Well, is that all? I asked, when a pause came.
Come along, says he, mopping his face; Ill tell you outside.
Do you mean they wont take the taboo off? I cried.
Its something queer, said he. Ill tell you outside. Better come away.
I wont take it at their hands, cried I. I aint that kind of a man. You dont find me turn my back on a parcel of Kanakas.
Youd better, said Case.
He looked at me with a signal in his eye; and the five chiefs looked at me civilly enough, but kind of pointed; and the people looked at me and craned and jostled. I remembered the folks that watched my house, and how the pastor had jumped in his pulpit at the bare sight of me; and the whole business seemed so out of the way that I rose and followed Case. The crowd opened again to let us through, but wider than before, the children on the skirts running and singing out, and as we two white men walked away they all stood and watched us.
And now, said I, what is all this about?
The truth is I cant rightly make it out myself. They have a down on you, says Case.
Taboo a man because they have a down on him! I cried. I never heard the like.
Its worse than that, you see, said Case. You aint tabooed I told you that couldnt be. The people wont go near you, Wiltshire, and theres where it is.
They wont go near me? What do you mean by that? Why wont they go near me? I cried.
Case hesitated. Seems theyre frightened, says he, in a low, voice.
I stopped dead short. Frightened? I repeated. Are you gone crazy, Case? What are they frightened of?
I wish I could make out, Case answered, shaking his head. Appears like one of their tomfool superstitions. Thats what I dont cotton to, he said. Its like the business about Vigours.
Id like to know what you mean by that, and Ill trouble you to tell me, says I.
Well, you know, Vigours lit out and left all standing, said he. It was some superstition business I never got the hang of it but it began to look bad before the end.
Ive heard a different story about that, said I, and I had better tell you so. I heard he ran away because of you.
O! well, I suppose he was ashamed to tell the truth, says Case; I guess he thought it silly. And its a fact that I packed him off. What would you do, old man? says he. Get, says I, and not think twice about it. I was the gladdest kind of man to see him clear away. It aint my notion to turn my back on a mate when hes in a tight place, but there was that much trouble in the village that I couldnt see where it might likely end. I was a fool to be so much about with Vigours. They cast it up to me to-day. Didnt you hear Maea thats the young chief, the big one ripping out about Vika? That was him they were after. They dont seem to forget it, somehow.
This is all very well, said I, but it dont tell me whats wrong; it dont tell me what theyre afraid of what their idea is.
Well, I wish I knew, said Case. I cant say fairer than that.
You might have asked, I think, says I.
And so I did, says he. But you must have seen for yourself, unless youre blind, that the asking got the other way. Ill go as far as I dare for another white man; but when I find Im in the scrape myself, I think first of my own bacon. The loss of me is Im too good-natured. And Ill take the freedom of telling you you show a queer kind of gratitude to a man whos got into all this mess along of your affairs.
Theres a thing I am thinking of, said I. You were a fool to be so much about with Vigours. One comfort, you havent been much about with me. I notice youve never been inside my house. Own up now; you had word of this before?
Its a fact I havent been, said he. It was an oversight, and I am sorry for it, Wiltshire. But about coming now, Ill be quite plain.
You mean you wont? I asked.
Awfully sorry, old man, but thats the size of it, says Case.
In short, youre afraid? says I.
In short, Im afraid, says he.
And Im still to be tabooed for nothing? I asked
I tell you youre not tabooed, said he. The Kanakas wont go near you, thats all. And whos to make em? We traders have a lot of gall, I must say; we make these poor Kanakas take back their laws, and take up their taboos, and that, whenever it happens to suit us. But you dont mean to say you expect a law obliging people to deal in your store whether they want to or not? You dont mean to tell me youve got the gall for that? And if you had, it would be a queer thing to propose to me. I would just like to point out to you, Wiltshire, that Im a trader myself.
