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diff --git a/old/islni10.txt b/old/islni10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73dc216 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/islni10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5372 @@ +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Island Nights' Entertainments** + +by Robert Louis Stevenson [Robert Louis Stevenson Series #7] + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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Scanned and proofed by David Price +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + +Contents: + The Beach of Falesa + A south sea bridal + The Ban + The Missionary + Devil-work + Night in the bush + The Bottle Imp + The Isle of voices + + + +THE BEACH OF FALESA. + + + + +CHAPTER I. A SOUTH SEA BRIDAL. + + +I SAW that island first when it was neither night nor morning. The +moon was to the west, setting, but still broad and bright. To the +east, and right amidships of the dawn, which was all pink, the +daystar sparkled like a diamond. The land breeze blew in our +faces, and smelt strong of wild lime and vanilla: other things +besides, but these were the most plain; and the chill of it set me +sneezing. I should say I had been for years on a low island near +the line, living for the most part solitary among natives. Here +was a fresh experience: even the tongue would be quite strange to +me; and the look of these woods and mountains, and the rare smell +of them, renewed my blood. + +The captain blew out the binnacle lamp. + +"There!" said he, "there goes a bit of smoke, Mr. Wiltshire, behind +the break of the reef. That's Falesa, where your station is, the +last village to the east; nobody lives to windward - I don't know +why. Take my glass, and you can make the houses out." + +I took the glass; and the shores leaped nearer, and I saw the +tangle of the woods and the breach of the surf, and the brown roofs +and the black insides of houses peeped among the trees. + +"Do you catch a bit of white there to the east'ard?" the captain +continued. "That's your house. Coral built, stands high, verandah +you could walk on three abreast; best station in the South Pacific. +When old Adams saw it, he took and shook me by the hand. 'I've +dropped into a soft thing here,' says he. - 'So you have,' says I, +'and time too!' Poor Johnny! I never saw him again but the once, +and then he had changed his tune - couldn't get on with the +natives, or the whites, or something; and the next time we came +round there he was dead and buried. I took and put up a bit of a +stick to him: 'John Adams, OBIT eighteen and sixty-eight. Go thou +and do likewise.' I missed that man. I never could see much harm +in Johnny." + +"What did he die of?" I inquired. + +"Some kind of sickness," says the captain. "It appears it took him +sudden. Seems he got up in the night, and filled up on Pain-Killer +and Kennedy's Discovery. No go: he was booked beyond Kennedy. +Then he had tried to open a case of gin. No go again: not strong +enough. Then he must have turned to and run out on the verandah, +and capsized over the rail. When they found him, the next day, he +was clean crazy - carried on all the time about somebody watering +his copra. Poor John!" + +"Was it thought to be the island?" I asked. + +"Well, it was thought to be the island, or the trouble, or +something," he replied. "I never could hear but what it was a +healthy place. Our last man, Vigours, never turned a hair. He +left because of the beach - said he was afraid of Black Jack and +Case and Whistling Jimmie, who was still alive at the time, but got +drowned soon afterward when drunk. As for old Captain Randall, +he's been here any time since eighteen-forty, forty-five. I never +could see much harm in Billy, nor much change. Seems as if he +might live to be Old Kafoozleum. No, I guess it's healthy." + +"There's a boat coming now," said I. "She's right in the pass; +looks to be a sixteen-foot whale; two white men in the stern +sheets." + +"That's the boat that drowned Whistling Jimmie!" cried the Captain; +"let's see the glass. Yes, that's Case, sure enough, and the +darkie. They've got a gallows bad reputation, but you know what a +place the beach is for talking. My belief, that Whistling Jimmie +was the worst of the trouble; and he's gone to glory, you see. +What'll you bet they ain't after gin? Lay you five to two they +take six cases." + +When these two traders came aboard I was pleased with the looks of +them at once, or, rather, with the looks of both, and the speech of +one. I was sick for white neighbours after my four years at the +line, which I always counted years of prison; getting tabooed, and +going down to the Speak House to see and get it taken off; buying +gin and going on a break, and then repenting; sitting in the house +at night with the lamp for company; or walking on the beach and +wondering what kind of a fool to call myself for being where I was. +There were no other whites upon my island, and when I sailed to the +next, rough customers made the most of the society. Now to see +these two when they came aboard was a pleasure. One was a negro, +to be sure; but they were both rigged out smart in striped pyjamas +and straw hats, and Case would have passed muster in a city. He +was yellow and smallish, had a hawk's nose to his face, pale eyes, +and his beard trimmed with scissors. No man knew his country, +beyond he was of English speech; and it was clear he came of a good +family and was splendidly educated. He was accomplished too; +played the accordion first-rate; and give him a piece of string or +a cork or a pack of cards, and he could show you tricks equal to +any professional. He could speak, when he chose, fit for a +drawing-room; and when he chose he could blaspheme worse than a +Yankee boatswain, and talk smart to sicken a Kanaka. The way he +thought would pay best at the moment, that was Case's way, and it +always seemed to come natural, and like as if he was born to it. +He had the courage of a lion and the cunning of a rat; and if he's +not in hell to-day, there's no such place. I know but one good +point to the man: that he was fond of his wife, and kind to her. +She was a Samoa woman, and dyed her hair red, Samoa style; and when +he came to die (as I have to tell of) they found one strange thing +- that he had made a will, like a Christian, and the widow got the +lot: all his, they said, and all Black Jack's, and the most of +Billy Randall's in the bargain, for it was Case that kept the +books. So she went off home in the schooner MANU'A, and does the +lady to this day in her own place. + +But of all this on that first morning I knew no more than a fly. +Case used me like a gentleman and like a friend, made me welcome to +Falesa, and put his services at my disposal, which was the more +helpful from my ignorance of the native. All the better part of +the day we sat drinking better acquaintance in the cabin, and I +never heard a man talk more to the point. There was no smarter +trader, and none dodgier, in the islands. I thought Falesa seemed +to be the right kind of a place; and the more I drank the lighter +my heart. Our last trader had fled the place at half an hour's +notice, taking a chance passage in a labour ship from up west. The +captain, when he came, had found the station closed, the keys left +with the native pastor, and a letter from the runaway, confessing +he was fairly frightened of his life. Since then the firm had not +been represented, and of course there was no cargo. The wind, +besides, was fair, the captain hoped he could make his next island +by dawn, with a good tide, and the business of landing my trade was +gone about lively. There was no call for me to fool with it, Case +said; nobody would touch my things, everyone was honest in Falesa, +only about chickens or an odd knife or an odd stick of tobacco; and +the best I could do was to sit quiet till the vessel left, then +come straight to his house, see old Captain Randall, the father of +the beach, take pot-luck, and go home to sleep when it got dark. +So it was high noon, and the schooner was under way before I set my +foot on shore at Falesa. + +I had a glass or two on board; I was just off a long cruise, and +the ground heaved under me like a ship's deck. The world was like +all new painted; my foot went along to music; Falesa might have +been Fiddler's Green, if there is such a place, and more's the pity +if there isn't! It was good to foot the grass, to look aloft at +the green mountains, to see the men with their green wreaths and +the women in their bright dresses, red and blue. On we went, in +the strong sun and the cool shadow, liking both; and all the +children in the town came trotting after with their shaven heads +and their brown bodies, and raising a thin kind of a cheer in our +wake, like crowing poultry. + +"By-the-bye," says Case, "we must get you a wife." + +"That's so," said I; "I had forgotten." + +There was a crowd of girls about us, and I pulled myself up and +looked among them like a Bashaw. They were all dressed out for the +sake of the ship being in; and the women of Falesa are a handsome +lot to see. If they have a fault, they are a trifle broad in the +beam; and I was just thinking so when Case touched me. + +"That's pretty," says he. + +I saw one coming on the other side alone. She had been fishing; +all she wore was a chemise, and it was wetted through. She was +young and very slender for an island maid, with a long face, a high +forehead, and a shy, strange, blindish look, between a cat's and a +baby's. + +"Who's she?" said I. "She'll do." + +"That's Uma," said Case, and he called her up and spoke to her in +the native. I didn't know what he said; but when he was in the +midst she looked up at me quick and timid, like a child dodging a +blow, then down again, and presently smiled. She had a wide mouth, +the lips and the chin cut like any statue's; and the smile came out +for a moment and was gone. Then she stood with her head bent, and +heard Case to an end, spoke back in the pretty Polynesian voice, +looking him full in the face, heard him again in answer, and then +with an obeisance started off. I had just a share of the bow, but +never another shot of her eye, and there was no more word of +smiling. + +"I guess it's all right," said Case. "I guess you can have her. +I'll make it square with the old lady. You can have your pick of +the lot for a plug of tobacco," he added, sneering. + +I suppose it was the smile stuck in my memory, for I spoke back +sharp. "She doesn't look that sort," I cried. + +"I don't know that she is," said Case. "I believe she's as right +as the mail. Keeps to herself, don't go round with the gang, and +that. O no, don't you misunderstand me - Uma's on the square." He +spoke eager, I thought, and that surprised and pleased me. +"Indeed," he went on, "I shouldn't make so sure of getting her, +only she cottoned to the cut of your jib. All you have to do is to +keep dark and let me work the mother my own way; and I'll bring the +girl round to the captain's for the marriage." + +I didn't care for the word marriage, and I said so. + +"Oh, there's nothing to hurt in the marriage," says he. "Black +Jack's the chaplain." + +By this time we had come in view of the house of these three white +men; for a negro is counted a white man, and so is a Chinese! a +strange idea, but common in the islands. It was a board house with +a strip of rickety verandah. The store was to the front, with a +counter, scales, and the poorest possible display of trade: a case +or two of tinned meats; a barrel of hard bread; a few bolts of +cotton stuff, not to be compared with mine; the only thing well +represented being the contraband, firearms and liquor. "If these +are my only rivals," thinks I, "I should do well in Falesa." +Indeed, there was only the one way they could touch me, and that +was with the guns and drink. + +In the back room was old Captain Randall, squatting on the floor +native fashion, fat and pale, naked to the waist, grey as a badger, +and his eyes set with drink. His body was covered with grey hair +and crawled over by flies; one was in the corner of his eye - he +never heeded; and the mosquitoes hummed about the man like bees. +Any clean-minded man would have had the creature out at once and +buried him; and to see him, and think he was seventy, and remember +he had once commanded a ship, and come ashore in his smart togs, +and talked big in bars and consulates, and sat in club verandahs, +turned me sick and sober. + +He tried to get up when I came in, but that was hopeless; so he +reached me a hand instead, and stumbled out some salutation. + +"Papa's (1) pretty full this morning," observed Case. "We've had +an epidemic here; and Captain Randall takes gin for a prophylactic +- don't you, Papa?" + +"Never took such a thing in my life!" cried the captain +indignantly. "Take gin for my health's sake, Mr. Wha's-ever-your- +name - 's a precautionary measure." + +"That's all right, Papa," said Case. "But you'll have to brace up. +There's going to be a marriage - Mr. Wiltshire here is going to get +spliced." + +The old man asked to whom. + +"To Uma," said Case. + +"Uma!" cried the captain. "Wha's he want Uma for? 's he come here +for his health, anyway? Wha' 'n hell's he want Uma for?" + +"Dry up, Papa," said Case. "'Tain't you that's to marry her. I +guess you're not her godfather and godmother. I guess Mr. +Wiltshire's going to please himself." + +With that he made an excuse to me that he must move about the +marriage, and left me alone with the poor wretch that was his +partner and (to speak truth) his gull. Trade and station belonged +both to Randall; Case and the negro were parasites; they crawled +and fed upon him like the flies, he none the wiser. Indeed, I have +no harm to say of Billy Randall beyond the fact that my gorge rose +at him, and the time I now passed in his company was like a +nightmare. + +The room was stifling hot and full of flies; for the house was +dirty and low and small, and stood in a bad place, behind the +village, in the borders of the bush, and sheltered from the trade. +The three men's beds were on the floor, and a litter of pans and +dishes. There was no standing furniture; Randall, when he was +violent, tearing it to laths. There I sat and had a meal which was +served us by Case's wife; and there I was entertained all day by +that remains of man, his tongue stumbling among low old jokes and +long old stories, and his own wheezy laughter always ready, so that +he had no sense of my depression. He was nipping gin all the +while. Sometimes he fell asleep, and awoke again, whimpering and +shivering, and every now and again he would ask me why I wanted to +marry Uma. "My friend," I was telling myself all day, "you must +not come to be an old gentleman like this." + +It might be four in the afternoon, perhaps, when the back door was +thrust slowly open, and a strange old native woman crawled into the +house almost on her belly. She was swathed in black stuff to her +heels; her hair was grey in swatches; her face was tattooed, which +was not the practice in that island; her eyes big and bright and +crazy. These she fixed upon me with a rapt expression that I saw +to be part acting. She said no plain word, but smacked and mumbled +with her lips, and hummed aloud, like a child over its Christmas +pudding. She came straight across the house, heading for me, and, +as soon as she was alongside, caught up my hand and purred and +crooned over it like a great cat. From this she slipped into a +kind of song. + +"Who the devil's this?" cried I, for the thing startled me. + +"It's Fa'avao," says Randall; and I saw he had hitched along the +floor into the farthest corner. + +"You ain't afraid of her?" I cried. + +"Me 'fraid!" cried the captain. "My dear friend, I defy her! I +don't let her put her foot in here, only I suppose 's different to- +day, for the marriage. 's Uma's mother." + +"Well, suppose it is; what's she carrying on about?" I asked, more +irritated, perhaps more frightened, than I cared to show; and the +captain told me she was making up a quantity of poetry in my praise +because I was to marry Uma. "All right, old lady," says I, with +rather a failure of a laugh, "anything to oblige. But when you're +done with my hand, you might let me know." + +She did as though she understood; the song rose into a cry, and +stopped; the woman crouched out of the house the same way that she +came in, and must have plunged straight into the bush, for when I +followed her to the door she had already vanished. + +"These are rum manners," said I. + +"'s a rum crowd," said the captain, and, to my surprise, he made +the sign of the cross on his bare bosom. + +"Hillo!" says I, "are you a Papist?" + +He repudiated the idea with contempt. "Hard-shell Baptis'," said +he. "But, my dear friend, the Papists got some good ideas too; and +tha' 's one of 'em. You take my advice, and whenever you come +across Uma or Fa'avao or Vigours, or any of that crowd, you take a +leaf out o' the priests, and do what I do. Savvy?" says he, +repeated the sign, and winked his dim eye at me. "No, SIR!" he +broke out again, "no Papists here!" and for a long time entertained +me with his religious opinions. + +I must have been taken with Uma from the first, or I should +certainly have fled from that house, and got into the clean air, +and the clean sea, or some convenient river - though, it's true, I +was committed to Case; and, besides, I could never have held my +head up in that island if I had run from a girl upon my wedding- +night. + +The sun was down, the sky all on fire, and the lamp had been some +time lighted, when Case came back with Uma and the negro. She was +dressed and scented; her kilt was of fine tapa, looking richer in +the folds than any silk; her bust, which was of the colour of dark +honey, she wore bare only for some half a dozen necklaces of seeds +and flowers; and behind her ears and in her hair she had the +scarlet flowers of the hibiscus. She showed the best bearing for a +bride conceivable, serious and still; and I thought shame to stand +up with her in that mean house and before that grinning negro. I +thought shame, I say; for the mountebank was dressed with a big +paper collar, the book he made believe to read from was an odd +volume of a novel, and the words of his service not fit to be set +down. My conscience smote me when we joined hands; and when she +got her certificate I was tempted to throw up the bargain and +confess. Here is the document. It was Case that wrote it, +signatures and all, in a leaf out of the ledger:- + + +This is to certify that Uma, daughter of Fa'avao of Falesa, Island +of - , is illegally married to Mr. John Wiltshire for one week, and +Mr. John Wiltshire is at liberty to send her to hell when he +pleases. + +JOHN BLACKAMOAR. +Chaplain to the hulks. + +Extracted from the Register +by William T. Randall, +Master Mariner. + + +A nice paper to put in a girl's hand and see her hide away like +gold. A man might easily feel cheap for less. But it was the +practice in these parts, and (as I told myself) not the least the +fault of us white men, but of the missionaries. If they had let +the natives be, I had never needed this deception, but taken all +the wives I wished, and left them when I pleased, with a clear +conscience. + +The more ashamed I was, the more hurry I was in to be gone; and our +desires thus jumping together, I made the less remark of a change +in the traders. Case had been all eagerness to keep me; now, as +though he had attained a purpose, he seemed all eagerness to have +me go. Uma, he said, could show me to my house, and the three bade +us farewell indoors. + +The night was nearly come; the village smelt of trees and flowers +and the sea and bread-fruit-cooking; there came a fine roll of sea +from the reef, and from a distance, among the woods and houses, +many pretty sounds of men and children. It did me good to breathe +free air; it did me good to be done with the captain and see, +instead, the creature at my side. I felt for all the world as +though she were some girl at home in the Old Country, and, +forgetting myself for the minute, took her hand to walk with. Her +fingers nestled into mine, I heard her breathe deep and quick, and +all at once she caught my hand to her face and pressed it there. +"You good!" she cried, and ran ahead of me, and stopped and looked +back and smiled, and ran ahead of me again, thus guiding me through +the edge of the bush, and by a quiet way to my own house. + +The truth is, Case had done the courting for me in style - told her +I was mad to have her, and cared nothing for the consequence; and +the poor soul, knowing that which I was still ignorant of, believed +it, every word, and had her head nigh turned with vanity and +gratitude. Now, of all this I had no guess; I was one of those +most opposed to any nonsense about native women, having seen so +many whites eaten up by their wives' relatives, and made fools of +in the bargain; and I told myself I must make a stand at once, and +bring her to her bearings. But she looked so quaint and pretty as +she ran away and then awaited me, and the thing was done so like a +child or a kind dog, that the best I could do was just to follow +her whenever she went on, to listen for the fall of her bare feet, +and to watch in the dusk for the shining of her body. And there +was another thought came in my head. She played kitten with me now +when we were alone; but in the house she had carried it the way a +countess might, so proud and humble. And what with her dress - for +all there was so little of it, and that native enough - what with +her fine tapa and fine scents, and her red flowers and seeds, that +were quite as bright as jewels, only larger - it came over me she +was a kind of countess really, dressed to hear great singers at a +concert, and no even mate for a poor trader like myself. + +She was the first in the house; and while I was still without I saw +a match flash and the lamplight kindle in the windows. The station +was a wonderful fine place, coral built, with quite a wide +verandah, and the main room high and wide. My chests and cases had +been piled in, and made rather of a mess; and there, in the thick +of the confusion, stood Uma by the table, awaiting me. Her shadow +went all the way up behind her into the hollow of the iron roof; +she stood against it bright, the lamplight shining on her skin. I +stopped in the door, and she looked at me, not speaking, with eyes +that were eager and yet daunted; then she touched herself on the +bosom. + +"Me - your wifie," she said. It had never taken me like that +before; but the want of her took and shook all through me, like the +wind in the luff of a sail. + +I could not speak if I had wanted; and if I could, I would not. I +was ashamed to be so much moved about a native, ashamed of the +marriage too, and the certificate she had treasured in her kilt; +and I turned aside and made believe to rummage among my cases. The +first thing I lighted on was a case of gin, the only one that I had +brought; and, partly for the girl's sake, and partly for horror of +the recollections of old Randall, took a sudden resolve. I prized +the lid off. One by one I drew the bottles with a pocket +corkscrew, and sent Uma out to pour the stuff from the verandah. + +She came back after the last, and looked at me puzzled like. + +"No good," said I, for I was now a little better master of my +tongue. "Man he drink, he no good." + +She agreed with this, but kept considering. "Why you bring him?" +she asked presently. "Suppose you no want drink, you no bring him, +I think." + +"That's all right," said I. "One time I want drink too much; now +no want. You see, I no savvy I get one little wifie. Suppose I +drink gin, my little wifie he 'fraid." + +To speak to her kindly was about more than I was fit for; I had +made my vow I would never let on to weakness with a native, and I +had nothing for it but to stop. + +She stood looking gravely down at me where I sat by the open case. +"I think you good man," she said. And suddenly she had fallen +before me on the floor. "I belong you all-e-same pig!" she cried. + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE BAN. + + +I CAME on the verandah just before the sun rose on the morrow. My +house was the last on the east; there was a cape of woods and +cliffs behind that hid the sunrise. To the west, a swift cold +river ran down, and beyond was the green of the village, dotted +with cocoa-palms and breadfruits and houses. The shutters were +some of them down and some open; I saw the mosquito bars still +stretched, with shadows of people new-awakened sitting up inside; +and all over the green others were stalking silent, wrapped in +their many-coloured sleeping clothes like Bedouins in Bible +pictures. It was mortal still and solemn and chilly, and the light +of the dawn on the lagoon was like the shining of a fire. + +But the thing that troubled me was nearer hand. Some dozen young +men and children made a piece of a half-circle, flanking my house: +the river divided them, some were on the near side, some on the +far, and one on a boulder in the midst; and they all sat silent, +wrapped in their sheets, and stared at me and my house as straight +as pointer dogs. I thought it strange as I went out. When I had +bathed and come back again, and found them all there, and two or +three more along with them, I thought it stranger still. What +could they see to gaze at in my house, I wondered, and went in. + +But the thought of these starers stuck in my mind, and presently I +came out again. The sun was now up, but it was still behind the +cape of woods. Say a quarter of an hour had come and gone. The +crowd was greatly increased, the far bank of the river was lined +for quite a way - perhaps thirty grown folk, and of children twice +as many, some standing, some squatted on the ground, and all +staring at my house. I have seen a house in a South Sea village +thus surrounded, but then a trader was thrashing his wife inside, +and she singing out. Here was nothing: the stove was alight, the +smoke going up in a Christian manner; all was shipshape and Bristol +fashion. To be sure, there was a stranger come, but they had a +chance to see that stranger yesterday, and took it quiet enough. +What ailed them now? I leaned my arms on the rail and stared back. +Devil a wink they had in them! Now and then I could see the +children chatter, but they spoke so low not even the hum of their +speaking came my length. The rest were like graven images: they +stared at me, dumb and sorrowful, with their bright eyes; and it +came upon me things would look not much different if I were on the +platform of the gallows, and these good folk had come to see me +hanged. + +I felt I was getting daunted, and began to be afraid I looked it, +which would never do. Up I stood, made believe to stretch myself, +came down the verandah stair, and strolled towards the river. +There went a short buzz from one to the other, like what you hear +in theatres when the curtain goes up; and some of the nearest gave +back the matter of a pace. I saw a girl lay one hand on a young +man and make a gesture upward with the other; at the same time she +said something in the native with a gasping voice. Three little +boys sat beside my path, where, I must pass within three feet of +them. Wrapped in their sheets, with their shaved heads and bits of +top-knots, and queer faces, they looked like figures on a chimney- +piece. Awhile they sat their ground, solemn as judges. I came up +hand over fist, doing my five knots, like a man that meant +business; and I thought I saw a sort of a wink and gulp in the +three faces. Then one jumped up (he was the farthest off) and ran +for his mammy. The other two, trying to follow suit, got foul, +came to ground together bawling, wriggled right out of their sheets +mother-naked, and in a moment there were all three of them +scampering for their lives and singing out like pigs. The natives, +who would never let a joke slip, even at a burial, laughed and let +up, as short as a dog's bark. + +They say it scares a man to be alone. No such thing. What scares +him in the dark or the high bush is that he can't make sure, and +there might be an army at his elbow. What scares him worst is to +be right in the midst of a crowd, and have no guess of what they're +driving at. When that laugh stopped, I stopped too. The boys had +not yet made their offing, they were still on the full stretch +going the one way, when I had already gone about ship and was +sheering off the other. Like a fool I had come out, doing my five +knots; like a fool I went back again. It must have been the +funniest thing to see, and what knocked me silly, this time no one +laughed; only one old woman gave a kind of pious moan, the way you +have heard Dissenters in their chapels at the sermon. + +"I never saw such fools of Kanakas as your people here," I said +once to Uma, glancing out of the window at the starers. + +"Savvy nothing," says Uma, with a kind of disgusted air that she +was good at. + +And that was all the talk we had upon the matter, for I was put +out, and Uma took the thing so much as a matter of course that I +was fairly ashamed. + +All day, off and on, now fewer and now more, the fools sat about +the west end of my house and across the river, waiting for the +show, whatever that was - fire to come down from heaven, I suppose, +and consume me, bones and baggage. But by evening, like real +islanders, they had wearied of the business, and got away, and had +a dance instead in the big house of the village, where I heard them +singing and clapping hands till, maybe, ten at night, and the next +day it seemed they had forgotten I existed. If fire had come down +from heaven or the earth opened and swallowed me, there would have +been nobody to see the sport or take the lesson, or whatever you +like to call it. But I was to find they hadn't forgot either, and +kept an eye lifting for phenomena over my way. + +I was hard at it both these days getting my trade in order and +taking stock of what Vigours had left. This was a job that made me +pretty sick, and kept me from thinking on much else. Ben had taken +stock the trip before - I knew I could trust Ben - but it was plain +somebody had been making free in the meantime. I found I was out +by what might easily cover six months' salary and profit, and I +could have kicked myself all round the village to have been such a +blamed ass, sitting boozing with that Case instead of attending to +my own affairs and taking stock. + +However, there's no use crying over spilt milk. It was done now, +and couldn't be undone. All I could do was to get what was left of +it, and my new stuff (my own choice) in order, to go round and get +after the rats and cockroaches, and to fix up that store regular +Sydney style. A fine show I made of it; and the third morning when +I had lit my pipe and stood in the door-way and looked in, and +turned and looked far up the mountain and saw the cocoanuts waving +and posted up the tons of copra, and over the village green and saw +the island dandies and reckoned up the yards of print they wanted +for their kilts and dresses, I felt as if I was in the right place +to make a fortune, and go home again and start a public-house. +There was I, sitting in that verandah, in as handsome a piece of +scenery as you could find, a splendid sun, and a fine fresh healthy +trade that stirred up a man's blood like sea-bathing; and the whole +thing was clean gone from me, and I was dreaming England, which is, +after all, a nasty, cold, muddy hole, with not enough light to see +to read by; and dreaming the looks of my public, by a cant of a +broad high-road like an avenue, and with the sign on a green tree. + +So much for the morning, but the day passed and the devil anyone +looked near me, and from all I knew of natives in other islands I +thought this strange. People laughed a little at our firm and +their fine stations, and at this station of Falesa in particular; +all the copra in the district wouldn't pay for it (I had heard them +say) in fifty years, which I supposed was an exaggeration. But +when the day went, and no business came at all, I began to get +downhearted; and, about three in the afternoon, I went out for a +stroll to cheer me up. On the green I saw a white man coming with +a cassock on, by which and by the face of him I knew he was a +priest. He was a good-natured old soul to look at, gone a little +grizzled, and so dirty you could have written with him on a piece +of paper. + +"Good day, sir," said I. + +He answered me eagerly in native. + +"Don't you speak any English?" said I. + +"French," says he. + +"Well," said I, "I'm sorry, but I can't do anything there." + +He tried me awhile in the French, and then again in native, which +he seemed to think was the best chance. I made out he was after +more than passing the time of day with me, but had something to +communicate, and I listened the harder. I heard the names of Adams +and Case and of Randall - Randall the oftenest - and the word +"poison," or something like it, and a native word that he said very +often. I went home, repeating it to myself. + +"What does fussy-ocky mean?" I asked of Uma, for that was as near +as I could come to it. + +"Make dead," said she. + +"The devil it does!" says I. "Did ever you hear that Case had +poisoned Johnnie Adams?" + +"Every man he savvy that," says Uma, scornful-like. "Give him +white sand - bad sand. He got the bottle still. Suppose he give +you gin, you no take him." + +Now I had heard much the same sort of story in other islands, and +the same white powder always to the front, which made me think the +less of it. For all that, I went over to Randall's place to see +what I could pick up, and found Case on the doorstep, cleaning a +gun. + +"Good shooting here?" says I. + +"A 1," says he. "The bush is full of all kinds of birds. I wish +copra was as plenty," says he - I thought, slyly - "but there don't +seem anything doing." + +I could see Black Jack in the store, serving a customer. + +"That looks like business, though," said I. + +"That's the first sale we've made in three weeks," said he. + +"You don't tell me?" says I. "Three weeks? Well, well." + +"If you don't believe me," he cries, a little hot, "you can go and +look at the copra-house. It's half empty to this blessed hour." + +"I shouldn't be much the better for that, you see," says I. "For +all I can tell, it might have been whole empty yesterday." + +"That's so," says he, with a bit of a laugh. + +"By-the-bye," I said, "what sort of a party is that priest? Seems +rather a friendly sort." + +At this Case laughed right out loud. "Ah!" says he, "I see what +ails you now. Galuchet's been at you." - FATHER GALOSHES was the +name he went by most, but Case always gave it the French quirk, +which was another reason we had for thinking him above the common. + +"Yes, I have seen him," I says. "I made out he didn't think much +of your Captain Randall." + +"That he don't!" says Case. "It was the trouble about poor Adams. +The last day, when he lay dying, there was young Buncombe round. +Ever met Buncombe?" + +I told him no. + +"He's a cure, is Buncombe!" laughs Case. "Well, Buncombe took it +in his head that, as there was no other clergyman about, bar Kanaka +pastors, we ought to call in Father Galuchet, and have the old man +administered and take the sacrament. It was all the same to me, +you may suppose; but I said I thought Adams was the fellow to +consult. He was jawing away about watered copra and a sight of +foolery. 