By Reef and Palm | Page 8

the only time he ever
climbed the Mission wall was to steal mangoes.)
The sunshade was tilted back, and displayed two big, black eyes,
luminous with admiring wonder.
"And so thou hast left Samoa to come here to be devoured by this fat
hog of a Dutchman! Dost thou not know, O foolish, lovely one, that she
who mates with a SIAMANI (German) grows old in quite a little time,
and thy face, which is now smooth and fair, will be coarse as the rind of

a half-ripe bread-fruit, because of the foul food these swine of Germans
eat?"
"Allan," I called, "here's the captain!"
There was a quick clasp of hands as the Stalwart One and the Maid
hurriedly spoke again, this time in a whisper, and then the white muslin
floated away out of sight.
The captain was what he called "no' so dry"--viz. half-seas over, and
very jolly. He told Allan he could have an hour to himself to buy what
he wanted, and then told me that the captain of a steam collier had
promised to give us a tug out at daylight. "I'm right for the
wedding-feast after all," I thought.
* * * * *
But the wedding never came off. That night Oppermann, in a frantic
state, was tearing round Levuka hunting for his love, who had
disappeared. At daylight, as the collier steamed ahead and tautened our
tow-line, we could see the parties of searchers with torches scouring the
beach. Our native sailors said they had heard a scream about ten at
night and seen the sharks splashing, and the white liars of Levuka
shook their heads and looked solemn as they told tales of monster
sharks with eight-foot jaws always cruising close in to the shore at
night.
* * * * *
Three days afterwards Allan came to me with stolid face and asked for
a bottle of wine, as Vaega was very sea-sick. I gave him the wine, and
threatened to tell the captain. He laughed, and said he would fight any
man, captain or no captain, who meddled with him. And, as a matter of
fact, he felt safe--the skipper valued him too much to bully him over
the mere stealing of a woman. So the limp and sea-sick Vaega was
carried up out of the sweating foc'sle and given a cabin berth, and Allan
planked down two twenty-dollar pieces for her passage to the Union
Group. When she got better she sang rowdy songs, and laughed all day,

and made fun of the holy Sisters. And one day Allan beat her with a
deal board because she sat down on a band-box in the trade-room and
ruined a hat belonging to a swell official's wife in Apia. And she liked
him all the better for it.
* * * * *
The fair Vaega was Mrs Allan for just six months, when his erratic
fancy was captivated by the daughter of Mauga, the chief of Tutuila,
and an elopement resulted to the mountains. The subsequent and
inevitable parting made Samoa an undesirable place of residence for
Allan, who shipped as boatsteerer in the NIGER of New Bedford. As
for Vaega, she drifted back to Apia, and there, right under the shadow
of the Mission Church, she flaunted her beauty. The last time I saw her
was in Charley the Russian's saloon, when she showed me a letter. It
was from the bereaved Oppermann, asking her to come back and marry
him.
"Are you going?" I said.
"E PULE LE ATUA (if God so wills), but he only sent me twenty
dollars, and that isn't half enough. However, there's an American
man-of-war coming next week, and these other girls will see then. I'll
make the PAPALAGI [foriegn] officers shell out. TO FA, ALII
[Good-bye]."

THE REVENGE OF MACY O'SHEA

A Story Of The Marquesas
I.
Tikena the Clubfooted guided me to an open spot in the jungle-growth,
and, sitting down on the butt of a twisted TOA, indicated by a sweep of
his tattooed arm the lower course of what had once been the White

Man's dwelling.
"Like unto himself was this, his house," he said, puffing a dirty clay
pipe, "square-built and strong. And the walls were of great blocks made
of PANISINA--of coral and lime and sand mixed together; and around
each centre-post--posts that to lift one took the strength of fifty
men--was wound two thousand fathoms of thin plaited cinnet, stained
red and black. APA! he was a great man here in these MOTU (islands),
although he fled from prison in your land; and when he stepped on the
beach the marks of the iron bands that had once been round his ankles
were yet red to the sight. There be none such as he in