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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/77501-h/77501-h.htm b/77501-h/77501-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..439ff3f --- /dev/null +++ b/77501-h/77501-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2133 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Gray God | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.caption p +{ + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin: 0.25em 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77501 ***</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>The Gray God</h1> + +<p class="ph1">By J. ALLAN DUNN</p> + +<p><i>Author of "The Cardinal's Curse,"<br> +"Whirlwind Walsh," etc.</i></p> + +<p><i>Broke and almost "on the beach" in the<br> +Fiji Islands, Bob Stanton hardly guessed<br> +that just around the corner lay the maddest<br> +adventure life could offer in the tropics.</i></p> + +<p><i>Novelette—Complete</i></p> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br> +Argosy All-Story Weekly March 16 1929.]</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">"TYPICAL TROPICAL TRAMP!"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHEUNG'S PLAN.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE RACE TO MOTUTABU.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE JUNGLE TRAIL.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">THE SHADOW OF THE GOD.</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</h2> +</div> + +<h3>"TYPICAL TROPICAL TRAMP!"</h3> + + +<p>Bob Stanton walked along the main street of Suva, painfully conscious +that people looked at him as if he was a beach comber. He was not quite +that—yet—though he was not many degrees removed from it, he told +himself. His ducks and his linen, if they were frayed, were clean; +he managed, with old blades and the horrible soap supplied by his +landlady, to keep shaved; the soles of his shoes were broken, but the +uppers were carefully pipe-clayed. He was still respectable, but his +hair needed cutting and his browned features were beginning to wear an +expression that made even the kilted native police look at him askance.</p> + +<p>Not to mention the tourists. A steamer was in. Men and women were +strolling or driving, tropic clad, agog for entertainment, planning +luncheon. Some had <i>lei</i> garlands about their necks placed there by +welcoming friends. Friends! There were certainly times when a fellow +needed one, Stanton reflected. There might be Americans in that +laughing crowd intent upon enjoyment. Perhaps if they knew the plight +he was in, from no fault of his own—</p> + +<p>He shoved his hands deeper in his empty pockets, crossing over from the +row of stores with plate glass fronts, hotels and clubs, to the shore +side of the street. He walked in the checkered, changing shadow of the +palms and poincianas, which patterned the path with purple and gold.</p> + +<p>Across the stretch of seagrass lawn the Goro Sea showed incredibly +blue, blue as laundry blueing. The sky was hardly less vivid. Cliffs of +pearly trade wind clouds lifted on the horizon. The breeze raised the +banners of bananas, rustled in the fronds of coconut and royal palms, +sent down a drift of scarlet poinciana blossoms like carnival confetti. +A glorious, gorgeous mockery of a day.</p> + +<p>He had the makings of two cigarettes, perhaps three thin ones, and that +was all. No tobacco, no money to buy any. He was three weeks in debt +to his half-caste landlady, three weeks in board-arrears to Cheung Li. +Broke. Stony broke.</p> + +<p>They hadn't said a thing about it yet, but they would not, could not +trust him forever.</p> + +<p>There was the sting of it; they had trusted him. He had not lied to +them about coming remittances, but had frankly said he was flat, and +they had smiled and said he was an American and they knew he would pay +them when he could. That seemed a long way off right now.</p> + +<p>A girl was coming toward him, from the steamer, unaccompanied. She was +simply dressed, she was slender, but walked with a certain agile vigor +that distinguished her. Stanton almost bumped into her on the narrow +path in his absorption. He got a glimpse of a pair of dark blue eyes, +large, clear, but not carefree; a short nose, red lips that drooped a +little, a hint of coppery hair under the close-fitting hat.</p> + +<p>He raised his own, in apology, and the girl bowed. She did not smile, +but looked at him curiously, sympathetically. He did not analyze that +look for a few minutes. Then he realized that her face, like his own, +must have betrayed worriment, was not in accord with the gorgeous day. +She was in trouble of some sort, even as he was, and she had recognized +the latter fact.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>About ten paces behind the girl a man was walking with a curious ease +of gait, pantherish, slightly furtive for all his swagger, for all +his linen tunic and pants, his silk shirt and cummerbund, the smart +puggaree on his hat of woven palm fiber, the short gold-tipped malacca +cane, the silken socks and shoes of buckskin and tan leather.</p> + +<p>His skin was the color of saddle leather, splotched by darker blots, +like freckles. His eyes were jet-black, set aslant, the lids smooth and +unwrinkled, the mouth full-lipped, cruel. A cunning, sensual "breed," +half Chinese and half native, swaggering along with a knife under his +cummerbund, and gambler's gold in his pockets, Stanton fancied.</p> + +<p>The American suddenly wondered, with a hunch that flashed into his +mind, whether the man was following the girl. For a moment Stanton +halted, rolling his cigarette, looking back. The girl had crossed the +street, the half-breed kept straight on. He might be following her, but +he did not seem inclined to annoy her. Too careful of his own skin, +Stanton decided. He would behave himself in the open, but he was no +more to be trusted in the shadows than a roving shark in a lagoon.</p> + +<p>Stanton knew him by name—Loo Fong—and by his reputation, or lack of +it, along the waterfront where Stanton had his cheap but clean room +with Panakaloa, the stout half-white widow of a trading skipper.</p> + +<p>Loo Fong, petty pirate, smuggler, gambler, half Malay, half Manchu, +and treacherous as a snake, was just back from one of his occasional +disappearances. He had given Stanton a look, tinged with a sneer of +derision on his twisting mouth, that made the American's fists double +automatically.</p> + +<p>He crossed the street himself, caught sight of his reflection in a +store window as he checked to let a jovial group pass out of the car +that had brought them from the ship and enter the Victoria Hotel.</p> + +<p>A woman glanced at him and said something in a whisper to her escort. +The man was less tactful of tone in his answer.</p> + +<p>"T.T.T.," he replied. "Eh, what? Typical Tropical Tramp! Beach bum! +Never has worked, can't get work, and doesn't want to." The woman +looked at him again and shrank a little. It was then the plate glass +revealed to Stanton his mask of a face, grim, almost haggard, the long +hair covering the collar of his coat, the set jaws and smoldering eyes.</p> + +<p>"Got to snap out of that," he told himself. "You're nursing a grouch. +It won't get you a thing, not a damn' thing, Bob Stanton! It's the grin +that wins."</p> + +<p>He was not so sure of that. He had been grinning a long time, but +the grin had frayed, like the bottoms of his pants and the cuffs of +his coat and shirts. There was no job in Suva, in all the Fijis, for +a "Yank." It was fair enough, perhaps. Jobs seemed to be scarce and +anything that a self-respecting white man would do was held out for a +Britisher.</p> + +<p>He had come out to join a man he had known in the States. They had been +comrades in the Argonne, as a matter of fact. It was after an Armistice +Day dinner that Raymond had told him of his plan to log and ship the +valuable hardwoods of the Fijis to American cabinet-makers. The islands +off the north and west of Viti Levu were crammed with such trees, it +appeared. Stanton had put in his share for preliminaries and had left +for Fiji after the jubilant letter saying that the lease was secured +and the prospects rosy. It had taken almost all he had by the time he +reached Suva and, while he was <i>en route</i>, the bubble had been pricked.</p> + +<p>The British commissioner had received word from the colonial secretary +that no leases or concessions were to be granted on Fijian products +to other than <i>bona-fide</i> British concerns. The bill had passed "as +of" a date before that of Raymond's concessions. It was a washout. +The commissioner was polite, bored, and his expressed sorrow was +tinged with a suggestion that Americans had better stick to their own +possessions.</p> + +<p>There were hardwoods, the commissioner believed, in the Philippines. +Whether or not he knew the Washington policies that protected the +countrymen of Aguinaldo to the exclusion of all outside capital, they +did not learn.</p> + +<p>Raymond cursed heartily and ingeniously, outside the commissioner's +stately residence. He offered Stanton his fare back, but Stanton knew +his friend had little enough left for himself. The lure of the tropics +had gripped Stanton, and he had no doubt but that he could get along. +He had, for twelve weeks of enforced loafing, on fifty dollars.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>It looked like the bush or the beach for him, living on fruit and fish, +a down-and-outer. It was getting hard to be philosophical, to believe +in such platitudes as "It is always darkest before the dawn," and +"Every cloud has a silver lining."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, after that self-revealing glance at the grim mask that +was his face, Bob Stanton mentally girded up his loins and marched on, +resolved to borrow a pair of scissors from Panakaloa to trim the frayed +edges of his garments and essay a haircut. He was getting morbid. He +whistled as he marched along and looked a sergeant of police squarely +in the eyes. Lately he had been bothering a bit about deportation, or a +request to move on.</p> + +<p>Confound that fellow with his T.T.T. What did he know about them? +T.T.T.'s were the salt of the earth, often prosperous, always +efficient, cursed or blessed with the roving heel. The chap had said +Stanton didn't want to work, whereas he had been hunting it high and +low until he could feel the grit working through his shoes at every +step. He whistled the swinging march song:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pack all your troubles in your old kit-bag,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent2"><i>And smile, smile, smile.</i></div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Lots of craft in the harbor, freight steamers, sailing ships, the +big passenger boat, native craft, launches shuttling back and forth. +Usually they made him restless, emphasized his marooned condition. Now +he grinned at them. Much magic in a grin, after all. But he didn't get +his haircut.</p> + +<p>He reached the wharf and swung south to where Panakaloa's little house +was set among scrubs and papaia trees on the limits of white residency. +A topsail schooner was moored to bollards, her cargo of copra and +turtle shell being discharged.</p> + +<p>A black man lay on a bale, shivering in the sun. He was almost a dwarf, +a Melanesian, not a Fijian. His frizzy hair was dull red from lime +bleaching, his dark skin showed tribal weals and other scars. His only +clothing was a scanty loin-cloth. The lobes of his ears were stretched +to flaps of torn leather, a short clap pipe thrust through one of +the convenient holes. A South Sea savage, sick and shuddering, ugly, +ill-shaped, dirty. His ribs showed like those of a starved dog. His +eyes were closed and his limbs were huddled about his emaciated body.</p> + +<p>Any blackbirder would have despised him. Stanton wondered how he had +come to Suva, derelict and unhappy as a mangy cur.</p> + +<p>A man in a peaked cap, dressed in dungarees and a grimy pyjama top +was directing the last of the unloading, chewing and spitting tobacco +between curses in beach-English. As the file-closer of the Kanakas +he had been bossing disappeared into the warehouse shed, the man, +apparently mate of the schooner, turned and saw the wretched figure +on the bale. He had a rope's end tucked in his belt, a length of coil +ending in a turkshead knot, symbol of authority over his Solomon Island +crew.</p> + +<p>He swung it aloft and brought it down on the cowering creature who woke +to his shouted oaths. It curled with a vicious hiss and sounded like a +drum-stroke as it raised a blistering mark.</p> + +<p>"You walk along damn' quick out of this, you blasted stowaway monkey, +before I flay you," he cried and swung up his arm again as the man +leaped from the bale and crouched, long apelike arms wrapped about his +head, jabbering something inarticulate. The rope's end writhed around +his ribs with the same hideous strum. The third blow did not fall. The +mate's arm remained aloft as he gazed in astonishment at the sudden +appearance of Stanton between him and his victim.</p> + +<p>"Git out of here, you lousy beach bum!" the mate yelled. He started to +say more, but Stanton's fist muzzled him.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Indignation at the wanton cruelty had caused Stanton to interfere, but +all the resentment he had swallowed in the sneer of Loo Fong and the +words of the woman's escort outside the hotel, went into that wallop +when the mate called him a bum. He had been hard up, but, thanks to +Cheung and Panakaloa, he had not starved or lacked decent quarters. He +was husky and he knew how to use his fists. The mate didn't. He was a +bucko, a good brawler, and he was tough, inside and out, but he made a +serious first mistake in underestimating his adversary, and rushing him.</p> + +<p>Stanton ducked neatly and smote him hard over the liver as the mate's +haymaker swung overhead and the mate swung with it, off balance, +staggering sidewise with a clip on the side of the jaw. He went to one +knee and hand, and Stanton let him up, which was chivalrous but wasted.</p> + +<p>"Get up, you coward, and take a licking from a 'bum!'" Stanton snapped, +while the mate spat blood and tobacco from his battered lips, uttered a +roar and rushed again. The seaman got a straight left to his face which +checked him, but he closed in, bellowing and bludgeoning. The Kanakas +had come out of the warehouse and were looking on, eyes rolling, +grinning. The cook came out of the schooner's galley and stood with +folded arms, another spectator who seemed not opposed to the prospects +of the mate's getting trimmed.</p> + +<p>They clinched and Stanton appreciated what a bucko might do at close +quarters. The mate got his arms about his ribs and nearly cracked them +as he forged on with the advantage of his weight, using his knee, +trying to trip, cursing constantly, threatening, putting out his full +strength. Stanton beat a tattoo on his kidneys and he didn't like it. +They struck the stringpiece and went down together, rolling over and +over, rebounding as the side of the schooner saved them from the water.</p> + +<p>As they rolled the mate made another mistake. Every time Stanton was on +top he slogged at the bucko's head and jaws, and hurt him badly enough +to make the mate try the same tactics. The bucko got home more than +once, but it gave Stanton the chance to get up and away. He intended +to keep away. The mate was as hard as an automobile tire, strong as +a gorilla; he had the weight and superior strength. Stanton had the +science and the better wind. The other was blowing as he got to his +feet and, before he got set, Stanton got in a jolt to the belly and a +second smash over the mouth.</p> + +<p>The combination settled it, together with the quid the mate had +neglected to eject. The force of the blow sent it into his windpipe, +choking and half strangling him. Upset muscular control juggled it into +his gullet and Stanton's third and final blow in that rally drove it +deep. His disturbed stomach received and ejected it. His tanned face +turned a sickly green. He heaved violently and was distressingly and +unpleasantly sick, teetering up the gangway, using the scupperway, +weaving down the companionway to his cabin.</p> + +<p>Stanton straightened his clothes, felt gingerly a fiery ear and a +bruised cheek, looking for the cause of his interference.</p> + +<p>"You did 'm in proper, mister. You 'andled your dukes pretty. It served +the bloody blighter right," said the cook. "I'm quittin' 'ere. 'E ain't +got no idea of decency, 'e ain't. Called my grub 'stinkin' 'ash.' I +'ope the beggar 'eaves up his spotted soul."</p> + +<p>The miserable black was clasping Stanton's knees, jabbering at him, his +eyes moist with gratitude. It embarrassed the American. The Kanakas +were gathered in an uncertain knot, but the cook shouted at them and +they went aboard.</p> + +<p>"Looks like you 'ad 'im on your 'ands, mister," the cook said to +Stanton. "All syme stray dorg. You'll 'ave a 'ard time gittin' rid of +'im."</p> + +<p>"Where did he come from? What's the matter with him?"</p> + +<p>"We figger 'e must 'ave swum off and 'id aboard, the time we watered +at Tuimoto. Probably was in wrong with 'is wizard. Thought the ship +'u'd be better than the ovens. I'll bet 'e's changed 'is mind more'n +once. We was glad enough to git clear without trouble. Tuimoto is no +picnic-ground. The skipper was sick—island fever—an' mate run things. +'E kicked the daylights out of that boy. Come night throwin' 'im +overboard to the sharks. 'E ain't 'ad too much to eat. Don't like white +man's <i>kaikai</i> an' the Kanakas wouldn't share theirs with 'im. That's +part of what's the matter with 'im. And 'e's got yaws. You better tyke +my tip and 'and 'im over to the police, mister. 'E belongs in the +'orsepittle, 'e does. Croak on your 'ands if you don't. 'Is nyme's Tiki +and I bet 'e's full of 'em."</p> + +<p>A muffled roar came from below and the cook winked at Stanton.</p> + +<p>"That's the mate," he said. "Wants a nurse. I'll nurse 'im!" He +sauntered aft.</p> + +<p>The miserable devil who seemed to have been wished on Stanton, +ill-treated and frightened by his surroundings, groveled at his feet. +He shivered like a frightened dog when Stanton put a hand on his skinny +shoulder. He didn't quite know what to do with the wretch—he'd die in +the hospital from sheer loneliness. Turn his face to the wall and let +his soul leach out of him.</p> + +<p>Stanton could put a meal into him, let him know he had a friend. His +own plight was pleasant compared to that of this spiritless remnant of +humanity. Perhaps Panakaloa would let him stay, give him something he +could assimilate.</p> + +<p>"You come with me," he said. "We get <i>kaikai</i>."</p> + +<p>Tiki understood the meaning and followed him like a black dog, his eyes +shining. Panakaloa was a bit difficult. She wanted no black fellows, +she declared, but at last Stanton persuaded her to let Tiki—who stood +on one bow leg, scratching with the toes of the other at his yaws +while they discussed him—stay in a shed in the little garden on some +old matting. He lay down, curled up, sacking over him and presently +Panakaloa set down beside him a bowl of native <i>poi</i> and some dried +fish. His eyes glittered. His spirit revived. He was in the house of +friends and he ate avidly. Stanton went off to his own meal.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</h2> +</div> + +<h3>CHEUNG'S PLAN.</h3> + + +<p>Cheung Li's restaurant did not cater to the social element of Suva, +but it was neat and clean, the food savory, wholesome and cheap, so +that he did a good waterfront business with white skippers, mates and +supercargoes.</p> + +<p>He lived above the place, a placid, stout, sphinx-faced Chinaman +with a dignity all his own, getting together his fortune. Some said +the restaurant was a blind for his other affairs, but no one seemed +to definitely know what they might be. He extended credit from time +to time and seemed to find it profitable in the long run. It was he +himself who had suggested to Stanton that he need not worry about his +bill.</p> + +<p>"Some time soon, something come along," he told him. "You 'Melican. You +make good bimeby."</p> + +<p>He presided over the restaurant at rush hours, leaving its conduct the +rest of the time to two assistants. One of these, Moy, long, sallow, +cadaverous and chary of any speech but his own, set before Stanton +his meal. There was real turtle soup, excellent fish, turtle steak +with boiled <i>taro</i>-root and greens, fresh coconut pudding with caramel +sauce, and coffee the Ritz patrons might have envied. All for fifty +cents; a dollar and twenty cents for three daily meals, seven dollars a +week.</p> + +<p>When Moy brought the pudding he had a message.</p> + +<p>"Cheung Li like speak along of you topside when you finish up," he said.</p> + +<p>It spoiled the dessert for Stanton. It must mean that his credit was +over. It had to come. Cheung had been mighty decent. But it looked like +the beach. He couldn't stay at Panakaloa's and not eat. He couldn't +honestly stay there any longer and pile up a debt he saw no means of +paying off. Panakaloa could always rent her rooms. He saw himself for +a moment roaming the beach with Tiki at his heels, adventuring in the +bush with a cannibal. Tiki would know more about making a living there +than he did.</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders, his hands steady as he rolled his second +cigarette. There was not enough left for a third, so he made this fat +and smoked it slowly with long inhalations before he got up, unable +to tip Moy. An outside staircase led to a balcony that ran all round +the house, covered and awninged. At the rear it looked over a compound +garden behind a high plank wall where Cheung took his ease with his +family.</p> + +<p>Stanton had never mounted before. He was surprised at the signs of +comfort, of taste, even of luxury. There were easy chairs of bamboo, +stands of teak that held flowering plants, big vases of porcelain with +foliage shrubs and ferns in them, rugs, cushions, two Java thrushes +singing in cages, a gorgeous blue macaw in a ring, statuesque, +disdainful.</p> + +<p>The front veranda, where Stanton thought the entrance must be, looked +over the harbor and the shipping, and across Kadavu Passage to the +distant isles of Ono and Kadavu, almost sixty miles away. The lure of +the horizon, of the unknown tropics, savage but fascinating, gripped +him hard. Then sliding glass doors opened and Cheung asked him inside.</p> + +<p>He had never before seen Cheung except in white clothes, and he was +surprised at the quiet richness of his brocades, the assurance of +his manner, polite, unostentatious. He might have been greeting a +distinguished official rather than a man whose clothing proclaimed his +poverty.</p> + +<p>He offered Stanton a deep and cosy seat and a cheroot faintly smelling +of tea, gratifying of flavor. Then he poured out two tiny goblets of +amber fluid that scented the whole room as if with orange groves and +tasted like sublimated Chartreuse.</p> + +<p>His English was not perfect, but he spoke without hesitation, straight +to the purpose. It was as if he guessed Stanton's interpretation of the +request for the visit, and wished to relieve him promptly. The shady +chamber had an atmosphere of courtesy. From the interior Stanton heard +the tinkle of a stringed instrument, the sudden laughter of a child. +The Java thrushes were singing madly.</p> + +<p>"I tell you some time, soon, something come along," said Cheung in his +mellow tones. "I not know then this come. One time, some one tell me +about one place where there are plenty pearl, on island where nobody +go. No landing there, no loadstead, no lagoon. Leef come up close, +evely place. Native not live that place now. Name Motutabu. Plenty +magic along that place. Bad magic. Maybe you not believe that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Stanton simply. "I've heard a lot of curious +things."</p> + +<p>Cheung grunted as if satisfied with the answer.</p> + +<p>"This black man's magic," he said. "Not evil to white man, yellow man +unless they too much meddle. You savvy?"</p> + +<p>"I savvy," said Stanton. His pulses were quickening, his blood +beginning to tingle. He felt that he was on the threshold of adventure, +mysterious, dangerous.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>"On that island one big image," Cheung went on. "Not idol, all same +symbol. Symbol of evil spilits native men speak velley soft along, make +gift so he leave alone. Some one meddle along that god, not savvy how, +die velly quick. Suppose you go this place, you leave god alone. I send +white man I know along this Motutabu—that mean fo'bidden island. He is +good man, I tlust him plenty. I send Kanaka with him to dive. No one +come back. Long time now they should come back. Something happen. Maybe +he meddle too much along that god, maybe all get sick, maybe schooner +get on leef. I not know.