Ralph Stock

“ At the first hint of dawn Bill struggled on, and presently, catching the glint of water through trees, emerged on the shore of a mist-shrouded lagoon.
A crane flew low over the water. The sun rose. Bill sat in the sand at the edge of a reed-brake, munching a sausage-roll and watching things that he bad never watched before. The palms fringing the further shore caught fire, or so it seemed, until the sun rode clear of their feathery tops and bathed the world in golden light. Myriads of minute crabs crackled and scuttled in and out of their holes in the wet sand. ”

“ The world was still beautiful, when it was left alone. Life was distinctly worth living, in spite of a hip that never let one quite forget it.
Out of an opalescent haze the familiar outline of the island took shape. Compton's binoculars were fastened upon it. Every volcanic crag and coral beach was known to him. At that moment the past three years were as though they had never been. He was again overseer on Delaniva. There was the bungalow, glinting white among the mangoes and mummy apples, and there was the landing, thrusting its unlovely length into the fair face of the Pacific. ”

“ An hour later the auxiliary was propelling the Spindrift through an oily calm when a shudder ran through the ship, followed by the faint clang of metal and the crazy racing of the engine.
Amery sprang aft, and saw under a bare fathom of crystal-clear water a forest of coral fronds, and above them, protruding from the ship's quarter, the shattered remains of a propeller. They had barely grazed a submerged reef, another atoll in the making, but it was enough; the Spindrift lay helpless as a log. Thus the Islands kiss on one cheek and strike the other within an hour. ”

“ The sea lay before him, a shimmering sheet of incredible blue; and far off up the stretch of sandy beach a scattered, multicolored crowd watched the bathers sporting in the surf, or listened to the band in the shade of the corso pines.
But Sprague had neither eye nor ear for these things; he had found a paradise of his own, and, following a narrow, winding path round the hillside, he at last came upon it, hidden among the sandstone rocks at the cliff foot—a tiny inlet, complete with sandy beach, blue, transparent waters, and raft anchored out beyond the breakers. ”

“ It is like approaching another world. It is another world.
At the pass in the barrier reef off Papeete, a genial French pilot took charge, and secured us the best berth in the harbour. Here the coral wall that forms the beach is so sheer that it is possible to make fast to the trunk of a flamboyant, as though to a bollard on a quay, and walk ashore on a gangplank—which we of the dream ship promptly did and dined in splendour at the best hotel. ”

“ The tall man turned and strolled along the beach, stopping now and then to burrow into the wet sand with his toes, and unearth the queer live things that lived there. Every now and then, too, he would fling his arms wide above his head, and let them fall to his sides with a sigh of deep satisfaction. It was as though he had been cramped, and was now rejoicing in his freedom. He was doing just what Felisi had seen her brother do—the one who stole the canoe—when he came out of Levuka gaol into the sunlight. Her heart went out to the tall man with thin legs and big feet. ”

“ Such a mood was upon her now, for a white man had come to live at Luana, a white man of an entirely new pattern, sparse as to hair at the temples, almost blind, to judge by the size of tortoiseshell-rimmed sun-glasses that he wore, thoughtful of countenance, and content to sit in a cane chair under a mango tree for longer than Felisi had ever seen a white man sit in any one place. ”

“ It is doubtful if there is anything more beautiful than the scene that confronted him—the indescribable colouring of the shallows merging into the dark blue of deep water, the white ribbon of the barrier reef, with its thundering surf and far-flung spindrift, that floated and danced in miniature rainbows before the sun, and, back of all, the fantastic outline of Moorea. But Ah Fang saw none of these things. They were not the affair of a man of single purpose. Without haste or hesitation he waded into the lagoon, knee, waist, chest deep, minutely examining its floor. ”

“ Felisi sighed.
And, curiously enough, Mrs. Strode chanced to sigh at much the same moment as she leant over the yacht's rail, watching an outrigger canoe and its diminutive bronze occupant rising and falling on the gentle swell. What it must be to have nothing, and therefore happiness! To live in an earthly paradise and a sulu! To know nothing of the fetish of civilisation! To be something more than an automaton to the man you love, even though he be your husband! ”

“ This, their home, must be anchored to Tahao at all costs. Bob would see to that. He invariably saw to everything. Life, even on Tahao, was of such immense importance to him.
Olive sat with hands clasped about her knees. She had thought her mind long since numb, but to-night, in face of the omnipotent threat hovering on the horizon, she found herself piecing together the twisted fragments of her married life like an ineffectual puzzle.
No one could have faced heavy odds with more fortitude, more thoroughness, and less avail than Bob Ingram. ”

