Five minutes later the boat, which was crowded with natives, went about
like a top, and then Tully--as fine a sailor man as ever put hand to a
rope--brought her alongside in such a manner that I could not but admire
and envy the little blackguard's skill.
[Illustration: I could not but admire and envy 148]
The boat itself was kept in fine order, and was painted like all the
king's miniature fleet--white outside, and bright salmon inside. One
glance at his boat's crew showed me that they were all armed--in a
flashy melodramatic style, like the Red Indians of a comic opera, each
naked native having a brace of revolvers buckled to a broad leather
belt around his waist, from which also hung a French navy cutlass in a
leather sheath. They were all big, stalwart fellows, though no one of
them was as tough a customer to deal with as our Tepi, who eyed them
with undisguised enmity as he caught and made fast the line they heaved
aboard.
Little Tully, red-headed, red-bearded, unwashed, and as dirty generally
as a pig from his own County Down, jumped on board and extended his
filthy 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, we
haven't seen one another fer quite a stretch. Naow, tell me, where air
you from and where air you goin'?” “From Tarawa, and bound to Taputeuea”
(an island a hundred miles to the south), I replied curtly, my temper
rising, as suddenly catching sight of Lucia and Niâbon, he stared rudely
at the former, then grinned and held out his hand to her. She touched it
coldly 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,” she
replied quickly, “and he has chartered Mr. Sherry's boat to take me to
Drummond's Island” (Taputeuea), “where there is a German barque loading
for Samoa.” The latter part of her remark was quite true, and Tully knew
it.
“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 of
trading boats, an' live like a fightin' cock.”
I was about to ask him to have a glass of grog, just out of mere
civility and island custom, when Tematau and Tepi made a sudden
movement, and turning, I saw that they were trying to prevent three or
four of Tolly's boat's crew from coming on board.
“Tell your men to keep to their boat, please,” I said sharply. “My two
men don't understand the ways of these Apamama people, and they'll be
quarrelling presently.”
“Why, certainly, Jim,” he said, with such oily effusiveness that I
longed to kick him over the side; “but there ain't no need for your
men to be scared. My crew on'y want to hev' a bit of a gam{*} with
yours--thet's all.”
* Whalemen's parlance for gossip.
He told his men to stay in the boat, but I saw him give them a swift
glance, and prepared myself for the next move. Tepi was watching him
keenly; Tematau went for'ard and began splitting kindling wood in a
lazy, aimless sort of a way, but I knew that he, too, was ready. Still I
felt that we were in a tight place--three men against ten, exclusive of
Tully. However, I tried to appear at my ease, and asked him to have a
drink. Niâbon passed us up a half-bottle of brandy, two tin mugs and
some 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 about
sellin' 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. I
suppose you want her for the king.”
“That is so. He's keen on getting better and bigger boats than those
he has, and will sling out the dollars for anything that takes his
fancy--like this one will. Won't you run down with her now, and let him
have a look at her? It'll be a lot better than lyin' up here, and the
king 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 in
not clearing out when we could have done so easily.
“No,” I said slowly, as if I had considered the matter, “I think we'll
lay here for to-day anyway. But I don't see why I could not run down
early to-morrow. Do you think the king could spare me about fifty
fathoms of 1 3/4 inch line? I want some badly.”
“Of course--I'll give it to you myself. But I partickler want you to
come back with me rightaway, ez Apinoka will jest be ragin' mad with me
if I go back by myself. You see, he's going away to the south end of the
lagoon at daylight on a fishin' trip.”
“Well, I'll run down to the town in the morning and wait till he
returns,” I said, inwardly boiling at the man's persistency. “A day or
two days' delay won't matter to me, and I think I'll put the boat up on
the beach and get a look at her underneath--I think some of her seams
want caulking. That will take one day at least, and then we might just
as well be lying high and dry on the beach instead of being half-drowned
outside, running before this northerly.”
The little devil was disappointed--that could be seen by his face--and I
was also pretty sure did not believe my talk about the rope I wanted and
the caulking to be done. But I was now burning with anxiety to get rid
of him and his boatload of naked bullies. Once they were well away from
us, I would get up anchor and make sail for the south passage and get to
sea again.
“Well, just as you please,” he said sullenly, as he helped himself to
another brandy. “I suppose I must get back.” Then he asked me if I had
any rifles to sell.
“No. We only have enough for ourselves. Oh, where's the water? Niâbon,
some water please.”