</p> + +<p>"I am li'l' aflaid some one else speak along the Kanaka who tell me +about that place. Li'l' while since he speak with me, they find him +dead along beach. Maybe because he talk, maybe because he no talk. +Nobody savvy who kill him. I no savvy. I think maybe one man, half +Chinaman, he savvy something. Maybe he go along Motutabu, but suppose +he did he not find pearl. If he find pearl he not come back to Suva. He +go to Sigapo'. Belong that place. But I like find out."</p> + +<p>Singapore! Stanton had the flash, half intuition, half reasoning, +that is called a hunch. Singapore meant the Malay Peninsula. In his +mind's eye he saw the lithe figure of the Malay-Manchu, swaggering but +furtive, like a stalking panther, trailing the girl. He did not know +then how illuminating his hunch had been. But the name came to his +lips. "Loo Fong!"</p> + +<p>Cheung grunted again.</p> + +<p>"I always think you smaht," he said. "Li'l' bad luck, maybe, jus' now. +Loo Fong come back. I think he been along that island. Maybe he kill. +But I think he no find pearl. I like send you."</p> + +<p>"I'm no sailor," Stanton disclaimed. "I've knocked about in a pleasure +boat or two, yachting, but I'm no navigator."</p> + +<p>"I give you ship," Cheung purred on. "Captain and clew all same, they +lun ship. Chinamen. On island you boss. You find out what happen. Man +I send to island is 'Melican, all same you 'Melican. Suppose I send +Chinamen, suppose Loo Fong been that place, my man no tlust any one +but white man. His name Haines. I pay you good. Suppose you bling back +pearls, I give you plenty."</p> + +<p>"You don't know anything about me," said Stanton. He was not demurring +to the proposition, but it had taken him off his feet a bit. It sounded +like a large order.</p> + +<p>He did not lack confidence in himself, but this was a strange situation +he was asked to take command of. He could not immediately see himself +on a boat manned by Chinese, going to an island where some god, some +symbol of evil, was supposed to reign with malign influence; where +murder might have been done. He wanted to think it over, though he +wanted to go, aside from obliging Cheung.</p> + +<p>"I savvy plenty," Cheung went on suavely. "You have bad luck; you live +cheap, not dlink, not lun up big bill at big hotel. You tly all time +find any kind of job. Not easy fo' 'Melican along this place. Li'l' +time ago you fight mate of Lehua. I like 'Melican who not blag, not +dlink, can fight. I like you velly much to go this tlip."</p> + +<p>Stanton wondered a little at the other's knowledge of the fight, but it +was not surprising. Such news traveled fast. The restaurant was a sort +of club, in some ways. He was to wonder more how closely Cheung had +studied him.</p> + +<p>"To-day steameh come," Cheung went on. "Haines, he had bad luck too, +long time. He tlade in copla, have bad luck. He go fo' shell an' pearl, +have bad luck. Lose schooneh, find shell eaten by oyster worm. His +wife die in United States. Then he catch job with me. He lite back to +his daughteh, pletty soon he make money. She no heah flom him long time +befo'. Now velly glad. She come to Suva. Come to-day. She nice gel. I +tell about her fatheh. She wollied, but she keep up chin all same you, +'Melican fashion. She want to go look fo' him. I say she can go along +with you."</p> + +<p>Stanton gasped. Things were developing fast. He knew who the girl was. +She would recognize him when she saw him. He guessed why Loo Fong had +trailed her. Loo Fong knew of the island if he had not been there. It +was likely he had tried to pump the native who had first given Cheung +the information, and killed the poor devil. Why the latter had chosen +to confide in Cheung did not matter now. It was Cheung's affair. +Probably the man was indebted to him.</p> + +<p>"I saw Loo Fong following a girl who came in on the Austral, I think," +he said. Again Cheung gave one of his soft grunts of comprehension.</p> + +<p>"Loo Fong plenty slick," he said. "I think he savvy gel ask fo' me. She +go along hotel now she come my place. Mo' betteh she stay this place. +Loo Fong savvy that, savvy you come see me, maybe savvy why. <i>Maskee!</i> +I think maybe you have to kill Loo Fong some time."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>He spoke placidly enough, but, to Stanton, the room seemed suddenly +filled with a mist in which vague, battling figures moved, while in +the background there loomed the statue of a great, gray god and the +suggestion of fantastic cliffs and jungle.</p> + +<p>He was looking on, now, but he was about to be involved in this. +Pearls, magic, murder. Mystery and sudden death. Romance. The girl's +face with the big eyes that had changed when they saw him, as if there +had been between them some affinity, was plain before him. He heard +Cheung clap his hands, and then the girl herself was in the room, in +the flesh, gazing at him as he rose.</p> + +<p>"Missy Haines," Cheung was saying. "This Misteh Stanton. I think he go +along Motutabu fo' me."</p> + +<p>Her hand was in his, cool and firm, her gaze was searching him, frank, +friendly.</p> + +<p>"You don't mind if I go along?" she said. "I want to know what has +happened to my father, I want to see him again. He left me in school, +six years ago."</p> + +<p>"Mind?" Stanton was filled with an idiotic desire to say the things +that crowded his brain, to give utterance to the impulses that thrilled +him. To acknowledge the joy that surged through him at the prospect of +being her knight-errant, her champion. There was no question now of his +not going. If Cheung had reserved this argument for the last, he had +chosen wisely. Stanton's actual answer was stiff, awkward.</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad to serve you, if I can, to help your father, to be of +use to Cheung Li, who has befriended me."</p> + +<p>"As he did my father," said the girl. Stanton thought he heard Cheung +chuckle, but his face was immobile.</p> + +<p>"That settled," he said. "Now Stanton, talk business along with me. +Much to fix, quick as possible. To-mollow, maybe nex' day, you go."</p> + +<p>The girl left and Cheung talked business. His schooner, with the +Chinese skipper and crew, were at Levuka on the island of Ovalau, +former capital of Fiji. It was not far away, less than fifty miles, and +he had sent word to them, expecting them to-morrow. He gave Stanton +money to buy necessary personal things, promising to furnish him +weapons. Motutabu was not on the regulation charts. It lay far to the +south and west, below the Kermadec Islands. Cheung showed its position +on a chart. At the end of the interview he gave certain grave warnings.</p> + +<p>"I think Loo Fong go that place," he said. "Not find pearl. If he savvy +I send you I think he go back. Follow you, make plenty tlouble. Much +betteh he stay along that place."</p> + +<p>There was a grim note in his voice that more than hinted his meaning. +Cheung had not attempted to dodge the fact that the trip was dangerous. +He seemed at once to value life and consider it of little value, like +the money changer who promptly throws out spurious coin. The crew of +his schooner would be armed. He had not sent Chinese in the first +place because natives were better divers; his own men were unused +to pearling, he used them for inter-island trading. But they were +fighters. They were his men.</p> + +<p>Stanton was convinced that those who worked for Cheung were loyal, +bound by a fealty that went beyond pay. He saw depths to this man who +was running a lowly restaurant and living in something close to luxury. +He realized that the restaurant was a clearing house for gossip, +valuable to such a person as Cheung; shrewd, daring, efficient, he bent +his energies toward fortune, but was endowed with philosophy, a mode of +thought and life that raised him far above the ordinary.</p> + +<p>"You not meddle along that god," Cheung said, the last thing. "And you +look out along of Loo Fong. You look out along that mate you fight. +Suppose you want take along that Tiki, can do. Maybe he can be useful +along in bush. That mate name Johnson. Schooneh Lehua. Captain Fenwick, +he sick, he stay in Suva. Cook quit too. Loo Fong he hold share in +Lehua. You look out. Take this now."</p> + +<p>He took from a drawer in a lacquered cabinet a flat automatic of German +make, a vicious-looking thing of heavy caliber. As it lay cold in +Stanton's palm it seemed like some sort of fetish that was a tangible +link connecting him with the adventure, making it real. Cheung gave him +extra clips.</p> + +<p>"Knife betteh," he said. "Make no noise. Suppose you have to shoot, may +make tlouble. But knife need plactice. You take. Johnson got no use fo' +you. Loo Fong may think you savvy where to find pearl. I no savvy that. +I think Haines hide all time, but I not know what place. Suppose he +dead, you tly find pearl. I see you this time to-mollow."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Stanton slid the automatic away into his hip pocket, and Cheung shook +his head.</p> + +<p>"Pocket no good," he said. "Wait, I find."</p> + +<p>He opened a chest and produced a spring clip-holder and leather +shoulder-harness which Stanton fitted then and there, taking off his +coat. The flat weapon lay close to his chest, snug and handy. There +would be other revolvers on board, with belts and holsters for open +use, but this manner was best, when one wore a coat, in Suva.</p> + +<p>The police did not like foreigners to swank about with visible weapons. +It was an orderly and peaceful town, but many strange things went on +near by. There was the Rewa River, up which there was said to be a +hidden headquarters for fugitives and outlaws of all kinds and races, +waiting for secret transportation beyond extradition. Back of that, +in the mountains, drums sounded on certain moonlit midnights, and the +natives were still said to practice ancient and horrible rites of +cannibalism and sacrifice.</p> + +<p>Suva was civilized. Fiji was pacified. But savagery lurked on every +hand.</p> + +<p>Stanton made his purchases unostentatiously. He held the notion that he +was shadowed. He saw nothing of Loo Fong, but that crafty individual +had his following, who might be trailing Stanton for him. Stanton +was barbered, reclothed, reshod, his own man again. His account with +Cheung's restaurant was wiped out. He paid Panakaloa, together with a +present of a vivid scarf which she draped proudly across her ample +bosom, tears in her eyes as she thanked him and applauded his turn of +fortune.</p> + +<p>He had native tobacco and a new pipe for Tiki, with cloth for a <i>sulu</i> +kilt with which to replace his inadequate G-string. The old pipe had +been smashed on the wharf, he had not tasted the flavor of tobacco or +its smoke for weeks, and his gratitude was inordinate. It was dark by +then, and Stanton left him curled up on his mats, smoking blissfully.</p> + +<p>Stanton stayed close that night, sitting in Panakaloa's little garden, +smoking and thinking over the swift changes of chance. He had turned +a sudden corner and he did not know what lay ahead, save that it was +a man's work, savored with excitement and peril, heightened by the +entrance of the girl.</p> + +<p>He slept with the automatic on his chest, over his pyjama top. It was +heavy but handy, and he did not take Cheung's warnings lightly. Loo +Fong might well believe, as Cheung had suggested, that Stanton was +going to Motutabu and knew where to find the pearls Cheung was sure +Haines had gathered.</p> + +<p>In such a case they might decide to try to force that information out +of him, kidnap and torture him, rather than risk losing a race to the +island.</p> + +<p>So Loo Fong had a share in the Lehua. The mate was in actual charge of +the schooner, to all intents and purposes its skipper. Loo Fong and the +mate would almost certainly get together. Johnson had his own grudge +against Stanton, which might materialize on its own account or join +forces with Loo Fong in his plans.</p> + +<p>It seemed very likely indeed to Stanton that the Lehua might have been +to Motutabu on the trip from which she had just returned, with Loo Fong +in her. The cargo was more or less of a blind, picked up after the +trail for the pearls had failed.</p> + +<p>If Tiki had been able to talk anything but his uncouth dialect Stanton +might have been able to find out from him. The cook would know; he was +probably leaving for some more definite reason than Johnson's slurs +on his cooking. If anything serious had happened on Motutabu the cook +might have decided to draw the line at piracy and quit while his neck +was still unstretched, in which case it was not likely that he would +talk. He had not been very prepossessing, as Stanton recollected. It +was a rough outfit.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Cheung would undoubtedly find out all that it was possible to gather. +Stanton felt that Cheung had not fully divulged himself in their talk, +that he knew or suspected far more than he had mentioned. And Stanton +was convinced that there had been grim doings on Motutabu and would be +more. It seemed doubtful if the girl's father was still alive. If he +were not, it would be no easy task to find the pearls. There would be +the girl to comfort and protect. If Loo Fong followed and was again +frustrated of the gems, he might consider the girl a secondary prize, +so much loot for his personal gratification and disposal.</p> + +<p>Small doubt of that, Stanton fancied, remembering the way in which the +half-caste had trailed her. This mission was not the sort in which +a girl should be involved, but he knew that she was fully committed +to it, that Cheung was either willing she should go, or had tried to +dissuade her and failed. Tonight she was safe enough at Cheung's. +Cheung's measure of precaution would baffle even Loo Fong, Stanton felt +certain, and took comfort from it.</p> + +<p>Panakaloa's house was far from a fortress, built in flimsy, tropic +fashion. It held no treasures, the window fastenings were light, the +doors had no bolts. The one to the back garden did not even have a key, +and the garden fence was easily scaled.</p> + +<p>Stanton was a light sleeper. He held a hunch that the night was +breeding some sort of attempt, and he hoped to be ready for it when it +appeared. He dozed in cat-naps, waking intermittently, dropping off +again. Then, a little after midnight, he was roused by some unusual +sound that brought him standing to the floor, gun in hand, listening, +watching. Whatever had wakened him was veiled by sleep, but his +consciousness insisted there had been something.</p> + +<p>There was no moon. The garden lay in mellow, tropic starlight, filled +with deep, soft shadows that shifted shape as the land wind moved +fronds and leafage. He saw nothing else; he stole to the door and +listened, opening it suddenly, finger on trigger.</p> + +<p>It looked as if a great dog were lying down on the threshold. In the +vague light from the window he saw the faint glint of uprolled eyes. It +was Tiki. From gratitude or fidelity, prompted perhaps by some sense +developed in his savage subconsciousness of impending peril, he had +come in from his shed to get as close to his protector as he could.</p> + +<p>"All right, Tiki," Stanton said quietly. "Good boy." It was like +talking to a dog, using tone to convey meaning. Tiki clucked something +in his throat as Stanton closed the door.</p> + +<p>It was not easy to doze again after the thorough rousing. The actions +of the day, filmed in his brain, were automatically projected on the +mental screen.</p> + +<p>He was no longer a derelict. No one would venture to call him or +describe him as a beach bum now. He had decent clothes, money in his +pocket, had fought and won, acquired a cannibal Man Friday, met a girl +who stirred feelings within him that he had never before experienced, +and he was embarked upon a wild enterprise in a savage setting. At last +the flickering flash-backs died out, and his mind became a blank.</p> + +<p>The next thing he knew was a faint draft of air. The door was +open, a dark space where its paint had shown gray. The windows, +opening lengthwise, were apart. He could smell the night blossoms, +<i>ylang-ylang</i>, <i>frangipani</i>. As he swung off the bed something touched +his arm. It was Tiki, crouching low, hardly visible, pointing an arm, +vaguely silhouetted, at the window. Then he darted off, merging with +the gloom, back toward the open door.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The tops of croton bushes came above the sill. The wind moved them, +or was it something else? Stanton sat on the edge of the bed, his gun +ready to cover any intruder, remembering Cheung's caution that shooting +would bring trouble, wondering if he could be plainly seen. He felt +eyes watching him from the shrubbery, thought he could make out some +solid bulk amid the leaves. It was so still, so charged with suspense, +that he could hear the ticking of his watch.</p> + +<p>Then there came a scuffle in the passage. Tiki had attacked, or been +attacked. At any rate, fed, and fortified by having a friendly master, +Tiki was fighting fiercely. Two struggling figures, locked in desperate +battle, rolled into the room.</p> + +<p>Stanton caught the gleam of steel. Tiki had no weapon. He launched +himself from the edge of the bed, smashing at the hand that held the +blade with the muzzle of his gun, trying to locate the intruder's head. +It was an impossible task in the darkness and the fury of the combat. +He could tell only that the man was far bigger than Tiki, and at that, +like Tiki, he was practically naked. He could smell the rank sweat of +him.</p> + +<p>For the moment he had forgotten the window, been forced to leave it +unguarded, suddenly aware of forms rising, writhing over the sill as he +whirled.</p> + +<p>One of them was clothed and burly, the other a stinking savage, rancid +with palm oil, slippery as an eel. A sleeved arm was flung in front of +Stanton, thrust hard against his throat to cut off his wind. He broke +into tumultuous action, grasping the thick wrist with both hands, +turning, stooping, putting all he had into a heaving pull of his back +and shoulders. The weight of his adversary bore him down to one knee, +but Stanton flung him heels over head, crashing into the flimsy bureau; +then Stanton dived for the legs of the third man, and brought him +down across the bed, close to the foot of it, bounding on the springs +beneath the mattress.</p> + +<p>Stanton leaped on him before he could get up or free the knife he +surely carried in his loin-cloth. The native's hands clawed for +Stanton's throat, lacerating the flesh. Stanton gripped one arm, bent +it backward on the iron railing of the bed, bent it until it cracked. +The savage yelled, leaping convulsively in his pain, and rolled to the +floor.</p> + +<p>Tiki and his man were in the doorway again. Stanton heard their panting +grunts, and marveled at Tiki's resistance. The big man he had thrown +was getting up. There was electricity in Suva, and Panakaloa had bulbs +in her house. Stanton had no chance to get at his switch, but suddenly +the passage was illumined and an Amazonian voice angrily demanded what +was going on.</p> + +<p>Panakaloa appeared, a shawl over her voluminous nightgown. She was +brandishing a club that had been part of her skipper husband's +collection of island weapons. The man had Tiki by the throat, squeezing +him until his eyes bulged from their sockets, his tongue protruding. +Panakaloa's club thudded down, and the seeming victor collapsed. +Stanton saw the other native scramble over the sill dangling his broken +arm. The clothed man rose from the ruins of the bureau and flung a +chair at Stanton before he followed. It came legs first, hard enough to +check Stanton's leap.</p> + +<p>The two were gone, smashing through the shrubbery, up to the roof of +Tiki's shed by means of the rain-barrel Panakaloa used for watering her +garden, and over the fence.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Panakaloa and the light had routed them, aside from her by no means to +be despised club. They had no desire for the publicity her indignant +voice and arm might evoke. Stanton did not get a clear look at the face +of the man who had thrown the chair, the room was still in partial +shadow, but he was almost certain it had been Johnson, mate of the +Lehua, and the other two were Solomon Islanders, members of the crew.</p> + +<p>The one still lay senseless from the blow of the hardwood club. He was +as black as Tiki, but bigger; his sharp filed teeth showing in the +relaxed jaw. For a moment Stanton thought Panakaloa had killed him, and +said so. She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Too much thick, that skull," she answered. "Maybe I crack it li'l. +Serve him right. You want I call police, Sanatoni?" she asked shrewdly.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather not," he answered; and she nodded.</p> + +<p>"We take that trash outside, then," she said. "A fine cheek they got to +come along my house."</p> + +<p>"It's my fault," he told her. "They were after me."</p> + +<p>Whether the mate had been bent on private reprisal or was in league +with Loo Fong to knock him senseless and take him prisoner was +uncertain, and not pertinent now they were foiled. Tiki had balked +their attempt in the beginning; Panakaloa, with her unexpected sortie, +had completed the rout.</p> + +<p>Tiki was massaging his throat, but he grinned. The fight had not +exhausted him. Now that he had become attached to some one, he had shed +much of his misery like an old garment. He helped the two of them bear +the sagging body of the still unconscious man out into the deserted +street and set it down in the lee of a cereus hedge that topped a stone +wall. There was no one in sight, no sound of the other two, and they +left him there.</p> + +<p>"I owe you a bureau, Panakaloa," said Stanton. "I owe you more than +that. You came just in time."</p> + +<p>"Ugh!" grunted Panakaloa contemptuously. "That bureau not much good. +I pay four dollar for that along of junkman." She sat down and began +to laugh, her stout body shaking like a jelly, her eyes rolling upward +while Tiki surveyed her in awe and amazement. "Too much I fool that +<i>kaikanaka</i>. My old man, the <i>kapitani</i>, one time he hit me with that +club. This time I get even. When that black trash wake up he think the +house fall in on him."</p> + +<p>Tiki did not understand what she said, but he grinned widely at her +tone. She insisted upon opening beer for herself and Stanton, and she +gave Tiki a glass, which he tasted suspiciously and then swallowed it +with a comical grimace of surprised delight as he rubbed his stomach. +Native fashion, Panakaloa had strengthened the brew with a slug of +Hollands gin.</p> + +<p>It was beginning to get light when she left them, still chuckling over +her prowess, vastly pleased with herself. Tiki was too proud at what +Stanton said to him, patting his shoulder the while. It was Greek to +the islander, but he knew it for praise.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE RACE TO MOTUTABU.</h3> + + +<p>Cheung's schooner arrived from Levuka early the next morning, mooring +in the stream at first, then, as the tide served, going to a wharf +remote from the main one where the Lehua still lay. Stanton did not +go near her, but stayed at Cheung's house after breakfast, at the +latter's suggestion, talking with Lucy Haines. From behind the tatties +of split bamboo they saw Loo Fong pass by and glance up, later to +return again.</p> + +<p>Stanton said nothing of what had happened the night before. It did +not seem necessary. Cheung had gone to see about getting the schooner +ready. Tiki was in his shed, waiting to be called for, smoking his new +pipe, a stray no longer.</p> + +<p>Stanton and the girl told each other something of their early life. +Mention of the impending trip made her grave, brought worry to her +eyes. He could tell that she was fighting off doubts of finding her +father. Several times they sat silent, but not out of accord.</p> + +<p>Cheung came back at noon and said they would leave on the ebb after +nightfall. He too had seen Loo Fong. A scout he had sent out reported +that they were taking stores aboard the Lehua. The skipper had gone to +the hospital, Johnson was in command, and the cook had left.</p> + +<p>"They savvy Fahine, my ship," said Cheung. "They savvy she come in. +They watch all same we watch along of them. Maybe we get staht. Long +way to Motutabu; Fahine mo' fast than Lehua. My captain good man. +Suppose wind blow light, you leach island befo' them."</p> + +<p>It was dark when they went on board. The Chinese skipper talked +"pidgin" that was comprehensible. He found a few words of dialect that +Tiki understood, to the black's delight, and sent him forward. The +Chinese sailors, naked above the waist, their feet bare, their heads +bound with bright bandannas, were a piratical-looking lot though their +ordinary occupation was peaceful trading. But they were efficient, +getting the schooner under way to singsong orders from mate and +boatswain, with his whistle, as the captain showed the girl and Stanton +to their quarters.</p> + +<p>The schooner was plainly fitted up, and it smelled of ancient cargoes +of copra, of <i>bêche-de-mer</i>, sharks' fins, turtle shell and pearl +shell, but Cheung had evidently been at some pains to make them +comfortable. There were two cabins aft for them, and the girl's, +especially, had been brightened with rugs and cushions.