The House of Mapuhi
Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in thelight breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outsidethe suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle ofpounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, andfrom three to five feet above high-water mark. On the bottom of the huge andglassy lagoon was much pearl shell, and from the deck of the schooner, acrossthe slender ring of the atoll, the divers could be seen at work. But thelagoon had no entrance for even a trading schooner. With a favoring breezecutters could win in through the tortuous and shallow channel, but theschooners lay off and on outside and sent in their small boats.The Aorai swung out a boat smartly, into which sprang half a dozenbrown-skinned sailors clad only in scarlet loincloths. They took the oars,while in the stern sheets, at the steering sweep, stood a young man garbed inthe tropic white that marks the European. The golden strain of Polynesiabetrayed itself in the sun-gilt of his fair skin and cast up golden sheens andlights through the glimmering blue of his eyes. Raoul he was, Alexandre Raoul,youngest son of Marie Raoul, the wealthy quarter-caste, who owned and managedhalf a dozen trading schooners similar to the Aorai. Across an eddy justoutside the entrance, and in and through and over a boiling tide-rip, the boatfought its way to the mirrored calm of the lagoon. Young Raoul leaped out uponthe white sand and shook hands with a tall native. The man's chest andshoulders were magnificent, but the stump of a right arm, beyond the flesh ofwhich the age-whitened bone projected several inches, attested the encounterwith a shark that had put an end to his diving days and made him a fawner andan intriguer for small favors."Have you heard, Alec?" were his first words. "Mapuhi has found a pearl--sucha pearl. Never was there one like it ever fished up in Hikueru, nor in all thePaumotus, nor in all the world. Buy it from him. He has it now. And rememberthat I told you first. He is a fool and you can get it cheap. Have you anytobacco?"Straight up the beach to a shack under a pandanus tree Raoul headed. He washis mother's supercargo, and his business was to comb all the Paumotus for thewealth of copra, shell, and pearls that they yielded up.He was a young supercargo, it was his second voyage in such capacity, and hesuffered much secret worry from his lack of experience in pricing pearls. Butwhen Mapuhi exposed the pearl to his sight he managed to suppress the startleit gave him, and to maintain a careless, commercial expression on his face.For the pearl had struck him a blow. It was large as a pigeon egg, a perfectsphere, of a whiteness that reflected opalescent lights from all colors aboutit. It was alive. Never had he seen anything like it. When Mapuhi dropped itinto his hand he was surprised by the weight of it. That showed that it was agood pearl. He examined it closely, through a pocket magnifying glass. It waswithout flaw or blemish. The purity of it seemed almost to melt into theatmosphere out of his hand. In the shade it was softly luminous, gleaming likea tender moon. So translucently white was it, that when he dropped it into aglass of water he had difficulty in finding it. So straight and swiftly had itsunk to the bottom that he knew its weight was excellent."Well, what do you want for it?" he asked, with a fine assumption ofnonchalance."I want--" Mapuhi began, and behind him, framing his own dark face, the darkfaces of two women and a girl nodded concurrence in what he wanted. Theirheads were bent forward, they were animated by a suppressed eagerness, theireyes flashed avariciously."I want a house," Mapuhi went on. "It must have a roof of galvanized iron andan octagon-drop-clock. It must be six fathoms long with a porch all around. Abig room must be in the centre, with a round table in the middle of it and theoctagon-drop-clock on the wall. There must be four bedrooms, two on each sideof the big room, and in each bedroom must be an iron bed, two chairs, and awashstand. And back of the house must be a kitchen, a good kitchen, with potsand pans and a stove. And you must build the house on my island, which isFakarava.""Is that all?" Raoul asked incredulously."There must be a sewing machine," spoke up Tefara, Mapuhi's wife."Not forgetting the octagon-drop-clock," added Nauri, Mapuhi's mother."Yes, that is all," said Mapuhi.Young Raoul laughed. He laughed long and heartily. But while he laughed hesecretly performed problems in mental arithmetic. He had never built a housein his life, and his notions concerning house building were hazy. While helaughed, he calculated the cost of the voyage to Tahiti for materials, of thematerials themselves, of the voyage back again to Fakarava, and the cost oflanding the materials and of building the house. It would come to fourthousand French dollars, allowing a margin for safety--four thousand Frenchdollars were equivalent to twenty thousad francs. It was impossible. How washe to know the value of such a pearl? Twenty thousand francs was a lot ofmoney--and of his mother's money at that."Mapuhi," he said, "you are a big fool. Set a money price."But Mapuhi shook his head, and the three heads behind him shook with his."I want the house," he said. "It must be six fathoms long with a porch allaround--""Yes, yes," Raoul interrupted. "I know all about your house, but it won't do.I'll give you a thousand Chili dollars."The four heads chorused a silent negative."And a hundred Chili dollars in trade.""I want the house," Mapuhi began."What good will the house do you?" Raoul demanded. "The first hurricane thatcomes along will wash it away. You ought to know.Captain Raffy says it looks like a hurricane right now.""Not on Fakarava," said Mapuhi. "The land is much higher there. On thisisland, yes. Any hurricane can sweep