Gascoyne, The Sandal Wood Trader | Page 5

all,
and being naturally of a philosophical turn of mind, he spent the next
three minutes in a futile endeavor to analyze his own feelings. Before
he had come to any satisfactory conclusion on the subject, the boat's
keel grated on the white sand of the shore.
Now, while all that we have been describing in the last and present
chapters was going on, a very different series of events was taking
place on the coral-island; for there, under the pleasant shade of the
cocoanut palms, a tall, fair, and handsome youth was walking lightly
down the green slopes toward the shore in anticipation of the arrival of
the schooner, and a naked, dark-skinned savage was dogging his steps,
winding like a hideous snake among the bushes, and apparently seeking
an opportunity to launch the short spear he carried in his hand at his
unsuspecting victim.
As the youth and the savage descended the mountain-side together, the
former frequently paused when an opening in the rich foliage peculiar
to these beautiful isles enabled him to obtain a clear view of the
magnificent bay and its fringing coral reef, on which the swell of the
great Pacific--so calm and undulating out beyond--fell in tremendous
breakers, with a long, low, solemn roar like distant thunder. As yet no

object broke the surface of the mirror-like bay within the reef.
Each time the youth paused the savage stopped also, and more than
once he poised his deadly spear, while his glaring eyeballs shone amid
the green foliage like those of a tiger. Yet upon each occasion he
exhibited signs of hesitation, and finally lowered the weapon, and
crouched into the underwood.
To any one ignorant of the actors in this scene, the indecision of the
savage would have appeared unaccountable; for there could be no
doubt of his desire to slay the fair youth--still less doubt of his ability to
dart his formidable spear with precision. Nevertheless, there was good
reason for his hesitating; for young Henry Stuart was well known, alike
by settlers and savages, as possessing the swiftest foot, the strongest
arm, and the boldest heart in the island, and Keona was not celebrated
for the possession of these qualities in any degree above the average of
his fellows, although he did undoubtedly exceed them in revenge,
hatred, and the like. On one occasion young Stuart had, while
defending his mother's house against an attack of the savages, felled
Keona with a well-directed blow of his fist. It was doubtless out of
revenge for this that the latter now dogged the former through the
lonely recesses of the mountain-pass by which he had crossed the
island from the little settlement in which was his home, and gained the
sequestered bay in which he expected to find the schooner. Up to this
point, however, the savage had not summoned courage to make the
attack, although, with the exception of a hunting-knife, his enemy was
altogether unarmed; for he knew that in the event of missing his mark
the young man's speed of foot would enable him to outstrip him, while
his strength of frame would quickly terminate a single combat.
As the youth gained the more open land near the beach, the possibility
of making a successful cast of the spear became more and doubtful.
Finally the savage shrunk into the bushes, and abandoned the pursuit.
"Not here yet, Master Gascoyne," muttered Henry, as he sat down on a
rock to rest; for, although the six miles of country he had crossed was a
trifle, as regarded distance, to a lad of nineteen, the rugged
mountain-path by which he had come would have tried the muscles of a

Red Indian, and the nerve of a goat. "You were wont to keep to time
better in days gone by. Truly it seems to me a strange thing that I
should thus be made a sort of walking post between my mother's house
and this bay, all for the benefit of a man who seems to me no better
than he should be, and whom I don't like, and yet whom I do like in
some unaccountable fashion that I don't understand."
Whatever the youth's thoughts were after giving vent to the foregoing
soliloquy, he kept them to himself. They did not at first appear to be of
an agreeable nature; for he frowned once or twice, and struck his thigh
with his clenched hand; but gradually a pleasant expression lit up his
manly face, as he gazed out upon the sleeping sea and watched the
gorgeous clouds that soon began to rise and cluster round the sun.
After an hour or so spent in wandering on the beach picking up shells,
and gazing wistfully out to sea, Henry Stuart appeared to grow tired of
waiting;