knew me then." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew your eyes the moment I looked into them, and they have never +left me since." +</P> + +<P> +"Such common brown eyes! But you didn't know what lay behind them?" +</P> + +<P> +"The most beautiful eyes in the world." +</P> + +<P> +And by degrees they settled into quiet talk of the future. +</P> + +<P> +He still feared she did not fully understand all she was giving up, and +conscientiously endeavoured to make it clear to her. +</P> + +<P> +She listened to please him, and because it was sweet to hear him, for +all his thought in the matter was for her and her well-being. +</P> + +<P> +So she let him go on; and when he had exhausted all his arguments, she +said quietly— +</P> + +<P> +"It is all nothing and less than nothing, dearest, compared with the +rest. Where you go I go. Your work shall be my work, and your people +my people, and nothing but death shall part us." +</P> + +<P> +And with a heart that seemed like to burst for very fulness of joy in +her, he said, "Amen!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER VI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +A SUDDEN WIDE HORIZON +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Blair! The young man who spoke at the meeting the other night? +Why, I didn't even know that you knew him, Jean!" said Aunt Jannet +Harvey, gazing at her in wide-eyed wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I've known him since I was thirteen!" +</P> + +<P> +"And you never spoke to me about him! Why I don't remember your ever +even mentioning his name!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe I ever did. We will make up for it now, auntie." +</P> + +<P> +"And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry him?" +</P> + +<A NAME="img-060"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-060.jpg" ALT=""And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry him."" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry him." +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Yes, auntie,"—very meekly. +</P> + +<P> +"And you've said 'yes,' and you're going out with him to the South +Seas?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, auntie." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, child, let me tell you what I think about it. I think you might +have looked much higher, and fared very much worse. He struck me the +other night as a very noble young man indeed, and I wondered then why +he hadn't made some woman happy. I believe you will be very happy, +Jean, unless those cannibals kill you and eat you." +</P> + +<P> +"If they eat us both at the same time I don't care," said Jean boldly. +"Yes, I shall be very happy, auntie, for he is the best man in the +whole world." +</P> + +<P> +"And when do you go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Our marriage will make some changes in his plans, of course, and he is +seeing the Society people to-day about an extension of leave. We +discussed it all yesterday—at least, all that we had time for. He is +full of plans—such glorious plans! It is a grand thing to be a man, +and to be built on a great big scale, and to have glorious ideas——" +</P> + +<P> +"And the means to carry them out! And when did you say you'd be going?" +</P> + +<P> +"In about six weeks probably. You see, he wants to buy a steamer for +his work among the Islands, and we shall go out in her." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be quite ready," said Aunt Jannet Harvey "I shall want two or +three new dresses suitable to the climate——" +</P> + +<P> +"You, auntie? You will go too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course, child! You'll need me more than ever out there. +Suppose you fell sick. Suppose—oh, I can look ahead farther than you +can, perhaps! I can see a hundred ways in which I can be useful to +you. And you don't need to fear that I'll be in your way—I'll see to +that. But I'll be within reach when I'm wanted; and I've always had a +hankering to see those outside parts of the world. It was my dear +James's dream too. He was a great botanist, when he had any time to +spare from his logic. He'll be glad to think the chance has come to me +at last." +</P> + +<P> +And so when Blair came back next day from an exciting time in the city, +Jean solemnly announced— +</P> + +<P> +"You'll only find out by degrees all you've undertaken, young man. +You've got to marry Aunt Jannet Harvey as well." +</P> + +<P> +"Polygamy is still practised out there," he said heartily. "As a +matter of policy we have to countenance it at times; but we set our +faces against it, because it does not work well. If this means that +Mrs. Harvey has consented to accompany us——" +</P> + +<P> +"Consented? She proposed it, or rather took it for granted, and won't +hear a word against it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then my heart is lightened of one of its cares, and I am truly +grateful to Aunt Jannet"—and Aunt Jannet was his from that moment. +"God surely put the thought into your kind heart," he said, as he wrung +the capable old hand warmly. "You will be more to Jean out there than +words can tell. I thank you with all my heart." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew it," said Aunt Jannet, with emphasis. "I wanted to ask you, +Mr. Blair——" +</P> + +<P> +"Kenneth, surely, now, Aunt Jannet!" +</P> + +<P> +"Surely!—Kenneth—what the ladies wear out there." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the native ladies don't wear much, and the ladies of the +missions wear much what you would here, if you cared only for use and +comfort, and nothing for fashion. They always look very neat and +clean"—at which Jean smiled reminiscently. +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Aunt Jannet. "Jean and I will lay our heads together. I +think we can live up to that standard, at all events." +</P> + +<P> +He had a cup of tea with them, and then ran along to the hotel to bring +old Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish over to dinner. And after dinner they sat +and talked and talked, and he laid some of his ideas and plans before +them, and had only just begun when it was time for the old people to go +home to bed. For his plans and ideas were blossoming in the golden +sunshine like an orchard kept back by a late spring, and flung suddenly +into the quickening warmth of coming summer. +</P> + +<P> +He had gone down that morning to see the secretary of the Society which +had originally sent him out, and to whom he still felt officially +bound, to inform him of the changes in his plans which his marriage +would bring about, and to request an extension of leave. +</P> + +<P> +There happened to be a full meeting of the committee in session when +his name was brought in, and the secretary at once suggested his +introduction to the meeting. And so, when Blair was shown into the +board-room, expecting to meet Mr. Secretary alone, he found some fifty +ladies and gentlemen eagerly awaiting him. +</P> + +<P> +The great glad light in his face—the light that Jean Arnot had helped +to rekindle—drew all their eyes. They whispered among themselves that +the Queen's Hall meeting had done him good after all. Some of them had +been fearing the effects of such tremendous emotion on a weakened body. +</P> + +<P> +The chairman, the noble head of a house devoted to good deeds, gave him +hearty welcome, and said the committee would be delighted to hear any +further details he would like to give them of his work or future plans +in the Dark Islands. +</P> + +<P> +Blair jumped up as the old man sat down. +</P> + +<P> +"I came, sir," he said, "on a very definite errand—to ask for a slight +extension of my stay here." +</P> + +<P> +"It is granted, my dear sir, before you put any limit to it," said the +old man cordially. "Every member of this committee feels, I am sure, +that the matter may be safely left in your own hands. We know also +that you are anxious to get back to your work. I will only express the +hope that it is not through any relapse in health that you think it +necessary." +</P> + +<P> +It certainly did not look like it, as Blair, with a smile that would +not be controlled, said— +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to say it is not a matter touching my health, though one +that very intimately affects my happiness and well-being. Since that +somewhat trying meeting in Queen's Hall a piece of very great +good-fortune has come to me——" +</P> + +<P> +"Good indeed to set such a light in his face!" thought they, and hung +upon his words. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Arnot has consented to become my wife and to join me in the work +out there." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Arnot!—Jean Arnot!"—a buzz of excitement ran round. For Miss +Arnot was a personage of importance, known alike for her beauty, her +wealth, and her good deeds. Rumour, indeed, had fixed upon Miss Arnot +as the mysterious donor for the last two years of a £1,000 note each +year for the special benefit and use of the South Sea Mission. +</P> + +<P> +And he was going to marry Miss Arnot, and she was going out with him! +No wonder there was a light in his face! +</P> + +<P> +But he was speaking again. +</P> + +<P> +"You will see, sir, at once that this happy circumstance brings about +many changes in my plans and hopes. The vista of usefulness which it +opens before me—before us, may I say?—is magnified one hundred-fold. +Miss Arnot dedicates her fortune, herself, and her enthusiasms to the +work. There is a mighty field out there. It is not white to the +harvest—it is black as darkest night. By God's help we hope to lift +the fringes and let in some rays of His blessed light. I shall have +the opportunity of discussing my ideas in detail with your secretary. +But broadly speaking, this is how they point. We contemplate +purchasing and fitting out a steamer suitable for mission-work among +the Islands, and going out in her ourselves. We would like several +assistants, married or unmarried—but big men, please! Big heads are +good, and big hearts are better, but best of all if they are contained +in big bodies. You have no idea what a vast impression a big man makes +on those big Islanders compared with a small man. As to the size of +the ladies, I would not venture to offer any suggestions. But the men +should be—must be—big men. One further matter, sir, and I have done. +Those Islanders must come under the protection of the British flag at +once. And I want—you will not misunderstand me if I go the length of +saying <I>I must have</I>—the appointment of Commissioner or Deputy +Commissioner, or any position that will give me the official right to +deal with certain matters which block our way out there. +</P> + +<P> +"The wrongs the people of some of those Outer Islands suffer, from the +scum of the earth who prey upon them, to their utter ruin of body, +soul, and spirit, are almost incredible. +</P> + +<P> +"I could tell you facts—bald, brutal facts—concerning the labour +traffic carried on there which would make you shudder and doubt my +veracity. But I have seen these things with my own eyes, and heard +them with my own ears, and been powerless to stop them. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, by God's help, and Miss Arnot's, I will wage war on these +doings—hot war—yes, red-hot war with Maxim and Lee-Metford, if +necessary"—his voice rang out militantly—"on those who do these +dreadful deeds. Those hideous wrongs shall cease, and those poor +kinsfolk of ours—God's children as much as we, though they know it not +yet—shall have their chance. I would of course prefer to act +officially in the matter; but, officially or not, act I shall. +</P> + +<P> +"This may seem to you strange talk for a peaceful man. I have a +precedent. As long as I tread in the Master's steps I shall not go far +wrong." +</P> + +<P> +He sat down, and they cheered him to the echo. They had heard many +noble men and women speak in that room; but I doubt if they had ever +heard words which gripped their hearts as these had done. +</P> + +<P> +The news of the approaching marriage of the penniless young missionary +to the great heiress, Miss Arnot, spread rapidly and evoked much +comment, candid, caustic, congratulatory, from Jean's friends and +otherwise. +</P> + +<P> +"Clever man, that young sky-pilot!" +</P> + +<P> +"Absolutely thrown herself away, my dear, and actually going to live +among naked savages!" +</P> + +<P> +"Trust the missionary to feather his own nest. Why should he lose +sight of No. 1 while saving brother man?" +</P> + +<P> +"The missionary man has done himself well. Poor rich Miss Arnot!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, you know, she's twenty-seven if she's a day, and when a girl +gets to twenty-seven——! And they say he's exceedingly good-looking. +Still, don't you know——" +</P> + +<P> +These behind her back. And to her face: +</P> + +<P> +"He's simply charming, dear. I envy you—I do indeed! +</P> + +<P> +"He's a splendid fellow, Miss Arnot. You will be very happy together." +</P> + +<P> +"My dear,"—this from a very old lady, bearing a very old title, whose +early married life had been a hideous martyrdom—"you have chosen very +wisely. He is a noble Christian gentleman, and he would lay down his +life for you. Believe me, dear, compared with what you have got, all +the wealth of the world and all its titles are nothing but dust and +ashes and misery. I know it!" +</P> + +<P> +And everybody else knew that she knew it. And Jean kissed her very +tenderly. +</P> + +<P> +And Mr. Punch, when he heard of the matter, in his playful little way +quoted: +</P> + +<P> +"Doän't thou marry for munny, but—goä wheer munny is." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER VII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +SOME ODD FURNISHINGS AND A HONEYMOON +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet Harvey's wardrobe was rapidly approaching completion. +</P> + +<P> +She and Jean had had a busy six weeks. They had neither of them ever +been quite so busy in all their lives before, and the curious thing was +that it seemed to agree with them mightily, and they, both one and the +other, had visibly renewed their youth under the demands made upon them. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet developed new and surprising traits of character every day; +and as for Jean, the days were not half long enough for the joy of life +that lay in wait for each one as it came. +</P> + +<P> +She and Kenneth Blair had been quietly married by special licence a +month ago, and the sight of their faces, wherever they had been since, +had brought new ideals and new possibilities of life to all who looked +upon them—all except the cynics and philosophers of Jean's former +world, of course. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so!" said they. "But just wait till the bloom is off the +honeymoon, and she finds herself all alone with her little tin god +among the savages! Then she'll find out what's what and sigh for the +vanished fleshpots and fripperies." +</P> + +<P> +But there were no signs of incipient sighing about Mrs. Kenneth Blair +at present, anyway. She had always been sweet and charming, with a +wistful eagerness in her face that filled you with a desire to do for +her any mortal thing she might require at your hands. There was still +something of that about her, but it was almost hidden now beneath the +radiant happiness which enveloped her. +</P> + +<P> +She had urged Blair to a speedy wedding—where no urging whatever was +needed—for the delight of spending their last weeks at home, in the +house where most of her life had been passed. She had had long and +peremptory interviews with her lawyers, making wise provision for all +possible eventualities, so far as it was possible to foresee them. It +was not till she was half-way across to the other side of the world +that the aunties in Greenock, and old Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish, and +several other old friends, learned what she had been up to, and then +she was well out of their reach. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-069"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-069.jpg" ALT="She had long and peremptory interviews with her lawyers." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +She had long and peremptory interviews with her lawyers. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +And every day since, she and her husband had been out in the +market-place with open purse and very definite ideas as to their +requirements, and the things they had bought were very extraordinary +and about as different from the usual purchases of newly-married +couples as they possibly could be. +</P> + +<P> +<I>Item</I>.—One 300-ton auxiliary schooner, built to Class 17 A.1., by +Scott & Sons, Greenock; dimensions 143 O.A.; 23-½ ft. beam; 13 ft. +draught; 7 ft. headroom, etc. A handsome, roomy boat, stoutly built +for comfort and long voyages to the order of a financial magnate, whose +health unfortunately broke down before she was quite ready for him, and +forced him to seek more genial climatic, and other conditions, in +Argentina. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. and Mrs. Blair ran up to Greenock to inspect her, found her exactly +to their liking, settled the matter in five minutes in the office +inside the big gates, christened her the <I>Torch</I> with a hastily +procured bottle of champagne, gave orders for the duplication of every +piece of machinery she contained; walked out of the big gates +ship-owners, and dropped in on the astonished aunties in Brisbane +Street and announced that they had come for a cup of tea and to stop +one night. +</P> + +<P> +They stopped more than one night, however, for after tea Blair walked +in to see the Rev. Archibald for a last talk and a pipe of peace. And +when the Rev. Archibald recovered wind and wits from the rapid details +Blair gave him of the work he was engaged on, he at once offered to +find him a crew through some of the members of his church. Blair +desired nothing better, and in five minutes the maid of the Manse was +skipping through the dripping streets with kilted skirts to summon to +instant conference some nearer members who might be able to advise in +the matter. He laid his plans before them, told them to a hair the +kind of men he required both for officers and crew, and went back to +Brisbane Street in due course, comfortably assured in his own mind that +within two days the <I>Torch</I> would be fitted with a crew worthy of her +and the work for which she was destined. +</P> + +<P> +Next day the ship-owners went out for a walk, and did not return till +close on tea-time. +</P> + +<P> +They had been on their honeymoon trip: past the cemetery gates, up the +brae between the brown stone houses, past the pond, up the cinder path, +and along that glorious walk, with the swift brown water of the Cut +swirling past to its appointed work in mills and town, on the one side; +and on the other, across the brimming firth, the everlasting hills, +grey and green and purple and black, as the sunshine chased the shadows +to their hiding-places in the glens; the full sea welling about their +feet, now green, now blue; and the sky overhead bluest blue after the +rain, with piles of snowy cloud passing along in solemn silence like a +procession of the chariots of God. +</P> + +<P> +They did not speak much, hardly a word, but walked hand in hand like a +pair of country lovers, till they came to where a flat stone lay +alongside the beginnings of a cabin. +</P> + +<P> +And there they stopped; and looking into one another's faces by a +common impulse, put their arms round one another's necks and kissed, +with brimming hearts, and eyes that saw none of the glories around +because of the glory within them, which was too much for either sight +or sound. +</P> + +<P> +The happy tears were running down Jean's cheeks, but they were +swallowed up in reminiscent smiles as her husband seated her gently on +one projecting rock and himself on the other. +</P> + +<P> +"This is my twelfth birthday," he began; and when Miss Inquisitive +looked at him out of her sweet brown eyes, still soft from their recent +shower, he explained: "To all intents and purposes my life began that +day I met you here, though there had been a previous troubled life in +which my dear father gave me all he had to give—the desire to learn." +</P> + +<P> +"And I am about two years old," she said, smiling; and when she saw +that he did not understand, explained: +</P> + +<P> +"After meeting you again that second time in the church, when you +hardly recognised me——" +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you the moment I looked into your eyes." +</P> + +<P> +"I came up here the next day—I did not know why, but something drew +me, and I came. And I sat down here on this stone, and saw you sitting +on that stone munching oatcake and cheese, and thought what a greedy +little pig I was not to have made you take some of my sandwiches——" +</P> + +<P> +"You couldn't have made me. I wouldn't have touched one for——" +</P> + +<P> +"I know. But I ought to have made you, all the same. And then I +thought of you as you were now—that is, then, you know—and what a +great, big, strong soul and body you had become, and what great things +you were going to do, and how you had got your heart's desire. And +then I thought of myself, and the little I had done with all my +opportunities. And after that you insisted on coming into my thoughts +at all times, and I could not get rid of you. And then you sailed, and +I knew I should never see you again, and life felt hollow and hopeless. +And then I saw in the papers about your being murdered. And then you +came home, and—here we are. And oh, Ken! it is almost too good to be +true." +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it, my dear; it is only just beginning." +</P> + +<P> +Then he drew out two parcels from his pockets, and hers contained some +neat little sandwiches and cookies with jam inside, and his contained +oatcakes and cheese. +</P> + +<P> +And, being in a raised mood, she laughed till she cried at his oatcakes +and cheese, and then insisted on dividing up equally all round, and +vowed that his fare was quite as good as her own. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it is," he said. "I knew that all the time. A boy on the +hillsides who can't enjoy oatcakes and cheese would deserve to go +empty." +</P> + +<P> +When they had eaten, they still sat looking out over the water at the +hills and lochs opposite. In all likelihood they would never see that +fairest of scenes again, and they could not have too much of it. +</P> + +<P> +And after they had sat a long time in silence, Blair, leaning forward +with his arms on his knees and his eyes drinking in great draughts of +delight, said, suddenly—but slowly, as though the words had to be +called, or recalled, from afar, and said them, not to her or for her, +but to and for something quite outside them both—said them, in fact, +as though he were impelled to say them, and could not help himself— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"The hills of God stand fast and sure."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The words described those hills opposite exactly. Then a pause, and +presently— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"His mighty promises endure<BR> +For ever and for evermore."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Then he fell silent again, and thoughtful, and presently— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"His Mercy is a boundless sea,<BR> +For ever flowing, full and free."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +She saw it there before her just as he saw it. And after another +pause— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Through Time into Eternity."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +She looked at him quietly and questioningly, but his gaze was fixed +absorbedly on the opposite shore. It seemed almost as if he had +forgotten her for the moment. She was content to watch him and to +listen to him— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"And as the wide blue sky above,<BR> +Encircling us where'er we move."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +There it was above them. The chariots had passed away. The sky was +unflecked blue— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"So is His all-enfolding Love."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Then came a longer pause, and she thought he had ended, but she would +not speak. And presently he began again— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"For these, Thy gifts, we thank Thee, Lord!<BR> +Hills, sea, and sky, take up the word,<BR> +And thank Thee!—thank Thee!—thank Thee, Lord."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +He sat still, gazing out intently at the hills and the sea and the sky, +and sat so long without a word that at last she spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Whose is that, Ken? Surely he must have sat just here, and seen just +that." +</P> + +<P> +He turned slowly to her, as though he found it difficult to leave those +wonders beyond. +</P> + +<P> +"I really do not know, dear.... They seemed to come of their own +accord from somewhere. But whether I recalled them from somewhere +else, or whether they came hot from the anvil, I do not know. I do not +think I ever made a line of poetry in my life. There has been always +so much else to be done." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you must have made them," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Then, in turn, she had her own amusing little monologue. For she began +suddenly telling off the lochs and hills, just as he had named them to +her that other day—"Loch Goil, Loch Long, Ben More, Ben Lomond, The +Cobbler, Ben Ihme, Holy Loch!" +</P> + +<P> +"We shall often think of them when the prospect is a very different +one," he said quietly. "You never regret all that you are going to +leave behind you, Jean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never for one moment, dear. I am taking with me, and going to, so +very much more than I leave behind, that my heart is full of gladness," +she said. "There is not room for the smallest shadow of a shadow of +regret." +</P> + +<P> +And they joined hands again and went on along the windings of the path, +in and out of the curves and dimples of the mountain's breast, till the +bold peaks of Arran rose purple in the distance, and they came to the +Sheils Farm. +</P> + +<P> +Blair's kinsfolk had long since left the place. He just took a look +round the familiar byres and stables, and poked his head into a room +whence a fresh-complexioned dairy-maid, in short blue skirts and bare +feet, was busily chasing hens. He came out with a reminiscent smile on +his face, and they turned down the hill towards Inverkip. He led her +by the short cuts his boyish feet had known so well; past the old +burying-ground, where the body-snatchers plied their gruesome trade and +the village folk sat up night after night to protect their dead; past +the gates of Ardgowan to the sea. And so along the shore road, with +the waves splashing up among the boulders on one side, and the dark +policies on the other, and the great trees meeting overhead; past the +sturdy white pillar of the Cloch into Ashton, and so at last home. A +honeymoon trip which neither of them ever forgot as long as they lived. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you two," said Aunt Jannet, when they came in. "We began to +think you'd given us the slip and gone across the border without saying +goodbye." +</P> + +<P> +"We've been a long round," said Blair, "about——" +</P> + +<P> +"About twelve years," said Jean. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must be starving. We expected you'd come home ravenous, and +provided accordingly." +</P> + +<P> +"We've been living on the fat of the land," laughed Jean; but they both +fell to all the same, and proved beyond doubt that high thought and +good living were by no means incompatible. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER VIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +GOING STRONG +</P> + +<P> +That same evening a burly, middle-aged man came to the house and +requested audience of Mr. Blair. +</P> + +<P> +He bore the unmistakable hall-mark, and Kenneth liked the looks of him +and the ring of his voice. +</P> + +<P> +The two men eyed one another closely as they shook hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Duncan told me you were wanting a captain for your schooner, Mr. +Blair. I only heard it half an hour ago, and I've come straight." +</P> + +<P> +Blair nodded. "What are your qualifications? It is not everybody's +job, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I know all about it, sir. And I think I'm the man for it. My name is +Cathie—John Cathie. I sailed my own ship as master for over fifteen +years. Quitted the sea three years ago because I'd made enough to live +on and the wife wanted me to stop ashore. She died six months ago. +I've neither chick nor child, and I want back to the water. When +you've spent thirty-five years with live water under your feet, the +land comes strange to you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ever been in the South Seas?" +</P> + +<P> +"Spent ten years in the Island trade, sir. Know 'em like a book, from +the Carolines to the Paumotus; and if you can find a brown man in the +whole stretch that has a word against John Cathie I'll—well, you can +name your own forfeit." +</P> + +<P> +"And the white men?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah—there! Most of 'em all right. Some I'd like to see strung higher +than Haman. But that kind's mostly yellow, though some are dirty +white." +</P> + +<P> +"Know the Dark Islands?" +</P> + +<P> +"At a distance. I never landed there. I was only a trader then." +</P> + +<P> +"And these men you'd like to see strung up like Haman, only more so, +Captain Cathie?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know them as well as I do, sir. Kidnappers, black-birders, +treacherous devils, scum of the earth. They don't have the times they +used to have, but they're not wholly cleared out yet in the outlying +groups. I'll be glad to give what time's left me to helping clear +them." +</P> + +<P> +"You're up to steam?" +</P> + +<P> +"Had five years of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Any hand with a Long Tom?" +</P> + +<P> +"Was gunner's mate for three years on the <I>Blenheim</I> before I got +married, and we always carried guns in the Islands," and the bold blue +eyes snapped with a touch of puzzlement. "But—I thought it was a +missionary cruise you were bound on, Mr. Blair?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a new kind of missionary, Captain Cathie. The faithful shepherd +protects his flock. If the wolves try to steal his lambs, the wolves +must take the consequences." +</P> + +<P> +"By God, sir, I'm your man!" and the burly one jumped up with a flame +in his face, because he could not sit still under the hopes that were +in him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm inclined to think you may be," said Blair. "You will understand, +Captain Cathie, that the master of our ship will be one of the most +important links in the chain. If you will look in about this time +to-morrow, you shall hear what we have decided." +</P> + +<P> +"Right, sir! I'll be here." He turned back when he had reached the +door. "If you should find some better man for captain, put me down for +chief mate, Mr. Blair; and if I'm not good enough for that, I'll go +before the mast sooner than be left out." +</P> + +<P> +Blair had already decided in his own mind, but in a matter of such +immense importance he could take no possible risks. His inquiries, +however, only confirmed the impression he had formed. When Captain +Cathie came hopefully in, the next night, the matter was settled on the +spot, and he went away a new man, gripping with feet and hands the +rungs of a new ladder. +</P> + +<P> +Blair laid his plans fully before him, and, so far as the schooner was +concerned, left him to carry them out. +</P> + +<P> +Then they were back in London, and the busy days sped past, scarce long +enough for all that had to be done in them. +</P> + +<P> +It was the necessary business with the Colonial Office that tried him +most severely. The Secretary accorded him an interview, received him +with gracious warmth, listened with interest to his views, agreed that +it would be a good thing for the Dark Islands to be accorded a +protectorate until the time was ripe for formal annexation, but—— +There were many buts, and they would have driven a less patient and +less determined seeker after other men's good to despair. There was +Australia; there was France; there was Germany; there was the +Opposition; there was that loud-voiced party in the land which screamed +at any extension of the Empire's shoes. +</P> + +<P> +But upon all and everything Blair quietly brought to bear his unique +personal knowledge of the conditions out there, a large common sense, +and an inflexible persistence that would admit of no rebuff or turning +aside. +</P> + +<P> +The minister smilingly accused him of being one-eyed as regards the +Dark Islands. +</P> + +<P> +"Absolutely!" said Blair quietly—"one-eyed, one-hearted, and +one-lived! Body, soul, and spirit I am for the Dark Islands, and I +want to do all that man can do. Give me the legal right and a +reasonably free hand, and, with God's help, I can do a great work out +there. I do not think it need cost you a farthing. I have a revenue +to start with of over £10,000 a year, and a considerable capital for +initial development purposes. Within five years, with reasonable +success, the islands will be self-supporting. But—I must have my +foundations sure, or I cannot build as I would." +</P> + +<P> +"The matter has already been debated among us, Mr. Blair," said the +Secretary. "The Earl of Selsea brought it up and has made it his +particular pet project. You seem to have captured his heart, and when +he takes a matter of this kind in hand he sticks to it like a bulldog. +But you can understand that there are many collateral issues, and we +have to consider them all. I understand exactly what you want and why, +and I promise you to do my utmost to bring it about. It may be some +months before it can be arranged. Meanwhile, no doubt, there is much +you can be doing to prepare the ground." +</P> + +<P> +"There is much to be done, sir, and I will set to work on the strength +of what you say. But the sooner it is definitely settled the better +for us all." +</P> + +<P> +"A very fine young fellow," said the Secretary to himself, before he +turned to another quarter of the globe. "The kind of man I could make +splendid use of if I had him to myself." +</P> + +<P> +But Kenneth Blair was another Man's man. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER IX +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +ARMS AND THE MAN +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Torch</I> had been brought round from Greenock by Captain Cathie, and +was lying in the London Docks close alongside Wapping Basin, an object +of interest to all her neighbours. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie's clock had gone back at least ten years since he and +Kenneth Blair struck hands in the drawing-room of the Aunties' house in +Brisbane Street. He was then a fine old specimen of the very best type +of retired mariner. Now he was a jovial young sea-dog, bristling with +energy, and overflowing with hearty goodwill to humanity at large. He +was Kenneth Blair's man to the backbone, and prepared to follow him to +the death. +</P> + +<P> +Jean delighted in him and he in her. She had taken Aunt Jannet Harvey +down to inspect her future home, and the ladies' comments had filled +Captain Cathie's cup to the brim and won his heart completely. +</P> + +<P> +Jean had asked him endless questions, but not one more than he +delighted in answering; and Aunt Jannet Harvey's characteristic +summing-up of the whole matter had been, "Child, I feel as if I'd +wasted half my life in never having been to sea before. I've always +had an idea that I knew something about neatness and comfort and +packing, but this"—with a wave of the hand which comprehended the +cabin she was standing in, and the <I>Torch</I> generally, and Captain +Cathie—"this puts me to shame. I shall never want to live on shore +again," and Captain Cathie was repaid for all his labours. With full +understanding, and thirty years' experience, and no stinting as regards +money, he had laboured to adapt the ladies' rooms to their fullest +possible requirements. Their delight in all they saw assured him of +his success. +</P> + +<P> +A few days later Blair brought down a party of friends to inspect the +little ship, foremost among them the Colonial Secretary and the Earl of +Selsea, who had both come straight from a Cabinet Council where the +Dark Islands had been the rat in the pit. +</P> + +<P> +"We're getting on by degrees," said the Secretary in the train, as he +lit a cigar to counteract the atmosphere. +</P> + +<P> +"It's amazing what an amount of pig-headedness there is in the world," +said his friend. "You don't realise it in all its heart-breaking +stolidity till you run your own head against it." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so. But what can you expect when men like B—— are +pitchforked into the positions they occupy? I was at Eton with B—— +and at Oxford. He always was a fool and he always will be. He ought +to have gone into the Church." +</P> + +<P> +"I object! The Church needs the very best men it can get." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, into the Army. He couldn't have done much mischief in +either, and in the Army, at all events, there'd have been some chance +of his getting licked into some kind of shape. As it is, I always want +to get up and ask him to come outside into the park with me just for +ten minutes or so. It was the one argument that used to prevail with +him, and I've an idea it would yet. Anyway, it would do <I>me</I> a heap of +good. He was born pig-headed and it's grown on him ever since." +</P> + +<P> +"If we can once get him to see things as——" +</P> + +<P> +"See? B—— never could see anything beyond the side on which his +bread was buttered. Some men are born dense, and some grow denser as +they grow older. B——'s both. He wants trepanning. Here's Mark +Lane, and there's your Angel Gabriel on the pounce for us." +</P> + +<P> +Angel Gabriel, in the person of Kenneth Blair, gave them hearty +welcome, and piloted them through slums and dockyards till they stood +on the deck of the <I>Torch</I>, where Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey, and +Captain Cathie, were already doing the honours to a goodly company. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a great enterprise you are bound upon, Mrs. Blair," said the +Secretary, as Jean expounded <I>Torch</I> to him. +</P> + +<P> +"The grandest work in the world," she said exuberantly. "If you'll +only back us up and give us what we want." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! if only it rested with me. But I'm only one." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come! Where am I?" asked Selsea. +</P> + +<P> +"That makes two," acknowledged the Secretary, who would willingly, in +the light of Jean's brown eyes, have taken all the credit to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"And we'll soon have the rest. As for B——, if he won't toe the line, +we'll worry the life out of him," which was a highly improper remark to +fall from the lips of a philanthropic nobleman. But then Jean Blair's +hopefully eager face and wistful eyes were upon him, and allowances +must be made. +</P> + +<P> +"I do hope you will," she said earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"What, worry the life out of him?" laughed the Secretary. +</P> + +<P> +"H'm—yes,—if he won't toe the line." +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo!" said the Secretary, as he entered the deck saloon, an +exceedingly comfortable room, fitted in bird's-eye maple with fine +woven cane cushions and backs to the seats instead of saddlebags or +velvet plush. +</P> + +<P> +But it was not at the room itself at which he exclaimed, but at the +arm-racks ranged round the walls, empty at present, but full of meaning. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Blair quietly. "Winchesters. They're down below with the +Maxim. Let me show you something else," and he led the two gentlemen +along the deck to a longboat, keel up, on a stand well forward. The +boat stood high and was covered with tarpaulin. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you care to peep under?" he asked. And the Secretary bent and +peeped, and straightened up again with raised eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean business, evidently, Mr. Blair. That's an odd passenger for +a missionary ship." +</P> + +<P> +"She throws a 9-lb. shell a mile and a half," said Blair, "and Captain +Cathie is an old naval gunner. Yes, we mean business. But this +business"—patting the long gun's cover—"only in case of absolute +necessity. You quite understand the situation? I hope you have +confidence in me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I quite understand, and I have perfect confidence. Mr. Blair. I +believe for once the right man is in the right place. We will do +everything we possibly can to further your views. If we can't get all +we want, we can no doubt keep our eyes closed." +</P> + +<P> +Their visitors were delighted with all they saw, but all of them did +not see everything. Even if one is prepared to tackle one's problems +with an iron grip, it is not always highest wisdom to shake one's fist +in the face of the world. +</P> + +<P> +Blair showed them also the thousand and one other things he was taking +out, seeds and germs of civilisation, from which he hoped a mighty +harvest, and named many more which he would procure in Australia. He +limned his ideas lightly, and gave them even fuller glimpse than he had +ever yet done of his ultimate hopes; and, waxing eloquent, held them +spellbound at the magnitude of the far-reaching possibilities. And to +all, Jean's eloquent face and sparkling eyes played ready chorus, and +Lord Selsea and the Secretary went away deeply impressed with what they +had seen, and more with what they had heard, and most of all with what +they had been made to think and hope. +</P> + +<P> +"A very fine young fellow!" said the Secretary, as he neutralised the +sulphur again. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay!—a man, every inch of him. May he live to see his golden dreams +realised!" +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you what, Selsea, it's mighty refreshing to come in contact +with enthusiasm such as that running in harness with sound common +sense." +</P> + +<P> +"Big heart and level head—a fine combination!" +</P> + +<P> +"I feel as if I'd been a trip on the sea, or up on a mountain top. I +wish we could swop B—— for him. Half a dozen of him in a Cabinet +now—eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear fellow, don't! The contrast is too painful." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER X +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +A BLACK OBJECT-LESSON +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wonderful world!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey, for the four hundred +and fourteenth time since, one by one, the Forelands and Dungeness and +Beachy Head faded over the quarter as they ran down Channel. "And it +gets more and more wonderful the further you go. Jean, my dear, have +you ever in your dreams seen anything equal to that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" murmured Jean, wide-eyed and breathless, lest the smallest +display of the ordinary functions of living should resolve into its +natural elements the ethereal vision before them. +</P> + +<P> +And yet it was only a tiny South Sea atoll, one of the myriad gleaming +gems that deck the bosom of the great southern ocean in clusters, and +strings, and ropes, and solitaires, from the Pelews to Pitcairn, of +visible beauty indescribable, and in some cases possessed of natural +latent treacherousness hardly second thereto. +</P> + +<P> +It was still dusky twilight when they three climbed the companion, to +taste the sweet of the dawn and watch the perpetual wonder of the +coming day. They had learned already to rejoice in the dawnings as the +purest and fullest revelations of Nature's exuberant largesse. The +sunsets were gorgeous and magnificent beyond compare, but they had in +them the elements of dissolution and decay, whereas the pure pearl +splendours of the dawn sang full and true of new birth, new hopes, and +the deep springs of life and joy. +</P> + +<P> +Anxious as he was to get to his life's work, and grudging every moment +and every league that lay between it and him, Blair had still felt it a +duty to afford Jean every possible enjoyment of travel which the voyage +could offer her. She was giving up much, she was going into outer +exile for his sake; the chance might never come again. She should see +all that was possible before the fringes fell behind them. And so they +had come by way of Suez, and touched at Bombay and Ceylon, and then +away to Australia and New Zealand, and then a great stretch round the +outer skirts of the Australs and Paumotus, with only such stoppages as +were absolutely necessary, and then straight for the work that awaited +them. +</P> + +<P> +"The rest of the Islands we can take by degrees," he said. "They will +be our holiday grounds in the years to come. But now I am anxious to +know what is going on in the Dark Islands. So very much may be +happening behind that black curtain." +</P> + +<P> +They were a gay and gallant company on board, not a long face among +them. They were going to whatever might await them of strenuous life +and heroic endeavour. No single one of them but was ready to lay down +his or her life in the cause that lay so close to their hearts, and +they found therein reason, not for doubts or fears, but wholly of +exaltation. It was a mighty work, and they rejoiced in being chosen +for it. +</P> + +<P> +Blair had selected for his fellow-workers, from among a host of +applicants, two young fellows whose qualifications satisfied him in +every respect, and whose special training supplemented the deficiencies +in his own. He is the wisest man who best knows what he knows least. +The man who knows everything is generally useless at a pinch. +</P> + +<P> +Well-equipped as he was in most respects—perfect, indeed, in the eyes +of his wife, as was only right and proper—no man had a deeper +appreciation of his own limitations than Blair himself. He had the +fiery heart for the righting of wrongs, and the clear head and strong +hand. But there were things beyond his ken—that is, in their very +fullest compass—and in choosing his co-workers he kept these steadily +in view. +</P> + +<P> +For instance, he had a fair knowledge himself of medicine and +rough-and-ready surgery. But he wanted very much more. And so Charles +Evans, a Devonshire man, and M.D. and M.S. of London, became his +medical right hand. +</P> + +<P> +Then he had himself a certain aptitude for languages and dialects. He +had picked up the <I>lingua franca</I> of the islands rapidly. But he +wanted very much more. Charles Stuart, M.A., of Edinburgh, had made +languages the congenial study of a lifetime which ran to nearly +twenty-eight years. If any man could reduce phonetic elisions and +hiatuses to written and printed symbols, Stuart was that man. +</P> + +<P> +Then they were both big athletic fellows, runners and swimmers, great +at games of all kinds, and handy with their hands, and they were as +keen on letting light into the dark places of the earth as Blair +himself. And they had both got married, at Blair's suggestion, and to +the great satisfaction of the four people most immediately +concerned—Evans, the Devonshire man, marrying Alison Carmichael, +daughter of Dr. Carmichael of Edinburgh, and herself a medical student +of no mean pretensions, and withal a good-looking, hearty girl, full of +energy and spirits; and Stuart, the Scot, had married Mary Coventry, an +English girl, daughter of a professor in a Lancashire theological +college. She had a great natural aptitude for teaching, and was +governessing when Stuart fell in love with her. She had promised to +marry him when his circumstances should permit, and was cheerfully +facing that very indefinite future when Blair's offer of the coveted +post swept all the clouds away, and lifted her to a pinnacle of +happiness which she was only becoming accustomed to by degrees. +</P> + +<P> +With these four we have not very much to do. They proved most devoted +assistants and pleasant and helpful companions throughout. But this is +the story of Kenneth and Jean Blair, and if these others receive but +slight mention, it is not because their hearts lacked fire or their +lives incident, but simply through limitations of space. +</P> + +<P> +So the <I>Torch</I> held three happy couples on their honeymoons, and Aunt +Jannet Harvey played mother-in-law to them all, and kept the whole ship +in high good-humour by her own energetic enjoyment of every smallest +item of the day's doings. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, by means of diligent search and stringent inquiry, had +secured a crew after his own heart, every man a Clydesman, and some of +them he had known since they were boys. +</P> + +<P> +They carried a full complement. Besides himself and the mate, there +were twenty men all told, stalwarts all, and Blair expected to find use +for every man of them. Besides the big white whale-boats at the +davits, there were two extra steam-launches in sections in the hold for +inter-island work, and there were other reasons why he wanted behind +him a thoroughly dependable band of tried white men instead of the +usual mixture of Kanakas. +</P> + +<P> +Forecasted shadows of those other reasons might have been found in the +way in which he set to work, during the long weeks that lay between New +Zealand and the Australs, to make marksmen of his peaceful crew. +Bottles, hung from the yards, or set afloat on the sea, were their +targets, and they most of them became fair shots. And one day Captain +Cathie turned a cask overboard and stuck a white flag in it, and when +it had floated almost out of sight he trained the long brown steel gun +amidships on it, and bent and squinted carefully, and kept them so long +in suspense, that the ladies screamed aloud when the gun did at last go +off, and the white water flashed up close alongside the white flag. +</P> + +<P> +"Within three feet, I should say, captain," said Blair, with the +captain's glass at his eye. "Your hand and eye have not lost their +cunning." And again and again the smiling captain displayed his +prowess. +</P> + +<P> +Another day he had the Maxim up and showed the men how to handle it. +And cutlass drill became as regular a part of the daily routine as the +fifteen-minute service that opened and closed the day. +</P> + +<P> +Strange traffic indeed for a ship dedicated to peace and the spreading +of the Light! But they all understood the meaning of these things, and +the necessities that might arise, and the advisability of being +prepared. For the very first Sunday night out from New Zealand, Blair, +in that quiet, masterful fashion of his, which carried conviction once +and for all into his hearers' souls and admitted of no shadow of a +doubt, had taken occasion to explain the why and the wherefore of these +apparent incongruities, and none of them ever forgot it. +</P> + +<P> +It was a windless evening after a blistering day. The sea was like +oil, with a long, slow, unbroken swell that set the little ship rolling +in solemn rhythmical fashion which Stuart, the man of tongues, had long +since dubbed heroic hexameters. And there, to the little company +sitting facing him on deck in the gathering darkness, with an +occasional sleepy "moo" from the farmyard in the bows, or the shrill +squeakings of discontented piglets, and an admonitory grunt from their +over-taxed mother, Blair described some of the things he had seen with +his own eyes, and others which he had had direct from his dear old +friend and leader, John Gerson, whose experience had been so much +vaster than his own. Their hearts boiled at the mere recounting of the +things he told them, and not a man or woman of them all but was ready +to answer his utmost bidding in the effort to put them down. +</P> + +<P> +"Ignorant these islanders are, and degraded, and the victims of +horrible superstitions and practices unspeakable," he said, in closing; +"but they have common living rights with the rest of us. Until those +rights are secured to them, and until they learn that a white face is +not necessarily the mask for a black heart, our work is futile. That +security, by God's help, we intend to bring to them. If we can do it +peacefully, I shall be grateful. If force is necessary, force we shall +apply. But remember—we are going, not to punish, but to protect. +Christ in righteous anger drove the defilers out of the Temple so that +the Temple might be clean. God's Temple is here also. To the extent +of our power and opportunity we will cleanse it, and by freeing these +simple folk from bodily perils, we will give them the chance to redeem +their souls alive." +</P> + +<P> +They had swept along on the steady west wind for weeks. Now and again +it dropped and left them rolling idly, with listless sails and jerking +masts. But it always blew up again in time, and sent them swinging +once more on their way, and at times it blew up so strong, and set up +such an awkward sea, that their lives were almost battered out of them. +</P> + +<P> +Blair, Evans, and Stuart apprenticed themselves to carpenter and +engineers, and learned many things they did not know before. The men +grew intimate with their rifles and cutlasses, the ladies talked much, +read much, and they all took regular lessons in Samoan, as a foundation +for the Polynesian tongues generally, from a native teacher who had +been sent over to Sydney to meet them at Blair's request. His name was +Matti, and he was a pleasing specimen of his kind, intelligent, +painstaking, and of infinite good temper, but of a most peaceful, not +to say lamb-like, disposition. +</P> + +<P> +Among the many other diversions of their long voyage, Evans one day +suggested that they should all be vaccinated, and was unmercifully +chaffed for the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that like a young sawbones?" laughed Captain Cathie. "Just +because we've got a clean bill, and he's got nothing to do, he's after +making work just to keep his hand in." +</P> + +<P> +But Evans persisted that they were going they knew not where, and no +precautions ought to be omitted. And he talked so learnedly, and with +so grave a foreboding, that by degrees they came to think he was +perhaps right, and that it might be as well to be on the safe side of +possibility. So, one after another, they meekly submitted their arms +to the needle, and time came when they were glad of his persistence. +</P> + +<P> +"Wonderful!—wonderful!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey once more that +morning, in a whisper of concentrated rapture, and the others gazed at +the tiny atoll without speaking, lest a breath should destroy it. +</P> + +<P> +They had sighted the island the evening before, just a feathery fringe +on the rim of the sea; but Captain Cathie was a devout believer in the +enchantment of distance till full light of day should disclose possible +pitfalls. For in these Southern Seas Nature sometimes gets ahead of +the cartographers, and he had no desire to mark new reefs for the next +comers with the stark ribs of his ship. +</P> + +<P> +But now, in the dim of the dawn, they were wafting slowly towards it, +with intent to land there for vegetables and fruit and water, and it +grew visibly on their sight like a new-created thing. +</P> + +<P> +Until a moment ago it had lain in the shadows. Then the eastern +dimness softened, a mere quickening of hidden life, almost +imperceptible, felt rather than seen. Then a soft pulsation, a throb +from the heart of the coming day. The dimness trembled, a rosy +softness diffused itself, and suddenly the background of the sky was +filled with colour, palest green and tenderest rose and amber. And +these grew and grew and deepened into crimson and gold, with swathes of +diaphanous purple as the soft greens strengthened slowly into blue. +And as it was above, so it was below, all duplicated in the flawless +mirror of the sea. And there, between the upper and the lower glory, +lay the enchanted isle gleaming darkly in the broken lights—a ring of +feathery coco-palms and bosky undergrowth round an inner lagoon, a +placid lake outside it, and outside that, still another protecting ring +of reef dotted here and there with tiny feathered islets. A most +wonderful and entrancing sight, so fairy-like and fragile that Jean +felt it almost dangerous to breathe aloud. +</P> + +<P> +Then the sun soared up above the sea-rim, and the atoll solidified and +came out in its natural colours of dazzling white beach, and blue +lagoons, and greens of every shade, from the tender tints of the +budding palms to the cast-iron crests of the grey-boled giants, and the +huddled mixture of the undergrowth. It lost in beauty as it gained in +strength, but it looked more like solid land and less like a fairy +vision, more like possible fruit and vegetables and less like a +dissolving view. +</P> + +<P> +All the company was on deck by this time, and all eyes were fixed on +the island, as Captain Cathie in the bows conned the little ship slowly +towards a wide opening in the outer reef, with a vigilant eye for +hidden perils. +</P> + +<P> +He had told them from the chart that it was the Three-Ringed Island of +Atoa, but he had never been there himself and one could not be too +cautious. +</P> + +<P> +Then in the clear depths below them, as they crept slowly through the +water-gate, they could see the wonderful forestry of the branching +coral and the gleam of many-coloured shells, and the place was all +alive with fishes of every tint and hue, sailing and darting like +fragmentary rainbows. +</P> + +<P> +But Captain Cathie was staring through his glasses at the distant white +beach for signs of occupation, and found none. It was still early, +however, and the village might be round the bend of the island. He +carried the <I>Torch</I> in as far as he deemed safe, and then, at the word, +the anchor plunged and the chain ran merrily out, and the little ship +rode at rest for the first time in many days. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is for the shore?" cried Blair, in the voice and manner of a jolly +schoolboy offering treats. +</P> + +<P> +They were all for the shore. After three weeks of continuous sailing +the feel of solid ground under one's feet would be a novelty. +</P> + +<P> +"Though I expect," said Aunt Jannet Harvey, "it'll be as hard to walk +straight at first as it was not to walk crooked on the ship. I've got +so used to walking on the sides of my feet, and balancing to the +rolling, that I've almost forgotten what it feels like to walk any +other way." +</P> + +<P> +In ten minutes they were all speeding shorewards in one of the white +whale-boats, and when Aunt Jannet Harvey cumbrously made the close +acquaintance of the white beach, she found her feet no whit behind +those of her younger companions in their eager activity. +</P> + +<P> +They all stamped up the crunching coral with merry talk and laughter. +Aunt Jannet Harvey stood at the foot of her first really intimate +coco-nut tree, and gazed up the slim spire to the great benignant +fronds and hanging fruit, with such intention of longing, that Jean, in +a convulsion of laughter, cried— +</P> + +<P> +"Do try it, auntie! I'm sure you could manage it if you tried hard." +</P> + +<P> +"And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, Aunt Jannet!" +laughed Blair. +</P> + +<P> +They left her still gazing, and scattered, Jean and Mary Stuart and +Alison Evans diving into the undergrowth after armfuls of greenery and +trailing vines, and twittering like escaped birds when, now and again, +they came on treasure-trove of scarlet hibiscus blooms glowing on the +green like fiery stars—or splashes of blood. +</P> + +<P> +The men pressed on at once up the ridge to get a general view of their +surroundings, and Captain Cathie, with a couple of his men, pulled +slowly down the lagoon in search of the village. +</P> + +<P> +He heard the merry calls of the explorers, and wondered at the absence +of any sign of life on the island. The very sight of an approaching +ship used, in his time, to bring the population to the beach. But +things had changed of course since then, and byways had become highways. +</P> + +<P> +The white boat jerked slowly along round the bend, and the voices +ashore grew less distinct. And suddenly his lips pinched and his brow +crumpled, and he gazed ahead with a fixed, angry glare which set his +men wondering what they were coming to, and carried their chins to +their shoulders unconsciously. +</P> + +<P> +A stretch of white beach, a bristle of black posts jutting out of the +cleared ground above—that was all. But Cathie's experience read them +like three-feet letters on a city hoarding. +</P> + +<P> +He threw up one hand and jammed the tiller hard down with the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Round with her, boys!" and they were swinging back up the lagoon to +get the women aboard again. For there might be sights in the brush +along that ridge to shock the souls of men. +</P> + +<P> +Blair, Evans, and Stuart, with Matti, the Samoan, and the rest of the +boat's crew, climbed the backbone of the island, whose highest point +attained an altitude of perhaps thirty feet. +</P> + +<P> +They were standing looking across the flawless mirror of the central +lagoon, when the Samoan broke out suddenly, "Sirs, I presume advice. +Return fortwit to ship. This place is not good," and when they all +turned on him in surprise, they found his brown face strained and +pallid with fear, his eyes starting, and his nose dilated like a +startled stag's. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Matti, what's wrong?" said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +The brown man shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I know not, sirs," and his white teeth chattered so that his chin +wagged visibly. "There is evil abroad. It is in the air, in the +tree-tops." +</P> + +<P> +They looked up for sign of the evil, but saw only the heavy plumes of +the coco-palms nodding mournfully in the breeze. Down below the air +seemed heavy and somewhat sickly, and so far they had seen no sign of +life on the island. +</P> + +<P> +"The place seems deserted," said Evans. +</P> + +<P> +"We will go on along here a bit further," said Blair, "and if there is +nothing more to be seen, we'll turn back I'm afraid it's a poor +look-out for fruit and vegetables," and they tramped on in silence, +Matti well in the rear, reluctant to go, still more reluctant to be +left. +</P> + +<P> +And presently the brush thinned, and they came out on the clearing, and +Blair stopped abruptly with a face as strained as Matti's, but grimmer +and whiter, and Matti, stumbling up to the rear, gave a groan as though +to say, "I knew it." +</P> + +<P> +"God help us!" said Blair through his teeth, for they had found what +Cathie had feared. +</P> + +<P> +The blackened posts of the houses stuck up starkly through the sand as +though in mute and pitiful appeal. Beneath them were heaps of +wind-blown ashes barely covering that which they had mercifully hidden. +And among the mounds as they drew near was a sound of rustling and +stealthy movement, and here and there monstrous crabs, too gorged to +move almost, essayed escape into their temporary burrows. +</P> + +<P> +The newcomers stared wide-eyed and horror-stricken. Blair had seen it +all before, and the grim white of his face gave place to grim red and +black as his heart drummed furiously with righteous indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the horror we have come to fight," he said hoarsely. "This is +what I told you of. Now you see it with your own eyes. The place has +been swept bare by kidnappers. These died in defence of their homes +and wives and children. Let us get back. It is no sight for the +women." +</P> + +<P> +He waved them away, but something caught his eye, and he went forward +and bent over it with tight-pinched face for a moment, and then turned +abruptly and followed the others. +</P> + +<P> +But, even as he turned, a shriek from the lower brush told that it was +too late to save the women from some visible knowledge of what had +taken place. They turned and ran back along the ridge. +</P> + +<P> +Mary Stuart, reaching for a flower, saw at her feet what she took for a +fallen coco-nut, and stooped to pick it up, and then screamed aloud and +sat down suddenly with a sick, white face. The others hurried up, +Alison Evans and Aunt Jannet Harvey reaching her first. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, dear?" asked Aunt Jannet, and then she saw, and sat down +heavily beside her. +</P> + +<P> +Alison had her nerves under better control. She had seen little dead +bodies before, but the sight of a murdered child is a shock to any +woman. Her face was white and rigid, but she had her wits about her +also. +</P> + +<P> +"Take them all away," she whispered fiercely to Aunt Jannet Harvey, and +Aunt Jannet, just needing that spur, scrambled up and gripped Mary +Stuart by the shoulder and dragged her away as Jean came running up, +asking, "What is it? What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Come away, child!—come away! It is a little murdered baby. Alison +is seeing to it, but it is quite dead. Let us get away. Here is the +boat and Captain Cathie." +</P> + +<P> +Everything was changed as the white boat plunged back across the lagoon +to the ship. The men's faces were hard and angry, the women's white +and pitiful. Alison Evans wept silently now. She had seen more than +the others, and that soft little head, crushed in by one murderous blow +against the tree, would haunt her dreams for nights to come. +</P> + +<P> +The sun shone as brightly as before, but there was something pitiless +in his unwinking glare. The sea was as placid and sparkling as before, +but there was a fawning treachery in its very smoothness. The palms +behind waved their feathers just as before, but now they were funeral +plumes. The very oars no longer chirped merrily in the rowlocks, but +croaked in a way that got on the women's nerves. And not one of them +spoke till they were safe aboard the ship. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," nodded Blair to Cathie's look of interrogation, "we will go on +at once," and the anchor chain rattled up hoarsely, and they went +slowly and silently on their way, and left the beautiful island to its +dead. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw it from the water," said Cathie later to Blair, "and turned to +get the ladies away, but I was too late. Did you see anything to give +you any hint as to who it was, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Peruvians, I should say. There was one yellow man among the +dead, and they recruit mostly from these outer islands. Before God, +captain, I will put a stop to this kind of work, whatever the cost may +be." +</P> + +<P> +"We're with you, sir, every man of us. See those men's faces!" +</P> + +<P> +And grim and determined enough were the men's faces as they went about +their work. For those who had seen had told those who had not seen, +and the impression was a deep one. +</P> + +<P> +That night Blair called them all together, and spoke of the matter in a +way that went home and confirmed the spirit that had been roused in +them by that holocaust on the island. +</P> + +<P> +"It is devil's work, men," he wound up, "and, please God, we'll stop +it. Are you with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay, sir!" "That we are, sir!" "All the way, sir!" and so on, in +tones that left no mistake about it. +</P> + +<P> +"You can understand the effect of that kind of work on these islanders. +It is not often so clean a sweep is made as the one we saw this +morning. And where part are taken and part are left, can you wonder +that those who remain hate and fear the very sight of a white face? +Have they not reason? It will be our endeavour to stop these raids, +and, by protecting the islanders, gradually win them over to better +ways. Once we can make them see that we care for them, and think of +their welfare and not our own, half the battle is won. On the one side +we may have to fight—not our own countrymen, I am glad to say. These +raiders come mostly from the west coast of South America, and they go +to lengths which the Queenslanders rarely do. And, on the other hand, +in our dealings with the natives, we must remember what they have +suffered, what reason they have to mistrust us, and we must be very +forbearing and longsuffering. On the one side I want you—and I shall +need the whole-hearted assistance of every man of you—I want you to be +bold as lions, and on the other side as mild as milk. Only so can our +work be done, and it is a mighty work." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +TOO LATE +</P> + +<P> +Following instructions, Captain Cathie shook out every stitch of canvas +the <I>Torch</I> could carry, and laid her course dead for the Dark Islands. +They made good way, but their progress still seemed slow to Kenneth +Blair; for his fears outstripped the flight of the little ship, and, +anxious as he was to reach the Islands, he still almost dreaded the cry +that should tell of their sighting, in fear of what he might find there. +</P> + +<P> +And grounds for fear were not lacking. The Dark Islands lay some five +days distant, east by north—on the line, therefore, of the marauders' +way home. From the atoll they had already raided, he judged, from the +number of dwellings and general appearances, they might have got some +fifty or sixty souls, not more. Their holds would still be far from +full. If they had invaded the Dark Islands in similar fashion, it was +a stormy reception the next comers might expect. At best it would be a +negative welcome, and a matter of slow and cautious approach to their +few good graces; but if the islands had been raided, the work would be +thrown back for years, and all his hopes with them. He could scarce +eat or sleep for thinking of it, and the pricking off of their position +each day on the chart, and the calculation of the hours that still +intervened between them and full knowledge of how matters lay, were +matters of supremest interest and absorbing anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +He could settle to none of the ordinary routine, and his evident +upsetting, the causes of which they perfectly understood, disturbed +them all in like fashion. +</P> + +<P> +He spoke little, even to Jean, and she never once, by word or look, +expressed anything but the utmost sympathy and confidence in him. +</P> + +<P> +He tramped the deck day and night almost, with eager outlook over the +waste of waters ahead, and never a look behind unless at the seething +bubbles of their long, straight wake, which told of the speed and +directness of their flight. +</P> + +<P> +Once only, in these days of biting anxiety, he said to her— +</P> + +<P> +"Dearest, I am poor company at present. Can you forgive me? I am on +the rack about these poor souls ahead. I cannot help fearing the +worst, and it means so very much to us." +</P> + +<P> +"I am with you, Ken, heart and soul. We can only pray for the best. +If what you fear has happened, all we can do is to do our best to right +it." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head unhopefully. The idea had taken possession of him +that they would arrive only to find death and desolation and the wild +fury of revenge. +</P> + +<P> +"Even if it is so," said his comforter, "I can see possibility of good +coming out of the evil." +</P> + +<P> +"It will throw us back years," he said gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +"If your people have been carried off, we will follow them and release +them and restore them to their homes"—there were new sparks in his +eyes as she spoke like one inspired—"and that will give us the footing +it might take years to obtain." +</P> + +<P> +He kissed her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You give me new hopes, whatever may have happened. That is what we +will attempt if the worst has taken place," and thereafter he +brightened up considerably, but relaxed no whit of his anxiety to reach +the islands. +</P> + +<P> +They swept gallantly along on the northern fringe of the westerly wind, +which maintained a propitious amplitude, and just before sunset on the +fourth day, the lucent rim where sea met sky was dented with a filmy +tooth which the sinking sun drew momentarily into view from the farther +distance, and Captain Cathie and Blair pronounced it Kapaa'a, the +highest peak in the Dark Islands. +</P> + +<P> +There was not much sleep on board that night, the morrow would be so +big with events. General opinion among the men ran somehow to a fight. +That was, perhaps, the natural tendency of the pent-up feelings of the +last few days. An outlet would be grateful, a violent outlet from +choice. When a man's feelings suffer maltreatment, the natural man +within him develops a violent desire to find relief in kicking, in +which last word is comprehended the whole known range of methods of +assault, with the exception, of course, of the circumscribed and +properly debarred use of the feet. +</P> + +<P> +They travelled warily that night, and the first of the dawn showed them +the peaks of Kapaa'a, bold and beautiful, dead ahead, and growing +bolder and still more beautiful with every graceful roll of the ship. +</P> + +<P> +They hung over the sides, every man and woman of them, and eyed their +future home with an eagerness which its outward aspect at once amply +satisfied and further quickened. +</P> + +<P> +For what they could see was grand in its opulence of crag, and cliff, +and gorge, and greenery. And the clouds which wreathed the higher +summits, and the gauzy films of mist, which floated along the hillsides +and hung reluctantly in the tree-tops, gave promise of still daintier +beauties in that which they held half hidden. +</P> + +<P> +They drew in cautiously to within a mile of the outer reef, and then, +not venturing the ship nearer till they should learn how matters stood +inside, Blair and Evans, with a crew of ten, eight to pull and two in +case of need, and Matti to interpret, shot through one of the openings +in the reef on the back of a long blue roller and made straight for the +white beach. They carried no visible arms, but each man of the crew +had his Winchester between his feet. +</P> + +<P> +The lagoon ran up into a spearhead of white sand, between two tall +cliffs opposite the widest opening in the reef, as though the constant +impact of the outer waves, tempered as it was by the compression of the +opening and the subsequent run across the lagoon, had forced the beach +inland at that spot. It was helped, however, by a river, which came +down between the hills and divided the white sandspear into two equal +parts. +</P> + +<P> +Here, according to usage and natural proclivity, a village should have +stood, but in this case did not. John Gerson had told Blair that other +morning, when they came racing up the lagoon in similar brave case, +that it lay up the valley near the taro fields. +</P> + +<P> +His heart beat painfully as, one by one, he picked up the points which +had charted themselves for ever in his memory. +</P> + +<P> +There, to the left of the stream, was where they landed. +</P> + +<P> +There was the rough scarp of rock round which they had followed the +bristling crowd to the death. +</P> + +<P> +There his former life had ended in turmoil and darkness, and the new +life had begun in twilight dimness and the painful groping after broken +threads. +</P> + +<P> +And yet, how mercifully he had been guided! The shadowed valley had +led, after all, to the fuller life and the mountain-top, and he bowed +his head gratefully. +</P> + +<P> +The white boat slid gently up the white beach, and so far their keen +outlook had seen no sign of hostile life. But experience had taught +him that appearances are deceptive, and that sometimes when least is +seen most is to be feared. +</P> + +<P> +They disembarked cautiously, and stood looking round. The palms about +the mouth of the valley waved sombre welcome, or it might be warning. +The thick brush below lay still and silent, but bright black eyes by +the hundred might be watching them from it. +</P> + +<P> +The very lack even of opposition was a menace, and suggestive of +trickery and ambush. +</P> + +<P> +"We will go round the point," said Blair at last. "And—yes, you must +take your guns, men. I would have preferred not, but we don't know how +matters stand." +</P> + +<P> +So, leaving two in the boat, the rest shouldered their guns, and the +little party went forward round the point where Kenneth Blair had been +once before in his life, and almost in his death. +</P> + +<P> +But no bristling mob confronted them this time. They went on step by +step, with eyes for every rock and bush, and ears alert, and every +nerve tight strung for the faintest hint of treachery, and Blair's face +crumpled somewhat at the menace of the silence and the solitude. +</P> + +<P> +Step by step they left the white beach and the friendly sea, and drew +in to the blank hostility of the woods. He would a thousand times +sooner have been confronted by the visible hostility of the natives. +For that which is visible and tangible one may hope to cope with and +subdue, but the invisible and intangible contain possibilities beyond +the compassing, and the elements of unreasoning fear. +</P> + +<P> +On one member of the party these were already having their effect. +Perhaps on others also, but not so perceptibly. The knowledge of +better things had not, in Matti, effectually eradicated the +superstitions of a lifetime. Terrors of which the white men had no +conception beat like bats about his soul, the indefinable terrors of +bygone ages of horrors and darkness. His face was green. He sweated +fears at every faltering step. His eyes bulged crablike in quest of +that which he dreaded to find. +</P> + +<P> +"Sirs, sirs!" he gasped, in an agonised whisper, "it is not good. I +counsel——" +</P> + +<P> +"Be quiet," said Blair. "We must see," and they went on warily, +expecting the sudden outleap of death at every step. +</P> + +<P> +But they saw nothing, heard nothing. That dreadful menacing silence +brooded over the place just as it had brooded over the atoll. A flock +of gay little paraquets whirred suddenly from the hillside and dived +into the bush ahead, and the silence and the spell of it were broken. +The paraquets started chattering and quarrelling like a school of +sparrows, and Blair's danger-pointed wits suggested to him that they +would not behave so if the brush was otherwise tenanted. +</P> + +<P> +With a last careful inspection of the hillsides he moved forward, and +the rest followed. There was a track through the brush, and the +trampled ground showed signs of much traffic. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes more and they had found all they feared. +</P> + +<P> +The thicket thinned and widened towards the valley and they were +standing once more amid blackened ribs of houses, and heaps of ashes +from which thin wisps of smoke still curled lazily. They had arrived +too late! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE FLAMING SWORD +</P> + +<P> +Blair's face was tighter and grimmer than ever as he took it all in, +and the faces of the rest were sympathetically hard. +</P> + +<P> +But this was no time to stand glooming. The wrong was done. Now to +see if it could be righted. +</P> + +<P> +He turned and led the way back to the boat, thinking too hard for +speech. He knew what had to be done, but there were disquieting items +in the programme for which he had been unable to make provision, and +which he would gladly have escaped. +</P> + +<P> +They would follow the marauders and rescue the victims—that he took as +settled. +</P> + +<P> +The settlement could hardly be a mild one, and he would fain have +spared the women the sight of it; but there was nothing else for +it—they could not possibly be left behind. +</P> + +<P> +The raiders had doubtless filled their holds here to the last man. But +there must be many left. They would be in hiding yet, but presently +they would come out of their retreats, full of grief and anger, and it +would go hard with the first white faces they encountered. The women +must go with them—that was one of his troubles. And the next, +supposing they caught these blood-thirsty and body-hungry rascals—and +catch them they would, if it took a month's circling round—what were +they to do with them when they had them? +</P> + +<P> +There would probably be fighting, though the results did not trouble +him. What he wanted was to put an end once and for all to this +horrible traffic. The only way that suggested itself as adequate and +final was to string them up to the yard-arm, every man-jago of them, +and whether that might be done with impunity was more than doubtful. +The only impunity he desired was for his future work. Morally, he +would feel justified. And whether or no, the spirit that was in him +would have borne lightly the burden of such a deed, even though its +outward results to himself were personally painful and disastrous. +</P> + +<P> +It took no more than two minutes after they had scrambled on board to +set things in motion. +</P> + +<P> +"We are too late," said Blair to the anxious waiters. "We follow at +once, captain. They will have filled up here, and will make straight +for home. Lay her straight for the Chincha Islands, please, and make +all speed possible." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie had foreseen the possibility. He set their course due +east for the present, and spread his wings again to the last stitch, +and they swept away past the other islands, with no more than fleeting +glimpses of them in the mellow distance. +</P> + +<P> +Then Blair begged them to confer with him in the saloon, and laid his +difficulties before them. +</P> + +<P> +"I take it for granted we shall catch them," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," said the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"I am distressed at thought of bringing you ladies into contact with +bloodshed and violence. But there is no help for it; it would not be +safe to leave you behind." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," said Aunt Jannet Harvey emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +"We would not have been left in any case," said Jean. "Our places are +by your sides," and the others quietly endorsed her. +</P> + +<P> +"The next thing is this: we shall catch this ship, we shall rescue +these islanders, by force if necessary. What are we to do with the +crew and the ship?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hang them and scuttle her," said Captain Cathie, with decision. +</P> + +<P> +"That is one's natural first feeling, and possibly it would be the +wisest thing in the end. And yet——" +</P> + +<P> +"It is a question if we are justified in going that length," said +Charles Evans gravely. +</P> + +<P> +Stuart, too, shook his head doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Fighting in so good a cause is one thing," he said slowly, "but +hanging in cold blood is another." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly," said Blair. "And that is the point of my dilemma." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what will happen if you let 'em go?" said Cathie brusquely. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I do, captain. And yet—even then—— You mean, of +course, that they'll come back in larger force, and with a double +incentive—plunder plus revenge." +</P> + +<P> +"That's it to a T, sir, and you know it. There'll be no peace and +security till they're wiped out. Wipe 'em out at once and completely, +and you're all right till a new lot comes along, knowing nothing of +these others, except that they never came back. And when the new lot +comes we'll tackle them same way. I'm not by nature a bloodthirsty +man, but if there's one thing can set me afire, it's this kind of work. +I've seen so much of it. They're not men. They're scum of +hell—asking your pardon, ladies!" +</P> + +<P> +"Speak your mind, captain," said Aunt Jannet Harvey. "No good being +mealy-mouthed when it's a question of life and death. I think they +should be scuttled." +</P> + +<P> +"I've no doubt we all agree as to what we would like to have done, but +whether, in our position, we are justified in pronouncing and executing +judgment to the extent of death—it is a difficult matter to decide." +</P> + +<P> +"If you let one single man of them go, Mr. Blair, you're only breeding +future trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it, captain. And yet—at times—I have seen the attempt to +clear the future of trouble lead only to greater. Is there no +alternative?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's alternatives," said Cathie gloomily; "but they're only +makeshifts—playing with nettles to get stung: you could fling all +their arms overboard, and threaten 'em with worse if they come back. +And they'll come. You could scuttle the ship and maroon 'em somewhere. +You could bring 'em all back here and make 'em work. But there's +trouble in it whatever you do, unless you hang 'em out of hand." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid there is, and I would dearly like to rid the earth of them; +but——" +</P> + +<P> +And Evans and Stuart felt as he did. They lacked nothing in courage, +but to their minds this matter of essential right went deeper than any +mere question of courage or future trouble. +</P> + +<P> +Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart listened with grave, troubled +faces, but ventured no opinion. These were deeper waters than any they +had ever sailed on, and they felt rather out of their depths. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we have some little time to think it over," said Blair, at last. +"If any illumination comes to any of us, let the rest have the benefit +of it. You will get all ready for what we may need to do, captain?" +</P> + +<P> +"All's ready, sir. Long Tom's loaded, and the men are keen to square +things with these rascals if we can come up with them." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose even these terrible men may have wives and children waiting +for them at home," said Jean thoughtfully, as they rose. +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough, ma'am," said Cathie—"and so have the brown men." +</P> + +<P> +"Men like that have no right to have wives and children," said Aunt +Jannet Harvey, with vehemence past grammar. "If they have they'll be +better without them. They ought to be scuttled." +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, Jean's suggestion remained in all their minds. +</P> + +<P> +Never was such a bright look-out as the Torchmen kept for the +<I>Blackbirder</I>, as they dubbed the chase. The rigging was never free +from anxious gazers. It looked as though a flight of great birds had +lighted on the ship. +</P> + +<P> +Jean remarked on it to Aunt Jannet Harvey. +</P> + +<P> +"They're fine fellows and all of one mind. See how eager they are to +catch her." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay!" said Aunt Jannet. "They'll find her if she's to be found," +and did not think it necessary to add that, through Captain Cathie, she +had offered five pounds to the man who first sighted the other ship. +</P> + +<P> +Blair walked the deck strenuously, mostly alone, occasionally with one +of the others. And the more he walked and the more he thought, the +more averse he became to the idea of hanging. +</P> + +<P> +"We're doing right for right's sake in freeing these islanders," he +said to Evans and Stuart one time. "If we hang those men I can't help +feeling we're doing wrong for right's sake, and there we come to the +old Jesuitical practice which we all condemn. We do a wrong in the +belief that it will save future trouble. I don't believe we're +justified. We've got to do what seems to us right now. The future is +in God's hands. If trouble comes, He will show us how to meet it." +</P> + +<P> +"That, I think, is highest wisdom," said Stuart. "If the trouble +comes, we shall meet it with clear consciences, and clear consciences +make stout hearts." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm with you," said Evans. "I'd like to see them wiped out as much as +Captain Cathie would, but I think we're on a higher plane in doing as +you suggest. You feel sure of catching them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hopeful—and determined to do it, if it can be done. They've got at +most two days' start. Less, perhaps, for the village was still +smoking. They're heavily laden, and we are making good way. We cut +into a belt of calms and variables soon, and there we can take to +steam. And then—they don't know they're being chased. We do." +</P> + +<P> +There was, however, this one element of doubt in the chase: would the +raiders carry on due east, in order to get all possible out of the +fairly steady westerly winds,—thereby lengthening the distance they +had to cover, and having, after all, in the end, to encounter the +possibly adverse winds of the coast,—or would they take their chance +across the doubtful calm belt and make straight for the Peruvian coast? +</P> + +<P> +It was an even question, and the board on which the game had to be +played was several thousand miles square. +</P> + +<P> +Blair and Cathie discussed the matter in all its bearings. +</P> + +<P> +"What would I do if I was them?" summed up the captain. "Well, that +would depend too. If I had two or three hundred passengers aboard, and +each one worth so much alive and nothing dead, I'd want to get 'em home +alive as quick as possible. If I was well stocked with provisions I +might carry on with this wind for the coast. If I was anyways short +I'd probably try a beat straight for home. If we don't sight them in +two days we'll edge up north-east a bit; but I'm pretty sure they'll +keep this wind as long as they can, and chances are we'll sight them +within twenty-four hours. They're probably not hurrying, and we're +making every inch we can." +</P> + +<P> +But it was the morning of the third day before the welcome hail from +aloft brought every soul on board into the bows, to search for the tiny +mote on the horizon on which all their hopes were concentrated. +</P> + +<P> +It was a very early bird who had discovered the worm. He had gone up +aloft before the dawn, and, as the sun shot up, the rim of the sea was +lucent like the edge of a glass plate brimming with water. An almost +invisible flaw, a mere film against the light, was enough for the +practised eye, and his joyful "Sail ho!" turned the ship upside-down. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie swung up alongside the look-out with his glasses, and +was presently on deck again beaming contentedly. +</P> + +<P> +"That's her right enough," he said. "A brig, and we're raising her +fast. You'll see her from below here inside an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"When shall we catch her up?" asked Blair anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps by three o'clock or so," said Cathie, after a moment's +consideration, but added cautiously, "if the wind holds," and, as if +resenting his doubt, the sails gave an ominous warning flap. +</P> + +<P> +"Right," said the captain, with a determined nod, and set the engineers +to work at once to get up steam. "We'd be as well to have it on +anyhow, to keep the weather gauge of him when we come up," and +presently the screw was churning the merry bubbles up astern, and the +chase was rising slowly on the horizon. +</P> + +<P> +The brig, however, had held the wind longer than they had. It was +mid-afternoon before they got within range of her, and she was still +drawing slowly along with sails that bulged and flapped in desultory +catspaws. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I send a shot over her, just to show we mean business?" brimmed +Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +"No shots unless they're absolutely necessary, captain," said Blair. +"We'll hail her first. And I think you ladies had better go below. +Their answer may be lead." +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet was for resisting. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see," said she. +</P> + +<P> +"There may be things not for your seeing, Aunt Jannet," said Blair +quietly, "and other things besides. Please go with the others and keep +them from feeling nervous if you can." +</P> + +<P> +So the ladies went below, and we may imagine to what helpful +furtherance of patient waiting they betook themselves. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE MAN'S MAN'S MAN +</P> + +<P> +The sides of the <I>Blackbirder</I> were lined with sallow, scowling faces, +as villainous a crew as ever gathered aboard one disreputable ship +since time began. +</P> + +<P> +They took in all the points of the trim little craft that nosed quietly +up within speaking distance; the British flag, to which they were by +nature antipathetic; the long brown gun forward, with its black mouth +pointing plumb for every shifty eye of them; the glancing barrels of +the Winchesters, and the steady determination of the men who carried +them; the covert menace of the whole silent display. Muttered +blasphemies rolled along the line of yellow faces, and the rumble of +them was heard aboard the <I>Torch</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"What you want?" shouted a burly figure, standing aft behind the +deckhouse. +</P> + +<P> +"Your cargo," replied Captain Cathie, patting the breach of his big gun +affectionately, and the objurgations aboard the enemy broke out afresh. +</P> + +<P> +"What you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better come aboard here and we'll explain." +</P> + +<P> +"You better fetch me." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Cathie, with joy in his face. +</P> + +<P> +He stooped behind his long gun for a moment, trained it carefully, and +instantly its angry bellow filled sea and sky, and sent the women below +to their knees. They heard a crash, aloft and below, aboard the +<I>Blackbirder</I>, and the yells of the men as they scattered to avoid the +falling spars. The smoke, drifting lazily away, showed the brig's +maintopmast nipped neatly at the crosstrees, and hanging with its yards +in a fantastic tangle of ropes to the deck. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the first time of asking," shouted Cathie. "Are you coming?" +and he bent behind his gun again. +</P> + +<P> +"I kom," and they saw the black-a-vised crew set to launching a boat, +with vicious side-glances at their oppressor. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the dirty boat and its dirty crew lay alongside, and the +burly one climbed slowly up the ladder they dropped for him. +</P> + +<P> +His small eyes glared viciously out of his bloated cheeks, "like a +hunted boar's," said Cathie afterwards. +</P> + +<P> +"Now then! You are pirate?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all—we're missionaries," said Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +"Missi——!" and the fat one came within measurable distance of +apoplexy. +</P> + +<P> +"You've stolen our people. We want them back. Do you understand?" +</P> + +<P> +But the <I>Blackbirder's</I> English was limited, and the shock of meeting +missionaries of so strange a texture had bemused his wits. +</P> + +<P> +Blair begged Stuart to speak to him in Spanish, and the wandering wits +came back at sound of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell him," said Blair, "that the islanders he has kidnapped are our +people, and we intend to take them home again." +</P> + +<P> +And Stuart put it to him so. +</P> + +<P> +"If he makes any resistance we shall overcome it. What does he say?" +</P> + +<P> +"He asks how you're going to take them back." +</P> + +<P> +"We will see to all that presently. First, he will bring aboard here +all the arms they have over yonder," said Blair, and as that sank +through Stuart into the other's understanding, the little boar-eyes +gleamed more viciously than ever, and the fat body rumbled with +volcanic fires. +</P> + +<P> +"We will give him half an hour to deliver up the arms. If they are not +here then, his other mast will go. He will bring them over himself." +</P> + +<P> +The little eyes glared furiously round, but found nothing but grimmest +determination in the faces that hemmed him in. Possibly they did not +fail to note all the other points bearing on the question. He shambled +to the side with a growl in his throat, and got heavily into his boat, +and was pulled across to his ship, and immediately they heard the +simmering of a hot discussion tipped with sharp flakes of invective. +</P> + +<P> +"They don't like it," said Captain Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +The minutes passed. Now and again a scowling face turned their way, +and shot a venomous white-eyed glance at them, but there were no signs +of the arms coming over. +</P> + +<P> +"Five minutes more," shouted Cathie at last, bubbling with excitement, +and clapping the breech of his gun. "And, my goodness, I hope you'll +run it out! I want that other mast," he added softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Five minutes more," shouted Stuart in Spanish, so that there should be +no misunderstanding. +</P> + +<P> +Cathie stood watch in one hand, lanyard in the other, one foot tapping +restlessly. He hungered for that other mast, and the lesson its fall +would teach the yellow dogs. +</P> + +<P> +At last he closed his watch with a snap, stooped to the gun, and with a +roar and a rattling crash, and a blasphemous scatteration below, the +foretopmast shared the devastation of the mainmast. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we have them right as a trivet," said Cathie, "and they'll begin +to understand where they are." +</P> + +<P> +They understood, and five minutes later the boat shoved off again, +bringing the spoils of war, such part of them, at all events, as they +chose to surrender—some thirty muskets, as many cutlasses, and half a +dozen revolvers. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Blair, to the downcast captain of the <I>Blackbirder</I>, +through Stuart, "you will stop here. We shall tow you back to the +islands. When your cargo is discharged, you will be at liberty to go. +If you ever return on this errand, you will find us waiting for you. +Now, captain," to Cathie, and, at a sign from the captain, one of the +white whale-boats dropped to the water, and half a dozen men jumped +into her, carrying the coil of a stout hawser, which ran out over the +stern of the <I>Torch</I> and was secured amidships. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Torch</I> herself swung into line ahead of the other, and the big +steel gun swung slowly round till her muzzle grinned threateningly +round each side of the mainmast. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell those men to get back, Stuart, and say the captain waits with +us," and the brig's boat pushed sulkily off. "Now, Stuart, you come +with me, and Matti. We will take revolvers, though we shall not need +them." +</P> + +<P> +Matti shivered into the boat, and Stuart and Blair followed with four +Torches carrying Winchesters, and pulled to the brig and climbed up +among the truculent crew, every man of which had his knife at his back +and hands that itched to get using it. +</P> + +<P> +Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he had already told +the captain, and added some special instructions for his own benefit. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-122"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-122.jpg" ALT="Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he had already told the captain." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he had already told the captain. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"First, make fast that hawser!" +</P> + +<P> +They did it to the satisfaction of the Torches, and at a call from +Blair the <I>Torch</I> started slowly ahead, the hawser tightened, and every +solid thrust of the blades in the blue water cut an upward step in the +life of the Dark Islands. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, understand! There will be a hand on that rope night and day. If +there is any tampering with it you will hear from us. This +mess"—pointing to the dismantled masts—"you will not touch till we +reach the islands. Now I am going to inspect your cargo. How often do +you feed them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Twice a day." +</P> + +<P> +"Some of us will come across each time and see it done. I hold you +responsible. If they suffer, you will suffer. Understand? Now lead +the way! You"—to Stuart and the four Torches—"please keep your eyes +about you while I go below. Matti, you come with me." +</P> + +<P> +A grating, through which came a most horrible smell, was hauled up, and +the three went down into the inferno, and felt sick before their feet +quitted the ladder. For the mate was sick at this unexpected turn of +fortune, and Blair and Matti came near to physical sickness with the +stench. +</P> + +<P> +Blair clung to the side of the ladder and gazed mistily round. There +was little light, but the dimness seemed to come not so much from lack +of light as from superfluity of nastiness of every possible description +and human misery indescribable. The feel of the place was like a hot +breath from the pit. It closed silently upon one like the hand of a +crawling death. It dimmed the eyes, and choked the throat, and lay +like a weight on the heart. +</P> + +<P> +To breathe it seemed death, yet three hundred miserables breathed it +and lived, and by degrees his eyes discerned them and never lost the +sight. +</P> + +<P> +A great confused tangle of brown limbs and bodies, many entirely naked, +a forest of shock heads, a hypnotising multitude of dark eyes all +focussed on him, and all pitted with sparks of light from the opened +hatch—mostly men, a few women, no children—short panting breaths, +sighs, groans, the dull rattle of chains. +</P> + +<P> +"Have they been fed to-day?" gasped Blair, and pointed to his mouth. +</P> + +<P> +The mate nodded. +</P> + +<P> +Blair went two steps up the ladder and called to Stuart. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell them to feed and water these poor things instantly. Now, Matti, +ask them in all the tongues you know if there is any headman or chief +among them. And say we mean them well." +</P> + +<P> +Matti tried them without success in two or three dialects, but at last +hit upon one that evoked responsive movements in some of those nearest +the light. He felt his way, and at last got a word in answer, the +meaning of which he understood. +</P> + +<P> +Here a couple of men came down the ladder carrying baskets of what +looked like dog-biscuits, which they commenced handing round, one to +each prisoner, and the latter sprang to the limits of their tethers for +them, and snatched and worried them like dogs that had not been fed for +a week. Blair looked at the mate, but the mate looked elsewhere. +</P> + +<P> +It took a long time and many renewals to supply them all; but Blair +would not move till it was done, nor until every one had had a drink of +water. Then the interrupted conversation was resumed. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, there was a chief there, and Blair ordered the mate to release the +man and bring him forward. He came without eagerness, a tall, brown, +well-built man of middle age, with a gloomy, but not absolutely +forbidding face, pinched just now, perhaps with hunger, perhaps with +despair. Experience had taught him to expect nothing but evil at the +hands of white men. +</P> + +<P> +But even his dull misery could not but perceive a difference between +this clean, white-clad white man and those he had become accustomed to, +and he gazed at Blair with a note of sullen inquiry. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a chief?" asked Blair, through Matti. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a king," he said, answering Blair, and bestowing no look on +Matti, who, he perceived, was only a voice. And there was that in his +tone and manner which carried conviction in spite of the misery of his +condition. +</P> + +<P> +"We have come to set you free and to take you back to the island." +</P> + +<P> +And when the words beat through Matti's attempt at his dialect and got +into his brain, it was as though an electric shock had galvanised him +suddenly into new life. +</P> + +<P> +"Free?—the island?" he stammered, and stared, still doubting. "All?" +he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, all," and he turned and told the news to the rest in quick, +clipping words, and after a moment's amazed silence a shout went up, +and the fetid hole was filled with a deafening buzz of talk. +</P> + +<P> +It was only after anxious consideration of the point that Blair had +decided to tell them the good news. He grudged every lost soul there. +He would not lose one. There might be some given over to utter +despair, and there is no tonic like hope. +</P> + +<P> +"You will come with us," said Blair, to the discrowned king. +</P> + +<P> +The man looked back into the gloom, and then again at Blair, and spoke +eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"He says one of his wives is there," said Matti. "She shall come also." +</P> + +<P> +The man pointed her out, the mate released her, and they climbed to the +blessed upper air, all a-tremble with eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, understand!" said Blair to the mate, through Stuart, so that all +could hear him: "when your cargo is discharged, you will be at liberty +to go where you will. If you attempt any treachery, we will blow you +to pieces. If you ever return to the Dark Islands, you do so at your +own peril," and he saw his guests into the boat and followed them. +</P> + +<P> +The woman was young and not uncomely, but subdued and apparently +somewhat dazed still at these sudden reverses of fortune. Neither +spoke a word as the <I>Torch</I> slowed down for them to come aboard, but +the man's eyes roved to and fro in ceaseless questioning, and he seemed +to arrive at an intelligent understanding of matters. The long steel +gun claimed his attention the moment he reached the deck, and from his +instant glance across at the shattered hamper of the brig he evidently +associated the two things. +</P> + +<P> +Their only visible clothing was a native mat wrapped round the waist +and falling nearly to the feet, and the very first thing to do was to +cleanse them of the visible results of their 'tween-decks imprisonment. +</P> + +<P> +Blair led the man down to the men's bathroom, and turned on the taps +and filled the bath before his astonished eyes. He showed him also the +use of soap, by washing his own hands, and left him to complete his +toilet. He could not, however, forbear listening outside to hear how +he got on, and was rewarded at first by a long silence, then by several +tentative turnings on and off of the wonderful taps. Then a slight +splashing suggested an experiment with the soap; and finally grunts of +satisfaction and much wallowing told of savage man's enjoyment of the +amenities of civilisation, and the return to his natural cleanliness. +When he had had time to wash himself several times over, Blair knocked +on the door and went in, and found his guest lying full length under +water, with only his brown nose showing, and evidently feeling very +much better. +</P> + +<P> +He sat up and gurgled some words expressive of his feelings, and was +mightily astonished at the sudden disappearance of the water when the +plug was pulled up. He wanted to fill the bath again at once to see it +run out again, and Blair let him engineer a final sluice for himself. +</P> + +<P> +He was a much pleasanter companion after his wash. His fine brown skin +shone under the unusual treatment of a towel, and his hair stuck out +from his head like a twirling mop. He was about to assume his dirty +mat again, but Blair hauled out some clean towels, tied one round him +like a loin-cloth, draped another from his hips as he had worn his mat, +and threw another over his shoulders, and the man was dressed as he had +never been dressed in his life before. The towels happened to have +broad red bands along the edges, and moreover had fringes, and their +wearer was as proud of them as any Piccadilly dandy of his newest thing +in spring suits. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhat similar doings had been in course in the ladies' quarters, +but, thanks to Aunt Jannet Harvey's very determined, but equally +mistaken, good intentions, the results were less happy. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet believed firmly that decency as well as cleanliness were +first steps towards godliness, and she was too recent an arrival in the +equatorials, and perhaps also too conservative in her own ideas, to +understand that decency of attire is after all purely matter of custom. +To her, a girl dressed, or undressed, only in a ridi fringe which clung +precariously to her hips and fell half-way to her knee, was practically +unclothed. She did not know that it was death for a man to touch that +scant, precarious garment. Strange anomaly of the cannibal isles—a +dangling fringe of smoked coco-nut fibre a more stringent safeguard +than the multitudinous garments of civilisation! When Aunt Jannet did +learn that fact she thought considerably, and thereafter took a +somewhat wider view of things. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, in the mistaken goodness of her heart, she had insisted on +arraying the newcomer in garments of her own, the most visible of which +was a light print dress, in which the poor creature looked almost as +uncomfortable as she felt. +</P> + +<P> +At sight of her transformation the brown man stared hard, and then +grinned vigorously, and the girl hotched and wriggled in disgustful +discomfort. She came up to the man and fingered his soft towels +wistfully. She spoke to him, and he instantly handed her the one he +had over his shoulder. She tore at the neck of her dress with evident +intention, and Blair begged Jean to take her away and provide her with +what towels she wished. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I never!" began Aunt Jannet remonstratively. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a mistake that has wrought infinite mischief, dear Aunt +Jannet," he said. "Our work must begin inside, not outside. Meddle as +little as possible with manners and customs or you do more harm than +good." +</P> + +<P> +"My goodness me! It's absolutely indecent for a woman to go about with +nothing on but a towel. Don't tell me you allow them to eat one +another, Kenneth!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we break them off that as soon as we can. But in all these +matters we have learned that it is highest wisdom to hasten slowly." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I——" +</P> + +<P> +But here the brown girl came back, all smiles and modest grace, clad in +red-fringed towels like the man, and even Aunt Jannet, in her heart, +could find no fault with her appearance. +</P> + +<P> +Then Blair called Matti, and, sitting on the deck by the new arrivals, +he quietly commenced his approaches towards the conquest of the Dark +Islands. +</P> + +<P> +Briefly—in the telling, though very much otherwise in the +extracting—this was what they learned. The man's name was Ha'o—which +he pronounced Hacho, the ch as in loch—and the woman's Nai or Na-ee. +</P> + +<P> +He was, he asserted, chief of that one of the Dark Islands which had +been raided by the brig. A number of the islanders had been enticed on +board with soft words and presents and then suddenly made prisoners. +The ship had then apparently sailed, but that same night the village +was burnt and he and the rest carried off. +</P> + +<P> +It was not easy to make him understand what had induced these other +white men to follow and bring them back. If they did really land him +on his own island again—of which he was by no means sure—he would be +their friend and brother. As for those others—looking venomously at +the captain of the brig, who was sitting amidships in gloomy +contemplation of the scurviness of fortune—he would ask nothing better +than to eat them if the chance offered. +</P> + +<P> +"You eat men, then?" asked Blair, through Matti. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. Why not? Properly cooked they are excellent eating"—or +words to that effect. +</P> + +<P> +And Aunt Jannet Harvey and the other ladies shuddered and wondered, for +he did not by any means look the monster his words implied. +</P> + +<P> +Blair tried hard to convey to him the idea that they had come from the +other side of the world for the sole purpose of helping him and his +people; but that was too much for him—he could not comprehend it. +</P> + +<P> +He got tired of being questioned out of his depth, and strolled about +the ship, examining everything attentively. The long brown steel gun, +the revolving screw, the engines, and the smoke pouring out of the +funnel claimed his chief attention. During the next few days he hung +over the stern watching the revolving blades and the bubbling wake by +the hour, with absorbed and puzzled face, and every now and then would +lick his hand and hold it up to feel the air. There was little wind, +for Captain Cathie had purposely run up into the calm belt to lessen +the strain of the towage, but such as there was it was dead against +them, and the brown man could not understand it. As to the gliding +pistons and smooth-running wheels in the engine-room, they were white +men's magic of the most virulent description, and Matti himself +understood the business too little to be able to convey any clear idea +of the connection between them and the never-resting screw astern. +</P> + +<P> +For the rest, both the brown man and the girl found ample grounds for +wonder in the farm-yard in the bows—the contemplative cow, the +sullen-eyed young bull, the stolid goats, and the rooting piglets and +their mother, and the cocks and hens in their coops, and the men's pet +cat, which occupied their various bunks in turn, and accepted all their +attentions with the utmost complacence and gave nothing in return. But +of all the things that set sparks in the girl's wondering eyes, the +crowning delight was the piano in the saloon and the little harmonium +which was lashed alongside it. +</P> + +<P> +She would sit with her ear pressed tight to the frame and her eyes like +saucers as long as any one would play for her; and when her own slim +brown finger touched one of the white keys and elicited due response +she jumped with delight, and would have practised one-finger exercises +of her own composition all day and all night. There were other wonders +in reserve, but she had enough for the present, and more than enough. +</P> + +<P> +"She has an ear for music," said Jean to her husband one night. "She +was crouching by me during the singing, and I heard her humming the +tune quite nicely." +</P> + +<P> +"They are famous singers, some of them," said Blair. "I count a good +deal on working up to the citadel through Eargate." +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Blackbirder</I> captain was lodged in an empty cabin, and had his +meals there. He had ample time for introspective musing, for none +cared to associate with him. +</P> + +<P> +In the middle of the first night Blair jumped up in a sweat of terror. +The idea had suddenly occurred to him that the hostage might make a +break for liberty or revenge by setting the ship on fire. He went +hastily to the spare cabin and found him snoring comfortably. +Nevertheless he sat there all night, and after that the man was never +left alone, day or night, till they finally got rid of him. +</P> + +<P> +Twice each day some of them, with Matti as interpreter, dropped down to +the brig and saw the islanders duly fed and watered, and said a word or +two of cheer to them. And day after day the sallow crew scowled across +at the quiet ordered life on board the schooner—the pleasant, friendly +relations, the morning and evening services on deck—and cursed sparks +into its vicious eyes; but ventured no more because of the ever-present +Winchesters and the black mouth of Long Tom which gaped hungrily at +them whenever they looked that way. +</P> + +<P> +Their weighted progress was slow. It was the evening of the sixth day +before the distant peaks of the Dark Islands bit up through the setting +sun, and on the morning of the seventh day they were steaming slowly +for the entrance to the lagoon. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o and Nai had refused to lie down all night. All night long they +had hung over the bows, peering into the darkness in a fever of +anticipation which left them no words. When the flaming east lit up +the giant peak they knew so well, they could scarce contain themselves. +Cannibals they were and benighted heathen, but this was home, and there +was hope in them and for them. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, with admirable skill, and a couple of his whale-boats, +humoured the brig in, stern foremost, since she had no steerage-way on +her. He dropped her down the lagoon as close to the white sand spear +as he deemed advisable, then bade them drop their anchor and loose the +tow-rope, and heaved a sigh of content as his gallant little ship shook +herself free of that most undesirable partnership. +</P> + +<P> +He took up a position to seaward of the brig, and Blair, and Evans, and +Ha'o, with Matti and the usual guard in attendance, went on board of +her to discharge cargo. +</P> + +<P> +It was a thing to remember, one of the high times of life that stand +out in the past when other things have faded. +</P> + +<P> +A great shout went up from the chaotic mass of brown men as the +white-clad figures came down the ladder and Ha'o shouted the good news +to them. He had been across each day with whoever was going, and +Blair, watching carefully this corner-stone of his enterprise, had come +to think well of him. +</P> + +<P> +A thing to remember, indeed, as the brown figures came tumbling up the +ladder in batches. They fairly scrambled over one another in their +haste, and, after one wild glance round to make sure, flung themselves +headlong into the familiar waters, and made straight for the shore, +shouting breathlessly as they went, eager only to set foot on that +white beach once more. +</P> + +<P> +Blair had reckoned on carrying them ashore in the boats, but who would +wait for boats when the sparkling water called? +</P> + +<P> +That long string of urgently bobbing black heads from brig to +shore—first-fruits of victory—<I>spolia opima</I> in very truth—was a +sight none of them ever forgot. The Torches laughed aloud with +enjoyment. Even the sullen-eyed Blackbirders watched with interest. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o stood among the white men with wonderful self-control. Instinct +drew him to the water with the rest, but he would not. Even these few +short days on the higher plane had not been without their effect. He +had watched ceaselessly. He had seen much that was beyond him. For +the first time in his life, he had come across a force greater than his +own, which made for good and not for evil. There were stirrings within +him which he did not understand, but the first expression of them made +for restraint. +</P> + +<P> +When the stream of brown bodies ceased pouring out of the hatch, and +the last batch had leaped overboard with joyful shouts, Blair and the +others climbed down into the empty dimness to make sure that all had +gone. They found three lying with starting eyes, too weak to move and +fearful that they had been forgotten. These they wrapped in abandoned +mats and passed up on deck and lowered into one of the whale-boats. +Then a flying visit to the <I>Torch</I> for Nai, and they sped to the shore. +</P> + +<P> +It was only when they all stood on the white beach that Ha'o, shaking +with excitement barely to be restrained, turned to Blair and, grasping +his hand in his own two trembling ones, carried it to his forehead and +said some words in a low voice. +</P> + +<P> +Blair glanced at Matti for enlightenment. +</P> + +<P> +"He says he is your man from this day, and will be to you as a +brother," said Matti, and the white hand and the brown gripped firmly +on the compact. Then Ha'o turned and walked rapidly towards the +village, and they went with him. +</P> + +<P> +So Ha'o of Kapaa'a became the Man's man's man. And the first sparks of +light for the Dark Islands leaped from the match that set fire to the +village thatch ten days before. +</P> + +<P> +So good comes out of evil, and no man may safely say this is good and +that is ill. For no man knows, save Him Who knows all things; and His +ways are so very different from man's ways that wisdom and experience +drive one only to the doing with one's might the thing that is in hand, +in the faithful hope that He will round the corners and shape the work +to its appointed end. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XIV +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +CLIPPING A BLACKBIRD +</P> + +<P> +Before we proceed to other matters, let us get rid of the <I>Blackbirder</I>. +</P> + +<P> +She lay like a black blot on the smooth swell of the lagoon, and till +we are quit of her the place will not feel clean. Civilisation, as +represented by the dismantled brig, was as foul a thing as any the Dark +Islands could show—not excepting even the terrors of the +feasting-places. For what the dark men did they did in their darkness, +and what the yellow men did they did in their light, and condemnation +goes with knowledge. +</P> + +<P> +And as it was here, so it was elsewhere. Vicious civilisation gashed +Nature with a broad red wound and trampled her to earth. Fortunately, +in this case there was healing and reparation. But it was not always +so. +</P> + +<P> +Blair and Cathie had had ample time during the return voyage to arrange +their plans, Blair's part in the discussions consisting chiefly of +acting as brake to the captain's whirring wheels. For Captain Cathie, +honest man, foresaw such certain trouble from letting the raiders go +that he would have strained many points to put it out of their power +ever to return. +</P> + +<P> +But Blair would have none of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't a doubt that you are right, captain," he said, "but even +these men have got to have their chance. If they do come back, they +must take the consequences. We will deal with them then as may seem +best." +</P> + +<P> +So while Blair and Evans followed Ha'o towards the village, Captain +Cathie was busy in his own way. With his long brown gun menacing the +brig, he sent his other two boats over in charge of his mate and +Stuart, with instructions to deport the yellow men to a tiny crown of +rock where the wall of the reef had crept up a few feet higher than +elsewhere. It was a precarious lodging at best and uncomfortably damp, +for the great ocean rollers broke on the seaward side in ceaseless +thunder, and their spray lashed up to heaven, and came crashing over +into the lagoon, and the rock was always wet. Captain Cathie jocularly +expressed the opinion that the yellow men would be none the worse for a +bit washing, for not one of them looked as if he had known soap since +he was a kiddie. +</P> + +<P> +He sent by Stuart, on his own responsibility, the information that he +was going to disinfect their ship, and that if they were not all out of +it in ten minutes he would sink it with a shot between wind and water. +The yellow men turned green with apprehension, grabbed their meagre +belongings under the certain belief that they were leaving their ship +for good and all, and did as they were bidden. Then, leaving the +captain of the <I>Blackbirder</I> in strict custody, Cathie pulled over to +the brig and proceeded to overhaul it with all the enjoyment of a +humanitarian highwayman going through his victim's pockets. +</P> + +<P> +Every bond and shackle they found was promptly tossed overboard. Every +ounce of trade they could find—cloth, beads, knives, and so on, which +might still be used for the enticement of unwary natives and the +replenishment of a depleted exchequer—was annexed as salve for native +wounds. Several rifles and revolvers, which the haste of the previous +surrender, or malice prepense, had overlooked, were now included. +Every keg of rum they could lay hands on was stove in and emptied into +the lagoon, and when the captain was fairly satisfied that he had +clipped the <I>Blackbirder's</I> wings, for this voyage at any rate, and, as +he jocularly said, had given the yellow men a chance of practising +teetotal principles for a spell, though he feared the effect would only +be temporary, he returned to the <I>Torch</I> and sent his boats to bring +back the prisoners from their damp roosting-place. +</P> + +<P> +He explained to the gloomy-faced captain of the <I>Blackbirder</I> what he +had done, and why, and sent him back to his ship with instructions to +refit as quickly as possible, to take in what water he needed, and to +get away without delay, lest the natives should take it into their +heads to pay him in their own way for his maltreatment of them. +</P> + +<P> +"And tell him, sir," he said to Stuart, "that if I'd had my way I'd +have strung every man of them up to the yardarm, and if they ever come +back that's what they may expect, and I'll be delighted to have a hand +in it." +</P> + +<P> +When Blair and the rest came on board, they reported the village still +in ruins. No attempt had been made to rebuild it yet, and they had +seen no other natives than those who had come ashore from the brig. +</P> + +<P> +The atoll men and women had camped in a bunch among the ruined houses, +by starting a fire with a borrowed match and proceeding to cook some +taro from the adjoining fields. The Dark Island men had scattered +among the hills to find their friends and relatives, and to tell them +of their wonderful deliverance. +</P> + +<P> +Under the compulsion of the grinning long gun the Blackbirders worked +hard at their rigging, and the party on the <I>Torch</I> sat and watched +them till the shadows chased the red glow of the sunset rapidly up the +hills, and work was over for the day. +</P> + +<P> +"It is very wonderful," was Blair's summing-up of the whole matter: +"good once more comes out of evil. If the arranging of matters had +been in our own hands, they could not have fallen more fortunately for +us. In the ordinary course of things we might have been years in +arriving at the position this catastrophe and its remedying have put us +into. Ha'o and Nai will, I think, prove staunch friends. They know we +desire nothing but their good. Through them we shall get all the rest +by degrees." +</P> + +<P> +"All I wish is that we'd hung those yellow blackguards, sir," said +Cathie, with lingering regret. "It would only have been right common +sense, after all." +</P> + +<P> +"Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," said Blair. "It's generally easier to undo than to do. +But our aim is life, not death. We shall have all we can do to put new +life into our brown friends, without spending our energies and bruising +our consciences by choking the old life out of our yellow enemies." +</P> + +<P> +"All the same, sir, we'd have been safer for the future if those +rascals were rolling at the bottom of the sea than floating quietly on +top of it. If they don't come back here, they'll go somewhere else and +play the same game." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid they will, captain; but all the same I don't see my way to +hanging them. If they come back here, as they quite possibly may——" +</P> + +<P> +"Will, sure," said the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if they do it will be our duty to protect the sheep from the +wolves." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm half hoping they'll try it on," said Cathie. "Yon long gun would +make fine play with 'em." +</P> + +<P> +In the morning Blair and the other men went ashore again. The ladies +begged to go too, but he thought it wiser to wait till they learned the +minds of the rest of the islanders. +</P> + +<P> +They found the atoll men busily at work running up shelters, and quite +content with their new surroundings. This was a place of infinitely +wider scope than their own circumscribed island, and they had no desire +whatever to go back to it. Knowing how intense the racial hatreds were +among the islands, Blair could only hope that Ha'o's influence might +suffice for their protection. +</P> + +<P> +He was wondering when any of the original inhabitants would turn up +again, when he saw a straggling company descending the hill, and at the +head of it Ha'o, easily recognisable by his costume of white towels. +</P> + +<P> +He waved his hand at sight of them, and quickened his pace. As he drew +near they saw that his face was very grim, and he began to speak so +rapidly and energetically that Matti could only wait and absorb the +sense of it without any attempt at translation. +</P> + +<P> +"There is trouble," said Matti, turning to Blair as the other paused +for breath. "In his absence, and thinking he was gone for good, his +brother has become chief, and he will not give up his place." +</P> + +<P> +"And what do the people say?" asked Blair, and Matti put the question. +</P> + +<P> +"They are divided. There were some who were never contented, and there +are some who always want change, and there are some who stand on one +side to see which party is strongest. Those who were with me on the +ship stay with me, and there are many others, but Ra'a"—Racha or Raka, +his brother—"has also many. It will lead to trouble." +</P> + +<P> +This was a quite unexpected development and obstacle. From his slight +knowledge of island ways, Blair foresaw that it was a matter that might +lead to constant strife. For there is no quarrel so bitter as a family +quarrel, and the tribe is but the family on a larger scale. +</P> + +<P> +"Come to the ship, Ha'o," he said, "and let us talk it over. Where is +Nai?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is with her people. She will come when I send for her. My other +wives my brother has taken, but I do not want them." +</P> + +<P> +"Is he likely to do anything unpleasant at once?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; at present everything is——." And with his hands he indicated +chaos. +</P> + +<P> +The situation was a grave one in some respects, though still far better +than it would have been had they landed entire strangers with all their +footing to win. +</P> + +<P> +It might even contain advantages, for Ha'o and his party would be +driven by stress of circumstances still closer to them, and there was +material enough to occupy them there for a long time to come. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie was for grasping this nettle again in such a way as to +neutralise its sting. +</P> + +<P> +"If we tackle them at once, Mr. Blair, we can knock the brother out and +make things safe, and it'll maybe be the shortest cut in the end, and +cost fewest lives. You know what these brown fellows are when they get +to loggerheads among themselves. It's just Stewarts and Campbells over +again, and no peace till one side or the other goes under." +</P> + +<P> +Blair nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"I know, captain; but, all the same, we can't begin by killing the men +we want to convert. Gentle handling and patience may bring us to the +appointed end. It may take longer, but the end, I think, will be the +larger." +</P> + +<P> +But Captain Cathie shook his head, and Aunt Jannet Harvey shook hers in +unison. +</P> + +<P> +"Some things are best nipped in the bud," said she, "and it seems to me +that Mr. Ha'o has been very badly treated all round." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we've done our best for him, and we'll go on doing it, but we +must do it in the way we think wisest." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o himself now struck in through Matti, and his question was the very +natural one as to whether the white men, who had done so much for him, +would continue to do so, and help him to recover his rights. +</P> + +<P> +It took time and patience to explain to him that they would do +everything they could without fighting, unless the other side attacked +him, in which case they would help him and his people to defend +themselves. Ha'o saw no use for the other side except to be +killed—and possibly eaten. It was not possible as yet to make clear +to him their object in coming to the islands. The root idea was beyond +him. He had hoped with their help to smash the opposition out of hand, +and was inclined to resent this, as it seemed to him, very lukewarm +offer of defensive assistance. Blair, however, was at pains to +explain, as far as was possible, that they had come not to fight—at +which the brown man's eyes rested appreciatively on the long brown +gun—but to teach him and his people better things than fighting, and +that they would help him in every possible way—except, as Ha'o's face +plainly showed, in this one way, for which he would willingly have +foregone all the rest. +</P> + +<P> +Blair showed him the tribute exacted from the <I>Blackbirder</I>, and told +him the things were for himself and those who had been carried off with +him, and the black eyes sparkled greedily. +</P> + +<P> +Then Blair suggested that the first thing to do was to rebuild the +village, and asked him to allot them land where they could build their +own houses. At which Ha'o waved his hand regally over Kapaa'a and +said, "Choose!" +</P> + +<P> +They chose a spot at the head of the white sand spear, with the brush +curving round behind, and the little river gurgling alongside. A dozen +tall palms swung their crests above, in front lay the placid stretch of +the lagoon, and beyond it the reef, and the white jets of foam, and the +never-ending thunder of the breaking rollers. +</P> + +<P> +By way of setting a good example to the islanders, and no less to +impress upon the Blackbirders that they had come to stop, Captain +Cathie got out and sent ashore the frames of the houses they had +brought with them. One of the little steam-launches was got into +working order, and before nightfall was chuffing merrily back and forth +with load after load of necessaries, planks and beams and fittings; and +what with the work on board the <I>Blackbirder</I>, and the traffic between +the <I>Torch</I> and the shore, and the doings on the beach, the lagoon of +Kapaa'a was livelier than ever it had been since time began. Deadlier +it had often been, but this was the beginning of the new life, and the +dawn came to the Dark Islands in such commonplace guise as doors and +windows, and chairs and tables and bedsteads. +</P> + +<P> +By Cathie's advice they built their houses on piles, with roomy +platforms under which the fresh sea breezes could blow at will. +</P> + +<P> +Every man who could be spared from the ship helped in the building, and +the work went on apace. Blair and Evans and Stuart, stripped to shirts +and trousers, carried and sawed and hammered with the rest, and spared +themselves not at all. The ladies would have come too, but reluctantly +obeyed orders, and stopped on board till the political horizon should +become somewhat more determined. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o and his people, after watching the small beginnings of a work that +was far beyond their understanding, turned to their own business. +Blair had a quantity of spades and axes brought ashore, and gave them +to Ha'o for his building operations, and the effect on their spirits, +as their hands closed on the handles, was magical. They rushed to the +woods to try them, and when the white men went along presently to see +how they were going on, they found the village already getting into +shape. +</P> + +<P> +There had evidently been some argument with the atoll men, who had +thought to establish themselves on the old site, but they had now drawn +off, and were stolidly building shelters a short distance away, and +regarding with envious eyes the new tools of the island men. +</P> + +<P> +That was soon put right, and a supply of axes for themselves +transformed them into an excited, chattering crew, without a grievance +in the world. Food was plentiful, the taro swamp was there to their +hand, coco-nuts abounded, they had fire and water: what more could any +man want, unless it was a slice of brother man to add zest to the +feast? And at present both they and brother man were much too busy to +give the matter the necessary consideration. +</P> + +<P> +It took the <I>Blackbirder</I> three days' hard work to clear away her +damaged spars and refit sufficiently for the voyage. Her sulky master +suggested a trip ashore to procure some new topmasts. Captain Cathie +urged him to go, but expressed doubts as to the probability of his +return; and on the morning of the fourth day, the launch having filled +their water barrels for them, the <I>Torch</I> got up steam and towed her +enemy through the opening in the reef and out to a fair offing, and +then cast her off and lay watching till she was hull-down on the +eastward horizon. And the very last thing the scowling crew saw—for +that time, at all events—was the menacing black mouth of the long gun, +and Captain Cathie standing patting its big brown breech +affectionately, but in a most unpleasantly meaning way. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, thank God we're rid of them at last!" said +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet Harvey with fervour, as the brig caught the breeze and drew +slowly away. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall see them again, ma'am," said Captain Cathie. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-145"></A> +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +[Illustration: "We shall see them again," said Captain Cathie (missing from book)] +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<P> +"I wish we'd scuttled them," said Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XV +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +WHERE THOU GOEST +</P> + +<P> +The building operations were progressing apace, and so far they had +caught no more than distant glimpses of the malcontents, as they crept +cautiously about the hillsides to oversee what was going on below. The +proximity of the white men in such force kept them from any expression +of what might be in them, and Blair was not without hope that, if he +could only get time to develop his plans and demonstrate clearly the +advantages of the white alliance, they might still think better of it +and come in. +</P> + +<P> +Time, however, is what no man can count on. Cautious Captain Cathie, +as soon as he had seen the <I>Blackbirder</I> fairly off, proceeded to "bolt +the front door," as he said, by running a stout hawser with a kedge at +each end across the opening in the lagoon. As this was buried by each +incoming roller, it would inevitably overturn any boat running in on +the swell, and he felt comparatively safe. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, he paced the deck for several nights to make safer still. +For the <I>Torch</I> was still the greatest factor in the enterprise, and +any accident to her would spell disaster to them all. +</P> + +<P> +That first night he was not without his fears of a possible attempt +from without. +</P> + +<P> +"You never know where you are with rascals like yon, until you've seen +'em hanging for an hour at the end of a rope," said he. "It would be a +mighty fine thing for them, and a mighty bad look-out for us, if they +crept in and caught us napping." And more than once he stood for +minutes at a time listening intently, under the impression that he +heard the cries of drowning men above the rhythmic roar of the outer +surges, and in the morning he looked eagerly about, but found nothing. +</P> + +<P> +He was also somewhat surprised at the complete absence of native +canoes, and had visions of such also creeping up in the darkness and +carrying his ship by assault. But the canoes had mostly been smashed +by the raiders, as a matter of precaution, when they enticed the +natives on board, and the rest they had destroyed when they came ashore +in the night, and the captain's fears were groundless. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies were allowed ashore for a time each day to inspect the +progress of their future homes, but they still slept on the schooner. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet Harvey demanded of Blair how long that kind of thing was to +go on, as they were all anxious to get to housekeeping again as soon as +possible, and Blair could only tell her that they could not hasten +developments, but that he hoped each day passed in peace might make for +healing. +</P> + +<P> +But the peace was suddenly broken. That which had befallen the head of +the community had equally struck its tail. Just as Ha'o, supposed to +be as good as dead, had been supplanted by Ra'a, so on a smaller scale +had most of his companions in misfortune. It was a matter only of +degree. The hurt was the same. +</P> + +<P> +Yams and taro do not come to maturity in a day. The rescued ones were +rebuilding the village on its old site, close to the taro fields. The +rebels on the hills and the perchers on the fence wanted their share of +the common goods. They ventured down by night, warily and in mortal +fear of more than Ha'o and his men, to procure them, and the fat was in +the fire. +</P> + +<P> +At first it spluttered in hot words. +</P> + +<P> +"We want our proper share of taro," said the hillmen, not without +reason. "You went away"—which was a provocative way of putting +it—"and left us to tend the fields, and now you come back and sit on +them." +</P> + +<P> +"The fields belong to the community. We are the community. Come back +into it and you will share with us. Where are our wives?" was the +answer. +</P> + +<P> +Some few, such as cared little who ruled so long as their stomachs were +filled, did come back, and Nai brought down a number of the women and +children, her towel costume and her descriptions of the white men's +wonders forming strong inducements to the others. But many stood out, +and the arguments developed from words to blows. Ra'a's men came down +in force by night to replenish their larders. Ha'o's men resisted. +One of the former got his head smashed in by an axe, and the feud was +complete. +</P> + +<P> +Blair did his best to prevent the rupture, but it was beyond him. Ha'o +was, not unnaturally, hot against the usurper and his followers, and it +was all the white men could do to persuade him from attempting a +<I>coup-de-force</I> for the full rehabilitation of his fortunes. Under +Blair's forcible arguments, and a grievous shortage of weapons, he +agreed to postpone any active movement till his village was rebuilt. +Then, when time lay on his hands, Blair knew that it would be next to +impossible to restrain him. He hoped, however, that opportunity might +arise which would afford a chance of intervention with some hopes of +success. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile skirmishes went on almost nightly, and there came a time at +last when two of Ha'o's men, in repelling an attempt on the taro +fields, were speared and their bodies carried off. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning Ha'o came up, wearing his grimmest face. +</P> + +<P> +"They have killed my men," he said, through Matti. "Now I go to kill +them." +</P> + +<P> +Blair had been considering the matter ever since the report reached +him, and he had made up his mind what to do. +</P> + +<P> +To understand Kenneth Blair fully you must bear in mind all that he had +gone through, and the effect it could not fail to have upon him. +</P> + +<P> +Once in his life, in the face of imminent death, he had flinched and he +had never forgiven himself. To all the world outside he could be +tender and forbearing. To himself he was harder than iron. +</P> + +<P> +He would condone in another what he would never permit in himself. In +the intensity of his feeling on this matter even his strong common +sense was liable to be thrown somewhat off its centre. His only fear +was of himself, and in that fear he was liable to choose the hardest +and most dangerous path, lest a smoother one should prove but a pitfall +to his duty. +</P> + +<P> +In his somewhat morbid dread of doing too little he was constantly in +danger of doing too much. He was quite aware of it, and he held +himself tightly. But where two ways offered, it was almost inevitable +that he should choose the more dangerous and difficult. It was a +weakness, perhaps, but, after all, he was only human, and no man is +perfect. +</P> + +<P> +Just as the soldier on whom has rested an imputation of lack of nerve +will, when the chance offers, rush to seemingly certain death in order +to wipe off the reproach, so Kenneth Blair. It was the spirit of the +Six Hundred at Balaclava over again, save that, indeed, in their case +their courage had never been called in question, but only their utility. +</P> + +<P> +And so, when Ha'o came up, thirsting for his brother's life, Blair said +quietly— +</P> + +<P> +"This matter must be settled without shedding of blood. I will go and +see Ra'a, and will do my best to persuade him either to come in or to +leave us in peace." +</P> + +<P> +"He will kill you," said Ha'o briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope not. We shall see." +</P> + +<P> +"He hates the white men. The hardest thing he has against me is that I +ever had any dealings with those others." +</P> + +<P> +"Those men were yellow, I will show him what white men are." +</P> + +<P> +"He will kill you," said Ha'o once more. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope not," was all the reply he got. +</P> + +<P> +When the rest heard of his undertaking they also tried hard to dissuade +him from it—all except Jean, who sat silent and thoughtful. +</P> + +<P> +"It's risky," said Captain Cathie, with a gloomy shake of the head. +</P> + +<P> +"Few good things come without risk, captain—besides, I don't believe +it's as risky as you imagine." +</P> + +<P> +"It's simply suicidal," said Aunt Jannet Harvey. "It's just throwing +yourself away, Kenneth, and spoiling all your great plans, to say +nothing of Jean's life." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall go too," said Jean quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"You, Jean?" said Blair, with a catch in the throat and a sudden weight +at the heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, dear. If you go, I go. If it is death for you it is death for +me in any case, and I would sooner it was together." +</P> + +<P> +A terrible temptation this to choose the easier path—on her account. +What right had he to drag her life into so great a danger? For +imminent danger there was, though he had made light of it. +</P> + +<P> +He halted, and she saw it, and understood much of what was in him. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't hesitate one moment on my account, Ken. I must go. It is +possible my being with you may help. It will show them, at all events, +that we mean them no ill." +</P> + +<P> +"We are in God's hands," he said quietly, but was visibly disturbed at +her insistence. +</P> + +<P> +Stuart and Evans also strove with him, but with no better effect. +</P> + +<P> +"The peace must be kept, if it is possible," he said. "And this seems +to me a possible way to it. I would sooner my wife had stopped behind, +but I quite understand her point of view. And—we are as safe there as +here." +</P> + +<P> +"You've no objection to my firing a blank round or two, Mr. Blair?" +asked Captain Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the idea, captain?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just to impress them with the fact that we're here behind you, sir. A +bang or two from the big gun will maybe have as big an effect as +anything you can say to them." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I see no objection. All we want is to keep the peace. The big +gun may impress them, as you say." +</P> + +<P> +"You wouldn't take a dozen of the men with you, would you sir?" asked +the captain insinuatingly. +</P> + +<P> +But Blair shook his head at that. +</P> + +<P> +"That, I fear, would hardly carry the impression that I want to make. +I look on all these people as my parishioners. Sooner or later, please +God, they will be. But we must win them, captain; we can't force them." +</P> + +<P> +He walked the deck alone that night, long after all but the watch had +retired, and thought and thought. +</P> + +<P> +And at thought of Jean going into the peril of the morrow the +temptation was strong at times to find some other and less dangerous +way—for her sake. For himself he would not think twice. For her—ah! +for her he would think many times. And, after all, had he the right to +persist in his own way, even though he believed it to be the right way, +since it meant undoubted danger to her? +</P> + +<P> +But he found in such thoughts the visible cloven hoof of avoidance, +compounding, cowardice, and resolutely shut down upon them. For her +sake he could have wished that she had been content to stay quietly on +board, and let him face the danger alone. But duty called him with a +clear voice, and go he must, whatever came of it. +</P> + +<P> +And so it came that, very early the next morning, Kenneth Blair and his +wife Jean set out on a somewhat perilous journey. And with them went +Matti, the Samoan. And Matti by no means relished the undertaking, yet +compassed a fairly stout face, since it was a matter of duty and a +tangible business, with nothing ghostly about it, as yet at all events, +though as to what it might presently develop into he had his own very +grave doubts. +</P> + +<P> +They were surely as peaceful-looking an embassage as ever sought a +distrustful enemy. They were all in spotless white, and their only +visible weapons, beyond Jean's green-lined white sunshade, were some +small bundles containing presents, and a new axe and spade carried by +Matti. Blair, indeed, had a revolver in his hip pocket, but it was +only there because Jean was there. Had he been alone it would have +stayed behind. It was, no doubt, somewhat of an anomaly after his +confident "We are as safe there as here" of the previous night. But he +was very human, and, as I have said, no more perfect than you or I, +though an infinitely finer specimen than either of us. +</P> + +<P> +As they quitted the ship, the long gun thundered out over their heads, +and the noise of it bellowed up into the hills, and clanged to and fro +in the valleys. And when they touched the shore it bellowed again, and +went on bellowing at intervals like the threatening little monster it +was. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o met them at the landing with some of his people, and shook his +head gloomily at their prospects. He offered to accompany them as far +as possible; but, as he bitterly said, they had not a spear among them, +nothing but the axes Blair had given them, and axes are of little use +against spears and poisoned arrows. +</P> + +<P> +But Blair would not hear of it. He begged him to keep his people at +their work as usual, and went on quietly through the disputed taro +fields, up through the yam plantations and banana groves, and stood for +a moment to look back over the lagoon, with the shapely little ship at +her anchorage, and the bursts of white foam along the reef behind. A +puff ball of white smoke fluffed out from her deck as they looked, and +the roar of it went past them into the hills. It was not by any means +impossible that they looked on it all for the last time. And Kenneth +Blair's heart was not light as he took Jean's arm through his own and +pressed it close to his side, and felt the trustful pressure of her arm +in reply. +</P> + +<P> +They understood one another fully. They had said all that needed to be +said. In this and in all they were one; and if this meant death, they +had no other wish than that it should be together. +</P> + +<P> +"You are very brave, Jean." +</P> + +<P> +"I am where I would be, and as I would be, Ken. We are in God's hands." +</P> + +<P> +"Amen!" he said, and lifted his hat and led her round the shoulder of +the hill. +</P> + +<P> +They did not know where they might come across Ra'a. +</P> + +<P> +"You will find him," Ha'o had said meaningly. +</P> + +<P> +So they climbed on and up, through tangled thickets of hibiscus and +branching matpandanus, under grey-boled palms, along bare patches of +rock, certain that scores of dark eyes were watching them, wondering +when and how their journey would end. +</P> + +<P> +The hills had echoed many times to the voice of the long gun, when, +from a clump of brush in front, a couple of bristling warriors rose +suddenly and barred their way. They carried long, thin, venomous +spears and heavy bows, and each had a bundle of arrows at his thigh. +</P> + +<P> +"Aoha!" said Blair quietly, and they stared grimly, first at him, and +then, and longer, at Jean. She sat down on a rock and opened her fan +and began to use it with an equanimity which covered a jumping heart. +</P> + +<P> +The climb had been somewhat exhausting, her face was radiant with +colour and a great wistful expectancy, and her eyes shone like southern +stars. She was a goodly sight to any man. To these brown men, who had +never in their lives seen anything like her, she must have seemed +almost more than human. After an appreciative glance at Matti's axe +and spade, they stared at her with stolid insistence. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell them we have come to speak with Ra'a. We bring him presents," +said Blair to Matti, and a conversation of clips and jerks ensued, and +in the result the brown men turned and led the way into the bush. +</P> + +<P> +They came at last to a number of houses which had a hasty and temporary +look about them, and were surrounded instantly by a buzzing crowd of +men, women, and children, Jean again the centre of attraction, and +bearing it, as before, with surprising equanimity. +</P> + +<P> +They almost mobbed her, and shouted their comments aloud from one to +another. Her sunshade, her fan, her dress, her face, her hair, her +hands, every bit of her was a new sensation, and they made the most of +it. +</P> + +<P> +Then sudden silence fell, as a tall man strode through the lane they +made before him, and stood in front of the strangers. +</P> + +<P> +"You are Ra'a?" asked Blair of him direct. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Ra-ch-ch-ch-a!" and his raucous name sounded worse in his own +throat than it had ever sounded to them before; and as he said it, so +it seemed to fit him. +</P> + +<P> +He was tall and well made, evidently younger by some years than Ha'o, +but his face was truculent and his eyes quick-glancing and shifty. +</P> + +<P> +They rested, however, on Jean, and under other circumstances, and from +a civilised man, Blair would have resented the look. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want?" asked Ra'a harshly. +</P> + +<P> +And, through Matti, Blair answered him— +</P> + +<P> +"We want peace between you and Ha'o"—and at the very mention of his +brother the other scowled—"and between your people and his." +</P> + +<P> +"It is you who have made the trouble. Why did you bring him back?" +</P> + +<P> +"If it had been you we would have brought you back just the same." +</P> + +<P> +"Ha'o is a fool to have dealings with white men." +</P> + +<P> +"Those others were not white men, they were yellow. They are not of +our tribe. We, too, hate the things they do, and we have come to stop +them." +</P> + +<P> +"You are all the same. If you hate them, why did you not kill them?" +</P> + +<P> +"We do not kill if we can help it. If they come again, we may have to +kill them." +</P> + +<P> +"Why is that noise?" as the voice of Long Tom bellowed in the hills +once more. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the voice of my big canoe." +</P> + +<P> +"It is only a voice. It does no harm." +</P> + +<P> +"When I choose. You saw the other big canoe's masts? It did that with +twice speaking." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want?" asked Ra'a once more. +</P> + +<P> +"We have come from the other end of the world, where the people are all +white, to try and be of use to you." +</P> + +<P> +"We do not want you. We do quite well." +</P> + +<P> +"There are many things you do not know, many things you have not got. +Axes, spades," and he laid them down at the brown man's feet, "and +cloth, and beads, and fish-hooks, and knives"; and he opened the +bundles and gave them to him, and the black eyes round about snapped +greedily. "Very many things we have, and we would share them with you. +But we must have peace. If you will make things as they were before, +we will share all these among you, and many more. It is far better +than killing one another." +</P> + +<P> +There was a visible inclination in the crowd towards a share in the +good things, and Ra'a saw it and countered quickly. The man was a +savage and brutalised, but he did not lack brain. +</P> + +<P> +"We do not need your gifts. We can take them—all you have." +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot take them. My big canoe could blow you all to pieces. But +it has come to fight for you, not against you, and when it has done +fighting it will go back and bring many more things for you. But it +must be in peace." +</P> + +<P> +Ra'a, whatever else he was, was a diplomat. Truculent he was without +doubt, treacherous if it served him, and his word was probably of small +account; but such things are not unknown in even more accomplished +diplomatic circles. +</P> + +<P> +He saw the inclination of his people, and that he must go with the tide. +</P> + +<P> +"Give us our share of the things and we will be satisfied." +</P> + +<P> +"You shall have your share if it is peace. There must be no more +killing." +</P> + +<P> +"The taro and the yams belong to us also?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. We will divide equally. If you will draw a line, we will +draw a line, and you and your people will keep to your side, and Ha'o +and his people will keep to his side." +</P> + +<P> +"We will draw the line and tapu it. When will you send the things?" +</P> + +<P> +"When the line is drawn. Will you come and draw it now?" +</P> + +<P> +"You will go—and you," he pointed to two of his men. "You will put in +tapu sticks and bring back what the white man gives you. Who is the +woman?" staring hard at Jean, who had managed to keep an unruffled face +in spite of the inquisition to which the women were subjecting +her—touching her hands, her face, her hair, and the puzzling +appointments of her dainty toilet. She had even induced one mother to +let her pat the head of one brown mite, who was mumbling its fingers +after reluctant teeth and stared at her with big round eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"She is my wife." +</P> + +<P> +"What is she wanting?"—a question evidently inspired by Jean's Miss +Inquisitive look, which showed strongly at times and was much to the +fore under the strain of the present interview. +</P> + +<P> +"She is wanting everything," said Blair, with a smile. "It is probably +that brown baby at present." +</P> + +<P> +"She can have it. Is she hungry?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think she is hungry, and she would not take the baby from its +mother." +</P> + +<P> +"Is she white all through?" +</P> + +<P> +"White all through," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any more in the big canoe?" +</P> + +<P> +"They are all married—except one." +</P> + +<P> +"I will marry her. How many coco-nuts will you take for her?" and he +stared appreciatively at Jean. +</P> + +<P> +"We do not sell our women. You would have to ask her yourself." +</P> + +<P> +And at last they got away without further compromising Aunt Jannet, and +very gratefully they went back by the way they had come, with full, yet +lightened hearts. For the way, though it had opened before them, and +now, to look back upon, seemed neither very difficult nor very +dangerous, had been a perilous one, and one where death might have +opened at their feet at any moment. +</P> + +<P> +They went in silence with over-full hearts. Blair did not in the +slightest delude himself with the idea that he had settled the matter +at one stroke. He was quite prepared to find the agreement turn out +but a temporary one, but it was a step towards the light to have +arrived at any understanding whatever. +</P> + +<P> +He was not surprised, also, to find Ha'o anything but satisfied with +the arrangement. He would have preferred wiping out Ra'a and the +malcontents, and settling the business at once on a sound and final +basis. +</P> + +<P> +With infinite difficulty Blair succeeded in showing him that those +others had rights as well as himself, even though they had wronged him, +and tried hard to inspire him with his own hope that matters would +eventually work out for the best. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o, however, knew better. +</P> + +<P> +"Their hearts are like this," he said, laying his hand on a length of +twisted creeper dangling from an adjacent tree. "They are as grasping +as a convolvulus for the water. They will take all you will give them, +and they will keep the tapu just as long as it suits them." And he +said to himself, "But by that time we shall perhaps be ready for them"; +while Blair was thinking, "Every approach they allow us to make is a +point gained." +</P> + +<P> +The taro fields and yam plantations and banana groves were soon roughly +divided off in a fair equality, and sticks with plaited palm leaves set +up to warn off trespassers from either side. Then, with the idea of +impressing them to the utmost, Blair invited the two plenipotentiaries +to accompany him on board the big canoe to get the things he was to +give them. +</P> + +<P> +To this they demurred at first, though obviously desirous, and it was +only after much argument among themselves that they at last agreed, and +then only on condition that the white woman stopped on shore till they +were brought safely back. +</P> + +<P> +They stepped gingerly into the steam-launch at last, and eyed her +bustling, unaided progress with obvious but well-concealed amazement. +They were shown over the ship, the big gun was fired for them at close +quarters, they inspected the farmyard and the cat, and they finally +went home laden with gifts, and with new impressions enough to set +their brains spinning and their tongues wagging for a month to come. +And it is not likely that their stories lost anything in the retailing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XVI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Jannet," said Blair, as they sat in great relief and content +discussing the day, when their visitors had left, "we had an offer for +you this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"An offer?—for me, Kenneth? Whatever do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"A brown gentleman desires to correspond with a white lady with a view +to matrimony. He wanted to know what we would take for you in +coco-nuts." +</P> + +<P> +"In coco-nuts indeed!" and Aunt Jannet bridled red. "And who was the +impudent fellow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Our enemy, our host, Mr. Ra'a. Jean made such an impression on him +that I fear the brown ladies' noses will be permanently out of joint." +</P> + +<P> +"H'mph!" with a snort of disgust. "He'd better keep out of my reach." +</P> + +<P> +"I told him he'd have to ask you himself." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to see him." +</P> + +<P> +"A hint to that effect will bring him along hotfoot, I've no doubt. +The matter is worth consideration," he said, with an assumption of +weightiness. "Royal alliance—union of opposing factions—peace +secured—a very good solution of our difficulties. Say, Aunt Jannet! +will you sacrifice yourself for the good of the community?" +</P> + +<P> +"Get along with you," said Aunt Jannet. "No naked brown cannibals for +me." +</P> + +<P> +The ice being broken with the factious ones, Blair and Stuart and +Evans, with Matti still necessary as interpreter, though they were all +rapidly picking up words and phrases of the island tongue, paid Ra'a +several visits and did their utmost to strengthen the slim foundations +of peace. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o and his people, however, declined any active intercourse with the +rebels, and never ceased to warn the white men to be on their guard, +asserting that their present amenableness was only assumed and would be +thrown off as soon as no more was to be got by it. Blair judged that +likely enough, but gave no sign of it, and treated the others as though +he believed them in every way worthy of confidence. And Ha'o and his +people meanwhile went on steadily replenishing their houses, and +constructing the weapons without which they felt but half men and +wholly insecure. +</P> + +<P> +The mission-houses were completed and furnished. The farmyard was +transferred from the bows of the <I>Torch</I> to suitable premises ashore, +and what with the discontented bellowings of John Bull—who was always +wanting something he hadn't got, though what it was neither he nor any +one else could make out—and the mellower remonstrances of his more +thoughtful consort, and the satisfied gruntings and squeakings of the +delighted piglets and their mother, and the bleating of the goats, and +the crowings and cluckings of cocks and hens, and the gabbling of geese +in the river pools, the little settlement began to assume a most +home-like appearance. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies rejoiced in the feel of solid earth once more, and +discovered endless delights in the nearer woods and along the beach. +Limits, however, had to be placed on their wanderings, till assurance +of good intent on the part of the outsiders was made doubly sure or +proved entirely worthless. +</P> + +<P> +Their nearest neighbours were the atoll community. These, not +unnaturally, felt somewhat doubtful as to the permanence of their +security among the discordant elements around them, and looked +anxiously to the white men for protection. Left alone they would +undoubtedly have been slaughtered and eaten out of hand, for human +flesh was still the choicest dish where the only other variations from +a vegetarian diet were occasional wood-pigeons, paraquets, and an +unreliable choice of fish. +</P> + +<P> +So far as Ha'o and his people were concerned, the atoll men were safe +enough for the present and until cause might arise. They had been +bed-fellows in misfortune and had shared a common deliverance, and so +they were allowed to work beside the others in the taro swamp and to +take their allowance of the fruits of the earth. +</P> + +<P> +But there was a spirit of fear and distrust abroad—the fear that walks +by night and makes light sleepers in palm-thatched houses, and no man +went abroad after dark if he could help it. +</P> + +<P> +With no little difficulty Blair succeeded in getting into communication +also with the fourth community in the neighbourhood—the sitters on the +fence, who were naturally at odds with all the others and would have +fared badly but for their numbers, and for the hope each side had of +eventually drawing them into their own folds. +</P> + +<P> +They were perhaps more dangerous to approach even than Ra'a. For Ra'a +was one, and his men obeyed his words. But these outlanders were many, +and each man did what seemed right in his own eyes, and kept on terms +with his neighbour and the community simply from motives of safety. In +going among them, therefore, the risks were multiplied. They took all +that was offered, however, and promised anything that was required of +them in hopes of more. +</P> + +<P> +But, obviously, four more or less distinct communities in one district +were at least three too many. It was like having four savage dogs at +large in one small back yard, and the proper thing to do was to get +some of them to move. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, coasting down the lagoon in the launch, had reported +several fine wide valleys opening up into the hills, and Blair +determined to try to induce some of the others to move farther down the +coast and start fresh settlements there. +</P> + +<P> +So far as Cathie had seen—and he was much too cautious to land until +he knew more about what he might meet ashore—these valleys seemed +unoccupied and capable of profitable occupation. +</P> + +<P> +But Ha'o, when the idea was mooted, only shook his head mysteriously, +and said they would never go there. No one lived there. No one ever +had lived there. Farther down there were scattered communities, but +the men rarely came up this way because they had made a practice of +eating them whenever they got the chance. Over the mountains also +there were villages, exclusive for the same reason. +</P> + +<P> +And when Blair suggested the idea to Ra'a and the others, and offered +to assist them in laying out taro fields and yam plantations, he was +met in the same way. He could get nothing more out of them. The +subject was so evidently distasteful that he determined to go and find +out for himself, if possible, what the objectionable features were. +</P> + +<P> +And so, very early one morning, he set off in one of the whale-boats, +with Matti and Stuart and four men, and they pulled quietly along round +the great frontlet of the hills till they came to the first opening +into the hinterland, some five miles from the settlement. +</P> + +<P> +Keeping a sharp look-out, they ran in on a fine white shell beach, and +took cautious way up a wide valley from which the hills rolled back in +long sweeping slopes, well bushed, and thick with palms. Gay flights +of paraquets flashed in and out of the bushes, and the soft crooning of +multitudinous wood-pigeons was like the humming of bees in a summer +garden. A broad stream flowed through the valley, widening into +silvery pools and glittering over broken shallows. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an ideal place," said Blair. "What on earth has kept them out of +it?" +</P> + +<P> +They passed cautiously on through the tangled undergrowth. In front +was the sound of falling waters, an intermittent drenching splash, now +heard, now lost, as though a raincloud burst and passed and came again; +otherwise a wide and perfect silence, which the droning of the doves +seemed but to accentuate. +</P> + +<P> +Through dense tangles of lemon hibiscus, and crowding paw-paws, and +stilted pandanus, and the gleaming boles of the palms, they saw the +valley widen into a great arc, and caught glimpses of mighty walls of +rock which marked the end of it. And presently they were standing +below, and gazing up in awed amazement. +</P> + +<P> +In the shadow of the cliff, with their backs to it and their faces to +the sea, sat a row of gigantic stone figures, gazing out In solemn +silence through the slow-waving tops of the palms, the ephemeral palms +which had grown and died in countless generations, and had crept +gradually nearer and nearer, since those grim figures first sat down +there, with their backs to the cliff and their faces to the sea. +</P> + +<P> +So huge were they that the gazers felt themselves pigmies in +comparison. Each grave head bent slightly forward as though listening +intently for something that should come up from the sea, and the great +stone hands were crossed reverently on the massive stone breasts. +</P> + +<P> +From the sheer edge of the cliff above leaped streams of sparkling +water, which broke in mid-air, and swung to and fro in the breeze like +veils of gauze, and swept constantly over the seated figures, and +wrapped them in fragmentary rainbows. +</P> + +<P> +In their grim everlasting expectancy the great stone gods were very +terrible to look upon, even with the eyes of understanding. More than +once the gazers found themselves glancing fearfully over their +shoulders towards the sea, lest perchance the long-delayed answer to +that unspoken questioning might be coming. The sudden confrontation +with these mighty relics of a long-vanished civilisation conjured up +thoughts which bated their words to whispers. +</P> + +<P> +"This accounts for it," said Blair softly. "What an amazing sight in a +cannibal island! What do you make of it, Stuart?" +</P> + +<P> +Stuart had been eyeing the monster nearest him with keenly critical +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Peruvian, I should say. Of the time of the Incas—or perhaps earlier +still. Yes, earlier probably. I see no suns. This is mighty curious, +you know. The present natives cannot be descended from them. They are +pure Polynesians. And yet"—following out his own train of +thought—"I'm not so sure. Ha'o and Nai and some of the others show +traces of something more. I have often wondered about it. This may +explain. These"—nodding at the silent figures—"or their makers, fled +their country, or perhaps got blown across, and founded a new +civilisation here. Then the old race ran to seed and got lost among +the dark men, and ages afterwards their cousins from the mainland come +across to kidnap them." +</P> + +<P> +"Odd enough to think of," said Blair, "and likely enough to be true. +What were these figures for, do you suppose? Worship?" +</P> + +<P> +"Worship, sacrifice. Down in the brush there we shall probably find +the remains of their houses." +</P> + +<P> +And they did, all overgrown and barely discernible, but ruins without a +doubt, and of a city of great buildings. By dint of peeling off the +superincumbent growths of the ages they even laid bare a piece of wall, +huge squared blocks from which the creeping mosses and lichens had long +since eaten out the mortar. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall never get them to live here, that's certain," said Blair. +"The place is alive with ghosts for them. It would be an uncommonly +safe place for a mission-station, if safety were the only thing. But +it's too far from the parish. I think we can use it, however," he +nodded thoughtfully, with some of his far-reaching schemes in view. +"How those little pigs would enjoy those big paw-paws!" +</P> + +<P> +They rambled about the valley, charmed with its wealth of fruit and +flower, gathered quantities of each as evidences of their visit, and +pulled back home. +</P> + +<P> +Every one was on fire at once to go and view the wonders of the valley. +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrow we will carry over a pair of goats and half a dozen piglets +and some geese. They will have rare times there. If they don't burst +themselves, they will multiply rapidly. By the time we have educated +our friends here to better taste in the matter of eating, the larder +will be stocked. It is better for them to hunt pigs and goats than +men. And the wilder the pigs and goats the better. They will carry +their own sauce with them," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the very place I've dreamed of since I was six years old," said +Aunt Jannet, shedding her years. "Girls! we'll go over to-morrow, with +the geese and the goats and the piglets, and have a scramble and a +rummage." +</P> + +<P> +Which they did, and found even more than the men. For Jean, at cost of +a wetting, discovered a narrow entrance behind one of the figures, and +inside it a winding stone staircase which led up into its head, and +found that through the eyes of the god she could see all that went on +below. +</P> + +<P> +And one of the things she saw was Aunt Jannet Harvey wandering amazedly +in front of the great stone figures; and then in a moment the earth +opened and swallowed her up. For the good lady had stepped on a carpet +of beautiful green moss, and the carpet gave way beneath her and +precipitated her into a chamber of horrors full of skulls and dead +men's bones, whence she was extricated with difficulty and in a state +of extreme nervous tension by the men from the boat. Aunt Jannet's +taste for exploration was dulled somewhat by the incident, and they +went back home promising to return another day. +</P> + +<P> +The goats, pigs, and geese entered into their new possession with +delighted gabblings, bleatings, squeakings, and proved forthwith that +they could look after themselves without any outside assistance. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the two nearer-home communities had been taking their first +timid steps towards the light, in the very practical shape of +elementary lessons in carpentry. The white men's tools, in the skilled +hands of the ship's carpenter, appealed strongly to them. Their +various uses were speedily grasped—the tools also, unless he kept his +eyes about him, as John MacNeil very soon found out. He was inclined +to wrath and the bestowal of hard names, but it was simply human nature +in its most natural form, and he learned to circumvent them by using +only one tool at a time and never letting it out of his hand till he +put it back into safety with the others. The driving of nails, +especially when they were allowed to do it themselves, marked epochs in +their lives and on their thumbs. Screws and hinges were revelations to +them, the saw and the plane perpetual wonders, the grindstone an +endless delight. +</P> + +<P> +Blair watched them quietly, showed them the uses of the various things, +let them experiment for themselves, and was satisfied that his sawdust +and shavings would blossom into fruit. Their interest was excited, +they were taking in new ideas, more in a day than hitherto in a +generation; the rest would follow. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XVII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +FIRST FRUITS +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet Harvey's ideas of missionary work and methods differed +essentially from Kenneth Blair's. +</P> + +<P> +She wanted to be up and doing all the time. She was anxious for +visible fruit before the seed was fairly into the ground. In spite of +the practical common-sense which she brought as a rule to the ordinary +affairs of life, she was, in this matter, like a child with its first +garden, in danger of retarding by her very anxiety for progress. She +was inclined to be for ever hauling up the tiny shoots to see how the +roots were getting on. Or, to be more exact still, she was like a +child placed suddenly in charge of an overgrown patch with instructions +to reduce it to order. And Aunt Jannet's ideas ran to such strenuous +loppings and bindings and weedings, that the timid brown women and +round-faced, pot-bellied youngsters fled, white-eyed and panting, +whenever they caught sight of her. +</P> + +<P> +This greatly distressed the good lady, and served only to confirm her +views as to the urgent necessity for prompt and radical measures, just +as flight from a school-board officer but serves to accentuate the +chase. +</P> + +<P> +She wanted the women and children clothed and taught and transformed +into the outward semblance of civilised beings at once. She wanted a +church built, and a school. She wanted to teach the women sewing and +decency, and the children their letters and manners. +</P> + +<P> +And Blair, with his wider knowledge and experience, had to put his foot +down on every suggestion she made, and, gently and good-humouredly as +he tried to do it since he knew the warm heart that was at the bottom +of it all, found himself in constant collision with her. +</P> + +<P> +"Example first, Aunt Jannet," was his constant text, "then precept. +It's not the slightest use thinking of a church or a school yet. +They'll come all right when we're ready for them. And, really, you +must not try to dress any of those women and children again. You'll +kill them." +</P> + +<P> +"But they are so—so terribly naked, Kenneth." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course they are, and so they have been for thousands of years, +their forbears at all events, and you might just as well begin giving +them poison as insist on clothing them. If you want to kill them, +clothe them. If you want them to live, just let them go as they are." +</P> + +<P> +"But the men——" +</P> + +<P> +"Now you just leave the men to us. If you good ladies will just keep +on at your own proper work, and let these big brown children watch you +and see the pleasant results, you will be doing the very best thing +possible for them. Make friends with them, pick up all the words you +can lay hold of, and, in fact, get in touch with them all round as +quickly as possible. But we must lead them; we can't drive them." +</P> + +<P> +His own example was an inspiration to them all. Evans and Stuart +seconded him loyally, and by degrees the ladies, who one and all, Jean +included, sympathised considerably with Aunt Jannet in her not +unnatural discrimination in favour of clothing, desisted from their +well-meant efforts and grew accustomed to the scant attire of their +brown friends. +</P> + +<P> +They had no lack of personal cleanliness to combat, for which "Thank +goodness!" said Aunt Jannet more than once. "If they let you see +plenty of skin, it is at all events clean skin. If they'd stop rubbing +themselves all over with that nasty rotten coco-nut oil and wear some +decent clothes, I wouldn't have a fault to find with them—except in +their eating and a few other things." +</P> + +<P> +The mission-settlement lay on the left bank of the little river which +ran through the spear of white sand at the head of the bay. On the +other side of the river the mountains where Ra'a lived rolled up, +shoulder on shoulder, till the farther ones were lost to sight. Behind +the mission the ground lay level for a space, where the valley came +down to the sea, and here were masses of coco-palms and a great tangle +of undergrowth, and farther up, past the village, were the disputed +taro fields, and the yam and banana plantations. +</P> + +<P> +On the mission side of the river, behind the level lands, another great +hill flung one rough protecting arm into the sea a quarter of a mile +beyond the houses. The great ridge, full of cracks and cavities, as +though it had broken in its fall, shot right into the lagoon, and the +barrier reef started from its outermost point. On the other side the +great waves roared everlastingly up a white shell beach, but landing +there was impossible, as no boat built by man could survive the tumult +of the surf. +</P> + +<P> +This was the island bathing-place, and here, all day long, men, women, +and children were slipping and tumbling like seals in the creaming +rollers. They shot deftly through the combers before they broke, and +away out to sea, then came skimming back stretched flat on their +swimming-boards, sitting on them, standing on them, marvels of grace +and beauty, with shouts and laughter and life's tide at its fullest. +</P> + +<P> +It was their most rational enjoyment, and the finest possible outlet +for their activities. It kept them healthy and it kept them clean. +</P> + +<P> +It also led to friction between the various factions, just as the taro +fields had done. This was the only place available for surf-swimming +for many miles on either side. Until the late troubles it had been +common to all. Now the nearest dwellers, Ha'o's people and the atoll +men, monopolised it, and when the others desired to join the sport they +were received with taunts and jibes which came quickly to blows, and +Blair had to adopt the <I>rôle</I> of peacemaker once more. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o and his men would have kept the others from the surf, just as they +would have kept them from the taro swamps. But Blair would not have +it. He reasoned with them, talked to them and at them, in a voluble +mixture of Samoan, Kapaa'an, and English, and made them understand what +he meant if many of his words were beyond them. +</P> + +<P> +In a pow-wow of this kind, when his feelings ran far in advance of his +tongue, he could not wait for Matti's plodding interpretation, but +dashed at it himself, and surprised and tickled his hearers with his +white-hot vehemence. +</P> + +<P> +They were mighty arguers and had the advantage of the language, but he +brought them to his will by sheer force of insistence. He had right on +his side, and he would have them to it also. They grumblingly yielded +the shore on certain days of the week, and Blair rejoiced in this +further sign of growth and progress. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, however, he knew that they were busily at work on the +preparation of arguments of a more forceful description, and he had +little hope of reaching his ultimate goal without these coming into +use. So small a spark might set them all aflame that it was useless +attempting to forecast it or to stifle it in advance. All he could do +was to endeavour, by every means in his power, to build up among them +the new influences which he and his friends represented, so that when +the time came they should count as factors in the case. +</P> + +<P> +The houses in the village were all more or less laughable imitations of +the mission-house, for they were as imitative as monkeys, so long as +imitation imposed no restrictions, and at sight of the white men's +houses they pulled down their own and began again with these as models. +And when they got to boat-building, the canoes of their fathers were no +longer good enough for them. Their new boats must follow the lines of +the white men's boats also, to Blair's great satisfaction, since it +entailed mighty labours, and while they were busy they were safe from +outbreaks on side issues. +</P> + +<P> +At the mission-station all worked alike; the men breaking up the ground +for plants and vegetables, and attending to the live stock, the women +doing the housework and cooking. All day long the house was surrounded +by an inquisitive throng, which watched keenly and commented fully and +frankly on everything it saw, and with whom the busy workers carried on +disjointed conversations, and picked up native words in exchange for +English ones, amid shouts of laughter at the multitudinous mistakes on +either side. +</P> + +<P> +Morning and evening the white men held a short service, and the brown +men and women caught up the hymn tunes and hummed them lustily, with no +slightest idea of what they meant, but with none the less enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +The small harmonium had been brought ashore and was a huge delight, and +for a time a mighty mystery to them. Jean played it, and they could +not understand why it should sing when she touched the keys and remain +mute when they did the same. Then one cunning fellow, by dint of +persistent watching, caught sight of her feet moving beneath her dress, +and with an excited "Hi!" laid himself flat on his stomach with his +nose at her heels, and the mystery was solved. +</P> + +<P> +The novel tunes ran in their heads, some even of the incomprehensible +words, and it was strange indeed to hear a naked brown man chopping +away at a slab of timber and singing lustily, "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown +'im! kown 'im law-daw-faw!" Later on they heard that tune amid still +stranger surroundings, for the lilt and swing of it captured their +fancy, and they were at it morning, noon, and night—building their +boats, working in the taro fields, sweeping along on the tops of the +rolling combers, sitting outside their houses when the day's work was +done. +</P> + +<P> +There was a hopeful, homely sound in it, and those who sang with +understanding hoped fervently that in time the others might do so too. +</P> + +<P> +They were very children, these brown men and women, in their +light-heartedness, quarrelsomeness, and lack of restraint. Whatsoever +seemed good in their eyes at the moment, that they did, regardless of +consequences. Only at times, the innate savagery showed through, and +then they were to be feared. Like hot-headed children who had never +known restraint, there was no knowing what they would do, except that +it would certainly be something unpleasant to the offending one and +possibly to the bystanders. +</P> + +<P> +They were very magpies, too, in the snapping up of treasure-trove. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't call it stealing," said Blair soothingly to John MacNeil, the +carpenter, who was complaining for the twentieth time of missing tools. +"They don't look on it in that light, you see, John." +</P> + +<P> +"Thievin' blayguards!" said John dourly, minus another tool. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll teach them better soon. Meanwhile, leave nothing lying about if +you can help it, and give them no opportunities. They are so in the +habit of picking up anything they want that it's become part of their +nature." +</P> + +<P> +"Juist thievin' blayguards! I'd clour their heads if I could catch 'em +at it, but it'd need eyes all round to be upsides with 'em." +</P> + +<P> +And when, now and again, John did catch them at it, and proceeded to +clour their heads, they took it quite good-humouredly, and surrendered +their prize with a grin, and bore no malice. +</P> + +<P> +It was a strange right-about-face in the lives of the ladies, and many +a laugh they had over it. +</P> + +<P> +"Jean, my dear," said Aunt Jannet one day, when all four of them were +busily washing and wringing out clothes at the mouth of the river, +"this is a change from Hyde Park, isn't it?" At which, and the +incongruity of associations which sprang up in them at her words, they +all broke into laughter. +</P> + +<P> +Straight in front lay the placid stretch of the lagoon, pulsing softly +to the broken influx through the gap in the reef; beyond it, the crisp, +white leaping hedge of foam along the reef itself; beyond that, the +infinite expanse of sea and sky, and the far-away white line where +upper and lower blue met and kissed: on the one side, the bold green +shoulders of the mountain, feathered with slow-swinging palms, solemn, +mysterious, just a trifle threatening, since Ra'a lived there; on the +beach beyond, a mixed company of brown men and white, busy at +boat-building, with spasmodic outbreaks of "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown +'im!" to the tapping of the hammers: on the other side, the tumbled +rocks of the ridge and the ceaseless growl of the surf; behind them the +white houses of the mission, the bosky valley, peeps of native houses, +sounds of women's voices and children's laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"It is certainly a wider outlook," said Jean cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +Then a slim brown and white figure stole up beside them, and became +immediately all brown, as Nai loosed her towel vestments and began to +wash them in the same way as the white women were doing. +</P> + +<P> +"And here is first-fruits," said Jean. "Good morning, Nai." +</P> + +<P> +"Mawin," smiled Nai, proud of her accomplishments, and spread her +towels to dry in the sun alongside the more complicated garments of +civilisation. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Torch</I> was away with Blair and Stuart on a tour of exploration +round the island, and possibly to one or two of the neighbouring ones. +</P> + +<P> +Blair had been waiting for the opportunity for some time past. Ha'o +had told him of communities on the other side of the island, and he was +desirous of getting in touch with them as soon as possible. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies had wished to go too, but he thought them better at home +till he had spied out the land himself. He intended to land at the +different villages, and the enterprise might not be without its +dangers. Of these he made light, however, and it was with tranquil +minds that those ashore waved their farewells in the early dawn, as the +<I>Torch</I> slipped from her anchorage and wafted lightly down the lagoon. +</P> + +<P> +The times seemed in all ways propitious. Ha'o, indeed, would have +preferred that the white men's favours should have been kept all for +himself, but Blair was at pains to explain to him that nothing less +than the whole island, and if possible all the islands, would satisfy +him. In view of what he knew would follow sooner or later, he tried to +explain to the brown man that if it were possible to unite the various +communities on Kapaa'a under one paramount chief it would be for the +great benefit of all. +</P> + +<P> +To which Ha'o replied succinctly— +</P> + +<P> +"Then we must kill Ra'a," and rose to the prospect. +</P> + +<P> +Ra'a had been quiescent for some time now. There was occasional +friction between members of the various factions, but nothing more than +was to be expected under the circumstances. They were simply +squabbles, resulting in no general disquiet, though symptomatic of the +underlying feeling that was abroad. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o, however, never ceased his warnings. Ra'a he said feelingly, was +not to be trusted, and the only right and proper thing for the white +men to do was to join him in wiping him out, and the sooner the better. +And, simply from a political point of view, Blair could not but confess +to himself that the weight of evidence was in Ha'o's favour. For Ra'a +remained in truculent retirement, and doggedly rejected all efforts at +conciliation. Blair had gone up the mountain more than once since that +first time, and had done his utmost to win him over. Ra'a accepted all +his presents as his rightful due, but gave absolutely nothing in +return, not even worthless promises. He was the black cloud on the +horizon, and they could only hope that he would remain a cloud and not +develop into a storm. +</P> + +<P> +Each week that passed strengthened Ha'o's hands. Not only did it give +him time to arm and consolidate his own little community, but his +numbers were constantly increased by ones and twos, as the dwellers in +the hills took note of the advantages enjoyed by those on the shore +through their intercourse with the white men, and desired to share in +them. Ha'o permitted the return of these prodigals, since it was +better to have them under his hand than beyond his reach. He put +little faith in them, but had the wisdom to keep his feelings to +himself. Blair welcomed them as straws indicative of the current, but +Ha'o, better versed in the ways of his race, pushed on his preparations +for the conflict which he foresaw these very secessions would sooner or +later precipitate. +</P> + +<P> +When Blair told him of his impending trip of exploration, and tried to +induce him to come with them, Ha'o stated bluntly that he preferred to +remain at home. It was not impossible that he had it in his mind that +if anything happened in Blair's absence, he would have the freer hand +to act as he pleased. For the white men were ever on the side of +magnanimity, and magnanimity, where Ra'a was concerned, was to Ha'o +simple foolishness. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +SETBACKS +</P> + +<P> +So the <I>Torch</I> slipped down the lagoon like a picture, and Nai and the +other ladies completed their laundry operations, and in due course the +red sun dropped into the sea, without the explosive hiss which seemed +inevitable, and night fell on the little community as peacefully as +usual. +</P> + +<P> +Evans conducted their evening service, and the attentive ring of brown +men and women round the platform of the house hummed the tunes gaily, +echoed the white "Amen" with the gusto of children after a long sermon, +and dispersed like big bumble-bees to their homes. +</P> + +<P> +Jean could not sleep that night. It was the first time she and Kenneth +had been separated, since their marriage, and she felt as lonely as the +circumstances demanded. She got up at last and slipped on a +dressing-gown, and went out and sat on the platform. +</P> + +<P> +The soft lip-lap of the water on the beach, and the distant growl of +the surf, were soothing, and she sat looking at the great new stars, +with which she was becoming friendly by degrees, and thinking of her +husband, and wondering how far he had got, and of the vast change her +marriage had made in her life. +</P> + +<P> +She had never for one moment regretted it. All her heaven on earth was +centred in Kenneth. So long as he remained to her, all the rest was +nothing. And before long they would begin to see the fruit of their +quiet sowing, the Dark Islands would be dark no longer, and they would +be living a quiet, happy life among a new and contented people. It was +a grand and glorious work. No, she had no regrets—since she had +Kenneth. +</P> + +<P> +On her right across the river, as she sat facing the sea, the mountain +loomed sombre and menacing—the hill Difficulty. Her thoughts ran back +to that trying morning when she and Kenneth faced the hill, and what it +held, all alone, not knowing whether they would ever come back alive. +Like many another hill on life's highway, its menace had been chiefly +in their own fears, and had disappeared on closer acquaintance. How +she wished that uncomfortable man Ra'a would go away, or be reconciled +to his brother, or do anything that would allow the community to settle +down in peace to its new life's work. +</P> + +<P> +She knew much of Blair's great hopes and large ideas, and how essential +he considered it that the islands should as soon as possible attain to +some kind of central government, so that they might unite in opposing +an inflexible front to any attempt at interference from the outside. +The Dark Islands for the Dark Islanders was his aim and object in life +at present, and this truculent savage on the hill there was keeping +everything back. She almost had it in her heart to wish Ra'a's speedy +and sudden death. +</P> + +<P> +Blair had often spoken of the evils that had followed the admission of +traders in others of the South Sea Islands—drink, disease, +dispossession—and how the communities were ruined before ever they had +a chance of better things. Yes, surely, she thought, if Ra'a could +meet with some happy accident, which would end him, it would be for the +good of the community at large. That was not a thought that would +commend itself to Kenneth, she knew, but she could not help thinking +it. What a mighty relief it would be if Ha'o walked in some morning, +and said, "Ra'a is dead." She felt as if she could almost forgive him +if he had done the deed himself. +</P> + +<P> +Then she thought she heard, a sound in the gloom of the hillside. She +strained into the darkness and listened intently. She heard nothing, +but still felt a sense of discomfort. After all, it might quite likely +be one of the natives prowling about, though, as a rule, their fear of +ghosts and evil spirits kept them indoors after nightfall, and it +needed very strong inducement to take them abroad. +</P> + +<P> +She was still peering towards the hill with puckered brow, when a +curdling, short-cut yell ripped the silence behind, in the direction of +the village, and in a moment pandemonium seemed loosed, and the night +was alive with horrors—screams and yells and all the turmoil of +warfare. +</P> + +<P> +That first deadly cry sent Jean flying inside for Aunt Jannet. The +good lady met her at the door of her own room with an anxious— +</P> + +<P> +"What in the name of goodness——?" and then Alison Evans and Mary +Stuart came tumbling in upon them, and Evans called to them from the +ground outside to stop where they were, and they would be all right. +</P> + +<P> +It was not in human nature, however, to stand huddled in the dark, +asking one another questions which none of them could answer, when the +answer was shrieking outside, and they all crept, trembling, to the +verandah, and stood silently facing the danger, whatever it might be. +</P> + +<P> +They heard Evans quietly ordering his men, and felt safer. And beyond, +the shouts and yells waxed and waned and wavered to and fro. Once they +thought they were coming in their direction, and their hearts thumped +painfully. Then the tumult drifted away again, and at last passed +furiously towards the taro fields, and died away on the mountain-side. +</P> + +<P> +Then new sounds arose, cries of victory, little less blood-curdling +than the shouts of battle, and the ladies crept back into the dark +room, assured of their own safety, but with horrible premonitions of +what these might portend. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the shadowy darkness over by the river resolved itself into a +mob of black figures which came towards the mission-houses, leaping and +brandishing its newly-fleshed weapons, and shouting at the top of its +voice, in horrible incongruity, and the more horrible in that the tune +was perfectly correct, "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im! +Law-daw-faw!" +</P> + +<P> +They circled the fence, leaping and shouting and singing, and the men +of the yacht inside grasped their weapons to repel an onslaught. But +the brown men had had their fill of fighting for that night, and were +only there to advertise their victory. +</P> + +<P> +Evans said a word or two to them, but learned only that Ra'a had come +down from the hill and attacked the village, but that they had been +ready for him. They were too excited to be able to give any details +yet, and presently they drew off and went shouting and singing home. +</P> + +<P> +Jean, with something of a shock, remembered her ill-wishes for Ra'a, +and wondered with discomfort, now that the bald possibility faced her +so closely, if they had been realised. If they had, she would feel +almost as if she had had a hand in his death. +</P> + +<P> +Then a native drum began beating in the village, and the ceaseless +monotony of its deep, dolorous boom fretted their ears, and set their +hearts jumping, and jangled their nerves to the point of agony. They +covered their ears with their hands, they stuffed their fingers into +them, but the drum beat in through their temples. They clasped their +heads tightly to keep them from splitting, but the drum beat in all the +same. When it ceased abruptly at last, and they ventured to lift their +heads, they saw one another's pale faces in a faint gleam that stole in +through the windows. The darkness over the village was pulsing with +the glow of great fires, and as they glanced fearfully at one another +they knew that the same horrible thought was in all their minds. +</P> + +<P> +It was dawn before the noises died away, and Evans came in to them with +a grim, grey face. He said nothing, but nodded silently—and their +horror was confirmed. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, truly, it was a decided change from Kensington and Hyde Park. +</P> + +<P> +No soul from the village came near them that day, nor did any of them +venture out except Evans, who went along twice during the day to see +what was going on, but returned each time with pinched lips and a +despondent shake of the head. +</P> + +<P> +The following day the brown men were about again, but sluggishly, as +though the fight had used up all their energies, or something else had +clogged them. It was another two days before they settled down to +work, and even then they were not quite as they had been. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o had kept away from them. When Evans came across him at last, he +endeavoured to get some particulars of the fight, and gathered that +Ra'a had probably watched the departure of the <I>Torch</I>, and thought it +an opportunity not to be missed. He had crept down in the dark, hoping +to surprise the village, and then make easy prey of the mission-houses +and their contents. Ha'o had foreseen the possibility of such an +attempt. Evans understood him to say that in Ra'a's place it was just +what he would have done himself. So he had men on the watch, and the +rest slept armed, and instead of a surprise, the hill-men walked into +an ambush—and paid. Ra'a himself had escaped, leaving a dozen or so +of his men behind. They had eaten them, said Ha'o, in a +matter-of-course way. Ra'a had gone farther into the hills, and to +follow him would be dangerous. And so to the boat-building once more, +and much singing of "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im!" which sounded more +than ever out of place under the circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +Nai also put in an appearance that day, and to such an extent does the +mind prejudice the eye, that it seemed to Jean and the rest that even +she was changed from what she had been. In a word, it was difficult to +look upon any of these sleek brown men and women without thinking with +disgust of the horrible orgies in which they had been indulging. Their +humanity seemed but skin deep, and just below it the wild beast lurked +and peeped through the glancing black eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Nor was it easy to conceal their feelings entirely, and perhaps Nai's +womanly intuition perceived a touch of frost in the atmosphere. She +stayed but a short time, and then went quietly away. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," said Jean, with a sense of discomfort; "but really I could +not feel towards her quite as usual." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you couldn't—nobody could," said Aunt Jannet briskly. "If +I knew how to talk to them, I'd tell them what I think of the whole +business. I'd make their ears tingle, I warrant you." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Kenneth was here. He would know just what to do." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll tell you, my dear, that it's no good talking to them. You must +just go slow, and break them off it by degrees. All the same, it would +be a relief to one's mind to give them a right good scolding." +</P> + +<P> +"They've been used to it all their lives, you see." +</P> + +<P> +"All the worse for them. They ought to be ashamed of themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"But that's just what they don't understand. Suppose a brown man came +over to England and remonstrated with us for killing and eating +beautiful little lambs and graceful cows——" +</P> + +<P> +"Fudge, child! Lambs and cows aren't human beings," grunted Aunt +Jannet. "They haven't souls." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know that the fact of men having souls makes much difference +when it's only a question of their dead bodies being eaten. But I do +hope Kenneth can break them off it! It is too horrible! And one can't +help thinking of it every time one looks at them. Though I suppose it +was just the same before we came." +</P> + +<P> +"What they did before we came was not our fault. What they do now is, +and the sooner Kenneth puts a stop to it the better," was Aunt Jannet's +final word. +</P> + +<P> +Matters went on quietly—Evans and the men of the yacht clearing and +breaking up ground for trial plantings of various seeds, the brown men +busy on their boats to the tune of "Kown 'im!" the women, brown and +white, busy on their household duties, the children laughing and +screaming—till, on the seventh day, a brown runner came, fresh from +the surf behind the ridge, to tell them that the <I>Torch</I> was in sight. +And instantly they dropped what they were at, to scramble up the +shoulder of the hill and wave their joyful welcome. Not a white man or +woman there but felt a new sense of security and hopefulness at sight +of her, and it was chiefly because on board of her was the wise head +and great heart to which they had all come to look for guidance and +inspiration in their work. +</P> + +<P> +It was a very joyful meeting when the anchor rattled down, and Blair +and Stuart and Captain Cathie jumped ashore from the whale-boat, and +the brown men welcomed them, outwardly at all events, with as much +gusto as the whites. +</P> + +<P> +And great stories Blair and the others had to tell of their doings out +beyond. The brown men and women crowded round the platform till late +into the night, laughing and chattering with appreciation of the white +men's volubility, though they could not understand a word of it all. +</P> + +<P> +It had been a most satisfactory trip. They had visited all the six +islands of the group, and had landed at various places on each of them. +They had found the natives suspicious at first, but amenable to +presents and open to their advances when they found nothing ulterior in +them. In fact, in several places, when the brown men found them +actually going away, without any attempts at kidnapping or otherwise +molesting them, they followed in their canoes for long distances +begging them to return. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a glorious field," said Blair, stretching out his arms +energetically as though to gather it all in at once, "if we can only +occupy it and fence it round before the degraders come. And we must, +for one of those islands given over to the devil would be like a plague +spot infecting all the rest." +</P> + +<P> +Then they told him of the happenings at home. He was startled at +Ra'a's outbreak and at thought of the consequences if it had proved +successful. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate the thought of coercing him or any one," he said thoughtfully; +"but until he either comes in, which I fear is hopeless, or is got rid +of in some way, he is going to be a terrible hindrance to our work." +</P> + +<P> +"Deport him to yon outer island, Mr. Blair, with such of his people as +stick to him," suggested Cathie; "then the rest will have peace." +</P> + +<P> +"Easily said, captain, and a good idea; but how?" +</P> + +<P> +"It would mean fighting, I suppose," said Cathie briskly, "unless +common-sense led him to give in quietly. Sometimes it pays best in the +long run to grip your nettle at once and grip it hard." +</P> + +<P> +"He'll never give in till he is forced to," said Blair. "Yet I can't +see my way to use our force against him. How can we preach peace to +these people if we begin by using the sword ourselves?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you give the rest peace, it may be better than preaching it," said +Aunt Jannet. "I agree with Captain Cathie. There'll be no peace till +that man is got rid of. And, for goodness' sake, do stop them eating +one another, Kenneth. I haven't enjoyed a meal since, and I can't look +at one of them without thinking that a day or two ago he was munching +one of his fellows." +</P> + +<P> +"We shall break them off it by degrees." +</P> + +<P> +"By degrees!—by degrees!" cried Aunt Jannet. "It is too horrible. +You ought to go straight to Ha'o and tell him we won't have any more of +it." +</P> + +<P> +"And suppose he said, as would be very natural, that he'd do as he +pleased? What would you do then, Aunt Jannet?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd tell him if he didn't stop it I'd make him, or else we'd all go +away and leave him." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, well, you see, we can't make him and we're not going away, so it's +no good telling him that. We must use our common sense. These people +have eaten human flesh all their lives. It is the greatest treat they +can have. If you argued the point with Ha'o, he would probably say +that, as between man and pig, man is the cleaner feeder of the two, and +therefore must be the better eating. When we have pigs enough, we'll +work them on to pork. Until we can get them on to something they like +as much, or, better still, get them to feel that man was not meant to +be eaten by man, I fear words won't go for much." +</P> + +<P> +"And do you mean to say that you'll pass the matter over without a +word, Kenneth?" asked Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't say that, and I don't intend to. But if you imagine, Aunt +Jannet, that a cannibal is going to give up his daintiest dish simply +for being spoken to, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." +</P> + +<P> +He made his first attempt against cannibalism the next day, and +returned from it with a humorous twinkle in his eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" asked Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Blair, "Ha'o holds that it can't be wrong for him to eat +men when we do the same." +</P> + +<P> +"If he'll wait till he sees us doing it, I'll find no fault with him." +</P> + +<P> +"I assured him that white people never ate human flesh. And what do +you think was his proof that we did? He pointed to some of those +corned-beef tins with George Washington's head on the label, and said, +'There!' and nothing I could say would convince him that George +Washington did not represent the contents. He is under the impression +that we can our people at home for convenience, and carry them about +with us in that way. I assured him it was cow, but it was no use. He +could not believe anyone would kill such a beautiful animal as a cow +simply for food. He said he would give ten men for one cow any day. +So there we are, you see. It will be a matter of time. Meanwhile, I +suggest peeling George Washington off the rest of those meat tins!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I never!" said Aunt Jannet. "And Ra'a?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is as anxious as you and Captain Cathie to make an end of him; but +he acknowledges that it would be dangerous to follow him into the +hills, and would certainly mean considerable loss of life, so for the +present I have dissuaded him from it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XIX +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +FORWARD +</P> + +<P> +This is not a missionary chronicle, but simply a brief record of some +of the doings of Jean and Kenneth Blair. It is impossible, therefore, +to enter into anything like a detailed account of their work among +their chosen people, interesting as that would be. Only the more +salient points can be touched upon, such as stood out from the level of +hard, plodding, often dry and dreary work, as God's mountain +masterpieces stand out in our travel-memories, and remain with us when +the long level plains are forgotten. And just as the mountain's +grandeur is the record of Nature's strife and endurance, so these +salient points in a man's life as a rule mark battle-grounds and +commemorate strife—and sometimes victory. +</P> + +<P> +Kenneth Blair always found a vast and quite unique enjoyment in the +first beginnings of things. I myself have heard him express a +whimsically-veiled, but none the less profound, regret that it had not +been possible for him to be present at the very first beginning of all, +when "in the dim grey dawn of things, earth drew from out the void and +rounded to its shape." +</P> + +<P> +It was very characteristic of the man, and explains to some extent the +whole-hearted delight he found in his work in the Dark Islands. +</P> + +<P> +Here, if not a new-created world, was one sunk in nether gloom, to +which no glimmer of the light had yet penetrated. As regards things +spiritual, it was virgin soil—worse, it was a veritable swamp of +heathenism, a quagmire overlaid with the strangling growths and +festering remains of ages of superstition, cruelty, and thick darkness. +And this in one of the fairest spots on earth. +</P> + +<P> +You anti-missioners, who sit at home and mumble platitudes on the +needless waste of life and time and money, spent in the effort to lift +these outer fringes of the night, how very little you know! +</P> + +<P> +They are quite happy as they are, those outer ones, you say. Life +comes—and goes—easily with them. They have all they want. Why +disturb them? Why introduce upsetting notions? Why open their minds +to wants only to fill them at so heavy a cost? +</P> + +<P> +The answer is so simple. Would you see any child of yours condemned, +for no fault of its own, to sit in outer darkness, if at any cost to +yourself you could open the door to the light and warmth you yourself +enjoy? Would you refrain from opening the door to a neighbour's child, +to a stranger's child, to any child whatsoever, if your hand was on the +handle? +</P> + +<P> +These others are children also. In spite of their blue skies and +crystal seas and waving palms, they are buried in a darkness like unto +death. It is for us who rejoice in the light to help them towards it. +Our own great inheritance carries with it an inevitable and inalienable +obligation. Shirk it we may and do, cancel it we cannot. +</P> + +<P> +It was the recognition of this paramount duty, in perhaps somewhat +abnormal measure, that made Kenneth Blair what he was. He brought to +the work the white fire of a mighty enthusiasm which nothing could +damp, and which did one good to look upon. The spur of what he deemed +a former lapse urged him at times, perhaps, to extremes in the matter +of personal risk; but if any man ever carried the courage of his +convictions to their fullest limit, without a thought for himself, that +did Kenneth Blair. With it all a simplicity of manner which was never +at fault, because it assumed nothing; a natural gaiety and +high-heartedness which carried him bravely through many a difficult +place, and drew even the brown men to him; and a width of view, with a +long forward reach, which might have made a statesman of him, had he +not chosen this higher path. +</P> + +<P> +To see him at football on the beach with a shrieking crowd of brown +boys, himself as much a boy as the nakedest of the lot, was one thing. +And to see him pondering, or hear him unfolding to the others, his +plans for the Dark Islands, was quite another. +</P> + +<P> +He had seen the strange, and in some cases awful, developments of +civilisation in some of the other islands. He had pondered them for +years, and had studied cause and effect from germ to ultimate issue. +They were as warning lights to him. The wonderful chance which placed +in his hands the financial lever had awakened mighty hopes in him. In +his mind's eye he saw the Dark Islands enlightened, self-governing, +self-possessing, self-supporting—a prospect worth any man's life's +work. +</P> + +<P> +Of the preliminary clearing work, then, we will say little. It was dry +and dull and dreary enough at times to provoke Aunt Jannet Harvey to +active remonstrance at the apparent inactivity of the propaganda. But +the quiet work, confined as it was almost entirely to the presentation +of better ways of life by force of example, and the very occasional +dropping here and there of a seed of precept, began to show some small +signs of fruit at last. +</P> + +<P> +Within a very short time Nai's advanced notions in the matter of dress +had caught on, and instead of the precarious ridi fringe, towels, or, +in default of them, a strip of striped calico, had become the +fashionable female attire. Within six months the brown men were going +about fully clothed—in a loin cloth. +</P> + +<P> +"It's better than nothing," said Aunt Jannet. "It keeps them from +looking absolutely indecent anyway, and as for the children it doesn't +matter," for the children all flatly refused any attempt to clothe +them. Time after time she had made furtive experiments on them, but +they all proved abortive. They took her gifts of cloth and so on +willingly, but turned them to unexpected and unintended uses. +</P> + +<P> +Within six months the children were coming to school—some of them, and +irregularly—and were actually, in some cases, beginning to have vague +ideas as to why they came. It was not much, but it was in the right +direction. +</P> + +<P> +Within six months the white men had learned enough of the language to +be able, with their additional slight knowledge of Samoan, to +understand and make themselves understood—to some extent. And the +brown men, in exchange, had acquired a number of English words and had +added considerably to their repertoire of hymns—the tunes they picked +up marvellously, and the words they chattered like parrots. +</P> + +<P> +They had also learned to handle white men's tools with facility, and +they still stole them when opportunity offered, though not quite so +freely as at first. They had also seen marvellous things come up out +of the earth from the white men's plantings, and had learned to what +uses they could be put. They had seen wonders of the white men's +ingenuity, chief among which was the diversion of a rapid little +stream, which from time immemorial had flowed to the sea on the other +side of the ridge. By a very simple damming operation, to which the +cracks and cavities of the ridge readily lent themselves, the torrent +now came down the nearer side, and by means of a water-wheel, of John +MacNeil's construction operated a circular saw and various other +labour-saving appliances, and then flowed in a sparkling stream through +the middle of the mission settlement. The water-wheel and the circular +saw were endless enjoyments to the brown men, women, and children, and +they would sit watching them by the hour when they could have been more +profitably employed about their other affairs. +</P> + +<P> +Matters politic had also advanced somewhat. In place of three parties +in the close neighbourhood of the station, there were now only two. +Ra'a was still at large in the hills, but the leaderless faction had +gradually disintegrated, some few joining him, but the larger portion +returning by degrees to their allegiance to Ha'o, drawn thereto by the +manifest advantages of the white men's friendliness. +</P> + +<P> +And Ha'o himself had behaved well. Constant intercourse, even through +the misty medium of scarce understood tongues, with men like Blair and +Stuart and Evans, could not but have its effect on any man, and on this +clear-headed, sharp-witted savage the effects had been very marked. +</P> + +<P> +He was naturally intelligent, and, according to his lights, of a most +gentlemanly disposition. His understanding developed still more +through his observation of the white men and their ways. He recognised +their superiority in most things and, as headman of his tribe, was +emulous of their accomplishment. He lapsed at lengthening intervals +into his natural savageries, but, beyond this, never swerved by a +hair's breadth from his loyalty to the men who had restored him to his +home. +</P> + +<P> +Nai was rejoicing mightily in the possession of a sleek, plump, +black-eyed baby, the first son born to Ha'o. His other wives had given +him daughters, but since his return to the island, and their tardy +return to him, he had declined to have anything to do with any of them +beyond seeing that they were fed. Nai's community in his dangers and +sufferings had concentrated all his savage affections upon her, and now +she had justified him by giving him a son. +</P> + +<P> +Blair reposed great faith in these three, and counted on them as +corner-stones in the mighty future. +</P> + +<P> +The valley of the gods had proved a famous breeding-place. Goats and +pigs and ducks abounded there. The brown men had been introduced to +roast pig and goat flesh, and found it equal almost to man flesh. But +nothing would induce them to go there for it. +</P> + +<P> +So, with mighty labours, for the animals were become perfectly wild in +their freedom, a number of them were given the run of the island, and +the novel excitements of the chase bade fair to afford the brown men +full vent for the energies that had hitherto run in the direction of +battle and murder and sudden death. Certainly the newcomers played +havoc for a time with the taro fields and plantain and banana groves. +But this also made for good, since it involved fencing operations on an +extensive scale, and steady work tended to keep the devil of idle hands +at bay. +</P> + +<P> +"The curse of savagery is the lack of employment," was one of Blair's +maxims. "They get to fighting simply from having nothing else to do. +Get them to work, and it is a mighty step upwards." +</P> + +<P> +So, but for Ra'a, the recalcitrant, the reunion of the tribe on this +side of the island would have been complete. And this was so essential +to Blair's far-reaching plans for its safety and redemption that he +spared no pains to bring it about. +</P> + +<P> +At risk which could not be estimated, he went up alone into the hills +more than once to endeavour to reconcile the insubordinates to the +facts of the case. He guaranteed them life, liberty, and equal +advantages with the rest if they would return to their allegiance. +Failing that, he offered them safe conduct to one of the smaller, +thinly-populated islands, with supplies of tools, seeds, and animals, +and the assistance of one of his colleagues in turning these to account. +</P> + +<P> +But Ra'a would have none of it, and his dominant will so far was strong +enough to keep his turbulent crew from breaking away towards the +fleshpots. The loosing of the pigs and goats had provided them also +with food and sport, and, since collisions between the various hunting +parties were not infrequent, life was eminently tolerable, though it +lived on the point of death. +</P> + +<P> +On these embassies Blair had emphatically declined to take Jean with +him, on account of the indefiniteness of the journeying. Ra'a was +constantly shifting camp, and each time he had to be sought afresh, +with the imminent chance of the seeker meeting death in the quest. +Jean dreaded these lonely journeys terribly, but she acquiesced +sensibly, and each time bade him farewell in the full knowledge that it +might be for the last time. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-200"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-200.jpg" ALT="It might be for the last time." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +It might be for the last time. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +She was, indeed, becoming reconciled to partings as incidental to the +missionary life. The <I>Torch</I> was constantly coming and going among the +islands now, and sometimes the ladies were allowed to go and sometimes +not. Relations with the outlying tribes were progressing +satisfactorily. In most cases, after two or three calls with no +exhibition of cloven hoofs or ulterior designs on the part of their +visitors, the natives welcomed them in the most friendly fashion. In +some cases they still held back, and regarded them with suspicion and +distrust, but on the whole the tendency was towards confidence and +friendship. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XX +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +MANY FORMS OF GRACE +</P> + +<P> +We have glanced at the higher phases of Kenneth Blair's character, the +more homely ones were no less strenuous and striking. +</P> + +<P> +Anything less like a saint in daily life one could hardly imagine. In +his love of fun and frolic he was a big, clean-hearted schoolboy, full +of jokes, and with a laugh that did one good to listen to and was as +infectious as the mumps. Out of harness, on the sands or in the sea, +with the brown men and boys and his own, or up the hills after pigs and +goats, he let himself go with an abandon which only helped to brace the +straps when he geared again. +</P> + +<P> +He set them to football, cricket, boxing, and fencing, for all of which +his foresight had made provision, kite-flying on a scale so gigantic as +to set the natives gaping, rowing, swimming—anything and everything +that might harmlessly take the place of the excitements their savage +natures craved, and which served at the same time to strengthen the +bonds between white and brown, he pressed into the service. +</P> + +<P> +The boxing-gloves and basket-hilted fencing-sticks became absolute +means of grace to the islanders. Here was scope for fighting to any +extent, with no ill results. They took to them amazingly, and what was +lacking in science was more than made up in zeal. And if these +fighting bouts filled specific wants of their own, they also provided +no less excellent entertainment for the onlookers. +</P> + +<P> +At first they put both gloves and sticks to the primitive service of +belabouring their opponents to the utmost capacity of their muscles, +and the sight of two stalwart brown men, clad only in boxing-gloves or +basket-hilt, pounding away at one another with every ounce that was in +them, and with never an attempt at defence, kept the white men in +paroxysms of laughter. But punishment even of so comparatively mild a +character as that soon led to more advanced ideas, and before long the +browns were a match for the whites, and were never tired of the sport. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, when he was not ranging the seas in the <I>Torch</I>, put +his men through their cutlass drill on the beach as regularly as if the +houses behind had been a coastguard instead of a mission-station, and +to the brown men this was a sight never to be missed. The measured +sweep and clash of the glancing steel fascinated them. Presently they +were asking for cutlass drill also, and it was not denied them. Such +things might to some seem roundabout steps on the road to salvation—to +Kenneth Blair they were very direct and important ones. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-202"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-202.jpg" ALT="Steps on the road to salvation." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Steps on the road to salvation. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +With these brown men and women he was forbearing and long-suffering to +a degree which, in the opinion of some of his friends, passed +reasonable bounds. That, perhaps, only went to prove the breadth and +depth of his nature. He could flame, however, with the best when +occasion called, yet there was a righteousness in his anger which +lifted it above the common anger of smaller men. +</P> + +<P> +From whatever distant strain they drew, the girls of Kapaa'a were +undoubtedly good looking. Physically they were models of sinuous +beauty, wild, dark-eyed nymphs, with manes of flower-decked hair and +natural graces of action that came of ages of unfettered life and +limbs. Their pretty faces and kittenish ways might well play havoc +with the hearts—or say the fancies—of hot-blooded young sailormen, +and these coquettes of the ridi-fringe were no whit behind their kind +in the full appreciation of their powers. +</P> + +<P> +Blair saw the danger as soon as he saw the girls. He had a way of +looking facts square in the face without any blinking. He talked very +straight to his boys, pointing out the cons of the case with the utmost +frankness, and exhorting them to caution and restraint in their dealing +with the island women. That so few casualties occurred spoke volumes +for his moral grip over his men. +</P> + +<P> +The danger was very real, for the brown girls' estimation of the +attentions of the white men was open and unblushing, and tended to +irritation on the part of discarded brown lovers. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, in one of his bluffer moments, bluntly suggested +wholesale marriage as a preventive of irregularities, and the starting +of a new race on that basis, instancing the Pitcairners as typical +resultants. But Blair bade him postpone any such notions until the +islanders had at all events attained to some degree of civilisation. +</P> + +<P> +"Trained and educated, there is no reason why our island girls should +not make excellent wives," said he; "but the time is not ripe yet. +Nothing but bitterness and disillusion can come of the mingling of +natures so opposite. Meanwhile, if our lads can stand the test they +will be all the better for it." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing serious happened—outwardly at any rate, though it is not +impossible that a good deal went on of which the authorities were not +aware—until, one day, one of the men was missing, and no one knew—or +at all events would say—what had become of him. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie discovered the lapsus when he had his men out for drill +on the beach. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Sandy Lean?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +No answer, but covert grins from the rest, and flashes of laughter from +the girls who were watching—laughter which evoked a growl from the +brown men. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well! We'll deal with Sandy afterwards. Fall in, men! +'Tention!" and the drill proceeded. +</P> + +<P> +When it was over, the captain questioned two or three of them as to +Sandy's probable whereabouts, but got nothing out of them. So he +marched over to Blair's quarters, where the four heads of the community +were hammering away at the language, Ha'o giving and receiving, and +Matti straightening out kinks. +</P> + +<P> +"Sandy Lean's away, Mr. Blair, and I can't get track of him," announced +the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" and Blair drummed quietly on the table till the hot anger cooled. +"So that's come at last," he said presently. "I'm sorry. The man's a +fool, but as he has chosen, so he must lie." +</P> + +<P> +He explained the matter to Ha'o, who showed no surprise and still less +annoyance. His manner even implied that he looked upon the alliance as +an honour to Kapaa'a, and that any other view of it might be popularly +resented. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you find the man for us?" asked Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want with him?" asked Ha'o. +</P> + +<P> +"He must marry the girl." +</P> + +<P> +"I will find him," and next day he brought word that the fugitives were +camped lightly in the hills, in one of the houses vacated by the +dissolved third faction. +</P> + +<P> +Blair, Cathie, and Ha'o accordingly set off at once to straighten the +matter out, and a couple of hours' climbing brought them to the place. +</P> + +<P> +Sandy Lean's old mother in Greenock Vennel would surely not have known +him in his present estate. With the bonds and trammels of civilisation +he had lightly discarded also its outward and visible tokens. His only +clothing was a kilt of white cotton, whereby he was already paying +tribute to folly in the clouds of flies and mosquitoes which levied +toll on his white skin. In the hope of circumventing them, or with a +loverly idea of assimilation to his brown bride, he had smeared himself +with mud from the taro fields, and was now a motley pastel in black and +red and white. +</P> + +<P> +The sound of his voice, droning a comic song, drew them to the house, +where he lay flat on his back on a mat. By his side sat the brown +girl, doing her best to keep off the flies with a bunch of leaves. +</P> + +<P> +"Hoots, lassie, scat 'em!