Hikueru. I will have the house onFakarava. It must be six fathoms long with a porch all around--"And Raoul listened again to the tale of the house. Several hours he spent inthe endeavor to hammer the house obsession out of Mapuhi's mind; but Mapuhi'smother and wife, and Ngakura, Mapuhi's daughter, bolstered him in his resolvefor the house. Through the open doorway, while he listened for the twentiethtime to the detailed description of the house that was wanted, Raoul saw hisschooner's second boat draw up on the beach. The sailors rested on the oars,advertising haste to be gone. The first mate of the Aorai sprang ashore,exchanged a word with the one-armed native, then hurried toward Raoul. The daygrew suddenly dark, as a squall obscured the face of the sun. Across thelagoon Raoul could see approaching the ominous line of the puff of wind."Captain Raffy says you've got to get to hell outa here," was the mate'sgreeting. "If there's any shell, we've got to run the risk of picking it uplater on--so he says. The barometer's dropped to twenty-nine-seventy."The gust of wind struck the pandanus tree overhead and tore through the palmsbeyond, flinging half a dozen ripe cocoanuts with heavy thuds to the ground.Then came the rain out of the distance, advancing with the roar of a gale ofwind and causing the water of the lagoon to smoke in driven windrows. Thesharp rattle of the first drops was on the leaves when Raoul sprang to hisfeet."A thousand Chili dollars, cash down, Mapuhi," he said. "And two hundred Chilidollars in trade.""I want a house--" the other began."Mapuhi!" Raoul yelled, in order to make himself heard. "You are a fool!"He flung out of the house, and, side by side with the mate, fought his waydown the beach toward the boat. They could not see the boat. The tropic rainsheeted about them so that they could see only the beach under their feet andthe spiteful little waves from the lagoon that snapped and bit at the sand. Afigure appeared through the deluge. It was Huru-Huru, the man with the onearm."Did you get the pearl?" he yelled in Raoul's ear."Mapuhi is a fool!" was the answering yell, and the next moment they were lostto each other in the descending water.Half an hour later, Huru-Huru, watching from the seaward side of the atoll,saw the two boats hoisted in and the Aorai pointing her nose out to sea. Andnear her, just come in from the sea on the wings of the squall, he saw anotherschooner hove to and dropping a boat into the water. He knew her. It was theOROHENA, owned by Toriki, the half-caste trader, who served as his ownsupercargo and who doubtlessly was even then in the stern sheets of the boat.Huru-Huru chuckled. He knew that Mapuhi owed Toriki for trade goods advancedthe year before.The squall had passed. The hot sun was blazing down, and the lagoon was oncemore a mirror. But the air was sticky like mucilage, and the weight of itseemed to burden the lungs and make breathing difficult."Have you heard the news, Toriki?" Huru-Huru asked. "Mapuhi has found a pearl.Never was there a pearl like it ever fished up in Hikueru, nor anywhere in thePaumotus, nor anywhere in all the world. Mapuhi is a fool. Besides, he owesyou money. Remember that I told you first. Have you any tobacco?"And to the grass shack of Mapuhi went Toriki. He was a masterful man, withal afairly stupid one. Carelessly he glanced at the wonderful pearl--glanced for amoment only; and carelessly he dropped it into his pocket."You are lucky," he said. "It is a nice pearl. I will give you credit on thebooks.""I want a house," Mapuhi began, in consternation. "It must be six fathoms--""Six fathoms your grandmother!" was the trader's retort. "You want to pay upyour debts, that's what you want. You owed me twelve hundred dollars Chili.Very well; you owe them no longer. The amount is squared. Besides, I will giveyou credit for two hundred Chili. If, when I get to Tahiti, the pearl sellswell, I will give you credit for another hundred--that will make threehundred. But mind, only if the pearl sells well. I may even lose money on it."Mapuhi folded his arms in sorrow and sat with bowed head. He had been robbedof his pearl. In place of the house, he had paid a debt. There was nothing toshow for the pearl."You are a fool," said Tefara."You are a fool," said Nauri, his mother. "Why did you let the pearl into hishand?""What was I to do?" Mapuhi protested. "I owed him the money. He knew I had thepearl. You heard him yourself ask to see it. I had not told him. He knew.Somebody else told him. And I owed him the money.""Mapuhi is a fool," mimicked Ngakura.She was twelve years old and did not know any better. Mapuhi relieved hisfeelings by sending her reeling from a box on the ear; while Tefara and Nauriburst into tears and continued to upbraid him after the manner of women.Huru-Huru, watching on the beach, saw a third schooner that he knew heave tooutside the entrance and drop a boat. It was the Hira, well named, for she wasowned by Levy, the German Jew, the greatest pearl buyer of them all, and, aswas well known, Hira was the Tahitian god of fishermen and thieves."Have you heard the news?" Huru-Huru asked, as Levy, a fat man with massiveasymmetrical features, stepped out upon the beach. "Mapuhi has found a pearl.There was never a pearl like it in Hikueru, in all the Paumotus, in all theworld. Mapuhi is a fool. He has sold it to Toriki for fourteen hundredChili--I listened outside and heard. Toriki is likewise a fool. You can buy itfrom him cheap. Remember that I told you first. Have you any tobacco?""Where is Toriki?""In the house of Captain Lynch, drinking absinthe. He has been there an hour."And while Levy and Toriki drank absinthe and chaffered over the pearl,Huru-Huru listened and heard the stupendous price of twenty-five thousandfrancs agreed upon.It was at this time that both the OROHENA and the Hira, running in