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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.
Springing to her feet, hat in hand, and placing her two hands on his now erect shoulders, she looked into his face darker far than her own and said with a smile "Behold, Paranili, thy PULOU is finished, save for a band of black PU'AVA which thou shalt give me from the store." "Mine?" said Brantley, in pretended ignorance. "Why labour so for me? Are there not hats in plenty on 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."
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.
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?"
I, William H. Hayes, hereby certify that the bearer of this, Marutahina of Vahitahi, was with me for four or five months, and I can confidently say that I can recommend her to any one in need of an active young wife, general help, or to do chores. She is a very good girl, and the sole support of her mother an old thief with a tattooed back who lives on Beka Beka.
The girl looked up, and in an instant her face, wet with tears, was laid against his breast. Still caressing the dark head that lay upon his chest, Brantley stooped and whispered something. The little tattooed hand released its clasp of his arm and struck him a playful blow. "And would that bind thee more to me, and to the ways of these our people of Vahitahi," she asked, with still buried face.
The sound of his voice had brought back her wavering reason, and she knew them all now. She knew, too, that her brief young life was ebbing fast; for, as each of the brown men pressed their lips to her hand, tears coursed down their cheeks. "See, men of Vahitahi, my Englishman hath come to me, a fool that fled from his house ... because I thought that he lied to me.
Some women came and lifted her up. Then taking the tender face between his rough hands, he bent his head to hers, sprang into the boat, and was gone. With ten tons of shell snugly stowed in her hold, the little Tamariki was heading back for Vahitahi after barely two months' absence.
Are there many coconuts there?" "Many? May I perish, but the trees are as the sand of the sea, and the nuts lie thick upon the ground. AI-E-EH! and the robber crabs are in thousands, and fat; and the sea-birds' eggs!" "Glutton again! Be content. In a little while we and as many of the people of Vahitahi as the schooner will carry will go there and stay for the turtle season."
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