Ralph Stock

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ His antics interested her in the same way that her own life and habits interested some white men, though, of course, it never occurred to the latter that while they were studying "the quaint customs of a quaint people," they themselves were being studied. ”