close tothe shore, began firing guns and signalling frantically. The three men steppedoutside in time to see the two schooners go hastily about and head off shore,dropping mainsails and flying jibs on the run in the teeth of the squall thatheeled them far over on the whitened water. Then the rain blotted them out."They'll be back after it's over," said Toriki. "We'd better be getting out ofhere.""I reckon the glass has fallen some more," said Captain Lynch.He was a white-bearded sea-captain, too old for service, who had learned thatthe only way to live on comfortable terms with his asthma was on Hikueru. Hewent inside to look at the barometer."Great God!" they heard him exclaim, and rushed in to join him at staring at adial, which marked twenty-nine-twenty.Again they came out, this time anxiously to consult sea and sky. The squallhad cleared away, but the sky remained overcast. The two schooners, under allsail and joined by a third, could be seen making back. A veer in the windinduced them to slack off sheets, and five minutes afterward a sudden veerfrom the opposite quarter caught all three schooners aback, and those on shorecould see the boom-tackles being slacked away or cast off on the jump. Thesound of the surf was loud, hollow, and menacing, and a heavy swell wassetting in. A terrible sheet of lightning burst before their eyes,illuminating the dark day, and the thunder rolled wildly about them.Toriki and Levy broke into a run for their boats, the latter ambling alonglike a panic-stricken hippopotamus. As their two boats swept out the entrance,they passed the boat of the Aorai coming in. In the stern sheets, encouragingthe rowers, was Raoul. Unable to shake the vision of the pearl from his mind,he was returning to accept Mapuhi's price of a house.He landed on the beach in the midst of a driving thunder squall that was sodense that he collided with Huru-Huru before he saw him."Too late," yelled Huru-Huru. "Mapuhi sold it to Toriki for fourteen hundredChili, and Toriki sold it to Levy for twenty-five thousand francs. And Levywill sell it in France for a hundred thousand francs. Have you any tobacco?"Raoul felt relieved. His troubles about the pearl were over. He need not worryany more, even if he had not got the pearl. But he did not believe Huru-Huru.Mapuhi might well have sold it for fourteen hundred Chili, but that Levy, whoknew pearls, should have paid twenty-five thousand francs was too wide astretch. Raoul decided to interview Captain Lynch on the subject, but when hearrived at that ancient mariner's house, he found him looking wide-eyed at thebarometer."What do you read it?" Captain Lynch asked anxiously, rubbing his spectablesand staring again at the instrument."Twenty-nine-ten," said Raoul. "I have never seen it so low before.""I should say not!" snorted the captain. "Fifty years boy and man on all theseas, and I've never seen it go down to that. Listen!"They stood for a moment, while the surf rumbled and shook the house. Then theywent outside. The squall had passed. They could see the Aorai lying becalmed amile away and pitching and tossing madly in the tremendous seas that rolled instately procession down out of the northeast and flung themselves furiouslyupon the coral shore. One of the sailors from the boat pointed at the mouth ofthe passage and shook his head. Raoul looked and saw a white anarchy of foamand surge."I guess I'll stay with you tonight, Captain," he said; then turned to thesailor and told him to haul the boat out and to find shelter for himself andfellows."Twenty-nine flat," Captain Lynch reported, coming out from another look atthe barometer, a chair in his hand.He sat down and stared at the spectacle of the sea. The sun came out,increasing the sultriness of the day, while the dead calm still held. The seascontinued to increase in magnitude."What makes that sea is what gets me," Raoul muttered petulantly."There is no wind, yet look at it, look at that fellow there!"Miles in length, carrying tens of thousands of tons in weight, its impactshook the frail atoll like an earthquake. Captain Lynch was startled."Gracious!" he bellowed, half rising from his chair, then sinking back."But there is no wind," Raoul persisted. "I could understand it if there waswind along with it.""You'll get the wind soon enough without worryin' for it," was the grim reply.The two men sat on in silence. The sweat stood out on their skin in myriads oftiny drops that ran together, forming blotches of moisture, which, in turn,coalesced into rivulets that dripped to the ground. They panted for breath,the old man's efforts being especially painful. A sea swept up the beach,licking around the trunks of the cocoanuts and subsiding almost at their feet."Way past high water mark," Captain Lynch remarked; "and I've been here elevenyears." He looked at his watch. "It is three o'clock."A man and woman, at their heels a motley following of brats and curs, traileddisconsolately by. They came to a halt beyond the house, and, after muchirresolution, sat down in the sand. A few minutes later another family trailedin from the opposite direction, the men and women carrying a heterogeneousassortment of possessions. And soon several hundred persons of all ages andsexes were congregated about the captain's dwelling. He called to one newarrival, a woman with a nursing babe in her arms, and in answer received theinformation that her house had just been swept into the lagoon.This was the highest spot of land in miles, and already, in many places oneither hand, the great seas were making a clean breach of the slender ring ofthe atoll and surging into the lagoon. Twenty miles around stretched the ringof the atoll, and in no place was it more than fifty fathoms wide. It was theheight of the diving season, and from all the islands around, even as far asTahiti, the natives had gathered."There are twelve hundred men, women, and children here," said Captain Lynch."I wonder how many will be here tomorrow morning.""But why don't it blow?