Island Nights Entertainments | Page 8

their wives'
relatives, and made fools of in the bargain; and I told myself I must
make a stand at once, and bring her to her bearings. But she looked so
quaint and pretty as she ran away and then awaited me, and the thing

was done so like a child or a kind dog, that the best I could do was just
to follow her whenever she went on, to listen for the fall of her bare
feet, and to watch in the dusk for the shining of her body. And there
was another thought came in my head. She played kitten with me now
when we were alone; but in the house she had carried it the way a
countess might, so proud and humble. And what with her dress - for all
there was so little of it, and that native enough - what with her fine tapa
and fine scents, and her red flowers and seeds, that were quite as bright
as jewels, only larger - it came over me she was a kind of countess
really, dressed to hear great singers at a concert, and no even mate for a
poor trader like myself.
She was the first in the house; and while I was still without I saw a
match flash and the lamplight kindle in the windows. The station was a
wonderful fine place, coral built, with quite a wide verandah, and the
main room high and wide. My chests and cases had been piled in, and
made rather of a mess; and there, in the thick of the confusion, stood
Uma by the table, awaiting me. Her shadow went all the way up behind
her into the hollow of the iron roof; she stood against it bright, the
lamplight shining on her skin. I stopped in the door, and she looked at
me, not speaking, with eyes that were eager and yet daunted; then she
touched herself on the bosom.
"Me - your wifie," she said. It had never taken me like that before; but
the want of her took and shook all through me, like the wind in the luff
of a sail.
I could not speak if I had wanted; and if I could, I would not. I was
ashamed to be so much moved about a native, ashamed of the marriage
too, and the certificate she had treasured in her kilt; and I turned aside
and made believe to rummage among my cases. The first thing I lighted
on was a case of gin, the only one that I had brought; and, partly for the
girl's sake, and partly for horror of the recollections of old Randall,
took a sudden resolve. I prized the lid off. One by one I drew the bottles
with a pocket corkscrew, and sent Uma out to pour the stuff from the
verandah.
She came back after the last, and looked at me puzzled like.
"No good," said I, for I was now a little better master of my tongue.
"Man he drink, he no good."
She agreed with this, but kept considering. "Why you bring him?" she

asked presently. "Suppose you no want drink, you no bring him, I
think."
"That's all right," said I. "One time I want drink too much; now no want.
You see, I no savvy I get one little wifie. Suppose I drink gin, my little
wifie he 'fraid."
To speak to her kindly was about more than I was fit for; I had made
my vow I would never let on to weakness with a native, and I had
nothing for it but to stop.
She stood looking gravely down at me where I sat by the open case. "I
think you good man," she said. And suddenly she had fallen before me
on the floor. "I belong you all-e-same pig!" she cried.

CHAPTER II
. THE BAN.
I CAME on the verandah just before the sun rose on the morrow. My
house was the last on the east; there was a cape of woods and cliffs
behind that hid the sunrise. To the west, a swift cold river ran down,
and beyond was the green of the village, dotted with cocoa-palms and
breadfruits and houses. The shutters were some of them down and
some open; I saw the mosquito bars still stretched, with shadows of
people new-awakened sitting up inside; and all over the green others
were stalking silent, wrapped in their many-coloured sleeping clothes
like Bedouins in Bible pictures. It was mortal still and solemn and
chilly, and the light of the dawn on the lagoon was like the shining of a
fire.
But the thing that troubled me was nearer hand. Some dozen young
men and children made a piece of a half-circle, flanking my