By Reef and Palm Part 17

Some women came and lifted her up. Then taking the tender face between his rough hands, he bent his head to hers, sprang into the boat, and was gone.

II

With ten tons of sh.e.l.l snugly stowed in her hold, the little Tamariki was heading back for Vahitahi after barely two months' absence.

Brantley, as he leant over the rail and watched the swirl and eddy of the creamy phosph.o.r.escence that hissed and bubbled under the vessel's stern, felt well satisfied.

It was the hour of dawn, and the native at the tiller sang, as the stars began to pale before the red flush that tinged the sky to windward, a low chant of farewell to Fetuaho, the star of the morning, and then he called to Brantley, who to all his crew was always "Paranili," and never "Kapeni [Captain]," and pointed with his naked, tattooed arm away to leeward, where the low outlines of an island began to show.

"Look, Paranili, that is Tatakoto, the place I have told thee of, where the turtle makes the white beach to look black. Would it not be well for us to take some home to Vahitahi?"

"Thou glutton!" said Brantley, good-humouredly, "dost thou think I am like to lose a day so that thou and thy friends may fill thy stomachs with turtle meat?"

Rua Manu laughed, and showed his white, even teeth. "Nay, Paranili, not for that alone; but it is a great place, that Tatakoto, and thou hast never landed there to look, and Luita hath said that some day she would ask thee to take her there; for, though she was born at Vahitahi, her blood is that of the people of Tatakoto, who have long since lain silent in the MARAES."

Brantley had often heard her speak of it, this solitary spot in the wide Pacific, and now, as he looked at the pretty, verdure-clad island against the weather sh.o.r.e of which the thundering rollers burst with a m.u.f.fled roar, he was surprised at its length and extent, and decided to pay it a visit some day.

"Not now, Rua," he said to the steersman, "but it shall be soon. Are there many coconuts there?"

"Many? May I perish, but the trees are as the sand of the sea, and the nuts lie thick upon the ground. AI-E-EH! and the robber crabs are in thousands, and fat; and the sea-birds' eggs!"

"Glutton again! Be content. In a little while we and as many of the people of Vahitahi as the schooner will carry will go there and stay for the turtle season."

Three days afterwards the schooner was within fifty miles of his island home, when Brantley was aroused at daylight from his watch below by the cry of "TE PAHI!" (a ship!) and hastening on deck he saw a large vessel bearing down upon them. In half an hour she was close to, and Brantley recognised her as a brig from Tahiti, that occasionally made a trading voyage to the Paumotus, and whose skipper was a personal friend.

Suddenly she hove-to and lowered a boat, which came alongside the schooner, and the white man that steered jumped on deck and held out his hand.

"How are you, Brantley?" and then his eye went quickly over the crew of the schooner, then glanced through the open skylight into the little cabin, and a hopeful, expectant look in his face died away.

"Very well, thank you, Latham. But what is wrong?--you look worried."

"Come on board," said the captain of the brig, quietly, "and I'll tell you."

As Brantley took his seat beside him, Latham said: "I have bad news for you, Brantley. Your sister is on board the brig, and I fear she will not live long. She came down to Tahiti in the MARAMA from Auckland, and offered me a good round sum to bring her to you."

"Has she been ill long, Latham?"

Latham looked at him curiously. "Didn't you know, Brantley? She's in a rapid consumption."

For a moment neither men spoke; then Latham gave a short cough.

"I feel it almost as badly as you, Brantley--but I've got a bit more bad news--"

"Go on, Latham--it can't matter much. My poor sister is everything to me."

"Just so. That's what I told Miss Brantley. Well, it's this--your wife and child are missing----" Latham glanced at him and saw that his hand trembled and then grasped the gunwale of the boat.

"We got into Vahitahi lagoon about ten days ago, and I took Miss Brantley ash.o.r.e. What happened I don't exactly know, but the next night one of your whale-boats was gone, and Luita and the child were missing.

Your sister was in a terrible state of mind, and offered me a thousand dollars to put to sea. Brantley, old man, I wouldn't take a dollar from her--G.o.d bless her--but I did put to sea, and I've searched nigh on twenty islands, and scores of reefs and sandbanks----"

"Thank you, Latham," said Brantley quietly; "when we get on board you can give me further particulars of the islands you've searched."

"You can have my marked chart; I've got a spare one. Brace up, old man!

you'll see your sister in a minute. She is terribly cut up over poor Luita--more so than I knew you would be. But she was a grand little woman, Brantley, although she was only a native."

"Yes," he answered, in the same slow, dazed manner, "she was a good little girl to me, although she----" The words stuck in his throat.

Latham showed him into the brig's cabin, and then a door opened, and Doris threw herself weeping into his arms.

"Oh, Doris," he whispered, "why did you not tell me you were ill? I would have come to you long ago. I feel a brute----"

She placed her hand on his lips. "Never mind about me, Fred. Has Captain Latham told you about----"

"Yes," he replied; and then suddenly: "Doris, I am going to look for her; I think I know the place to which she has gone. It is not far from here. Doris, will you go on back to Vahitahi with Latham and wait for me?"

"Fred," she whispered, "let me come with you. It will not be long, dear, before I am gone, and it was hard to die away from you--that is why I came; and perhaps we may find her."

He kissed her silently, and then in five minutes more they had said farewell to Latham, and were on their way to the schooner.

The crew soon knew from him what had happened, and Rua Manu, with his big eyes filled with a wondering pity as he looked at the frail body and white face of Doris lying on the skylight, wore the schooner's head round to the south-west at a sign from Brantley.

"Aye, Paranili," he said, in his deep, guttural tones, "it is to Tatakoto she hath gone--'tis her mother's land."

That night, as she lay on the skylight with her hand in his, Doris told him all she knew:--

"They were all kind to me when I went ash.o.r.e to your house, Fred, but Luita looked so fiercely at me.... Her eyes frightened me--they had a look of death in them.

"In the morning your little child was taken ill with what they call TATARU, and I wanted to give it medicine. Luita pushed my hand away and hugged the child to her bosom; and then the other women came and made signs for me to go away. And that night she and the child were missing, and one of your boats was gone."

"Poor Luita," said Brantley, stroking Doris's pale cheek, "she did not know you were my sister. I never told her, Doris."

"She is a very beautiful woman, Fred. They told me at Tahiti that she was called the pearl of Vahitahi; and oh! my dear, if we can but find her, I will make her love me for your sake."

Late in the afternoon of the second day, just as the trade wind began to lose its strength, the schooner was running along the weather-side of Tatakoto, and Rua Manu, from the mast-head, called out that he saw the boat lying on the beach inside the lagoon, with her sail set; and, as landing was not practicable on the weather-side, the schooner ran round to the lee.

"We will soon know, Doris. It always rains in these islands at this time of the year, so she would not suffer as I once did; but the sail of the boat is still set, and that makes me think she has never left it. Wait till I come back again, Doris; you cannot help me."