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Mana Kanaka knew at once that the man on the horse was the king; and a great fear entered his heart when he saw how Dridha-Varman looked at his beloved only child. "Who are you, and who is that lovely girl?" asked the king. And Mana Kanaka answered, "I am only a humble woodcutter; and this is my only child, whose mother has long been dead."
At this time Laflamme was stealing watchfully through the tropical scrub, where hanging vines tore his hands, and the sickening perfume of jungle flowers overcame him more than the hard journey which he had undergone during the past twelve hours. Several times he had been within voice of his pursuers, and once a Kanaka scout passed close to him.
"Yes, Kanaka Oolea," volunteered an old, withered native who had just joined the group from the direction of the house. "All of them had kow-kow in the kitchen, and plenty of it. They ate like lost horses brought down from the lava." "And what do you want, Kumuhana?" Pool diverted to the old one, at the same time motioning to the little maid to flap flies from the other side of him.
She stood and looked at me with eyes like saucers. “You no savvy?” she gasps at last. “No,” said I. “How would you expect me to? We don’t have any such craziness where I come from.” “Ese no tell you?” she asked again. “Not much,” said I. “D-n Ese!” she cried. You might think it funny to hear this Kanaka girl come out with a big swear. No such thing.
The father of the present king is called Kanaina, but the king's name is Lunalilo, or "above all." Nor does it appear that a man is always known by the same name, nor that a name necessarily indicates the sex of its possessor. Thus, in signing a paper the signature would be Hoapili kanaka, or Hoapili wahine, according as the signer was man or woman.
Three or four were apparently Englishmen, the others black or brown men, one a Kanaka, the other a New Zealander. By the mate's orders they lifted off the hatches, and went below. Archie observed that they had the butts of pistols sticking out of the breasts of their shirts, and that all of them wore long knives in sheaths by their sides.
He hastily picked it up, and, in doing so, smeared it. He wiped it, leaving the signature comparatively plain nothing else. "Well," said the sentinel, "the signature is right. Where do you go?" "To Government House." "I do not know that I should let you pass. But well, look out that the next sentinel doesn't bayonet you. You came on me suddenly." The next sentinel was a Kanaka.
This was the greatest joke of all, the crowning triumph of that cunning old white man whom no Kanaka had ever been able to circumvent; and they came from distant villages, with their wives and children, to look at the foolish folk who had refused twenty pounds to make the road and now were forced to work for nothing. But the harder they worked the more easily went the guests.
"That is a good, honest, plain piece of work, and tells the story clearly. I see only one mistake: the cook is not a Chinaman; he is a Kanaka, and, I think, a Hawaiian." "Why, how do you know that?" asked Jim. "I saw the whole gang yesterday in a saloon," said I; "I even heard the tale, or might have heard it, from Captain Trent himself, who struck me as thirsty and nervous."
Many of the ruffians shuddered, for they knew full well that such might any day be their own fate. While this scene was enacting, a similar one was taking place on board the Dove. Her captors, having time to look about them, had taken up the bodies of poor Captain Stone and the other Kanaka, and, without shroud or a shot to their feet, had hove them overboard.
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