'Look here,' I said, 'you're pretty sick. Would you like +to see Galoshes?' He sat right up on his elbow. 'Get the priest,' +says he, 'get the priest; don't let me die here like a dog!' He +spoke kind of fierce and eager, but sensible enough. There was +nothing to say against that, so we sent and asked Galuchet if he +would come. You bet he would. He jumped in his dirty linen at the +thought of it. But we had reckoned without Papa. He's a hard- +shell Baptist, is Papa; no Papists need apply. And he took and +locked the door. Buncombe told him he was bigoted, and I thought +he would have had a fit. 'Bigoted!' he says. 'Me bigoted? Have I +lived to hear it from a jackanapes like you?' And he made for +Buncombe, and I had to hold them apart; and there was Adams in the +middle, gone luny again, and carrying on about copra like a born +fool. It was good as the play, and I was about knocked out of time +with laughing, when all of a sudden Adams sat up, clapped his hands +to his chest, and went into the horrors. He died hard, did John +Adams," says Case, with a kind of a sudden sternness. + +"And what became of the priest?" I asked. + +"The priest?" says Case. "O! he was hammering on the door outside, +and crying on the natives to come and beat it in, and singing out +it was a soul he wished to save, and that. He was in a rare +taking, was the priest. But what would you have? Johnny had +slipped his cable; no more Johnny in the market; and the +administration racket clean played out. Next thing, word came to +Randall the priest was praying upon Johnny's grave. Papa was +pretty full, and got a club, and lit out straight for the place, +and there was Galoshes on his knees, and a lot of natives looking +on. You wouldn't think Papa cared - that much about anything, +unless it was liquor; but he and the priest stuck to it two hours, +slanging each other in native, and every time Galoshes tried to +kneel down Papa went for him with the club. There never were such +larks in Falesa. The end of it was that Captain Randall knocked +over with some kind of a fit or stroke, and the priest got in his +goods after all. But he was the angriest priest you ever heard of, +and complained to the chiefs about the outrage, as he called it. +That was no account, for our chiefs are Protestant here; and, +anyway, he had been making trouble about the drum for morning +school, and they were glad to give him a wipe. Now he swears old +Randall gave Adams poison or something, and when the two meet they +grin at each other like baboons." + +He told this story as natural as could be, and like a man that +enjoyed the fun; though, now I come to think of it after so long, +it seems rather a sickening yarn. However, Case never set up to be +soft, only to be square and hearty, and a man all round; and, to +tell the truth, he puzzled me entirely. + +I went home and asked Uma if she were a Popey, which I had made out +to be the native word for Catholics. + +"E LE AI!" says she. She always used the native when she meant +"no" more than usually strong, and, indeed, there's more of it. +"No good Popey," she added. + +Then I asked her about Adams and the priest, and she told me much +the same yarn in her own way. So that I was left not much farther +on, but inclined, upon the whole, to think the bottom of the matter +was the row about the sacrament, and the poisoning only talk. + +The next day was a Sunday, when there was no business to be looked +for. Uma asked me in the morning if I was going to "pray"; I told +her she bet not, and she stopped home herself with no more words. +I thought this seemed unlike a native, and a native woman, and a +woman that had new clothes to show off; however, it suited me to +the ground, and I made the less of it. The queer thing was that I +came next door to going to church after all, a thing I'm little +likely to forget. I had turned out for a stroll, and heard the +hymn tune up. You know how it is. If you hear folk singing, it +seems to draw you; and pretty soon I found myself alongside the +church. It was a little long low place, coral built, rounded off +at both ends like a whale-boat, a big native roof on the top of it, +windows without sashes and doorways without doors. I stuck my head +into one of the windows, and the sight was so new to me - for +things went quite different in the islands I was acquainted with - +that I stayed and looked on. The congregation sat on the floor on +mats, the women on one side, the men on the other, all rigged out +to kill - the women with dresses and trade hats, the men in white +jackets and shirts. The hymn was over; the pastor, a big buck +Kanaka, was in the pulpit, preaching for his life; and by the way +he wagged his hand, and worked his voice, and made his points, and +seemed to argue with the folk, I made out he was a gun at the +business. Well, he looked up suddenly and caught my eye, and I +give you my word he staggered in the pulpit; his eyes bulged out of +his head, his hand rose and pointed at me like as if against his +will, and the sermon stopped right there. + +It isn't a fine thing to say for yourself, but I ran away; and if +the same kind of a shock was given me, I should run away again +tomorrow. To see that palavering Kanaka struck all of a heap at +the mere sight of me gave me a feeling as if the bottom had dropped +out of the world. I went right home, and stayed there, and said +nothing. You might think I would tell Uma, but that was against my +system. You might have thought I would have gone over and +consulted Case; but the truth was I was ashamed to speak of such a +thing, I thought everyone would blurt out laughing in my face. So +I held my tongue, and thought all the more; and the more I thought, +the less I liked the business. + +By Monday night I got it clearly in my head I must be tabooed. A +new store to stand open two days in a village and not a man or +woman come to see the trade was past believing. + +"Uma," said I, "I think I'm tabooed." + +"I think so," said she. + +I thought awhile whether I should ask her more, but it's a bad idea +to set natives up with any notion of consulting them, so I went to +Case. It was dark, and he was sitting alone, as he did mostly, +smoking on the stairs. + +"Case," said I, "here's a queer thing. I'm tabooed." + +"O, fudge!" says he; "'tain't the practice in these islands." + +"That may be, or it mayn't," said I. "It's the practice where I +was before. You can bet I know what it's like; and I tell it you +for a fact, I'm tabooed." + +"Well," said he, "what have you been doing?" + +"That's what I want to find out," said I. + +"O, you can't be," said he; "it ain't possible. However, I'll tell +you what I'll do. Just to put your mind at rest, I'll go round and +find out for sure. Just you waltz in and talk to Papa." + +"Thank you," I said, "I'd rather stay right out here on the +verandah. Your house is so close." + +"I'll call Papa out here, then," says he. + +"My dear fellow," I says, "I wish you wouldn't. The fact is, I +don't take to Mr. Randall." + +Case laughed, took a lantern from the store, and set out into the +village. He was gone perhaps a quarter of an hour, and he looked +mighty serious when he came back. + +"Well," said he, clapping down the lantern on the verandah steps, +"I would never have believed it. I don't know where the impudence +of these Kanakas 'll go next; they seem to have lost all idea of +respect for whites. What we want is a man-of-war - a German, if we +could - they know how to manage Kanakas." + +"I AM tabooed, then?" I cried. + +"Something of the sort," said he. "It's the worst thing of the +kind I've heard of yet. But I'll stand by you, Wiltshire, man to +man. You come round here to-morrow about nine, and we'll have it +out with the chiefs. They're afraid of me, or they used to be; but +their heads are so big by now, I don't know what to think. +Understand me, Wiltshire; I don't count this your quarrel," he went +on, with a great deal of resolution, "I count it all of our +quarrel, I count it the White Man's Quarrel, and I'll stand to it +through thick and thin, and there's my hand on it." + +"Have you found out what's the reason?" I asked. + +"Not yet," said Case. "But we'll fix them down to-morrow." + +Altogether I was pretty well pleased with his attitude, and almost +more the next day, when we met to go before the chiefs, to see him +so stern and resolved. The chiefs awaited us in one of their big +oval houses, which was marked out to us from a long way off by the +crowd about the eaves, a hundred strong if there was one - men, +women, and children. Many of the men were on their way to work and +wore green wreaths, and it put me in thoughts of the 1st of May at +home. This crowd opened and buzzed about the pair of us as we went +in, with a sudden angry animation. Five chiefs were there; four +mighty stately men, the fifth old and puckered. They sat on mats +in their white kilts and jackets; they had fans in their hands, +like fine ladies; and two of the younger ones wore Catholic medals, +which gave me matter of reflection. Our place was set, and the +mats laid for us over against these grandees, on the near side of +the house; the midst was empty; the crowd, close at our backs, +murmured and craned and jostled to look on, and the shadows of them +tossed in front of us on the clean pebbles of the floor. I was +just a hair put out by the excitement of the commons, but the quiet +civil appearance of the chiefs reassured me, all the more when +their spokesman began and made a long speech in a low tone of +voice, sometimes waving his hand towards Case, sometimes toward me, +and sometimes knocking with his knuckles on the mat. One thing was +clear: there was no sign of anger in the chiefs. + +"What's he been saying?" I asked, when he had done. + +"O, just that they're glad to see you, and they understand by me +you wish to make some kind of complaint, and you're to fire away, +and they'll do the square thing." + +"It took a precious long time to say that," said I. + +"O, the rest was sawder and BONJOUR and that," said Case. "You +know what Kanakas are." + +"Well, they don't get much BONJOUR out of me," said I. "You tell +them who I am. I'm a white man, and a British subject, and no end +of a big chief at home; and I've come here to do them good, and +bring them civilisation; and no sooner have I got my trade sorted +out than they go and taboo me, and no one dare come near my place! +Tell them I don't mean to fly in the face of anything legal; and if +what they want's a present, I'll do what's fair. I don't blame any +man looking out for himself, tell them, for that's human nature; +but if they think they're going to come any of their native ideas +over me, they'll find themselves mistaken. And tell them plain +that I demand the reason of this treatment as a white man and a +British subject." + +That was my speech. I know how to deal with Kanakas: give them +plain sense and fair dealing, and - I'll do them that much justice +- they knuckle under every time. They haven't any real government +or any real law, that's what you've got to knock into their heads; +and even if they had, it would be a good joke if it was to apply to +a white man. It would be a strange thing if we came all this way +and couldn't do what we pleased. The mere idea has always put my +monkey up, and I rapped my speech out pretty big. Then Case +translated it - or made believe to, rather - and the first chief +replied, and then a second, and a third, all in the same style, +easy and genteel, but solemn underneath. Once a question was put +to Case, and he answered it, and all hands (both chiefs and +commons) laughed out aloud, and looked at me. Last of all, the +puckered old fellow and the big young chief that spoke first +started in to put Case through a kind of catechism. Sometimes I +made out that Case was trying to fence, and they stuck to him like +hounds, and the sweat ran down his face, which was no very pleasant +sight to me, and at some of his answers the crowd moaned and +murmured, which was a worse hearing. It's a cruel shame I knew no +native, for (as I now believe) they were asking Case about my +marriage, and he must have had a tough job of it to clear his feet. +But leave Case alone; he had the brains to run a parliament. + +"Well, is that all?" I asked, when a pause came. + +"Come along," says he, mopping his face; "I'll tell you outside." + +"Do you mean they won't take the taboo off?" I cried. + +"It's something queer," said he. "I'll tell you outside. Better +come away." + +"I won't take it at their hands," cried I. "I ain't that kind of a +man. You don't find me turn my back on a parcel of Kanakas." + +"You'd better," said Case. + +He looked at me with a signal in his eye; and the five chiefs +looked at me civilly enough, but kind of pointed; and the people +looked at me and craned and jostled. I remembered the folks that +watched my house, and how the pastor had jumped in his pulpit at +the bare sight of me; and the whole business seemed so out of the +way that I rose and followed Case. The crowd opened again to let +us through, but wider than before, the children on the skirts +running and singing out, and as we two white men walked away they +all stood and watched us. + +"And now," said I, "what is all this about?" + +"The truth is I can't rightly make it out myself. They have a down +on you," says Case. + +"Taboo a man because they have a down on him!" I cried. "I never +heard the like." + +"It's worse than that, you see," said Case. "You ain't tabooed - I +told you that couldn't be. The people won't go near you, +Wiltshire, and there's where it is." + +"They won't go near me? What do you mean by that? Why won't they +go near me?" I cried. + +Case hesitated. "Seems they're frightened," says he, in a low, +voice. + +I stopped dead short. "Frightened?" I repeated. "Are you gone +crazy, Case? What are they frightened of?" + +"I wish I could make out," Case answered, shaking his head. +"Appears like one of their tomfool superstitions. That's what I +don't cotton to," he said. "It's like the business about Vigours." + +"I'd like to know what you mean by that, and I'll trouble you to +tell me," says I. + +"Well, you know, Vigours lit out and left all standing," said he. +"It was some superstition business - I never got the hang of it but +it began to look bad before the end." + +"I've heard a different story about that," said I, "and I had +better tell you so. I heard he ran away because of you." + +"O! well, I suppose he was ashamed to tell the truth," says Case; +"I guess he thought it silly. And it's a fact that I packed him +off. 'What would you do, old man?' says he. 'Get,' says I, 'and +not think twice about it.' I was the gladdest kind of man to see +him clear away. It ain't my notion to turn my back on a mate when +he's in a tight place, but there was that much trouble in the +village that I couldn't see where it might likely end. I was a +fool to be so much about with Vigours. They cast it up to me to- +day. Didn't you hear Maea - that's the young chief, the big one - +ripping out about 'Vika'? That was him they were after. They +don't seem to forget it, somehow." + +"This is all very well," said I, "but it don't tell me what's +wrong; it don't tell me what they're afraid of - what their idea +is." + +"Well, I wish I knew," said Case. "I can't say fairer than that." + +"You might have asked, I think," says I. + +"And so I did," says he. "But you must have seen for yourself, +unless you're blind, that the asking got the other way. I'll go as +far as I dare for another white man; but when I find I'm in the +scrape myself, I think first of my own bacon. The loss of me is +I'm too good-natured. And I'll take the freedom of telling you you +show a queer kind of gratitude to a man who's got into all this +mess along of your affairs." + +"There's a thing I am thinking of," said I. "You were a fool to be +so much about with Vigours. One comfort, you haven't been much +about with me. I notice you've never been inside my house. Own up +now; you had word of this before?" + +"It's a fact I haven't been," said he. "It was an oversight, and I +am sorry for it, Wiltshire. But about coming now, I'll be quite +plain." + +"You mean you won't?" I asked. + +"Awfully sorry, old man, but that's the size of it," says Case. + +"In short, you're afraid?" says I. + +"In short, I'm afraid," says he. + +"And I'm still to be tabooed for nothing?" I asked + +"I tell you you're not tabooed," said he. "The Kanakas won't go +near you, that's all. And who's to make 'em? We traders have a +lot of gall, I must say; we make these poor Kanakas take back their +laws, and take up their taboos, and that, whenever it happens to +suit us. But you don't mean to say you expect a law obliging +people to deal in your store whether they want to or not? You +don't mean to tell me you've got the gall for that? And if you +had, it would be a queer thing to propose to me. I would just like +to point out to you, Wiltshire, that I'm a trader myself." + +"I don't think I would talk of gall if I was you," said I. "Here's +about what it comes to, as well as I can make out: None of the +people are to trade with me, and they're all to trade with you. +You're to have the copra, and I'm to go to the devil and shake +myself. And I don't know any native, and you're the only man here +worth mention that speaks English, and you have the gall to up and +hint to me my life's in danger, and all you've got to tell me is +you don't know why!" + +"Well, it IS all I have to tell you," said he. "I don't know - I +wish I did." + +"And so you turn your back and leave me to myself! Is that the +position?" says I. + +"If you like to put it nasty," says he. "I don't put it so. I say +merely, 'I'm going to keep clear of you; or, if I don't, I'll get +in danger for myself.' " + +"Well," says I, "you're a nice kind of a white man!" + +"O, I understand; you're riled," said he. "I would be myself. I +can make excuses." + +"All right," I said, "go and make excuses somewhere else. Here's +my way, there's yours!" + +With that we parted, and I went straight home, in a hot temper, and +found Uma trying on a lot of trade goods like a baby. + +"Here," I said, "you quit that foolery! Here's a pretty mess to +have made, as if I wasn't bothered enough anyway! And I thought I +told you to get dinner!" + +And then I believe I gave her a bit of the rough side of my tongue, +as she deserved. She stood up at once, like a sentry to his +officer; for I must say she was always well brought up, and had a +great respect for whites. + +"And now," says I, "you belong round here, you're bound to +understand this. What am I tabooed for, anyway? Or, if I ain't +tabooed, what makes the folks afraid of me?" + +She stood and looked at me with eyes like saucers. + +"You no savvy?" she gasps at last. + +"No," said I. "How would you expect me to? We don't have any such +craziness where I come from." + +"Ese no tell you?" she asked again. + +(ESE was the name the natives had for Case; it may mean foreign, or +extraordinary; or it might mean a mummy apple; but most like it was +only his own name misheard and put in a Kanaka spelling.) + +"Not much," said I. + +"D-n Ese!" she cried. + +You might think it funny to hear this Kanaka girl come out with a +big swear. No such thing. There was no swearing in her - no, nor +anger; she was beyond anger, and meant the word simple and serious. +She stood there straight as she said it. I cannot justly say that +I ever saw a woman look like that before or after, and it struck me +mum. Then she made a kind of an obeisance, but it was the proudest +kind, and threw her hands out open. + +"I 'shamed," she said. "I think you savvy. Ese he tell me you +savvy, he tell me you no mind, tell me you love me too much. Taboo +belong me," she said, touching herself on the bosom, as she had +done upon our wedding-night. "Now I go 'way, taboo he go 'way too. +Then you get too much copra. You like more better, I think. TOFA, +ALII," says she in the native - "Farewell, chief!" + +"Hold on!" I cried. "Don't be in such a hurry." + +She looked at me sidelong with a smile. "You see, you get copra," +she said, the same as you might offer candies to a child. + +"Uma," said I, "hear reason. I didn't know, and that's a fact; and +Case seems to have played it pretty mean upon the pair of us. But +I do know now, and I don't mind; I love you too much. You no go +'way, you no leave me, I too much sorry." + +"You no love, me," she cried, "you talk me bad words!" And she +threw herself in a corner of the floor, and began to cry. + +Well, I'm no scholar, but I wasn't born yesterday, and I thought +the worst of that trouble was over. However, there she lay - her +back turned, her face to the wall - and shook with sobbing like a +little child, so that her feet jumped with it. It's strange how it +hits a man when he's in love; for there's no use mincing things - +Kanaka and all, I was in love with her, or just as good. I tried +to take her hand, but she would none of that. "Uma," I said, +"there's no sense in carrying on like this. I want you stop here, +I want my little wifie, I tell you true." + +"No tell me true," she sobbed. + +"All right," says I, "I'll wait till you're through with this." +And I sat right down beside her on the floor, and set to smooth her +hair with my hand. At first she wriggled away when I touched her; +then she seemed to notice me no more; then her sobs grew gradually +less, and presently stopped; and the next thing I knew, she raised +her face to mime. + +"You tell me true? You like me stop?" she asked. + +"Uma," I said, "I would rather have you than all the copra in the +South Seas," which was a very big expression, and the strangest +thing was that I meant it. + +She threw her arms about me, sprang close up, and pressed her face +to mine in the island way of kissing, so that I was all wetted with +her tears, and my heart went out to her wholly. I never had +anything so near me as this little brown bit of a girl. Many +things went together, and all helped to turn my head. She was +pretty enough to eat; it seemed she was my only friend in that +queer place; I was ashamed that I had spoken rough to her: and she +was a woman, and my wife, and a kind of a baby besides that I was +sorry for; and the salt of her tears was in my mouth. And I forgot +Case and the natives; and I forgot that I knew nothing of the +story, or only remembered it to banish the remembrance; and I +forgot that I was to get no copra, and so could make no livelihood; +and I forgot my employers, and the strange kind of service I was +doing them, when I preferred my fancy to their business; and I +forgot even that Uma was no true wife of mine, but just a maid +beguiled, and that in a pretty shabby style. But that is to look +too far on. I will come to that part of it next. + +It was late before we thought of getting dinner. The stove was +out, and gone stone-cold; but we fired up after a while, and cooked +each a dish, helping and hindering each other, and making a play of +it like children. I was so greedy of her nearness that I sat down +to dinner with my lass upon my knee, made sure of her with one +hand, and ate with the other. Ay, and more than that. She was the +worst cook I suppose God made; the things she set her hand to it +would have sickened an honest horse to eat of; yet I made my meal +that day on Uma's cookery, and can never call to mind to have been +better pleased. + +I didn't pretend to myself, and I didn't pretend to her. I saw I +was clean gone; and if she was to make a fool of me, she must. And +I suppose it was this that set her talking, for now she made sure +that we were friends. A lot she told me, sitting in my lap and +eating my dish, as I ate hers, from foolery - a lot about herself +and her mother and Case, all which would be very tedious, and fill +sheets if I set it down in Beach de Mar, but which I must give a +hint of in plain English, and one thing about myself which had a +very big effect on my concerns, as you are soon to hear. + +It seems she was born in one of the Line Islands; had been only two +or three years in these parts, where she had come with a white man, +who was married to her mother and then died; and only the one year +in Falesa. Before that they had been a good deal on the move, +trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling +stones that keep going round after a soft job. They talk about +looking for gold at the end of a rainbow; but if a man wants an +employment that'll last him till he dies, let him start out on the +soft-job hunt. There's meat and drink in it too, and beer and +skittles, for you never hear of them starving, and rarely see them +sober; and as for steady sport, cock-fighting isn't in the same +county with it. Anyway, this beachcomber carried the woman and her +daughter all over the shop, but mostly to out-of-the-way islands, +where there were no police, and he thought, perhaps, the soft job +hung out. I've my own view of this old party; but I was just as +glad he had kept Uma clear of Apia and Papeete and these flash +towns. At last he struck Fale-alii on this island, got some trade +- the Lord knows how! - muddled it all away in the usual style, and +died worth next to nothing, bar a bit of land at Falesa that he had +got for a bad debt, which was what put it in the minds of the +mother and daughter to come there and live. It seems Case +encouraged them all he could, and helped to get their house built. +He was very kind those days, and gave Uma trade, and there is no +doubt he had his eye on her from the beginning. However, they had +scarce settled, when up turned a young man, a native, and wanted to +marry her. He was a small chief, and had some fine mats and old +songs in his family, and was "very pretty," Uma said; and, +altogether, it was an extra-ordinary match for a penniless girl and +an out-islander. + +At the first word of this I got downright sick with jealousy. + +"And you mean to say you would have married him?" I cried. + +"IOE, yes," said she. "I like too much!" + +"Well!" I said. "And suppose I had come round after?" + +"I like you more better now," said she. "But, suppose I marry +Ioane, I one good wife. I no common Kanaka. Good girl!" says she. + +Well, I had to be pleased with that; but I promise you I didn't +care about the business one little bit. And I liked the end of +that yarn no better than the beginning. For it seems this proposal +of marriage was the start of all the trouble. It seems, before +that, Uma and her mother had been looked down upon, of course, for +kinless folk and out-islanders, but nothing to hurt; and, even when +Ioane came forward, there was less trouble at first than might have +been looked for. And then, all of a sudden, about six months +before my coming, Ioane backed out and left that part of the +island, and from that day to this Uma and her mother had found +themselves alone. None called at their house, none spoke to them +on the roads. If they went to church, the other women drew their +mats away and left them in a clear place by themselves. It was a +regular excommunication, like what you read of in the Middle Ages; +and the cause or sense of it beyond guessing. It was some TALA +PEPELO, Uma said, some lie, some calumny; and all she knew of it +was that the girls who had been jealous of her luck with Ioane used +to twit her with his desertion, and cry out, when they met her +alone in the woods, that she would never be married. "They tell me +no man he marry me. He too much 'fraid," she said. + +The only soul that came about them after this desertion was Master +Case. Even he was chary of showing himself, and turned up mostly +by night; and pretty soon he began to table his cards and make up +to Uma. I was still sore about Ioane, and when Case turned up in +the same line of business I cut up downright rough. + +"Well," I