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Updated: June 23, 2025
Perhaps the gifts bestowed on him have won the old man's friendship; at all events, he appears to be pleading delay. Ever and anon he points in the direction of the cranberry ridge, as though urging them to wait for those gone after the whale; and once he pronounces a word, on hearing which Henry Chester gives a start, then earnestly listens for its repetition. It is as he first thought "Eleparu."
Then, at a given signal, they fall to, bolting the blubber raw only a few of the more fastidious holding it a second or two in the blaze of the fires, scarcely long enough to scorch it! During these unpleasant saturnalia, mutual explanations are exchanged between Eleparu and the two young men of his former brief but memorable acquaintance.
"One of them, the man, was named Eleparu," answers Chester; adding, "The girl called him so, and the boy too." "I didn't hear that name." "No?" says Henry; "then it must have been before you came up." "Yes," answers young Gancy, "for the officer who took them away called the man York, the boy Jemmy, and the girl Fuegia." "That's so. But how did she ever come to be named Fuegia?"
Of their safety they have full and instant assurance, by the behaviour of Eleparu, who has taken in the situation at a glance. Apparently head of the community, with a shout and authoritative wave of the hand he sends off those who so lately had threatened to attack them. But all seem friendly enough, now that they see him so, having, indeed, no reason to be otherwise.
This remark, showing his continued trust in the shielding power of an Omnipotent Hand, closes the conversation, and all soon after retire to rest, with a feeling of security long denied them. For, although lately under the protection of Eleparu, they had never felt full confidence, doubting, not his fidelity, but his power to protect them.
"Did you hear that?" asks the young Englishman in eager haste. "Hear what?" demands Ned Gancy, to whom the question is addressed. "That word `Eleparu. The old fellow has spoken it twice!" says Henry. "Well, and if he has?" queries Ned. "You remember our affair at Portsmouth with those three queer creatures and the wharf-rats?" "Of course I do. Why do you ask?"
The affair seemed likely thus to end, when, to the surprise of all, Eleparu, hitherto held back by the girl, suddenly released himself and bounded forward, with hands and arms wide open. In another instant he had grasped the big bully in a tiger-like embrace, lifted him off his feet, and dashed him down upon the flags with a violence that threatened the breaking of every bone in his body.
Eleparu leads the valedictory salute, and Ocushlu waves the red scarf high over her head. A young missionary named Mathews, who had volunteered, was taken out and left with them. But Captain Fitzroy, revisiting Woolya, the intended mission station, a few days after, found Mathews threatened with death at the hands of those he had hoped to benefit.
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