Ralph Stock

“ Set purpose came into his eyes, the grim mask of his face gave way to animation—eagerness. He muttered a curse at the failing wind, and Felisi became aware that their course had changed, with his mind. The canoe no longer headed for the open sea, and a little later she saw the well-known coastline of Luana looming over the bows. He had put back.
The canoe had no sooner grounded than the white man leapt ashore and ran up the beach. Felisi found him at the bank of the stream—the sand had risen to the chin of "the law"—tugging and straining with his one hand. ”

“ The shadow emerged from behind a lantana bush, resolving into the form of the white man. He stood quite still out there in the open, his white ducks looming clear against the inky background of the underbrush. The revolver was levelled from his hip in his right hand. The other hung inert by his side.
"Now," he said, "will you let me go without killing you, Hanson? I don't want to."
"Let you go!" snapped the voice of "the law," and a glint of white showed behind a palm trunk not forty paces distant.
"Don't come out!" cried the white man, as though afraid. ”

“ If I kill him, another man takes his place, and so on for ever. The law never stops."
"Him big fellah, law," mused Felisi.
"I should just say he is," muttered the white man, leaning limply against the dilo trunk and looking out to sea with melancholy eyes. "He's a bad fellah to bunt up against, too, but sometimes—sometimes he can be given the slip. Look here," he added, with sudden eagerness, "Hanson may have gone on, and he may not; I wouldn't trust him a yard. There's only one way out of this thing. You be fishing in a canoe—a canoe with a sail in it, mind you off the beach to-night. ”

“ Felisi shook her head and looked sympathetic. Amongst her many other accomplishments she was probably the best listener in the world. Her attitude appeared to encourage the white man.
"Such a time!" he breathed. "First chance I've had of thinking about it or having a look at them," he added, rolling the pearls to and fro under his lean brown fingers. "First of all in the cutter. You get to hate the way a man hangs up his hat if you're alone with him long enough. Heavens, how I came to hate that man! ”

“ He moaned and pitched face forward into the sand.
It was an interesting phenomenon that, when the white man is strong and well, he is a god in his own estimation, infinitely removed above the Polynesian race; but when he is sick or frightened, he is as humble as a child. It was as a child that Felisi saw this white man. She knew of a place, a perfectly safe place, and when she had brought him round for the second time, she guided him to it. The Buli of Senai Keba had built a new look-out on the edge of the beach, but the old one still remained up amongst the branches of a giant dilo tree. ”

“ At the moment she became aware that the white man was staring at her with suddenly awakened interest.
"You speak English?" he exclaimed, as though this accomplishment of Felisi's had just reached his notice.
"Some," she answered glibly, using the word she had learned on the wharf at Levuka, and always found so useful.
"Thank heaven!" muttered the white man. "Have you seen any one—a white man, I mean, a large white man who limps when he walks and carries a rifle under his arm?" ”

“ She had taken sides, and she did not regret her choice. The heart of a woman instinctively goes out to the fugitive—he is the weaker—and when once the Polynesian has taken sides, there is no turning back.
Presently she had to tell him—
"Him come close up."
The man on the beach was limping along its edge, peering into the reed brake. He would come directly under the dilo tree.
The white man at Felisi's side lay as still as stone. His jaw was set, his muscles tense. Felisi's hand went out as stealthily as a snake, drew the revolver from its holster, and placed it in his hand. ”

“ Felisi nodded her head understandingly. The white man might have been talking to the lady with the gold hair behind the bar in Levuka for all the difference he seemed to find in his audience. Felisi took it as an unconscious compliment, which indeed it was.
"Then came what I'd been expecting. But I'd hidden the dinghy oars, and hadn't given him credit for the pluck of swimming a hundred yards through sharks. He did it. It's wonderful what fifty first-grade pearls will do with a man-woman. ”

“ He extracted the cork with his teeth and poured out on to the platform a stream of pearls. He hummed a little air as he sat looking at them.
"Worth a bit of trouble, aren't they?" he suggested.
Felisi nodded, though personally she preferred imitation pink coral. It was easier to come by, and more colourful.
"And there was trouble," he added reminiscently. "Crane didn't play the game by me. Partnerships again! Never did believe in partnerships, but what's a fellow to do when he's got the will, and the knowledge, and the muscle, and no dibs to back 'em up?" ”

“ It's the first man I've killed. I'm not used to shooting at men, much less killing them. But I wasn't sorry. It rather surprised me how I took it when I found him dead. Somehow it never struck me that I couldn't go out into the world and get on with life as I had before. ”