White Fire Part 23

"Those others were not white men, they were yellow. They are not of our tribe. We, too, hate the things they do, and we have come to stop them."

"You are all the same. If you hate them, why did you not kill them?"

"We do not kill if we can help it. If they come again, we may have to kill them."

"Why is that noise?" as the voice of Long Tom bellowed in the hills once more.

"It is the voice of my big canoe."

"It is only a voice. It does no harm."

"When I choose. You saw the other big canoe's masts? It did that with twice speaking."

"What do you want?" asked Ra'a once more.

"We have come from the other end of the world, where the people are all white, to try and be of use to you."

"We do not want you. We do quite well."

"There are many things you do not know, many things you have not got.

Axes, spades," and he laid them down at the brown man's feet, "and cloth, and beads, and fish-hooks, and knives"; and he opened the bundles and gave them to him, and the black eyes round about snapped greedily. "Very many things we have, and we would share them with you.

But we must have peace. If you will make things as they were before, we will share all these among you, and many more. It is far better than killing one another."

There was a visible inclination in the crowd towards a share in the good things, and Ra'a saw it and countered quickly. The man was a savage and brutalised, but he did not lack brain.

"We do not need your gifts. We can take them--all you have."

"You cannot take them. My big canoe could blow you all to pieces. But it has come to fight for you, not against you, and when it has done fighting it will go back and bring many more things for you. But it must be in peace."

Ra'a, whatever else he was, was a diplomat. Truculent he was without doubt, treacherous if it served him, and his word was probably of small account; but such things are not unknown in even more accomplished diplomatic circles.

He saw the inclination of his people, and that he must go with the tide.

"Give us our share of the things and we will be satisfied."

"You shall have your share if it is peace. There must be no more killing."

"The taro and the yams belong to us also?"

"Certainly. We will divide equally. If you will draw a line, we will draw a line, and you and your people will keep to your side, and Ha'o and his people will keep to his side."

"We will draw the line and tapu it. When will you send the things?"

"When the line is drawn. Will you come and draw it now?"

"You will go--and you," he pointed to two of his men. "You will put in tapu sticks and bring back what the white man gives you. Who is the woman?" staring hard at Jean, who had managed to keep an unruffled face in spite of the inquisition to which the women were subjecting her--touching her hands, her face, her hair, and the puzzling appointments of her dainty toilet. She had even induced one mother to let her pat the head of one brown mite, who was mumbling its fingers after reluctant teeth and stared at her with big round eyes.

"She is my wife."

"What is she wanting?"--a question evidently inspired by Jean's Miss Inquisitive look, which showed strongly at times and was much to the fore under the strain of the present interview.

"She is wanting everything," said Blair, with a smile. "It is probably that brown baby at present."

"She can have it. Is she hungry?"

"I don't think she is hungry, and she would not take the baby from its mother."

"Is she white all through?"

"White all through," said Blair.

"Have you any more in the big canoe?"

"They are all married--except one."

"I will marry her. How many coco-nuts will you take for her?" and he stared appreciatively at Jean.

"We do not sell our women. You would have to ask her yourself."

And at last they got away without further compromising Aunt Jannet, and very gratefully they went back by the way they had come, with full, yet lightened hearts. For the way, though it had opened before them, and now, to look back upon, seemed neither very difficult nor very dangerous, had been a perilous one, and one where death might have opened at their feet at any moment.

They went in silence with over-full hearts. Blair did not in the slightest delude himself with the idea that he had settled the matter at one stroke. He was quite prepared to find the agreement turn out but a temporary one, but it was a step towards the light to have arrived at any understanding whatever.

He was not surprised, also, to find Ha'o anything but satisfied with the arrangement. He would have preferred wiping out Ra'a and the malcontents, and settling the business at once on a sound and final basis.

With infinite difficulty Blair succeeded in showing him that those others had rights as well as himself, even though they had wronged him, and tried hard to inspire him with his own hope that matters would eventually work out for the best.

Ha'o, however, knew better.

"Their hearts are like this," he said, laying his hand on a length of twisted creeper dangling from an adjacent tree. "They are as grasping as a convolvulus for the water. They will take all you will give them, and they will keep the tapu just as long as it suits them." And he said to himself, "But by that time we shall perhaps be ready for them"; while Blair was thinking, "Every approach they allow us to make is a point gained."

The taro fields and yam plantations and banana groves were soon roughly divided off in a fair equality, and sticks with plaited palm leaves set up to warn off trespa.s.sers from either side. Then, with the idea of impressing them to the utmost, Blair invited the two plenipotentiaries to accompany him on board the big canoe to get the things he was to give them.

To this they demurred at first, though obviously desirous, and it was only after much argument among themselves that they at last agreed, and then only on condition that the white woman stopped on sh.o.r.e till they were brought safely back.

They stepped gingerly into the steam-launch at last, and eyed her bustling, unaided progress with obvious but well-concealed amazement.

They were shown over the ship, the big gun was fired for them at close quarters, they inspected the farmyard and the cat, and they finally went home laden with gifts, and with new impressions enough to set their brains spinning and their tongues wagging for a month to come.

And it is not likely that their stories lost anything in the retailing.

CHAPTER XVI

SAWDUST AND SHAVINGS

"Aunt Jannet," said Blair, as they sat in great relief and content discussing the day, when their visitors had left, "we had an offer for you this morning."

"An offer?--for me, Kenneth? Whatever do you mean?"