第33章 THE BOTTLE IMP.(8)
"Ah,child!"said Keawe,"and yet,when I consider of the fire of hell,I care a good deal!""Never tell me,"said she;"no man can be lost because he loved Kokua,and no other fault.I tell you,Keawe,I shall save you with these hands,or perish in your company.What!you loved me,and gave your soul,and you think I will not die to save you in return?""Ah,my dear!you might die a hundred times,and what difference would that make?"he cried,"except to leave me lonely till the time comes of my damnation?""You know nothing,"said she."I was educated in a school in Honolulu;I am no common girl.And I tell you,I shall save my lover.What is this you say about a cent?But all the world is not American.In England they have a piece they call a farthing,which is about half a cent.Ah!sorrow!"she cried,"that makes it scarcely better,for the buyer must be lost,and we shall find none so brave as my Keawe!But,then,there is France;they have a small coin there which they call a centime,and these go five to the cent or there-about.We could not do better.Come,Keawe,let us go to the French islands;let us go to Tahiti,as fast as ships can bear us.There we have four centimes,three centimes,two centimes,one centime;four possible sales to come and go on;and two of us to push the bargain.Come,my Keawe!kiss me,and banish care.Kokua will defend you.""Gift of God!"he cried."I cannot think that God will punish me for desiring aught so good!Be it as you will,then;take me where you please:I put my life and my salvation in your hands."Early the next day Kokua was about her preparations.She took Keawe's chest that he went with sailoring;and first she put the bottle in a corner;and then packed it with the richest of their clothes and the bravest of the knick-knacks in the house."For,"said she,"we must seem to be rich folks,or who will believe in the bottle?"All the time of her preparation she was as gay as a bird;only when she looked upon Keawe,the tears would spring in her eye,and she must run and kiss him.As for Keawe,a weight was off his soul;now that he had his secret shared,and some hope in front of him,he seemed like a new man,his feet went lightly on the earth,and his breath was good to him again.Yet was terror still at his elbow;and ever and again,as the wind blows out a taper,hope died in him,and he saw the flames toss and the red fire burn in hell.
It was given out in the country they were gone pleasuring to the States,which was thought a strange thing,and yet not so strange as the truth,if any could have guessed it.So they went to Honolulu in the HALL,and thence in the UMATILLA to San Francisco with a crowd of Haoles,and at San Francisco took their passage by the mail brigantine,the TROPIC BIRD,for Papeete,the chief place of the French in the south islands.Thither they came,after a pleasant voyage,on a fair day of the Trade Wind,and saw the reef with the surf breaking,and Motuiti with its palms,and the schooner riding within-side,and the white houses of the town low down along the shore among green trees,and overhead the mountains and the clouds of Tahiti,the wise island.
It was judged the most wise to hire a house,which they did accordingly,opposite the British Consul's,to make a great parade of money,and themselves conspicuous with carriages and horses.
This it was very easy to do,so long as they had the bottle in their possession;for Kokua was more bold than Keawe,and,whenever she had a mind,called on the imp for twenty or a hundred dollars.
At this rate they soon grew to be remarked in the town;and the strangers from Hawaii,their riding and their driving,the fine holokus and the rich lace of Kokua,became the matter of much talk.
They got on well after the first with the Tahitian language,which is indeed like to the Hawaiian,with a change of certain letters;and as soon as they had any freedom of speech,began to push the bottle.You are to consider it was not an easy subject to introduce;it was not easy to persuade people you were in earnest,when you offered to sell them for four centimes the spring of health and riches inexhaustible.It was necessary besides to explain the dangers of the bottle;and either people disbelieved the whole thing and laughed,or they thought the more of the darker part,became overcast with gravity,and drew away from Keawe and Kokua,as from persons who had dealings with the devil.So far from gaining ground,these two began to find they were avoided in the town;the children ran away from them screaming,a thing intolerable to Kokua;Catholics crossed themselves as they went by;and all persons began with one accord to disengage themselves from their advances.
Depression fell upon their spirits.They would sit at night in their new house,after a day's weariness,and not exchange one word,or the silence would be broken by Kokua bursting suddenly into sobs.Sometimes they would pray together;sometimes they would have the bottle out upon the floor,and sit all evening watching how the shadow hovered in the midst.At such times they would be afraid to go to rest.It was long ere slumber came to them,and,if either dozed off,it would be to wake and find the other silently weeping in the dark,or,perhaps,to wake alone,the other having fled from the house and the neighbourhood of that bottle,to pace under the bananas in the little garden,or to wander on the beach by moonlight.
One night it was so when Kokua awoke.Keawe was gone.She felt in the bed and his place was cold.Then fear fell upon her,and she sat up in bed.A little moonshine filtered through the shutters.
The room was bright,and she could spy the bottle on the floor.