“ For all his six feet of good-looking, powerfully built manhood, backed by an income that would have been the ruination of most men, he was a child—pleasure-loving, irresponsible, simple of soul.
But to return to the absurd wreath of flowers. It was made of crimson drala blossoms and thrown to him from one of the canoes that swarmed round the schooner like a flock of sea birds. Fenner was standing at the rail, and when he slipped the wreath over his head, and stood there like a six-foot, twentieth-century Dryad, a great shout went up. ”

“ Externally, with its white portico, marble steps, and highly varnished swinging doors, it lends a relieving splash of color to an otherwise drab and featureless row of typical London offices. Internally, it is as attractive as the whim of a tasteful woman can make it. Before passing down the narrow alley leading to the stage door Sprague looked about him, marveling, not for the first time, at the powers of the magician who could line that street with waiting carriages and throng the unpretentious foyer with all the brilliance of a West End theater crowd. ”

“ Now, Felisi understood this, or, at any rate, the drift of it. Had she not sold imitation pink coral on the wharf at Levuka? And was not Levuka the centre of the world, where, when the steamer came in, people were so many that the wharf, the street, and the giant houses swarmed with them like fish in the rock pools at low tide? Strange people they were, especially the women, covered with unnecessary clothes and trailing brightly-hued veils in their wake. ”

“ There came a night, as dead as the eternity of days and nights that had preceded it, when Amery woke from a fevered sleep and lay staring at the beams above his bunk. His throat ached abominably, his tongue felt like dry flannel in his mouth, but there was nothing new in this. The ship's company was long since down to half a point of water a day, and all that remained was a bare three gallons in a beaker carefully guarded in the saloon. ”

“ I am not claiming that we encountered a hurricane; far from it, for it is doubtful if even the dream ship would have survived a full-fledged demon of the species. In these same latitudes I have seen turf torn from the face of the earth and rolled up like a carpet by sheer force of wind, and mile-wide swaths cut as cleanly as with a sickle through settlement, plantation, and jungle. But these exhibitions of ferocity were witnessed from terra firma. It is a totally different thing from the deck of a small boat at sea. ”

“ Herriott was fuming over the inadequacies of oil stoves in anything of a sea, and when the meal was served he sat silent and morose. He was a changed man, and he knew it. There is nothing quite like a prolonged bucketing in small craft to give the best of us a glimpse of himself. Herriott felt vaguely that the sea had found him wanting, and the knowledge alternately surprised and tortured him.
Neither Stella nor Landon addressed him, but talked of the habits of sea birds during storm, of the formation and action of waves, and such-like trivialities that irritated Herriott beyond expression. ”

“ And still on to the rim of this world, a desolate place of pale green shallows and dark blue depths where islets dissolved into half-submerged, uncharted reefs, and it was only possible to steer by signal from a lookout in the bow, and to anchor when darkness fell.
Here, as the brazen days passed by with nothing more than bone weariness and disappointment to show for them, something of the futility of such an undertaking would have come home to most men. But not to Seaton. The flame of hope, lit and tended by Joyce Graham, burnt through every gust of adversity. He was looking for Wade. ”

“ Stone was seated before the fire, reading the newspaper. A comprehensive cigar was securely wedged in the corner of his mouth, and his long legs, culminating in their ungainly feet, dangled like overweighted pendulums from the arm of the chair.
Sprague laughed. He advanced on Stone, executing a hornpipe like a maniac, and laughed still louder when the American gazed up at him without a semblance of a smile. He slapped him on the back like a fool, and laughed again at his discomfiture. The world—even the Gray's Inn Road—was an intensely amusing place that morning. ”

“ Missus Catoni flitted about the place like a white butterfly, giving a touch here and there. A what-not with ten shelves was placed in a corner, and Felisi longed to ask what it was for, until Missus Catoni told her without asking.
"He is very fond of nice boots," she told Felisi; "you will see the most wonderful boots in the world presently."
"Missi Redgravie, him big fellah?" Felisi inquired, and Missus Catoni went off into peals of laughter.
"Oh, I must tell him that!" she cried. "Felisi, you're a gem! Yes, Missi Redgravie is a big fellah in his own way." ”

“ The following morning, soon after a blood-red sun had climbed out of the sea, a canoe shot from the Ajax's lee and headed for the barrier reef.
To Mrs. Strode, paddling joyfully in the bows, clad in a boy's bathing suit and a kimono, the world was young that morning and full of promise. Why was it ever necessary to do anything else than speed over blue water, with spindrift lashing the face, and the deep-toned roar of surf filling the universe and drowning all care like an opiate? ”

