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Her skin is not as dark as that pretty creole I was so sweet on in Galveston ten years ago ... Well, she's good enough for a broken man like me but I can't take her away that's certain." A heavy tear splashed on his hand, and then he pulled her to him, almost savagely. "See, Luita. I did but ask to try thee. Have no fear. Thy land is mine for ever."
Well, it's this your wife and child are missing " Latham glanced at him and saw that his hand trembled and then grasped the gunwale of the boat. "We got into Vahitahi lagoon about ten days ago, and I took Miss Brantley ashore. What happened I don't exactly know, but the next night one of your whale-boats was gone, and Luita and the child were missing.
And now, as the murmur of women's voices caused him to turn his head to the shady end of the verandah, the dark, dreamy eyes of Luita, who with her women attendants sat there playing with her child, looked out at him from beneath their long lashes, and told him his captivity was complete.
"You can have my marked chart; I've got a spare one. Brace up, old man! you'll see your sister in a minute. She is terribly cut up over poor Luita more so than I knew you would be. But she was a grand little woman, Brantley, although she was only a native." "Yes," he answered, in the same slow, dazed manner, "she was a good little girl to me, although she " The words stuck in his throat.
A week afterwards the people of Vahitahi were clustered on the beach putting supplies of native food in the schooner's boat. That night he was to sail again for the pearling grounds at Matahiva lagoon, and would be away three months. One by one the people bade him adieu, and then stood apart while he said farewell to Luita. The girl shook her head, and her mouth twitched.
"Nay, Paranili, not for that alone; but it is a great place, that Tatakoto, and thou hast never landed there to look, and Luita hath said that some day she would ask thee to take her there; for, though she was born at Vahitahi, her blood is that of the people of Tatakoto, who have long since lain silent in the MARAES."
He placed one hand around the pliant waist and under the mantle of hair, and drew her towards him, and then, moved by a sudden emotion, kissed her soft, red lips. "Luita," he asked, "would it hurt thee if I were to go away?" The girl drew away from him, and, for the first time in two years Brantley saw an angry flush tinge her cheek a dusky red.
With Rua Manu and two others of his faithful native crew, Brantley walked quickly across the island to the lagoon to where the boat lay. Luita was not there, and the dark eyes of his sailors met his in a responsive glow of hope she had not died in the boat! They turned back into the silent aisles of coconut palms, and then Rua Manu loudly called her name. "Listen," he said.
"Poor Luita," said Brantley, stroking Doris's pale cheek, "she did not know you were my sister. I never told her, Doris." "She is a very beautiful woman, Fred. They told me at Tahiti that she was called the pearl of Vahitahi; and oh! my dear, if we can but find her, I will make her love me for your sake."
Presently he rose, talking to himself as is the wont of those who have lived long apart from all white associations, and sauntered up and down the shady path at the side of his dwelling, thinking of Doris, and if he would ever see her again. Then he entered the house. Seated on the matted floor with her face turned from him was a young native girl Luita, his wife.
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