CHAPTER XI

Five minutes later the boat, which was crowded with natives, went about like a top, and then Tully--as fine a sailor man as ever put hand to a rope--brought her alongside in such a manner that I could not but admire and envy the little blackguard's skill.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I could not but admire and envy 148]

The boat itself was kept in fine order, and was painted like all the king's miniature fleet--white outside, and bright salmon inside. One glance at his boat's crew showed me that they were all armed--in a flashy melodramatic style, like the Red Indians of a comic opera, each naked native having a brace of revolvers buckled to a broad leather belt around his waist, from which also hung a French navy cutla.s.s in a leather sheath. They were all big, stalwart fellows, though no one of them was as tough a customer to deal with as our Tepi, who eyed them with undisguised enmity as he caught and made fast the line they heaved aboard.

Little Tully, red-headed, red-bearded, unwashed, and as dirty generally as a pig from his own County Down, jumped on board and extended his filthy paw to me effusively.

"Wal, now, I jest am surprised to see you, Jim Sherry," he said with the "Down East" drawl he affected--he called himself an American--"why, we haven't seen one another fer quite a stretch. Naow, tell me, where air you from and where air you goin'?" "From Tarawa, and bound to Taputeuea"

(an island a hundred miles to the south), I replied curtly, my temper rising, as suddenly catching sight of Lucia and Niabon, he stared rudely at the former, then grinned and held out his hand to her. She touched it coldly with ill-disguised aversion.

"Why, you too, Mrs. Krause! Wal, this is surprisin'. And where are _you_ goin'? Where's the boss?" "Mr. Krause is on Tarawa," she replied quickly, "and he has chartered Mr. Sherry's boat to take me to Drummond's Island" (Taputeuea), "where there is a German barque loading for Samoa." The latter part of her remark was quite true, and Tully knew it.

"That is so, the _Wandrahm_. She's been lying there nigh on four months.

And so you goin' ter Samoa, eh? Wal, I wish I was goin' there myself; but I've got a rosy berth here--I'm boss of King Apinoka's fleet of trading boats, an' live like a fightin' c.o.c.k."

I was about to ask him to have a gla.s.s of grog, just out of mere civility and island custom, when Tematau and Tepi made a sudden movement, and turning, I saw that they were trying to prevent three or four of Tolly's boat's crew from coming on board.

"Tell your men to keep to their boat, please," I said sharply. "My two men don't understand the ways of these Apamama people, and they'll be quarrelling presently."

"Why, certainly, Jim," he said, with such oily effusiveness that I longed to kick him over the side; "but there ain't no need for your men to be scared. My crew on'y want to hev' a bit of a gam{*} with yours--thet's all."

* Whalemen's parlance for gossip.

He told his men to stay in the boat, but I saw him give them a swift glance, and prepared myself for the next move. Tepi was watching him keenly; Tematau went for'ard and began splitting kindling wood in a lazy, aimless sort of a way, but I knew that he, too, was ready. Still I felt that we were in a tight place--three men against ten, exclusive of Tully. However, I tried to appear at my ease, and asked him to have a drink. Niabon pa.s.sed us up a half-bottle of brandy, two tin mugs and some water.

My visitor tossed off his liquor, and lit a cigar, offering me another.

"This is a fine lump of a boat," he said, running his eye over the deck, and then trying to peer into the little cabin; "you wouldn't care about sellin' her, I guess."

"No," I replied, "not now, at any rate. Must fulfil my charter first.

But I am open to an offer when we come back from Drummond's Island. I suppose you want her for the king."

"That is so. He's keen on getting better and bigger boats than those he has, and will sling out the dollars for anything that takes his fancy--like this one will. Won't you run down with her now, and let him have a look at her? It'll be a lot better than lyin' up here, and the king wants to see you."

I detected the suppressed eagerness in his voice as he made his request, and pretended to think for a few moments, blaming myself for my folly in not clearing out when we could have done so easily.

"No," I said slowly, as if I had considered the matter, "I think we'll lay here for to-day anyway. But I don't see why I could not run down early to-morrow. Do you think the king could spare me about fifty fathoms of 1 3/4 inch line? I want some badly."

"Of course--I'll give it to you myself. But I partickler want you to come back with me rightaway, ez Apinoka will jest be ragin' mad with me if I go back by myself. You see, he's going away to the south end of the lagoon at daylight on a fishin' trip."

"Well, I'll run down to the town in the morning and wait till he returns," I said, inwardly boiling at the man's persistency. "A day or two days' delay won't matter to me, and I think I'll put the boat up on the beach and get a look at her underneath--I think some of her seams want caulking. That will take one day at least, and then we might just as well be lying high and dry on the beach instead of being half-drowned outside, running before this northerly."

The little devil was disappointed--that could be seen by his face--and I was also pretty sure did not believe my talk about the rope I wanted and the caulking to be done. But I was now burning with anxiety to get rid of him and his boatload of naked bullies. Once they were well away from us, I would get up anchor and make sail for the south pa.s.sage and get to sea again.

"Well, just as you please," he said sullenly, as he helped himself to another brandy. "I suppose I must get back." Then he asked me if I had any rifles to sell.

"No. We only have enough for ourselves. Oh, where's the water? Niabon, some water please."

