J. Allan Dunn

“ The men pranced to the thunder of the drums where Kaiti sat throned on a carved log. They advanced in rushes of mock war, shaking their spears and shouting. They killed imaginary enemies and gloated over them, showing their heads on the lance-points, the white skulls bobbing. They formed in a phalanx, bent double, knees high, as they stepped, chanting, exploding in a final roar of triumph and upflung arms.
All the time the women shuffled, shuffled to the tempo, leaning on the peeled wands. Their faces bereft of visible emotion, mere masks of stupidity ”

“ Kaiti sat glowering. Puriti wrapped his lean arms about his bony knees and hugged his thought. If Kaiti made away with Minea he would not mind it. She was too clever. If Kaiti's mood was worked upon he might smell out Minea some day when the chief was sick from overeating. Without Kaiti's private sanction it would be too risky. Even as Kaiti the warrior, was a little afraid of Puriti the thinker, so the sorcerer was a little afraid of the fighter and his moods of anger. A man's skin was so little a thing to hold his blood ”

“ The fresh air and the climb sobered Kaiti somewhat, but did not abate the smart to his pride. There was only one salve for that. He must strike. Yet, in the swirling fog of desire for revenge that gathered in his mind, he saw one clear vision. The white man, unafraid, pocketing the hook, then the gleaming fish, the flash and bark of the gun that came from nowhere, the dying bream, all in the winking of an eye. ”

“ Aside from the first passion of lovers, the suckling time of children, the half superstitious regard for babes who died before they were able to talk and walk, there was little true affection among them, none that was not completely offset by the prospect of Puriti's dramatic spectacle, the excitement of their own participation in it, the smelling out of a victim and the spilling of human blood. ”

“ Beads of sweat, wrung hardly from those overwrought bodies, stood out on their faces as they strove to crush the nuts. Strove and turned gray with despair.
One man's eyes lighted for a moment. Tikipo. The thing had crumpled in his palm. Its contents suddenly oozed out between his fingers and Puriti laughed while Tikipo looked with dismay at the white stuff with which the wizard had filled the nut he had palmed off on Tikipo after he had extracted its contents and before he cemented the edges of the shell again. ”

“ All day the flies and the mosquitos had stung and bitten them, the dogs sniffed and snarled at them and the heat sapped them of vitality. They had not been fed, been given no water, and all the time the hope of living had slowly leached out of them and the growing fear of a horrible death had gnawed at their manhood. They knew that above their heads Kaiti was devising the method of their passing, if they were found guilty; that the wizard was at his incantations and would smell out the culprits at top moonheight. ”

“ He knew his paddlers, avoiding his gaze, were wondering what ailed their chief. He ground his teeth in a fury as the canoe grounded and he leaped ashore to the trail that led to his village.
Makinitosi, Arrisoni and then Kalinitoni, all had refused him tribute. All had treated him, a chief, as if he were dirt.
He would show them. He would spit upon their war cloths and he would kill them and drink the broth of their hearts, seated upon three coconuts, to avoid evil. But he would not tell Minea. She would scold, the story would pass among the women, among the tribes. ”

“ Kaiti's face was like a thundercloud. His stomach was sour and his head ached but he was not drinking. He did not intend to drink again until the white men's liquor was his. Then——
The two sat in silence for a while, Kaiti chewing betel-nut and lime paste, spitting copiously into a calabash whose contents would be carefully guarded and destroyed lest some one possess himself of them and bewitch the chief. ”

“ Even Puriti could not prevent such a spell.
“What is in your mind concerning this matter, Puriti?”
The wizard felt his way, watching Kaiti's face.
“It is better to punish one or two than to destroy twenty who are good paddlers and fighters. This comes in my mind.
“The twenty all deny this thing though they believe they will be thrown to the sharks. Such was the threat of Kaiti.”
“I have changed my mind about the sharks. I have a better thought. One would not be missed where twenty would. It is true. Perhaps only the one knows who is guilty.” ”