—scat 'em!" he broke out. "They nip like the +de'il himsel'. It's the kiss of a cold Scotch mist I'm wantin'." +</P> + +<P> +The dusky bride greeted the newcomers with a smile broad enough to +typify her happiness and victory. She had proved herself stronger than +the white men, and was satisfied with her prize. She had woven a +garland of crimson hibiscus into her dark hair and another round her +neck, and with her lustrous eyes and gleaming smile she made a very +pretty picture. In a playful mood she had also inserted a crimson +flower behind each ear of her captive, and when, at her warning word, +he sat up suddenly, he looked supremely silly and was aware of it. +</P> + +<P> +"So you've made your choice, Lean?" said Blair quietly. +</P> + +<P> +And Sandy glowered back at him with defiant confusion, while the flies +settled on his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the first to fall away from us," said Blair, "and it would have +been better, I think, if you had waited. However, as you have decided, +so it must be. You have no wife at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Stand up before me with the girl and take her hand." +</P> + +<P> +They stood up in their surprise, and he read the marriage service over +them, insisting on Sandy's responses and taking the girl's for granted, +since there was no possible doubt about her wishes. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," he said, when it was over, "she is your wife, and you are at +liberty to return to the village. Ha'o will see you married again +there according to the island custom, so that the people may understand +that you really are married. You have taken yourself off the ship's +books, of course, and you will have to support yourself and your wife. +I hope you will treat her well. No doubt her relatives will see to it +if you do not. It would, I think, be as well for you to keep in touch +with the mission, and we will do what we can to help you. You can have +tools and seeds. If you get into any trouble, come to me. Now +goodbye—and—see you treat that girl well." And they left the +newly-married couple to their honeymooning. +</P> + +<P> +It was some days before Mr. and Mrs. Sandy descended from the clouds to +the humdrum cares of life. Ha'o punctiliously performed over them all +the rites and ceremonies observable in marriage on Kapaa'a, and before +they were ended the bridegroom began to weary of all the fuss and to +long for the easier accommodations of civilised life. +</P> + +<P> +But Sandy's troubles were only beginning. With much labour he built +for himself and his wife a house of parts, and his wife's relatives +expressed themselves highly pleased with it, and immediately quartered +themselves there, not simply in very great contentment, but fairly +uplifted with their lot. They began to put on airs on the strength of +the lofty alliance, and at the same time to put off even such trifling +habits of labour and thrift as had hitherto supplied their daily wants +without any undue exertion. Sandy remonstrated verbally, and at times +otherwise, but custom was against him, and there was no shirking the +burden. The other men visited him pretty regularly, and gave him a +hand with his planting in their spare time; but in spite of his pretty +wife, with her odd, outlandish ways, the sight of his full house +offered them no inducements to follow his example. He was a standing +warning to the rest, and so was not without his uses. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +MIGHT OF RIGHT +</P> + +<P> +Matters were progressing thus, surely if slowly, when a sudden sharp +stroke fell upon them—sudden, but not altogether unlooked for. +</P> + +<P> +With the individual as with the nation, peaceful times are growing +times; and yet, to both individual and nation, there come times of +stress and strife, when the slow upbuilding of the years is put sharply +to the test, and, surviving, is the stronger for the strain. Winter's +storms provoke the oak to deepest rooting. +</P> + +<P> +At times, indeed, too long a period of peaceful growth may lead to +over-fatness and deterioration. The nation and the man that waxes +over-fat grows lean of soul. But that is a side issue at the moment. +The little community on Kapaa'a was too near to its swaddling bands to +be in any danger of fatty degeneration. And yet the stressful time +that came to it made for good in every way. It had been striking roots +and feelers. Well for it that time had been given them to grip the +soil before the storm burst. As it was, they only gripped the tighter, +and the breaking of the storm cleared the air, and made for more +prosperous weather. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, in his capacity of watch-dog, had never for a single +moment relaxed his precautions at home, or his keen-eyed vigilance +abroad. When he was touring the islands, his glasses swept the horizon +continually, with a special eye to the east, which was the threatening +quarter. +</P> + +<P> +"Those yellow deevils will come back, as sure as we're here," was his +constant word. +</P> + +<P> +And so the beach was never bare of stacks of neatly-cut wood from away +up the valley, and the bunkers of the <I>Torch</I> were always full, and the +men were regularly drilled, and Long Tom was ready to speak at a +moment's notice. +</P> + +<P> +Each day, when the <I>Torch</I> lay at anchor in the lagoon, he took the +steam-launch, or, occasionally, one of the whale-boats, by way of +exercise for muscles, through the reef, to an offing whence he could +obtain wide views of the approaches to the islands. +</P> + +<P> +"In there," he would say, "I feel like a man with his back to the wall. +It's safe enough, but there's no telling what's behind it." +</P> + +<P> +And the wall was quite too high to climb, for the only eastward view +from the summit of the hill was of the higher ridge, which ran right +across the island, with only one possible passage, and that but a +narrow one. +</P> + +<P> +They used to mildly chaff the old man about his fears, but he took it +all with characteristic good humour. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay, all right!" he would say. "Just you wait, and we'll see who +laughs last. When they come, it'll be no laughing matter, I'm +thinking." +</P> + +<P> +"They've probably forgotten all about us by this time, and have found +easier pickings elsewhere," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"That kind doesn't forget in a hurry, and they know they've only got to +break us up to get all the pickings here they want," said Cathie +stubbornly. +</P> + +<P> +And it was thanks to these ceaseless precautions that, when the time +came, they were not taken unawares. +</P> + +<P> +Cathie had run out in the launch one morning as usual, and presently +came plunging back through the passage with a haste that betokened the +unusual. +</P> + +<P> +"They're coming," he said quietly, as the others met him on the beach. +</P> + +<P> +"What, the nightmares?" said Blair, with a keen glance, for the captain +was not above a joke. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, the nightmares, sure enough. A brig and two tops'l schooners +working up steady from the south-east. They'll carry a heap of men, +I'm thinking, and we'll have our hands full." +</P> + +<P> +"Right? How soon can they be here, captain?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wind's light—a couple of hours, I should say, at soonest." +</P> + +<P> +"Our old plans stand?" +</P> + +<P> +They had long since discussed the possible campaign, though not very +lately. +</P> + +<P> +"If they have as many men as I expect, we'll have to change 'em a bit. +Unless they're absolute fools, which it's as well not to reckon on, +they'll split and strike us more than one side at once. There's easy +landing the other side the island." +</P> + +<P> +"But a difficult way across." +</P> + +<P> +"They don't know that, and they'll trust to luck to get across once +they're ashore." +</P> + +<P> +"You can keep this side all safe with the <I>Torch</I>, I suppose, captain?" +</P> + +<P> +"Any quarter this time?" asked Cathie anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Make quite sure of their intentions first. Then, if they are what we +have reason to suspect, hit hard and end it." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll keep this side all safe," said Cathie briskly, "and when I've +cleared them here, I'll take a run round to the back and wipe 'em up +there too." +</P> + +<P> +"How many men can you spare us, captain?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can do with six besides those below," said Cathie, after a moment's +consideration. "Under steam we'll have the weather gauge all the time, +and we'll give 'em no chance to board." +</P> + +<P> +"That leaves us ten. Give us your ten best, captain, and see that each +man has a revolver in addition to his Winchester and cutlass. Better +beat up your men at once with the drum, Ha'o. What about Ra'a? Will +he rest quiet, or will he take advantage of the matter to attack us, or +will he help us?" +</P> + +<P> +"He won't help. He may attack. If we are beaten, he is chief," said +Ha'o, with a look which implied that the proper thing to do under the +circumstances was to wipe out Ra'a forthwith. +</P> + +<P> +"Run the ladies across to the Happy Valley at once then, captain, and +take Lean and his wife to look after them, if she'll go. Will you send +your women and children there too, Ha'o? They would be safe from Ra'a, +at all events." +</P> + +<P> +But Ha'o, knowing his people, shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"They will not go." +</P> + +<P> +And so it proved. Fighting, the women understood, though they did not +like it, but spirits they neither understood nor liked, and they would +take no risks in such matters. They chose in preference to go up the +southern hill, where they could keep a look-out for Ra'a and could +scatter if he showed head. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies understood the necessities of the case. Their preparations +were quickly made, and within the hour they were landed in the Happy +Valley, with Sandy Lean, armed to the teeth, to guard them from any +stray yellow skins who might get in, an eventuality which was not at +all likely. Sandy's wife chose to go with her man, which was a +gratifying sign of moral improvement through marriage, and they tried +their best to get Nai and her baby boy to go too, but she would not. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie saw to the armament of the land contingent, and gave +them a strenuous word or two of his own. Then he carried the <I>Torch</I> +through the passage in the reef and lay waiting for his prey. +</P> + +<P> +Close upon a hundred men answered the call of the drum. They were +armed only with fire-hardened wooden spears and clubs, and the axes +they had used in more peaceful pursuits. But they had had no fighting +for some time past, they were defending their hearths and homes, and +with the yellow men keen in their memories, they were aching to be at +them. And the little band of heavily-armed whites gave both edge and +backbone to their courage and made them formidable. +</P> + +<P> +Blair, Stuart, and Evans carried Winchesters and revolvers. +</P> + +<P> +"Our cause is a just one," said Blair. "We will defend it by every +means in our power. These men's blood is on their own heads." And +there was that in all their faces which boded ill for the invaders. +</P> + +<P> +The only communication between the east and west sides of the island +was over a dip in the central ridge which, from its most prominent +feature, they had named One-Tree Pass. On the farther side the slope +was gradual and easy. On the mission side the ground was so broken, +and the ascent so precipitous, that for all ordinary usage the pass was +impracticable. No one ever dreamed of using it unless under most +urgent necessity. No more urgent necessity had ever arisen than this +present, and One-Tree Pass for once in its life became the active +centre of the island. +</P> + +<P> +The defending force scrambled up the broken way, and before it reached +the pass Long Tom was bellowing angrily behind them, and was answered +by another gun which sounded equally loud and defiant. The hill +shoulders, however, hid what was going on, and they could only hope +that Captain Cathie would be able to hold his own and something more. +</P> + +<P> +Blair placed his men among the boulders overlooking the pass, and crept +on along the ridge with Ha'o and Evans and Stuart, until they could +look out over the long, easy sweep of the hill to the farther sea. +</P> + +<P> +Opposite the landing-place lay the two schooners, with boats plying +rapidly between them and the shore. The landing had evidently been +disputed. The village was in flames and brown figures were creeping +cautiously up the hill. The beach was filling rapidly with men from +the ships. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be a couple of hours before they get here," said Blair, and +with instinctive foresight, in view of his greater work, "I wish we +could get hold of those brown fellows. If they know that we're +fighting their battle, it will pave our way with them later on." +</P> + +<P> +He put it to Ha'o, and eventually the latter slipped away down the +hillside, none too eagerly, to endeavour to intercept the fugitives and +bring them in, if it were possible. +</P> + +<P> +There was no difficulty in intercepting them. They were flying for +their lives. Bringing them in, however, was quite another matter. +</P> + +<P> +They recognised Ha'o, by his speech, as from the other side of the +island—hostile therefore, and not to be trusted; and it took all his +diplomacy, through the veil of a different dialect, to persuade the +first half-dozen to the venture. +</P> + +<P> +The sight of Blair, however, reassured them. They recognised him from +his calls in the <I>Torch</I>, and presently they were off along the hills +to bring in their fellows. +</P> + +<P> +Altogether about thirty terrified men and women came in. The women +were sent on down the valley. The men lay down among the rocks with +the defending party. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the marauders had completed their landing and had begun their +march, like the shadow of a black cloud creeping slowly up the +hillside. Before them, urged on by blows from behind, crept two +reluctant brown guides with ropes round their necks. There was no fear +of the yellow men missing the pass. They toiled upward with stubborn +determination, and wasted breath in voluble commination of the length +of the way, when they could have employed it more usefully in +compassing it. +</P> + +<P> +And there was no possible doubt of their intentions. Slaughter and +plunder were written all over them, as plain to see as the nature of a +hyæna in the cut of its slinking face. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, Blair would permit no attack unchallenged. As the +bristling crest of the black wave foamed cursing into the level of the +pass, he drew cautiously back under cover till the whole should be +there. When he struck, he would strike with all his might. This was a +nettle to be gripped hard, to be squeezed to pulp and trampled out of +sight. +</P> + +<P> +The yellow men flung themselves flat and cursed their wind back. And +the pass lay blank and bare and open under the glare of the sun. Not a +stone rattled, not a shadow moved. The one lone palm seemed cast in +brown. +</P> + +<P> +In due course, and with the aid of many curses, the marauders got to +their feet at last, and came pressing loosely along behind their +unwilling guides. They passed unchallenged the place where Blair knelt +behind a big rock. Below and on each side, pinched brown faces craned +anxiously over restless brown shoulders at him, eager for the word. It +was not till the motley crew had passed that he stepped out suddenly +from his cover, and stood, a tall white figure, in the sun-glare. +</P> + +<P> +"Hola!" he cried. "What are you after?" And instantly such a +villainous array of vicious yellow faces was turned on him as he had +never before in his life set eyes on. +</P> + +<P> +A babble broke out among them. +</P> + +<P> +"Dios! It is he!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is the fighting padre!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is the devil himself!" +</P> + +<P> +"Down with him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Our turn now, señor missionary!" +</P> + +<P> +And one answer to his question which needed no knowledge of bastard +Spanish for its translation. A sharp report, and a bullet buzzed past +his head. +</P> + +<P> +Other guns were rising to correct the insufficiency of the first. +</P> + +<P> +"Give it them, boys!" shouted Blair, and before the words were out of +his mouth, rocks and fire-pointed spears were raining on them, back and +front, and as they tried in vain to face both sides at once, there came +the quick crackle of the Winchesters and a ringing cheer from the +<I>Torch</I> men at the end of the pass. +</P> + +<P> +The yellow men reeled under their flailing. The ground was cumbered +with bodies and the air with curses. The momentary panic drove them in +upon themselves and bunched them together. +</P> + +<P> +But the weak point about the thrown spear as a weapon of offence is the +fact that, once hurled, it is gone. The yellow men were an +undisciplined mob, Ishmaelites all, accustomed every man to fight for +himself and ready to fight at any moment, but their death dealers +remained in their hands, and they outnumbered the <I>Torch</I> men by seven +to one. The Torches poured in volley after volley. The yellow men +tightened their defence and replied in kind; while the brown men danced +wildly among the rocks, and hurled stones and clubs, and were shot down +like rabbits. +</P> + +<P> +Blair's men were falling all round him. The sight was too much for +him. He snatched a club from the ground and sprang down the hillside. +In a moment the sides of the pass vomited brown men frenzied for the +fight. +</P> + +<P> +"Kown 'im!—kown 'im!—kown 'im!" they yelled, and hurled themselves on +the enemy. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Torch</I> men, reduced in number, fired one more round and came +racing in with their cutlasses. The yellow men replied, and then +clubbed their guns and thrashed wildly at the advancing tide. +</P> + +<P> +Under such conditions, and with the might of right as well as numbers +against them, the yellow men gave way and drifted back towards the +mouth of the pass, fighting stubbornly all the way. +</P> + +<P> +And Kenneth Blair forgot that he was a man of peace. He saw his brown +men falling all round him, ripped and bashed and broken, and he dashed +into that fight as he had dashed into many a more peaceful one on the +football field at home. He saw nothing at the moment but the vicious +yellow faces and shaggy heads of the despoilers. He knew nothing but +the necessity of demolishing them, and with his unaccustomed club he +smote with all his might at every head he could reach, as his forbears +long ago struck down the Northmen when they came wading ashore from +their beaked ships on the coast of Caledonia. +</P> + +<P> +The brown men eyed him with amazement, and yelled with unholy joy at +sight of his Berserk fury. The teacher was a man like themselves, and +could let himself loose like the rest of them. And Blair thought +neither of them nor himself, or of anything whatsoever, save the +necessity of ridding the island of the vermin that would pollute it. +</P> + +<P> +For once in his life he tasted the wild, mad joy of battle. +</P> + +<P> +His red club whirled and fell, and wherever it fell there fell a gap, +and in him raged a red fury which nothing could appease or oppose. +</P> + +<P> +He would surely have been a terrible sight to himself—his white face +set to slaughter, and smeared with blood from a bullet graze on the +temple, his white clothes spattered red, his eyes ablaze, and that +murderous red club whirling and smashing to the tune that plunged in +his veins. +</P> + +<P> +At the end of the pass, where it dipped towards the sea, the yellow men +broke, and it was over, so far as danger to the island was concerned. +But not by any means over as concerned the yellow men. Never yet did +enemy break and flee but prudence and restraint fled with him. +Cast-iron discipline may leash it in the bulk, but in the individual +the lust of death will out and have its way. The wild beast that lurks +in every man once roused is ill to curb, and hardest, maybe, in the man +not easily provoked. And here was no pretence of discipline. The +furies were afoot that day, and death and destruction were rampant. +</P> + +<P> +Blair found himself plunging down the hill path after a scattered mob +of yellow men. They were too breathless to curse. Their only hope was +the sea. +</P> + +<P> +The prey was escaping. Terror lent it wings stronger than the fury +behind. He hurled his dripping club among them, and one man fell. +</P> + +<P> +At one side, among the boulders, he caught a glimpse of Ha'o, all +aflame with battle, doing dreadful things with a dripping red axe. So +horrible did he look, so utterly inhuman and wholly possessed of the +devil, that Blair gasped at the sight. Then he stumbled to a rock and +dropped his bursting head into his hands—and came to himself. +</P> + +<P> +The pursuit sped on down the hillside. The yells and shouts died away +towards the sea. +</P> + +<P> +He raised his head at last, and his bloodshot eyes looked heavily after +them. +</P> + +<P> +"God forgive me!" he gasped. "I have been in hell." +</P> + +<P> +He jumped up with the idea of stopping the work he had started. But +that was impossible. As well try to stop the mountain snow in its +death gallop. The red fury had gone down the hill like an avalanche. +Until its force was spent it must run its course. +</P> + +<P> +Now that the fire had died out of him he found his legs trembling so +that he could hardly walk. He sank down again on his boulder and drew +his hand dazedly across his brow, streaking it horribly with fresh +smears of blood. +</P> + +<P> +He looked round him, at the blue sea, the white surge, the quiet ships. +He heard the shouts below. He saw a boat put off from the shore and +labour heavily towards one of the ships. +</P> + +<P> +"God forgive me!" he groaned once more. "I have been killing men." +</P> + +<P> +But the only man he was actually conscious of killing was the one at +whom he had hurled his club in his last spasm. And when he got up +heavily, and went down to him where he lay in the glare of the sun, he +found the man was not dead, and he was glad. He carried him carefully +to the partial shelter of a rock, and propped him up, and gave him +water from a runlet close by. He drank deeply himself, and washed his +hands and face and plunged his head under water. He noticed now for +the first time that his white jacket was spattered all over with blood. +He tore it off and flung it from him. +</P> + +<P> +The reaction which followed his temporary possession left him limp and +exhausted, and burdened with a heavy mental load which as yet he made +no attempt at lightening. +</P> + +<P> +Then he went slowly down the hill, and saw one of the schooners loosing +her sails in a hurried and shifty fashion. From that he gathered that +some of the invaders had escaped, and he was too unaccustomed a warrior +to regret it. +</P> + +<P> +The rest, who had followed the pursuit to the shore, were held back by +no such considerations however. To them the yellow men were enemies to +be smitten hip and thigh, to be destroyed root and branch. When they +reached the beach and saw the broken boat-load lumbering towards the +schooner, the <I>Torch</I> men and a number of natives flung themselves into +one of the other boats and set off after them with the most final +intentions. +</P> + +<P> +The schooner caught the breeze and began to make way. The <I>Torch</I> men +played on her with their Winchesters, a chance shot dropped the +helmsman, her head fell off, and she was theirs. Some of the yellow +men jumped overboard. For the rest—well, the Torches knew Captain +Cathie's views, and the islanders were of a like mind. +</P> + +<P> +Blair passed several dead men as he went down the hill, but saw no +wounded ones. As he neared the remains of the village he came upon the +bodies of the first victims of the invasion, brown men and women and +children. +</P> + +<P> +He had seen nothing of Evans and Stuart since the fight began. Evans +he had placed in command of the Torches; Stuart had been in charge of +the opposite side of the pass. +</P> + +<P> +The brown men were leaping about the beach inflated with their victory. +The <I>Torch</I> men had anchored the one schooner and were now securing the +other. +</P> + +<P> +A sudden shout along the beach showed him a yellow man fleeing for his +life with half a dozen islanders after him. He had been hidden in the +bushes till they stumbled upon him. The sight of his twitching face +and agonised eyes remained with Blair for many a day. There had been +many such eyes and faces up there on the hillside, but he had had no +eyes to see them. Now he was himself, and would stop the dreadful work. +</P> + +<P> +He ran towards the man to succour him. But succour was the last thing +the other looked for in him. His long knife was in his hand. Escape +was hopeless, but here was a chance for a blow in return. He flew at +Blair like a wild cat, and drove the knife at his neck. Blair swerved +instinctively, and it went through his shoulder. The wild cat was on +him with gnashing teeth and flaming eyes, snarling, grappling, biting +him. +</P> + +<P> +They rolled over and over in the sand. Then sinewy brown fingers +gripped the other and tore him away, with a mouthful of Blair's shirt +between his teeth, and in a moment he lay still. +</P> + +<P> +Blair lay still also. The last things he remembered were the horror of +that animalised snarling grip, and a dreadful agony in the shoulder as +he rolled over in the sand with the knife still sticking in him. +</P> + +<P> +When he came to, he found himself the centre of a group of the island +men who were looking down on him with troubled faces. They gave a +shout when he opened his eyes, and presently he was sitting up showing +them how to bind up the wound with strips of his torn shirt. The knife +had been pulled out while he lay unconscious—for the sake of the knife. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Torch</I> men came leisurely ashore after securing the schooner and +found him so. He had lost blood freely both from head and shoulder, +and felt sick and dizzy. They made a stretcher out of a couple of oars +and a native mat, and at his request carried him at once up the hill to +the pass. +</P> + +<P> +He was anxious about the others; he had no recollection of seeing them +since the fight began. It seemed to him that since he picked up that +club and leaped down into the pass he had seen nothing but vicious +yellow faces and evil eyes, and broken heads, and bodies that suddenly +crumbled and fell. +</P> + +<P> +His mind was relieved by the sight of Evans as soon as they topped the +pass. And at distant sight of the stretcher Evans came running up with +an anxious face. +</P> + +<P> +"Serious?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't think so. A jag through the arm and a scratch on the face, but +I felt sick and couldn't climb the hill. Where's Stuart?" +</P> + +<P> +"Back here. Got a bullet through the leg. No bones broken, but he +won't walk for a week or two." +</P> + +<P> +"Many others wounded?" +</P> + +<P> +"Two Torches, half a dozen natives, and a dozen of the yellow men. +Frightful blackguards they are too. Makes me wish they'd been killed +outright just to look at them." +</P> + +<P> +Blair nodded. He could not plead wholly guiltless in that respect. +</P> + +<P> +A dozen yellow men on their hands would be an anxiety and a burden. A +light affliction, however, compared with what might have been if the +invaders had caught them napping. And so they must make the best of +it, and be thankful for things as they were. +</P> + +<P> +"Now see here, boys," he said, sitting up on the stretcher. "We've had +our fight and by God's mercy we've won. I'm afraid we all lost our +heads a bit while it was on"—at which, and their recollection of him +in the fight, the sailors grinned—"and I think we cannot blame +ourselves for that. But these men who are left on our hands are tabu. +The islanders will kill them if they get the chance, and we must +prevent it. What is done in the hot blood of battle is done. But +killing in cold blood is murder. You have all fought valiantly. Don't +spoil it by any such doings. And, by the way, Evans, there's another +of them lying under a rock to the left of the path over there. You +might see to him. I flung my club after a bunch of them and this +fellow went down, but he was only stunned." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go and bring him up at once, before the brown fellows come." +</P> + +<P> +"No news of Cathie, I suppose. When did his big gun stop?" +</P> + +<P> +"Over an hour ago. We've no news. I hope it's all right. I'd have +sent down but I'd no one to send." +</P> + +<P> +"Which of you boys will go for news?" asked Blair. "I doubt if we can +all get down to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"That you can't," said Evans. "It'll be a case of go easy for some +days for all you hipped ones." +</P> + +<P> +All the men volunteered at once. Every one of them was keen to know +what had been going on on the other side of the island. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem fairly fresh, Irvine. Tell Captain Cathie how we've gone on +here, and that casualties are not serious. If he can spare us some +more help we can do with it to get the wounded down. Ask him to send +word to the ladies also. They will be anxious about us all. And if he +can send us something to eat we'll be glad of it. I'm feeling empty +after it all." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go after your half-deader," said Evans. "One of you come with me +in case he can't walk." +</P> + +<P> +But he was back empty-handed in a quarter of an hour. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone?" asked Blair, with a pinched face. +</P> + +<P> +"He's dead, but you didn't kill him. Some one came after you and split +his head with an axe." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" said Blair gloomily, "these others will fare the same unless we +see to it. We'll go to them, Evans, in case any of our brown friends +come prowling round." +</P> + +<P> +But the brown men were much too busy, and we may drop more of a veil +over their proceedings than the night did. Big fires were glowing +along the beach before it was dark, and no brown man came up the hill +that night. +</P> + +<P> +They went along to the temporary hospital Evans had made among the +rocks. The beds consisted of the softest patches of ground he could +find, and the only furnishings were the patients. He had hastily +bandaged their wounds, however, and all, except the yellow men, were +fairly cheerful. +</P> + +<P> +Stuart, indeed, became almost hilarious at sight of Blair as an invalid +also. +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking ill of myself for getting hit," he said; "but since +you're in the same boat I feel better." +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to be of use," said Blair, "and very thankful things are no +worse. They might have been. There were more of them than I expected, +and they fought harder than their cause justified." +</P> + +<P> +"Even rats will fight in a corner," said Evans. +</P> + +<P> +Just before dark Captain Cathie came panting in on them, in the best of +spirits and with many rough words for the road. He had half a dozen of +his men with him, and they brought an ample supply of food. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, captain, how have things gone with you?" +</P> + +<P> +"We mustn't complain, sir. He'd brought a gun along as heavy as ours +and we had a fine set-to. But with our steam we had the weather hand +all the time and just waltzed round him. He did his best to board, but +we thought differently." +</P> + +<P> +"And how did it end? Where is he now?" +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie jabbed his finger downwards two or three times in +eloquent silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Sunk?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sunk with all aboard, big gun and all. No more trouble from that +quarter. We plugged him more than once below the water-line and we saw +he was settling down. But it came sudden at the end." +</P> + +<P> +"And you were not able to save any of them?" +</P> + +<P> +"We were not"—said Cathie emphatically, and after a moment's pause +added—"and what on earth would we have done with 'em if we had?" +</P> + +<P> +"We have about a dozen on our hands here—all wounded." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" grunted Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +"We couldn't very well kill them in cold blood, you see." +</P> + +<P> +"And what'll you do with 'em, Mr. Blair?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know yet. We'll have to think that over. Did you send word +to the ladies how things had gone all round?" +</P> + +<P> +"I went over myself with young Irvine and told 'em all about it. They +were all very thankful it was over and no more harm done." +</P> + +<P> +"And how is the <I>Torch</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" said the old man, with an aggrieved shake of the head, "she got +it pretty hot; that's why I couldn't get round to wipe out those +schooners. Both her masts are down, and she got a shot into the +machinery. The men are seeing what they can do to it. The masts we +can fit ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"And you've no casualties?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some splinter wounds and some bit bruises from the spars. Nothing of +consequence, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we're very well through a nasty job, captain, and we've reason +to be thankful for it. Now suppose we have something to eat—I'm +starving." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +PAX +</P> + +<P> +It took some days to get matters shipshape after the general upheaval +of the invasion. +</P> + +<P> +For one thing, the brown men were much too busy on the other side of +the island to settle down to ordinary work. Most of the women and +children had joined them there, the villages were deserted, and there +was an intangible something in the mental and moral atmosphere which +made for depression. +</P> + +<P> +Blair sent Evans over to see Ha'o, and endeavour to bring him back to +his right mind. Evans returned downcast, and described what he had +seen only to Blair and Stuart. Aunt Jannet, if she had heard, would +have had a fit. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies were back in their own homes, and the crippled Blackbirds +were bottled up in the Happy Valley, under the wardership of Sandy Lean +and his wife and a small guard of <I>Torch</I> men. It seemed like +desecration of the beautiful spot to use it as a prison, but it was the +only place in the island where the yellow men would be reasonably safe +from the brown ones. +</P> + +<P> +The stars in their courses fought for Joshua. In like manner the +strange, stern facts of life fought now for Kenneth Blair. The cloud +which had threatened his work with destruction broke in unexpected +blessing. The fight in One-Tree Pass was an epoch in the history of +Kapaa'a. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place it had brought into line—fighting line indeed, but +none the less permanent on that account—the various factions in the +island, and developed among them a hitherto undreamed-of community of +interests. Not by any means for the first time in history, a general +menace from without welded into one a diversity of hostile fragments, +and discovered to them an unexpected identity of ideas. On a +microscopic scale it was, in its results, the Franco-German war over +again. +</P> + +<P> +The men from the eastern coast, who had borne the first brunt of the +invasion, had lost everything, including their headman. But they had +found more than they had lost. They had found out that the western men +were not necessarily their enemies, and that both they and the white +men were ready to fight to the death to save the island from the grip +of the yellow men. +</P> + +<P> +They fully recognised that without the white men's help the marauders +would have had their will, and matters would in all probability have +gone very differently. In their way they were grateful, and by no +means blind to the advantages of the white alliance. That their +gratitude was based in no small degree on a sense of favours to come, +in no way lessened its utility as a factor in the solution of political +difficulties. +</P> + +<P> +They too would share the benefits reaped by the western men from the +white men's friendship, and when differences arose amongst them at once +as to the choice of a headman, it was the most natural thing in the +world to refer the rival claims to Blair, who might reasonably be +expected to be without local bias in the matter. +</P> + +<P> +The opportunity was too good to be lost. Blair was at pains to make +clear to them the great advantages which would accrue from the union of +all the communities under one head, and finally they argued the matter +out among themselves and agreed to accept Ha'o as chief, with local +headmen chosen by him and Blair. +</P> + +<P> +They reaped their harvest at once and were content. Their houses were +rebuilt, tools were given them, and they were initiated into the +mysteries of the new foods and fruits introduced by the white men. A +proper road was promised to further communication between the opposite +sides of the island, and, so far, the descent of the Blackbirds made +for good. +</P> + +<P> +In another and quite unexpected direction also the invasion wrought in +the direction of Blair's aims. +</P> + +<P> +They were all sitting on the verandah of his house one night, watching +the lightning play tremulously up and down the western sky, listening +to the surf, and discussing matters generally. Captain Cathie, in the +little leisure the refitting of the <I>Torch</I> afforded him, was much +exercised in his mind as to what was to be done with the prisoners. +Aunt Jannet had just expressed the opinion that it was a very great +pity they had not all been scuttled. +</P> + +<P> +"It does seem a pity you could not have made a clean sweep of them like +Captain Cathie did, Kenneth," said she. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see, we couldn't kill them in cold blood, Aunt Jannet." +</P> + +<P> +"And now you've got them alive in cold blood what on earth are you +going to do with them?" +</P> + +<P> +"I see nothing for it but shipping them off home as soon as they are +fit to travel. What do you say, Cathie?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose there's nothing else for it," said Cathie gloomily. "We +don't want them here, and yet I'm loth to turn them loose." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think they'll ever come back, after the reception they had +this time." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know that they will, but they'll be at the same game somewhere +else. I look on them as I do on mad dogs—best got rid of." +</P> + +<P> +"Right!" said Aunt Jannet with emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +"The trouble is that men are not dogs, you see——" +</P> + +<P> +"That they're not. Dogs are mostly honest and good to look at," said +Aunt Jannet again. +</P> + +<P> +"We could put them on one of the schooners, and you could convoy them +part way home," said Blair to Cathie. "I really don't think we have +anything more to fear from them." +</P> + +<P> +"I can do all that," said Cathie. "But all the same I'd as lieve they +were none of them going home." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you never know. If ever they can do us a mischief you may take +your davy they'll do it." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't really see what they can do, captain." +</P> + +<P> +But Cathie only shook his head. Perhaps his ideas were too vague to +clothe in words. +</P> + +<P> +Just then a shadowy figure slipped out of the darkness under the house, +reached up, and rolled something softly along the platform towards them. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello! What's this?" said Cathie. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-231"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-231.jpg" ALT=""Hello! what's this?"" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"Hello! what's this?" +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"A present—for Aunt Jannet, I should say," laughed Blair. "Some dusky +admirer bringing tribute." +</P> + +<P> +"A thankoffering to the wounded warriors," said Evans. +</P> + +<P> +"An unusually fine coco-nut," said Stuart, tipping it with his usable +foot. "Carefully wrapped in leaves, too." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie picked it up, and began to open the bundle. Evans +struck a match, and match and bundle fell suddenly with a dull, dead +bump to the floor, and were followed by a quite involuntary and +seamanlike oath from the captain. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" cried the younger ladies in a breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Come away!" said Aunt Jannet hastily, and set the example herself. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a man's head," said Evans gravely, as he tried to light a lamp. +</P> + +<P> +And when the lamp was lit, and the bundle lay open in their midst, they +saw that he was right—it was the head of a man. +</P> + +<P> +An exclamation burst from Blair as he bent over the ghastly offering, +while the others wondered what it might mean. +</P> + +<P> +Was it a challenge?—a defiance?—a threat? +</P> + +<P> +None of these. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the head of Ra'a," said Blair at last. "I wonder who it was +that brought it? If we knew that, we might guess what it means." +</P> + +<P> +There had been no fighting of late between Ha'o's people and Ra'a's. +In fact, the quiescence of the latter during the other troubles had +been cause for congratulation. And since then everything had been +quiet in the villages—over-quiet, the quietness of repletion. Evans +had indeed begun to fear ill results from the over-indulgence of savage +appetites. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you make of it, captain?" asked Blair at last, as of one more +versed than the rest in heathen ways. +</P> + +<P> +"Hanged if I know!" said the old man, with a puzzled frown. +</P> + +<P> +"I take it, it is a sign of submission on the part of Ra'a's men," said +Blair quietly. "Ra'a himself would never have come in of his own +accord. His men have wanted to, and so they have brought him." +</P> + +<P> +"I shouldn't wonder," said Cathie. "It's just the thing they might do." +</P> + +<P> +And in the morning they sent up early for Ha'o, and showed him the +message, and asked his opinion. +</P> + +<P> +"Kenni is right," he said at last. "They submit." +</P> + +<P> +And presently he went boldly up the mountain-side and in due course +came back with Ra'a's followers in a straggling tail behind him. +</P> + +<P> +He explained afterwards to Blair that Ra'a's men had wanted for a long +time past to come in and enjoy all the benefits they saw the others +receiving, but Ra'a had held them back, telling them that the whites +were only tricking Ha'o and his people and would presently carry them +away. They had seen the arrival of the Blackbird ships, had watched +the fight at sea, and also that in the pass, and these had convinced +them of the good intentions of the white men. Finally they had taken +matters into their own hands and settled things their own way. +</P> + +<P> +And so the divisions in the island were healed by blood, and that which +had seemed like to wreck their hopes turned marvellously to their +highest good. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE SCOURGE OF GOD +</P> + +<P> +But there was trouble of a quite unexpected kind brewing. +</P> + +<P> +The yellow men in their lives had slain a certain number of the brown. +In their deaths they slew still more. +</P> + +<P> +The whites had hoped that, with the introduction of new food supplies, +the unnatural but deep-rooted native craving for human flesh would have +disappeared. The final rites of the battlefield shocked them +exceedingly, and words had so far failed to convince Ha'o and his +people of the error of their ways. +</P> + +<P> +"You eat pig," was Ha'o's blunt argument in reply, "and man is cleaner +than pig." +</P> + +<P> +There was, however, an argument in preparation for him with which the +white men had nothing whatever to do, but which drove home conviction +beyond dispute and in the most terrifying fashion. +</P> + +<P> +Ever since the fighting, and the subsequent orgies, the villages had +been unusually quiet. Even the wholesale submission of Ra'a's men +produced little excitement among them. +</P> + +<P> +"They are like snakes after a full meal," said Cathie. "They've eaten +too much, and it'll take 'em all their time to digest it." +</P> + +<P> +Evans, however, had his doubts. He hinted to Blair that he feared an +outbreak of sickness, but as yet could form no opinion as to its +character. The men had lost all their energy, the women were +depressed, the children listless. It was as though the strenuous +doings at One-Tree Pass had sucked all the life out of them. And Evans +went in and out of the houses with a keen eye for symptoms. +</P> + +<P> +It was about a fortnight after the fight that Blair, going up to the +village, met him coming hastily from it, and was startled at the sight +of his face. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Evans?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It's come—I feared it, but could not be sure—smallpox." +</P> + +<P> +"God help us! ... How has it got here?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can only imagine," said Evans, with a quick, meaning look at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God! How very horrible!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. They'll have a lesson they'll never forget, and many of them +will never have the chance to. What about our wives, Blair? Shall we +send them away till it is over?" +</P> + +<P> +Kenneth Blair's lips pinched tight at the thought of it all, and he +walked heavily and in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"We are in God's hands," he said at last. "I think it must be left to +themselves to decide." +</P> + +<P> +"Then they will stop," said Evans decisively. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they will stop," said Blair. "God grant us a safe deliverance!" +</P> + +<P> +"Amen!" said Evans, and they walked in the shadow of the coming death. +</P> + +<P> +The ladies received the news with white faces but stout hearts, and did +not hesitate one moment. +</P> + +<P> +Their place was beside the men. They did not wait to count the cost, +though in each one of them was the dull, dread knowledge of what that +cost might be. Their duty was to these brown kinsfolk of their +adoption, and they were British born. +</P> + +<P> +Evans took charge of the defence with all the energy and skill that +were in him, and, possessing their souls in God, they all went quietly +into the fight, compared with which the battle of One-Tree Pass was +veriest child's play. +</P> + +<P> +The village was sheltered by the bush and the crowding palms. Every +man was taken off the dismantled <I>Torch</I>, and set to work building a +hospital on the beach, a long, open house of poles and palm-leaves, +through which the fresh sea breezes could blow at will. Soft springy +couches of palm-leaves were ranged inside, and the simple preparations +were complete. +</P> + +<P> +Not the smallest of the horrors and perplexities of the situation was +the wholesale nature of the seizure. Springing from one identical +cause, the results came all together. The hospital was filled before +it was finished, and the builders could not keep pace with the demands +for accommodation. +</P> + +<P> +Not one of Ra'a's people suffered—clear indication of the ghastly +origin of the evil. Blair induced them to return for the time being to +their village on the hillside, and such of Ha'o's people as showed no +signs of infection he camped temporarily on the opposite hill. Every +house from which the sick were carried was promptly burned. The brown +folk could not understand such radical measures, but they were scared +by the sights they saw, and they did as they were told. +</P> + +<P> +So suddenly had the catastrophe come upon them, and in so wholesale a +fashion, that their thoughts had had no time to travel beyond their own +immediate concerns. But when the work was steadily under way Blair +bethought him suddenly of their new allies on the east coast, and he +begged Captain Cathie to run round in the launch and see how matters +were going with them. +</P> + +<P> +Cathie returned in due course with a long face and the news that things +were just as bad there, and Stuart and his wife promptly offered to go +round and carry out the same measures as had been started at the home +settlement. They were given half a dozen <I>Torch</I> men, whom they could +ill spare. Evans promised to come round as soon as he possibly could, +and the launch chuffed gallantly away to the relief of the still more +necessitous on the other side of the island. Stuart could still only +limp, and would have been better not to attempt even that, but the +healing of his own wound was a small thing compared with that which had +to be done. As a matter of fact he limped slightly for the rest of his +life in consequence—a most honourable limp. +</P> + +<P> +Then followed for all of them a time of patient endurance and endless +self-sacrifice, which, trying as it was, still wrought mightily for and +in them. +</P> + +<P> +They went to and fro in that long open shed with quiet set faces, +soothing and alleviating as far as these were possible, whispering hope +to the hopeless, and insisting inflexibly on the observance of rules in +which the only hope lay, rules the meaning of which these brown +children could not understand, and which they broke at every +opportunity. +</P> + +<P> +Death sat grimly down before them and laid siege to them, and the +little band of white-faced women and grim-faced men fought him day by +day and life by life, losing heavily but refusing to be beaten. +</P> + +<P> +They met one another with such cheerfulness as they could muster, and +even with quiet strained smiles at times, but ever with keen +apprehensive glances for what each feared any day to find in the other. +A time for the trying of souls, with none of the glamour and activities +of actual warfare, but with perils infinitely more appalling in their +insidiousness and impalpability. +</P> + +<P> +"Ech, Jean, my dear!" murmured Aunt Jannet Harvey one evening, as she +and Jean and Alison Evans met outside for a few full draughts of sweet +sea air. "It's terrible, terrible work. You're looking white; child. +I wish you were back in London." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," said Jean cheerfully. "We're doing our appointed work, and +I feel as if I'd never done anything worth doing at home. Kenneth says +he believes this will be a corner-stone in the building up of the +island." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, ay! Well, it's good to be able to take a hopeful view of things +when they're about as bad as they can be. And I don't see that they +could be much worse." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, they could," said Jean quickly. "Some of us might have taken +it, which would be very much worse. We have to thank Mr. Evans for +that, Alison." +</P> + +<P> +"Charlie says he thinks we're through the worst," said Alison quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I could see it," said Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<P> +"We have only had three deaths to-day, and most of the others are past +the crisis. It's been a terrible clearance. There's that poor little +baby crying again. I must go," and they separated to their various +duties. +</P> + +<P> +It was Nai's baby boy that cried, and it died in its mother's arms that +night. She yielded it sorrowfully to those who took away the dead, and +returned wearily to her husband's couch to keep the flies off him with +a palm branch. Nai herself had been too much occupied with her baby to +go with the others across the island after the fight, and she had not +developed the disease. The baby had taken it, however, and Nai had +nursed him and his father indefatigably, and now the boy was gone just +as his father turned the corner, and the little mother was +broken-hearted. They comforted her by telling her that Ha'o would +live, and she fanned away wearily to the tune of her sobs that would +not be kept in. +</P> + +<P> +Jean, as she flitted noiselessly to and fro, with cold water for this +one and medicine for that, and hopeful words for all, and special ones +for Nai, thought now and again of the mighty change her marriage had +wrought in her life, but never once regretted what she had done and all +she had left. And more than once the dreadful thought came upon +her—"Supposing Ken were to take the sickness and die and leave me +alone!" Ah, then she felt as though her world would fall to pieces, +and she prayed, as she had never prayed in her life before, that he +might be spared, or that they might go together. +</P> + +<P> +The one thing that wrought itself indelibly into all their memories was +the contrast between their hospital work and its setting. Inside the +long palm-thatched sheds—the moans and murmurs and restless movements +of the sufferers; the ever-fluttering fans which kept off the plague of +insects, and alleviated to some extent the pungency of the atmosphere; +the irresistible depression induced by the close presence of insidious, +crawling death. And outside—the implacable glare of the sunshine; the +smooth, slow-heaving, blue mirror of the lagoon; the metronomic roar +and long white flashes of the surge on the reef; the palms swinging +slowly and solemnly with a sound like the patter of falling rain; and +up above, the pale blue sky. Death in its most repulsive form, set in +a picture of surpassing beauty, which yet had in it something of +pitilessness from the very sharpness of the contrast. These things +they never forgot. +</P> + +<P> +They held no regular services at these times, for some were always on +duty. But there was much prayer among them, and when the watches +changed, the one in charge, Blair, Evans, or Cathie, would give his +band of helpers a few brave words to carry with them—grateful thanks +for perils past, hopeful prayers for safety in the hours to come. For +they never knew but what the evil seeds might even then be working in +any one of them, and they went with fear in their hearts though their +faith and hope were strong, and their faces were tuned to quietness. +</P> + +<P> +Evans wore himself thin with his ceaseless toils. As medical director +the burden of the fight was on his shoulders, and he divided himself +between the stricken camps in proportion to their needs. The going to +and fro consumed much time, though he himself maintained that it did +him good. But he showed the wear and tear so visibly at last that his +wife, who had had a medical training at home, insisted on taking over +the east coast hospital herself, and she joined Stuart and his wife +there. +</P> + +<P> +The epidemic ran its course, the dead were reverently wrapped in their +mats, weighted with rocks, and towed out to sea on a small raft, and +there committed to the deep. The convalescents began to creep about +the beach and show a languid interest in life. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o was among the first to get into the sunshine. While none were +neglected, Blair and Jean and Nai had nursed him as though all their +lives depended on his recovery. And indeed, to Blair's thinking, very +much more than their simple lives depended on Ha'o. He looked on him +as the corner-stone of the work on Kapaa'a, and his death would have +been a terrible blow to them all. +</P> + +<P> +As Jean had said, he had great hopes that this sharp trial might also +turn to good. He tackled Ha'o the very first day he judged him well +enough for discussion. +</P> + +<P> +"This has been a terrible time, Ha'o, my friend. Have you any idea why +it came upon you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was your new God sent it, I suppose," said Ha'o gloomily, with the +air of a child giving an expected answer with mental reservations of +his own. +</P> + +<P> +"God permits such things. If men will do wrong they must suffer. That +is how they learn to do right. If you want to bang your head against +this rock, God won't stop you. But the recollection of what you suffer +may stop you doing the same again." +</P> + +<P> +"What wrong did we do? You killed the yellow men too." +</P> + +<P> +"But we did not eat them. Not one of us has been ill. Not one of +Ra'a's people has been ill. They also kept apart." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o looked sombrely out over the lagoon. He was thinking of his boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Kenni," he said presently, "I know you do not like us to eat men; but +our fathers did so, and their fathers, and never have we had this +crawling death before." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it was to teach you and your people. See, Ha'o! We want you +to take your right place in the world. It was for that we came. It +was for that we beat off the yellow men who would have carried you +away. We are ready to give our lives to help you. But we must have +the foundations firm or we cannot build. You do not build a house on +running sand, nor a platform on cracking poles." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want me to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Promise me, here and now, that you will never eat man again, and that +you will make it tabu to your people. They will do what you say. They +are frightened. God never meant man to be eaten." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know, Kenni?" +</P> + +<P> +"He forbade man even to kill man, but of the beasts He has provided He +said, 'Kill and eat.'" +</P> + +<P> +"You killed the yellow men," he said again. +</P> + +<P> +"To save you from them." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you did wrong too. Why did the crawling death not touch you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is not right to kill men, yet if a man attacks you, and in +defending yourself he gets killed, the blame is his, not yours." +</P> + +<P> +"You never tasted man, Kenni, did you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, never," said Blair, with an expression of disgust. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you cannot know how good he is. My people think there is nothing +equal to man—except woman or child, which are better still. But I +will promise you never to eat yellow man again, Kenni." +</P> + +<P> +"That is not enough. Unless you will give up eating man of any kind we +must go. We have provided other food. You cannot go hungry. The pigs +and the goats are all over the island. The paw-paws grow while you +sleep. You have taro and bananas, and breadfruit and coco-nuts. You +have the chance to become a nation, strong and powerful. You are sole +chief on Kapaa'a now. I would have you chief of the other islands +also. But if you prefer to eat man I can do nothing for you. It is +the foundation of all the rest that you give up eating man." +</P> + +<P> +"My little son did not eat of the yellow men, Kenni, but your God took +him. Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was the disease took him. It is the most terrible thing for +passing from one to another. Could you stand the thought of your +little son being eaten, Ha'o?" +</P> + +<P> +"My son? No! I would have died sooner than let him be eaten." +</P> + +<P> +"Yet you say other men's babies are good to eat." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o looked at him, and then lay looking out over the lagoon. +</P> + +<P> +"See, Ha'o," said Blair at last, "if the thought of your little son +will turn you from flesh-eating, he will have done more for Kapaa'a in +the short time he lived than you have done in all your life, and we +shall remember Ha'o's little son always as the beginning of the better +times." +</P> + +<P> +The brown man lay thinking a long time and one may not know his +thoughts. But at last he said quietly— +</P> + +<P> +"Twice you have saved my life and my people, Kenni. I am your man. +You must not go away. For the thought of my little son who is dead I +will give up eating man. I will become a nation." +</P> + +<P> +"And you will answer for the rest?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will answer for the rest. If any man eats man I will kill him." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o kept his word, and so, in the death of his little son, the +foundations were laid in Kapaa'a, and the black cloud broke once more +in blessing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +GAIN OF LOSS +</P> + +<P> +With a clean bill of health, and Ha'o as supreme chief anxious to +become a nation, and therefore ready to follow the white men's ideas, +matters began to progress rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +The first thing to be done, as soon as the men could be spared from +hospital work, was to get rid of the Blackbirders. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, vehemently backed up by Aunt Jannet, would even now +have made short work of them. +</P> + +<P> +"Give 'em a fair trial and string 'em up," was his simple idea of the +justice that would meet the case. And "Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet +with energy. +</P> + +<P> +"I really don't think they're likely ever to come back, after the +lesson they've had this time," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"They wouldn't if I had my way," said Cathie grimly. "Vermin like that +is best stamped out when it's under your foot." +</P> + +<P> +"We stamped pretty hard last time. They'll recognise that the game is +not worth the candle." +</P> + +<P> +So, in due course, the larger schooner, which was the older and poorer +found of the two, was provisioned for the voyage, and the prisoners +were brought over from the valley and put on board of her. Blair and +Stuart and Cathie awaited them there, and, through Stuart, Blair told +them very explicitly what would happen if they ever showed face in +those waters again. Then the refitted <I>Torch</I> towed them out to the +offing, and bade them make tracks for home, and followed them with +dogged restraint for three days to see that they did it, and the island +was once more purged of contamination. +</P> + +<P> +When the captain got back, Blair laughingly asked him if they had got +safely away, and Aunt Jannet eyed him with a spark of hope. +</P> + +<P> +"They're gone," said Cathie, with a gloomy nod. "I'd have felt better +if they'd gone by the shorter road." +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to have scuttled them, captain," said Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<P> +Then followed many busy full days. First the village was rebuilt on a +plan Blair had thought out during his hospital watches. The bush +between the hills was all cleared away and burnt on the spot, leaving +only the palms standing, and on this open space, with the shallow river +brawling through the middle, the houses were built. Stereotyped lines, +both as to design and location, were purposely avoided, and the result +was eminently pleasing. Fresh plantations of taro and bananas were +started, pawpaw trees and breadfruit were put in wherever space +offered, and a close fence across the valley kept the pigs and goats +from intruding. +</P> + +<P> +The next great undertaking was the making of a decent road up to +One-Tree Pass, for the benefit of the east coast community. And at all +these works, brown men and white, Ha'o's people and the late rebels, +the atoll men, and the east coasters, high and low without exception, +toiled side by side, to the very great promotion of good feeling and +mutual understanding. The ladies, meanwhile, fostered among the women +and children all such imitative habits as were judged good for them, +and after the stress and storm the peaceful times made for growth and +enlightenment, and feelings of security and content such as Kapaa'a had +never known before. +</P> + +<P> +Of direct religious teaching there was no lack, though it still ran +more to practice than to precept. Native habits and customs were +interfered with as little as possible, save wherein they palpably ran +counter to Nature's own laws and made for deterioration rather than +uplifting. +</P> + +<P> +The white men held their services regularly, and made them as simple as +possible so that gleams of the light might penetrate dark hearts but by +no means dark understandings. The brown men, at their work in the +plantations, along the hillsides after the pigs and goats, and skimming +along the combers on the other side of the ridge, chanted merry hymns +whose meanings they understood not, but which did them no harm, and +were very good to hear. The women learned many things in their own +homes and in the mission houses, and the tubby, brown children +rollicked nakedly in the school-house, learned games in which they +delighted, and some of them were even beginning their ABC. +</P> + +<P> +"Charles, my son," said Blair to Evans, as they were all sitting in +usual conclave on the verandah one evening, "what do you say to +vaccinating the whole community, lock, stock, and barrel? All, I mean, +that did not have the plague. There may be some germs of it lurking in +hidden corners yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm willing, if you can bring them to it. I can take them in batches." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll speak to Ha'o. He can make them do pretty well anything he +pleases. I'm more and more thankful that he was spared to us." +</P> + +<P> +"And Nai too," said Jean. "She is a great help. The women do whatever +she tells them, and she's as bright as a needle. What do you think she +came to ask for to-day, Ken?" +</P> + +<P> +"No idea. Not a pair of shoes, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +"No—some hairpins! She wanted to do her hair like ours." +</P> + +<P> +"The eternal feminine," laughed Blair. "Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"I assured her that it looked far nicer hanging loose with flowers +stuck in it. But she was so disappointed that I had to give her the +pins. You won't recognise the women in a day or two, I expect." +</P> + +<P> +Blair explained the vaccination idea to Ha'o, and made it as clear as +the limitations of language and understanding of so abstruse a matter +permitted. +</P> + +<P> +"You would give them a little crawling death to keep them from having +it big?" said Ha'o, after much explanation. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that is what it comes to." +</P> + +<P> +"All those who did not have it before?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"I will order it. It is right that Ra'a's people should taste it too." +</P> + +<P> +Exactly what he told them they never learned, but in due course a batch +of stalwart brown men came doubtfully into the compound, and watched +Evans with apprehensive, white-eyed glances as he deftly pricked and +bound up their arms, and sent them away looking doubtfully at their +white bandages, in evident expectation of speedy and unique +developments. +</P> + +<P> +They were in fine healthy condition and the operation was prosperous. +The bandage-wearers regarded them as badges of distinction. They +looked upon their inoculation as a ceremonial necessary to full +admission to the white alliance, and Blair was at once scandalised and +amused by a crowd clamouring round the house next day for similar +honours. +</P> + +<P> +"Kenni," they cried, "make us Christians too! Prick our arms and give +us our badges." +</P> + +<P> +So their arms were pricked and they got their badges, and were no +longer subject to the taunts of the favoured first batch, which had +nearly led to friction in the village the night before. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXV +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE LIFTING VEIL +</P> + +<P> +Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart found the tubby youngsters, and +especially the little round, brown babies, irresistibly attractive. +Such merry, mischievous little imps the former, and each newcomer such +a wonder of soft, sleek, dimpled, black-velvet-eyed brownness, that +their hearts went out to them, and the mothers laughed at their doting +absorption and cackled strenuously and meaningly among themselves. And +Aunt Jannet, never having had any children of her own, knew more about +the rights and wrongs of their upbringing than any single mother ever +knew in this world before, and had to be restrained by main force at +times from putting some of her more strenuous theories into practice. +But the good-natured brown women came to understand even Aunt Jannet's +peculiarities in time, and to accept her efforts, so far as they +accorded with their own ideas, with something like appreciation. +</P> + +<P> +For educative purposes the children were, up to a certain age, left +entirely to the care of the ladies, and it would have been hard to say +whether pupils or teachers enjoyed most the time spent in nominal study +in the wide, open schoolroom, or the still merrier jinks on the beach +and river bank. +</P> + +<P> +If Jean Blair's quondam friends in London could have seen her at play +with her naked brown boys and girls on Kapaa'a front—well, in the +first place they would not have known her, and when they did they would +have renounced her acquaintance at once. +</P> + +<P> +For the purpose of opening their little minds to better things than +their fathers and mothers had known, she brought herself down to their +level, became almost one of themselves, romped and played and danced +with them, in the water and out of it, and captured all their hearts. +And she enjoyed this partial and temporary reversion to nature as she +had never enjoyed life before. The children learned many things +without knowing that they were being taught, and Jean herself learned +not a little also. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet looked on with surprise, and spasms of doubt at times—it +was all so different from her ideas of missionary work. But she had +much to occupy her in connection with the other women, and as regards +things generally she held an open mind, with a reserve of gentle +sarcasm in case these extremely odd ways should turn out worse than she +knew her own more precise methods would have done. +</P> + +<P> +The men took the older boys in hand and employed ways quite as +unconventional and with equally happy results, and the girls of size +were well left to the care of Alison Evans and Mary Stuart, whose +special training had fitted them excellently for the work. +</P> + +<P> +In addition to the extraordinary curriculum of their school, the men +were working hard at the new foundations of life in Kapaa'a. +</P> + +<P> +It was a beginning of things such as Kenneth Blair's soul delighted in. +He was at it night and day, and suffered no whit from all the hard +work. For it was better even than recreation, since to all intents and +purposes it was creation itself, the bringing of order out of chaos, +the evolution of new life. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o, in the large hope of becoming a nation, worked with them hand to +hand, and heart to heart. Savage born and all untutored, he was gifted +with a sharp wit and a clear understanding, and he was a born ruler of +men. He was tall in stature, and his bearing they had noted even in +the hold of the <I>Blackbirder</I>. Of late his presence had seemed to +increase in dignity, possibly from his own large belief in the future, +possibly because they viewed him in the light of what they hoped to +make him. Whatever it was, his own people noticed it also, and even +the last returned prodigals never ventured to cross him. +</P> + +<P> +His confidence in the wisdom and good faith of the white men was +implicit. When he placed his hand in Blair's, the day they landed, and +proclaimed himself his man, and again when they discussed the delicate +subject of man-eating after his illness, he meant what he said and +stuck to it loyally. +</P> + +<P> +Not that he by any means assented at once to every suggestion they +made. He could argue like an Old Bailey lawyer, and until a matter was +explained to him so that he understood all the ins and outs, and the +ultimate end and aim of it, and saw from his own point of view just how +it would affect his people and himself, he would have none of it. +</P> + +<P> +He would listen politely, follow with the most patient intentness, +question till it was clear, argue-bargle occasionally, as Captain +Cathie put it, and then,—"Kenni, it is good. It shall be,"—and some +new brick was ready for the foundations. +</P> + +<P> +They all enjoyed an argument with Ha'o. The turns of his quick mind +were so odd and illuminating at times, that, as Evans said, it was +actually educational. +</P> + +<P> +Stuart especially delighted in him. +</P> + +<P> +"He's an absolute revelation," he said, "And I'm more and more certain +that there's more than ordinary savage blood in him. It's very queer +to think of, you know, Blair. It's a clear case of reversion." +</P> + +<P> +"And of evolution." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder now, if, by any conjunction of circumstances, we in Great +Britain could ever go back like that." +</P> + +<P> +"Impossible. The very suggestion is horrible." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing is impossible," said Evans. "The whole country might be +devastated by a pestilence, and the few survivors might lapse into +anything." +</P> + +<P> +"Unless the whole earth were devastated in the same way, the survivors +would have common sense enough to get back to their kind. But all this +won't help Kapaa'a boys, so let's get to business." +</P> + +<P> +They went very wisely to work, with the wisdom of long deliberation on +other men's failures and successes. They imposed no restrictions save +such as were absolutely necessary for the general well-being, and even +these made for freedom. For the freedom of savagery is bondage worse +than slavery. +</P> + +<P> +They promulgated through Ha'o simple rules for the protection of life +and property, and saw them carried out with the most rigid +inflexibility. Any disputes, and there were many, were brought before +the chief sitting in judgment on the verandah of his house on certain +days, with the white men in attendance to assist his deliberations. +</P> + +<P> +At first the <I>Torch</I> men acted as police when necessary, and carried +out the orders of the court. But before long certain of the tribesmen, +becoming distinguished above their fellows for their sobriety of +conduct and general demeanour, were nominated to headships of sections, +and did all that was necessary. +</P> + +<P> +And Kapaa'a slept of a night, freed for ever from the stealthy terrors +of the dark. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE GENTLE MARTYR +</P> + +<P> +All these matters took time, and while their hands and hearts were full +of them there came to them certain other little matters which filled +both hands and hearts to overflowing. +</P> + +<P> +To Kenneth and Jean Blair was born a son, and a month later to Charles +and Alison Evans a daughter, and it is doubtful if anything in the +history of Kapaa'a had ever stirred the feminine portion of the +community to such a pitch of excitement and enthusiasm as did the +arrival of these little white strangers. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said the brown women, with deeper lights in their lustrous eyes, +as they gazed admiringly on the little pink-and-white squirmers, "you +belong to us indeed, since you have borne children among us." +</P> + +<P> +And every day they made pilgrimages to the two new shrines, and sat +worshipfully, while the unconscious little saints performed their +morning ablutions and then lay gazing placidly out of their blue eyes +at the sights which no one else could see. Those striking blue +eyes—the blue of the sky up above—completed the capture of the +dark-eyed ones. There were blue eyes in plenty among the grown-up +whites, but never were blue eyes like these, and the dark eyes never +tired of gazing at them. +</P> + +<P> +Of the rapturous joy of the two mothers, and the deep thankfulness of +the fathers, there is no need to speak. For a time the new maternal +cares monopolised the former, and the latter went into their island +work with new high lights in their faces and with even greater vigour +than before. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Harvey exulted in those babies as though she had had not a little +to do with bringing them about, and Mary Stuart gloated over them with +blushing cheeks and kindling eyes that told their own hopeful stories. +</P> + +<P> +Every man of the <I>Torch</I> offered his services as nursemaid to carry +them about the beach, and the numbers of small brothers and sisters +they had all been in the habit of devoting their early years to was +simply marvellous. +</P> + +<P> +The christening ceremony—Kenneth Kapaa'a Blair and Alison Kaapa'a +Evans—was an occasion of high festival throughout the islands, and +Blair, with his life-work always large in his mind, turned it to +account. Aunt Harvey was not present at that high ceremony, to her +very great regret but more greatly to her honour. And this is how it +came about. +</P> + +<P> +Intercourse with the other islands had been constantly maintained by +the regular visitations of the <I>Torch</I> and the quondam <I>Blackbird</I> +schooner—renamed the <I>Jean Arnot</I> and captained by Jim Gregor, first +officer of the <I>Torch</I>; but, compared with what had been done on +Kapaa'a, the advances had been small. +</P> + +<P> +Blair had, for a long while past, recognised the fact that the greatest +object-lesson he could possibly offer the other chiefs was the sight of +what was being done on Kapaa'a. But at the first suggestion of taking +them over in the ship to see for themselves, their suspicions were in +arms. That was an old trick of the white men's. They had all heard +how the brown men were decoyed on board the white men's ships under +wonderful promises, and never heard of again. They accepted all he +gave them, they listened to all he had to say, but sail away in the big +ship they would not. +</P> + +<P> +Here was a chance not to be missed. Surely never in this world was +there seen a younger pair of missionaries than Master Kenneth Kapaa'a +Blair—Kenni-Kenni to the natives—and Miss Alison Kapaa'a +Evans—Alivani—when they set out, in their frills and furbelows, to +wile the hearts of the brown men and women of the outer islands. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o and Nai went with them, to add their persuasions and the argument +of their presence to the rest, and Aunt Jannet went because she knew +something untoward would happen to those babies unless her eye was on +them. +</P> + +<P> +Blair knew it would be no easy matter at best, and it was not. +</P> + +<P> +At Kanele, the first island they came to, the largest of the group +after Kapaa'a, about thirty miles away, the old chief Maru received +them with the heartiest of welcomes, and his old wife and her +daughter-in-law and all the other women went into raptures over the +blue-eyed babies. +</P> + +<P> +But when the subject of the visit was cautiously broached, the old man +stiffened at once with his natural suspicion and declined the +invitation on the spot, and nothing they could say would persuade him +to it. +</P> + +<P> +They stayed the night, however, and Ha'o had much talk with the old +man's son, a bright stalwart fellow over six feet high whose name was +Kahili. In the morning Kahili announced his intention of going with +the white men. Whereupon loud lamentations from his father and mother +and wife and children, who clung to him wherever they could grip, and +expressed their intention of anchoring him to his native soil at cost +of their lives. He reasoned with them good-humouredly at first, but +finally began to get angry at the exhibition, and the more they tried +to dissuade him the more determined was he to go. +</P> + +<P> +Then, suddenly, the old chief surprised them all by proposing a +bargain. If the white men would leave their grandmother—Aunt Jannet +Harvey to wit—as pledge of their honourable intentions, both he and +Kahili his son would go in the big ship, and when they returned safe +and sound the ship could take the grandmother away. +</P> + +<P> +Blair laughed so much over the old fellow's 'cuteness that he came near +to dispelling their suspicions. And the matter being explained to Aunt +Jannet, without undue insistence upon the maturity of her new dignity, +that good lady, with a somewhat forlorn attempt at nonchalance, +accepted the offer on the spot, and said she would stop. And what it +cost her no man may venture to say, for she had been looking forward to +the christening of Jean's boy as a white stone day in her life. +</P> + +<P> +"It's for the good of the work, Kenneth, so get away with them before I +change my mind," said she, bravely enough. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Aunt Jannet, I shall miss you so," from Jean, with a suspicion of +tears in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit, child. You'll have far too much to think of, and I'll be +perfectly all right here." +</P> + +<P> +"But—you——" for Jean knew all her longing in the matter. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll chum up with Mrs. Maru, and we'll be as happy as—h'm"—with a +glance at the native houses among the trees—"well, as things in a rug, +you know. You shall tell me all about it when I get back. Don't let +Ken forget to send for me." +</P> + +<P> +She kissed the babies as though she knew in her own mind that she would +never set eyes on them again, waved her adieus gallantly from the white +shell beach, and when the <I>Torch</I> had swept out of sight round the +corner she went up into a thicket of lemon hibiscus, and had it out all +by herself there. Then she preened her ruffled plumes, and went down +and rated Mrs. Maru for the untidiness of her dwelling-place, till the +old lady regretted more than ever the exchange she had made. By +degrees, however, Aunt Jannet's natural goodness and masterfulness +overcame her disappointment. The two became capital friends, and +talked away at one another, on a twenty-five per cent. basis of +understanding, which left the most extraordinary views of the other's +life on each of their minds. +</P> + +<P> +Her self-sacrifice, however, bore excellent fruit. Old Maru and Kahili +proved admirable bait for Blair's fishing. Persuaded themselves to a +somewhat doubtful step, the step once taken they became most zealous +partisans of their new cause. Assured, by the solid fact of Aunt +Jannet's temporary residence on Kanele, of their own safety, they +laughed to scorn the fears of others as doubtful in the matter as they +themselves had originally been. +</P> + +<P> +Their assured confidence amounted well-nigh to boastfulness. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at us," they said, "we have no mistrust in going with the white +men. Put away your fears, and come along." +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Torch</I> made a most prosperous collection, and returned to Kapaa'a +laden with dusky notables. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been difficult to imagine anything less like a Christian +martyr than Aunt Jannet Harvey, sitting opposite her hostess on Kanele, +conscientiously eating away at the food with which they kept her +supplied, wrestling strenuously with the intricacies of the Kanelese +dialect, and an object of extreme curiosity to all the other women, and +of wonderment to herself. But martyrs are found in the strangest +guise, and Aunt Jannet wrought well for Kapaa'a when she consented to +stop on Kanele that day. +</P> + +<P> +The strangers viewed with amazement the changes in Kapaa'a. They had +raided there aforetime, and fought more than one bloody battle on the +white beach of the lagoon. For Kapaa'a, the largest of the islands and +the richest, had always been an object of envy to the rest, and more +than one warrior chief of the outer isles had cast longing eyes upon +it, and had planned and schemed till he could attempt its conquest. +</P> + +<P> +Now they found it richer and stronger than ever in the white men's +alliance. They saw its comfortable homes, and large plantations of +strange new grains and fruits. They were introduced to the pleasures +of the chase. They ate piglet and wild goat, and found them good. +They tasted still deeper of the novel atmosphere of law and order, and +found these things also very good. +</P> + +<P> +They watched the boys at cricket and football, and the men, brown and +white, fencing and boxing as though their lives depended on it, and no +harm done. They watched the cutlass drill, and tingled to do likewise. +They saw the white men bowl over coco-nuts with their Winchesters at +many times the distance they could hurl a spear, and do the same again +quicker than they could wink, and for their benefit Long Tom bellowed +his loudest, and they heard the roar of him clang to and fro among the +hills. They compared the new Kapaa'a boats with their own, and they +sat open-mouthed and listened to the last squeals of an ironwood tree +from up the valley, as the circular saw cleft it into planks which they +could not have imitated with weeks of hardest labour. And—they saw +men sleep without weapons by their sides, and without fear. And these +things wrought powerfully upon them, and set them thinking. +</P> + +<P> +The christening feast of Kenni-Kenni and Alivani was long remembered in +the Dark Islands. Aunt Jannet Harvey always professed regret at having +missed it, but Kenneth Blair always assured her, with a great light in +his face, that in missing it as she had done she had rendered service +to the mission which no words could express. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet's exile ran into a longer term than she had expected, and +there were many anxious faces and apprehensive hearts in the island +villages before the <I>Torch</I> came gliding quietly round the heads, and +dropped her passengers at their homes. +</P> + +<P> +They all came laden with presents, which already, before they landed, +inclined them favourably towards similar trips in the future. But they +brought with them also richer invisible freight of new ideas and new +hopes, which kept their tongues wagging for weeks afterwards, and set +their brains working. +</P> + +<P> +For the visit had not by any means been confined to sight-seeing and +enjoyment. The white men turned it to fullest account in the clear and +definite explanation of their views and hopes for the whole group of +islands, offering all an equal share in the new order of things on the +sole condition of union and cohesion. The higher matters which lay +closest to their hearts were touched on, but only lightly as yet. +Blair had no faith in outward conversion born of a hankering after +material good things. He had a firm belief in the advantages of +hastening slowly. Get the savages out of their savagery, open the dark +minds to the lower lights, and the higher would come in good time. +</P> + +<P> +He suggested regular meetings of the headmen on Kapaa'a, and the idea +was received with acclaim. Kapaa'a was a storehouse of good things. +They desired no better than to come there often. And in that he saw +the germ of a united nation. Ha'o, as the most advanced among them, +would naturally preside. Of Ha'o's loyalty and level-headedness he had +no doubt. He was years ahead of the rest already. Blair believed his +influence would grow, and in time make itself felt throughout the whole +group, and through Ha'o he hoped to win them all to the higher life. +</P> + +<P> +If on these highest matters of all he touched as yet but lightly, in +others, concerning their material welfare, he gave them some very +straight talk, by way of putting them on their guard against that which +might come any day. +</P> + +<P> +He told them that other white men would come offering to trade with +them, to buy their land, to do great things for them, and of such he +begged them to beware, and to allow him to deal with them. +</P> + +<P> +He told them just what had happened in other places, where grasping +white traders had pushed themselves in, bringing in with them drink, +disease, and dispossession. He showed them how they, the heads of the +communities, were responsible for their people. And he promised them +every advantage these other men could offer them without any of the +penalties. +</P> + +<P> +"What do these traders come for?" he asked them, and answered himself, +"To benefit themselves. And what do we come for? To benefit you. The +time may be close at hand when you will have to choose between us. As +you choose, so will your future be." +</P> + +<P> +So the notables went back to their island homes with much to think +about, and Aunt Jannet came back from Kanele, and Kenneth Blair and his +friends had good reason for high hopes of the future. +</P> + +<P> +It was a spring-time of hope for all of them. The work was prospering, +and their hearts were full of gladness. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair, as he came up quietly and sat down +beside her, where the sweet water ran into the salt, and the small +waves of the lagoon creamed softly up the white sand. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-263"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-263.jpg" ALT=""Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Happy, dear? Could any one possibly be happier? Look at +that!"—Master Kenni-Kenni rolling gleefully on a white spread at her +feet in a state of nudity, and gurgling paroxysms of happiness. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a fine little fellow"—and he poked his son playfully in his fat +little stomach, provoking fat-creased laughter and dimples and more +gurgles. +</P> + +<P> +"He's the finest little fellow in the whole world, and he's yours and +mine, Ken. God has been very good to us, dear. I sometimes feel as if +we had no right to be quite so happy while——" +</P> + +<P> +"While?" +</P> + +<P> +"One can't help thinking of the poor little souls in the slums and +alleys at home. It really doesn't seem right, somehow. If we could +only bring them all out here——" +</P> + +<P> +"I wish it were possible, but it isn't. Meanwhile, this is our chosen +work, and by God's grace it seems like to prosper. I am very grateful +that you are content here, dear. After London——" +</P> + +<P> +"London! I'd give the whole of London for one curl of Kenni-Kenni's +hair. Isn't it beautiful? There never was any silk like it in this +world." +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" said Blair with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +Then Alison Evans and Mary Stuart came across to them, Mary carrying +Alivani. +</P> + +<P> +"We have come to worship too," said Alison. "I wish you'd order Mary +to give me my baby, Mr. Blair. I can hardly get touching her when +she's about." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jean won't let me have hers," laughed Mary in self-defence. +</P> + +<P> +"Jean was just valuing the whole of London Town against one curl of +that young man's hair. So you see what the whole of him's worth, Mary. +Oh yes, you may touch him, if you'll promise not to spoil a hair of his +head." +</P> + +<P> +Mary laid Alivani down on the white spread by Kenni-Kenni, and the two +gurgled and kicked in company, while she knelt over them with absorbed +face and happy lights in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Jean was wishing she could bring all the poor children in London to +kick on the beach here," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I often think how very much better off the children here are," +said Alison Evans. +</P> + +<P> +"In some respects." +</P> + +<P> +"In all respects, I'm inclined to think. Their fathers and mothers +almost worship them. Cruelty to children is unheard of. Bodily they +are miles ahead——" +</P> + +<P> +"And morally and spiritually?" he said, to draw her on. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen children at home, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, almost as +benighted as these, and not half so pleasant to deal with. Now, with +the chances we are giving them, I think these are infinitely the better +off." +</P> + +<P> +"Under the new order of things, perhaps. But hitherto you must +remember that death dodged life round every corner here, and life broke +off very short at times. However, we cannot clean up all the world; +but, please God, we'll do our best with this little bit of it. And +now," jumping up, "I must get back to work, or your masters will be +calling me names. Don't kill those two infants with kindness, Mary." +</P> + +<P> +He stood looking down upon them all for a moment, while the women all +bent over the wrigglers on the white cloth. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it possible that not one of you ever feels a longing for the +fleshpots of Egypt?" he asked, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Do we ever show any symptoms?" asked Jean. +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly do at the moment. You all three look as if you would +like to devour those children on the spot," and he went away to grind +out dialects with Matti and Ha'o. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +PEACE WITH A SPEAR +</P> + +<P> +The work progressed favourably but not without occasional set-backs. +On Kapaa'a, where its supervision was most constant, the advance was +naturally greatest. On the outer islands the brown men and women were +effusive in their promises—in expectation of largesse. Like the +prodigals of all time, they were always ready to discount future +benefits—which they did not very fully understand and considered +somewhat problematic—for a trifle on account, which they understood +extremely well. But the moment their preceptors' backs were turned, +the promises were forgotten in immediate enjoyment of the reward. +</P> + +<P> +All this was only what was to be expected, and in no way disconcerted +the labourers in the field. Blair would rate the delinquents +good-humouredly for their shortcomings, and they would acknowledge them +like schoolboys, promise amendment, and break the promise before the +<I>Torch</I> had rounded the Head. He felt himself in closer touch with +them, however, on each visit, and was satisfied. His plans and hopes +were very wide-reaching, and God's temples, natural, physical, or +spiritual, do not rise in a day. +</P> + +<P> +Occasionally there were more serious lapses, and these had to be dealt +with firmly but delicately, so thin were the cords by which he held +them. +</P> + +<P> +Aia, the smallest island of the group, lay a short five miles beyond +Kanele, sacred to the memory of Aunt Jannet Harvey. Aia had a +population of about fifty. Kanele three times as many. +</P> + +<P> +Blair and Jean and Kenni-Kenni landed on the latter one day, on one of +the regular rounds of visitation, and received the usual expectant +welcome from old Maru and Kahili and the rest. The women crowded +enthusiastically round Jean and her boy, while Blair talked to the men +and divided among them the things he had brought. They stopped on +shore several hours and were regaled with fruits and coco-nuts. When +they got into the boat the whole population lined the beach and waved +them farewells. +</P> + +<P> +"We really seem to be getting hold of them at last," said Blair, as +they rolled along towards the <I>Torch</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"They are very friendly and seem very glad to see us," said Jean, and +they went on to Aia. +</P> + +<P> +"Something wrong," said Captain Cathie, as the <I>Torch</I> drew in. +</P> + +<P> +The village was not in its usual place. There were no people about. +</P> + +<P> +They landed cautiously, Blair and Cathie and half a dozen men, and +found the houses in ruins. With added caution they climbed the hill, +and in time came upon the villagers lurking in holes and crannies. +</P> + +<P> +Their story was simple. The very day after the <I>Torch's</I> last visit, +the men of Kanele, headed by Maru and young Kahili, had come over in +their canoes and demanded the goods they had received from the white +men. These being refused, they proceeded to take them by force. The +Aia men were outnumbered and beaten, their village burned, and several +of them killed—and eaten. The rest had lived in the fear of death +ever since. +</P> + +<P> +Blair was a man of wrath that day. His first feeling was the same as +Captain Cathie's, in whom the natural man always ran strong. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, captain, what do you advise?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to give those Kanele men a right good skelping," said Cathie +warmly. "Something they wouldn't forget in a hurry." +</P> + +<P> +"So would I, but I'm not sure of the wisdom of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Truckling beggars! Sweet as milk when we're there, and playing the +devil the minute our back's turned. They need a lesson." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll take the night over it. It's a serious matter." +</P> + +<P> +They walked the deck far into the night, with the big stars swimming in +the smooth black rollers, and the distant roar of the Aia surges, now +to port and now to starboard, as they beat gently to and fro in default +of anchorage. +</P> + +<P> +"In the first place," said Blair, summing up their ideas, "these people +are not safe here. Whatever we do or don't do, the Kanele men will +take it out of them as soon as we're gone. We must do our best to +persuade them to migrate to Kapaa'a. That will be a good thing for +them and a good thing for us. As to the Kanele men, the difficulty is +that we want to retain our hold on them. This affair only shows how +great the need is. And if we take measures against them—any measures +almost—we are like to weaken the small hold we have now." +</P> + +<P> +"All the same," said Cathie bluntly, "it won't do to let 'em think they +can carry on like this and nothing said about it. That'd be fair +provoking them to do the same again." +</P> + +<P> +"It's difficult to know just what to do," said Blair; and Jean down +below, with Kenni-Kenni nestling close in her arms, heard the four feet +tramping, tramping, slowly and heavily, to and fro, till she fell +asleep. They seemed to be still tramping whenever the <I>Torch</I> gave a +sudden kick and woke her. But there was a sense of guardianship in the +very sound, and Kenni-Kenni's soft head against her heart was very +comforting. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning they set to work on the plans they had arrived at +overnight. +</P> + +<P> +Blair went ashore early, while Cathie prepared for his passengers. +</P> + +<P> +It did not need five minutes' talk to show the Aia men how unsafe their +position was. It was self-evident. But it took much talk and +persuasion to induce them to migrate to Kapaa'a. +</P> + +<P> +They saw the advantages. Some of them had been there already and seen +for themselves; but the brown men cling to their own bits of coral or +volcanic rock as strenuously as Highland crofter to his dripping +heather, or Irish peasant to his patch of bog. +</P> + +<P> +The women, however, had listened to those marvellous accounts of the +unheard-of security of life and property on Kapaa'a, and now they +joined forces with Blair and carried the day. By sunset they were all +aboard the <I>Torch</I> with such belongings as the Kanele men had left +them. The <I>Torch</I> beat to and fro again throughout the night, and not +a native closed an eye for the strangeness of it all, and in the early +morning Blair was ashore again on Kanele. He had assured Jean there +was no danger; but he left Captain Cathie behind—to look after the +crowd of brown men and women. +</P> + +<P> +He walked boldly up to old Maru's house, and found it still asleep. +</P> + +<P> +The old man started up wide awake at his call, and the look on his face +was a matrix of Blair's—detected wrong quailing before righteous wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"You know what I have come about, Maru," said Blair. "You have done +ill by Aia. Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was the young men. They desired more goods." +</P> + +<P> +"Call the young men. I will speak to them." +</P> + +<P> +But there was no need to call them. They had seen the <I>Torch</I> and were +coming, and coming in expectation of possible trouble, for they all +came armed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I see you know why I have come back," said Blair, as they +thronged about the house. "You have done wrong, and you have got to +answer for it. We came here to make life brighter by bringing +peace——" +</P> + +<P> +"We don't want peace. Fighting is very much better," growled one. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you are brave men! How many men were there on Aia? Twenty-five +at most. And how many of you went over? More than sixty. Oh yes, you +like fighting when the others are weak. How will you like it when you +are beaten and running for your lives into the hills? You have done +ill, and you must answer for it. Maru and Kahili will come with me to +Kapaa'a, and we will decide what shall be done." +</P> + +<P> +"Not me!" said old Maru, or words to that effect, and drew from its +hiding-place one of the axes Blair had given him, and began to swing it +gently in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"If you do not come, we shall fetch you. It is for you to say. If we +have to fetch you, it will make trouble." +</P> + +<P> +Old Maru's axe swung gently to and fro, to and fro, as though hungering +to bite, but doubtful. +</P> + +<P> +"That would not serve you, Maru," said Blair quietly. "Though you cut +me in pieces, the rest would come and you would suffer the more. The +old times are past. We have come to give you better times. Peace you +shall have, though we have to bring it with club and spear." +</P> + +<P> +And just then Long Tom on the yacht bellowed his tremendous note, and +the brown men looked round apprehensively. +</P> + +<P> +"That is my big canoe speaking," said Blair. "But it is only a +warning. It can strike as hard as it talks. Will you save trouble by +coming, Maru?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will not go." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we shall come for you. I am sorry; but the wrong-doing is +yours.... Let no man lift his hand, or worse will follow," he said, as +a restless movement rustled among them. Then eyeing them steadily, he +passed through, not sure at what moment axe or club might fall on his +head. But so high was his look that no man, even of those he had +passed, found courage for the blow, and he walked down to the beach +alone. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm mighty glad to see you back whole," said Cathie, as Blair swung up +on deck. "I saw their clubs through the glass, and I misdoubted them. +They wouldn't come?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, they wouldn't come, so I promised to fetch them. Now we'll get +on, captain. First to land our passengers on Kapaa'a, and then as we +decided last night." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o and the rest were mightily surprised at the size of the <I>Torch's</I> +company. But the chief jumped to Blair's views at once. +</P> + +<P> +"You will soon become a nation at this rate, Ha'o." +</P> + +<P> +"I will deal well with them," said Ha'o. +</P> + +<P> +"And now as to the men of Kanele?" +</P> + +<P> +"We will make an end of them." +</P> + +<P> +"I want them as part of your nation, and dead men are no use. If we go +in force enough, I do not think they will fight. But they have broken +the peace, and they must have a lesson." +</P> + +<P> +"We will teach them with the spear. It will be a lesson for the others +also. When shall we start?" +</P> + +<P> +"The sooner the better; but first we must see the newcomers housed." +</P> + +<P> +That took two days, and then the <I>Torch</I> and the <I>Jean Arnot</I> sailed +with larger crews than they were in the habit of carrying. First round +the other islands, at each of which Blair and Ha'o landed and had a +talk with the headmen and explained their ideas to them. +</P> + +<P> +And much hard talking it took, in some cases, to carry their views. +But they were set on it, and they prevailed. +</P> + +<P> +From each village they enlisted the headman and certain of his +followers, from six to ten, according to the population, and in due +course came down on Kanele one hundred and fifty brown men and eighteen +whites, with Long Tom in reserve, and great hopes that so large a +display would suffice without any fighting. +</P> + +<P> +All the boats on Kapaa'a had been requisitioned for the debarkation, +and it was an imposing flotilla that drew in to Kanele beach that day +to bring peace at the point of the spear. And, composed, as the +gathering was, of the most discordant elements, it was yet all moulded +to one purpose by the strong will of one man, and by the very +differences that separated its units one from another. For each +component felt itself but a part of the whole, and in a minority which +left it no option but to work with the rest. +</P> + +<P> +Not a soul was to be seen on shore, but they knew that black eyes +watched stealthily from every cover. +</P> + +<P> +"Maru! Kahili! We have come for you," shouted Blair. "Here are Ha'o +of Kapaa'a, and Ruel of Anape——" and he recited all the names of the +head-men. "We will give you till the shadows are smallest to come in. +Then be it on your own heads!" and the great company sat down on the +beach to pass the time. +</P> + +<P> +"Will they come?" asked Blair of Ha'o. +</P> + +<P> +"They will come," said Ha'o. "They would have no chance against us, +and they are not fools." +</P> + +<P> +Blair seized the opportunity for more talk with the leading men from +the other islands. He showed them that none were safe if raiding were +permitted, not even the strongest, for against the strongest +combination might prevail. The only security was in union against +illdoers; and he rubbed that lesson into them till they were not likely +to forget it. +</P> + +<P> +Before the wheeling shadows had shortened the slim black lines of the +palms into their spreading crowns, a tumult broke out inland, and as +they all stood expectant, a mob, in which were many women, came +hurrying along, with old Maru and Kahili on its front like corks on a +swelling tide. +</P> + +<P> +"It is well," said Blair, as he went to meet them. "You have given us +much trouble, but you have saved yourselves more. Do you understand, +Maru, and you, Kahili, and all you men and women of Kanele, what this +great company means? It means that the old times are gone for ever, +and that the better times are come. If there is to be any fighting in +future, we of Kapaa'a and the islands round about will have our say in +the matter. Take those two to the boats," and at a sign from him a +file of Torches led the prisoners away. "There are others among you +who prefer war to peace," he said. "I want them also." +</P> + +<P> +This caused a hubbub amongst them, and much hot discussion, but at last +certain ones were evolved from the crowd, and pushed to the front +protesting, and to the number of ten he had them marched down to the +boats, amid the wailing of their women. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, listen!" cried Blair, waving down their cries with a peremptory +hand. "Is it to be peace or war henceforth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Peace," wailed the women, and the men stood silent. "Then let the +women bring here all the spears and clubs, for you will not need them." +</P> + +<P> +This was touching them on the raw, for the brown man's weapons are his +dearest possessions. +</P> + +<P> +But this was to be a lesson once and for all, and not for the men of +Kanele only. +</P> + +<P> +"I must have them," said Blair. "If you will not bring them, we must +get them ourselves. Which shall it be?" +</P> + +<P> +The men stood, stubborn and sulky. Some of the women on the outskirts +of the crowd began to trickle away. +</P> + +<P> +Then old Maru's wife crept up downcastly from the side of the throng, +carrying two long spears and a club, and cast them on the sand at +Blair's feet. +</P> + +<P> +"It is good, Maruaine," he said gently. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not kill our men, Missi?" she asked piteously. +</P> + +<P> +"I have come to make your lives happier, Maruaine. I will not hurt a +hair of their heads. But they must learn, and this is the first +lesson." +</P> + +<P> +Kahili's wife followed, and one by one the other women came, with more +spears and clubs, till the pile was a goodly one. +</P> + +<P> +Then he had a fire kindled beneath them, and the brown men watched its +easy lighting with a match with wonder, but twisted uneasily as the +weapons were consumed. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-276"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-276.jpg" ALT="Peace with a spear." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Peace with a spear. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Now, listen!" said Blair, when the crackling died down. "Maru and +Kahili, and the others we have taken will go with us to Kapaa'a for a +time, and will live with us there. We intend them no harm. They will, +I hope, learn many things amongst us, and then they will come back and +tell you of them. We wish your good, only your good, always your good. +But those who do ill, who break the peace, and rob their weaker +neighbours, will have to answer to us for it. Ha'o of Kapaa'a has +known us now a long time. He will tell you that we mean you well." +</P> + +<P> +And Ha'o stood out before them, tall and brown, and said, in a voice +that rang above the wash of the surf and the pattering of the palm +fronds— +</P> + +<P> +"Kenni is my brother. He has done great things for Kapaa'a. Twice he +saved my life, and the lives of my people. Three times he risked his +own life, and the lives of his people. His blood has run for us. What +Kenni says and does is good. Any man who thinks otherwise I am ready +to talk to him," and it was evident to all that Ha'o's talk would be +strong, and to the point. +</P> + +<P> +Blair said a word or two to him, and he added— +</P> + +<P> +"While Maru and Kahili are living with us, Maru's wife will be your +chief. She is a wise woman, and loves peace more than war. Has any +one anything to say against it?" +</P> + +<P> +No one at the moment desired to say anything against it, whatever they +might think or feel. +</P> + +<P> +"It is well," said Ha'o. "Let no man speak against it when we are not +here. Now you will bring us food, and then we will go home." +</P> + +<P> +Two very sober and thoughtful men were Maru and Kahili as Kanele sank +into the sea astern. They were treated, however, with every +consideration, and Blair was at much pains to explain his ideas to them +so far as concerned themselves. For the rest, it was curious to notice +how the men of each island kept themselves to themselves. There were +differences of dialect, of course, which interfered somewhat with +freedom of intercourse, but there were also lifelong memories of bloody +feuds which kept them apart. It was a mighty step towards better times +to see them there in peaceful toleration of one another's presence. +The dividing lines were at once the mark of the past and the sign of +the future. A year before they would have been at one another's +throats. +</P> + +<P> +On Kapaa'a the hostages received the same equal treatment with the +rest. They were given houses and tools, and shown how to use them. +They joined in the chase, and developed discriminating tastes in the +matter of fresh-killed pig and goat cooked in paw-paw leaves. They +were neither talked at nor preached at. They were simply allowed to +absorb the new atmosphere of law and order, and found it good. And in +due time they were returned to their own island new men, with the seeds +of still larger knowledge within them. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXVIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +NO THOROUGHFARE +</P> + +<P> +It would be difficult to tell in words the exaltation of spirit which +possessed Kenneth Blair at the brave show the new order of things was +making in these Dark Islands of his choice. It was a beginning after +his own heart, and he rejoiced in it greatly. +</P> + +<P> +I can imagine what he must have looked like as he went about his +Master's business—clad always in white from head to foot, and carrying +always that high look of his, blazing with enthusiasm and the mighty +joy of life, which caught the eye and held it. Kekera—White Fire—the +brown men often called him, and he looked it to the life. +</P> + +<P> +He felt things growing under his hand, and his heart was full. A +beginning of beginnings and visible growth—what more could the soul of +man desire? +</P> + +<P> +Domestic concerns were prospering also. Mary Stuart had the +satisfaction of her heart in a little son, and Kenni-Kenni and Alivani +crawled neck and neck races on the white beach together. The schools +were full, for the teaching was so sheer a delight that the wriggling +brown bodies and glancing black eyes felt a day missed a day lost. If +ever learning came without tears it did to these. They were actually +beginning to use English words now and again in their talk and play—by +way of showing off at first, indeed, but presently as a matter of +course. And the larger children, their fathers and mothers, were +imbibing new ideas of all kinds at a revolutionary rate. They were +even beginning to put theirs into "Kown im!" and to show some knowledge +of what the words meant. +</P> + +<P> +And so far there had been no further disturbance from the outside; but +they were always on the look-out for it, and it came, and in the +expected shape. +</P> + +<P> +The Dark Islands lie far out of the ordinary track of commerce. For +that very reason, when once discovered, they offered unusual +inducements to such as found the usual fields too small, and too hot, +for their peculiar forms of immorality. The outposts of civilisation, +such as it is, have not infrequently been pushed forward by individuals +whom civilisation could no longer tolerate in its midst. It was such a +one who came out of his way—and incidentally out of the way of some +who ardently desired to lay hands on him—to bring the amenities of +commerce and civilisation to the Dark Islands. +</P> + +<P> +Old Maru, and his son Kahili, and the other hostages to law and order, +had returned to their homes full to the brim of new ideas and great +intentions, and Blair reposed great hopes in them. +</P> + +<P> +He and Cathie, on one of their usual rounds of the islands in the +<I>Torch</I>, came sailing round Kanele Head one day and were surprised to +find a ship at anchor in the bay. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" broke from them both at the sight. +</P> + +<P> +"So that's come," said Cathie. "Bound to sooner or later. Nip it +tight, sir, is my advice." +</P> + +<P> +He gave some orders to the mate, and they went ashore. +</P> + +<P> +A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach from Maru's +house to meet them. He was stout and evil-faced, with small blue eyes +and tangled hay-coloured beard and moustache, and the roll in his walk +seemed too pronounced to come entirely from much walking of slippery +decks. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-282"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-282.jpg" ALT="A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Morning," he said curtly. "Traders?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir. Missionaries in charge." +</P> + +<P> +"Gee-whilikins!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, very much so," and Blair pulled out his watch. The man needed no +investigation. His character was written all over him. "It is now +nine o'clock. I will give you till half-past ten to clear out of here. +If your anchor is not up by that time you will take the consequences. +Understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Say, have you bought this island, mister?" gaped the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, from the devil and all his works, so you clear out. It is now +two minutes past nine, and you've got eighty-eight minutes left." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm——" +</P> + +<P> +"You will be if you don't stir your stumps." +</P> + +<P> +"And suppos'n I say I'll be hanged if I go." +</P> + +<P> +"I should consider it not unlikely. You certainly will if you stay." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I <I>am</I>——! Was it <I>missionaries</I> you said?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I said." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, then," said the invader, pulling himself together, "I'll +see you eternally annihilated first." That was not his exact +expression, but it is printable and will suffice. +</P> + +<P> +"Eighty-six minutes left," said Blair quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie waved his hat three times to the <I>Torch</I>, and Long Tom's +angry bellow rolled up into the hills and lined the side of the trader +with curious faces. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Missionaries</I>! Well, I <I>am</I>——" and he looked at them, and then at +the <I>Torch</I> with the cloud of blue-white smoke drifting slowly away +from her deck, and then turned and humped his shoulders and went back +the way he had come, and Blair and Cathie followed him. +</P> + +<P> +They were all fast asleep at Maru's house, and not likely to waken in a +hurry, if the empty rum bottles scattered about were anything to go by. +There were some opened cases of trade lying about, and the scraps and +remnants of a feast—in addition to the inert forms of old Maru and his +wife, and Kahili and his wife, and some of their people. +</P> + +<P> +"Eighty minutes!" said Blair grimly, as he looked round on this undoing +of his work. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, mister, couldn't we come to some arrangement?" began the trader. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! The arrangement is that you up anchor and away +inside—seventy-nine minutes," with a glance at his watch. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you'll pay for this 'fore you're done, mister. I'm an +American citizen." +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry to hear it." +</P> + +<P> +"And an American citizen don't stand bein' fired out like this and no +reasons given—not by a long sight!" +</P> + +<P> +"There are our reasons," said Blair, pointing to the heavy sleepers, +"and there are yours," and he pointed to the half-emptied case of rum. +"Seventy-eight minutes more!" +</P> + +<P> +The American citizen looked him over for a moment but found no hope of +amelioration in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm——" and he turned to the door and whistled shrilly to his +ship, and presently a boat came slouchily across to the shore. +</P> + +<P> +"Carry them things aboard," he ordered, and saw it done, and then +followed his men into the boat. +</P> + +<P> +Then he stood up in the stern and delivered himself luridly on +missionaries in general, and on this new kind, as represented by Blair +and Cathie, in particular. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll hear of me again, my sons, sure as my name's Hartford Crawley. +Yes, by thunder, you will, and don't you forget it!" was his +valediction with threatening fist, and they could hear him cursing all +the way to the ship. +</P> + +<P> +Blair and Cathie returned to the <I>Torch</I>. At half-past ten Long Tom +thundered a reminder to Mr. Crawley that his time was up, and before +the echoes died away, the trader's anchor was apeak and his sails were +dropping sulkily to the breeze. +</P> + +<P> +He headed slowly out to sea, and was surprised to find the <I>Torch</I> do +the same. +</P> + +<P> +He took a notion towards the south. Long Tom barked angrily at him. +</P> + +<P> +He tried a move towards the north. Long Tom barked again. Due west +was his course, and they would permit him no other. +</P> + +<P> +All day long the <I>Torch</I> followed him like a sheep dog, and at night +drew in so close that they could hear Mr. Crawley still swearing at +large. Fortunately, the moon was almost at the full, and he had no +chance of slipping away in the dark. For three days they dogged him +and kept him to his course. Then they ranged up within speaking +distance and delivered their final word, "These islands are not open to +traders. If you ever return you do so at your peril." Then they +turned and laid their course for Kanele. +</P> + +<P> +Arbitrary action, undoubtedly, but Kenneth Blair was the last man in +the world to shirk what he deemed his duty from any fear of possible +after consequences. +</P> + +<P> +Maru and the rest were in their right minds when they got back to the +island. They were full of excuses and explanations, but Blair said +little to them beyond emphasising the fact that these were the men he +had warned them against, and that their coming would make for evil +times among them. And old Maru, in the keen recollection of the very +bad head he had had the day after the trader's supper party was +disposed to think he was right. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXIX +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +THE ACT OF GOD +</P> + +<P> +A full year of quiet progress left no monumental happenings to record. +</P> + +<P> +The islands were rising rapidly out of their original darkness, and the +hearts of the workers were as full as their hands. +</P> + +<P> +Growth in the homes had necessitated ampler accommodation for scholars +and worshippers outside. A church and two school-houses had been built +to supply the absolute want, and were in full use. +</P> + +<P> +The r and the capital H had got into "Crown Him!" and in some quarters +a visible understanding of the meaning of the invocation. +</P> + +<P> +Matters all round were progressing favourably. The bodily health of +the islands was good, morally and spiritually it was improving. Law +and order were striking slow roots into the shaky quagmire of custom +and superstition, and Ha'o was in fair way to become a nation. For the +headmen of the smaller islands came regularly to Kapaa'a for +consultation—and gifts—and his influence over them grew steadily. +</P> + +<P> +In all matters economic and politic Blair put Ha'o forward as head and +front. For himself, he desired nothing but the good of the people, and +he judged it best that the executive power should remain in native +hands so long as they continued capable and trustworthy. In these +matters Ha'o had justified him to the fullest, and had shown himself an +apt, not to say an ambitious, pupil. Feuds were of rarer occurrence, +and had even been brought to Kapaa'a for adjustment. Cannibalism was +no longer openly indulged in, even in the outer islands, and they were +hopeful that its day was past. +</P> + +<P> +Evans and his wife had been resident for some months past on Kanele, +Charles and Mary Stuart were on Anape, and the <I>Jean Arnot</I> had had a +busy time going to and fro between the settlements. The <I>Torch</I>, with +Captain Cathie on board, had made a voyage to Sydney, carrying letters +home, and bringing back supplies and news. That was nearly twelve +months ago, and was the only communication they had had with +civilisation since they turned their backs on it. +</P> + +<P> +Kenneth Blair and Jean and Aunt Jannet Harvey and Captain Cathie were +sitting one evening on the platform of the mission house, enjoying the +well-earned rest of busy workers. Master Kenni-Kenni was crawling +about at their feet in light attire, with a strong band of knitted wool +round his sturdy body, to which a thin rope and Aunt Jannet were +attached, to keep him from falling overboard. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was sinking, red and misty, into a bank of cloud which lay +heavily across the western sky, though it still wanted an hour of +sunset. The lagoon was sombre red, the spouts of foam on the reef +gleamed dusty rose white, the hills behind were dull red bronze and the +mouth of the valley was filling with purple shadows. +</P> + +<P> +Cathie had been giving them the latest news of the Evanses and Stuarts, +whom he had just been visiting in the <I>Torch</I>, which, with the <I>Jean +Arnot</I>, now lay rolling sleepily over their own black shadows in the +lagoon. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Aunt Jannet, as she hauled Kenni-Kenni back from +destruction and the edge of the platform, which for the moment was the +limit of his ambition, "I've been hot in my life before, but to-day +beats everything. It was like an oven." +</P> + +<P> +"I had to start the engines to get home," said Cathie. "I came in by +the lower entrance and there wasn't a breath of air. But we'll have a +change soon, and a big one too if the barometer's anything to go by. +I've been getting out double cables and kedges to the rocks for both +the ships." +</P> + +<P> +"We wondered what you were busy at," said Blair. "You expect a heavy +blow?" +</P> + +<P> +"You never can tell, and it's best to be on the safe side. We've been +uncommonly lucky so far. But when the weather does get its back up +here it sometimes gets it pretty high——Hel—lo!" +</P> + +<P> +The arm of the hill which ran down into the water hid the seaward view +on that side. As Cathie spoke, a trim black vessel, with a thin trail +of smoke at its cream-coloured funnel, came silently round the point. +</P> + +<P> +They all jumped up at so unusual a sight and stood watching eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Service ship," said Cathie. "What on earth is she doing here?" +</P> + +<P> +At sight of the two ships in the lagoon the stranger slowed down, and +then her syren pealed shrilly across the water. +</P> + +<P> +"We'd better go and see," said Blair, and the two sprang down off the +platform and ran to the whale-boat drawn up on the beach. The <I>Torch</I> +men and a crowd of curious natives were already there. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, lads, show the navy men how you can row," was the captain's +order, and in two minutes the white boat was bounding towards the +opening in the reef. It leaped the rollers and presently drew in to +the rows of bronzed faces which lined the side of the ship and looked +on approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Kapaa'a, I presume?" asked a tall man in a heavily-braided cap. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Kapaa'a," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"And is this Mr. Blair?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am Kenneth Blair. This is Captain Cathie." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on board, gentlemen." A ladder dropped over the side, and they +swung up to the deck. +</P> + +<P> +"Can we get inside there, captain?" asked the tall man. "And is there +anchorage? I don't much like the look of the weather and the barometer +is unusually low." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir, it's going to blow, or I'm much mistaken. You can get in +all right. There's no bottom to that hole in the reef. But whether +you'll be better inside or outside, if it blows hard, I wouldn't like +to say. I've kedged both the schooners there, and I think they'll ride +it out." +</P> + +<P> +"And there's plenty of water and good holding?" +</P> + +<P> +"Plenty water to within a couple of hundred yards of the shore. The +shelf breaks there. Holding's fair. You'd better kedge same as we've +done." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you'll con her in for us to what you consider a good position. +We shall be here for some time, and it'll be pleasanter inside. You'll +excuse me, Mr. Blair, for the moment. We'll have plenty of time to +talk when we get ashore," and he went up on to the bridge with Cathie, +and the big ship headed for the reef. She went weltering through the +passage with the big rollers roaring at her stern, and crept up under +lee of the southern ridge. Then the anchor went down with a plunge, +and the boats dropped lightly into the water to carry the kedges and +cables to the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +Blair stood watching observantly. The ship he saw was H.M.S. <I>Bonita</I>. +He casually asked one of the men, who happened to stand by him for a +moment, where they were from, and was told "Australia," and the +captain's name was Plantagenet Pym. Captain Pym had seemed a bit stiff +in his manner, Blair thought, but that style, he knew, often went with +a heavily-braided cap, and he thought no more of it. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the two captains came down from the bridge and approached him. +</P> + +<P> +"You will permit me to offer you such hospitality as the island +affords, captain?" said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +The other seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he replied, "Thank you, +Mr. Blair, I shall have to be ashore part of the time so I will avail +myself of your offer. I will accompany you in five minutes. Can I +offer you any refreshment—a glass of wine?" and on their declining +this he disappeared below. +</P> + +<P> +He was up again inside the five minutes, and with a word or two to his +senior lieutenant, descended the ladder into the whale-boat. +</P> + +<P> +"Your crew does you credit, captain," he said to Cathie, as the +proximity of the uniform braced every man of them to his best. +</P> + +<P> +"Picked men, every one of them, sir, and good men all," said Cathie +proudly, and every man felt himself a good inch taller. +</P> + +<P> +The dull red glow had faded off the hills and out of the sky. The +water of the lagoon was the colour of lead, with a sullen heave in it. +The jets of foam on the reef looked like the fangs of wolves against +the dark sky beyond. There were cold whispers in the air, and the +palm-trees on shore shivered audibly. The white mission-houses and +buildings gleamed chill white against the dark hill, but yet gave a +touch of comfort and civilisation to the scene. +</P> + +<P> +The crowding natives were greatly impressed by the sight of Captain +Pym. Ha'o underwent the process of presentation with extreme dignity, +and then Blair led the captain to his house. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—Mr. Pym!" cried Aunt Jannet, who was nearest the steps and so met +him first. "It is good of you just to drop in on us in this way," and +she shook his hand with a warmth that almost succeeded in infusing the +like into his response. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I've come over six thousand miles to call on you, Mrs. Harvey. +And how are you, Mrs. Blair? Still suffering exile with equanimity?" +</P> + +<P> +"No exile, no suffering, Captain Pym," said Jean brightly. "We are all +enjoying ourselves extremely, I assure you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I suppose one can bring one's mind to anything." +</P> + +<P> +"If it's the right kind of mind, you can," said Aunt Jannet heartily. +</P> + +<P> +There was just a touch of implication in her tone and manner that some +folks were not the happy possessors of that kind of mind. Captain Pym +stiffened back into officiality somewhat. +</P> + +<P> +"And you really experience no longings for London again, Mrs. Blair?" +he asked, metaphorically turning his back on Aunt Jannet, who +magnanimously went inside to see after supper. +</P> + +<P> +"Not the very slightest." +</P> + +<P> +"Marvellous!" +</P> + +<P> +"You see I have here what I had not in London You shall see my boy in +the morning. He's the finest little fellow in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! ... I suppose that fills many a want." +</P> + +<P> +"He fills our hearts so that there is no room for wants. Are you +making a long stay?" +</P> + +<P> +"That depends. A few days, at all events." +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have heaps of things to show you. All our work here, and +there's a wonderful valley down there with great stone gods that date +back to about the time of the flood. Some ancient race that used to +live here, they say. We will have a picnic there." +</P> + +<P> +"If I have time I shall enjoy it." +</P> + +<P> +In due course the time came, but Captain Pym enjoyed it less than he +had anticipated. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, good people, supper's ready, and you'll all catch your deaths if +you sit out there any longer," called Aunt Jannet from the doorway. +"We have been stewing with the heat all day," she added to Captain Pym, +"and now it's gone to the other extreme. I think you must have brought +a cold wind with you, captain." +</P> + +<P> +"We haven't had a breath all day. It looks like a spell of dirty +weather," said the captain. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was coming off the sea in cold gusts. A weary half moon was +bucketting through a rout of ragged clouds, which sped on over the +mountains as if in haste to hide themselves from some unseen pursuer. +In the gaps of the hurrying clouds the moon and a few stars shone +wanly, and in their dim, ineffective light, the water of the lagoon +tossed brokenly like a pan of boiling lead. The flying rags of cloud +came from the dark bank in the west into which the sun had dropped. It +was spreading upwards. The roar of the reef sounded harsher than usual +and full of threatening. There was a strange uncanny look and feeling +abroad. +</P> + +<P> +"We're certainly in for something," said Captain Cathie, as he stood +looking out to sea. "I've never seen it quite like this before. I +shall go and sleep aboard the <I>Torch</I>"—which did not add to their +cheerfulness. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have some supper first, captain?" said Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, I'll make sure of some supper. If it's to be a fight I can +fight better on a full stomach than an empty one." +</P> + +<P> +So they went inside, and found it pleasant to close the door, which was +a very unusual thing with them. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Pym's manner during supper was still somewhat stiff and formal; +but he unbent enough to give them the latest astonishing news of the +outside world, the lack of which was the one thing they felt somewhat +at times. But it was only when the pipes were alight afterwards that +he disclosed himself. +</P> + +<P> +"You are wondering, no doubt, what brings me here, Mr. Blair," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Well—yes, somewhat. You are the first visitor we have had." +</P> + +<P> +"Not quite. And it is because of those others that I am here." +</P> + +<P> +Blair looked at him in surprise. Captain Cathie nodded +understandingly, as though in confirmation of his own thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"Certain complaints have been made to the Government concerning some of +your doings here, and they have sent me to look into the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"I—see. You refer to the kidnappers we put a stopper on——" +</P> + +<P> +"That complaint comes from Peru. There is one also from the American +government——" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, yes—Mr.—What-was-his-name?—Crawley, was it? He promised we +should hear from him. Well, sir, we shall be glad to put our side of +the case before you. You shall see what we have done here since we +came, and no doubt you will appreciate our desire to safeguard our work +in every possible way. We have done no single thing we in any way +regret, and we would not hesitate to do the same again if occasion +should arise." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said Captain Pym, with a knowing official nod, "you gentlemen of +the cloth, when you get right away from any authority but your own, +sometimes go to extremes, and are perhaps tempted to magnify your +office somewhat." +</P> + +<P> +"That is quite impossible," said Blair quietly. "I consider my office +the very highest in the world. As far as in me lies I have worked up +to my ideal of it, and shall continue to do so. As to going to +extremes, we have simply defended our work from spoliation. That also +we shall continue to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet energetically, and Captain Pym frowned +officially at the pair of them. +</P> + +<P> +"Supposing, Captain Pym," broke in Cathie, by way of lightning +conductor, "you had an unarmed tender attached to your ship, and an +enemy stole up in the night and carried her off, crew and all, you +would consider yourself justified in following and bringing her back, +and taking payment out of the other side." +</P> + +<P> +"That's the way to put it," said Aunt Jannet. +</P> + +<P> +"The cases are not parallel, sir. That would be a <I>casus belli</I>, and I +should of course do my duty. You have no authority——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, we have," said Blair warmly. "The very highest"—and as +Captain Pym did not seem to appreciate that point, he added—"but, +apart from that, we have the endorsement of Mr. Annesley, the Colonial +Secretary. He and the Earl of Selsea were good enough to take very +great interest in our intended work here. I laid all my plans before +them, and they approved them. In fact, they spoke of a protectorate." +</P> + +<P> +"The Earl of Selsea is dead, and Mr. Annesley retired from office +twelve months ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, that may account for things. I am very sorry to hear that. +However, we don't need the protectorate. Kapaa'a is almost on to its +own feet, and can speak for itself." +</P> + +<P> +"And what position does Mr. Blair occupy in the government?" asked Pym, +with a cynical touch in his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever, sir, and desires none. We have consistently worked +through the chief Ha'o, whom you met on the beach. Nothing has been +done without his approval. It is his elevation and his people's that +we desire, not our own, and I think I may say he is as keen on it as we +are." +</P> + +<P> +"From all accounts, however, your work has by no means been confined +entirely to the spiritual department, Mr. Blair; Long Toms and +Winchesters hardly come within the strict bounds of the missionary +calling." +</P> + +<P> +"The shepherd may use his crook to keep the wolves off his flock. Our +crooks consist, as you say, of Winchesters and a Long Tom. If we had +not had them we should not be here—nor would our flock. My ideas of +missionary duties may strike you as somewhat advanced, Captain Pym, but +then, you see, I have the advantage of knowing all the requirements of +the case. The very first essential to progress is peace, and you can't +procure it with words when you're dealing with elementary facts." +</P> + +<P> +"If we'd settled all those elementary facts at the start, as Captain +Cathie and I advised, we would have heard no more about them," said +Aunt Jannet, with a regretful shake of the head. "It's possible to be +too conscientious for this world." +</P> + +<P> +"We work for both, you see. I admit that a clean sweep would have +saved much trouble. But I couldn't bring myself to hanging them, +richly as they deserved it. As to the American citizen, his end and +aim was to introduce the drink traffic, and that we won't have at any +price. Not even under government orders." +</P> + +<P> +Their talk had been so vital that the waxing of the gale outside had +passed unnoticed, though the door was jerking at its latch and the +windows buzzed like bees. +</P> + +<P> +When the discussion came to a pause, Captain Cathie jumped up and went +to the window. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm off," he said quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"If Mrs. Blair will excuse me for to-night, I will go too," said Pym. +"If there is risk for the <I>Torch</I> there is risk for the <I>Bonita</I>, and I +would sooner be on the spot." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope there is no danger," said Jean. "We have had many a big storm, +but the ships have never suffered." +</P> + +<P> +"Barometer's lower than it's ever been since we came here," said +Cathie, with a shake of the head; "and I've no doubt Captain Pym feels +as I do, that when you don't know what's in the wind it's as well to be +where you can find out." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so," said Captain Pym, and Blair went down with them to the boat. +</P> + +<P> +They were nearly blown off their feet before they got to it, and the +waves that swept up the white beach were such as they had never seen on +it before. The rush of the wind in their ears dulled all other sounds. +In the spasmodic gleams of the moon through the ragged clouds they +could see the rollers sweeping over the barrier reef with unbroken +crests, and the usually placid lagoon was in a turmoil. +</P> + +<P> +"Can we manage it?" shouted Pym, in Cathie's ear. +</P> + +<P> +"Under the lee of the ledge there," shouted Cathie, and pounded on the +door of the men's house for his crew. +</P> + +<P> +Blair helped them down with the boat, saw them all soaked through +before they could get afloat, and then watched them toil away into the +lee of the protecting ridge of rocks. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll have their own to-do to get there," he said, when he got back +to the house. "The waves are coming right in over the reef. I never +saw anything like it." +</P> + +<P> +"Is this man going to make trouble for us, Ken?" asked Jean anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't think so. Don't worry about him, dear. He's a bit +bumptious and unsympathetic, but I think we can show him that we could +have done no less than we did. He doesn't trouble me in the slightest. +Whatever he does, our work stands and tells its own tale." +</P> + +<P> +In the morning it seemed to the unknowing as though the storm had blown +itself out. The wind had fallen, but the sky was heavy; dark grey +clouds boiled along close above mud-coloured waves, and the horizon lay +just back of the reef. The sun made a faint fight for a show, but +looked and felt out of place, and after pushing ghostly fingers through +stray holes in the clouds, and peeping at the water below, went into +retirement again. +</P> + +<P> +The two captains came ashore after breakfast, but when Jean expressed +satisfaction at the passing of the storm without any damage, Cathie +only shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Captain Pym," said Blair, as they walked along towards the +village, "let me remind you that less than two years ago these people +were eating one another, and delighting in it. There has not been a +man eaten on Kapaa'a for over twelve months now. Here is the boys' +school. That is the girls'. As it is Sunday, they are all in church +waiting for us. Perhaps you will stop for the service. It is very +short and simple. Then we will go on and show you other evidences of +our work." +</P> + +<P> +The church was crowded, and when the brown men and women and children +sang "Crown Him!" at the full stretch of their lungs, most of their +black eyes were fixed on Captain Pym—to his great discomfort—as +though they applied the hymn specifically to him, which possibly some +of them did. +</P> + +<P> +After service Blair conducted him to the village, and on to the +plantations and taro fields, and even Captain Pym's official phlegm and +preconceived notions had to acknowledge that, for a country three years +ago buried in barbarism, the sights he saw were very striking. +</P> + +<P> +He did not say much. His feelings were at strife. He had come to +condemn, and he found himself forced to admit and admire. +</P> + +<P> +The plantations had by degrees crept a considerable way up the valley. +The party came back along the shoulder of Ra'a's hill, and as they came +towards the open a furious gust of wind carried them almost off their +feet. +</P> + +<P> +And then they saw the most appalling sight of their lives, and one they +never forgot. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the dim grey curtain of the west there appeared a monstrous +sinuous shape that reached from sky to sea, and came swirling towards +the island with an easy voluptuous grace that was full at once of +haphazard fortuity and most malign intention. +</P> + +<P> +They stood frozen. Blair suddenly gripped Pym by the arm. He could +not speak. +</P> + +<P> +Behind the first monster came another, and another, and another, all +reeling hither and thither like drunken demons, but all making straight +for the island. +</P> + +<P> +"Good God!" cried Pym, and instinctively put his hands to his mouth to +shout a warning to his ship, a shout that could not have carried five +inches. +</P> + +<P> +Then he commenced to run down the hill as he had never run in his life +before. His whole thought was for his ship and his men, Blair's and +Cathie's for the people below. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Pym reached the beach through a crowd of fugitives making for +the hillside. The monsters had been sighted, and panic was afoot. +</P> + +<P> +Blair and Cathie rushed down through the village, shouting— +</P> + +<P> +"To the hills!" and sped on. +</P> + +<P> +Jean and Aunt Jannet Harvey, busy in the house, had seen nothing. The +two men dashed up the steps. Blair seized his boy under one arm, and +dragged his wife by the other. Cathie laid hold of Aunt Jannet, and +with a gasping word of explanation which only filled the women with +fear, and explained nothing, they ran for the southern hill, whose arm +ran out into the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Only when they had got half-way up it did they dare to turn and look. +</P> + +<P> +They saw Pym ramping alone on the beach like a madman. +</P> + +<P> +They saw the first of the hideous whirling monsters hop lightly over +the swollen reef without a pause and pirouette in the lagoon. Then a +blast of smoke whirled from the deck of the <I>Torch</I>, and the dull sound +of the gun went quickly past them. The monster writhed and broke, and +the pendulous head of it swept inland. The ships pitched at their +moorings till the kedge cables snapped and they seemed standing on +their sterns. The waves of the lagoon churned up to the platforms of +the mission-houses. +</P> + +<P> +"Good lad! Good lad!" shouted Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +Then the other three monsters, as though in answer to the challenge, as +though endued with malignant understanding and most devilish +determination, bent and swung and reeled over the reef and flung +themselves towards the ships. +</P> + +<P> +They saw Captain Pym suddenly throw up his hands above his head in a +gesture of utter impotence and despair, and then turn and make for the +hill. +</P> + +<P> +The watchers crouched in a crevice of the hillside and gazed +narrow-eyed, and their breaths came quick and short, not from the run +but because their hearts were in their throats and choked their +breathing. +</P> + +<P> +It was a most terrible sight. The powers of all evil—death, +destruction, and malignity—against the puny works of man. +</P> + +<P> +The three awful whirling shapes danced and swung in the lagoon, showing +off all their evil graces. Three ineffectual flashes broke from the +gunboat, but they avoided them with an easy swing, as though they +understood and were on their guard. They reeled towards one another +and seemed to take evil counsel together. Then, as though moved by one +mind, they swooped down straight on the ships. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, cruel! cruel!" moaned Jean, clasping her boy to her and hiding her +face in him. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie groaned as he watched, and then burst into incoherent, +and unusual, and most excusable blasphemies. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet and Kenneth Blair stared in dreadful fascination. +</P> + +<P> +For one of the whirling monsters reached the ships, picked them up, and +smashed them and itself together in one dreadful destruction. When the +wild welter settled down and permitted sight, the lagoon was bare save +for scattered fragments and struggling figures. +</P> + +<P> +Another of the awful things made for the opposite mountain side. They +saw it strike and break there. The solid earth crumbled and splashed +like mud, and palms and rocks slid down to the sea, while the swollen +hanging top of it swung away along the hillside belching ragged +torrents as it went. +</P> + +<P> +The remaining one went roaring past them like a great wounded beast, +and tore up the valley, breaking itself and scattering destruction +broadcast. They heard the final crash of it away up among the hills, +and a foaming torrent came sweeping down the valley carrying everything +before it. +</P> + +<P> +All this time the wind was blowing a hurricane, Such palms as were left +standing whipped and writhed in vain agonies. Some snapped like +carrots and lay still. The rain beat mercilessly on the fearful +watchers and bit like whips. Blair bent over his wife and boy to +shield them with his body. Aunt Jannet, dishevelled and grey, and +haggard, still peered out at the horrors in front. +</P> + +<P> +A sound from her, between a gasp and a groan, and a sudden terrified +clutch at his arm, brought Blair's face up to the crowning horror. +</P> + +<P> +There came a roaring from the sea the like of which was never heard +before. A mighty wall of water came rushing on the land to overwhelm +it. It leaped high over the ridge of rocks that lay like a protecting +arm round the nearer curve of the lagoon. The jets of it went +rocketting up to heaven, and the mighty ridged crest bristled like an +avalanche. +</P> + +<P> +Blair sprang upright instinctively, to face the danger standing, and +dug his fingers deep into the cracks of the rocks in front of him. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-301"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-301.jpg" ALT="Blair sprang upright instinctively." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Blair sprang upright instinctively. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The great wave broke on the solid earth with the crash of an +earthquake. It was half-way up the hillside, and the opposite hill was +suddenly shortened, and stood in the open sea. The valley was a +boiling waterway of hideous and inexpressible confusion. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the end of the world," gasped Aunt Jannet, and sank down, and +looked no more. +</P> + +<P> +"My God! My God!" groaned Cathie. +</P> + +<P> +"God help us all!" said Blair, and the rain whipped his face till it +seemed as hard and set as the neighbouring rocks. +</P> + +<P> +They spent the night there in extremest misery, sodden through and +through, chilled to the bone, faint with hunger. Even Kenni-Kenni was +damp, though two protecting bodies did their best to shelter him. And +all night long the only sounds in their ears were the hiss and rush and +roar of many waters, as the terrible sea went back to its deeps, and +the clouds discharged their ceaseless torrents, and the troubled land +got rid of its torment. +</P> + +<P> +And over and above the weariness of their bodies, their hearts were +sick within them at thought of the destruction of all their work and +all their hopes. For whether a soul besides themselves was left alive +they knew not. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXX +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +WIPED OUT +</P> + +<P> +Jean and Aunt Jannet were dozing fitfully, fairly spent with the strain +and misery of it all. Cathie's grey beard was on his chest, but +whether he slept Blair could not tell. +</P> + +<P> +He himself sat on his rock, chilled to the marrow of his bones, and +watched with heavy eyes the slow birth of new life after the deadly +horrors of the night. And his heart was as cold as his body. +</P> + +<P> +He wrestled manfully with that which was in him, but surely man's faith +and courage were rarely put to sorer test. He had striven so hard, and +toiled so ceaselessly, at utmost stretch of hand and heart and brain, +and here, just as the harvest was ripening, it was all dashed into +nothing, as though by the stroke of an angry hand. Oh, it was hard, +hard, hard! +</P> + +<P> +But he fought out his fight singlehanded, and found himself—where +steadfast faith and undaunted courage have always firm footing. And a +spark of hope struggled up in him to meet the sun. The beginnings of +things had always had a charm for him. And here must be a new +beginning. They were back at first principles and the elementary facts +of life. But, truly, there is a mighty difference between a beginning +and a beginning again, and it calls for the best that is in a man to +begin again with the heart with which he began before. +</P> + +<P> +The rain ceased towards morning, the wind slackened, and when the sun +rose behind the hills the western sky shone opalescent, and the sea +below it was a cold, dark blue. The rollers were still of mighty size, +but the reef was spouting foam again, and the lagoon was heaving within +its usual bounds. +</P> + +<P> +But everything else was changed—everything except the bare ridge on +which they crouched. +</P> + +<P> +The village—gone as though wiped with a sponge off a slate. The +mission-houses, schools, church—not a plank left. And somewhere below +the smiling face of the lagoon lay all that was left of the ships and +the men who had been in them. +</P> + +<P> +Not all below, after all, for from his perch he could see the beach +strewn with fragments, human and otherwise. Right below him on the +hillside, John MacNeil's waterwheel turned busily in fruitless labour, +and its bare nakedness and useless fussiness added to the sense of +desolation and discomfort. +</P> + +<P> +Then the sun topped the hills, and cheered their chilled senses +somewhat. Blair and Cathie straightened themselves wearily, but +neither dared as yet look into the other's face, lest he should find +there only confirmation of his own worst fears. +</P> + +<P> +Kenni-Kenni, who had fared better than any of them, and was conscious +of nothing more than bodily discomfort, gave a hungry cry which woke +response in Cathie's breast. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us go down," he said. "Maybe we'll find something to eat," and +the two men scrambled down to the level, and walked over the soft mud +where the houses had stood, and searched with anxious eyes for +something that might stay their more pressing necessities. +</P> + +<P> +Blair turned up towards the valley. Cathie, with more prescience, +sought the beach, and presently a shout from him brought the two +together again. When they met, the captain was carrying the body of a +drowned kid under one arm, and a bundle of wood under the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's breakfast," he said, and did not think it well to mention that +he had found the kid lying between the bodies of two dead men, one +brown, the other white. +</P> + +<P> +The matches in their metal cases were all damp, but a few minutes' +exposure to the sun put that right, and they soon had fire, and kid +steaks grilling over it on pointed sticks. Then they helped the ladies +down and were presently eating, though, in spite of their hunger, each +one of them felt like choking at every mouthful. And there was no talk +among them, for they were sitting on the grave of their hopes. +</P> + +<P> +More than once Jean stopped feeding her boy and glanced questioningly +at the men, and then, as they ate stolidly, weighted with their +thoughts, she went on with her work. +</P> + +<P> +It was only when they had all quite finished, and sat as though +dreading what might come next, that she said— +</P> + +<P> +"Are we all that are left, Ken? I thought I heard a cry just now." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you, dear? It is possible. There must surely be others. We will +go and see," and he and Cathie went off again towards the beach. +</P> + +<P> +"How's it up the valley?" asked the captain briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Drowned out." +</P> + +<P> +The beach was a pitiful sight. Every step spoke of the catastrophe. +Bodies uncountable, white and brown, men, women, and children, pigs and +goats, broken coco-nuts, bruised fruit, wreckage from the ships and +plantations and houses. +</P> + +<P> +"By God! Mr. Blair, I cannot understand it," broke out Cathie in a +paroxysm, as he stood over the bodies of two of his men from the +<I>Torch</I>. "What had we done to deserve this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cathie, Cathie! Come to your senses, man! This is no punishment of +God's. Rather let us be thankful we are still alive." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd almost as lieve be dead," said Cathie stubbornly. "Ships gone, +men gone, everything gone, and all our work undone. Say what you will, +Mr. Blair, it's bitter hard." +</P> + +<P> +"These," said Blair, raising his hands reverently over the dead at +their feet, "have gone home—beyond the reach of storms. The ships can +be replaced. If there are any people left, the work can be rebuilt. +If they are all gone, they are the better off, and they have gone +further than if we had never come here." +</P> + +<P> +"It's bitter hard, all the same——" +</P> + +<P> +And then a faint, muffled cry reached them, apparently from the ragged +hillside whose débris lay all over the beach, and they both ran towards +it. +</P> + +<P> +The cries were repeated, and led them at last to an out-jutting rock +round which the sliding earth had flowed and settled. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you?" cried Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"Here!" came from under their feet, and they spied a small hole in the +earth, and set to work at once to enlarge it with their hands. +</P> + +<P> +Cathie ran down to the beach and came back with some pieces of wood +which made the work go quicker. The cries from the inside had ceased, +and they worked the harder, and at last they had the hole large enough +for Blair to get his head and shoulders in. +</P> + +<P> +With his hand he felt the body of a man fallen in a heap, and by great +exertions managed to drag it out through the hole. +</P> + +<P> +It was the body of Captain Pym, white and senseless. They carried him +down to the beach and dashed water in his face, and presently he came +to, and lay for a minute looking dazedly up at them. Then he sat up. +</P> + +<P> +"I apologise," he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness. "Been dead +and buried all night—thought of coming to life again bowled me out. +Saw you in the distance, and shouted and shouted—like being in a +coffin—just room to stand, but couldn't move, and been holding up that +hill all night. My God!" as it all came back on him. "What a horror +it has been! Are you the only ones left?" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope not," said Blair. "Can you walk? We've got a fire over there +and something to eat." +</P> + +<P> +"Bit shaky yet," said Pym, as he staggered along on their arms. "Never +expected to walk again in this life." +</P> + +<P> +"How was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"When I saw that devilish thing smash the ships, and the other coming +towards me, I made for the hill. I was just under that rock when it +broke. It was like being under Niagara, only worse. It jammed me flat +and beat the breath out of me. Then the earth came rolling down, and +cased me in tight except a hand's space through which I could breathe. +I've been seeing those ships go smash every minute since. God! It was +awful!" and he hung slackly on their arms and glanced over the placid +lagoon. +</P> + +<P> +Jean and Aunt Jannet gave him quiet greeting, as one come back from the +dead, and hastened to supply his wants. Blair and Cathie set off again +up the valley with tight faces. +</P> + +<P> +The havoc there was terrible. The cloud-burst and the great wave +together had swept it bare. They went some distance up and stood +looking round. It seemed incredible that so short a time could have +wrought so woful a change. +</P> + +<P> +The plantations were gone to the last stick and leaf. The very +hillsides were almost cleared of trees. The smiling valley of +yesterday was a stark empty pan, with deeply-scored sides and a sheet +of shining mud caking slowly at the bottom. +</P> + +<P> +"It will make good growing ground," said Blair. +</P> + +<P> +"If we'd anything to grow and any one to grow it for," said Cathie +gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall find some of them in the hills, I hope. Let us get on." +</P> + +<P> +And presently there was a shout up above on the hillside, and there +came down, at a pace that risked their necks, Jim Gregor of the <I>Jean +Arnot</I> and young Irvine, who was on the <I>Torch</I> when last they heard of +him. +</P> + +<P> +They whooped with joy and shook hands a dozen times with Blair and +Cathie, and were quite incoherent for many minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"We're right glad to see you, boys," said Blair, when they calmed down. +"Are there any more up there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Three more Torches, sir, and half a dozen Bonitas, and about a dozen +islanders, men and women, and a couple of children. Have you got +anything to eat?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Go on to the water-wheel. You'll find food there. Where are +these others?" +</P> + +<P> +"Right by yon rock. We'll go back with you. Some of them are badly +bashed and can't walk without help." +</P> + +<P> +So they all climbed up, and came on the forlorn little company +crouching by the rock, and gave them new life by the very sight of them. +</P> + +<P> +The sailors plucked up heart at once, but the brown men were very +subdued and silent. Their eyes were still wide with terror when at +last they sat under the southern ridge and ate the food Jean and Aunt +Jannet found for them, supplemented by coco-nuts and bruised fruit from +the beach. +</P> + +<P> +All the men had strange stories to tell. Gregor and Irvine, and some +of the others, asserted that when the waterspout struck the ships they +were whirled up out of them and dropped into the lagoon some distance +away. Then, before they could swim ashore, the great wave caught them +and whirled them up into the valley, bruising them all more or less and +breaking some. The brown men were mostly sound of limb. They had fled +for the hills at the first sight of the spectral dangers outside. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you seen signs of any others?" asked Blair. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, they thought they had seen moving forms on the further hills, but +too far away to distinguish clearly. On which Cathie set them to +collecting driftwood from the shore, and piled it on the fire, with wet +brush and tangle on top, till the smoke rose in a dense column. +</P> + +<P> +"That'll bring them," he said, and in time they came dropping in, in +small companies, from their various hiding-places, and last of all came +one carrying a woman in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +And at sight of him, toiling through the new soft mud where the village +had stood, Blair sprang up and ran to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God, you are left to us, Ha'o!" he cried as they met, but Ha'o +was as silent as the rest of his people. "Is Nai hurt? Let me help +you." +</P> + +<P> +Nai smiled wanly at him as he put his arms under her and took part of +the weight, and then her face crumpled with pain. +</P> + +<P> +They carried her gently to the fire, and laid her on the soft white +sand, and Jean and Aunt Jannet knelt beside her and saw to her wants. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie, when he saw the increasing company, had made another +visit to their only storehouse, the beach, and came back this time with +a young pig and some bananas and coco-nuts, and some +carefully-sought-out paw-paw leaves for the benefit of the too-fresh +pork. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o was too weary and too hungry for talk, and Blair and Cathie called +the militant members of the party to salvage work on the beach. +Gruesome work too, and not calculated to raise their spirits even after +a full meal, for every few steps brought them to the bodies of those +they had known alive and well the day before. +</P> + +<P> +These they drew up the sand for burial later. Meanwhile the orders +were to save everything they could lay hands on. Where everything had +been taken, the smallest find was of value. +</P> + +<P> +Fruits and shrubs especially Blair commended to their attention, and he +had a couple of dozen paw-paw trees and several rows of bananas planted +before sunset. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the piles of timber they secured, Cathie and Pym built lean-to +shelters among the rocks sufficient for the whole party. With the +coco-nuts and broken fruit, and the bodies of several pigs and goats, +they had food for several days, if only they could keep it in eatable +condition. By the time it was finished they would know more about +their actual circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +Jean informed her husband that Nai had an arm and leg broken, and he at +once sought out slips of wood and strips of garments, and put the +broken limbs into splints. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o, after eating, lay thoughtful for a time, and then went down to +assist the salvage party. He dragged and carried in silence for some +time, but finally gave voice to his thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"Kenni, why has this come upon us?" +</P> + +<P> +"You have had storms before, Ha'o." +</P> + +<P> +"But never a storm like this one, with whirling devils and waves like +rushing mountains." +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard of both before in other places, but I never saw them +myself till now." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it your God sent them, Kenni?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only in the same way that He sends everything, Ha'o—light and wind +and rain." +</P> + +<P> +"Why did He send this when we were doing our best to please Him?" +</P> + +<P> +"It came in the ordinary way of things. It was just a bigger storm +than usual." +</P> + +<P> +"We never had it like this before," said Ha'o, sticking stubbornly to +his point. "My people are saying it is your God sent it. If He is +that kind of a god we don't want Him." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you train your young men, Ha'o? By treating them softly? By +petting them, and giving them all things easy and pleasant?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nay, we toughen them, so that they may endure." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly! Do you think that God knows less than you? He also wants +men who can endure even when the fight goes against them." +</P> + +<P> +That seemed to strike him. He went on stolidly hauling and carrying, +and at last said, bitterly— +</P> + +<P> +"If He had left my people alive, Kenni, and not broken Nai, I would +have thought better of Him." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us be grateful for what is left, my friend. Nai will get better. +Many of our people are dead, but more are left than we think, perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +But Ha'o shook his head gloomily, and went on hauling and carrying, and +said no more. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXXI +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +REVERSIONS +</P> + +<P> +Captain Pym was in that state of mind in which every man who loses his +ship finds himself, and from which his fellow in misfortune, Captain +Cathie, was slowly emerging. No slightest blame attached to him in the +matter, and he would have no difficulty in proving it. Nevertheless, +he was suffering exceedingly. The burden of his thoughts kept sleep +far from him, and, after tossing restlessly through the night on a by +no means uncomfortable couch of dried palm fronds, he got up very early +next morning to give his depressed spirits fresh air and wider space +than the confinement of the lean-to afforded them. Blair and Cathie, +worn out with hard work and anxieties, were still sleeping soundly. +</P> + +<P> +As Pym walked along the beach, he saw with surprise a thin curl of +smoke rising behind an angle of the hillside not far from the scene of +his coffining. +</P> + +<P> +When he came to the angle he stopped transfixed, and then set off at a +run to the huts. He caught Blair by the shoulder and roughly shook him +awake. +</P> + +<P> +"Blair," he cried hoarsely, "your brown devils are eating our men," and +Blair and Cathie were on their feet in a moment. +</P> + +<P> +Blair was not very greatly surprised, though not a little disturbed. +He had seen the upsetting the catastrophe had wrought in Ha'o, the most +advanced of all, and he had wondered if the rest would stand the strain. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a throw-back," he said, "but it's really not very surprising. +Where's Ha'o? Cathie, will you call the men?" +</P> + +<P> +He went quickly to the shed Ha'o had built for Nai, and found him there +asleep, and was to that extent relieved. He woke him quietly, and told +him what was going on. +</P> + +<P> +"Food is scarce, and will be scarcer," said Ha'o, when he arrived at an +understanding of the matter. "Everything is destroyed." +</P> + +<P> +"Better starve than live so," said Blair vehemently. "But everything +is not destroyed. We shall live somehow, and this has got to be +stopped. Come on!" +</P> + +<P> +He picked up a stick of wood from the drift, and set off at a run along +the beach. The others armed themselves in like manner and followed him. +</P> + +<P> +The brown men sprang up from their feast as they rounded the corner, +some of them still gnawing at chunks of flesh in their hands. +</P> + +<P> +Blair rushed at them like a blazing bolt. Several of them, for lack of +clubs, snatched brands from the fire. He paid no heed to their +weapons, but laid about him with his stick with such vigour that they +gave way before him, and the others, following his lead with hearty +good will, drove the brown men back, and finally put them to the run. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Blair, as he leaned on his stick, "there is only one thing +to be done. Pile all the rough wood you can find on to that fire. +Keep out anything that may be useful. We must burn all those bodies. +We can't take them out to sea, and if we bury them they'll dig them up." +</P> + +<P> +It was obviously the best thing to do, and they set about the gruesome +business at once. +</P> + +<P> +They made a mighty pile of firing and laid the bodies reverently on it, +and covered them with more wood, and more bodies and again more wood, +till they had to wait till the pile burned down, because of the height +of it and the heat. And their faces were pinched and their breaths +shortened, as they carried to the pyre the bodies of those they had +lived with in comradeship for so long, and they worked in silence. +</P> + +<P> +The only sound that was heard beyond the crackle and fall of the +burning wood, as the dense black smoke rolled up into the sky, was the +voice of Blair, as he stood to windward and quietly recited portions of +the service for the Burial of the Dead from time to time. And surely +never did the solemn words sound more weighty and full of meaning. +</P> + +<P> +"I am the resurrection and the life.... +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, Thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another.... +</P> + +<P> +"Thou turnest man to destruction.... +</P> + +<P> +"They are even as a sleep: and fade away suddenly like the grass.... +</P> + +<P> +"In the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.... +</P> + +<P> +"For we consume away in Thy displeasure.... +</P> + +<P> +"Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live.... He cometh +up and is cut down, like a flower.... +</P> + +<P> +"In the midst of life we are in death.... +</P> + +<P> +"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.... +</P> + +<P> +"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.... For they rest from +their labours...." +</P> + +<P> +None of them ever forgot that strange and somewhat ghastly service—the +hungry lick of the flames, blue and green and yellow and red from the +salt and tar, but almost unseen in the beams of the fully-risen sun; +the rippling lagoon; the sparkling white beach; the foam-jets on the +reef; the great blue sea beyond; the pitiful things the flames +consumed; and the rolling clouds of smoke which spread like a pall +along the scarred hillside. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Jannet Harvey came hurrying round the corner to see what they were +at, and Cathie caught sight of her and sent her hurrying back surprised +at his brusqueness. For this was one of the things that may be told +but is better not seen. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o had taken no part in these doings. He had no desire for human +flesh, but there was a doubtful look on his face, as though he thought +the proceedings wasteful and possibly to be regretted later on. +</P> + +<P> +The brown men stood in a clump at a distance and watched sullenly all +that was done. +</P> + +<P> +When the pile died down Blair went over to the chief. +</P> + +<P> +"Ha'o," he said, "go and speak to your people. Tell them that things +are as they were, and that flesh they shall not eat." +</P> + +<P> +"They will starve." +</P> + +<P> +"No, they will not starve. We will find them food." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o looked at him doubtfully, but not without expectation. The white +men were so wonderful, that it was difficult to say what they could or +could not do, and Kenni never lied. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, "Where, Kenni?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall not starve," said Blair emphatically. +</P> + +<P> +The brown man looked searchingly at him for a full minute, and then +turned and strode away towards the others. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap32"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXXII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +FROM THE BEGINNING +</P> + +<P> +"Our brown folk have lost their heads for the time being," said Blair +to his wife, as they all stood round the huts. "They have gone off to +the hills. It is not very surprising. They will come back all right +in time. Captain Cathie, I want you to make a raft and take the ladies +and the sick—in fact, all but Gregor and Irvine—to the Happy Valley +for a time, till things straighten out a bit. You will, I think, find +food there, and the natives won't intrude on you." +</P> + +<P> +"And you, Kenneth?" said Jean anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going across to the other side of the island with Ha'o, to see +how they fared there. If food is plentiful we will bring some back +here for the women and children. They may have been washed out also. +If so we must get food from the Valley. We will drop in on you from +the upper end, but it is too rough a road for you and the sick men. +Will you join us, Captain Pym, or will you go and take care of the +ladies?" +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Cathie is quite equal to that, I am sure, Mr. Blair. With +your permission I will join you." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you induce Nai to go with the ladies, Ha'o?" +</P> + +<P> +"She will go," said Ha'o tersely. +</P> + +<P> +He was in a gloomy frame of mind through all these strange happenings +and the defection of his people. +</P> + +<P> +"Then the sooner we get to it the better." And under Cathie's +directions they all set to work on a raft. Timber and rope were not +wanting. +</P> + +<P> +"Take all you can, and especially what we can use for boat-building +later on," said Blair. "We shall have to get out of our hole +ourselves, and that, I think, is the way out." +</P> + +<P> +The brown women and children he set to collecting for themselves all +the food they could find along the shore. He also gave them some +lengths of rope, and bade them untwist it for fishing-lines and then +start fishing from the ledge with splinters for hooks. +</P> + +<P> +"You will probably find the bottom of the valley scoured out, Cathie," +he said; "but there should be both fruit and animals on the hillsides. +We may have to replenish the island from there." +</P> + +<P> +When the work was well forward, he set out with his little band to +cross the island by One-Tree Pass, and found the passage extremely +difficult. For the cloud seemed to have finally broken on the saddle +of the hills, and in many places the road they had built with such +labour and difficulty was washed completely away, and in other places +it was buried deep under slides of broken rock. +</P> + +<P> +They found their way over the ridge, however, and saw at once that the +deluge had wrought heavily on the further side also. The long slope +was deeply scored and furrowed, but there were houses and palm-trees +still standing down below, and they went on quickly to see how the +brown folk had fared. +</P> + +<P> +The villagers welcomed them heartily and received their news with +amazement. The storm above and the storm below had terrified them. +The water had come down the hill in cascades, but the long stretch had +dissipated much of its force before it reached them. Then the great +wave had swept across the beach and carried away all their boats. +Their palms and plantations had suffered heavily, and they had picked +up a number of dead pigs and goats, but otherwise there had been no +loss of life. They had not overmuch food, but what they had they were +quite willing to share with the others who had none. And Blair's +heart, still sore over the defection of the western men, was comforted +somewhat by their simple kindliness. +</P> + +<P> +They stayed the night, and Blair explained more fully the disasters on +the other side of the island and the temporary aberration of Ha'o's +people, and begged them, if there should be any attempt at raiding, to +treat the others as reasonably as might be, remembering what they had +gone through. +</P> + +<P> +They set off again very early in the morning, carrying such burden of +food as was possible on the rough road they had to travel, and reached +the huts by the sea before midday. The brown men had taken possession +and received them in sulky silence. +</P> + +<P> +Blair gave the food to the women and children, and to the men some bits +of his mind in his own special way. He acknowledged the direness of +the catastrophe, but bade them remember that the white men had suffered +equally and yet had not lost their heads or their heart. He told them +to be grateful for their lives, and assured them that there was no need +for despair. +</P> + +<P> +Blair's high spirits in the face of all difficulties, his forethought +and far-reaching grip of the necessities of the case, made a deep +impression even on Captain Pym's habitual and official phlegm. Under +stress of circumstance he found himself under the necessity of +rearranging his preconceived ideas. He became decidedly more human, +and perhaps more of a man, than he had been for many a year. +</P> + +<P> +He sounded Blair as to his hopes and intentions, and they discussed +matters freely. In furtherance of them, when they had rested, they all +set to work making another raft, and if the <I>Bonita</I> men could have +seen their spick and span, stiff and starched captain, hauling and +lashing, with his coat off and his trousers up to the knee, it is +certain they would not have known him. +</P> + +<P> +They paddled their raft across the lagoon to the place where the ships +had lain before the storm, and after some searching found where the +<I>Torch</I> and <I>Jean Arnot</I> were lying. The great wave had probably +washed them inshore but the return had carried them out again. The +<I>Bonita</I> had disappeared completely. She had probably been carried +over the edge of the shelf and lay in unfathomable depths. They could +see the other two dimly through the clear water, with the many-coloured +fishes darting in and out of their battered sides and broken raffle, +and Captain Pym's face pinched at the sight and at thought of it all. +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o was the most expert swimmer of the party, and had long since shown +that he could remain under water twice as long as any of the white men. +On him therefore the burden of discovery lay, and he appreciated with +the rest how much depended on his efforts. They had timber in quantity +from the broken boats and ships, but without tools they could turn it +all to no account. There were tools below there in the ships. Ha'o +was going down to find them. With tools in their hands the door of +deliverance would be at all events ajar. +</P> + +<P> +"You will most likely find them in the front part of our ship, Ha'o, +underneath where the big gun was," Blair told him. "If the gun has +fallen through, so much the better. It will help you," and Ha'o +nodded, and shot down through the clear water like a brown streak. +</P> + +<P> +He was up again presently and hung panting to the raft. The big gun +had gone out of sight through the side and bottom of the ship. He +would get inside next time. +</P> + +<P> +But it took many visits before he discovered anything, and then a +ringing cheer went up as he came to the surface with a saw in his hand, +and flung it on to the raft. +</P> + +<P> +"There are more things, but they are scattered," he told them, when he +had got his breath, and next time he took down with him one end of a +thin cord they had unravelled out of rope, and presently sent up by it +a heavy hammer, and came up himself with a chisel. It took many hours' +hard work, but at last they had enough to go on with, and Ha'o lay +panting on the raft, while the others paddled it slowly down the lagoon +to the Happy Valley. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap33"></A> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CHAPTER XXXIII +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4b"> +SALT OF THE EARTH +</P> + +<P> +The effect of the great wave in the Valley had been extraordinary. +</P> + +<P> +When last they were there the whole place was a tangle of luxuriant +undergrowth, ferns, mosses, lichens, pandanus, hibiscus, paw-paws, with +stately palms waving gracefully above. +</P> + +<P> +Now the bed of the Valley was bare. The growths and the undergrowths +had been torn off and swept away, and the newcomers were led +wonderingly through the uncovered ruins of the city built by the men +who set up the stone gods—along a wide street paved with stone blocks, +which ran up the middle of the Valley with the stream flowing through +it; past the foundations of great buildings; into an immense square +where the denudation had been less complete. A certain amount of mud +had silted down again on to the ruins. Nature was already at work +covering up the scar of her latest wound. And the great stone gods sat +gazing expectantly out to sea, as they had gazed when the city below +still teemed with busy life; as they had gazed through all the long +years since, while the ruins of the city slowly disappeared beneath the +touch of the healing hand. +</P> + +<P> +The first party had found strange quarters in the uncovered basement of +a building, which, from its size, had probably been a temple. It was a +great quadrangle, and the head of the wide roadway that led from the +sea ran right into it, and ended there. The upper end of the enclosure +rose ten feet or more above the level, and was composed of great +chiselled blocks of stone, and in this were cavernous square openings, +the entrances of which now served as houses for these houseless +strangers. They had appropriated four adjacent holes, and had made +themselves as comfortable as circumstances permitted. +</P> + +<P> +The whole place had been covered in with wild growth, but the great +wave foaming up the valley had swept it all bare. The apartments were +not uncomfortable except in one respect. They ran so far back into the +hillside that the ends of them had not yet been discovered. "And," +said Aunt Jannet, peering into the shadows which the firelight +quickened into ghostly life, "I'm always expecting something will come +out, and either frighten us to death or eat us alive." +</P> + +<P> +Ha'o stood it for one night, with crumpled face and quick-glancing +eyes, but next day he carried up some boards from the beach, and built +a tiny lean-to outside for himself and Nai, and they found life more +tolerable. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing ever came out of those mysterious passages for their undoing. +What dark uses they may have served in the bygone times they could only +surmise. One passage they followed till it issued in the cliffs behind +the stone gods. The others ran straight into the heart of the +mountain, with cross cuts leading round towards the city, and the uses +they might have been put to in the hands of a priestly oligarchy were +apparent. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Pym was fired with thoughts of hidden treasure, and spent many +odd hours searching for it. Blair laughed at the idea, and begged him +to keep it to himself, lest the men should catch the infection, and +waste on it valuable time which might be used to much better advantage. +</P> + +<P> +"Treasure is unlikely," he said. "If, as we suppose, these pioneers +were accidentally blown across, or fled for reasons, they would not be +likely to bring much with them." +</P> + +<P> +"All the same, they built mightily," argued Pym, and went on with his +search. All that he ever found, however, was a few flat beaten plates +of gold, and some golden ornaments, of no great value save as +curiosities. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Cathie reported a fair amount of fruit and palms still standing +on the hillsides, and pigs and goats enough to re-stock the island, in +time and with protection. Most of the other animals had disappeared +completely. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take the men back to-morrow over the hill," said Cathie, in +excellent spirits at the prospect of the opening door, "and we'll bring +back another raft of timber. With the tools you've got we can make a +start anyway, and we can fish up more by degrees. There's timber +enough in the lagoon to build a new schooner." +</P> + +<P> +"Build us something that will float as far as the Marquesas or +Paumotus, and we'll soon have a new schooner, captain. But the first +thing I want is to get to Kanele and Anape to see how Evans and Stuart +have fared. If they came through pretty well we can get fresh stock +from them, both animals and plants." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got a lot of paw-paws for you on the beach, and some bananas and +plantains. Where will you plant, Mr. Blair?" +</P> + +<P> +"For the present in the mud of the old fields. It'll make splendid +growing ground. Later on, when we rebuild, we must get higher up. +We're not likely to have another deluge just yet, but what has been may +be, and we must take all precautions. When your boat is ready, and +we've had a trip round the islands, my idea is for you to run across to +the Marquesas and buy a schooner there, if you can lay hands on one, +and send her back by Gregor for our use while you're away. Then you go +on to Sydney and buy a new <I>Torch</I> and everything we need, Long Tom, +Winchesters and all"—with a quizzical glance at Pym. "You know just +what we want, and you can have all the money you require." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Pym listened with surprise. His ideas of missionaries were +crystallising rapidly from the solution of scepticism into concrete +beliefs and admirations. He was not a man given to admiration of other +men, but he recognised in Kenneth Blair a master mind and an +indomitable spirit. He said little but thought much. +</P> + +<P> +Every one was at work soon after daylight. Cathie produced drowned +meat from an adjacent passage way, which he used as cold storage. Jean +and Aunt Jannet prepared the morning meal. Blair had planted two rows +of paw-paws and a number of bananas before breakfast, and Ha'o had +built his lean-to for Nai and brought in some fruit. +</P> + +<P> +Then Cathie built a small raft, and in due course Aunt Jannet Harvey +was seated on it with many startled exclamations, and wafted herself +uncouthly out into the lagoon. She was provided with two fishing lines +and a supply of bait, and a rope to the shore lest she should disappear +entirely from human ken, and she had instructions to catch all the fish +she could for the amplification of the larder. +</P> + +<P> +And Blair, when he had made sure of her safety, and turned to go up the +valley to cross the hills, could hardly contain himself at sight of her +face, in which determination to catch struggled desperately with horror +at thought of pulling the hooks out of what she caught. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a change from Kensington, Aunt Jannet, isn't it? You're quite +sure you won't tumble overboard?" had been his jovial parting word. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll t—try not, Kenneth. D—do you think it hurts them much to have +the hooks pulled out?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you leave them for a few minutes they'll die quite comfortably. +Then it won't hurt them. Anyway, you see we need them." +</P> + +<P> +So Aunt Jannet pursed her lips valiantly, and cast in the lines he had +baited for her, and watched him and Captain Cathie with one eye, while +the other waited on her lines in fear and expectation. +</P> + +<P> +They waved her an adieu at the turn of the valley, and in her attempt +to reply to it she frightened away a swarm of eager nibblers and nearly +fell overboard herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said to herself, "it's a great change from Kensington. But +if that child Jean can stand it, I can. And she seems as happy as a +lark. That's partly Kenni-Kenni, of course. Oh dear, I've caught +something! Whatever am I to do now?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked wildly round for assistance, but the men were climbing the +hill, laden with provisions for the brown folk. So she tightened her +lips and hauled in her line, and at last drew her first fish on to the +raft. And then, after a pitiful look at its changing colours, she +turned her head away as far as she could, suppressed a strong +inclination to throw her victim back into the water, and waited for the +poor thing to die comfortably. +</P> + +<P> +When Jean and Kenni-Kenni came down to inquire how she was getting on, +she was quite herself again. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got a dozen or so," she cried. "I hope they are all fit to eat. +It's really quite interesting when you get used to it. If you like to +try your hand at it, Jean, haul me in and I'll take care of Kenni-Kenni +for a bit." +</P> + +<P> +The men were back before nightfall, very tired, but rich in timber, and +in high spirits at the recovery of more tools, and all with appetites +that disposed of Aunt Jannet's fish in a very much shorter time than it +had taken that good lady to catch them. +</P> + +<P> +Next day they laid the keel of their forlorn hope, and when that +ceremony was over, Blair and Ha'o started off again across the hills to +the old village, to endeavour to get the brown men to make a start on +their own buildings and plantings. Characteristically, they were +inclined to lie down under misfortune and let things take their chance, +and Blair, characteristically also, stated his intention of stopping +there till they got to work. He exhorted them to better heart both by +word and example, and Ha'o lent the weight of his authority, and, where +that failed, added the still weightier impulsion of physical force. +Authority weakens under disaster, but a bold heart and a heavy hand are +strong arguments, and, disaster or no disaster, Ha'o had no intention +of abating one jot of his seigneurial rights. He was chief still and +he let them feel it. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the good of planting?" said the brown men. "We shall be dead +before the fruit comes." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, you won't!" said Blair cheerfully. "There is fruit in the +Valley and fruit on the other side of One-Tree Pass, but in future +you'll have to go and get it for yourselves, and you can have all the +fish you want for the catching." +</P> + +<P> +"But we don't care for fish every day." +</P> + +<P> +"There are many things I don't care for myself, my sons, but when I +can't do better I put up with them. You must learn to be men." +</P> + +<P> +The actively mutinous spirit, which the opportunity of the day after +the storm had kindled in them, had passed with the passing of that +which had excited it. It had vanished in the smoke of the funeral +pyre, and Blair was grateful, for things might have been very +different. Instead of fighting the lethargy of despair they might have +had to defend themselves against its fury, and he was well content. +</P> + +<P> +He tried hard to get them to come over into the Valley, but that they +would not do. They would come to the hill top for such fruits as might +be brought there for them, and they would go over One-Tree Pass, but +into the valley of the stone gods not one of them would set so much as +a toe, and Ha'o himself could not make them. +</P> + +<P> +With all hands working heartily and at high pressure,—from Captain +Pym, who dropped the last remnants of his starch in the process, to +Aunt Jannet who, in the intervals of her other duties, picked oakum as +if she had been undergoing a term of imprisonment,—the boat building +made famous progress, and four weeks from the day the keel was laid the +Kenni-Kenni was launched—prevailed upon, at all events, and apparently +much against her will, to quit mother earth and take to the water. And +if she looked, as Captain Cathie admitted, something of a cross between +a washtub and a patchwork quilt, she was undoubtedly built strong and +would stand a good deal of knocking about. As to her sailing +qualities, they might have been better and they might have been worse, +and, as Cathie said, they had not started out to build a +cup-winner—which was perhaps just as well. +</P> + +<P> +There was an old candle-nut tree in a corner at the head of the Valley, +and they set out to stain the little ship dark red with a decoction of +its bark, but as the supply ran short the result was not altogether +happy. However, she floated on an even keel and was as tight as a +drum, forty feet over all, ten feet beam, decked all over and yawl +rigged. Spars and sails they had in plenty from the treasure trove of +the beach, and Captain Cathie undertook to take her all the way to +Sydney if need be. He also expressed the explicit intention of +overhauling the first ship or island he came across for a supply of +paint, all of one colour, sufficient to go all round her. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, and in spite of her lack in such minor details, their +hearts were very full as they lined the beach, with their eyes on the +little ship, and in their ears Blair's voice ringing strong and true +with gratitude and hope, as he prayed God's blessing on the +accomplished work of their hands, and on the work she had still to do. +</P> + +<P> +When the ceremony was over, and Blair happened to be standing for a +moment alone, Captain Pym came up to him and wrung his hand heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"Blair," he said, and his old shipmates on the <I>Bonita</I> would not have +known either his voice or the look on his face, "I'm glad I came here. +But for my poor fellows who are gone, I could almost say I'm glad I was +wrecked here. I have learnt a great deal," and Blair answered him with +a cordial grip and a beaming smile. +</P> + +<P> +On the morrow, Blair and Pym and Cathie and a crew of six, three +Torches, and three Bonitas, took leave of the rest and sailed for +Kanele. +</P> + +<P> +Jean felt this parting terribly, the little ship looked so small, so +uncouth, so unequal to emergencies. But she kept a brave face, and +waved her farewells from the shore with a fervent prayer for their +safety, and then went quietly about her work, with her own Kenni-Kenni +clinging to her skirts, while his namesake carried his father away +across the seas to possible dangers, to possible—— Nay, she would +have faith in that protecting hand which had brought them through so +many difficulties before, and to fear was to doubt. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-331"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-331.jpg" ALT="Waved her farewells from the shore." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Waved her farewells from the shore. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +So her heart sang valiantly, "God's in His heaven, all's well!" and +after that first hour her face was calm and hopeful, and she was +counting the days to their return. +</P> + +<P> +The secret passages of the old temple made capital homes. The men had +snatched odd moments from their other labours, and material from their +abundant stores, and had boarded off the interior darknesses and +ghostly possibilities, and had knocked together some rough tables and +stools. They had food enough, though they were all tiring somewhat of +fish, fish again, and always fish. Blair had laughingly assured them +it was good for the brain, and Aunt Jannet asserted that she was +getting so brainy that, unless a change of diet came soon, she would +not answer for consequences. But in reality there was very little to +complain of. The health of the whole party had been excellent, and +Blair's high spirits had permitted no one else's to droop for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +Jean had more than once suggested their return to their work among the +brown men and women. But, in view of this first trip round the +islands, to which he had been looking forward with much eagerness, +Blair judged it best for them to remain where they were. +</P> + +<P> +"As soon as we're rid of Captain Pym and Cathie and the rest, we'll go +back and tackle the work," he said. "The brown folks are getting on +all right in the meantime. They're actually beginning to learn how to +help themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"Jean, my dear," said Aunt Jannet, one day after the <I>Kenni-Kenni</I> +sailed, "it's just wonderful the way you stand it all." +</P> + +<P> +"Stand it, Aunt Jannet? Why, what do you mean? What is there to +stand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why—heaps. Look at your dress, for instance. And when one remembers +that you've got £10,000 a year or so!—yes, I say, it's just wonderful." +</P> + +<P> +"I've done my best with it, and it's very rude to comment on people's +clothes before their faces. Besides, your own is no better, and the +needle Captain Cathie made for you out of that fishbone was very much +better than mine." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well," laughed Aunt Jannet. "It wasn't your dress I was +meaning, child——" +</P> + +<P> +"You're getting fish on the brain, dear. Isn't that enough to make any +woman happy?" +</P> + +<P> +That, of course, was Kenni-Kenni, whose great delight it was at this +time to rush through and through the shining stream that babbled across +the temple floor, kicking up diamond showers with his pink toes and +squealing with delight as the sparkling drops played round him. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it does one good just to look at him," said Aunt Jannet. "But I +do wish you could get him to wear some more clothes. He's——" +</P> + +<P> +"Clothes!" said Jean scornfully. "What does a boy like that want with +clothes?" +</P> + +<P> +Kenni-Kenni was developing rapidly. He had one day thrown a stone at a +little black pig which sought his acquaintance. And when the piglet +fled Kenni-Kenni came suddenly to the knowledge of his prowess and +thereafter became a mighty hunter of small pigs whenever chance offered. +</P> + +<P> +He had also, after considerable hesitation, thrown a pebble at one of +the stone gods, of which he had hither-to stood in much awe. And as no +ill results followed he had become bold and warlike, and thought +nothing of challenging the bearded sailormen to mortal combat. And +they delighted in him exceedingly, and had promised to teach him to box +and to swim as soon as the boat was finished. +</P> + +<P> +Nai was getting about again and would soon be as well as ever. The +broken arm and leg were mending, and never was invalid more tenderly +ministered to, or more grateful to her nurses. It was upon Ha'o that +the catastrophe seemed to have had the most lasting effect, and that, +after all, was perhaps not unnatural. The country was his, and the +people were his, and they had suffered terribly. His faith in Kenneth +Blair underwent no visible eclipse, however, and he laboured at the +boat-building with the rest. +</P> + +<P> +The days passed very slowly for those left behind, and when the limit +allowed for the voyage was exceeded by one day, two days, three days, +Jean's anxieties began to show head again. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry, child!" said Aunt Jannet. "That boat has probably proved +even slower than they expected. My only wonder was that it would sail +at all. Not one of them ever built a boat in his life before, and I'm +sure it looked a deal more like a big washtub with a cover on than a +ship. They'll turn up all right in time. If they'd been meant to be +drowned they'd every chance when all the rest were." +</P> + +<P> +And surely enough, on the eleventh day, the <I>Kenni-Kenni</I> came wafting +slowly down the lagoon, having come in by the upper entrance and made a +short call on the brown men in the old quarters. +</P> + +<P> +They were all well and brought a full cargo of news and stock and +plants, and Blair himself was in the highest of spirits and hungry to +get to work on the new plantations. +</P> + +<P> +The other islands had suffered somewhat from the big wave, chiefly in +the matter of boats. The news of the dire happenings on Kapaa'a had +filled them with amazement. The Evanses and Stuarts, and all their +works and belongings, were flourishing mightily. They sent endless +condolences to Jean and Aunt Jannet and Nai and Ha'o, and had been for +embarking at once to their consolation. But as the <I>Kenni-Kenni</I> was +to start on her longer journey as soon as she could be provisioned, +that was out of the question, as it would have been impossible for them +to get back home again. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," acknowledged Captain Cathie, in reply to a pointed question of +Aunt Jannet's respecting the sailorly qualities of his boat, "I'm bound +to say she's not exactly what you might call a fast boat. But she's +sure, and if you give her wind enough and time enough she gets there +all right." +</P> + +<P> +They had a busy three days preparing for the long voyage. Captain +Cathie reckoned they might make the Marquesas in twelve days with good +weather. So they made provision for twenty, out of the stores they had +brought from Kanele and Anape. He had borrowed Evans's pocket compass, +but vowed he could find his way without it. +</P> + +<P> +"If we go west with a touch of south in it we're bound to hit either +the Marquesas or Paumotus," he said cheerfully. "You may look for that +schooner here in six weeks from to-day—that is, if there's one to be +had, and if I can find a trader who'll negotiate the drafts." +</P> + +<P> +Jean had been racking her brains as to how they were to get hold of +some of the money waiting to be used in London, for all her papers had +disappeared in the deluge. But Blair had thought the whole matter out, +and had brought over paper and pens and a bottle of ink. And among +them they drew up a number of documents which, with Captain Pym's +verification of the circumstances, would, they thought, procure for +Captain Cathie all the money he needed as soon as he reached Sydney, +and possibly before that. +</P> + +<P> +And a very busy man would Captain Cathie be, if ever he reached Sydney. +For he had to buy a new <I>Torch</I> and a multitudinous cargo; engage new +hands—to a limited extent, however, this time, for henceforth they +hoped to utilise largely the services of the brown men; and last, but +by no means least, to provide, so far as money could do it, adequate +recompense for the families of the men whose lives had been given in +the service of the Dark Islands. So far as forethought and hard +thinking could do it they had attended to everything, and Captain +Cathie's programme might have daunted a less valiant man. +</P> + +<P> +And so, very early one morning, before the sun had topped the hills +behind, though the outer sea danced and sparkled merrily, there was a +great leave-taking on the white beach at the mouth of the valley where +the old village used to stand. The <I>Kenni-Kenni</I> had brought them all +up the day before, with all their belongings, in a couple of trips, and +they were among their own brown people once more, ready and anxious to +be at their work again. +</P> + +<P> +The last hearty handshakes had been given and the last words said. The +shallop they had built for use with the larger boat, and which was to +be left behind, had just put Captain Pym and Captain Cathie on board. +The sails ran up, and the <I>Kenni-Kenni's</I> nose turned determinedly for +the passage and the long journey westward. +</P> + +<P> +Kenneth Blair and his wife Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey stood in the +centre of a line of brown folk and waved the farewells and benedictions +their voices could no longer carry, and little Kenni-Kenni waved and +shouted because the others did. His namesake bobbed and rose to the +swell of the passage and was lost to sight behind the spouting jets of +the reef. +</P> + +<P> +The line of watchers on the beach climbed the hillside behind them, and +watched and waved till the white sails alone were visible, till they +became a tiny white speck, till they disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +Then Kenneth Blair kissed his wife very tenderly, for his heart was +very full. And he turned to the brown folk, and said— +</P> + +<P> +"We will ask God's blessing on their journeying, for it means much to +us all, and then we will get to our work. Let us pray!" and the brown +folk bent their heads. +</P> + +<P> +On the little ship, Captain Cathie had given the helm to Jim Gregor, +and stood looking back at the peaks of the little land where he had +spent so many full days. +</P> + +<P> +And to him came Captain Pym, and said— +</P> + +<P> +"That is one of the finest men I ever met, Captain Cathie. I count it +a privilege to have known him. He will do great things yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Cathie quietly, for the parting was still on him. +"The brown men call him White Fire, and so he is, and his wife's +another, and so is Mrs. Harvey. Salt of the earth, sir, every one of +them. If there were more like them the world would be a sight better +to live in than it is." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +The Gresham Press, +<BR> +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, +<BR> +WOKING AND LONDON. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of White Fire, by John Oxenham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE FIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 38061-h.htm or 38061-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/6/38061/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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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: White Fire + +Author: John Oxenham + +Illustrator: G. Grenville Manton + +Release Date: November 19, 2011 [EBook #38061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE FIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + + +[Frontispiece: THEY WENT ON STEP BY STEP, WITH EYES FOR EVERY ROCK AND +BUSH (missing from book)] + + + + + + +WHITE FIRE + +BY JOHN OXENHAM + + + +WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS + +BY G. GRENVILLE MANTON + + + + _Adversity doth make men strong, + Yet stronger still I count the man + Who can sustain prosperity unspoiled + And turn it to high uses._ + + _The white fire of a great enthusiasm + is the mightiest force in the world._ + + + + +TORONTO + +THE COPP CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED + +1905 + + + + +WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + + GOD'S PRISONER + RISING FORTUNES + A PRINCESS OF VASCOVY + OUR LADY OF DELIVERANCE + JOHN OF GERISAU + UNDER THE IRON FLAIL + BONDMAN FREE + THE VERY SHORT MEMORY OF MR. JOSEPH SCORER + BARBE OF GRAND BAYOU + A WEAVER OF WEBS + HEARTS IN EXILE + THE GATE OF THE DESERT + + + + +TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF + +James Chalmers + + GREAT HEART OF NEW GUINEA-- + "GREAT HEART THE TEACHER, + GREAT HEART THE JOYOUS, + GREAT HEART THE FEARLESS, + GREAT HEART OF SWEET WHITE FIRE, + GREAT HEART THE MARTYR.... + _Nor dead, nor sleeping! He lives on, his name + Shall kindle many a heart to equal flame. + A soul so fiery sweet can never die, + But lives, and loves, and works through + all eternity._" + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I + +MISS INQUISITIVE + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAN + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN'S MAN + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SHAMELESS THING! + + +CHAPTER V + +LEAP YEAR + + +CHAPTER VI + +A SUDDEN WIDE HORIZON + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOME ODD FURNISHINGS AND A HONEYMOON + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GOING STRONG + + +CHAPTER IX + +ARMS AND THE MAN + + +CHAPTER X + +A BLACK OBJECT-LESSON + + +CHAPTER XI + +TOO LATE + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FLAMING SWORD + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MAN'S MAN'S MAN + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CLIPPING A BLACKBIRD + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHERE THOU GOEST + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FIRST FRUITS + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SETBACKS + + +CHAPTER XIX + +FORWARD + + +CHAPTER XX + +MANY FORMS OF GRACE + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MIGHT OF RIGHT + + +CHAPTER XXII + +PAX + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE SCOURGE OF GOD + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +GAIN OF LOSS + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE LIFTING VEIL + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE GENTLE MARTYR + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PEACE WITH A SPEAR + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +NO THOROUGHFARE + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE ACT OF GOD + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WIPED OUT + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +REVERSIONS + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +FROM THE BEGINNING + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +SALT OF THE EARTH + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +THEY WENT ON STEP BY STEP, WITH EYES FOR EVERY + ROCK AND BUSH (missing from book) . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +WAVED HIS HAND TO HER, AND RECEIVED AN ANSWERING WAVE + +ONE SIGN OF FLINCHING AND IT IS FINISHED + +"MY LIFE IS FORFEIT TO THE PAST" + +"AND HE HAS REALLY HAD THE AUDACITY TO ASK YOU TO MARRY HIM" + +SHE HAD LONG AND PEREMPTORY INTERVIEWS WITH HER LAWYER + +BLAIR CALLED FOR THE MATE AND TOLD HIM CURTLY + WHAT HE HAD ALREADY TOLD THE CAPTAIN + +"WE SHALL SEE THEM AGAIN," SAID CAPTAIN CATHIE (missing from book) + +IT MIGHT BE FOR THE LAST TIME + +STEPS ON THE ROAD TO SALVATION + +"HELLO! WHAT'S THIS?" + +"QUITE HAPPY, JEAN?" ASKED BLAIR + +PEACE WITH A SPEAR + +"_MISSIONARIES_! WELL I AM ----!" + +BLAIR SPRANG UPRIGHT INSTINCTIVELY + +WAVED HER FAREWELLS FROM THE SHORE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MISS INQUISITIVE + +She was so dainty a little figure that the bare-armed women in the +doors of the lands and closes turned and looked after her with +enjoyment untinged even with envy. They scratched their elbows and +commented on her points with complacent understanding. + +"None o' your ten-and-six carriage paid in that lot, I'm thinking, Mrs. +O'Neill," said one. + +"Thrue for ye, Mrs. Macfarlane. Purty as a daisy, she is. It's me +that wud like to be on tairms with her maw when she's done with 'em." + +And a decidedly pretty little figure the small girl made, in her +stylishly pleated blue serge, jaunty tam, natty leather belt, and +twinkling brown shoes, and her absolute unconsciousness of anything +unduly attractive in her appearance. + +Her determined little face was set strenuously. She looked neither to +the right hand nor to the left, beyond a glance now and again for +landmarks. And above all, and most inflexibly, she never once looked +behind her; for she was bound upon an adventure, and her reward lay on +ahead. + +"Past the cemetery gates," she said to herself. "Up a brae. Past a +pond and up a cinder path. That's all right! That must be the woollen +mill, and that's the paper-mill, and that splashing white must be the +Cut." + +As she took the cinder path, the gates of the two mills opened, and a +flood of hurrying girls came down towards the town, mostly in bunches, +laughing and joking, some with linked arms, some few solitary. Then +followed boys and men, with dinner in their faces, and an occasional +word fired at the girls in front. + +The girls all fell silent, and resolved themselves into devouring eyes, +as the dainty little figure stepped briskly past them. There were +spasms of longing among them; they buried them under bursts of wilder +laughter. The men and boys glanced at her out of the corners of their +eyes, and did not understand why the sky looked bluer and the sunshine +brighter than it had done a moment before. + +She came, presently, to a dividing of the ways, where the roads +branched to the two mills, made a short reconnaissance of the flashing +chute she had seen from below, then turned to the right, past the +paper-mill and the manager's house, past the clump of fir-trees, and +came out on a footpath by the side of which the rushing brown waters of +the Cut hurried down to the mills and reservoirs. + +"O-o-o-oh!" said the small girl rapturously, and her face was an +unconscious Te Deum. + +And well it might be, for she had a great appreciation of the +beautiful, and she was enjoying her first full glimpse of one of the +finest sights in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland and the +adjacent Cumbraes. + +"O-o-oh!" and she sat down to enjoy it. + +Below her to the right rose the smoke of the town and the ceaseless +clangour of the ship-building yards. A movement would have hidden them +from her. But she did not move; she neither saw nor heard them. Her +eyes were fixed absorbedly on the mighty panorama beyond: the lovely +firth, blue as an Italian lake, and all alive with traffic; energetic +little river steamers racing with rival toys; slow coasters toiling +along like water-beetles; a great black American liner at the Tail of +the Bank; the great grey guardship with its trim official lines and +hovering launches; and farther out, near the opposite shore, the white +sails of yachts flashing in the sun like seabirds' wings. And +beyond--the hills, the mighty hills of God. She had known the hills in +a general, wholesale way for long enough; but she knew now that she had +never known them before. From this lofty vantage point she saw them +now for the first time in all their grandeur and beauty, and they +overwhelmed her. + +Such a mighty array of giants: green, rounded hills; rugged brown +hills, flushed with the purple of the heather; grey mountain peaks +piled fantastically against the unflecked blue sky; bosky glens; dark +patches of forest land; and all about them, down below, the silent +strength of the sea, lapping the feet of the recumbent giants, creeping +up among their sprawling limbs, and cradling the mighty bulks with +tender caresses! + +The girl sat for a long time drinking it all in, to the tune of the +swirl and bubble and tinkle of the swift brown water behind her. Then +she got up and went on along the path, which disclosed fresh beauties +of the larger view at every step. She went on and on, heedless of +everything but the wide, vast prospect and her own mighty enjoyment of +it. She had some lunch in her pocket; she forgot it. The air was so +sweet and strong that she felt no fatigue. She had walked for over an +hour in this new heaven of delight, when she came tumbling to earth in +truly feminine fashion. + +The path followed the Cut round the folds and wrinkles of the hillside. +At times, on in front, it disappeared into the sky. She was nearing +one such sharp turn, when a pair of mighty horns came wavering round +it, and behind the horns an evil monster all in black and with baleful +eyes. At sight of her it gave an angry bellow and pawed the ground. +Alongside her was a small stone erection like an unfinished hut, on a +little platform, below which white water trickled down a glen full of +ferns and trees. She clasped her hands, gave herself up for lost, and +dropped out of the monster's sight behind the one end wall of the hut. + +Then a boy's voice rang out full and clear-- + +"Ah, beast! Bos ferocissime! Get out o' that, or I'll do for you. +What's taken you to-day, you old villain?" + +Then followed more forcible argument in the shape of stones, and, with +grateful twitches of her clasped hands, the small girl saw her +discomfited enemy go crashing down the hillside among the whins and +ferns and rolling rocks. + +The beast was evidently possessed of an unusually perverse disposition +that day. It looked up once at the girl behind the wall, and made some +spiteful remark, which elicited a dissuasive "Would you?" and another +shower of stones from its keeper. Then it went galloping away on the +sides of its feet along the steep hillside. The boy, with an +exclamation, sprang down after it, and the girl caught sight of him for +the first time--a sturdy little figure, with light hair and unlimited +energy. He chased the beast with boyish objurgations, which broke out +with new vigour when the chase led through a piece of black swamp, with +the natural results to the pursuer. + +He came back presently, hot and muddy, whistling like a blackbird. + +She was just about to get up and go on, when she heard him jumping down +into the little glen below, and she craned over to see what he was +about. + +He scrambled down to a small round natural basin in the rock, threw off +his jacket and waistcoat, unbuttoned his flannel shirt, and proceeded +to a mighty wash. + +He seemed to revel in it so exceedingly that the girl sat and watched +him with enjoyment. He had no towel, so did not waste any time in +drying himself, but allowed the sun and wind to do their duties. Then +he came clambering up the slope again. There was a large flat stone in +front of the embryo cabin. He came and sat down on it, and remained +there so long and so quiet that at last she moved slightly and peeped +round to see what he was doing. + +And what he was doing was so very astonishing that she gave an +involuntary gasp of amazement. + +He was lying flat on his stomach, with a tattered book open in front of +him. On the flat slab was a diagram drawn with the chunk of chalk he +held in his hand, and he was studying it so intently that he did not +hear her till her shadow fell across his work. + +"Hello! Where did _you_ come from?" and he jumped up and stood staring +at her. He was not aware of it, but he was dimly perceptive of the +fact that she was very nice-looking. He remembered later--when her +face evaded him--that she was very prettily dressed. + +"From behind there," she said. "That nasty bull frightened me." + +"He's a stupid beast." And then, suddenly bethinking himself, "Have +you been there ever since?" + +The girl nodded. She liked the look of him. His jacket and trousers +were rough and well worn, but his face was wonderfully bright and +clean. She did not know when she had seen a boy's face she liked so +much. There was such a glow in it, and his blue eyes were so fearless +and looked at her so very straight. She did not know very many boys, +and did not care much for any of those she did know. They were always +either teasing or silly, and always abominably selfish. Somehow this +boy did not seem any of those things. + +"You'd no right to watch a gentleman washing himself." + +"You're not a gentleman, and I couldn't help myself. At least----" + +"You're not a lady, and you could have gone away quite well. It's a +good thing for you I didn't have a bath in the big pool there. You'd +have watched just the same, I suppose, Miss Inquisitive!" + +"Oh!" she said sharply. "You rude thing! How did you know?" + +"Know what?" + +"That! Miss---- what you called me just now." + +At which he laughed out loud, a great merry laugh that did one good to +listen to, and showed a set of sound white teeth and a quick +apprehension. + +"Is that what they call you at home?" he asked, with a mischievous +twinkle. + +"My aunties call me that. Father says 'Want-to-know gets on.'" + +"He's right," said the boy, with a blaze in the blue eyes. "I like +your father better than your aunties. Where were you going when the +beast stopped you?" + +"Right along there," she nodded. + +"All the way to the Sheils? It's a gey long way for a bit lassie like +you." + +"I'm not a bit lassie. I'm thirteen." + +"Really! You're young for your age!" + +She was somewhat doubtful about this remark, but it felt like a +compliment, so she let it pass. + +"What's your name?" she asked. + +"Kenneth Blair. What's yours?" + +"Jean Arnot. How old are you?" + +"I'll be fifteen next July." This was August. + +"What's that you were drawing? Is it a windmill?" staring intently +down at it. + +"A windmill!"--with unutterable scorn. "And you say you're thirteen! +That's Euclid--Prop. 47. It's a thumper too." + +"I haven't begun Euclid yet," she said meekly, and regarded him with a +face full enough of questioning to amply justify her nickname. "Will +you please tell me something?" + +He began to laugh, and she knew that "Miss Inquisitive" was on the tip +of his tongue. He only nodded, however. + +"Do all the herd-boys about here do Euclid?" + +"I d'n' know. There's nothing to stop them if they want to." + +"Why do you speak so differently from most other boys? You speak +almost as well as I do." + +A smile flickered in his face for a second, but died out, and he said +quietly-- + +"That's easily told, anyway. My father was schoolmaster at +Inverclaver. He taught me." + +"And does he teach you still? Where is he schoolmaster now?" + +He looked at her a moment in silence, and then said-- + +"I don't know. He's dead." + +"Oh! But he can't be a schoolmaster anywhere if he's dead. I'm so +sorry. And of course he can't teach you either." + +"I don't know," said the boy slowly. "I think sometimes----" + +But she was off on another scent. + +"What are you going to be when you grow up?" + +"Ah!"--with animation. "I'm going to be a big man." + +"You can't make yourself that. You're not very big now." + +"I've not done growing yet, and I'm very strong, and I've never been +ill in my life. Besides----" + +"I've just had measles and whooping-cough. That's why I'm here." + +He nodded, as much as to say, "Yes, that's just the kind of thing girls +would have"; and went on, "And then I'm going to be an explorer." + +"O-o-o-h!" with snapping eyes. "Where?" + +"I don't know where. Anywhere where nobody's ever been before." + +She devoured him with hungry appreciation. His face was so very clean, +so radiantly bright, and the sparks in his blue eyes kindled answering +sparks in her own. For she too possessed a lively imagination, and a +spirit many times the size of her body. + +"But will you be able to? Are you very rich?" + +"Rich? No, I'm not rich, but I'm not that poor either--not just now. +I bought this last week," with a touch of superior pride, as he hauled +out a Latin grammar, sixth-hand, but still boasting covers. "When I've +finished it I'll feel poor till I get the next. But that's not yet." + +"Wouldn't you like to be very rich?" + +"I d'n' know. I never tried it." + +"My father is very rich." + +"Is he? And what are you going to do when you grow up?" + +"Oh, I'm going to be a lady." + +"Yes, that's about all you can be, I suppose," he nodded, and looked +really sorry for her. + +"I shall be very rich, and I shall do just what I like--except darning +and needlework. They're hijjus!" + +"Hideous," he said, with a touch of pedantic reproof which consorted +oddly with his jacket and trousers. + +"I always say 'hijjus' when it's quite too awful and past words. How +would you like to be a manager of one of my father's mills?" + +"I don't know," he said, regarding her doubtfully. "I'm thinking +perhaps I wouldn't make a very good manager. Not yet." + +Then her hand happened to touch her pocket, which reminded her of her +lunch. + +"Are you hungry?" she asked. "I'll sit down here and you shall have +some of my lunch, and you shall tell me the names of all those hills +and lochs opposite. Aren't they splendid?" + +"Ay, they're grand. I've been watching them for a year now." + +She wrestled her dainty little packet out of her pocket, and sat down +on a rock looking out over the wonderful panorama in front. The boy +sat down on another rock and hauled out a piece of newspaper in which +were wrapped some broken pieces of thick oatcake and some rough +fragments of cheese. + +"Do you like oatcake and cheese?" she asked. + +"Rather!" + +"Won't you have some of my sandwiches?" she said politely, but not +without anxiety. + +He looked at the delicate provision, and said stoutly-- + +"No, thank you. I like this best." + +And, as the little lady possessed the dainty but vigorous appetite of +the fully-restored-to-health-and-got-to-make-up-for-lost-time, and as +she was only thirteen, she was not rude enough to press him unduly. + +"Now tell me the names of all those hills and lochs," she said, and he +proceeded to tell her all she wanted to know. + +"Yon's Dumbarton,"--between bites; "you can see Glasgow some days," and +she regarded him doubtfully. + +"And yon's the Gare Loch. That big fellow with the shoulders is Ben +Lomond. The one humped up like this is The Cobbler. That other big +one is Ben Ihme. That's Loch Long and a bit of Loch Goil, and yon's +Holy Loch and Ben More." + +When she had eaten her tiny sandwiches, and her two small cookies with +jam inside, and her two biscuits, and had learned the names and +personal peculiarities of all the hills and lochs, and he had finished +the last crumbs of his oatcake and cheese, he convoyed her past the +black menace down below, as far as the next stone dyke, and told her +how she could shorten her journey by cutting across some fields, and so +get down to the Inverkip road, and eventually to Ashton and the "caurs." + +He watched the sprightly little figure, with the gleaming mane of hair +and swinging skirts and twinkling brown shoes, till she reached the +next distant corner, waved his hand to her, received an answering wave +from her, and turned back to his life--his unruly beasts, his treasured +Euclid and Latin grammar, his dreams, his hopes, and ever so much more +than he knew. + +[Illustration: Waved his hand to her, and received an answering wave.] + +But Prop. 47 was not amenable that afternoon. He smiled at thought of +the windmill, and looked up to see her standing before him with her +sweet childish face and questioning eyes. He thought much of the +winsome little lady, both then and for a long time afterwards. He +scanned the winding path by the Cut each day in hopes that she might +come again. But she was away home to London, and at last only a memory +of her remained, and that growing dimmer and dimmer till it was little +more than a sentiment--simply the warm glow of a pleasant impression. + +And she? Ah, she wrought better than she knew that day. + +For when she got home from her great adventure, and had been duly +scolded by her aunts for undertaking so much, when they had only +expected her to go up to the Cut and down again in a couple of hours or +so--when she reached home, old Mr. MacTavish, the minister, was there, +and he rejoiced in her prattling tongue, and delighted in drawing her +out. + +She enlarged upon the very uncommon herd-laddie she had met up on the +Cut,--on his satisfactory looks, his unique cleanliness, his +fearlessness in the matter of wild beasts, his understanding, and his +aims in life. Her thoughts were full of him, and when Miss Jean Arnot +had something on her mind her little world was by way of hearing of it. + +Old Mr. MacTavish had been a herd-laddie himself in his time. + +_Suffecit!_ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAN + +Ten years later Miss Jean Arnot was visiting her aunts in Greenock +again. Not but what she had been there many times in between, but this +is the only occasion of which we need take note. + +There had been many changes in these ten years. + +For one thing, Jean's father was dead, and she was a very wealthy young +woman. In many respects she was still very like the little Jean of +earlier times. Her face was still the sweet, long oval of her +childhood, though the features were more pronounced and matured. But +the chief impression it left upon you was still that of eager +questioning, a great longing to know, tempered somewhat by years and +freedom from all material care. "Want-to-know" was getting on in +years--twenty-three, a great age--but there were still mysteries of +life which she had not solved, wherein she found matter for surprise at +times. + +But life ran very smoothly and pleasantly with her. She went out a +little, and entertained a little in return, travelled much, and was not +wanting in good deeds and charity. Her income was about ten times as +large as was really good for her, and if she gave munificently she +never missed what she gave, so that the recipients were the sole +beneficiaries of her giving. + +She had hosts of friends, phalanxes of admirers; could have had hosts +of aspirants to a still closer relationship, but so far would have none +of them. She was enjoying herself exceedingly, and fulfilling in their +entirety the aspirations of her childhood. She was a lady, she was +rich, and she was doing as she liked--and she had not touched a needle +since she came into her kingdom. + +That was the natural rebound, for Aunt Jannet Harvey, a famous +needlewoman and housewife herself, had rigorously insisted--so long as +she was in power--on her niece learning the minor as well as the major +accomplishments of a gentlewoman, such as had obtained during her own +long apprenticeship to that high estate. And that is how it came to +pass that Miss Jean Arnot, wealthy heiress and society lady, really +knew a very great deal more about some things than you would have +imagined from the casual sight of her at dance or opera. + +The moment she was free, and a woman of herself, she relegated the +"hijjus" things to what she considered their proper place in the +economy of her life, and, later, dug them up out of their dusty corners +gratefully, and Aunt Jannet was justified. + +Aunt Harvey--Aunt Jannet Harvey, to distinguish her from Aunt Lisbeth +Harvey--had lived with them and mothered her since her own mother died, +when she was a very small child indeed. Aunt Jannet was really her +mother's aunt, early widowed and childless, a wise and placid old +lady--old, that is, in the eyes of effervescent three-and-twenty--with +somewhat rigid ideas of right and wrong, toning slowly, by course of +time and easy circumstance, into a tolerant acceptance of things as +they came. Her husband had been a professor in Edinburgh, and the +society he and she had enjoyed in the modern Athens, thirty years +before, was her standard of what society ought to be. She was, +however, each year becoming more reconciled to the disparities of the +lighter age with which John Arnot's great success in life had forced +her into contact. And Jean had been to her as her own daughter would +have been, if she had had one, since the day she first took charge of +her and began to endeavour to answer some of her questions, and quietly +to shelve others for more suitable occasion of discussion. For little +Jean Want-to-know had a most active brain and an insatiable curiosity, +and never hesitated to ask for fullest details of anything she did not +understand; and the wonderings and questionings of such a child have no +bounds at times, and are almost impossible of control, either from the +inside or the outside. + +Jean made a point of spending a part of each year in Scotland, wherever +else she and Aunt Jannet might wander at other times. On such +occasions Aunt Jannet went to Edinburgh and lived again in the past, +but in a yearly narrowing circle, so far as the personal element was +concerned, and Jean went to Greenock and queened it over her aunts +there. + +She was a great enjoyment, a continuous ripple of excitement, to their +ordered household; and since they no longer sat upon her and answered +her erstwhile inconvenient questions by gentle snubs and nicknames, the +times she spent with them were times of great enjoyment to her also. + +She rather patronised them, of course, which was perhaps inevitable; +for she lived twenty to their one, and, moreover, possessed the means +to do it and a will that carried all before it. + +She insisted, for instance, on paying for her board and lodging, and on +a tariff of her own fixing, whenever she came to stay with them, and +flatly declined to come on any other condition. They were +independent-minded, and declined to be dictated to in such a matter by +a small thing whom they had known in frocks with skirts only thirteen +inches long. She promptly scandalised them by going to the Tontine and +putting up there. Then they gave way, and she had them. After that +she was capable of anything, and they submitted to all her whims, which +were always pretty and thoughtful ones, and--she assured them, just as +they had been wont to assure her in the days of the thirteen-inch +frocks--entirely for their own good and happiness. She salved the +cicatrice of the Tontine wound by carrying them all off _en masse_ to +the Riviera for a month; and Aunt Jean, after whom she was named, +gravely suggested the advisability of frequently opposing her ideas, +since the outcome was so eminently agreeable. + +Then she was always making them presents, at which their independency +kicked, but in which, nevertheless, they could not but own to enjoyment. + +But the girl was right, after all. She had much too much, and they had +only enough, and that only with clever handling; and they would no more +have accepted bald gifts of money than they would have burned down +their house and claimed double the value of the furniture. + +Jean and her visits, and their visits to her, and with her to hitherto +unattainable places, were the high lights of their lives. They loved +her dearly, rejoiced in her greatly, were proud of her, and wondered +much when it would all come to an end in the centering of her thoughts +and affections on one sole and--they fervently hoped, but were not +without misgivings, because of her wealth and her impulsiveness--worthy +man. + +They made ingenuous little attempts at sounding her on that subject, +but she was much too clever for them, and skilfully eluded all +approaches which might tend, even remotely, to any self-revelations. +That there were no revelations to make only added piquancy to the game, +from her point of view, since it kept the aunts in a state of perpetual +mystification, and held no pitfalls. + +Among many other changes she had seen in the last ten years, old Mr. +MacTavish had retired long ago, and a younger man occupied his pulpit, +and, strange to say, gave satisfaction in it. + +The Rev. Archibald Fastnet was so exactly the opposite of his +predecessor that it might have seemed impossible that where the one had +pleased the other should do so. Mr. Fastnet was young, and he believed +in--as he put it--making things jump. And he made both things and +people jump at times. He was full of enthusiasms which were generally +at white heat and--which is more unusual--remained so. The older +generation said he kept them on the perpetual "kee-vee" to see what he +would do next; the younger people enjoyed him and the service he +exacted from them. And on Sundays they all, old and young, always +turned out both morning and evening, since it invariably came to pass +that, if they missed a service, something happened which made them feel +out of the running for the whole of the following week. When Jean +Arnot was at Greenock she did as good Greenockians do, and went to +church twice every Sunday and one evening in the week as well. + +The Rev. Archibald never failed to furnish her with a certain amount of +quiet amusement, and, apart from other feelings, she always went in +expectation and was rarely disappointed. + +On this particular Sunday morning Mr. Fastnet had prepared a little +surprise for his people, which turned out, as his arrangements +generally did, a perfect success. It also afforded Jean Arnot the +surprise of her life, and she never forgot it. + +You can forget many things in ten full years. If, for instance, you +yourself had met a person informally ten years ago, and spent half an +hour with him, just incidentally hearing his name, it is doubtful if +you would recall him very distinctly if he presented himself suddenly +before you after the ten years had passed. + +Jean felt a rustle of surprise among her aunts in the pew, and she saw +that two men passed up into the pulpit where the Rev. Archibald lorded +it alone as a rule. The voluntary ceased, and he stood up, beaming all +over, as usual when he had something unusually delectable up his sleeve +for them. + +"Instead of speaking to you myself this morning," he said, "I have +asked our friend Mr. Blair to say a few words to us. We all take a +fatherly and motherly, and I may say a sisterly and brotherly, interest +in Mr. Blair. Perhaps some of us regret that none of us has taken a +still nearer and dearer-than-all-otherly interest in him"--at which +Fastneticism a smile rippled round. "Our young friend leaves this week +to begin his work in the South Seas, where, as you know, he is about to +join that valiant bearer of light into outer darkness, John Gerson, in +his noble work. You will, I know, appreciate with me this chance--it +may be the last chance--of hearing our young standard-bearer's voice +before he passes beyond the fringes of the night." + +Then he came down, and took his seat in a front pew and enjoyed a +preacher's holiday. + +And, after a pause, and very quietly, young Blair rose in the pulpit +and gave out the hymn. + +So far Jean Arnot had been only interested and amused. But the sound +of his voice, clear and round and full as an organ tone, made her jump +with surprise. He had spoken quite naturally, but there was a ring in +it that told of immense possibilities behind, and there was something +in it that plucked at some hidden chord of Jean's memory and set it +humming as a harp-string responds to a bugle note. + +She stared at him eagerly. Had she ever by any possibility met him +before? She could hardly have forgotten it if she had, she thought. +For he was a young man of most striking appearance. Tall, +square-shouldered and broad-chested--a commanding figure in truth. It +occurred to others besides Jean that if the natives needed more +forcible arguments than words for their conversion, here was a likely +man for the work. Light-haired and clean-shaven, his face seemed to +glow with an inner radiance--a masterful face, and grave. His eyes +were wonderfully magnetic; fearless and steadfast, they made you jump +as their glance crossed your own. Jean had just jumped, so she knew. + +Now who was this? Surely she had met him before somewhere. + +Remember it was ten years since she had seen him, and then only for +half an hour, and under very different conditions, and she had never +heard his name since. + +She ordered her brain, or her heart, or whichever of her inner servants +it was that held the key, to go find it, and sat gazing at him to give +them such light as that might afford. But the clue evaded her till he +was near the end of his quiet, forceful talk. + +He had told them of his hopes, and the plans he and Gerson hoped to +carry out--"The grandest man I have ever met, a most noble Christian +gentleman," he said, in a burst of enthusiasm. He asked them for their +help, their prayers, their sympathetic remembrance, their money--since +the work had to be maintained from the outside, and even missionaries +must live. + +He spoke very simply, with no ornate periods or calculated sentences; +but his voice was like a trumpet, and his eyes were like stars, and his +words were illuminating and full of power, and now and again were flung +out white hot from the glowing heart within. Though he spoke for the +most part so restrainedly, now and again the brake would slip, and the +sweet, white fire of a great, enthusiastic soul would flame through. + +Perhaps he was a trifle over-confident of success--that is one of +youth's glories and pitfalls; but there was no doubt that his whole +heart was in his work--that here, for once at all events, a square man +had found his own square hole. + +"It was always the great hope and desire of my boyhood to go out into +these unknown lands," he was saying. "Though perhaps at that time the +inducement was chiefly the unknown, and the inhabitants, I fear, +appealed to me more as possible hindrances than inducements. When I +tended my uncle's cattle on the hillsides of the Cut----" + +And then she knew him, and she sat up with a jerk, and stared at him as +though she had only that moment awakened to the fact that he was +speaking. + +And such, to some extent, was the fact. She had been interested and +puzzled. Now, in a moment, it was a new man she was looking at and +listening to--a new man, but an old friend. And she was sitting on one +piece of rock eating cookies, and he was sitting on another munching +oatcake and cheese, and he was saying, "I'm going to be an explorer." + +It was very wonderful--though she remembered that she had recognised +him, even then, as a boy of different texture from most other boys. +And so he had got what he wanted--the greatest prize a man may win, she +supposed: to desire vehemently a certain lofty course in life, and to +attain to it. + +And she? Yes, she remembered. She was going to be rich, and a lady, +and do as she liked. Truly hers was but a poor attainment compared +with his. + +She did not hear much more of what he said, though she was gazing +fixedly at him all the time. Her mind was away back to the hillside by +the Cut, and it was only when they stood up to sing the last hymn that +mind and body came together again. + +Mr. Blair came down to shake hands with his many friends, and most of +the people went forward for that purpose, Jean's aunts among them, and +she with them; and as they sat at the back they were among the last to +reach him. + +She was shaking hands with him, and the straight blue eyes looking into +her own set her heart jumping. + +"Ah!" said the Rev. Archibald, all one vast beam of satisfaction at the +general enjoyment of his little surprise. "Now we have you, Blair. +This lady, at all events, you can't claim as an old friend, though I am +quite sure she is a well-wisher." + +Blair still held her hand and looked steadfastly into her eyes. + +"This is----" began Mr. Fastnet, and was stopped abruptly by a +peremptory gesture of Miss Arnot's other hand. + +"Yes--I think so," said the young man, breaking suddenly into a smile +of enjoyable reminiscence, "Miss--Jean--Arnot? Or possibly now +Mrs.----?" + +"Jean Arnot is still good enough for me, Mr. Blair," she said brightly. +"How wonderful that you should remember me all these years!" + +"Why more wonderful than that you should have recognised me, Miss +Arnot? We are both a good deal changed since last we met." + +"Why, what's all this?" said the Rev. Archibald jovially. "I had no +idea you knew Miss Arnot, Blair." + +"We met once, ten years ago, up on the Cut--and had lunch together," +said Blair, with a smile. "I was keeping Highland cattle from goring +little girls, and Miss Arnot was exploring. We have both travelled far +since then." + +"You much the farthest," she said quietly, "and going still farther. I +congratulate you very heartily. It is what you desired then. Do you +remember telling me?" + +"Yes. I am very grateful." + +Blair's thoughts were full of her. As they went home he quietly led +Fastnet on to speak about her, and offered him the best inducement to +plentiful speech in the appreciation with which he listened. + +Fastnet enlarged upon her great wealth and generosity, her cleverness +and culture, her independence of thought and deed, and incidentally +mentioned that he had seen or heard some rumour of her possible +marriage with Lord Charles Castlemaine, second son of the Duke of +Munster, but he could not say what truth there was in it. + +As a matter of fact, Jean Arnot would as soon have thought of marrying +the ticket-collector at Monument Station as Lord Charles Castlemaine. +The gentleman with the snips at Monument Station is doubtless a most +worthy individual, but I know absolutely nothing whatever about him. +Jean Arnot knew exactly as much, and one does not, as a rule, marry a +man one knows absolutely nothing about, nor--a man about whom one knows +considerably more than is to his credit. Jean Arnot knew a good deal +about Charles Castlemaine, and there was not the slightest danger of +her marrying him. + +"Is he a good sort?" asked Blair. + +"Much what dukes' younger sons mostly are, I imagine. The elder +brother is not strong, so if it comes off you may perhaps count among +your well-wishers a duchess sooner or later." + +"Miss Arnot's good wishes would weigh more with me than those of all +the duchesses in the land," said Blair quietly. "There is something +very taking in her face--it is so bright and eager." Then he laughed +at his thoughts. "I remember, that day up on the Cut, I quite +accidentally hit upon a nickname they used to her at home--Miss +Inquisitive--and she flared up at me like a rip-rap. She was always +wanting to know, I believe." + +"She is still," said Fastnet, laughing, "though she must have learned a +good deal in all these years. She told me once that she was born +curious, and that she was especially curious to know all about what +came after this life. She said she thought the thought that she was +going to solve that greatest of all puzzles would take away all fear of +death when the time came. That was just after I came here. She must +have been about fifteen then." + +Blair's time was very short. He left that afternoon for Edinburgh to +spend his last two days with his old friends, Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish. +He was to join Mr. Gerson in London on Wednesday and sail on Thursday. + +Mr. MacTavish had been a father to him from the time he walked along +the Cut--the very day after little Jean Arnot's prattle had set him on +the boy's track--and found him, prostrate on the flat stone, still +wrestling with Prop. 47. + +He had been just there himself when a small boy, struggling against the +retarding clay of a narrow agricultural home. He knew the sturdy +independence that would be in the boy; and, in his own full knowledge, +went to work warily. The slightest hint of charity, and the shy, proud +one would be off. + +So he never mentioned Jean, met the boy on his own ground as a +perfectly new acquaintance, gradually won his confidence and his heart, +guided, led, and finally enabled him by his own exertions to obtain a +bursary and proceed to college. With that, nothing could keep him +back. His heart was in it, his aims were high, and his course was a +triumphal progress. He had learned, as a boy, that greatest of +lessons--how to learn. The rough experiences of his boyhood on the +hillside had given him splendid health and a body that never tired. He +was tough as wire, and, among other things, was known at college for +that passion for personal cleanliness which, in its earlier days, had +helped to introduce him to Jean Arnot on the hillside. He had, quite +early--as soon, indeed, as he perceived the possibility of attaining to +it--fixed on the mission-field as offering what his soul yearned for. +Perhaps at first it was the unknown that drew him. No matter. By +degrees the known outrivalled the unknown, the greater absorbed the +less, and his heart was fixed on the highest of all high work. + +In these ten years he had learned mightily. Head, heart, and hand had +toiled incessantly, and never felt it toil, since it was only the +natural satisfaction of a great heart-craving. Then he had come across +Gerson, home on leave for the first time in twenty years. Their hearts +and eyes struck sparks the first time they met. + +"That is a man!" said Gerson, "and I'll have him if I can get him." + +"That is a saint and a hero!" said Blair. "I'm his man if he'll have +me." + +After that no power on earth could have kept them apart, and on +Thursday they were to sail together for the outer fringes. Gerson was +busily bidding his friends goodbye. + +"You may hear of me from time to time. You'll never see me again--this +side the veil at all events. We'll hope to meet on the other side," he +said heartily, and grudged every day that lay between him and his work. + +Blair, in telling Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish of his reception at the +Greenock church, incidentally mentioned Miss Arnot, but doubted +evidently whether they would know anything of her. + +But the old man laughed gently, and said, in his quiet, old-fashioned, +precise way, which was the very antithesis of the Rev. Archibald's +jovial utterances: "I will explain to you now, my dear boy, what at the +time I deemed wisest to treasure within the repository of my own heart. +It was from Miss Jean Arnot that I first heard about you. It was in +consequence of her delighted account of her meeting with you, and the +Euclid and the Latin grammar, that I sought you out on the hillside and +tendered you the helping hand of which you have made such excellent +use." + +"It was Miss Arnot?" said the young man in amazement. + +"Truly, yes! Though I do not for a moment suppose she knows anything +whatever about it. I certainly never told her, and I never told you, +because I had been a studious herd-laddie myself, and I knew what shy +and hypersensitive colts they are, and the delicacy necessary to their +proper handling." + +"I thank you for telling me now, sir. It is as I would have it." + +"I believe it would please her to know what you told me, sir," Blair +broke out abruptly a little later on, and the old gentleman smiled at +the evidence of the track of his thoughts. + +"I will write and tell her, if you like, if you really think the +knowledge would afford her any gratification." + +"I think it would, sir." + +And so Jean Arnot received two notes which gave her very deep pleasure. +And the shorter one of the two said simply:-- + + +"You will have learned by this time, from my dear old friend and second +father, what I myself only learned three days ago--that it was your +unconscious hand that set my unconscious feet on the ladder. I rejoice +to know that it was so. The knowledge of it would be an additional +spur, if any spur were needed. Time may come, however, when the +remembrance of your kindness and all it has done for me, unconscious +though it was, may nerve me for some critical passage in the life in +front, for we are going among perilous peoples. It is not likely we +shall ever meet again, but, having learned how this matter stood, I +could not leave home without tendering you my most grateful and hearty +thanks. + +"That your life may be a wide, and bright, and beautiful, and happy one +will be the prayer of + +"Yours faithfully, + "KENNETH BLAIR." + + +"He is a good man," said Jean thoughtfully, as she folded the letter +and put it carefully into a special corner of her desk, and then +immediately took it out again and re-read it. "May God go with him +also!" + +She read in the papers next day of his sailing in company with John +Gerson, the prophet of the Dark Islands, and was surprised to discover +in herself a curious feeling of loss, as though something had gone out +of her life. Which, considering all the circumstances of the case, was +distinctly odd, you know. + +She had only met him twice in her life; for ten years she had hardly +given him a thought; and yet his going left a little blank in a life +which was quite unaccustomed to anything of the kind. + +But the sudden sight of him in all his quiet strength of attainment, +and the knowledge of what it all meant to him, together with this new +understanding of how it had all come about, and of the share she +herself had unconsciously had in the making of him--well, perhaps after +all it was not so odd. For she had felt a sudden glow of participation +in his triumph, a sudden sense of increase such as no procurement of +her wealth had ever brought her--and now it was as suddenly gone, and a +blank remained. + +She caught herself thinking of him oftener than she had ever thought of +any man before, and she said to herself in surprise-- + +"Goodness gracious me! why does that herd-laddie stick in my brain so?" + +A quite dispassionate dissector of the emotions and their origins might +have come to the conclusion that it was, after all, only a case of the +heart performing its natural function of feeding the brain. For the +heart is the life. + +She laughed at herself; but the herd-laddie remained in her thoughts, +and one day, before she went south, she actually found herself sitting +on that very same piece of rock where she had sat ten years before, and +in imagination he sat on the adjacent rock, munching his thick oatcake +and broken pieces of cheese. + +"What a greedy little pig I was!" she said to herself, as she sat +leaning forward with her chin in her hand. "But I don't believe he'd +have taken a bite from me, however much I'd wanted him to." + +She looked at the slab where the windmill had been, and at the pool +where the gentleman had washed. He looked as if he had been +strenuously washing ever since. What a radiant face he had! It did +not come from much washing, she knew; but somehow the two things linked +themselves in her mind. It was the white fire inside that lit up the +outside: a real man--a man to trust infinitely--a man to---- + +She sat looking out over the mighty panorama of hills and lochs and +mountains opposite--"Gare Loch, Loch Goil, Loch Long, Ben Lomond, Ben +Ihme, The Cobbler, Holy Loch." She knew most of them still. How the +sight of them all brought him back to her! And, in all probability, he +would never see them again. "We are going among perilous peoples." + +Well! he had done very wonderfully; he was fulfilling the highest +aspirations of his boyish heart. + +And she? She was a lady, and very rich, as she had said she would be. +And she remembered the touch of scorn with which the herd-laddie had +said, "Yes, that's about all you can be, I suppose." + +Close behind her the swift brown waters of the Cut hurried headlong to +the town--one long, unceasing blessing. "Men may come and men may go, +but we go on for ever," sang the bubbling waters against the rough rock +walls of their narrow way. + +"Surely I am one of the most useless of God's creatures," said Jean +Arnot, as she wandered slowly back towards the paper-mill and home. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN'S MAN + +Unflecked blue sky above, with a blazing white sun in it. A mighty +mountain peak, with bald summit, seamed sides mantled with greenery, +and round its waist, where it sat in the water, a narrow band of +gleaming white sand and tufted cocoa-palms, like an Island woman's +girdle. A smooth, dark, ruffled mirror of lagoon; and farther out, +with gaps here and there, a barrier reef on which the hungry sea chafed +and roared in ceaseless thunder. Two white men and a menacing crowd of +brown ones. + +"Ready?" asked the elder of the two men. + +He was tall and thin, white-haired and grey-bearded, and his eyes shone +like stars. His face was bronzed with much sun. There was a glow in +it which did not come from the sun, a mighty determination which did +not come from mere strength of will, a sweet white soul-fire which had +made him a power throughout the islands of the Southern Seas. + +"I am ready," said the younger man. + +His face was brown also, but not bronzed. There was a lighter patch of +tightened skin above each cheek-bone. His jaw was set so grimly that +it looked aggressive. His lips were tightly closed. His eyes were +unnaturally wide at the moment. He looked slightly raised--fey, in +fact, as a man looks when he and death meet face to face in a narrow +way. + +In front, the crowd of Islanders stood waiting for them at an angle of +rock where the white beach curved round into the land. They carried +clubs and spears, and swung them restlessly. Behind, on the smooth +reflexive swell of the lagoon, a white boat, just pushed off from the +shore, rode like a seabird with wings outstretched for swoop or flight. +Farther out a waiting schooner, whose white sails shivered softly to a +head breeze. + +"Remember, my son," said the elder man quietly, "one sign of flinching +and it is finished. Now let us go." He bared his white head and said +softly, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit," +and went up towards the dark men like the courteous Christian gentleman +he was. The younger man did the same. + +[Illustration: One sign of flinching and it is finished.] + +The natives drew back round the rock; the white men followed. The men +in the boat watched intently, and then listened and gazed at the angle +of the rock. Their orders were to wait. + +The two men passed out of sight, the elder, quiet and calm, as if going +for a stroll in his mission garden, the younger, strung to martyr +pitch, ready to endure to the utmost. The islanders retreated foot by +foot; the white men followed steadily. Then, suddenly, clubs whirled +and spears bristled, and the brown men turned and rolled on the white +like a flood, and parted them. + +The elder man stood and eyed them steadfastly. He had been through it +many times before. Death and he had been old friends and +fellow-travellers for many a year, and the passing of The Gate was to +him but the entrance to a larger life. He spoke to them in words he +thought they might understand. For a moment the two men were like two +white rocks in a foaming mountain stream. Brown arms, clubs, spears +whirled about them. Not one man in ten thousand could have stood it +unmoved. + +The white-haired man was such a one. He stood. The younger man's face +broke; the strings had been drawn too tight. He cast one swift glance +round. + +In an instant the silvery crown beside him ran blood, and disappeared. +With bent head inside his folded arms the younger man dashed at the +throng, and sent the brown men spinning, as he had sent men of a +brawnier breed spinning on the football field at home. He burst +through them in spite of blows and cuts. He was close up to the wild +eddy under which his old friend lay when a well-flung club caught him +deftly in the neck and brought him down in a heap. The brown men +danced madly, and let their shouts go up. They took the younger man by +the heels, and dragged him to where the body of the elder lay, and +flung him down on top of it. Then the sailors from the boat burst on +them with a yell, and sent them scattering. + + +It was days before he recovered consciousness, weeks before he could +lie in a chair on the verandah of the distant mission-house--weak from +loss of blood, weaker still in other ways. + +They tended him lovingly. There were gracious women there who +ministered to him like angels. To them he was hero, saint, martyr but +once removed. To himself----! + +He was almost too weak to think about it yet. He was hacked to pieces, +and bruised to pulp. When he tried to move, it seemed to him that not +one sound inch of flesh was left him. When he tried to think, all the +little blood that was left in him rushed up into his head and set it +humming and buzzing, and dyed his face crimson under the partly +bleached tan. + +His mind was still in a state of confusion; his thoughts were almost as +broken as his body. He remembered facing the bristling brown men. He +could see their shaggy heads and twisted faces, their white teeth, +their gleaming eyes, and the whirl of their brandished weapons. After +that all was blurred, and broke off into sudden darkness. He had a dim +remembrance of intense strain and a sudden snap. He groped for the +ends of the broken threads, but they were hidden in the outer void. He +was still very weak. + +He accepted gratefully all that was done for him, but for the most part +lay in silence. His sufferings were great, but no word of complaint +ever passed his lips. If he had permitted himself any such, it would +have been that he still lived when his leader died. To all he was a +monument of patient resignation. + +So great was his depression, and so slow his recovery, that it was +decided at last to send him home, as the only hope of full +recuperation. He acquiesced, as he had done in everything they +suggested, but in this matter with evident reluctance. He thought it +unlikely he would ever return. His heart had been in the work, but he +had been tried and found wanting. The work, he said to himself, was +for abler and more faithful hands. + +So the mission schooner carried him to the nearest port of call, and in +due course he was lying in a deck chair carefully swathed in plaids, +and the great steamer bore him swiftly homewards. + +The story of the martyrdom and of his heroic defence of his old friend: +how they two had gone up alone to the peaceful assault of an island of +the night; how he had fought for his leader till he could fight no +longer, and had fallen at last wounded to death across his dead +body,--it had all preceded him. The very sailors were proud to have +him on board. The officers made much of him in an undemonstrative way. +The ladies fluttered round his chair like humming-birds, and loaded him +with attentions. + +And he suffered it all in silence. He was still very weak. How could +he turn his sick soul inside out to these strangers, and what good to +do so? + +He had not yet decided what course to take when he got home. He had +thought and thought, till he was sick of thinking, sick of himself, +sick of life. Ah! why had he not died with the brave old man out there +on the shore of the creek behind the rocks? Why had his nerve given +way at that supreme moment? Why had this bitter cross been laid upon +him? Far better to have died--far easier, at all events. But easier +and better run opposite ways as a rule, and have little in common. + +Should he confess the whole matter, and retire from the field and find +some other way of life? Truly he felt no call to any other work. This +had been the one desire of his life; he had grown from youth to manhood +in the hope of it. He believed he could still be of service when once +he got over the effects of his present fall. Should he not rather bury +the dead past, with God as only mourner, and start afresh?--to fail +once more when the strain came again, he said to himself with exceeding +bitterness. He grieved over his lapse as another might grieve over a +deliberate crime. But he postponed any final decision as to the future +till he should feel stronger in mind and body. + +There was a noted writer on board, a realist of realists. He sought +impressions at first hand. He cultivated the sick man's acquaintance, +greatly to his discomfort. + +"Mr. Blair," he said, sitting down by his side one day, "I would very +much like to know just how you felt, and what you thought of, when you +were fighting those brown devils. Won't you tell me?" + +And the sick man roused himself for a moment, and looked at him with +that in his eye which the other comprehended not, and said slowly, "I +felt like the devil and I thought of the devil," and not another word +would he say. And the writer pondered much on the saying, but never +got to the bottom of it or knew how true it was. + +His people met him at the landing-place, the reverend father and the +white-haired mother, proud to be known even as the foster-parents of +such a son, grateful for one more sight of him in the flesh. How could +he break their hearts by telling them what a broken reed their trusted +one had proved? They rejoiced over him greatly, and said to one +another that as his strength came back the cloud that lay on his +spirits would be lifted. Their gentle encomiums stung him like darts. + +But, by degrees, broken body and broken spirit were healed. Slowly and +thoughtfully he made up his mind that the past should be past. He +would go out again. He would take his stand in the forefront of the +battle in the hope of an honourable death--for he held his life forfeit +to the past. + +Decision brings a certain peace of mind. He was happier than he had +been since he leaped out of the white boat on to the shore of the Dark +Island that morning--so long ago that it seemed to belong to a previous +life. + +The old people said God-speed to his decision. They had possessed him +once again after giving him up for good. It was more than they had +ever hoped for. They were thankful. + +All interested in mission work hailed his decision with enthusiasm. He +was common property and too big to be monopolised by any one sect. +They had not been able to make one quarter as much of him as they had +wished. He had quietly declined to be feted and lionised. They +considered he carried his modesty to too great an extreme. They would +have made capital out of him and kindled fresh enthusiasms for the +cause by the sight and sound of him. It was with the greatest +difficulty that he avoided it all, using the plea of ill-health till +his bodily appearance would no longer countenance it. + +Once his decision was made known, however, they decided to drag him out +of his retirement, and by dint of persistent importunity prevailed on +him at last to appear at a public meeting. He consented with +reluctance, and only because it was represented to him as a matter of +duty. + +As the time drew near he began to fear that he was in for more than he +had expected. But he had given his word, and he would not draw back. + +There were clever men at the head of the movement. Thousands of +interested men and women were hungering for a sight of the +almost-martyr. They had seen his portrait in the illustrated +papers--how joyously the old mother had responded to the many requests +for it!--but they wanted to see him with their eyes and hear him with +their ears, and the younger folk were to remember all their lives that +they had done so. And so, without going into details with him, the +leaders of the various societies quietly arranged matters on a generous +scale. There were men of imagination among them too, and they prepared +a dramatic touch for the meeting which they calculated would make it go +with a swing. It went beyond their expectations. + +When the young missionary stepped on to the platform he stopped short, +and for a moment looked almost as fey as he had done when he leaped out +of the white boat that morning on the beach of Dark Island. But there +must be no drawing back. He had flinched once--never again! + +The chairman of the meeting was a philanthropic Cabinet Minister. As +he welcomed the hero of the hour the great audience rose and waved and +shouted. + +The young man clasped the chairman's welcoming hand as though he were a +drowning man, and that hand the one only hope of safety. Then he sank +into the chair provided for him, and dropped his face into his hand. + +All this was torture to him. Why could they not have let him go out +quietly to his work, to his death? No bristling mob of savages that +ever could confront him was half so appalling to him as that great +well-dressed crowd of enthusiastic men and women and children, gathered +to do him honour. Honour! And he before God a dishonoured man--a man +who had failed when the pinch came. He groaned in his heart, and +wished that he had not come. + +But the chairman was speaking, speaking of him, and what he had +done--what he was supposed to have done--in warm, appreciative words +and flowing periods, and the audience was as still as a flower-garden +on a summer afternoon. In the young man's soul there was a great +stillness also, a stillness equal almost to that which had fallen on +him when he came out of the shadows and lay in the verandah of the +mission house. + +His eyes wandered unseeingly over those solid banks of faces, all +turned on him in eulogy of what he had not done. Those thousands of +eyes seemed to pierce his soul. + +One face caught his attention and held it, the face of a girl sitting +in the third row from the front. Even in his agony he recognised it, +as how could he help when it had been so constantly with him in his +thoughts. The smooth white brow, like a little slab of polished ivory; +the level brows; the large dark eyes looking up at him with something +akin to reverence--the beautiful eyes with lustrous points in them; the +sweet oval of the lower part of the face; the firm little chin and +slightly parted lips, emphasising the old inquiring look which he knew +so well: it was a face any man might remember with gratitude for the +mere sight of it. It was the face he had at once longed for the sight +of and feared to meet, since ever the thought of coming home had been +suggested to him. And now here it was, more beautiful than even his +dreams of it--inquiring, hopeful, trustful. And he must satisfy the +inquiry--and dash the hope, and shatter the trust for ever. Oh, it was +hard! It was grievously hard! His life laid down then and there would +have been a small price to pay for the confirmation of her belief in +him. And he must destroy it and still live on! + +But what was this? The chairman had turned to him in his speech, the +flower-garden in front had suddenly become a fluttering snowbank. + +"Mr. Blair does not happen to belong to that particular section of the +Church to which I belong, and which, as the State Church of the realm, +retains, and rightly retains, within its own hands the appointment of +its own high officers. There are some of us who, as we grow older, and +perhaps wiser, regret more and more that any differences should remain +among the followers of Christ. We would fain see them done away with. +We would cast down all fences and walls of partition, and meet our +Christian brothers and sisters on an absolute equality, on the common +platform of love and service to the one Master. + +"This meeting to-night, of many sects with one common object, is one +step in the right direction--a great step. And here is another. The +necessity for a supreme hand and head in the guidance of the mission +enterprises of the Outer Islands is apparent to all. For such a +position we require a man of tried courage and endurance, a man who can +look death in the face without flinching, a man who holds his own life +of small account, and who is ready at any moment to lay it down in the +service of the cause he loves. Of such stuff martyrs are made. That +the man who has given us such signal proofs of his fidelity and courage +should be chosen for so onerous and so honourable a post is a matter of +great satisfaction to us all. Mr. Blair, as all the world knows, has +proved his fitness in a time of grievous danger and perplexity.--a time +which I do not hesitate to say would have tried the nerve of any man to +breaking-point, under a strain which might have broken any ordinary +man, and small blame to him. But here"--and he laid his hand upon +young Blair's shoulder--"we have the one man who did not break down, +and it is this man whom we would rejoice to recognise as the first +bishop of the Outer Islands. I am authorised to request Mr. Blair's +acceptance of this arduous and honourable post, without reference to +any question of form or creed. And that request is made, not in the +name or on behalf of my own Church only, but in the names and on behalf +of all the Churches represented by the missions to the Outer Islands. +It is a common point of union. Mr. Blair's acceptance of the post +will, perhaps, be one step towards that greater union of the Churches +to which we look hopefully forward, and I earnestly hope that he will +see fit to accept this joint and unanimous request of the Churches." +And he sat down with glowing face amidst thunders of applause. + +And Kenneth Blair? Oh! why could they not have left him to work out +his redemption in quietness and silence? Now it was not possible. +Those thousands of eyes burnt into his soul. The words he had listened +to pierced him like two-edged swords. Silence was no longer possible. +To accept all this, as if it were his rightful due, was to hang a +millstone round his neck which would drag him down to perdition. + +When the tumult died at last into silence, the young man got up and +stood and gripped the railing of the platform. + +His face was white and set. "A man of indomitable will," they said. + +His eyes burnt with a gloomy fire. "He has seen strange and terrible +things," they said. + +He swayed slightly once or twice before he found his voice. "He has +been very near to death," they said. + +And then he began to speak, quietly, as one who might need all his +strength before he was done; but there was a timbre in it, born of +outdoor speaking, which carried to the remotest corner, and a thrill in +it which found its way to every heart. And, of all that great +assembly, the only face he saw with any distinctness was the face of +the girl in the third row, with its calm brow and its lustrous +up-glance. He spoke to it. He watched it. If he could convince that +one face of all that was in him, he felt that it would be well with him. + +In his emotion he overlooked all formalities. He found his voice at +last, and said, "My friends, the words I have just been listening to +have been to me as sword-thrusts through the heart." + +The silence was intense. Every ear and every eye was upon him. He saw +only the calm, sweet face of the girl in the third row. + +"I have a very terrible confession to make to you. Had I known what +was intended this evening I should not have been here, but no slightest +word of it reached me. My sole desire has been to get back to my work +out yonder, and to lay down my life in it. I have been told that I am +a man of courage and endurance ... of tried nerve ... of unflinching +fidelity. There was a time when I too believed this of myself." He +spoke very slowly and with a solemn impressiveness which those who +heard it never forgot to the last day of their lives. "But between +that and this there is a deep gulf ... and at the bottom of that gulf +lies the dead body of my dear friend and chief. His death lies at my +door." + +An almost imperceptible movement ran through the audience, as though a +cold breath shook it with a simultaneous chill. The face of the girl +in the third row remained steadfastly calm. If anything, it seemed to +glow with a deeper intensity of hopeful inquiry. "Say what you will, I +believe in you!" it said. + +"The whole truth of what happened on that dreadful day has never been +told. I will confess that I had dared to hope that it might never need +to be told--that it might lie between myself and God--that I might be +permitted by Him to work out my redemption on the field of my failure, +chastened, and perhaps strengthened, by what has passed. For, at a +vital moment, when the flinching of an eyelid meant disaster, I ... +flinched. + +"This is what happened. As we went up towards the savages that day, my +dear old friend asked me if I was ready. I was ready. I said so. He +said, 'Remember, one sign of flinching and it is finished,' and we went +up and round the corner. We were going, as I believed, to certain +death, and I was ready--at least, and truly, I believed so. When the +savages rushed in upon us, the horror of it broke upon me like a +deluge. I glanced round to see if there was no possible way of escape +for us. But there was no way. My dear old chief's head was crimson +already with blood, and he went down among them. I burst through--and +I know no more. They tell me my body was found on top of his. It may +be so. How it got there I do not know. What I do know is--that at +that supreme moment, when I believed myself to be strong, I found +myself weak. When I believed myself ready for a martyr's death, I +tried to escape by shameful flight. I was weighed and found wanting, +and the remembrance of it has seared my heart like molten iron, night +and day, since ever I came to myself. Whether we should have won +through if I had remained firm, God only knows. But--I flinched and +fled. It seems to me now that I would sooner die a hundred such deaths +as I fled from then than stand here before you all and confess my +default. I can accept no honours. Honours!" with a despairing lift +and fall of the hand. "I can accept no position based on so terrible a +misconception. All I ask, and I ask it with the deepest humility, is +that I may be allowed to go out there again. My life is forfeit to the +past. It shall be spent--if it be God's will, it shall be laid down +joyfully--in the service to which I believe He called me, and from +which I do not believe He has expelled me." + +[Illustration: "My life is forfeit to the past."] + +He sat down and covered his face with his hands. There was a momentary +silence. The chairman did not quite know what to do. The face of the +girl in the third row was ablaze with emotion; the dark eyes were +swimming. She glanced restlessly about to see what was going to +happen; she looked like springing up herself with flaming words. But +another did it. A tall, white-haired man, with a flowing white beard +and a face like brown leather, stood up on the platform, and said, in a +voice that went straight to all their hearts-- + +"My friends, we have all heard. Some of us understand, because we have +passed through that same dark valley as our young friend. Dare I, in +all humility, remind you that a Greater than any shrank from the +supreme moment, and prayed, with agonies no man may conceive of, that +His bitter cup might pass from Him? I tell you, gentlemen," he cried, +in a voice that rang like a trumpet, "that in doing what he has done +here this evening our friend has proved himself a man among men. He +has said that a hundred savage deaths appear to him less terrible than +the confession he has just made. And it is a true saying. Ask your +own hearts. I could prove to you that no man can answer absolutely for +himself at such a moment; but I will not even argue the point. Our +friend has been through the fire. He has been through God's mill. He +has been hammered on God's anvil. I tell you that he is true metal. +He has proved it here and now. I hold it an honour to grasp his hand +and bid him God-speed." + +He stretched a sinewy, leather-brown hand to Blair, and the young man +gripped it with a new light in his face, and the two stood facing one +another. + +Still holding the young man's hand, the old one turned to the front +again. + +"If you agree with me that this is the man we want for the work out +there, rise in your seats." + +His voice had rung like a bugle-call through the outer darknesses of +the earth; his name stood but little lower than God's to tens of +thousands who dwelt there, and was held in reverence wherever the +English language was spoken. That great audience rose to his call as +if a mine had exploded beneath it. His eyes shone with the light the +black men knew and loved. + +"Let us pray," he said; and the young man fell to his knees beside his +chair and dropped his head into his hands again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SHAMELESS THING! + +The night that followed that meeting at Queen's Hall was the most +tempestuous time Jean Arnot ever passed through. + +The dramatic events of the meeting had shaken her hidden soul out of +its sanctuary. She was thankful to get home intact--so far, at all +events, as outward appearances went. + +She went at once to her own room. She locked herself in, and paced the +floor till she could pace no more. + +She could order her steps, but not her thoughts, and her thoughts took +wings and climbed lofty heavens of white-piled clouds, and the +white-piled clouds were all rosy-tipped, because the thoughts that +scaled them came straight from her heart and were tinged with the rosy +gold of her heart's desire. + +Oh, wonderful! wonderful! The great big soul of him! Was there a +nobler man on earth? + +How easy to have let it pass! to have kept it between God and himself +only! to have worked out his redemption in secret! But he could not, +because he was a true man--the truest man ever born, and the bravest. +Oh the great, big, noble soul of him! + +To and fro she paced, and, no matter where she looked, his white, set +face and blazing eyes looked out at her in that agonised strenuity of +appeal which had stirred her so in the hall, stirred her to the depths +till she had had difficulty in sitting still. It had seemed to her as +though he lost sight of all those straining thousands and spoke only to +her--as though they were all nothing, and she the whole world. Had he +recognised her, she wondered, or had he perceived, in spite of the +disguisement of her steady face, the intensity of her sympathy, and had +clung to it as to a one and only hope? + +And as she paced, and sank down into her chair, which had lost all its +ordinary sense of comfort, and started up and paced again, there sprang +up in her heart a great golden-glowing purpose--a purpose that trapped +her breath and set her gasping when first it peeped out, but which grew +like an escaped genie, and filled the world of her thoughts before she +knew, and was never to be confined within bounds again. + +An unheard-of thing! An incredible thing! A shameless thing! + +Nay, not that--and yet--yes! yes! Shameless indeed, for shameless +meant without sense of shame, and no sense of shame had she--glory +rather. + +An unmaidenly thing, then! That without doubt, but not without +precedent, and circumstances make laws unto themselves. + +But, whatever it was or was not, it grew and grew, stronger and +stronger, and ever brighter in its glowing, golden rose. + +As she paced to and fro it seemed to her that her path in life had +suddenly flashed out before her on the darkness of the night. It was +limned in lines and letters of fire, and they cried to her to follow, +follow, follow. + +And now, as she thought it all out, with tightened lips, and crumpled +brow, and eyes that shone, it came home to her, like a revelation, that +all her life had been working up to this starry point. + +She thought long and deeply, and then turned up the light and sat down +to her writing-table with a purposeful face. It was done in a +moment--a couple of lines. But a single word has changed the destiny +of a nation before this. Weighty things, words, at times! Live shells +are playthings to them. + +She folded and addressed her letter, and then pondered the best way +over a difficulty. She wrote two more lines and enclosed them with her +original letter in a larger envelope, and addressed it, and then she +laid her white forehead on the packet for a moment as it lay on the +table. And then, like one whose ships are burned, or whose golden +bridge is built, she altered the indicator outside her door, so that +her maid would call her at seven, and went to bed. Once, before she +got to sleep, she smiled to herself and almost laughed out, as she +suddenly remembered that it was Leap Year. Then she cooled her burning +cheek on the other pillow and went to sleep, and slept soundly, for she +had been living at high pressure these last few hours, and the morrow +would need all her strength. + +When the maid brought up her cup of tea in the morning, she handed her +the letter which had stood on the table by her bedside all night, with +these precise directions: "Tell William"--the groom--"to ride into the +city and deliver that letter. The answer he will take to whatever +address may be given him." + +She got up and dressed, and went out for a quick walk in Kensington +Gardens. At breakfast Aunt Jannet Harvey commented on her appearance. + +"Why, child, what a colour you've got! What took you out so early?" + +"I've been bathing in dew and early sunbeams, auntie." + +"I couldn't sleep all night for thinking of that young man and his +savages. It appears to me that that is a very great man, Jean. If he +lives he will do very noble work. It needed a big soul to face that +crowd and tell that story as he did it." + +"Yes," said Jean. She had never discussed Kenneth Blair with Aunt +Jannet Harvey, not to the extent of one single word. + +After breakfast she found it difficult to settle down to any of her +usual avocations. She could neither read nor play, and she declined to +go out. Aunt Jannet Harvey expressed the opinion that such early +rising did not suit her, and Jean confirmed her views by going upstairs +to her room and wandering about there at a loose end and doing +nothing--nothing but think, think, think. + +Her maid brought her word that William had returned, having executed +his mission in full; and please would Miss Arnot ride in the afternoon? + +Miss Arnot would neither ride nor drive that afternoon, nor would she +require the brougham in the evening. Mary would please ask Mrs. Harvey +if she wished to drive in the afternoon. If not, the men's services +would not be required. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LEAP YEAR + +Kenneth Blair received Miss Arnot's note as he sat at breakfast in the +pleasant room of the quiet little hotel overlooking the Embankment, +where he was staying in company with Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish. He was to +them as one come back from the dead, and they grudged every minute he +was out of their sight. + +The incidents of the previous night had been rather wearing on them +all, and they were later than usual that morning, and, at that, +dallying over an enjoyment that would soon be of the memory only. + +The rare colour filled his pale face as he read the two lines of Miss +Arnot's note, and he read them several times, as though frequent +perusal might provoke interpretation. + + +"DEAR MR. BLAIR,-- + +"I have an urgent wish to speak with you. Will you do me the favour of +calling here at 3 p.m. to-day? + +"Yours sincerely, + "JEAN ARNOT." + + +"I wonder what she wants?" he said meditatively, and handed the note to +the old people. "I don't think I want to see anybody." + +"I think you must comply with her request, my boy," said Mr. MacTavish. +"She has more than ordinary claims upon your consideration, you know." + +Blair nodded, and winced involuntarily. It went a good deal deeper +than the old man knew, and after last night he did not feel quite +himself again yet. He had a morbid dread of hero-worship, and though +the outward man was healed and shaping well again, the inner man still +felt woefully sore and bruised and humbled. + +"She was there last night; she sat about three rows from the front," +said Mrs. MacTavish. "I wish you could have seen her face while you +were speaking, Kenneth. It was like the face of an angel." + +Kenneth had seen it, and nothing but it, and the thought of it made it +none the easier for him to comply with her request. + +He said quietly: "Well, I'll think about it, and see how I happen to be +situated for three o'clock. I have to see Mr. Campbell at eleven in +Moorgate Street. If he has any appointments for me, I might be unable +to go, in which case I'll send Miss Arnot a wire." + +But Mr. Campbell knew how short his time was, and so occupied as little +of it as possible; and three o'clock found him at Miss Arnot's dainty +little house in Knightsbridge, overlooking the Park. + +He had hesitated--as an intelligent moth might flutter warily just +outside the heat radius of a candle-flame--strongly tempted, desirous, +but doubtful. + +For she had occupied much, very much, of his thoughts--too much, he had +angrily said to himself at times--since ever he learned the part she +had had in the making of him. And quite apart from that, she was so +very charming in herself. It could hardly be in the power of any man, +he thought, to be much in her company and not have longings for still +closer acquaintance and companionship--and such things were not for +him. His way lay among the shadows of the outer night, and it must of +necessity be, outwardly at all events, a somewhat lonely way. +Companions he would doubtless have, and the best of all high company. +But home, wife, child--these were not for him. In his mind's eye he +saw the white beaches, and towering cliffs, and black bosky gorges of +the Dark Islands, and the thunder of the surf was in his ear. And in +his heart he said bravely, "My home, my wife, my children!" + +But his thoughts were never far from her, and now that, in spite of +himself, he was to meet her face to face, they gathered head and had +their way in spite of him. + +He had often wondered why she had not married. She was still young, of +course; but, after all, twenty-five was not so very young for an +unmarried lady of such unusual possessions of mind, body, and estate. + +She possessed, he could well believe, an independent spirit. Had she +not, even at thirteen, told him that one of her aspirations was to do +as she liked? + +He had recognised her instantly, and with a start, the previous night. +That was before the drama became exciting. And he had wondered then if +she had changed her name since last he saw her, or whether "Jean Arnot +was still good enough for her." + +And what could she possibly want to say to him? + +Possibly--quite likely--in the excitement of the evening's proceedings +she had felt an impulse to do something more for the mission cause than +she had done hitherto. + +That was it, no doubt. Well, they could do with Miss Arnot's +assistance. Funds were never too ample for the work that cried aloud +to be done. + +He was evidently expected. The maid led him along the hall, through +green baize doors, down a passage, into the library, a beautiful and +cosy room such as he had imagined wealthy people might possibly +possess, if, in addition to all their other possessions, they possessed +a love of books. It overlooked the garden and the Park, and was as +bright and secluded a little holy of holies as the most devoted +worshipper of the sacred flame might desire. The Island Mission houses +were--not exactly geographically perhaps, but in every other attribute +and particular--the absolute antipodes and antithesis of this charming +little sanctum. The walls were lined with bookcases full of richly +bound books, the table was strewn with books and magazines, among +which, and queening it over them all, stood a great night-blue bowl of +white lilac, filling the room with the perfume of the spring. There +was a cheerful little fire of mixed peat and logs on a flat hearth, +with brass dogs and chains. A sudden whiff of the peat, as he passed +the hearth, carried him in an instant back into his boyhood. + +He glanced at the bountiful shelves, with the hungry look of the +student whose pocket had never at any time been able to keep pace with +his appetite. For knowledge of books is good, and possession of books +is good, but knowledge and possession combined are still much better. + +He was standing looking out into the garden whence the lilac had come, +when Miss Arnot came quietly in. + +He turned and bowed. He had made up his mind to hold himself tightly, +but her welcoming hand drew forth his own, and carried his first line +of defence in a walk-over. + +"It was good of you to come," she said impulsively, "and I thank you. +I know your time is very short, and you must have much to do." + +"Yes, there is much to do," he said very quietly. "But I am grateful +to you for, at all events, affording me another opportunity of thanking +you in person----" But she stopped him with a peremptory little hand. + +How beautiful she was, with her wistful face and commanding little +ways! There was even more than usual of strenuous inquiry in those +shining eyes of hers. + +"You are going back on the first of May?" + +Her speech was more rapid than usual. He saw that she was excited. +Probably the remembrance of last night's meeting still held her, he +thought. + +"Yes, on the first of May. And then----I hardly think it likely I +shall ever return to England." + +"But why?" she jerked, in her old, quick, want-to-know way. + +"Well--you see--I really feel as if I had no right to be here at all. +By rights I ought to be lying under a cairn on the beach of Dark +Island." + +"Oh, but that is simply morbid, and the result of your long illness. +You will not feel that way long." + +"I hope not. The work is crying to be done. Perhaps, after all, I +shall be able to help it more above ground than below." + +"Of course you will. Don't you find it dreadfully lonely out there, +with none but black people about you?" + +"They are very fine people, some of them. And the loneliness only +nails one the tighter to the work. Besides there are----" + +"Has it never struck you that you might possibly help it quite as much +by remaining here as by going out again?" + +Oh, Jean! Jean! + +"Never," he said, with a slight flush. "My work lies there, and I hope +to give my life to it, and to give it up for it if need be, as my dear +old friend gave his." + +"But there are others who could do the work just as well, are there +not?" + +"Many, I hope. I hope many will." + +"And, if I understand aright, Missionary Societies are always short of +funds, and the work is hindered, or at all events progresses more +slowly, in consequence." + +"I have my own views as to that," he said quietly. + +"Won't you tell me what they are? I am greatly interested." + +"They are not shared by many of my friends, and I do not obtrude them. +I believe that the work is God's work, and when He sees fit to provide +larger ways and means, larger ways and means will be forthcoming. If +we had all the money we wanted, we might lose our heads, and go ahead +too fast--scamp the work perhaps, and prove but jerry-builders in the +end. One cannot forget that it has taken Christianity eighteen hundred +years to arrive at its present position, and that for long periods it +lay almost dormant; whereas, if the Founder had deemed it best to +accomplish the work at one stroke, He could have done it." + +"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "I don't think I ever looked at it in +that light before. And you are quite determined to go back?" + +"Quite determined--only too grateful for the chance." + +"And nothing would keep you here?" + +"Nothing that I can imagine--except absolute incapacity for the work." + +"You would not stop even if"--and she bent forward, with hands tightly +clasped to prevent them jumping visibly before him, and eyes that shone +like stars. God! how beautiful she was!--"if I begged you to do so?" + +He jumped up hastily. + +"If you----? If you begged me to--what?" + +And her bright eyes, fixed intently on his lean face, caught the sudden +fierce clench of the teeth inside, which threw the cheek-bones into +bolder prominence. She noted it--she could almost hear the grinding of +his teeth; and the game was in her hands. She had the advantage of +understanding what the game was, while he was completely in the dark. + +He stood gazing down at her for a moment, and then said more quietly-- + +"I'm afraid I don't quite understand. Perhaps my illness has dulled my +brain somewhat." + +"No, it hasn't, Mr. Blair. I was asking you in cold blood if you would +not stay in England and marry me, and use my money from here for the +furtherance of the cause out there." + +He stared at her still with all his great heart in his eyes--all of it +that was not jumping in his throat like a baby rabbit. + +He gazed down at her for another moment, then bent suddenly before her +and took her hand and kissed it, and said huskily and in jerks--between +the rabbit-kicks-- + +"You will think no ill of me--if I go--at once. I dare not stop----" + +But she had gripped his hand and held it tight, and stood holding him, +and her face shone and her eyes. + +"Then--will you take me with you, Kenneth?" + +"Take you with me?" Her rings cut into her next fingers under the +fierceness of his sudden grip, and she could have sung aloud, for the +grip came right from his heart and told his tale to her. "Do you mean +it--Jean?" + +"Surely." + +And yet he had a doubt. You must bear with him. You see, he had been +half inside the gates of death, and--well, the proceeding _was_ +distinctly out of the common run of things. + +"Is it myself--or the work?" he asked almost fiercely. For the thought +had flashed across him--and not unnaturally--that this was but one more +result of the excitement of the meeting last night. She had been +shaken out of her usual discretion and decorum, had probably lain awake +all night, and---- + +But her eyes were steady as stars, and as bright, as she said-- + +"Both! But yourself first. I liked you the first time we met. I +loved you the second. I have never ceased to think about you. Your +going away left a blank in my life. After last night I love and trust +you more than ever, if that be possible. Last night my way was made +clear to me." + +"Now, glory be to God!" he cried, and kissed the wistful lips that +looked as if they had been waiting long for just that seal to the +compact. And then he sat down suddenly and covered his face with his +hands, as though what was in him was not even for her eyes. + +She sank down on to a footstool beside his chair, and noticed how white +his hand was compared with the great, strong brown hand which had held +hers that day in the Greenock church. + +He was himself again in a moment--or suppose we say he came back from +where he had been--and his face was full of the old radiant glow as he +raised it to look at her. + +"It _is_ real, isn't it?" he asked in a light-hearted, boyish way. + +"I'm real," she said, smiling back at him. "You seem not quite +yourself." + +"Did you ever try to imagine what it would feel like to have every +single desire of your heart suddenly granted to you all in a lump?" + +"I don't think I ever did. It sounds as if it might be too much for +one." + +"It is--almost. And you wonder if it is real and true, or only a vain +imagining. Jean, is it true that you care for me?" + +"No--love you, Ken,--dearly--every inch of you." + +"And that you are going to marry me?" + +"If you ask me properly." + +"Jean, will you marry me and come out with me and share my work?" + +"I will!" + +He gazed at her steadfastly, and said softly-- + +"Thank God! it is true!" + +He enjoyed that full sunshine of felicity for close on five minutes, +and then said more soberly-- + +"Do you quite understand, dear, all that you are giving up? Life out +there----" + +"It is enough for me at present to realise what I have gained. Can you +not understand, dear, that to a woman the time comes when the heart's +love of one man is more to her than all the rest of the whole wide +world? Life touched its highest with me when you made my fingers bleed +a few minutes ago." + +"I made your----" and he snatched her hands and saw the tiny wounds. +"Oh, forgive me! I did not know----" and he kissed them tenderly. + +"Sweet wounds!" she said. "They told me more than all you have +forgotten to tell me--all that I was aching to know." + +"And you really care for me like that, Jean? For me! Is it possible? +I wonder why?" + +"Perhaps God had something to do with it. It is so very good that it +must be from Him." + +"Yes," he said emphatically. + +"And now--when are you going to tell me that you care a little for me, +and are not just taking me because I threw myself at your head and you +could not help yourself?" + +"Oh, Jean! Jean! you knew--though how I cannot tell. You have been +shrined in my heart since that second time we met, but I knew it was +hopeless----" + +"Clever boy! And you hardly knew me then." + +"I knew your eyes the moment I looked into them, and they have never +left me since." + +"Such common brown eyes! But you didn't know what lay behind them?" + +"The most beautiful eyes in the world." + +And by degrees they settled into quiet talk of the future. + +He still feared she did not fully understand all she was giving up, and +conscientiously endeavoured to make it clear to her. + +She listened to please him, and because it was sweet to hear him, for +all his thought in the matter was for her and her well-being. + +So she let him go on; and when he had exhausted all his arguments, she +said quietly-- + +"It is all nothing and less than nothing, dearest, compared with the +rest. Where you go I go. Your work shall be my work, and your people +my people, and nothing but death shall part us." + +And with a heart that seemed like to burst for very fulness of joy in +her, he said, "Amen!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A SUDDEN WIDE HORIZON + +"Mr. Blair! The young man who spoke at the meeting the other night? +Why, I didn't even know that you knew him, Jean!" said Aunt Jannet +Harvey, gazing at her in wide-eyed wonder. + +"Oh, I've known him since I was thirteen!" + +"And you never spoke to me about him! Why I don't remember your ever +even mentioning his name!" + +"I don't believe I ever did. We will make up for it now, auntie." + +"And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry him?" + +[Illustration: "And he has really had the audacity to ask you to marry +him."] + +"Yes, auntie,"--very meekly. + +"And you've said 'yes,' and you're going out with him to the South +Seas?" + +"Yes, auntie." + +"Well, child, let me tell you what I think about it. I think you might +have looked much higher, and fared very much worse. He struck me the +other night as a very noble young man indeed, and I wondered then why +he hadn't made some woman happy. I believe you will be very happy, +Jean, unless those cannibals kill you and eat you." + +"If they eat us both at the same time I don't care," said Jean boldly. +"Yes, I shall be very happy, auntie, for he is the best man in the +whole world." + +"And when do you go?" + +"Our marriage will make some changes in his plans, of course, and he is +seeing the Society people to-day about an extension of leave. We +discussed it all yesterday--at least, all that we had time for. He is +full of plans--such glorious plans! It is a grand thing to be a man, +and to be built on a great big scale, and to have glorious ideas----" + +"And the means to carry them out! And when did you say you'd be going?" + +"In about six weeks probably. You see, he wants to buy a steamer for +his work among the Islands, and we shall go out in her." + +"I shall be quite ready," said Aunt Jannet Harvey "I shall want two or +three new dresses suitable to the climate----" + +"You, auntie? You will go too?" + +"Why, of course, child! You'll need me more than ever out there. +Suppose you fell sick. Suppose--oh, I can look ahead farther than you +can, perhaps! I can see a hundred ways in which I can be useful to +you. And you don't need to fear that I'll be in your way--I'll see to +that. But I'll be within reach when I'm wanted; and I've always had a +hankering to see those outside parts of the world. It was my dear +James's dream too. He was a great botanist, when he had any time to +spare from his logic. He'll be glad to think the chance has come to me +at last." + +And so when Blair came back next day from an exciting time in the city, +Jean solemnly announced-- + +"You'll only find out by degrees all you've undertaken, young man. +You've got to marry Aunt Jannet Harvey as well." + +"Polygamy is still practised out there," he said heartily. "As a +matter of policy we have to countenance it at times; but we set our +faces against it, because it does not work well. If this means that +Mrs. Harvey has consented to accompany us----" + +"Consented? She proposed it, or rather took it for granted, and won't +hear a word against it." + +"Then my heart is lightened of one of its cares, and I am truly +grateful to Aunt Jannet"--and Aunt Jannet was his from that moment. +"God surely put the thought into your kind heart," he said, as he wrung +the capable old hand warmly. "You will be more to Jean out there than +words can tell. I thank you with all my heart." + +"I knew it," said Aunt Jannet, with emphasis. "I wanted to ask you, +Mr. Blair----" + +"Kenneth, surely, now, Aunt Jannet!" + +"Surely!--Kenneth--what the ladies wear out there." + +"Well, the native ladies don't wear much, and the ladies of the +missions wear much what you would here, if you cared only for use and +comfort, and nothing for fashion. They always look very neat and +clean"--at which Jean smiled reminiscently. + +"I see," said Aunt Jannet. "Jean and I will lay our heads together. I +think we can live up to that standard, at all events." + +He had a cup of tea with them, and then ran along to the hotel to bring +old Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish over to dinner. And after dinner they sat +and talked and talked, and he laid some of his ideas and plans before +them, and had only just begun when it was time for the old people to go +home to bed. For his plans and ideas were blossoming in the golden +sunshine like an orchard kept back by a late spring, and flung suddenly +into the quickening warmth of coming summer. + +He had gone down that morning to see the secretary of the Society which +had originally sent him out, and to whom he still felt officially +bound, to inform him of the changes in his plans which his marriage +would bring about, and to request an extension of leave. + +There happened to be a full meeting of the committee in session when +his name was brought in, and the secretary at once suggested his +introduction to the meeting. And so, when Blair was shown into the +board-room, expecting to meet Mr. Secretary alone, he found some fifty +ladies and gentlemen eagerly awaiting him. + +The great glad light in his face--the light that Jean Arnot had helped +to rekindle--drew all their eyes. They whispered among themselves that +the Queen's Hall meeting had done him good after all. Some of them had +been fearing the effects of such tremendous emotion on a weakened body. + +The chairman, the noble head of a house devoted to good deeds, gave him +hearty welcome, and said the committee would be delighted to hear any +further details he would like to give them of his work or future plans +in the Dark Islands. + +Blair jumped up as the old man sat down. + +"I came, sir," he said, "on a very definite errand--to ask for a slight +extension of my stay here." + +"It is granted, my dear sir, before you put any limit to it," said the +old man cordially. "Every member of this committee feels, I am sure, +that the matter may be safely left in your own hands. We know also +that you are anxious to get back to your work. I will only express the +hope that it is not through any relapse in health that you think it +necessary." + +It certainly did not look like it, as Blair, with a smile that would +not be controlled, said-- + +"I am glad to say it is not a matter touching my health, though one +that very intimately affects my happiness and well-being. Since that +somewhat trying meeting in Queen's Hall a piece of very great +good-fortune has come to me----" + +"Good indeed to set such a light in his face!" thought they, and hung +upon his words. + +"Miss Arnot has consented to become my wife and to join me in the work +out there." + +"Miss Arnot!--Jean Arnot!"--a buzz of excitement ran round. For Miss +Arnot was a personage of importance, known alike for her beauty, her +wealth, and her good deeds. Rumour, indeed, had fixed upon Miss Arnot +as the mysterious donor for the last two years of a L1,000 note each +year for the special benefit and use of the South Sea Mission. + +And he was going to marry Miss Arnot, and she was going out with him! +No wonder there was a light in his face! + +But he was speaking again. + +"You will see, sir, at once that this happy circumstance brings about +many changes in my plans and hopes. The vista of usefulness which it +opens before me--before us, may I say?--is magnified one hundred-fold. +Miss Arnot dedicates her fortune, herself, and her enthusiasms to the +work. There is a mighty field out there. It is not white to the +harvest--it is black as darkest night. By God's help we hope to lift +the fringes and let in some rays of His blessed light. I shall have +the opportunity of discussing my ideas in detail with your secretary. +But broadly speaking, this is how they point. We contemplate +purchasing and fitting out a steamer suitable for mission-work among +the Islands, and going out in her ourselves. We would like several +assistants, married or unmarried--but big men, please! Big heads are +good, and big hearts are better, but best of all if they are contained +in big bodies. You have no idea what a vast impression a big man makes +on those big Islanders compared with a small man. As to the size of +the ladies, I would not venture to offer any suggestions. But the men +should be--must be--big men. One further matter, sir, and I have done. +Those Islanders must come under the protection of the British flag at +once. And I want--you will not misunderstand me if I go the length of +saying _I must have_--the appointment of Commissioner or Deputy +Commissioner, or any position that will give me the official right to +deal with certain matters which block our way out there. + +"The wrongs the people of some of those Outer Islands suffer, from the +scum of the earth who prey upon them, to their utter ruin of body, +soul, and spirit, are almost incredible. + +"I could tell you facts--bald, brutal facts--concerning the labour +traffic carried on there which would make you shudder and doubt my +veracity. But I have seen these things with my own eyes, and heard +them with my own ears, and been powerless to stop them. + +"Now, by God's help, and Miss Arnot's, I will wage war on these +doings--hot war--yes, red-hot war with Maxim and Lee-Metford, if +necessary"--his voice rang out militantly--"on those who do these +dreadful deeds. Those hideous wrongs shall cease, and those poor +kinsfolk of ours--God's children as much as we, though they know it not +yet--shall have their chance. I would of course prefer to act +officially in the matter; but, officially or not, act I shall. + +"This may seem to you strange talk for a peaceful man. I have a +precedent. As long as I tread in the Master's steps I shall not go far +wrong." + +He sat down, and they cheered him to the echo. They had heard many +noble men and women speak in that room; but I doubt if they had ever +heard words which gripped their hearts as these had done. + +The news of the approaching marriage of the penniless young missionary +to the great heiress, Miss Arnot, spread rapidly and evoked much +comment, candid, caustic, congratulatory, from Jean's friends and +otherwise. + +"Clever man, that young sky-pilot!" + +"Absolutely thrown herself away, my dear, and actually going to live +among naked savages!" + +"Trust the missionary to feather his own nest. Why should he lose +sight of No. 1 while saving brother man?" + +"The missionary man has done himself well. Poor rich Miss Arnot!" + +"Oh, well, you know, she's twenty-seven if she's a day, and when a girl +gets to twenty-seven----! And they say he's exceedingly good-looking. +Still, don't you know----" + +These behind her back. And to her face: + +"He's simply charming, dear. I envy you--I do indeed! + +"He's a splendid fellow, Miss Arnot. You will be very happy together." + +"My dear,"--this from a very old lady, bearing a very old title, whose +early married life had been a hideous martyrdom--"you have chosen very +wisely. He is a noble Christian gentleman, and he would lay down his +life for you. Believe me, dear, compared with what you have got, all +the wealth of the world and all its titles are nothing but dust and +ashes and misery. I know it!" + +And everybody else knew that she knew it. And Jean kissed her very +tenderly. + +And Mr. Punch, when he heard of the matter, in his playful little way +quoted: + +"Doaen't thou marry for munny, but--goae wheer munny is." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOME ODD FURNISHINGS AND A HONEYMOON + +Aunt Jannet Harvey's wardrobe was rapidly approaching completion. + +She and Jean had had a busy six weeks. They had neither of them ever +been quite so busy in all their lives before, and the curious thing was +that it seemed to agree with them mightily, and they, both one and the +other, had visibly renewed their youth under the demands made upon them. + +Aunt Jannet developed new and surprising traits of character every day; +and as for Jean, the days were not half long enough for the joy of life +that lay in wait for each one as it came. + +She and Kenneth Blair had been quietly married by special licence a +month ago, and the sight of their faces, wherever they had been since, +had brought new ideals and new possibilities of life to all who looked +upon them--all except the cynics and philosophers of Jean's former +world, of course. + +"Quite so!" said they. "But just wait till the bloom is off the +honeymoon, and she finds herself all alone with her little tin god +among the savages! Then she'll find out what's what and sigh for the +vanished fleshpots and fripperies." + +But there were no signs of incipient sighing about Mrs. Kenneth Blair +at present, anyway. She had always been sweet and charming, with a +wistful eagerness in her face that filled you with a desire to do for +her any mortal thing she might require at your hands. There was still +something of that about her, but it was almost hidden now beneath the +radiant happiness which enveloped her. + +She had urged Blair to a speedy wedding--where no urging whatever was +needed--for the delight of spending their last weeks at home, in the +house where most of her life had been passed. She had had long and +peremptory interviews with her lawyers, making wise provision for all +possible eventualities, so far as it was possible to foresee them. It +was not till she was half-way across to the other side of the world +that the aunties in Greenock, and old Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish, and +several other old friends, learned what she had been up to, and then +she was well out of their reach. + +[Illustration: She had long and peremptory interviews with her lawyers.] + +And every day since, she and her husband had been out in the +market-place with open purse and very definite ideas as to their +requirements, and the things they had bought were very extraordinary +and about as different from the usual purchases of newly-married +couples as they possibly could be. + +_Item_.--One 300-ton auxiliary schooner, built to Class 17 A.1., by +Scott & Sons, Greenock; dimensions 143 O.A.; 23-1/2 ft. beam; 13 ft. +draught; 7 ft. headroom, etc. A handsome, roomy boat, stoutly built +for comfort and long voyages to the order of a financial magnate, whose +health unfortunately broke down before she was quite ready for him, and +forced him to seek more genial climatic, and other conditions, in +Argentina. + +Mr. and Mrs. Blair ran up to Greenock to inspect her, found her exactly +to their liking, settled the matter in five minutes in the office +inside the big gates, christened her the _Torch_ with a hastily +procured bottle of champagne, gave orders for the duplication of every +piece of machinery she contained; walked out of the big gates +ship-owners, and dropped in on the astonished aunties in Brisbane +Street and announced that they had come for a cup of tea and to stop +one night. + +They stopped more than one night, however, for after tea Blair walked +in to see the Rev. Archibald for a last talk and a pipe of peace. And +when the Rev. Archibald recovered wind and wits from the rapid details +Blair gave him of the work he was engaged on, he at once offered to +find him a crew through some of the members of his church. Blair +desired nothing better, and in five minutes the maid of the Manse was +skipping through the dripping streets with kilted skirts to summon to +instant conference some nearer members who might be able to advise in +the matter. He laid his plans before them, told them to a hair the +kind of men he required both for officers and crew, and went back to +Brisbane Street in due course, comfortably assured in his own mind that +within two days the _Torch_ would be fitted with a crew worthy of her +and the work for which she was destined. + +Next day the ship-owners went out for a walk, and did not return till +close on tea-time. + +They had been on their honeymoon trip: past the cemetery gates, up the +brae between the brown stone houses, past the pond, up the cinder path, +and along that glorious walk, with the swift brown water of the Cut +swirling past to its appointed work in mills and town, on the one side; +and on the other, across the brimming firth, the everlasting hills, +grey and green and purple and black, as the sunshine chased the shadows +to their hiding-places in the glens; the full sea welling about their +feet, now green, now blue; and the sky overhead bluest blue after the +rain, with piles of snowy cloud passing along in solemn silence like a +procession of the chariots of God. + +They did not speak much, hardly a word, but walked hand in hand like a +pair of country lovers, till they came to where a flat stone lay +alongside the beginnings of a cabin. + +And there they stopped; and looking into one another's faces by a +common impulse, put their arms round one another's necks and kissed, +with brimming hearts, and eyes that saw none of the glories around +because of the glory within them, which was too much for either sight +or sound. + +The happy tears were running down Jean's cheeks, but they were +swallowed up in reminiscent smiles as her husband seated her gently on +one projecting rock and himself on the other. + +"This is my twelfth birthday," he began; and when Miss Inquisitive +looked at him out of her sweet brown eyes, still soft from their recent +shower, he explained: "To all intents and purposes my life began that +day I met you here, though there had been a previous troubled life in +which my dear father gave me all he had to give--the desire to learn." + +"And I am about two years old," she said, smiling; and when she saw +that he did not understand, explained: + +"After meeting you again that second time in the church, when you +hardly recognised me----" + +"I knew you the moment I looked into your eyes." + +"I came up here the next day--I did not know why, but something drew +me, and I came. And I sat down here on this stone, and saw you sitting +on that stone munching oatcake and cheese, and thought what a greedy +little pig I was not to have made you take some of my sandwiches----" + +"You couldn't have made me. I wouldn't have touched one for----" + +"I know. But I ought to have made you, all the same. And then I +thought of you as you were now--that is, then, you know--and what a +great, big, strong soul and body you had become, and what great things +you were going to do, and how you had got your heart's desire. And +then I thought of myself, and the little I had done with all my +opportunities. And after that you insisted on coming into my thoughts +at all times, and I could not get rid of you. And then you sailed, and +I knew I should never see you again, and life felt hollow and hopeless. +And then I saw in the papers about your being murdered. And then you +came home, and--here we are. And oh, Ken! it is almost too good to be +true." + +"Not a bit of it, my dear; it is only just beginning." + +Then he drew out two parcels from his pockets, and hers contained some +neat little sandwiches and cookies with jam inside, and his contained +oatcakes and cheese. + +And, being in a raised mood, she laughed till she cried at his oatcakes +and cheese, and then insisted on dividing up equally all round, and +vowed that his fare was quite as good as her own. + +"Of course it is," he said. "I knew that all the time. A boy on the +hillsides who can't enjoy oatcakes and cheese would deserve to go +empty." + +When they had eaten, they still sat looking out over the water at the +hills and lochs opposite. In all likelihood they would never see that +fairest of scenes again, and they could not have too much of it. + +And after they had sat a long time in silence, Blair, leaning forward +with his arms on his knees and his eyes drinking in great draughts of +delight, said, suddenly--but slowly, as though the words had to be +called, or recalled, from afar, and said them, not to her or for her, +but to and for something quite outside them both--said them, in fact, +as though he were impelled to say them, and could not help himself-- + + "The hills of God stand fast and sure." + +The words described those hills opposite exactly. Then a pause, and +presently-- + + "His mighty promises endure + For ever and for evermore." + +Then he fell silent again, and thoughtful, and presently-- + + "His Mercy is a boundless sea, + For ever flowing, full and free." + +She saw it there before her just as he saw it. And after another +pause-- + + "Through Time into Eternity." + +She looked at him quietly and questioningly, but his gaze was fixed +absorbedly on the opposite shore. It seemed almost as if he had +forgotten her for the moment. She was content to watch him and to +listen to him-- + + "And as the wide blue sky above, + Encircling us where'er we move." + +There it was above them. The chariots had passed away. The sky was +unflecked blue-- + + "So is His all-enfolding Love." + +Then came a longer pause, and she thought he had ended, but she would +not speak. And presently he began again-- + + "For these, Thy gifts, we thank Thee, Lord! + Hills, sea, and sky, take up the word, + And thank Thee!--thank Thee!--thank Thee, Lord." + + +He sat still, gazing out intently at the hills and the sea and the sky, +and sat so long without a word that at last she spoke. + +"Whose is that, Ken? Surely he must have sat just here, and seen just +that." + +He turned slowly to her, as though he found it difficult to leave those +wonders beyond. + +"I really do not know, dear.... They seemed to come of their own +accord from somewhere. But whether I recalled them from somewhere +else, or whether they came hot from the anvil, I do not know. I do not +think I ever made a line of poetry in my life. There has been always +so much else to be done." + +"I think you must have made them," she said. + +Then, in turn, she had her own amusing little monologue. For she began +suddenly telling off the lochs and hills, just as he had named them to +her that other day--"Loch Goil, Loch Long, Ben More, Ben Lomond, The +Cobbler, Ben Ihme, Holy Loch!" + +"We shall often think of them when the prospect is a very different +one," he said quietly. "You never regret all that you are going to +leave behind you, Jean?" + +"Never for one moment, dear. I am taking with me, and going to, so +very much more than I leave behind, that my heart is full of gladness," +she said. "There is not room for the smallest shadow of a shadow of +regret." + +And they joined hands again and went on along the windings of the path, +in and out of the curves and dimples of the mountain's breast, till the +bold peaks of Arran rose purple in the distance, and they came to the +Sheils Farm. + +Blair's kinsfolk had long since left the place. He just took a look +round the familiar byres and stables, and poked his head into a room +whence a fresh-complexioned dairy-maid, in short blue skirts and bare +feet, was busily chasing hens. He came out with a reminiscent smile on +his face, and they turned down the hill towards Inverkip. He led her +by the short cuts his boyish feet had known so well; past the old +burying-ground, where the body-snatchers plied their gruesome trade and +the village folk sat up night after night to protect their dead; past +the gates of Ardgowan to the sea. And so along the shore road, with +the waves splashing up among the boulders on one side, and the dark +policies on the other, and the great trees meeting overhead; past the +sturdy white pillar of the Cloch into Ashton, and so at last home. A +honeymoon trip which neither of them ever forgot as long as they lived. + +"Well, you two," said Aunt Jannet, when they came in. "We began to +think you'd given us the slip and gone across the border without saying +goodbye." + +"We've been a long round," said Blair, "about----" + +"About twelve years," said Jean. + +"Then you must be starving. We expected you'd come home ravenous, and +provided accordingly." + +"We've been living on the fat of the land," laughed Jean; but they both +fell to all the same, and proved beyond doubt that high thought and +good living were by no means incompatible. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GOING STRONG + +That same evening a burly, middle-aged man came to the house and +requested audience of Mr. Blair. + +He bore the unmistakable hall-mark, and Kenneth liked the looks of him +and the ring of his voice. + +The two men eyed one another closely as they shook hands. + +"Mr. Duncan told me you were wanting a captain for your schooner, Mr. +Blair. I only heard it half an hour ago, and I've come straight." + +Blair nodded. "What are your qualifications? It is not everybody's +job, you know." + +"I know all about it, sir. And I think I'm the man for it. My name is +Cathie--John Cathie. I sailed my own ship as master for over fifteen +years. Quitted the sea three years ago because I'd made enough to live +on and the wife wanted me to stop ashore. She died six months ago. +I've neither chick nor child, and I want back to the water. When +you've spent thirty-five years with live water under your feet, the +land comes strange to you!" + +"Ever been in the South Seas?" + +"Spent ten years in the Island trade, sir. Know 'em like a book, from +the Carolines to the Paumotus; and if you can find a brown man in the +whole stretch that has a word against John Cathie I'll--well, you can +name your own forfeit." + +"And the white men?" + +"Ah--there! Most of 'em all right. Some I'd like to see strung higher +than Haman. But that kind's mostly yellow, though some are dirty +white." + +"Know the Dark Islands?" + +"At a distance. I never landed there. I was only a trader then." + +"And these men you'd like to see strung up like Haman, only more so, +Captain Cathie?" + +"You know them as well as I do, sir. Kidnappers, black-birders, +treacherous devils, scum of the earth. They don't have the times they +used to have, but they're not wholly cleared out yet in the outlying +groups. I'll be glad to give what time's left me to helping clear +them." + +"You're up to steam?" + +"Had five years of it." + +"Any hand with a Long Tom?" + +"Was gunner's mate for three years on the _Blenheim_ before I got +married, and we always carried guns in the Islands," and the bold blue +eyes snapped with a touch of puzzlement. "But--I thought it was a +missionary cruise you were bound on, Mr. Blair?" + +"I'm a new kind of missionary, Captain Cathie. The faithful shepherd +protects his flock. If the wolves try to steal his lambs, the wolves +must take the consequences." + +"By God, sir, I'm your man!" and the burly one jumped up with a flame +in his face, because he could not sit still under the hopes that were +in him. + +"I'm inclined to think you may be," said Blair. "You will understand, +Captain Cathie, that the master of our ship will be one of the most +important links in the chain. If you will look in about this time +to-morrow, you shall hear what we have decided." + +"Right, sir! I'll be here." He turned back when he had reached the +door. "If you should find some better man for captain, put me down for +chief mate, Mr. Blair; and if I'm not good enough for that, I'll go +before the mast sooner than be left out." + +Blair had already decided in his own mind, but in a matter of such +immense importance he could take no possible risks. His inquiries, +however, only confirmed the impression he had formed. When Captain +Cathie came hopefully in, the next night, the matter was settled on the +spot, and he went away a new man, gripping with feet and hands the +rungs of a new ladder. + +Blair laid his plans fully before him, and, so far as the schooner was +concerned, left him to carry them out. + +Then they were back in London, and the busy days sped past, scarce long +enough for all that had to be done in them. + +It was the necessary business with the Colonial Office that tried him +most severely. The Secretary accorded him an interview, received him +with gracious warmth, listened with interest to his views, agreed that +it would be a good thing for the Dark Islands to be accorded a +protectorate until the time was ripe for formal annexation, but---- +There were many buts, and they would have driven a less patient and +less determined seeker after other men's good to despair. There was +Australia; there was France; there was Germany; there was the +Opposition; there was that loud-voiced party in the land which screamed +at any extension of the Empire's shoes. + +But upon all and everything Blair quietly brought to bear his unique +personal knowledge of the conditions out there, a large common sense, +and an inflexible persistence that would admit of no rebuff or turning +aside. + +The minister smilingly accused him of being one-eyed as regards the +Dark Islands. + +"Absolutely!" said Blair quietly--"one-eyed, one-hearted, and +one-lived! Body, soul, and spirit I am for the Dark Islands, and I +want to do all that man can do. Give me the legal right and a +reasonably free hand, and, with God's help, I can do a great work out +there. I do not think it need cost you a farthing. I have a revenue +to start with of over L10,000 a year, and a considerable capital for +initial development purposes. Within five years, with reasonable +success, the islands will be self-supporting. But--I must have my +foundations sure, or I cannot build as I would." + +"The matter has already been debated among us, Mr. Blair," said the +Secretary. "The Earl of Selsea brought it up and has made it his +particular pet project. You seem to have captured his heart, and when +he takes a matter of this kind in hand he sticks to it like a bulldog. +But you can understand that there are many collateral issues, and we +have to consider them all. I understand exactly what you want and why, +and I promise you to do my utmost to bring it about. It may be some +months before it can be arranged. Meanwhile, no doubt, there is much +you can be doing to prepare the ground." + +"There is much to be done, sir, and I will set to work on the strength +of what you say. But the sooner it is definitely settled the better +for us all." + +"A very fine young fellow," said the Secretary to himself, before he +turned to another quarter of the globe. "The kind of man I could make +splendid use of if I had him to myself." + +But Kenneth Blair was another Man's man. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ARMS AND THE MAN + +The _Torch_ had been brought round from Greenock by Captain Cathie, and +was lying in the London Docks close alongside Wapping Basin, an object +of interest to all her neighbours. + +Captain Cathie's clock had gone back at least ten years since he and +Kenneth Blair struck hands in the drawing-room of the Aunties' house in +Brisbane Street. He was then a fine old specimen of the very best type +of retired mariner. Now he was a jovial young sea-dog, bristling with +energy, and overflowing with hearty goodwill to humanity at large. He +was Kenneth Blair's man to the backbone, and prepared to follow him to +the death. + +Jean delighted in him and he in her. She had taken Aunt Jannet Harvey +down to inspect her future home, and the ladies' comments had filled +Captain Cathie's cup to the brim and won his heart completely. + +Jean had asked him endless questions, but not one more than he +delighted in answering; and Aunt Jannet Harvey's characteristic +summing-up of the whole matter had been, "Child, I feel as if I'd +wasted half my life in never having been to sea before. I've always +had an idea that I knew something about neatness and comfort and +packing, but this"--with a wave of the hand which comprehended the +cabin she was standing in, and the _Torch_ generally, and Captain +Cathie--"this puts me to shame. I shall never want to live on shore +again," and Captain Cathie was repaid for all his labours. With full +understanding, and thirty years' experience, and no stinting as regards +money, he had laboured to adapt the ladies' rooms to their fullest +possible requirements. Their delight in all they saw assured him of +his success. + +A few days later Blair brought down a party of friends to inspect the +little ship, foremost among them the Colonial Secretary and the Earl of +Selsea, who had both come straight from a Cabinet Council where the +Dark Islands had been the rat in the pit. + +"We're getting on by degrees," said the Secretary in the train, as he +lit a cigar to counteract the atmosphere. + +"It's amazing what an amount of pig-headedness there is in the world," +said his friend. "You don't realise it in all its heart-breaking +stolidity till you run your own head against it." + +"That's so. But what can you expect when men like B---- are +pitchforked into the positions they occupy? I was at Eton with B---- +and at Oxford. He always was a fool and he always will be. He ought +to have gone into the Church." + +"I object! The Church needs the very best men it can get." + +"Well, then, into the Army. He couldn't have done much mischief in +either, and in the Army, at all events, there'd have been some chance +of his getting licked into some kind of shape. As it is, I always want +to get up and ask him to come outside into the park with me just for +ten minutes or so. It was the one argument that used to prevail with +him, and I've an idea it would yet. Anyway, it would do _me_ a heap of +good. He was born pig-headed and it's grown on him ever since." + +"If we can once get him to see things as----" + +"See? B---- never could see anything beyond the side on which his +bread was buttered. Some men are born dense, and some grow denser as +they grow older. B----'s both. He wants trepanning. Here's Mark +Lane, and there's your Angel Gabriel on the pounce for us." + +Angel Gabriel, in the person of Kenneth Blair, gave them hearty +welcome, and piloted them through slums and dockyards till they stood +on the deck of the _Torch_, where Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey, and +Captain Cathie, were already doing the honours to a goodly company. + +"It is a great enterprise you are bound upon, Mrs. Blair," said the +Secretary, as Jean expounded _Torch_ to him. + +"The grandest work in the world," she said exuberantly. "If you'll +only back us up and give us what we want." + +"Ah! if only it rested with me. But I'm only one." + +"Oh, come! Where am I?" asked Selsea. + +"That makes two," acknowledged the Secretary, who would willingly, in +the light of Jean's brown eyes, have taken all the credit to himself. + +"And we'll soon have the rest. As for B----, if he won't toe the line, +we'll worry the life out of him," which was a highly improper remark to +fall from the lips of a philanthropic nobleman. But then Jean Blair's +hopefully eager face and wistful eyes were upon him, and allowances +must be made. + +"I do hope you will," she said earnestly. + +"What, worry the life out of him?" laughed the Secretary. + +"H'm--yes,--if he won't toe the line." + +"Hullo!" said the Secretary, as he entered the deck saloon, an +exceedingly comfortable room, fitted in bird's-eye maple with fine +woven cane cushions and backs to the seats instead of saddlebags or +velvet plush. + +But it was not at the room itself at which he exclaimed, but at the +arm-racks ranged round the walls, empty at present, but full of meaning. + +"Yes," said Blair quietly. "Winchesters. They're down below with the +Maxim. Let me show you something else," and he led the two gentlemen +along the deck to a longboat, keel up, on a stand well forward. The +boat stood high and was covered with tarpaulin. + +"Do you care to peep under?" he asked. And the Secretary bent and +peeped, and straightened up again with raised eyebrows. + +"You mean business, evidently, Mr. Blair. That's an odd passenger for +a missionary ship." + +"She throws a 9-lb. shell a mile and a half," said Blair, "and Captain +Cathie is an old naval gunner. Yes, we mean business. But this +business"--patting the long gun's cover--"only in case of absolute +necessity. You quite understand the situation? I hope you have +confidence in me?" + +"I quite understand, and I have perfect confidence. Mr. Blair. I +believe for once the right man is in the right place. We will do +everything we possibly can to further your views. If we can't get all +we want, we can no doubt keep our eyes closed." + +Their visitors were delighted with all they saw, but all of them did +not see everything. Even if one is prepared to tackle one's problems +with an iron grip, it is not always highest wisdom to shake one's fist +in the face of the world. + +Blair showed them also the thousand and one other things he was taking +out, seeds and germs of civilisation, from which he hoped a mighty +harvest, and named many more which he would procure in Australia. He +limned his ideas lightly, and gave them even fuller glimpse than he had +ever yet done of his ultimate hopes; and, waxing eloquent, held them +spellbound at the magnitude of the far-reaching possibilities. And to +all, Jean's eloquent face and sparkling eyes played ready chorus, and +Lord Selsea and the Secretary went away deeply impressed with what they +had seen, and more with what they had heard, and most of all with what +they had been made to think and hope. + +"A very fine young fellow!" said the Secretary, as he neutralised the +sulphur again. + +"Ay!--a man, every inch of him. May he live to see his golden dreams +realised!" + +"I tell you what, Selsea, it's mighty refreshing to come in contact +with enthusiasm such as that running in harness with sound common +sense." + +"Big heart and level head--a fine combination!" + +"I feel as if I'd been a trip on the sea, or up on a mountain top. I +wish we could swop B---- for him. Half a dozen of him in a Cabinet +now--eh?" + +"My dear fellow, don't! The contrast is too painful." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A BLACK OBJECT-LESSON + +"It's a wonderful world!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey, for the four hundred +and fourteenth time since, one by one, the Forelands and Dungeness and +Beachy Head faded over the quarter as they ran down Channel. "And it +gets more and more wonderful the further you go. Jean, my dear, have +you ever in your dreams seen anything equal to that?" + +"Never!" murmured Jean, wide-eyed and breathless, lest the smallest +display of the ordinary functions of living should resolve into its +natural elements the ethereal vision before them. + +And yet it was only a tiny South Sea atoll, one of the myriad gleaming +gems that deck the bosom of the great southern ocean in clusters, and +strings, and ropes, and solitaires, from the Pelews to Pitcairn, of +visible beauty indescribable, and in some cases possessed of natural +latent treacherousness hardly second thereto. + +It was still dusky twilight when they three climbed the companion, to +taste the sweet of the dawn and watch the perpetual wonder of the +coming day. They had learned already to rejoice in the dawnings as the +purest and fullest revelations of Nature's exuberant largesse. The +sunsets were gorgeous and magnificent beyond compare, but they had in +them the elements of dissolution and decay, whereas the pure pearl +splendours of the dawn sang full and true of new birth, new hopes, and +the deep springs of life and joy. + +Anxious as he was to get to his life's work, and grudging every moment +and every league that lay between it and him, Blair had still felt it a +duty to afford Jean every possible enjoyment of travel which the voyage +could offer her. She was giving up much, she was going into outer +exile for his sake; the chance might never come again. She should see +all that was possible before the fringes fell behind them. And so they +had come by way of Suez, and touched at Bombay and Ceylon, and then +away to Australia and New Zealand, and then a great stretch round the +outer skirts of the Australs and Paumotus, with only such stoppages as +were absolutely necessary, and then straight for the work that awaited +them. + +"The rest of the Islands we can take by degrees," he said. "They will +be our holiday grounds in the years to come. But now I am anxious to +know what is going on in the Dark Islands. So very much may be +happening behind that black curtain." + +They were a gay and gallant company on board, not a long face among +them. They were going to whatever might await them of strenuous life +and heroic endeavour. No single one of them but was ready to lay down +his or her life in the cause that lay so close to their hearts, and +they found therein reason, not for doubts or fears, but wholly of +exaltation. It was a mighty work, and they rejoiced in being chosen +for it. + +Blair had selected for his fellow-workers, from among a host of +applicants, two young fellows whose qualifications satisfied him in +every respect, and whose special training supplemented the deficiencies +in his own. He is the wisest man who best knows what he knows least. +The man who knows everything is generally useless at a pinch. + +Well-equipped as he was in most respects--perfect, indeed, in the eyes +of his wife, as was only right and proper--no man had a deeper +appreciation of his own limitations than Blair himself. He had the +fiery heart for the righting of wrongs, and the clear head and strong +hand. But there were things beyond his ken--that is, in their very +fullest compass--and in choosing his co-workers he kept these steadily +in view. + +For instance, he had a fair knowledge himself of medicine and +rough-and-ready surgery. But he wanted very much more. And so Charles +Evans, a Devonshire man, and M.D. and M.S. of London, became his +medical right hand. + +Then he had himself a certain aptitude for languages and dialects. He +had picked up the _lingua franca_ of the islands rapidly. But he +wanted very much more. Charles Stuart, M.A., of Edinburgh, had made +languages the congenial study of a lifetime which ran to nearly +twenty-eight years. If any man could reduce phonetic elisions and +hiatuses to written and printed symbols, Stuart was that man. + +Then they were both big athletic fellows, runners and swimmers, great +at games of all kinds, and handy with their hands, and they were as +keen on letting light into the dark places of the earth as Blair +himself. And they had both got married, at Blair's suggestion, and to +the great satisfaction of the four people most immediately +concerned--Evans, the Devonshire man, marrying Alison Carmichael, +daughter of Dr. Carmichael of Edinburgh, and herself a medical student +of no mean pretensions, and withal a good-looking, hearty girl, full of +energy and spirits; and Stuart, the Scot, had married Mary Coventry, an +English girl, daughter of a professor in a Lancashire theological +college. She had a great natural aptitude for teaching, and was +governessing when Stuart fell in love with her. She had promised to +marry him when his circumstances should permit, and was cheerfully +facing that very indefinite future when Blair's offer of the coveted +post swept all the clouds away, and lifted her to a pinnacle of +happiness which she was only becoming accustomed to by degrees. + +With these four we have not very much to do. They proved most devoted +assistants and pleasant and helpful companions throughout. But this is +the story of Kenneth and Jean Blair, and if these others receive but +slight mention, it is not because their hearts lacked fire or their +lives incident, but simply through limitations of space. + +So the _Torch_ held three happy couples on their honeymoons, and Aunt +Jannet Harvey played mother-in-law to them all, and kept the whole ship +in high good-humour by her own energetic enjoyment of every smallest +item of the day's doings. + +Captain Cathie, by means of diligent search and stringent inquiry, had +secured a crew after his own heart, every man a Clydesman, and some of +them he had known since they were boys. + +They carried a full complement. Besides himself and the mate, there +were twenty men all told, stalwarts all, and Blair expected to find use +for every man of them. Besides the big white whale-boats at the +davits, there were two extra steam-launches in sections in the hold for +inter-island work, and there were other reasons why he wanted behind +him a thoroughly dependable band of tried white men instead of the +usual mixture of Kanakas. + +Forecasted shadows of those other reasons might have been found in the +way in which he set to work, during the long weeks that lay between New +Zealand and the Australs, to make marksmen of his peaceful crew. +Bottles, hung from the yards, or set afloat on the sea, were their +targets, and they most of them became fair shots. And one day Captain +Cathie turned a cask overboard and stuck a white flag in it, and when +it had floated almost out of sight he trained the long brown steel gun +amidships on it, and bent and squinted carefully, and kept them so long +in suspense, that the ladies screamed aloud when the gun did at last go +off, and the white water flashed up close alongside the white flag. + +"Within three feet, I should say, captain," said Blair, with the +captain's glass at his eye. "Your hand and eye have not lost their +cunning." And again and again the smiling captain displayed his +prowess. + +Another day he had the Maxim up and showed the men how to handle it. +And cutlass drill became as regular a part of the daily routine as the +fifteen-minute service that opened and closed the day. + +Strange traffic indeed for a ship dedicated to peace and the spreading +of the Light! But they all understood the meaning of these things, and +the necessities that might arise, and the advisability of being +prepared. For the very first Sunday night out from New Zealand, Blair, +in that quiet, masterful fashion of his, which carried conviction once +and for all into his hearers' souls and admitted of no shadow of a +doubt, had taken occasion to explain the why and the wherefore of these +apparent incongruities, and none of them ever forgot it. + +It was a windless evening after a blistering day. The sea was like +oil, with a long, slow, unbroken swell that set the little ship rolling +in solemn rhythmical fashion which Stuart, the man of tongues, had long +since dubbed heroic hexameters. And there, to the little company +sitting facing him on deck in the gathering darkness, with an +occasional sleepy "moo" from the farmyard in the bows, or the shrill +squeakings of discontented piglets, and an admonitory grunt from their +over-taxed mother, Blair described some of the things he had seen with +his own eyes, and others which he had had direct from his dear old +friend and leader, John Gerson, whose experience had been so much +vaster than his own. Their hearts boiled at the mere recounting of the +things he told them, and not a man or woman of them all but was ready +to answer his utmost bidding in the effort to put them down. + +"Ignorant these islanders are, and degraded, and the victims of +horrible superstitions and practices unspeakable," he said, in closing; +"but they have common living rights with the rest of us. Until those +rights are secured to them, and until they learn that a white face is +not necessarily the mask for a black heart, our work is futile. That +security, by God's help, we intend to bring to them. If we can do it +peacefully, I shall be grateful. If force is necessary, force we shall +apply. But remember--we are going, not to punish, but to protect. +Christ in righteous anger drove the defilers out of the Temple so that +the Temple might be clean. God's Temple is here also. To the extent +of our power and opportunity we will cleanse it, and by freeing these +simple folk from bodily perils, we will give them the chance to redeem +their souls alive." + +They had swept along on the steady west wind for weeks. Now and again +it dropped and left them rolling idly, with listless sails and jerking +masts. But it always blew up again in time, and sent them swinging +once more on their way, and at times it blew up so strong, and set up +such an awkward sea, that their lives were almost battered out of them. + +Blair, Evans, and Stuart apprenticed themselves to carpenter and +engineers, and learned many things they did not know before. The men +grew intimate with their rifles and cutlasses, the ladies talked much, +read much, and they all took regular lessons in Samoan, as a foundation +for the Polynesian tongues generally, from a native teacher who had +been sent over to Sydney to meet them at Blair's request. His name was +Matti, and he was a pleasing specimen of his kind, intelligent, +painstaking, and of infinite good temper, but of a most peaceful, not +to say lamb-like, disposition. + +Among the many other diversions of their long voyage, Evans one day +suggested that they should all be vaccinated, and was unmercifully +chaffed for the idea. + +"Isn't that like a young sawbones?" laughed Captain Cathie. "Just +because we've got a clean bill, and he's got nothing to do, he's after +making work just to keep his hand in." + +But Evans persisted that they were going they knew not where, and no +precautions ought to be omitted. And he talked so learnedly, and with +so grave a foreboding, that by degrees they came to think he was +perhaps right, and that it might be as well to be on the safe side of +possibility. So, one after another, they meekly submitted their arms +to the needle, and time came when they were glad of his persistence. + +"Wonderful!--wonderful!