I dont think I would talk of gall if I was you, said I. Heres about what it comes to, as well as I can make out: None of the people are to trade with me, and theyre all to trade with you. Youre to have the copra, and Im to go to the devil and shake myself. And I dont know any native, and youre the only man here worth mention that speaks English, and you have the gall to up and hint to me my lifes in danger, and all youve got to tell me is you dont know why!
Well, it is all I have to tell you, said he. I dont know I wish I did.
And so you turn your back and leave me to myself! Is that the position? says I.
If you like to put it nasty, says he. I dont put it so. I say merely, Im going to keep clear of you; or, if I dont, Ill get in danger for myself.
Well, says I, youre a nice kind of a white man!
O, I understand; youre riled, said he. I would be myself. I can make excuses.
All right, I said, go and make excuses somewhere else. Heres my way, theres yours!
With that we parted, and I went straight home, in a hot temper, and found Uma trying on a lot of trade goods like a baby.
Here, I said, you quit that foolery! Heres a pretty mess to have made, as if I wasnt bothered enough anyway! And I thought I told you to get dinner!
And then I believe I gave her a bit of the rough side of my tongue, as she deserved. She stood up at once, like a sentry to his officer; for I must say she was always well brought up, and had a great respect for whites.
And now, says I, you belong round here, youre bound to understand this. What am I tabooed for, anyway? Or, if I aint tabooed, what makes the folks afraid of me?
She stood and looked at me with eyes like saucers.
You no savvy? she gasps at last.
No, said I. How would you expect me to? We dont have any such craziness where I come from.
Ese no tell you? she asked again.
(Ese was the name the natives had for Case; it may mean foreign, or extraordinary; or it might mean a mummy apple; but most like it was only his own name misheard and put in a Kanaka spelling.)
Not much, said I.
D-n Ese! she cried.
You might think it funny to hear this Kanaka girl come out with a big swear. No such thing. There was no swearing in her no, nor anger; she was beyond anger, and meant the word simple and serious. She stood there straight as she said it. I cannot justly say that I ever saw a woman look like that before or after, and it struck me mum. Then she made a kind of an obeisance, but it was the proudest kind, and threw her hands out open.
She stood and looked at me with eyes like saucers.
You no savvy? she gasps at last.
No, said I. How would you expect me to? We dont have any such craziness where I come from.
Ese no tell you? she asked again.
(Ese was the name the natives had for Case; it may mean foreign, or extraordinary; or it might mean a mummy apple; but most like it was only his own name misheard and put in a Kanaka spelling.)
Not much, said I.
D-n Ese! she cried.
You might think it funny to hear this Kanaka girl come out with a big swear. No such thing. There was no swearing in her no, nor anger; she was beyond anger, and meant the word simple and serious. She stood there straight as she said it. I cannot justly say that I ever saw a woman look like that before or after, and it struck me mum. Then she made a kind of an obeisance, but it was the proudest kind, and threw her hands out open.
I shamed, she said. I think you savvy. Ese he tell me you savvy, he tell me you no mind, tell me you love me too much. Taboo belong me, she said, touching herself on the bosom, as she had done upon our wedding-night. Now I go way, taboo he go way too. Then you get too much copra. You like more better, I think. Tofâ, alii, says she in the native Farewell, chief!
Hold on! I cried. Dont be in such a hurry.
She looked at me sidelong with a smile. You see, you get copra, she said, the same as you might offer candies to a child.
Uma, said I, hear reason. I didnt know, and thats a fact; and Case seems to have played it pretty mean upon the pair of us. But I do know now, and I dont mind; I love you too much. You no go way, you no leave me, I too much sorry.
You no love, me, she cried, you talk me bad words! And she threw herself in a corner of the floor, and began to cry.
Well, Im no scholar, but I wasnt born yesterday, and I thought the worst of that trouble was over. However, there she lay her back turned, her face to the wall and shook with sobbing like a little child, so that her feet jumped with it. Its strange how it hits a man when hes in love; for theres no use mincing things Kanaka and all, I was in love with her, or just as good. I tried to take her hand, but she would none of that. Uma, I said, theres no sense in carrying on like this. I want you stop here, I want my little wifie, I tell you true.
