Louis Becke

“ When I went to Tahiti to buy the schooner, I believe she thought she would never see me again. . . . What a fool I am! Doris is all right, I suppose, although it is a year since I had a letter . . . and I—could any man want more. I don’t believe there’s a soul on the island but thinks as much of me as Luita herself does; and, by G-d! she’s a pearl—even though she is only a native girl. No, I’ll stay here; ‘Kapeni Paranili’ will always be a big man in the Paumotus, but Fred Brantley would be nobody in Sydney—only a common merchant skipper who had made money in the islands. ”

“ Here, under the shadow of some giant puka-trees, the old skipper stopped and sat down on a roughly hewn slab of coral, the remains of one of those marae or heathen temples that are to be found almost anywhere in the islands of Eastern Polynesia.
“I knew this place well, once,” he said, as he pulled out his pipe. “I used to come here when I was sailing one of Brander’s vessels out of Tahiti. As we have done now we did then—came here for turtle. No natives have lived here for the past forty years. Did you ever hear of Brantley?” ”

“ A week afterwards the people of Vahitahi were clustered on the beach putting supplies of native food in the schooner’s boat. That night he was to sail again for the pearling grounds at Matahiva lagoon, and would be away three months.
One by one the people bade him adieu, and then stood apart while he said farewell to Luita.
“E mahina tolu, little one,” he said, “why such a gloomy face?”
The girl shook her head, and her mouth twitched. “But the miti, Paranili—the miti of my mother. She is wise in the things that are hidden; for she is one of those who believe in the old gods of Vahitahi. . . . ”

“ The girl drew away from him, and, for the first time in two years Brantley saw an angry flush tinge her cheek a dusky red.
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“Ah!”—the contemptuous ring in her voice made the man’s eyes drop—“thou art like all White Men—was there ever one who was faithful? What other woman is it that thou desirest? Is it Nia of Ahunui—she who, when thy boat lay anchored in the lagoon, swam off at night and asked thee for thy love—the shameless Nia?” ”

“ BRANTLEY OF VAHITAHI One day a trading vessel lay becalmed off Tatakoto, in the Paumotu Archipelago, and the captain and supercargo, taking a couple of native sailors with them, went ashore at dawn to catch some turtle. The turtle were plentiful and easily caught, and after half a dozen had been put in the boat, the two white men strolled along the white hard beach. ”

“ He put his hand upon hers, and for a few seconds looked at the delicate tracery of tattooing that, on the back, ran in thin blue lines from the finger tips to the wrists.
“What a d——d pity!” he muttered to himself; “this infernal tattooing would give the poor devil away anywhere in civilization. ”

“ Late in the afternoon of the second day, just as the trade wind began to lose its strength, the schooner was running along the weather-side of Tatakoto, and Rua Manu, from the mast-head, called out that he saw the boat lying on the beach inside the lagoon, with her sail set; and, as landing was not practicable on the weather-side, the schooner ran round to the lee.
“We will soon know, Doris. It always rains in these islands at this time of the year . ”