"SUS-MARIE-HOSEP!"
Terry was happily engaged in remaking the Major's old pack for his own
use when the Major entered the torchlit shack. It lacked an hour till
dawn. Outside, the main clearing was dark, but the big fires which
illuminated the surrounding trees revealed the excited natives still
celebrating Ahma's nuptials in the clearing around Ohto's house.
Terry straightened up from his task and studied the face of his
friend: fatigue and happiness had softened the serious lines that had
given the Major an appearance of age beyond his years.
"Major, isn't the ceremony finished yet?"
"No, it takes forty-eight hours to get married up here--and only two
hours to get buried! But a month ago I would have said that it was
about the correct ratio, at that."
Terry grinned as he finished the pack and threw it on the floor near
the door, then sat beside the Major on the cot.
"Major, I want to send up a gift for Ahma by the first runner the
postoffice people send through. It's hard to decide what to give her,
because she is entirely different from other girls, and the usual
bridal gifts would hardly do. Can't you help me out?"
For a minute the Major pondered heavily: "How about a mirror? She is
twenty years old and has never seen her own reflection."
"Just the thing! Enter the civilizing influence of vanity in the Hill
Country!"
Terry drew a notebook from his shirt pocket. "Major, I have jotted
down a list of things we are going to need for this work up here. I
thought it would be better if I had a definite program to submit to
the Governor, with estimate of appropriations necessary, and so on.
First I listed those things you will need in order to build and
furnish your house: cook stoves, lamps, dishes, window glass, and so
on. I think I have included everything, so just run over those things
you will need to begin this work."
For an hour earnestly they discussed the problems the Major would
confront pending Terry's return to take up the work. They listed a
wide variety of needs--pigs, chickens, medicines, books, tools, seeds:
contingent upon the Governor's approval, they outlined several months
of planting, trail making, establishment of regular communication with
the lowlands, selection of school teachers, of a health officer--all
of the varied instruments needed for the initial work of elevating the
tribesmen out of their barbarism.
Dawn had dimmed their torches when they finished. For a while they sat
silent, Terry happy in the outcome of this strange adventure in the
Hills, the Major thrilling with the joy that had come to him.
The Major broke the silence: "Terry, I AM a chump! All this time I've
forgotten to tell you that a captain's commission is waiting your
acceptance in Zamboanga!"
He went on, slowly: "Are you sure that you can come back here for a
year--after your honeymoon? Maybe she--your wife--won't wish to come."
"Yes, she will." Terry was confident. "It will be for only one year,
and then--"
"And then what?" the Major demanded after a while.
"Then--back home, among my own people. I left home foolishly, Major. I
was restless--looking for a dragon to slay. But I have had a year in
which to think--and I see things differently. During the time I was
sick up here I--I ... well, I know now that a man need not cross the
world to find service: he can be just as useful in preventing bunions
as in--as in such lucky ventures as this."
"Preventing bunions?" The Major was puzzled.
But Terry did not answer. He had risen to finish his preparations for
the journey down.
"Just one more thing, Terry. You promised to tell me how you started
that little avalanche--the 'sign.'"
Something of the serenity faded from Terry's face as he turned to
explain: "I had been up there several times, and had noticed a deep
crevice that split the platform from the parent rock. It would have
fallen within a few months. I carried up some softwood wedges, drove
them into the fault, poured in a lot of water and expansion did the
rest."
The Major visualized the toil and peril of lugging heavy logs up the
spiral trail at night. "Why didn't you let me help?" he demanded.
"Well, Ahma kept guard for me, and that was enough. If I had been
caught I could probably have talked myself out of the scrape, but it
might have gone harder with you. Luckily the timbers I used for wedges
were buried in the slide."
The Major's face clouded swiftly: "Say, Terry! That scoundrel Pud-Pud
said that he saw you that night--he can ruin the thing yet if he
talks!"
Terry shook his head, a little sorrowfully: "No, Pud-Pud will never
talk to anybody about anything again. I got to Ohto too late: they had
already executed sentence."
"What did they do with him?"
"Shot him full of darts and turned him loose in the Dark Forest. So I
confessed to Ohto that I contrived the 'sign.' Of course I made him
understand that you had nothing to do with the--trickery."
"What did he say--what is he going to do about it?" The Major was
anxious.
"He had known about it all the time--his men have trailed every step
we have taken, watched everything we have done."
A slow blush mounted the Major's rugged features as he thought of the
possibility that secret onlookers had witnessed his meeting with Ahma
just before the wedding ceremony when he had sought to teach her the
White Man's customs of caress. The flush persisted as he turned to
Terry.
"There's one thing I forgot to ask you to buy for me. I want a good
talking machine, with plenty of records." He paused, then continued
abstractedly: "She can keep it in her house."
Terry looked up in astonishment. "In _her_ house? Aren't you both
going to live in the same house?"
