Henry De Vere Stacpoole

“ Then Katafa and I set sail for Karolin, for Karolin called me to rule her people."
"And the men who landed to kill and burn?" asked Aioma.
"They are still on Marua; they have no canoes but they will build them, and surely they will come."
Neither of Aioma's companions said a word whilst Aioma stood looking at the ground as if consulting it, then his eyes rose to Dick's face. Age and war had made Aioma wise, he knew men and he knew Truth when he saw her. ”

“ Sometimes seated alone beneath the towering Jack-fruits her head would poise as though she were listening, as though some voice were calling through the sound of the surf on the reef, some voice whose words she could not quite catch; and sometimes she would sit above the reef pools gazing deep down into the water, the crystal water where coralline growths bloomed and fish swam, but where she seemed to see more things than fish. ”

“ Le Moan was only fourteen. She had heard of the coming of the new ruler to Karolin and of his bringing with him Katafa, the girl long thought to be dead. She had heard the order given to her grandfather Aioma that morning to come at once to the northern beach as the new chief required canoes to be built, and she had heard the old man's refusal. Le Moan had wondered what this new chief might be like. The monstrous great figure of Uta Matu, last king of Karolin, had come up in memory at the word "chief," and now, as the canoe was hauled up and the women cried out "He comes," she saw Dick. ”