第21章 THE BEACH OF FALESA.(21)
The name of the concern is a Tyrolean harp;and you can tell him the name means in English that nobody but dam-fools give a cent for it."This time he was so pleased he had to try his English again."You talk true?"says he.
"Rather!"said I."Talk all-e-same Bible.Bring out a Bible here,Uma,if you've got such a thing,and I'll kiss it.Or,I'll tell you what's better still,"says I,taking a header,"ask him if he's afraid to go up there himself by day."It appeared he wasn't;he could venture as far as that by day and in company.
"That's the ticket,then!"said I."Tell him the man's a fraud and the place foolishness,and if he'll go up there to-morrow he'll see all that's left of it.But tell him this,Uma,and mind he understands it:If he gets talking,it's bound to come to Case,and I'm a dead man!I'm playing his game,tell him,and if he says one word my blood will be at his door and be the damnation of him here and after."She told him,and he shook hands with me up to the hilt,and,says he:"No talk.Go up to-morrow.You my friend?""No sir,"says I,"no such foolishness.I've come here to trade,tell him,and not to make friends.But,as to Case,I'll send that man to glory!"So off Maea went,pretty well pleased,as I could see.
CHAPTER V.NIGHT IN THE BUSH.
WELL,I was committed now;Tiapolo had to be smashed up before next day,and my hands were pretty full,not only with preparations,but with argument.My house was like a mechanics'debating society:
Uma was so made up that I shouldn't go into the bush by night,or that,if I did,I was never to come back again.You know her style of arguing:you've had a specimen about Queen Victoria and the devil;and I leave you to fancy if I was tired of it before dark.
At last I had a good idea.What was the use of casting my pearls before her?I thought;some of her own chopped hay would be likelier to do the business.
"I'll tell you what,then,"said I."You fish out your Bible,and I'll take that up along with me.That'll make me right."She swore a Bible was no use.
"That's just your Kanaka ignorance,"said I."Bring the Bible out."She brought it,and I turned to the title-page,where I thought there would likely be some English,and so there was."There!"said I."Look at that!'LONDON:PRINTED FOR THE BRITISH ANDFOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY,BLACKFRIARS,'and the date,which I can't read,owing to its being in these X's.There's no devil in hell can look near the Bible Society'Blackfriars.Why,you silly!"Isaid,"how do you suppose we get along with our own AITUS at home?
All Bible Society!"
"I think you no got any,"said she."White man,he tell me you no got.""Sounds likely,don't it?"I asked."Why would these islands all be chock full of them and none in Europe?""Well,you no got breadfruit,"said she.
I could have torn my hair."Now look here,old lady,"said I,"you dry up,for I'm tired of you.I'll take the Bible,which'll put me as straight as the mail,and that's the last word I've got to say."The night fell extraordinary dark,clouds coming up with sundown and overspreading all;not a star showed;there was only an end of a moon,and that not due before the small hours.Round the village,what with the lights and the fires in the open houses,and the torches of many fishers moving on the reef,it kept as gay as an illumination;but the sea and the mountains and woods were all clean gone.I suppose it might be eight o'clock when I took the road,laden like a donkey.First there was that Bible,a book as big as your head,which I had let myself in for by my own tomfoolery.Then there was my gun,and knife,and lantern,and patent matches,all necessary.And then there was the real plant of the affair in hand,a mortal weight of gunpowder,a pair of dynamite fishing-bombs,and two or three pieces of slow match that I had hauled out of the tin cases and spliced together the best way I could;for the match was only trade stuff,and a man would be crazy that trusted it.Altogether,you see,I had the materials of a pretty good blow-up!Expense was nothing to me;I wanted that thing done right.
As long as I was in the open,and had the lamp in my house to steer by,I did well.But when I got to the path,it fell so dark Icould make no headway,walking into trees and swearing there,like a man looking for the matches in his bed-room.I knew it was risky to light up,for my lantern would be visible all the way to the point of the cape,and as no one went there after dark,it would be talked about,and come to Case's ears.But what was I to do?Ihad either to give the business over and lose caste with Maea,or light up,take my chance,and get through the thing the smartest Iwas able.
As long as I was on the path I walked hard,but when I came to the black beach I had to run.For the tide was now nearly flowed;and to get through with my powder dry between the surf and the steep hill,took all the quickness I possessed.As it was,even,the wash caught me to the knees,and I came near falling on a stone.
All this time the hurry I was in,and the free air and smell of the sea,kept my spirits lively;but when I was once in the bush and began to climb the path I took it easier.The fearsomeness of the wood had been a good bit rubbed off for me by Master Case's banjo-strings and graven images,yet I thought it was a dreary walk,and guessed,when the disciples went up there,they must be badly scared.The light of the lantern,striking among all these trunks and forked branches and twisted rope-ends of lianas,made the whole place,or all that you could see of it,a kind of a puzzle of turning shadows.They came to meet you,solid and quick like giants,and then span off and vanished;they hove up over your head like clubs,and flew away into the night like birds.The floor of the bush glimmered with dead wood,the way the match-box used to shine after you had struck a lucifer.Big,cold drops fell on me from the branches overhead like sweat.There was no wind to mention;only a little icy breath of a land-breeze that stirred nothing;and the harps were silent.