</p> + +<p>In the main cabin there was a rack for rifles, filled with well oiled +weapons. Stanton had noted appreciatively the tall masts, the narrow +beam, the clean entry and fine lines of the ship. Speed evidently +counted in Cheung's business. In a rush for competitive trade or to be +the first at a new pearling ground, the Fahine would not be a laggard.</p> + +<p>She was well-found, decks clear and clean of litter, ropes coiled, the +ends seized and the rigging well set up. He could hear the quick tread +of the yellow-skinned sailors as they went about the familiar tasks. +Soon she was under way, the wharf sliding past, the lights of Suva +gleaming through the ports.</p> + +<p>The captain came below, deferential.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you likee go topside?" he said. "Can do."</p> + +<p>He was in Chinese clothes, his feet shod; a muscular man with a +typically Mongolian face, sure of himself and authoritative, but +plainly considering them as allies, friends of Cheung Li.</p> + +<p>The wind was fresh from the land, striking them a little abaft the +beam, and they slipped fast through the water, with sheets well +started. Stanton, watching the way she answered helm, surmised that +her bottom was clean. She showed no lights anywhere. The captain took +night-glasses from a hook in the companionway and surveyed the reach +behind them. They were well out of the shipping.</p> + +<p>"No one come," he said laconically. "You like look-see?"</p> + +<p>Stanton took the binoculars, focused them, swept the water between them +and the land. There was nothing moving there. They had got a start, at +least.</p> + +<p>He wondered if the Chinese skipper had been to Motutabu before. +Probably not. But he would have its position, and the Lehua's previous +trip would not advantage them much.</p> + +<p>Their direct course was southeast, the distance something over six +hundred miles. It might take them anywhere from a week to a fortnight +to cover it, for the winds were variable, there were tantalizing calms +and strong currents set up by the action of the tides over the varying +depths and contour of the bottom, where vast expanses of shallows +suddenly changed to vast abysses cleft by submarine peaks and ranges. +Neither schooner had an engine. Luck or fate was going to enter largely +into the affair.</p> + +<p>They lost the land wind and ran into a calm inside of two hours, +working through it at last to strike the southeast trade. The Fahine +was close-hauled and clawed into it, making eight knots, slogging +along at a lively clip with the sheer bows buried at every plunge. It +stiffened to a squall, and the schooner leaned against it, the mainsail +reefed two points, and only a small staysail forward.</p> + +<p>Stanton was a good sailor, and the next morning proved Lucy Haines +was another. All that day they sailed fast under a bright sky, the +crested seas dark sapphires, save where the foam creamed or was blown +in spindrift, and the sun flashed back golden from the facets of the +waves. All day the horizon stayed clear of smoke or sail. The girl's +spirits rose. It began to look as if the Lehua had not got away. Flying +fish rose from the brine, pursued by rushing dolphins; frigate birds +soared free.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The trade set them down, and they regained their easting with short +legs. They had crossed the Kadavu Passage north of the Astrolabe Reefs, +passing between Totoya and Matuku. Now there was no land in sight, +would not be if they kept anywhere near their true course until they +sighted the island of their quest. The Tongas were far to the north +as they headed to cross the Tropic of Capricorn. The wide expanse of +ocean, the run of sparkling water, the clean wind blowing between sea +and sky—it was all physically exhilarating, mentally stimulating, a +tonic for doubt, strengthened by the lonely horizon.</p> + +<p>The two of them had their own mess. The rest ate Chinese food, but they +were served a menu to suit their occidental tastes. Cheung's orders, no +doubt. It was excellently cooked and served. Things aboard the Fahine +ran like clockwork. There was never any confusion. The yellow men went +about their tasks with a will the moment an order was given, without +fumbling, knowing what was wanted.</p> + +<p>It blew harder, the seas mounted, still under the blue sky and bright +sun. They had to lower the mainsail at last and mount a storm staysail +between the two masts, balanced by a rag of a jib. They made more +leeway now. The wind remained southeast, blowing from the quarter they +sought to penetrate as if it was determined to hold them off. It might +have been the breath of the great gray god defending his <i>tabu</i>. But +any wind was better than no wind, unless they had to run before it, and +it did not come to that.</p> + +<p>The weather modified swiftly with a blazing sunset. Stanton came on +deck at midnight to find a heavy swell running, the schooner under +full sail but with only a few flaws of wind that sent her forward +spasmodically. The captain was aft by the starboard rail, motionless. +Stanton offered him one of the cheroots with which Cheung had supplied +him, and the other took it silently.</p> + +<p>He lit it before he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Lil time ago we see ship," he said. "All same this. Gone now. Long way +off."</p> + +<p>"You think it was the Lehua?"</p> + +<p>"No can tell. Maybe. <i>Maskee.</i>"</p> + +<p>It was not indifference. Only the tacit acceptance of conditions, the +Oriental touch of fatalism. He pointed to where a new moon hung like a +nail-paring.</p> + +<p>"Wind go soon. Maybe they get, maybe we catch. <i>Maskee.</i>"</p> + +<p>The word summed up Chinese philosophy. The equivalent of the Russian +<i>nitchevo</i>. It was not the time for direct action, save for the +handling of the ship, which was the plaything of the weather. But later +in the night Stanton, restless, unable to share the <i>maskee</i>-ism of the +skipper, smelled incense. The captain was burning punk sticks before +the joss in the gilded shrine in the cabin. He had his superstitions, +or his faiths.</p> + +<p>The next three days saw them almost motionless. The sea had gone down +and was like glass, reflecting the fiery glare of the sun. Now and then +they saw distant squalls, bursts of rain, ruffled patches of sea, but +they got no breath of wind.</p> + +<p>The horizon was clear again. The Lehua—Stanton held no doubt that the +vessel they had sighted was that schooner, with Loo Fong aboard—might +be experiencing the same conditions, or she might be bowling along out +of the baffling strip.</p> + +<p>A current was steadily setting them east. He envied the +imperturbability of the Chinese; they were used to the vagaries of +the sea, and accepted what they could not alter; but he chafed with +impatience. Lucy Haines kept to her cabin, her meals served there. +Stanton did not disturb her. She was sick, not of body, but of heart. +The punk sticks burned constantly.</p> + +<p>On the fourth morning trade clouds appeared aft, in the northwest. It +was the time of the monsoon changes of wind caused by the difference +in temperature between air and water. There was wind in those vaporous +heights. It revealed itself in a dark line on the water that came fast +toward them as the skipper gave an order and they swung out the booms +in readiness. The breeze caught them, urged them on, sailing wing and +wing, the canvas bellying taut as drums, the lively sea seething all +about them, a broad wake behind, on their course once more, headed +straight for Motutabu.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Stanton noticed Tiki at his usual post, far forward, his eyes always +turned south. He was a different looking savage from the sick creature +curled up on the bale. His skin was glossy and his eyes were bright. +His broad nostrils dilated as if he smelled familiar odors. Stanton +wondered what he was thinking about. If the cook of the Lehua had +spoken truly, his own island held peril for him, but there was no fear +in his eyes. Whenever they looked at Stanton they held gratitude, but +there was a difference, a measure of pride.</p> + +<p>That afternoon the captain cast a light on Tiki.</p> + +<p>"I speak with Tiki," he said, "No savvy too much, but he say one time +he live along Motutabu. His father <i>tahunga</i>, all same wiza'd. Tiki all +same <i>tahunga</i> himself. He speak Motutabu velly bad place stop along. +All time too much bad magic along of big god live that place."</p> + +<p>There was more than that that the skipper had found out by signs and +certain words they both understood. Stanton retailed it later to the +girl, who was again on deck.</p> + +<p>Apparently Tiki's father had run the tribe. Tiki seemed to have been +trained to take his place. Then the god had turned malignant. It was +one of the deities of the South Sea pantheon that had to be placated, +and the sacrifices had failed. There had been an earthquake—"Velly +much shake that island," was the way the captain interpreted it. The +top of a mountain had fallen off and a cape had slid into the sea. The +wizard was blamed. The population escaped in canoes, after killing the +man whose magic had gone wrong. Tiki had been spared for some reason +which was obscure, perhaps because of his youth or because the women +hid him.</p> + +<p>On the tribe's new home he had been suffered to live. A new wizard +manifested himself. There was no god on this island. All went well +save that Tiki was in bad odor. He was an hereditary <i>tahunga</i>, of an +ancient line of wizards, and the new one feared him. Tiki had lived by +himself in the bush, periodically hunted and sought for a sacrifice, +blamed by the new <i>tahunga</i> for every sickness and death. So Tiki had +stolen aboard the Lehua, hoping to escape to some friendlier place at +which they might touch, not knowing what sort of man was in command or +what kind of men were on the ship.</p> + +<p>The curious thing was that he did not seem alarmed because they were +going to Motutabu. The god was an evil god, but he believed fully in +the magic of his dead father. It was the plotting of the man who later +set himself up as <i>tahunga</i> that had annoyed the deity. His father had +understood the god, had taught Tiki secrets concerning it. None but the +ancient line of wizards dared approach it. Its shadow was death to all +others.</p> + +<p>Stanton could see no particular bearing in all this concerning the +finding of Haines and the pearls. But he remembered the warnings of +Cheung not to meddle with the god, and it was evident that the skipper +had gone to much pains to talk with Tiki. Tiki seemed to be acquiring +importance, a card whose value Stanton could not judge, though he +sensed that he might have done something far more significant than +he guessed when he rescued him from the cruelty of the mate. He had +much to learn about Motutabu, much to learn about the god. Even now he +could not quite shake off the feeling that Cheung had not spoken idly. +Strange things happened in the South Seas.</p> + +<p>He understood it a little better with his first close glimpse of +Motutabu.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE JUNGLE TRAIL.</h3> + + +<p>They sighted it at dawn. It revealed itself in the growing light, +before the sun rose above the sea-line, like an image developing on a +negative in the dark room, somber, gradually acquiring definite shape, +a blot against the purple-black of the sky where the stars were winking +out.</p> + +<p>The skipper had found it unerringly; he told them he expected to pick +it up at daylight, and here it was, darkly sinister, spray booming +along iron-bound cliffs, heights veiled in mist. The sound of the surf +rolled back to them as they skirted the coast to the east, seeking for +some place to land. It was not going to be easy, and they held off +until the light strengthened.</p> + +<p>It came with a rush as the disk of the sun rolled up from the tumbling +sea rim, day instantly proclaimed. The island woke to life. Myriads of +birds rose from the cliffs and from tiny, outlying islets; gulls and +gannets, squas and boobies, whirling and screeching, then winging out +to sea to some shoal where they would find good fishing.</p> + +<p>There were other birds, of the land, squawking parrots above the thick +forest that verged the iron walls rising sheer from the spouting sea. +Above the bush lofted three torn pinnacles, fangs that tore the vapors +writhing about them. There were deep cañons here and there, dark in +shadow; small coves; waterfalls, leaping to the beach over sheer +precipices.</p> + +<p>Then they saw the god. A cliff was sharply set back, and they only saw +the upper part of the image, flaring livid red in the sunrise, carved, +it seemed, from the living rock. It was of gigantic proportions, the +art primitive, so primitive it might have been the work of some +futurist, striving to simplify curves and lines, to crystallize +expressions.</p> + +<p>The face was long, a long nose, flattened, bridgeless, but with flaring +nostrils. A wide mouth, thin-lipped, austere, yet subtly sensual, with +the hint of a cruel sneer at the corners. The eyes were carved so that +they suggested a malignant glance as the crimson light blazed full upon +them. The ears touched the narrow shoulders.</p> + +<p>The body, what they saw of it, was misshapen, out of all proportion, +small arms, with the hands resting on knees far apart, deep shadow +between them. It stood out of the cliff in full and startling relief, +infinitely evil, leering. It had a sort of crown, hewn from the summit +of the cliff and the foliage back of this looked like plumes. The whole +aspect was baleful, brooding, gazing out to sea like the old gods at +Easter Island, whose origin and purpose no man has yet discovered.</p> + +<p>The Chinese gazed at it stolidly. The man at the helm paid no attention +and the captain was occupied with the shore line, looking for some spot +where he could send a boat ashore. There was no indication of a lagoon. +The island rose straight from the waves that ravened all about it.</p> + +<p>Tiki's attitude was curious. He squatted on deck and bowed his head to +the planks, in deference rather than fealty. This was his fetish, but +he did not seem to be afraid. The priests of Moloch may have felt no +terror at their horrible, blood-demanding image.</p> + +<p>The girl shuddered, and Stanton had to tell himself sharply that here +was only a thing hewn from lifeless stone. It glared at them and, as +the morning clouds dissolved under the sun, its lips seem to quiver +scornfully.</p> + +<p>"Lifeless, I am," it seemed to say, "yet man-made from things he +sensed, the brooding influences of this solitary isle, born of fire and +smoke, delivered in water. Influences that may still be conjured from +the sea, the sky, the core of the earth. I represent them and I bid you +beware."</p> + +<p>Bizarre and fantastic thoughts these; but the image itself was only +concrete thought. It seemed to proclaim the place dangerous, cynically +warning the intruder. It appeared to hold many tragic secrets, reaching +back through the centuries.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>A spur of land, a cape like a high fin, reached out far into the sea. +As they passed it a putrid smell enveloped them. It was like the odor +of a glue factory and it pursued them on the breeze until distance made +it bearable. This was the stench from piles of shell set out long since +to rot so that the shells might be more readily searched for pearls. +The shell itself was valuable.</p> + +<p>Here there was a deep indentation in the island, and placid water +showed behind a foaming barrier of lava reef, not coral, that +paralleled the shore. This must have been the diving ground for the +precious bivalves. The skipper surveyed it narrowly, seeking an +entrance. The reef ended presently, and he came about, hugging the +land, one man casting the lead from the bobstay and chanting out the +depth. It was satisfactory and the tide was with them as they glided +along between the barrier and the shore, once more encountering the +foul odor of decay until they tacked into the cleft and made slowly up +it, foresail down and mainsail peaked, with the current.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>They were in a somber water cañon, still in shadow, though, higher up +the fanged peaks glowed in the sunrise and the timber on the loftier +slopes took on vivid coloring. The ravine turned sharply and they saw +a narrow beach lined with dark-green mangroves from which a stream +issued. There were signs of habitation here, a long shed of thatched +roof and wattled walls, two houses of the same type. But there was no +indication of life, no hail. The place lay wrapped in silence as the +Fahine glided slowly on.</p> + +<p>The masts of a vessel showed their tops above water a hundred yards +out—a sunken schooner. It was a depressing sight, but Stanton twisted +a measure of hope from it which he handed to the girl.</p> + +<p>"Loo Fong didn't find the pearls," he said. "I think this means that +your father is still on the island. They sank his ship to prevent his +leaving."</p> + +<p>He tried to make it convincing, and Lucy Haines essayed a pitiful smile.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," she replied, "but why doesn't he show himself? Why doesn't +some one answer?"</p> + +<p>"They may be asleep," he said, and shouted. The echo came back from +the cliff, rebounded from the opposing one. The Chinese captain found +bottom to his liking, the cable slipped out to twelve fathoms, and a +boat was lowered. It was impossible to tell from those yellow faces +what they thought of the situation, but the rowers took rifles with +them, pistols holstered at their belts. Stanton took his automatic and +another revolver. He had shortened a belt for the girl and she also +carried a gun at her hip.</p> + +<p>She had dressed for the landing in breeches and high-laced boots, and +she looked like a tight-lipped boy, her expression much as Stanton +had seen it on the street in Suva. Tiki slid down the fall rope and +squatted in the bows. The captain had given him a knife and a leather +belt in which he thrust it above his <i>sulu</i> kilt.</p> + +<p>The silence was profound. The sea birds had gone, the land birds +settled down. The only sound was the melancholy cooing of doves. In the +water appeared the scything fins of sharks on some mysterious patrol.</p> + +<p>The boat grounded and the rowers hauled it beyond the rise of the +flooding tide. Crabs scuttled along the shingle. Blocks of lava +protruded here and there. Beach vines straggled over black sand.</p> + +<p>Stanton tried to save the girl the sight of the skeletons. There were +six of them, the bones scattered, picked clean by crabs, in front of +the long shed. They lay in plain view, and she uttered a low cry and +halted, then started to hurry forward, checked by Stanton's hand on her +arm.</p> + +<p>"There's no clothing," he said. "Your father's not there." It was scant +comfort. There were a few lengths of cloth, but he thought these the +loin coverings of the men Haines had with him. The grisly objects were +separated as if they had fallen making a stand against invaders. The +yellow men investigated as Stanton led the girl aside. Tiki looked at +the skeletons incuriously.</p> + +<p>The captain reported briefly:</p> + +<p>"They all Kanaka. Some got hole in head. Bullet make. No white man +there."</p> + +<p>Nor anywhere else, it seemed, as they searched the shed, half full of +lustrous shells; the two houses, one of which held some of Haines's +belongings that brought tears to the girl's eyes, though she strove +to check them. Both huts showed signs of search. The winds had erased +all footprints. The shell was valuable, but it had been disdained. It +looked as if the dead men had been wantonly shot down at the first +encounter.</p> + +<p>"He got away," said Stanton. "We'll find him somewhere." But he held +faint hope of finding Haines alive. The atmosphere of murder and sudden +death possessed the place.</p> + +<p>"We'll stay here until we've searched the island," he said to the +captain.</p> + +<p>"Can do," the skipper answered. It seemed a stupendous, futile task. +Towering cliffs, dense jungle and barren, precipitous crags, deep +clefts, hidden valleys, caverns: a myriad places where a man might stow +himself away, or lie dead.</p> + +<p>They spread out, hallooing, looking in all likely spots. The captain +made Tiki understand what they were seeking and he nodded, came to +Stanton, took his hand and set it on his breast, starting off on a +quest of his own, trotting along the beach, disappearing up a ravine +choked with guava scrub. They saw no more of him that day as they +searched without finding any trace of Haines, living or dead. Night +fell with tropic swiftness on their utter lack of success.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The skipper, at least, looked also for the pearls. He had his own +instructions. To Stanton, the discovery of Haines was more important, +even aside from thought of the girl, who had stayed beside him all day +as they tried in vain to solve the riddle of what had happened to her +father. Let them find Haines and, if he was alive, the pearls would be +forthcoming.</p> + +<p>The fear grew on him—he knew it grew on the girl also—that Haines had +been killed by the raiders because he refused to give them up or tell +where he kept them. Only the lack of a body offset this dread and a +body was easily disposed of. He did not try to comfort Lucy Haines; to +do that would be practically an acknowledgment there was no hope. He +got her to eat on the plea that she must keep her strength for renewal +of search the next day.</p> + +<p>They slept aboard. No sail had been in sight up to nightfall. A lookout +had been maintained on a cliff and, since the search had extended to +the crags, they had seen the whole circle of the horizon. They had won +the race down, but their advantage was checked by the search. When Loo +Fong arrived, with Johnson, there was going to be trouble.</p> + +<p>Stanton was up at dawn. He dressed swiftly, going on deck. The girl +was already there, pale from a sleepless night. She was gazing at the +island with an expression of hopelessness that she tried to banish as +she saw Stanton.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to leave here until I know what has happened to him," +she said, her voice firm, her mouth and chin resolute as she finished +the determined sentence. He did not answer her. There was nothing +to say. He was not going to let her stay alone. The question of +conventions did not enter into the matter. Conventions vanished in +these latitudes.</p> + +<p>"He's all I have," she said. It was in his mind, his heart, to deny +this, but it was not the time for it. Complications were likely to +settle matters, not as they would have them, but as the fates willed. +Motutabu lay in sunshine, but it was emphatically a savage place. The +Chinese had buried the skeletons, but they were not to be forgotten. +Tragedy brooded over the island.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to arrange some sort of systematic search," he said, +foreseeing how impossible was the task. An army, seeking for weeks, +might not hope to unearth the secrets of the wild jungle, impenetrable +in most places. The seabirds were winging out, others shrilling their +morning ecstasy; fish leaped in the water while, up and down, two +sharks roved as if they had tasted blood and scented more.</p> + +<p>"We've got to eat," he said. "It's just a question of fuel."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," she answered wearily.</p> + +<p>They went below and breakfast was served. Overhead the crew padded +about their tasks, washing down the decks, ordinary duties that they +carried on. Stanton saw two tears on her cheeks as she tried to drink +the strong coffee. She wiped them away, but the drink choked her.</p> + +<p>There was a singsong cry on deck that had a stirring note in it. +Stanton thought that the Lehua must have been sighted.</p> + +<p>"Something's happened," he said. "I'll see what it is." The girl looked +at him, startled. For a moment hope flashed in her eyes and died out +at the sight of his grim face. The captain came hurrying down the +companionway.</p> + +<p>"Tiki!" he said. "He come along beach. I think he find something."</p> + +<p>They raced on deck. The shore boat was ready, the armed rowers in it. +Tiki was at the water's edge, gesticulating, pointing to the heights. +The girl was trembling as the oars bent to the short, sturdy strokes. +She set her hand on Stanton's arm, and he laid his own over it. Her +lips moved silently. He knew that she was praying that her father was +still alive, fighting off the thought of other news.</p> + +<p>"Call to him, please," she asked the skipper, "Ask him if—if—"</p> + +<p>The captain stood up in the stern, handling the steering sweep, and +shouted a few syllables. Tiki shouted back.</p> + +<p>"He alive," said the skipper, and the girl broke down as Stanton put +his arm about her and she set her head against his shoulder and wept in +the revulsion of relief.