--that's what I want to know," Raoul demanded."Don't worry, young man, don't worry; you'll get your troubles fast enough."Even as Captain Lynch spoke, a great watery mass smote the atoll.The sea water churned about them three inches deep under the chairs. A lowwail of fear went up from the many women. The children, with clasped hands,stared at the immense rollers and cried piteously. Chickens and cats, wadingperturbedly in the water, as by common consent, with flight and scramble tookrefuge on the roof of the captain's house. A Paumotan, with a litter ofnew-born puppies in a basket, climbed into a cocoanut tree and twenty feetabove the ground made the basket fast. The mother floundered about in thewater beneath, whining and yelping.And still the sun shone brightly and the dead calm continued. They sat andwatched the seas and the insane pitching of the Aorai. Captain Lynch gazed atthe huge mountains of water sweeping in until he could gaze no more. Hecovered his face with his hands to shut out the sight; then went into thehouse."Twenty-eight-sixty," he said quietly when he returned.In his arm was a coil of small rope. He cut it into two-fathom lengths, givingone to Raoul and, retaining one for himself, distributed the remainder amongthe women with the advice to pick out a tree and climb.A light air began to blow out of the northeast, and the fan of it on his cheekseemed to cheer Raoul up. He could see the Aorai trimming her sheets andheading off shore, and he regretted that he was not on her. She would get awayat any rate, but as for the atoll--A sea breached across, almost sweeping himoff his feet, and he selected a tree. Then he remembered the barometer and ranback to the house. He encountered Captain Lynch on the same errand andtogether they went in."Twenty-eight-twenty," said the old mariner. "It's going to be fair hellaround here--what was that?"The air seemed filled with the rush of something. The house quivered andvibrated, and they heard the thrumming of a mighty note of sound. The windowsrattled. Two panes crashed; a draught of wind tore in, striking them andmaking them stagger. The door opposite banged shut, shattering the latch. Thewhite door knob crumbled in fragments to the floor. The room's walls bulgedlike a gas balloon in the process of sudden inflation. Then came a new soundlike the rattle of musketry, as the spray from a sea struck the wall of thehouse. Captain Lyncyh looked at his watch. It was four o'clock. He put on acoat of pilot cloth, unhooked the barometer, and stowed it away in a capaciouspocket. Again a sea struck the house, with a heavy thud, and the lightbuilding tilted, twisted, quarter around on its foundation, and sank down, itsfloor at an angle of ten degrees.Raoul went out first. The wind caught him and whirled him away. He noted thatit had hauled around to the east. With a great effort he threw himself on thesand, crouching and holding his own. Captain Lynch, driven like a wisp ofstraw, sprawled over him. Two of the Aorai'S sailors, leaving a cocoanut treeto which they had been clinging, came to their aid, leaning against the windat impossible angles and fighting and clawing every inch of the way.The old man's joints were stiff and he could not climb, so the sailors, bymeans of short ends of rope tied together, hoisted him up the trunk, a fewfeet at a time, till they could make him fast, at the top of the tree, fiftyfeet from the ground. Raoul passed his length of rope around the base of anadjacent tree and stood looking on. The wind was frightful. He had neverdreamed it could blow so hard. A sea breached across the atoll, wetting him tothe knees ere it subsided into the lagoon. The sun had disappeared, and alead-colored twilight settled down. A few drops of rain, driving horizontally,struck him. The impact was like that of leaden pellets. A splash of salt spraystruck his face. It was like the slap of a man's hand. His cheeks stung, andinvoluntary tears of pain were in his smarting eyes. Several hundred nativeshad taken to the trees, and he could have laughed at the bunches of humanfruit clustering in the tops. Then, being Tahitian-born, he doubled his bodyat the waist, clasped the trunk of his tree with his hands, pressed the solesof his feet against the near surface of the trunk, and began to walk up thetree. At the top he found two women, two children, and a man. One little girlclasped a housecat in her arms.From his eyrie he waved his hand to Captain Lynch, and that doughty patriarchwaved back. Raoul was appalled at the sky. It had approached much nearer--infact, it seemed just over his head; and it had turned from lead to black. Manypeople were still on the ground grouped about the bases of the trees andholding on. Several such clusters were praying, and in one the Mormonmissionary was exhorting. A weird sound, rhythmical, faint as the faintestchirp of a far cricket, enduring but for a moment, but in the momentsuggesting to him vaguely the thought of heaven and celestial music, came tohis ear. He glanced about him and saw, at the base of another tree, a largecluster of people holding on by ropes and by one another. He could see theirfaces working and their lips moving in unison. No sound came to him, but heknew that they were singing hymns.Still the wind continued to blow harder. By no conscious process could hemeasure it, for it had long since passed beyond all his experience of wind;but he knew somehow, nevertheless, that it was blowing harder. Not far away atree was uprooted, flinging its load of human beings to the ground. A seawashed across the strip of sand, and they were gone. Things were happeningquickly. He saw a brown shoulder and a black head silhouetted against thechurning white of the lagoon. The