He started and looked hard at the girl. “Is that there gal the witch
woman?” he asked quickly, staring at her steadily. “'Niâbon' you called
her, 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, I
thought----”
He jumped to his feet and told his boat's crew that “Niâbon” was on
board, and in an instant every one of them was staring at her and
calling out her name, and one of them, bolder than the rest, made a
gesture to her to get into the boat. I pretended not to notice it, and
Niâbon herself told them that we were all very tired and wanted
sleep, but that in the morning she would talk with them all at the
village--when we came to see the king. They seemed satisfied, but a deal
of whispering went on--and I felt certain that had Tully given them the
word, 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 be
down? 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'll
be there about seven in the morning, before breakfast. But,” I added, to
allay his suspicions, “the weather may take up a bit this afternoon; if
it 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 was
hauling more to the eastward, which meant rain, and once rain fell the
wind would fall too.
We had a third drink, and I passed a couple of bottles of square-face
oyer to his crew, and then, to our intense satisfaction, Tally went
over the side into his own boat, which at once pushed off, and in a
few minutes was slipping over the lagoon towards the big village, Tolly
waving his dirty Panama hat to us as he stood grasping the steer oar. I
almost fancied I could see him grin evilly at me.
“Simi,” said Niàbon as she watched the receding boat, “let us get away
from here quickly. That man Florry means ill to us, for I saw his eyes
gleam when, as Lucia sat down on the mats under which the rifles are
hidden, he heard them rattle together.”
Tepi and Tematau joined her in her assertion that Tully meant mischief
and would seize the boat for the king, who would have no compunction in
resorting to violence or murder to achieve his object, especially with a
man like Tully to cany out his wishes. Tepi also said that once the
king knew that Niâbon was on board he would use every effort to gain
possession of her. Then, too, the firearms we carried were a further
incentive to treachery--the king's mania to increase his stock of arms
and ammunition being well known.
“Very well,” I said to Lucia, “I'm quite as anxious as any one of us
to get away. Let us wait, however, till Tully's boat is well down the
lagoon.”
“Master,” said Tepi, “do not delay. See, the wind is falling, and
rain--much rain--is close to from the east, and the rain killeth the
wind. And this is a heavy boat to move with oars.”
He was quite right, for, as Tully had said was likely, the wind was not
only falling, but was going round to the eastward. The sooner we got out
of Apamama Lagoon the better.
“We'll loose the mainsail then,” I said to Niâbon, “and we'll get away.
But we won't hoist it yet. We'll up anchor and drift until the rain
comes--it will be on us in a quarter of an hour, and Tully won't be able
to see anything of us till we are abreast of the passage; and we may get
out 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 rain
squall came down on us from the eastward with just enough wind in it to
send us along at a smart pace as soon as we hoisted our sails. In less
than an hour we were pretty close to the passage; for, although we could
not see it owing to the rain, we felt the force of the swift current
running 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, and
the current, catching the boat's stern, slewed her round broadside on to
the reef, where she lay hard and fast, though shaking in every timber
as a wall of water, hissing like a boiling cauldron, formed against her
starboard side.
Bidding the women sit quite quiet, we let go main and jib halliards and
got the sails inboard--no easy task under the circumstances. The water
was not very deep, less than three feet, and every moment was decreasing
in depth as the tide rushed out. This was fortunate for us in one
respect, for we could at least see what damage had been done when she
struck and possibly make it good; but on the other hand we should have
to stick where we were till the flood tide, and I was horribly afraid of
the rain clearing off and revealing us to the natives.
However, there was no use in meeting trouble halfway, so we waited
patiently for half an hour, when the reef became bare and we could make
an examination of the boat's bottom--on one side at least. It did not
take us long to discover that no great harm had been done--she had
struck fairly stem on to a patch of growing coral, which was better than
hard rock--and beyond carrying away a bit of her false keel, and deeply
scoring the bow planking, there was nothing else we could see at which
to grumble.
I was considering what was best to be done--the whole five of us could
not even move so heavy a boat an inch--when to my disgust the rain
suddenly cleared, and I saw that we were aground on Entrance Island,
with a native village staring us in our faces less than a quarter of
a mile away! And almost at the same moment we saw ten or a dozen men
walking over the reef towards us. Through my glasses I saw that they
were carrying nets and fish baskets, and I felt relieved at once; the
moment they saw us they dropped their burdens and came on at a run. None
of them were armed.
[Illustration: Carrying nets and fish baskets 158]