</p> + +<p>Tiki had found him, with his knowledge of jungle craft, looking for +sign by instinct, finding it where others would have sought in vain. He +pointed out certain places as they trailed him up the ravine in which +he had vanished the night before. Stanton could see little. A fragment +of broken lava, a snapped stem, but the savage had read all unerringly.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>They climbed high, following an ancient path hacked through the +bush, the ground hard-beaten, a relic of the time when Tiki lived on +Motutabu. The trees, matted and bound together with undergrowth and +vines, rose on either side like walls. Great orchids swung, brilliant +butterflies hovered about them like living flowers.</p> + +<p>They came to where the trail forked and here was a pyramid of +crumbling skulls. Tiki took the right-hand path. It led to a deserted, +half-ruined village back of walls of coral, in which bamboos grew along +the top. There was a heavy gateway, sagging now, stilted houses, whose +roofs had decayed, the wattled walls torn by the weather, rotting from +the rains.</p> + +<p>There was a sing-sing ground with a great banyan tree, whose boughs +were decked with strings of skulls. One great building had collapsed. +Two stone images had fallen on their faces, tall drumlogs, carven like +totem poles, lay prone. The earthquake had flung them down. The place +was littered with signs of hasty, frenzied flight.</p> + +<p>Tiki led them through this abandoned capital of Motutabu, pressing +on ever upward by paths that the jungle was already reclaiming. They +climbed above the forest and crossed a plateau of high yellow grass +that terminated at a great rift, at the bottom of which was a lake of +dark water, divided into unequal parts by a sharp ridge that led to the +other side. There the crags began.</p> + +<p>It was a narrow and perilous crossing. The volcanic rock was badly +decomposed and it scaled and broke as they passed, the fragments +bounding down to the still water, far below.</p> + +<p>On the other side they came to a ledge and Tiki turned and made +gestures, nodding at them, talking in excited gutturals.</p> + +<p>"He speak we soon find," the captain interpreted.</p> + +<p>They had to go in single file along that narrow way. Once Tiki pointed +to some dark marks on the rock.</p> + +<p>"That blood," said the captain. The girl shuddered and Stanton steadied +her. It was the dry season. Such stains would linger. Haines had been +wounded. Suddenly Tiki stopped where a tangle of vines cascaded down +the cliff that backed the ledge. He drew them aside and disclosed a +narrow cleft, a fissure made ages past in some upheaval.</p> + +<p>It led to a little glen that was merely an oval enlargement of the +fissure. Its sides were thick with moss. Water trickled down and formed +a pool. There was shrubbery, a few trees, guava scrub. The sun never +reached this hidden place in which Haines had found sanctuary. They saw +a little shelter of boughs by the pool and saw him lying there, gaunt, +haggard, his face covered with a beard, his eyes deep sunken, but with +light in them, as the girl gave a cry and ran forward to kneel beside +him.</p> + +<p>He was reduced almost to skin and bone. One shoulder and a foot were +crudely bandaged. His voice was barely audible.</p> + +<p>Stanton had brought along a first-aid kit and a flask of brandy. Lucy +gave some to her father and a faint flush came into his hollow cheeks.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were a ghost," he said faintly. "How did you come here? +It was just in time. I wouldn't have lasted—much longer—my dear."</p> + +<p>He closed his eyes and Stanton thought he was gone, but the pulse still +fluttered feebly. The girl gave him more brandy.</p> + +<p>"He's starved," she said. "We must get him down to the boat. Thank God +he's still alive!" The pearls were forgotten. The Chinese captain had +got a fire started. One of the crew put on some water to heat.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to be careful how we feed him," said Stanton. "I've got +some beef cubes. We'll have to make a litter, and those wounds should +be looked to. He doesn't seem to have any fever."</p> + +<p>In the hope of Tiki's discovery they had brought up certain equipment, +including the utensil in which the water was warming. The girl +dissolved the cubes and added a little brandy, while Stanton unbound +the foot. A bullet had gone through the small bones. The wound showed +in a purple pucker. There had been inflammation, but, with the fever, +it had been starved out of him. The lead had passed through and there +was no infection. It was the same with the shoulder. Haines was +terribly weak, but he had been a strong man and he had survived.</p> + +<p>He managed to swallow the beef tea. It was all they dared allow him. +Stanton cleansed the wounds and temporarily dressed and bandaged them. +The litter was being made by the sailors. Haines insisted upon talking. +Stanton thought it might be better for him than repression.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>"They nearly got me," he said. "They got my men. They'd have had me but +for chance. They came early in the morning expecting to catch us all +asleep, and they butchered my boys, without giving them a chance. I saw +it and could do nothing. They were after the pearls. They couldn't have +found them. They tortured two of my men to find out, but they didn't +know. It was the Lehua. They were all in it, but it was Loo Fong who +brought them. I nearly got him. It was this way—let me talk, Lucy, I +haven't talked for days, not since I went out of my head.</p> + +<p>"I wanted meat. There are goats up here in the crags and I came up +overnight to get a kid or two. We were running short of grub, you see, +and were pretty well fed up on fish. We were going back in a few days. +We cleaned the patches and were rotting out the last of the shell. A +lot of pearls. We're rich, Lucy. Luck's turned, after all.</p> + +<p>"I saw the schooner coming in. I didn't recognize it. Thought at first +Cheung had sent it. I didn't suspect anything, but started down the +mountain. There's a place across the grass where you can see the beach. +Time I got there, they had anchored and were sending a boat ashore. +They were all like ants from the height. I saw my men come out of their +hut and run back again. Those devils were armed, of course, and they +didn't even wait to parley. Some of them went to my house. Then the +butchery started. My boys were not armed. I had my rifle with me. I had +one extra clip along. It was all over in a few minutes and I couldn't +help them. They'd have got me if I had been there. I ran down the trail +when I saw what was happening and then they started up after me. I +suppose they got out of one of my men that I was up here after goats. +They burned the men's feet in the fire, damn them.</p> + +<p>"One has to keep to the trails. I started back for the crags. They +beat all through the grass and then they started to cross the big gap. +I fired at them, hit one of them. He fell into the lake. That was a +mistake, I suppose; it gave me away; but I was seeing red. On the +next shot my rifle jammed. They came over and they hunted me all day, +spreading out. The crew were black men and it was easy work for them. +They sighted me three times. Once they hit me, in the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I saw they'd get me sooner or later. I couldn't stay in the crags. +They had me nearly surrounded, but I got past them, down to the ledge +just below here. My only chance was to bolt across the ridge. But they +spotted me. They had me on the ledge. I knew who they were then. It +was Loo Fong who hit me in the foot as I bolted for cover. I didn't +feel it for the moment, though I had a shoeful of blood. I was bleeding +from the shoulder, weak. I dodged out of sight and then I saw my last +chance. I knew the cleft, though I had never been up it. A wounded dove +flew into it one day and I had gone after it. I thought the vines might +hide me. There was a loose bowlder on the ledge and I shoved it over +and dodged into the crevice. The rock went crashing down to the lake +and they thought it was my body.</p> + +<p>"They came down to the ledge and looked at the place. I heard Loo Fong +cursing. They stayed there for a little while and then went away, +swearing. I suppose they tried to find the pearls, but they couldn't +get down to the lake. I crawled up to this place presently, bandaged +my foot at the pool, and my shoulder. They both got pretty bad after +awhile. I made this shelter, I got some guavas, and lived off them and +the <i>olehau</i> berries. I couldn't walk, and fever set in. I don't know +how long I've been here; I was delirious."</p> + +<p>The litter was ready. They set Haines in it, a light weight for all +his big frame, and he lay there exhausted as two of the crew swung him +up and they started down, Lucy as close to her father as the trail +permitted.</p> + +<p>They crossed the ridge and the grassy plain, coming to the place he had +spoken of where they could see the beach and their schooner. There was +another ship coming round the bend—the Lehua! They saw the two men +left on board the Fahine jump into a small boat and row ashore. They +were fired at from the Lehua. The reports came up in tiny cracks of +sound, but the two reached the beach and bolted for the jungle.</p> + +<p>A boat crammed with men put off from the raiding vessel.</p> + +<p>They were hampered with the wounded Haines. They had to get him into +safety. Stanton's blood boiled at sight of the invaders.</p> + +<p>"We fight them," said the skipper. "Can do. If not, they sink ship, all +same his." Tiki was jabbering.</p> + +<p>"He say take him along god," said the captain. "He speak it safe place. +He speak God fixee. Cave along that place."</p> + +<p>Tiki nodded emphatically. Stanton thought of Cheung's warning, spoke of +it to the captain.</p> + +<p>"I savvy. All same I think Tiki talk plopeh."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE SHADOW OF THE GOD.</h3> + + +<p>There was no time for delay. They had to do something. To take the +offensive was the best plan. Tiki pointed out the opening of an almost +closed jungle trail. They went into it, going as fast as they dared, +working toward the far side of the promontory, making for the image.</p> + +<p>They came out beneath it at last, at the foot of the towering +sculpture. It stood facing a paved terrace, set with flat stones. Great +stones had been piled in two walls that left a passageway to the feet +of the god. There was a space between his knees. Tiki led the way in.</p> + +<p>It was a high chamber into which light filtered down from some opening +above where growth masked it. The sides were roughly hewn here and +there into dim shapes. There was a flat rock near the entrance on which +was set another one from which protruded long timbers, capstan fashion. +Tiki pointed to these.</p> + +<p>"He say can fixee tlap so no one come in," said the skipper.</p> + +<p>Tiki nodded, gesturing. Stanton thought he grasped his meaning.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said. "Better send out your men to try and flank that +outfit. I'll stay here with Miss Haines and her father. We'll keep +Tiki."</p> + +<p>They went out, going along the terrace, disappearing in the trees, +yellow men intent on battle. The litter was set down on the cavern +floor.</p> + +<p>Tiki caught hold of one of the timbers set in the stone, motioning to +Stanton who set his chest against one opposite. The girl did the same +thing with a third. They heaved, without result, put out all their +strength in straining effort. The stone began to turn, more readily +after the first movement. There was a grating sound beneath their feet.</p> + +<p>Tiki stepped back, grinning. Sweat covered him. Stanton and the girl +were panting with their efforts, their clothing wet with perspiration. +Tiki beckoned Stanton to come to the mouth of the cave and he followed +him. There was nothing to see but the empty terrace, the waving woods. +But Tiki was satisfied. He pointed at the great slabs before them, +gesturing.</p> + +<p>Doves cooed. The girl was ministering to her father who was saying +something. Then there came the sound of shots, close at hand. Report +after report, singly and scattering volleys. They were quite a distance +off, but they came nearer. Then died away. Again they broke out, down +by the beach, it seemed.</p> + +<p>Then the two Chinese who had come ashore bolted out of the bush, +carrying their rifles, glancing back. They looked toward the image and +sped on without seeing Stanton or Tiki. Tiki grasped him by the arm +and drew him in the shadows. He did not want the Chinese to enter the +cavern. The girl came and stood beside Stanton.</p> + +<p>"Father is sleeping," she said. "I heard the shots."</p> + +<p>"We're safe, so far," he said. "Tiki and the god have set some sort of +a trap. The trouble is, it may work both ways." Whatever the device +was he could see that they might be besieged, held there, without +provisions, without water, unless the yellow men conquered.</p> + +<p>The Chinese were willing enough, capable enough, he fancied, though he +had never seen them shoot. On the other hand, the crew of the Lehua +were Solomon Islanders, used to brush warfare, trained fighters, a +savage and blood-thirsty outfit, though the Chinese might match them +there. When they took to piracy or banditry they were ruthless enough. +He imagined the forces might be about evenly matched, but the nature +of the ground would break the fighting up more or less into individual +skirmishes.</p> + +<p>There was silence again. Haines was resting. With care there would be +no question of his recovery, but if Loo Fong got the best of it their +fates would all be sealed. What would happen to Lucy he dared not +consider. They could put up a desperate fight at the last, if they got +a chance. There was no exit to the cave, no possible way to climb to +the rift.</p> + +<p>Doves cooed. The shadows shifted. Once in awhile they heard a distant +shot. The forces were split up now, it seemed. Stanton thought of the +captain's fear their schooner might be sunk, as Haines's had been. It +was a very real peril. He wanted to be out in the vessel, but he could +not leave the girl or Haines alone.</p> + +<p>Tiki was complacent. He seemed assured that the god in whose belly they +were hidden, would properly protect them. He had gone inside, to squat +in front of one of the carved figures, passing from that to another. +They could hear him chanting monotonously. He had come back to his old +home again and he was renewing fealty. This had been the fetish of his +father, the wizard, and Tiki was a born <i>tahunga</i>, in his veins the +blood of generations of sorcerers who had served a weird priesthood to +this ancient statue which far antedated their own original migration to +this island.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>It was cool inside. Without, the sun blazed down fiercely. The shadows +retreated as the fiery orb mounted toward the zenith. It wheeled out of +their sight and the shadow of the cliff, the shadow of the image, began +to stretch out over the paving between the walls of stone that shut out +much of their view.</p> + +<p>Tiki came back to the entrance, hunkering down. From some place known +to him he had taken weird paraphernalia. He had daubed himself with +white and yellow and black, there was an apron about his middle that +was made of human hair. He wore a necklace of knuckle-bones, a skullpan +hung upon his chest and his arms and legs were decked with circlets +of shell and bone and fiber. He had been in his father's make-up +repository, Stanton thought.</p> + +<p>With him he had brought something that looked like a queer-shaped +basket of plaited strips of pliable cane, like matting. He took no +notice of them apart, remote, droning out some incantations, watching +the creeping shadow.</p> + +<p>Stanton remembered something Cheung had said about the shadow of the +god. The shadows of all sacred things, even of chiefs, were <i>tabu</i>. To +walk in them was death. Yet the shadow of the god fell only at certain +hours. Tiki could not have timed any attack that might take place. The +combatants seemed to have lost sight of each other, hunting along the +trails, hiding in the bush. But Tiki seemed waiting for something with +a curious certainty. To him the god was infallible.</p> + +<p>Stanton told himself that it was only a barbaric, colossal carving, but +even as he held the thought, another came, suggesting that he should +have faith. Civilization seemed now to be an unreal thing. They were +back in the stone age, to which the island and its departed inhabitants +belonged. A superstitious feeling possessed him, not one of fear. The +shadow lengthened and still the island was wrapped in silence.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he thought he saw the solid forest waver to and fro. The legs +of the god, portals to the cave, appeared to move. A tremor ran through +the ground and there was a low muttering as of thunder, a hollow +rumbling from inside the cave. The girl started up and would have gone +inside to her father, but he restrained her. The place might fall in.</p> + +<p>Motutabu had once flamed, been thrust up with its riven crags in smoke +and steam. Lava had flowed. Now those fires were clogged, the craters +choked, but, far below, the interior wrath still raged. This was a +<i>temblor</i>, one of the earthquakes that intermittently shook the peaks +that had been lifted from the sea. This was a slight shock. No other +followed and he let her enter. Haines was still sleeping.</p> + +<p>Tiki had risen. To him it was a manifestation that the god was pleased +that a faithful believer had returned. He stood erect with the dignity +of an oracle. As Stanton watched him he took the strange basketry and +placed it over his head. It was a hood that fell below his shoulders. +It had trunklike appendages, two holes for eyes that were glazed by +fish bladders. It turned him to a grotesque and terrible figure, like a +great squid. As he moved, the wicker tentacles writhed.</p> + +<p>Something was going to happen. Stanton felt it in his bones. Not +another quake. He saw the shadow vanish, melt away, as if the sun had +been veiled. Then it appeared again, sharp and distinct. Tiki's chant +grew louder, ceased as there came the sound of a brisk fusillade.</p> + +<p>Men were coming from the woods, firing back at enemies still hidden. +They came into view between the walls. The Chinese captain and his +men—fewer now—retreating, kneeling to take aim, then running to kneel +again. They passed and, with savage yells, the black men from the Lehua +burst into view, charging, Johnson and Loo Fong at their head.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p><i>With savage yells, the black men from the pirate schooner burst into view.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>Tiki sent out a yell of defiance, ululating, weird and shrill as it +issued from a reeded mouthpiece in the mask. Loo Fong halted and +turned, Johnson with him. They stared for a moment and then they saw +the girl, who had come, unnoticed by Stanton, to the entrance. Stanton +swept her aside, flattening her against the curve of the image's +colossal leg, taking place himself on the opposite side as bullets came +whining toward them. Tiki had seemingly betrayed them.</p> + +<p>He had not moved. He was untouched and again he sent out that piercing +challenge as Loo Fong cried out an order and the savage outfit came +racing up between the walls, firing their pistols. Now Tiki stepped +inside, unhit.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Stanton fired back to stem the stampede. They came leaping on. Lucy +Haines fired with him and a black staggered and fell. Johnson was +struck, but it did not check him. Their bullets were entering the +cave, splaying gray streaks on the rock. Stanton pulled trigger on his +last cartridge, missing Loo Fong whose evil face was lit with triumph. +They were on the last great slab when Tiki reappeared, sounding his +whistling howl.</p> + +<p>Stanton saw the rear half of the big slab tilt upward. The whole stone +was balanced and it rose smoothly, inexorably. A gulf opened and out of +it came a moaning sound like the wash of the sea, far below.</p> + +<p>Johnson and Loo Fong were pitched forward, their faces twisted with +sudden terror. The angle became acute, and they slid down, dropping +their weapons, crouching, clawing uselessly. The mate pitched forward, +plunged into the gap. Loo Fong made a desperate spring as he squatted +there like a toad. His fingers clutched the nigh edge, the sill of the +cave entrance, clung there.</p> + +<p>The stone swung on, up and over in a complete revolution. Its edge +smashed the fingers of the half-caste and the slab closed him in, +leaving bloody smears and remnants on the threshold. There were only +the black men left and they stood in a huddled mob before they broke +and ran, some trying to climb the walls, appalled at this manifestation +of the god.</p> + +<p>It was the slab of sacrifice, used on ceremonial occasions where +victims were demanded; set as a trap for the unwary, for meddlers.</p> + +<p>Tiki had lured them on. He had provided sacrifice. He had appeased the +long, unsated appetite of his god, and thus established his priesthood. +He had saved Haines, his daughter and Stanton, but they had been bait +for the victims.</p> + +<p>He had won the day.</p> + +<p>The yellow men were coming back, firing at the terrified blacks. The +fight had gone out of the islanders. They could not battle with gods. +Man after man went down, and then the slaughter swept past and out of +view.</p> + +<p>Tiki touched Stanton on the shoulder. He had taken off the mask and he +went back to the moving capstan stone that had triggered the trap. They +took hold of the pole and revolved it.</p> + +<p>The grating sound died away and Tiki walked through the entrance, out +on the slab, now firm again, turning to crouch and lower his head to +the rock in salutation and obeisance.</p> + +<p>A hail came from the end of the causeway. It was the Chinese skipper +with two of his men. Stanton advanced to meet them.</p> + +<p>"They all dead!" he said complacently. There was blood on his clothes +and his hands, but his face was clear of all emotion. "Tiki, he fixee. +All samee stone give way, I think."</p> + +<p>It was over. Two of the Chinese were wounded, one seriously. A third +was dead. The captain mentioned it casually. It was all in the day's +work.</p> + +<p>"Now we catch pearl and go," he said. "Mo' good we sink Lehua. No can +take. Too muchee talk, too muchee bobbely that make."</p> + +<p>Stanton had forgotten all about the pearls. It had probably been the +prime issue in the mind of the skipper. Haines was an incident. He +possessed a share if he lived, but that was Cheung's private business. +Bringing back the pearls was the captain's affair, whether he found +Haines or not. Stanton and the girl, Haines and Tiki, were pawns to the +captain.</p> + +<p>Cheung, Stanton fancied, was not so cold-blooded, but Cheung was an +exceptional Chinaman.</p> + +<p>They took up the litter as the rest arrived and marched back, past the +out-sprawled corpses of the black men, more sacrifices to the great, +gray god. Haines awakened from his semi-stupor, seemingly refreshed. He +would recover, though he would probably be lame. Stanton ordered him +sent off immediately to the ship with Lucy, to occupy Stanton's own +cabin.</p> + +<p>"Catch pearl first," said the captain.</p> + +<p>Haines smiled for the first time.</p> + +<p>"I think they're safe," he said. "There in that pool over there. It is +only half-filled at high tide. Moisture wouldn't hurt them, anyway. But +there's a crevice near the top, on this side. They're in there, in an +oilskin sack. The hole is plugged with seaweed."</p> + +<p>They were safe, a bag half-filled with softly shimmering gems of the +sea, slightly iridescent, oval, round, pear-shaped, symmetrical, a few +of them pink in luster. Stanton could not estimate them, but he knew +they represented a fortune. Haines fingered them.</p> + +<p>"You can keep some of them, my dear," he said to Lucy. "A third of them +are mine. We'll sell what you don't want."</p> + +<p>"Sell all of them," she said. "They have cost too much. I couldn't wear +them."</p> + +<p>The skipper talked with Tiki, who stood apart. Then he came to Stanton.</p> + +<p>"Tiki speak he stay along this place," he said. "He like we set up +those dlum and those image topside along sing-sing glound."</p> + +<p>Stanton looked at Tiki who walked toward him and once more took +Stanton's hand and placed it over his heart. Then he pointed to the +mountain, toward the god, now hidden by the cape.</p> + +<p>The gesture, the desire, were unmistakable. He had come home. Solitude +did not bother him. Later he might adventure, bring back a woman, or a +dusky harem, but this was his land, his god.</p> + +<p>He did not belong in Suva, nor on the other island from which he had +fled. Motutabu was his abidingplace, as priest to the graven image.