J. Allan Dunn

“ Every muscle of the native's magnificent body seemed to tense at once as if he would break his irons and brain or strangle the skipper. Meeker recoiled a little before the fury he had evoked. His hand reached back of him for his gun, and the first mate grasped Oku's arms from behind. ”

“ This Oku and his fellows first suspected, then believed; and it had soured their natures. Their spirits were heavy, and they pined for home. Their pay had been docked and delayed; they had been swindled on the weighing of the shell, shortened in tobacco and other rations. If Oku had taken a pearl, it would, to his reasoning and sense of justice, have merely helped to adjust the balance between him and the skipper.
To Meeker, the brown man and the black was merely a machine of bone and muscle and certain capacities for earning him money. ”

“ The two Tahitians, coming down to the beach after they had eaten, found Tiri by the shark. He showed them the loin-cloth of Oku, and he showed them the pearl that Oku had thrust deep in the gullet of the shark.
“It belongs to Oku,” he said.
“It is the property of Oku,” they agreed.
“We will send him back to Papeete with our wages,” said Tiri. “Back to Tatua. We can get no price for the pearl in this place.”
“It is agreed,” they answered. “What of Vaiki?”
“The name of Vaiki is to be forgotten. It is better that we bury him. The tide may refuse him—and the sharks.” ”

“ Meeker was impatient to get through with the thing. He had lost his pearl; but he did not mean to lose his supper, which was nearly ready, nor to forego the appetizer in the example he was going to make of Oku.
A rope was tied about the diver's waist, held by the negro quarter-master and the mate. His irons were taken off, his knife restored to him.
Oku took the blade and stood poised on the rail like a bronze statue against the sun. The shark had finished the offal and now swam up and down with an expectant eye. He knew that sundown would bring him more garbage. This was his lay. ”

“ Oku was from Tahiti, one of the five Polynesians of the pearling-crew. Tiri, his brother, was in the bows with three compatriots. The fifth, Vaiki, cousin to Oku, was in the cabin with the skipper and the first mate, giving testimony against Oku.
The rest of the native workers were in the waist of the lugger, Melanesians all, plum-colored, breech-clouted, with frizzy, fuzzy mops of hair ranging in color from dirty orange to black. Strips of bone and shell were thrust through their noses. ”

“ ON THE Halcyon Oku lay in a bunk, his wounds cleaned and dressed. His arm might not recover full strength, never its symmetry; but the mate was sure he would not lose it. The blood of Oku was healthy; his injuries would heal quickly. The salt water had started to cleanse them; the loin-cloth had helped; the permanganate had completed the asepsis. He had pleasant thoughts, and he was well content.
Vaiki ventured to the galley to beg for supper. The Chinese cook showed him a knife longer and sharper than his own, an Oriental fury that completely routed Vaiki's despondent soul. ”

“ Meeker lied glibly. “Suppose you no tell I give you nothing. Maybe you try get piece of that pearl. Oku no give, you get mad along Oku.”
“No. I no want. I no steal along of you. Every one speak Vaiki good boy.”
Meeker winked at his mate.
“Hanged if I see just why he peached,” he said. “They usually stick with their own.”
“Oku's got a girl back at Papeete,” said the mate. “He figgers on havin' her when he gits back with his wages. Vaiki wants the same girl.” ”

“ His victory reinflated, and he beheld himself talking dowry with the father of Tatua.
She was a stake well worth playing for. She had been only fourteen when they left. Now she was seventeen, an opened bud, a ripened fruit. And she had sworn to wait for Oku, not knowing she was thus keeping herself for Vaiki, whom she had affected to despise. It would be good to possess her.
Some day he might whisper in her ear why it was that Oku did not return. He could say she lied if she repeated it. It would only be a whip in reserve for a wife who was not sufficiently loving—or dutiful. ”

“ Rightly or not, the cruising shark that was prowling about the Halcyon, marked by the white scar of an ancient wound from spear, knife or harpoon, was considered a man-eater. Its presence excited the Kanakas, speculating upon the punishment to be given Oku, guessing that the shark would be used in its carrying out.
Captain Meeker was hard of feature, hard of hand and hard of heart. His one object was to get all the work possible out of his divers and all the shell and pearls possible from the reefs at the least expense. ”

“ Go on, Vaiki.”
“Three time he come up, Oku no open shell.”
This was the rule of the lugger.
“Oku he heap smart along shell. Plenty he sabe pearl oyster. Four time he empty bag, he put foot quick on one shell. Think I no see. Bimeby he put shell in pareu (loincloth) . Bimeby he rest. I make believe I sleep. Bimeby Oku open shell, take out fine pearl. I see. He look quick. I close eye. I no see where he put pearl but I hear shell go along water.
“Oku no good,” he went on passionately, emphasizing all his words with telling pantomime. “Vaiki good boy. I speak. ”

“ Vaiki gulped down the gin and folded his arms. It was plain that he did not fancy facing Oku, bound though the latter was.
The shark was still cruising near the lugger, the Kanakas regarding him fascinatedly.
“Chuck him some burley to keep him up, Mr. Simmons,” said the first mate. “I've a notion we'll be needin' him.”
“It's the kai-kanah” (man-eater) .
“What of it? So much the better. Keep those beggars in hand.”
Below deck, Oku had seen the shark through the port-hole and guessed what might be coming to him. They had taken his knife from him. If only they would let him have it! ”

“ In the gullet he found a pulpy string of loin-cloth and then something that gently shimmered in the palm of his hand, rounded, perfect, silvery-white, with a faint suggestion of iridescence that would glow radiant under the sun or, beneath artificial lights, against the white skin of a beautiful woman. ”

“ Their shallow eyes shifted constantly, like those of monkeys. Some were red-eyed with years of reef-diving in ten, twelve, even sixteen fathoms. They seemed more like half-trained animals than men, avoiding the cool and masterful look of the mate. ”

“ The deeper the water, the more exhausting the work and the smaller the contents of the diver's bag.
The Melanesians were contract laborers. The Tahitians had been wooed to service with many promises, none of which Meeker intended to carry out, many of which he had already welshed on.
The complaints of Oku, backed by Tiri as spokesmen for their crowd, had been met by the threat that they would not be carried back to Papeete but left on Thursday Island. ”