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey once more that +morning, in a whisper of concentrated rapture, and the others gazed at +the tiny atoll without speaking, lest a breath should destroy it. + +They had sighted the island the evening before, just a feathery fringe +on the rim of the sea; but Captain Cathie was a devout believer in the +enchantment of distance till full light of day should disclose possible +pitfalls. For in these Southern Seas Nature sometimes gets ahead of +the cartographers, and he had no desire to mark new reefs for the next +comers with the stark ribs of his ship. + +But now, in the dim of the dawn, they were wafting slowly towards it, +with intent to land there for vegetables and fruit and water, and it +grew visibly on their sight like a new-created thing. + +Until a moment ago it had lain in the shadows. Then the eastern +dimness softened, a mere quickening of hidden life, almost +imperceptible, felt rather than seen. Then a soft pulsation, a throb +from the heart of the coming day. The dimness trembled, a rosy +softness diffused itself, and suddenly the background of the sky was +filled with colour, palest green and tenderest rose and amber. And +these grew and grew and deepened into crimson and gold, with swathes of +diaphanous purple as the soft greens strengthened slowly into blue. +And as it was above, so it was below, all duplicated in the flawless +mirror of the sea. And there, between the upper and the lower glory, +lay the enchanted isle gleaming darkly in the broken lights--a ring of +feathery coco-palms and bosky undergrowth round an inner lagoon, a +placid lake outside it, and outside that, still another protecting ring +of reef dotted here and there with tiny feathered islets. A most +wonderful and entrancing sight, so fairy-like and fragile that Jean +felt it almost dangerous to breathe aloud. + +Then the sun soared up above the sea-rim, and the atoll solidified and +came out in its natural colours of dazzling white beach, and blue +lagoons, and greens of every shade, from the tender tints of the +budding palms to the cast-iron crests of the grey-boled giants, and the +huddled mixture of the undergrowth. It lost in beauty as it gained in +strength, but it looked more like solid land and less like a fairy +vision, more like possible fruit and vegetables and less like a +dissolving view. + +All the company was on deck by this time, and all eyes were fixed on +the island, as Captain Cathie in the bows conned the little ship slowly +towards a wide opening in the outer reef, with a vigilant eye for +hidden perils. + +He had told them from the chart that it was the Three-Ringed Island of +Atoa, but he had never been there himself and one could not be too +cautious. + +Then in the clear depths below them, as they crept slowly through the +water-gate, they could see the wonderful forestry of the branching +coral and the gleam of many-coloured shells, and the place was all +alive with fishes of every tint and hue, sailing and darting like +fragmentary rainbows. + +But Captain Cathie was staring through his glasses at the distant white +beach for signs of occupation, and found none. It was still early, +however, and the village might be round the bend of the island. He +carried the _Torch_ in as far as he deemed safe, and then, at the word, +the anchor plunged and the chain ran merrily out, and the little ship +rode at rest for the first time in many days. + +"Who is for the shore?" cried Blair, in the voice and manner of a jolly +schoolboy offering treats. + +They were all for the shore. After three weeks of continuous sailing +the feel of solid ground under one's feet would be a novelty. + +"Though I expect," said Aunt Jannet Harvey, "it'll be as hard to walk +straight at first as it was not to walk crooked on the ship. I've got +so used to walking on the sides of my feet, and balancing to the +rolling, that I've almost forgotten what it feels like to walk any +other way." + +In ten minutes they were all speeding shorewards in one of the white +whale-boats, and when Aunt Jannet Harvey cumbrously made the close +acquaintance of the white beach, she found her feet no whit behind +those of her younger companions in their eager activity. + +They all stamped up the crunching coral with merry talk and laughter. +Aunt Jannet Harvey stood at the foot of her first really intimate +coco-nut tree, and gazed up the slim spire to the great benignant +fronds and hanging fruit, with such intention of longing, that Jean, in +a convulsion of laughter, cried-- + +"Do try it, auntie! I'm sure you could manage it if you tried hard." + +"And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, Aunt Jannet!" +laughed Blair. + +They left her still gazing, and scattered, Jean and Mary Stuart and +Alison Evans diving into the undergrowth after armfuls of greenery and +trailing vines, and twittering like escaped birds when, now and again, +they came on treasure-trove of scarlet hibiscus blooms glowing on the +green like fiery stars--or splashes of blood. + +The men pressed on at once up the ridge to get a general view of their +surroundings, and Captain Cathie, with a couple of his men, pulled +slowly down the lagoon in search of the village. + +He heard the merry calls of the explorers, and wondered at the absence +of any sign of life on the island. The very sight of an approaching +ship used, in his time, to bring the population to the beach. But +things had changed of course since then, and byways had become highways. + +The white boat jerked slowly along round the bend, and the voices +ashore grew less distinct. And suddenly his lips pinched and his brow +crumpled, and he gazed ahead with a fixed, angry glare which set his +men wondering what they were coming to, and carried their chins to +their shoulders unconsciously. + +A stretch of white beach, a bristle of black posts jutting out of the +cleared ground above--that was all. But Cathie's experience read them +like three-feet letters on a city hoarding. + +He threw up one hand and jammed the tiller hard down with the other. + +"Round with her, boys!" and they were swinging back up the lagoon to +get the women aboard again. For there might be sights in the brush +along that ridge to shock the souls of men. + +Blair, Evans, and Stuart, with Matti, the Samoan, and the rest of the +boat's crew, climbed the backbone of the island, whose highest point +attained an altitude of perhaps thirty feet. + +They were standing looking across the flawless mirror of the central +lagoon, when the Samoan broke out suddenly, "Sirs, I presume advice. +Return fortwit to ship. This place is not good," and when they all +turned on him in surprise, they found his brown face strained and +pallid with fear, his eyes starting, and his nose dilated like a +startled stag's. + +"Why, Matti, what's wrong?" said Blair. + +The brown man shook his head. + +"I know not, sirs," and his white teeth chattered so that his chin +wagged visibly. "There is evil abroad. It is in the air, in the +tree-tops." + +They looked up for sign of the evil, but saw only the heavy plumes of +the coco-palms nodding mournfully in the breeze. Down below the air +seemed heavy and somewhat sickly, and so far they had seen no sign of +life on the island. + +"The place seems deserted," said Evans. + +"We will go on along here a bit further," said Blair, "and if there is +nothing more to be seen, we'll turn back I'm afraid it's a poor +look-out for fruit and vegetables," and they tramped on in silence, +Matti well in the rear, reluctant to go, still more reluctant to be +left. + +And presently the brush thinned, and they came out on the clearing, and +Blair stopped abruptly with a face as strained as Matti's, but grimmer +and whiter, and Matti, stumbling up to the rear, gave a groan as though +to say, "I knew it." + +"God help us!" said Blair through his teeth, for they had found what +Cathie had feared. + +The blackened posts of the houses stuck up starkly through the sand as +though in mute and pitiful appeal. Beneath them were heaps of +wind-blown ashes barely covering that which they had mercifully hidden. +And among the mounds as they drew near was a sound of rustling and +stealthy movement, and here and there monstrous crabs, too gorged to +move almost, essayed escape into their temporary burrows. + +The newcomers stared wide-eyed and horror-stricken. Blair had seen it +all before, and the grim white of his face gave place to grim red and +black as his heart drummed furiously with righteous indignation. + +"This is the horror we have come to fight," he said hoarsely. "This is +what I told you of. Now you see it with your own eyes. The place has +been swept bare by kidnappers. These died in defence of their homes +and wives and children. Let us get back. It is no sight for the +women." + +He waved them away, but something caught his eye, and he went forward +and bent over it with tight-pinched face for a moment, and then turned +abruptly and followed the others. + +But, even as he turned, a shriek from the lower brush told that it was +too late to save the women from some visible knowledge of what had +taken place. They turned and ran back along the ridge. + +Mary Stuart, reaching for a flower, saw at her feet what she took for a +fallen coco-nut, and stooped to pick it up, and then screamed aloud and +sat down suddenly with a sick, white face. The others hurried up, +Alison Evans and Aunt Jannet Harvey reaching her first. + +"What is it, dear?" asked Aunt Jannet, and then she saw, and sat down +heavily beside her. + +Alison had her nerves under better control. She had seen little dead +bodies before, but the sight of a murdered child is a shock to any +woman. Her face was white and rigid, but she had her wits about her +also. + +"Take them all away," she whispered fiercely to Aunt Jannet Harvey, and +Aunt Jannet, just needing that spur, scrambled up and gripped Mary +Stuart by the shoulder and dragged her away as Jean came running up, +asking, "What is it? What's the matter?" + +"Come away, child!--come away! It is a little murdered baby. Alison +is seeing to it, but it is quite dead. Let us get away. Here is the +boat and Captain Cathie." + +Everything was changed as the white boat plunged back across the lagoon +to the ship. The men's faces were hard and angry, the women's white +and pitiful. Alison Evans wept silently now. She had seen more than +the others, and that soft little head, crushed in by one murderous blow +against the tree, would haunt her dreams for nights to come. + +The sun shone as brightly as before, but there was something pitiless +in his unwinking glare. The sea was as placid and sparkling as before, +but there was a fawning treachery in its very smoothness. The palms +behind waved their feathers just as before, but now they were funeral +plumes. The very oars no longer chirped merrily in the rowlocks, but +croaked in a way that got on the women's nerves. And not one of them +spoke till they were safe aboard the ship. + +"Yes," nodded Blair to Cathie's look of interrogation, "we will go on +at once," and the anchor chain rattled up hoarsely, and they went +slowly and silently on their way, and left the beautiful island to its +dead. + +"I saw it from the water," said Cathie later to Blair, "and turned to +get the ladies away, but I was too late. Did you see anything to give +you any hint as to who it was, sir?" + +"Yes. Peruvians, I should say. There was one yellow man among the +dead, and they recruit mostly from these outer islands. Before God, +captain, I will put a stop to this kind of work, whatever the cost may +be." + +"We're with you, sir, every man of us. See those men's faces!" + +And grim and determined enough were the men's faces as they went about +their work. For those who had seen had told those who had not seen, +and the impression was a deep one. + +That night Blair called them all together, and spoke of the matter in a +way that went home and confirmed the spirit that had been roused in +them by that holocaust on the island. + +"It is devil's work, men," he wound up, "and, please God, we'll stop +it. Are you with me?" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" "That we are, sir!" "All the way, sir!" and so on, in +tones that left no mistake about it. + +"You can understand the effect of that kind of work on these islanders. +It is not often so clean a sweep is made as the one we saw this +morning. And where part are taken and part are left, can you wonder +that those who remain hate and fear the very sight of a white face? +Have they not reason? It will be our endeavour to stop these raids, +and, by protecting the islanders, gradually win them over to better +ways. Once we can make them see that we care for them, and think of +their welfare and not our own, half the battle is won. On the one side +we may have to fight--not our own countrymen, I am glad to say. These +raiders come mostly from the west coast of South America, and they go +to lengths which the Queenslanders rarely do. And, on the other hand, +in our dealings with the natives, we must remember what they have +suffered, what reason they have to mistrust us, and we must be very +forbearing and longsuffering. On the one side I want you--and I shall +need the whole-hearted assistance of every man of you--I want you to be +bold as lions, and on the other side as mild as milk. Only so can our +work be done, and it is a mighty work." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +TOO LATE + +Following instructions, Captain Cathie shook out every stitch of canvas +the _Torch_ could carry, and laid her course dead for the Dark Islands. +They made good way, but their progress still seemed slow to Kenneth +Blair; for his fears outstripped the flight of the little ship, and, +anxious as he was to reach the Islands, he still almost dreaded the cry +that should tell of their sighting, in fear of what he might find there. + +And grounds for fear were not lacking. The Dark Islands lay some five +days distant, east by north--on the line, therefore, of the marauders' +way home. From the atoll they had already raided, he judged, from the +number of dwellings and general appearances, they might have got some +fifty or sixty souls, not more. Their holds would still be far from +full. If they had invaded the Dark Islands in similar fashion, it was +a stormy reception the next comers might expect. At best it would be a +negative welcome, and a matter of slow and cautious approach to their +few good graces; but if the islands had been raided, the work would be +thrown back for years, and all his hopes with them. He could scarce +eat or sleep for thinking of it, and the pricking off of their position +each day on the chart, and the calculation of the hours that still +intervened between them and full knowledge of how matters lay, were +matters of supremest interest and absorbing anxiety. + +He could settle to none of the ordinary routine, and his evident +upsetting, the causes of which they perfectly understood, disturbed +them all in like fashion. + +He spoke little, even to Jean, and she never once, by word or look, +expressed anything but the utmost sympathy and confidence in him. + +He tramped the deck day and night almost, with eager outlook over the +waste of waters ahead, and never a look behind unless at the seething +bubbles of their long, straight wake, which told of the speed and +directness of their flight. + +Once only, in these days of biting anxiety, he said to her-- + +"Dearest, I am poor company at present. Can you forgive me? I am on +the rack about these poor souls ahead. I cannot help fearing the +worst, and it means so very much to us." + +"I am with you, Ken, heart and soul. We can only pray for the best. +If what you fear has happened, all we can do is to do our best to right +it." + +He shook his head unhopefully. The idea had taken possession of him +that they would arrive only to find death and desolation and the wild +fury of revenge. + +"Even if it is so," said his comforter, "I can see possibility of good +coming out of the evil." + +"It will throw us back years," he said gloomily. + +"If your people have been carried off, we will follow them and release +them and restore them to their homes"--there were new sparks in his +eyes as she spoke like one inspired--"and that will give us the footing +it might take years to obtain." + +He kissed her hand. + +"You give me new hopes, whatever may have happened. That is what we +will attempt if the worst has taken place," and thereafter he +brightened up considerably, but relaxed no whit of his anxiety to reach +the islands. + +They swept gallantly along on the northern fringe of the westerly wind, +which maintained a propitious amplitude, and just before sunset on the +fourth day, the lucent rim where sea met sky was dented with a filmy +tooth which the sinking sun drew momentarily into view from the farther +distance, and Captain Cathie and Blair pronounced it Kapaa'a, the +highest peak in the Dark Islands. + +There was not much sleep on board that night, the morrow would be so +big with events. General opinion among the men ran somehow to a fight. +That was, perhaps, the natural tendency of the pent-up feelings of the +last few days. An outlet would be grateful, a violent outlet from +choice. When a man's feelings suffer maltreatment, the natural man +within him develops a violent desire to find relief in kicking, in +which last word is comprehended the whole known range of methods of +assault, with the exception, of course, of the circumscribed and +properly debarred use of the feet. + +They travelled warily that night, and the first of the dawn showed them +the peaks of Kapaa'a, bold and beautiful, dead ahead, and growing +bolder and still more beautiful with every graceful roll of the ship. + +They hung over the sides, every man and woman of them, and eyed their +future home with an eagerness which its outward aspect at once amply +satisfied and further quickened. + +For what they could see was grand in its opulence of crag, and cliff, +and gorge, and greenery. And the clouds which wreathed the higher +summits, and the gauzy films of mist, which floated along the hillsides +and hung reluctantly in the tree-tops, gave promise of still daintier +beauties in that which they held half hidden. + +They drew in cautiously to within a mile of the outer reef, and then, +not venturing the ship nearer till they should learn how matters stood +inside, Blair and Evans, with a crew of ten, eight to pull and two in +case of need, and Matti to interpret, shot through one of the openings +in the reef on the back of a long blue roller and made straight for the +white beach. They carried no visible arms, but each man of the crew +had his Winchester between his feet. + +The lagoon ran up into a spearhead of white sand, between two tall +cliffs opposite the widest opening in the reef, as though the constant +impact of the outer waves, tempered as it was by the compression of the +opening and the subsequent run across the lagoon, had forced the beach +inland at that spot. It was helped, however, by a river, which came +down between the hills and divided the white sandspear into two equal +parts. + +Here, according to usage and natural proclivity, a village should have +stood, but in this case did not. John Gerson had told Blair that other +morning, when they came racing up the lagoon in similar brave case, +that it lay up the valley near the taro fields. + +His heart beat painfully as, one by one, he picked up the points which +had charted themselves for ever in his memory. + +There, to the left of the stream, was where they landed. + +There was the rough scarp of rock round which they had followed the +bristling crowd to the death. + +There his former life had ended in turmoil and darkness, and the new +life had begun in twilight dimness and the painful groping after broken +threads. + +And yet, how mercifully he had been guided! The shadowed valley had +led, after all, to the fuller life and the mountain-top, and he bowed +his head gratefully. + +The white boat slid gently up the white beach, and so far their keen +outlook had seen no sign of hostile life. But experience had taught +him that appearances are deceptive, and that sometimes when least is +seen most is to be feared. + +They disembarked cautiously, and stood looking round. The palms about +the mouth of the valley waved sombre welcome, or it might be warning. +The thick brush below lay still and silent, but bright black eyes by +the hundred might be watching them from it. + +The very lack even of opposition was a menace, and suggestive of +trickery and ambush. + +"We will go round the point," said Blair at last. "And--yes, you must +take your guns, men. I would have preferred not, but we don't know how +matters stand." + +So, leaving two in the boat, the rest shouldered their guns, and the +little party went forward round the point where Kenneth Blair had been +once before in his life, and almost in his death. + +But no bristling mob confronted them this time. They went on step by +step, with eyes for every rock and bush, and ears alert, and every +nerve tight strung for the faintest hint of treachery, and Blair's face +crumpled somewhat at the menace of the silence and the solitude. + +Step by step they left the white beach and the friendly sea, and drew +in to the blank hostility of the woods. He would a thousand times +sooner have been confronted by the visible hostility of the natives. +For that which is visible and tangible one may hope to cope with and +subdue, but the invisible and intangible contain possibilities beyond +the compassing, and the elements of unreasoning fear. + +On one member of the party these were already having their effect. +Perhaps on others also, but not so perceptibly. The knowledge of +better things had not, in Matti, effectually eradicated the +superstitions of a lifetime. Terrors of which the white men had no +conception beat like bats about his soul, the indefinable terrors of +bygone ages of horrors and darkness. His face was green. He sweated +fears at every faltering step. His eyes bulged crablike in quest of +that which he dreaded to find. + +"Sirs, sirs!" he gasped, in an agonised whisper, "it is not good. I +counsel----" + +"Be quiet," said Blair. "We must see," and they went on warily, +expecting the sudden outleap of death at every step. + +But they saw nothing, heard nothing. That dreadful menacing silence +brooded over the place just as it had brooded over the atoll. A flock +of gay little paraquets whirred suddenly from the hillside and dived +into the bush ahead, and the silence and the spell of it were broken. +The paraquets started chattering and quarrelling like a school of +sparrows, and Blair's danger-pointed wits suggested to him that they +would not behave so if the brush was otherwise tenanted. + +With a last careful inspection of the hillsides he moved forward, and +the rest followed. There was a track through the brush, and the +trampled ground showed signs of much traffic. + +Five minutes more and they had found all they feared. + +The thicket thinned and widened towards the valley and they were +standing once more amid blackened ribs of houses, and heaps of ashes +from which thin wisps of smoke still curled lazily. They had arrived +too late! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FLAMING SWORD + +Blair's face was tighter and grimmer than ever as he took it all in, +and the faces of the rest were sympathetically hard. + +But this was no time to stand glooming. The wrong was done. Now to +see if it could be righted. + +He turned and led the way back to the boat, thinking too hard for +speech. He knew what had to be done, but there were disquieting items +in the programme for which he had been unable to make provision, and +which he would gladly have escaped. + +They would follow the marauders and rescue the victims--that he took as +settled. + +The settlement could hardly be a mild one, and he would fain have +spared the women the sight of it; but there was nothing else for +it--they could not possibly be left behind. + +The raiders had doubtless filled their holds here to the last man. But +there must be many left. They would be in hiding yet, but presently +they would come out of their retreats, full of grief and anger, and it +would go hard with the first white faces they encountered. The women +must go with them--that was one of his troubles. And the next, +supposing they caught these blood-thirsty and body-hungry rascals--and +catch them they would, if it took a month's circling round--what were +they to do with them when they had them? + +There would probably be fighting, though the results did not trouble +him. What he wanted was to put an end once and for all to this +horrible traffic. The only way that suggested itself as adequate and +final was to string them up to the yard-arm, every man-jago of them, +and whether that might be done with impunity was more than doubtful. +The only impunity he desired was for his future work. Morally, he +would feel justified. And whether or no, the spirit that was in him +would have borne lightly the burden of such a deed, even though its +outward results to himself were personally painful and disastrous. + +It took no more than two minutes after they had scrambled on board to +set things in motion. + +"We are too late," said Blair to the anxious waiters. "We follow at +once, captain. They will have filled up here, and will make straight +for home. Lay her straight for the Chincha Islands, please, and make +all speed possible." + +Captain Cathie had foreseen the possibility. He set their course due +east for the present, and spread his wings again to the last stitch, +and they swept away past the other islands, with no more than fleeting +glimpses of them in the mellow distance. + +Then Blair begged them to confer with him in the saloon, and laid his +difficulties before them. + +"I take it for granted we shall catch them," he said. + +"Certainly," said the captain. + +"I am distressed at thought of bringing you ladies into contact with +bloodshed and violence. But there is no help for it; it would not be +safe to leave you behind." + +"Certainly not," said Aunt Jannet Harvey emphatically. + +"We would not have been left in any case," said Jean. "Our places are +by your sides," and the others quietly endorsed her. + +"The next thing is this: we shall catch this ship, we shall rescue +these islanders, by force if necessary. What are we to do with the +crew and the ship?" + +"Hang them and scuttle her," said Captain Cathie, with decision. + +"That is one's natural first feeling, and possibly it would be the +wisest thing in the end. And yet----" + +"It is a question if we are justified in going that length," said +Charles Evans gravely. + +Stuart, too, shook his head doubtfully. + +"Fighting in so good a cause is one thing," he said slowly, "but +hanging in cold blood is another." + +"Exactly," said Blair. "And that is the point of my dilemma." + +"Do you know what will happen if you let 'em go?" said Cathie brusquely. + +"I'm afraid I do, captain. And yet--even then---- You mean, of +course, that they'll come back in larger force, and with a double +incentive--plunder plus revenge." + +"That's it to a T, sir, and you know it. There'll be no peace and +security till they're wiped out. Wipe 'em out at once and completely, +and you're all right till a new lot comes along, knowing nothing of +these others, except that they never came back. And when the new lot +comes we'll tackle them same way. I'm not by nature a bloodthirsty +man, but if there's one thing can set me afire, it's this kind of work. +I've seen so much of it. They're not men. They're scum of +hell--asking your pardon, ladies!" + +"Speak your mind, captain," said Aunt Jannet Harvey. "No good being +mealy-mouthed when it's a question of life and death. I think they +should be scuttled." + +"I've no doubt we all agree as to what we would like to have done, but +whether, in our position, we are justified in pronouncing and executing +judgment to the extent of death--it is a difficult matter to decide." + +"If you let one single man of them go, Mr. Blair, you're only breeding +future trouble." + +"I know it, captain. And yet--at times--I have seen the attempt to +clear the future of trouble lead only to greater. Is there no +alternative?" + +"There's alternatives," said Cathie gloomily; "but they're only +makeshifts--playing with nettles to get stung: you could fling all +their arms overboard, and threaten 'em with worse if they come back. +And they'll come. You could scuttle the ship and maroon 'em somewhere. +You could bring 'em all back here and make 'em work. But there's +trouble in it whatever you do, unless you hang 'em out of hand." + +"I'm afraid there is, and I would dearly like to rid the earth of them; +but----" + +And Evans and Stuart felt as he did. They lacked nothing in courage, +but to their minds this matter of essential right went deeper than any +mere question of courage or future trouble. + +Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart listened with grave, troubled +faces, but ventured no opinion. These were deeper waters than any they +had ever sailed on, and they felt rather out of their depths. + +"Well, we have some little time to think it over," said Blair, at last. +"If any illumination comes to any of us, let the rest have the benefit +of it. You will get all ready for what we may need to do, captain?" + +"All's ready, sir. Long Tom's loaded, and the men are keen to square +things with these rascals if we can come up with them." + +"I suppose even these terrible men may have wives and children waiting +for them at home," said Jean thoughtfully, as they rose. + +"Like enough, ma'am," said Cathie--"and so have the brown men." + +"Men like that have no right to have wives and children," said Aunt +Jannet Harvey, with vehemence past grammar. "If they have they'll be +better without them. They ought to be scuttled." + +Nevertheless, Jean's suggestion remained in all their minds. + +Never was such a bright look-out as the Torchmen kept for the +_Blackbirder_, as they dubbed the chase. The rigging was never free +from anxious gazers. It looked as though a flight of great birds had +lighted on the ship. + +Jean remarked on it to Aunt Jannet Harvey. + +"They're fine fellows and all of one mind. See how eager they are to +catch her." + +"Ay, ay!" said Aunt Jannet. "They'll find her if she's to be found," +and did not think it necessary to add that, through Captain Cathie, she +had offered five pounds to the man who first sighted the other ship. + +Blair walked the deck strenuously, mostly alone, occasionally with one +of the others. And the more he walked and the more he thought, the +more averse he became to the idea of hanging. + +"We're doing right for right's sake in freeing these islanders," he +said to Evans and Stuart one time. "If we hang those men I can't help +feeling we're doing wrong for right's sake, and there we come to the +old Jesuitical practice which we all condemn. We do a wrong in the +belief that it will save future trouble. I don't believe we're +justified. We've got to do what seems to us right now. The future is +in God's hands. If trouble comes, He will show us how to meet it." + +"That, I think, is highest wisdom," said Stuart. "If the trouble +comes, we shall meet it with clear consciences, and clear consciences +make stout hearts." + +"I'm with you," said Evans. "I'd like to see them wiped out as much as +Captain Cathie would, but I think we're on a higher plane in doing as +you suggest. You feel sure of catching them?" + +"Hopeful--and determined to do it, if it can be done. They've got at +most two days' start. Less, perhaps, for the village was still +smoking. They're heavily laden, and we are making good way. We cut +into a belt of calms and variables soon, and there we can take to +steam. And then--they don't know they're being chased. We do." + +There was, however, this one element of doubt in the chase: would the +raiders carry on due east, in order to get all possible out of the +fairly steady westerly winds,--thereby lengthening the distance they +had to cover, and having, after all, in the end, to encounter the +possibly adverse winds of the coast,--or would they take their chance +across the doubtful calm belt and make straight for the Peruvian coast? + +It was an even question, and the board on which the game had to be +played was several thousand miles square. + +Blair and Cathie discussed the matter in all its bearings. + +"What would I do if I was them?" summed up the captain. "Well, that +would depend too. If I had two or three hundred passengers aboard, and +each one worth so much alive and nothing dead, I'd want to get 'em home +alive as quick as possible. If I was well stocked with provisions I +might carry on with this wind for the coast. If I was anyways short +I'd probably try a beat straight for home. If we don't sight them in +two days we'll edge up north-east a bit; but I'm pretty sure they'll +keep this wind as long as they can, and chances are we'll sight them +within twenty-four hours. They're probably not hurrying, and we're +making every inch we can." + +But it was the morning of the third day before the welcome hail from +aloft brought every soul on board into the bows, to search for the tiny +mote on the horizon on which all their hopes were concentrated. + +It was a very early bird who had discovered the worm. He had gone up +aloft before the dawn, and, as the sun shot up, the rim of the sea was +lucent like the edge of a glass plate brimming with water. An almost +invisible flaw, a mere film against the light, was enough for the +practised eye, and his joyful "Sail ho!" turned the ship upside-down. + +Captain Cathie swung up alongside the look-out with his glasses, and +was presently on deck again beaming contentedly. + +"That's her right enough," he said. "A brig, and we're raising her +fast. You'll see her from below here inside an hour." + +"When shall we catch her up?" asked Blair anxiously. + +"Perhaps by three o'clock or so," said Cathie, after a moment's +consideration, but added cautiously, "if the wind holds," and, as if +resenting his doubt, the sails gave an ominous warning flap. + +"Right," said the captain, with a determined nod, and set the engineers +to work at once to get up steam. "We'd be as well to have it on +anyhow, to keep the weather gauge of him when we come up," and +presently the screw was churning the merry bubbles up astern, and the +chase was rising slowly on the horizon. + +The brig, however, had held the wind longer than they had. It was +mid-afternoon before they got within range of her, and she was still +drawing slowly along with sails that bulged and flapped in desultory +catspaws. + +"Shall I send a shot over her, just to show we mean business?" brimmed +Cathie. + +"No shots unless they're absolutely necessary, captain," said Blair. +"We'll hail her first. And I think you ladies had better go below. +Their answer may be lead." + +Aunt Jannet was for resisting. + +"I want to see," said she. + +"There may be things not for your seeing, Aunt Jannet," said Blair +quietly, "and other things besides. Please go with the others and keep +them from feeling nervous if you can." + +So the ladies went below, and we may imagine to what helpful +furtherance of patient waiting they betook themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MAN'S MAN'S MAN + +The sides of the _Blackbirder_ were lined with sallow, scowling faces, +as villainous a crew as ever gathered aboard one disreputable ship +since time began. + +They took in all the points of the trim little craft that nosed quietly +up within speaking distance; the British flag, to which they were by +nature antipathetic; the long brown gun forward, with its black mouth +pointing plumb for every shifty eye of them; the glancing barrels of +the Winchesters, and the steady determination of the men who carried +them; the covert menace of the whole silent display. Muttered +blasphemies rolled along the line of yellow faces, and the rumble of +them was heard aboard the _Torch_. + +"What you want?" shouted a burly figure, standing aft behind the +deckhouse. + +"Your cargo," replied Captain Cathie, patting the breach of his big gun +affectionately, and the objurgations aboard the enemy broke out afresh. + +"What you mean?" + +"You'd better come aboard here and we'll explain." + +"You better fetch me." + +"Very well," said Cathie, with joy in his face. + +He stooped behind his long gun for a moment, trained it carefully, and +instantly its angry bellow filled sea and sky, and sent the women below +to their knees. They heard a crash, aloft and below, aboard the +_Blackbirder_, and the yells of the men as they scattered to avoid the +falling spars. The smoke, drifting lazily away, showed the brig's +maintopmast nipped neatly at the crosstrees, and hanging with its yards +in a fantastic tangle of ropes to the deck. + +"That's the first time of asking," shouted Cathie. "Are you coming?" +and he bent behind his gun again. + +"I kom," and they saw the black-a-vised crew set to launching a boat, +with vicious side-glances at their oppressor. + +Presently the dirty boat and its dirty crew lay alongside, and the +burly one climbed slowly up the ladder they dropped for him. + +His small eyes glared viciously out of his bloated cheeks, "like a +hunted boar's," said Cathie afterwards. + +"Now then! You are pirate?" + +"Not at all--we're missionaries," said Cathie. + +"Missi----!" and the fat one came within measurable distance of +apoplexy. + +"You've stolen our people. We want them back. Do you understand?" + +But the _Blackbirder's_ English was limited, and the shock of meeting +missionaries of so strange a texture had bemused his wits. + +Blair begged Stuart to speak to him in Spanish, and the wandering wits +came back at sound of it. + +"Tell him," said Blair, "that the islanders he has kidnapped are our +people, and we intend to take them home again." + +And Stuart put it to him so. + +"If he makes any resistance we shall overcome it. What does he say?" + +"He asks how you're going to take them back." + +"We will see to all that presently. First, he will bring aboard here +all the arms they have over yonder," said Blair, and as that sank +through Stuart into the other's understanding, the little boar-eyes +gleamed more viciously than ever, and the fat body rumbled with +volcanic fires. + +"We will give him half an hour to deliver up the arms. If they are not +here then, his other mast will go. He will bring them over himself." + +The little eyes glared furiously round, but found nothing but grimmest +determination in the faces that hemmed him in. Possibly they did not +fail to note all the other points bearing on the question. He shambled +to the side with a growl in his throat, and got heavily into his boat, +and was pulled across to his ship, and immediately they heard the +simmering of a hot discussion tipped with sharp flakes of invective. + +"They don't like it," said Captain Cathie. + +The minutes passed. Now and again a scowling face turned their way, +and shot a venomous white-eyed glance at them, but there were no signs +of the arms coming over. + +"Five minutes more," shouted Cathie at last, bubbling with excitement, +and clapping the breech of his gun. "And, my goodness, I hope you'll +run it out! I want that other mast," he added softly. + +"Five minutes more," shouted Stuart in Spanish, so that there should be +no misunderstanding. + +Cathie stood watch in one hand, lanyard in the other, one foot tapping +restlessly. He hungered for that other mast, and the lesson its fall +would teach the yellow dogs. + +At last he closed his watch with a snap, stooped to the gun, and with a +roar and a rattling crash, and a blasphemous scatteration below, the +foretopmast shared the devastation of the mainmast. + +"Now we have them right as a trivet," said Cathie, "and they'll begin +to understand where they are." + +They understood, and five minutes later the boat shoved off again, +bringing the spoils of war, such part of them, at all events, as they +chose to surrender--some thirty muskets, as many cutlasses, and half a +dozen revolvers. + +"Now," said Blair, to the downcast captain of the _Blackbirder_, +through Stuart, "you will stop here. We shall tow you back to the +islands. When your cargo is discharged, you will be at liberty to go. +If you ever return on this errand, you will find us waiting for you. +Now, captain," to Cathie, and, at a sign from the captain, one of the +white whale-boats dropped to the water, and half a dozen men jumped +into her, carrying the coil of a stout hawser, which ran out over the +stern of the _Torch_ and was secured amidships. + +The _Torch_ herself swung into line ahead of the other, and the big +steel gun swung slowly round till her muzzle grinned threateningly +round each side of the mainmast. + +"Tell those men to get back, Stuart, and say the captain waits with +us," and the brig's boat pushed sulkily off. "Now, Stuart, you come +with me, and Matti. We will take revolvers, though we shall not need +them." + +Matti shivered into the boat, and Stuart and Blair followed with four +Torches carrying Winchesters, and pulled to the brig and climbed up +among the truculent crew, every man of which had his knife at his back +and hands that itched to get using it. + +Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he had already told +the captain, and added some special instructions for his own benefit. + +[Illustration: Blair called for the mate and told him curtly what he +had already told the captain.] + +"First, make fast that hawser!" + +They did it to the satisfaction of the Torches, and at a call from +Blair the _Torch_ started slowly ahead, the hawser tightened, and every +solid thrust of the blades in the blue water cut an upward step in the +life of the Dark Islands. + +"Now, understand! There will be a hand on that rope night and day. If +there is any tampering with it you will hear from us. This +mess"--pointing to the dismantled masts--"you will not touch till we +reach the islands. Now I am going to inspect your cargo. How often do +you feed them?" + +"Twice a day." + +"Some of us will come across each time and see it done. I hold you +responsible. If they suffer, you will suffer. Understand? Now lead +the way! You"--to Stuart and the four Torches--"please keep your eyes +about you while I go below. Matti, you come with me." + +A grating, through which came a most horrible smell, was hauled up, and +the three went down into the inferno, and felt sick before their feet +quitted the ladder. For the mate was sick at this unexpected turn of +fortune, and Blair and Matti came near to physical sickness with the +stench. + +Blair clung to the side of the ladder and gazed mistily round. There +was little light, but the dimness seemed to come not so much from lack +of light as from superfluity of nastiness of every possible description +and human misery indescribable. The feel of the place was like a hot +breath from the pit. It closed silently upon one like the hand of a +crawling death. It dimmed the eyes, and choked the throat, and lay +like a weight on the heart. + +To breathe it seemed death, yet three hundred miserables breathed it +and lived, and by degrees his eyes discerned them and never lost the +sight. + +A great confused tangle of brown limbs and bodies, many entirely naked, +a forest of shock heads, a hypnotising multitude of dark eyes all +focussed on him, and all pitted with sparks of light from the opened +hatch--mostly men, a few women, no children--short panting breaths, +sighs, groans, the dull rattle of chains. + +"Have they been fed to-day?" gasped Blair, and pointed to his mouth. + +The mate nodded. + +Blair went two steps up the ladder and called to Stuart. + +"Tell them to feed and water these poor things instantly. Now, Matti, +ask them in all the tongues you know if there is any headman or chief +among them. And say we mean them well." + +Matti tried them without success in two or three dialects, but at last +hit upon one that evoked responsive movements in some of those nearest +the light. He felt his way, and at last got a word in answer, the +meaning of which he understood. + +Here a couple of men came down the ladder carrying baskets of what +looked like dog-biscuits, which they commenced handing round, one to +each prisoner, and the latter sprang to the limits of their tethers for +them, and snatched and worried them like dogs that had not been fed for +a week. Blair looked at the mate, but the mate looked elsewhere. + +It took a long time and many renewals to supply them all; but Blair +would not move till it was done, nor until every one had had a drink of +water. Then the interrupted conversation was resumed. + +Yes, there was a chief there, and Blair ordered the mate to release the +man and bring him forward. He came without eagerness, a tall, brown, +well-built man of middle age, with a gloomy, but not absolutely +forbidding face, pinched just now, perhaps with hunger, perhaps with +despair. Experience had taught him to expect nothing but evil at the +hands of white men. + +But even his dull misery could not but perceive a difference between +this clean, white-clad white man and those he had become accustomed to, +and he gazed at Blair with a note of sullen inquiry. + +"You are a chief?" asked Blair, through Matti. + +"I am a king," he said, answering Blair, and bestowing no look on +Matti, who, he perceived, was only a voice. And there was that in his +tone and manner which carried conviction in spite of the misery of his +condition. + +"We have come to set you free and to take you back to the island." + +And when the words beat through Matti's attempt at his dialect and got +into his brain, it was as though an electric shock had galvanised him +suddenly into new life. + +"Free?--the island?" he stammered, and stared, still doubting. "All?" +he asked. + +"Yes, all," and he turned and told the news to the rest in quick, +clipping words, and after a moment's amazed silence a shout went up, +and the fetid hole was filled with a deafening buzz of talk. + +It was only after anxious consideration of the point that Blair had +decided to tell them the good news. He grudged every lost soul there. +He would not lose one. There might be some given over to utter +despair, and there is no tonic like hope. + +"You will come with us," said Blair, to the discrowned king. + +The man looked back into the gloom, and then again at Blair, and spoke +eagerly. + +"He says one of his wives is there," said Matti. "She shall come also." + +The man pointed her out, the mate released her, and they climbed to the +blessed upper air, all a-tremble with eagerness. + +"Now, understand!" said Blair to the mate, through Stuart, so that all +could hear him: "when your cargo is discharged, you will be at liberty +to go where you will. If you attempt any treachery, we will blow you +to pieces. If you ever return to the Dark Islands, you do so at your +own peril," and he saw his guests into the boat and followed them. + +The woman was young and not uncomely, but subdued and apparently +somewhat dazed still at these sudden reverses of fortune. Neither +spoke a word as the _Torch_ slowed down for them to come aboard, but +the man's eyes roved to and fro in ceaseless questioning, and he seemed +to arrive at an intelligent understanding of matters. The long steel +gun claimed his attention the moment he reached the deck, and from his +instant glance across at the shattered hamper of the brig he evidently +associated the two things. + +Their only visible clothing was a native mat wrapped round the waist +and falling nearly to the feet, and the very first thing to do was to +cleanse them of the visible results of their 'tween-decks imprisonment. + +Blair led the man down to the men's bathroom, and turned on the taps +and filled the bath before his astonished eyes. He showed him also the +use of soap, by washing his own hands, and left him to complete his +toilet. He could not, however, forbear listening outside to hear how +he got on, and was rewarded at first by a long silence, then by several +tentative turnings on and off of the wonderful taps. Then a slight +splashing suggested an experiment with the soap; and finally grunts of +satisfaction and much wallowing told of savage man's enjoyment of the +amenities of civilisation, and the return to his natural cleanliness. +When he had had time to wash himself several times over, Blair knocked +on the door and went in, and found his guest lying full length under +water, with only his brown nose showing, and evidently feeling very +much better. + +He sat up and gurgled some words expressive of his feelings, and was +mightily astonished at the sudden disappearance of the water when the +plug was pulled up. He wanted to fill the bath again at once to see it +run out again, and Blair let him engineer a final sluice for himself. + +He was a much pleasanter companion after his wash. His fine brown skin +shone under the unusual treatment of a towel, and his hair stuck out +from his head like a twirling mop. He was about to assume his dirty +mat again, but Blair hauled out some clean towels, tied one round him +like a loin-cloth, draped another from his hips as he had worn his mat, +and threw another over his shoulders, and the man was dressed as he had +never been dressed in his life before. The towels happened to have +broad red bands along the edges, and moreover had fringes, and their +wearer was as proud of them as any Piccadilly dandy of his newest thing +in spring suits. + +Somewhat similar doings had been in course in the ladies' quarters, +but, thanks to Aunt Jannet Harvey's very determined, but equally +mistaken, good intentions, the results were less happy. + +Aunt Jannet believed firmly that decency as well as cleanliness were +first steps towards godliness, and she was too recent an arrival in the +equatorials, and perhaps also too conservative in her own ideas, to +understand that decency of attire is after all purely matter of custom. +To her, a girl dressed, or undressed, only in a ridi fringe which clung +precariously to her hips and fell half-way to her knee, was practically +unclothed. She did not know that it was death for a man to touch that +scant, precarious garment. Strange anomaly of the cannibal isles--a +dangling fringe of smoked coco-nut fibre a more stringent safeguard +than the multitudinous garments of civilisation! When Aunt Jannet did +learn that fact she thought considerably, and thereafter took a +somewhat wider view of things. + +Meanwhile, in the mistaken goodness of her heart, she had insisted on +arraying the newcomer in garments of her own, the most visible of which +was a light print dress, in which the poor creature looked almost as +uncomfortable as she felt. + +At sight of her transformation the brown man stared hard, and then +grinned vigorously, and the girl hotched and wriggled in disgustful +discomfort. She came up to the man and fingered his soft towels +wistfully. She spoke to him, and he instantly handed her the one he +had over his shoulder. She tore at the neck of her dress with evident +intention, and Blair begged Jean to take her away and provide her with +what towels she wished. + +"Well, I never!" began Aunt Jannet remonstratively. + +"That is a mistake that has wrought infinite mischief, dear Aunt +Jannet," he said. "Our work must begin inside, not outside. Meddle as +little as possible with manners and customs or you do more harm than +good." + +"My goodness me! It's absolutely indecent for a woman to go about with +nothing on but a towel. Don't tell me you allow them to eat one +another, Kenneth!" + +"Well, we break them off that as soon as we can. But in all these +matters we have learned that it is highest wisdom to hasten slowly." + +"Well, I----" + +But here the brown girl came back, all smiles and modest grace, clad in +red-fringed towels like the man, and even Aunt Jannet, in her heart, +could find no fault with her appearance. + +Then Blair called Matti, and, sitting on the deck by the new arrivals, +he quietly commenced his approaches towards the conquest of the Dark +Islands. + +Briefly--in the telling, though very much otherwise in the +extracting--this was what they learned. The man's name was Ha'o--which +he pronounced Hacho, the ch as in loch--and the woman's Nai or Na-ee. + +He was, he asserted, chief of that one of the Dark Islands which had +been raided by the brig. A number of the islanders had been enticed on +board with soft words and presents and then suddenly made prisoners. +The ship had then apparently sailed, but that same night the village +was burnt and he and the rest carried off. + +It was not easy to make him understand what had induced these other +white men to follow and bring them back. If they did really land him +on his own island again--of which he was by no means sure--he would be +their friend and brother. As for those others--looking venomously at +the captain of the brig, who was sitting amidships in gloomy +contemplation of the scurviness of fortune--he would ask nothing better +than to eat them if the chance offered. + +"You eat men, then?" asked Blair, through Matti. + +"Of course. Why not? Properly cooked they are excellent eating"--or +words to that effect. + +And Aunt Jannet Harvey and the other ladies shuddered and wondered, for +he did not by any means look the monster his words implied. + +Blair tried hard to convey to him the idea that they had come from the +other side of the world for the sole purpose of helping him and his +people; but that was too much for him--he could not comprehend it. + +He got tired of being questioned out of his depth, and strolled about +the ship, examining everything attentively. The long brown steel gun, +the revolving screw, the engines, and the smoke pouring out of the +funnel claimed his chief attention. During the next few days he hung +over the stern watching the revolving blades and the bubbling wake by +the hour, with absorbed and puzzled face, and every now and then would +lick his hand and hold it up to feel the air. There was little wind, +for Captain Cathie had purposely run up into the calm belt to lessen +the strain of the towage, but such as there was it was dead against +them, and the brown man could not understand it. As to the gliding +pistons and smooth-running wheels in the engine-room, they were white +men's magic of the most virulent description, and Matti himself +understood the business too little to be able to convey any clear idea +of the connection between them and the never-resting screw astern. + +For the rest, both the brown man and the girl found ample grounds for +wonder in the farm-yard in the bows--the contemplative cow, the +sullen-eyed young bull, the stolid goats, and the rooting piglets and +their mother, and the cocks and hens in their coops, and the men's pet +cat, which occupied their various bunks in turn, and accepted all their +attentions with the utmost complacence and gave nothing in return. But +of all the things that set sparks in the girl's wondering eyes, the +crowning delight was the piano in the saloon and the little harmonium +which was lashed alongside it. + +She would sit with her ear pressed tight to the frame and her eyes like +saucers as long as any one would play for her; and when her own slim +brown finger touched one of the white keys and elicited due response +she jumped with delight, and would have practised one-finger exercises +of her own composition all day and all night. There were other wonders +in reserve, but she had enough for the present, and more than enough. + +"She has an ear for music," said Jean to her husband one night. "She +was crouching by me during the singing, and I heard her humming the +tune quite nicely." + +"They are famous singers, some of them," said Blair. "I count a good +deal on working up to the citadel through Eargate." + +The _Blackbirder_ captain was lodged in an empty cabin, and had his +meals there. He had ample time for introspective musing, for none +cared to associate with him. + +In the middle of the first night Blair jumped up in a sweat of terror. +The idea had suddenly occurred to him that the hostage might make a +break for liberty or revenge by setting the ship on fire. He went +hastily to the spare cabin and found him snoring comfortably. +Nevertheless he sat there all night, and after that the man was never +left alone, day or night, till they finally got rid of him. + +Twice each day some of them, with Matti as interpreter, dropped down to +the brig and saw the islanders duly fed and watered, and said a word or +two of cheer to them. And day after day the sallow crew scowled across +at the quiet ordered life on board the schooner--the pleasant, friendly +relations, the morning and evening services on deck--and cursed sparks +into its vicious eyes; but ventured no more because of the ever-present +Winchesters and the black mouth of Long Tom which gaped hungrily at +them whenever they looked that way. + +Their weighted progress was slow. It was the evening of the sixth day +before the distant peaks of the Dark Islands bit up through the setting +sun, and on the morning of the seventh day they were steaming slowly +for the entrance to the lagoon. + +Ha'o and Nai had refused to lie down all night. All night long they +had hung over the bows, peering into the darkness in a fever of +anticipation which left them no words. When the flaming east lit up +the giant peak they knew so well, they could scarce contain themselves. +Cannibals they were and benighted heathen, but this was home, and there +was hope in them and for them. + +Captain Cathie, with admirable skill, and a couple of his whale-boats, +humoured the brig in, stern foremost, since she had no steerage-way on +her. He dropped her down the lagoon as close to the white sand spear +as he deemed advisable, then bade them drop their anchor and loose the +tow-rope, and heaved a sigh of content as his gallant little ship shook +herself free of that most undesirable partnership. + +He took up a position to seaward of the brig, and Blair, and Evans, and +Ha'o, with Matti and the usual guard in attendance, went on board of +her to discharge cargo. + +It was a thing to remember, one of the high times of life that stand +out in the past when other things have faded. + +A great shout went up from the chaotic mass of brown men as the +white-clad figures came down the ladder and Ha'o shouted the good news +to them. He had been across each day with whoever was going, and +Blair, watching carefully this corner-stone of his enterprise, had come +to think well of him. + +A thing to remember, indeed, as the brown figures came tumbling up the +ladder in batches. They fairly scrambled over one another in their +haste, and, after one wild glance round to make sure, flung themselves +headlong into the familiar waters, and made straight for the shore, +shouting breathlessly as they went, eager only to set foot on that +white beach once more. + +Blair had reckoned on carrying them ashore in the boats, but who would +wait for boats when the sparkling water called? + +That long string of urgently bobbing black heads from brig to +shore--first-fruits of victory--_spolia opima_ in very truth--was a +sight none of them ever forgot. The Torches laughed aloud with +enjoyment. Even the sullen-eyed Blackbirders watched with interest. + +Ha'o stood among the white men with wonderful self-control. Instinct +drew him to the water with the rest, but he would not. Even these few +short days on the higher plane had not been without their effect. He +had watched ceaselessly. He had seen much that was beyond him. For +the first time in his life, he had come across a force greater than his +own, which made for good and not for evil. There were stirrings within +him which he did not understand, but the first expression of them made +for restraint. + +When the stream of brown bodies ceased pouring out of the hatch, and +the last batch had leaped overboard with joyful shouts, Blair and the +others climbed down into the empty dimness to make sure that all had +gone. They found three lying with starting eyes, too weak to move and +fearful that they had been forgotten. These they wrapped in abandoned +mats and passed up on deck and lowered into one of the whale-boats. +Then a flying visit to the _Torch_ for Nai, and they sped to the shore. + +It was only when they all stood on the white beach that Ha'o, shaking +with excitement barely to be restrained, turned to Blair and, grasping +his hand in his own two trembling ones, carried it to his forehead and +said some words in a low voice. + +Blair glanced at Matti for enlightenment. + +"He says he is your man from this day, and will be to you as a +brother," said Matti, and the white hand and the brown gripped firmly +on the compact. Then Ha'o turned and walked rapidly towards the +village, and they went with him. + +So Ha'o of Kapaa'a became the Man's man's man. And the first sparks of +light for the Dark Islands leaped from the match that set fire to the +village thatch ten days before. + +So good comes out of evil, and no man may safely say this is good and +that is ill. For no man knows, save Him Who knows all things; and His +ways are so very different from man's ways that wisdom and experience +drive one only to the doing with one's might the thing that is in hand, +in the faithful hope that He will round the corners and shape the work +to its appointed end. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CLIPPING A BLACKBIRD + +Before we proceed to other matters, let us get rid of the _Blackbirder_. + +She lay like a black blot on the smooth swell of the lagoon, and till +we are quit of her the place will not feel clean. Civilisation, as +represented by the dismantled brig, was as foul a thing as any the Dark +Islands could show--not excepting even the terrors of the +feasting-places. For what the dark men did they did in their darkness, +and what the yellow men did they did in their light, and condemnation +goes with knowledge. + +And as it was here, so it was elsewhere. Vicious civilisation gashed +Nature with a broad red wound and trampled her to earth. Fortunately, +in this case there was healing and reparation. But it was not always +so. + +Blair and Cathie had had ample time during the return voyage to arrange +their plans, Blair's part in the discussions consisting chiefly of +acting as brake to the captain's whirring wheels. For Captain Cathie, +honest man, foresaw such certain trouble from letting the raiders go +that he would have strained many points to put it out of their power +ever to return. + +But Blair would have none of it. + +"I haven't a doubt that you are right, captain," he said, "but even +these men have got to have their chance. If they do come back, they +must take the consequences. We will deal with them then as may seem +best." + +So while Blair and Evans followed Ha'o towards the village, Captain +Cathie was busy in his own way. With his long brown gun menacing the +brig, he sent his other two boats over in charge of his mate and +Stuart, with instructions to deport the yellow men to a tiny crown of +rock where the wall of the reef had crept up a few feet higher than +elsewhere. It was a precarious lodging at best and uncomfortably damp, +for the great ocean rollers broke on the seaward side in ceaseless +thunder, and their spray lashed up to heaven, and came crashing over +into the lagoon, and the rock was always wet. Captain Cathie jocularly +expressed the opinion that the yellow men would be none the worse for a +bit washing, for not one of them looked as if he had known soap since +he was a kiddie. + +He sent by Stuart, on his own responsibility, the information that he +was going to disinfect their ship, and that if they were not all out of +it in ten minutes he would sink it with a shot between wind and water. +The yellow men turned green with apprehension, grabbed their meagre +belongings under the certain belief that they were leaving their ship +for good and all, and did as they were bidden. Then, leaving the +captain of the _Blackbirder_ in strict custody, Cathie pulled over to +the brig and proceeded to overhaul it with all the enjoyment of a +humanitarian highwayman going through his victim's pockets. + +Every bond and shackle they found was promptly tossed overboard. Every +ounce of trade they could find--cloth, beads, knives, and so on, which +might still be used for the enticement of unwary natives and the +replenishment of a depleted exchequer--was annexed as salve for native +wounds. Several rifles and revolvers, which the haste of the previous +surrender, or malice prepense, had overlooked, were now included. +Every keg of rum they could lay hands on was stove in and emptied into +the lagoon, and when the captain was fairly satisfied that he had +clipped the _Blackbirder's_ wings, for this voyage at any rate, and, as +he jocularly said, had given the yellow men a chance of practising +teetotal principles for a spell, though he feared the effect would only +be temporary, he returned to the _Torch_ and sent his boats to bring +back the prisoners from their damp roosting-place. + +He explained to the gloomy-faced captain of the _Blackbirder_ what he +had done, and why, and sent him back to his ship with instructions to +refit as quickly as possible, to take in what water he needed, and to +get away without delay, lest the natives should take it into their +heads to pay him in their own way for his maltreatment of them. + +"And tell him, sir," he said to Stuart, "that if I'd had my way I'd +have strung every man of them up to the yardarm, and if they ever come +back that's what they may expect, and I'll be delighted to have a hand +in it." + +When Blair and the rest came on board, they reported the village still +in ruins. No attempt had been made to rebuild it yet, and they had +seen no other natives than those who had come ashore from the brig. + +The atoll men and women had camped in a bunch among the ruined houses, +by starting a fire with a borrowed match and proceeding to cook some +taro from the adjoining fields. The Dark Island men had scattered +among the hills to find their friends and relatives, and to tell them +of their wonderful deliverance. + +Under the compulsion of the grinning long gun the Blackbirders worked +hard at their rigging, and the party on the _Torch_ sat and watched +them till the shadows chased the red glow of the sunset rapidly up the +hills, and work was over for the day. + +"It is very wonderful," was Blair's summing-up of the whole matter: +"good once more comes out of evil. If the arranging of matters had +been in our own hands, they could not have fallen more fortunately for +us. In the ordinary course of things we might have been years in +arriving at the position this catastrophe and its remedying have put us +into. Ha'o and Nai will, I think, prove staunch friends. They know we +desire nothing but their good. Through them we shall get all the rest +by degrees." + +"All I wish is that we'd hung those yellow blackguards, sir," said +Cathie, with lingering regret. "It would only have been right common +sense, after all." + +"Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet Harvey. + +"Well, well," said Blair. "It's generally easier to undo than to do. +But our aim is life, not death. We shall have all we can do to put new +life into our brown friends, without spending our energies and bruising +our consciences by choking the old life out of our yellow enemies." + +"All the same, sir, we'd have been safer for the future if those +rascals were rolling at the bottom of the sea than floating quietly on +top of it. If they don't come back here, they'll go somewhere else and +play the same game." + +"I'm afraid they will, captain; but all the same I don't see my way to +hanging them. If they come back here, as they quite possibly may----" + +"Will, sure," said the captain. + +"Well, if they do it will be our duty to protect the sheep from the +wolves." + +"I'm half hoping they'll try it on," said Cathie. "Yon long gun would +make fine play with 'em." + +In the morning Blair and the other men went ashore again. The ladies +begged to go too, but he thought it wiser to wait till they learned the +minds of the rest of the islanders. + +They found the atoll men busily at work running up shelters, and quite +content with their new surroundings. This was a place of infinitely +wider scope than their own circumscribed island, and they had no desire +whatever to go back to it. Knowing how intense the racial hatreds were +among the islands, Blair could only hope that Ha'o's influence might +suffice for their protection. + +He was wondering when any of the original inhabitants would turn up +again, when he saw a straggling company descending the hill, and at the +head of it Ha'o, easily recognisable by his costume of white towels. + +He waved his hand at sight of them, and quickened his pace. As he drew +near they saw that his face was very grim, and he began to speak so +rapidly and energetically that Matti could only wait and absorb the +sense of it without any attempt at translation. + +"There is trouble," said Matti, turning to Blair as the other paused +for breath. "In his absence, and thinking he was gone for good, his +brother has become chief, and he will not give up his place." + +"And what do the people say?" asked Blair, and Matti put the question. + +"They are divided. There were some who were never contented, and there +are some who always want change, and there are some who stand on one +side to see which party is strongest. Those who were with me on the +ship stay with me, and there are many others, but Ra'a"--Racha or Raka, +his brother--"has also many. It will lead to trouble." + +This was a quite unexpected development and obstacle. From his slight +knowledge of island ways, Blair foresaw that it was a matter that might +lead to constant strife. For there is no quarrel so bitter as a family +quarrel, and the tribe is but the family on a larger scale. + +"Come to the ship, Ha'o," he said, "and let us talk it over. Where is +Nai?" + +"She is with her people. She will come when I send for her. My other +wives my brother has taken, but I do not want them." + +"Is he likely to do anything unpleasant at once?" + +"No; at present everything is----." And with his hands he indicated +chaos. + +The situation was a grave one in some respects, though still far better +than it would have been had they landed entire strangers with all their +footing to win. + +It might even contain advantages, for Ha'o and his party would be +driven by stress of circumstances still closer to them, and there was +material enough to occupy them there for a long time to come. + +Captain Cathie was for grasping this nettle again in such a way as to +neutralise its sting. + +"If we tackle them at once, Mr. Blair, we can knock the brother out and +make things safe, and it'll maybe be the shortest cut in the end, and +cost fewest lives. You know what these brown fellows are when they get +to loggerheads among themselves. It's just Stewarts and Campbells over +again, and no peace till one side or the other goes under." + +Blair nodded. + +"I know, captain; but, all the same, we can't begin by killing the men +we want to convert. Gentle handling and patience may bring us to the +appointed end. It may take longer, but the end, I think, will be the +larger." + +But Captain Cathie shook his head, and Aunt Jannet Harvey shook hers in +unison. + +"Some things are best nipped in the bud," said she, "and it seems to me +that Mr. Ha'o has been very badly treated all round." + +"Well, we've done our best for him, and we'll go on doing it, but we +must do it in the way we think wisest." + +Ha'o himself now struck in through Matti, and his question was the very +natural one as to whether the white men, who had done so much for him, +would continue to do so, and help him to recover his rights. + +It took time and patience to explain to him that they would do +everything they could without fighting, unless the other side attacked +him, in which case they would help him and his people to defend +themselves. Ha'o saw no use for the other side except to be +killed--and possibly eaten. It was not possible as yet to make clear +to him their object in coming to the islands. The root idea was beyond +him. He had hoped with their help to smash the opposition out of hand, +and was inclined to resent this, as it seemed to him, very lukewarm +offer of defensive assistance. Blair, however, was at pains to +explain, as far as was possible, that they had come not to fight--at +which the brown man's eyes rested appreciatively on the long brown +gun--but to teach him and his people better things than fighting, and +that they would help him in every possible way--except, as Ha'o's face +plainly showed, in this one way, for which he would willingly have +foregone all the rest. + +Blair showed him the tribute exacted from the _Blackbirder_, and told +him the things were for himself and those who had been carried off with +him, and the black eyes sparkled greedily. + +Then Blair suggested that the first thing to do was to rebuild the +village, and asked him to allot them land where they could build their +own houses. At which Ha'o waved his hand regally over Kapaa'a and +said, "Choose!" + +They chose a spot at the head of the white sand spear, with the brush +curving round behind, and the little river gurgling alongside. A dozen +tall palms swung their crests above, in front lay the placid stretch of +the lagoon, and beyond it the reef, and the white jets of foam, and the +never-ending thunder of the breaking rollers. + +By way of setting a good example to the islanders, and no less to +impress upon the Blackbirders that they had come to stop, Captain +Cathie got out and sent ashore the frames of the houses they had +brought with them. One of the little steam-launches was got into +working order, and before nightfall was chuffing merrily back and forth +with load after load of necessaries, planks and beams and fittings; and +what with the work on board the _Blackbirder_, and the traffic between +the _Torch_ and the shore, and the doings on the beach, the lagoon of +Kapaa'a was livelier than ever it had been since time began. Deadlier +it had often been, but this was the beginning of the new life, and the +dawn came to the Dark Islands in such commonplace guise as doors and +windows, and chairs and tables and bedsteads. + +By Cathie's advice they built their houses on piles, with roomy +platforms under which the fresh sea breezes could blow at will. + +Every man who could be spared from the ship helped in the building, and +the work went on apace. Blair and Evans and Stuart, stripped to shirts +and trousers, carried and sawed and hammered with the rest, and spared +themselves not at all. The ladies would have come too, but reluctantly +obeyed orders, and stopped on board till the political horizon should +become somewhat more determined. + +Ha'o and his people, after watching the small beginnings of a work that +was far beyond their understanding, turned to their own business. +Blair had a quantity of spades and axes brought ashore, and gave them +to Ha'o for his building operations, and the effect on their spirits, +as their hands closed on the handles, was magical. They rushed to the +woods to try them, and when the white men went along presently to see +how they were going on, they found the village already getting into +shape. + +There had evidently been some argument with the atoll men, who had +thought to establish themselves on the old site, but they had now drawn +off, and were stolidly building shelters a short distance away, and +regarding with envious eyes the new tools of the island men. + +That was soon put right, and a supply of axes for themselves +transformed them into an excited, chattering crew, without a grievance +in the world. Food was plentiful, the taro swamp was there to their +hand, coco-nuts abounded, they had fire and water: what more could any +man want, unless it was a slice of brother man to add zest to the +feast? And at present both they and brother man were much too busy to +give the matter the necessary consideration. + +It took the _Blackbirder_ three days' hard work to clear away her +damaged spars and refit sufficiently for the voyage. Her sulky master +suggested a trip ashore to procure some new topmasts. Captain Cathie +urged him to go, but expressed doubts as to the probability of his +return; and on the morning of the fourth day, the launch having filled +their water barrels for them, the _Torch_ got up steam and towed her +enemy through the opening in the reef and out to a fair offing, and +then cast her off and lay watching till she was hull-down on the +eastward horizon. And the very last thing the scowling crew saw--for +that time, at all events--was the menacing black mouth of the long gun, +and Captain Cathie standing patting its big brown breech +affectionately, but in a most unpleasantly meaning way. + +"Well, thank God we're rid of them at last!" said + +Aunt Jannet Harvey with fervour, as the brig caught the breeze and drew +slowly away. + +"We shall see them again, ma'am," said Captain Cathie. + +[Illustration: "We shall see them again," said Captain Cathie (missing +from book)] + +"I wish we'd scuttled them," said Aunt Jannet. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHERE THOU GOEST + +The building operations were progressing apace, and so far they had +caught no more than distant glimpses of the malcontents, as they crept +cautiously about the hillsides to oversee what was going on below. The +proximity of the white men in such force kept them from any expression +of what might be in them, and Blair was not without hope that, if he +could only get time to develop his plans and demonstrate clearly the +advantages of the white alliance, they might still think better of it +and come in. + +Time, however, is what no man can count on. Cautious Captain Cathie, +as soon as he had seen the _Blackbirder_ fairly off, proceeded to "bolt +the front door," as he said, by running a stout hawser with a kedge at +each end across the opening in the lagoon. As this was buried by each +incoming roller, it would inevitably overturn any boat running in on +the swell, and he felt comparatively safe. + +Nevertheless, he paced the deck for several nights to make safer still. +For the _Torch_ was still the greatest factor in the enterprise, and +any accident to her would spell disaster to them all. + +That first night he was not without his fears of a possible attempt +from without. + +"You never know where you are with rascals like yon, until you've seen +'em hanging for an hour at the end of a rope," said he. "It would be a +mighty fine thing for them, and a mighty bad look-out for us, if they +crept in and caught us napping." And more than once he stood for +minutes at a time listening intently, under the impression that he +heard the cries of drowning men above the rhythmic roar of the outer +surges, and in the morning he looked eagerly about, but found nothing. + +He was also somewhat surprised at the complete absence of native +canoes, and had visions of such also creeping up in the darkness and +carrying his ship by assault. But the canoes had mostly been smashed +by the raiders, as a matter of precaution, when they enticed the +natives on board, and the rest they had destroyed when they came ashore +in the night, and the captain's fears were groundless. + +The ladies were allowed ashore for a time each day to inspect the +progress of their future homes, but they still slept on the schooner. + +Aunt Jannet Harvey demanded of Blair how long that kind of thing was to +go on, as they were all anxious to get to housekeeping again as soon as +possible, and Blair could only tell her that they could not hasten +developments, but that he hoped each day passed in peace might make for +healing. + +But the peace was suddenly broken. That which had befallen the head of +the community had equally struck its tail. Just as Ha'o, supposed to +be as good as dead, had been supplanted by Ra'a, so on a smaller scale +had most of his companions in misfortune. It was a matter only of +degree. The hurt was the same. + +Yams and taro do not come to maturity in a day. The rescued ones were +rebuilding the village on its old site, close to the taro fields. The +rebels on the hills and the perchers on the fence wanted their share of +the common goods. They ventured down by night, warily and in mortal +fear of more than Ha'o and his men, to procure them, and the fat was in +the fire. + +At first it spluttered in hot words. + +"We want our proper share of taro," said the hillmen, not without +reason. "You went away"--which was a provocative way of putting +it--"and left us to tend the fields, and now you come back and sit on +them." + +"The fields belong to the community. We are the community. Come back +into it and you will share with us. Where are our wives?" was the +answer. + +Some few, such as cared little who ruled so long as their stomachs were +filled, did come back, and Nai brought down a number of the women and +children, her towel costume and her descriptions of the white men's +wonders forming strong inducements to the others. But many stood out, +and the arguments developed from words to blows. Ra'a's men came down +in force by night to replenish their larders. Ha'o's men resisted. +One of the former got his head smashed in by an axe, and the feud was +complete. + +Blair did his best to prevent the rupture, but it was beyond him. Ha'o +was, not unnaturally, hot against the usurper and his followers, and it +was all the white men could do to persuade him from attempting a +_coup-de-force_ for the full rehabilitation of his fortunes. Under +Blair's forcible arguments, and a grievous shortage of weapons, he +agreed to postpone any active movement till his village was rebuilt. +Then, when time lay on his hands, Blair knew that it would be next to +impossible to restrain him. He hoped, however, that opportunity might +arise which would afford a chance of intervention with some hopes of +success. + +Meanwhile skirmishes went on almost nightly, and there came a time at +last when two of Ha'o's men, in repelling an attempt on the taro +fields, were speared and their bodies carried off. + +In the morning Ha'o came up, wearing his grimmest face. + +"They have killed my men," he said, through Matti. "Now I go to kill +them." + +Blair had been considering the matter ever since the report reached +him, and he had made up his mind what to do. + +To understand Kenneth Blair fully you must bear in mind all that he had +gone through, and the effect it could not fail to have upon him. + +Once in his life, in the face of imminent death, he had flinched and he +had never forgiven himself. To all the world outside he could be +tender and forbearing. To himself he was harder than iron. + +He would condone in another what he would never permit in himself. In +the intensity of his feeling on this matter even his strong common +sense was liable to be thrown somewhat off its centre. His only fear +was of himself, and in that fear he was liable to choose the hardest +and most dangerous path, lest a smoother one should prove but a pitfall +to his duty. + +In his somewhat morbid dread of doing too little he was constantly in +danger of doing too much. He was quite aware of it, and he held +himself tightly. But where two ways offered, it was almost inevitable +that he should choose the more dangerous and difficult. It was a +weakness, perhaps, but, after all, he was only human, and no man is +perfect. + +Just as the soldier on whom has rested an imputation of lack of nerve +will, when the chance offers, rush to seemingly certain death in order +to wipe off the reproach, so Kenneth Blair. It was the spirit of the +Six Hundred at Balaclava over again, save that, indeed, in their case +their courage had never been called in question, but only their utility. + +And so, when Ha'o came up, thirsting for his brother's life, Blair said +quietly-- + +"This matter must be settled without shedding of blood. I will go and +see Ra'a, and will do my best to persuade him either to come in or to +leave us in peace." + +"He will kill you," said Ha'o briefly. + +"I hope not. We shall see." + +"He hates the white men. The hardest thing he has against me is that I +ever had any dealings with those others." + +"Those men were yellow, I will show him what white men are." + +"He will kill you," said Ha'o once more. + +"I hope not," was all the reply he got. + +When the rest heard of his undertaking they also tried hard to dissuade +him from it--all except Jean, who sat silent and thoughtful. + +"It's risky," said Captain Cathie, with a gloomy shake of the head. + +"Few good things come without risk, captain--besides, I don't believe +it's as risky as you imagine." + +"It's simply suicidal," said Aunt Jannet Harvey. "It's just throwing +yourself away, Kenneth, and spoiling all your great plans, to say +nothing of Jean's life." + +"I shall go too," said Jean quietly. + +"You, Jean?" said Blair, with a catch in the throat and a sudden weight +at the heart. + +"Yes, dear. If you go, I go. If it is death for you it is death for +me in any case, and I would sooner it was together." + +A terrible temptation this to choose the easier path--on her account. +What right had he to drag her life into so great a danger? For +imminent danger there was, though he had made light of it. + +He halted, and she saw it, and understood much of what was in him. + +"Don't hesitate one moment on my account, Ken. I must go. It is +possible my being with you may help. It will show them, at all events, +that we mean them no ill." + +"We are in God's hands," he said quietly, but was visibly disturbed at +her insistence. + +Stuart and Evans also strove with him, but with no better effect. + +"The peace must be kept, if it is possible," he said. "And this seems +to me a possible way to it. I would sooner my wife had stopped behind, +but I quite understand her point of view. And--we are as safe there as +here." + +"You've no objection to my firing a blank round or two, Mr. Blair?" +asked Captain Cathie. + +"What's the idea, captain?" + +"Just to impress them with the fact that we're here behind you, sir. A +bang or two from the big gun will maybe have as big an effect as +anything you can say to them." + +"Well, I see no objection. All we want is to keep the peace. The big +gun may impress them, as you say." + +"You wouldn't take a dozen of the men with you, would you sir?" asked +the captain insinuatingly. + +But Blair shook his head at that. + +"That, I fear, would hardly carry the impression that I want to make. +I look on all these people as my parishioners. Sooner or later, please +God, they will be. But we must win them, captain; we can't force them." + +He walked the deck alone that night, long after all but the watch had +retired, and thought and thought. + +And at thought of Jean going into the peril of the morrow the +temptation was strong at times to find some other and less dangerous +way--for her sake. For himself he would not think twice. For her--ah! +for her he would think many times. And, after all, had he the right to +persist in his own way, even though he believed it to be the right way, +since it meant undoubted danger to her? + +But he found in such thoughts the visible cloven hoof of avoidance, +compounding, cowardice, and resolutely shut down upon them. For her +sake he could have wished that she had been content to stay quietly on +board, and let him face the danger alone. But duty called him with a +clear voice, and go he must, whatever came of it. + +And so it came that, very early the next morning, Kenneth Blair and his +wife Jean set out on a somewhat perilous journey. And with them went +Matti, the Samoan. And Matti by no means relished the undertaking, yet +compassed a fairly stout face, since it was a matter of duty and a +tangible business, with nothing ghostly about it, as yet at all events, +though as to what it might presently develop into he had his own very +grave doubts. + +They were surely as peaceful-looking an embassage as ever sought a +distrustful enemy. They were all in spotless white, and their only +visible weapons, beyond Jean's green-lined white sunshade, were some +small bundles containing presents, and a new axe and spade carried by +Matti. Blair, indeed, had a revolver in his hip pocket, but it was +only there because Jean was there. Had he been alone it would have +stayed behind. It was, no doubt, somewhat of an anomaly after his +confident "We are as safe there as here" of the previous night. But he +was very human, and, as I have said, no more perfect than you or I, +though an infinitely finer specimen than either of us. + +As they quitted the ship, the long gun thundered out over their heads, +and the noise of it bellowed up into the hills, and clanged to and fro +in the valleys. And when they touched the shore it bellowed again, and +went on bellowing at intervals like the threatening little monster it +was. + +Ha'o met them at the landing with some of his people, and shook his +head gloomily at their prospects. He offered to accompany them as far +as possible; but, as he bitterly said, they had not a spear among them, +nothing but the axes Blair had given them, and axes are of little use +against spears and poisoned arrows. + +But Blair would not hear of it. He begged him to keep his people at +their work as usual, and went on quietly through the disputed taro +fields, up through the yam plantations and banana groves, and stood for +a moment to look back over the lagoon, with the shapely little ship at +her anchorage, and the bursts of white foam along the reef behind. A +puff ball of white smoke fluffed out from her deck as they looked, and +the roar of it went past them into the hills. It was not by any means +impossible that they looked on it all for the last time. And Kenneth +Blair's heart was not light as he took Jean's arm through his own and +pressed it close to his side, and felt the trustful pressure of her arm +in reply. + +They understood one another fully. They had said all that needed to be +said. In this and in all they were one; and if this meant death, they +had no other wish than that it should be together. + +"You are very brave, Jean." + +"I am where I would be, and as I would be, Ken. We are in God's hands." + +"Amen!" he said, and lifted his hat and led her round the shoulder of +the hill. + +They did not know where they might come across Ra'a. + +"You will find him," Ha'o had said meaningly. + +So they climbed on and up, through tangled thickets of hibiscus and +branching matpandanus, under grey-boled palms, along bare patches of +rock, certain that scores of dark eyes were watching them, wondering +when and how their journey would end. + +The hills had echoed many times to the voice of the long gun, when, +from a clump of brush in front, a couple of bristling warriors rose +suddenly and barred their way. They carried long, thin, venomous +spears and heavy bows, and each had a bundle of arrows at his thigh. + +"Aoha!" said Blair quietly, and they stared grimly, first at him, and +then, and longer, at Jean. She sat down on a rock and opened her fan +and began to use it with an equanimity which covered a jumping heart. + +The climb had been somewhat exhausting, her face was radiant with +colour and a great wistful expectancy, and her eyes shone like southern +stars. She was a goodly sight to any man. To these brown men, who had +never in their lives seen anything like her, she must have seemed +almost more than human. After an appreciative glance at Matti's axe +and spade, they stared at her with stolid insistence. + +"Tell them we have come to speak with Ra'a. We bring him presents," +said Blair to Matti, and a conversation of clips and jerks ensued, and +in the result the brown men turned and led the way into the bush. + +They came at last to a number of houses which had a hasty and temporary +look about them, and were surrounded instantly by a buzzing crowd of +men, women, and children, Jean again the centre of attraction, and +bearing it, as before, with surprising equanimity. + +They almost mobbed her, and shouted their comments aloud from one to +another. Her sunshade, her fan, her dress, her face, her hair, her +hands, every bit of her was a new sensation, and they made the most of +it. + +Then sudden silence fell, as a tall man strode through the lane they +made before him, and stood in front of the strangers. + +"You are Ra'a?" asked Blair of him direct. + +"I am Ra-ch-ch-ch-a!" and his raucous name sounded worse in his own +throat than it had ever sounded to them before; and as he said it, so +it seemed to fit him. + +He was tall and well made, evidently younger by some years than Ha'o, +but his face was truculent and his eyes quick-glancing and shifty. + +They rested, however, on Jean, and under other circumstances, and from +a civilised man, Blair would have resented the look. + +"What do you want?" asked Ra'a harshly. + +And, through Matti, Blair answered him-- + +"We want peace between you and Ha'o"--and at the very mention of his +brother the other scowled--"and between your people and his." + +"It is you who have made the trouble. Why did you bring him back?" + +"If it had been you we would have brought you back just the same." + +"Ha'o is a fool to have dealings with white men." + +"Those others were not white men, they were yellow. They are not of +our tribe. We, too, hate the things they do, and we have come to stop +them." + +"You are all the same. If you hate them, why did you not kill them?" + +"We do not kill if we can help it. If they come again, we may have to +kill them." + +"Why is that noise?" as the voice of Long Tom bellowed in the hills +once more. + +"It is the voice of my big canoe." + +"It is only a voice. It does no harm." + +"When I choose. You saw the other big canoe's masts? It did that with +twice speaking." + +"What do you want?" asked Ra'a once more. + +"We have come from the other end of the world, where the people are all +white, to try and be of use to you." + +"We do not want you. We do quite well." + +"There are many things you do not know, many things you have not got. +Axes, spades," and he laid them down at the brown man's feet, "and +cloth, and beads, and fish-hooks, and knives"; and he opened the +bundles and gave them to him, and the black eyes round about snapped +greedily. "Very many things we have, and we would share them with you. +But we must have peace. If you will make things as they were before, +we will share all these among you, and many more. It is far better +than killing one another." + +There was a visible inclination in the crowd towards a share in the +good things, and Ra'a saw it and countered quickly. The man was a +savage and brutalised, but he did not lack brain. + +"We do not need your gifts. We can take them--all you have." + +"You cannot take them. My big canoe could blow you all to pieces. But +it has come to fight for you, not against you, and when it has done +fighting it will go back and bring many more things for you. But it +must be in peace." + +Ra'a, whatever else he was, was a diplomat. Truculent he was without +doubt, treacherous if it served him, and his word was probably of small +account; but such things are not unknown in even more accomplished +diplomatic circles. + +He saw the inclination of his people, and that he must go with the tide. + +"Give us our share of the things and we will be satisfied." + +"You shall have your share if it is peace. There must be no more +killing." + +"The taro and the yams belong to us also?" + +"Certainly. We will divide equally. If you will draw a line, we will +draw a line, and you and your people will keep to your side, and Ha'o +and his people will keep to his side." + +"We will draw the line and tapu it. When will you send the things?" + +"When the line is drawn. Will you come and draw it now?" + +"You will go--and you," he pointed to two of his men. "You will put in +tapu sticks and bring back what the white man gives you. Who is the +woman?" staring hard at Jean, who had managed to keep an unruffled face +in spite of the inquisition to which the women were subjecting +her--touching her hands, her face, her hair, and the puzzling +appointments of her dainty toilet. She had even induced one mother to +let her pat the head of one brown mite, who was mumbling its fingers +after reluctant teeth and stared at her with big round eyes. + +"She is my wife." + +"What is she wanting?"--a question evidently inspired by Jean's Miss +Inquisitive look, which showed strongly at times and was much to the +fore under the strain of the present interview. + +"She is wanting everything," said Blair, with a smile. "It is probably +that brown baby at present." + +"She can have it. Is she hungry?" + +"I don't think she is hungry, and she would not take the baby from its +mother." + +"Is she white all through?" + +"White all through," said Blair. + +"Have you any more in the big canoe?" + +"They are all married--except one." + +"I will marry her. How many coco-nuts will you take for her?" and he +stared appreciatively at Jean. + +"We do not sell our women. You would have to ask her yourself." + +And at last they got away without further compromising Aunt Jannet, and +very gratefully they went back by the way they had come, with full, yet +lightened hearts. For the way, though it had opened before them, and +now, to look back upon, seemed neither very difficult nor very +dangerous, had been a perilous one, and one where death might have +opened at their feet at any moment. + +They went in silence with over-full hearts. Blair did not in the +slightest delude himself with the idea that he had settled the matter +at one stroke. He was quite prepared to find the agreement turn out +but a temporary one, but it was a step towards the light to have +arrived at any understanding whatever. + +He was not surprised, also, to find Ha'o anything but satisfied with +the arrangement. He would have preferred wiping out Ra'a and the +malcontents, and settling the business at once on a sound and final +basis. + +With infinite difficulty Blair succeeded in showing him that those +others had rights as well as himself, even though they had wronged him, +and tried hard to inspire him with his own hope that matters would +eventually work out for the best. + +Ha'o, however, knew better. + +"Their hearts are like this," he said, laying his hand on a length of +twisted creeper dangling from an adjacent tree. "They are as grasping +as a convolvulus for the water. They will take all you will give them, +and they will keep the tapu just as long as it suits them." And he +said to himself, "But by that time we shall perhaps be ready for them"; +while Blair was thinking, "Every approach they allow us to make is a +point gained." + +The taro fields and yam plantations and banana groves were soon roughly +divided off in a fair equality, and sticks with plaited palm leaves set +up to warn off trespassers from either side. Then, with the idea of +impressing them to the utmost, Blair invited the two plenipotentiaries +to accompany him on board the big canoe to get the things he was to +give them. + +To this they demurred at first, though obviously desirous, and it was +only after much argument among themselves that they at last agreed, and +then only on condition that the white woman stopped on shore till they +were brought safely back. + +They stepped gingerly into the steam-launch at last, and eyed her +bustling, unaided progress with obvious but well-concealed amazement. +They were shown over the ship, the big gun was fired for them at close +quarters, they inspected the farmyard and the cat, and they finally +went home laden with gifts, and with new impressions enough to set +their brains spinning and their tongues wagging for a month to come. +And it is not likely that their stories lost anything in the retailing. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS + +"Aunt Jannet," said Blair, as they sat in great relief and content +discussing the day, when their visitors had left, "we had an offer for +you this morning." + +"An offer?--for me, Kenneth? Whatever do you mean?" + +"A brown gentleman desires to correspond with a white lady with a view +to matrimony. He wanted to know what we would take for you in +coco-nuts." + +"In coco-nuts indeed!" and Aunt Jannet bridled red. "And who was the +impudent fellow?" + +"Our enemy, our host, Mr. Ra'a. Jean made such an impression on him +that I fear the brown ladies' noses will be permanently out of joint." + +"H'mph!" with a snort of disgust. "He'd better keep out of my reach." + +"I told him he'd have to ask you himself." + +"I'd like to see him." + +"A hint to that effect will bring him along hotfoot, I've no doubt. +The matter is worth consideration," he said, with an assumption of +weightiness. "Royal alliance--union of opposing factions--peace +secured--a very good solution of our difficulties. Say, Aunt Jannet! +will you sacrifice yourself for the good of the community?" + +"Get along with you," said Aunt Jannet. "No naked brown cannibals for +me." + +The ice being broken with the factious ones, Blair and Stuart and +Evans, with Matti still necessary as interpreter, though they were all +rapidly picking up words and phrases of the island tongue, paid Ra'a +several visits and did their utmost to strengthen the slim foundations +of peace. + +Ha'o and his people, however, declined any active intercourse with the +rebels, and never ceased to warn the white men to be on their guard, +asserting that their present amenableness was only assumed and would be +thrown off as soon as no more was to be got by it. Blair judged that +likely enough, but gave no sign of it, and treated the others as though +he believed them in every way worthy of confidence. And Ha'o and his +people meanwhile went on steadily replenishing their houses, and +constructing the weapons without which they felt but half men and +wholly insecure. + +The mission-houses were completed and furnished. The farmyard was +transferred from the bows of the _Torch_ to suitable premises ashore, +and what with the discontented bellowings of John Bull--who was always +wanting something he hadn't got, though what it was neither he nor any +one else could make out--and the mellower remonstrances of his more +thoughtful consort, and the satisfied gruntings and squeakings of the +delighted piglets and their mother, and the bleating of the goats, and +the crowings and cluckings of cocks and hens, and the gabbling of geese +in the river pools, the little settlement began to assume a most +home-like appearance. + +The ladies rejoiced in the feel of solid earth once more, and +discovered endless delights in the nearer woods and along the beach. +Limits, however, had to be placed on their wanderings, till assurance +of good intent on the part of the outsiders was made doubly sure or +proved entirely worthless. + +Their nearest neighbours were the atoll community. These, not +unnaturally, felt somewhat doubtful as to the permanence of their +security among the discordant elements around them, and looked +anxiously to the white men for protection. Left alone they would +undoubtedly have been slaughtered and eaten out of hand, for human +flesh was still the choicest dish where the only other variations from +a vegetarian diet were occasional wood-pigeons, paraquets, and an +unreliable choice of fish. + +So far as Ha'o and his people were concerned, the atoll men were safe +enough for the present and until cause might arise. They had been +bed-fellows in misfortune and had shared a common deliverance, and so +they were allowed to work beside the others in the taro swamp and to +take their allowance of the fruits of the earth. + +But there was a spirit of fear and distrust abroad--the fear that walks +by night and makes light sleepers in palm-thatched houses, and no man +went abroad after dark if he could help it. + +With no little difficulty Blair succeeded in getting into communication +also with the fourth community in the neighbourhood--the sitters on the +fence, who were naturally at odds with all the others and would have +fared badly but for their numbers, and for the hope each side had of +eventually drawing them into their own folds. + +They were perhaps more dangerous to approach even than Ra'a. For Ra'a +was one, and his men obeyed his words. But these outlanders were many, +and each man did what seemed right in his own eyes, and kept on terms +with his neighbour and the community simply from motives of safety. In +going among them, therefore, the risks were multiplied. They took all +that was offered, however, and promised anything that was required of +them in hopes of more. + +But, obviously, four more or less distinct communities in one district +were at least three too many. It was like having four savage dogs at +large in one small back yard, and the proper thing to do was to get +some of them to move. + +Captain Cathie, coasting down the lagoon in the launch, had reported +several fine wide valleys opening up into the hills, and Blair +determined to try to induce some of the others to move farther down the +coast and start fresh settlements there. + +So far as Cathie had seen--and he was much too cautious to land until +he knew more about what he might meet ashore--these valleys seemed +unoccupied and capable of profitable occupation. + +But Ha'o, when the idea was mooted, only shook his head mysteriously, +and said they would never go there. No one lived there. No one ever +had lived there. Farther down there were scattered communities, but +the men rarely came up this way because they had made a practice of +eating them whenever they got the chance. Over the mountains also +there were villages, exclusive for the same reason. + +And when Blair suggested the idea to Ra'a and the others, and offered +to assist them in laying out taro fields and yam plantations, he was +met in the same way. He could get nothing more out of them. The +subject was so evidently distasteful that he determined to go and find +out for himself, if possible, what the objectionable features were. + +And so, very early one morning, he set off in one of the whale-boats, +with Matti and Stuart and four men, and they pulled quietly along round +the great frontlet of the hills till they came to the first opening +into the hinterland, some five miles from the settlement. + +Keeping a sharp look-out, they ran in on a fine white shell beach, and +took cautious way up a wide valley from which the hills rolled back in +long sweeping slopes, well bushed, and thick with palms. Gay flights +of paraquets flashed in and out of the bushes, and the soft crooning of +multitudinous wood-pigeons was like the humming of bees in a summer +garden. A broad stream flowed through the valley, widening into +silvery pools and glittering over broken shallows. + +"It's an ideal place," said Blair. "What on earth has kept them out of +it?" + +They passed cautiously on through the tangled undergrowth. In front +was the sound of falling waters, an intermittent drenching splash, now +heard, now lost, as though a raincloud burst and passed and came again; +otherwise a wide and perfect silence, which the droning of the doves +seemed but to accentuate. + +Through dense tangles of lemon hibiscus, and crowding paw-paws, and +stilted pandanus, and the gleaming boles of the palms, they saw the +valley widen into a great arc, and caught glimpses of mighty walls of +rock which marked the end of it. And presently they were standing +below, and gazing up in awed amazement. + +In the shadow of the cliff, with their backs to it and their faces to +the sea, sat a row of gigantic stone figures, gazing out In solemn +silence through the slow-waving tops of the palms, the ephemeral palms +which had grown and died in countless generations, and had crept +gradually nearer and nearer, since those grim figures first sat down +there, with their backs to the cliff and their faces to the sea. + +So huge were they that the gazers felt themselves pigmies in +comparison. Each grave head bent slightly forward as though listening +intently for something that should come up from the sea, and the great +stone hands were crossed reverently on the massive stone breasts. + +From the sheer edge of the cliff above leaped streams of sparkling +water, which broke in mid-air, and swung to and fro in the breeze like +veils of gauze, and swept constantly over the seated figures, and +wrapped them in fragmentary rainbows. + +In their grim everlasting expectancy the great stone gods were very +terrible to look upon, even with the eyes of understanding. More than +once the gazers found themselves glancing fearfully over their +shoulders towards the sea, lest perchance the long-delayed answer to +that unspoken questioning might be coming. The sudden confrontation +with these mighty relics of a long-vanished civilisation conjured up +thoughts which bated their words to whispers. + +"This accounts for it," said Blair softly. "What an amazing sight in a +cannibal island! What do you make of it, Stuart?" + +Stuart had been eyeing the monster nearest him with keenly critical +eyes. + +"Peruvian, I should say. Of the time of the Incas--or perhaps earlier +still. Yes, earlier probably. I see no suns. This is mighty curious, +you know. The present natives cannot be descended from them. They are +pure Polynesians. And yet"--following out his own train of +thought--"I'm not so sure. Ha'o and Nai and some of the others show +traces of something more. I have often wondered about it. This may +explain. These"--nodding at the silent figures--"or their makers, fled +their country, or perhaps got blown across, and founded a new +civilisation here. Then the old race ran to seed and got lost among +the dark men, and ages afterwards their cousins from the mainland come +across to kidnap them." + +"Odd enough to think of," said Blair, "and likely enough to be true. +What were these figures for, do you suppose? Worship?" + +"Worship, sacrifice. Down in the brush there we shall probably find +the remains of their houses." + +And they did, all overgrown and barely discernible, but ruins without a +doubt, and of a city of great buildings. By dint of peeling off the +superincumbent growths of the ages they even laid bare a piece of wall, +huge squared blocks from which the creeping mosses and lichens had long +since eaten out the mortar. + +"We shall never get them to live here, that's certain," said Blair. +"The place is alive with ghosts for them. It would be an uncommonly +safe place for a mission-station, if safety were the only thing. But +it's too far from the parish. I think we can use it, however," he +nodded thoughtfully, with some of his far-reaching schemes in view. +"How those little pigs would enjoy those big paw-paws!" + +They rambled about the valley, charmed with its wealth of fruit and +flower, gathered quantities of each as evidences of their visit, and +pulled back home. + +Every one was on fire at once to go and view the wonders of the valley. + +"To-morrow we will carry over a pair of goats and half a dozen piglets +and some geese. They will have rare times there. If they don't burst +themselves, they will multiply rapidly. By the time we have educated +our friends here to better taste in the matter of eating, the larder +will be stocked. It is better for them to hunt pigs and goats than +men. And the wilder the pigs and goats the better. They will carry +their own sauce with them," said Blair. + +"It's the very place I've dreamed of since I was six years old," said +Aunt Jannet, shedding her years. "Girls! we'll go over to-morrow, with +the geese and the goats and the piglets, and have a scramble and a +rummage." + +Which they did, and found even more than the men. For Jean, at cost of +a wetting, discovered a narrow entrance behind one of the figures, and +inside it a winding stone staircase which led up into its head, and +found that through the eyes of the god she could see all that went on +below. + +And one of the things she saw was Aunt Jannet Harvey wandering amazedly +in front of the great stone figures; and then in a moment the earth +opened and swallowed her up. For the good lady had stepped on a carpet +of beautiful green moss, and the carpet gave way beneath her and +precipitated her into a chamber of horrors full of skulls and dead +men's bones, whence she was extricated with difficulty and in a state +of extreme nervous tension by the men from the boat. Aunt Jannet's +taste for exploration was dulled somewhat by the incident, and they +went back home promising to return another day. + +The goats, pigs, and geese entered into their new possession with +delighted gabblings, bleatings, squeakings, and proved forthwith that +they could look after themselves without any outside assistance. + +Meanwhile, the two nearer-home communities had been taking their first +timid steps towards the light, in the very practical shape of +elementary lessons in carpentry. The white men's tools, in the skilled +hands of the ship's carpenter, appealed strongly to them. Their +various uses were speedily grasped--the tools also, unless he kept his +eyes about him, as John MacNeil very soon found out. He was inclined +to wrath and the bestowal of hard names, but it was simply human nature +in its most natural form, and he learned to circumvent them by using +only one tool at a time and never letting it out of his hand till he +put it back into safety with the others. The driving of nails, +especially when they were allowed to do it themselves, marked epochs in +their lives and on their thumbs. Screws and hinges were revelations to +them, the saw and the plane perpetual wonders, the grindstone an +endless delight. + +Blair watched them quietly, showed them the uses of the various things, +let them experiment for themselves, and was satisfied that his sawdust +and shavings would blossom into fruit. Their interest was excited, +they were taking in new ideas, more in a day than hitherto in a +generation; the rest would follow. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FIRST FRUITS + +Aunt Jannet Harvey's ideas of missionary work and methods differed +essentially from Kenneth Blair's. + +She wanted to be up and doing all the time. She was anxious for +visible fruit before the seed was fairly into the ground. In spite of +the practical common-sense which she brought as a rule to the ordinary +affairs of life, she was, in this matter, like a child with its first +garden, in danger of retarding by her very anxiety for progress. She +was inclined to be for ever hauling up the tiny shoots to see how the +roots were getting on. Or, to be more exact still, she was like a +child placed suddenly in charge of an overgrown patch with instructions +to reduce it to order. And Aunt Jannet's ideas ran to such strenuous +loppings and bindings and weedings, that the timid brown women and +round-faced, pot-bellied youngsters fled, white-eyed and panting, +whenever they caught sight of her. + +This greatly distressed the good lady, and served only to confirm her +views as to the urgent necessity for prompt and radical measures, just +as flight from a school-board officer but serves to accentuate the +chase. + +She wanted the women and children clothed and taught and transformed +into the outward semblance of civilised beings at once. She wanted a +church built, and a school. She wanted to teach the women sewing and +decency, and the children their letters and manners. + +And Blair, with his wider knowledge and experience, had to put his foot +down on every suggestion she made, and, gently and good-humouredly as +he tried to do it since he knew the warm heart that was at the bottom +of it all, found himself in constant collision with her. + +"Example first, Aunt Jannet," was his constant text, "then precept. +It's not the slightest use thinking of a church or a school yet. +They'll come all right when we're ready for them. And, really, you +must not try to dress any of those women and children again. You'll +kill them." + +"But they are so--so terribly naked, Kenneth." + +"Of course they are, and so they have been for thousands of years, +their forbears at all events, and you might just as well begin giving +them poison as insist on clothing them. If you want to kill them, +clothe them. If you want them to live, just let them go as they are." + +"But the men----" + +"Now you just leave the men to us. If you good ladies will just keep +on at your own proper work, and let these big brown children watch you +and see the pleasant results, you will be doing the very best thing +possible for them. Make friends with them, pick up all the words you +can lay hold of, and, in fact, get in touch with them all round as +quickly as possible. But we must lead them; we can't drive them." + +His own example was an inspiration to them all. Evans and Stuart +seconded him loyally, and by degrees the ladies, who one and all, Jean +included, sympathised considerably with Aunt Jannet in her not +unnatural discrimination in favour of clothing, desisted from their +well-meant efforts and grew accustomed to the scant attire of their +brown friends. + +They had no lack of personal cleanliness to combat, for which "Thank +goodness!" said Aunt Jannet more than once. "If they let you see +plenty of skin, it is at all events clean skin. If they'd stop rubbing +themselves all over with that nasty rotten coco-nut oil and wear some +decent clothes, I wouldn't have a fault to find with them--except in +their eating and a few other things." + +The mission-settlement lay on the left bank of the little river which +ran through the spear of white sand at the head of the bay. On the +other side of the river the mountains where Ra'a lived rolled up, +shoulder on shoulder, till the farther ones were lost to sight. Behind +the mission the ground lay level for a space, where the valley came +down to the sea, and here were masses of coco-palms and a great tangle +of undergrowth, and farther up, past the village, were the disputed +taro fields, and the yam and banana plantations. + +On the mission side of the river, behind the level lands, another great +hill flung one rough protecting arm into the sea a quarter of a mile +beyond the houses. The great ridge, full of cracks and cavities, as +though it had broken in its fall, shot right into the lagoon, and the +barrier reef started from its outermost point. On the other side the +great waves roared everlastingly up a white shell beach, but landing +there was impossible, as no boat built by man could survive the tumult +of the surf. + +This was the island bathing-place, and here, all day long, men, women, +and children were slipping and tumbling like seals in the creaming +rollers. They shot deftly through the combers before they broke, and +away out to sea, then came skimming back stretched flat on their +swimming-boards, sitting on them, standing on them, marvels of grace +and beauty, with shouts and laughter and life's tide at its fullest. + +It was their most rational enjoyment, and the finest possible outlet +for their activities. It kept them healthy and it kept them clean. + +It also led to friction between the various factions, just as the taro +fields had done. This was the only place available for surf-swimming +for many miles on either side. Until the late troubles it had been +common to all. Now the nearest dwellers, Ha'o's people and the atoll +men, monopolised it, and when the others desired to join the sport they +were received with taunts and jibes which came quickly to blows, and +Blair had to adopt the _role_ of peacemaker once more. + +Ha'o and his men would have kept the others from the surf, just as they +would have kept them from the taro swamps. But Blair would not have +it. He reasoned with them, talked to them and at them, in a voluble +mixture of Samoan, Kapaa'an, and English, and made them understand what +he meant if many of his words were beyond them. + +In a pow-wow of this kind, when his feelings ran far in advance of his +tongue, he could not wait for Matti's plodding interpretation, but +dashed at it himself, and surprised and tickled his hearers with his +white-hot vehemence. + +They were mighty arguers and had the advantage of the language, but he +brought them to his will by sheer force of insistence. He had right on +his side, and he would have them to it also. They grumblingly yielded +the shore on certain days of the week, and Blair rejoiced in this +further sign of growth and progress. + +Meanwhile, however, he knew that they were busily at work on the +preparation of arguments of a more forceful description, and he had +little hope of reaching his ultimate goal without these coming into +use. So small a spark might set them all aflame that it was useless +attempting to forecast it or to stifle it in advance. All he could do +was to endeavour, by every means in his power, to build up among them +the new influences which he and his friends represented, so that when +the time came they should count as factors in the case. + +The houses in the village were all more or less laughable imitations of +the mission-house, for they were as imitative as monkeys, so long as +imitation imposed no restrictions, and at sight of the white men's +houses they pulled down their own and began again with these as models. +And when they got to boat-building, the canoes of their fathers were no +longer good enough for them. Their new boats must follow the lines of +the white men's boats also, to Blair's great satisfaction, since it +entailed mighty labours, and while they were busy they were safe from +outbreaks on side issues. + +At the mission-station all worked alike; the men breaking up the ground +for plants and vegetables, and attending to the live stock, the women +doing the housework and cooking. All day long the house was surrounded +by an inquisitive throng, which watched keenly and commented fully and +frankly on everything it saw, and with whom the busy workers carried on +disjointed conversations, and picked up native words in exchange for +English ones, amid shouts of laughter at the multitudinous mistakes on +either side. + +Morning and evening the white men held a short service, and the brown +men and women caught up the hymn tunes and hummed them lustily, with no +slightest idea of what they meant, but with none the less enjoyment. + +The small harmonium had been brought ashore and was a huge delight, and +for a time a mighty mystery to them. Jean played it, and they could +not understand why it should sing when she touched the keys and remain +mute when they did the same. Then one cunning fellow, by dint of +persistent watching, caught sight of her feet moving beneath her dress, +and with an excited "Hi!" laid himself flat on his stomach with his +nose at her heels, and the mystery was solved. + +The novel tunes ran in their heads, some even of the incomprehensible +words, and it was strange indeed to hear a naked brown man chopping +away at a slab of timber and singing lustily, "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown +'im! kown 'im law-daw-faw!" Later on they heard that tune amid still +stranger surroundings, for the lilt and swing of it captured their +fancy, and they were at it morning, noon, and night--building their +boats, working in the taro fields, sweeping along on the tops of the +rolling combers, sitting outside their houses when the day's work was +done. + +There was a hopeful, homely sound in it, and those who sang with +understanding hoped fervently that in time the others might do so too. + +They were very children, these brown men and women, in their +light-heartedness, quarrelsomeness, and lack of restraint. Whatsoever +seemed good in their eyes at the moment, that they did, regardless of +consequences. Only at times, the innate savagery showed through, and +then they were to be feared. Like hot-headed children who had never +known restraint, there was no knowing what they would do, except that +it would certainly be something unpleasant to the offending one and +possibly to the bystanders. + +They were very magpies, too, in the snapping up of treasure-trove. + +"We won't call it stealing," said Blair soothingly to John MacNeil, the +carpenter, who was complaining for the twentieth time of missing tools. +"They don't look on it in that light, you see, John." + +"Thievin' blayguards!" said John dourly, minus another tool. + +"We'll teach them better soon. Meanwhile, leave nothing lying about if +you can help it, and give them no opportunities. They are so in the +habit of picking up anything they want that it's become part of their +nature." + +"Juist thievin' blayguards! I'd clour their heads if I could catch 'em +at it, but it'd need eyes all round to be upsides with 'em." + +And when, now and again, John did catch them at it, and proceeded to +clour their heads, they took it quite good-humouredly, and surrendered +their prize with a grin, and bore no malice. + +It was a strange right-about-face in the lives of the ladies, and many +a laugh they had over it. + +"Jean, my dear," said Aunt Jannet one day, when all four of them were +busily washing and wringing out clothes at the mouth of the river, +"this is a change from Hyde Park, isn't it?" At which, and the +incongruity of associations which sprang up in them at her words, they +all broke into laughter. + +Straight in front lay the placid stretch of the lagoon, pulsing softly +to the broken influx through the gap in the reef; beyond it, the crisp, +white leaping hedge of foam along the reef itself; beyond that, the +infinite expanse of sea and sky, and the far-away white line where +upper and lower blue met and kissed: on the one side, the bold green +shoulders of the mountain, feathered with slow-swinging palms, solemn, +mysterious, just a trifle threatening, since Ra'a lived there; on the +beach beyond, a mixed company of brown men and white, busy at +boat-building, with spasmodic outbreaks of "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown +'im!" to the tapping of the hammers: on the other side, the tumbled +rocks of the ridge and the ceaseless growl of the surf; behind them the +white houses of the mission, the bosky valley, peeps of native houses, +sounds of women's voices and children's laughter. + +"It is certainly a wider outlook," said Jean cheerfully. + +Then a slim brown and white figure stole up beside them, and became +immediately all brown, as Nai loosed her towel vestments and began to +wash them in the same way as the white women were doing. + +"And here is first-fruits," said Jean. "Good morning, Nai." + +"Mawin," smiled Nai, proud of her accomplishments, and spread her +towels to dry in the sun alongside the more complicated garments of +civilisation. + +The _Torch_ was away with Blair and Stuart on a tour of exploration +round the island, and possibly to one or two of the neighbouring ones. + +Blair had been waiting for the opportunity for some time past. Ha'o +had told him of communities on the other side of the island, and he was +desirous of getting in touch with them as soon as possible. + +The ladies had wished to go too, but he thought them better at home +till he had spied out the land himself. He intended to land at the +different villages, and the enterprise might not be without its +dangers. Of these he made light, however, and it was with tranquil +minds that those ashore waved their farewells in the early dawn, as the +_Torch_ slipped from her anchorage and wafted lightly down the lagoon. + +The times seemed in all ways propitious. Ha'o, indeed, would have +preferred that the white men's favours should have been kept all for +himself, but Blair was at pains to explain to him that nothing less +than the whole island, and if possible all the islands, would satisfy +him. In view of what he knew would follow sooner or later, he tried to +explain to the brown man that if it were possible to unite the various +communities on Kapaa'a under one paramount chief it would be for the +great benefit of all. + +To which Ha'o replied succinctly-- + +"Then we must kill Ra'a," and rose to the prospect. + +Ra'a had been quiescent for some time now. There was occasional +friction between members of the various factions, but nothing more than +was to be expected under the circumstances. They were simply +squabbles, resulting in no general disquiet, though symptomatic of the +underlying feeling that was abroad. + +Ha'o, however, never ceased his warnings. Ra'a he said feelingly, was +not to be trusted, and the only right and proper thing for the white +men to do was to join him in wiping him out, and the sooner the better. +And, simply from a political point of view, Blair could not but confess +to himself that the weight of evidence was in Ha'o's favour. For Ra'a +remained in truculent retirement, and doggedly rejected all efforts at +conciliation. Blair had gone up the mountain more than once since that +first time, and had done his utmost to win him over. Ra'a accepted all +his presents as his rightful due, but gave absolutely nothing in +return, not even worthless promises. He was the black cloud on the +horizon, and they could only hope that he would remain a cloud and not +develop into a storm. + +Each week that passed strengthened Ha'o's hands. Not only did it give +him time to arm and consolidate his own little community, but his +numbers were constantly increased by ones and twos, as the dwellers in +the hills took note of the advantages enjoyed by those on the shore +through their intercourse with the white men, and desired to share in +them. Ha'o permitted the return of these prodigals, since it was +better to have them under his hand than beyond his reach. He put +little faith in them, but had the wisdom to keep his feelings to +himself. Blair welcomed them as straws indicative of the current, but +Ha'o, better versed in the ways of his race, pushed on his preparations +for the conflict which he foresaw these very secessions would sooner or +later precipitate. + +When Blair told him of his impending trip of exploration, and tried to +induce him to come with them, Ha'o stated bluntly that he preferred to +remain at home. It was not impossible that he had it in his mind that +if anything happened in Blair's absence, he would have the freer hand +to act as he pleased. For the white men were ever on the side of +magnanimity, and magnanimity, where Ra'a was concerned, was to Ha'o +simple foolishness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SETBACKS + +So the _Torch_ slipped down the lagoon like a picture, and Nai and the +other ladies completed their laundry operations, and in due course the +red sun dropped into the sea, without the explosive hiss which seemed +inevitable, and night fell on the little community as peacefully as +usual. + +Evans conducted their evening service, and the attentive ring of brown +men and women round the platform of the house hummed the tunes gaily, +echoed the white "Amen" with the gusto of children after a long sermon, +and dispersed like big bumble-bees to their homes. + +Jean could not sleep that night. It was the first time she and Kenneth +had been separated, since their marriage, and she felt as lonely as the +circumstances demanded. She got up at last and slipped on a +dressing-gown, and went out and sat on the platform. + +The soft lip-lap of the water on the beach, and the distant growl of +the surf, were soothing, and she sat looking at the great new stars, +with which she was becoming friendly by degrees, and thinking of her +husband, and wondering how far he had got, and of the vast change her +marriage had made in her life. + +She had never for one moment regretted it. All her heaven on earth was +centred in Kenneth. So long as he remained to her, all the rest was +nothing. And before long they would begin to see the fruit of their +quiet sowing, the Dark Islands would be dark no longer, and they would +be living a quiet, happy life among a new and contented people. It was +a grand and glorious work. No, she had no regrets--since she had +Kenneth. + +On her right across the river, as she sat facing the sea, the mountain +loomed sombre and menacing--the hill Difficulty. Her thoughts ran back +to that trying morning when she and Kenneth faced the hill, and what it +held, all alone, not knowing whether they would ever come back alive. +Like many another hill on life's highway, its menace had been chiefly +in their own fears, and had disappeared on closer acquaintance. How +she wished that uncomfortable man Ra'a would go away, or be reconciled +to his brother, or do anything that would allow the community to settle +down in peace to its new life's work. + +She knew much of Blair's great hopes and large ideas, and how essential +he considered it that the islands should as soon as possible attain to +some kind of central government, so that they might unite in opposing +an inflexible front to any attempt at interference from the outside. +The Dark Islands for the Dark Islanders was his aim and object in life +at present, and this truculent savage on the hill there was keeping +everything back. She almost had it in her heart to wish Ra'a's speedy +and sudden death. + +Blair had often spoken of the evils that had followed the admission of +traders in others of the South Sea Islands--drink, disease, +dispossession--and how the communities were ruined before ever they had +a chance of better things. Yes, surely, she thought, if Ra'a could +meet with some happy accident, which would end him, it would be for the +good of the community at large. That was not a thought that would +commend itself to Kenneth, she knew, but she could not help thinking +it. What a mighty relief it would be if Ha'o walked in some morning, +and said, "Ra'a is dead." She felt as if she could almost forgive him +if he had done the deed himself. + +Then she thought she heard, a sound in the gloom of the hillside. She +strained into the darkness and listened intently. She heard nothing, +but still felt a sense of discomfort. After all, it might quite likely +be one of the natives prowling about, though, as a rule, their fear of +ghosts and evil spirits kept them indoors after nightfall, and it +needed very strong inducement to take them abroad. + +She was still peering towards the hill with puckered brow, when a +curdling, short-cut yell ripped the silence behind, in the direction of +the village, and in a moment pandemonium seemed loosed, and the night +was alive with horrors--screams and yells and all the turmoil of +warfare. + +That first deadly cry sent Jean flying inside for Aunt Jannet. The +good lady met her at the door of her own room with an anxious-- + +"What in the name of goodness----?" and then Alison Evans and Mary +Stuart came tumbling in upon them, and Evans called to them from the +ground outside to stop where they were, and they would be all right. + +It was not in human nature, however, to stand huddled in the dark, +asking one another questions which none of them could answer, when the +answer was shrieking outside, and they all crept, trembling, to the +verandah, and stood silently facing the danger, whatever it might be. + +They heard Evans quietly ordering his men, and felt safer. And beyond, +the shouts and yells waxed and waned and wavered to and fro. Once they +thought they were coming in their direction, and their hearts thumped +painfully. Then the tumult drifted away again, and at last passed +furiously towards the taro fields, and died away on the mountain-side. + +Then new sounds arose, cries of victory, little less blood-curdling +than the shouts of battle, and the ladies crept back into the dark +room, assured of their own safety, but with horrible premonitions of +what these might portend. + +Presently the shadowy darkness over by the river resolved itself into a +mob of black figures which came towards the mission-houses, leaping and +brandishing its newly-fleshed weapons, and shouting at the top of its +voice, in horrible incongruity, and the more horrible in that the tune +was perfectly correct, "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im! +Law-daw-faw!" + +They circled the fence, leaping and shouting and singing, and the men +of the yacht inside grasped their weapons to repel an onslaught. But +the brown men had had their fill of fighting for that night, and were +only there to advertise their victory. + +Evans said a word or two to them, but learned only that Ra'a had come +down from the hill and attacked the village, but that they had been +ready for him. They were too excited to be able to give any details +yet, and presently they drew off and went shouting and singing home. + +Jean, with something of a shock, remembered her ill-wishes for Ra'a, +and wondered with discomfort, now that the bald possibility faced her +so closely, if they had been realised. If they had, she would feel +almost as if she had had a hand in his death. + +Then a native drum began beating in the village, and the ceaseless +monotony of its deep, dolorous boom fretted their ears, and set their +hearts jumping, and jangled their nerves to the point of agony. They +covered their ears with their hands, they stuffed their fingers into +them, but the drum beat in through their temples. They clasped their +heads tightly to keep them from splitting, but the drum beat in all the +same. When it ceased abruptly at last, and they ventured to lift their +heads, they saw one another's pale faces in a faint gleam that stole in +through the windows. The darkness over the village was pulsing with +the glow of great fires, and as they glanced fearfully at one another +they knew that the same horrible thought was in all their minds. + +It was dawn before the noises died away, and Evans came in to them with +a grim, grey face. He said nothing, but nodded silently--and their +horror was confirmed. + +Yes, truly, it was a decided change from Kensington and Hyde Park. + +No soul from the village came near them that day, nor did any of them +venture out except Evans, who went along twice during the day to see +what was going on, but returned each time with pinched lips and a +despondent shake of the head. + +The following day the brown men were about again, but sluggishly, as +though the fight had used up all their energies, or something else had +clogged them. It was another two days before they settled down to +work, and even then they were not quite as they had been. + +Ha'o had kept away from them. When Evans came across him at last, he +endeavoured to get some particulars of the fight, and gathered that +Ra'a had probably watched the departure of the _Torch_, and thought it +an opportunity not to be missed. He had crept down in the dark, hoping +to surprise the village, and then make easy prey of the mission-houses +and their contents. Ha'o had foreseen the possibility of such an +attempt. Evans understood him to say that in Ra'a's place it was just +what he would have done himself. So he had men on the watch, and the +rest slept armed, and instead of a surprise, the hill-men walked into +an ambush--and paid. Ra'a himself had escaped, leaving a dozen or so +of his men behind. They had eaten them, said Ha'o, in a +matter-of-course way. Ra'a had gone farther into the hills, and to +follow him would be dangerous. And so to the boat-building once more, +and much singing of "Kown 'im! kown 'im! kown 'im!" which sounded more +than ever out of place under the circumstances. + +Nai also put in an appearance that day, and to such an extent does the +mind prejudice the eye, that it seemed to Jean and the rest that even +she was changed from what she had been. In a word, it was difficult to +look upon any of these sleek brown men and women without thinking with +disgust of the horrible orgies in which they had been indulging. Their +humanity seemed but skin deep, and just below it the wild beast lurked +and peeped through the glancing black eyes. + +Nor was it easy to conceal their feelings entirely, and perhaps Nai's +womanly intuition perceived a touch of frost in the atmosphere. She +stayed but a short time, and then went quietly away. + +"I'm sorry," said Jean, with a sense of discomfort; "but really I could +not feel towards her quite as usual." + +"Of course you couldn't--nobody could," said Aunt Jannet briskly. "If +I knew how to talk to them, I'd tell them what I think of the whole +business. I'd make their ears tingle, I warrant you." + +"I wish Kenneth was here. He would know just what to do." + +"He'll tell you, my dear, that it's no good talking to them. You must +just go slow, and break them off it by degrees. All the same, it would +be a relief to one's mind to give them a right good scolding." + +"They've been used to it all their lives, you see." + +"All the worse for them. They ought to be ashamed of themselves." + +"But that's just what they don't understand. Suppose a brown man came +over to England and remonstrated with us for killing and eating +beautiful little lambs and graceful cows----" + +"Fudge, child! Lambs and cows aren't human beings," grunted Aunt +Jannet. "They haven't souls." + +"I don't know that the fact of men having souls makes much difference +when it's only a question of their dead bodies being eaten. But I do +hope Kenneth can break them off it! It is too horrible! And one can't +help thinking of it every time one looks at them. Though I suppose it +was just the same before we came." + +"What they did before we came was not our fault. What they do now is, +and the sooner Kenneth puts a stop to it the better," was Aunt Jannet's +final word. + +Matters went on quietly--Evans and the men of the yacht clearing and +breaking up ground for trial plantings of various seeds, the brown men +busy on their boats to the tune of "Kown 'im!" the women, brown and +white, busy on their household duties, the children laughing and +screaming--till, on the seventh day, a brown runner came, fresh from +the surf behind the ridge, to tell them that the _Torch_ was in sight. +And instantly they dropped what they were at, to scramble up the +shoulder of the hill and wave their joyful welcome. Not a white man or +woman there but felt a new sense of security and hopefulness at sight +of her, and it was chiefly because on board of her was the wise head +and great heart to which they had all come to look for guidance and +inspiration in their work. + +It was a very joyful meeting when the anchor rattled down, and Blair +and Stuart and Captain Cathie jumped ashore from the whale-boat, and +the brown men welcomed them, outwardly at all events, with as much +gusto as the whites. + +And great stories Blair and the others had to tell of their doings out +beyond. The brown men and women crowded round the platform till late +into the night, laughing and chattering with appreciation of the white +men's volubility, though they could not understand a word of it all. + +It had been a most satisfactory trip. They had visited all the six +islands of the group, and had landed at various places on each of them. +They had found the natives suspicious at first, but amenable to +presents and open to their advances when they found nothing ulterior in +them. In fact, in several places, when the brown men found them +actually going away, without any attempts at kidnapping or otherwise +molesting them, they followed in their canoes for long distances +begging them to return. + +"It's a glorious field," said Blair, stretching out his arms +energetically as though to gather it all in at once, "if we can only +occupy it and fence it round before the degraders come. And we must, +for one of those islands given over to the devil would be like a plague +spot infecting all the rest." + +Then they told him of the happenings at home. He was startled at +Ra'a's outbreak and at thought of the consequences if it had proved +successful. + +"I hate the thought of coercing him or any one," he said thoughtfully; +"but until he either comes in, which I fear is hopeless, or is got rid +of in some way, he is going to be a terrible hindrance to our work." + +"Deport him to yon outer island, Mr. Blair, with such of his people as +stick to him," suggested Cathie; "then the rest will have peace." + +"Easily said, captain, and a good idea; but how?" + +"It would mean fighting, I suppose," said Cathie briskly, "unless +common-sense led him to give in quietly. Sometimes it pays best in the +long run to grip your nettle at once and grip it hard." + +"He'll never give in till he is forced to," said Blair. "Yet I can't +see my way to use our force against him. How can we preach peace to +these people if we begin by using the sword ourselves?" + +"If you give the rest peace, it may be better than preaching it," said +Aunt Jannet. "I agree with Captain Cathie. There'll be no peace till +that man is got rid of. And, for goodness' sake, do stop them eating +one another, Kenneth. I haven't enjoyed a meal since, and I can't look +at one of them without thinking that a day or two ago he was munching +one of his fellows." + +"We shall break them off it by degrees." + +"By degrees!--by degrees!" cried Aunt Jannet. "It is too horrible. +You ought to go straight to Ha'o and tell him we won't have any more of +it." + +"And suppose he said, as would be very natural, that he'd do as he +pleased? What would you do then, Aunt Jannet?" + +"I'd tell him if he didn't stop it I'd make him, or else we'd all go +away and leave him." + +"Ay, well, you see, we can't make him and we're not going away, so it's +no good telling him that. We must use our common sense. These people +have eaten human flesh all their lives. It is the greatest treat they +can have. If you argued the point with Ha'o, he would probably say +that, as between man and pig, man is the cleaner feeder of the two, and +therefore must be the better eating. When we have pigs enough, we'll +work them on to pork. Until we can get them on to something they like +as much, or, better still, get them to feel that man was not meant to +be eaten by man, I fear words won't go for much." + +"And do you mean to say that you'll pass the matter over without a +word, Kenneth?" asked Aunt Jannet. + +"I don't say that, and I don't intend to. But if you imagine, Aunt +Jannet, that a cannibal is going to give up his daintiest dish simply +for being spoken to, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." + +He made his first attempt against cannibalism the next day, and +returned from it with a humorous twinkle in his eye. + +"Well?" asked Aunt Jannet. + +"Well," said Blair, "Ha'o holds that it can't be wrong for him to eat +men when we do the same." + +"If he'll wait till he sees us doing it, I'll find no fault with him." + +"I assured him that white people never ate human flesh. And what do +you think was his proof that we did? He pointed to some of those +corned-beef tins with George Washington's head on the label, and said, +'There!' and nothing I could say would convince him that George +Washington did not represent the contents. He is under the impression +that we can our people at home for convenience, and carry them about +with us in that way. I assured him it was cow, but it was no use. He +could not believe anyone would kill such a beautiful animal as a cow +simply for food. He said he would give ten men for one cow any day. +So there we are, you see. It will be a matter of time. Meanwhile, I +suggest peeling George Washington off the rest of those meat tins!" + +"Well, I never!" said Aunt Jannet. "And Ra'a?" + +"He is as anxious as you and Captain Cathie to make an end of him; but +he acknowledges that it would be dangerous to follow him into the +hills, and would certainly mean considerable loss of life, so for the +present I have dissuaded him from it." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +FORWARD + +This is not a missionary chronicle, but simply a brief record of some +of the doings of Jean and Kenneth Blair. It is impossible, therefore, +to enter into anything like a detailed account of their work among +their chosen people, interesting as that would be. Only the more +salient points can be touched upon, such as stood out from the level of +hard, plodding, often dry and dreary work, as God's mountain +masterpieces stand out in our travel-memories, and remain with us when +the long level plains are forgotten. And just as the mountain's +grandeur is the record of Nature's strife and endurance, so these +salient points in a man's life as a rule mark battle-grounds and +commemorate strife--and sometimes victory. + +Kenneth Blair always found a vast and quite unique enjoyment in the +first beginnings of things. I myself have heard him express a +whimsically-veiled, but none the less profound, regret that it had not +been possible for him to be present at the very first beginning of all, +when "in the dim grey dawn of things, earth drew from out the void and +rounded to its shape." + +It was very characteristic of the man, and explains to some extent the +whole-hearted delight he found in his work in the Dark Islands. + +Here, if not a new-created world, was one sunk in nether gloom, to +which no glimmer of the light had yet penetrated. As regards things +spiritual, it was virgin soil--worse, it was a veritable swamp of +heathenism, a quagmire overlaid with the strangling growths and +festering remains of ages of superstition, cruelty, and thick darkness. +And this in one of the fairest spots on earth. + +You anti-missioners, who sit at home and mumble platitudes on the +needless waste of life and time and money, spent in the effort to lift +these outer fringes of the night, how very little you know! + +They are quite happy as they are, those outer ones, you say. Life +comes--and goes--easily with them. They have all they want. Why +disturb them? Why introduce upsetting notions? Why open their minds +to wants only to fill them at so heavy a cost? + +The answer is so simple. Would you see any child of yours condemned, +for no fault of its own, to sit in outer darkness, if at any cost to +yourself you could open the door to the light and warmth you yourself +enjoy? Would you refrain from opening the door to a neighbour's child, +to a stranger's child, to any child whatsoever, if your hand was on the +handle? + +These others are children also. In spite of their blue skies and +crystal seas and waving palms, they are buried in a darkness like unto +death. It is for us who rejoice in the light to help them towards it. +Our own great inheritance carries with it an inevitable and inalienable +obligation. Shirk it we may and do, cancel it we cannot. + +It was the recognition of this paramount duty, in perhaps somewhat +abnormal measure, that made Kenneth Blair what he was. He brought to +the work the white fire of a mighty enthusiasm which nothing could +damp, and which did one good to look upon. The spur of what he deemed +a former lapse urged him at times, perhaps, to extremes in the matter +of personal risk; but if any man ever carried the courage of his +convictions to their fullest limit, without a thought for himself, that +did Kenneth Blair. With it all a simplicity of manner which was never +at fault, because it assumed nothing; a natural gaiety and +high-heartedness which carried him bravely through many a difficult +place, and drew even the brown men to him; and a width of view, with a +long forward reach, which might have made a statesman of him, had he +not chosen this higher path. + +To see him at football on the beach with a shrieking crowd of brown +boys, himself as much a boy as the nakedest of the lot, was one thing. +And to see him pondering, or hear him unfolding to the others, his +plans for the Dark Islands, was quite another. + +He had seen the strange, and in some cases awful, developments of +civilisation in some of the other islands. He had pondered them for +years, and had studied cause and effect from germ to ultimate issue. +They were as warning lights to him. The wonderful chance which placed +in his hands the financial lever had awakened mighty hopes in him. In +his mind's eye he saw the Dark Islands enlightened, self-governing, +self-possessing, self-supporting--a prospect worth any man's life's +work. + +Of the preliminary clearing work, then, we will say little. It was dry +and dull and dreary enough at times to provoke Aunt Jannet Harvey to +active remonstrance at the apparent inactivity of the propaganda. But +the quiet work, confined as it was almost entirely to the presentation +of better ways of life by force of example, and the very occasional +dropping here and there of a seed of precept, began to show some small +signs of fruit at last. + +Within a very short time Nai's advanced notions in the matter of dress +had caught on, and instead of the precarious ridi fringe, towels, or, +in default of them, a strip of striped calico, had become the +fashionable female attire. Within six months the brown men were going +about fully clothed--in a loin cloth. + +"It's better than nothing," said Aunt Jannet. "It keeps them from +looking absolutely indecent anyway, and as for the children it doesn't +matter," for the children all flatly refused any attempt to clothe +them. Time after time she had made furtive experiments on them, but +they all proved abortive. They took her gifts of cloth and so on +willingly, but turned them to unexpected and unintended uses. + +Within six months the children were coming to school--some of them, and +irregularly--and were actually, in some cases, beginning to have vague +ideas as to why they came. It was not much, but it was in the right +direction. + +Within six months the white men had learned enough of the language to +be able, with their additional slight knowledge of Samoan, to +understand and make themselves understood--to some extent. And the +brown men, in exchange, had acquired a number of English words and had +added considerably to their repertoire of hymns--the tunes they picked +up marvellously, and the words they chattered like parrots. + +They had also learned to handle white men's tools with facility, and +they still stole them when opportunity offered, though not quite so +freely as at first. They had also seen marvellous things come up out +of the earth from the white men's plantings, and had learned to what +uses they could be put. They had seen wonders of the white men's +ingenuity, chief among which was the diversion of a rapid little +stream, which from time immemorial had flowed to the sea on the other +side of the ridge. By a very simple damming operation, to which the +cracks and cavities of the ridge readily lent themselves, the torrent +now came down the nearer side, and by means of a water-wheel, of John +MacNeil's construction operated a circular saw and various other +labour-saving appliances, and then flowed in a sparkling stream through +the middle of the mission settlement. The water-wheel and the circular +saw were endless enjoyments to the brown men, women, and children, and +they would sit watching them by the hour when they could have been more +profitably employed about their other affairs. + +Matters politic had also advanced somewhat. In place of three parties +in the close neighbourhood of the station, there were now only two. +Ra'a was still at large in the hills, but the leaderless faction had +gradually disintegrated, some few joining him, but the larger portion +returning by degrees to their allegiance to Ha'o, drawn thereto by the +manifest advantages of the white men's friendliness. + +And Ha'o himself had behaved well. Constant intercourse, even through +the misty medium of scarce understood tongues, with men like Blair and +Stuart and Evans, could not but have its effect on any man, and on this +clear-headed, sharp-witted savage the effects had been very marked. + +He was naturally intelligent, and, according to his lights, of a most +gentlemanly disposition. His understanding developed still more +through his observation of the white men and their ways. He recognised +their superiority in most things and, as headman of his tribe, was +emulous of their accomplishment. He lapsed at lengthening intervals +into his natural savageries, but, beyond this, never swerved by a +hair's breadth from his loyalty to the men who had restored him to his +home. + +Nai was rejoicing mightily in the possession of a sleek, plump, +black-eyed baby, the first son born to Ha'o. His other wives had given +him daughters, but since his return to the island, and their tardy +return to him, he had declined to have anything to do with any of them +beyond seeing that they were fed. Nai's community in his dangers and +sufferings had concentrated all his savage affections upon her, and now +she had justified him by giving him a son. + +Blair reposed great faith in these three, and counted on them as +corner-stones in the mighty future. + +The valley of the gods had proved a famous breeding-place. Goats and +pigs and ducks abounded there. The brown men had been introduced to +roast pig and goat flesh, and found it equal almost to man flesh. But +nothing would induce them to go there for it. + +So, with mighty labours, for the animals were become perfectly wild in +their freedom, a number of them were given the run of the island, and +the novel excitements of the chase bade fair to afford the brown men +full vent for the energies that had hitherto run in the direction of +battle and murder and sudden death. Certainly the newcomers played +havoc for a time with the taro fields and plantain and banana groves. +But this also made for good, since it involved fencing operations on an +extensive scale, and steady work tended to keep the devil of idle hands +at bay. + +"The curse of savagery is the lack of employment," was one of Blair's +maxims. "They get to fighting simply from having nothing else to do. +Get them to work, and it is a mighty step upwards." + +So, but for Ra'a, the recalcitrant, the reunion of the tribe on this +side of the island would have been complete. And this was so essential +to Blair's far-reaching plans for its safety and redemption that he +spared no pains to bring it about. + +At risk which could not be estimated, he went up alone into the hills +more than once to endeavour to reconcile the insubordinates to the +facts of the case. He guaranteed them life, liberty, and equal +advantages with the rest if they would return to their allegiance. +Failing that, he offered them safe conduct to one of the smaller, +thinly-populated islands, with supplies of tools, seeds, and animals, +and the assistance of one of his colleagues in turning these to account. + +But Ra'a would have none of it, and his dominant will so far was strong +enough to keep his turbulent crew from breaking away towards the +fleshpots. The loosing of the pigs and goats had provided them also +with food and sport, and, since collisions between the various hunting +parties were not infrequent, life was eminently tolerable, though it +lived on the point of death. + +On these embassies Blair had emphatically declined to take Jean with +him, on account of the indefiniteness of the journeying. Ra'a was +constantly shifting camp, and each time he had to be sought afresh, +with the imminent chance of the seeker meeting death in the quest. +Jean dreaded these lonely journeys terribly, but she acquiesced +sensibly, and each time bade him farewell in the full knowledge that it +might be for the last time. + +[Illustration: It might be for the last time.] + +She was, indeed, becoming reconciled to partings as incidental to the +missionary life. The _Torch_ was constantly coming and going among the +islands now, and sometimes the ladies were allowed to go and sometimes +not. Relations with the outlying tribes were progressing +satisfactorily. In most cases, after two or three calls with no +exhibition of cloven hoofs or ulterior designs on the part of their +visitors, the natives welcomed them in the most friendly fashion. In +some cases they still held back, and regarded them with suspicion and +distrust, but on the whole the tendency was towards confidence and +friendship. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MANY FORMS OF GRACE + +We have glanced at the higher phases of Kenneth Blair's character, the +more homely ones were no less strenuous and striking. + +Anything less like a saint in daily life one could hardly imagine. In +his love of fun and frolic he was a big, clean-hearted schoolboy, full +of jokes, and with a laugh that did one good to listen to and was as +infectious as the mumps. Out of harness, on the sands or in the sea, +with the brown men and boys and his own, or up the hills after pigs and +goats, he let himself go with an abandon which only helped to brace the +straps when he geared again. + +He set them to football, cricket, boxing, and fencing, for all of which +his foresight had made provision, kite-flying on a scale so gigantic as +to set the natives gaping, rowing, swimming--anything and everything +that might harmlessly take the place of the excitements their savage +natures craved, and which served at the same time to strengthen the +bonds between white and brown, he pressed into the service. + +The boxing-gloves and basket-hilted fencing-sticks became absolute +means of grace to the islanders. Here was scope for fighting to any +extent, with no ill results. They took to them amazingly, and what was +lacking in science was more than made up in zeal. And if these +fighting bouts filled specific wants of their own, they also provided +no less excellent entertainment for the onlookers. + +At first they put both gloves and sticks to the primitive service of +belabouring their opponents to the utmost capacity of their muscles, +and the sight of two stalwart brown men, clad only in boxing-gloves or +basket-hilt, pounding away at one another with every ounce that was in +them, and with never an attempt at defence, kept the white men in +paroxysms of laughter. But punishment even of so comparatively mild a +character as that soon led to more advanced ideas, and before long the +browns were a match for the whites, and were never tired of the sport. + +Captain Cathie, when he was not ranging the seas in the _Torch_, put +his men through their cutlass drill on the beach as regularly as if the +houses behind had been a coastguard instead of a mission-station, and +to the brown men this was a sight never to be missed. The measured +sweep and clash of the glancing steel fascinated them. Presently they +were asking for cutlass drill also, and it was not denied them. Such +things might to some seem roundabout steps on the road to salvation--to +Kenneth Blair they were very direct and important ones. + +[Illustration: Steps on the road to salvation.] + +With these brown men and women he was forbearing and long-suffering to +a degree which, in the opinion of some of his friends, passed +reasonable bounds. That, perhaps, only went to prove the breadth and +depth of his nature. He could flame, however, with the best when +occasion called, yet there was a righteousness in his anger which +lifted it above the common anger of smaller men. + +From whatever distant strain they drew, the girls of Kapaa'a were +undoubtedly good looking. Physically they were models of sinuous +beauty, wild, dark-eyed nymphs, with manes of flower-decked hair and +natural graces of action that came of ages of unfettered life and +limbs. Their pretty faces and kittenish ways might well play havoc +with the hearts--or say the fancies--of hot-blooded young sailormen, +and these coquettes of the ridi-fringe were no whit behind their kind +in the full appreciation of their powers. + +Blair saw the danger as soon as he saw the girls. He had a way of +looking facts square in the face without any blinking. He talked very +straight to his boys, pointing out the cons of the case with the utmost +frankness, and exhorting them to caution and restraint in their dealing +with the island women. That so few casualties occurred spoke volumes +for his moral grip over his men. + +The danger was very real, for the brown girls' estimation of the +attentions of the white men was open and unblushing, and tended to +irritation on the part of discarded brown lovers. + +Captain Cathie, in one of his bluffer moments, bluntly suggested +wholesale marriage as a preventive of irregularities, and the starting +of a new race on that basis, instancing the Pitcairners as typical +resultants. But Blair bade him postpone any such notions until the +islanders had at all events attained to some degree of civilisation. + +"Trained and educated, there is no reason why our island girls should +not make excellent wives," said he; "but the time is not ripe yet. +Nothing but bitterness and disillusion can come of the mingling of +natures so opposite. Meanwhile, if our lads can stand the test they +will be all the better for it." + +Nothing serious happened--outwardly at any rate, though it is not +impossible that a good deal went on of which the authorities were not +aware--until, one day, one of the men was missing, and no one knew--or +at all events would say--what had become of him. + +Captain Cathie discovered the lapsus when he had his men out for drill +on the beach. + +"Where's Sandy Lean?" he asked. + +No answer, but covert grins from the rest, and flashes of laughter from +the girls who were watching--laughter which evoked a growl from the +brown men. + +"Very well! We'll deal with Sandy afterwards. Fall in, men! +'Tention!" and the drill proceeded. + +When it was over, the captain questioned two or three of them as to +Sandy's probable whereabouts, but got nothing out of them. So he +marched over to Blair's quarters, where the four heads of the community +were hammering away at the language, Ha'o giving and receiving, and +Matti straightening out kinks. + +"Sandy Lean's away, Mr. Blair, and I can't get track of him," announced +the captain. + +"Ah!" and Blair drummed quietly on the table till the hot anger cooled. +"So that's come at last," he said presently. "I'm sorry. The man's a +fool, but as he has chosen, so he must lie." + +He explained the matter to Ha'o, who showed no surprise and still less +annoyance. His manner even implied that he looked upon the alliance as +an honour to Kapaa'a, and that any other view of it might be popularly +resented. + +"Can you find the man for us?" asked Blair. + +"What do you want with him?" asked Ha'o. + +"He must marry the girl." + +"I will find him," and next day he brought word that the fugitives were +camped lightly in the hills, in one of the houses vacated by the +dissolved third faction. + +Blair, Cathie, and Ha'o accordingly set off at once to straighten the +matter out, and a couple of hours' climbing brought them to the place. + +Sandy Lean's old mother in Greenock Vennel would surely not have known +him in his present estate. With the bonds and trammels of civilisation +he had lightly discarded also its outward and visible tokens. His only +clothing was a kilt of white cotton, whereby he was already paying +tribute to folly in the clouds of flies and mosquitoes which levied +toll on his white skin. In the hope of circumventing them, or with a +loverly idea of assimilation to his brown bride, he had smeared himself +with mud from the taro fields, and was now a motley pastel in black and +red and white. + +The sound of his voice, droning a comic song, drew them to the house, +where he lay flat on his back on a mat. By his side sat the brown +girl, doing her best to keep off the flies with a bunch of leaves. + +"Hoots, lassie, scat 'em!--scat 'em!" he broke out. "They nip like the +de'il himsel'. It's the kiss of a cold Scotch mist I'm wantin'." + +The dusky bride greeted the newcomers with a smile broad enough to +typify her happiness and victory. She had proved herself stronger than +the white men, and was satisfied with her prize. She had woven a +garland of crimson hibiscus into her dark hair and another round her +neck, and with her lustrous eyes and gleaming smile she made a very +pretty picture. In a playful mood she had also inserted a crimson +flower behind each ear of her captive, and when, at her warning word, +he sat up suddenly, he looked supremely silly and was aware of it. + +"So you've made your choice, Lean?" said Blair quietly. + +And Sandy glowered back at him with defiant confusion, while the flies +settled on his shoulders. + +"You're the first to fall away from us," said Blair, "and it would have +been better, I think, if you had waited. However, as you have decided, +so it must be. You have no wife at home?" + +"No, sir." + +"Very well. Stand up before me with the girl and take her hand." + +They stood up in their surprise, and he read the marriage service over +them, insisting on Sandy's responses and taking the girl's for granted, +since there was no possible doubt about her wishes. + +"Now," he said, when it was over, "she is your wife, and you are at +liberty to return to the village. Ha'o will see you married again +there according to the island custom, so that the people may understand +that you really are married. You have taken yourself off the ship's +books, of course, and you will have to support yourself and your wife. +I hope you will treat her well. No doubt her relatives will see to it +if you do not. It would, I think, be as well for you to keep in touch +with the mission, and we will do what we can to help you. You can have +tools and seeds. If you get into any trouble, come to me. Now +goodbye--and--see you treat that girl well." And they left the +newly-married couple to their honeymooning. + +It was some days before Mr. and Mrs. Sandy descended from the clouds to +the humdrum cares of life. Ha'o punctiliously performed over them all +the rites and ceremonies observable in marriage on Kapaa'a, and before +they were ended the bridegroom began to weary of all the fuss and to +long for the easier accommodations of civilised life. + +But Sandy's troubles were only beginning. With much labour he built +for himself and his wife a house of parts, and his wife's relatives +expressed themselves highly pleased with it, and immediately quartered +themselves there, not simply in very great contentment, but fairly +uplifted with their lot. They began to put on airs on the strength of +the lofty alliance, and at the same time to put off even such trifling +habits of labour and thrift as had hitherto supplied their daily wants +without any undue exertion. Sandy remonstrated verbally, and at times +otherwise, but custom was against him, and there was no shirking the +burden. The other men visited him pretty regularly, and gave him a +hand with his planting in their spare time; but in spite of his pretty +wife, with her odd, outlandish ways, the sight of his full house +offered them no inducements to follow his example. He was a standing +warning to the rest, and so was not without his uses. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MIGHT OF RIGHT + +Matters were progressing thus, surely if slowly, when a sudden sharp +stroke fell upon them--sudden, but not altogether unlooked for. + +With the individual as with the nation, peaceful times are growing +times; and yet, to both individual and nation, there come times of +stress and strife, when the slow upbuilding of the years is put sharply +to the test, and, surviving, is the stronger for the strain. Winter's +storms provoke the oak to deepest rooting. + +At times, indeed, too long a period of peaceful growth may lead to +over-fatness and deterioration. The nation and the man that waxes +over-fat grows lean of soul. But that is a side issue at the moment. +The little community on Kapaa'a was too near to its swaddling bands to +be in any danger of fatty degeneration. And yet the stressful time +that came to it made for good in every way. It had been striking roots +and feelers. Well for it that time had been given them to grip the +soil before the storm burst. As it was, they only gripped the tighter, +and the breaking of the storm cleared the air, and made for more +prosperous weather. + +Captain Cathie, in his capacity of watch-dog, had never for a single +moment relaxed his precautions at home, or his keen-eyed vigilance +abroad. When he was touring the islands, his glasses swept the horizon +continually, with a special eye to the east, which was the threatening +quarter. + +"Those yellow deevils will come back, as sure as we're here," was his +constant word. + +And so the beach was never bare of stacks of neatly-cut wood from away +up the valley, and the bunkers of the _Torch_ were always full, and the +men were regularly drilled, and Long Tom was ready to speak at a +moment's notice. + +Each day, when the _Torch_ lay at anchor in the lagoon, he took the +steam-launch, or, occasionally, one of the whale-boats, by way of +exercise for muscles, through the reef, to an offing whence he could +obtain wide views of the approaches to the islands. + +"In there," he would say, "I feel like a man with his back to the wall. +It's safe enough, but there's no telling what's behind it." + +And the wall was quite too high to climb, for the only eastward view +from the summit of the hill was of the higher ridge, which ran right +across the island, with only one possible passage, and that but a +narrow one. + +They used to mildly chaff the old man about his fears, but he took it +all with characteristic good humour. + +"Ay, ay, all right!" he would say. "Just you wait, and we'll see who +laughs last. When they come, it'll be no laughing matter, I'm +thinking." + +"They've probably forgotten all about us by this time, and have found +easier pickings elsewhere," said Blair. + +"That kind doesn't forget in a hurry, and they know they've only got to +break us up to get all the pickings here they want," said Cathie +stubbornly. + +And it was thanks to these ceaseless precautions that, when the time +came, they were not taken unawares. + +Cathie had run out in the launch one morning as usual, and presently +came plunging back through the passage with a haste that betokened the +unusual. + +"They're coming," he said quietly, as the others met him on the beach. + +"What, the nightmares?" said Blair, with a keen glance, for the captain +was not above a joke. + +"Ay, the nightmares, sure enough. A brig and two tops'l schooners +working up steady from the south-east. They'll carry a heap of men, +I'm thinking, and we'll have our hands full." + +"Right? How soon can they be here, captain?" + +"Wind's light--a couple of hours, I should say, at soonest." + +"Our old plans stand?" + +They had long since discussed the possible campaign, though not very +lately. + +"If they have as many men as I expect, we'll have to change 'em a bit. +Unless they're absolute fools, which it's as well not to reckon on, +they'll split and strike us more than one side at once. There's easy +landing the other side the island." + +"But a difficult way across." + +"They don't know that, and they'll trust to luck to get across once +they're ashore." + +"You can keep this side all safe with the _Torch_, I suppose, captain?" + +"Any quarter this time?" asked Cathie anxiously. + +"Make quite sure of their intentions first. Then, if they are what we +have reason to suspect, hit hard and end it." + +"I'll keep this side all safe," said Cathie briskly, "and when I've +cleared them here, I'll take a run round to the back and wipe 'em up +there too." + +"How many men can you spare us, captain?" + +"I can do with six besides those below," said Cathie, after a moment's +consideration. "Under steam we'll have the weather gauge all the time, +and we'll give 'em no chance to board." + +"That leaves us ten. Give us your ten best, captain, and see that each +man has a revolver in addition to his Winchester and cutlass. Better +beat up your men at once with the drum, Ha'o. What about Ra'a? Will +he rest quiet, or will he take advantage of the matter to attack us, or +will he help us?" + +"He won't help. He may attack. If we are beaten, he is chief," said +Ha'o, with a look which implied that the proper thing to do under the +circumstances was to wipe out Ra'a forthwith. + +"Run the ladies across to the Happy Valley at once then, captain, and +take Lean and his wife to look after them, if she'll go. Will you send +your women and children there too, Ha'o? They would be safe from Ra'a, +at all events." + +But Ha'o, knowing his people, shook his head. + +"They will not go." + +And so it proved. Fighting, the women understood, though they did not +like it, but spirits they neither understood nor liked, and they would +take no risks in such matters. They chose in preference to go up the +southern hill, where they could keep a look-out for Ra'a and could +scatter if he showed head. + +The ladies understood the necessities of the case. Their preparations +were quickly made, and within the hour they were landed in the Happy +Valley, with Sandy Lean, armed to the teeth, to guard them from any +stray yellow skins who might get in, an eventuality which was not at +all likely. Sandy's wife chose to go with her man, which was a +gratifying sign of moral improvement through marriage, and they tried +their best to get Nai and her baby boy to go too, but she would not. + +Captain Cathie saw to the armament of the land contingent, and gave +them a strenuous word or two of his own. Then he carried the _Torch_ +through the passage in the reef and lay waiting for his prey. + +Close upon a hundred men answered the call of the drum. They were +armed only with fire-hardened wooden spears and clubs, and the axes +they had used in more peaceful pursuits. But they had had no fighting +for some time past, they were defending their hearths and homes, and +with the yellow men keen in their memories, they were aching to be at +them. And the little band of heavily-armed whites gave both edge and +backbone to their courage and made them formidable. + +Blair, Stuart, and Evans carried Winchesters and revolvers. + +"Our cause is a just one," said Blair. "We will defend it by every +means in our power. These men's blood is on their own heads." And +there was that in all their faces which boded ill for the invaders. + +The only communication between the east and west sides of the island +was over a dip in the central ridge which, from its most prominent +feature, they had named One-Tree Pass. On the farther side the slope +was gradual and easy. On the mission side the ground was so broken, +and the ascent so precipitous, that for all ordinary usage the pass was +impracticable. No one ever dreamed of using it unless under most +urgent necessity. No more urgent necessity had ever arisen than this +present, and One-Tree Pass for once in its life became the active +centre of the island. + +The defending force scrambled up the broken way, and before it reached +the pass Long Tom was bellowing angrily behind them, and was answered +by another gun which sounded equally loud and defiant. The hill +shoulders, however, hid what was going on, and they could only hope +that Captain Cathie would be able to hold his own and something more. + +Blair placed his men among the boulders overlooking the pass, and crept +on along the ridge with Ha'o and Evans and Stuart, until they could +look out over the long, easy sweep of the hill to the farther sea. + +Opposite the landing-place lay the two schooners, with boats plying +rapidly between them and the shore. The landing had evidently been +disputed. The village was in flames and brown figures were creeping +cautiously up the hill. The beach was filling rapidly with men from +the ships. + +"It will be a couple of hours before they get here," said Blair, and +with instinctive foresight, in view of his greater work, "I wish we +could get hold of those brown fellows. If they know that we're +fighting their battle, it will pave our way with them later on." + +He put it to Ha'o, and eventually the latter slipped away down the +hillside, none too eagerly, to endeavour to intercept the fugitives and +bring them in, if it were possible. + +There was no difficulty in intercepting them. They were flying for +their lives. Bringing them in, however, was quite another matter. + +They recognised Ha'o, by his speech, as from the other side of the +island--hostile therefore, and not to be trusted; and it took all his +diplomacy, through the veil of a different dialect, to persuade the +first half-dozen to the venture. + +The sight of Blair, however, reassured them. They recognised him from +his calls in the _Torch_, and presently they were off along the hills +to bring in their fellows. + +Altogether about thirty terrified men and women came in. The women +were sent on down the valley. The men lay down among the rocks with +the defending party. + +Meanwhile the marauders had completed their landing and had begun their +march, like the shadow of a black cloud creeping slowly up the +hillside. Before them, urged on by blows from behind, crept two +reluctant brown guides with ropes round their necks. There was no fear +of the yellow men missing the pass. They toiled upward with stubborn +determination, and wasted breath in voluble commination of the length +of the way, when they could have employed it more usefully in +compassing it. + +And there was no possible doubt of their intentions. Slaughter and +plunder were written all over them, as plain to see as the nature of a +hyaena in the cut of its slinking face. + +Nevertheless, Blair would permit no attack unchallenged. As the +bristling crest of the black wave foamed cursing into the level of the +pass, he drew cautiously back under cover till the whole should be +there. When he struck, he would strike with all his might. This was a +nettle to be gripped hard, to be squeezed to pulp and trampled out of +sight. + +The yellow men flung themselves flat and cursed their wind back. And +the pass lay blank and bare and open under the glare of the sun. Not a +stone rattled, not a shadow moved. The one lone palm seemed cast in +brown. + +In due course, and with the aid of many curses, the marauders got to +their feet at last, and came pressing loosely along behind their +unwilling guides. They passed unchallenged the place where Blair knelt +behind a big rock. Below and on each side, pinched brown faces craned +anxiously over restless brown shoulders at him, eager for the word. It +was not till the motley crew had passed that he stepped out suddenly +from his cover, and stood, a tall white figure, in the sun-glare. + +"Hola!" he cried. "What are you after?" And instantly such a +villainous array of vicious yellow faces was turned on him as he had +never before in his life set eyes on. + +A babble broke out among them. + +"Dios! It is he!" + +"It is the fighting padre!" + +"It is the devil himself!" + +"Down with him!" + +"Our turn now, senor missionary!" + +And one answer to his question which needed no knowledge of bastard +Spanish for its translation. A sharp report, and a bullet buzzed past +his head. + +Other guns were rising to correct the insufficiency of the first. + +"Give it them, boys!" shouted Blair, and before the words were out of +his mouth, rocks and fire-pointed spears were raining on them, back and +front, and as they tried in vain to face both sides at once, there came +the quick crackle of the Winchesters and a ringing cheer from the +_Torch_ men at the end of the pass. + +The yellow men reeled under their flailing. The ground was cumbered +with bodies and the air with curses. The momentary panic drove them in +upon themselves and bunched them together. + +But the weak point about the thrown spear as a weapon of offence is the +fact that, once hurled, it is gone. The yellow men were an +undisciplined mob, Ishmaelites all, accustomed every man to fight for +himself and ready to fight at any moment, but their death dealers +remained in their hands, and they outnumbered the _Torch_ men by seven +to one. The Torches poured in volley after volley. The yellow men +tightened their defence and replied in kind; while the brown men danced +wildly among the rocks, and hurled stones and clubs, and were shot down +like rabbits. + +Blair's men were falling all round him. The sight was too much for +him. He snatched a club from the ground and sprang down the hillside. +In a moment the sides of the pass vomited brown men frenzied for the +fight. + +"Kown 'im!--kown 'im!--kown 'im!" they yelled, and hurled themselves on +the enemy. + +The _Torch_ men, reduced in number, fired one more round and came +racing in with their cutlasses. The yellow men replied, and then +clubbed their guns and thrashed wildly at the advancing tide. + +Under such conditions, and with the might of right as well as numbers +against them, the yellow men gave way and drifted back towards the +mouth of the pass, fighting stubbornly all the way. + +And Kenneth Blair forgot that he was a man of peace. He saw his brown +men falling all round him, ripped and bashed and broken, and he dashed +into that fight as he had dashed into many a more peaceful one on the +football field at home. He saw nothing at the moment but the vicious +yellow faces and shaggy heads of the despoilers. He knew nothing but +the necessity of demolishing them, and with his unaccustomed club he +smote with all his might at every head he could reach, as his forbears +long ago struck down the Northmen when they came wading ashore from +their beaked ships on the coast of Caledonia. + +The brown men eyed him with amazement, and yelled with unholy joy at +sight of his Berserk fury. The teacher was a man like themselves, and +could let himself loose like the rest of them. And Blair thought +neither of them nor himself, or of anything whatsoever, save the +necessity of ridding the island of the vermin that would pollute it. + +For once in his life he tasted the wild, mad joy of battle. + +His red club whirled and fell, and wherever it fell there fell a gap, +and in him raged a red fury which nothing could appease or oppose. + +He would surely have been a terrible sight to himself--his white face +set to slaughter, and smeared with blood from a bullet graze on the +temple, his white clothes spattered red, his eyes ablaze, and that +murderous red club whirling and smashing to the tune that plunged in +his veins. + +At the end of the pass, where it dipped towards the sea, the yellow men +broke, and it was over, so far as danger to the island was concerned. +But not by any means over as concerned the yellow men. Never yet did +enemy break and flee but prudence and restraint fled with him. +Cast-iron discipline may leash it in the bulk, but in the individual +the lust of death will out and have its way. The wild beast that lurks +in every man once roused is ill to curb, and hardest, maybe, in the man +not easily provoked. And here was no pretence of discipline. The +furies were afoot that day, and death and destruction were rampant. + +Blair found himself plunging down the hill path after a scattered mob +of yellow men. They were too breathless to curse. Their only hope was +the sea. + +The prey was escaping. Terror lent it wings stronger than the fury +behind. He hurled his dripping club among them, and one man fell. + +At one side, among the boulders, he caught a glimpse of Ha'o, all +aflame with battle, doing dreadful things with a dripping red axe. So +horrible did he look, so utterly inhuman and wholly possessed of the +devil, that Blair gasped at the sight. Then he stumbled to a rock and +dropped his bursting head into his hands--and came to himself. + +The pursuit sped on down the hillside. The yells and shouts died away +towards the sea. + +He raised his head at last, and his bloodshot eyes looked heavily after +them. + +"God forgive me!" he gasped. "I have been in hell." + +He jumped up with the idea of stopping the work he had started. But +that was impossible. As well try to stop the mountain snow in its +death gallop. The red fury had gone down the hill like an avalanche. +Until its force was spent it must run its course. + +Now that the fire had died out of him he found his legs trembling so +that he could hardly walk. He sank down again on his boulder and drew +his hand dazedly across his brow, streaking it horribly with fresh +smears of blood. + +He looked round him, at the blue sea, the white surge, the quiet ships. +He heard the shouts below. He saw a boat put off from the shore and +labour heavily towards one of the ships. + +"God forgive me!" he groaned once more. "I have been killing men." + +But the only man he was actually conscious of killing was the one at +whom he had hurled his club in his last spasm. And when he got up +heavily, and went down to him where he lay in the glare of the sun, he +found the man was not dead, and he was glad. He carried him carefully +to the partial shelter of a rock, and propped him up, and gave him +water from a runlet close by. He drank deeply himself, and washed his +hands and face and plunged his head under water. He noticed now for +the first time that his white jacket was spattered all over with blood. +He tore it off and flung it from him. + +The reaction which followed his temporary possession left him limp and +exhausted, and burdened with a heavy mental load which as yet he made +no attempt at lightening. + +Then he went slowly down the hill, and saw one of the schooners loosing +her sails in a hurried and shifty fashion. From that he gathered that +some of the invaders had escaped, and he was too unaccustomed a warrior +to regret it. + +The rest, who had followed the pursuit to the shore, were held back by +no such considerations however. To them the yellow men were enemies to +be smitten hip and thigh, to be destroyed root and branch. When they +reached the beach and saw the broken boat-load lumbering towards the +schooner, the _Torch_ men and a number of natives flung themselves into +one of the other boats and set off after them with the most final +intentions. + +The schooner caught the breeze and began to make way. The _Torch_ men +played on her with their Winchesters, a chance shot dropped the +helmsman, her head fell off, and she was theirs. Some of the yellow +men jumped overboard. For the rest--well, the Torches knew Captain +Cathie's views, and the islanders were of a like mind. + +Blair passed several dead men as he went down the hill, but saw no +wounded ones. As he neared the remains of the village he came upon the +bodies of the first victims of the invasion, brown men and women and +children. + +He had seen nothing of Evans and Stuart since the fight began. Evans +he had placed in command of the Torches; Stuart had been in charge of +the opposite side of the pass. + +The brown men were leaping about the beach inflated with their victory. +The _Torch_ men had anchored the one schooner and were now securing the +other. + +A sudden shout along the beach showed him a yellow man fleeing for his +life with half a dozen islanders after him. He had been hidden in the +bushes till they stumbled upon him. The sight of his twitching face +and agonised eyes remained with Blair for many a day. There had been +many such eyes and faces up there on the hillside, but he had had no +eyes to see them. Now he was himself, and would stop the dreadful work. + +He ran towards the man to succour him. But succour was the last thing +the other looked for in him. His long knife was in his hand. Escape +was hopeless, but here was a chance for a blow in return. He flew at +Blair like a wild cat, and drove the knife at his neck. Blair swerved +instinctively, and it went through his shoulder. The wild cat was on +him with gnashing teeth and flaming eyes, snarling, grappling, biting +him. + +They rolled over and over in the sand. Then sinewy brown fingers +gripped the other and tore him away, with a mouthful of Blair's shirt +between his teeth, and in a moment he lay still. + +Blair lay still also. The last things he remembered were the horror of +that animalised snarling grip, and a dreadful agony in the shoulder as +he rolled over in the sand with the knife still sticking in him. + +When he came to, he found himself the centre of a group of the island +men who were looking down on him with troubled faces. They gave a +shout when he opened his eyes, and presently he was sitting up showing +them how to bind up the wound with strips of his torn shirt. The knife +had been pulled out while he lay unconscious--for the sake of the knife. + +The _Torch_ men came leisurely ashore after securing the schooner and +found him so. He had lost blood freely both from head and shoulder, +and felt sick and dizzy. They made a stretcher out of a couple of oars +and a native mat, and at his request carried him at once up the hill to +the pass. + +He was anxious about the others; he had no recollection of seeing them +since the fight began. It seemed to him that since he picked up that +club and leaped down into the pass he had seen nothing but vicious +yellow faces and evil eyes, and broken heads, and bodies that suddenly +crumbled and fell. + +His mind was relieved by the sight of Evans as soon as they topped the +pass. And at distant sight of the stretcher Evans came running up with +an anxious face. + +"Serious?" he asked. + +"Don't think so. A jag through the arm and a scratch on the face, but +I felt sick and couldn't climb the hill. Where's Stuart?" + +"Back here. Got a bullet through the leg. No bones broken, but he +won't walk for a week or two." + +"Many others wounded?" + +"Two Torches, half a dozen natives, and a dozen of the yellow men. +Frightful blackguards they are too. Makes me wish they'd been killed +outright just to look at them." + +Blair nodded. He could not plead wholly guiltless in that respect. + +A dozen yellow men on their hands would be an anxiety and a burden. A +light affliction, however, compared with what might have been if the +invaders had caught them napping. And so they must make the best of +it, and be thankful for things as they were. + +"Now see here, boys," he said, sitting up on the stretcher. "We've had +our fight and by God's mercy we've won. I'm afraid we all lost our +heads a bit while it was on"--at which, and their recollection of him +in the fight, the sailors grinned--"and I think we cannot blame +ourselves for that. But these men who are left on our hands are tabu. +The islanders will kill them if they get the chance, and we must +prevent it. What is done in the hot blood of battle is done. But +killing in cold blood is murder. You have all fought valiantly. Don't +spoil it by any such doings. And, by the way, Evans, there's another +of them lying under a rock to the left of the path over there. You +might see to him. I flung my club after a bunch of them and this +fellow went down, but he was only stunned." + +"I'll go and bring him up at once, before the brown fellows come." + +"No news of Cathie, I suppose. When did his big gun stop?" + +"Over an hour ago. We've no news. I hope it's all right. I'd have +sent down but I'd no one to send." + +"Which of you boys will go for news?" asked Blair. "I doubt if we can +all get down to-night." + +"That you can't," said Evans. "It'll be a case of go easy for some +days for all you hipped ones." + +All the men volunteered at once. Every one of them was keen to know +what had been going on on the other side of the island. + +"You seem fairly fresh, Irvine. Tell Captain Cathie how we've gone on +here, and that casualties are not serious. If he can spare us some +more help we can do with it to get the wounded down. Ask him to send +word to the ladies also. They will be anxious about us all. And if he +can send us something to eat we'll be glad of it. I'm feeling empty +after it all." + +"I'll go after your half-deader," said Evans. "One of you come with me +in case he can't walk." + +But he was back empty-handed in a quarter of an hour. + +"Gone?" asked Blair, with a pinched face. + +"He's dead, but you didn't kill him. Some one came after you and split +his head with an axe." + +"Ah!" said Blair gloomily, "these others will fare the same unless we +see to it. We'll go to them, Evans, in case any of our brown friends +come prowling round." + +But the brown men were much too busy, and we may drop more of a veil +over their proceedings than the night did. Big fires were glowing +along the beach before it was dark, and no brown man came up the hill +that night. + +They went along to the temporary hospital Evans had made among the +rocks. The beds consisted of the softest patches of ground he could +find, and the only furnishings were the patients. He had hastily +bandaged their wounds, however, and all, except the yellow men, were +fairly cheerful. + +Stuart, indeed, became almost hilarious at sight of Blair as an invalid +also. + +"I was thinking ill of myself for getting hit," he said; "but since +you're in the same boat I feel better." + +"Glad to be of use," said Blair, "and very thankful things are no +worse. They might have been. There were more of them than I expected, +and they fought harder than their cause justified." + +"Even rats will fight in a corner," said Evans. + +Just before dark Captain Cathie came panting in on them, in the best of +spirits and with many rough words for the road. He had half a dozen of +his men with him, and they brought an ample supply of food. + +"Well, captain, how have things gone with you?" + +"We mustn't complain, sir. He'd brought a gun along as heavy as ours +and we had a fine set-to. But with our steam we had the weather hand +all the time and just waltzed round him. He did his best to board, but +we thought differently." + +"And how did it end? Where is he now?" + +Captain Cathie jabbed his finger downwards two or three times in +eloquent silence. + +"Sunk?" + +"Sunk with all aboard, big gun and all. No more trouble from that +quarter. We plugged him more than once below the water-line and we saw +he was settling down. But it came sudden at the end." + +"And you were not able to save any of them?" + +"We were not"--said Cathie emphatically, and after a moment's pause +added--"and what on earth would we have done with 'em if we had?" + +"We have about a dozen on our hands here--all wounded." + +"Humph!" grunted Cathie. + +"We couldn't very well kill them in cold blood, you see." + +"And what'll you do with 'em, Mr. Blair?" + +"I don't know yet. We'll have to think that over. Did you send word +to the ladies how things had gone all round?" + +"I went over myself with young Irvine and told 'em all about it. They +were all very thankful it was over and no more harm done." + +"And how is the _Torch_?" + +"Ah!" said the old man, with an aggrieved shake of the head, "she got +it pretty hot; that's why I couldn't get round to wipe out those +schooners. Both her masts are down, and she got a shot into the +machinery. The men are seeing what they can do to it. The masts we +can fit ourselves." + +"And you've no casualties?" + +"Some splinter wounds and some bit bruises from the spars. Nothing of +consequence, sir." + +"Well, we're very well through a nasty job, captain, and we've reason +to be thankful for it. Now suppose we have something to eat--I'm +starving." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +PAX + +It took some days to get matters shipshape after the general upheaval +of the invasion. + +For one thing, the brown men were much too busy on the other side of +the island to settle down to ordinary work. Most of the women and +children had joined them there, the villages were deserted, and there +was an intangible something in the mental and moral atmosphere which +made for depression. + +Blair sent Evans over to see Ha'o, and endeavour to bring him back to +his right mind. Evans returned downcast, and described what he had +seen only to Blair and Stuart. Aunt Jannet, if she had heard, would +have had a fit. + +The ladies were back in their own homes, and the crippled Blackbirds +were bottled up in the Happy Valley, under the wardership of Sandy Lean +and his wife and a small guard of _Torch_ men. It seemed like +desecration of the beautiful spot to use it as a prison, but it was the +only place in the island where the yellow men would be reasonably safe +from the brown ones. + +The stars in their courses fought for Joshua. In like manner the +strange, stern facts of life fought now for Kenneth Blair. The cloud +which had threatened his work with destruction broke in unexpected +blessing. The fight in One-Tree Pass was an epoch in the history of +Kapaa'a. + +In the first place it had brought into line--fighting line indeed, but +none the less permanent on that account--the various factions in the +island, and developed among them a hitherto undreamed-of community of +interests. Not by any means for the first time in history, a general +menace from without welded into one a diversity of hostile fragments, +and discovered to them an unexpected identity of ideas. On a +microscopic scale it was, in its results, the Franco-German war over +again. + +The men from the eastern coast, who had borne the first brunt of the +invasion, had lost everything, including their headman. But they had +found more than they had lost. They had found out that the western men +were not necessarily their enemies, and that both they and the white +men were ready to fight to the death to save the island from the grip +of the yellow men. + +They fully recognised that without the white men's help the marauders +would have had their will, and matters would in all probability have +gone very differently. In their way they were grateful, and by no +means blind to the advantages of the white alliance. That their +gratitude was based in no small degree on a sense of favours to come, +in no way lessened its utility as a factor in the solution of political +difficulties. + +They too would share the benefits reaped by the western men from the +white men's friendship, and when differences arose amongst them at once +as to the choice of a headman, it was the most natural thing in the +world to refer the rival claims to Blair, who might reasonably be +expected to be without local bias in the matter. + +The opportunity was too good to be lost. Blair was at pains to make +clear to them the great advantages which would accrue from the union of +all the communities under one head, and finally they argued the matter +out among themselves and agreed to accept Ha'o as chief, with local +headmen chosen by him and Blair. + +They reaped their harvest at once and were content. Their houses were +rebuilt, tools were given them, and they were initiated into the +mysteries of the new foods and fruits introduced by the white men. A +proper road was promised to further communication between the opposite +sides of the island, and, so far, the descent of the Blackbirds made +for good. + +In another and quite unexpected direction also the invasion wrought in +the direction of Blair's aims. + +They were all sitting on the verandah of his house one night, watching +the lightning play tremulously up and down the western sky, listening +to the surf, and discussing matters generally. Captain Cathie, in the +little leisure the refitting of the _Torch_ afforded him, was much +exercised in his mind as to what was to be done with the prisoners. +Aunt Jannet had just expressed the opinion that it was a very great +pity they had not all been scuttled. + +"It does seem a pity you could not have made a clean sweep of them like +Captain Cathie did, Kenneth," said she. + +"Well, you see, we couldn't kill them in cold blood, Aunt Jannet." + +"And now you've got them alive in cold blood what on earth are you +going to do with them?" + +"I see nothing for it but shipping them off home as soon as they are +fit to travel. What do you say, Cathie?" + +"I suppose there's nothing else for it," said Cathie gloomily. "We +don't want them here, and yet I'm loth to turn them loose." + +"I don't think they'll ever come back, after the reception they had +this time." + +"I don't know that they will, but they'll be at the same game somewhere +else. I look on them as I do on mad dogs--best got rid of." + +"Right!" said Aunt Jannet with emphasis. + +"The trouble is that men are not dogs, you see----" + +"That they're not. Dogs are mostly honest and good to look at," said +Aunt Jannet again. + +"We could put them on one of the schooners, and you could convoy them +part way home," said Blair to Cathie. "I really don't think we have +anything more to fear from them." + +"I can do all that," said Cathie. "But all the same I'd as lieve they +were none of them going home." + +"Why?" + +"Well, you never know. If ever they can do us a mischief you may take +your davy they'll do it." + +"I don't really see what they can do, captain." + +But Cathie only shook his head. Perhaps his ideas were too vague to +clothe in words. + +Just then a shadowy figure slipped out of the darkness under the house, +reached up, and rolled something softly along the platform towards them. + +"Hello! What's this?" said Cathie. + +[Illustration: "Hello! what's this?"] + +"A present--for Aunt Jannet, I should say," laughed Blair. "Some dusky +admirer bringing tribute." + +"A thankoffering to the wounded warriors," said Evans. + +"An unusually fine coco-nut," said Stuart, tipping it with his usable +foot. "Carefully wrapped in leaves, too." + +Captain Cathie picked it up, and began to open the bundle. Evans +struck a match, and match and bundle fell suddenly with a dull, dead +bump to the floor, and were followed by a quite involuntary and +seamanlike oath from the captain. + +"What is it?" cried the younger ladies in a breath. + +"Come away!" said Aunt Jannet hastily, and set the example herself. + +"It's a man's head," said Evans gravely, as he tried to light a lamp. + +And when the lamp was lit, and the bundle lay open in their midst, they +saw that he was right--it was the head of a man. + +An exclamation burst from Blair as he bent over the ghastly offering, +while the others wondered what it might mean. + +Was it a challenge?--a defiance?--a threat? + +None of these. + +"It is the head of Ra'a," said Blair at last. "I wonder who it was +that brought it? If we knew that, we might guess what it means." + +There had been no fighting of late between Ha'o's people and Ra'a's. +In fact, the quiescence of the latter during the other troubles had +been cause for congratulation. And since then everything had been +quiet in the villages--over-quiet, the quietness of repletion. Evans +had indeed begun to fear ill results from the over-indulgence of savage +appetites. + +"What do you make of it, captain?" asked Blair at last, as of one more +versed than the rest in heathen ways. + +"Hanged if I know!" said the old man, with a puzzled frown. + +"I take it, it is a sign of submission on the part of Ra'a's men," said +Blair quietly. "Ra'a himself would never have come in of his own +accord. His men have wanted to, and so they have brought him." + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Cathie. "It's just the thing they might do." + +And in the morning they sent up early for Ha'o, and showed him the +message, and asked his opinion. + +"Kenni is right," he said at last. "They submit." + +And presently he went boldly up the mountain-side and in due course +came back with Ra'a's followers in a straggling tail behind him. + +He explained afterwards to Blair that Ra'a's men had wanted for a long +time past to come in and enjoy all the benefits they saw the others +receiving, but Ra'a had held them back, telling them that the whites +were only tricking Ha'o and his people and would presently carry them +away. They had seen the arrival of the Blackbird ships, had watched +the fight at sea, and also that in the pass, and these had convinced +them of the good intentions of the white men. Finally they had taken +matters into their own hands and settled things their own way. + +And so the divisions in the island were healed by blood, and that which +had seemed like to wreck their hopes turned marvellously to their +highest good. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE SCOURGE OF GOD + +But there was trouble of a quite unexpected kind brewing. + +The yellow men in their lives had slain a certain number of the brown. +In their deaths they slew still more. + +The whites had hoped that, with the introduction of new food supplies, +the unnatural but deep-rooted native craving for human flesh would have +disappeared. The final rites of the battlefield shocked them +exceedingly, and words had so far failed to convince Ha'o and his +people of the error of their ways. + +"You eat pig," was Ha'o's blunt argument in reply, "and man is cleaner +than pig." + +There was, however, an argument in preparation for him with which the +white men had nothing whatever to do, but which drove home conviction +beyond dispute and in the most terrifying fashion. + +Ever since the fighting, and the subsequent orgies, the villages had +been unusually quiet. Even the wholesale submission of Ra'a's men +produced little excitement among them. + +"They are like snakes after a full meal," said Cathie. "They've eaten +too much, and it'll take 'em all their time to digest it." + +Evans, however, had his doubts. He hinted to Blair that he feared an +outbreak of sickness, but as yet could form no opinion as to its +character. The men had lost all their energy, the women were +depressed, the children listless. It was as though the strenuous +doings at One-Tree Pass had sucked all the life out of them. And Evans +went in and out of the houses with a keen eye for symptoms. + +It was about a fortnight after the fight that Blair, going up to the +village, met him coming hastily from it, and was startled at the sight +of his face. + +"What is it, Evans?" he asked. + +"It's come--I feared it, but could not be sure--smallpox." + +"God help us! ... How has it got here?" + +"I can only imagine," said Evans, with a quick, meaning look at him. + +"Good God! How very horrible!" + +"Yes. They'll have a lesson they'll never forget, and many of them +will never have the chance to. What about our wives, Blair? Shall we +send them away till it is over?" + +Kenneth Blair's lips pinched tight at the thought of it all, and he +walked heavily and in silence. + +"We are in God's hands," he said at last. "I think it must be left to +themselves to decide." + +"Then they will stop," said Evans decisively. + +"Yes, they will stop," said Blair. "God grant us a safe deliverance!" + +"Amen!" said Evans, and they walked in the shadow of the coming death. + +The ladies received the news with white faces but stout hearts, and did +not hesitate one moment. + +Their place was beside the men. They did not wait to count the cost, +though in each one of them was the dull, dread knowledge of what that +cost might be. Their duty was to these brown kinsfolk of their +adoption, and they were British born. + +Evans took charge of the defence with all the energy and skill that +were in him, and, possessing their souls in God, they all went quietly +into the fight, compared with which the battle of One-Tree Pass was +veriest child's play. + +The village was sheltered by the bush and the crowding palms. Every +man was taken off the dismantled _Torch_, and set to work building a +hospital on the beach, a long, open house of poles and palm-leaves, +through which the fresh sea breezes could blow at will. Soft springy +couches of palm-leaves were ranged inside, and the simple preparations +were complete. + +Not the smallest of the horrors and perplexities of the situation was +the wholesale nature of the seizure. Springing from one identical +cause, the results came all together. The hospital was filled before +it was finished, and the builders could not keep pace with the demands +for accommodation. + +Not one of Ra'a's people suffered--clear indication of the ghastly +origin of the evil. Blair induced them to return for the time being to +their village on the hillside, and such of Ha'o's people as showed no +signs of infection he camped temporarily on the opposite hill. Every +house from which the sick were carried was promptly burned. The brown +folk could not understand such radical measures, but they were scared +by the sights they saw, and they did as they were told. + +So suddenly had the catastrophe come upon them, and in so wholesale a +fashion, that their thoughts had had no time to travel beyond their own +immediate concerns. But when the work was steadily under way Blair +bethought him suddenly of their new allies on the east coast, and he +begged Captain Cathie to run round in the launch and see how matters +were going with them. + +Cathie returned in due course with a long face and the news that things +were just as bad there, and Stuart and his wife promptly offered to go +round and carry out the same measures as had been started at the home +settlement. They were given half a dozen _Torch_ men, whom they could +ill spare. Evans promised to come round as soon as he possibly could, +and the launch chuffed gallantly away to the relief of the still more +necessitous on the other side of the island. Stuart could still only +limp, and would have been better not to attempt even that, but the +healing of his own wound was a small thing compared with that which had +to be done. As a matter of fact he limped slightly for the rest of his +life in consequence--a most honourable limp. + +Then followed for all of them a time of patient endurance and endless +self-sacrifice, which, trying as it was, still wrought mightily for and +in them. + +They went to and fro in that long open shed with quiet set faces, +soothing and alleviating as far as these were possible, whispering hope +to the hopeless, and insisting inflexibly on the observance of rules in +which the only hope lay, rules the meaning of which these brown +children could not understand, and which they broke at every +opportunity. + +Death sat grimly down before them and laid siege to them, and the +little band of white-faced women and grim-faced men fought him day by +day and life by life, losing heavily but refusing to be beaten. + +They met one another with such cheerfulness as they could muster, and +even with quiet strained smiles at times, but ever with keen +apprehensive glances for what each feared any day to find in the other. +A time for the trying of souls, with none of the glamour and activities +of actual warfare, but with perils infinitely more appalling in their +insidiousness and impalpability. + +"Ech, Jean, my dear!" murmured Aunt Jannet Harvey one evening, as she +and Jean and Alison Evans met outside for a few full draughts of sweet +sea air. "It's terrible, terrible work. You're looking white; child. +I wish you were back in London." + +"I don't," said Jean cheerfully. "We're doing our appointed work, and +I feel as if I'd never done anything worth doing at home. Kenneth says +he believes this will be a corner-stone in the building up of the +island." + +"Ay, ay! Well, it's good to be able to take a hopeful view of things +when they're about as bad as they can be. And I don't see that they +could be much worse." + +"Oh yes, they could," said Jean quickly. "Some of us might have taken +it, which would be very much worse. We have to thank Mr. Evans for +that, Alison." + +"Charlie says he thinks we're through the worst," said Alison quietly. + +"I wish I could see it," said Aunt Jannet. + +"We have only had three deaths to-day, and most of the others are past +the crisis. It's been a terrible clearance. There's that poor little +baby crying again. I must go," and they separated to their various +duties. + +It was Nai's baby boy that cried, and it died in its mother's arms that +night. She yielded it sorrowfully to those who took away the dead, and +returned wearily to her husband's couch to keep the flies off him with +a palm branch. Nai herself had been too much occupied with her baby to +go with the others across the island after the fight, and she had not +developed the disease. The baby had taken it, however, and Nai had +nursed him and his father indefatigably, and now the boy was gone just +as his father turned the corner, and the little mother was +broken-hearted. They comforted her by telling her that Ha'o would +live, and she fanned away wearily to the tune of her sobs that would +not be kept in. + +Jean, as she flitted noiselessly to and fro, with cold water for this +one and medicine for that, and hopeful words for all, and special ones +for Nai, thought now and again of the mighty change her marriage had +wrought in her life, but never once regretted what she had done and all +she had left. And more than once the dreadful thought came upon +her--"Supposing Ken were to take the sickness and die and leave me +alone!" Ah, then she felt as though her world would fall to pieces, +and she prayed, as she had never prayed in her life before, that he +might be spared, or that they might go together. + +The one thing that wrought itself indelibly into all their memories was +the contrast between their hospital work and its setting. Inside the +long palm-thatched sheds--the moans and murmurs and restless movements +of the sufferers; the ever-fluttering fans which kept off the plague of +insects, and alleviated to some extent the pungency of the atmosphere; +the irresistible depression induced by the close presence of insidious, +crawling death. And outside--the implacable glare of the sunshine; the +smooth, slow-heaving, blue mirror of the lagoon; the metronomic roar +and long white flashes of the surge on the reef; the palms swinging +slowly and solemnly with a sound like the patter of falling rain; and +up above, the pale blue sky. Death in its most repulsive form, set in +a picture of surpassing beauty, which yet had in it something of +pitilessness from the very sharpness of the contrast. These things +they never forgot. + +They held no regular services at these times, for some were always on +duty. But there was much prayer among them, and when the watches +changed, the one in charge, Blair, Evans, or Cathie, would give his +band of helpers a few brave words to carry with them--grateful thanks +for perils past, hopeful prayers for safety in the hours to come. For +they never knew but what the evil seeds might even then be working in +any one of them, and they went with fear in their hearts though their +faith and hope were strong, and their faces were tuned to quietness. + +Evans wore himself thin with his ceaseless toils. As medical director +the burden of the fight was on his shoulders, and he divided himself +between the stricken camps in proportion to their needs. The going to +and fro consumed much time, though he himself maintained that it did +him good. But he showed the wear and tear so visibly at last that his +wife, who had had a medical training at home, insisted on taking over +the east coast hospital herself, and she joined Stuart and his wife +there. + +The epidemic ran its course, the dead were reverently wrapped in their +mats, weighted with rocks, and towed out to sea on a small raft, and +there committed to the deep. The convalescents began to creep about +the beach and show a languid interest in life. + +Ha'o was among the first to get into the sunshine. While none were +neglected, Blair and Jean and Nai had nursed him as though all their +lives depended on his recovery. And indeed, to Blair's thinking, very +much more than their simple lives depended on Ha'o. He looked on him +as the corner-stone of the work on Kapaa'a, and his death would have +been a terrible blow to them all. + +As Jean had said, he had great hopes that this sharp trial might also +turn to good. He tackled Ha'o the very first day he judged him well +enough for discussion. + +"This has been a terrible time, Ha'o, my friend. Have you any idea why +it came upon you?" + +"It was your new God sent it, I suppose," said Ha'o gloomily, with the +air of a child giving an expected answer with mental reservations of +his own. + +"God permits such things. If men will do wrong they must suffer. That +is how they learn to do right. If you want to bang your head against +this rock, God won't stop you. But the recollection of what you suffer +may stop you doing the same again." + +"What wrong did we do? You killed the yellow men too." + +"But we did not eat them. Not one of us has been ill. Not one of +Ra'a's people has been ill. They also kept apart." + +Ha'o looked sombrely out over the lagoon. He was thinking of his boy. + +"Kenni," he said presently, "I know you do not like us to eat men; but +our fathers did so, and their fathers, and never have we had this +crawling death before." + +"Perhaps it was to teach you and your people. See, Ha'o! We want you +to take your right place in the world. It was for that we came. It +was for that we beat off the yellow men who would have carried you +away. We are ready to give our lives to help you. But we must have +the foundations firm or we cannot build. You do not build a house on +running sand, nor a platform on cracking poles." + +"What do you want me to do?" + +"Promise me, here and now, that you will never eat man again, and that +you will make it tabu to your people. They will do what you say. They +are frightened. God never meant man to be eaten." + +"How do you know, Kenni?" + +"He forbade man even to kill man, but of the beasts He has provided He +said, 'Kill and eat.'" + +"You killed the yellow men," he said again. + +"To save you from them." + +"Then you did wrong too. Why did the crawling death not touch you?" + +"It is not right to kill men, yet if a man attacks you, and in +defending yourself he gets killed, the blame is his, not yours." + +"You never tasted man, Kenni, did you?" + +"No, never," said Blair, with an expression of disgust. + +"Then you cannot know how good he is. My people think there is nothing +equal to man--except woman or child, which are better still. But I +will promise you never to eat yellow man again, Kenni." + +"That is not enough. Unless you will give up eating man of any kind we +must go. We have provided other food. You cannot go hungry. The pigs +and the goats are all over the island. The paw-paws grow while you +sleep. You have taro and bananas, and breadfruit and coco-nuts. You +have the chance to become a nation, strong and powerful. You are sole +chief on Kapaa'a now. I would have you chief of the other islands +also. But if you prefer to eat man I can do nothing for you. It is +the foundation of all the rest that you give up eating man." + +"My little son did not eat of the yellow men, Kenni, but your God took +him. Why?" + +"It was the disease took him. It is the most terrible thing for +passing from one to another. Could you stand the thought of your +little son being eaten, Ha'o?" + +"My son? No! I would have died sooner than let him be eaten." + +"Yet you say other men's babies are good to eat." + +Ha'o looked at him, and then lay looking out over the lagoon. + +"See, Ha'o," said Blair at last, "if the thought of your little son +will turn you from flesh-eating, he will have done more for Kapaa'a in +the short time he lived than you have done in all your life, and we +shall remember Ha'o's little son always as the beginning of the better +times." + +The brown man lay thinking a long time and one may not know his +thoughts. But at last he said quietly-- + +"Twice you have saved my life and my people, Kenni. I am your man. +You must not go away. For the thought of my little son who is dead I +will give up eating man. I will become a nation." + +"And you will answer for the rest?" + +"I will answer for the rest. If any man eats man I will kill him." + +Ha'o kept his word, and so, in the death of his little son, the +foundations were laid in Kapaa'a, and the black cloud broke once more +in blessing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +GAIN OF LOSS + +With a clean bill of health, and Ha'o as supreme chief anxious to +become a nation, and therefore ready to follow the white men's ideas, +matters began to progress rapidly. + +The first thing to be done, as soon as the men could be spared from +hospital work, was to get rid of the Blackbirders. + +Captain Cathie, vehemently backed up by Aunt Jannet, would even now +have made short work of them. + +"Give 'em a fair trial and string 'em up," was his simple idea of the +justice that would meet the case. And "Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet +with energy. + +"I really don't think they're likely ever to come back, after the +lesson they've had this time," said Blair. + +"They wouldn't if I had my way," said Cathie grimly. "Vermin like that +is best stamped out when it's under your foot." + +"We stamped pretty hard last time. They'll recognise that the game is +not worth the candle." + +So, in due course, the larger schooner, which was the older and poorer +found of the two, was provisioned for the voyage, and the prisoners +were brought over from the valley and put on board of her. Blair and +Stuart and Cathie awaited them there, and, through Stuart, Blair told +them very explicitly what would happen if they ever showed face in +those waters again. Then the refitted _Torch_ towed them out to the +offing, and bade them make tracks for home, and followed them with +dogged restraint for three days to see that they did it, and the island +was once more purged of contamination. + +When the captain got back, Blair laughingly asked him if they had got +safely away, and Aunt Jannet eyed him with a spark of hope. + +"They're gone," said Cathie, with a gloomy nod. "I'd have felt better +if they'd gone by the shorter road." + +"You ought to have scuttled them, captain," said Aunt Jannet. + +Then followed many busy full days. First the village was rebuilt on a +plan Blair had thought out during his hospital watches. The bush +between the hills was all cleared away and burnt on the spot, leaving +only the palms standing, and on this open space, with the shallow river +brawling through the middle, the houses were built. Stereotyped lines, +both as to design and location, were purposely avoided, and the result +was eminently pleasing. Fresh plantations of taro and bananas were +started, pawpaw trees and breadfruit were put in wherever space +offered, and a close fence across the valley kept the pigs and goats +from intruding. + +The next great undertaking was the making of a decent road up to +One-Tree Pass, for the benefit of the east coast community. And at all +these works, brown men and white, Ha'o's people and the late rebels, +the atoll men, and the east coasters, high and low without exception, +toiled side by side, to the very great promotion of good feeling and +mutual understanding. The ladies, meanwhile, fostered among the women +and children all such imitative habits as were judged good for them, +and after the stress and storm the peaceful times made for growth and +enlightenment, and feelings of security and content such as Kapaa'a had +never known before. + +Of direct religious teaching there was no lack, though it still ran +more to practice than to precept. Native habits and customs were +interfered with as little as possible, save wherein they palpably ran +counter to Nature's own laws and made for deterioration rather than +uplifting. + +The white men held their services regularly, and made them as simple as +possible so that gleams of the light might penetrate dark hearts but by +no means dark understandings. The brown men, at their work in the +plantations, along the hillsides after the pigs and goats, and skimming +along the combers on the other side of the ridge, chanted merry hymns +whose meanings they understood not, but which did them no harm, and +were very good to hear. The women learned many things in their own +homes and in the mission houses, and the tubby, brown children +rollicked nakedly in the school-house, learned games in which they +delighted, and some of them were even beginning their ABC. + +"Charles, my son," said Blair to Evans, as they were all sitting in +usual conclave on the verandah one evening, "what do you say to +vaccinating the whole community, lock, stock, and barrel? All, I mean, +that did not have the plague. There may be some germs of it lurking in +hidden corners yet." + +"I'm willing, if you can bring them to it. I can take them in batches." + +"I'll speak to Ha'o. He can make them do pretty well anything he +pleases. I'm more and more thankful that he was spared to us." + +"And Nai too," said Jean. "She is a great help. The women do whatever +she tells them, and she's as bright as a needle. What do you think she +came to ask for to-day, Ken?" + +"No idea. Not a pair of shoes, I hope." + +"No--some hairpins! She wanted to do her hair like ours." + +"The eternal feminine," laughed Blair. "Well?" + +"I assured her that it looked far nicer hanging loose with flowers +stuck in it. But she was so disappointed that I had to give her the +pins. You won't recognise the women in a day or two, I expect." + +Blair explained the vaccination idea to Ha'o, and made it as clear as +the limitations of language and understanding of so abstruse a matter +permitted. + +"You would give them a little crawling death to keep them from having +it big?" said Ha'o, after much explanation. + +"Yes, that is what it comes to." + +"All those who did not have it before?" + +"Yes." + +"I will order it. It is right that Ra'a's people should taste it too." + +Exactly what he told them they never learned, but in due course a batch +of stalwart brown men came doubtfully into the compound, and watched +Evans with apprehensive, white-eyed glances as he deftly pricked and +bound up their arms, and sent them away looking doubtfully at their +white bandages, in evident expectation of speedy and unique +developments. + +They were in fine healthy condition and the operation was prosperous. +The bandage-wearers regarded them as badges of distinction. They +looked upon their inoculation as a ceremonial necessary to full +admission to the white alliance, and Blair was at once scandalised and +amused by a crowd clamouring round the house next day for similar +honours. + +"Kenni," they cried, "make us Christians too! Prick our arms and give +us our badges." + +So their arms were pricked and they got their badges, and were no +longer subject to the taunts of the favoured first batch, which had +nearly led to friction in the village the night before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE LIFTING VEIL + +Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart found the tubby youngsters, and +especially the little round, brown babies, irresistibly attractive. +Such merry, mischievous little imps the former, and each newcomer such +a wonder of soft, sleek, dimpled, black-velvet-eyed brownness, that +their hearts went out to them, and the mothers laughed at their doting +absorption and cackled strenuously and meaningly among themselves. And +Aunt Jannet, never having had any children of her own, knew more about +the rights and wrongs of their upbringing than any single mother ever +knew in this world before, and had to be restrained by main force at +times from putting some of her more strenuous theories into practice. +But the good-natured brown women came to understand even Aunt Jannet's +peculiarities in time, and to accept her efforts, so far as they +accorded with their own ideas, with something like appreciation. + +For educative purposes the children were, up to a certain age, left +entirely to the care of the ladies, and it would have been hard to say +whether pupils or teachers enjoyed most the time spent in nominal study +in the wide, open schoolroom, or the still merrier jinks on the beach +and river bank. + +If Jean Blair's quondam friends in London could have seen her at play +with her naked brown boys and girls on Kapaa'a front--well, in the +first place they would not have known her, and when they did they would +have renounced her acquaintance at once. + +For the purpose of opening their little minds to better things than +their fathers and mothers had known, she brought herself down to their +level, became almost one of themselves, romped and played and danced +with them, in the water and out of it, and captured all their hearts. +And she enjoyed this partial and temporary reversion to nature as she +had never enjoyed life before. The children learned many things +without knowing that they were being taught, and Jean herself learned +not a little also. + +Aunt Jannet looked on with surprise, and spasms of doubt at times--it +was all so different from her ideas of missionary work. But she had +much to occupy her in connection with the other women, and as regards +things generally she held an open mind, with a reserve of gentle +sarcasm in case these extremely odd ways should turn out worse than she +knew her own more precise methods would have done. + +The men took the older boys in hand and employed ways quite as +unconventional and with equally happy results, and the girls of size +were well left to the care of Alison Evans and Mary Stuart, whose +special training had fitted them excellently for the work. + +In addition to the extraordinary curriculum of their school, the men +were working hard at the new foundations of life in Kapaa'a. + +It was a beginning of things such as Kenneth Blair's soul delighted in. +He was at it night and day, and suffered no whit from all the hard +work. For it was better even than recreation, since to all intents and +purposes it was creation itself, the bringing of order out of chaos, +the evolution of new life. + +Ha'o, in the large hope of becoming a nation, worked with them hand to +hand, and heart to heart. Savage born and all untutored, he was gifted +with a sharp wit and a clear understanding, and he was a born ruler of +men. He was tall in stature, and his bearing they had noted even in +the hold of the _Blackbirder_. Of late his presence had seemed to +increase in dignity, possibly from his own large belief in the future, +possibly because they viewed him in the light of what they hoped to +make him. Whatever it was, his own people noticed it also, and even +the last returned prodigals never ventured to cross him. + +His confidence in the wisdom and good faith of the white men was +implicit. When he placed his hand in Blair's, the day they landed, and +proclaimed himself his man, and again when they discussed the delicate +subject of man-eating after his illness, he meant what he said and +stuck to it loyally. + +Not that he by any means assented at once to every suggestion they +made. He could argue like an Old Bailey lawyer, and until a matter was +explained to him so that he understood all the ins and outs, and the +ultimate end and aim of it, and saw from his own point of view just how +it would affect his people and himself, he would have none of it. + +He would listen politely, follow with the most patient intentness, +question till it was clear, argue-bargle occasionally, as Captain +Cathie put it, and then,--"Kenni, it is good. It shall be,"--and some +new brick was ready for the foundations. + +They all enjoyed an argument with Ha'o. The turns of his quick mind +were so odd and illuminating at times, that, as Evans said, it was +actually educational. + +Stuart especially delighted in him. + +"He's an absolute revelation," he said, "And I'm more and more certain +that there's more than ordinary savage blood in him. It's very queer +to think of, you know, Blair. It's a clear case of reversion." + +"And of evolution." + +"I wonder now, if, by any conjunction of circumstances, we in Great +Britain could ever go back like that." + +"Impossible. The very suggestion is horrible." + +"Nothing is impossible," said Evans. "The whole country might be +devastated by a pestilence, and the few survivors might lapse into +anything." + +"Unless the whole earth were devastated in the same way, the survivors +would have common sense enough to get back to their kind. But all this +won't help Kapaa'a boys, so let's get to business." + +They went very wisely to work, with the wisdom of long deliberation on +other men's failures and successes. They imposed no restrictions save +such as were absolutely necessary for the general well-being, and even +these made for freedom. For the freedom of savagery is bondage worse +than slavery. + +They promulgated through Ha'o simple rules for the protection of life +and property, and saw them carried out with the most rigid +inflexibility. Any disputes, and there were many, were brought before +the chief sitting in judgment on the verandah of his house on certain +days, with the white men in attendance to assist his deliberations. + +At first the _Torch_ men acted as police when necessary, and carried +out the orders of the court. But before long certain of the tribesmen, +becoming distinguished above their fellows for their sobriety of +conduct and general demeanour, were nominated to headships of sections, +and did all that was necessary. + +And Kapaa'a slept of a night, freed for ever from the stealthy terrors +of the dark. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE GENTLE MARTYR + +All these matters took time, and while their hands and hearts were full +of them there came to them certain other little matters which filled +both hands and hearts to overflowing. + +To Kenneth and Jean Blair was born a son, and a month later to Charles +and Alison Evans a daughter, and it is doubtful if anything in the +history of Kapaa'a had ever stirred the feminine portion of the +community to such a pitch of excitement and enthusiasm as did the +arrival of these little white strangers. + +"Now," said the brown women, with deeper lights in their lustrous eyes, +as they gazed admiringly on the little pink-and-white squirmers, "you +belong to us indeed, since you have borne children among us." + +And every day they made pilgrimages to the two new shrines, and sat +worshipfully, while the unconscious little saints performed their +morning ablutions and then lay gazing placidly out of their blue eyes +at the sights which no one else could see. Those striking blue +eyes--the blue of the sky up above--completed the capture of the +dark-eyed ones. There were blue eyes in plenty among the grown-up +whites, but never were blue eyes like these, and the dark eyes never +tired of gazing at them. + +Of the rapturous joy of the two mothers, and the deep thankfulness of +the fathers, there is no need to speak. For a time the new maternal +cares monopolised the former, and the latter went into their island +work with new high lights in their faces and with even greater vigour +than before. + +Aunt Harvey exulted in those babies as though she had had not a little +to do with bringing them about, and Mary Stuart gloated over them with +blushing cheeks and kindling eyes that told their own hopeful stories. + +Every man of the _Torch_ offered his services as nursemaid to carry +them about the beach, and the numbers of small brothers and sisters +they had all been in the habit of devoting their early years to was +simply marvellous. + +The christening ceremony--Kenneth Kapaa'a Blair and Alison Kaapa'a +Evans--was an occasion of high festival throughout the islands, and +Blair, with his life-work always large in his mind, turned it to +account. Aunt Harvey was not present at that high ceremony, to her +very great regret but more greatly to her honour. And this is how it +came about. + +Intercourse with the other islands had been constantly maintained by +the regular visitations of the _Torch_ and the quondam _Blackbird_ +schooner--renamed the _Jean Arnot_ and captained by Jim Gregor, first +officer of the _Torch_; but, compared with what had been done on +Kapaa'a, the advances had been small. + +Blair had, for a long while past, recognised the fact that the greatest +object-lesson he could possibly offer the other chiefs was the sight of +what was being done on Kapaa'a. But at the first suggestion of taking +them over in the ship to see for themselves, their suspicions were in +arms. That was an old trick of the white men's. They had all heard +how the brown men were decoyed on board the white men's ships under +wonderful promises, and never heard of again. They accepted all he +gave them, they listened to all he had to say, but sail away in the big +ship they would not. + +Here was a chance not to be missed. Surely never in this world was +there seen a younger pair of missionaries than Master Kenneth Kapaa'a +Blair--Kenni-Kenni to the natives--and Miss Alison Kapaa'a +Evans--Alivani--when they set out, in their frills and furbelows, to +wile the hearts of the brown men and women of the outer islands. + +Ha'o and Nai went with them, to add their persuasions and the argument +of their presence to the rest, and Aunt Jannet went because she knew +something untoward would happen to those babies unless her eye was on +them. + +Blair knew it would be no easy matter at best, and it was not. + +At Kanele, the first island they came to, the largest of the group +after Kapaa'a, about thirty miles away, the old chief Maru received +them with the heartiest of welcomes, and his old wife and her +daughter-in-law and all the other women went into raptures over the +blue-eyed babies. + +But when the subject of the visit was cautiously broached, the old man +stiffened at once with his natural suspicion and declined the +invitation on the spot, and nothing they could say would persuade him +to it. + +They stayed the night, however, and Ha'o had much talk with the old +man's son, a bright stalwart fellow over six feet high whose name was +Kahili. In the morning Kahili announced his intention of going with +the white men. Whereupon loud lamentations from his father and mother +and wife and children, who clung to him wherever they could grip, and +expressed their intention of anchoring him to his native soil at cost +of their lives. He reasoned with them good-humouredly at first, but +finally began to get angry at the exhibition, and the more they tried +to dissuade him the more determined was he to go. + +Then, suddenly, the old chief surprised them all by proposing a +bargain. If the white men would leave their grandmother--Aunt Jannet +Harvey to wit--as pledge of their honourable intentions, both he and +Kahili his son would go in the big ship, and when they returned safe +and sound the ship could take the grandmother away. + +Blair laughed so much over the old fellow's 'cuteness that he came near +to dispelling their suspicions. And the matter being explained to Aunt +Jannet, without undue insistence upon the maturity of her new dignity, +that good lady, with a somewhat forlorn attempt at nonchalance, +accepted the offer on the spot, and said she would stop. And what it +cost her no man may venture to say, for she had been looking forward to +the christening of Jean's boy as a white stone day in her life. + +"It's for the good of the work, Kenneth, so get away with them before I +change my mind," said she, bravely enough. + +"Oh, Aunt Jannet, I shall miss you so," from Jean, with a suspicion of +tears in her voice. + +"Not a bit, child. You'll have far too much to think of, and I'll be +perfectly all right here." + +"But--you----" for Jean knew all her longing in the matter. + +"I'll chum up with Mrs. Maru, and we'll be as happy as--h'm"--with a +glance at the native houses among the trees--"well, as things in a rug, +you know. You shall tell me all about it when I get back. Don't let +Ken forget to send for me." + +She kissed the babies as though she knew in her own mind that she would +never set eyes on them again, waved her adieus gallantly from the white +shell beach, and when the _Torch_ had swept out of sight round the +corner she went up into a thicket of lemon hibiscus, and had it out all +by herself there. Then she preened her ruffled plumes, and went down +and rated Mrs. Maru for the untidiness of her dwelling-place, till the +old lady regretted more than ever the exchange she had made. By +degrees, however, Aunt Jannet's natural goodness and masterfulness +overcame her disappointment. The two became capital friends, and +talked away at one another, on a twenty-five per cent. basis of +understanding, which left the most extraordinary views of the other's +life on each of their minds. + +Her self-sacrifice, however, bore excellent fruit. Old Maru and Kahili +proved admirable bait for Blair's fishing. Persuaded themselves to a +somewhat doubtful step, the step once taken they became most zealous +partisans of their new cause. Assured, by the solid fact of Aunt +Jannet's temporary residence on Kanele, of their own safety, they +laughed to scorn the fears of others as doubtful in the matter as they +themselves had originally been. + +Their assured confidence amounted well-nigh to boastfulness. + +"Look at us," they said, "we have no mistrust in going with the white +men. Put away your fears, and come along." + +The _Torch_ made a most prosperous collection, and returned to Kapaa'a +laden with dusky notables. + +It would have been difficult to imagine anything less like a Christian +martyr than Aunt Jannet Harvey, sitting opposite her hostess on Kanele, +conscientiously eating away at the food with which they kept her +supplied, wrestling strenuously with the intricacies of the Kanelese +dialect, and an object of extreme curiosity to all the other women, and +of wonderment to herself. But martyrs are found in the strangest +guise, and Aunt Jannet wrought well for Kapaa'a when she consented to +stop on Kanele that day. + +The strangers viewed with amazement the changes in Kapaa'a. They had +raided there aforetime, and fought more than one bloody battle on the +white beach of the lagoon. For Kapaa'a, the largest of the islands and +the richest, had always been an object of envy to the rest, and more +than one warrior chief of the outer isles had cast longing eyes upon +it, and had planned and schemed till he could attempt its conquest. + +Now they found it richer and stronger than ever in the white men's +alliance. They saw its comfortable homes, and large plantations of +strange new grains and fruits. They were introduced to the pleasures +of the chase. They ate piglet and wild goat, and found them good. +They tasted still deeper of the novel atmosphere of law and order, and +found these things also very good. + +They watched the boys at cricket and football, and the men, brown and +white, fencing and boxing as though their lives depended on it, and no +harm done. They watched the cutlass drill, and tingled to do likewise. +They saw the white men bowl over coco-nuts with their Winchesters at +many times the distance they could hurl a spear, and do the same again +quicker than they could wink, and for their benefit Long Tom bellowed +his loudest, and they heard the roar of him clang to and fro among the +hills. They compared the new Kapaa'a boats with their own, and they +sat open-mouthed and listened to the last squeals of an ironwood tree +from up the valley, as the circular saw cleft it into planks which they +could not have imitated with weeks of hardest labour. And--they saw +men sleep without weapons by their sides, and without fear. And these +things wrought powerfully upon them, and set them thinking. + +The christening feast of Kenni-Kenni and Alivani was long remembered in +the Dark Islands. Aunt Jannet Harvey always professed regret at having +missed it, but Kenneth Blair always assured her, with a great light in +his face, that in missing it as she had done she had rendered service +to the mission which no words could express. + +Aunt Jannet's exile ran into a longer term than she had expected, and +there were many anxious faces and apprehensive hearts in the island +villages before the _Torch_ came gliding quietly round the heads, and +dropped her passengers at their homes. + +They all came laden with presents, which already, before they landed, +inclined them favourably towards similar trips in the future. But they +brought with them also richer invisible freight of new ideas and new +hopes, which kept their tongues wagging for weeks afterwards, and set +their brains working. + +For the visit had not by any means been confined to sight-seeing and +enjoyment. The white men turned it to fullest account in the clear and +definite explanation of their views and hopes for the whole group of +islands, offering all an equal share in the new order of things on the +sole condition of union and cohesion. The higher matters which lay +closest to their hearts were touched on, but only lightly as yet. +Blair had no faith in outward conversion born of a hankering after +material good things. He had a firm belief in the advantages of +hastening slowly. Get the savages out of their savagery, open the dark +minds to the lower lights, and the higher would come in good time. + +He suggested regular meetings of the headmen on Kapaa'a, and the idea +was received with acclaim. Kapaa'a was a storehouse of good things. +They desired no better than to come there often. And in that he saw +the germ of a united nation. Ha'o, as the most advanced among them, +would naturally preside. Of Ha'o's loyalty and level-headedness he had +no doubt. He was years ahead of the rest already. Blair believed his +influence would grow, and in time make itself felt throughout the whole +group, and through Ha'o he hoped to win them all to the higher life. + +If on these highest matters of all he touched as yet but lightly, in +others, concerning their material welfare, he gave them some very +straight talk, by way of putting them on their guard against that which +might come any day. + +He told them that other white men would come offering to trade with +them, to buy their land, to do great things for them, and of such he +begged them to beware, and to allow him to deal with them. + +He told them just what had happened in other places, where grasping +white traders had pushed themselves in, bringing in with them drink, +disease, and dispossession. He showed them how they, the heads of the +communities, were responsible for their people. And he promised them +every advantage these other men could offer them without any of the +penalties. + +"What do these traders come for?" he asked them, and answered himself, +"To benefit themselves. And what do we come for? To benefit you. The +time may be close at hand when you will have to choose between us. As +you choose, so will your future be." + +So the notables went back to their island homes with much to think +about, and Aunt Jannet came back from Kanele, and Kenneth Blair and his +friends had good reason for high hopes of the future. + +It was a spring-time of hope for all of them. The work was prospering, +and their hearts were full of gladness. + +"Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair, as he came up quietly and sat down +beside her, where the sweet water ran into the salt, and the small +waves of the lagoon creamed softly up the white sand. + +[Illustration: "Quite happy, Jean?" asked Blair] + +"Happy, dear? Could any one possibly be happier? Look at +that!"--Master Kenni-Kenni rolling gleefully on a white spread at her +feet in a state of nudity, and gurgling paroxysms of happiness. + +"He's a fine little fellow"--and he poked his son playfully in his fat +little stomach, provoking fat-creased laughter and dimples and more +gurgles. + +"He's the finest little fellow in the whole world, and he's yours and +mine, Ken. God has been very good to us, dear. I sometimes feel as if +we had no right to be quite so happy while----" + +"While?" + +"One can't help thinking of the poor little souls in the slums and +alleys at home. It really doesn't seem right, somehow. If we could +only bring them all out here----" + +"I wish it were possible, but it isn't. Meanwhile, this is our chosen +work, and by God's grace it seems like to prosper. I am very grateful +that you are content here, dear. After London----" + +"London! I'd give the whole of London for one curl of Kenni-Kenni's +hair. Isn't it beautiful? There never was any silk like it in this +world." + +"Never!" said Blair with conviction. + +Then Alison Evans and Mary Stuart came across to them, Mary carrying +Alivani. + +"We have come to worship too," said Alison. "I wish you'd order Mary +to give me my baby, Mr. Blair. I can hardly get touching her when +she's about." + +"Well, Jean won't let me have hers," laughed Mary in self-defence. + +"Jean was just valuing the whole of London Town against one curl of +that young man's hair. So you see what the whole of him's worth, Mary. +Oh yes, you may touch him, if you'll promise not to spoil a hair of his +head." + +Mary laid Alivani down on the white spread by Kenni-Kenni, and the two +gurgled and kicked in company, while she knelt over them with absorbed +face and happy lights in her eyes. + +"Jean was wishing she could bring all the poor children in London to +kick on the beach here," said Blair. + +"Yes. I often think how very much better off the children here are," +said Alison Evans. + +"In some respects." + +"In all respects, I'm inclined to think. Their fathers and mothers +almost worship them. Cruelty to children is unheard of. Bodily they +are miles ahead----" + +"And morally and spiritually?" he said, to draw her on. + +"I have seen children at home, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, almost as +benighted as these, and not half so pleasant to deal with. Now, with +the chances we are giving them, I think these are infinitely the better +off." + +"Under the new order of things, perhaps. But hitherto you must +remember that death dodged life round every corner here, and life broke +off very short at times. However, we cannot clean up all the world; +but, please God, we'll do our best with this little bit of it. And +now," jumping up, "I must get back to work, or your masters will be +calling me names. Don't kill those two infants with kindness, Mary." + +He stood looking down upon them all for a moment, while the women all +bent over the wrigglers on the white cloth. + +"Is it possible that not one of you ever feels a longing for the +fleshpots of Egypt?" he asked, with a smile. + +"Do we ever show any symptoms?" asked Jean. + +"You certainly do at the moment. You all three look as if you would +like to devour those children on the spot," and he went away to grind +out dialects with Matti and Ha'o. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PEACE WITH A SPEAR + +The work progressed favourably but not without occasional set-backs. +On Kapaa'a, where its supervision was most constant, the advance was +naturally greatest. On the outer islands the brown men and women were +effusive in their promises--in expectation of largesse. Like the +prodigals of all time, they were always ready to discount future +benefits--which they did not very fully understand and considered +somewhat problematic--for a trifle on account, which they understood +extremely well. But the moment their preceptors' backs were turned, +the promises were forgotten in immediate enjoyment of the reward. + +All this was only what was to be expected, and in no way disconcerted +the labourers in the field. Blair would rate the delinquents +good-humouredly for their shortcomings, and they would acknowledge them +like schoolboys, promise amendment, and break the promise before the +_Torch_ had rounded the Head. He felt himself in closer touch with +them, however, on each visit, and was satisfied. His plans and hopes +were very wide-reaching, and God's temples, natural, physical, or +spiritual, do not rise in a day. + +Occasionally there were more serious lapses, and these had to be dealt +with firmly but delicately, so thin were the cords by which he held +them. + +Aia, the smallest island of the group, lay a short five miles beyond +Kanele, sacred to the memory of Aunt Jannet Harvey. Aia had a +population of about fifty. Kanele three times as many. + +Blair and Jean and Kenni-Kenni landed on the latter one day, on one of +the regular rounds of visitation, and received the usual expectant +welcome from old Maru and Kahili and the rest. The women crowded +enthusiastically round Jean and her boy, while Blair talked to the men +and divided among them the things he had brought. They stopped on +shore several hours and were regaled with fruits and coco-nuts. When +they got into the boat the whole population lined the beach and waved +them farewells. + +"We really seem to be getting hold of them at last," said Blair, as +they rolled along towards the _Torch_. + +"They are very friendly and seem very glad to see us," said Jean, and +they went on to Aia. + +"Something wrong," said Captain Cathie, as the _Torch_ drew in. + +The village was not in its usual place. There were no people about. + +They landed cautiously, Blair and Cathie and half a dozen men, and +found the houses in ruins. With added caution they climbed the hill, +and in time came upon the villagers lurking in holes and crannies. + +Their story was simple. The very day after the _Torch's_ last visit, +the men of Kanele, headed by Maru and young Kahili, had come over in +their canoes and demanded the goods they had received from the white +men. These being refused, they proceeded to take them by force. The +Aia men were outnumbered and beaten, their village burned, and several +of them killed--and eaten. The rest had lived in the fear of death +ever since. + +Blair was a man of wrath that day. His first feeling was the same as +Captain Cathie's, in whom the natural man always ran strong. + +"Well, captain, what do you advise?" he asked. + +"I'd like to give those Kanele men a right good skelping," said Cathie +warmly. "Something they wouldn't forget in a hurry." + +"So would I, but I'm not sure of the wisdom of it." + +"Truckling beggars! Sweet as milk when we're there, and playing the +devil the minute our back's turned. They need a lesson." + +"We'll take the night over it. It's a serious matter." + +They walked the deck far into the night, with the big stars swimming in +the smooth black rollers, and the distant roar of the Aia surges, now +to port and now to starboard, as they beat gently to and fro in default +of anchorage. + +"In the first place," said Blair, summing up their ideas, "these people +are not safe here. Whatever we do or don't do, the Kanele men will +take it out of them as soon as we're gone. We must do our best to +persuade them to migrate to Kapaa'a. That will be a good thing for +them and a good thing for us. As to the Kanele men, the difficulty is +that we want to retain our hold on them. This affair only shows how +great the need is. And if we take measures against them--any measures +almost--we are like to weaken the small hold we have now." + +"All the same," said Cathie bluntly, "it won't do to let 'em think they +can carry on like this and nothing said about it. That'd be fair +provoking them to do the same again." + +"It's difficult to know just what to do," said Blair; and Jean down +below, with Kenni-Kenni nestling close in her arms, heard the four feet +tramping, tramping, slowly and heavily, to and fro, till she fell +asleep. They seemed to be still tramping whenever the _Torch_ gave a +sudden kick and woke her. But there was a sense of guardianship in the +very sound, and Kenni-Kenni's soft head against her heart was very +comforting. + +In the morning they set to work on the plans they had arrived at +overnight. + +Blair went ashore early, while Cathie prepared for his passengers. + +It did not need five minutes' talk to show the Aia men how unsafe their +position was. It was self-evident. But it took much talk and +persuasion to induce them to migrate to Kapaa'a. + +They saw the advantages. Some of them had been there already and seen +for themselves; but the brown men cling to their own bits of coral or +volcanic rock as strenuously as Highland crofter to his dripping +heather, or Irish peasant to his patch of bog. + +The women, however, had listened to those marvellous accounts of the +unheard-of security of life and property on Kapaa'a, and now they +joined forces with Blair and carried the day. By sunset they were all +aboard the _Torch_ with such belongings as the Kanele men had left +them. The _Torch_ beat to and fro again throughout the night, and not +a native closed an eye for the strangeness of it all, and in the early +morning Blair was ashore again on Kanele. He had assured Jean there +was no danger; but he left Captain Cathie behind--to look after the +crowd of brown men and women. + +He walked boldly up to old Maru's house, and found it still asleep. + +The old man started up wide awake at his call, and the look on his face +was a matrix of Blair's--detected wrong quailing before righteous wrath. + +"You know what I have come about, Maru," said Blair. "You have done +ill by Aia. Why?" + +"It was the young men. They desired more goods." + +"Call the young men. I will speak to them." + +But there was no need to call them. They had seen the _Torch_ and were +coming, and coming in expectation of possible trouble, for they all +came armed. + +"Yes, I see you know why I have come back," said Blair, as they +thronged about the house. "You have done wrong, and you have got to +answer for it. We came here to make life brighter by bringing +peace----" + +"We don't want peace. Fighting is very much better," growled one. + +"Oh, you are brave men! How many men were there on Aia? Twenty-five +at most. And how many of you went over? More than sixty. Oh yes, you +like fighting when the others are weak. How will you like it when you +are beaten and running for your lives into the hills? You have done +ill, and you must answer for it. Maru and Kahili will come with me to +Kapaa'a, and we will decide what shall be done." + +"Not me!" said old Maru, or words to that effect, and drew from its +hiding-place one of the axes Blair had given him, and began to swing it +gently in his hand. + +"If you do not come, we shall fetch you. It is for you to say. If we +have to fetch you, it will make trouble." + +Old Maru's axe swung gently to and fro, to and fro, as though hungering +to bite, but doubtful. + +"That would not serve you, Maru," said Blair quietly. "Though you cut +me in pieces, the rest would come and you would suffer the more. The +old times are past. We have come to give you better times. Peace you +shall have, though we have to bring it with club and spear." + +And just then Long Tom on the yacht bellowed his tremendous note, and +the brown men looked round apprehensively. + +"That is my big canoe speaking," said Blair. "But it is only a +warning. It can strike as hard as it talks. Will you save trouble by +coming, Maru?" + +"I will not go." + +"Then we shall come for you. I am sorry; but the wrong-doing is +yours.... Let no man lift his hand, or worse will follow," he said, as +a restless movement rustled among them. Then eyeing them steadily, he +passed through, not sure at what moment axe or club might fall on his +head. But so high was his look that no man, even of those he had +passed, found courage for the blow, and he walked down to the beach +alone. + +"I'm mighty glad to see you back whole," said Cathie, as Blair swung up +on deck. "I saw their clubs through the glass, and I misdoubted them. +They wouldn't come?" + +"No, they wouldn't come, so I promised to fetch them. Now we'll get +on, captain. First to land our passengers on Kapaa'a, and then as we +decided last night." + +Ha'o and the rest were mightily surprised at the size of the _Torch's_ +company. But the chief jumped to Blair's views at once. + +"You will soon become a nation at this rate, Ha'o." + +"I will deal well with them," said Ha'o. + +"And now as to the men of Kanele?" + +"We will make an end of them." + +"I want them as part of your nation, and dead men are no use. If we go +in force enough, I do not think they will fight. But they have broken +the peace, and they must have a lesson." + +"We will teach them with the spear. It will be a lesson for the others +also. When shall we start?" + +"The sooner the better; but first we must see the newcomers housed." + +That took two days, and then the _Torch_ and the _Jean Arnot_ sailed +with larger crews than they were in the habit of carrying. First round +the other islands, at each of which Blair and Ha'o landed and had a +talk with the headmen and explained their ideas to them. + +And much hard talking it took, in some cases, to carry their views. +But they were set on it, and they prevailed. + +From each village they enlisted the headman and certain of his +followers, from six to ten, according to the population, and in due +course came down on Kanele one hundred and fifty brown men and eighteen +whites, with Long Tom in reserve, and great hopes that so large a +display would suffice without any fighting. + +All the boats on Kapaa'a had been requisitioned for the debarkation, +and it was an imposing flotilla that drew in to Kanele beach that day +to bring peace at the point of the spear. And, composed, as the +gathering was, of the most discordant elements, it was yet all moulded +to one purpose by the strong will of one man, and by the very +differences that separated its units one from another. For each +component felt itself but a part of the whole, and in a minority which +left it no option but to work with the rest. + +Not a soul was to be seen on shore, but they knew that black eyes +watched stealthily from every cover. + +"Maru! Kahili! We have come for you," shouted Blair. "Here are Ha'o +of Kapaa'a, and Ruel of Anape----" and he recited all the names of the +head-men. "We will give you till the shadows are smallest to come in. +Then be it on your own heads!" and the great company sat down on the +beach to pass the time. + +"Will they come?" asked Blair of Ha'o. + +"They will come," said Ha'o. "They would have no chance against us, +and they are not fools." + +Blair seized the opportunity for more talk with the leading men from +the other islands. He showed them that none were safe if raiding were +permitted, not even the strongest, for against the strongest +combination might prevail. The only security was in union against +illdoers; and he rubbed that lesson into them till they were not likely +to forget it. + +Before the wheeling shadows had shortened the slim black lines of the +palms into their spreading crowns, a tumult broke out inland, and as +they all stood expectant, a mob, in which were many women, came +hurrying along, with old Maru and Kahili on its front like corks on a +swelling tide. + +"It is well," said Blair, as he went to meet them. "You have given us +much trouble, but you have saved yourselves more. Do you understand, +Maru, and you, Kahili, and all you men and women of Kanele, what this +great company means? It means that the old times are gone for ever, +and that the better times are come. If there is to be any fighting in +future, we of Kapaa'a and the islands round about will have our say in +the matter. Take those two to the boats," and at a sign from him a +file of Torches led the prisoners away. "There are others among you +who prefer war to peace," he said. "I want them also." + +This caused a hubbub amongst them, and much hot discussion, but at last +certain ones were evolved from the crowd, and pushed to the front +protesting, and to the number of ten he had them marched down to the +boats, amid the wailing of their women. + +"Now, listen!" cried Blair, waving down their cries with a peremptory +hand. "Is it to be peace or war henceforth?" + +"Peace," wailed the women, and the men stood silent. "Then let the +women bring here all the spears and clubs, for you will not need them." + +This was touching them on the raw, for the brown man's weapons are his +dearest possessions. + +But this was to be a lesson once and for all, and not for the men of +Kanele only. + +"I must have them," said Blair. "If you will not bring them, we must +get them ourselves. Which shall it be?" + +The men stood, stubborn and sulky. Some of the women on the outskirts +of the crowd began to trickle away. + +Then old Maru's wife crept up downcastly from the side of the throng, +carrying two long spears and a club, and cast them on the sand at +Blair's feet. + +"It is good, Maruaine," he said gently. + +"You will not kill our men, Missi?" she asked piteously. + +"I have come to make your lives happier, Maruaine. I will not hurt a +hair of their heads. But they must learn, and this is the first +lesson." + +Kahili's wife followed, and one by one the other women came, with more +spears and clubs, till the pile was a goodly one. + +Then he had a fire kindled beneath them, and the brown men watched its +easy lighting with a match with wonder, but twisted uneasily as the +weapons were consumed. + +[Illustration: Peace with a spear.] + +"Now, listen!" said Blair, when the crackling died down. "Maru and +Kahili, and the others we have taken will go with us to Kapaa'a for a +time, and will live with us there. We intend them no harm. They will, +I hope, learn many things amongst us, and then they will come back and +tell you of them. We wish your good, only your good, always your good. +But those who do ill, who break the peace, and rob their weaker +neighbours, will have to answer to us for it. Ha'o of Kapaa'a has +known us now a long time. He will tell you that we mean you well." + +And Ha'o stood out before them, tall and brown, and said, in a voice +that rang above the wash of the surf and the pattering of the palm +fronds-- + +"Kenni is my brother. He has done great things for Kapaa'a. Twice he +saved my life, and the lives of my people. Three times he risked his +own life, and the lives of his people. His blood has run for us. What +Kenni says and does is good. Any man who thinks otherwise I am ready +to talk to him," and it was evident to all that Ha'o's talk would be +strong, and to the point. + +Blair said a word or two to him, and he added-- + +"While Maru and Kahili are living with us, Maru's wife will be your +chief. She is a wise woman, and loves peace more than war. Has any +one anything to say against it?" + +No one at the moment desired to say anything against it, whatever they +might think or feel. + +"It is well," said Ha'o. "Let no man speak against it when we are not +here. Now you will bring us food, and then we will go home." + +Two very sober and thoughtful men were Maru and Kahili as Kanele sank +into the sea astern. They were treated, however, with every +consideration, and Blair was at much pains to explain his ideas to them +so far as concerned themselves. For the rest, it was curious to notice +how the men of each island kept themselves to themselves. There were +differences of dialect, of course, which interfered somewhat with +freedom of intercourse, but there were also lifelong memories of bloody +feuds which kept them apart. It was a mighty step towards better times +to see them there in peaceful toleration of one another's presence. +The dividing lines were at once the mark of the past and the sign of +the future. A year before they would have been at one another's +throats. + +On Kapaa'a the hostages received the same equal treatment with the +rest. They were given houses and tools, and shown how to use them. +They joined in the chase, and developed discriminating tastes in the +matter of fresh-killed pig and goat cooked in paw-paw leaves. They +were neither talked at nor preached at. They were simply allowed to +absorb the new atmosphere of law and order, and found it good. And in +due time they were returned to their own island new men, with the seeds +of still larger knowledge within them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +NO THOROUGHFARE + +It would be difficult to tell in words the exaltation of spirit which +possessed Kenneth Blair at the brave show the new order of things was +making in these Dark Islands of his choice. It was a beginning after +his own heart, and he rejoiced in it greatly. + +I can imagine what he must have looked like as he went about his +Master's business--clad always in white from head to foot, and carrying +always that high look of his, blazing with enthusiasm and the mighty +joy of life, which caught the eye and held it. Kekera--White Fire--the +brown men often called him, and he looked it to the life. + +He felt things growing under his hand, and his heart was full. A +beginning of beginnings and visible growth--what more could the soul of +man desire? + +Domestic concerns were prospering also. Mary Stuart had the +satisfaction of her heart in a little son, and Kenni-Kenni and Alivani +crawled neck and neck races on the white beach together. The schools +were full, for the teaching was so sheer a delight that the wriggling +brown bodies and glancing black eyes felt a day missed a day lost. If +ever learning came without tears it did to these. They were actually +beginning to use English words now and again in their talk and play--by +way of showing off at first, indeed, but presently as a matter of +course. And the larger children, their fathers and mothers, were +imbibing new ideas of all kinds at a revolutionary rate. They were +even beginning to put theirs into "Kown im!" and to show some knowledge +of what the words meant. + +And so far there had been no further disturbance from the outside; but +they were always on the look-out for it, and it came, and in the +expected shape. + +The Dark Islands lie far out of the ordinary track of commerce. For +that very reason, when once discovered, they offered unusual +inducements to such as found the usual fields too small, and too hot, +for their peculiar forms of immorality. The outposts of civilisation, +such as it is, have not infrequently been pushed forward by individuals +whom civilisation could no longer tolerate in its midst. It was such a +one who came out of his way--and incidentally out of the way of some +who ardently desired to lay hands on him--to bring the amenities of +commerce and civilisation to the Dark Islands. + +Old Maru, and his son Kahili, and the other hostages to law and order, +had returned to their homes full to the brim of new ideas and great +intentions, and Blair reposed great hopes in them. + +He and Cathie, on one of their usual rounds of the islands in the +_Torch_, came sailing round Kanele Head one day and were surprised to +find a ship at anchor in the bay. + +"Ah!" broke from them both at the sight. + +"So that's come," said Cathie. "Bound to sooner or later. Nip it +tight, sir, is my advice." + +He gave some orders to the mate, and they went ashore. + +A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach from Maru's +house to meet them. He was stout and evil-faced, with small blue eyes +and tangled hay-coloured beard and moustache, and the roll in his walk +seemed too pronounced to come entirely from much walking of slippery +decks. + +[Illustration: A burly individual in sailorly garb came down the beach.] + +"Morning," he said curtly. "Traders?" + +"No, sir. Missionaries in charge." + +"Gee-whilikins!" + +"Yes, very much so," and Blair pulled out his watch. The man needed no +investigation. His character was written all over him. "It is now +nine o'clock. I will give you till half-past ten to clear out of here. +If your anchor is not up by that time you will take the consequences. +Understand?" + +"Say, have you bought this island, mister?" gaped the other. + +"Yes, from the devil and all his works, so you clear out. It is now +two minutes past nine, and you've got eighty-eight minutes left." + +"Well, I'm----" + +"You will be if you don't stir your stumps." + +"And suppos'n I say I'll be hanged if I go." + +"I should consider it not unlikely. You certainly will if you stay." + +"Well, I _am_----! Was it _missionaries_ you said?" + +"That's what I said." + +"Very well, then," said the invader, pulling himself together, "I'll +see you eternally annihilated first." That was not his exact +expression, but it is printable and will suffice. + +"Eighty-six minutes left," said Blair quietly. + +Captain Cathie waved his hat three times to the _Torch_, and Long Tom's +angry bellow rolled up into the hills and lined the side of the trader +with curious faces. + +"_Missionaries_! Well, I _am_----" and he looked at them, and then at +the _Torch_ with the cloud of blue-white smoke drifting slowly away +from her deck, and then turned and humped his shoulders and went back +the way he had come, and Blair and Cathie followed him. + +They were all fast asleep at Maru's house, and not likely to waken in a +hurry, if the empty rum bottles scattered about were anything to go by. +There were some opened cases of trade lying about, and the scraps and +remnants of a feast--in addition to the inert forms of old Maru and his +wife, and Kahili and his wife, and some of their people. + +"Eighty minutes!" said Blair grimly, as he looked round on this undoing +of his work. + +"Say, mister, couldn't we come to some arrangement?" began the trader. + +"Certainly! The arrangement is that you up anchor and away +inside--seventy-nine minutes," with a glance at his watch. + +"I guess you'll pay for this 'fore you're done, mister. I'm an +American citizen." + +"Sorry to hear it." + +"And an American citizen don't stand bein' fired out like this and no +reasons given--not by a long sight!" + +"There are our reasons," said Blair, pointing to the heavy sleepers, +"and there are yours," and he pointed to the half-emptied case of rum. +"Seventy-eight minutes more!" + +The American citizen looked him over for a moment but found no hope of +amelioration in his face. + +"Well, I'm----" and he turned to the door and whistled shrilly to his +ship, and presently a boat came slouchily across to the shore. + +"Carry them things aboard," he ordered, and saw it done, and then +followed his men into the boat. + +Then he stood up in the stern and delivered himself luridly on +missionaries in general, and on this new kind, as represented by Blair +and Cathie, in particular. + +"You'll hear of me again, my sons, sure as my name's Hartford Crawley. +Yes, by thunder, you will, and don't you forget it!" was his +valediction with threatening fist, and they could hear him cursing all +the way to the ship. + +Blair and Cathie returned to the _Torch_. At half-past ten Long Tom +thundered a reminder to Mr. Crawley that his time was up, and before +the echoes died away, the trader's anchor was apeak and his sails were +dropping sulkily to the breeze. + +He headed slowly out to sea, and was surprised to find the _Torch_ do +the same. + +He took a notion towards the south. Long Tom barked angrily at him. + +He tried a move towards the north. Long Tom barked again. Due west +was his course, and they would permit him no other. + +All day long the _Torch_ followed him like a sheep dog, and at night +drew in so close that they could hear Mr. Crawley still swearing at +large. Fortunately, the moon was almost at the full, and he had no +chance of slipping away in the dark. For three days they dogged him +and kept him to his course. Then they ranged up within speaking +distance and delivered their final word, "These islands are not open to +traders. If you ever return you do so at your peril." Then they +turned and laid their course for Kanele. + +Arbitrary action, undoubtedly, but Kenneth Blair was the last man in +the world to shirk what he deemed his duty from any fear of possible +after consequences. + +Maru and the rest were in their right minds when they got back to the +island. They were full of excuses and explanations, but Blair said +little to them beyond emphasising the fact that these were the men he +had warned them against, and that their coming would make for evil +times among them. And old Maru, in the keen recollection of the very +bad head he had had the day after the trader's supper party was +disposed to think he was right. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE ACT OF GOD + +A full year of quiet progress left no monumental happenings to record. + +The islands were rising rapidly out of their original darkness, and the +hearts of the workers were as full as their hands. + +Growth in the homes had necessitated ampler accommodation for scholars +and worshippers outside. A church and two school-houses had been built +to supply the absolute want, and were in full use. + +The r and the capital H had got into "Crown Him!" and in some quarters +a visible understanding of the meaning of the invocation. + +Matters all round were progressing favourably. The bodily health of +the islands was good, morally and spiritually it was improving. Law +and order were striking slow roots into the shaky quagmire of custom +and superstition, and Ha'o was in fair way to become a nation. For the +headmen of the smaller islands came regularly to Kapaa'a for +consultation--and gifts--and his influence over them grew steadily. + +In all matters economic and politic Blair put Ha'o forward as head and +front. For himself, he desired nothing but the good of the people, and +he judged it best that the executive power should remain in native +hands so long as they continued capable and trustworthy. In these +matters Ha'o had justified him to the fullest, and had shown himself an +apt, not to say an ambitious, pupil. Feuds were of rarer occurrence, +and had even been brought to Kapaa'a for adjustment. Cannibalism was +no longer openly indulged in, even in the outer islands, and they were +hopeful that its day was past. + +Evans and his wife had been resident for some months past on Kanele, +Charles and Mary Stuart were on Anape, and the _Jean Arnot_ had had a +busy time going to and fro between the settlements. The _Torch_, with +Captain Cathie on board, had made a voyage to Sydney, carrying letters +home, and bringing back supplies and news. That was nearly twelve +months ago, and was the only communication they had had with +civilisation since they turned their backs on it. + +Kenneth Blair and Jean and Aunt Jannet Harvey and Captain Cathie were +sitting one evening on the platform of the mission house, enjoying the +well-earned rest of busy workers. Master Kenni-Kenni was crawling +about at their feet in light attire, with a strong band of knitted wool +round his sturdy body, to which a thin rope and Aunt Jannet were +attached, to keep him from falling overboard. + +The sun was sinking, red and misty, into a bank of cloud which lay +heavily across the western sky, though it still wanted an hour of +sunset. The lagoon was sombre red, the spouts of foam on the reef +gleamed dusty rose white, the hills behind were dull red bronze and the +mouth of the valley was filling with purple shadows. + +Cathie had been giving them the latest news of the Evanses and Stuarts, +whom he had just been visiting in the _Torch_, which, with the _Jean +Arnot_, now lay rolling sleepily over their own black shadows in the +lagoon. + +"Well," said Aunt Jannet, as she hauled Kenni-Kenni back from +destruction and the edge of the platform, which for the moment was the +limit of his ambition, "I've been hot in my life before, but to-day +beats everything. It was like an oven." + +"I had to start the engines to get home," said Cathie. "I came in by +the lower entrance and there wasn't a breath of air. But we'll have a +change soon, and a big one too if the barometer's anything to go by. +I've been getting out double cables and kedges to the rocks for both +the ships." + +"We wondered what you were busy at," said Blair. "You expect a heavy +blow?" + +"You never can tell, and it's best to be on the safe side. We've been +uncommonly lucky so far. But when the weather does get its back up +here it sometimes gets it pretty high----Hel--lo!" + +The arm of the hill which ran down into the water hid the seaward view +on that side. As Cathie spoke, a trim black vessel, with a thin trail +of smoke at its cream-coloured funnel, came silently round the point. + +They all jumped up at so unusual a sight and stood watching eagerly. + +"Service ship," said Cathie. "What on earth is she doing here?" + +At sight of the two ships in the lagoon the stranger slowed down, and +then her syren pealed shrilly across the water. + +"We'd better go and see," said Blair, and the two sprang down off the +platform and ran to the whale-boat drawn up on the beach. The _Torch_ +men and a crowd of curious natives were already there. + +"Now, lads, show the navy men how you can row," was the captain's +order, and in two minutes the white boat was bounding towards the +opening in the reef. It leaped the rollers and presently drew in to +the rows of bronzed faces which lined the side of the ship and looked +on approvingly. + +"This is Kapaa'a, I presume?" asked a tall man in a heavily-braided cap. + +"This is Kapaa'a," said Blair. + +"And is this Mr. Blair?" + +"I am Kenneth Blair. This is Captain Cathie." + +"Come on board, gentlemen." A ladder dropped over the side, and they +swung up to the deck. + +"Can we get inside there, captain?" asked the tall man. "And is there +anchorage? I don't much like the look of the weather and the barometer +is unusually low." + +"Yes, sir, it's going to blow, or I'm much mistaken. You can get in +all right. There's no bottom to that hole in the reef. But whether +you'll be better inside or outside, if it blows hard, I wouldn't like +to say. I've kedged both the schooners there, and I think they'll ride +it out." + +"And there's plenty of water and good holding?" + +"Plenty water to within a couple of hundred yards of the shore. The +shelf breaks there. Holding's fair. You'd better kedge same as we've +done." + +"Perhaps you'll con her in for us to what you consider a good position. +We shall be here for some time, and it'll be pleasanter inside. You'll +excuse me, Mr. Blair, for the moment. We'll have plenty of time to +talk when we get ashore," and he went up on to the bridge with Cathie, +and the big ship headed for the reef. She went weltering through the +passage with the big rollers roaring at her stern, and crept up under +lee of the southern ridge. Then the anchor went down with a plunge, +and the boats dropped lightly into the water to carry the kedges and +cables to the rocks. + +Blair stood watching observantly. The ship he saw was H.M.S. _Bonita_. +He casually asked one of the men, who happened to stand by him for a +moment, where they were from, and was told "Australia," and the +captain's name was Plantagenet Pym. Captain Pym had seemed a bit stiff +in his manner, Blair thought, but that style, he knew, often went with +a heavily-braided cap, and he thought no more of it. + +Presently the two captains came down from the bridge and approached him. + +"You will permit me to offer you such hospitality as the island +affords, captain?" said Blair. + +The other seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he replied, "Thank you, +Mr. Blair, I shall have to be ashore part of the time so I will avail +myself of your offer. I will accompany you in five minutes. Can I +offer you any refreshment--a glass of wine?" and on their declining +this he disappeared below. + +He was up again inside the five minutes, and with a word or two to his +senior lieutenant, descended the ladder into the whale-boat. + +"Your crew does you credit, captain," he said to Cathie, as the +proximity of the uniform braced every man of them to his best. + +"Picked men, every one of them, sir, and good men all," said Cathie +proudly, and every man felt himself a good inch taller. + +The dull red glow had faded off the hills and out of the sky. The +water of the lagoon was the colour of lead, with a sullen heave in it. +The jets of foam on the reef looked like the fangs of wolves against +the dark sky beyond. There were cold whispers in the air, and the +palm-trees on shore shivered audibly. The white mission-houses and +buildings gleamed chill white against the dark hill, but yet gave a +touch of comfort and civilisation to the scene. + +The crowding natives were greatly impressed by the sight of Captain +Pym. Ha'o underwent the process of presentation with extreme dignity, +and then Blair led the captain to his house. + +"Why--Mr. Pym!" cried Aunt Jannet, who was nearest the steps and so met +him first. "It is good of you just to drop in on us in this way," and +she shook his hand with a warmth that almost succeeded in infusing the +like into his response. + +"Yes, I've come over six thousand miles to call on you, Mrs. Harvey. +And how are you, Mrs. Blair? Still suffering exile with equanimity?" + +"No exile, no suffering, Captain Pym," said Jean brightly. "We are all +enjoying ourselves extremely, I assure you." + +"Well, I suppose one can bring one's mind to anything." + +"If it's the right kind of mind, you can," said Aunt Jannet heartily. + +There was just a touch of implication in her tone and manner that some +folks were not the happy possessors of that kind of mind. Captain Pym +stiffened back into officiality somewhat. + +"And you really experience no longings for London again, Mrs. Blair?" +he asked, metaphorically turning his back on Aunt Jannet, who +magnanimously went inside to see after supper. + +"Not the very slightest." + +"Marvellous!" + +"You see I have here what I had not in London You shall see my boy in +the morning. He's the finest little fellow in the world." + +"Ah! ... I suppose that fills many a want." + +"He fills our hearts so that there is no room for wants. Are you +making a long stay?" + +"That depends. A few days, at all events." + +"We shall have heaps of things to show you. All our work here, and +there's a wonderful valley down there with great stone gods that date +back to about the time of the flood. Some ancient race that used to +live here, they say. We will have a picnic there." + +"If I have time I shall enjoy it." + +In due course the time came, but Captain Pym enjoyed it less than he +had anticipated. + +"Now, good people, supper's ready, and you'll all catch your deaths if +you sit out there any longer," called Aunt Jannet from the doorway. +"We have been stewing with the heat all day," she added to Captain Pym, +"and now it's gone to the other extreme. I think you must have brought +a cold wind with you, captain." + +"We haven't had a breath all day. It looks like a spell of dirty +weather," said the captain. + +The wind was coming off the sea in cold gusts. A weary half moon was +bucketting through a rout of ragged clouds, which sped on over the +mountains as if in haste to hide themselves from some unseen pursuer. +In the gaps of the hurrying clouds the moon and a few stars shone +wanly, and in their dim, ineffective light, the water of the lagoon +tossed brokenly like a pan of boiling lead. The flying rags of cloud +came from the dark bank in the west into which the sun had dropped. It +was spreading upwards. The roar of the reef sounded harsher than usual +and full of threatening. There was a strange uncanny look and feeling +abroad. + +"We're certainly in for something," said Captain Cathie, as he stood +looking out to sea. "I've never seen it quite like this before. I +shall go and sleep aboard the _Torch_"--which did not add to their +cheerfulness. + +"You'll have some supper first, captain?" said Aunt Jannet. + +"Oh, yes, I'll make sure of some supper. If it's to be a fight I can +fight better on a full stomach than an empty one." + +So they went inside, and found it pleasant to close the door, which was +a very unusual thing with them. + +Captain Pym's manner during supper was still somewhat stiff and formal; +but he unbent enough to give them the latest astonishing news of the +outside world, the lack of which was the one thing they felt somewhat +at times. But it was only when the pipes were alight afterwards that +he disclosed himself. + +"You are wondering, no doubt, what brings me here, Mr. Blair," he said. + +"Well--yes, somewhat. You are the first visitor we have had." + +"Not quite. And it is because of those others that I am here." + +Blair looked at him in surprise. Captain Cathie nodded +understandingly, as though in confirmation of his own thoughts. + +"Certain complaints have been made to the Government concerning some of +your doings here, and they have sent me to look into the matter." + +"I--see. You refer to the kidnappers we put a stopper on----" + +"That complaint comes from Peru. There is one also from the American +government----" + +"Ah, yes--Mr.--What-was-his-name?--Crawley, was it? He promised we +should hear from him. Well, sir, we shall be glad to put our side of +the case before you. You shall see what we have done here since we +came, and no doubt you will appreciate our desire to safeguard our work +in every possible way. We have done no single thing we in any way +regret, and we would not hesitate to do the same again if occasion +should arise." + +"Ah," said Captain Pym, with a knowing official nod, "you gentlemen of +the cloth, when you get right away from any authority but your own, +sometimes go to extremes, and are perhaps tempted to magnify your +office somewhat." + +"That is quite impossible," said Blair quietly. "I consider my office +the very highest in the world. As far as in me lies I have worked up +to my ideal of it, and shall continue to do so. As to going to +extremes, we have simply defended our work from spoliation. That also +we shall continue to do." + +"Hear, hear!" said Aunt Jannet energetically, and Captain Pym frowned +officially at the pair of them. + +"Supposing, Captain Pym," broke in Cathie, by way of lightning +conductor, "you had an unarmed tender attached to your ship, and an +enemy stole up in the night and carried her off, crew and all, you +would consider yourself justified in following and bringing her back, +and taking payment out of the other side." + +"That's the way to put it," said Aunt Jannet. + +"The cases are not parallel, sir. That would be a _casus belli_, and I +should of course do my duty. You have no authority----" + +"Oh yes, we have," said Blair warmly. "The very highest"--and as +Captain Pym did not seem to appreciate that point, he added--"but, +apart from that, we have the endorsement of Mr. Annesley, the Colonial +Secretary. He and the Earl of Selsea were good enough to take very +great interest in our intended work here. I laid all my plans before +them, and they approved them. In fact, they spoke of a protectorate." + +"The Earl of Selsea is dead, and Mr. Annesley retired from office +twelve months ago." + +"Ah, that may account for things. I am very sorry to hear that. +However, we don't need the protectorate. Kapaa'a is almost on to its +own feet, and can speak for itself." + +"And what position does Mr. Blair occupy in the government?" asked Pym, +with a cynical touch in his voice. + +"None whatever, sir, and desires none. We have consistently worked +through the chief Ha'o, whom you met on the beach. Nothing has been +done without his approval. It is his elevation and his people's that +we desire, not our own, and I think I may say he is as keen on it as we +are." + +"From all accounts, however, your work has by no means been confined +entirely to the spiritual department, Mr. Blair; Long Toms and +Winchesters hardly come within the strict bounds of the missionary +calling." + +"The shepherd may use his crook to keep the wolves off his flock. Our +crooks consist, as you say, of Winchesters and a Long Tom. If we had +not had them we should not be here--nor would our flock. My ideas of +missionary duties may strike you as somewhat advanced, Captain Pym, but +then, you see, I have the advantage of knowing all the requirements of +the case. The very first essential to progress is peace, and you can't +procure it with words when you're dealing with elementary facts." + +"If we'd settled all those elementary facts at the start, as Captain +Cathie and I advised, we would have heard no more about them," said +Aunt Jannet, with a regretful shake of the head. "It's possible to be +too conscientious for this world." + +"We work for both, you see. I admit that a clean sweep would have +saved much trouble. But I couldn't bring myself to hanging them, +richly as they deserved it. As to the American citizen, his end and +aim was to introduce the drink traffic, and that we won't have at any +price. Not even under government orders." + +Their talk had been so vital that the waxing of the gale outside had +passed unnoticed, though the door was jerking at its latch and the +windows buzzed like bees. + +When the discussion came to a pause, Captain Cathie jumped up and went +to the window. + +"I'm off," he said quickly. + +"If Mrs. Blair will excuse me for to-night, I will go too," said Pym. +"If there is risk for the _Torch_ there is risk for the _Bonita_, and I +would sooner be on the spot." + +"I hope there is no danger," said Jean. "We have had many a big storm, +but the ships have never suffered." + +"Barometer's lower than it's ever been since we came here," said +Cathie, with a shake of the head; "and I've no doubt Captain Pym feels +as I do, that when you don't know what's in the wind it's as well to be +where you can find out." + +"Quite so," said Captain Pym, and Blair went down with them to the boat. + +They were nearly blown off their feet before they got to it, and the +waves that swept up the white beach were such as they had never seen on +it before. The rush of the wind in their ears dulled all other sounds. +In the spasmodic gleams of the moon through the ragged clouds they +could see the rollers sweeping over the barrier reef with unbroken +crests, and the usually placid lagoon was in a turmoil. + +"Can we manage it?" shouted Pym, in Cathie's ear. + +"Under the lee of the ledge there," shouted Cathie, and pounded on the +door of the men's house for his crew. + +Blair helped them down with the boat, saw them all soaked through +before they could get afloat, and then watched them toil away into the +lee of the protecting ridge of rocks. + +"They'll have their own to-do to get there," he said, when he got back +to the house. "The waves are coming right in over the reef. I never +saw anything like it." + +"Is this man going to make trouble for us, Ken?" asked Jean anxiously. + +"Oh, I don't think so. Don't worry about him, dear. He's a bit +bumptious and unsympathetic, but I think we can show him that we could +have done no less than we did. He doesn't trouble me in the slightest. +Whatever he does, our work stands and tells its own tale." + +In the morning it seemed to the unknowing as though the storm had blown +itself out. The wind had fallen, but the sky was heavy; dark grey +clouds boiled along close above mud-coloured waves, and the horizon lay +just back of the reef. The sun made a faint fight for a show, but +looked and felt out of place, and after pushing ghostly fingers through +stray holes in the clouds, and peeping at the water below, went into +retirement again. + +The two captains came ashore after breakfast, but when Jean expressed +satisfaction at the passing of the storm without any damage, Cathie +only shook his head. + +"Now, Captain Pym," said Blair, as they walked along towards the +village, "let me remind you that less than two years ago these people +were eating one another, and delighting in it. There has not been a +man eaten on Kapaa'a for over twelve months now. Here is the boys' +school. That is the girls'. As it is Sunday, they are all in church +waiting for us. Perhaps you will stop for the service. It is very +short and simple. Then we will go on and show you other evidences of +our work." + +The church was crowded, and when the brown men and women and children +sang "Crown Him!" at the full stretch of their lungs, most of their +black eyes were fixed on Captain Pym--to his great discomfort--as +though they applied the hymn specifically to him, which possibly some +of them did. + +After service Blair conducted him to the village, and on to the +plantations and taro fields, and even Captain Pym's official phlegm and +preconceived notions had to acknowledge that, for a country three years +ago buried in barbarism, the sights he saw were very striking. + +He did not say much. His feelings were at strife. He had come to +condemn, and he found himself forced to admit and admire. + +The plantations had by degrees crept a considerable way up the valley. +The party came back along the shoulder of Ra'a's hill, and as they came +towards the open a furious gust of wind carried them almost off their +feet. + +And then they saw the most appalling sight of their lives, and one they +never forgot. + +Out of the dim grey curtain of the west there appeared a monstrous +sinuous shape that reached from sky to sea, and came swirling towards +the island with an easy voluptuous grace that was full at once of +haphazard fortuity and most malign intention. + +They stood frozen. Blair suddenly gripped Pym by the arm. He could +not speak. + +Behind the first monster came another, and another, and another, all +reeling hither and thither like drunken demons, but all making straight +for the island. + +"Good God!" cried Pym, and instinctively put his hands to his mouth to +shout a warning to his ship, a shout that could not have carried five +inches. + +Then he commenced to run down the hill as he had never run in his life +before. His whole thought was for his ship and his men, Blair's and +Cathie's for the people below. + +Captain Pym reached the beach through a crowd of fugitives making for +the hillside. The monsters had been sighted, and panic was afoot. + +Blair and Cathie rushed down through the village, shouting-- + +"To the hills!" and sped on. + +Jean and Aunt Jannet Harvey, busy in the house, had seen nothing. The +two men dashed up the steps. Blair seized his boy under one arm, and +dragged his wife by the other. Cathie laid hold of Aunt Jannet, and +with a gasping word of explanation which only filled the women with +fear, and explained nothing, they ran for the southern hill, whose arm +ran out into the sea. + +Only when they had got half-way up it did they dare to turn and look. + +They saw Pym ramping alone on the beach like a madman. + +They saw the first of the hideous whirling monsters hop lightly over +the swollen reef without a pause and pirouette in the lagoon. Then a +blast of smoke whirled from the deck of the _Torch_, and the dull sound +of the gun went quickly past them. The monster writhed and broke, and +the pendulous head of it swept inland. The ships pitched at their +moorings till the kedge cables snapped and they seemed standing on +their sterns. The waves of the lagoon churned up to the platforms of +the mission-houses. + +"Good lad! Good lad!" shouted Cathie. + +Then the other three monsters, as though in answer to the challenge, as +though endued with malignant understanding and most devilish +determination, bent and swung and reeled over the reef and flung +themselves towards the ships. + +They saw Captain Pym suddenly throw up his hands above his head in a +gesture of utter impotence and despair, and then turn and make for the +hill. + +The watchers crouched in a crevice of the hillside and gazed +narrow-eyed, and their breaths came quick and short, not from the run +but because their hearts were in their throats and choked their +breathing. + +It was a most terrible sight. The powers of all evil--death, +destruction, and malignity--against the puny works of man. + +The three awful whirling shapes danced and swung in the lagoon, showing +off all their evil graces. Three ineffectual flashes broke from the +gunboat, but they avoided them with an easy swing, as though they +understood and were on their guard. They reeled towards one another +and seemed to take evil counsel together. Then, as though moved by one +mind, they swooped down straight on the ships. + +"Oh, cruel! cruel!" moaned Jean, clasping her boy to her and hiding her +face in him. + +Captain Cathie groaned as he watched, and then burst into incoherent, +and unusual, and most excusable blasphemies. + +Aunt Jannet and Kenneth Blair stared in dreadful fascination. + +For one of the whirling monsters reached the ships, picked them up, and +smashed them and itself together in one dreadful destruction. When the +wild welter settled down and permitted sight, the lagoon was bare save +for scattered fragments and struggling figures. + +Another of the awful things made for the opposite mountain side. They +saw it strike and break there. The solid earth crumbled and splashed +like mud, and palms and rocks slid down to the sea, while the swollen +hanging top of it swung away along the hillside belching ragged +torrents as it went. + +The remaining one went roaring past them like a great wounded beast, +and tore up the valley, breaking itself and scattering destruction +broadcast. They heard the final crash of it away up among the hills, +and a foaming torrent came sweeping down the valley carrying everything +before it. + +All this time the wind was blowing a hurricane, Such palms as were left +standing whipped and writhed in vain agonies. Some snapped like +carrots and lay still. The rain beat mercilessly on the fearful +watchers and bit like whips. Blair bent over his wife and boy to +shield them with his body. Aunt Jannet, dishevelled and grey, and +haggard, still peered out at the horrors in front. + +A sound from her, between a gasp and a groan, and a sudden terrified +clutch at his arm, brought Blair's face up to the crowning horror. + +There came a roaring from the sea the like of which was never heard +before. A mighty wall of water came rushing on the land to overwhelm +it. It leaped high over the ridge of rocks that lay like a protecting +arm round the nearer curve of the lagoon. The jets of it went +rocketting up to heaven, and the mighty ridged crest bristled like an +avalanche. + +Blair sprang upright instinctively, to face the danger standing, and +dug his fingers deep into the cracks of the rocks in front of him. + +[Illustration: Blair sprang upright instinctively.] + +The great wave broke on the solid earth with the crash of an +earthquake. It was half-way up the hillside, and the opposite hill was +suddenly shortened, and stood in the open sea. The valley was a +boiling waterway of hideous and inexpressible confusion. + +"It is the end of the world," gasped Aunt Jannet, and sank down, and +looked no more. + +"My God! My God!" groaned Cathie. + +"God help us all!" said Blair, and the rain whipped his face till it +seemed as hard and set as the neighbouring rocks. + +They spent the night there in extremest misery, sodden through and +through, chilled to the bone, faint with hunger. Even Kenni-Kenni was +damp, though two protecting bodies did their best to shelter him. And +all night long the only sounds in their ears were the hiss and rush and +roar of many waters, as the terrible sea went back to its deeps, and +the clouds discharged their ceaseless torrents, and the troubled land +got rid of its torment. + +And over and above the weariness of their bodies, their hearts were +sick within them at thought of the destruction of all their work and +all their hopes. For whether a soul besides themselves was left alive +they knew not. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WIPED OUT + +Jean and Aunt Jannet were dozing fitfully, fairly spent with the strain +and misery of it all. Cathie's grey beard was on his chest, but +whether he slept Blair could not tell. + +He himself sat on his rock, chilled to the marrow of his bones, and +watched with heavy eyes the slow birth of new life after the deadly +horrors of the night. And his heart was as cold as his body. + +He wrestled manfully with that which was in him, but surely man's faith +and courage were rarely put to sorer test. He had striven so hard, and +toiled so ceaselessly, at utmost stretch of hand and heart and brain, +and here, just as the harvest was ripening, it was all dashed into +nothing, as though by the stroke of an angry hand. Oh, it was hard, +hard, hard! + +But he fought out his fight singlehanded, and found himself--where +steadfast faith and undaunted courage have always firm footing. And a +spark of hope struggled up in him to meet the sun. The beginnings of +things had always had a charm for him. And here must be a new +beginning. They were back at first principles and the elementary facts +of life. But, truly, there is a mighty difference between a beginning +and a beginning again, and it calls for the best that is in a man to +begin again with the heart with which he began before. + +The rain ceased towards morning, the wind slackened, and when the sun +rose behind the hills the western sky shone opalescent, and the sea +below it was a cold, dark blue. The rollers were still of mighty size, +but the reef was spouting foam again, and the lagoon was heaving within +its usual bounds. + +But everything else was changed--everything except the bare ridge on +which they crouched. + +The village--gone as though wiped with a sponge off a slate. The +mission-houses, schools, church--not a plank left. And somewhere below +the smiling face of the lagoon lay all that was left of the ships and +the men who had been in them. + +Not all below, after all, for from his perch he could see the beach +strewn with fragments, human and otherwise. Right below him on the +hillside, John MacNeil's waterwheel turned busily in fruitless labour, +and its bare nakedness and useless fussiness added to the sense of +desolation and discomfort. + +Then the sun topped the hills, and cheered their chilled senses +somewhat. Blair and Cathie straightened themselves wearily, but +neither dared as yet look into the other's face, lest he should find +there only confirmation of his own worst fears. + +Kenni-Kenni, who had fared better than any of them, and was conscious +of nothing more than bodily discomfort, gave a hungry cry which woke +response in Cathie's breast. + +"Let us go down," he said. "Maybe we'll find something to eat," and +the two men scrambled down to the level, and walked over the soft mud +where the houses had stood, and searched with anxious eyes for +something that might stay their more pressing necessities. + +Blair turned up towards the valley. Cathie, with more prescience, +sought the beach, and presently a shout from him brought the two +together again. When they met, the captain was carrying the body of a +drowned kid under one arm, and a bundle of wood under the other. + +"Here's breakfast," he said, and did not think it well to mention that +he had found the kid lying between the bodies of two dead men, one +brown, the other white. + +The matches in their metal cases were all damp, but a few minutes' +exposure to the sun put that right, and they soon had fire, and kid +steaks grilling over it on pointed sticks. Then they helped the ladies +down and were presently eating, though, in spite of their hunger, each +one of them felt like choking at every mouthful. And there was no talk +among them, for they were sitting on the grave of their hopes. + +More than once Jean stopped feeding her boy and glanced questioningly +at the men, and then, as they ate stolidly, weighted with their +thoughts, she went on with her work. + +It was only when they had all quite finished, and sat as though +dreading what might come next, that she said-- + +"Are we all that are left, Ken? I thought I heard a cry just now." + +"Did you, dear? It is possible. There must surely be others. We will +go and see," and he and Cathie went off again towards the beach. + +"How's it up the valley?" asked the captain briefly. + +"Drowned out." + +The beach was a pitiful sight. Every step spoke of the catastrophe. +Bodies uncountable, white and brown, men, women, and children, pigs and +goats, broken coco-nuts, bruised fruit, wreckage from the ships and +plantations and houses. + +"By God! Mr. Blair, I cannot understand it," broke out Cathie in a +paroxysm, as he stood over the bodies of two of his men from the +_Torch_. "What had we done to deserve this?" + +"Cathie, Cathie! Come to your senses, man! This is no punishment of +God's. Rather let us be thankful we are still alive." + +"I'd almost as lieve be dead," said Cathie stubbornly. "Ships gone, +men gone, everything gone, and all our work undone. Say what you will, +Mr. Blair, it's bitter hard." + +"These," said Blair, raising his hands reverently over the dead at +their feet, "have gone home--beyond the reach of storms. The ships can +be replaced. If there are any people left, the work can be rebuilt. +If they are all gone, they are the better off, and they have gone +further than if we had never come here." + +"It's bitter hard, all the same----" + +And then a faint, muffled cry reached them, apparently from the ragged +hillside whose debris lay all over the beach, and they both ran towards +it. + +The cries were repeated, and led them at last to an out-jutting rock +round which the sliding earth had flowed and settled. + +"Where are you?" cried Blair. + +"Here!" came from under their feet, and they spied a small hole in the +earth, and set to work at once to enlarge it with their hands. + +Cathie ran down to the beach and came back with some pieces of wood +which made the work go quicker. The cries from the inside had ceased, +and they worked the harder, and at last they had the hole large enough +for Blair to get his head and shoulders in. + +With his hand he felt the body of a man fallen in a heap, and by great +exertions managed to drag it out through the hole. + +It was the body of Captain Pym, white and senseless. They carried him +down to the beach and dashed water in his face, and presently he came +to, and lay for a minute looking dazedly up at them. Then he sat up. + +"I apologise," he said, with an attempt at cheerfulness. "Been dead +and buried all night--thought of coming to life again bowled me out. +Saw you in the distance, and shouted and shouted--like being in a +coffin--just room to stand, but couldn't move, and been holding up that +hill all night. My God!" as it all came back on him. "What a horror +it has been! Are you the only ones left?" + +"I hope not," said Blair. "Can you walk? We've got a fire over there +and something to eat." + +"Bit shaky yet," said Pym, as he staggered along on their arms. "Never +expected to walk again in this life." + +"How was it?" + +"When I saw that devilish thing smash the ships, and the other coming +towards me, I made for the hill. I was just under that rock when it +broke. It was like being under Niagara, only worse. It jammed me flat +and beat the breath out of me. Then the earth came rolling down, and +cased me in tight except a hand's space through which I could breathe. +I've been seeing those ships go smash every minute since. God! It was +awful!" and he hung slackly on their arms and glanced over the placid +lagoon. + +Jean and Aunt Jannet gave him quiet greeting, as one come back from the +dead, and hastened to supply his wants. Blair and Cathie set off again +up the valley with tight faces. + +The havoc there was terrible. The cloud-burst and the great wave +together had swept it bare. They went some distance up and stood +looking round. It seemed incredible that so short a time could have +wrought so woful a change. + +The plantations were gone to the last stick and leaf. The very +hillsides were almost cleared of trees. The smiling valley of +yesterday was a stark empty pan, with deeply-scored sides and a sheet +of shining mud caking slowly at the bottom. + +"It will make good growing ground," said Blair. + +"If we'd anything to grow and any one to grow it for," said Cathie +gloomily. + +"We shall find some of them in the hills, I hope. Let us get on." + +And presently there was a shout up above on the hillside, and there +came down, at a pace that risked their necks, Jim Gregor of the _Jean +Arnot_ and young Irvine, who was on the _Torch_ when last they heard of +him. + +They whooped with joy and shook hands a dozen times with Blair and +Cathie, and were quite incoherent for many minutes. + +"We're right glad to see you, boys," said Blair, when they calmed down. +"Are there any more up there?" + +"Three more Torches, sir, and half a dozen Bonitas, and about a dozen +islanders, men and women, and a couple of children. Have you got +anything to eat?" + +"Yes. Go on to the water-wheel. You'll find food there. Where are +these others?" + +"Right by yon rock. We'll go back with you. Some of them are badly +bashed and can't walk without help." + +So they all climbed up, and came on the forlorn little company +crouching by the rock, and gave them new life by the very sight of them. + +The sailors plucked up heart at once, but the brown men were very +subdued and silent. Their eyes were still wide with terror when at +last they sat under the southern ridge and ate the food Jean and Aunt +Jannet found for them, supplemented by coco-nuts and bruised fruit from +the beach. + +All the men had strange stories to tell. Gregor and Irvine, and some +of the others, asserted that when the waterspout struck the ships they +were whirled up out of them and dropped into the lagoon some distance +away. Then, before they could swim ashore, the great wave caught them +and whirled them up into the valley, bruising them all more or less and +breaking some. The brown men were mostly sound of limb. They had fled +for the hills at the first sight of the spectral dangers outside. + +"Have you seen signs of any others?" asked Blair. + +Yes, they thought they had seen moving forms on the further hills, but +too far away to distinguish clearly. On which Cathie set them to +collecting driftwood from the shore, and piled it on the fire, with wet +brush and tangle on top, till the smoke rose in a dense column. + +"That'll bring them," he said, and in time they came dropping in, in +small companies, from their various hiding-places, and last of all came +one carrying a woman in his arms. + +And at sight of him, toiling through the new soft mud where the village +had stood, Blair sprang up and ran to meet him. + +"Thank God, you are left to us, Ha'o!" he cried as they met, but Ha'o +was as silent as the rest of his people. "Is Nai hurt? Let me help +you." + +Nai smiled wanly at him as he put his arms under her and took part of +the weight, and then her face crumpled with pain. + +They carried her gently to the fire, and laid her on the soft white +sand, and Jean and Aunt Jannet knelt beside her and saw to her wants. + +Captain Cathie, when he saw the increasing company, had made another +visit to their only storehouse, the beach, and came back this time with +a young pig and some bananas and coco-nuts, and some +carefully-sought-out paw-paw leaves for the benefit of the too-fresh +pork. + +Ha'o was too weary and too hungry for talk, and Blair and Cathie called +the militant members of the party to salvage work on the beach. +Gruesome work too, and not calculated to raise their spirits even after +a full meal, for every few steps brought them to the bodies of those +they had known alive and well the day before. + +These they drew up the sand for burial later. Meanwhile the orders +were to save everything they could lay hands on. Where everything had +been taken, the smallest find was of value. + +Fruits and shrubs especially Blair commended to their attention, and he +had a couple of dozen paw-paw trees and several rows of bananas planted +before sunset. + +Out of the piles of timber they secured, Cathie and Pym built lean-to +shelters among the rocks sufficient for the whole party. With the +coco-nuts and broken fruit, and the bodies of several pigs and goats, +they had food for several days, if only they could keep it in eatable +condition. By the time it was finished they would know more about +their actual circumstances. + +Jean informed her husband that Nai had an arm and leg broken, and he at +once sought out slips of wood and strips of garments, and put the +broken limbs into splints. + +Ha'o, after eating, lay thoughtful for a time, and then went down to +assist the salvage party. He dragged and carried in silence for some +time, but finally gave voice to his thoughts. + +"Kenni, why has this come upon us?" + +"You have had storms before, Ha'o." + +"But never a storm like this one, with whirling devils and waves like +rushing mountains." + +"I have heard of both before in other places, but I never saw them +myself till now." + +"Was it your God sent them, Kenni?" + +"Only in the same way that He sends everything, Ha'o--light and wind +and rain." + +"Why did He send this when we were doing our best to please Him?" + +"It came in the ordinary way of things. It was just a bigger storm +than usual." + +"We never had it like this before," said Ha'o, sticking stubbornly to +his point. "My people are saying it is your God sent it. If He is +that kind of a god we don't want Him." + +"How do you train your young men, Ha'o? By treating them softly? By +petting them, and giving them all things easy and pleasant?" + +"Nay, we toughen them, so that they may endure." + +"Exactly! Do you think that God knows less than you? He also wants +men who can endure even when the fight goes against them." + +That seemed to strike him. He went on stolidly hauling and carrying, +and at last said, bitterly-- + +"If He had left my people alive, Kenni, and not broken Nai, I would +have thought better of Him." + +"Let us be grateful for what is left, my friend. Nai will get better. +Many of our people are dead, but more are left than we think, perhaps." + +But Ha'o shook his head gloomily, and went on hauling and carrying, and +said no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +REVERSIONS + +Captain Pym was in that state of mind in which every man who loses his +ship finds himself, and from which his fellow in misfortune, Captain +Cathie, was slowly emerging. No slightest blame attached to him in the +matter, and he would have no difficulty in proving it. Nevertheless, +he was suffering exceedingly. The burden of his thoughts kept sleep +far from him, and, after tossing restlessly through the night on a by +no means uncomfortable couch of dried palm fronds, he got up very early +next morning to give his depressed spirits fresh air and wider space +than the confinement of the lean-to afforded them. Blair and Cathie, +worn out with hard work and anxieties, were still sleeping soundly. + +As Pym walked along the beach, he saw with surprise a thin curl of +smoke rising behind an angle of the hillside not far from the scene of +his coffining. + +When he came to the angle he stopped transfixed, and then set off at a +run to the huts. He caught Blair by the shoulder and roughly shook him +awake. + +"Blair," he cried hoarsely, "your brown devils are eating our men," and +Blair and Cathie were on their feet in a moment. + +Blair was not very greatly surprised, though not a little disturbed. +He had seen the upsetting the catastrophe had wrought in Ha'o, the most +advanced of all, and he had wondered if the rest would stand the strain. + +"It's a throw-back," he said, "but it's really not very surprising. +Where's Ha'o? Cathie, will you call the men?" + +He went quickly to the shed Ha'o had built for Nai, and found him there +asleep, and was to that extent relieved. He woke him quietly, and told +him what was going on. + +"Food is scarce, and will be scarcer," said Ha'o, when he arrived at an +understanding of the matter. "Everything is destroyed." + +"Better starve than live so," said Blair vehemently. "But everything +is not destroyed. We shall live somehow, and this has got to be +stopped. Come on!" + +He picked up a stick of wood from the drift, and set off at a run along +the beach. The others armed themselves in like manner and followed him. + +The brown men sprang up from their feast as they rounded the corner, +some of them still gnawing at chunks of flesh in their hands. + +Blair rushed at them like a blazing bolt. Several of them, for lack of +clubs, snatched brands from the fire. He paid no heed to their +weapons, but laid about him with his stick with such vigour that they +gave way before him, and the others, following his lead with hearty +good will, drove the brown men back, and finally put them to the run. + +"Now," said Blair, as he leaned on his stick, "there is only one thing +to be done. Pile all the rough wood you can find on to that fire. +Keep out anything that may be useful. We must burn all those bodies. +We can't take them out to sea, and if we bury them they'll dig them up." + +It was obviously the best thing to do, and they set about the gruesome +business at once. + +They made a mighty pile of firing and laid the bodies reverently on it, +and covered them with more wood, and more bodies and again more wood, +till they had to wait till the pile burned down, because of the height +of it and the heat. And their faces were pinched and their breaths +shortened, as they carried to the pyre the bodies of those they had +lived with in comradeship for so long, and they worked in silence. + +The only sound that was heard beyond the crackle and fall of the +burning wood, as the dense black smoke rolled up into the sky, was the +voice of Blair, as he stood to windward and quietly recited portions of +the service for the Burial of the Dead from time to time. And surely +never did the solemn words sound more weighty and full of meaning. + +"I am the resurrection and the life.... + +"Lord, Thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another.... + +"Thou turnest man to destruction.... + +"They are even as a sleep: and fade away suddenly like the grass.... + +"In the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.... + +"For we consume away in Thy displeasure.... + +"Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live.... He cometh +up and is cut down, like a flower.... + +"In the midst of life we are in death.... + +"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.... + +"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.... For they rest from +their labours...." + +None of them ever forgot that strange and somewhat ghastly service--the +hungry lick of the flames, blue and green and yellow and red from the +salt and tar, but almost unseen in the beams of the fully-risen sun; +the rippling lagoon; the sparkling white beach; the foam-jets on the +reef; the great blue sea beyond; the pitiful things the flames +consumed; and the rolling clouds of smoke which spread like a pall +along the scarred hillside. + +Aunt Jannet Harvey came hurrying round the corner to see what they were +at, and Cathie caught sight of her and sent her hurrying back surprised +at his brusqueness. For this was one of the things that may be told +but is better not seen. + +Ha'o had taken no part in these doings. He had no desire for human +flesh, but there was a doubtful look on his face, as though he thought +the proceedings wasteful and possibly to be regretted later on. + +The brown men stood in a clump at a distance and watched sullenly all +that was done. + +When the pile died down Blair went over to the chief. + +"Ha'o," he said, "go and speak to your people. Tell them that things +are as they were, and that flesh they shall not eat." + +"They will starve." + +"No, they will not starve. We will find them food." + +Ha'o looked at him doubtfully, but not without expectation. The white +men were so wonderful, that it was difficult to say what they could or +could not do, and Kenni never lied. + +Nevertheless, "Where, Kenni?" he asked. + +"We shall not starve," said Blair emphatically. + +The brown man looked searchingly at him for a full minute, and then +turned and strode away towards the others. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +FROM THE BEGINNING + +"Our brown folk have lost their heads for the time being," said Blair +to his wife, as they all stood round the huts. "They have gone off to +the hills. It is not very surprising. They will come back all right +in time. Captain Cathie, I want you to make a raft and take the ladies +and the sick--in fact, all but Gregor and Irvine--to the Happy Valley +for a time, till things straighten out a bit. You will, I think, find +food there, and the natives won't intrude on you." + +"And you, Kenneth?" said Jean anxiously. + +"I am going across to the other side of the island with Ha'o, to see +how they fared there. If food is plentiful we will bring some back +here for the women and children. They may have been washed out also. +If so we must get food from the Valley. We will drop in on you from +the upper end, but it is too rough a road for you and the sick men. +Will you join us, Captain Pym, or will you go and take care of the +ladies?" + +"Captain Cathie is quite equal to that, I am sure, Mr. Blair. With +your permission I will join you." + +"Can you induce Nai to go with the ladies, Ha'o?" + +"She will go," said Ha'o tersely. + +He was in a gloomy frame of mind through all these strange happenings +and the defection of his people. + +"Then the sooner we get to it the better." And under Cathie's +directions they all set to work on a raft. Timber and rope were not +wanting. + +"Take all you can, and especially what we can use for boat-building +later on," said Blair. "We shall have to get out of our hole +ourselves, and that, I think, is the way out." + +The brown women and children he set to collecting for themselves all +the food they could find along the shore. He also gave them some +lengths of rope, and bade them untwist it for fishing-lines and then +start fishing from the ledge with splinters for hooks. + +"You will probably find the bottom of the valley scoured out, Cathie," +he said; "but there should be both fruit and animals on the hillsides. +We may have to replenish the island from there." + +When the work was well forward, he set out with his little band to +cross the island by One-Tree Pass, and found the passage extremely +difficult. For the cloud seemed to have finally broken on the saddle +of the hills, and in many places the road they had built with such +labour and difficulty was washed completely away, and in other places +it was buried deep under slides of broken rock. + +They found their way over the ridge, however, and saw at once that the +deluge had wrought heavily on the further side also. The long slope +was deeply scored and furrowed, but there were houses and palm-trees +still standing down below, and they went on quickly to see how the +brown folk had fared. + +The villagers welcomed them heartily and received their news with +amazement. The storm above and the storm below had terrified them. +The water had come down the hill in cascades, but the long stretch had +dissipated much of its force before it reached them. Then the great +wave had swept across the beach and carried away all their boats. +Their palms and plantations had suffered heavily, and they had picked +up a number of dead pigs and goats, but otherwise there had been no +loss of life. They had not overmuch food, but what they had they were +quite willing to share with the others who had none. And Blair's +heart, still sore over the defection of the western men, was comforted +somewhat by their simple kindliness. + +They stayed the night, and Blair explained more fully the disasters on +the other side of the island and the temporary aberration of Ha'o's +people, and begged them, if there should be any attempt at raiding, to +treat the others as reasonably as might be, remembering what they had +gone through. + +They set off again very early in the morning, carrying such burden of +food as was possible on the rough road they had to travel, and reached +the huts by the sea before midday. The brown men had taken possession +and received them in sulky silence. + +Blair gave the food to the women and children, and to the men some bits +of his mind in his own special way. He acknowledged the direness of +the catastrophe, but bade them remember that the white men had suffered +equally and yet had not lost their heads or their heart. He told them +to be grateful for their lives, and assured them that there was no need +for despair. + +Blair's high spirits in the face of all difficulties, his forethought +and far-reaching grip of the necessities of the case, made a deep +impression even on Captain Pym's habitual and official phlegm. Under +stress of circumstance he found himself under the necessity of +rearranging his preconceived ideas. He became decidedly more human, +and perhaps more of a man, than he had been for many a year. + +He sounded Blair as to his hopes and intentions, and they discussed +matters freely. In furtherance of them, when they had rested, they all +set to work making another raft, and if the _Bonita_ men could have +seen their spick and span, stiff and starched captain, hauling and +lashing, with his coat off and his trousers up to the knee, it is +certain they would not have known him. + +They paddled their raft across the lagoon to the place where the ships +had lain before the storm, and after some searching found where the +_Torch_ and _Jean Arnot_ were lying. The great wave had probably +washed them inshore but the return had carried them out again. The +_Bonita_ had disappeared completely. She had probably been carried +over the edge of the shelf and lay in unfathomable depths. They could +see the other two dimly through the clear water, with the many-coloured +fishes darting in and out of their battered sides and broken raffle, +and Captain Pym's face pinched at the sight and at thought of it all. + +Ha'o was the most expert swimmer of the party, and had long since shown +that he could remain under water twice as long as any of the white men. +On him therefore the burden of discovery lay, and he appreciated with +the rest how much depended on his efforts. They had timber in quantity +from the broken boats and ships, but without tools they could turn it +all to no account. There were tools below there in the ships. Ha'o +was going down to find them. With tools in their hands the door of +deliverance would be at all events ajar. + +"You will most likely find them in the front part of our ship, Ha'o, +underneath where the big gun was," Blair told him. "If the gun has +fallen through, so much the better. It will help you," and Ha'o +nodded, and shot down through the clear water like a brown streak. + +He was up again presently and hung panting to the raft. The big gun +had gone out of sight through the side and bottom of the ship. He +would get inside next time. + +But it took many visits before he discovered anything, and then a +ringing cheer went up as he came to the surface with a saw in his hand, +and flung it on to the raft. + +"There are more things, but they are scattered," he told them, when he +had got his breath, and next time he took down with him one end of a +thin cord they had unravelled out of rope, and presently sent up by it +a heavy hammer, and came up himself with a chisel. It took many hours' +hard work, but at last they had enough to go on with, and Ha'o lay +panting on the raft, while the others paddled it slowly down the lagoon +to the Happy Valley. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +SALT OF THE EARTH + +The effect of the great wave in the Valley had been extraordinary. + +When last they were there the whole place was a tangle of luxuriant +undergrowth, ferns, mosses, lichens, pandanus, hibiscus, paw-paws, with +stately palms waving gracefully above. + +Now the bed of the Valley was bare. The growths and the undergrowths +had been torn off and swept away, and the newcomers were led +wonderingly through the uncovered ruins of the city built by the men +who set up the stone gods--along a wide street paved with stone blocks, +which ran up the middle of the Valley with the stream flowing through +it; past the foundations of great buildings; into an immense square +where the denudation had been less complete. A certain amount of mud +had silted down again on to the ruins. Nature was already at work +covering up the scar of her latest wound. And the great stone gods sat +gazing expectantly out to sea, as they had gazed when the city below +still teemed with busy life; as they had gazed through all the long +years since, while the ruins of the city slowly disappeared beneath the +touch of the healing hand. + +The first party had found strange quarters in the uncovered basement of +a building, which, from its size, had probably been a temple. It was a +great quadrangle, and the head of the wide roadway that led from the +sea ran right into it, and ended there. The upper end of the enclosure +rose ten feet or more above the level, and was composed of great +chiselled blocks of stone, and in this were cavernous square openings, +the entrances of which now served as houses for these houseless +strangers. They had appropriated four adjacent holes, and had made +themselves as comfortable as circumstances permitted. + +The whole place had been covered in with wild growth, but the great +wave foaming up the valley had swept it all bare. The apartments were +not uncomfortable except in one respect. They ran so far back into the +hillside that the ends of them had not yet been discovered. "And," +said Aunt Jannet, peering into the shadows which the firelight +quickened into ghostly life, "I'm always expecting something will come +out, and either frighten us to death or eat us alive." + +Ha'o stood it for one night, with crumpled face and quick-glancing +eyes, but next day he carried up some boards from the beach, and built +a tiny lean-to outside for himself and Nai, and they found life more +tolerable. + +Nothing ever came out of those mysterious passages for their undoing. +What dark uses they may have served in the bygone times they could only +surmise. One passage they followed till it issued in the cliffs behind +the stone gods. The others ran straight into the heart of the +mountain, with cross cuts leading round towards the city, and the uses +they might have been put to in the hands of a priestly oligarchy were +apparent. + +Captain Pym was fired with thoughts of hidden treasure, and spent many +odd hours searching for it. Blair laughed at the idea, and begged him +to keep it to himself, lest the men should catch the infection, and +waste on it valuable time which might be used to much better advantage. + +"Treasure is unlikely," he said. "If, as we suppose, these pioneers +were accidentally blown across, or fled for reasons, they would not be +likely to bring much with them." + +"All the same, they built mightily," argued Pym, and went on with his +search. All that he ever found, however, was a few flat beaten plates +of gold, and some golden ornaments, of no great value save as +curiosities. + +Captain Cathie reported a fair amount of fruit and palms still standing +on the hillsides, and pigs and goats enough to re-stock the island, in +time and with protection. Most of the other animals had disappeared +completely. + +"I'll take the men back to-morrow over the hill," said Cathie, in +excellent spirits at the prospect of the opening door, "and we'll bring +back another raft of timber. With the tools you've got we can make a +start anyway, and we can fish up more by degrees. There's timber +enough in the lagoon to build a new schooner." + +"Build us something that will float as far as the Marquesas or +Paumotus, and we'll soon have a new schooner, captain. But the first +thing I want is to get to Kanele and Anape to see how Evans and Stuart +have fared. If they came through pretty well we can get fresh stock +from them, both animals and plants." + +"I've got a lot of paw-paws for you on the beach, and some bananas and +plantains. Where will you plant, Mr. Blair?" + +"For the present in the mud of the old fields. It'll make splendid +growing ground. Later on, when we rebuild, we must get higher up. +We're not likely to have another deluge just yet, but what has been may +be, and we must take all precautions. When your boat is ready, and +we've had a trip round the islands, my idea is for you to run across to +the Marquesas and buy a schooner there, if you can lay hands on one, +and send her back by Gregor for our use while you're away. Then you go +on to Sydney and buy a new _Torch_ and everything we need, Long Tom, +Winchesters and all"--with a quizzical glance at Pym. "You know just +what we want, and you can have all the money you require." + +Captain Pym listened with surprise. His ideas of missionaries were +crystallising rapidly from the solution of scepticism into concrete +beliefs and admirations. He was not a man given to admiration of other +men, but he recognised in Kenneth Blair a master mind and an +indomitable spirit. He said little but thought much. + +Every one was at work soon after daylight. Cathie produced drowned +meat from an adjacent passage way, which he used as cold storage. Jean +and Aunt Jannet prepared the morning meal. Blair had planted two rows +of paw-paws and a number of bananas before breakfast, and Ha'o had +built his lean-to for Nai and brought in some fruit. + +Then Cathie built a small raft, and in due course Aunt Jannet Harvey +was seated on it with many startled exclamations, and wafted herself +uncouthly out into the lagoon. She was provided with two fishing lines +and a supply of bait, and a rope to the shore lest she should disappear +entirely from human ken, and she had instructions to catch all the fish +she could for the amplification of the larder. + +And Blair, when he had made sure of her safety, and turned to go up the +valley to cross the hills, could hardly contain himself at sight of her +face, in which determination to catch struggled desperately with horror +at thought of pulling the hooks out of what she caught. + +"This is a change from Kensington, Aunt Jannet, isn't it? You're quite +sure you won't tumble overboard?" had been his jovial parting word. + +"I'll t--try not, Kenneth. D--do you think it hurts them much to have +the hooks pulled out?" + +"If you leave them for a few minutes they'll die quite comfortably. +Then it won't hurt them. Anyway, you see we need them." + +So Aunt Jannet pursed her lips valiantly, and cast in the lines he had +baited for her, and watched him and Captain Cathie with one eye, while +the other waited on her lines in fear and expectation. + +They waved her an adieu at the turn of the valley, and in her attempt +to reply to it she frightened away a swarm of eager nibblers and nearly +fell overboard herself. + +"Yes," she said to herself, "it's a great change from Kensington. But +if that child Jean can stand it, I can. And she seems as happy as a +lark. That's partly Kenni-Kenni, of course. Oh dear, I've caught +something! Whatever am I to do now?" + +She looked wildly round for assistance, but the men were climbing the +hill, laden with provisions for the brown folk. So she tightened her +lips and hauled in her line, and at last drew her first fish on to the +raft. And then, after a pitiful look at its changing colours, she +turned her head away as far as she could, suppressed a strong +inclination to throw her victim back into the water, and waited for the +poor thing to die comfortably. + +When Jean and Kenni-Kenni came down to inquire how she was getting on, +she was quite herself again. + +"I've got a dozen or so," she cried. "I hope they are all fit to eat. +It's really quite interesting when you get used to it. If you like to +try your hand at it, Jean, haul me in and I'll take care of Kenni-Kenni +for a bit." + +The men were back before nightfall, very tired, but rich in timber, and +in high spirits at the recovery of more tools, and all with appetites +that disposed of Aunt Jannet's fish in a very much shorter time than it +had taken that good lady to catch them. + +Next day they laid the keel of their forlorn hope, and when that +ceremony was over, Blair and Ha'o started off again across the hills to +the old village, to endeavour to get the brown men to make a start on +their own buildings and plantings. Characteristically, they were +inclined to lie down under misfortune and let things take their chance, +and Blair, characteristically also, stated his intention of stopping +there till they got to work. He exhorted them to better heart both by +word and example, and Ha'o lent the weight of his authority, and, where +that failed, added the still weightier impulsion of physical force. +Authority weakens under disaster, but a bold heart and a heavy hand are +strong arguments, and, disaster or no disaster, Ha'o had no intention +of abating one jot of his seigneurial rights. He was chief still and +he let them feel it. + +"What is the good of planting?" said the brown men. "We shall be dead +before the fruit comes." + +"Oh no, you won't!" said Blair cheerfully. "There is fruit in the +Valley and fruit on the other side of One-Tree Pass, but in future +you'll have to go and get it for yourselves, and you can have all the +fish you want for the catching." + +"But we don't care for fish every day." + +"There are many things I don't care for myself, my sons, but when I +can't do better I put up with them. You must learn to be men." + +The actively mutinous spirit, which the opportunity of the day after +the storm had kindled in them, had passed with the passing of that +which had excited it. It had vanished in the smoke of the funeral +pyre, and Blair was grateful, for things might have been very +different. Instead of fighting the lethargy of despair they might have +had to defend themselves against its fury, and he was well content. + +He tried hard to get them to come over into the Valley, but that they +would not do. They would come to the hill top for such fruits as might +be brought there for them, and they would go over One-Tree Pass, but +into the valley of the stone gods not one of them would set so much as +a toe, and Ha'o himself could not make them. + +With all hands working heartily and at high pressure,--from Captain +Pym, who dropped the last remnants of his starch in the process, to +Aunt Jannet who, in the intervals of her other duties, picked oakum as +if she had been undergoing a term of imprisonment,--the boat building +made famous progress, and four weeks from the day the keel was laid the +Kenni-Kenni was launched--prevailed upon, at all events, and apparently +much against her will, to quit mother earth and take to the water. And +if she looked, as Captain Cathie admitted, something of a cross between +a washtub and a patchwork quilt, she was undoubtedly built strong and +would stand a good deal of knocking about. As to her sailing +qualities, they might have been better and they might have been worse, +and, as Cathie said, they had not started out to build a +cup-winner--which was perhaps just as well. + +There was an old candle-nut tree in a corner at the head of the Valley, +and they set out to stain the little ship dark red with a decoction of +its bark, but as the supply ran short the result was not altogether +happy. However, she floated on an even keel and was as tight as a +drum, forty feet over all, ten feet beam, decked all over and yawl +rigged. Spars and sails they had in plenty from the treasure trove of +the beach, and Captain Cathie undertook to take her all the way to +Sydney if need be. He also expressed the explicit intention of +overhauling the first ship or island he came across for a supply of +paint, all of one colour, sufficient to go all round her. + +Nevertheless, and in spite of her lack in such minor details, their +hearts were very full as they lined the beach, with their eyes on the +little ship, and in their ears Blair's voice ringing strong and true +with gratitude and hope, as he prayed God's blessing on the +accomplished work of their hands, and on the work she had still to do. + +When the ceremony was over, and Blair happened to be standing for a +moment alone, Captain Pym came up to him and wrung his hand heartily. + +"Blair," he said, and his old shipmates on the _Bonita_ would not have +known either his voice or the look on his face, "I'm glad I came here. +But for my poor fellows who are gone, I could almost say I'm glad I was +wrecked here. I have learnt a great deal," and Blair answered him with +a cordial grip and a beaming smile. + +On the morrow, Blair and Pym and Cathie and a crew of six, three +Torches, and three Bonitas, took leave of the rest and sailed for +Kanele. + +Jean felt this parting terribly, the little ship looked so small, so +uncouth, so unequal to emergencies. But she kept a brave face, and +waved her farewells from the shore with a fervent prayer for their +safety, and then went quietly about her work, with her own Kenni-Kenni +clinging to her skirts, while his namesake carried his father away +across the seas to possible dangers, to possible---- Nay, she would +have faith in that protecting hand which had brought them through so +many difficulties before, and to fear was to doubt. + +[Illustration: Waved her farewells from the shore.] + +So her heart sang valiantly, "God's in His heaven, all's well!" and +after that first hour her face was calm and hopeful, and she was +counting the days to their return. + +The secret passages of the old temple made capital homes. The men had +snatched odd moments from their other labours, and material from their +abundant stores, and had boarded off the interior darknesses and +ghostly possibilities, and had knocked together some rough tables and +stools. They had food enough, though they were all tiring somewhat of +fish, fish again, and always fish. Blair had laughingly assured them +it was good for the brain, and Aunt Jannet asserted that she was +getting so brainy that, unless a change of diet came soon, she would +not answer for consequences. But in reality there was very little to +complain of. The health of the whole party had been excellent, and +Blair's high spirits had permitted no one else's to droop for a moment. + +Jean had more than once suggested their return to their work among the +brown men and women. But, in view of this first trip round the +islands, to which he had been looking forward with much eagerness, +Blair judged it best for them to remain where they were. + +"As soon as we're rid of Captain Pym and Cathie and the rest, we'll go +back and tackle the work," he said. "The brown folks are getting on +all right in the meantime. They're actually beginning to learn how to +help themselves." + +"Jean, my dear," said Aunt Jannet, one day after the _Kenni-Kenni_ +sailed, "it's just wonderful the way you stand it all." + +"Stand it, Aunt Jannet? Why, what do you mean? What is there to +stand?" + +"Why--heaps. Look at your dress, for instance. And when one remembers +that you've got L10,000 a year or so!--yes, I say, it's just wonderful." + +"I've done my best with it, and it's very rude to comment on people's +clothes before their faces. Besides, your own is no better, and the +needle Captain Cathie made for you out of that fishbone was very much +better than mine." + +"Well, well," laughed Aunt Jannet. "It wasn't your dress I was +meaning, child----" + +"You're getting fish on the brain, dear. Isn't that enough to make any +woman happy?" + +That, of course, was Kenni-Kenni, whose great delight it was at this +time to rush through and through the shining stream that babbled across +the temple floor, kicking up diamond showers with his pink toes and +squealing with delight as the sparkling drops played round him. + +"Yes, it does one good just to look at him," said Aunt Jannet. "But I +do wish you could get him to wear some more clothes. He's----" + +"Clothes!" said Jean scornfully. "What does a boy like that want with +clothes?" + +Kenni-Kenni was developing rapidly. He had one day thrown a stone at a +little black pig which sought his acquaintance. And when the piglet +fled Kenni-Kenni came suddenly to the knowledge of his prowess and +thereafter became a mighty hunter of small pigs whenever chance offered. + +He had also, after considerable hesitation, thrown a pebble at one of +the stone gods, of which he had hither-to stood in much awe. And as no +ill results followed he had become bold and warlike, and thought +nothing of challenging the bearded sailormen to mortal combat. And +they delighted in him exceedingly, and had promised to teach him to box +and to swim as soon as the boat was finished. + +Nai was getting about again and would soon be as well as ever. The +broken arm and leg were mending, and never was invalid more tenderly +ministered to, or more grateful to her nurses. It was upon Ha'o that +the catastrophe seemed to have had the most lasting effect, and that, +after all, was perhaps not unnatural. The country was his, and the +people were his, and they had suffered terribly. His faith in Kenneth +Blair underwent no visible eclipse, however, and he laboured at the +boat-building with the rest. + +The days passed very slowly for those left behind, and when the limit +allowed for the voyage was exceeded by one day, two days, three days, +Jean's anxieties began to show head again. + +"Don't worry, child!" said Aunt Jannet. "That boat has probably proved +even slower than they expected. My only wonder was that it would sail +at all. Not one of them ever built a boat in his life before, and I'm +sure it looked a deal more like a big washtub with a cover on than a +ship. They'll turn up all right in time. If they'd been meant to be +drowned they'd every chance when all the rest were." + +And surely enough, on the eleventh day, the _Kenni-Kenni_ came wafting +slowly down the lagoon, having come in by the upper entrance and made a +short call on the brown men in the old quarters. + +They were all well and brought a full cargo of news and stock and +plants, and Blair himself was in the highest of spirits and hungry to +get to work on the new plantations. + +The other islands had suffered somewhat from the big wave, chiefly in +the matter of boats. The news of the dire happenings on Kapaa'a had +filled them with amazement. The Evanses and Stuarts, and all their +works and belongings, were flourishing mightily. They sent endless +condolences to Jean and Aunt Jannet and Nai and Ha'o, and had been for +embarking at once to their consolation. But as the _Kenni-Kenni_ was +to start on her longer journey as soon as she could be provisioned, +that was out of the question, as it would have been impossible for them +to get back home again. + +"Yes," acknowledged Captain Cathie, in reply to a pointed question of +Aunt Jannet's respecting the sailorly qualities of his boat, "I'm bound +to say she's not exactly what you might call a fast boat. But she's +sure, and if you give her wind enough and time enough she gets there +all right." + +They had a busy three days preparing for the long voyage. Captain +Cathie reckoned they might make the Marquesas in twelve days with good +weather. So they made provision for twenty, out of the stores they had +brought from Kanele and Anape. He had borrowed Evans's pocket compass, +but vowed he could find his way without it. + +"If we go west with a touch of south in it we're bound to hit either +the Marquesas or Paumotus," he said cheerfully. "You may look for that +schooner here in six weeks from to-day--that is, if there's one to be +had, and if I can find a trader who'll negotiate the drafts." + +Jean had been racking her brains as to how they were to get hold of +some of the money waiting to be used in London, for all her papers had +disappeared in the deluge. But Blair had thought the whole matter out, +and had brought over paper and pens and a bottle of ink. And among +them they drew up a number of documents which, with Captain Pym's +verification of the circumstances, would, they thought, procure for +Captain Cathie all the money he needed as soon as he reached Sydney, +and possibly before that. + +And a very busy man would Captain Cathie be, if ever he reached Sydney. +For he had to buy a new _Torch_ and a multitudinous cargo; engage new +hands--to a limited extent, however, this time, for henceforth they +hoped to utilise largely the services of the brown men; and last, but +by no means least, to provide, so far as money could do it, adequate +recompense for the families of the men whose lives had been given in +the service of the Dark Islands. So far as forethought and hard +thinking could do it they had attended to everything, and Captain +Cathie's programme might have daunted a less valiant man. + +And so, very early one morning, before the sun had topped the hills +behind, though the outer sea danced and sparkled merrily, there was a +great leave-taking on the white beach at the mouth of the valley where +the old village used to stand. The _Kenni-Kenni_ had brought them all +up the day before, with all their belongings, in a couple of trips, and +they were among their own brown people once more, ready and anxious to +be at their work again. + +The last hearty handshakes had been given and the last words said. The +shallop they had built for use with the larger boat, and which was to +be left behind, had just put Captain Pym and Captain Cathie on board. +The sails ran up, and the _Kenni-Kenni's_ nose turned determinedly for +the passage and the long journey westward. + +Kenneth Blair and his wife Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey stood in the +centre of a line of brown folk and waved the farewells and benedictions +their voices could no longer carry, and little Kenni-Kenni waved and +shouted because the others did. His namesake bobbed and rose to the +swell of the passage and was lost to sight behind the spouting jets of +the reef. + +The line of watchers on the beach climbed the hillside behind them, and +watched and waved till the white sails alone were visible, till they +became a tiny white speck, till they disappeared. + +Then Kenneth Blair kissed his wife very tenderly, for his heart was +very full. And he turned to the brown folk, and said-- + +"We will ask God's blessing on their journeying, for it means much to +us all, and then we will get to our work. Let us pray!" and the brown +folk bent their heads. + +On the little ship, Captain Cathie had given the helm to Jim Gregor, +and stood looking back at the peaks of the little land where he had +spent so many full days. + +And to him came Captain Pym, and said-- + +"That is one of the finest men I ever met, Captain Cathie. I count it +a privilege to have known him. He will do great things yet." + +"Yes, sir," said Cathie quietly, for the parting was still on him. +"The brown men call him White Fire, and so he is, and his wife's +another, and so is Mrs. Harvey. Salt of the earth, sir, every one of +them. If there were more like them the world would be a sight better +to live in than it is." + + + + +The Gresham Press, + +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, + +WOKING AND LONDON. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of White Fire, by John Oxenham + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHITE FIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 38061.txt or 38061.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/6/38061/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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