next instant that, too, had vanished. Othertrees were going, falling and criss-crossing like matches. He was amazed atthe power of the wind. His own tree was swaying perilously, one woman waswailing and clutching the little girl, who in turn still hung on to the cat.The man, holding the other child, touched Raoul's arm and pointed. He lookedand saw the Mormon church careering drunkenly a hundred feet away. It had beentorn from its foundations, and wind and sea were heaving and shoving it towardthe lagoon. A frightful wall of water caught it, tilted it, and flung itagainst half a dozen cocoanut trees. The bunches of human fruit fell like ripecocoanuts. The subsiding wave showed them on the ground, some lyingmotionless, others squirming and writhing. They reminded him strangely ofants. He was not shocked. He had risen above horror. Quite as a matter ofcourse he noted the succeeding wave sweep the sand clean of the humanwreckage. A third wave, more colossal than any he had yet seen, hurled thechurch into the lagoon, where it floated off into the obscurity to leeward,half-submerged, reminding him for all the world of a Noah's ark.He looked for Captain Lynch's house, and was surprised to find it gone. Thingscertainly were happening quickly. He noticed that many of the people in thetrees that still held had descended to the ground. The wind had yet againincreased. His own tree showed that. It no longer swayed or bent over andback. Instead, it remained practically stationary, curved in a rigid anglefrom the wind and merely vibrating. But the vibration was sickening. It waslike that of a tuning-fork or the tongue of a jew's-harp. It was the rapidityof the vibration that made it so bad. Even though its roots held, it could notstand the strain for long. Something would have to break.Ah, there was one that had gone. He had not seen it go, but there it stood,the remnant, broken off half-way up the trunk. One did not know what happenedunless he saw it. The mere crashing of trees and wails of human despairoccupied no place in that mighty volume of sound. He chanced to be looking inCaptain Lynch's direction when it happened. He saw the trunk of the tree,half-way up, splinter and part without noise. The head of the tree, with threesailors of the Aorai and the old captain sailed off over the lagoon. It didnot fall to the ground, but drove through the air like a piece of chaff. For ahundred yards he followed its flight, when it struck the water. He strainedhis eyes, and was sure that he saw Captain Lynch wave farewell.Raoul did not wait for anything more. He touched the native and made signs todescend to the ground. The man was willing, but his women were paralayzed fromterror, and he elected to remain with them. Raoul passed his rope around thetree and slid down. A rush of salt water went over his head. He held hisbreath and clung desperately to the rope. The water subsided, and in theshelter of the trunk he breathed once more. He fastened the rope moresecurely, and then was put under by another sea. One of the women slid downand joined him, the native remaining by the other woman, the two children, andthe cat.The supercargo had noticed how the groups clinging at the bases of the othertrees continually diminished. Now he saw the process work out alongside him.It required all his strength to hold on, and the woman who had joined him wasgrowing weaker. Each time he emerged from a sea he was surprised to findhimself still there, and next, surprised to find the woman still there. Atlast he emerged to find himself alone. He looked up. The top of the tree hadgone as well. At half its original height, a splintered end vibrated. He wassafe. The roots still held, while the tree had been shorn of its windage. Hebegan to climb up. He was so weak that he went slowly, and sea after seacaught him before he was above them. Then he tied himself to the trunk andstiffened his soul to face the night and he knew not what.He felt very lonely in the darkness. At times it seemed to him that it was theend of the world and that he was the last one left alive. Still the windincreased. Hour after hour it increased. By what he calculated was eleveno'clock, the wind had become unbelievable. It was a horrible, monstrous thing,a screaming fury, a wall that smote and passed on but that continued to smiteand pass on--a wall without end. It seemed to him that he had become light andethereal; that it was he that was in motion; that he was being driven withinconceivable velocity through unending solidness. The wind was no longer airin motion. It had become substantial as water or quicksilver. He had afeeling that he could reach into it and tear it out in chunks as one might dowith the meat in the carcass of a steer; that he could seize hold of the windand hang on to it as a man might hang on to the face of a cliff.The wind strangled him. He could not face it and breathe, for it rushed inthrough his mouth and nostrils, distending his lungs like bladders. At suchmoments it seemed to him that his body was being packed and swollen with solidearth. Only by pressing his lips to the trunk of the tree could he breathe.Also, the ceaseless impact of the wind exhausted him. Body and brain becamewearied. He no longer observed, no longer thought, and was but semiconscious.One idea constituted his consciousness: SO THIS WAS A HURRICANE. That one ideapersisted irregularly. It was like a feeble flame that flickered occasionally.From a state of stupor he would return to it--SO THIS WAS A HURRICANE. Thenhe would go off into another stupor.The height of the hurricane endured from eleven at night till three in themorning, and it was at eleven that the tree in which clung Mapuhi and hiswomen snapped off. Mapuhi rose to the surface of the lagoon, still clutchinghis daughter Ngakura. Only a South Sea islander could have lived in such adriving