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"Get thee away with thy lover and the girl Selema. Felipa, the head chief of Fao, hath been told of thy beauty, and hath sent word here that the man Manaia must be killed to-night, and thou and Selema be sent to him. This is wrong for even a chief to do, and we of this place would aid thee to escape."
It is Manka's boat, for now I can see the flag from the peak the flag of America." "And the taumualua is that of Tamavili of Tufa," said Selema quietly, for she is a girl of great heart, "and it races with the white man's boat."
Let us go to the beach awhile and feel the cool wind." The two women grumbled a little at being disturbed, and Selema and I rose and went out of the house. Then, once we were at a safe distance, we ran swiftly to the beach, and then onwards to where Manaia awaited us.
So that is how Manaia my husband wooed me, and when Selema came back and saw us seated together, she laughed again, though tears were in her eyes when she took my feet and pressed them to her cheeks, for she feared that when we fled, she would be left behind. Then Manaia whispered to me and asked me if it was to my mind to take her. "Ay," I said; "else will my father kill her when we are gone."
Once as he and I slept Selema put a little piece of old coconut the last that was left into my hand, and slipped over the side to die, but Manaia heard her, and, although he was very weak, he roused and caught her as she sank. Two days before that on which the ship found us Manaia shot a small shark which was following the boat.
I saw that he was very, very tall and strong, and Selema told me that there were many girls who desired him for a husband, though he was poor, and, it was known, was disliked by my father.
Selema took her seat on the foremost thwart, Manaia at the stern, and I in the centre, and then we pushed off, and using canoe paddles, made for the passage through the reef out into the open sea. When the dawn broke, we were half-way across the straits which divide Savai'i from Upolu, and only two leagues away we saw the clustering houses of Tufa on the iron-bound coast.
All this frightened me, and I told Selema I would escape to my uncle in Manono, but she said that that would not do, as if he tried to protect me it would mean war. So I said nothing more, though much was in my mind, and I resolved to run away to the mountains, rather than be made to marry Tamavili, who was a very old man.
But suddenly, as we in the canoe sailed in between the boat and the taumualua, the old chief found his voice, and called out to Manaia to lower his sail. "Give me the lady Sa Luia," he said, "and I will let thee and the girl Selema go," and as he spoke, the crew turned the taumualua round and came after us, twenty men paddling on each side.
"I am glad to see thee, Manaia," I said, "for I owe thee my life," and as he took my hand and pressed it to his forehead, Selema stole away and left us together. Now I know not what he said to me, except that when he spoke the name of Tamavili of Tufa, I wept, and said that I would I were back at Manono, and that I was but a child, and had no desire to be wedded to any man.
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