"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 pa.s.sing 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 sh.e.l.l, 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 b.u.m 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 c.o.c.ked my gun and held it handy, and we marched up and pa.s.sed without a word, each keeping the tail of his eye on the other; and no sooner had we pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.s 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 n.o.body 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 d.a.m.nation 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.