“ To have a great wizard was a great attribute to an overlord and in this he outranked his brothers who had tahunas of only mediocre accomplishments. Puriti could dress up his ceremonials wonderfully and he was quick-witted. But Kaiti never forgot that he, and not Puriti, was the real ruler of the tribe. Puriti was only mortal, like himself and he was not infallible. Minea was cleverer in many ways though she did not have the ancient knowledge, the art of mummery, the apparatus, handed down in the sorcerer's cult. ”

“ Kaiti looked at it half fearfully. If Tai could find out why question the women? But he did not ask that. He could never come quite to the point of testing Puriti. He might be able to talk with ghosts.
“So be it,” he said. “I will speak with Minea.”
“Let her tell each woman that if she speaks of the matter to another her tongue will be fed to the pigs. As for the woman who gives no name or gives one different from the rest—which she may do, having spite against some other—she is not to be held but to go free with the rest. The drums will sound at moonrise. ”

“ This was sheer flattery, but Kaiti's eyes gleamed and Puriti lowered his own lids to hide the light in his own. Kaiti meant to use this affair for the fulfilment of his ambition. It marched with Puriti's. The greater the might of Kaiti, the greater his own, the fatter his fees.
“You think the women will tell?”
“I think that nineteen of them will give the same name and that the twentieth will give another—or none at all. For Minea will tell them that if the truth is not told they will all surely die. They and their men. Men like to live, but they do not fear death as women do. ”

“ Who has dared to lie about Kaiti? All men deny it yet the words were spoken of man.”
When he paused the dog, watching his master narrowly, its ears cocked, considering every intonation, threw up its head and let out an ululating howl. A shudder went through the onlookers. Tao had spoken.
“It is easy to smell out a liar,” went on Puriti, “for in his mouth is corruption. Let us find this man that Kaiti may decide his punishment.” ”

“ The villagers moved toward the sing-sing ground, men and women smeared according to their individual fancies with red, yellow and black paint, with lime mixed with pig-fat, tricked out with feathers, with armlets and anklets, with necklaces and disks of pearl distending their earlobes, with strips of bone thrust through the septa of their flat noses.
The men carried their spears and some of them took skulls from their personal racks in the clubhouse. The women had peeled wands, carved and painted. There was to be a preliminary dance in which all would join before Puriti took the stage. ”

“ THEY turned out all the lights as the conchs came closer, then ceased; and sat in the darkness, their weapons set handy, knowing the tribesmen were gathering in the coconut groves, getting ready for a rush. The heavy cloud wall had come in closer, as the intermittent lightning showed. Thunder muttered and growled, but the mass of vapor seemed a barrier holding back the storm that presently must break through.
The heat was terrific, but they did not mind it. It conduced to the efficiency of Clinton's scheme to make a laughing stock of Kaiti and turn his attack into failure. ”

“ Puriti was the politician pure and simple. The diplomat. The grand vizier, his own interests subordinate to those of Kaiti. He knew, of course, for what he was wanted, but he was not sure of all that was in Haiti's mind.
He had small doubt of discovering the guilty man. The actual means he would employ were based upon detective principles. He had his spies and stool pigeons and he was depending a good deal upon Minea. Like the French crime investigators Puriti believed in seeking the woman in the case. He knew how to handle women. ”

“ The three traders stood in their grandstand, shaken with laughter as the electric fluid flamed and showed the ignominious defeat and flight. They rocked with mirth and were powerless. If weapons had been needed they could not have used them. Clinton had a fleeting idea to fire a volley above their heads and then realized it was far better as it was.
There had been no personal sign from the white men at all, only the enveloping flypapers strewn thickly on the steps and under the porch, thanks to the gross of packages shipped in error. ”

“ He sent for Puriti the wizard.
Wizardry is a fine art. As practised by savage sorcerers it is a business that is roughly divided into three branches—religion, medicine and politics. Priesthood and healing ever go together where men are primitive. Kaiti was superstitious and it seemed as if Puriti was able to do things with ghosts to help him, but Kaiti was not much afraid of him. ”

“ Some one would be killed, perhaps all of them. There would be no more laughing and talking, no more smacking of lips over good food, no more lust or zest of life. Whoever the wizard pointed out would be dispatched to the uttermost darkness. ”

