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Updated: May 17, 2025
For the next twelve months the father and daughter lived at Utiroa, and Jim voyaged to and fro among the islands of the group, returning every few months, and again sailing away on a fresh cruise; but never once had the old man asked him any further questions as to his reasons for deserting from the Saginaw. But Em, gentle-hearted Em, knew.
The moment they were within speaking distance the Taritai men inquired whether Krause had fulfilled his threat, and carried Tematau away. The Utiroa people affected great surprise, and said that they had seen nothing of him, but that most probably he had thought better of doing such a foolish and offensive thing, and had returned to Taritai again.
"It is well for him then that he did not come to Utiroa to-day," said old Kaibuka's son gravely. "Such a man as he is not wanted in our town. So keep him at Taritai." In the meantime Niâbon and Tematau had set out for Taritai to acquaint Mrs. Krause of the tragedy which had occurred.
But long before they reached the village for which they were bound they saw the great ship slowly change her course and bear away to the westward, and leave the low, sandy island astern. A long, steady look at her told the sailor eye of Jim Swain that he had nothing to fear, even had she kept on and anchored at Utiroa.
The latter would be at Utiroa in a few hours, and instead of starting them at sewing sails I would get them to make an exact copy of every entry in the station books from the day I took charge to the day we left the island. This copy I would leave behind, and take the books themselves with me. The idea was a good one, and later on I was glad it occurred to me.
Then, after giving them some instructions, I went back to the house. "Well, Mr. Sherry, what do you think of the boat?" "Fairly well, Mrs. Krause. Anyway, I've bought her, and if you look out of the window, you'll see the crew getting her under way again to sail her over to Utiroa. Now I must get home, for there will be much to do.
Krause quite agreed that a wise course had been taken, for were it proved that her husband had been killed in Utiroa, the man-of-war would certainly inflict a terrible punishment on the village, as was usual with German warships' procedure in the South Seas. Then at Niâbon's suggestion she summoned the head men, and told them that her husband had not reached Utiroa.
And then the old trader, as he lay back on his rough couch, watching the curling smoke wreaths from his pipe ascend to the thatched roof, recalled to memory one day six years before, when the American cruiser Saginaw had anchored off the village of Utiroa, where Swain then lived, and a group of the officers from the war-ship had stood talking to him on the beach.
The moment they entered the village they were surrounded by natives, who eagerly inquired when Krause was returning had he driven Tematau out of the Englishman's house? etc., etc. Both Niâbon and her companion expressed surprise neither they nor any one else in Utiroa had seen Krause, they said, and Tematau had come with her to ask Mrs.
A small, squat and dirty-looking trading steamer, with the name Motutapu painted in yellow letters on her bows and stern, lay at anchor off the native village of Utiroa on Drummond's Island in the Equatorial Pacific. She was about 800 tons burden, and her stained and rusty sides made her appear as if she had been out of port for two years instead of scarcely four months.
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