Part 27 (1/2)
Harry refused to advise the king, and then taking a good look at the white men present, said, ”Well, good-bye, King Tokusar! I am going back to my station--the station I am minding for Captain Hayston. I have six men and four women all armed, and the American flag on a pole in front of my door; and the first man that attempts to do me any mischief, white, black, or yellow, _I'll shoot him_. You can ask the white men from Pleasant Island if I am not a man of my word. They know me.”
Harry then got into his boat and pulled on board the man-of-war, where the first lieutenant very kindly allowed him to see me. I felt sincere regret at parting with Harry, telling him to beware of the other traders. I repeated what had been told me by Kitty of Ebon and Lalia. He laughed, and said he was always prepared, and meant to do justice to the trust reposed in him by Captain Hayston. ”I'm the wrong man,” he said on leaving, ”to abandon any station and property left in my charge.” Then, with oft-repeated wishes that we might meet again, after hearing of the Captain's safety we parted.
Then came again good simple Kusis and his people with Lalia. She had in charge little Kitty and Toby. Poor Toby clung to my legs and sobbed as if his heart was breaking, when I told him that I did not know when the Captain would come back again. If no one else loved his master Toby did, and I tried in vain to a.s.suage his grief. I was glad to hear from Lalia that she was going to young Harry's place with the two children. There I knew they would be well treated and cared for.
”Look!” said she, pointing to the little fellow, ”the Captain had two good friends besides yourself, young Harry, and the n.i.g.g.e.r Johnny, but this little fellow has never ceased crying for 'Captin' since he left the village in South harbour. Never mind, little Toby, we will wait and the 'Captin' will be sure to come;” and then she stooped down, and tried by kissing and coaxing to prevent him from giving utterance to his doleful wails and sobs of grief.
Lalia told me, as with glistening eyes and trembling hands we said farewell, that her one hope now was to be able to get back to her distant home on Easter Island, that Captain Hayston would return with a s.h.i.+p; and, if he went towards Samoa or Tahiti, take her with him for that portion of the many thousand miles that lay between Strong's Island and her native land. That he would do this she felt confident. ”For,”
she said, ”he once told me that he would stand by me if I was in trouble--it was when we were all washed ash.o.r.e together--you remember?
_and he never breaks his word_.”
Whatever Lalia's past life had been, I could never help admiring her many n.o.ble traits of character. I owed her life-long grat.i.tude for her heroic self-sacrifice on the fateful night of the wreck of the _Leonora_; by me, at least, she will never be forgotten. Poor Lalia!
Brave, loving, lovely child of the charmed isles of the southern main!
reckless alike in love and hate, who shall judge? who condemn thee? Not I!
Kusis, Tulp, and Kinie clung to me as if they could not bear to say farewell. I see before me often the honest, kindly countenance of Kusis as, with his hand clasped in mine, he looked trustfully into my face and made me promise that some day I would return and live with him once more. And so freshly at that time came the remembrance of the happy days I had pa.s.sed in his quiet home, dreaming the hours away within sight of the heaving bosom of the blue, boundless Pacific Ocean, so deliciously restful after the stormy life of the _Leonora_ and her wild commander, that I believe I really intended to return to Strong's Island some day; but, as we used to say at Sydney college, ”_Ds aliter visum_.”
Queen S sent me a letter as follows:--
DEAR FRIEND,--Kitty Ebon send Lalia to see you. We all very sorry, but must not say so, because Mr. Morland very strong man now. Where you think Captain Hayston go in little boat? I 'fraid he die in boat. I very sorry for Captain--very kind man--but bad man to natives sometimes.
QUEEN S.
Enclosed were these pencilled lines from Kitty of Ebon:--
MY DEAR FRIEND,--All the people from Mout been to Mr. Morland to ask why you are in prison, and he says you will be hung for stealing a s.h.i.+p. We all very sorry, all Mout people love you very much--and me too. Good-bye, dear friend, come back to Kusis and Mout people, for I don't think you be hanged in Fiji.--Your sincere friend,
CATHERINE EBON.
But when the light-hearted blue-jackets manned the capstan and merrily footed it round to lively music, and the great steamer's head was pointed to the pa.s.sage, my thoughts were far away, where in fancy I discerned a tiny boat breasting the vast ocean swell, while sitting aft with his face turned to the westward, his strong brown hand on the tiller, was the once dreaded Captain of the _Leonora_; the lawless rover of the South Seas; the man whose name was known and feared from the South Pole to j.a.pan, and yet through all, my true friend and most indulgent commander. With all his faults, our constant a.s.sociation had enabled me to appreciate his many n.o.ble qualities and fine natural impulses. And as the black hull of the _Rosario_ rose and fell to the sea, her funnel the while pouring forth volumes of sable smoke, the island gradually sunk astern, but the memories connected with it and Captain Hayston will abide with me for ever.
Harry Skillings I never saw again, but heard that he went to Truk in the North-west Carolines. Black Johnny was murdered in New Britain. The other Harry with his native wife fell victims to the treacherous savages of the Solomon Islands. Jansen died a few years since on Providence Island. Some of the other traders and members of the crew I have heard of from time to time, scattered far and wide over the Isles of the Pacific. Lalia died in Honolulu about five years since, constant in her attempts to reach her distant home on Easter Island.
CHAPTER XIV
NORFOLK ISLAND--ARCADIA
And now, my innocence and lack of complicity in Hayston's irregularities having been established, a revulsion of feeling took place in the minds of the captain and officers of the _Rosario_ with regard to me.
After the fullest explanations furnished by the traders and others, backed up by the manifest sympathy and good-will of the inhabitants of Strong Island, it became apparent that some sort of reparation was due to me. This took the form of a courteous invitation to accept a pa.s.sage to Sydney in H.M.S. _Rosario_, and to join the officers' mess on the voyage. ”I'm afraid that we acted hastily in your case, Mr. Telfer!”
said Captain Dupont. ”You have been thoroughly cleared of all accusations made against you. I am bound to say they were very few. And you seem chiefly to have acted as a peacemaker and a power for good. I have gathered that you are anxious to rejoin your friends in Sydney. I shall be glad to have your company on the return voyage. What do you say? I trust you will not refuse; I shall otherwise think you have not forgiven my apparent harshness.”
Thus pressed to return to family and friends--from whom, at times, in spite of my inborn roving propensities, the separation had cost me dear--what could I do but thank the manly and courteous potentate, and comply with an invitation so rarely granted to a South Sea adventurer. I was the more loth to lose the opportunity as there had come upon me of late a violent fit of homesickness which I in vain strove to combat.