smother. The pandanus tree, to which he attached himself, turned overand over in the froth and churn; and it was only by holding on at times andwaiting, and at other times shifting his grips rapidly, that he was able toget his head and Ngakura's to the surface at intervals sufficiently neartogether to keep the breath in them. But the air was mostly water, what withflying spray and sheeted rain that poured along at right angles to theperpendicular.It was ten miles across the lagoon to the farther ring of sand. Here, tossingtree trunks, timbers, wrecks of cutters, and wreckage of houses, killed nineout of ten of the miserable beings who survived the passage of the lagoon.Half-drowned, exhausted, they were hurled into this mad mortar of the elementsand battered into formless flesh. But Mapuhi was fortunate. His chance was theone in ten; it fell to him by the freakage of fate. He emerged upon the sand,bleeding from a score of wounds.Ngakura's left arm was broken; the fingers of her right hand were crushed; andcheek and forehead were laid open to the bone. He clutched a tree that yetstood, and clung on, holding the girl and sobbing for air, while the waters ofthe lagoon washed by knee-high and at times waist-high.At three in the morning the backbone of the hurricane broke. By five no morethan a stiff breeze was blowing. And by six it was dead calm and the sun wasshining. The sea had gone down. On the yet restless edge of the lagoon, Mapuhisaw the broken bodies of those that had failed in the landing. UndoubtedlyTefara and Nauri were among them. He went along the beach examining them, andcame upon his wife, lying half in and half out of the water. He sat down andwept, making harsh animal noises after the manner of primitive grief. Then shestirred uneasily, and groaned. He looked more closely. Not only was she alive,but she was uninjured. She was merely sleeping. Hers also had been the onechance in ten.Of the twelve hundred alive the night before but three hundred remained. Themormon missionary and a gendarme made the census. The lagoon was clutteredwith corpses. Not a house nor a hut was standing. In the whole atoll not twostones remained one upon another. One in fifty of the cocoanut palms stillstood, and they were wrecks, while on not one of them remained a single nut.There was no fresh water. The shallow wells that caught the surface seepage ofthe rain were filled with salt. Out of the lagoon a few soaked bags of flourwere recovered. The survivors cut the hearts out of the fallen cocoanut treesand ate them. Here and there they crawled into tiny hutches, made byhollowing out the sand and covering over with fragments of metal roofing. Themissionary made a crude still, but he could not distill water for threehundred persons. By the end of the second day, Raoul, taking a bath in thelagoon, discovered that his thirst was somewhat relieved. He cried out thenews, and thereupon three hundred men, women, and children could have beenseen, standing up to their necks in the lagoon and trying to drink water inthrough their skins. Their dead floated about them, or were stepped upon wherethey still lay upon the bottom. On the third day the people buried their deadand sat down to wait for the rescue steamers.In the meantime, Nauri, torn from her family by the hurricane, had been sweptaway on an adventure of her own. Clinging to a rough plank that wounded andbruised her and that filled her body with splinters, she was thrown clear overthe atoll and carried away to sea. Here, under the amazing buffets ofmountains of water, she lost her plank. She was an old woman nearly sixty; butshe was Paumotan-born, and she had never been out of sight of the sea in herlife. Swimming in the darkness, strangling, suffocating, fighting for air, shewas struck a heavy blow on the shoulder by a cocoanut. On the instant her planwas formed, and she seized the nut. In the next hour she captured seven more.Tied together, they formed a life-buoy that preserved her life while at thesame time it threatened to pound her to a jelly. She was a fat woman, and shebruised easily; but she had had experience of hurricanes, and while she prayedto her shark god for protection from sharks, she waited for the wind to break.But at three o'clock she was in such a stupor that she did not know. Nor didshe know at six o'clock when the dead calm settled down. She was shocked intoconsciousness when she was thrown upon the sand. She dug in with raw andbleeding hands and feet and clawed against the backwash until she was beyondthe reach of the waves.She knew where she was. This land could be no other than the tiny islet ofTakokota. It had no lagoon. No one lived upon it.Hikueru was fifteen miles away. She could not see Hikueru, but she knew thatit lay to the south. The days went by, and she lived on the cocoanuts that hadkept her afloat. They supplied her with drinking water and with food. But shedid not drink all she wanted, nor eat all she wanted. Rescue wasproblematical. She saw the smoke of the rescue steamers on the horizon, butwhat steamer could be expected to come to lonely, uninhabited Takokota?From the first she was tormented by corpses. The sea persisted in flingingthem upon her bit of sand, and she persisted, until her strength failed, inthrusting them back into the sea where the sharks tore at them and devouredthem. When her strength failed, the bodies festooned her beach with ghastlyhorror, and she withdrew from them as far as she could, which was not far.By the tenth day her last cocoanut was gone, and she was shrivelling fromthirst. She dragged herself along the sand, looking for cocoanuts. It wasstrange that so many bodies floated up, and no nuts. Surely, there were morecocoanuts afloat than dead men! She gave up at last, and lay exhausted. Theend had come. Nothing remained but to wait for death.Coming out of a stupor, she became