For nearly ten miles on each side of old Jack Swain's trading station
on Drummond's Island,{*} the beach trended away in a sweeping curve,
unbroken in its monotony except where some dark specks on the bright
yellow sand denoted the canoes of a little native village, carried down
to the beach in readiness for the evening's flying-fish catching.
* One of the lately annexed Gilbert Group in the South
Pacific.
Perhaps of all the thousands of islands that stud the bosom of the North
Pacific, from the Paumotus to the Pelews, the Kingsmill and Gilbert
Islands are the most uninviting and monotonous in appearance.
The long, endless lines of palms, stretching from one end of an island
to the other, present no change or variation in their appearance
till, as is often the case, the narrow belt of land on which they so
luxuriously thrive becomes, perhaps, but fifty yards in width, and the
thick matted undergrowth of creepers that prevail in the wider parts
of the island gives place to a barren expanse of wind-swept sand, which
yet, however, supports some scattered thousand-rooted palms against the
sweeping gusts from the westward in the rainy season, and the steady
strain of the southeast trades for the rest of the year.
In such spots as these, where the wild surf on the windward side of the
island sometimes leaps over the short, black reef, shelving out abruptly
from the shore, and sweeps through the scanty groves of palm and
pandanus trees, and, in a frothy, roaring flood, pours across the narrow
landbelt into the smooth waters of the lagoon, a permanent channel is
made, dry at low water, but running with a swift current when the tide
is at flood.
*****
Within an hour's walk from the old trader's house there were many such
places, for although Drummond's Island--or Taputeauea, as its wild
people call it--is full forty miles in length, it is for the most part
so narrow that one can, in a few minutes, walk across from the ceaseless
roar and tumult of the surf on the ocean reef to the smooth, sandy inner
beach of the lagoon.
Unlike other islands of the group, Drummond's is not circular in
its formation, but is merely a long, narrow palm-clad strip of sand,
protected from the sea on its leeward side, not by land, but by a
continuous sweep of reef, contracted to the shore at the northern end,
and widening out to a distance of ten or more miles at its southern
extremity. Within this reef the water is placid as a mill-pond.
The day had been very hot, and as the fierce yellow sun blazed westward
into the tumbling blue of the sailless ocean, a girl came out from the
thick undergrowth fringing the weather-bank of the island, and, walking
quietly over the loose slabs of coral covering the shore, made her way
towards a narrow channel through which the flowing tide was swiftly
sweeping.
Just where the incoming swell of the foaming little breakers from the
outer reef plashed up against the sides of the rocky channel, stood a
huge coral boulder, and here the girl stopped, and clambering up its
rough and jagged face sat down and began to roll a cigarette.
The name of the girl was Ema. She was the half-caste daughter of the old
trader. She had come to bathe, but meant to wait awhile and see if some
of the native girls from the nearest village, who might be passing along
to her father's store, to buy goods or sell native produce, would join
her. So, lighting her cigarette with a piece of burning coconut husk
that she brought with, her, she spread the towel she carried upon the
rock and waited, looking sometimes at the opposite side of the channel
to where the path from the village led, and sometimes out to sea.
Somewhat short in stature, the old trader's daughter looked younger than
she was, for she was about twenty--and twenty is an age in those tropic
climes which puts a girl a long way out of girlhood.
No one would ever say that little Ema Swain was beautiful. She certainly
was not. Her freckled face and large mouth “put her out of court,”
as Captain Peters would sometimes say to his mate. (Captain Peters
frequently came to Drummond's, and he and Etna's father would get drunk
on such occasions with uniform regularity.) But wait till you spoke to
her, and then let her eyes meet yours, and you would forget all about
the big mouth and the freckles; and when she smiled it was with such an
innocent sweetness that made a man somehow turn away with a feeling in
his heart that no coarse passion had ever ruffled her gentle bosom.
And her eyes. Ah! so different from those of most Polynesian
half-blooded girls. Theirs, indeed, in most cases, are beautiful eyes;
but there is ever in them a bold and daring challenge to a man they like
that gives the pall of monotony to the brightness of a glance.
Nearly every white man who had ever seen Ema and heard the magical
tones of her voice, or her sweet innocent laugh, was fascinated when
she turned upon him those soft orbs that, beneath the long dark lashes,
looked like diamonds floating in fluid crystal.
I said “nearly every white man,” for sometimes men came to Jack Swain's
house whose talk and manner, and unmistakable looks at her, made the
girl's slight figure quiver and tremble with fear, and she would hide
herself away in another room lest her father and brother might guess
the terror that filled her tender bosom. For white-headed Jack was a
passionate old fellow, and would have quickly invited any one who tried
to harm the girl “to come outside”; Jim, her black-haired, morose and
silent brother, would have driven a knife between the offender's ribs.
But the girl's merry, loving disposition would never let her tell her
brother nor her father how she dreaded these visits of some of the rough
traders from the other islands of the group to the house. Besides that,
neither of them noticed Ema; for Jim always got as drunk as his father
on such occasions of island harmony and foregathering of kindred
spirits.
*****
So for the past ten years the girl had grown up amongst these savage
surroundings--a fierce, turbulent, native race, delighting in deeds of
bloodshed, and only tolerating the presence of her father among them
because of his fair dealing and indomitable courage. In those far back,
olden days, when the low sandy islands of the Equatorial Pacific were
almost unknown (save to the few wandering white men who had cast their
lives among their wild and ferocious inhabitants, and the crews of the
American whaling fleet), no one but such a man as he would have dared
to dwell alone among the intractable and warlike people of Drummond's
Island.