</p> + +<p>They left him later, his wishes carried out, standing on the beach, +motionless. Stanton felt that they owed him much, but he had owed a +debt to Stanton for his rescue. He would have died in Suva. And he had +paid his debt. He and the god.</p> + +<p>The sunset was flaming back of the island when they made out to sea, +two sunken schooners in the bay. Tiki had been presented with the +stores of the Lehua, all that he selected.</p> + +<p>The face of the image was no longer flaming as they had first seen it. +It was gray now, somber but serene. From the mountain came the deep +sound of a reverberating drum.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>"What you going to do now?" Cheung asked Stanton as they sat in the +chamber over the restaurant. Haines was under medical care, a rich man, +content to limp, since he could well afford to ride.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Stanton answered. "I'm at a loose end." Cheung smiled, +nodded toward the inside rooms where Lucy Haines was talking with +Cheung's wife.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you ask missy?" he said. "These belong along you. If you like +I buy them flom you. Give good plice."</p> + +<p>He took a leather sack from his capacious sleeve and poured out pearls +into a lacquered bowl. They filled a third of it with milky radiance.</p> + +<p>"You, me, Haines, all same divide," said Cheung. "These velly fine +pearl. Fifty-sixty thousan' dollah. Why you not ask missy?"</p> + +<p>"I think I'll take your advice," said Stanton. The trip back had been a +happy one. He was not without foundation for the hope that Lucy might +be interested in what he did and where he went.</p> + +<p>He was no longer a derelict, no longer in danger of being a beach bum. +He was a man of substance.</p> + +<p>"You ask now," said Cheung. "I call my wife. I wish you plenty luckee."</p> + + +<p class="ph2">THE END.</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77501 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77501-h/images/cover.jpg b/77501-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a98e0e --- /dev/null +++ b/77501-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/77501-h/images/illus.jpg b/77501-h/images/illus.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d06bee9 --- /dev/null +++ b/77501-h/images/illus.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..260e544 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77501 +(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77501) diff --git a/graygod_txt.txt b/graygod_txt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e758cce --- /dev/null +++ b/graygod_txt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1995 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77501 *** + + + + + The Gray God + + By J. ALLAN DUNN + + _Author of "The Cardinal's Curse," + "Whirlwind Walsh," etc._ + + _Broke and almost "on the beach" in the + Fiji Islands, Bob Stanton hardly guessed + that just around the corner lay the maddest + adventure life could offer in the tropics._ + + _Novelette--Complete_ + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Argosy All-Story Weekly March 16 1929.] + + + + + CONTENTS + + I. "TYPICAL TROPICAL TRAMP!" + II. CHEUNG'S PLAN. + III. THE RACE TO MOTUTABU. + IV. THE JUNGLE TRAIL. + V. THE SHADOW OF THE GOD. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + "TYPICAL TROPICAL TRAMP!" + + +Bob Stanton walked along the main street of Suva, painfully conscious +that people looked at him as if he was a beach comber. He was not quite +that--yet--though he was not many degrees removed from it, he told +himself. His ducks and his linen, if they were frayed, were clean; +he managed, with old blades and the horrible soap supplied by his +landlady, to keep shaved; the soles of his shoes were broken, but the +uppers were carefully pipe-clayed. He was still respectable, but his +hair needed cutting and his browned features were beginning to wear an +expression that made even the kilted native police look at him askance. + +Not to mention the tourists. A steamer was in. Men and women were +strolling or driving, tropic clad, agog for entertainment, planning +luncheon. Some had _lei_ garlands about their necks placed there by +welcoming friends. Friends! There were certainly times when a fellow +needed one, Stanton reflected. There might be Americans in that +laughing crowd intent upon enjoyment. Perhaps if they knew the plight +he was in, from no fault of his own-- + +He shoved his hands deeper in his empty pockets, crossing over from the +row of stores with plate glass fronts, hotels and clubs, to the shore +side of the street. He walked in the checkered, changing shadow of the +palms and poincianas, which patterned the path with purple and gold. + +Across the stretch of seagrass lawn the Goro Sea showed incredibly +blue, blue as laundry blueing. The sky was hardly less vivid. Cliffs of +pearly trade wind clouds lifted on the horizon. The breeze raised the +banners of bananas, rustled in the fronds of coconut and royal palms, +sent down a drift of scarlet poinciana blossoms like carnival confetti. +A glorious, gorgeous mockery of a day. + +He had the makings of two cigarettes, perhaps three thin ones, and that +was all. No tobacco, no money to buy any. He was three weeks in debt +to his half-caste landlady, three weeks in board-arrears to Cheung Li. +Broke. Stony broke. + +They hadn't said a thing about it yet, but they would not, could not +trust him forever. + +There was the sting of it; they had trusted him. He had not lied to +them about coming remittances, but had frankly said he was flat, and +they had smiled and said he was an American and they knew he would pay +them when he could. That seemed a long way off right now. + +A girl was coming toward him, from the steamer, unaccompanied. She was +simply dressed, she was slender, but walked with a certain agile vigor +that distinguished her. Stanton almost bumped into her on the narrow +path in his absorption. He got a glimpse of a pair of dark blue eyes, +large, clear, but not carefree; a short nose, red lips that drooped a +little, a hint of coppery hair under the close-fitting hat. + +He raised his own, in apology, and the girl bowed. She did not smile, +but looked at him curiously, sympathetically. He did not analyze that +look for a few minutes. Then he realized that her face, like his own, +must have betrayed worriment, was not in accord with the gorgeous day. +She was in trouble of some sort, even as he was, and she had recognized +the latter fact. + + * * * * * + +About ten paces behind the girl a man was walking with a curious ease +of gait, pantherish, slightly furtive for all his swagger, for all +his linen tunic and pants, his silk shirt and cummerbund, the smart +puggaree on his hat of woven palm fiber, the short gold-tipped malacca +cane, the silken socks and shoes of buckskin and tan leather. + +His skin was the color of saddle leather, splotched by darker blots, +like freckles. His eyes were jet-black, set aslant, the lids smooth and +unwrinkled, the mouth full-lipped, cruel. A cunning, sensual "breed," +half Chinese and half native, swaggering along with a knife under his +cummerbund, and gambler's gold in his pockets, Stanton fancied. + +The American suddenly wondered, with a hunch that flashed into his +mind, whether the man was following the girl. For a moment Stanton +halted, rolling his cigarette, looking back. The girl had crossed the +street, the half-breed kept straight on. He might be following her, but +he did not seem inclined to annoy her. Too careful of his own skin, +Stanton decided. He would behave himself in the open, but he was no +more to be trusted in the shadows than a roving shark in a lagoon. + +Stanton knew him by name--Loo Fong--and by his reputation, or lack of +it, along the waterfront where Stanton had his cheap but clean room +with Panakaloa, the stout half-white widow of a trading skipper. + +Loo Fong, petty pirate, smuggler, gambler, half Malay, half Manchu, +and treacherous as a snake, was just back from one of his occasional +disappearances. He had given Stanton a look, tinged with a sneer of +derision on his twisting mouth, that made the American's fists double +automatically. + +He crossed the street himself, caught sight of his reflection in a +store window as he checked to let a jovial group pass out of the car +that had brought them from the ship and enter the Victoria Hotel. + +A woman glanced at him and said something in a whisper to her escort. +The man was less tactful of tone in his answer. + +"T.T.T.," he replied. "Eh, what? Typical Tropical Tramp! Beach bum! +Never has worked, can't get work, and doesn't want to." The woman +looked at him again and shrank a little. It was then the plate glass +revealed to Stanton his mask of a face, grim, almost haggard, the long +hair covering the collar of his coat, the set jaws and smoldering eyes. + +"Got to snap out of that," he told himself. "You're nursing a grouch. +It won't get you a thing, not a damn' thing, Bob Stanton! It's the grin +that wins." + +He was not so sure of that. He had been grinning a long time, but +the grin had frayed, like the bottoms of his pants and the cuffs of +his coat and shirts. There was no job in Suva, in all the Fijis, for +a "Yank." It was fair enough, perhaps. Jobs seemed to be scarce and +anything that a self-respecting white man would do was held out for a +Britisher. + +He had come out to join a man he had known in the States. They had been +comrades in the Argonne, as a matter of fact. It was after an Armistice +Day dinner that Raymond had told him of his plan to log and ship the +valuable hardwoods of the Fijis to American cabinet-makers. The islands +off the north and west of Viti Levu were crammed with such trees, it +appeared. Stanton had put in his share for preliminaries and had left +for Fiji after the jubilant letter saying that the lease was secured +and the prospects rosy. It had taken almost all he had by the time he +reached Suva and, while he was _en route_, the bubble had been pricked. + +The British commissioner had received word from the colonial secretary +that no leases or concessions were to be granted on Fijian products +to other than _bona-fide_ British concerns. The bill had passed "as +of" a date before that of Raymond's concessions. It was a washout. +The commissioner was polite, bored, and his expressed sorrow was +tinged with a suggestion that Americans had better stick to their own +possessions. + +There were hardwoods, the commissioner believed, in the Philippines. +Whether or not he knew the Washington policies that protected the +countrymen of Aguinaldo to the exclusion of all outside capital, they +did not learn. + +Raymond cursed heartily and ingeniously, outside the commissioner's +stately residence. He offered Stanton his fare back, but Stanton knew +his friend had little enough left for himself. The lure of the tropics +had gripped Stanton, and he had no doubt but that he could get along. +He had, for twelve weeks of enforced loafing, on fifty dollars. + + * * * * * + +It looked like the bush or the beach for him, living on fruit and fish, +a down-and-outer. It was getting hard to be philosophical, to believe +in such platitudes as "It is always darkest before the dawn," and +"Every cloud has a silver lining." + +Nevertheless, after that self-revealing glance at the grim mask that +was his face, Bob Stanton mentally girded up his loins and marched on, +resolved to borrow a pair of scissors from Panakaloa to trim the frayed +edges of his garments and essay a haircut. He was getting morbid. He +whistled as he marched along and looked a sergeant of police squarely +in the eyes. Lately he had been bothering a bit about deportation, or a +request to move on. + +Confound that fellow with his T.T.T. What did he know about them? +T.T.T.'s were the salt of the earth, often prosperous, always +efficient, cursed or blessed with the roving heel. The chap had said +Stanton didn't want to work, whereas he had been hunting it high and +low until he could feel the grit working through his shoes at every +step. He whistled the swinging march song: + + _Pack all your troubles in your old kit-bag,_ + _And smile, smile, smile._ + +Lots of craft in the harbor, freight steamers, sailing ships, the +big passenger boat, native craft, launches shuttling back and forth. +Usually they made him restless, emphasized his marooned condition. Now +he grinned at them. Much magic in a grin, after all. But he didn't get +his haircut. + +He reached the wharf and swung south to where Panakaloa's little house +was set among scrubs and papaia trees on the limits of white residency. +A topsail schooner was moored to bollards, her cargo of copra and +turtle shell being discharged. + +A black man lay on a bale, shivering in the sun. He was almost a dwarf, +a Melanesian, not a Fijian. His frizzy hair was dull red from lime +bleaching, his dark skin showed tribal weals and other scars. His only +clothing was a scanty loin-cloth. The lobes of his ears were stretched +to flaps of torn leather, a short clap pipe thrust through one of +the convenient holes. A South Sea savage, sick and shuddering, ugly, +ill-shaped, dirty. His ribs showed like those of a starved dog. His +eyes were closed and his limbs were huddled about his emaciated body. + +Any blackbirder would have despised him. Stanton wondered how he had +come to Suva, derelict and unhappy as a mangy cur. + +A man in a peaked cap, dressed in dungarees and a grimy pyjama top +was directing the last of the unloading, chewing and spitting tobacco +between curses in beach-English. As the file-closer of the Kanakas +he had been bossing disappeared into the warehouse shed, the man, +apparently mate of the schooner, turned and saw the wretched figure +on the bale. He had a rope's end tucked in his belt, a length of coil +ending in a turkshead knot, symbol of authority over his Solomon Island +crew. + +He swung it aloft and brought it down on the cowering creature who woke +to his shouted oaths. It curled with a vicious hiss and sounded like a +drum-stroke as it raised a blistering mark. + +"You walk along damn' quick out of this, you blasted stowaway monkey, +before I flay you," he cried and swung up his arm again as the man +leaped from the bale and crouched, long apelike arms wrapped about his +head, jabbering something inarticulate. The rope's end writhed around +his ribs with the same hideous strum. The third blow did not fall. The +mate's arm remained aloft as he gazed in astonishment at the sudden +appearance of Stanton between him and his victim. + +"Git out of here, you lousy beach bum!" the mate yelled. He started to +say more, but Stanton's fist muzzled him. + + * * * * * + +Indignation at the wanton cruelty had caused Stanton to interfere, but +all the resentment he had swallowed in the sneer of Loo Fong and the +words of the woman's escort outside the hotel, went into that wallop +when the mate called him a bum. He had been hard up, but, thanks to +Cheung and Panakaloa, he had not starved or lacked decent quarters. He +was husky and he knew how to use his fists. The mate didn't. He was a +bucko, a good brawler, and he was tough, inside and out, but he made a +serious first mistake in underestimating his adversary, and rushing him. + +Stanton ducked neatly and smote him hard over the liver as the mate's +haymaker swung overhead and the mate swung with it, off balance, +staggering sidewise with a clip on the side of the jaw. He went to one +knee and hand, and Stanton let him up, which was chivalrous but wasted. + +"Get up, you coward, and take a licking from a 'bum!'" Stanton snapped, +while the mate spat blood and tobacco from his battered lips, uttered a +roar and rushed again. The seaman got a straight left to his face which +checked him, but he closed in, bellowing and bludgeoning. The Kanakas +had come out of the warehouse and were looking on, eyes rolling, +grinning. The cook came out of the schooner's galley and stood with +folded arms, another spectator who seemed not opposed to the prospects +of the mate's getting trimmed. + +They clinched and Stanton appreciated what a bucko might do at close +quarters. The mate got his arms about his ribs and nearly cracked them +as he forged on with the advantage of his weight, using his knee, +trying to trip, cursing constantly, threatening, putting out his full +strength. Stanton beat a tattoo on his kidneys and he didn't like it. +They struck the stringpiece and went down together, rolling over and +over, rebounding as the side of the schooner saved them from the water. + +As they rolled the mate made another mistake. Every time Stanton was on +top he slogged at the bucko's head and jaws, and hurt him badly enough +to make the mate try the same tactics. The bucko got home more than +once, but it gave Stanton the chance to get up and away. He intended +to keep away. The mate was as hard as an automobile tire, strong as +a gorilla; he had the weight and superior strength. Stanton had the +science and the better wind. The other was blowing as he got to his +feet and, before he got set, Stanton got in a jolt to the belly and a +second smash over the mouth. + +The combination settled it, together with the quid the mate had +neglected to eject. The force of the blow sent it into his windpipe, +choking and half strangling him. Upset muscular control juggled it into +his gullet and Stanton's third and final blow in that rally drove it +deep. His disturbed stomach received and ejected it. His tanned face +turned a sickly green. He heaved violently and was distressingly and +unpleasantly sick, teetering up the gangway, using the scupperway, +weaving down the companionway to his cabin. + +Stanton straightened his clothes, felt gingerly a fiery ear and a +bruised cheek, looking for the cause of his interference. + +"You did 'm in proper, mister. You 'andled your dukes pretty. It served +the bloody blighter right," said the cook. "I'm quittin' 'ere. 'E ain't +got no idea of decency, 'e ain't. Called my grub 'stinkin' 'ash.' I +'ope the beggar 'eaves up his spotted soul." + +The miserable black was clasping Stanton's knees, jabbering at him, his +eyes moist with gratitude. It embarrassed the American. The Kanakas +were gathered in an uncertain knot, but the cook shouted at them and +they went aboard. + +"Looks like you 'ad 'im on your 'ands, mister," the cook said to +Stanton. "All syme stray dorg. You'll 'ave a 'ard time gittin' rid of +'im." + +"Where did he come from? What's the matter with him?" + +"We figger 'e must 'ave swum off and 'id aboard, the time we watered +at Tuimoto. Probably was in wrong with 'is wizard. Thought the ship +'u'd be better than the ovens. I'll bet 'e's changed 'is mind more'n +once. We was glad enough to git clear without trouble. Tuimoto is no +picnic-ground. The skipper was sick--island fever--an' mate run things. +'E kicked the daylights out of that boy. Come night throwin' 'im +overboard to the sharks. 'E ain't 'ad too much to eat. Don't like white +man's _kaikai_ an' the Kanakas wouldn't share theirs with 'im. That's +part of what's the matter with 'im. And 'e's got yaws. You better tyke +my tip and 'and 'im over to the police, mister. 'E belongs in the +'orsepittle, 'e does. Croak on your 'ands if you don't. 'Is nyme's Tiki +and I bet 'e's full of 'em." + +A muffled roar came from below and the cook winked at Stanton. + +"That's the mate," he said. "Wants a nurse. I'll nurse 'im!" He +sauntered aft. + +The miserable devil who seemed to have been wished on Stanton, +ill-treated and frightened by his surroundings, groveled at his feet. +He shivered like a frightened dog when Stanton put a hand on his skinny +shoulder. He didn't quite know what to do with the wretch--he'd die in +the hospital from sheer loneliness. Turn his face to the wall and let +his soul leach out of him. + +Stanton could put a meal into him, let him know he had a friend. His +own plight was pleasant compared to that of this spiritless remnant of +humanity. Perhaps Panakaloa would let him stay, give him something he +could assimilate. + +"You come with me," he said. "We get _kaikai_." + +Tiki understood the meaning and followed him like a black dog, his eyes +shining. Panakaloa was a bit difficult. She wanted no black fellows, +she declared, but at last Stanton persuaded her to let Tiki--who stood +on one bow leg, scratching with the toes of the other at his yaws +while they discussed him--stay in a shed in the little garden on some +old matting. He lay down, curled up, sacking over him and presently +Panakaloa set down beside him a bowl of native _poi_ and some dried +fish. His eyes glittered. His spirit revived. He was in the house of +friends and he ate avidly. Stanton went off to his own meal. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + CHEUNG'S PLAN. + + +Cheung Li's restaurant did not cater to the social element of Suva, +but it was neat and clean, the food savory, wholesome and cheap, so +that he did a good waterfront business with white skippers, mates and +supercargoes. + +He lived above the place, a placid, stout, sphinx-faced Chinaman +with a dignity all his own, getting together his fortune. Some said +the restaurant was a blind for his other affairs, but no one seemed +to definitely know what they might be. He extended credit from time +to time and seemed to find it profitable in the long run. It was he +himself who had suggested to Stanton that he need not worry about his +bill. + +"Some time soon, something come along," he told him. "You 'Melican. You +make good bimeby." + +He presided over the restaurant at rush hours, leaving its conduct the +rest of the time to two assistants. One of these, Moy, long, sallow, +cadaverous and chary of any speech but his own, set before Stanton +his meal. There was real turtle soup, excellent fish, turtle steak +with boiled _taro_-root and greens, fresh coconut pudding with caramel +sauce, and coffee the Ritz patrons might have envied. All for fifty +cents; a dollar and twenty cents for three daily meals, seven dollars a +week. + +When Moy brought the pudding he had a message. + +"Cheung Li like speak along of you topside when you finish up," he said. + +It spoiled the dessert for Stanton. It must mean that his credit was +over. It had to come. Cheung had been mighty decent. But it looked like +the beach. He couldn't stay at Panakaloa's and not eat. He couldn't +honestly stay there any longer and pile up a debt he saw no means of +paying off. Panakaloa could always rent her rooms. He saw himself for +a moment roaming the beach with Tiki at his heels, adventuring in the +bush with a cannibal. Tiki would know more about making a living there +than he did. + +He shrugged his shoulders, his hands steady as he rolled his second +cigarette. There was not enough left for a third, so he made this fat +and smoked it slowly with long inhalations before he got up, unable +to tip Moy. An outside staircase led to a balcony that ran all round +the house, covered and awninged. At the rear it looked over a compound +garden behind a high plank wall where Cheung took his ease with his +family. + +Stanton had never mounted before. He was surprised at the signs of +comfort, of taste, even of luxury. There were easy chairs of bamboo, +stands of teak that held flowering plants, big vases of porcelain with +foliage shrubs and ferns in them, rugs, cushions, two Java thrushes +singing in cages, a gorgeous blue macaw in a ring, statuesque, +disdainful. + +The front veranda, where Stanton thought the entrance must be, looked +over the harbor and the shipping, and across Kadavu Passage to the +distant isles of Ono and Kadavu, almost sixty miles away. The lure of +the horizon, of the unknown tropics, savage but fascinating, gripped +him hard. Then sliding glass doors opened and Cheung asked him inside. + +He had never before seen Cheung except in white clothes, and he was +surprised at the quiet richness of his brocades, the assurance of +his manner, polite, unostentatious. He might have been greeting a +distinguished official rather than a man whose clothing proclaimed his +poverty. + +He offered Stanton a deep and cosy seat and a cheroot faintly smelling +of tea, gratifying of flavor. Then he poured out two tiny goblets of +amber fluid that scented the whole room as if with orange groves and +tasted like sublimated Chartreuse. + +His English was not perfect, but he spoke without hesitation, straight +to the purpose. It was as if he guessed Stanton's interpretation of the +request for the visit, and wished to relieve him promptly. The shady +chamber had an atmosphere of courtesy. From the interior Stanton heard +the tinkle of a stringed instrument, the sudden laughter of a child. +The Java thrushes were singing madly. + +"I tell you some time, soon, something come along," said Cheung in his +mellow tones. "I not know then this come. One time, some one tell me +about one place where there are plenty pearl, on island where nobody +go. No landing there, no loadstead, no lagoon. Leef come up close, +evely place. Native not live that place now. Name Motutabu. Plenty +magic along that place. Bad magic. Maybe you not believe that?" + +"I don't know," said Stanton simply. "I've heard a lot of curious +things." + +Cheung grunted as if satisfied with the answer. + +"This black man's magic," he said. "Not evil to white man, yellow