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The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton, a fiction by Louis Becke |
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Chapter 4 |
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_ CHAPTER IV I slept well on towards four o'clock in the afternoon, and when I awakened I found the house deserted by all but my man Tepi, who was seated cross-legged near me with a cup containing my fever mixture beside him. He held it up to me silently. Even before I raised myself to drink I felt that I was a stronger man, physically and mentally, than I had been six hours previously, and my veins no longer seemed as if they were filled with liquid fire. I drank the mixture and then looked about me, and saw that every ensanguined trace of the tragedy which had occurred a few hours before had been removed. The coarse and somewhat worn matting which had covered the floor had been taken away and replaced by new squares, and the room presented the usual neat and orderly appearance in which it was always kept by Tepi and my other servant. "Master," said Tepi, "art hungry?" "Aye," I replied, "I would eat; but first tell me of the dead man. Who hath taken him away?" The man, instead of answering me in a straightforward manner, bent his head and muttered something I could not hear. I jumped off my couch and went outside, and the first person I ran against was my cook, an old grizzled fellow of about sixty years of age named Pai. He was carrying a freshly-killed fowl in his hand, looked at me in an unconcerned manner as if nothing had occurred, and asked me would I have it broiled or boiled. "As you will," I said impatiently. "Tell me, Pai, whither have they taken the dead white man?" He made a peculiar and significant gesture--one that is not often used, but when it is it implies that certain matters or things must not be further alluded to, but must be for ever buried in oblivion. I put my hand on his tough, naked, and wrinkled shoulder, and again repeated my question. "I know of no dead white man," he replied, looking me steadily in the face, and yet answering me in his usual respectful manner. Then he sat down beside the low stone wall surrounding the house, and began to pluck the fowl, casually remarking that it was fat for its age. Somewhat puzzled at the reticence of my servants, I walked across my compound towards the native village, which, as I have before mentioned, was some distance from my house, and as I walked I felt at every footstep a renewed bodily vigour, and almost unconsciously I took out my pipe, filled it, and began to smoke with an enjoyment denied to me for many months. The day was gloriously bright and cool, and the westering sun on my right hand shone on a sea of the deepest blue, whose placid bosom was dotted by a fleet of canoes with their mat sails spread to the now gentle trade wind, cruising to and fro catching flying fish. This seemed strange to me, bearing in mind the events of the past few hours. The death of a white man, even from natural causes, was of itself generally a matter of such importance to the natives of any of the mid-Pacific isles, that their daily avocations were suspended, and the house of the deceased man would not only be surrounded on the outside by a circle of people sitting on their mats and awaiting their turn to enter and express their condolences with his wife or children, but filled inside as well. The first houses I passed on the outskirts of the village were occupied only by women and children, who all gave me their usual cheerful greeting of _Tiakapo, Simi!_ ("Good-day, Jim") and one or two of them added a few words of congratulation upon my improved appearance, and then calmly went on with their work, such as mat-making, mending fishing nets, cooking, etc., but no one of them gave the slightest indication of even having heard that anything unusual had occurred. [Illustration: Directed my steps towards the great open-sided moniep 062] Crossing the village square--if it could be so called--I directed my steps towards the great open-sided _moniep_, or council house, from which came the sound of many voices, talking in the vociferous manner common to all natives of the Gilbert and Kingsmill groups. As I drew near I saw that there were about twenty men seated inside, smoking, card playing, or making cinnet for fishing lines by twisting up the strands of coco-nut fibre on their naked thighs. As they heard my footsteps on the gravel, their conversation dropped a little, but they all gave me _Tiakapo!_ as usual, invited me to enter and sit down and smoke, and then went on with either their work or their pastime. "Now," I thought, as I sat down on the mat brought to me, "I shall get these fellows to tell me the meaning of all this reticence about the disposal of Krause's body." For some minutes I smoked in silence and took the opportunity of looking at my hosts. They were all either middle-aged or old men, and were all known to me personally, especially one old bald-headed fellow named Kaibuka--"The Ship." In his younger days this Kaibuka had acquired an evil reputation for being the instigator and leader of cutting-off attacks on whaleships and trading vessels, and his performances had gained him such _kudos_ and respect from his savage associates that now in his old age he was the most influential of the three principal head men of the whole lagoon. Like all the others present, he wore but the usual _airiri_, or girdle of grass, round his loins, and his dark reddish-brown body was covered from head to waist with the scars of wounds received in earlier years. Each of his ear-lobes, pierced in infancy, had from long years of continuous distention by means of rolls of pandanus leaf, become so pendulous that they now hung loosely upon his shoulders in two great bights of thin flesh as thick as a lead pencil, though one of them had twisted in it a long stick of tobacco and a spare pipe. He was not, however, a bad-looking old ruffian, and his shining bald head, still perfect teeth, and extremely Jewish cast of features gave him quite a distinctive appearance from the younger men, whose long coarse hair, cut away across the forehead and hanging loosely down on their shoulders and backs, made their fierce, savage faces appear as if they looked at you from a moving frame of black. They certainly were a wild-looking lot, but their appearance somewhat belied their dispositions--at least as far as I was personally concerned. We had always got along very well together both socially and in business, and I was well aware that whilst they disliked and mistrusted Krause they placed implicit confidence in me. Putting down my pipe on the mat beside me, I told old Kaibnka that I desired to talk to them. There was a dead silence at once. "_E rai rai_" ("Good"), he said. "Kaibuka," I said, "hath the dead white man been taken to his wife?" He looked stolidly at me for an instant, and then answered with an air of intense surprise. "Dead white man! What dead white man, Simi? _I_ know of none. We saw no dead white man!" "Aye, we know of none," echoed the others in unison. I began to feel both angry and uncomfortable, and showed it: but for the moment I was too puzzled to do more than stare at them each in turn. They looked straight before them as if their faces were so many stone jugs--they had about as much expression. Again I addressed myself to Kaibnka. "Why do ye make this pretence? Thou thyself, Kaibnka, and thou, Berau, were, with many others, in my house when his dead body lay on the floor. Why are ye all so silent? And whither have the girl Niabon and Tematau gone?" This time I got an answer--to my last question, at any rate. "Niabon and Tematau have gone across the lagoon in a canoe. They desired to talk with the white man's wife. In a little time, as darkness falls, they will return to thee." "Did _they_ take the dead man with them, then?" I persisted. The old fellow met my inquiring glance quite calmly. "I know of no dead man, Simi." I glared angrily at them all round, and then for a moment wondered if they were all crazy or I alone was wrong in my head. I was rising to my feet with an exclamation of anger at their obstinacy when the old bald-head motioned me to stay. Then at a sign from him all the others gathered up their _impedimenta_ and quietly went off in Tarions directions, leaving us alone. "Simi," he said, coming swiftly over and crouching in front of me, "be wise. Ask no one of the white man who was here yesterday; for no one will tell thee but Niabon. There is death in store for many, many people, if ye heed not my words. Go back to thy house, and be patient and wait, and ask naught of any one but Niabon of what is past. Wouldst thou see this land soaked in blood because of _one_ man?" He spoke in such curious, whispered tones, and kept his keen hawk-like face so close to mine that I saw he was in deadly earnest. "Promise me, Simi. Promise me to rest in thy house and wait for Niabon." "As you will, I shall wait." I walked slowly back to my house and took a stiff glass of grog to steady my nerves, which were beginning to feel a little upset. "It's time I got out of this place," I thought, as, lighting my pipe, I went down to my boat again and busied myself in taking out all her fittings, examining and replacing them again. When I returned to the house for my supper it was quite dark, and just as my lamp was lit Niabon entered. _ |
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