"No. Not till you send a missionary up here to marry us. I don't
figure that two days of savage rites constitutes a marriage--but I'm
going to have a deuce of a time trying to explain it to Ahma!"
Terry nodded sympathetically and walked the springy floor a dozen
times, nonplussed by the Major's dilemma. Pausing in his preoccupation
before the open window he noted vaguely that the nuptial fires were
yellowing before the approach of dawn: a moment and he started
violently as the solution struck him and he whirled upon the dejected
groom with beaming countenance.
"Say!" he shouted, "I'm certainly not going down with you two only
half-married--she a bride and you not a groom! You forget that as
Senior Inspector of Constabulary I am an ex-officio Justice of the
Peace! Come on!"
He lifted the Major by the arm and shot him through the doorway with
an exuberant shove that left him no alternative save a jarring leap to
the ground. Terry landed beside him as light as a cat, and catching
him by the elbow he hurried him on through the woods and into the
fading light of the big fires that burned before Ohto's house.
Terry, his eyes dancing joyously, broke up the dance with which a
hundred Hill People were keeping the ceremonial pot boiling, and
despatched two women to fetch the bride, who had sought a brief
respite from the interminable ritual. Shortly Ahma appeared before
them, her dark eyes shadowed with fatigue, but radiant with
exaltation.
Understanding from Terry's few words that the Major desired that they
be united also in accordance with the rites of his own people, she
stepped quietly before Terry and took the Major's outstretched hand.
The crowd of natives, who had crowded about them, waited the alien
ritual curiously.
Ahma was clad in the white costume in which the Major had first seen
her. A scarlet hibiscus blossom, the Hillmen's nuptial flower, was
thrust in her black hair, but there was no other addition to her scant
covering.
Possessed of a sudden spirit of banter Terry turned to the Major:
"Before I begin, Major, I wish to congratulate you upon having won to
the bliss of matrimony without violating that bachelor formula which
you so often boasted."
"What formula?"
Terry's voice deepened in mimicry: "'No petticoats for mine!'"
A moment he enjoyed the Major's embarrassment, then composed himself
to the business in hand, happy, confident.
But--the competent Terry fumbled. Swept away in the exuberance of
having found a way out for the Major, he had forgotten that, never
having exercised his legal privilege of joining in marriage in a
province where all of the natives were either Catholic or Mohammedan,
he was wanting in the phraseology the ceremony demanded.
Vainly he sought inspiration in a sky chill with the pale lights of
daybreak. He shuffled his feet nervously, scowled at the ring of
brown-skinned spectators, looked at his watch. As the sweat of worry
appeared upon his white forehead he drew his handkerchief and wiped
his face vigorously, then blew his nose resoundingly. This last device
seemed to serve.
He turned to the serene couple who waited patiently: "Do you, John
Bronner, take this woman, Ahma--Ahma of the Hills, to be your lawful
wedded wife, to love and cherish and to--er--provide for?"
"I do," said the Major. He was proud of Terry--trust the Constabulary
to see a thing through!
Terry was triumphant in his success. He unconsciously drew up his
slim, muscular figure as he turned to the bride, focussing his gaze
upon the blossom in the waves of jet locks that tumbled smoothly about
the downcast head.
"And do you, Ahma of the Hills, take this man, John Bronner, to be
your wedded lawful husband, to love and to--er--care for when
he--er--is sick?"
She caught the groom's whispered instructions and grasped the
wonderful import of the unknown words that Terry had spoken. Twice her
silent lips formed the two words of response in soundless practice,
then she looked up squarely into Terry's eyes and pronounced them.
"I do."
Either the clear voice was too rich with gladness, or else she should
not have turned the starry eyes so suddenly upon him. Lost for a long
moment in the splendor of the vision opened up to him, he forced
himself back to the duty of the minute. But he was off the track
again.
He floundered for an opening. Bits of biblical and legal phrases
raced through his tortured brain, but none seemed appropriate to this
situation. The haunt of the dark eyes obscured his vision, the limpid
"I do," filled his ears. "I do." The significance of the words brought
him back to the point of interruption, and he turned to them,
desperate, vague.
"You do? You do, eh--you both do ... well, ... join hands! I do say
and declare this twenty-third day of January that you are man and wife
in accord with the law of this land, and now--"
He glared at the grinning beneficiary of the service, and finished:
"And now--and now what I--what God and I have joined let no man put
asunder ... till death do us part ... so help me God, Amen!"
In an agony of torment he ripped through the crowd and raced to the
shack, where the Major joined him after taking Ahma into Ohto's house.
It was now broad daylight, and the huts were emptying of the crowd
waking to take up the burden of fiesta.
Terry buckled up his pack, joining in the Major's mirth.
"But you are married all right. I will send you up a certificate as
soon as I reach Zamboanga, all signed and sealed and everything."
They became serious in thought of imminent separation. Now that the
time had come Terry dreaded leaving his friend alone in the Hills.