“ The news of the fire had spread to the quarters and the men were brought into the protection of the house. Outside they could put up but a feeble defense against the blood-mad bushmen, fresh from the firing and loot of Clinton's place, wild with finding themselves balked of murder. The white men must protect them, except for the last assault, the last desperate rally that might be staged. The odds were not a thing to be discussed, even thought about.
Harrison ordered more gin brought in, but MacIntosh refused. ”

“ Kaiti had been made to look small, had been offered unfit food.
“He who speaks of this thing,” he said to his followers, “feeds sharks. But the head of this white man I will hang upon the ridge-pole of my house. And on either side shall be the heads of Arrisoni and Makinitosi. I have spoken.
The men rolled their eyeballs in the gloom and trailed him mutely up the narrow path where the dense bush rose like a wall on either side, wondering if this was be war and how the brothers of Kaiti, who were friendly to Arrisoni and Makinitosi, would take it. ”

“ He had been insulted by all three of them and he would turn that to advantage by the assumption that a slight upon him was a slight upon all the tribesmen.
The first thing was to punish those who had gossiped, to devise something that would redound to his own credit, set the tribes talking so that if the wretched incident of the damaged fish or the refused trade goods and liquor ever came up it would be eclipsed by the vengeance of Kaiti. If it came to fighting, his prestige as a warrior made him the true leader. He was fat, but he was strong. ”

“ They were tuti nuts, candlenuts, almost as hard as ivory, but they had been painted red and the twenty paddlers were under his spell, the spell of their own position from which they were not yet definitely delivered, for it was likely as not, to their thinking, that Kaiti would order them all killed and eaten. They listened and obeyed as men do in hypnosis.
“Let us see how strong you are,” said the mocking voice of the wizard. “He who is guilty will not be able to crush what he holds in his hand for his spirit is already made weak by the spirit of Tao, which has spoken. ”

“ With the warriors it was different. Their emotions were roused and lusts loosed, lusts of fight, of murder, of blood, summoned by the drums. Quicken that rhythm a little and the men would wheel and rush to seize the women. Quicken it yet more and they would go wholly mad, their little reason breaking like glass vibrating at too high a pitch. ”

“ Friendship ceased with clan protection in time of mutual danger. The immediate family of the victim would mourn long and loudly, but wailing was a mechanical action that took place upon all kinds of occasions: Birth, marriage, death.
They were all creatures of the moment, reactionaries to primitive instincts. Kaiti and Puriti dominated them because of their ambitions, their pride of race, the fact that their ancestors had been chiefs for many generations and had actually lived on better food. Minea, too, was chiefly bred. ”

“ He was not looking for trouble, but a clean-up of the profitable shell. And he had no quarrel with the tribesmen.
It would be simpler to demonstrate a problem in geometry to Kaiti than to make him recognize the fact that his island belonged to the Australian Commonwealth. No commissioner had formally taken over Jijilap, no cruiser had ever visited it, it had known no reprisals for outbreak. Kaiti's father had been friendly with the whites, proud of having them on his island, appreciating the trade goods. ”

“ A few men began to appear on the platform of the big clubhouse with its floor raised on high stilts from the ground, a clumsy, irregular ladder of poles leading to a sort of porch over which the roof pole was extended, thatch-grass pendent in long fringes from it, long strips of bark cloth, painted with totem signs, hanging down. The men yawned and stretched themselves, taking no notice of the women. ”

“ Laugh at a leader an' he's a leader no langer. If it could be fixed to include Puriti, we'd have no more tr-rouble wi' Kaiti or his outfit. Puhoteke an' Vetsi get alang well enough wi' each other and us. Aye, i' Kaiti could be laughed oot o' court, so to speak.”
“As it is the bloomin' joke's on us,” said Harrison.
“I'm not so sure. I've got an idea,” said Clinton. “I think it 'll work. If it doesn't we're no worse off than before. It's bound to have some effect, if the storm doesn't break. If the storm does come hard enough it may stop the raid anyway, as Mac says. ”