Part 2 (1/2)
”Nothing at all!” exclaimed Leicester ”Just speciousness, that's what I call it The other fellow, Tanue, and being above wire-pulling and pro to speak of But he's a good, decent Protestant boy, and willto see how the wind lay, ”and so the other dodger's a Catholic?”
”A rank, bigoted Catholic,” said Leicester hotly ”That's what ainst him, and likewise the British and A, then?” asked Jack
”He's a rebel,” said Leicester, ”and they've posted proclaainst him on every cocoanut tree around the beach”
”And the natives, they won't let Tanu neither?” said Jack
”That's hi into the sea this minute,” explained Leicester
Jack looked perplexed ”I don't see why the Kanakas shouldn't have the king they fancy,” he remarked
”To hear you talk, one would think you was a bloody Dutchman yourself,”
said Leicester
”But the majority--” said Jack, ”them two thousand----”
”The Chief Justice ruled them out on a technicality,” said Leicester, ”and if the Supreive over this country to a papist? No, the only king here is Tanumafili, and the uns Then we'll see who's who in Samoar!”
Jack made his way across the street to the store where he usually sold his copra Bullets were pattering on the roof, and the trader hi in a bomb-proof
”I hope Mrs Meyerfeld is well,” said Jack, who in Sarown punctilious
”Oh, mein Gott!” exclaimed Meyerfeld
”And the children?--” inquired Jack, ”Miss Hilda and Miss Theresa?”
”Oh, ht you forty bags of copra,” said Jack
”Oh, mein Gott!” said Meyerfeld
”Don't you want it, then?” inquired Jack
”Hear the pullets,” quavered Meyerfeld
”But forty bags,” said Jack
”I've no st week Goain after de war”
”I'll put it in the shed myself,” said Jack
He went out into the e on as hotly as ever, but except for a single liure, face down in the dust, he failed to see the least sign of the contending parties Froe he heard bursts of cheering, with intermittent lulls and explosions as the battle rolled to and fro War on so sly like murder, and Jack shuddered as he went up to the corpse and turned it over He returned to his boat, and in a fever of activity unloaded his forty bags and trundled them in batches into Meyerfeld's copra shed across the road It took half a dozen trips of the little flat-car to accole-handed, and then there was the further delay in weighing each bag and checking off the contents on a bit of paper Nor was this all, for he had to make a copy, besides, and tack it on the warehouse door with the inscription, ”Taly and find correct John Wilson”
This done, he dropped into his boat and hoisted the sails, weary, heartsick, and anxious for what the futureto leeward of the British ees, her crew grouped about the guns, and an officer in the fore-crosstrees sweeping the toith his glass A gust of wind carried down to hiuishable huh of an i afterwards, the nant note in war, the voice of the herded, helpless , and the grating of his boat's keel in the sand brought out Fetuao to ht of hi to him as he took out the sails and oars and carried them up to the house She never see in her fresh young woh, to see her eyes sparkle, to feel her warainst his cheek, all transported hi security Apia and its blood-stained streets faded into the immeasurable distance; the war, and all the attendant horrors that had haunted him, now seemed for a moment too remote to even think of What had he to fear, here on his own hearthstone, with his dear wife beside him, in another world from that he had so lately quitted? If there was trouble, wouldn't the consuls settle it, them and the treaty officials whose job it was to run the blessed group? He had never been no politician hiin now Let them worry as was paid to worry