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Updated: May 26, 2025
I don't believe there's a soul on the island but thinks as much of me as Luita herself does; and, by G-d! she's a pearl even though she is only a native girl. No, I'll stay here; 'Kapeni Paranili' will always be a big man in the Paumotus, but Fred Brantley would be nobody in Sydney only a common merchant skipper who had made money in the islands.... And perhaps Doris is married."
That night he called Rua Manu into the cabin and asked him if he could beat his way back to Vahitahi in the schooner. "'Tis an easy matter, Paranili. So that the sky be clear and I can see the stars, then shall I find Vahitahi in three days." "Good.
A voice a weak, trembling voice was singing the song of Talaloo. "Terunavahori, bending low, Bindeth the sandals on Talaloo's feet; 'Hasten, O hasten, lover true, O'er the coral, cruel and sharp, Over the coral, and sand, and rock, Snare thee a turtle for our marriage feast; IA AKOE! brave lover mine." "In the old MARAE, Paranili," said Rua Manu, pointing to the remains of a ruined temple.
Brantley, as he leant over the rail and watched the swirl and eddy of the creamy phosphorescence that hissed and bubbled under the vessel's stern, felt well satisfied. "Look, Paranili, that is Tatakoto, the place I have told thee of, where the turtle makes the white beach to look black. Would it not be well for us to take some home to Vahitahi?"
"Aye, Paranili," he said, in his deep, guttural tones, "it is to Tatakoto she hath gone 'tis her mother's land." That night, as she lay on the skylight with her hand in his, Doris told him all she knew: "They were all kind to me when I went ashore to your house, Fred, but Luita looked so fiercely at me.... Her eyes frightened me they had a look of death in them.
"Put thy face to mine, Paranili," she whispered; "I grow cold now." As the bearded face of the man bent over her, one thin, weak arm rose waveringly in the air, and then fell softly round his neck, and Brantley, with his hand upon her bosom, felt that her heart had ceased to beat.
"Nay, Paranili, not for that alone; but it is a great place, that Tatakoto, and thou hast never landed there to look, and Luita hath said that some day she would ask thee to take her there; for, though she was born at Vahitahi, her blood is that of the people of Tatakoto, who have long since lain silent in the MARAES."
AI-E-EH! my husband, but thy face and neck and hands are as dark as those of the people of Makatea they who are for ever in their canoes.... See, Paranili, bend thy head. AI-E-EH! thou art a tall man, my husband," and she trilled a happy, rippling laugh as she placed the hat on his head.
Springing to her feet, hat in hand, and placing her two hands on his now erect shoulders, she looked into his face darker far than her own and said with a smile "Behold, Paranili, thy PULOU is finished, save for a band of black PU'AVA which thou shalt give me from the store." "Mine?" said Brantley, in pretended ignorance. "Why labour so for me? Are there not hats in plenty on Vahitahi?"
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