said, sneering, "and I suppose you thought Case 'very +pretty' and 'liked too much'?" + +"Now you talk silly," said she. "White man, he come here, I marry +him all-e-same Kanaka; very well then, he marry me all-e-same white +woman. Suppose he no marry, he go 'way, woman he stop. All-e-same +thief, empty hand, Tonga-heart - no can love! Now you come marry +me. You big heart - you no 'shamed island-girl. That thing I love +you for too much. I proud." + +I don't know that ever I felt sicker all the days of my life. I +laid down my fork, and I put away "the island-girl"; I didn't seem +somehow to have any use for either, and I went and walked up and +down in the house, and Uma followed me with her eyes, for she was +troubled, and small wonder! But troubled was no word for it with +me. I so wanted, and so feared, to make a clean breast of the +sweep that I had been. + +And just then there came a sound of singing out of the sea; it +sprang up suddenly clear and near, as the boat turned the headland, +and Uma, running to the window, cried out it was "Misi" come upon +his rounds. + +I thought it was a strange thing I should be glad to have a +missionary; but, if it was strange, it was still true. + +"Uma," said I, "you stop here in this room, and don't budge a foot +out of it till I come back." + + + + +CHAPTER III. THE MISSIONARY. + + +AS I came out on the verandah, the mission-boat was shooting for +the mouth of the river. She was a long whale-boat painted white; a +bit of an awning astern; a native pastor crouched on the wedge of +the poop, steering; some four-and-twenty paddles flashing and +dipping, true to the boat-song; and the missionary under the +awning, in his white clothes, reading in a book, and set him up! +It was pretty to see and hear; there's no smarter sight in the +islands than a missionary boat with a good crew and a good pipe to +them; and I considered it for half a minute, with a bit of envy +perhaps, and then strolled down towards the river. + +From the opposite side there was another man aiming for the same +place, but he ran and got there first. It was Case; doubtless his +idea was to keep me apart from the missionary, who might serve me +as interpreter; but my mind was upon other things. I was thinking +how he had jockeyed us about the marriage, and tried his hand on +Uma before; and at the sight of him rage flew into my nostrils. + +"Get out of that, you low, swindling thief!" I cried. + +"What's that you say?" says he. + +I gave him the word again, and rammed it down with a good oath. +"And if ever I catch you within six fathoms of my house," I cried, +"I'll clap a bullet in your measly carcase." + +"You must do as you like about your house," said he, "where I told +you I have no thought of going; but this is a public place." + +"It's a place where I have private business," said I. "I have no +idea of a hound like you eavesdropping, and I give you notice to +clear out." + +"I don't take it, though," says Case. + +"I'll show you, then," said I. + +"We'll have to see about that," said he. + +He was quick with his hands, but he had neither the height nor the +weight, being a flimsy creature alongside a man like me, and, +besides, I was blazing to that height of wrath that I could have +bit into a chisel. I gave him first the one and then the other, so +that I could hear his head rattle and crack, and he went down +straight. + +"Have you had enough?" cried I. But he only looked up white and +blank, and the blood spread upon his face like wine upon a napkin. +"Have you had enough?" I cried again. "Speak up, and don't lie +malingering there, or I'll take my feet to you." + +He sat up at that, and held his head - by the look of him you could +see it was spinning - and the blood poured on his pyjamas. + +"I've had enough for this time," says he, and he got up staggering, +and went off by the way that he had come. + +The boat was close in; I saw the missionary had laid his book to +one side, and I smiled to myself. "He'll know I'm a man, anyway," +thinks I. + +This was the first time, in all my years in the Pacific, I had ever +exchanged two words with any missionary, let alone asked one for a +favour. I didn't like the lot, no trader does; they look down upon +us, and make no concealment; and, besides, they're partly +Kanakaised, and suck up with natives instead of with other white +men like themselves. I had on a rig of clean striped pyjamas - +for, of course, I had dressed decent to go before the chiefs; but +when I saw the missionary step out of this boat in the regular +uniform, white duck clothes, pith helmet, white shirt and tie, and +yellow boots to his feet, I could have bunged stones at him. As he +came nearer, queering me pretty curious (because of the fight, I +suppose), I saw he looked mortal sick, for the truth was he had a +fever on, and had just had a chill in the boat. + +"Mr. Tarleton, I believe?" says I, for I had got his name. + +"And you, I suppose, are the new trader?" says he. + +"I want to tell you first that I don't hold with missions," I went +on, "and that I think you and the likes of you do a sight of harm, +filling up the natives with old wives' tales and bumptiousness." + +"You are perfectly entitled to your opinions," says he, looking a +bit ugly, "but I have no call to hear them." + +"It so happens that you've got to hear them," I said. "I'm no +missionary, nor missionary lover; I'm no Kanaka, nor favourer of +Kanakas - I'm just a trader; I'm just a common, low-down, God- +damned white man and British subject, the sort you would like to +wipe your boots on. I hope that's plain!" + +"Yes, my man," said he. "It's more plain than creditable. When +you are sober, you'll be sorry for this." + +He tried to pass on, but I stopped him with my hand. The Kanakas +were beginning to growl. Guess they didn't like my tone, for I +spoke to that man as free as I would to you. + +"Now, you can't say I've deceived you," said I, "and I can go on. +I want a service - I want two services, in fact; and, if you care +to give me them, I'll perhaps take more stock in what you call your +Christianity." + +He was silent for a moment. Then he smiled. "You are rather a +strange sort of man," says he. + +"I'm the sort of man God made me," says I. "I don't set up to be a +gentleman," I said. + +"I am not quite so sure," said he. "And what can I do for you, Mr. +- ?" + +"Wiltshire," I says, "though I'm mostly called Welsher; but +Wiltshire is the way it's spelt, if the people on the beach could +only get their tongues about it. And what do I want? Well, I'll +tell you the first thing. I'm what you call a sinner - what I call +a sweep - and I want you to help me make it up to a person I've +deceived." + +He turned and spoke to his crew in the native. "And now I am at +your service," said he, "but only for the time my crew are dining. +I must be much farther down the coast before night. I was delayed +at Papa-Malulu till this morning, and I have an engagement in Fale- +alii to-morrow night." + +I led the way to my house in silence, and rather pleased with +myself for the way I had managed the talk, for I like a man to keep +his self-respect. + +"I was sorry to see you fighting," says he. + +"O, that's part of the yarn I want to tell you," I said. "That's +service number two. After you've heard it you'll let me know +whether you're sorry or not." + +We walked right in through the store, and I was surprised to find +Uma had cleared away the dinner things. This was so unlike her +ways that I saw she had done it out of gratitude, and liked her the +better. She and Mr. Tarleton called each other by name, and he was +very civil to her seemingly. But I thought little of that; they +can always find civility for a Kanaka, it's us white men they lord +it over. Besides, I didn't want much Tarleton just them. I was +going to do my pitch. + +"Uma," said I, "give us your marriage certificate." She looked put +out. "Come," said I, "you can trust me. Hand it up." + +She had it about her person, as usual; I believe she thought it was +a pass to heaven, and if she died without having it handy she would +go to hell. I couldn't see where she put it the first time, I +couldn't see now where she took it from; it seemed to jump into her +hand like that Blavatsky business in the papers. But it's the same +way with all island women, and I guess they're taught it when +young. + +"Now," said I, with the certificate in my hand, "I was married to +this girl by Black Jack the negro. The certificate was wrote by +Case, and it's a dandy piece of literature, I promise you. Since +then I've found that there's a kind of cry in the place against +this wife of mine, and so long as I keep her I cannot trade. Now, +what would any man do in my place, if he was a man?" I said. "The +first thing he would do is this, I guess." And I took and tore up +the certificate and bunged the pieces on the floor. + +"AUE!" (2) cried Uma, and began to clap her hands; but I caught one +of them in mine. + +"And the second thing that he would do," said I, "if he was what I +would call a man and you would call a man, Mr. Tarleton, is to +bring the girl right before you or any other missionary, and to up +and say: 'I was wrong married to this wife of mine, but I think a +heap of her, and now I want to be married to her right.' Fire +away, Mr. Tarleton. And I guess you'd better do it in native; +it'll please the old lady," I said, giving her the proper name of a +man's wife upon the spot. + +So we had in two of the crew for to witness, and were spliced in +our own house; and the parson prayed a good bit, I must say - but +not so long as some - and shook hands with the pair of us. + +"Mr. Wiltshire," he says, when he had made out the lines and packed +off the witnesses, "I have to thank you for a very lively pleasure. +I have rarely performed the marriage ceremony with more grateful +emotions." + +That was what you would call talking. He was going on, besides, +with more of it, and I was ready for as much taffy as he had in +stock, for I felt good. But Uma had been taken up with something +half through the marriage, and cut straight in. + +"How your hand he get hurt?" she asked. + +"You ask Case's head, old lady," says I. + +She jumped with joy, and sang out. + +"You haven't made much of a Christian of this one," says I to Mr. +Tarleton. + +"We didn't think her one of our worst," says he, "when she was at +Fale-alii; and if Uma bears malice I shall be tempted to fancy she +has good cause." + +"Well, there we are at service number two," said I. "I want to +tell you our yarn, and see if you can let a little daylight in." + +"Is it long?" he asked. + +"Yes," I cried; "it's a goodish bit of a yarn!" + +"Well, I'll give you all the time I can spare," says he, looking at +his watch. "But I must tell you fairly, I haven't eaten since five +this morning, and, unless you can let me have something I am not +likely to eat again before seven or eight to-night." + +"By God, we'll give you dinner!" I cried. + +I was a little caught up at my swearing, just when all was going +straight; and so was the missionary, I suppose, but he made believe +to look out of the window, and thanked us. + +So we ran him up a bit of a meal. I was bound to let the old lady +have a hand in it, to show off, so I deputised her to brew the tea. +I don't think I ever met such tea as she turned out. But that was +not the worst, for she got round with the salt-box, which she +considered an extra European touch, and turned my stew into sea- +water. Altogether, Mr. Tarleton had a devil of a dinner of it; but +he had plenty entertainment by the way, for all the while that we +were cooking, and afterwards, when he was making believe to eat, I +kept posting him up on Master Case and the beach of Falesa, and he +putting questions that showed he was following close. + +"Well," said he at last, "I am afraid you have a dangerous enemy. +This man Case is very clever and seems really wicked. I must tell +you I have had my eye on him for nearly a year, and have rather had +the worst of our encounters. About the time when the last +representative of your firm ran so suddenly away, I had a letter +from Namu, the native pastor, begging me to come to Falesa at my +earliest convenience, as his flock were all 'adopting Catholic +practices.' I had great confidence in Namu; I fear it only shows +how easily we are deceived. No one could hear him preach and not +be persuaded he was a man of extraordinary parts. All our +islanders easily acquire a kind of eloquence, and can roll out and +illustrate, with a great deal of vigour and fancy, second-hand +sermons; but Namu's sermons are his own, and I cannot deny that I +have found them means of grace. Moreover, he has a keen curiosity +in secular things, does not fear work, is clever at carpentering, +and has made himself so much respected among the neighbouring +pastors that we call him, in a jest which is half serious, the +Bishop of the East. In short, I was proud of the man; all the more +puzzled by his letter, and took an occasion to come this way. The +morning before my arrival, Vigours had been sent on board the LION, +and Namu was perfectly at his ease, apparently ashamed of his +letter, and quite unwilling to explain it. This, of course, I +could not allow, and he ended by confessing that he had been much +concerned to find his people using the sign of the cross, but since +he had learned the explanation his mind was satisfied. For Vigours +had the Evil Eye, a common thing in a country of Europe called +Italy, where men were often struck dead by that kind of devil, and +it appeared the sign of the cross was a charm against its power. + +"'And I explain it, Misi,' said Namu, 'in this way: The country in +Europe is a Popey country, and the devil of the Evil Eye may be a +Catholic devil, or, at least, used to Catholic ways. So then I +reasoned thus: if this sign of the cross were used in a Popey +manner it would be sinful, but when it is used only to protect men +from a devil, which is a thing harmless in itself, the sign too +must be, as a bottle is neither good nor bad, harmless. For the +sign is neither good nor bad. But if the bottle be full of gin, +the gin is bad; and if the sign be made in idolatry bad, so is the +idolatry.' And, very like a native pastor, he had a text apposite +about the casting out of devils. + +"'And who has been telling you about the Evil Eye?' I asked. + +"He admitted it was Case. Now, I am afraid you will think me very +narrow, Mr. Wiltshire, but I must tell you I was displeased, and +cannot think a trader at all a good man to advise or have an +influence upon my pastors. And, besides, there had been some +flying talk in the country of old Adams and his being poisoned, to +which I had paid no great heed; but it came back to me at the +moment. + +"'And is this Case a man of a sanctified life?' I asked. + +"He admitted he was not; for, though he did not drink, he was +profligate with women, and had no religion. + +" 'Then,' said I, 'I think the less you have to do with him the +better.' + +"But it is not easy to have the last word with a man like Namu. He +was ready in a moment with an illustration. 'Misi,' said he, 'you +have told me there were wise men, not pastors, not even holy, who +knew many things useful to be taught - about trees for instance, +and beasts, and to print books, and about the stones that are +burned to make knives of. Such men teach you in your college, and +you learn from them, but take care not to learn to be unholy. +Misi, Case is my college.' + +"I knew not what to say. Mr. Vigours had evidently been driven out +of Falesa by the machinations of Case and with something not very +unlike the collusion of my pastor. I called to mind it was Namu +who had reassured me about Adams and traced the rumour to the ill- +will of the priest. And I saw I must inform myself more thoroughly +from an impartial source. There is an old rascal of a chief here, +Faiaso, whom I dare say you saw to-day at the council; he has been +all his life turbulent and sly, a great fomenter of rebellions, and +a thorn in the side of the mission and the island. For all that he +is very shrewd, and, except in politics or about his own +misdemeanours, a teller of the truth. I went to his house, told +him what I had heard, and besought him to be frank. I do not think +I had ever a more painful interview. Perhaps you will understand +me, Mr. Wiltshire, if I tell you that I am perfectly serious in +these old wives' tales with which you reproached me, and as anxious +to do well for these islands as you can be to please and to protect +your pretty wife. And you are to remember that I thought Namu a +paragon, and was proud of the man as one of the first ripe fruits +of the mission. And now I was informed that he had fallen in a +sort of dependence upon Case. The beginning of it was not corrupt; +it began, doubtless, in fear and respect, produced by trickery and +pretence; but I was shocked to find that another element had been +lately added, that Namu helped himself in the store, and was +believed to be deep in Case's debt. Whatever the trader said, that +Namu believed with trembling. He was not alone in this; many in +the village lived in a similar subjection; but Namu's case was the +most influential, it was through Namu Case had wrought most evil; +and with a certain following among the chiefs, and the pastor in +his pocket, the man was as good as master of the village. You know +something of Vigours and Adams, but perhaps you have never heard of +old Underhill, Adams' predecessor. He was a quiet, mild old +fellow, I remember, and we were told he had died suddenly: white +men die very suddenly in Falesa. The truth, as I now heard it, +made my blood run cold. It seems he was struck with a general +palsy, all of him dead but one eye, which he continually winked. +Word was started that the helpless old man was now a devil, and +this vile fellow Case worked upon the natives' fears, which he +professed to share, and pretended he durst not go into the house +alone. At last a grave was dug, and the living body buried at the +far end of the village. Namu, my pastor, whom I had helped to +educate, offered up a prayer at the hateful scene. + +"I felt myself in a very difficult position. Perhaps it was my +duty to have denounced Namu and had him deposed. Perhaps I think +so now, but at the time it seemed less clear. He had a great +influence, it might prove greater than mine. The natives are prone +to superstition; perhaps by stirring them up I might but ingrain +and spread these dangerous fancies. And Namu besides, apart from +this novel and accursed influence, was a good pastor, an able man, +and spiritually minded. Where should I look for a better? How was +I to find as good? At that moment, with Namu's failure fresh in my +view, the work of my life appeared a mockery; hope was dead in me. +I would rather repair such tools as I had than go abroad in quest +of others that must certainly prove worse; and a scandal is, at the +best, a thing to be avoided when humanly possible. Right or wrong, +then, I determined on a quiet course. All that night I denounced +and reasoned with the erring pastor, twitted him with his ignorance +and want of faith, twitted him with his wretched attitude, making +clean the outside of the cup and platter, callously helping at a +murder, childishly flying in excitement about a few childish, +unnecessary, and inconvenient gestures; and long before day I had +him on his knees and bathed in the tears of what seemed a genuine +repentance. On Sunday I took the pulpit in the morning, and +preached from First Kings, nineteenth, on the fire, the earthquake, +and the voice, distinguishing the true spiritual power, and +referring with such plainness as I dared to recent events in +Falesa. The effect produced was great, and it was much increased +when Namu rose in his turn and confessed that he had been wanting +in faith and conduct, and was convinced of sin. So far, then, all +was well; but there was one unfortunate circumstance. It was +nearing the time of our 'May' in the island, when the native +contributions to the missions are received; it fell in my duty to +make a notification on the subject, and this gave my enemy his +chance, by which he was not slow to profit. + +"News of the whole proceedings must have been carried to Case as +soon as church was over, and the same afternoon he made an occasion +to meet me in the midst of the village. He came up with so much +intentness and animosity that I felt it would be damaging to avoid +him. + +"'So,' says he, in native, 'here is the holy man. He has been +preaching against me, but that was not in his heart. He has been +preaching upon the love of God; but that was not in his heart, it +was between his teeth. Will you know what was in his heart?' - +cries he. 'I will show it you!' And, making a snatch at my head, +he made believe to pluck out a dollar, and held it in the air. + +"There went that rumour through the crowd with which Polynesians +receive a prodigy. As for myself, I stood amazed. The thing was a +common conjuring trick which I have seen performed at home a score +of times; but how was I to convince the villagers of that? I +wished I had learned legerdemain instead of Hebrew, that I might +have paid the fellow out with his own coin. But there I was; I +could not stand there silent, and the best I could find to say was +weak. + +"'I will trouble you not to lay hands on me again,' said I. + +"'I have no such thought,' said he, 'nor will I deprive you of your +dollar. Here it is,' he said, and flung it at my feet. I am told +it lay where it fell three days." + +"I must say it was well played," said I. + +"O! he is clever," said Mr. Tarleton, "and you can now see for +yourself how dangerous. He was a party to the horrid death of the +paralytic; he is accused of poisoning Adams; he drove Vigours out +of the place by lies that might have led to murder; and there is no +question but he has now made up his mind to rid himself of you. +How he means to try we have no guess; only be sure, it's something +new. There is no end to his readiness and invention." + +"He gives himself a sight of trouble," says I. "And after all, +what for?" + +"Why, how many tons of copra may they make in this district?" asked +the missionary. + +"I daresay as much as sixty tons," says I. + +"And what is the profit to the local trader?" he asked. + +"You may call it, three pounds," said I. + +"Then you can reckon for yourself how much he does it for," said +Mr. Tarleton. "But the more important thing is to defeat him. It +is clear he spread some report against Uma, in order to isolate and +have his wicked will of her. Failing of that, and seeing a new +rival come upon the scene, he used her in a different way. Now, +the first point to find out is about Namu. Uma, when people began +to leave you and your mother alone, what did Namu do?" + +"Stop away all-e-same," says Uma. + +"I fear the dog has returned to his vomit," said Mr. Tarleton. +"And now what am I to do for you? I will speak to Namu, I will +warn him he is observed; it will be strange if he allow anything to +go on amiss when he is put upon his guard. At the same time, this +precaution may fail, and then you must turn elsewhere. You have +two people at hand to whom you might apply. There is, first of +all, the priest, who might protect you by the Catholic interest; +they are a wretchedly small body, but they count two chiefs. And +then there is old Faiaso. Ah! if it had been some years ago you +would have needed no one else; but his influence is much reduced, +it has gone into Maea's hands, and Maea, I fear, is one of Case's +jackals. In fine, if the worst comes to the worst, you must send +up or come yourself to Fale-alii, and, though I am not due at this +end of the island for a month, I will just see what can be done." + +So Mr. Tarleton said farewell; and half an hour later the crew were +singing and the paddles flashing in the missionary-boat. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. DEVIL-WORK. + + +NEAR a month went by without much doing. The same night of our +marriage Galoshes called round, and made himself mighty civil, and +got into a habit of dropping in about dark and smoking his pipe +with the family. He could talk to Uma, of course, and started to +teach me native and French at the same time. He was a kind old +buffer, though the dirtiest you would wish to see, and he muddled +me up with foreign languages worse than the tower of Babel. + +That was one employment we had, and it made me feel less lonesome; +but there was no profit in the thing, for though the priest came +and sat and yarned, none of his folks could be enticed into my +store; and if it hadn't been for the other occupation I struck out, +there wouldn't have been a pound of copra in the house. This was +the idea: Fa'avao (Uma's mother) had a score of bearing trees. Of +course we could get no labour, being all as good as tabooed, and +the two women and I turned to and made copra with our own hands. +It was copra to make your mouth water when it was done - I never +understood how much the natives cheated me till I had made that +four hundred pounds of my own hand - and it weighed so light I felt +inclined to take and water it myself. + +When we were at the job a good many Kanakas used to put in the best +of the day looking on, and once that nigger turned up. He stood +back with the natives and laughed and did the big don and the funny +dog, till I began to get riled. + +"Here, you nigger!" says I. + +"I don't address myself to you, Sah," says the nigger. "Only speak +to gen'le'um." + +"I know," says I, "but it happens I was addressing myself to you, +Mr. Black Jack. And all I want to know is just this: did you see +Case's figurehead about a week ago?" + +"No, Sah," says he. + +"That's all right, then," says I; "for I'll show you the own +brother to it, only black, in the inside of about two minutes." + +And I began to walk towards him, quite slow, and my hands down; +only there was trouble in my eye, if anybody took the pains to +look. + +"You're a low, obstropulous fellow, Sah," says he. + +"You bet!" says I. + +By that time he thought I was about as near as convenient, and lit +out so it would have done your heart good to see him travel. And +that was all I saw of that precious gang until what I am about to +tell you. + +It was one of my chief employments these days to go pot-hunting in +the woods, which I found (as Case had told me) very rich in game. +I have spoken of the cape which shut up the village and my station +from the east. A path went about the end of it, and led into the +next bay. A strong wind blew here daily, and as the line of the +barrier reef stopped at the end of the cape, a heavy surf ran on +the shores of the bay. A little cliffy hill cut the valley in two +parts, and stood close on the beach; and at high water the sea +broke right on the face of it, so that all passage was stopped. +Woody mountains hemmed the place all round; the barrier to the east +was particularly steep and leafy, the lower parts of it, along the +sea, falling in sheer black cliffs streaked with cinnabar; the +upper part lumpy with the tops of the great trees. Some of the +trees were bright green, and some red, and the sand of the beach as +black as your shoes. Many birds hovered round the bay, some of +them snow-white; and the flying-fox (or vampire) flew there in +broad daylight, gnashing its teeth. + +For a long while I came as far as this shooting, and went no +farther. There was no sign of any path beyond, and the cocoa-palms +in the front of the foot of the valley were the last this way. For +the whole "eye" of the island, as natives call the windward end, +lay desert. From Falesa round about to Papa-malulu, there was +neither house, nor man, nor planted fruit-tree; and the reef being +mostly absent, and the shores bluff, the sea beat direct among +crags, and there was scarce a landing-place. + +I should tell you that after I began to go in the woods, although +no one offered to come near my store, I found people willing enough +to pass the time of day with me where nobody could see them; and as +I had begun to pick up native, and most of them had a word or two +of English, I began to hold little odds and ends of conversation, +not to much purpose to be sure, but they took off the worst of the +feeling, for it's a miserable thing to be made a leper of. + +It chanced one day towards the end of the month, that I was sitting +in this bay in the edge of the bush, looking east, with a Kanaka. +I had given him a fill of tobacco, and we were making out to talk +as best we could; indeed, he had more English than most. + +I asked him if there was no road going eastward. + +"One time one road," said he. "Now he dead." + +"Nobody he go there?" I asked. + +"No good," said he. "Too much devil he stop there." + +"Oho!" says I, "got-um plenty devil, that bush?" + +"Man devil, woman devil; too much devil," said my friend. "Stop +there all-e-time. Man he go there, no come back." + +I thought if this fellow was so well posted on devils and spoke of +them so free, which is not common, I had better fish for a little +information about myself and Uma. + +"You think me one devil?" I asked. + +"No think devil," said he soothingly. "Think all-e-same fool." + +"Uma, she devil?" I asked again. + +"No, no; no devil. Devil stop bush," said the young man. + +I was looking in front of me across the bay, and I saw the hanging +front of the woods pushed suddenly open, and Case, with a gun in +his hand, step forth into the sunshine on the black beach. He was +got up in light pyjamas, near white, his gun sparkled, he looked +mighty conspicuous; and the land-crabs scuttled from all round him +to their holes. + +"Hullo, my friend!" says I, "you no talk all-e-same true. Ese he +go, he come back." + +"Ese no all-e-same; Ese TIAPOLO," says my friend; and, with a +"Good-bye," slunk off among the trees. + +I watched Case all round the beach, where the tide was low; and let +him pass me on the homeward way to Falesa. He was in deep thought, +and the birds seemed to know it, trotting quite near him on the +sand, or wheeling and calling in his ears. When he passed me I +could see by the working of his lips that he was talking to +himself, and what pleased me mightily, he had still my trade mark +on his brow, I tell you the plain truth: I had a mind to give him a +gunful in his ugly mug, but I thought better of it. + +All this time, and all the time I was following home, I kept +repeating that native word, which I remembered by "Polly, put the +kettle on and make us all some tea," tea-a-pollo. + +"Uma," says I, when I got back, "what does TIAPOLO mean?" + +"Devil," says she. + +"I thought AITU was the word for that," I said. + +"AITU 'nother kind of devil," said she; "stop bush, eat Kanaka. +Tiapolo big chief devil, stop home; all-e-same Christian devil." + +"Well then," said I, "I'm no farther forward. How can Case be +Tiapolo?" + +"No all-e-same," said she. "Ese belong Tiapolo; Tiapolo too much +like; Ese all-e-same his son. Suppose Ese he wish something, +Tiapolo he make him." + +"That's mighty convenient for Ese," says I. "And what kind of +things does he make for him?" + +Well, out came a rigmarole of all sorts of stories, many of which +(like the dollar he took from Mr. Tarleton's head) were plain +enough to me, but others I could make nothing of; and the thing +that most surprised the Kanakas was what surprised me least - +namely, that he would go in the desert among all the AITUS. Some +of the boldest, however, had accompanied him, and had heard him +speak with the dead and give them orders, and, safe in his +protection, had returned unscathed. Some said he had a church +there, where he worshipped Tiapolo, and Tiapolo