slowly aware that she was gazing at a patchof sandy-red hair on the head of a corpse. The sea flung the body toward her,then drew it back. It turned over, and she saw that it had no face. Yet therewas something familiar about that patch of sandy-red hair. An hour passed. Shedid not exert herself to make the identification. She was waiting to die, andit mattered little to her what man that thing of horror once might have been.But at the end of the hour she sat up slowly and stared at the corpse. Anunusually large wave had thrown it beyond the reach of the lesser waves. Yes,she was right; that patch of red hair could belong to but one man in thePaumotus. It was Levy, the German Jew, the man who had bought the pearl andcarried it away on the Hira. Well, one thing was evident: The Hira had beenlost. The pearl buyer's god of fishermen and thieves had gone back on him.She crawled down to the dead man. His shirt had been torn away, and she couldsee the leather money belt about his waist. She held her breath and tugged atthe buckles. They gave easier than she had expected, and she crawled hurriedlyaway across the sand, dragging the belt after her. Pocket after pocket sheunbuckled in the belt and found empty. Where could he have put it? In the lastpocket of all she found it, the first and only pearl he had bought on thevoyage. She crawled a few feet farther, to escape the pestilence of the belt,and examined the pearl. It was the one Mapuhi had found and been robbed of byToriki. She weighed it in her hand and rolled it back and forth caressingly.But in it she saw no intrinsic beauty. What she did see was the house Mapuhiand Tefara and she had builded so carefully in their minds. Each time shelooked at the pearl she saw the house in all its details, including theoctagon-drop-clock on the wall. That was something to live for.She tore a strip from her ahu and tied the pearl securely about her neck. Thenshe went on along the beach, panting and groaning, but resolutely seeking forcocoanuts. Quickly she found one, and, as she glanced around, a second. Shebroke one, drinking its water, which was mildewy, and eating the last particleof the meat. A little later she found a shattered dugout. Its outrigger wasgone, but she was hopeful, and, before the day was out, she found theoutrigger. Every find was an augury. The pearl was a talisman. Late in theafternoon she saw a wooden box floating low in the water. When she dragged itout on the beach its contents rattled, and inside she found ten tins ofsalmon. She opened one by hammering it on the canoe. When a leak was started,she drained the tin. After that she spent several hours in extracting thesalmon, hammering and squeezing it out a morsel at a time.Eight days longer she waited for rescue. In the meantime she fastened theoutrigger back on the canoe, using for lashings all the cocoanut fibre shecould find, and also what remained of her ahu. The canoe was badly cracked,and she could not make it water-tight; but a calabash made from a cocoanut shestored on board for a bailer. She was hard put for a paddle. With a piece oftin she sawed off all her hair close to the scalp. Out of the hair she braideda cord; and by means of the cord she lashed a three-foot piece of broom handleto a board from the salmon case.She gnawed wedges with her teeth and with them wedged the lashing.On the eighteenth day, at midnight, she launched the canoe through the surfand started back for Hikueru. She was an old woman. Hardship had stripped herfat from her till scarcely more than bones and skin and a few stringy musclesremained. The canoe was large and should have been paddled by three strongmen.But she did it alone, with a make-shift paddle. Also, the canoe leaked badly,and one-third of her time was devoted to bailing. By clear daylight shelooked vainly for Hikueru. Astern, Takokota had sunk beneath the sea rim. Thesun blazed down on her nakedness, compelling her body to surrender itsmoisture. Two tins of salmon were left, and in the course of the day shebattered holes in them and drained the liquid. She had no time to waste inextracting the meat. A current was setting to the westward, she made westingwhether she made southing or not.In the eary afternoon, standing upright in the canoe, she sighted Hikueru Itswealth of cocoanut palms was gone. Only here and there, at wide intervals,could she see the ragged remnants of trees. The sight cheered her. She wasnearer than she had thought. The current was setting her to the westward. Shebore up against it and paddled on. The wedges in the paddle lashing workedloose, and she lost much time, at frequent intervals, in driving them tight.Then there was the bailing. One hour in three she had to cease paddling inorder to bail. And all the time she driftd to the westward.By sunset Hikueru bore southeast from her, three miles away. There was a fullmoon, and by eight o'clock the land was due east and two miles away. Shestruggled on for another hour, but the land was as far away as ever. She wasin the main grip of the current; the canoe was too large; the paddle was tooinadequate; and too much of her time and strength was wasted in bailing.Besides, she was very weak and growing weaker. Despite her efforts, the canoewas drifting off to the westward.She breathed a prayer to her shark god, slipped over the side, and began toswim. She was actually refreshed by the water, and quickly left the canoeastern. At the end of an hour the land was perceptibly nearer. Then came herfright. Right before her eyes, not twenty feet away, a large fin cut thewater. She swam steadily toward it, and slowly it glided away, curving offtoward the right and circling around her. She kept her eyes on the fin andswam on. When the fin disappeared, she lay face downward in the water andwatched. When the fin reappeared she resumed her swimming. The monster waslazy--she