by Louis Becke
CHAPTER XI
Five minutes later the boat, which was crowded with natives, went aboutlike a top, and then Tully--as fine a sailor man as ever put hand to arope--brought her alongside in such a manner that I could not but admireand envy the little blackguard's skill.
I could not but admire and envy 148]
The boat itself was kept in fine order, and was painted like all theking's miniature fleet--white outside, and bright salmon inside. Oneglance at his boat's crew showed me that they were all armed--in aflashy melodramatic style, like the Red Indians of a comic opera, eachnaked native having a brace of revolvers buckled to a broad leatherbelt around his waist, from which also hung a French navy cutlass in aleather sheath. They were all big, stalwart fellows, though no one ofthem was as tough a customer to deal with as our Tepi, who eyed themwith undisguised enmity as he caught and made fast the line they heavedaboard.
Little Tully, red-headed, red-bearded, unwashed, and as dirty generallyas a pig from his own County Down, jumped on board and extended hisfilthy paw to me effusively.
"Wal, now, I jest am surprised to see you, Jim Sherry," he said with the"Down East" drawl he affected--he called himself an American--"why, wehaven't seen one another fer quite a stretch. Naow, tell me, where airyou from and where air you goin'?" "From Tarawa, and bound to Taputeuea"(an island a hundred miles to the south), I replied curtly, my temperrising, as suddenly catching sight of Lucia and Niabon, he stared rudelyat the former, then grinned and held out his hand to her. She touched itcoldly with ill-disguised aversion.
"Why, you too, Mrs. Krause! Wal, this is surprisin'. And where are_you_ goin'? Where's the boss?" "Mr. Krause is on Tarawa," shereplied quickly, "and he has chartered Mr. Sherry's boat to take me toDrummond's Island" (Taputeuea), "where there is a German barque loadingfor Samoa." The latter part of her remark was quite true, and Tully knewit.
"That is so, the _Wandrahm_. She's been lying there nigh on four months.And so you goin' ter Samoa, eh? Wal, I wish I was goin' there myself;but I've got a rosy berth here--I'm boss of King Apinoka's fleet oftrading boats, an' live like a fightin' cock."
I was about to ask him to have a glass of grog, just out of merecivility and island custom, when Tematau and Tepi made a suddenmovement, and turning, I saw that they were trying to prevent three orfour of Tolly's boat's crew from coming on board.
"Tell your men to keep to their boat, please," I said sharply. "My twomen don't understand the ways of these Apamama people, and they'll bequarrelling presently."
"Why, certainly, Jim," he said, with such oily effusiveness that Ilonged to kick him over the side; "but there ain't no need for yourmen to be scared. My crew on'y want to hev' a bit of a gam{*} withyours--thet's all."
* Whalemen's parlance for gossip.
He told his men to stay in the boat, but I saw him give them a swiftglance, and prepared myself for the next move. Tepi was watching himkeenly; Tematau went for'ard and began splitting kindling wood in alazy, aimless sort of a way, but I knew that he, too, was ready. Still Ifelt that we were in a tight place--three men against ten, exclusive ofTully. However, I tried to appear at my ease, and asked him to have adrink. Niabon passed us up a half-bottle of brandy, two tin mugs andsome water.
My visitor tossed off his liquor, and lit a cigar, offering me another.
"This is a fine lump of a boat," he said, running his eye over the deck,and then trying to peer into the little cabin; "you wouldn't care aboutsellin' her, I guess."
"No," I replied, "not now, at any rate. Must fulfil my charter first.But I am open to an offer when we come back from Drummond's Island. Isuppose you want her for the king."
"That is so. He's keen on getting better and bigger boats than thosehe has, and will sling out the dollars for anything that takes hisfancy--like this one will. Won't you run down with her now, and let himhave a look at her? It'll be a lot better than lyin' up here, and theking wants to see you."
I detected the suppressed eagerness in his voice as he made his request,and pretended to think for a few moments, blaming myself for my folly innot clearing out when we could have done so easily.
"No," I said slowly, as if I had considered the matter, "I think we'lllay here for to-day anyway. But I don't see why I could not run downearly to-morrow. Do you think the king could spare me about fiftyfathoms of 1 3/4 inch line? I want some badly."
"Of course--I'll give it to you myself. But I partickler want you tocome back with me rightaway, ez Apinoka will jest be ragin' mad with meif I go back by myself. You see, he's going away to the south end of thelagoon at daylight on a fishin' trip."
"Well, I'll run down to the town in the morning and wait till hereturns," I said, inwardly boiling at the man's persistency. "A day ortwo days' delay won't matter to me, and I think I'll put the boat up onthe beach and get a look at her underneath--I think some of her seamswant caulking. That will take one day at least, and then we might justas well be lying high and dry on the beach instead of being half-drownedoutside, running before this northerly."
The little devil was disappointed--that could be seen by his face--and Iwas also pretty sure did not believe my talk about the rope I wanted andthe caulking to be done. But I was now burning with anxiety to get ridof him and his boatload of naked bullies. Once they were well away fromus, I would get up anchor and make sail for the south passage and get tosea again.
"Well, just as you please," he said sullenly, as he helped himself toanother brandy. "I suppose I must get back." Then he asked me if I hadany rifles to sell.
"No. We only have enough for ourselves. Oh, where's the water? Niabon,some water please."
