Rio Grandes Last Race, Etc. | Page 7

of the Islands held by the lumbering Dutch,
Islands where shell was in plenty lying in passage and bay, Islands where divers could gather hundreds of shell in a day: But the lumbering Dutch, with their gunboats, hunted the divers away.
Joe Nagasaki, the `tender', finding the profits grow small, Said, `Let us go to the Islands, try for a number one haul! If we get caught, go to prison -- let them take lugger and all!'
Kanzo Makame, the diver -- knowing full well what it meant -- Fatalist, gambler, and stoic, smiled a broad smile of content, Flattened in mainsail and foresail, and off to the Islands they went.
Close to the headlands they drifted, picking up shell by the ton, Piled up on deck were the oysters, opening wide in the sun, When, from the lee of the headland, boomed the report of a gun.
Once that the diver was sighted pearl-shell and lugger must go. Joe Nagasaki decided -- quick was the word and the blow --?Cut both the pipe and the life-line, leaving the diver below!
Kanzo Makame, the diver, failing to quite understand,?Pulled the `haul up' on the life-line, found it was slack in his hand; Then, like a little brown stoic, lay down and died on the sand.
Joe Nagasaki, the `tender', smiling a sanctified smile,?Headed her straight for the gunboat -- throwing out shells all the while -- Then went aboard and reported, `No makee dive in three mile!
`Dress no have got and no helmet -- diver go shore on the spree; Plenty wind come and break rudder -- lugger get blown out to sea: Take me to Japanee Consul, he help a poor Japanee!'
. . . . .
So the Dutch let him go, and they watched him, as off from the Islands he ran, Doubting him much, but what would you? You have to be sure of your man Ere you wake up that nest-full of hornets -- the little brown men of Japan.
Down in the ooze and the coral, down where earth's wonders are spread, Helmeted, ghastly, and swollen, Kanzo Makame lies dead:?Joe Nagasaki, his `tender', is owner and diver instead.
Wearer of pearls in your necklace, comfort yourself if you can, These are the risks of the pearling -- these are the ways of Japan, `Plenty more Japanee diver, plenty more little brown man!'
The City of Dreadful Thirst
The stranger came from Narromine and made his little joke -- `They say we folks in Narromine are narrow-minded folk.?But all the smartest men down here are puzzled to define?A kind of new phenomenon that came to Narromine.
`Last summer up in Narromine 'twas gettin' rather warm --?Two hundred in the water-bag, and lookin' like a storm --?We all were in the private bar, the coolest place in town,?When out across the stretch of plain a cloud came rollin' down,
`We don't respect the clouds up there, they fill us with disgust, They mostly bring a Bogan shower -- three rain-drops and some dust; But each man, simultaneous-like, to each man said, "I think That cloud suggests it's up to us to have another drink!"
`There's clouds of rain and clouds of dust -- we'd heard of them before, And sometimes in the daily press we read of "clouds of war": But -- if this ain't the Gospel truth I hope that I may burst -- That cloud that came to Narromine was just a cloud of thirst.
`It wasn't like a common cloud, 'twas more a sort of haze;?It settled down about the streets, and stopped for days and days, And not a drop of dew could fall and not a sunbeam shine?To pierce that dismal sort of mist that hung on Narromine.
`Oh, Lord! we had a dreadful time beneath that cloud of thirst! We all chucked-up our daily work and went upon the burst.?The very blacks about the town that used to cadge for grub, They made an organised attack and tried to loot the pub.
`We couldn't leave the private bar no matter how we tried;?Shearers and squatters, union-men and blacklegs side by side Were drinkin' there and dursn't move, for each was sure, he said, Before he'd get a half-a-mile the thirst would strike him dead!
`We drank until the drink gave out, we searched from room to room, And round the pub, like drunken ghosts, went howling through the gloom. The shearers found some kerosene and settled down again,?But all the squatter chaps and I, we staggered to the train.
`And, once outside the cloud of thirst, we felt as right as pie, But while we stopped about the town we had to drink or die. But now I hear it's safe enough, I'm going back to work?Because they say the cloud of thirst has shifted on to Bourke.
`But when you see those clouds about -- like this one over here --