White Fire Part 38

"I have seen children at home, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, almost as benighted as these, and not half so pleasant to deal with. Now, with the chances we are giving them, I think these are infinitely the better off."

"Under the new order of things, perhaps. But hitherto you must remember that death dodged life round every corner here, and life broke off very short at times. However, we cannot clean up all the world; but, please G.o.d, we'll do our best with this little bit of it. And now," jumping up, "I must get back to work, or your masters will be calling me names. Don't kill those two infants with kindness, Mary."

He stood looking down upon them all for a moment, while the women all bent over the wrigglers on the white cloth.

"Is it possible that not one of you ever feels a longing for the fleshpots of Egypt?" he asked, with a smile.

"Do we ever show any symptoms?" asked Jean.

"You certainly do at the moment. You all three look as if you would like to devour those children on the spot," and he went away to grind out dialects with Matti and Ha'o.

CHAPTER XXVII

PEACE WITH A SPEAR

The work progressed favourably but not without occasional set-backs.

On Kapaa'a, where its supervision was most constant, the advance was naturally greatest. On the outer islands the brown men and women were effusive in their promises--in expectation of largesse. Like the prodigals of all time, they were always ready to discount future benefits--which they did not very fully understand and considered somewhat problematic--for a trifle on account, which they understood extremely well. But the moment their preceptors' backs were turned, the promises were forgotten in immediate enjoyment of the reward.

All this was only what was to be expected, and in no way disconcerted the labourers in the field. Blair would rate the delinquents good-humouredly for their shortcomings, and they would acknowledge them like schoolboys, promise amendment, and break the promise before the _Torch_ had rounded the Head. He felt himself in closer touch with them, however, on each visit, and was satisfied. His plans and hopes were very wide-reaching, and G.o.d's temples, natural, physical, or spiritual, do not rise in a day.

Occasionally there were more serious lapses, and these had to be dealt with firmly but delicately, so thin were the cords by which he held them.

Aia, the smallest island of the group, lay a short five miles beyond Kanele, sacred to the memory of Aunt Jannet Harvey. Aia had a population of about fifty. Kanele three times as many.

Blair and Jean and Kenni-Kenni landed on the latter one day, on one of the regular rounds of visitation, and received the usual expectant welcome from old Maru and Kahili and the rest. The women crowded enthusiastically round Jean and her boy, while Blair talked to the men and divided among them the things he had brought. They stopped on sh.o.r.e several hours and were regaled with fruits and coco-nuts. When they got into the boat the whole population lined the beach and waved them farewells.

"We really seem to be getting hold of them at last," said Blair, as they rolled along towards the _Torch_.

"They are very friendly and seem very glad to see us," said Jean, and they went on to Aia.

"Something wrong," said Captain Cathie, as the _Torch_ drew in.

The village was not in its usual place. There were no people about.

They landed cautiously, Blair and Cathie and half a dozen men, and found the houses in ruins. With added caution they climbed the hill, and in time came upon the villagers lurking in holes and crannies.

Their story was simple. The very day after the _Torch's_ last visit, the men of Kanele, headed by Maru and young Kahili, had come over in their canoes and demanded the goods they had received from the white men. These being refused, they proceeded to take them by force. The Aia men were outnumbered and beaten, their village burned, and several of them killed--and eaten. The rest had lived in the fear of death ever since.

Blair was a man of wrath that day. His first feeling was the same as Captain Cathie's, in whom the natural man always ran strong.

"Well, captain, what do you advise?" he asked.

"I'd like to give those Kanele men a right good skelping," said Cathie warmly. "Something they wouldn't forget in a hurry."

"So would I, but I'm not sure of the wisdom of it."

"Truckling beggars! Sweet as milk when we're there, and playing the devil the minute our back's turned. They need a lesson."

"We'll take the night over it. It's a serious matter."

They walked the deck far into the night, with the big stars swimming in the smooth black rollers, and the distant roar of the Aia surges, now to port and now to starboard, as they beat gently to and fro in default of anchorage.

"In the first place," said Blair, summing up their ideas, "these people are not safe here. Whatever we do or don't do, the Kanele men will take it out of them as soon as we're gone. We must do our best to persuade them to migrate to Kapaa'a. That will be a good thing for them and a good thing for us. As to the Kanele men, the difficulty is that we want to retain our hold on them. This affair only shows how great the need is. And if we take measures against them--any measures almost--we are like to weaken the small hold we have now."

"All the same," said Cathie bluntly, "it won't do to let 'em think they can carry on like this and nothing said about it. That'd be fair provoking them to do the same again."

"It's difficult to know just what to do," said Blair; and Jean down below, with Kenni-Kenni nestling close in her arms, heard the four feet tramping, tramping, slowly and heavily, to and fro, till she fell asleep. They seemed to be still tramping whenever the _Torch_ gave a sudden kick and woke her. But there was a sense of guardianship in the very sound, and Kenni-Kenni's soft head against her heart was very comforting.

In the morning they set to work on the plans they had arrived at overnight.

Blair went ash.o.r.e early, while Cathie prepared for his pa.s.sengers.

It did not need five minutes' talk to show the Aia men how unsafe their position was. It was self-evident. But it took much talk and persuasion to induce them to migrate to Kapaa'a.

They saw the advantages. Some of them had been there already and seen for themselves; but the brown men cling to their own bits of coral or volcanic rock as strenuously as Highland crofter to his dripping heather, or Irish peasant to his patch of bog.

The women, however, had listened to those marvellous accounts of the unheard-of security of life and property on Kapaa'a, and now they joined forces with Blair and carried the day. By sunset they were all aboard the _Torch_ with such belongings as the Kanele men had left them. The _Torch_ beat to and fro again throughout the night, and not a native closed an eye for the strangeness of it all, and in the early morning Blair was ash.o.r.e again on Kanele. He had a.s.sured Jean there was no danger; but he left Captain Cathie behind--to look after the crowd of brown men and women.

He walked boldly up to old Maru's house, and found it still asleep.

The old man started up wide awake at his call, and the look on his face was a matrix of Blair's--detected wrong quailing before righteous wrath.

"You know what I have come about, Maru," said Blair. "You have done ill by Aia. Why?"

"It was the young men. They desired more goods."

"Call the young men. I will speak to them."

But there was no need to call them. They had seen the _Torch_ and were coming, and coming in expectation of possible trouble, for they all came armed.

"Yes, I see you know why I have come back," said Blair, as they thronged about the house. "You have done wrong, and you have got to answer for it. We came here to make life brighter by bringing peace----"

"We don't want peace. Fighting is very much better," growled one.

"Oh, you are brave men! How many men were there on Aia? Twenty-five at most. And how many of you went over? More than sixty. Oh yes, you like fighting when the others are weak. How will you like it when you are beaten and running for your lives into the hills? You have done ill, and you must answer for it. Maru and Kahili will come with me to Kapaa'a, and we will decide what shall be done."

"Not me!" said old Maru, or words to that effect, and drew from its hiding-place one of the axes Blair had given him, and began to swing it gently in his hand.

"If you do not come, we shall fetch you. It is for you to say. If we have to fetch you, it will make trouble."

Old Maru's axe swung gently to and fro, to and fro, as though hungering to bite, but doubtful.

"That would not serve you, Maru," said Blair quietly. "Though you cut me in pieces, the rest would come and you would suffer the more. The old times are past. We have come to give you better times. Peace you shall have, though we have to bring it with club and spear."

And just then Long Tom on the yacht bellowed his tremendous note, and the brown men looked round apprehensively.