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"Aye, Paranili," he said, in his deep, guttural tones, "it is to Tatakoto she hath gone 'tis her mother's land." That night, as she lay on the skylight with her hand in his, Doris told him all she knew: "They were all kind to me when I went ashore to your house, Fred, but Luita looked so fiercely at me.... Her eyes frightened me they had a look of death in them.
Late in the afternoon of the second day, just as the trade wind began to lose its strength, the schooner was running along the weather-side of Tatakoto, and Rua Manu, from the mast-head, called out that he saw the boat lying on the beach inside the lagoon, with her sail set; and, as landing was not practicable on the weather-side, the schooner ran round to the lee. "We will soon know, Doris.
There, under the shadow of the Silent Faces of Stone, the brave and loving heart that dared so much is at peace for ever. One day a trading vessel lay becalmed off Tatakoto, in the Paumotu Archipelago, and the captain and supercargo, taking a couple of native sailors with them, went ashore at dawn to catch some turtle.
Then to-morrow take the schooner there, and tell such of the people as desire to be with me to come here, and bring with them all things that are in my house. It is my mind to live here at Tatakoto." As the schooner slipped through the narrow passage, he stood on the low, sandy point, and waved his hand in farewell.
Brantley, as he leant over the rail and watched the swirl and eddy of the creamy phosphorescence that hissed and bubbled under the vessel's stern, felt well satisfied. "Look, Paranili, that is Tatakoto, the place I have told thee of, where the turtle makes the white beach to look black. Would it not be well for us to take some home to Vahitahi?"
"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."
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