appeared to him; +others swore that there was no sorcery at all, that he performed +his miracles by the power of prayer, and the church was no church, +but a prison, in which he had confined a dangerous AITU. Namu had +been in the bush with him once, and returned glorifying God for +these wonders. Altogether, I began to have a glimmer of the man's +position, and the means by which he had acquired it, and, though I +saw he was a tough nut to crack, I was noways cast down. + +"Very well," said I, "I'll have a look at Master Case's place of +worship myself, and we'll see about the glorifying." + +At this Uma fell in a terrible taking; if I went in the high bush I +should never return; none could go there but by the protection of +Tiapolo. + +"I'll chance it on God's," said I. "I'm a good sort of a fellow, +Uma, as fellows go, and I guess God'll con me through." + +She was silent for a while. "I think," said she, mighty solemn - +and then, presently - "Victoreea, he big chief?" + +"You bet!" said I. + +"He like you too much?" she asked again. + +I told her, with a grin, I believed the old lady was rather partial +to me. + +"All right," said she. "Victoreea he big chief, like you too much. +No can help you here in Falesa; no can do - too far off. Maea he +small chief - stop here. Suppose he like you - make you all right. +All-e-same God and Tiapolo. God he big chief - got too much work. +Tiapolo he small chief - he like too much make-see, work very +hard." + +"I'll have to hand you over to Mr. Tarleton," said I. "Your +theology's out of its bearings, Uma." + +However, we stuck to this business all the evening, and, with the +stories she told me of the desert and its dangers, she came near +frightening herself into a fit. I don't remember half a quarter of +them, of course, for I paid little heed; but two come back to me +kind of clear. + +About six miles up the coast there is a sheltered cove they call +FANGA-ANAANA - "the haven full of caves." I've seen it from the +sea myself, as near as I could get my boys to venture in; and it's +a little strip of yellow sand. Black cliffs overhang it, full of +the black mouths of caves; great trees overhang the cliffs, and +dangle-down lianas; and in one place, about the middle, a big brook +pours over in a cascade. Well, there was a boat going by here, +with six young men of Falesa, "all very pretty," Uma said, which +was the loss of them. It blew strong, there was a heavy head sea, +and by the time they opened Fanga-anaana, and saw the white cascade +and the shady beach, they were all tired and thirsty, and their +water had run out. One proposed to land and get a drink, and, +being reckless fellows, they were all of the same mind except the +youngest. Lotu was his name; he was a very good young gentleman, +and very wise; and he held out that they were crazy, telling them +the place was given over to spirits and devils and the dead, and +there were no living folk nearer than six miles the one way, and +maybe twelve the other. But they laughed at his words, and, being +five to one, pulled in, beached the boat, and landed. It was a +wonderful pleasant place, Lotu said, and the water excellent. They +walked round the beach, but could see nowhere any way to mount the +cliffs, which made them easier in their mind; and at last they sat +down to make a meal on the food they had brought with them. They +were scarce set, when there came out of the mouth of one of the +black caves six of the most beautiful ladies ever seen: they had +flowers in their hair, and the most beautiful breasts, and +necklaces of scarlet seeds; and began to jest with these young +gentlemen, and the young gentlemen to jest back with them, all but +Lotu. As for Lotu, he saw there could be no living woman in such a +place, and ran, and flung himself in the bottom of the boat, and +covered his face, and prayed. All the time the business lasted +Lotu made one clean break of prayer, and that was all he knew of +it, until his friends came back, and made him sit up, and they put +to sea again out of the bay, which was now quite desert, and no +word of the six ladies. But, what frightened Lotu most, not one of +the five remembered anything of what had passed, but they were all +like drunken men, and sang and laughed in the boat, and skylarked. +The wind freshened and came squally, and the sea rose extraordinary +high; it was such weather as any man in the islands would have +turned his back to and fled home to Falesa; but these five were +like crazy folk, and cracked on all sail and drove their boat into +the seas. Lotu went to the bailing; none of the others thought to +help him, but sang and skylarked and carried on, and spoke singular +things beyond a man's comprehension, and laughed out loud when they +said them. So the rest of the day Lotu bailed for his life in the +bottom of the boat, and was all drenched with sweat and cold sea- +water; and none heeded him. Against all expectation, they came +safe in a dreadful tempest to Papa-malulu, where the palms were +singing out, and the cocoa-nuts flying like cannon-balls about the +village green; and the same night the five young gentlemen +sickened, and spoke never a reasonable word until they died. + +"And do you mean to tell me you can swallow a yarn like that?" I +asked. + +She told me the thing was well known, and with handsome young men +alone it was even common; but this was the only case where five had +been slain the same day and in a company by the love of the women- +devils; and it had made a great stir in the island, and she would +be crazy if she doubted. + +"Well, anyway," says I, "you needn't be frightened about me. I've +no use for the women-devils. You're all the women I want, and all +the devil too, old lady." + +To this she answered there were other sorts, and she had seen one +with her own eyes. She had gone one day alone to the next bay, +and, perhaps, got too near the margin of the bad place. The boughs +of the high bush overshadowed her from the cant of the hill, but +she herself was outside on a flat place, very stony and growing +full of young mummy-apples four and five feet high. It was a dark +day in the rainy season, and now there came squalls that tore off +the leaves and sent them flying, and now it was all still as in a +house. It was in one of these still times that a whole gang of +birds and flying foxes came pegging out of the bush like creatures +frightened. Presently after she heard a rustle nearer hand, and +saw, coming out of the margin of the trees, among the mummy-apples, +the appearance of a lean grey old boar. It seemed to think as it +came, like a person; and all of a sudden, as she looked at it +coming, she was aware it was no boar but a thing that was a man +with a man's thoughts. At that she ran, and the pig after her, and +as the pig ran it holla'd aloud, so that the place rang with it. + +"I wish I had been there with my gun," said I. "I guess that pig +would have holla'd so as to surprise himself." + +But she told me a gun was of no use with the like of these, which +were the spirits of the dead. + +Well, this kind of talk put in the evening, which was the best of +it; but of course it didn't change my notion, and the next day, +with my gun and a good knife, I set off upon a voyage of discovery. +I made, as near as I could, for the place where I had seen Case +come out; for if it was true he had some kind of establishment in +the bush I reckoned I should find a path. The beginning of the +desert was marked off by a wall, to call it so, for it was more of +a long mound of stones. They say it reaches right across the +island, but how they know it is another question, for I doubt if +anyone has made the journey in a hundred years, the natives +sticking chiefly to the sea and their little colonies along the +coast, and that part being mortal high and steep and full of +cliffs. Up to the west side of the wall, the ground has been +cleared, and there are cocoa palms and mummy-apples and guavas, and +lots of sensitive plants. Just across, the bush begins outright; +high bush at that, trees going up like the masts of ships, and +ropes of liana hanging down like a ship's rigging, and nasty +orchids growing in the forks like funguses. The ground where there +was no underwood looked to be a heap of boulders. I saw many green +pigeons which I might have shot, only I was there with a different +idea. A number of butterflies flopped up and down along the ground +like dead leaves; sometimes I would hear a bird calling, sometimes +the wind overhead, and always the sea along the coast. + +But the queerness of the place it's more difficult to tell of, +unless to one who has been alone in the high bush himself. The +brightest kind of a day it is always dim down there. A man can see +to the end of nothing; whichever way he looks the wood shuts up, +one bough folding with another like the fingers of your hand; and +whenever he listens he hears always something new - men talking, +children laughing, the strokes of an axe a far way ahead of him, +and sometimes a sort of a quick, stealthy scurry near at hand that +makes him jump and look to his weapons. It's all very well for him +to tell himself that he's alone, bar trees and birds; he can't make +out to believe it; whichever way he turns the whole place seems to +be alive and looking on. Don't think it was Uma's yarns that put +me out; I don't value native talk a fourpenny-piece; it's a thing +that's natural in the bush, and that's the end of it. + +As I got near the top of the hill, for the ground of the wood goes +up in this place steep as a ladder, the wind began to sound +straight on, and the leaves to toss and switch open and let in the +sun. This suited me better; it was the same noise all the time, +and nothing to startle. Well, I had got to a place where there was +an underwood of what they call wild cocoanut - mighty pretty with +its scarlet fruit - when there came a sound of singing in the wind +that I thought I had never heard the like of. It was all very fine +to tell myself it was the branches; I knew better. It was all very +fine to tell myself it was a bird; I knew never a bird that sang +like that. It rose and swelled, and died away and swelled again; +and now I thought it was like someone weeping, only prettier; and +now I thought it was like harps; and there was one thing I made sure +of, it was a sight too sweet to be wholesome in a place like that. +You may laugh if you like; but I declare I called to mind the six +young ladies that came, with their scarlet necklaces, out of the cave +at Fanga-anaana, and wondered if they sang like that. We laugh at +the natives and their superstitions; but see how many traders take +them up, splendidly educated white men, that have been book-keepers +(some of them) and clerks in the old country. It's my belief a +superstition grows up in a place like the different kind of weeds; +and as I stood there and listened to that wailing I twittered in +my shoes. + +You may call me a coward to be frightened; I thought myself brave +enough to go on ahead. But I went mighty carefully, with my gun +cocked, spying all about me like a hunter, fully expecting to see a +handsome young woman sitting somewhere in the bush, and fully +determined (if I did) to try her with a charge of duck-shot. And +sure enough, I had not gone far when I met with a queer thing. The +wind came on the top of the wood in a strong puff, the leaves in +front of me burst open, and I saw for a second something hanging in +a tree. It was gone in a wink, the puff blowing by and the leaves +closing. I tell you the truth: I had made up my mind to see an +AITU; and if the thing had looked like a pig or a woman, it +wouldn't have given me the same turn. The trouble was that it +seemed kind of square, and the idea of a square thing that was +alive and sang knocked me sick and silly. I must have stood quite +a while; and I made pretty certain it was right out of the same +tree that the singing came. Then I began to come to myself a bit. + +"Well," says I, "if this is really so, if this is a place where +there are square things that sing, I'm gone up anyway. Let's have +my fun for my money." + +But I thought I might as well take the off chance of a prayer being +any good; so I plumped on my knees and prayed out loud; and all the +time I was praying the strange sounds came out of the tree, and +went up and down, and changed, for all the world like music, only +you could see it wasn't human - there was nothing there that you +could whistle. + +As soon as I had made an end in proper style, I laid down my gun, +stuck my knife between my teeth, walked right up to that tree, and +began to climb. I tell you my heart was like ice. But presently, +as I went up, I caught another glimpse of the thing, and that +relieved me, for I thought it seemed like a box; and when I had got +right up to it I near fell out of the tree with laughing. + +A box it was, sure enough, and a candle-box at that, with the brand +upon the side of it; and it had banjo strings stretched so as to +sound when the wind blew. I believe they call the thing a Tyrolean +(3) harp, whatever that may mean. + +"Well, Mr. Case," said I, "you've frightened me once, but I defy +you to frighten me again," I says, and slipped down the tree, and +set out again to find my enemy's head office, which I guessed would +not be far away. + +The undergrowth was thick in this part; I couldn't see before my +nose, and must burst my way through by main force and ply the knife +as I went, slicing the cords of the lianas and slashing down whole +trees at a blow. I call them trees for the bigness, but in truth +they were just big weeds, and sappy to cut through like carrot. +From all this crowd and kind of vegetation, I was just thinking to +myself, the place might have once been cleared, when I came on my +nose over a pile of stones, and saw in a moment it was some kind of +a work of man. The Lord knows when it was made or when deserted, +for this part of the island has lain undisturbed since long before +the whites came. A few steps beyond I hit into the path I had been +always looking for. It was narrow, but well beaten, and I saw that +Case had plenty of disciples. It seems, indeed, it was a piece of +fashionable boldness to venture up here with the trader, and a +young man scarce reckoned himself grown till he had got his breech +tattooed, for one thing, and seen Case's devils for another. This +is mighty like Kanakas; but, if you look at it another way, it's +mighty like white folks too. + +A bit along the path I was brought to a clear stand, and had to rub +my eyes. There was a wall in front of me, the path passing it by a +gap; it was tumbledown and plainly very old, but built of big +stones very well laid; and there is no native alive to-day upon +that island that could dream of such a piece of building. Along +all the top of it was a line of queer figures, idols or scarecrows, +or what not. They had carved and painted faces ugly to view, their +eyes and teeth were of shell, their hair and their bright clothes +blew in the wind, and some of them worked with the tugging. There +are islands up west where they make these kind of figures till to- +day; but if ever they were made in this island, the practice and +the very recollection of it are now long forgotten. And the +singular thing was that all these bogies were as fresh as toys out +of a shop. + +Then it came in my mind that Case had let out to me the first day +that he was a good forger of island curiosities, a thing by which +so many traders turn an honest penny. And with that I saw the +whole business, and how this display served the man a double +purpose: first of all, to season his curiosities, and then to +frighten those that came to visit him. + +But I should tell you (what made the thing more curious) that all +the time the Tyrolean harps were harping round me in the trees, and +even while I looked, a green-and-yellow bird (that, I suppose, was +building) began to tear the hair off the head of one of the +figures. + +A little farther on I found the best curiosity of the museum. The +first I saw of it was a longish mound of earth with a twist to it. +Digging off the earth with my hands, I found underneath tarpaulin +stretched on boards, so that this was plainly the roof of a cellar. +It stood right on the top of the hill, and the entrance was on the +far side, between two rocks, like the entrance to a cave. I went +as far in as the bend, and, looking round the corner, saw a shining +face. It was big and ugly, like a pantomime mask, and the +brightness of it waxed and dwindled, and at times it smoked. + +"Oho!" says I, "luminous paint!" + +And I must say I rather admired the man's ingenuity. With a box of +tools and a few mighty simple contrivances he had made out to have +a devil of a temple. Any poor Kanaka brought up here in the dark, +with the harps whining all round him, and shown that smoking face +in the bottom of a hole, would make no kind of doubt but he had +seen and heard enough devils for a lifetime. It's easy to find out +what Kanakas think. Just go back to yourself any way round from +ten to fifteen years old, and there's an average Kanaka. There are +some pious, just as there are pious boys; and the most of them, +like the boys again, are middling honest and yet think it rather +larks to steal, and are easy scared and rather like to be so. I +remember a boy I was at school with at home who played the Case +business. He didn't know anything, that boy; he couldn't do +anything; he had no luminous paint and no Tyrolean harps; he just +boldly said he was a sorcerer, and frightened us out of our boots, +and we loved it. And then it came in my mind how the master had +once flogged that boy, and the surprise we were all in to see the +sorcerer catch it and burn like anybody else. Thinks I to myself, +"I must find some way of fixing it so for Master Case." And the +next moment I had my idea. + +I went back by the path, which, when once you had found it, was +quite plain and easy walking; and when I stepped out on the black +sands, who should I see but Master Case himself. I cocked my gun +and held it handy, and we marched up and passed without a word, +each keeping the tail of his eye on the other; and no sooner had we +passed than we each wheeled round like fellows drilling, and stood +face to face. We had each taken the same notion in his head, you +see, that the other fellow might give him the load of his gun in +the stern. + +"You've shot nothing," says Case. + +"I'm not on the shoot to-day," said I. + +"Well, the devil go with you for me," says he. + +"The same to you," says I. + +But we stuck just the way we were; no fear of either of us moving. + +Case laughed. "We can't stop here all day, though," said he. + +"Don't let me detain you," says I. + +He laughed again. "Look here, Wiltshire, do you think me a fool?" +he asked. + +"More of a knave, if you want to know," says I. + +"Well, do you think it would better me to shoot you here, on this +open beach?" said he. "Because I don't. Folks come fishing every +day. There may be a score of them up the valley now, making copra; +there might be half a dozen on the hill behind you, after pigeons; +they might be watching us this minute, and I shouldn't wonder. I +give you my word I don't want to shoot you. Why should I? You +don't hinder me any. You haven't got one pound of copra but what +you made with your own hands, like a negro slave. You're +vegetating - that's what I call it - and I don't care where you +vegetate, nor yet how long. Give me your word you don't mean to +shoot me, and I'll give you a lead and walk away." + +"Well," said I, "You're frank and pleasant, ain't you? And I'll be +the same. I don't mean to shoot you to-day. Why should I? This +business is beginning; it ain't done yet, Mr. Case. I've given you +one turn already; I can see the marks of my knuckles on your head +to this blooming hour, and I've more cooking for you. I'm not a +paralee, like Underhill. My name ain't Adams, and it ain't +Vigours; and I mean to show you that you've met your match." + +"This is a silly way to talk," said he. "This is not the talk to +make me move on with." + +"All right," said I, "stay where you are. I ain't in any hurry, +and you know it. I can put in a day on this beach and never mind. +I ain't got any copra to bother with. I ain't got any luminous +paint to see to." + +I was sorry I said that last, but it whipped out before I knew. I +could see it took the wind out of his sails, and he stood and +stared at me with his brow drawn up. Then I suppose he made up his +mind he must get to the bottom of this. + +"I take you at your word," says he, and turned his back, and walked +right into the devil's bush. + +I let him go, of course, for I had passed my word. But I watched +him as long as he was in sight, and after he was gone lit out for +cover as lively as you would want to see, and went the rest of the +way home under the bush, for I didn't trust him sixpence-worth. +One thing I saw, I had been ass enough to give him warning, and +that which I meant to do I must do at once. + +You would think I had had about enough excitement for one morning, +but there was another turn waiting me. As soon as I got far enough +round the cape to see my house I made out there were strangers +there; a little farther, and no doubt about it. There was a couple +of armed sentinels squatting at my door. I could only suppose the +trouble about Uma must have come to a head, and the station been +seized. For aught I could think, Uma was taken up already, and +these armed men were waiting to do the like with me. + +However, as I came nearer, which I did at top speed, I saw there +was a third native sitting on the verandah like a guest, and Uma +was talking with him like a hostess. Nearer still I made out it +was the big young chief, Maea, and that he was smiling away and +smoking. And what was he smoking? None of your European +cigarettes fit for a cat, not even the genuine big, knock-me-down +native article that a fellow can really put in the time with if his +pipe is broke - but a cigar, and one of my Mexicans at that, that I +could swear to. At sight of this my heart started beating, and I +took a wild hope in my head that the trouble was over, and Maea had +come round. + +Uma pointed me out to him as I came up, and he met me at the head +of my own stairs like a thorough gentleman. + +"Vilivili," said he, which was the best they could make of my name, +"I pleased." + +There is no doubt when an island chief wants to be civil he can do +it. I saw the way things were from the word go. There was no call +for Uma to say to me: "He no 'fraid Ese now, come bring copra." I +tell you I shook hands with that Kanaka like as if he was the best +white man in Europe. + +The fact was, Case and he had got after the same girl; or Maea +suspected it, and concluded to make hay of the trader on the +chance. He had dressed himself up, got a couple of his retainers +cleaned and armed to kind of make the thing more public, and, just +waiting till Case was clear of the village, came round to put the +whole of his business my way. He was rich as well as powerful. I +suppose that man was worth fifty thousand nuts per annum. I gave +him the price of the beach and a quarter cent better, and as for +credit, I would have advanced him the inside of the store and the +fittings besides, I was so pleased to see him. I must say he +bought like a gentleman: rice and tins and biscuits enough for a +week's feast, and stuffs by the bolt. He was agreeable besides; he +had plenty fun to him; and we cracked jests together, mostly +through the interpreter, because he had mighty little English, and +my native was still off colour. One thing I made out: he could +never really have thought much harm of Uma; he could never have +been really frightened, and must just have made believe from +dodginess, and because he thought Case had a strong pull in the +village and could help him on. + +This set me thinking that both he and I were in a tightish place. +What he had done was to fly in the face of the whole village, and +the thing might cost him his authority. More than that, after my +talk with Case on the beach, I thought it might very well cost me +my life. Case had as good as said he would pot me if ever I got +any copra; he would come home to find the best business in the +village had changed hands; and the best thing I thought I could do +was to get in first with the potting. + +"See here, Uma," says I, "tell him I'm sorry I made him wait, but I +was up looking at Case's Tiapolo store in the bush." + +"He want savvy if you no 'fraid?" translated Uma. + +I laughed out. "Not much!" says I. "Tell him the place is a +blooming toy-shop! Tell him in England we give these things to the +kids to play with." + +"He want savvy if you hear devil sing?" she asked next. + +"Look here," I said, "I can't do it now because I've got no banjo- +strings in stock; but the next time the ship comes round I'll have +one of these same contraptions right here in my verandah, and he +can see for himself how much devil there is to it. Tell him, as +soon as I can get the strings I'll make one for his picaninnies. +The name of the concern is a Tyrolean harp; and you can tell him +the name means in English that nobody but dam-fools give a cent for +it." + +This time he was so pleased he had to try his English again. "You +talk true?" says he. + +"Rather!" said I. "Talk all-e-same Bible. Bring out a Bible here, +Uma, if you've got such a thing, and I'll kiss it. Or, I'll tell +you what's better still," says I, taking a header, "ask him if he's +afraid to go up there himself by day." + +It appeared he wasn't; he could venture as far as that by day and +in company. + +"That's the ticket, then!" said I. "Tell him the man's a fraud and +the place foolishness, and if he'll go up there to-morrow he'll see +all that's left of it. But tell him this, Uma, and mind he +understands it: If he gets talking, it's bound to come to Case, and +I'm a dead man! I'm playing his game, tell him, and if he says one +word my blood will be at his door and be the damnation of him here +and after." + +She told him, and he shook hands with me up to the hilt, and, says +he: "No talk. Go up to-morrow. You my friend?" + +"No sir," says I, "no such foolishness. I've come here to trade, +tell him, and not to make friends. But, as to Case, I'll send that +man to glory!" + +So off Maea went, pretty well pleased, as I could see. + + + + +CHAPTER V. NIGHT IN THE BUSH. + + +WELL, I was committed now; Tiapolo had to be smashed up before next +day, and my hands were pretty full, not only with preparations, but +with argument. My house was like a mechanics' debating society: +Uma was so made up that I shouldn't go into the bush by night, or +that, if I did, I was never to come back again. You know her style +of arguing: you've had a specimen about Queen Victoria and the +devil; and I leave you to fancy if I was tired of it before dark. + +At last I had a good idea. What was the use of casting my pearls +before her? I thought; some of her own chopped hay would be +likelier to do the business. + +"I'll tell you what, then," said I. "You fish out your Bible, and +I'll take that up along with me. That'll make me right." + +She swore a Bible was no use. + +"That's just your Kanaka ignorance," said I. "Bring the Bible +out." + +She brought it, and I turned to the title-page, where I thought +there would likely be some English, and so there was. "There!" +said I. "Look at that! 'LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE BRITISH AND +FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, BLACKFRIARS,' and the date, which I can't +read, owing to its being in these X's. There's no devil in hell +can look near the Bible Society, Blackfriars. Why, you silly!" I +said, "how do you suppose we get along with our own AITUS at home? +All Bible Society!" + +"I think you no got any," said she. "White man, he tell me you no +got." + +"Sounds likely, don't it?" I asked. "Why would these islands all +be chock full of them and none in Europe?" + +"Well, you no got breadfruit," said she. + +I could have torn my hair. "Now look here, old lady," said I, "you +dry up, for I'm tired of you. I'll take the Bible, which'll put me +as straight as the mail, and that's the last word I've got to say." + +The night fell extraordinary dark, clouds coming up with sundown +and overspreading all; not a star showed; there was only an end of +a moon, and that not due before the small hours. Round the +village, what with the lights and the fires in the open houses, and +the torches of many fishers moving on the reef, it kept as gay as +an illumination; but the sea and the mountains and woods were all +clean gone. I suppose it might be eight o'clock when I took the +road, laden like a donkey. First there was that Bible, a book as +big as your head, which I had let myself in for by my own +tomfoolery. Then there was my gun, and knife, and lantern, and +patent matches, all necessary. And then there was the real plant +of the affair in hand, a mortal weight of gunpowder, a pair of +dynamite fishing-bombs, and two or three pieces of slow match that +I had hauled out of the tin cases and spliced together the best way +I could; for the match was only trade stuff, and a man would be +crazy that trusted it. Altogether, you see, I had the materials of +a pretty good blow-up! Expense was nothing to me; I wanted that +thing done right. + +As long as I was in the open, and had the lamp in my house to steer +by, I did well. But when I got to the path, it fell so dark I +could make no headway, walking into trees and swearing there, like +a man looking for the matches in his bed-room. I knew it was risky +to light up, for my lantern would be visible all the way to the +point of the cape, and as no one went there after dark, it would be +talked about, and come to Case's ears. But what was I to do? I +had either to give the business over and lose caste with Maea, or +light up, take my chance, and get through the thing the smartest I +was able. + +As long as I was on the path I walked hard, but when I came to the +black beach I had to run. For the tide was now nearly flowed; and +to get through with my powder dry between the surf and the steep +hill, took all the quickness I possessed. As it was, even, the +wash caught me to the knees, and I came near falling on a stone. +All this time the hurry I was in, and the free air and smell of the +sea, kept my spirits lively; but when I was once in the bush and +began to climb the path I took it easier. The fearsomeness of the +wood had been a good bit rubbed off for me by Master Case's banjo- +strings and graven images, yet I thought it was a dreary walk, and +guessed, when the disciples went up there, they must be badly +scared. The light of the lantern, striking among all these trunks +and forked branches and twisted rope-ends of lianas, made the whole +place, or all that you could see of it, a kind of a puzzle of +turning shadows. They came to meet you, solid and quick like +giants, and then span off and vanished; they hove up over your head +like clubs, and flew away into the night like birds. The floor of +the bush glimmered with dead wood, the way the match-box used to +shine after you had struck a lucifer. Big, cold drops fell on me +from the branches overhead like sweat. There was no wind to +mention; only a little icy breath of a land-breeze that stirred +nothing; and the harps were silent. + +The first landfall I made was when I got through the bush of wild +cocoanuts, and came in view of the bogies on the wall. Mighty +queer they looked by the shining of the lantern, with their painted +faces and shell eyes, and their clothes and their hair hanging. +One after another I pulled them all up and piled them in a bundle +on the cellar roof, so as they might go to glory with the rest. +Then I chose a place behind one of the big stones at the entrance, +buried my powder and the two shells, and arranged my match along +the passage. And then I had a look at the smoking head, just for +good-bye. It was doing fine. + +"Cheer up," says I. "You're booked." + +It was my first idea to light up and be getting homeward; for the +darkness and the glimmer of the dead wood and the shadows of the +lantern made me lonely. But I knew where one of the harps hung; it +seemed a pity it shouldn't go with the rest; and at the same time I +couldn't help letting on to myself that I was mortal tired of my +employment, and would like best to be at home and have the door +shut. I stepped out of the cellar and argued it fore and back. +There was a sound of the sea far down below me on the coast; nearer +hand not a leaf stirred; I might have been the only living creature +this side of Cape Horn. Well, as I stood there thinking, it seemed +the bush woke and became full of little noises. Little noises they +were, and nothing to hurt - a bit of a crackle, a bit of a rush - +but the breath jumped right out of me and my throat went as dry as +a biscuit. It wasn't Case I was afraid of, which would have been +common-sense; I never thought of Case; what took me, as sharp as +the colic, was the old wives' tales, the devil-women and the man- +pigs. It was the toss of a penny whether I should run: but I got a +purchase on myself, and stepped out, and held up the lantern (like +a fool) and looked all round. + +In the direction of the village and the path there was nothing to +be seen; but when I turned inland it's a wonder to me I didn't +drop. There, coming right up out of the desert and the bad bush - +there, sure enough, was a devil-woman, just as the way I had +figured she would look. I saw the light shine on her bare arms and +her bright eyes, and there went out of me a yell so big that I +thought it was my death. + +"Ah! No sing out!" says the devil-woman, in a kind of a high +whisper. "Why you talk big voice? Put out light! Ese he come." + +"My God Almighty, Uma, is that you?" says I. + +"IOE," (4) says she. I come quick. Ese here soon." + +"You come alone?" I asked. "You no 'fraid?" + +"Ah, too much 'fraid!" she whispered, clutching me. "I think die." + +"Well," says I, with a kind of a weak grin, "I'm not the one to +laugh at you, Mrs. Wiltshire, for I'm about the worst scared man in +the South Pacific myself." + +She told me in two words what brought her. I was scarce gone, it +seems, when Fa'avao came in, and the old woman had met Black Jack +running as hard as he was fit from our house to Case's. Uma +neither spoke nor stopped, but lit right out to come and warn me. +She was so close at my heels that the lantern was her guide across +the beach, and afterwards, by the glimmer of it in the trees, she +got her line up hill. It was only when I had got to the top or was +in the cellar that she wandered Lord knows where! and lost a sight +of precious time, afraid to call out lest Case was at the heels of +her, and falling in the bush, so that she was all knocked and +bruised. That must have been when she got too far to the +southward, and how she came to take me in the flank at last and +frighten me beyond what I've got the words to tell of. + +Well, anything was better than a devil-woman, but I thought her +yarn serious enough. Black Jack had no call to be about my house, +unless he was set there to watch; and it looked to me as if my +tomfool word about the paint, and perhaps some chatter of Maea's, +had got us all in a clove hitch. One thing was clear: Uma and I +were here for the night; we daren't try to go home before day, and +even then it would be safer to strike round up the mountain and +come in by the back of the village, or we might walk into an +ambuscade. It was plain, too, that the mine should be sprung +immediately, or Case might be in time to stop it. + +I marched into the tunnel, Uma keeping tight hold of me, opened my +lantern and lit the match. The first length of it burned like a +spill of paper, and I stood stupid, watching it burn, and thinking +we were going aloft with Tiapolo, which was none of my views. The +second took to a better rate, though faster than I cared about; and +at that I got my wits again, hauled Uma clear of the passage, blew +out and dropped the lantern, and the pair of us groped our way into +the bush until I thought it might be safe, and lay down together by +a tree. + +"Old lady," I said, "I won't forget this night. You're a trump, +and that's what's wrong with you." + +She humped herself close up to me. She had run out the way she +was, with nothing on her but her kilt; and she was all wet with the +dews and the sea on the black beach, and shook straight on with +cold and the terror of the dark and the devils. + +"Too much 'fraid," was all she said. + +The far side of Case's hill goes down near as steep as a precipice +into the next valley. We were on the very edge of it, and I could +see the dead wood shine and hear the sea sound far below. I didn't +care about the position, which left me no retreat, but I was afraid +to change. Then I saw I had made a worse mistake about the +lantern, which I should have left lighted, so that I could have had +a crack at Case when he stepped into the shine of it. And even if +I hadn't had the wit to do that, it seemed a senseless thing to +leave the good lantern to blow up with the graven images. The +thing belonged to me, after all, and was worth money, and might +come in handy. If I could have trusted the match, I might have run +in still and rescued it. But who was going to trust the match? +You know what trade is. The stuff was good enough for Kanakas to +go fishing with, where they've got to look lively anyway, and the +most they risk is only to have their hand blown off. But for +anyone that wanted to fool around a blow-up like mine that match +was rubbish. + +Altogether the best I could do was to lie still, see my shot-gun +handy, and wait for the explosion. But it was a solemn kind of a +business. The blackness of the night was like solid; the only +thing you could see was the nasty bogy glimmer of the dead wood, +and that showed you nothing but itself; and as for sounds, I +stretched my ears till I thought I could have heard the match burn +in the tunnel, and that bush was as silent as a coffin. Now and +then there was a bit of a crack; but whether it was near or far, +whether it was Case stubbing his toes within a few yards of me, or +a tree breaking miles away, I knew no more than the babe unborn. + +And then, all of a sudden, Vesuvius went off. It was a long time +coming; but when it came (though I say it that shouldn't) no man +could ask to see a better. At first it was just a son of a gun of +a row, and a spout of fire, and the wood lighted up so that you +could see to read. And then the trouble began. Uma and I were +half buried under a wagonful of earth, and glad it was no worse, +for one of the rocks at the entrance of the tunnel was fired clean +into the air, fell within a couple of fathoms of where we lay, and +bounded over the edge of the hill, and went pounding down into the +next valley. I saw I had rather undercalculated our distance, or +over-done the dynamite and powder, which you please. + +And presently I saw I had made another slip. The noise of the +thing began to die off, shaking the island; the dazzle was over; +and yet the night didn't come back the way I expected. For the +whole wood was scattered with red coals and brands from the +explosion; they were all round me on the flat; some had fallen +below in the valley, and some stuck and flared in the tree-tops. I +had no fear of fire, for these forests are too wet to kindle. But +the trouble was that the place was all lit up-not very bright, but +good enough to get a shot by; and the way the coals were scattered, +it was just as likely Case might have the advantage as myself. I +looked all round for his white face, you may be sure; but there was +not a sign of him. As for Uma, the life seemed to have been +knocked right out of her by the bang and blaze of it. + +There was one bad point in my game. One of the blessed graven +images had come down all afire, hair and clothes and body, not four +yards away from me. I cast a mighty noticing glance all round; +there was still no Case, and I made up my mind I must get rid of +that burning stick before he came, or I should be shot there like a +dog. + +It was my first idea to have crawled, and then I thought speed was +the main thing, and stood half up to make a rush. The same moment +from somewhere between me and the sea there came a flash and a +report, and a rifle bullet screeched in my ear. I swung straight +round and up with my gun, but the brute had a Winchester, and +before I could as much as see him his second shot knocked me over +like a nine-pin. I seemed to fly in the air, then came down by the +run and lay half a minute, silly; and then I found my hands empty, +and my gun had flown over my head as I fell. It makes a man mighty +wide awake to be in the kind of box that I was in. I scarcely knew +where I was hurt, or whether I was hurt or not, but turned right +over on my face to crawl after my weapon. Unless you have tried to +get about with a smashed leg you don't know what pain is, and I let +out a howl like a bullock's. + +This was the unluckiest noise that ever I made in my life. Up to +then Uma had stuck to her tree like a sensible woman, knowing she +would be only in the way; but as soon as she heard me sing out, she +ran forward. The Winchester cracked again, and down she went. + +I had sat up, leg and all, to stop her; but when I saw her tumble I +clapped down again where I was, lay still, and felt the handle of +my knife. I had been scurried and put out before. No more of that +for me. He had knocked over my girl, I had got to fix him for it; +and I lay there and gritted my teeth, and footed up the chances. +My leg was broke, my gun was gone. Case had still ten shots in his +Winchester. It looked a kind of hopeless business. But I never +despaired nor thought upon despairing: that man had got to go. + +For a goodish bit not one of us let on. Then I heard Case begin to +move nearer in the bush, but mighty careful. The image had burned +out; there were only a few coals left here and there, and the wood +was main dark, but had a kind of a low glow in it like a fire on +its last legs. It was by this that I made out Case's head looking +at me over a big tuft of ferns, and at the same time the brute saw +me and shouldered his Winchester. I lay quite still, and as good +as looked into the barrel: it was my last chance, but I thought my +heart would have come right out of its bearings. Then he fired. +Lucky for me it was no shot-gun, for the bullet struck within an +inch of me and knocked the dirt in my eyes. + +Just you try and see if you can lie quiet, and let a man take a +sitting shot at you and miss you by a hair. But I did, and lucky +too. A while Case stood with the Winchester at the port-arms; then +he gave a little laugh to himself, and stepped round the ferns. + +"Laugh!" thought I. "If you had the wit of a louse you would be +praying!" + +I was all as taut as a ship's hawser or the spring of a watch, and +as soon as he came within reach of me I had him by the ankle, +plucked the feet right out from under him, laid him out, and was +upon the top of him, broken leg and all, before he breathed. His +Winchester had gone the same road as my shot-gun; it was nothing to +me - I defied him now. I'm a pretty strong man anyway, but I never +knew what strength was till I got hold of Case. He was knocked out +of time by the rattle he came down with, and threw up his hands +together, more like a frightened woman, so that I caught both of +them with my left. This wakened him up, and he fastened his teeth +in my forearm like a weasel. Much I cared. My leg gave me all the +pain I had any use for, and I drew my knife and got it in the +place. + +"Now," said I, "I've got you; and you're gone up, and a good job +too! Do you feel the point of that? That's for Underhill! And +there's for Adams! And now here's for Uma, and that's going to +knock your blooming soul right out of you!" + +With that I gave him the cold steel for all I was worth. His body +kicked under me like a spring sofa; he gave a dreadful kind of a +long moan, and lay still. + +"I wonder if you're dead? I hope so!" I thought, for my head was +swimming. But I wasn't going to take chances; I had his own +example too close before me for that; and I tried to draw the knife +out to give it him again. The blood came over my hands, I +remember, hot as tea; and with that I fainted clean away, and fell +with my head on the man's mouth. + +When I came to myself it was pitch dark; the cinders had burned +out; there was nothing to be seen but the shine of the dead wood, +and I couldn't remember where I was nor why I was in such pain nor +what I was all wetted with. Then it came back, and the first thing +I attended to was to give him the knife again a half-a-dozen times +up to the handle. I believe he was dead already, but it did him no +harm and did me good. + +"I bet you're dead now," I said, and then I called to Uma. + +Nothing answered, and I made a move to go and grope for her, fouled +my broken leg, and fainted again. + +When I came to myself the second time the clouds had all cleared +away, except a few that sailed there, white as cotton. The moon +was up - a tropic moon. The moon at home turns a wood black, but +even this old butt-end of a one showed up that forest, as green as +by day. The night birds - or, rather, they're a kind of early +morning bird - sang out with their long, falling notes like +nightingales. And I could see the dead man, that I was still half +resting on, looking right up into the sky with his open eyes, no +paler than when he was alive; and a little way off Uma tumbled on +her side. I got over to her the best way I was able, and when I +got there she was broad awake, and crying and sobbing to herself +with no more noise than an insect. It appears she was afraid to +cry out loud, because of the AITUS. Altogether she was not much +hurt, but scared beyond belief; she had come to her senses a long +while ago, cried out to me, heard nothing in reply, made out we +were both dead, and had lain there ever since, afraid to budge a +finger. The ball had ploughed up her shoulder, and she had lost a +main quantity of blood; but I soon had that tied up the way it +ought to be with the tail of my shirt and a scarf I had on, got her +head on my sound knee and my back against a trunk, and settled down +to wait for morning. Uma was for neither use nor ornament, and +could only clutch hold of me and shake and cry. I don't suppose +there was ever anybody worse scared, and, to do her justice, she +had had a lively night of it. As for me, I was in a good bit of +pain and fever, but not so bad when I sat still; and every time I +looked over to Case I could have sung and whistled. Talk about +meat and drink! To see that man lying there dead as a herring +filled me full. + +The night birds stopped after a while; and then the light began to +change, the east came orange, the whole wood began to whirr with +singing like a musical box, and there was the broad day. + +I didn't expect Maea for a long while yet; and, indeed, I thought +there was an off-chance he might go back on the whole idea and not +come at all. I was the better pleased when, about an hour after +daylight, I heard sticks smashing and a lot of Kanakas laughing, +and singing out to keep their courage up. Uma sat up quite brisk +at the first word of it; and presently we saw a party come +stringing out of the path, Maea in front, and behind him a white +man in a pith helmet. It was Mr. Tarleton, who had turned up late +last night in Falesa, having left his boat and walked the last +stage with a lantern. + +They buried Case upon the field of glory, right in the hole where +he had kept the smoking head. I waited till the thing was done; +and Mr. Tarleton prayed, which I thought tomfoolery, but I'm bound +to say he gave a pretty sick view of the dear departed's prospects, +and seemed to have his own ideas of hell. I had it out with him +afterwards, told him he had scamped his duty, and what he had ought +to have done was to up like a man and tell the Kanakas plainly Case +was damned, and a good riddance; but I never could get him to see +it my way. Then they made me a litter of poles and carried me down +to the station. Mr. Tarleton set my leg, and made a regular +missionary splice of it, so that I limp to this day. That done, he +took down my evidence, and Uma's, and Maea's, wrote it all out +fine, and had us sign it; and then he got the chiefs and marched +over to Papa Randall's to seize Case's papers. + +All they found was a bit of a diary, kept for a good many years, +and all about the price of copra, and chickens being stolen, and +that; and the books of the business and the will I told you of in +the beginning, by both of which the whole thing (stock, lock, and +barrel) appeared to belong to the Samoa woman. It was I that +bought her out at a mighty reasonable figure, for she was in a +hurry to get home. As for Randall and the black, they had to +tramp; got into some kind of a station on the Papa-malulu side; did +very bad business, for the truth is neither of the pair was fit for +it, and lived mostly on fish, which was the means of Randall's +death. It seems there was a nice shoal in one day, and papa went +after them with the dynamite; either the match burned too fast, or +papa was full, or both, but the shell went off (in the usual way) +before he threw it, and where was papa's hand? Well, there's +nothing to hurt in that; the islands up north are all full of one- +handed men, like the parties in the "Arabian Nights"; but either +Randall was too old, or he drank too much, and the short and the +long of it was that he died. Pretty soon after, the nigger was +turned out of the island for stealing from white men, and went off +to the west, where he found men of his own colour, in case he liked +that, and the men of his own colour took and ate him at some kind +of a corroborree, and I'm sure I hope he was to their fancy! + +So there was I, left alone in my glory at Falesa; and when the +schooner came round I filled her up, and gave her a deck-cargo half +as high as the house. I must say Mr. Tarleton did the right thing +by us; but he took a meanish kind of a revenge. + +"Now, Mr. Wiltshire," said he, "I've put you all square with +everybody here. It wasn't difficult to do, Case being gone; but I +have done it, and given my pledge besides that you will deal fairly +with the natives. I must ask you to keep my word." + +Well, so I did. I used to be bothered about my balances, but I +reasoned it out this way: We all have queerish balances; and the +natives all know it, and water their copra in a proportion so that +it's fair all round; but the truth is, it did use to bother me, +and, though I did well in Falesa, I was half glad when the firm +moved me on to another station, where I was under no kind of a +pledge and could look my balances in the face. + +As for the old lady, you know her as well as I do. She's only the +one fault. If you don't keep your eye lifting she would give away +the roof off the station. Well, it seems it's natural in Kanakas. +She's turned a powerful big woman now, and could throw a London +bobby over her shoulder. But that's natural in Kanakas too, and +there's no manner of doubt that she's an A 1 wife. + +Mr. Tarleton's gone home, his trick being over. He was the best +missionary I ever struck, and now, it seems, he's parsonising down +Somerset way. Well, that's best for him; he'll have no Kanakas +there to get luny over. + +My public-house? Not a bit of it, nor ever likely. I'm stuck +here, I fancy. I don't like to leave the kids, you see: and - +there's no use talking - they're better here than what they would +be in a white man's country, though Ben took the eldest up to +Auckland, where he's being schooled with the best. But what +bothers me is the girls. They're only half-castes, of course; I +know that as well as you do, and there's nobody thinks less of +half-castes than I do; but they're mine, and about all I've got. I +can't reconcile my mind to their taking up with Kanakas, and I'd +like to know where I'm to find the whites? + + + + +THE BOTTLE IMP. + + +Note. - Any student of that very unliterary product, the English +drama of the early part of the century, will here recognise the +name and the root idea of a piece once rendered popular by the +redoubtable O. Smith. The root idea is there and identical, and +yet I hope I have made it a new thing. And the fact that the tale +has been designed and written for a Polynesian audience may lend it +some extraneous interest nearer home. - R. L. S. + + +THERE was a man of the Island of Hawaii, whom I shall call Keawe; +for the truth is, he still lives, and his name must be kept secret; +but the place of his birth was not far from Honaunau, where the +bones of Keawe the Great lie hidden in a cave. This man was poor, +brave, and active; he could read and write like a schoolmaster; he +was a first-rate mariner besides, sailed for some time in the +island steamers, and steered a whaleboat on the Hamakua coast. At +length it came in Keawe's mind to have a sight of the great world +and foreign cities, and he shipped on a vessel bound to San +Francisco. + +This is a fine town, with a fine harbour, and rich people +uncountable; and, in particular, there is one hill which is covered +with palaces. Upon this hill Keawe was one day taking a walk with +his pocket full of money, viewing the great houses upon either hand +with pleasure, "What fine houses these are!" he was thinking, "and +how happy must those people be who dwell in them, and take no care +for the morrow!" The thought was in his mind when he came abreast +of a house that was smaller than some others, but all finished and +beautified like a toy; the steps of that house shone like silver, +and the borders of the garden bloomed like garlands, and the +windows were bright like diamond; and Keawe stopped and wondered at +the excellence of all he saw. So stopping, he was aware of a man +that looked forth upon him through a window so clear that Keawe +could see him as you see a fish in a pool upon the reef. The man +was elderly, with a bald head and a black beard; and his face was +heavy with sorrow, and he bitterly sighed. And the truth of it is, +that as Keawe looked in upon the man, and the man looked out upon +Keawe, each envied the other. + +All of a sudden, the man smiled and nodded, and beckoned Keawe to +enter, and met him at the door of the house. + +"This is a fine house of mine," said the man, and bitterly sighed. +"Would you not care to view the chambers?" + +So he led Keawe all over it, from the cellar to the roof, and there +was nothing there that was not perfect of its kind, and Keawe was +astonished. + +"Truly," said Keawe, "this is a beautiful house; if I lived in the +like of it, I should be laughing all day long. How comes it, then, +that you should be sighing?" + +"There is no reason," said the man, "why you should not have a +house in all points similar to this, and finer, if you wish. You +have some money, I suppose?" + +"I have fifty dollars," said Keawe; "but a house like this will +cost more than fifty dollars." + +The man made a computation. "I am sorry you have no more," said +he, "for it may raise you trouble in the future; but it shall be +yours at fifty dollars." + +"The house?" asked Keawe. + +"No, not the house," replied the man; "but the bottle. For, I must +tell you, although I appear to you so rich and fortunate, all my +fortune, and this house itself and its garden, came out of a bottle +not much bigger than a pint. This is it." + +And he opened a lockfast place, and took out a round-bellied bottle +with a long neck; the glass of it was white like milk, with +changing rainbow colours in the grain. Withinsides something +obscurely moved, like a shadow and a fire. + +"This is the bottle," said the man; and, when Keawe laughed, "You +do not believe me?" he added. "Try, then, for yourself. See if +you can break it." + +So Keawe took the bottle up and dashed it on the floor till he was +weary; but it jumped on the floor like a child's ball, and was not +injured. + +"This is a strange thing," said Keawe. "For by the touch of it, as +well as by the look, the bottle should be of glass." + +"Of glass it is," replied the man, sighing more heavily than ever; +"but the glass of it was tempered in the flames of hell. An imp +lives in it, and that is the shadow we behold there moving: or so I +suppose. If any man buy this bottle the imp is at his command; all +that he desires - love, fame, money, houses like this house, ay, or +a city like this city - all are his at the word uttered. Napoleon +had this bottle, and by it he grew to be the king of the world; but +he sold it at the last, and fell. Captain Cook had this bottle, +and by it he found his way to so many islands; but he, too, sold +it, and was slain upon Hawaii. For, once it is sold, the power +goes and the protection; and unless a man remain content with what +he has, ill will befall him." + +"And yet you talk of selling it yourself?" Keawe said. + +"I have all I wish, and I am growing elderly," replied the man. +"There is one thing the imp cannot do - he cannot prolong life; +and, it would not be fair to conceal from you, there is a drawback +to the bottle; for if a man die before he sells it, he must burn in +hell forever." + +"To be sure, that is a drawback and no mistake," cried Keawe. "I +would not meddle with the thing. I can do without a house, thank +God; but there is one thing I could not be doing with one particle, +and that is to be damned." + +"Dear me, you must not run away with things," returned the man. +"All you have to do is to use the power of the imp in moderation, +and then sell it to someone else, as I do to you, and finish your +life in comfort." + +"Well, I observe two things," said Keawe. "All the time you keep +sighing like a maid in love, that is one; and, for the other, you +sell this bottle very cheap." + +"I have told you already why I sigh," said the man. "It is because +I fear my health is breaking up; and, as you said yourself, to die +and go to the devil is a pity for anyone. As for why I sell so +cheap, I must explain to you there is a peculiarity about the +bottle. Long ago, when the devil brought it first upon earth, it +was extremely expensive, and was sold first of all to Prester John +for many millions of dollars; but it cannot be sold at all, unless +sold at a loss. If you sell it for as much as you paid for it, +back it comes to you again like a homing pigeon. It follows that +the price has kept falling in these centuries, and the bottle is +now remarkably cheap. I bought it myself from one of my great +neighbours on this hill, and the price I paid was only ninety +dollars. I could sell it for as high as eighty-nine dollars and +ninety-nine cents, but not a penny dearer, or back the thing must +come to me. Now, about this there are two bothers. First, when +you offer a bottle so singular for eighty odd dollars, people +suppose you to be jesting. And second - but there is no hurry +about that - and I need not go into it. Only remember it must be +coined money that you sell it for." + +"How am I to know that this is all true?" asked Keawe. + +"Some of it you can try at once," replied the man. "Give me your +fifty dollars, take the bottle, and wish your fifty dollars back +into your pocket. If that does not happen, I pledge you my honour +I will cry off the bargain and restore your money." + +"You are not deceiving me?" said Keawe. + +The man bound himself with a great oath. + +"Well, I will risk that much," said Keawe, "for that can do no +harm." And he paid over his money to the man, and the man handed +him the bottle. + +"Imp of the bottle," said Keawe, "I want my fifty dollars back." +And sure enough he had scarce said the word before his pocket was +as heavy as ever. + +"To be sure this is a wonderful bottle," said Keawe. + +"And now good-morning to you, my fine fellow, and the devil go with +you for me!" said the man. + +"Hold on," said Keawe, "I don't want any more of this fun. Here, +take your bottle back." + +"You have bought it for less than I paid for it," replied the man, +rubbing his hands. "It is yours now; and, for my part, I am only +concerned to see the back of you." And with that he rang for his +Chinese servant, and had Keawe shown out of the house. + +Now, when Keawe was in the street, with the bottle under his arm, +he began to think. "If all is true about this bottle, I may have +made a losing bargain," thinks he. "But perhaps the man was only +fooling me." The first thing he did was to count his money; the +sum was exact - forty-nine dollars American money, and one Chili +piece. "That looks like the truth," said Keawe. "Now I will try +another part." + +The streets in that part of the city were as clean as a ship's +decks, and though it was noon, there were no passengers. Keawe set +the bottle in the gutter and walked away. Twice he looked back, +and there was the milky, round-bellied bottle where he left it. A +third time he looked back, and turned a corner; but he had scarce +done so, when something knocked upon his elbow, and behold! it was +the long neck sticking up; and as for the round belly, it was +jammed into the pocket of his pilot-coat. + +"And that looks like the truth," said Keawe. + +The next thing he did was to buy a cork-screw in a shop, and go +apart into a secret place in the fields. And there he tried to +draw the cork, but as often as he put the screw in, out it came +again, and the cork as whole as ever. + +"This is some new sort of cork," said Keawe, and all at once he +began to shake and sweat, for he was afraid of that bottle. + +On his way back to the port-side, he saw a shop where a man sold +shells and clubs from the wild islands, old heathen deities, old +coined money, pictures from China and Japan, and all manner of +things that sailors bring in their sea-chests. And here he had an +idea. So he went in and offered the bottle for a hundred dollars. +The man of the shop laughed at him at the first, and offered him +five; but, indeed, it was a curious bottle - such glass was never +blown in any human glassworks, so prettily the colours shone under +the milky white, and so strangely the shadow hovered in the midst; +so, after he had disputed awhile after the manner of his kind, the +shop-man gave Keawe sixty silver dollars for the thing, and set it +on a shelf in the midst of his window. + +"Now," said Keawe, "I have sold that for sixty which I bought for +fifty - or, to say truth, a little less, because one of my dollars +was from Chili. Now I shall know the truth upon another point." + +So he went back on board his ship, and, when he opened his chest, +there was the bottle, and had come more quickly than himself. Now +Keawe had a mate on board whose name was Lopaka. + +"What ails you?" said Lopaka, "that you stare in your chest?" + +They were alone in the ship's forecastle, and Keawe bound him to +secrecy, and told all. + +"This is a very strange affair," said Lopaka; "and I fear you will +be in trouble about this bottle. But there is one point very clear +- that you are sure of the trouble, and you had better have the +profit in the bargain. Make up your mind what you want with it; +give the order, and if it is done as you desire, I will buy the +bottle myself; for I have an