“ At the pile of mats it paused, kneeling, peering, outstretching an arm. It was a hesitant shadow even now, and not without cause, for in its gropings under the mats its arm became suddenly transfixed, and in a moment the guest-house was a chaos of struggling men.
But it did not last long. Morgan was infinitely the stronger. With a wrench he was free and away, the bundle under his arm, his partner, a gaunt, dishevelled figure, stumbling impotently in his wake. Felisi watched them go—down through the moon-mottled fringes of the palm grove and out on to the beach. ”

“ To Sprague—inclined to be trivial, even frivolous—there was the fascination of unplumbed depths in Nathaniel Stone; and to the American, Sprague was as a drink of sparkling water to a thirsty soul.
Together they accomplished the morning constitutional on the promenade deck, smoked the postprandial cigar of contentment and companionship at the ship's rail, explored the cinnamon gardens of Colombo and the Arab quarters at Port Said; and each day revealed to Sprague fresh traits in the other's extraordinary personality, for extraordinary it proved to be. ”

“ I've heard something about that quarantine, and—I want you to have him; will you?”
“Yes,” said Meg, “I'll have him.”
“Thanks.”
There followed a long silence, during which Sprague felt a sudden and wild desire to snatch this chilly little mortal into his arms and kiss her into warmth. It was a novel sensation, experienced once—and only once—in his life before—at the age of seventeen. At that moment even “the work” faded into insignificance, a specter, grim and unalluring. He moved nearer to her in the sand, drawn by an irresistible impulse, and saw that she trembled. ”

“ We could have crossed in an open boat for all of the weather, and three becalmed days in mid-ocean we occupied in swimming round the ship, or diving to scrape the barnacles off her copper.
But stark calms are a wearisome business. Every function of a ship has ceased. It is as though she lay dead in a stagnant pool, and any movement of spars or canvas were the rattling of her bones. Also, it is an aggravation to the restless insect called man, adrift in a breathless waste of waters, to know that leagues lie ahead of which he is incapable of covering a yard. ”

“ By the time Herriott had reached the saloon Stella was in her bunk. She heard a cupboard opened softly, the faintest clink of glass, and a sigh as her husband settled down on one of the settees. She lay motionless, staring wide-eyed at the white-enamelled timber overhead.
With the dawn a gray nor'easter bore down upon the Pioneer, and quickly strengthened to a gale. Hove-to under double-reefed mainsail, the little yacht took it without flinching, as she had been built to do, and Stella busied herself with preparing hot drinks for the men when they should come below. ”

“ Felisi obeyed instructions in every respect except speed. Sirjohnnie was capering round the pool like a madman when she returned.
"This is nothing short of a discovery," he told her, in a shaking voice. "What is it, Filisi? But, of course, you don't know." He clucked impatiently.
And that was where he was wrong, Felisi told herself, squatting in the sand, triumphant. She knew—the whole of Luana knew—that it was a vine that grew in the bush, and, when flung into a pool, stupefied fish. What more did anyone want to know? The ignorance of these white chiefs was beyond belief. ”

“ Desmond slept under his own roof. Trust a Cockney.
When the girl came again to the lagoon, as she did in the afternoon of the next day, she stood amazed at the edge of the bush before handing her pony's reins to a native servant. Not twenty paces distant a weird but homelike structure had reared itself under the palms that fringed the water. Its roof was of glittering corrugated iron, supported on palm-trunk corner posts; the walls were of loosely-plaited reed. A pair of blue serge trousers and a viciously-striped shirt lay drying in the sun. ”

“ When he had gone, Amery settled back on the cabin locker to smoke a disreputable pipe in slow, methodical puffs, and stare fixedly at the swinging lamp. He knew exactly where his partner was going. He would catch the two-thirty ferry across the harbour and climb the red earth path to the bungalow with the garden overlooking the sea. There he would be as charming as Frank Baird knew how to be. He would balance a tea cup on his knee with the ease of an expert, and talk trivialities until the old man fell asleep. ”

“ He lives in one of the beauty spots of the world, and neither the servant problem nor "high cost of living" affects him to anything like the same extent as others. This home that we of the dream ship had invaded was a miracle of cool, well-ordered comfort, set high on the wooded hillside, commanding by day an endless vista of palm-clad mountain and sparkling Caribbean, and by night encompassed with perfumed darkness, the glint of fireflies, and the vocal efforts of the whistling frog—a nimble little fellow, green as an emerald and no larger than a pea. ”