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Updated: June 25, 2025
A quarter of an hour later they paused where the trail went naked on the face of the rock. "Wait, and when you come, come quickly," Mauriri cautioned. He sprang into the blaze of sunlight, and from below several rifles pumped rapidly. Bullets smacked about him, and puffs of stone-dust flew out, but he won safely across.
Van Asveld saw it and hesitated, then he and the girl ran aft for their lives. The Goat Man fired, but splintered the corner of the galley. The spattering of bullets from the Rattler increased, and the two on the rock crouched low for shelter and waited. Mauriri tried to see what was happening below, but Grief held him back. "The fuse was too long," he said. "I'll know better next time."
Pointing upward to a bare shoulder of volcanic rock, Mauriri indicated the trail across its face. "Past that we are safe, Big Brother," he said. "The white devils never dare it, for there are rocks we roll down on their heads, and there is no other path. Always do they stop here and shoot when we cross the rock. Come!"
Grief followed, and so near did one bullet come that the dust of its impact stung his cheek. Nor was Hare-Lip struck, though he essayed the passage more slowly. For the rest of the day, on the greater heights, they lay in a lava glen where terraced taro and papaia grew. And here Grief made his plans and learned the fulness of the situation. "It was ill luck," Mauriri said.
"We've got hold and can't let go, and Raoul has hold and can't let go. He can't get away, and we're liable to starve to death holding him." "If the rain came, the rock-basins would fill," said Mauriri. It was their first twenty-four hours without water. "Big Brother, to-night you and I will get water. It is the work of strong men."
For several nights, accompanied by one of the Raiatea men, Mauriri swam to the head of the bay for supplies. Then came the night when lights flared on the water and shots were fired. After that the water-side of the Big Rock was invested as well. "It's a funny situation," Brown remarked, who was getting all the adventure he had been led to believe resided in the South Seas.
"On the Big Rock. I will tell you afterward. Come now!" "But my men in the whaleboat?" Mauriri was in an agony of apprehension. "They are with the women on the strange schooner. They will not be killed. I tell you true. The devils want sailors. But you they will kill. Listen!" From the water, in a cracked tenor voice, came a French hunting song. "They are landing on the beach.
"Many days and nights have I watched for your coming, Big Brother," Mauriri replied. "I have sat on the Big Rock, where the dynamite is kept, of which I have been made keeper. I saw you come up to the entrance and run back into darkness. I knew you waited till morning, and I followed. Great trouble has come upon us. Mataara has cried these many days for your coming.
"Pooh!" was the answer. "They are fish sharks. We of Fuatino are brothers to the fish sharks." "But the tiger sharks? I have seen them here." "When they come, Big Brother, we will have no more water to drink unless it rains." A week later Mauriri and a Raiatea man swam back with empty calabashes. The tiger sharks had arrived in the harbour. The next day they thirsted on the Big Rock.
They have taken your schooner that I saw. Come!" Careless of his own life and skin, nevertheless David Grief was possessed of no false hardihood. He knew when to fight and when to run, and that this was the time for running he had no doubt. Up the path, past the old men sitting in the shade, past Mataara crouched in the doorway of the Big House, he followed at the heels of Mauriri.
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