He started and looked hard at the girl. "Is that there gal the witchwoman?" he asked quickly, staring at her steadily. "'Niabon' you calledher, didn't you? Where is she goin'?"
"With Mrs. Krause," I said shortly.
"Great Caesar's sea boots! Apinoka and his people know all about her.He'll be mighty glad to see her. She's denied good-lookin' too. Why, Ithought----"
He jumped to his feet and told his boat's crew that "Niabon" was onboard, and in an instant every one of them was staring at her andcalling out her name, and one of them, bolder than the rest, made agesture to her to get into the boat. I pretended not to notice it, andNiabon herself told them that we were all very tired and wantedsleep, but that in the morning she would talk with them all at thevillage--when we came to see the king. They seemed satisfied, but a dealof whispering went on--and I felt certain that had Tully given them theword, they would have there and then rushed us and captured the boat.
"Wal, I must be goin'," said Tully at last; "when do you think you'll bedown? The king will be mighty vexed at not seein' you to-day."
"It's only eight miles across," I said carelessly, "so I daresay we'llbe there about seven in the morning, before breakfast. But," I added, toallay his suspicions, "the weather may take up a bit this afternoon; ifit does, I'll come along rightaway, after we have had a sleep."
He said that the chances were that it would take up, as the wind washauling more to the eastward, which meant rain, and once rain fell thewind would fall too.
We had a third drink, and I passed a couple of bottles of square-faceoyer to his crew, and then, to our intense satisfaction, Tally wentover the side into his own boat, which at once pushed off, and in afew minutes was slipping over the lagoon towards the big village, Tollywaving his dirty Panama hat to us as he stood grasping the steer oar. Ialmost fancied I could see him grin evilly at me.
"Simi," said Niabon as she watched the receding boat, "let us get awayfrom here quickly. That man Florry means ill to us, for I saw his eyesgleam when, as Lucia sat down on the mats under which the rifles arehidden, he heard them rattle together."
Tepi and Tematau joined her in her assertion that Tully meant mischiefand would seize the boat for the king, who would have no compunction inresorting to violence or murder to achieve his object, especially with aman like Tully to cany out his wishes. Tepi also said that once theking knew th
at Niabon was on board he would use every effort to gainpossession of her. Then, too, the firearms we carried were a furtherincentive to treachery--the king's mania to increase his stock of armsand ammunition being well known.
"Very well," I said to Lucia, "I'm quite as anxious as any one of usto get away. Let us wait, however, till Tully's boat is well down thelagoon."
"Master," said Tepi, "do not delay. See, the wind is falling, andrain--much rain--is close to from the east, and the rain killeth thewind. And this is a heavy boat to move with oars."
He was quite right, for, as Tully had said was likely, the wind was notonly falling, but was going round to the eastward. The sooner we got outof Apamama Lagoon the better.
"We'll loose the mainsail then," I said to Niabon, "and we'll get away.But we won't hoist it yet. We'll up anchor and drift until the raincomes--it will be on us in a quarter of an hour, and Tully won't be ableto see anything of us till we are abreast of the passage; and we may getout to sea without any one seeing us at all."
We got the anchor up, and with mainsail and jib all ready for hoisting,let the boat drift, and in another quarter of an hour a dense rainsquall came down on us from the eastward with just enough wind in it tosend us along at a smart pace as soon as we hoisted our sails. In lessthan an hour we were pretty close to the passage; for, although we couldnot see it owing to the rain, we felt the force of the swift currentrunning out, and could hear the subdued roar of the dangerous tide-rips.Tematau was for'ard, holding on to the fore-stay and peering ahead.Suddenly he gave a cry of alarm and shouted to me to luff.
It was too late, for almost at the same time we struck with a crash, andthe current, catching the boat's stern, slewed her round broadside on tothe reef, where she lay hard and fast, though shaking in every timberas a wall of water, hissing like a boiling cauldron, formed against herstarboard side.
Bidding the women sit quite quiet, we let go main and jib halliards andgot the sails inboard--no easy task under the circumstances. The waterwas not very deep, less than three feet, and every moment was decreasingin depth as the tide rushed out. This was fortunate for us in onerespect, for we could at least see what damage had been done when shestruck and possibly make it good; but on the other hand we should haveto stick where we were till the flood tide, and I was horribly afraid ofthe rain clearing off and revealing us to the natives.
However, there was no use in meeting trouble halfway, so we waitedpatiently for half an hour, when the reef became bare and we could makean examination of the boat's bottom--on one side at least. It did nottake us long to discover that no great harm had been done--she hadstruck fairly stem on to a patch of growing coral, which was better thanhard rock--and beyond carrying away a bit of her false keel, and deeplyscoring the bow planking, there was nothing else we could see at whichto grumble.
I was considering what was best to be done--the whole five of us couldnot even move so heavy a boat an inch--when to my disgust the rainsuddenly cleared, and I saw that we were aground on Entrance Island,with a native village staring us in our faces less than a quarter ofa mile away! And almost at the same moment we saw ten or a dozen menwalking over the reef towards us. Through my glasses I saw that theywere carrying nets and fish baskets, and I felt relieved at once; themoment they saw us they dropped their burdens and came on at a run. Noneof them were armed.
Carrying nets and fish baskets 158]