idea of my own to get a schooner, and +go trading through the islands." + +"That is not my idea," said Keawe; "but to have a beautiful house +and garden on the Kona Coast, where I was born, the sun shining in +at the door, flowers in the garden, glass in the windows, pictures +on the walls, and toys and fine carpets on the tables, for all the +world like the house I was in this day - only a storey higher, and +with balconies all about like the King's palace; and to live there +without care and make merry with my friends and relatives." + +"Well," said Lopaka, "let us carry it back with us to Hawaii; and +if all comes true, as you suppose, I will buy the bottle, as I +said, and ask a schooner." + +Upon that they were agreed, and it was not long before the ship +returned to Honolulu, carrying Keawe and Lopaka, and the bottle. +They were scarce come ashore when they met a friend upon the beach, +who began at once to condole with Keawe. + +"I do not know what I am to be condoled about," said Keawe. + +"Is it possible you have not heard," said the friend, "your uncle - +that good old man - is dead, and your cousin - that beautiful boy - +was drowned at sea?" + +Keawe was filled with sorrow, and, beginning to weep and to lament, +he forgot about the bottle. But Lopaka was thinking to himself, +and presently, when Keawe's grief was a little abated, "I have been +thinking," said Lopaka. "Had not your uncle lands in Hawaii, in +the district of Kau?" + +"No," said Keawe, "not in Kau; they are on the mountain-side - a +little way south of Hookena." + +"These lands will now be yours?" asked Lopaka. + +"And so they will," says Keawe, and began again to lament for his +relatives. + +"No," said Lopaka, "do not lament at present. I have a thought in +my mind. How if this should be the doing of the bottle? For here +is the place ready for your house." + +"If this be so," cried Keawe, "it is a very ill way to serve me by +killing my relatives. But it may be, indeed; for it was in just +such a station that I saw the house with my mind's eye." + +"The house, however, is not yet built," said Lopaka. + +"No, nor like to be!" said Keawe; "for though my uncle has some +coffee and ava and bananas, it will not be more than will keep me +in comfort; and the rest of that land is the black lava." + +"Let us go to the lawyer," said Lopaka; "I have still this idea in +my mind." + +Now, when they came to the lawyer's, it appeared Keawe's uncle had +grown monstrous rich in the last days, and there was a fund of +money. + +"And here is the money for the house!" cried Lopaka. + +"If you are thinking of a new house," said the lawyer, "here is the +card of a new architect, of whom they tell me great things." + +"Better and better!" cried Lopaka. "Here is all made plain for us. +Let us continue to obey orders." + +So they went to the architect, and he had drawings of houses on his +table. + +"You want something out of the way," said the architect. "How do +you like this?" and he handed a drawing to Keawe. + +Now, when Keawe set eyes on the drawing, he cried out aloud, for it +was the picture of his thought exactly drawn. + +"I am in for this house," thought he. "Little as I like the way it +comes to me, I am in for it now, and I may as well take the good +along with the evil." + +So he told the architect all that he wished, and how he would have +that house furnished, and about the pictures on the wall and the +knick-knacks on the tables; and he asked the man plainly for how +much he would undertake the whole affair. + +The architect put many questions, and took his pen and made a +computation; and when he had done he named the very sum that Keawe +had inherited. + +Lopaka and Keawe looked at one another and nodded. + +"It is quite clear," thought Keawe, "that I am to have this house, +whether or no. It comes from the devil, and I fear I will get +little good by that; and of one thing I am sure, I will make no +more wishes as long as I have this bottle. But with the house I am +saddled, and I may as well take the good along with the evil." + +So he made his terms with the architect, and they signed a paper; +and Keawe and Lopaka took ship again and sailed to Australia; for +it was concluded between them they should not interfere at all, but +leave the architect and the bottle imp to build and to adorn that +house at their own pleasure. + +The voyage was a good voyage, only all the time Keawe was holding +in his breath, for he had sworn he would utter no more wishes, and +take no more favours from the devil. The time was up when they got +back. The architect told them that the house was ready, and Keawe +and Lopaka took a passage in the HALL, and went down Kona way to +view the house, and see if all had been done fitly according to the +thought that was in Keawe's mind. + +Now the house stood on the mountain side, visible to ships. Above, +the forest ran up into the clouds of rain; below, the black lava +fell in cliffs, where the kings of old lay buried. A garden +bloomed about that house with every hue of flowers; and there was +an orchard of papaia on the one hand and an orchard of breadfruit +on the other, and right in front, toward the sea, a ship's mast had +been rigged up and bore a flag. As for the house, it was three +storeys high, with great chambers and broad balconies on each. The +windows were of glass, so excellent that it was as clear as water +and as bright as day. All manner of furniture adorned the +chambers. Pictures hung upon the wall in golden frames: pictures +of ships, and men fighting, and of the most beautiful women, and of +singular places; nowhere in the world are there pictures of so +bright a colour as those Keawe found hanging in his house. As for +the knick-knacks, they were extraordinary fine; chiming clocks and +musical boxes, little men with nodding heads, books filled with +pictures, weapons of price from all quarters of the world, and the +most elegant puzzles to entertain the leisure of a solitary man. +And as no one would care to live in such chambers, only to walk +through and view them, the balconies were made so broad that a +whole town might have lived upon them in delight; and Keawe knew +not which to prefer, whether the back porch, where you got the land +breeze, and looked upon the orchards and the flowers, or the front +balcony, where you could drink the wind of the sea, and look down +the steep wall of the mountain and see the HALL going by once a +week or so between Hookena and the hills of Pele, or the schooners +plying up the coast for wood and ava and bananas. + +When they had viewed all, Keawe and Lopaka sat on the porch. + +"Well," asked Lopaka, "is it all as you designed?" + +"Words cannot utter it," said Keawe. "It is better than I dreamed, +and I am sick with satisfaction." + +"There is but one thing to consider," said Lopaka; "all this may be +quite natural, and the bottle imp have nothing whatever to say to +it. If I were to buy the bottle, and got no schooner after all, I +should have put my hand in the fire for nothing. I gave you my +word, I know; but yet I think you would not grudge me one more +proof." + +"I have sworn I would take no more favours," said Keawe. "I have +gone already deep enough." + +"This is no favour I am thinking of," replied Lopaka. "It is only +to see the imp himself. There is nothing to be gained by that, and +so nothing to be ashamed of; and yet, if I once saw him, I should +be sure of the whole matter. So indulge me so far, and let me see +the imp; and, after that, here is the money in my hand, and I will +buy it." + +"There is only one thing I am afraid of," said Keawe. "The imp may +be very ugly to view; and if you once set eyes upon him you might +be very undesirous of the bottle." + +"I am a man of my word," said Lopaka. "And here is the money +betwixt us." + +"Very well," replied Keawe. "I have a curiosity myself. So come, +let us have one look at you, Mr. Imp." + +Now as soon as that was said, the imp looked out of the bottle, and +in again, swift as a lizard; and there sat Keawe and Lopaka turned +to stone. The night had quite come, before either found a thought +to say or voice to say it with; and then Lopaka pushed the money +over and took the bottle. + +"I am a man of my word," said he, "and had need to be so, or I +would not touch this bottle with my foot. Well, I shall get my +schooner and a dollar or two for my pocket; and then I will be rid +of this devil as fast as I can. For to tell you the plain truth, +the look of him has cast me down." + +"Lopaka," said Keawe, "do not you think any worse of me than you +can help; I know it is night, and the roads bad, and the pass by +the tombs an ill place to go by so late, but I declare since I have +seen that little face, I cannot eat or sleep or pray till it is +gone from me. I will give you a lantern and a basket to put the +bottle in, and any picture or fine thing in all my house that takes +your fancy; - and be gone at once, and go sleep at Hookena with +Nahinu." + +"Keawe," said Lopaka, "many a man would take this ill; above all, +when I am doing you a turn so friendly, as to keep my word and buy +the bottle; and for that matter, the night and the dark, and the +way by the tombs, must be all tenfold more dangerous to a man with +such a sin upon his conscience, and such a bottle under his arm. +But for my part, I am so extremely terrified myself, I have not the +heart to blame you. Here I go then; and I pray God you may be +happy in your house, and I fortunate with my schooner, and both get +to heaven in the end in spite of the devil and his bottle." + +So Lopaka went down the mountain; and Keawe stood in his front +balcony, and listened to the clink of the horse's shoes, and +watched the lantern go shining down the path, and along the cliff +of caves where the old dead are buried; and all the time he +trembled and clasped his hands, and prayed for his friend, and gave +glory to God that he himself was escaped out of that trouble. + +But the next day came very brightly, and that new house of his was +so delightful to behold that he forgot his terrors. One day +followed another, and Keawe dwelt there in perpetual joy. He had +his place on the back porch; it was there he ate and lived, and +read the stories in the Honolulu newspapers; but when anyone came +by they would go in and view the chambers and the pictures. And +the fame of the house went far and wide; it was called KA-HALE NUI +- the Great House - in all Kona; and sometimes the Bright House, +for Keawe kept a Chinaman, who was all day dusting and furbishing; +and the glass, and the gilt, and the fine stuffs, and the pictures, +shone as bright as the morning. As for Keawe himself, he could not +walk in the chambers without singing, his heart was so enlarged; +and when ships sailed by upon the sea, he would fly his colours on +the mast. + +So time went by, until one day Keawe went upon a visit as far as +Kailua to certain of his friends. There he was well feasted; and +left as soon as he could the next morning, and rode hard, for he +was impatient to behold his beautiful house; and, besides, the +night then coming on was the night in which the dead of old days go +abroad in the sides of Kona; and having already meddled with the +devil, he was the more chary of meeting with the dead. A little +beyond Honaunau, looking far ahead, he was aware of a woman bathing +in the edge of the sea; and she seemed a well-grown girl, but he +thought no more of it. Then he saw her white shift flutter as she +put it on, and then her red holoku; and by the time he came abreast +of her she was done with her toilet, and had come up from the sea, +and stood by the track-side in her red holoku, and she was all +freshened with the bath, and her eyes shone and were kind. Now +Keawe no sooner beheld her than he drew rein. + +"I thought I knew everyone in this country," said he. "How comes +it that I do not know you?" + +"I am Kokua, daughter of Kiano," said the girl, "and I have just +returned from Oahu. Who are you?" + +"I will tell you who I am in a little," said Keawe, dismounting +from his horse, "but not now. For I have a thought in my mind, and +if you knew who I was, you might have heard of me, and would not +give me a true answer. But tell me, first of all, one thing: Are +you married?" + +At this Kokua laughed out aloud. "It is you who ask questions," +she said. "Are you married yourself?" + +"Indeed, Kokua, I am not," replied Keawe, "and never thought to be +until this hour. But here is the plain truth. I have met you here +at the roadside, and I saw your eyes, which are like the stars, and +my heart went to you as swift as a bird. And so now, if you want +none of me, say so, and I will go on to my own place; but if you +think me no worse than any other young man, say so, too, and I will +turn aside to your father's for the night, and to-morrow I will +talk with the good man." + +Kokua said never a word, but she looked at the sea and laughed. + +"Kokua," said Keawe, "if you say nothing, I will take that for the +good answer; so let us be stepping to your father's door." + +She went on ahead of him, still without speech; only sometimes she +glanced back and glanced away again, and she kept the strings of +her hat in her mouth. + +Now, when they had come to the door, Kiano came out on his +verandah, and cried out and welcomed Keawe by name. At that the +girl looked over, for the fame of the great house had come to her +ears; and, to be sure, it was a great temptation. All that evening +they were very merry together; and the girl was as bold as brass +under the eyes of her parents, and made a mock of Keawe, for she +had a quick wit. The next day he had a word with Kiano, and found +the girl alone. + +"Kokua," said he, "you made a mock of me all the evening; and it is +still time to bid me go. I would not tell you who I was, because I +have so fine a house, and I feared you would think too much of that +house and too little of the man that loves you. Now you know all, +and if you wish to have seen the last of me, say so at once." + +"No," said Kokua; but this time she did not laugh, nor did Keawe +ask for more. + +This was the wooing of Keawe; things had gone quickly; but so an +arrow goes, and the ball of a rifle swifter still, and yet both may +strike the target. Things had gone fast, but they had gone far +also, and the thought of Keawe rang in the maiden's head; she heard +his voice in the breach of the surf upon the lava, and for this +young man that she had seen but twice she would have left father +and mother and her native islands. As for Keawe himself, his horse +flew up the path of the mountain under the cliff of tombs, and the +sound of the hoofs, and the sound of Keawe singing to himself for +pleasure, echoed in the caverns of the dead. He came to the Bright +House, and still he was singing. He sat and ate in the broad +balcony, and the Chinaman wondered at his master, to hear how he +sang between the mouthfuls. The sun went down into the sea, and +the night came; and Keawe walked the balconies by lamplight, high +on the mountains, and the voice of his singing startled men on +ships. + +"Here am I now upon my high place," he said to himself. "Life may +be no better; this is the mountain top; and all shelves about me +toward the worse. For the first time I will light up the chambers, +and bathe in my fine bath with the hot water and the cold, and +sleep alone in the bed of my bridal chamber." + +So the Chinaman had word, and he must rise from sleep and light the +furnaces; and as he wrought below, beside the boilers, he heard his +master singing and rejoicing above him in the lighted chambers. +When the water began to be hot the Chinaman cried to his master; +and Keawe went into the bathroom; and the Chinaman heard him sing +as he filled the marble basin; and heard him sing, and the singing +broken, as he undressed; until of a sudden, the song ceased. The +Chinaman listened, and listened; he called up the house to Keawe to +ask if all were well, and Keawe answered him "Yes," and bade him go +to bed; but there was no more singing in the Bright House; and all +night long, the Chinaman heard his master's feet go round and round +the balconies without repose. + +Now the truth of it was this: as Keawe undressed for his bath, he +spied upon his flesh a patch like a patch of lichen on a rock, and +it was then that he stopped singing. For he knew the likeness of +that patch, and knew that he was fallen in the Chinese Evil. (5) + +Now, it is a sad thing for any man to fall into this sickness. And +it would be a sad thing for anyone to leave a house so beautiful +and so commodious, and depart from all his friends to the north +coast of Molokai between the mighty cliff and the sea-breakers. +But what was that to the case of the man Keawe, he who had met his +love but yesterday, and won her but that morning, and now saw all +his hopes break, in a moment, like a piece of glass? + +Awhile he sat upon the edge of the bath; then sprang, with a cry, +and ran outside; and to and fro, to and fro, along the balcony, +like one despairing. + +"Very willingly could I leave Hawaii, the home of my fathers," +Keawe was thinking. "Very lightly could I leave my house, the +high-placed, the many-windowed, here upon the mountains. Very +bravely could I go to Molokai, to Kalaupapa by the cliffs, to live +with the smitten and to sleep there, far from my fathers. But what +wrong have I done, what sin lies upon my soul, that I should have +encountered Kokua coming cool from the sea-water in the evening? +Kokua, the soul ensnarer! Kokua, the light of my life! Her may I +never wed, her may I look upon no longer, her may I no more handle +with my loving hand; and it is for this, it is for you, O Kokua! +that I pour my lamentations!" + +Now you are to observe what sort of a man Keawe was, for he might +have dwelt there in the Bright House for years, and no one been the +wiser of his sickness; but he reckoned nothing of that, if he must +lose Kokua. And again, he might have wed Kokua even as he was; and +so many would have done, because they have the souls of pigs; but +Keawe loved the maid manfully, and he would do her no hurt and +bring her in no danger. + +A little beyond the midst of the night, there came in his mind the +recollection of that bottle. He went round to the back porch, and +called to memory the day when the devil had looked forth; and at +the thought ice ran in his veins. + +"A dreadful thing is the bottle," thought Keawe, "and dreadful is +the imp, and it is a dreadful thing to risk the flames of hell. +But what other hope have I to cure my sickness or to wed Kokua? +What!" he thought, "would I beard the devil once, only to get me a +house, and not face him again to win Kokua?" + +Thereupon he called to mind it was the next day the HALL went by on +her return to Honolulu. "There must I go first," he thought, "and +see Lopaka. For the best hope that I have now is to find that same +bottle I was so pleased to be rid of." + +Never a wink could he sleep; the food stuck in his throat; but he +sent a letter to Kiano, and about the time when the steamer would +be coming, rode down beside the cliff of the tombs. It rained; his +horse went heavily; he looked up at the black mouths of the caves, +and he envied the dead that slept there and were done with trouble; +and called to mind how he had galloped by the day before, and was +astonished. So he came down to Hookena, and there was all the +country gathered for the steamer as usual. In the shed before the +store they sat and jested and passed the news; but there was no +matter of speech in Keawe's bosom, and he sat in their midst and +looked without on the rain falling on the houses, and the surf +beating among the rocks, and the sighs arose in his throat. + +"Keawe of the Bright House is out of spirits," said one to another. +Indeed, and so he was, and little wonder. + +Then the HALL came, and the whaleboat carried him on board. The +after-part of the ship was full of Haoles (6) who had been to visit +the volcano, as their custom is; and the midst was crowded with +Kanakas, and the forepart with wild bulls from Hilo and horses from +Kau; but Keawe sat apart from all in his sorrow, and watched for +the house of Kiano. There it sat, low upon the shore in the black +rocks, and shaded by the cocoa palms, and there by the door was a +red holoku, no greater than a fly, and going to and fro with a +fly's busyness. "Ah, queen of my heart," he cried, "I'll venture +my dear soul to win you!" + +Soon after, darkness fell, and the cabins were lit up, and the +Haoles sat and played at the cards and drank whiskey as their +custom is; but Keawe walked the deck all night; and all the next +day, as they steamed under the lee of Maui or of Molokai, he was +still pacing to and fro like a wild animal in a menagerie. + +Towards evening they passed Diamond Head, and came to the pier of +Honolulu. Keawe stepped out among the crowd and began to ask for +Lopaka. It seemed he had become the owner of a schooner - none +better in the islands - and was gone upon an adventure as far as +Pola-Pola or Kahiki; so there was no help to be looked for from +Lopaka. Keawe called to mind a friend of his, a lawyer in the town +(I must not tell his name), and inquired of him. They said he was +grown suddenly rich, and had a fine new house upon Waikiki shore; +and this put a thought in Keawe's head, and he called a hack and +drove to the lawyer's house. + +The house was all brand new, and the trees in the garden no greater +than walking-sticks, and the lawyer, when he came, had the air of a +man well pleased. + +"What can I do to serve you?" said the lawyer. + +"You are a friend of Lopaka's," replied Keawe, "and Lopaka +purchased from me a certain piece of goods that I thought you might +enable me to trace." + +The lawyer's face became very dark. "I do not profess to +misunderstand you, Mr. Keawe," said he, "though this is an ugly +business to be stirring in. You may be sure I know nothing, but +yet I have a guess, and if you would apply in a certain quarter I +think you might have news." + +And he named the name of a man, which, again, I had better not +repeat. So it was for days, and Keawe went from one to another, +finding everywhere new clothes and carriages, and fine new houses +and men everywhere in great contentment, although, to be sure, when +he hinted at his business their faces would cloud over. + +"No doubt I am upon the track," thought Keawe. "These new clothes +and carriages are all the gifts of the little imp, and these glad +faces are the faces of men who have taken their profit and got rid +of the accursed thing in safety. When I see pale cheeks and hear +sighing, I shall know that I am near the bottle." + +So it befell at last that he was recommended to a Haole in +Beritania Street. When he came to the door, about the hour of the +evening meal, there were the usual marks of the new house, and the +young garden, and the electric light shining in the windows; but +when the owner came, a shock of hope and fear ran through Keawe; +for here was a young man, white as a corpse, and black about the +eyes, the hair shedding from his head, and such a look in his +countenance as a man may have when he is waiting for the gallows. + +"Here it is, to be sure," thought Keawe, and so with this man he +noways veiled his errand. "I am come to buy the bottle," said he. + +At the word, the young Haole of Beritania Street reeled against the +wall. + +"The bottle!" he gasped. "To buy the bottle!" Then he seemed to +choke, and seizing Keawe by the arm carried him into a room and +poured out wine in two glasses. + +"Here is my respects," said Keawe, who had been much about with +Haoles in his time. "Yes," he added, "I am come to buy the bottle. +What is the price by now?" + +At that word the young man let his glass slip through his fingers, +and looked upon Keawe like a ghost. + +"The price," says he; "the price! You do not know the price?" + +"It is for that I am asking you," returned Keawe. "But why are you +so much concerned? Is there anything wrong about the price?" + +"It has dropped a great deal in value since your time, Mr. Keawe," +said the young man stammering. + +"Well, well, I shall have the less to pay for it," says Keawe. +"How much did it cost you?" + +The young man was as white as a sheet. "Two cents," said he. + +"What?" cried Keawe, "two cents? Why, then, you can only sell it +for one. And he who buys it - " The words died upon Keawe's +tongue; he who bought it could never sell it again, the bottle and +the bottle imp must abide with him until he died, and when he died +must carry him to the red end of hell. + +The young man of Beritania Street fell upon his knees. "For God's +sake buy it!" he cried. "You can have all my fortune in the +bargain. I was mad when I bought it at that price. I had +embezzled money at my store; I was lost else; I must have gone to +jail." + +"Poor creature," said Keawe, "you would risk your soul upon so +desperate an adventure, and to avoid the proper punishment of your +own disgrace; and you think I could hesitate with love in front of +me. Give me the bottle, and the change which I make sure you have +all ready. Here is a five-cent piece." + +It was as Keawe supposed; the young man had the change ready in a +drawer; the bottle changed hands, and Keawe's fingers were no +sooner clasped upon the stalk than he had breathed his wish to be a +clean man. And, sure enough, when he got home to his room, and +stripped himself before a glass, his flesh was whole like an +infant's. And here was the strange thing: he had no sooner seen +this miracle, than his mind was changed within him, and he cared +naught for the Chinese Evil, and little enough for Kokua; and had +but the one thought, that here he was bound to the bottle imp for +time and for eternity, and had no better hope but to be a cinder +for ever in the flames of hell. Away ahead of him he saw them +blaze with his mind's eye, and his soul shrank, and darkness fell +upon the light. + +When Keawe came to himself a little, he was aware it was the night +when the band played at the hotel. Thither he went, because he +feared to be alone; and there, among happy faces, walked to and +fro, and heard the tunes go up and down, and saw Berger beat the +measure, and all the while he heard the flames crackle, and saw the +red fire burning in the bottomless pit. Of a sudden the band +played HIKI-AO-AO; that was a song that he had sung with Kokua, and +at the strain courage returned to him. + +"It is done now," he thought, "and once more let me take the good +along with the evil." + +So it befell that he returned to Hawaii by the first steamer, and +as soon as it could be managed he was wedded to Kokua, and carried +her up the mountain side to the Bright House. + +Now it was so with these two, that when they were together, Keawe's +heart was stilled; but so soon as he was alone he fell into a +brooding horror, and heard the flames crackle, and saw the red fire +burn in the bottomless pit. The girl, indeed, had come to him +wholly; her heart leapt in her side at sight of him, her hand clung +to his; and she was so fashioned from the hair upon her head to the +nails upon her toes that none could see her without joy. She was +pleasant in her nature. She had the good word always. Full of +song she was, and went to and fro in the Bright House, the +brightest thing in its three storeys, carolling like the birds. +And Keawe beheld and heard her with delight, and then must shrink +upon one side, and weep and groan to think upon the price that he +had paid for her; and then he must dry his eyes, and wash his face, +and go and sit with her on the broad balconies, joining in her +songs, and, with a sick spirit, answering her smiles. + +There came a day when her feet began to be heavy and her songs more +rare; and now it was not Keawe only that would weep apart, but each +would sunder from the other and sit in opposite balconies with the +whole width of the Bright House betwixt. Keawe was so sunk in his +despair, he scarce observed the change, and was only glad he had +more hours to sit alone and brood upon his destiny, and was not so +frequently condemned to pull a smiling face on a sick heart. But +one day, coming softly through the house, he heard the sound of a +child sobbing, and there was Kokua rolling her face upon the +balcony floor, and weeping like the lost. + +"You do well to weep in this house, Kokua," he said. "And yet I +would give the head off my body that you (at least) might have been +happy." + +"Happy!" she cried. "Keawe, when you lived alone in your Bright +House, you were the word of the island for a happy man; laughter +and song were in your mouth, and your face was as bright as the +sunrise. Then you wedded poor Kokua; and the good God knows what +is amiss in her - but from that day you have not smiled. Oh!" she +cried, "what ails me? I thought I was pretty, and I knew I loved +him. What ails me that I throw this cloud upon my husband?" + +"Poor Kokua," said Keawe. He sat down by her side, and sought to +take her hand; but that she plucked away. "Poor Kokua," he said, +again. "My poor child - my pretty. And I had thought all this +while to spare you! Well, you shall know all. Then, at least, you +will pity poor Keawe; then you will understand how much he loved +you in the past - that he dared hell for your possession - and how +much he loves you still (the poor condemned one), that he can yet +call up a smile when he beholds you." + +With that, he told her all, even from the beginning. + +"You have done this for me?" she cried "Ah, well, then what do I +care!" - and she clasped and wept upon him. + +"Ah, child!" said Keawe, "and yet, when I consider of the fire of +hell, I care a good deal!" + +"Never tell me," said she; "no man can be lost because he loved +Kokua, and no other fault. I tell you, Keawe, I shall save you +with these hands, or perish in your company. What! you loved me, +and gave your soul, and you think I will not die to save you in +return?" + +"Ah, my dear! you might die a hundred times, and what difference +would that make?" he cried, "except to leave me lonely till the +time comes of my damnation?" + +"You know nothing," said she. "I was educated in a school in +Honolulu; I am no common girl. And I tell you, I shall save my +lover. What is this you say about a cent? But all the world is +not American. In England they have a piece they call a farthing, +which is about half a cent. Ah! sorrow!" she cried, "that makes it +scarcely better, for the buyer must be lost, and we shall find none +so brave as my Keawe! But, then, there is France; they have a +small coin there which they call a centime, and these go five to +the cent or there-about. We could not do better. Come, Keawe, let +us go to the French islands; let us go to Tahiti, as fast as ships +can bear us. There we have four centimes, three centimes, two +centimes, one centime; four possible sales to come and go on; and +two of us to push the bargain. Come, my Keawe! kiss me, and banish +care. Kokua will defend you." + +"Gift of God!" he cried. "I cannot think that God will punish me +for desiring aught so good! Be it as you will, then; take me where +you please: I put my life and my salvation in your hands." + +Early the next day Kokua was about her preparations. She took +Keawe's chest that he went with sailoring; and first she put the +bottle in a corner; and then packed it with the richest of their +clothes and the bravest of the knick-knacks in the house. "For," +said she, "we must seem to be rich folks, or who will believe in +the bottle?" All the time of her preparation she was as gay as a +bird; only when she looked upon Keawe, the tears would spring in +her eye, and she must run and kiss him. As for Keawe, a