Part 23 (1/2)

A SON OF EMPIRE

Raka-hanga is a dot of an island in theto a group--as most islands do--but is all by its lonesome in the heave and roll of the eh to support two traders, not counting old man Fosby, who had sort of retired and laid down life's burden in a Kanaka shack, where if he did anything at all it wasthe accordion with his treers

It was me and Stanley Hicks that divided the trade of the place, which was poor to , with maybe a couple of hundred tons of copra a year and as et It was deep shell, you understand, and sometimes a diver went down and never ca down below like the back of a shark, as dead as a doornail nobody would dive after that, and a whole yearback unless there was a church assess ed anywhere fro at all

I had got rooted in Raka-hanga, and so had Stanley Hicks, and though we both had ideas of getting away and often talked of it, we never did--being like people half asleep in a feather bed, with life drifting on unnoticed, and the wind rustling in the palms, and one suether

You would have to go far to see a prettier island than Raka-hanga, or nicer, friendlier, finer-looking people; and when I say they never watered their copra on us, nor worked any of those heartbreaking boycotts to bring prices down, you can realize how much out of the beaten track it was and how little they had yet learned of civilization

They were too siood and that's a fact, for they allowed David, the Tongan pastor, to walk all over thereat, fat, naked feet; and when anything didn't please this here David nor the deacons, they stuck him or her in the coral jail and locked the door on hiht be and usually was

We hatsupposed to be ruled by the oldthat lookeda house Yes, Raka-hanga was an independent country, and no flag floated over us but our own--or would have if we had had one, which we hadn't Of course Stanley and I knew it could not last like this forever, and even the natives weren't unprepared for our being annexed soo on as it ith nobody interfering with us nor pasting proclamations on trees It is all very fine to see ”God SAVE THE QUEEN” _or_ ”VIVE LA REPUBLIQUE” at the bottom of a proclamation, but Stanley and I knew it meant taxes and licenses and penal servitude if you did this or failed to do that, and all those other blessings that are served out to a Pacific island when one of the great powers suddenly discovers it on theelse, for old David, the missionary, ruled the island with a rod of iron, and was so crotchety and tyrannical that no Kanaka could call his soul his own Every night at nine he stood out in front of his house and rang a hand bell, and then woe betide any one who didn't go to bed instanter and shut up, no matter if it were in the full of thesociable on an upturned boat

One had to get up just as , why the word itself could hardly be said, let alone the actual thing, which meant the jail every time and a dose of the pastor's whip thrown in extra It was a crime to est cris when they were derieve_ too much if somebody died--if the dead person were married that is, and if you were of the opposite sex and not closely related!

As I said before, the natives were so easy-going that they took it all lying down, and allowed this here David to swell into a regular despot, though thereon two thousand of the roaring voice Naturally he did not dare interfere with us white h Stanley and I toed the lineclear of his ill will The only one asn't scared of the old Tartar, and stood right up to hi Fijian, named Peter Jones

nobody kne he came by that na unusually dark and powerful and full of the Old Nick, and with a mop of hair on hi and stood out on end all round his head which was the Fiji fashi+on of wearing it

Peter could lick his weight in wildcats, as the saying goes, and was always ready to do it at the fall of a hat He was a bullying, overbearing individual and had terrorized his way into a fa hi he fancied, with nobody daring to cross him nor complain

Stanley and I were afraid of hiave him a little credit for peace and quietness' sake, which orth an occasional can of beef or a fathom or two of Turkey cotton

Once, when there was a shi+p in, he gotand yelling--swigging fro to hug theht of this six-foot-three of raving, roaring savage, rough-housing the place upside down and bellowing insults at the top of his lungs But nothing was done to stop hiathered the Parliament about him, and ran him into the jail with a one-two-three like a sack of oats

But Peter Jones was none of your stand-up-at-the-altar-and-repent-boys, being a white , if not by blood, and after he had sobered up, what if his wife didn't s his way out! Yes, sir, that's what Peter Jones did--dug through the gravel floor and tunneled out, rising froeneral uproar and hullabaloo of the entire settle hifield rifle and an ax and a crowbar, and the cry went up he was going toin front and the wo for any ht have had a nasty co to buzz like hornets and reach for their shark-tooth spears No, what Peter was inflaainst was the coral jail, which he set atbut a heap of rubbish Then he shot holes through the galvanized roofing, and burned it in a blazing fire along of the iron-studded door andfra to raise the ainst Peter, but they were none too fond of the coral jail the but hoot and shout like a pack of boys at a circus, which indeed it was and enough to

After that Peter was let alone and nobody dared cross him, no ive you an idea of what Raka-hanga was like, and make the rest of the yarn the easier to understand I shall always feel sorry allon the ard side of the island and thereby oon, which ell over before we got there, with the stern of a ten-oared boat heading for akind of helpless on the beach in the

He made a splendid appearance in his white clothes and shi+rt and pipe-clayed shoes and pith-helray hair and a corand, though genial, saying: ”Gentlemen, I am the new Resident Deputy Co and annex this island in the name of her Royal and Imperial Majesty, Queen Victoria!”

At this he took his hat off, and we did the sah I am an American, and then went on to tell us that he had just been landed by HMS _Ringarooma_ to take possession of the island, and would we kindly infor ere a republic and that it would take time to assemble the old men, he condescended to accept racious at the little we could do in his honor

Meanwhile ather in the chiefs and tell the to meet them in the ”Speak-house,” as the natives called the wickerwork Mr Clearooht and left in order to forestall the French, who had broken their international agree all over the place He also explained that was the reason why thea neck-and-neck race between her and the French which could reach the Tokelaus first Between drinks he likewise showed us his co on crinkly paper, with seals, where he was called ”Our well-beloved and right trusty Ja he had brought with hin, with the halyards all ready to run it up

I can tell you Stanley and I were hty proud to escort the Deputy Commissioner to the Parliament, which we did slow and stately in our best paja us two most respectful The old men were there in rows, and also David, the pastor, who took the interpreting out of ed the whole show Perhaps it was as well he did, for he had a splendid voice and a boorandeur of the occasion

Then Mr Clelish and then by David in Kanaka, and afterwards the Colish and the low, contemptible French, and at the end he asked everybody to hold up his right hand ished to be a loyal, faithful, obedient subject of the Great Queen