United States or Sierra Leone ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Good-night, again," both she and Niâbon cried, and Tematau also called out Tiâkâpo! "Good-night, good-night," I shouted, swaying our boat lantern in farewell. "Tiâkâpo, Tematau. May you all sleep well." They made some merry laughing response, in which they were joined by their hosts, and then Tepi and I were alone.
She took my hand and led me to my couch beside the window and then bent over me. "Sleep, sleep long. For now the time is near and thou must have strength." I slept well on towards four o'clock in the afternoon, and when I awakened I found the house deserted by all but my man Tepi, who was seated cross-legged near me with a cup containing my fever mixture beside him. He held it up to me silently.
About four in the afternoon, as the heat of the sun began to relax, I determined to set out in the canoe. Tematau and Tepi had gone across to the weather side of the island with my gun to shoot plover and frigate birds, of which latter, so the natives had told us, there were great numbers to be found on the high trees to windward.
Tematau and Tepi each fired two or three shots in quick succession, but missed, and then a very heavy bullet struck the side of the coaming of the steering-well in which I was seated, glanced off and ploughed along the deck, and the second boat now began firing into us with breechloading rifles of some sort. "Let me try," I said to Tematau, clambering out of the well into the cabin.
See, there are four of them running along the reef." "Let them go, Niâbon," and then I turned to Lucia. She was deathly pale, but had all her wits about her, for although she could barely speak from excitement, she had some brandy and water ready for us. "Thank you," I said, as I poured a stiff dose into the pannikin, and taking first pull, passed it on to Tepi and the other man.
Such was Niâbon's story of Te Mata Toto, and both Lucia and myself were glad to get away from the immediate vicinity of the tragedy, and return to our camping place near the boat, where we found both Tematau and Tepi awaiting us with some fine mullet, which I supplemented later on by a few plover.
And then we heard a chorus of yells and cries from the two boats, as we eased off the jib and main sheets, and Niâbon put her before the wind. Then crack! crack! and two bullets went through the mainsail just below the peak, and I heard Tolly's voice shouting to me to bring to again. "Come aft here, you two," I cried to Tepi and his mate; "get out the guns, quick.
What could I not do with such a boat and two such men as Tepi and Tematau, after we had landed Lucia and Niâbon at Guam in the for north!
And when the captain of the fighting-ship questioneth, and sayeth to the people, 'Where is my countryman? the people will shake their heads and say, 'We know not. He and his wife, and the Englishman, and Tepi, and Tematau, and the witch woman Niâbon have gone. They have sailed away to beyond the rim of the sea and the sky we know not whither."
Her voice seemed to reach me as if from far, far away, though her dark face with the deep luminous eyes were so near, and, as she spoke, the boat, with Tepi and Tematau standing erect and waiting, grounded gently on the strand.
Word Of The Day