weight was +off his soul; now that he had his secret shared, and some hope in +front of him, he seemed like a new man, his feet went lightly on +the earth, and his breath was good to him again. Yet was terror +still at his elbow; and ever and again, as the wind blows out a +taper, hope died in him, and he saw the flames toss and the red +fire burn in hell. + +It was given out in the country they were gone pleasuring to the +States, which was thought a strange thing, and yet not so strange +as the truth, if any could have guessed it. So they went to +Honolulu in the HALL, and thence in the UMATILLA to San Francisco +with a crowd of Haoles, and at San Francisco took their passage by +the mail brigantine, the TROPIC BIRD, for Papeete, the chief place +of the French in the south islands. Thither they came, after a +pleasant voyage, on a fair day of the Trade Wind, and saw the reef +with the surf breaking, and Motuiti with its palms, and the +schooner riding within-side, and the white houses of the town low +down along the shore among green trees, and overhead the mountains +and the clouds of Tahiti, the wise island. + +It was judged the most wise to hire a house, which they did +accordingly, opposite the British Consul's, to make a great parade +of money, and themselves conspicuous with carriages and horses. +This it was very easy to do, so long as they had the bottle in +their possession; for Kokua was more bold than Keawe, and, whenever +she had a mind, called on the imp for twenty or a hundred dollars. +At this rate they soon grew to be remarked in the town; and the +strangers from Hawaii, their riding and their driving, the fine +holokus and the rich lace of Kokua, became the matter of much talk. + +They got on well after the first with the Tahitian language, which +is indeed like to the Hawaiian, with a change of certain letters; +and as soon as they had any freedom of speech, began to push the +bottle. You are to consider it was not an easy subject to +introduce; it was not easy to persuade people you were in earnest, +when you offered to sell them for four centimes the spring of +health and riches inexhaustible. It was necessary besides to +explain the dangers of the bottle; and either people disbelieved +the whole thing and laughed, or they thought the more of the darker +part, became overcast with gravity, and drew away from Keawe and +Kokua, as from persons who had dealings with the devil. So far +from gaining ground, these two began to find they were avoided in +the town; the children ran away from them screaming, a thing +intolerable to Kokua; Catholics crossed themselves as they went by; +and all persons began with one accord to disengage themselves from +their advances. + +Depression fell upon their spirits. They would sit at night in +their new house, after a day's weariness, and not exchange one +word, or the silence would be broken by Kokua bursting suddenly +into sobs. Sometimes they would pray together; sometimes they +would have the bottle out upon the floor, and sit all evening +watching how the shadow hovered in the midst. At such times they +would be afraid to go to rest. It was long ere slumber came to +them, and, if either dozed off, it would be to wake and find the +other silently weeping in the dark, or, perhaps, to wake alone, the +other having fled from the house and the neighbourhood of that +bottle, to pace under the bananas in the little garden, or to +wander on the beach by moonlight. + +One night it was so when Kokua awoke. Keawe was gone. She felt in +the bed and his place was cold. Then fear fell upon her, and she +sat up in bed. A little moonshine filtered through the shutters. +The room was bright, and she could spy the bottle on the floor. +Outside it blew high, the great trees of the avenue cried aloud, +and the fallen leaves rattled in the verandah. In the midst of +this Kokua was aware of another sound; whether of a beast or of a +man she could scarce tell, but it was as sad as death, and cut her +to the soul. Softly she arose, set the door ajar, and looked forth +into the moonlit yard. There, under the bananas, lay Keawe, his +mouth in the dust, and as he lay he moaned. + +It was Kokua's first thought to run forward and console him; her +second potently withheld her. Keawe had borne himself before his +wife like a brave man; it became her little in the hour of weakness +to intrude upon his shame. With the thought she drew back into the +house. + +"Heaven!" she thought, "how careless have I been - how weak! It is +he, not I, that stands in this eternal peril; it was he, not I, +that took the curse upon his soul. It is for my sake, and for the +love of a creature of so little worth and such poor help, that he +now beholds so close to him the flames of hell - ay, and smells the +smoke of it, lying without there in the wind and moonlight. Am I +so dull of spirit that never till now I have surmised my duty, or +have I seen it before and turned aside? But now, at least, I take +up my soul in both the hands of my affection; now I say farewell to +the white steps of heaven and the waiting faces of my friends. A +love for a love, and let mine be equalled with Keawe's! A soul for +a soul, and be it mine to perish!" + +She was a deft woman with her hands, and was soon apparelled. She +took in her hands the change - the precious centimes they kept ever +at their side; for this coin is little used, and they had made +provision at a Government office. When she was forth in the avenue +clouds came on the wind, and the moon was blackened. The town +slept, and she knew not whither to turn till she heard one coughing +in the shadow of the trees. + +"Old man," said Kokua, "what do you here abroad in the cold night?" + +The old man could scarce express himself for coughing, but she made +out that he was old and poor, and a stranger in the island. + +"Will you do me a service?" said Kokua. "As one stranger to +another, and as an old man to a young woman, will you help a +daughter of Hawaii?" + +"Ah," said the old man. "So you are the witch from the eight +islands, and even my old soul you seek to entangle. But I have +heard of you, and defy your wickedness." + +"Sit down here," said Kokua, "and let me tell you a tale." And she +told him the story of Keawe from the beginning to the end. + +"And now," said she, "I am his wife, whom he bought with his soul's +welfare. And what should I do? If I went to him myself and +offered to buy it, he would refuse. But if you go, he will sell it +eagerly; I will await you here; you will buy it for four centimes, +and I will buy it again for three. And the Lord strengthen a poor +girl!" + +"If you meant falsely," said the old man, "I think God would strike +you dead." + +"He would!" cried Kokua. "Be sure he would. I could not be so +treacherous - God would not suffer it." + +"Give me the four centimes and await me here," said the old man. + +Now, when Kokua stood alone in the street, her spirit died. The +wind roared in the trees, and it seemed to her the rushing of the +flames of hell; the shadows tossed in the light of the street lamp, +and they seemed to her the snatching hands of evil ones. If she +had had the strength, she must have run away, and if she had had +the breath she must have screamed aloud; but, in truth, she could +do neither, and stood and trembled in the avenue, like an +affrighted child. + +Then she saw the old man returning, and he had the bottle in his +hand. + +"I have done your bidding," said he. "I left your husband weeping +like a child; to-night he will sleep easy." And he held the bottle +forth. + +"Before you give it me," Kokua panted, "take the good with the evil +- ask to be delivered from your cough." + +"I am an old man," replied the other, "and too near the gate of the +grave to take a favour from the devil. But what is this? Why do +you not take the bottle? Do you hesitate?" + +"Not hesitate!" cried Kokua. "I am only weak. Give me a moment. +It is my hand resists, my flesh shrinks back from the accursed +thing. One moment only!" + +The old man looked upon Kokua kindly. "Poor child!" said he, "you +fear; your soul misgives you. Well, let me keep it. I am old, and +can never more be happy in this world, and as for the next - " + +"Give it me!" gasped Kokua. "There is your money. Do you think I +am so base as that? Give me the bottle." + +"God bless you, child," said the old man. + +Kokua concealed the bottle under her holoku, said farewell to the +old man, and walked off along the avenue, she cared not whither. +For all roads were now the same to her, and led equally to hell. +Sometimes she walked, and sometimes ran; sometimes she screamed out +loud in the night, and sometimes lay by the wayside in the dust and +wept. All that she had heard of hell came back to her; she saw the +flames blaze, and she smelt the smoke, and her flesh withered on +the coals. + +Near day she came to her mind again, and returned to the house. It +was even as the old man said - Keawe slumbered like a child. Kokua +stood and gazed upon his face. + +"Now, my husband," said she, "it is your turn to sleep. When you +wake it will be your turn to sing and laugh. But for poor Kokua, +alas! that meant no evil - for poor Kokua no more sleep, no more +singing, no more delight, whether in earth or heaven." + +With that she lay down in the bed by his side, and her misery was +so extreme that she fell in a deep slumber instantly. + +Late in the morning her husband woke her and gave her the good +news. It seemed he was silly with delight, for he paid no heed to +her distress, ill though she dissembled it. The words stuck in her +mouth, it mattered not; Keawe did the speaking. She ate not a +bite, but who was to observe it? for Keawe cleared the dish. Kokua +saw and heard him, like some strange thing in a dream; there were +times when she forgot or doubted, and put her hands to her brow; to +know herself doomed and hear her husband babble, seemed so +monstrous. + +All the while Keawe was eating and talking, and planning the time +of their return, and thanking her for saving him, and fondling her, +and calling her the true helper after all. He laughed at the old +man that was fool enough to buy that bottle. + +"A worthy old man he seemed," Keawe said. "But no one can judge by +appearances. For why did the old reprobate require the bottle?" + +"My husband," said Kokua, humbly, "his purpose may have been good." + +Keawe laughed like an angry man. + +"Fiddle-de-dee!" cried Keawe. "An old rogue, I tell you; and an +old ass to boot. For the bottle was hard enough to sell at four +centimes; and at three it will be quite impossible. The margin is +not broad enough, the thing begins to smell of scorching - brrr!" +said he, and shuddered. "It is true I bought it myself at a cent, +when I knew not there were smaller coins. I was a fool for my +pains; there will never be found another: and whoever has that +bottle now will carry it to the pit." + +"O my husband!" said Kokua. "Is it not a terrible thing to save +oneself by the eternal ruin of another? It seems to me I could not +laugh. I would be humbled. I would be filled with melancholy. I +would pray for the poor holder." + +Then Keawe, because he felt the truth of what she said, grew the +more angry. "Heighty-teighty!" cried he. "You may be filled with +melancholy if you please. It is not the mind of a good wife. If +you thought at all of me, you would sit shamed." + +Thereupon he went out, and Kokua was alone. + +What chance had she to sell that bottle at two centimes? None, she +perceived. And if she had any, here was her husband hurrying her +away to a country where there was nothing lower than a cent. And +here - on the morrow of her sacrifice - was her husband leaving her +and blaming her. + +She would not even try to profit by what time she had, but sat in +the house, and now had the bottle out and viewed it with +unutterable fear, and now, with loathing, hid it out of sight. + +By-and-by, Keawe came back, and would have her take a drive. + +"My husband, I am ill," she said. "I am out of heart. Excuse me, +I can take no pleasure." + +Then was Keawe more wroth than ever. With her, because he thought +she was brooding over the case of the old man; and with himself, +because he thought she was right, and was ashamed to be so happy. + +"This is your truth," cried he, "and this your affection! Your +husband is just saved from eternal ruin, which he encountered for +the love of you - and you can take no pleasure! Kokua, you have a +disloyal heart." + +He went forth again furious, and wandered in the town all day. He +met friends, and drank with them; they hired a carriage and drove +into the country, and there drank again. All the time Keawe was +ill at ease, because he was taking this pastime while his wife was +sad, and because he knew in his heart that she was more right than +he; and the knowledge made him drink the deeper. + +Now there was an old brutal Haole drinking with him, one that had +been a boatswain of a whaler, a runaway, a digger in gold mines, a +convict in prisons. He had a low mind and a foul mouth; he loved +to drink and to see others drunken; and he pressed the glass upon +Keawe. Soon there was no more money in the company. + +"Here, you!" says the boatswain, "you are rich, you have been +always saying. You have a bottle or some foolishness." + +"Yes," says Keawe, "I am rich; I will go back and get some money +from my wife, who keeps it." + +"That's a bad idea, mate," said the boatswain. "Never you trust a +petticoat with dollars. They're all as false as water; you keep an +eye on her." + +Now, this word struck in Keawe's mind; for he was muddled with what +he had been drinking. + +"I should not wonder but she was false, indeed," thought he. "Why +else should she be so cast down at my release? But I will show her +I am not the man to be fooled. I will catch her in the act." + +Accordingly, when they were back in town, Keawe bade the boatswain +wait for him at the corner, by the old calaboose, and went forward +up the avenue alone to the door of his house. The night had come +again; there was a light within, but never a sound; and Keawe crept +about the corner, opened the back door softly, and looked in. + +There was Kokua on the floor, the lamp at her side; before her was +a milk-white bottle, with a round belly and a long neck; and as she +viewed it, Kokua wrung her hands. + +A long time Keawe stood and looked in the doorway. At first he was +struck stupid; and then fear fell upon him that the bargain had +been made amiss, and the bottle had come back to him as it came at +San Francisco; and at that his knees were loosened, and the fumes +of the wine departed from his head like mists off a river in the +morning. And then he had another thought; and it was a strange +one, that made his cheeks to burn. + +"I must make sure of this," thought he. + +So he closed the door, and went softly round the corner again, and +then came noisily in, as though he were but now returned. And, lo! +by the time he opened the front door no bottle was to be seen; and +Kokua sat in a chair and started up like one awakened out of sleep. + +"I have been drinking all day and making merry," said Keawe. "I +have been with good companions, and now I only come back for money, +and return to drink and carouse with them again." + +Both his face and voice were as stern as judgment, but Kokua was +too troubled to observe. + +"You do well to use your own, my husband," said she, and her words +trembled. + +"O, I do well in all things," said Keawe, and he went straight to +the chest and took out money. But he looked besides in the corner +where they kept the bottle, and there was no bottle there. + +At that the chest heaved upon the floor like a sea-billow, and the +house span about him like a wreath of smoke, for he saw he was lost +now, and there was no escape. "It is what I feared," he thought. +"It is she who has bought it." + +And then he came to himself a little and rose up; but the sweat +streamed on his face as thick as the rain and as cold as the well- +water. + +"Kokua," said he, "I said to you to-day what ill became me. Now I +return to carouse with my jolly companions," and at that he laughed +a little quietly. "I will take more pleasure in the cup if you +forgive me." + +She clasped his knees in a moment; she kissed his knees with +flowing tears. + +"O," she cried, "I asked but a kind word!" + +"Let us never one think hardly of the other," said Keawe, and was +gone out of the house. + +Now, the money that Keawe had taken was only some of that store of +centime pieces they had laid in at their arrival. It was very sure +he had no mind to be drinking. His wife had given her soul for +him, now he must give his for hers; no other thought was in the +world with him. + +At the corner, by the old calaboose, there was the boatswain +waiting. + +"My wife has the bottle," said Keawe, "and, unless you help me to +recover it, there can be no more money and no more liquor to- +night." + +"You do not mean to say you are serious about that bottle?" cried +the boatswain. + +"There is the lamp," said Keawe. "Do I look as if I was jesting?" + +"That is so," said the boatswain. "You look as serious as a +ghost." + +"Well, then," said Keawe, "here are two centimes; you must go to my +wife in the house, and offer her these for the bottle, which (if I +am not much mistaken) she will give you instantly. Bring it to me +here, and I will buy it back from you for one; for that is the law +with this bottle, that it still must be sold for a less sum. But +whatever you do, never breathe a word to her that you have come +from me." + +"Mate, I wonder are you making a fool of me?" asked the boatswain. + +"It will do you no harm if I am," returned Keawe. + +"That is so, mate," said the boatswain. + +"And if you doubt me," added Keawe, "you can try. As soon as you +are clear of the house, wish to have your pocket full of money, or +a bottle of the best rum, or what you please, and you will see the +virtue of the thing." + +"Very well, Kanaka," says the boatswain. "I will try; but if you +are having your fun out of me, I will take my fun out of you with a +belaying pin." + +So the whaler-man went off up the avenue; and Keawe stood and +waited. It was near the same spot where Kokua had waited the night +before; but Keawe was more resolved, and never faltered in his +purpose; only his soul was bitter with despair. + +It seemed a long time he had to wait before he heard a voice +singing in the darkness of the avenue. He knew the voice to be the +boatswain's; but it was strange how drunken it appeared upon a +sudden. + +Next, the man himself came stumbling into the light of the lamp. +He had the devil's bottle buttoned in his coat; another bottle was +in his hand; and even as he came in view he raised it to his mouth +and drank. + +"You have it," said Keawe. "I see that." + +"Hands off!" cried the boatswain, jumping back. "Take a step near +me, and I'll smash your mouth. You thought you could make a cat's- +paw of me, did you?" + +"What do you mean?" cried Keawe. + +"Mean?" cried the boatswain. "This is a pretty good bottle, this +is; that's what I mean. How I got it for two centimes I can't make +out; but I'm sure you shan't have it for one." + +"You mean you won't sell?" gasped Keawe. + +"No, SIR!" cried the boatswain. "But I'll give you a drink of the +rum, if you like." + +"I tell you," said Keawe, "the man who has that bottle goes to +hell." + +"I reckon I'm going anyway," returned the sailor; "and this +bottle's the best thing to go with I've struck yet. No, sir!" he +cried again, "this is my bottle now, and you can go and fish for +another." + +"Can this be true?" Keawe cried. "For your own sake, I beseech +you, sell it me!" + +"I don't value any of your talk," replied the boatswain. "You +thought I was a flat; now you see I'm not; and there's an end. If +you won't have a swallow of the rum, I'll have one myself. Here's +your health, and good-night to you!" + +So off he went down the avenue towards town, and there goes the +bottle out of the story. + +But Keawe ran to Kokua light as the wind; and great was their joy +that night; and great, since then, has been the peace of all their +days in the Bright House. + + + + +THE ISLE OF VOICES. + + +KEOLA was married with Lehua, daughter of Kalamake, the wise man of +Molokai, and he kept his dwelling with the father of his wife. +There was no man more cunning than that prophet; he read the stars, +he could divine by the bodies of the dead, and by the means of evil +creatures: he could go alone into the highest parts of the +mountain, into the region of the hobgoblins, and there he would lay +snares to entrap the spirits of the ancient. + +For this reason no man was more consulted in all the Kingdom of +Hawaii. Prudent people bought, and sold, and married, and laid out +their lives by his counsels; and the King had him twice to Kona to +seek the treasures of Kamehameha. Neither was any man more feared: +of his enemies, some had dwindled in sickness by the virtue of his +incantations, and some had been spirited away, the life and the +clay both, so that folk looked in vain for so much as a bone of +their bodies. It was rumoured that he had the art or the gift of +the old heroes. Men had seen him at night upon the mountains, +stepping from one cliff to the next; they had seen him walking in +the high forest, and his head and shoulders were above the trees. + +This Kalamake was a strange man to see. He was come of the best +blood in Molokai and Maui, of a pure descent; and yet he was more +white to look upon than any foreigner: his hair the colour of dry +grass, and his eyes red and very blind, so that "Blind as Kalamake, +that can see across to-morrow," was a byword in the islands. + +Of all these doings of his father-in-law, Keola knew a little by +the common repute, a little more he suspected, and the rest he +ignored. But there was one thing troubled him. Kalamake was a man +that spared for nothing, whether to eat or to drink, or to wear; +and for all he paid in bright new dollars. "Bright as Kalamake's +dollars," was another saying in the Eight Isles. Yet he neither +sold, nor planted, nor took hire - only now and then from his +sorceries - and there was no source conceivable for so much silver +coin. + +It chanced one day Keola's wife was gone upon a visit to +Kaunakakai, on the lee side of the island, and the men were forth +at the sea-fishing. But Keola was an idle dog, and he lay in the +verandah and watched the surf beat on the shore and the birds fly +about the cliff. It was a chief thought with him always - the +thought of the bright dollars. When he lay down to bed he would be +wondering why they were so many, and when he woke at morn he would +be wondering why they were all new; and the thing was never absent +from his mind. But this day of all days he made sure in his heart +of some discovery. For it seems he had observed the place where +Kalamake kept his treasure, which was a lock-fast desk against the +parlour wall, under the print of Kamehameha the Fifth, and a +photograph of Queen Victoria with her crown; and it seems again +that, no later than the night before, he found occasion to look in, +and behold! the bag lay there empty. And this was the day of the +steamer; he could see her smoke off Kalaupapa; and she must soon +arrive with a month's goods, tinned salmon and gin, and all manner +of rare luxuries for Kalamake. + +"Now if he can pay for his goods to-day," Keola thought, "I shall +know for certain that the man is a warlock, and the dollars come +out of the Devil's pocket." + +While he was so thinking, there was his father-in-law behind him, +looking vexed. + +"Is that the steamer?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Keola. "She has but to call at Pelekunu, and then she +will be here." + +"There is no help for it then," returned Kalamake, "and I must take +you in my confidence, Keola, for the lack of anyone better. Come +here within the house." + +So they stepped together into the parlour, which was a very fine +room, papered and hung with prints, and furnished with a rocking- +chair, and a table and a sofa in the European style. There was a +shelf of books besides, and a family Bible in the midst of the +table, and the lock-fast writing desk against the wall; so that +anyone could see it was the house of a man of substance. + +Kalamake made Keola close the shutters of the windows, while he +himself locked all the doors and set open the lid of the desk. +From this he brought forth a pair of necklaces hung with charms and +shells, a bundle of dried herbs, and the dried leaves of trees, and +a green branch of palm. + +"What I am about," said he, "is a thing beyond wonder. The men of +old were wise; they wrought marvels, and this among the rest; but +that was at night, in the dark, under the fit stars and in the +desert. The same will I do here in my own house and under the +plain eye of day." + +So saying, he put the bible under the cushion of the sofa so that +it was all covered, brought out from the same place a mat of a +wonderfully fine texture, and heaped the herbs and leaves on sand +in a tin pan. And then he and Keola put on the necklaces and took +their stand upon the opposite corners of the mat. + +"The time comes," said the warlock; "be not afraid." + +With that he set flame to the herbs, and began to mutter and wave +the branch of palm. At first the light was dim because of the +closed shutters; but the herbs caught strongly afire, and the +flames beat upon Keola, and the room glowed with the burning; and +next the smoke rose and made his head swim and his eyes darken, and +the sound of Kalamake muttering ran in his ears. And suddenly, to +the mat on which they were standing came a snatch or twitch, that +seemed to be more swift than lightning. In the same wink the room +was gone and the house, the breath all beaten from Keola's body. +Volumes of light rolled upon his eyes and head, and he found +himself transported to a beach of the sea under a strong sun, with +a great surf roaring: he and the warlock standing there on the same +mat, speechless, gasping and grasping at one another, and passing +their hands before their eyes. + +"What was this?" cried Keola, who came to himself the first, +because he was the younger. "The pang of it was like death." + +"It matters not," panted Kalamake. "It is now done." + +"And, in the name of God, where are we?" cried Keola. + +"That is not the question," replied the sorcerer. "Being here, we +have matter in our hands, and that we must attend to. Go, while I +recover my breath, into the borders of the wood, and bring me the +leaves of such and such a herb, and such and such a tree, which you +will find to grow there plentifully - three handfuls of each. And +be speedy. We must be home again before the steamer comes; it +would seem strange if we had disappeared." And he sat on the sand +and panted. + +Keola went up the beach, which was of shining sand and coral, +strewn with singular shells; and he thought in his heart - + +"How do I not know this beach? I will come here again and gather +shells." + +In front of him was a line of palms against the sky; not like the +palms of the Eight Islands, but tall and fresh and beautiful, and +hanging out withered fans like gold among the green, and he thought +in his heart - + +"It is strange I should not have found this grove. I will come +here again, when it is warm, to sleep." And he thought, "How warm +it has grown suddenly!" For it was winter in Hawaii, and the day +had been chill. And he thought also, "Where are the grey +mountains? And where is the high cliff with the hanging forest and +the wheeling birds?" And the more he considered, the less he might +conceive in what quarter of the islands he was fallen. + +In the border of the grove, where it met the beach, the herb was +growing, but the tree further back. Now, as Keola went toward the +tree, he was aware of a young woman who had nothing on her body but +a belt of leaves. + +"Well!" thought Keola, "they are not very particular about their +dress in this part of the country." And he paused, supposing she +would observe him and escape; and seeing that she still looked +before her, stood and hummed aloud. Up she leaped at the sound. +Her face was ashen; she looked this way and that, and her mouth +gaped with the terror of her soul. But it was a strange thing that +her eyes did not rest upon Keola. + +"Good day," said he. "You need not be so frightened; I will not +eat you." And he had scarce opened his mouth before the young +woman fled into the bush. + +"These are strange manners," thought Keola. And, not thinking what +he did, ran after her. + +As she ran, the girl kept crying in some speech that was not +practised in Hawaii, yet some of the words were the same, and he +knew she kept calling and warning others. And presently he saw +more people running - men, women and children, one with another, +all running and crying like people at a fire. And with that he +began to grow afraid himself, and returned to Kalamake bringing the +leaves. Him he told what he had seen. + +"You must pay no heed," said Kalamake. "All this is like a dream +and shadows. All will disappear and be forgotten." + +"It seemed none saw me," said Keola. + +"And none did," replied the sorcerer. "We walk here in the broad +sun invisible by reason of these charms. Yet they hear us; and +therefore it is well to speak softly, as I do." + +With that he made a circle round the mat with stones, and in the +midst he set the leaves. + +"It will be your part," said he, "to keep the leaves alight, and +feed the fire slowly. While they blaze (which is but for a little +moment) I must do my errand; and before the ashes blacken, the same +power that brought us carries us away. Be ready now with the +match; and do you call me in good time lest the flames burn out and +I be left." + +As soon as the leaves caught, the sorcerer leaped like a deer out +of the circle, and began to race along the beach like a hound that +has been bathing. As he ran, he kept stooping to snatch shells; +and it seemed to Keola that they glittered as he took them. The +leaves blazed with a clear flame that consumed them swiftly; and +presently Keola had but a handful left, and the sorcerer was far +off, running and stopping. + +"Back!" cried Keola. "Back! The leaves are near done." + +At that Kalamake turned, and if he had run before, now he flew. +But fast as he ran, the leaves burned faster. The flame was ready +to expire when, with a great leap, he bounded on the mat. The wind +of his leaping blew it out; and with that the beach was gone, and +the sun and the sea, and they stood once more in the dimness of the +shuttered parlour, and were once more shaken and blinded; and on +the mat betwixt them lay a pile of shining dollars. Keola ran to +the shutters; and there was the steamer tossing in the swell close +in. + +The same night Kalamake took his son-in-law apart, and gave him +five dollars in his hand. + +"Keola," said he, "if you are a wise man (which I am doubtful of) +you will think you slept this afternoon on the verandah, and +dreamed as you were sleeping. I am a man of few words, and I have +for my helpers people of short memories." + +Never a word more said Kalamake, nor referred again to that affair. +But it ran all the while in Keola's head - if he were lazy before, +he would now do nothing. + +"Why should I work," thought he, "when I have a father-in-law who +makes dollars of sea-shells?" + +Presently his share was spent. He spent it all upon fine clothes. +And then he was sorry: + +"For," thought he, "I had done better to have bought a concertina, +with which I might have entertained myself all day long." And then +he began to grow vexed with Kalamake. + +"This man has the soul