Part 9 (1/2)
Before I left her, she asked me, with a nervous tremor in her voice, to read the letter she had written, and if I thought it would do, or needed to be altered in any way It was a letter which I had suggested she should write and leave with the head o of any shi+p belonging to Messrs G----, of Ha that her husband, ”Ferdinand Alexis Krause, left this station on the 27th July last for Mr Jae, and has not since been seen, and although a most careful search has been made, no trace of him has been found, and the natives are of the opinion that he was drowned between here and Utiroa in crossing one of the channels between the islets As I a onbusiness, and an opportunity of leaving the island presents itself to h the kindness of Mr Sherry, a trader here, I have placed this station in the care of the head oods, and trust you will be so satisfied with their integrity and their care of the property I have entrusted to their charge, that you will make them a further present I make no clailad if you will see that it is sent to his relatives in Germany”
”That will do very well,” I said, as I took her hand; ”now, goodbye till to-, Mrs Krause By this ti under way And, do you mind?--I have called the boat the _Lucia_--in fact I've painted the name on both bows”
”Indeed, I am very proud And why don't you call _me_ Lucia, too, Mr
Sherry? Every one else does”
”Very well,” I said, with a laugh, ”I will talk Tarawan to you: Tiakapo, Lucia”
”Tiakapo, Sih the word _tiakako_ ht”
CHAPTER IX
Everything was ready at last, water, stores, arms, and ammunition, and the boat, withjust abreast of the station, in charge of Tematan and Tepi, surrounded by canoes
In the house with me were Mrs Krause and Niabon; and Kaibuka and his head e of the station, and to bid us farewell I handed old Kaibuka letters to be given to the supercargo of the firues with a new ether with powder and bullets, and a small case of tobacco, and then we all went outside, and I locked the door formally, and handed him the key He took it, unlocked the door, went inside a few steps, and then it was locked a second time, the key twisted in one of his pendant ear-lobes, and the cereether, got into a canoe, and went on board
[Illustration: Acco hands with old Kaibuka and the rest of the natives armed around us to say farewell, I told Tepi to lift the anchor, and in another five h the water towards the reef, accompanied by thirty or forty canoes and native boats under sail, all packed with natives of both sexes, shouting their farewells, and wishi+ng us good fortune
By sunset we had crossed over the wide, subed reef, which for twenty oon, and hauling up to the wind just as darkness fell, we soon lost sight of our island friends, though we could still hear the our names--”Simi,” ”Niabon,” ”Lucia,” for soht was dark, but fine, and the light southeasterly breeze sent us along at about three knots over a very s for'ard on the lookout, for fear wecanoes froalley,their little cabin, and I steered
”Well, here we are at last, Mrs Krause ------,” I began
”Lucia, please”
”Here we are at last, Lucia, then I'et to the little island at the north end, and then put these gruntors ashore,” and I pointed to half a dozen pigs which were lying tied up on the deck They had, with about fifty or sixty fowls, been presented to us by the natives, and as we should have given great offence by not accepting them, we had to endure their company for the present Then all around us, stowed in every conceivable place, were bundles of young drinking coco-nuts, husked and unhusked, taking up a great deal of roo-ed into the cabin All this collection would have to be either got rid of entirely or largely reduced, so I decided to bring up at the little islet of which I had spoken, and overhaul and re-stow the boat by daylight
”Look astern,” cried Lucia, as I shall now call her; ”isn't it pretty? And see, there is another fleet ahead of us, and -fish catching 120]
The canoes we had left behind us had begun their flying-fish catching, and a long line of brightly burning, isolated fla the dark bodies of the fishers, with four paddles sending each canoe through the water, while in the bows stood a fifth, sweeping the water deftly with a scoop net attached to a pole twelve feet in length, his e torch or flare of dried coco-nut leaves, held aloft by a naked boy standing on the canoe platforht, for at ti curve, and then alain open out with a fan-like movement, and advance once more We watched the fleet astern a little while, and then found ourselves in the midst of the one we had seen ahead There were over fifty canoes, all manned by Taritai people They hailed us vociferously, wished us good luck, and as we sailed through their blazing lines of fire they threw so -fish on board that not only the decks were covered, but hundreds, striking against thebars of brightest silver
”_Tiakako, Simi! Tiakapo, Lucia! Tiakapo, Niabon!_” they shouted to us, as we dreay froht ere abreast of the islet, and due north of us could just see the tops of the coco-nuts on Apaian Lagoon showing above the sea-line, ten miles distant, and then, to our annoyance, the wind died away, and there was every indication of there being a dead cal However, it could not be helped, so we pulled in right up to the beach, and let the to out the youngest and fattest of the pigs, knocked it on the head, and cutting the thongs of the others tumbled them over the side They soon recovered themselves, and went off Then followed a massacre of a dozen of the fowls, the liberation of the rest, and the throwing away of the greater portion of the heavy coconuts The bundles of mats I threw ashore to Niabon, as they would be useless to shi+eld us fro our stay on the island, and then we set to and washed down decks, , and went ashore for breakfast, well satisfied with our work, and with the fact that the boat was six inches higher out of the Water
The islet, though s in no part h-water rew thickly fro the jack-fruits, whose broad, bright green branches were almost level with the crowns of the palm-trees, their roots embedded in a rich, soft, black soil, formed by the fallen leaves of hundreds of years, mixed with decayed coral detritus
Niabon had spread the mats in a shady spot, and we all rilled fowls, biscuit, and young coco-nuts Then we lit our pipes and cigarettes of the good, strong black tobacco, and watched a shoal of fish leaping and playing about the boat, which, with loose, pendant cable, lay floating on a sea as s as a polished mirror
The island, so Niabon told h it was occasionally visited by natives for the purpose of collecting the ripe coco-nuts, and turning the on Apaian, would stop there when they were on their way to Tarawa and Maiana Lagoons The name of the island, she said, was Te Mata Toto (”The bloody Eye”) ”Why such a name?” I asked ”I will tell you some other time,” she replied; ”not now, because I do not want Tepi to hearabout the place With Teh he knows the story, he is not a Tarawaof which he need be afraid”