第14章 THE BEACH OF FALESA.(14)

"I knew not what to say.Mr.Vigours had evidently been driven out of Falesa by the machinations of Case and with something not very unlike the collusion of my pastor.I called to mind it was Namu who had reassured me about Adams and traced the rumour to the ill-will of the priest.And I saw I must inform myself more thoroughly from an impartial source.There is an old rascal of a chief here,Faiaso,whom I dare say you saw to-day at the council;he has been all his life turbulent and sly,a great fomenter of rebellions,and a thorn in the side of the mission and the island.For all that he is very shrewd,and,except in politics or about his own misdemeanours,a teller of the truth.I went to his house,told him what I had heard,and besought him to be frank.I do not think I had ever a more painful interview.Perhaps you will understand me,Mr.Wiltshire,if I tell you that I am perfectly serious in these old wives'tales with which you reproached me,and as anxious to do well for these islands as you can be to please and to protect your pretty wife.And you are to remember that I thought Namu a paragon,and was proud of the man as one of the first ripe fruits of the mission.And now I was informed that he had fallen in a sort of dependence upon Case.The beginning of it was not corrupt;it began,doubtless,in fear and respect,produced by trickery and pretence;but I was shocked to find that another element had been lately added,that Namu helped himself in the store,and was believed to be deep in Case's debt.Whatever the trader said,that Namu believed with trembling.He was not alone in this;many in the village lived in a similar subjection;but Namu's case was the most influential,it was through Namu Case had wrought most evil;and with a certain following among the chiefs,and the pastor in his pocket,the man was as good as master of the village.You know something of Vigours and Adams,but perhaps you have never heard of old Underhill,Adams'predecessor.He was a quiet,mild old fellow,I remember,and we were told he had died suddenly:white men die very suddenly in Falesa.The truth,as I now heard it,made my blood run cold.It seems he was struck with a general palsy,all of him dead but one eye,which he continually winked.

Word was started that the helpless old man was now a devil,and this vile fellow Case worked upon the natives'fears,which he professed to share,and pretended he durst not go into the house alone.At last a grave was dug,and the living body buried at the far end of the village.Namu,my pastor,whom I had helped to educate,offered up a prayer at the hateful scene.

"I felt myself in a very difficult position.Perhaps it was my duty to have denounced Namu and had him deposed.Perhaps I think so now,but at the time it seemed less clear.He had a great influence,it might prove greater than mine.The natives are prone to superstition;perhaps by stirring them up I might but ingrain and spread these dangerous fancies.And Namu besides,apart from this novel and accursed influence,was a good pastor,an able man,and spiritually minded.Where should I look for a better?How was I to find as good?At that moment,with Namu's failure fresh in my view,the work of my life appeared a mockery;hope was dead in me.

I would rather repair such tools as I had than go abroad in quest of others that must certainly prove worse;and a scandal is,at the best,a thing to be avoided when humanly possible.Right or wrong,then,I determined on a quiet course.All that night I denounced and reasoned with the erring pastor,twitted him with his ignorance and want of faith,twitted him with his wretched attitude,making clean the outside of the cup and platter,callously helping at a murder,childishly flying in excitement about a few childish,unnecessary,and inconvenient gestures;and long before day I had him on his knees and bathed in the tears of what seemed a genuine repentance.On Sunday I took the pulpit in the morning,and preached from First Kings,nineteenth,on the fire,the earthquake,and the voice,distinguishing the true spiritual power,and referring with such plainness as I dared to recent events in Falesa.The effect produced was great,and it was much increased when Namu rose in his turn and confessed that he had been wanting in faith and conduct,and was convinced of sin.So far,then,all was well;but there was one unfortunate circumstance.It was nearing the time of our 'May'in the island,when the native contributions to the missions are received;it fell in my duty to make a notification on the subject,and this gave my enemy his chance,by which he was not slow to profit.

"News of the whole proceedings must have been carried to Case as soon as church was over,and the same afternoon he made an occasion to meet me in the midst of the village.He came up with so much intentness and animosity that I felt it would be damaging to avoid him.

"'So,'says he,in native,'here is the holy man.He has been preaching against me,but that was not in his heart.He has been preaching upon the love of God;but that was not in his heart,it was between his teeth.Will you know what was in his heart?'-cries he.'I will show it you!'And,making a snatch at my head,he made believe to pluck out a dollar,and held it in the air.

"There went that rumour through the crowd with which Polynesians receive a prodigy.As for myself,I stood amazed.The thing was a common conjuring trick which I have seen performed at home a score of times;but how was I to convince the villagers of that?Iwished I had learned legerdemain instead of Hebrew,that I might have paid the fellow out with his own coin.But there I was;Icould not stand there silent,and the best I could find to say was weak.

"'I will trouble you not to lay hands on me again,'said I.

"'I have no such thought,'said he,'nor will I deprive you of your dollar.Here it is,'he said,and flung it at my feet.I am told it lay where it fell three days.""I must say it was well played,said I.