But old Swain had lived for nearly forty years among the islands of the
South Seas, roaming from one end of the Pacific to the other, and his
bold nature was not one to be daunted. There was money to be made in
those times in the oil trade; yet sometimes, when he lay upon his couch
smoking his pipe, some vague idea would flit through his mind of going
back to the world again and ending his days in civilisation.
But with the coming morning such thoughts would vanish. How could he, a
man of sixty, he thought, give up the life he had led for forty years,
and take to the ways of white men in some great city? And then there
were Jim and Ema. Why, they would be worse off than he, poor things.
Neither of them could read or write; no more could he--but then he knew
something of the ways of white people, and they didn't. What would they
do if he took them to the States, and he died there? No! it wouldn't do.
They would all stay together. Jim would look after Em if he died. Yes,
Jim would. He was a good boy, and very fond of Em. A good boy! Yes, of
course he was, although he was a bit excitable when he came across any
grog. He hadn't always been like that, though. Perhaps he learnt it
aboard that man-o'-war.
And then the old trader, as he lay back on his rough couch, watching
the curling smoke wreaths from his pipe ascend to the thatched roof,
recalled to memory one day six years before, when the American cruiser
_Saginaw_ had anchored off the village of Utiroa, where Swain then
lived, and a group of the officers from the war-ship had stood talking
to him on the beach.
Beside him were his son and daughter; the boy staring curiously, but
not rudely, at the uniformed officers, the girl, timid and shrinking,
holding her father's hand.
“How old is your son?” the commander of the cruiser had asked him
kindly; “and why don't you let him see something of the world? Such a
fine young lad as he ought not to waste his life down here among these
God-forsaken lagoons.” And before the trader could frame a reply the boy
had stepped out and answered for himself.
“I wan' to go away, sir. I has been two or three voyages in a whaler,
sir, but I would like to go in a man-o'-war.”
The grey-bearded captain laughed good-naturedly, but the kindly light in
his eyes deepened as the girl, with an alarmed look, took her brother by
the hand and sought to draw him back.
“Well, we'll talk about it presently, my lad. I don't think this little
sister of yours would thank me for taking you away.”
And, half an hour afterwards, as the rest of the officers strolled about
the native village, the captain and old Jack did talk the matter over,
and the end of it was that the stalwart young half-caste was entered
on the ship's books, and at sunset Ema and her father saw the cruiser
spread her canvas, and then sail away to the westward.
In five years or so Jim would be free to return home again, unless he
preferred to remain in the service altogether.
*****
Three years passed, and then, one day, a Hawaiian trading schooner swept
round the north end of the island, her white sails bellying out to the
lusty trades. A boat was lowered and pulled ashore, and the first man
that jumped out of her on to the beach was Jim Swain.
Half-way between his father's house and the beach the old man met him.
“Well, I be darned! Why, Jim, what hez brought you back?”
“Got tired of it, dad,” he answered, in his quiet way, but without
meeting his father's eye. And then he added, “The fac' is, dad, I bolted
from the _Saginaw_ at Valparaiso. Now, don' ask me no more 'bout it.”
“Right you are, my boy,” said the trader, placidly; “but you'll have to
get out o' the way if another cruiser comes along. But that isn't likely
to happen for many a year. Come along and see Em. She'll jes' go dancin'
mad when she sees you.”
*****
For the next twelve months the father and daughter lived at Utiroa, and
Jim voyaged to and fro among the islands of the group, returning every
few months, and again sailing away on a fresh cruise; but never once
had the old man asked him any further questions as to his reasons for
deserting from the _Saginaw_. But Em, gentle-hearted Em, knew.
One bright morning there came in sight a lofty-sparred ship, with
snow-white canvas, sailing at a distance of two miles from the shore
along the reef, from the south end of the island, and Ema Swain rousing
her brother from his mid-day slumber, with terror in her eyes, pointed
seaward.
Taking his father's glass from the bracket on the wall in the
sitting-room, the half-caste walked out of the house to a spot where
he could obtain a clear view of the ship. For a minute or so he gazed
steadily, then lowered the glass.
“A man-o'-war, Em, right enough; but I don' think she's an American.
I'll wait a bit until she gets closer.”
“No, no, Jim! What you run such risk for? You go, Jim.” And then, in her
trembling fear, their mother's tongue came to her aid, and the agitated
girl dragged him back into the house, imploring him in the native
language to yield to her wishes.
In another two hours they were sailing down the lagoon in the old
trader's whaleboat towards a place of safety, for Utiroa was, they knew,
the only spot where a man-of-war would anchor.
But long before they reached the village for which they were bound
they saw the great ship slowly change her course and bear away to the
westward, and leave the low, sandy island astern.
A long, steady look at her told the sailor eye of Jim Swain that he had
nothing to fear, even had she kept on and anchored at Utiroa.
“All right, Em,” he said, with a low laugh, “we had no need to be
scared; she's a Britisher. That's the _Tagus_. I see her 'bout a year
ago at Samoa.” And then he hauled the boat to the wind and beat back to
his father's place.
And so time went by, and the haunting fear of discovery that for the
first year or so after his return to the island had so often made the
young half-caste start up in his sleep with a wild alarm in his heart
when the cry of “Te Kaibuke!”{*} resounded from village to village,
slowly died away.
* “A ship!”