of a dog," thought he. "He can gather +dollars when he pleases on the beach, and he leaves me to pine for +a concertina! Let him beware: I am no child, I am as cunning as +he, and hold his secret." With that he spoke to his wife Lehua, +and complained of her father's manners. + +"I would let my father be," said Lehua. "He is a dangerous man to +cross." + +"I care that for him!" cried Keola; and snapped his fingers. "I +have him by the nose. I can make him do what I please." And he +told Lehua the story. + +But she shook her head. + +"You may do what you like," said she; "but as sure as you thwart my +father, you will be no more heard of. Think of this person, and +that person; think of Hua, who was a noble of the House of +Representatives, and went to Honolulu every year; and not a bone or +a hair of him was found. Remember Kamau, and how he wasted to a +thread, so that his wife lifted him with one hand. Keola, you are +a baby in my father's hands; he will take you with his thumb and +finger and eat you like a shrimp." + +Now Keola was truly afraid of Kalamake, but he was vain too; and +these words of his wife's incensed him. + +"Very well," said he, "if that is what you think of me, I will show +how much you are deceived." And he went straight to where his +father-in-law was sitting in the parlour. + +"Kalamake," said he, "I want a concertina." + +"Do you, indeed?" said Kalamake. + +"Yes," said he, "and I may as well tell you plainly, I mean to have +it. A man who picks up dollars on the beach can certainly afford a +concertina." + +"I had no idea you had so much spirit," replied the sorcerer. "I +thought you were a timid, useless lad, and I cannot describe how +much pleased I am to find I was mistaken. Now I begin to think I +may have found an assistant and successor in my difficult business. +A concertina? You shall have the best in Honolulu. And to-night, +as soon as it is dark, you and I will go and find the money." + +"Shall we return to the beach?" asked Keola. + +"No, no!" replied Kalamake; "you must begin to learn more of my +secrets. Last time I taught you to pick shells; this time I shall +teach you to catch fish. Are you strong enough to launch Pili's +boat?" + +"I think I am," returned Keola. "But why should we not take your +own, which is afloat already?" + +"I have a reason which you will understand thoroughly before to- +morrow," said Kalamake. "Pili's boat is the better suited for my +purpose. So, if you please, let us meet there as soon as it is +dark; and in the meanwhile, let us keep our own counsel, for there +is no cause to let the family into our business." + +Honey is not more sweet than was the voice of Kalamake, and Keola +could scarce contain his satisfaction. + +"I might have had my concertina weeks ago," thought he, "and there +is nothing needed in this world but a little courage." + +Presently after he spied Lehua weeping, and was half in a mind to +tell her all was well. + +"But no," thinks he; "I shall wait till I can show her the +concertina; we shall see what the chit will do then. Perhaps she +will understand in the future that her husband is a man of some +intelligence." + +As soon as it was dark father and son-in-law launched Pili's boat +and set the sail. There was a great sea, and it blew strong from +the leeward; but the boat was swift and light and dry, and skimmed +the waves. The wizard had a lantern, which he lit and held with +his finger through the ring; and the two sat in the stern and +smoked cigars, of which Kalamake had always a provision, and spoke +like friends of magic and the great sums of money which they could +make by its exercise, and what they should buy first, and what +second; and Kalamake talked like a father. + +Presently he looked all about, and above him at the stars, and back +at the island, which was already three parts sunk under the sea, +and he seemed to consider ripely his position. + +"Look!" says he, "there is Molokai already far behind us, and Maui +like a cloud; and by the bearing of these three stars I know I am +come where I desire. This part of the sea is called the Sea of the +Dead. It is in this place extraordinarily deep, and the floor is +all covered with the bones of men, and in the holes of this part +gods and goblins keep their habitation. The flow of the sea is to +the north, stronger than a shark can swim, and any man who shall +here be thrown out of a ship it bears away like a wild horse into +the uttermost ocean. Presently he is spent and goes down, and his +bones are scattered with the rest, and the gods devour his spirit." + +Fear came on Keola at the words, and he looked, and by the light of +the stars and the lantern, the warlock seemed to change. + +"What ails you?" cried Keola, quick and sharp. + +"It is not I who am ailing," said the wizard; "but there is one +here very sick." + +With that he changed his grasp upon the lantern, and, behold I as +he drew his finger from the ring, the finger stuck and the ring was +burst, and his hand was grown to be of the bigness of three. + +At that sight Keola screamed and covered his face. + +But Kalamake held up the lantern. "Look rather at my face!" said +he - and his head was huge as a barrel; and still he grew and grew +as a cloud grows on a mountain, and Keola sat before him screaming, +and the boat raced on the great seas. + +"And now," said the wizard, "what do you think about that +concertina? and are you sure you would not rather have a flute? +No?" says he; "that is well, for I do not like my family to be +changeable of purpose. But I begin to think I had better get out +of this paltry boat, for my bulk swells to a very unusual degree, +and if we are not the more careful, she will presently be swamped." + +With that he threw his legs over the side. Even as he did so, the +greatness of the man grew thirty-fold and forty-fold as swift as +sight or thinking, so that he stood in the deep seas to the +armpits, and his head and shoulders rose like a high isle, and the +swell beat and burst upon his bosom, as it beats and breaks against +a cliff. The boat ran still to the north, but he reached out his +hand, and took the gunwale by the finger and thumb, and broke the +side like a biscuit, and Keola was spilled into the sea. And the +pieces of the boat the sorcerer crushed in the hollow of his hand +and flung miles away into the night. + +"Excuse me taking the lantern," said he; "for I have a long wade +before me, and the land is far, and the bottom of the sea uneven, +and I feel the bones under my toes." + +And he turned and went off walking with great strides; and as often +as Keola sank in the trough he could see him no longer; but as +often as he was heaved upon the crest, there he was striding and +dwindling, and he held the lamp high over his head, and the waves +broke white about him as he went. + +Since first the islands were fished out of the sea, there was never +a man so terrified as this Keola. He swam indeed, but he swam as +puppies swim when they are cast in to drown, and knew not +wherefore. He could but think of the hugeness of the swelling of +the warlock, of that face which was great as a mountain, of those +shoulders that were broad as an isle, and of the seas that beat on +them in vain. He thought, too, of the concertina, and shame took +hold upon him; and of the dead men's bones, and fear shook him. + +Of a sudden he was aware of something dark against the stars that +tossed, and a light below, and a brightness of the cloven sea; and +he heard speech of men. He cried out aloud and a voice answered; +and in a twinkling the bows of a ship hung above him on a wave like +a thing balanced, and swooped down. He caught with his two hands +in the chains of her, and the next moment was buried in the rushing +seas, and the next hauled on board by seamen. + +They gave him gin and biscuit and dry clothes, and asked him how he +came where they found him, and whether the light which they had +seen was the lighthouse, Lae o Ka Laau. But Keola knew white men +are like children and only believe their own stories; so about +himself he told them what he pleased, and as for the light (which +was Kalamake's lantern) he vowed he had seen none. + +This ship was a schooner bound for Honolulu, and then to trade in +the low islands; and by a very good chance for Keola she had lost a +man off the bowsprit in a squall. It was no use talking. Keola +durst not stay in the Eight Islands. Word goes so quickly, and all +men are so fond to talk and carry news, that if he hid in the north +end of Kauai or in the south end of Kau, the wizard would have wind +of it before a month, and he must perish. So he did what seemed +the most prudent, and shipped sailor in the place of the man who +had been drowned. + +In some ways the ship was a good place. The food was +extraordinarily rich and plenty, with biscuits and salt beef every +day, and pea-soup and puddings made of flour and suet twice a week, +so that Keola grew fat. The captain also was a good man, and the +crew no worse than other whites. The trouble was the mate, who was +the most difficult man to please Keola had ever met with, and beat +and cursed him daily, both for what he did and what he did not. +The blows that he dealt were very sore, for he was strong; and the +words he used were very unpalatable, for Keola was come of a good +family and accustomed to respect. And what was the worst of all, +whenever Keola found a chance to sleep, there was the mate awake +and stirring him up with a rope's end. Keola saw it would never +do; and he made up his mind to run away. + +They were about a month out from Honolulu when they made the land. +It was a fine starry night, the sea was smooth as well as the sky +fair; it blew a steady trade; and there was the island on their +weather bow, a ribbon of palm trees lying flat along the sea. The +captain and the mate looked at it with the night glass, and named +the name of it, and talked of it, beside the wheel where Keola was +steering. It seemed it was an isle where no traders came. By the +captain's way, it was an isle besides where no man dwelt; but the +mate thought otherwise. + +"I don't give a cent for the directory," said he, "I've been past +here one night in the schooner EUGENIE; it was just such a night as +this; they were fishing with torches, and the beach was thick with +lights like a town." + +"Well, well," says the captain, "its steep-to, that's the great +point; and there ain't any outlying dangers by the chart, so we'll +just hug the lee side of it. Keep her romping full, don't I tell +you!" he cried to Keola, who was listening so hard that he forgot +to steer. + +And the mate cursed him, and swore that Kanaka was for no use in +the world, and if he got started after him with a belaying pin, it +would be a cold day for Keola. + +And so the captain and mate lay down on the house together, and +Keola was left to himself. + +"This island will do very well for me," he thought; "if no traders +deal there, the mate will never come. And as for Kalamake, it is +not possible he can ever get as far as this." + +With that he kept edging the schooner nearer in. He had to do this +quietly, for it was the trouble with these white men, and above all +with the mate, that you could never be sure of them; they would all +be sleeping sound, or else pretending, and if a sail shook, they +would jump to their feet and fall on you with a rope's end. So +Keola edged her up little by little, and kept all drawing. And +presently the land was close on board, and the sound of the sea on +the sides of it grew loud. + +With that, the mate sat up suddenly upon the house. + +"What are you doing?" he roars. "You'll have the ship ashore!" + +And he made one bound for Keola, and Keola made another clean over +the rail and plump into the starry sea. When he came up again, the +schooner had payed off on her true course, and the mate stood by +the wheel himself, and Keola heard him cursing. The sea was smooth +under the lee of the island; it was warm besides, and Keola had his +sailor's knife, so he had no fear of sharks. A little way before +him the trees stopped; there was a break in the line of the land +like the mouth of a harbour; and the tide, which was then flowing, +took him up and carried him through. One minute he was without, +and the next within: had floated there in a wide shallow water, +bright with ten thousand stars, and all about him was the ring of +the land, with its string of palm trees. And he was amazed, +because this was a kind of island he had never heard of. + +The time of Keola in that place was in two periods - the period +when he was alone, and the period when he was there with the tribe. +At first he sought everywhere and found no man; only some houses +standing in a hamlet, and the marks of fires. But the ashes of the +fires were cold and the rains had washed them away; and the winds +had blown, and some of the huts were overthrown. It was here he +took his dwelling, and he made a fire drill, and a shell hook, and +fished and cooked his fish, and climbed after green cocoanuts, the +juice of which he drank, for in all the isle there was no water. +The days were long to him, and the nights terrifying. He made a +lamp of cocoa-shell, and drew the oil of the ripe nuts, and made a +wick of fibre; and when evening came he closed up his hut, and lit +his lamp, and lay and trembled till morning. Many a time he +thought in his heart he would have been better in the bottom of the +sea, his bones rolling there with the others. + +All this while he kept by the inside of the island, for the huts +were on the shore of the lagoon, and it was there the palms grew +best, and the lagoon itself abounded with good fish. And to the +outer slide he went once only, and he looked but the once at the +beach of the ocean, and came away shaking. For the look of it, +with its bright sand, and strewn shells, and strong sun and surf, +went sore against his inclination. + +"It cannot be," he thought, "and yet it is very like. And how do I +know? These white men, although they pretend to know where they +are sailing, must take their chance like other people. So that +after all we may have sailed in a circle, and I may be quite near +to Molokai, and this may be the very beach where my father-in-law +gathers his dollars." + +So after that he was prudent, and kept to the land side. + +It was perhaps a month later, when the people of the place arrived +- the fill of six great boats. They were a fine race of men, and +spoke a tongue that sounded very different from the tongue of +Hawaii, but so many of the words were the same that it was not +difficult to understand. The men besides were very courteous, and +the women very towardly; and they made Keola welcome, and built him +a house, and gave him a wife; and what surprised him the most, he +was never sent to work with the young men. + +And now Keola had three periods. First he had a period of being +very sad, and then he had a period when he was pretty merry. Last +of all came the third, when he was the most terrified man in the +four oceans. + +The cause of the first period was the girl he had to wife. He was +in doubt about the island, and he might have been in doubt about +the speech, of which he had heard so little when he came there with +the wizard on the mat. But about his wife there was no mistake +conceivable, for she was the same girl that ran from him crying in +the wood. So he had sailed all this way, and might as well have +stayed in Molokai; and had left home and wife and all his friends +for no other cause but to escape his enemy, and the place he had +come to was that wizard's hunting ground, and the shore where he +walked invisible. It was at this period when he kept the most +close to the lagoon side, and as far as he dared, abode in the +cover of his hut. + +The cause of the second period was talk he heard from his wife and +the chief islanders. Keola himself said little. He was never so +sure of his new friends, for he judged they were too civil to be +wholesome, and since he had grown better acquainted with his +father-in-law the man had grown more cautious. So he told them +nothing of himself, but only his name and descent, and that he came +from the Eight Islands, and what fine islands they were; and about +the king's palace in Honolulu, and how he was a chief friend of the +king and the missionaries. But he put many questions and learned +much. The island where he was was called the Isle of Voices; it +belonged to the tribe, but they made their home upon another, three +hours' sail to the southward. There they lived and had their +permanent houses, and it was a rich island, where were eggs and +chickens and pigs, and ships came trading with rum and tobacco. It +was there the schooner had gone after Keola deserted; there, too, +the mate had died, like the fool of a white man as he was. It +seems, when the ship came, it was the beginning of the sickly +season in that isle, when the fish of the lagoon are poisonous, and +all who eat of them swell up and die. The mate was told of it; he +saw the boats preparing, because in that season the people leave +that island and sail to the Isle of Voices; but he was a fool of a +white man, who would believe no stories but his own, and he caught +one of these fish, cooked it and ate it, and swelled up and died, +which was good news to Keola. As for the Isle of Voices, it lay +solitary the most part of the year; only now and then a boat's crew +came for copra, and in the bad season, when the fish at the main +isle were poisonous, the tribe dwelt there in a body. It had its +name from a marvel, for it seemed the seaside of it was all beset +with invisible devils; day and night you heard them talking one +with another in strange tongues; day and night little fires blazed +up and were extinguished on the beach; and what was the cause of +these doings no man might conceive. Keola asked them if it were +the same in their own island where they stayed, and they told him +no, not there; nor yet in any other of some hundred isles that lay +all about them in that sea; but it was a thing peculiar to the Isle +of Voices. They told him also that these fires and voices were +ever on the seaside and in the seaward fringes of the wood, and a +man might dwell by the lagoon two thousand years (if he could live +so long) and never be any way troubled; and even on the seaside the +devils did no harm if let alone. Only once a chief had cast a +spear at one of the voices, and the same night he fell out of a +cocoanut palm and was killed. + +Keola thought a good bit with himself. He saw he would be all +right when the tribe returned to the main island, and right enough +where he was, if he kept by the lagoon, yet he had a mind to make +things righter if he could. So he told the high chief he had once +been in an isle that was pestered the same way, and the folk had +found a means to cure that trouble. + +"There was a tree growing in the bush there," says he, "and it +seems these devils came to get the leaves of it. So the people of +the isle cut down the tree wherever it was found, and the devils +came no more." + +They asked what kind of tree this was, and he showed them the tree +of which Kalamake burned the leaves. They found it hard to +believe, yet the idea tickled them. Night after night the old men +debated it in their councils, but the high chief (though he was a +brave man) was afraid of the matter, and reminded them daily of the +chief who cast a spear against the voices and was killed, and the +thought of that brought all to a stand again. + +Though he could not yet bring about the destruction of the trees, +Keola was well enough pleased, and began to look about him and take +pleasure in his days; and, among other things, he was the kinder to +his wife, so that the girl began to love him greatly. One day he +came to the hut, and she lay on the ground lamenting. + +"Why," said Keola, "what is wrong with you now?" + +She declared it was nothing. + +The same night she woke him. The lamp burned very low, but he saw +by her face she was in sorrow. + +"Keola," she said, "put your ear to my mouth that I may whisper, +for no one must hear us. Two days before the boats begin to be got +ready, go you to the sea-side of the isle and lie in a thicket. We +shall choose that place before-hand, you and I; and hide food; and +every night I shall come near by there singing. So when a night +comes and you do not hear me, you shall know we are clean gone out +of the island, and you may come forth again in safety." + +The soul of Keola died within him. + +"What is this?" he cried. "I cannot live among devils. I will not +be left behind upon this isle. I am dying to leave it." + +"You will never leave it alive, my poor Keola," said the girl; "for +to tell you the truth, my people are eaters of men; but this they +keep secret. And the reason they will kill you before we leave is +because in our island ships come, and Donat-Kimaran comes and talks +for the French, and there is a white trader there in a house with a +verandah, and a catechist. Oh, that is a fine place indeed! The +trader has barrels filled with flour, and a French warship once +came in the lagoon and gave everybody wine and biscuit. Ah, my +poor Keola, I wish I could take you there, for great is my love to +you, and it is the finest place in the seas except Papeete." + +So now Keola was the most terrified man in the four oceans. He had +heard tell of eaters of men in the south islands, and the thing had +always been a fear to him; and here it was knocking at his door. +He had heard besides, by travellers, of their practices, and how +when they are in a mind to eat a man, they cherish and fondle him +like a mother with a favourite baby. And he saw this must be his +own case; and that was why he had been housed, and fed, and wived, +and liberated from all work; and why the old men and the chiefs +discoursed with him like a person of weight. So he lay on his bed +and railed upon his destiny; and the flesh curdled on his bones. + +The next day the people of the tribe were very civil, as their way +was. They were elegant speakers, and they made beautiful poetry, +and jested at meals, so that a missionary must have died laughing. +It was little enough Keola cared for their fine ways; all he saw +was the white teeth shining in their mouths, and his gorge rose at +the sight; and when they were done eating, he went and lay in the +bush like a dead man. + +The next day it was the same, and then his wife followed him. + +"Keola," she said, "if you do not eat, I tell you plainly you will +be killed and cooked to-morrow. Some of the old chiefs are +murmuring already. They think you are fallen sick and must lose +flesh." + +With that Keola got to his feet, and anger burned in him. + +"It is little I care one way or the other," said he. "I am between +the devil and the deep sea. Since die I must, let me die the +quickest way; and since I must be eaten at the best of it, let me +rather be eaten by hobgoblins than by men. Farewell," said he, and +he left her standing, and walked to the sea-side of that island. + +It was all bare in the strong sun; there was no sign of man, only +the beach was trodden, and all about him as he went, the voices +talked and whispered, and the little fires sprang up and burned +down. All tongues of the earth were spoken there; the French, the +Dutch, the Russian, the Tamil, the Chinese. Whatever land knew +sorcery, there were some of its people whispering in Keola's ear. +That beach was thick as a cried fair, yet no man seen; and as he +walked he saw the shells vanish before him, and no man to pick them +up. I think the devil would have been afraid to be alone in such a +company; but Keola was past fear and courted death. When the fires +sprang up, he charged for them like a bull. Bodiless voices called +to and fro; unseen hands poured sand upon the flames; and they were +gone from the beach before he reached them. + +"It is plain Kalamake is not here," he thought, "or I must have +been killed long since." + +With that he sat him down in the margin of the wood, for he was +tired, and put his chin upon his hands. The business before his +eyes continued: the beach babbled with voices, and the fires sprang +up and sank, and the shells vanished and were renewed again even +while he looked. + +"It was a by-day when I was here before," he thought, "for it was +nothing to this." + +And his head was dizzy with the thought of these millions and +millions of dollars, and all these hundreds and hundreds of persons +culling them upon the beach and flying in the air higher and +swifter than eagles. + +"And to think how they have fooled me with their talk of mints," +says he, "and that money was made there, when it is clear that all +the new coin in all the world is gathered on these sands! But I +will know better the next time!" said he. + +And at last, he knew not very well how or when, sleep feel on +Keola, and he forgot the island and all his sorrows. + +Early the next day, before the sun was yet up, a bustle woke him. +He awoke in fear, for he thought the tribe had caught him napping: +but it was no such matter. Only, on the beach in front of him, the +bodiless voices called and shouted one upon another, and it seemed +they all passed and swept beside him up the coast of the island. + +"What is afoot now?" thinks Keola. And it was plain to him it was +something beyond ordinary, for the fires were not lighted nor the +shells taken, but the bodiless voices kept posting up the beach, +and hailing and dying away; and others following, and by the sound +of them these wizards should be angry. + +"It is not me they are angry at," thought Keola, "for they pass me +close." + +As when hounds go by, or horses in a race, or city folk coursing to +a fire, and all men join and follow after, so it was now with +Keola; and he knew not what he did, nor why he did it, but there, +lo and behold! he was running with the voices. + +So he turned one point of the island, and this brought him in view +of a second; and there he remembered the wizard trees to have been +growing by the score together in a wood. From this point there +went up a hubbub of men crying not to be described; and by the +sound of them, those that he ran with shaped their course for the +same quarter. A little nearer, and there began to mingle with the +outcry the crash of many axes. And at this a thought came at last +into his mind that the high chief had consented; that the men of +the tribe had set-to cutting down these trees; that word had gone +about the isle from sorcerer to sorcerer, and these were all now +assembling to defend their trees. Desire of strange things swept +him on. He posted with the voices, crossed the beach, and came +into the borders of the wood, and stood astonished. One tree had +fallen, others were part hewed away. There was the tribe +clustered. They were back to back, and bodies lay, and blood +flowed among their feet. The hue of fear was on all their faces; +their voices went up to heaven shrill as a weasel's cry. + +Have you seen a child when he is all alone and has a wooden sword, +and fights, leaping and hewing with the empty air? Even so the +man-eaters huddled back to back, and heaved up their axes, and laid +on, and screamed as they laid on, and behold! no man to contend +with them! only here and there Keola saw an axe swinging over +against them without hands; and time and again a man of the tribe +would fall before it, clove in twain or burst asunder, and his soul +sped howling. + +For awhile Keola looked upon this prodigy like one that dreams, and +then fear took him by the midst as sharp as death, that he should +behold such doings. Even in that same flash the high chief of the +clan espied him standing, and pointed and called out his name. +Thereat the whole tribe saw him also, and their eyes flashed, and +their teeth clashed. + +"I am too long here," thought Keola, and ran further out of the +wood and down the beach, not caring whither. + +"Keola!" said, a voice close by upon the empty sand. + +"Lehua! is that you?" he cried, and gasped, and looked in vain for +her; but by the eyesight he was stark alone. + +"I saw you pass before," the voice answered: "but you would not +hear me. Quick! get the leaves and the herbs, and let us free." + +"You are there with the mat?" he asked. + +"Here, at your side;" said she. And he felt her arms about him. +"Quick! the leaves and the herbs, before my father can get back!" + +So Keola ran for his life, and fetched the wizard fuel; and Lehua +guided him back, and set his feet upon the mat, and made the fire. +All the time of its burning, the sound of the battle towered out of +the wood; the wizards and the man-eaters hard at fight; the +wizards, the viewless ones, roaring out aloud like bulls upon a +mountain, and the men of the tribe replying shrill and savage out +of the terror of their souls. And all the time of the burning, +Keola stood there and listened, and shook, and watched how the +unseen hands of Lehua poured the leaves. She poured them fast, and +the flame burned high, and scorched Keola's hands; and she speeded +and blew the burning with her breath. The last leaf was eaten, the +flame fell, and the shock followed, and there were Keola and Lehua +in the room at home. + +Now, when Keola could see his wife at last he was mighty pleased, +and he was mighty pleased to be home again in Molokai and sit down +beside a bowl of poi - for they make no poi on board ships, and +there was none in the Isle of Voices - and he was out of the body +with pleasure to be clean escaped out of the hands of the eaters of +men. But there was another matter not so clear, and Lehua and +Keola talked of it all night and were troubled. There was Kalamake +left upon the isle. If, by the blessing of God, he could but stick +there, all were well; but should he escape and return to Molokai, +it would be an ill day for his daughter and her husband. They +spoke of his gift of swelling, and whether he could wade that +distance in the seas. But Keola knew by this time where that +island was - and that is to say, in the Low or Dangerous +Archipelago. So they fetched the atlas and looked upon the +distance in the map, and by what they could make of it, it seemed a +far way for an old gentleman to walk. Still, it would not do to +make too sure of a warlock like Kalamake, and they determined at +last to take counsel of a white missionary. + +So the first one that came by, Keola told him everything. And the +missionary was very sharp on him for taking the second wife in the +low island; but for all the rest, he vowed he could make neither +head nor tail of it. + +"However," says he, "if you think this money of your father's ill +gotten, my advice to you would be, give some of it to the lepers +and some to the missionary fund. And as for this extraordinary +rigmarole, you cannot do better than keep it to yourselves." + +But he warned the police at Honolulu that, by all he could make +out, Kalamake and Keola had been coining false money, and it would +not be amiss to watch them. + +Keola and Lehua took his advice, and gave many dollars to the +lepers and the fund. And no doubt the advice must have been good, +for from that day to this, Kalamake has never more been heard of. +But whether he was slain in the battle by the trees, or whether he +is still kicking his heels upon the Isle of Voices, who shall say? + + +Footnotes: + +(1) Please pronounce PAPPA throughout. +(2) Alas! +(3) Aeolian +(4) Yes. +(5) Leprosy. +(6) Whites. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg eText Island Nights' Entertainments + + diff --git a/old/islni10.zip b/old/islni10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..606053a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/islni10.zip |