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He told his men to stay in the boat, but I saw him give them a swift glance, and prepared myself for the next move. Tepi was watching him keenly; Tematau went for'ard and began splitting kindling wood in a lazy, aimless sort of a way, but I knew that he, too, was ready. Still I felt that we were in a tight place three men against ten, exclusive of Tully.
Had I known what was to happen I should have risked it ten times over. At noon, whilst we were having our midday meal, Tematau, who was standing for'ard, scanning the eastern shore of the atoll, said he could see a boat coming towards us, beating up under a reefed mainsail and jib.
Krause," I said, "I feel more at ease now, so will you kindly tell me the object of your visit?" "I've come to get that swine Tematau. I pay him. He is my man. I shall tolerate no interference. "Steady yourself, Mr. Krause, and don't say 'your niggers' so emphatically.
Thou thyself, Kaibnka, and thou, Berau, were, with many others, in my house when his dead body lay on the floor. Why are ye all so silent? And whither have the girl Niâbon and Tematau gone?" This time I got an answer to my last question, at any rate. "Niâbon and Tematau have gone across the lagoon in a canoe. They desired to talk with the white man's wife.
Addressing her in the same stilted, highly complimentary language that she had used to me, I inquired after her health, etc., and then asked her how long she had been on the island. She answered me in a somewhat abrupt manner, "I came here with Tematau about the time that the white lady Lucia and her husband came. Tematau is of the same family as myself.
Presently Niâbon, who knew exactly to the smallest detail where everything was stowed in the boat, told him to look in one of the stern lockers for the fishing tackle, where he would find a small hand casting net, with which he and Tematau could go catch some grey mullet, while she, Lucia, and myself, walked round the island.
I rolled up the chart, wet and soddened as it was with the rain beating on it, and angrily told Tematau, who was steering, to watch the sea, for every now and then the boat would plunge heavily and ship a caskful or two of water over the bows. "We are in a bad place here, master," he replied, quietly; "'tis the strong current that raiseth the high sea."
The canoe with Tematau was to follow on later in the night when the tide turned, and when there would be more water on the upper sand flats of the lagoon. "Very well, Niâbon," I said in English, "now sit down and drink a cup of tea and eat a little. Then we can talk." "I have many things of which to tell thee, Simi," she said, "for I have been speaking long with the wife of the man Krause, and "
"I will tell you some other time," she replied; "not now, because I do not want Tepi to hear me talking about the place. With Tematau it would not matter, for although he knows the story, he is not a Tarawa man, and has nothing of which he need be afraid."