"I will relieve you in three months, Major," he said.
"You needn't hurry--don't forget I'm on a honeymoon, too!"
Terry hesitated, then risked the question that had been bothering
him: "After we come--what are you going to do? Will Ahma be ready to
go below?"
"No, she will not. I am figuring on leaving her here a few
months--your wife can teach her to--to dress, and all that. And I
can't take her away so long as Ohto lives. After that, I want to take
her to the States. She learns fast, Terry,--and I want her to see
Europe--she will learn a lot there, too!"
The old woman brought them their breakfast. The Major hurried through
the meal and left to secure a guide to take Terry down, explaining
that he would join him in the woods. Terry ate under the sorrowing
eyes of the faithful woman, and when he finished he presented her with
the only gaud that remained to him, the gold medallion from his fob.
She scurried out to display it, the proudest woman, save one, in all
the Hills.
Slinging the pack across his shoulders he turned for a last look at
the little hut that had sheltered him. Within its cramped walls he had
suffered, had known grave peril, and great joy. A hint of the old
wistfulness flickered about the corner of his mouth, then he left the
hut and strode through the clearing into the woods, halting to wave
cheerfully at the Hillmen who somberly watched the departure of their
future chief.
He dipped over the edge of the plateau and found the Major awaiting
him with Ahma and the young warrior who was to guide him down. From
where they stood at the edge of a wide glade they could see far down
over the tops of the trees that matted the slope. In the clear morning
air the mists which gleamed over the distant Gulf shone white as
billowed snow. There lay Davao! Davao, then Zamboanga, then--! A
fiercely glad light blazed in Terry's gray eyes, then darkened in
anticipation of leaving the Major alone and with that melancholy with
which all men face the knowledge that even as Life turns the pages of
existence into its happiest chapter, she closes each finished page
forever.
The Major spoke first. "This guide knows the shortest route. He will
take you safe past all the man traps--you should sleep but one night
on the trail. Give my regards to Lindsey, Sears,--everybody."
Ahma looked from one to the other, not quite understanding what they
said, but understanding fully what they did not say. That showed in
the face of each.
"Major, I have never said anything about your--how I feel about your
risking the Hills to search for me, when it meant almost certain
death."
Death!... For an instant the Major again stood helpless in the dark
woods behind Lindsey's plantation embraced in coils of steel that
quivered, and heard the crash of delivering shots.... He searched the
white face, in which the lines of suffering from a chivalrously
contracted fever still lingered. An extraordinary warm cataract
suddenly obscured his vision.
"Sus-marie-hosep!" he spluttered. "Good-by."
Their hands gripped hard in an abiding friendship, then Terry turned
to Ahma doubtfully, at a loss as to how to bid adieu to this creature
of the Hills who knew so few of the white man's words or usages. He
found, too, a source of embarrassment in her new capacity of wife. As
she gazed up at him he looked away in boyish confusion.
The Major grasped the situation and addressed her very slowly in
English: "Ahma, say good-by to him."
As she nodded brightly, understanding, the Major turned to Terry as
proud as Punch: "You see--she is learning fast! Can't you imagine her,
all dressed up and everything, in Europe?"
Terry focussed his eyes safely upon the white line that marked the
part in her hair, and carefully pronounced each English word.
"Ahma, I am leaving for a while. Understand?"
She bobbed the dark head: "I do," she said.
The memories wrought by the limpid "I do" were a bit unsettling. He
addressed the jet locks again: "Good-by."
She looked at the capable hand he extended toward her, puzzled at the
gesture, then looked at the Major. He said a single word in dialect
and her small white teeth glistened in a smile of comprehension. She
approached close to Terry.
"I know. You say--good-night. I know how--to good-night."
Her concentration upon the unaccustomed pronunciations was bewitching.
To relieve the strain of embarrassment he felt in her closeness to
him, he turned to the grinning Major.
"As you say--she _does_ learn quickly," he offered, rather vaguely.
She came closer still. "Yes, I know--how to--good-night!" she trilled:
"Good-night is kiss!"
She called it "Keez" but Terry understood. If he did not then he did
an instant later when he felt the clasp of warm round arms, the
molding pressure of a soft form and the swift impress of full
sensitive lips.
Loosed, he straightened up. His blush was explosive. Bewildered, he
shrugged the light pack higher on his shoulders and gestured his
readiness to the warrior who had stood watching the inexplicable ways
of these strange white folk.
Following the Hillman, Terry set off across the glade. Midway down the
green sward he wheeled.
"I should say she DOES learn fast!" he called. "You won't need to take
HER to Europe!"
The two stood watching him as he followed the powerful little savage.
As the forest swallowed up the slim form the Major blinked rapidly,
and gripped the little hand he held.
"Sus-marie-hosep!" he exclaimed huskily. "But won't they be glad to
see him in Davao! And in Zamboanga!"