could see that. Without doubt he had been well fed since thehurricane. Had he been very hungry, she knew he would not have hesitated frommaking a dash for her. He was fifteen feet long, and one bite, she knew, couldcut her in half.But she did not have any time to waste on him. Whether she swam or not, thecurrent drew away from the land just the same. A half hour went by, and theshark began to grow bolder. Seeing no harm in her he drew closer, in narrowingcircles, cocking his eyes at her impudently as he slid past. Sooner or later,she knew well enough, he would get up sufficient courage to dash at her. Sheresolved to play first. It was a desperate act she meditated. She was an oldwoman, alone in the sea and weak from starvation and hardship; and yet she, inthe face of this sea tiger, must anticipate his dash by herself dashing athim. She swam on, waiting her chance. At last he passed languidly by, barelyeight feet away. She rushed at him suddenly, feigning that she was attackinghim. He gave a wild flirt of his tail as he fled away, and his sandpaper hide,striking her, took off her skin from elbow to shoulder. He swam rapidly, in awidening circle, and at last disappeared.In the hole in the sand, covered over by fragments of metal roofing, Mapuhiand Tefara lay disputing."If you had done as I said," charged Tefara, for the thousandth time, "andhidden the pearl and told no one, you would have it now.""But Huru-Huru was with me when I opened the shell--have I not told you sotimes and times and times without end?""And now we shall have no house. Raoul told me today that if you had not soldthe pearl to Toriki--""I did not sell it. Toriki robbed me.""--that if you had not sold the pearl, he would give you five thousand Frenchdollars, which is ten thousand Chili.""He has been talking to his mother," Mapuhi explained. "She has an eye for apearl.""And now the pearl is lost," Tefara complained."It paid my debt with Toriki. That is twelve hundred I have made, anyway.""Toriki is dead," she cried. "They have heard no word of his schooner. She waslost along with the Aorai and the Hira. Will Toriki pay you the three hundredcredit he promised? No, because Toriki is dead. And had you found no pearl,would you today owe Toriki the twelve hundred? No, because Toriki is dead, andyou cannot pay dead men.""But Levy did not pay Toriki," Mapuhi said. "He gave him a piece of paper thatwas good for the money in Papeete; and now Levy is dead and cannot pay; andToriki is dead and the paper lost with him, and the pearl is lost with Levy.You are right, Tefara. I have lost the pearl, and got nothing for it. Now letus sleep."He held up his hand suddenly and listened. From without came a noise, as ofone who breathed heavily and with pain. A hand fumbled against the mat thatserved for a door."Who is there?" Mapuhi cried."Nauri," came the answer. "Can you tell me where is my son, Mapuhi?"Tefara screamed and gripped her husband's arm."A ghost! she chattered. "A ghost!"Mapuhi's face was a ghastly yellow. He clung weakly to his wife."Good woman," he said in faltering tones, striving to disguise his vice, "Iknow your son well. He is living on the east side of the lagoon."From without came the sound of a sigh. Mapuhi began to feel elated. He hadfooled the ghost."But where do you come from, old woman?" he asked."From the sea," was the dejected answer."I knew it! I knew it!" screamed Tefara, rocking to and fro."Since when has Tefara bedded in a strange house?" came Nauri's voice throughthe matting.Mapuhi looked fear and reproach at his wife. It was her voice that hadbetrayed them."And since when has Mapuhi, my son, denied his old mother?" the voice went on."No, no, I have not--Mapuhi has not denied you," he cried. "I am not Mapuhi.He is on the east end of the lagoon, I tell you."Ngakura sat up in bed and began to cry. The matting started to shake."What are you doing?" Mapuhi demanded."I am coming in," said the voice of Nauri.One end of the matting lifted. Tefara tried to dive under the blankets, butMapuhi held on to her. He had to hold on to something. Together, strugglingwith each other, with shivering bodies and chattering teeth, they gazed withprotruding eyes at the lifting mat. They saw Nauri, dripping with sea water,without her ahu, creep in. They rolled over backward from her and fought forNgakura's blanket with which to cover their heads."You might give your old mother a drink of water," the ghost said plaintively."Give her a drink of water," Tefara commanded in a shaking voice."Give her a drink of water," Mapuhi passed on the command to Ngakura.And together they kicked out Ngakura from under the blanket. A minute later,peeping, Mapuhi saw the ghost drinking. When it reached out a shaking hand andlaid it on his, he felt the weight of it and was convinced that it was noghost. Then he emerged, dragging Tefara after him, and in a few minutes allwere listening to Nauri's tale. And when she told of Levy, and dropped thepearl into Tefara's hand, even she was reconciled to the reality of hermother-in-law."In the morning," said Tefara, "you will sell the pearl to Raoul for fivethousand French.""The house?" objected Nauri."He will build the house," Tefara answered. "He ways it will cost fourthousand French. Also will he give one thousand French in credit, which is twothousand Chili.""And it will be six fathoms long?" Nauri queried."Ay," answered Mapuhi, "six fathoms.""And in the middle room will be the octagon-drop-clock?""Ay, and the round table as well.""Then give me something to eat, for I am hungry," said Nauri, complacently."And after that we will sleep, for I am weary. And tomorrow we will have moretalk about the house before we sell the pearl. It will be better if we takethe thousand French in cash. Money is ever better than credit in buying goodsfrom the traders."
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