man +unless they too much meddle. You savvy?" + +"I savvy," said Stanton. His pulses were quickening, his blood +beginning to tingle. He felt that he was on the threshold of adventure, +mysterious, dangerous. + + * * * * * + +"On that island one big image," Cheung went on. "Not idol, all same +symbol. Symbol of evil spilits native men speak velley soft along, make +gift so he leave alone. Some one meddle along that god, not savvy how, +die velly quick. Suppose you go this place, you leave god alone. I send +white man I know along this Motutabu--that mean fo'bidden island. He is +good man, I tlust him plenty. I send Kanaka with him to dive. No one +come back. Long time now they should come back. Something happen. Maybe +he meddle too much along that god, maybe all get sick, maybe schooner +get on leef. I not know. + +"I am li'l' aflaid some one else speak along the Kanaka who tell me +about that place. Li'l' while since he speak with me, they find him +dead along beach. Maybe because he talk, maybe because he no talk. +Nobody savvy who kill him. I no savvy. I think maybe one man, half +Chinaman, he savvy something. Maybe he go along Motutabu, but suppose +he did he not find pearl. If he find pearl he not come back to Suva. He +go to Sigapo'. Belong that place. But I like find out." + +Singapore! Stanton had the flash, half intuition, half reasoning, +that is called a hunch. Singapore meant the Malay Peninsula. In his +mind's eye he saw the lithe figure of the Malay-Manchu, swaggering but +furtive, like a stalking panther, trailing the girl. He did not know +then how illuminating his hunch had been. But the name came to his +lips. "Loo Fong!" + +Cheung grunted again. + +"I always think you smaht," he said. "Li'l' bad luck, maybe, jus' now. +Loo Fong come back. I think he been along that island. Maybe he kill. +But I think he no find pearl. I like send you." + +"I'm no sailor," Stanton disclaimed. "I've knocked about in a pleasure +boat or two, yachting, but I'm no navigator." + +"I give you ship," Cheung purred on. "Captain and clew all same, they +lun ship. Chinamen. On island you boss. You find out what happen. Man +I send to island is 'Melican, all same you 'Melican. Suppose I send +Chinamen, suppose Loo Fong been that place, my man no tlust any one +but white man. His name Haines. I pay you good. Suppose you bling back +pearls, I give you plenty." + +"You don't know anything about me," said Stanton. He was not demurring +to the proposition, but it had taken him off his feet a bit. It sounded +like a large order. + +He did not lack confidence in himself, but this was a strange situation +he was asked to take command of. He could not immediately see himself +on a boat manned by Chinese, going to an island where some god, some +symbol of evil, was supposed to reign with malign influence; where +murder might have been done. He wanted to think it over, though he +wanted to go, aside from obliging Cheung. + +"I savvy plenty," Cheung went on suavely. "You have bad luck; you live +cheap, not dlink, not lun up big bill at big hotel. You tly all time +find any kind of job. Not easy fo' 'Melican along this place. Li'l' +time ago you fight mate of Lehua. I like 'Melican who not blag, not +dlink, can fight. I like you velly much to go this tlip." + +Stanton wondered a little at the other's knowledge of the fight, but it +was not surprising. Such news traveled fast. The restaurant was a sort +of club, in some ways. He was to wonder more how closely Cheung had +studied him. + +"To-day steameh come," Cheung went on. "Haines, he had bad luck too, +long time. He tlade in copla, have bad luck. He go fo' shell an' pearl, +have bad luck. Lose schooneh, find shell eaten by oyster worm. His +wife die in United States. Then he catch job with me. He lite back to +his daughteh, pletty soon he make money. She no heah flom him long time +befo'. Now velly glad. She come to Suva. Come to-day. She nice gel. I +tell about her fatheh. She wollied, but she keep up chin all same you, +'Melican fashion. She want to go look fo' him. I say she can go along +with you." + +Stanton gasped. Things were developing fast. He knew who the girl was. +She would recognize him when she saw him. He guessed why Loo Fong had +trailed her. Loo Fong knew of the island if he had not been there. It +was likely he had tried to pump the native who had first given Cheung +the information, and killed the poor devil. Why the latter had chosen +to confide in Cheung did not matter now. It was Cheung's affair. +Probably the man was indebted to him. + +"I saw Loo Fong following a girl who came in on the Austral, I think," +he said. Again Cheung gave one of his soft grunts of comprehension. + +"Loo Fong plenty slick," he said. "I think he savvy gel ask fo' me. She +go along hotel now she come my place. Mo' betteh she stay this place. +Loo Fong savvy that, savvy you come see me, maybe savvy why. _Maskee!_ +I think maybe you have to kill Loo Fong some time." + + * * * * * + +He spoke placidly enough, but, to Stanton, the room seemed suddenly +filled with a mist in which vague, battling figures moved, while in +the background there loomed the statue of a great, gray god and the +suggestion of fantastic cliffs and jungle. + +He was looking on, now, but he was about to be involved in this. +Pearls, magic, murder. Mystery and sudden death. Romance. The girl's +face with the big eyes that had changed when they saw him, as if there +had been between them some affinity, was plain before him. He heard +Cheung clap his hands, and then the girl herself was in the room, in +the flesh, gazing at him as he rose. + +"Missy Haines," Cheung was saying. "This Misteh Stanton. I think he go +along Motutabu fo' me." + +Her hand was in his, cool and firm, her gaze was searching him, frank, +friendly. + +"You don't mind if I go along?" she said. "I want to know what has +happened to my father, I want to see him again. He left me in school, +six years ago." + +"Mind?" Stanton was filled with an idiotic desire to say the things +that crowded his brain, to give utterance to the impulses that thrilled +him. To acknowledge the joy that surged through him at the prospect of +being her knight-errant, her champion. There was no question now of his +not going. If Cheung had reserved this argument for the last, he had +chosen wisely. Stanton's actual answer was stiff, awkward. + +"I shall be glad to serve you, if I can, to help your father, to be of +use to Cheung Li, who has befriended me." + +"As he did my father," said the girl. Stanton thought he heard Cheung +chuckle, but his face was immobile. + +"That settled," he said. "Now Stanton, talk business along with me. +Much to fix, quick as possible. To-mollow, maybe nex' day, you go." + +The girl left and Cheung talked business. His schooner, with the +Chinese skipper and crew, were at Levuka on the island of Ovalau, +former capital of Fiji. It was not far away, less than fifty miles, and +he had sent word to them, expecting them to-morrow. He gave Stanton +money to buy necessary personal things, promising to furnish him +weapons. Motutabu was not on the regulation charts. It lay far to the +south and west, below the Kermadec Islands. Cheung showed its position +on a chart. At the end of the interview he gave certain grave warnings. + +"I think Loo Fong go that place," he said. "Not find pearl. If he savvy +I send you I think he go back. Follow you, make plenty tlouble. Much +betteh he stay along that place." + +There was a grim note in his voice that more than hinted his meaning. +Cheung had not attempted to dodge the fact that the trip was dangerous. +He seemed at once to value life and consider it of little value, like +the money changer who promptly throws out spurious coin. The crew of +his schooner would be armed. He had not sent Chinese in the first +place because natives were better divers; his own men were unused +to pearling, he used them for inter-island trading. But they were +fighters. They were his men. + +Stanton was convinced that those who worked for Cheung were loyal, +bound by a fealty that went beyond pay. He saw depths to this man who +was running a lowly restaurant and living in something close to luxury. +He realized that the restaurant was a clearing house for gossip, +valuable to such a person as Cheung; shrewd, daring, efficient, he bent +his energies toward fortune, but was endowed with philosophy, a mode of +thought and life that raised him far above the ordinary. + +"You not meddle along that god," Cheung said, the last thing. "And you +look out along of Loo Fong. You look out along that mate you fight. +Suppose you want take along that Tiki, can do. Maybe he can be useful +along in bush. That mate name Johnson. Schooneh Lehua. Captain Fenwick, +he sick, he stay in Suva. Cook quit too. Loo Fong he hold share in +Lehua. You look out. Take this now." + +He took from a drawer in a lacquered cabinet a flat automatic of German +make, a vicious-looking thing of heavy caliber. As it lay cold in +Stanton's palm it seemed like some sort of fetish that was a tangible +link connecting him with the adventure, making it real. Cheung gave him +extra clips. + +"Knife betteh," he said. "Make no noise. Suppose you have to shoot, may +make tlouble. But knife need plactice. You take. Johnson got no use fo' +you. Loo Fong may think you savvy where to find pearl. I no savvy that. +I think Haines hide all time, but I not know what place. Suppose he +dead, you tly find pearl. I see you this time to-mollow." + + * * * * * + +Stanton slid the automatic away into his hip pocket, and Cheung shook +his head. + +"Pocket no good," he said. "Wait, I find." + +He opened a chest and produced a spring clip-holder and leather +shoulder-harness which Stanton fitted then and there, taking off his +coat. The flat weapon lay close to his chest, snug and handy. There +would be other revolvers on board, with belts and holsters for open +use, but this manner was best, when one wore a coat, in Suva. + +The police did not like foreigners to swank about with visible weapons. +It was an orderly and peaceful town, but many strange things went on +near by. There was the Rewa River, up which there was said to be a +hidden headquarters for fugitives and outlaws of all kinds and races, +waiting for secret transportation beyond extradition. Back of that, +in the mountains, drums sounded on certain moonlit midnights, and the +natives were still said to practice ancient and horrible rites of +cannibalism and sacrifice. + +Suva was civilized. Fiji was pacified. But savagery lurked on every +hand. + +Stanton made his purchases unostentatiously. He held the notion that he +was shadowed. He saw nothing of Loo Fong, but that crafty individual +had his following, who might be trailing Stanton for him. Stanton +was barbered, reclothed, reshod, his own man again. His account with +Cheung's restaurant was wiped out. He paid Panakaloa, together with a +present of a vivid scarf which she draped proudly across her ample +bosom, tears in her eyes as she thanked him and applauded his turn of +fortune. + +He had native tobacco and a new pipe for Tiki, with cloth for a _sulu_ +kilt with which to replace his inadequate G-string. The old pipe had +been smashed on the wharf, he had not tasted the flavor of tobacco or +its smoke for weeks, and his gratitude was inordinate. It was dark by +then, and Stanton left him curled up on his mats, smoking blissfully. + +Stanton stayed close that night, sitting in Panakaloa's little garden, +smoking and thinking over the swift changes of chance. He had turned +a sudden corner and he did not know what lay ahead, save that it was +a man's work, savored with excitement and peril, heightened by the +entrance of the girl. + +He slept with the automatic on his chest, over his pyjama top. It was +heavy but handy, and he did not take Cheung's warnings lightly. Loo +Fong might well believe, as Cheung had suggested, that Stanton was +going to Motutabu and knew where to find the pearls Cheung was sure +Haines had gathered. + +In such a case they might decide to try to force that information out +of him, kidnap and torture him, rather than risk losing a race to the +island. + +So Loo Fong had a share in the Lehua. The mate was in actual charge of +the schooner, to all intents and purposes its skipper. Loo Fong and the +mate would almost certainly get together. Johnson had his own grudge +against Stanton, which might materialize on its own account or join +forces with Loo Fong in his plans. + +It seemed very likely indeed to Stanton that the Lehua might have been +to Motutabu on the trip from which she had just returned, with Loo Fong +in her. The cargo was more or less of a blind, picked up after the +trail for the pearls had failed. + +If Tiki had been able to talk anything but his uncouth dialect Stanton +might have been able to find out from him. The cook would know; he was +probably leaving for some more definite reason than Johnson's slurs +on his cooking. If anything serious had happened on Motutabu the cook +might have decided to draw the line at piracy and quit while his neck +was still unstretched, in which case it was not likely that he would +talk. He had not been very prepossessing, as Stanton recollected. It +was a rough outfit. + + * * * * * + +Cheung would undoubtedly find out all that it was possible to gather. +Stanton felt that Cheung had not fully divulged himself in their talk, +that he knew or suspected far more than he had mentioned. And Stanton +was convinced that there had been grim doings on Motutabu and would be +more. It seemed doubtful if the girl's father was still alive. If he +were not, it would be no easy task to find the pearls. There would be +the girl to comfort and protect. If Loo Fong followed and was again +frustrated of the gems, he might consider the girl a secondary prize, +so much loot for his personal gratification and disposal. + +Small doubt of that, Stanton fancied, remembering the way in which the +half-caste had trailed her. This mission was not the sort in which +a girl should be involved, but he knew that she was fully committed +to it, that Cheung was either willing she should go, or had tried to +dissuade her and failed. Tonight she was safe enough at Cheung's. +Cheung's measure of precaution would baffle even Loo Fong, Stanton felt +certain, and took comfort from it. + +Panakaloa's house was far from a fortress, built in flimsy, tropic +fashion. It held no treasures, the window fastenings were light, the +doors had no bolts. The one to the back garden did not even have a key, +and the garden fence was easily scaled. + +Stanton was a light sleeper. He held a hunch that the night was +breeding some sort of attempt, and he hoped to be ready for it when it +appeared. He dozed in cat-naps, waking intermittently, dropping off +again. Then, a little after midnight, he was roused by some unusual +sound that brought him standing to the floor, gun in hand, listening, +watching. Whatever had wakened him was veiled by sleep, but his +consciousness insisted there had been something. + +There was no moon. The garden lay in mellow, tropic starlight, filled +with deep, soft shadows that shifted shape as the land wind moved +fronds and leafage. He saw nothing else; he stole to the door and +listened, opening it suddenly, finger on trigger. + +It looked as if a great dog were lying down on the threshold. In the +vague light from the window he saw the faint glint of uprolled eyes. It +was Tiki. From gratitude or fidelity, prompted perhaps by some sense +developed in his savage subconsciousness of impending peril, he had +come in from his shed to get as close to his protector as he could. + +"All right, Tiki," Stanton said quietly. "Good boy." It was like +talking to a dog, using tone to convey meaning. Tiki clucked something +in his throat as Stanton closed the door. + +It was not easy to doze again after the thorough rousing. The actions +of the day, filmed in his brain, were automatically projected on the +mental screen. + +He was no longer a derelict. No one would venture to call him or +describe him as a beach bum now. He had decent clothes, money in his +pocket, had fought and won, acquired a cannibal Man Friday, met a girl +who stirred feelings within him that he had never before experienced, +and he was embarked upon a wild enterprise in a savage setting. At last +the flickering flash-backs died out, and his mind became a blank. + +The next thing he knew was a faint draft of air. The door was +open, a dark space where its paint had shown gray. The windows, +opening lengthwise, were apart. He could smell the night blossoms, +_ylang-ylang_, _frangipani_. As he swung off the bed something touched +his arm. It was Tiki, crouching low, hardly visible, pointing an arm, +vaguely silhouetted, at the window. Then he darted off, merging with +the gloom, back toward the open door. + + * * * * * + +The tops of croton bushes came above the sill. The wind moved them, +or was it something else? Stanton sat on the edge of the bed, his gun +ready to cover any intruder, remembering Cheung's caution that shooting +would bring trouble, wondering if he could be plainly seen. He felt +eyes watching him from the shrubbery, thought he could make out some +solid bulk amid the leaves. It was so still, so charged with suspense, +that he could hear the ticking of his watch. + +Then there came a scuffle in the passage. Tiki had attacked, or been +attacked. At any rate, fed, and fortified by having a friendly master, +Tiki was fighting fiercely. Two struggling figures, locked in desperate +battle, rolled into the room. + +Stanton caught the gleam of steel. Tiki had no weapon. He launched +himself from the edge of the bed, smashing at the hand that held the +blade with the muzzle of his gun, trying to locate the intruder's head. +It was an impossible task in the darkness and the fury of the combat. +He could tell only that the man was far bigger than Tiki, and at that, +like Tiki, he was practically naked. He could smell the rank sweat of +him. + +For the moment he had forgotten the window, been forced to leave it +unguarded, suddenly aware of forms rising, writhing over the sill as he +whirled. + +One of them was clothed and burly, the other a stinking savage, rancid +with palm oil, slippery as an eel. A sleeved arm was flung in front of +Stanton, thrust hard against his throat to cut off his wind. He broke +into tumultuous action, grasping the thick wrist with both hands, +turning, stooping, putting all he had into a heaving pull of his back +and shoulders. The weight of his adversary bore him down to one knee, +but Stanton flung him heels over head, crashing into the flimsy bureau; +then Stanton dived for the legs of the third man, and brought him +down across the bed, close to the foot of it, bounding on the springs +beneath the mattress. + +Stanton leaped on him before he could get up or free the knife he +surely carried in his loin-cloth. The native's hands clawed for +Stanton's throat, lacerating the flesh. Stanton gripped one arm, bent +it backward on the iron railing of the bed, bent it until it cracked. +The savage yelled, leaping convulsively in his pain, and rolled to the +floor. + +Tiki and his man were in the doorway again. Stanton heard their panting +grunts, and marveled at Tiki's resistance. The big man he had thrown +was getting up. There was electricity in Suva, and Panakaloa had bulbs +in her house. Stanton had no chance to get at his switch, but suddenly +the passage was illumined and an Amazonian voice angrily demanded what +was going on. + +Panakaloa appeared, a shawl over her voluminous nightgown. She was +brandishing a club that had been part of her skipper husband's +collection of island weapons. The man had Tiki by the throat, squeezing +him until his eyes bulged from their sockets, his tongue protruding. +Panakaloa's club thudded down, and the seeming victor collapsed. +Stanton saw the other native scramble over the sill dangling his broken +arm. The clothed man rose from the ruins of the bureau and flung a +chair at Stanton before he followed. It came legs first, hard enough to +check Stanton's leap. + +The two were gone, smashing through the shrubbery, up to the roof of +Tiki's shed by means of the rain-barrel Panakaloa used for watering her +garden, and over the fence. + + * * * * * + +Panakaloa and the light had routed them, aside from her by no means to +be despised club. They had no desire for the publicity her indignant +voice and arm might evoke. Stanton did not get a clear look at the face +of the man who had thrown the chair, the room was still in partial +shadow, but he was almost certain it had been Johnson, mate of the +Lehua, and the other two were Solomon Islanders, members of the crew. + +The one still lay senseless from the blow of the hardwood club. He was +as black as Tiki, but bigger; his sharp filed teeth showing in the +relaxed jaw. For a moment Stanton thought Panakaloa had killed him, and +said so. She shook her head. + +"Too much thick, that skull," she answered. "Maybe I crack it li'l. +Serve him right. You want I call police, Sanatoni?" she asked shrewdly. + +"I'd rather not," he answered; and she nodded. + +"We take that trash outside, then," she said. "A fine cheek they got to +come along my house." + +"It's my fault," he told her. "They were after me." + +Whether the mate had been bent on private reprisal or was in league +with Loo Fong to knock him senseless and take him prisoner was +uncertain, and not pertinent now they were foiled. Tiki had balked +their attempt in the beginning; Panakaloa, with her unexpected sortie, +had completed the rout. + +Tiki was massaging his throat, but he grinned. The fight had not +exhausted him. Now that he had become attached to some one, he had shed +much of his misery like an old garment. He helped the two of them bear +the sagging body of the still unconscious man out into the deserted +street and set it down in the lee of a cereus hedge that topped a stone +wall. There was no one in sight, no sound of the other two, and they +left him there. + +"I owe you a bureau, Panakaloa," said Stanton. "I owe you more than +that. You came just in time." + +"Ugh!" grunted Panakaloa contemptuously. "That bureau not much good. +I pay four dollar for that along of junkman." She sat down and began +to laugh, her stout body shaking like a jelly, her eyes rolling upward +while Tiki surveyed her in awe and amazement. "Too much I fool that +_kaikanaka_. My old man, the _kapitani_, one time he hit me with that +club. This time I get even. When that black trash wake up he think the +house fall in on him." + +Tiki did not understand what she said, but he grinned widely at her +tone. She insisted upon opening beer for herself and Stanton, and she +gave Tiki a glass, which he tasted suspiciously and then swallowed it +with a comical grimace of surprised delight as he rubbed his stomach. +Native fashion, Panakaloa had strengthened the brew with a slug of +Hollands gin. + +It was beginning to get light when she left them, still chuckling over +her prowess, vastly pleased with herself. Tiki was too proud at what +Stanton said to him, patting his shoulder the while. It was Greek to +the islander, but he knew it for praise. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE RACE TO MOTUTABU. + + +Cheung's schooner arrived from Levuka early the next morning, mooring +in the stream at first, then, as the tide served, going to a wharf +remote from the main one where the Lehua still lay. Stanton did not +go near her, but stayed at Cheung's house after breakfast, at the +latter's suggestion, talking with Lucy Haines. From behind the tatties +of split bamboo they saw Loo Fong pass by and glance up, later to +return again. + +Stanton said nothing of what had happened the night before. It did +not seem necessary. Cheung had gone to see about getting the schooner +ready. Tiki was in his shed, waiting to be called for, smoking his new +pipe, a stray no longer. + +Stanton and the girl told each other something of their early life. +Mention of the impending trip made her grave, brought worry to her +eyes. He could tell that she was fighting off doubts of finding her +father. Several times they sat silent, but not out of accord. + +Cheung came back at noon and said they would leave on the ebb after +nightfall. He too had seen Loo Fong. A scout he had sent out reported +that they were taking stores aboard the Lehua. The skipper had gone to +the hospital, Johnson was in command, and the cook had left. + +"They savvy Fahine, my ship," said Cheung. "They savvy she come in. +They watch all same we watch along of them. Maybe we get staht. Long +way to Motutabu; Fahine mo' fast than Lehua. My captain good man. +Suppose wind blow light, you leach island befo' them." + +It was dark when they went on board. The Chinese skipper talked +"pidgin" that was comprehensible. He found a few words of dialect that +Tiki understood, to the black's delight, and sent him forward. The +Chinese sailors, naked above the waist, their feet bare, their heads +bound with bright bandannas, were a piratical-looking lot though their +ordinary occupation was peaceful trading. But they were efficient, +getting the schooner under way to singsong orders from mate and +boatswain, with his whistle, as the captain showed the girl and Stanton +to their quarters. + +The schooner was plainly fitted up, and it smelled of ancient cargoes +of copra, of _bêche-de-mer_, sharks' fins, turtle shell and pearl +shell, but Cheung had evidently been at some pains to make them +comfortable. There were two cabins aft for them, and the girl's, +especially, had been brightened with rugs and cushions. + +In the main cabin there was a rack for rifles, filled with well oiled +weapons. Stanton had noted appreciatively the tall masts, the narrow +beam, the clean entry and fine lines of the ship. Speed evidently +counted in Cheung's business. In a rush for competitive trade or to be +the first at a new pearling ground, the Fahine would not be a laggard. + +She was well-found, decks clear and clean of litter, ropes coiled, the +ends seized and the rigging well set up. He could hear the quick tread +of the yellow-skinned sailors as they went about the familiar tasks. +Soon she was under way, the wharf sliding past, the lights of Suva +gleaming through the ports. + +The captain came below, deferential. + +"Suppose you likee go topside?" he said. "Can do." + +He was in Chinese clothes, his feet shod; a muscular man with a +typically Mongolian face, sure of himself and authoritative, but +plainly considering them as allies, friends of Cheung Li. + +The wind was fresh from the land, striking them a little abaft the +beam, and they slipped fast through the water, with sheets well +started. Stanton, watching the way she answered helm, surmised that +her bottom was clean. She showed no lights anywhere. The captain took +night-glasses from a hook in the companionway and surveyed the reach +behind them. They were well out of the shipping. + +"No one come," he said laconically. "You like look-see?" + +Stanton took the binoculars, focused them, swept the water between them +and the land. There was nothing moving there. They had got a start, at +least. + +He wondered if the Chinese skipper had been to Motutabu before. +Probably not. But he would have its position, and the Lehua's previous +trip would not advantage them much. + +Their direct course was southeast, the distance something over six +hundred miles. It might take them anywhere from a week to a fortnight +to cover it, for the winds were variable, there were tantalizing calms +and strong currents set up by the action of the tides over the varying +depths and contour of the bottom, where vast expanses of shallows +suddenly changed to vast abysses cleft by submarine peaks and ranges. +Neither schooner had an engine. Luck or fate was going to enter largely +into the affair. + +They lost the land wind and ran into a calm inside of two hours, +working through it at last to strike the southeast trade. The Fahine +was close-hauled and clawed into it, making eight knots, slogging +along at a lively clip with the sheer bows buried at every plunge. It +stiffened to a squall, and the schooner leaned against it, the mainsail +reefed two points, and only a small staysail forward. + +Stanton was a good sailor, and the next morning proved Lucy Haines +was another. All that day they sailed fast under a bright sky, the +crested seas dark sapphires, save where the foam creamed or was blown +in spindrift, and the sun flashed back golden from the facets of the +waves. All day the horizon stayed clear of smoke or sail. The girl's +spirits rose. It began to look as if the Lehua had not got away. Flying +fish rose from the brine, pursued by rushing dolphins; frigate birds +soared free. + + * * * * * + +The trade set them down, and they regained their easting with short +legs. They had crossed the Kadavu Passage north of the Astrolabe Reefs, +passing between Totoya and Matuku. Now there was no land in sight, +would not be if they kept anywhere near their true course until they +sighted the island of their quest. The Tongas were far to the north +as they headed to cross the Tropic of Capricorn. The wide expanse of +ocean, the run of sparkling water, the clean wind blowing between sea +and sky--it was all physically exhilarating, mentally stimulating, a +tonic for doubt, strengthened by the lonely horizon. + +The two of them had their own mess. The rest ate Chinese food, but they +were served a menu to suit their occidental tastes. Cheung's orders, no +doubt. It was excellently cooked and served. Things aboard the Fahine +ran like clockwork. There was never any confusion. The yellow men went +about their tasks with a will the moment an order was given, without +fumbling, knowing what was wanted. + +It blew harder, the seas mounted, still under the blue sky and bright +sun. They had to lower the mainsail at last and mount a storm staysail +between the two masts, balanced by a rag of a jib. They made more +leeway now. The wind remained southeast, blowing from the quarter they +sought to penetrate as if it was determined to hold them off. It might +have been the breath of the great gray god defending his _tabu_. But +any wind was better than no wind, unless they had to run before it, and +it did not come to that. + +The weather modified swiftly with a blazing sunset. Stanton came on +deck at midnight to find a heavy swell running, the schooner under +full sail but with only a few flaws of wind that sent her forward +spasmodically. The captain was aft by the starboard rail, motionless. +Stanton offered him one of the cheroots with which Cheung had supplied +him, and the other took it silently. + +He lit it before he spoke. + +"Lil time ago we see ship," he said. "All same this. Gone now. Long way +off." + +"You think it was the Lehua?" + +"No can tell. Maybe. _Maskee._" + +It was not indifference. Only the tacit acceptance of conditions, the +Oriental touch of fatalism. He pointed to where a new moon hung like a +nail-paring. + +"Wind go soon. Maybe they get, maybe we catch. _Maskee._" + +The word summed up Chinese philosophy. The equivalent of the Russian +_nitchevo_. It was not the time for direct action, save for the +handling of the ship, which was the plaything of the weather. But later +in the night Stanton, restless, unable to share the _maskee_-ism of the +skipper, smelled incense. The captain was burning punk sticks before +the joss in the gilded shrine in the cabin. He had his superstitions, +or his faiths. + +The next three days saw them almost motionless. The sea had gone down +and was like glass, reflecting the fiery glare of the sun. Now and then +they saw distant squalls, bursts of rain, ruffled patches of sea, but +they got no breath of wind. + +The horizon was clear again. The Lehua--Stanton held no doubt that the +vessel they had sighted was that schooner, with Loo Fong aboard--might +be experiencing the same conditions, or she might be bowling along out +of the baffling strip. + +A current was steadily setting them east. He envied the +imperturbability of the Chinese; they were used to the vagaries of +the sea, and accepted what they could not alter; but he chafed with +impatience. Lucy Haines kept to her cabin, her meals served there. +Stanton did not disturb her. She was sick, not of body, but of heart. +The punk sticks burned constantly. + +On the fourth morning trade clouds appeared aft, in the northwest. It +was the time of the monsoon changes of wind caused by the difference +in temperature between air and water. There was wind in those vaporous +heights. It revealed itself in a dark line on the water that came fast +toward them as the skipper gave an order and they swung out the booms +in readiness. The breeze caught them, urged them on, sailing wing and +wing, the canvas bellying taut as drums, the lively sea seething all +about them, a broad wake behind, on their course once more, headed +straight for Motutabu. + + * * * * * + +Stanton noticed Tiki at his usual post, far forward, his eyes always +turned south. He was a different looking savage from the sick creature +curled up on the bale. His skin was glossy and his eyes were bright. +His broad nostrils dilated as if he smelled familiar odors. Stanton +wondered what he was thinking about. If the cook of the Lehua had +spoken truly, his own island held peril for him, but there was no fear +in his eyes. Whenever they looked at Stanton they held gratitude, but +there was a difference, a measure of pride. + +That afternoon the captain cast a light on Tiki. + +"I speak with Tiki," he said, "No savvy too much, but he say one time +he live along Motutabu. His father _tahunga_, all same wiza'd. Tiki all +same _tahunga_ himself. He speak Motutabu velly bad place stop along. +All time too much bad magic along of big god live that place." + +There was more than that that the skipper had found out by signs and +certain words they both understood. Stanton retailed it later to the +girl, who was again on deck. + +Apparently Tiki's father had run the tribe. Tiki seemed to have been +trained to take his place. Then the god had turned malignant. It was +one of the deities of the South Sea pantheon that had to be placated, +and the sacrifices had failed. There had been an earthquake--"Velly +much shake that island," was the way the captain interpreted it. The +top of a mountain had fallen off and a cape had slid into the sea. The +wizard was blamed. The population escaped in canoes, after killing the +man whose magic had gone wrong. Tiki had been spared for some reason +which was obscure, perhaps because of his youth or because the women +hid him. + +On the tribe's new home he had been suffered to live. A new wizard +manifested himself. There was no god on this island. All went well +save that Tiki was in bad odor. He was an hereditary _tahunga_, of an +ancient line of wizards, and the new one feared him. Tiki had lived by +himself in the bush, periodically hunted and sought for a sacrifice, +blamed by the new _tahunga_ for every sickness and death. So Tiki had +stolen aboard the Lehua, hoping to escape to some friendlier place at +which they might touch, not knowing what sort of man was in command or +what kind of men were on the ship. + +The curious thing was that he did not seem alarmed because they were +going to Motutabu. The god was an evil god, but he believed fully in +the magic of his dead father. It was the plotting of the man who later +set himself up as _tahunga_ that had annoyed the deity. His father had +understood the god, had taught Tiki secrets concerning it. None but the +ancient line of wizards dared approach it. Its shadow was death to all +others. + +Stanton could see no particular bearing in all this concerning the +finding of Haines and the pearls. But he remembered the warnings of +Cheung not to meddle with the god, and it was evident that the skipper +had gone to much pains to talk with Tiki. Tiki seemed to be acquiring +importance, a card whose value Stanton could not judge, though he +sensed that he might have done something far more significant than +he guessed when he rescued him from the cruelty of the mate. He had +much to learn about Motutabu, much to learn about the god. Even now he +could not quite shake off the feeling that Cheung had not spoken idly. +Strange things happened in the South Seas. + +He understood it a little better with his first close glimpse of +Motutabu. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE JUNGLE TRAIL. + + +They sighted it at dawn. It revealed itself in the growing light, +before the sun rose above the sea-line, like an image developing on a +negative in the dark room, somber, gradually acquiring definite shape, +a blot against the purple-black of the sky where the stars were winking +out. + +The skipper had found it unerringly; he told them he expected to pick +it up at daylight, and here it was, darkly sinister, spray booming +along iron-bound cliffs, heights veiled in mist. The sound of the surf +rolled back to them as they skirted the coast to the east, seeking for +some place to land. It was not going to be easy, and they held off +until the light strengthened. + +It came with a rush as the disk of the sun rolled up from the tumbling +sea rim, day instantly proclaimed. The island woke to life. Myriads of +birds rose from the cliffs and from tiny, outlying islets; gulls and +gannets, squas and boobies, whirling and screeching, then winging out +to sea to some shoal where they would find good fishing. + +There were other birds, of the land, squawking parrots above the thick +forest that verged the iron walls rising sheer from the spouting sea. +Above the bush lofted three torn pinnacles, fangs that tore the vapors +writhing about them. There were deep cañons here and there, dark in +shadow; small coves; waterfalls, leaping to the beach over sheer +precipices. + +Then they saw the god. A cliff was sharply set back, and they only saw +the upper part of the image, flaring livid red in the sunrise, carved, +it seemed, from the living rock. It was of gigantic proportions, the +art primitive, so primitive it might have been the work of some +futurist, striving to simplify curves and lines, to crystallize +expressions. + +The face was long, a long nose, flattened, bridgeless, but with flaring +nostrils. A wide mouth, thin-lipped, austere, yet subtly sensual, with +the hint of a cruel sneer at the corners. The eyes were carved so that +they suggested a malignant glance as the crimson light blazed full upon +them. The ears touched the narrow shoulders. + +The body, what they saw of it, was misshapen, out of all proportion, +small arms, with the hands resting on knees far apart, deep shadow +between them. It stood out of the cliff in full and startling relief, +infinitely evil, leering. It had a sort of crown, hewn from the summit +of the cliff and the foliage back of this looked like plumes. The whole +aspect was baleful, brooding, gazing out to sea like the old gods at +Easter Island, whose origin and purpose no man has yet discovered. + +The Chinese gazed at it stolidly. The man at the helm paid no attention +and the captain was occupied with the shore line, looking for some spot +where he could send a boat ashore. There was no indication of a lagoon. +The island rose straight from the waves that ravened all about it. + +Tiki's attitude was curious. He squatted on deck and bowed his head to +the planks, in deference rather than fealty. This was his fetish, but +he did not seem to be afraid. The priests of Moloch may have felt no +terror at their horrible, blood-demanding image. + +The girl shuddered, and Stanton had to tell himself sharply that here +was only a thing hewn from lifeless stone. It glared at them and, as +the morning clouds dissolved under the sun, its lips seem to quiver +scornfully. + +"Lifeless, I am," it seemed to say, "yet man-made from things he +sensed, the brooding influences of this solitary isle, born of fire and +smoke, delivered in water. Influences that may still be conjured from +the sea, the sky, the core of the earth. I represent them and I bid you +beware." + +Bizarre and fantastic thoughts these; but the image itself was only +concrete thought. It seemed to proclaim the place dangerous, cynically +warning the intruder. It appeared to hold many tragic secrets, reaching +back through the centuries. + + * * * * * + +A spur of land, a cape like a high fin, reached out far into the sea. +As they passed it a putrid smell enveloped them. It was like the odor +of a glue factory and it pursued them on the breeze until distance made +it bearable. This was the stench from piles of shell set out long since +to rot so that the shells might be more readily searched for pearls. +The shell itself was valuable. + +Here there was a deep indentation in the island, and placid water +showed behind a foaming barrier of lava reef, not coral, that +paralleled the shore. This must have been the diving ground for the +precious bivalves. The skipper surveyed it narrowly, seeking an +entrance. The reef ended presently, and he came about, hugging the +land, one man casting the lead from the bobstay and chanting out the +depth. It was satisfactory and the tide was with them as they glided +along between the barrier and the shore, once more encountering the +foul odor of decay until they tacked into the cleft and made slowly up +it, foresail down and mainsail peaked, with the current. + + * * * * * + +They were in a somber water cañon, still in shadow, though, higher up +the fanged peaks glowed in the sunrise and the timber on the loftier +slopes took on vivid coloring. The ravine turned sharply and they saw +a narrow beach lined with dark-green mangroves from which a stream +issued. There were signs of habitation here, a long shed of thatched +roof and wattled walls, two houses of the same type. But there was no +indication of life, no hail. The place lay wrapped in silence as the +Fahine glided slowly on. + +The masts of a vessel showed their tops above water a hundred yards +out--a sunken schooner. It was a depressing sight, but Stanton twisted +a measure of hope from it which he handed to the girl. + +"Loo Fong didn't find the pearls," he said. "I think this means that +your father is still on the island. They sank his ship to prevent his +leaving." + +He tried to make it convincing, and Lucy Haines essayed a pitiful smile. + +"I hope so," she replied, "but why doesn't he show himself? Why doesn't +some one answer?" + +"They may be asleep," he said, and shouted. The echo came back from +the cliff, rebounded from the opposing one. The Chinese captain found +bottom to his liking, the cable slipped out to twelve fathoms, and a +boat was lowered. It was impossible to tell from those yellow faces +what they thought of the situation, but the rowers took rifles with +them, pistols holstered at their belts. Stanton took his automatic and +another revolver. He had shortened a belt for the girl and she also +carried a gun at her hip. + +She had dressed for the landing in breeches and high-laced boots, and +she looked like a tight-lipped boy, her expression much as Stanton +had seen it on the street in Suva. Tiki slid down the fall rope and +squatted in the bows. The captain had given him a knife and a leather +belt in which he thrust it above his _sulu_ kilt. + +The silence was profound. The sea birds had gone, the land birds +settled down. The only sound was the melancholy cooing of doves. In the +water appeared the scything fins of sharks on some mysterious patrol. + +The boat grounded and the rowers hauled it beyond the rise of the +flooding tide. Crabs scuttled along the shingle. Blocks of lava +protruded here and there. Beach vines straggled over black sand. + +Stanton tried to save the girl the sight of the skeletons. There were +six of them, the bones scattered, picked clean by crabs, in front of +the long shed. They lay in plain view, and she uttered a low cry and +halted, then started to hurry forward, checked by Stanton's hand on her +arm. + +"There's no clothing," he said. "Your father's not there." It was scant +comfort. There were a few lengths of cloth, but he thought these the +loin coverings of the men Haines had with him. The grisly objects were +separated as if they had fallen making a stand against invaders. The +yellow men investigated as Stanton led the girl aside. Tiki looked at +the skeletons incuriously. + +The captain reported briefly: + +"They all Kanaka. Some got hole in head. Bullet make. No white man +there." + +Nor anywhere else, it seemed, as they searched the shed, half full of +lustrous shells; the two houses, one of which held some of Haines's +belongings that brought tears to the girl's eyes, though she strove +to check them. Both huts showed signs of search. The winds had erased +all footprints. The shell was valuable, but it had been disdained. It +looked as if the dead men had been wantonly shot down at the first +encounter. + +"He got away," said Stanton. "We'll find him somewhere." But he held +faint hope of finding Haines alive. The atmosphere of murder and sudden +death possessed the place. + +"We'll stay here until we've searched the island," he said to the +captain. + +"Can do," the skipper answered. It seemed a stupendous, futile task. +Towering cliffs, dense jungle and barren, precipitous crags, deep +clefts, hidden valleys, caverns: a myriad places where a man might stow +himself away, or lie dead. + +They spread out, hallooing, looking in all likely spots. The captain +made Tiki understand what they were seeking and he nodded, came to +Stanton, took his hand and set it on his breast, starting off on a +quest of his own, trotting along the beach, disappearing up a ravine +choked with guava scrub. They saw no more of him that day as they +searched without finding any trace of Haines, living or dead. Night +fell with tropic swiftness on their utter lack of success. + + * * * * * + +The skipper, at least, looked also for the pearls. He had his own +instructions. To Stanton, the discovery of Haines was more important, +even aside from thought of the girl, who had stayed beside him all day +as they tried in vain to solve the riddle of what had happened to her +father. Let them find Haines and, if he was alive, the pearls would be +forthcoming. + +The fear grew on him--he knew it grew on the girl also--that Haines had +been killed by the raiders because he refused to give them up or tell +where he kept them. Only the lack of a body offset this dread and a +body was easily disposed of. He did not try to comfort Lucy Haines; to +do that would be practically an acknowledgment there was no hope. He +got her to eat on the plea that she must keep her strength for renewal +of search the next day. + +They slept aboard. No sail had been in sight up to nightfall. A lookout +had been maintained on a cliff and, since the search had extended to +the crags, they had seen the whole circle of the horizon. They had won +the race down, but their advantage was checked by the search. When Loo +Fong arrived, with Johnson, there was going to be trouble. + +Stanton was up at dawn. He dressed swiftly, going on deck. The girl +was already there, pale from a sleepless night. She was gazing at the +island with an expression of hopelessness that she tried to banish as +she saw Stanton. + +"I'm not going to leave here until I know what has happened to him," +she said, her voice firm, her mouth and chin resolute as she finished +the determined sentence. He did not answer her. There was nothing +to say. He was not going to let her stay alone. The question of +conventions did not enter into the matter. Conventions vanished in +these latitudes. + +"He's all I have," she said. It was in his mind, his heart, to deny +this, but it was not the time for it. Complications were likely to +settle matters, not as they would have them, but as the fates willed. +Motutabu lay in sunshine, but it was emphatically a savage place. The +Chinese had buried the skeletons, but they were not to be forgotten. +Tragedy brooded over the island. + +"We'll have to arrange some sort of systematic search," he said, +foreseeing how impossible was the task. An army, seeking for weeks, +might not hope to unearth the secrets of the wild jungle, impenetrable +in most places. The seabirds were winging out, others shrilling their +morning ecstasy; fish leaped in the water while, up and down, two +sharks roved as if they had tasted blood and scented more. + +"We've got to eat," he said. "It's just a question of fuel." + +"I suppose so," she answered wearily. + +They went below and breakfast was served. Overhead the crew padded +about their tasks, washing down the decks, ordinary duties that they +carried on. Stanton saw two tears on her cheeks as she tried to drink +the strong coffee. She wiped them away, but the drink choked her. + +There was a singsong cry on deck that had a stirring note in it. +Stanton thought that the Lehua must have been sighted. + +"Something's happened," he said. "I'll see what it is." The girl looked +at him, startled. For a moment hope flashed in her eyes and died out +at the sight of his grim face. The captain came hurrying down the +companionway. + +"Tiki!" he said. "He come along beach. I think he find something." + +They raced on deck. The shore boat was ready, the armed rowers in it. +Tiki was at the water's edge, gesticulating, pointing to the heights. +The girl was trembling as the oars bent to the short, sturdy strokes. +She set her hand on Stanton's arm, and he laid his own over it. Her +lips moved silently. He knew that she was praying that her father was +still alive, fighting off the thought of other news. + +"Call to him, please," she asked the skipper, "Ask him if--if--" + +The captain stood up in the stern, handling the steering sweep, and +shouted a few syllables. Tiki shouted back. + +"He alive," said the skipper, and the girl broke down as Stanton put +his arm about her and she set her head against his shoulder and wept in +the revulsion of relief. + +Tiki had found him, with his knowledge of jungle craft, looking for +sign by instinct, finding it where others would have sought in vain. He +pointed out certain places as they trailed him up the ravine in which +he had vanished the night before. Stanton could see little. A fragment +of broken lava, a snapped stem, but the savage had read all unerringly. + + * * * * * + +They climbed high, following an ancient path hacked through the +bush, the ground hard-beaten, a relic of the time when Tiki lived on +Motutabu. The trees, matted and bound together with undergrowth and +vines, rose on either side like walls. Great orchids swung, brilliant +butterflies hovered about them like living flowers. + +They came to where the trail forked and here