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She and her husband, Great Fern, had spent but an hour in the magic circle ere they were denuded of their every match. Couriers were even now scouring the valley for more matches. Quick, hasten! Even now it might be that the packets under the Golden Bed were gone! "Surely, then, come," I said, struck by an incredible possibility. Could it be that the crafty O Lalala absurd!
O Lalala would not give one away, or sell one at any price. Neither would he let a light be taken from his own fire or pipe. The next schooner was not expected for two months, as the last was but a fortnight gone. Le Brunnec had not a match, nor Kriech. The governor had not returned. The only alternatives were to go lightless and smokeless or to assault the heartless oppressor.
But Apporo, hurrying before me down the lantern-lighted trail, confirmed my suspicions. O Lalala had stated and put into effect the prohibition of any other stakes other than the innocent matches mere counters which he had mentioned to the governor.
No, they would buy the case for francs, but they would not risk dividing it among many, who would be devoured piecemeal by the diabolical O Lalala. "Kivi, the Vagabond, the Drinker of kava, is the chief to lead our cause," said Great Fern. "He has never gone to the Christian church. He believes still in the old gods of the High Place, and he is tattooed with the shark."
"I am French, for my grandfather was of Annam under the tri-color, and my mother of Tahiti-iti." Now fourteen-handed poker, with O Lalala as instructor to those ignorant of the game, the code of which was written by a United States diplomat, appealed to me as more than a passing of the time. It would be an episode in the valley. My patriotism was stimulated. I called the governor aside.
"Patty!" said Great Fern for him, and made a gesture disdaining more cards. O Lalala scrutinized his face as the sailor the heavens in a storm, and then studied the visages of all his backers. He closed his eyes a moment. Then, "My cally!" he said, as he pushed a great heap of toendstikkers onto the cane mat. The kava-drinkers grew black with excitement.
Over our Hellaby beef and Munich beer we talked of copra and the beautiful girls of Buda-Pesth, of the contemplated effort of the French government to monopolize the island trade by subsidizing a corporation, and of the incident of the afternoon. "The Herr Doktor is new," said Kriech, with a wag of his head. "That O Lalala! I have heard that that poker iss very dansherous.
O Lalala opened the pot for five packets and Kivi, nudged by his backers, feverishly balanced them. He took three cards, O Lalala but one. Standing behind the Tahitian, I saw that he had no cards of value, but coolly he threw thirty packets upon the mat. The others shuddered, for Kivi had drawn deuces to a pair of kings. They made the pipe glow again.
The governor on his return heard the roars of derision, gathered the story from a score of mirthful tongues, seized and sold the matches, and appropriated the funds for a barrel of Bordeaux. And for many weeks the unhappy O Lalala sat mournfully on the beach, gazing at the empty sea and longing for a schooner to carry him away. Mademoiselle N .
O Lalala appeared to sleep, though when Apporo attempted to withdraw a card he pinned it with his crutch. It was half an hour before the players returned. Kivi crouched to his place without a word, and the others arranged themselves behind him in fixed array, as though they had a cabalistic number-formation in mind.
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