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Updated: June 25, 2025
We can get away from there in one of the Dutch firm's vessels." "I am very sorry, Taplin " I began, when old Captain Warren burst in with "Look here, Taplin, we haven't got much time to talk. Take my advice. Don't go away in the ALIDA." And then he looked at Nerida, and whispered something. A red spark shone in Taplin's dark eyes, then he pressed Warren's hand.
She was standing facing us as we followed and entered, holding the child tightly to her bosom. The soft light of the cabin lamp fell full upon her features, and we saw that she was very young, and seemed wildly excited. "Who are you?" we said, when she advanced, put out a trembling hand to us, and said: "Don't you know me, Mr Supercargo? I am Nerida, Taplin's wife."
"Taplin," I said, "would you care about taking one of our stations to the eastward? Name any island you fancy, and we will land you there with the pick of our 'trade' room." "Thank you. I would be only too glad, but I cannot. I have promised Nerida to go back to Babelthouap, or somewhere in the Pelews, and Motley has promised to land us at Ponape, in the Carolines.
Nerida steered us out to the north end of the lagoon till we reached a spot where the water suddenly deepened. It was, in fact, a deep pool, some three or four hundred feet in diameter, closed in by a continuous wall of coral rock, the top of which, even at low water, would be perhaps two or three fathoms under the surface.
I saw the schooner at daylight, and knew it was the ALIDA." "Where do you think of going to, Taplin?" I asked. "Back to the Carolines. Nerida belongs down that way, you know; and she is fretting to get back again otherwise I wouldn't leave this island. I've done pretty well here, although the people I trade for are well, you know what they are."
And whenever Packenham did bring trouble upon himself or the ship's company by some fresh act of glaring idiotcy, he would excuse himself by saying that it wouldn't have happened if Nerida had been with him that trip. Nerida was Packenham's half-caste Portuguese wife.
"Look into my face, people of Mâdurô, and listen to my words. Long before the missionaries came to this island I lived among ye for three years with my wife Nerida. And is there here one man or one woman who can say that I ever lied to him or her? So this do I say to ye all; and to thee, Lilo, the teacher of the Word of God, that ye do wrong to persecute this old man and this child.
"I know," he answered, "he's a most infernal villain Nerida hates him too. But you see how I am fixed. The ALIDA is our only chance of getting back to the north-west. But he hasn't got old Raymond to deal with in me. Here they are." Motley came in first, hat and fan in hand.
Then she sank on a seat and sobbed violently. We waited till she regained her composure somewhat, and then I said: "Nerida, where is Taplin?" "Dead," she said in a voice scarce above a whisper; "only us two are left I and little Teresa." Packenham held out his hands to the child.
Still glaring angrily at Riedermann and Motley, Warren got down slowly from the table. Then we bade Taplin and Nerida good-bye and went aboard. At daylight we saw Taplin and his wife go off in the ALIDA'S boat.
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