Part 12 (1/2)
”There appears to be some vacant s.p.a.ces,” he says. And there did. ”And here's about the biggest!” And it was. ”There don't seem to be any island there, but here's a name, 'Lua,' only you can't tell what it belongs to.” No more you could. The name appeared to be dropped down there so that section of the Pacific wouldn't look so lonely. I brought out the s.h.i.+p's chart, but it didn't give any name, only two or three islands sorted around where Craney's chart said ”Lua.” It looked as if you might find one of them, and then again you might not.
”Ever been on any of 'em?” he asked. I hadn't and Kamelillo didn't know, but looked as if he might have swallowed one without remembering it.
”Nor I,” says Craney, ”but I know there's likely to be natives when the islands are sizable.”
”These might be only coral circles,” I says.
”Well, I guess we'll go and look at 'Lua,' anyway,” he says. ”A man don't put 'Lua' on a map without he's got some idea.”
It was nearly two months from the day we left the coast of the States when we came to the edge of the letter ”L,” as according to Craney's chart, and we sailed along the bottom of it and around the curve of ”U,”
and up the inside on the right, where the s.h.i.+p's chart had an island, but we missed it, if it was there. Then we came to the top of the right leg of ”U,” where there might be an island on Craney's chart, except that it looked more like part of the letter. Craney says:
”Try 'A.'”
We cut across into ”A.” It was in the curve of the twist at the end of the ”A” that we sighted land at last. The s.h.i.+p's chart had an island in the neighbourhood, but somewhat to the north. Likely Craney's notion of coasting the edge of the letters was as good as any. I never claimed the s.h.i.+p's chart was a good one, for it wasn't. I only told him I'd rather sail by the advertis.e.m.e.nts in a newspaper than by his.
There was a reef at the north end of the island, and we ran south down the coast some miles to where it fell away to the southwest, and dropped anchor at night in a bay with a white beach and a long row of huts back from it under the trees. A bunch of natives ran down and stood looking at us. Some of them swam out a little, or paddled on a log, and then went back. There was a splas.h.i.+ng and calling all night, and fires s.h.i.+ning on the beach. Kamelillo thought he'd been there before, but he didn't remember when; but if he had, it stuck in his mind, there was some trouble connected with it, and with one he called a ”bad-lot chief”; but I told Craney that Kamelillo had seen too many islands and too much strong drink in his career, and he might be thinking of something that happened in New Zealand.
In the morning Craney took Kamelillo and went ash.o.r.e. I saw the natives gathered around him. They all went up the beach and disappeared, and the boat came back with word from Craney that he and Kamelillo were going inland and wouldn't be back before night. I didn't think he ought to go off careless like that; but they came back safely about seven o'clock, only Craney seemed to be thoughtful and not talkative. He said there was a business opening there, and he guessed he'd speculate; and he sat on deck in his red plush chair till past twelve, smoking fat cigars and staring at the sh.o.r.e. The next day he had up three or four cases from the hold. There was a crowd waiting for him on the beach, and I saw him tying the boxes on poles, and some of the barbarians shouldered the poles, and they all went off in procession. I didn't ask him when he'd come back, and he didn't come for near a week. Only every day there would be a native come down and dance around in the shallow to attract attention, or maybe swim out to the s.h.i.+p with a bit of paper in his mouth. And the paper would read: ”O. K. Business progressing. Yours, J.
R.” or; ”I'm permeating. Yours, Julius R.” So I judged it was a peaceful island, and likely Craney had found something worth trading for. We went ash.o.r.e every day, but not inland. We were satisfied to stay on the beach, and to watch the naked little children dive in the surf, and to play tag with the population.
But one day I followed a path a mile inland, and climbed a hill and saw an open valley to the south with several hundred palm-leaf huts, and farther up was more open country and some hills beyond thickly wooded. I judged the island was twenty miles north and south, but couldn't see how far it went westward, and coming back, found a note for me: ”O. K. I never see folks so open to conviction. Yours, J. R.”
It was Craney's business, and not mine. I thought to myself, sometimes these men you'd think lunatic weren't that way, only they had their point of view. Next day there was another note: ”Two of 'em are dead. I guess it's a good thing. I bought it anyway. Julius R.” And while I was thinking it over, and thinking sometimes these men that claimed they'd got a point of view were really lunatic, Craney came back. He must have had three hundred natives following him, and they camped on the beach and seemed to rejoice, for they danced and sang most of the night, while he and I sat on the deck and talked it over,
”This island,” says Craney, ”is full of politics. I'll tell you. They had a king lately, and, according to accounts, he was old and fat, and his morals were bad. But he died, and up came five candidates for the place, and their claims to it I didn't make out, but if it was a question of votes, I gathered the ballot was tolerable corrupt, and if it was inheritance, I took it the late royalty had so many heirs they were common like anybody else. But everybody was busy, and it looked as if business would be dull for me, and they told me it was no use trying to be neutral. I'd have to back one of 'em. Course, I didn't know. Each of the candidates occupied a corner of the island, and now and then they'd meet in the middle for slaughter. What could I do? Well, I tell you what I did. I hired five messengers and invited the candidates to a congress. I says:
”'Not more'n ten to each party.' And they came.
”Kamelillo's a good enough interpreter, only he's sort of condensed. If a man makes a speech of half an hour, Kamelillo gives a grunt to cover most of it, and then he states what he guesses is the point of the rest.
But he did well enough.
”Then I got in the middle of 'em and I argued. I says:
”'Gentlemen, this is a peaceful interview. Pile your weapons.'
”I got 'em piled in a heap and I sat on 'em, and argued, and the candidates argued. They did pretty well, considering only one of 'em had a s.h.i.+rt. He was old, too, and had chicken bones in his hair, and, it was curious, but he knew considerable English, and could cuss skilful in it. The other four were younger, and they appeared a good deal surprised with the way I argued it. I says:
”'Gentlemen, there ain't room in this island for a Civil War. You see it for yourself. Now I'll show you. Each of you five take one spear and one s.h.i.+eld, and get into the middle here and fight it out. The rest of us'll watch.'
”I appealed to the fifty followers, and they all agreed that was a good thing. The five candidates were doubtful. The old man said he wasn't any good at that. I says:
”'Venerable, what you want is comfort, not to say luxury, for your declining years. I'll guarantee you that. You stay quiet.' Then I knocked open a box and showed him a.s.sorted drygoods, and says, 'What do you say?'
”He thought it looked luxurious, and said he'd think it over. By this time the others were willing to fight, for their followers all agreed it was a good thing.
”I never saw the equal of it, Tom, never! I never saw a dog-fight come up to it for prompt execution. I won't harrow your feelings as mine were harrowed. I won't puncture you with thrills as I was punctured. We buried two of 'em decent. The other two were cut up and played out quite a little. I collected weapons, and I says:
”'Now there are two ways. Either you two can have it out, and when you're through, anything that's left can have it out with me, or I'll buy you as you stand.'
”They looked surprised to see it put that way. They were low in their spirits. They said they didn't want to fight any more that week.