Ralph Stock

“ If it is not, then you have never been near the Islands. It stands for most of the money and property in the Tau Group, for a chain of stores covering several hundred miles of beach and jungle, and for a fat little man with the face of a cherub and the soul of a fox.
He was taking his customary cup of afternoon tea in the lounge of "The Polynesian," when Strode, who was waiting for the Sydney boat, drifted in.
"Just arrived?" suggested Bowman. He believed in getting to know everyone. You can never tell how much use a fellow-creature may be. ”

“ The next day he walked into Bowman's store, posted the letter, and quietly crumpled on to the floor.
He came to under the manager's mosquito bar, and swung on to the edge of the bed with a suddenness that nearly jerked it from its rusty legs.
"What's happened?" he demanded.
The manager, who was indulging in a sundowner on the verandah, lounged into the doorway.
"You fainted," he said.
"Me? Faint?" Strode tried to laugh, but the pain in his head spoilt the effect.
"Yes, you," said the manager. "You don't claim to be different from anyone else, do you?" ”

“ From behind the store counter he watched his late patient plunge into the glare of the compound and diminish, with a slightly wavering gait, down the beach road.
"Some blamed woman!" he muttered, and slouched back to the. verandah and a sundowner.
As for Strode, the work that had gone before was child's play compared with what followed. The mangroves received him with open arms, and writhed with mirth at his puny efforts to destroy them. They found it amusing, no doubt, to watch him plastering himself with slime in an effort to admit amongst them the purging sunlight that they loathed. ”

“ Strode looked up with a slightly puzzled expression. "Oh, it's not that," he said. "The Islands suit me all right, but I don't seem to suit them."
"Drink?" queried Bowman, his smile broadening to, cover the blatancy of the question.
Strode shook his head. "No," he said, "that doesn't worry me."
"Mat fever?" (Indolence.)
"No, I don't think I've ever been accused of that."
"Then what the mischief's the matter with the Islands?"
"They don't let a man work," said Strode.
Bowman was surprised into letting his tea get cold. ”

“ Strode's "rest" lasted three days, and consisted for the most part of lying on the flat of his back, alternately making a noise like castanets and blithering about someone named "Peg's Fall." But the manager was used to it. He was used to most things. Then the patient arose, and made himself the kind of nuisance that only seems possible to a strong man who doesn't know when he's weak. ”

“ Bowman blew out his pink cheeks and allowed them to slowly collapse.
"Well, that ought easily to be remedied," he said.
"It ought," Strode agreed, "but it isn't. I started humping copra sacks for exercise, but they stopped me. Said it wasn't done. Then, when I saw it taking ten coolies half the day to pole a punt down the coast, I sent them copra getting and did it myself. But your manager didn't like that either."
"He wouldn't," said Bowman. "Neither would I. You haven't got this thing right. How are we to keep up the prestige of the white man if he takes to doing things like that?" ”

“ Meet me at the landing six o'clock sharp, if you feel like going any further in the matter."
"All right," said Strode, "I will."
He kept the appointment, and to the tick of the stated hour Bowman's launch, a sleek thing of polished brass and glittering enamel, shot out from the landing. It was said that he was the only man in the Islands who could keep a Kanaka to time.
On arrival at Lanua, Bowman, who believed in surprise visits, proceeded to make his manager's life rather less attractive than it was under ordinary circumstances, and those were nothing to write home about. ”

“ Even then, if you can believe it, Strode failed to recognise that this man was play-acting. It must be remembered that he had lived a great deal alone, and that he came from a country where a man's word is accepted as his bond. Two years was a long time. Bowman would remember presently. He must be made to remember. With the same painstaking attention to detail that characterised his every effort, Strode launched info an account of events leading up to the final agreement on the verandah of the manager's bungalow. ”

“ Thompson took a seat. "I don't see that," he said. "I was fired this morning."
"You made a mistake," prompted Bowman.
"No." Thompson shook his weary head. "If I wasn't fired, I quit. Besides, I don't see how either of us is going to get out of here without being shot. I don't want to be shot."
"He wouldn't dare."
"Safety first," murmured Thompson; "and if it's so, why don't you get yourself out?"
It is a difficult matter to discuss means of escape in the presence of one's gaoler. Bowman found it so. ”

“ Bowman had the presence of mind to incline his head and summon a deprecating smile.
"But as the soil is obviously unsuitable for copra, and it would be a sin to waste such land on any more than the ten acres you have already cleared and planted to bananas, we concluded you were improving the property with a view to sale. In which case"—the dignified gentleman paused and wiped his glasses—"you may regard us as interested, Mr. Bowman." ”

“ And what in thunder was a bald patch doing in the middle of the mangroves?
He was very thorough. The report and sketch plans he handed in to headquarters caused a mild sensation, and later a dignified gentleman to call at Bowman's office.
"I've come about some land of yours, Mr. Bowman."
The little man was entirely mystified, but contrived not to show it.
"Ah, yes, land," he repeated non-committally.
"No purpose can be served by beating about the bush," the other continued, laying an immaculate solar topee on the desk. "I refer to the flat adjoining your Lanua property to the westward." ”

“ The idea of any man thanking him for a mangrove flat tickled Bowman, but he did not laugh.
"What are you giving us?" his manager asked him the next morning, when it became evident that Strode intended to stay on Lanua.
"I'm giving you a young man who says we don't let him work hard enough," said Bowman, settling back amongst the launch cushions. ”

“ The manager did not answer. It was hardly necessary to point out that in the Islands the devil himself would do no less for a man in Strode's position. He threw a couple more blankets on the quaking body, administered quinine, and returned to his sundowner. ”

“ I believe the darned river wanted to go that way all the time. Most of them seem in a mighty hurry to reach the sea, and I've shown this one a short cut, that's all. It's me for a bit of a rest now, before I tackle the clearing.... ”