South Sea Tales | Page 4

melt into the
atmosphere out of his hand. In the shade it was softly luminous,
gleaming like a tender moon. So translucently white was it, that when
he dropped it into a glass of water he had difficulty in finding it. So
straight and swiftly had it sunk to the bottom that he knew its weight
was excellent.
"Well, what do you want for it?" he asked, with a fine assumption of
nonchalance.
"I want--" Mapuhi began, and behind him, framing his own dark face,
the dark faces of two women and a girl nodded concurrence in what he
wanted. Their heads were bent forward, they were animated by a
suppressed eagerness, their eyes flashed avariciously.

"I want a house," Mapuhi went on. "It must have a roof of galvanized
iron and an octagon-drop-clock. It must be six fathoms long with a
porch all around. A big room must be in the centre, with a round table
in the middle of it and the octagon-drop-clock on the wall. There must
be four bedrooms, two on each side of the big room, and in each
bedroom must be an iron bed, two chairs, and a washstand. And back
of the house must be a kitchen, a good kitchen, with pots and pans and
a stove. And you must build the house on my island, which is
Fakarava."
"Is that all?" Raoul asked incredulously.
"There must be a sewing machine," spoke up Tefara, Mapuhi's wife.
"Not forgetting the octagon-drop-clock," added Nauri, Mapuhi's
mother.
"Yes, that is all," said Mapuhi.
Young Raoul laughed. He laughed long and heartily. But while he
laughed he secretly performed problems in mental arithmetic. He had
never built a house in his life, and his notions concerning house
building were hazy. While he laughed, he calculated the cost of the
voyage to Tahiti for materials, of the materials themselves, of the
voyage back again to Fakarava, and the cost of landing the materials
and of building the house. It would come to four thousand French
dollars, allowing a margin for safety--four thousand French dollars
were equivalent to twenty thousad francs. It was impossible. How was
he to know the value of such a pearl? Twenty thousand francs was a lot
of money--and of his mother's money at that.
"Mapuhi," he said, "you are a big fool. Set a money price."
But Mapuhi shook his head, and the three heads behind him shook with
his.
"I want the house," he said. "It must be six fathoms long with a porch
all around--"

"Yes, yes," Raoul interrupted. "I know all about your house, but it
won't do. I'll give you a thousand Chili dollars."
The four heads chorused a silent negative.
"And a hundred Chili dollars in trade."
"I want the house," Mapuhi began.
"What good will the house do you?" Raoul demanded. "The first
hurricane that comes along will wash it away. You ought to know.
Captain Raffy says it looks like a hurricane right now."
"Not on Fakarava," said Mapuhi. "The land is much higher there. On
this island, yes. Any hurricane can sweep Hikueru. I will have the
house on Fakarava. It must be six fathoms long with a porch all
around--"
And Raoul listened again to the tale of the house. Several hours he
spent in the endeavor to hammer the house obsession out of Mapuhi's
mind; but Mapuhi's mother and wife, and Ngakura, Mapuhi's daughter,
bolstered him in his resolve for the house. Through the open doorway,
while he listened for the twentieth time to the detailed description of
the house that was wanted, Raoul saw his schooner's second boat draw
up on the beach. The sailors rested on the oars, advertising haste to be
gone. The first mate of the Aorai sprang ashore, exchanged a word with
the one-armed native, then hurried toward Raoul. The day grew
suddenly dark, as a squall obscured the face of the sun. Across the
lagoon Raoul could see approaching the ominous line of the puff of
wind.
"Captain Raffy says you've got to get to hell outa here," was the mate's
greeting. "If there's any shell, we've got to run the risk of picking it up
later on--so he says. The barometer's dropped to twenty-nine-seventy."
The gust of wind struck the pandanus tree overhead and tore through
the palms beyond, flinging half a dozen ripe cocoanuts with heavy

thuds to the ground. Then came the rain out of the distance, advancing
with the roar of a gale of wind and causing the water of the lagoon to
smoke in driven windrows. The sharp rattle of the first drops was on
the leaves when Raoul sprang to his feet.
"A thousand Chili dollars, cash down, Mapuhi," he said. "And two
hundred Chili dollars in trade."
"I want a house--" the other began.