was a pyramid of +crumbling skulls. Tiki took the right-hand path. It led to a deserted, +half-ruined village back of walls of coral, in which bamboos grew along +the top. There was a heavy gateway, sagging now, stilted houses, whose +roofs had decayed, the wattled walls torn by the weather, rotting from +the rains. + +There was a sing-sing ground with a great banyan tree, whose boughs +were decked with strings of skulls. One great building had collapsed. +Two stone images had fallen on their faces, tall drumlogs, carven like +totem poles, lay prone. The earthquake had flung them down. The place +was littered with signs of hasty, frenzied flight. + +Tiki led them through this abandoned capital of Motutabu, pressing +on ever upward by paths that the jungle was already reclaiming. They +climbed above the forest and crossed a plateau of high yellow grass +that terminated at a great rift, at the bottom of which was a lake of +dark water, divided into unequal parts by a sharp ridge that led to the +other side. There the crags began. + +It was a narrow and perilous crossing. The volcanic rock was badly +decomposed and it scaled and broke as they passed, the fragments +bounding down to the still water, far below. + +On the other side they came to a ledge and Tiki turned and made +gestures, nodding at them, talking in excited gutturals. + +"He speak we soon find," the captain interpreted. + +They had to go in single file along that narrow way. Once Tiki pointed +to some dark marks on the rock. + +"That blood," said the captain. The girl shuddered and Stanton steadied +her. It was the dry season. Such stains would linger. Haines had been +wounded. Suddenly Tiki stopped where a tangle of vines cascaded down +the cliff that backed the ledge. He drew them aside and disclosed a +narrow cleft, a fissure made ages past in some upheaval. + +It led to a little glen that was merely an oval enlargement of the +fissure. Its sides were thick with moss. Water trickled down and formed +a pool. There was shrubbery, a few trees, guava scrub. The sun never +reached this hidden place in which Haines had found sanctuary. They saw +a little shelter of boughs by the pool and saw him lying there, gaunt, +haggard, his face covered with a beard, his eyes deep sunken, but with +light in them, as the girl gave a cry and ran forward to kneel beside +him. + +He was reduced almost to skin and bone. One shoulder and a foot were +crudely bandaged. His voice was barely audible. + +Stanton had brought along a first-aid kit and a flask of brandy. Lucy +gave some to her father and a faint flush came into his hollow cheeks. + +"I thought you were a ghost," he said faintly. "How did you come here? +It was just in time. I wouldn't have lasted--much longer--my dear." + +He closed his eyes and Stanton thought he was gone, but the pulse still +fluttered feebly. The girl gave him more brandy. + +"He's starved," she said. "We must get him down to the boat. Thank God +he's still alive!" The pearls were forgotten. The Chinese captain had +got a fire started. One of the crew put on some water to heat. + +"We'll have to be careful how we feed him," said Stanton. "I've got +some beef cubes. We'll have to make a litter, and those wounds should +be looked to. He doesn't seem to have any fever." + +In the hope of Tiki's discovery they had brought up certain equipment, +including the utensil in which the water was warming. The girl +dissolved the cubes and added a little brandy, while Stanton unbound +the foot. A bullet had gone through the small bones. The wound showed +in a purple pucker. There had been inflammation, but, with the fever, +it had been starved out of him. The lead had passed through and there +was no infection. It was the same with the shoulder. Haines was +terribly weak, but he had been a strong man and he had survived. + +He managed to swallow the beef tea. It was all they dared allow him. +Stanton cleansed the wounds and temporarily dressed and bandaged them. +The litter was being made by the sailors. Haines insisted upon talking. +Stanton thought it might be better for him than repression. + + * * * * * + +"They nearly got me," he said. "They got my men. They'd have had me but +for chance. They came early in the morning expecting to catch us all +asleep, and they butchered my boys, without giving them a chance. I saw +it and could do nothing. They were after the pearls. They couldn't have +found them. They tortured two of my men to find out, but they didn't +know. It was the Lehua. They were all in it, but it was Loo Fong who +brought them. I nearly got him. It was this way--let me talk, Lucy, I +haven't talked for days, not since I went out of my head. + +"I wanted meat. There are goats up here in the crags and I came up +overnight to get a kid or two. We were running short of grub, you see, +and were pretty well fed up on fish. We were going back in a few days. +We cleaned the patches and were rotting out the last of the shell. A +lot of pearls. We're rich, Lucy. Luck's turned, after all. + +"I saw the schooner coming in. I didn't recognize it. Thought at first +Cheung had sent it. I didn't suspect anything, but started down the +mountain. There's a place across the grass where you can see the beach. +Time I got there, they had anchored and were sending a boat ashore. +They were all like ants from the height. I saw my men come out of their +hut and run back again. Those devils were armed, of course, and they +didn't even wait to parley. Some of them went to my house. Then the +butchery started. My boys were not armed. I had my rifle with me. I had +one extra clip along. It was all over in a few minutes and I couldn't +help them. They'd have got me if I had been there. I ran down the trail +when I saw what was happening and then they started up after me. I +suppose they got out of one of my men that I was up here after goats. +They burned the men's feet in the fire, damn them. + +"One has to keep to the trails. I started back for the crags. They +beat all through the grass and then they started to cross the big gap. +I fired at them, hit one of them. He fell into the lake. That was a +mistake, I suppose; it gave me away; but I was seeing red. On the +next shot my rifle jammed. They came over and they hunted me all day, +spreading out. The crew were black men and it was easy work for them. +They sighted me three times. Once they hit me, in the shoulder. + +"I saw they'd get me sooner or later. I couldn't stay in the crags. +They had me nearly surrounded, but I got past them, down to the ledge +just below here. My only chance was to bolt across the ridge. But they +spotted me. They had me on the ledge. I knew who they were then. It +was Loo Fong who hit me in the foot as I bolted for cover. I didn't +feel it for the moment, though I had a shoeful of blood. I was bleeding +from the shoulder, weak. I dodged out of sight and then I saw my last +chance. I knew the cleft, though I had never been up it. A wounded dove +flew into it one day and I had gone after it. I thought the vines might +hide me. There was a loose bowlder on the ledge and I shoved it over +and dodged into the crevice. The rock went crashing down to the lake +and they thought it was my body. + +"They came down to the ledge and looked at the place. I heard Loo Fong +cursing. They stayed there for a little while and then went away, +swearing. I suppose they tried to find the pearls, but they couldn't +get down to the lake. I crawled up to this place presently, bandaged +my foot at the pool, and my shoulder. They both got pretty bad after +awhile. I made this shelter, I got some guavas, and lived off them and +the _olehau_ berries. I couldn't walk, and fever set in. I don't know +how long I've been here; I was delirious." + +The litter was ready. They set Haines in it, a light weight for all +his big frame, and he lay there exhausted as two of the crew swung him +up and they started down, Lucy as close to her father as the trail +permitted. + +They crossed the ridge and the grassy plain, coming to the place he had +spoken of where they could see the beach and their schooner. There was +another ship coming round the bend--the Lehua! They saw the two men +left on board the Fahine jump into a small boat and row ashore. They +were fired at from the Lehua. The reports came up in tiny cracks of +sound, but the two reached the beach and bolted for the jungle. + +A boat crammed with men put off from the raiding vessel. + +They were hampered with the wounded Haines. They had to get him into +safety. Stanton's blood boiled at sight of the invaders. + +"We fight them," said the skipper. "Can do. If not, they sink ship, all +same his." Tiki was jabbering. + +"He say take him along god," said the captain. "He speak it safe place. +He speak God fixee. Cave along that place." + +Tiki nodded emphatically. Stanton thought of Cheung's warning, spoke of +it to the captain. + +"I savvy. All same I think Tiki talk plopeh." + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE SHADOW OF THE GOD. + + +There was no time for delay. They had to do something. To take the +offensive was the best plan. Tiki pointed out the opening of an almost +closed jungle trail. They went into it, going as fast as they dared, +working toward the far side of the promontory, making for the image. + +They came out beneath it at last, at the foot of the towering +sculpture. It stood facing a paved terrace, set with flat stones. Great +stones had been piled in two walls that left a passageway to the feet +of the god. There was a space between his knees. Tiki led the way in. + +It was a high chamber into which light filtered down from some opening +above where growth masked it. The sides were roughly hewn here and +there into dim shapes. There was a flat rock near the entrance on which +was set another one from which protruded long timbers, capstan fashion. +Tiki pointed to these. + +"He say can fixee tlap so no one come in," said the skipper. + +Tiki nodded, gesturing. Stanton thought he grasped his meaning. + +"All right," he said. "Better send out your men to try and flank that +outfit. I'll stay here with Miss Haines and her father. We'll keep +Tiki." + +They went out, going along the terrace, disappearing in the trees, +yellow men intent on battle. The litter was set down on the cavern +floor. + +Tiki caught hold of one of the timbers set in the stone, motioning to +Stanton who set his chest against one opposite. The girl did the same +thing with a third. They heaved, without result, put out all their +strength in straining effort. The stone began to turn, more readily +after the first movement. There was a grating sound beneath their feet. + +Tiki stepped back, grinning. Sweat covered him. Stanton and the girl +were panting with their efforts, their clothing wet with perspiration. +Tiki beckoned Stanton to come to the mouth of the cave and he followed +him. There was nothing to see but the empty terrace, the waving woods. +But Tiki was satisfied. He pointed at the great slabs before them, +gesturing. + +Doves cooed. The girl was ministering to her father who was saying +something. Then there came the sound of shots, close at hand. Report +after report, singly and scattering volleys. They were quite a distance +off, but they came nearer. Then died away. Again they broke out, down +by the beach, it seemed. + +Then the two Chinese who had come ashore bolted out of the bush, +carrying their rifles, glancing back. They looked toward the image and +sped on without seeing Stanton or Tiki. Tiki grasped him by the arm +and drew him in the shadows. He did not want the Chinese to enter the +cavern. The girl came and stood beside Stanton. + +"Father is sleeping," she said. "I heard the shots." + +"We're safe, so far," he said. "Tiki and the god have set some sort of +a trap. The trouble is, it may work both ways." Whatever the device +was he could see that they might be besieged, held there, without +provisions, without water, unless the yellow men conquered. + +The Chinese were willing enough, capable enough, he fancied, though he +had never seen them shoot. On the other hand, the crew of the Lehua +were Solomon Islanders, used to brush warfare, trained fighters, a +savage and blood-thirsty outfit, though the Chinese might match them +there. When they took to piracy or banditry they were ruthless enough. +He imagined the forces might be about evenly matched, but the nature +of the ground would break the fighting up more or less into individual +skirmishes. + +There was silence again. Haines was resting. With care there would be +no question of his recovery, but if Loo Fong got the best of it their +fates would all be sealed. What would happen to Lucy he dared not +consider. They could put up a desperate fight at the last, if they got +a chance. There was no exit to the cave, no possible way to climb to +the rift. + +Doves cooed. The shadows shifted. Once in awhile they heard a distant +shot. The forces were split up now, it seemed. Stanton thought of the +captain's fear their schooner might be sunk, as Haines's had been. It +was a very real peril. He wanted to be out in the vessel, but he could +not leave the girl or Haines alone. + +Tiki was complacent. He seemed assured that the god in whose belly they +were hidden, would properly protect them. He had gone inside, to squat +in front of one of the carved figures, passing from that to another. +They could hear him chanting monotonously. He had come back to his old +home again and he was renewing fealty. This had been the fetish of his +father, the wizard, and Tiki was a born _tahunga_, in his veins the +blood of generations of sorcerers who had served a weird priesthood to +this ancient statue which far antedated their own original migration to +this island. + + * * * * * + +It was cool inside. Without, the sun blazed down fiercely. The shadows +retreated as the fiery orb mounted toward the zenith. It wheeled out of +their sight and the shadow of the cliff, the shadow of the image, began +to stretch out over the paving between the walls of stone that shut out +much of their view. + +Tiki came back to the entrance, hunkering down. From some place known +to him he had taken weird paraphernalia. He had daubed himself with +white and yellow and black, there was an apron about his middle that +was made of human hair. He wore a necklace of knuckle-bones, a skullpan +hung upon his chest and his arms and legs were decked with circlets +of shell and bone and fiber. He had been in his father's make-up +repository, Stanton thought. + +With him he had brought something that looked like a queer-shaped +basket of plaited strips of pliable cane, like matting. He took no +notice of them apart, remote, droning out some incantations, watching +the creeping shadow. + +Stanton remembered something Cheung had said about the shadow of the +god. The shadows of all sacred things, even of chiefs, were _tabu_. To +walk in them was death. Yet the shadow of the god fell only at certain +hours. Tiki could not have timed any attack that might take place. The +combatants seemed to have lost sight of each other, hunting along the +trails, hiding in the bush. But Tiki seemed waiting for something with +a curious certainty. To him the god was infallible. + +Stanton told himself that it was only a barbaric, colossal carving, but +even as he held the thought, another came, suggesting that he should +have faith. Civilization seemed now to be an unreal thing. They were +back in the stone age, to which the island and its departed inhabitants +belonged. A superstitious feeling possessed him, not one of fear. The +shadow lengthened and still the island was wrapped in silence. + +Suddenly he thought he saw the solid forest waver to and fro. The legs +of the god, portals to the cave, appeared to move. A tremor ran through +the ground and there was a low muttering as of thunder, a hollow +rumbling from inside the cave. The girl started up and would have gone +inside to her father, but he restrained her. The place might fall in. + +Motutabu had once flamed, been thrust up with its riven crags in smoke +and steam. Lava had flowed. Now those fires were clogged, the craters +choked, but, far below, the interior wrath still raged. This was a +_temblor_, one of the earthquakes that intermittently shook the peaks +that had been lifted from the sea. This was a slight shock. No other +followed and he let her enter. Haines was still sleeping. + +Tiki had risen. To him it was a manifestation that the god was pleased +that a faithful believer had returned. He stood erect with the dignity +of an oracle. As Stanton watched him he took the strange basketry and +placed it over his head. It was a hood that fell below his shoulders. +It had trunklike appendages, two holes for eyes that were glazed by +fish bladders. It turned him to a grotesque and terrible figure, like a +great squid. As he moved, the wicker tentacles writhed. + +Something was going to happen. Stanton felt it in his bones. Not +another quake. He saw the shadow vanish, melt away, as if the sun had +been veiled. Then it appeared again, sharp and distinct. Tiki's chant +grew louder, ceased as there came the sound of a brisk fusillade. + +Men were coming from the woods, firing back at enemies still hidden. +They came into view between the walls. The Chinese captain and his +men--fewer now--retreating, kneeling to take aim, then running to kneel +again. They passed and, with savage yells, the black men from the Lehua +burst into view, charging, Johnson and Loo Fong at their head. + +[Illustration: _With savage yells, the black men from the pirate +schooner burst into view._] + +Tiki sent out a yell of defiance, ululating, weird and shrill as it +issued from a reeded mouthpiece in the mask. Loo Fong halted and +turned, Johnson with him. They stared for a moment and then they saw +the girl, who had come, unnoticed by Stanton, to the entrance. Stanton +swept her aside, flattening her against the curve of the image's +colossal leg, taking place himself on the opposite side as bullets came +whining toward them. Tiki had seemingly betrayed them. + +He had not moved. He was untouched and again he sent out that piercing +challenge as Loo Fong cried out an order and the savage outfit came +racing up between the walls, firing their pistols. Now Tiki stepped +inside, unhit. + + * * * * * + +Stanton fired back to stem the stampede. They came leaping on. Lucy +Haines fired with him and a black staggered and fell. Johnson was +struck, but it did not check him. Their bullets were entering the +cave, splaying gray streaks on the rock. Stanton pulled trigger on his +last cartridge, missing Loo Fong whose evil face was lit with triumph. +They were on the last great slab when Tiki reappeared, sounding his +whistling howl. + +Stanton saw the rear half of the big slab tilt upward. The whole stone +was balanced and it rose smoothly, inexorably. A gulf opened and out of +it came a moaning sound like the wash of the sea, far below. + +Johnson and Loo Fong were pitched forward, their faces twisted with +sudden terror. The angle became acute, and they slid down, dropping +their weapons, crouching, clawing uselessly. The mate pitched forward, +plunged into the gap. Loo Fong made a desperate spring as he squatted +there like a toad. His fingers clutched the nigh edge, the sill of the +cave entrance, clung there. + +The stone swung on, up and over in a complete revolution. Its edge +smashed the fingers of the half-caste and the slab closed him in, +leaving bloody smears and remnants on the threshold. There were only +the black men left and they stood in a huddled mob before they broke +and ran, some trying to climb the walls, appalled at this manifestation +of the god. + +It was the slab of sacrifice, used on ceremonial occasions where +victims were demanded; set as a trap for the unwary, for meddlers. + +Tiki had lured them on. He had provided sacrifice. He had appeased the +long, unsated appetite of his god, and thus established his priesthood. +He had saved Haines, his daughter and Stanton, but they had been bait +for the victims. + +He had won the day. + +The yellow men were coming back, firing at the terrified blacks. The +fight had gone out of the islanders. They could not battle with gods. +Man after man went down, and then the slaughter swept past and out of +view. + +Tiki touched Stanton on the shoulder. He had taken off the mask and he +went back to the moving capstan stone that had triggered the trap. They +took hold of the pole and revolved it. + +The grating sound died away and Tiki walked through the entrance, out +on the slab, now firm again, turning to crouch and lower his head to +the rock in salutation and obeisance. + +A hail came from the end of the causeway. It was the Chinese skipper +with two of his men. Stanton advanced to meet them. + +"They all dead!" he said complacently. There was blood on his clothes +and his hands, but his face was clear of all emotion. "Tiki, he fixee. +All samee stone give way, I think." + +It was over. Two of the Chinese were wounded, one seriously. A third +was dead. The captain mentioned it casually. It was all in the day's +work. + +"Now we catch pearl and go," he said. "Mo' good we sink Lehua. No can +take. Too muchee talk, too muchee bobbely that make." + +Stanton had forgotten all about the pearls. It had probably been the +prime issue in the mind of the skipper. Haines was an incident. He +possessed a share if he lived, but that was Cheung's private business. +Bringing back the pearls was the captain's affair, whether he found +Haines or not. Stanton and the girl, Haines and Tiki, were pawns to the +captain. + +Cheung, Stanton fancied, was not so cold-blooded, but Cheung was an +exceptional Chinaman. + +They took up the litter as the rest arrived and marched back, past the +out-sprawled corpses of the black men, more sacrifices to the great, +gray god. Haines awakened from his semi-stupor, seemingly refreshed. He +would recover, though he would probably be lame. Stanton ordered him +sent off immediately to the ship with Lucy, to occupy Stanton's own +cabin. + +"Catch pearl first," said the captain. + +Haines smiled for the first time. + +"I think they're safe," he said. "There in that pool over there. It is +only half-filled at high tide. Moisture wouldn't hurt them, anyway. But +there's a crevice near the top, on this side. They're in there, in an +oilskin sack. The hole is plugged with seaweed." + +They were safe, a bag half-filled with softly shimmering gems of the +sea, slightly iridescent, oval, round, pear-shaped, symmetrical, a few +of them pink in luster. Stanton could not estimate them, but he knew +they represented a fortune. Haines fingered them. + +"You can keep some of them, my dear," he said to Lucy. "A third of them +are mine. We'll sell what you don't want." + +"Sell all of them," she said. "They have cost too much. I couldn't wear +them." + +The skipper talked with Tiki, who stood apart. Then he came to Stanton. + +"Tiki speak he stay along this place," he said. "He like we set up +those dlum and those image topside along sing-sing glound." + +Stanton looked at Tiki who walked toward him and once more took +Stanton's hand and placed it over his heart. Then he pointed to the +mountain, toward the god, now hidden by the cape. + +The gesture, the desire, were unmistakable. He had come home. Solitude +did not bother him. Later he might adventure, bring back a woman, or a +dusky harem, but this was his land, his god. + +He did not belong in Suva, nor on the other island from which he had +fled. Motutabu was his abidingplace, as priest to the graven image. + +They left him later, his wishes carried out, standing on the beach, +motionless. Stanton felt that they owed him much, but he had owed a +debt to Stanton for his rescue. He would have died in Suva. And he had +paid his debt. He and the god. + +The sunset was flaming back of the island when they made out to sea, +two sunken schooners in the bay. Tiki had been presented with the +stores of the Lehua, all that he selected. + +The face of the image was no longer flaming as they had first seen it. +It was gray now, somber but serene. From the mountain came the deep +sound of a reverberating drum. + + * * * * * + +"What you going to do now?" Cheung asked Stanton as they sat in the +chamber over the restaurant. Haines was under medical care, a rich man, +content to limp, since he could well afford to ride. + +"I don't know," Stanton answered. "I'm at a loose end." Cheung smiled, +nodded toward the inside rooms where Lucy Haines was talking with +Cheung's wife. + +"Suppose you ask missy?" he said. "These belong along you. If you like +I buy them flom you. Give good plice." + +He took a leather sack from his capacious sleeve and poured out pearls +into a lacquered bowl. They filled a third of it with milky radiance. + +"You, me, Haines, all same divide," said Cheung. "These velly fine +pearl. Fifty-sixty thousan' dollah. Why you not ask missy?" + +"I think I'll take your advice," said Stanton. The trip back had been a +happy one. He was not without foundation for the hope that Lucy might +be interested in what he did and where he went. + +He was no longer a derelict, no longer in danger of being a beach bum. +He was a man of substance. + +"You ask now," said Cheung. "I call my wife. I wish you plenty luckee." + + + THE END. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77501 *** |