No tell me true, she sobbed.
All right, says I, Ill wait till youre through with this. And I sat right down beside her on the floor, and set to smooth her hair with my hand. At first she wriggled away when I touched her; then she seemed to notice me no more; then her sobs grew gradually less, and presently stopped; and the next thing I knew, she raised her face to mime.
You tell me true? You like me stop? she asked.
Uma, I said, I would rather have you than all the copra in the South Seas, which was a very big expression, and the strangest thing was that I meant it.
She threw her arms about me, sprang close up, and pressed her face to mine in the island way of kissing, so that I was all wetted with her tears, and my heart went out to her wholly. I never had anything so near me as this little brown bit of a girl. Many things went together, and all helped to turn my head. She was pretty enough to eat; it seemed she was my only friend in that queer place; I was ashamed that I had spoken rough to her: and she was a woman, and my wife, and a kind of a baby besides that I was sorry for; and the salt of her tears was in my mouth. And I forgot Case and the natives; and I forgot that I knew nothing of the story, or only remembered it to banish the remembrance; and I forgot that I was to get no copra, and so could make no livelihood; and I forgot my employers, and the strange kind of service I was doing them, when I preferred my fancy to their business; and I forgot even that Uma was no true wife of mine, but just a maid beguiled, and that in a pretty shabby style. But that is to look too far on. I will come to that part of it next.
It was late before we thought of getting dinner. The stove was out, and gone stone-cold; but we fired up after a while, and cooked each a dish, helping and hindering each other, and making a play of it like children. I was so greedy of her nearness that I sat down to dinner with my lass upon my knee, made sure of her with one hand, and ate with the other. Ay, and more than that. She was the worst cook I suppose God made; the things she set her hand to it would have sickened an honest horse to eat of; yet I made my meal that day on Umas cookery, and can never call to mind to have been better pleased.
I didnt pretend to myself, and I didnt pretend to her. I saw I was clean gone; and if she was to make a fool of me, she must. And I suppose it was this that set her talking, for now she made sure that we were friends. A lot she told me, sitting in my lap and eating my dish, as I ate hers, from foolery a lot about herself and her mother and Case, all which would be very tedious, and fill sheets if I set it down in Beach de Mar, but which I must give a hint of in plain English, and one thing about myself which had a very big effect on my concerns, as you are soon to hear.
It seems she was born in one of the Line Islands; had been only two or three years in these parts, where she had come with a white man, who was married to her mother and then died; and only the one year in Falesá. Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job. They talk about looking for gold at the end of a rainbow; but if a man wants an employment thatll last him till he dies, let him start out on the soft-job hunt. Theres meat and drink in it too, and beer and skittles, for you never hear of them starving, and rarely see them sober; and as for steady sport, cock-fighting isnt in the same county with it. Anyway, this beachcomber carried the woman and her daughter all over the shop, but mostly to out-of-the-way islands, where there were no police, and he thought, perhaps, the soft job hung out. Ive my own view of this old party; but I was just as glad he had kept Uma clear of Apia and Papeete and these flash towns. At last he struck Fale-alii on this island, got some trade the Lord knows how! muddled it all away in the usual style, and died worth next to nothing, bar a bit of land at Falesá that he had got for a bad debt, which was what put it in the minds of the mother and daughter to come there and live. It seems Case encouraged them all he could, and helped to get their house built. He was very kind those days, and gave Uma trade, and there is no doubt he had his eye on her from the beginning. However, they had scarce settled, when up turned a young man, a native, and wanted to marry her. He was a small chief, and had some fine mats and old songs in his family, and was very pretty, Uma said; and, altogether, it was an extraordinary match for a penniless girl and an out-islander.
At the first word of this I got downright sick with jealousy.
And you mean to say you would have married him? I cried.
Ioe, yes, said she. I like too much!