United States or Dominica ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"It is a hard thing to do," he said. "You are a fool, twenty-six, twenty-seven," said Kapahei. "Let me show you." He arose, and with a heavy fragment of rock in his hand, approached the wounded thing. As he lifted his arm to strike, a shell burst full upon him, relieving him of the necessity of the act and at the same time putting an end to his count. Koolau was alone in the gorge.
"One," said Kapahei, suddenly bethinking himself to keep count. A second and a third shell flew screaming over the top of the wall, bursting beyond view. Kapahei methodically kept the count. The lepers crowded into the open space before the caves. At first they were frightened, but as the shells continued their flight overhead the leper folk became reassured and began to admire the spectacle.
The rest of the lepers, with the exception of Kapahei, had fled into the caves. "Seventeen," said Kapahei. "Eighteen," he added. This last shell had fairly entered into one of the caves. The explosion caused the caves to empty. But from the particular cave no one emerged. Koolau crept in through the pungent, acrid smoke. Four bodies, frightfully mangled, lay about.
They offered a thousand dollars for him, dead or alive. In all his life he had never possessed that much money. The thought was a bitter one. Kapahei had been right. He, Koolau, had done no wrong. Because the haoles wanted labour with which to work the stolen land, they had brought in the Chinese coolies, and with them had come the sickness.
But at the first pitch of the wall his helplessness overcame him and he fell back. "It would be better to kill him," said Koolau to Kapahei, who still sat in the same place. "Twenty-two," Kapahei answered. "Yes, it would be a wise thing to kill him. Twenty-three twenty-four." The idiot whined sharply when he saw the rifle levelled at him. Koolau hesitated, then lowered the gun.
Word Of The Day