He started and looked hard at the girl. "Is that there gal the witch woman?" he asked quickly, staring at her steadily. "'Niabon' you called her, didn't you? Where is she goin'?"

"With Mrs. Krause," I said shortly.

"Great Caesar's sea boots! Apinoka and his people know all about her.

He'll be mighty glad to see her. She's denied good-lookin' too. Why, I thought----"

He jumped to his feet and told his boat's crew that "Niabon" was on board, and in an instant every one of them was staring at her and calling out her name, and one of them, bolder than the rest, made a gesture to her to get into the boat. I pretended not to notice it, and Niabon herself told them that we were all very tired and wanted sleep, but that in the morning she would talk with them all at the village--when we came to see the king. They seemed satisfied, but a deal of whispering went on--and I felt certain that had Tully given them the word, they would have there and then rushed us and captured the boat.

"Wal, I must be goin'," said Tully at last; "when do you think you'll be down? The king will be mighty vexed at not seein' you to-day."

"It's only eight miles across," I said carelessly, "so I daresay we'll be there about seven in the morning, before breakfast. But," I added, to allay his suspicions, "the weather may take up a bit this afternoon; if it does, I'll come along rightaway, after we have had a sleep."

He said that the chances were that it would take up, as the wind was hauling more to the eastward, which meant rain, and once rain fell the wind would fall too.

We had a third drink, and I pa.s.sed a couple of bottles of square-face oyer to his crew, and then, to our intense satisfaction, Tally went over the side into his own boat, which at once pushed off, and in a few minutes was slipping over the lagoon towards the big village, Tolly waving his dirty Panama hat to us as he stood grasping the steer oar. I almost fancied I could see him grin evilly at me.

"Simi," said Niabon as she watched the receding boat, "let us get away from here quickly. That man Florry means ill to us, for I saw his eyes gleam when, as Lucia sat down on the mats under which the rifles are hidden, he heard them rattle together."

Tepi and Tematau joined her in her a.s.sertion that Tully meant mischief and would seize the boat for the king, who would have no compunction in resorting to violence or murder to achieve his object, especially with a man like Tully to cany out his wishes. Tepi also said that once the king knew that Niabon was on board he would use every effort to gain possession of her. Then, too, the firearms we carried were a further incentive to treachery--the king's mania to increase his stock of arms and ammunition being well known.

"Very well," I said to Lucia, "I'm quite as anxious as any one of us to get away. Let us wait, however, till Tully's boat is well down the lagoon."

"Master," said Tepi, "do not delay. See, the wind is falling, and rain--much rain--is close to from the east, and the rain killeth the wind. And this is a heavy boat to move with oars."

He was quite right, for, as Tully had said was likely, the wind was not only falling, but was going round to the eastward. The sooner we got out of Apamama Lagoon the better.

"We'll loose the mainsail then," I said to Niabon, "and we'll get away.

But we won't hoist it yet. We'll up anchor and drift until the rain comes--it will be on us in a quarter of an hour, and Tully won't be able to see anything of us till we are abreast of the pa.s.sage; and we may get out to sea without any one seeing us at all."

We got the anchor up, and with mainsail and jib all ready for hoisting, let the boat drift, and in another quarter of an hour a dense rain squall came down on us from the eastward with just enough wind in it to send us along at a smart pace as soon as we hoisted our sails. In less than an hour we were pretty close to the pa.s.sage; for, although we could not see it owing to the rain, we felt the force of the swift current running out, and could hear the subdued roar of the dangerous tide-rips.

Tematau was for'ard, holding on to the fore-stay and peering ahead.

Suddenly he gave a cry of alarm and shouted to me to luff.

It was too late, for almost at the same time we struck with a crash, and the current, catching the boat's stern, slewed her round broadside on to the reef, where she lay hard and fast, though shaking in every timber as a wall of water, hissing like a boiling cauldron, formed against her starboard side.

Bidding the women sit quite quiet, we let go main and jib halliards and got the sails inboard--no easy task under the circ.u.mstances. The water was not very deep, less than three feet, and every moment was decreasing in depth as the tide rushed out. This was fortunate for us in one respect, for we could at least see what damage had been done when she struck and possibly make it good; but on the other hand we should have to stick where we were till the flood tide, and I was horribly afraid of the rain clearing off and revealing us to the natives.

However, there was no use in meeting trouble halfway, so we waited patiently for half an hour, when the reef became bare and we could make an examination of the boat's bottom--on one side at least. It did not take us long to discover that no great harm had been done--she had struck fairly stem on to a patch of growing coral, which was better than hard rock--and beyond carrying away a bit of her false keel, and deeply scoring the bow planking, there was nothing else we could see at which to grumble.

I was considering what was best to be done--the whole five of us could not even move so heavy a boat an inch--when to my disgust the rain suddenly cleared, and I saw that we were aground on Entrance Island, with a native village staring us in our faces less than a quarter of a mile away! And almost at the same moment we saw ten or a dozen men walking over the reef towards us. Through my gla.s.ses I saw that they were carrying nets and fish baskets, and I felt relieved at once; the moment they saw us they dropped their burdens and came on at a run. None of them were armed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Carrying nets and fish baskets 158]