On the fifth night, I, another white diver, named Docky Mason, his Samoan wife, and a Manahiki sailor named Star were sleeping on shore in one of the huts. In another hut were three or four New Ireland niggers, who had brought us some fish and were going away again in the mornin.
About ten oclock the sky became as black as inka heavy blow was comin on, and we just had time to stow our loose gear up tidy, when the wind came down from between the mountains with a roar like thunder, and away went the roofs of the huts, and with it nearly everything around us that was not too heavy to be carried away. My own boat, which was lying on the beach, was lifted up bodily, sent flyin into the water, and carried out to sea.
We tried to make out the cutters and luggers lights, but could see nothing and every second the wind was yellin louder and louder like forty thousand cats gone mad, and the air was filled with sticks, leaves, and sand, and I had a mighty great fear for my little fleet; fur three miles away to the west, there was a long stretch o reefs, an I was afraid they had dragged and would get mussed up.
Thets jest what did happenthough they cleared the reefs by the skin of their teeth. The moment they began to drag, all three slipped. The luggers stood away under the lee of New Ireland, stickin in to the land, and tryin to bring to for shelter, but they were a hundred miles away from me, down the coast, before they could bring-to and anchor, for the blow had settled into a hurricane, and raised such a fearful sea that they had to heave-to for twenty-four hours. It was two weeks before we met again, after they had had to tow and sweep back to my little island, against a dead calm and a strong current, gettin a whiff of a land breeze at night now an agin, which let em use their canvas. As for the cutter, she ran before it for New Britain, and brought up at Matupi in Blanche Bay, two hundred miles away, where old Horn knew there was a white settlement of Germanshis own kidney. He was a white-livered old swine, but a good sailor-manas far as any man who says Ja for Yes goes.
When daylight came my mates and I set to work to straighten up.
Docky Masons native wifeTiawas a whole waggon with a yaller dog under the team. She first of all made us some hot coffee, and gave us a rousin breakfast; then she made the New Ireland buckswho were wantin to swim to the mainlandturn to and put a new roof of coco-nut thatch over our hut, although it was still blowin a ragin gale. My! thet gal was a wonder! She hed eyes like stars, an red lips an shinin pearly teeth, an a tongue like a whip-lash when she got mad, an Docky Mason uster let her talk to him as if he was a niggeran say nuthinexcep givin a foolish laugh and then slouchin off. And yet she was as gentle as a lamb to any of us fellows when we got fever, or had gone down under moren twenty fathoms, and was hauled up three parts dead and chokin.
Well, boss, we got to straights at last, although it was blowin as hard as ever. We had a lot o gear on shore in that native house, for I was intendin to beach the cutter an give her copper a scrubbin before we started divin regular.
There was near on a ton o twist terbacker in tierces (which we used fur tradin with the niggers), a ton o biscuit in fifty pound tins, boxes o red an yaller seed beads, an knives an axes, an a case o dynamite, an heaps o things that was a direct invitation to the niggers, an a challenge ter the Almighty to hev our silly throats cut. And those four or five bucks, whilst Tia was hustlin them around, was jest takin stock as they worked.
By sunfall the wind an sea in the bay had gone down a bit; an the bucks said that they would swim on shore (their canoe had been smashed in the night) and bring us some food early in the mornin. I gave em a bottle o Hollands, an my kind regards for the old barrelled-belly swine of a chief, some terbacker fur themselves; and then, after they had gone, looked to our Winchesters and pistols, which the bucks hadnt seen, fur we always kept em outer sight, under our sleepin mats.
Paulo, sez Tia to me, speakin in Samoan (an cussin in English), you an Docky an Star are a lot o blamed fools! You orter hev shot all those bucks ez soon ez they hed finished. Didnt you say that, Star?
Star had said Yes to her, but being an unobtrusive sorter o Kanaka, he hadnt said nuthin to usthinkin we knew bettern him what ter do.
We kep a good watch all that day an the nex day, and then at sunset two bucks in a canoe came off, bringing us six cooked pigeons from the chief, with a message that he would come an see us in a day or two, and bring men to build us better houses to live in until the luggers and the cutter came back.
We collared the two bucks and tied em up, and then Tia made one of em eat part of a pigeonshe standin over him with a Winchester at his ear. He ate it, an in ten minutes he was tyin himself up in knots, and was a dead nigger in another quarter of an hour. The pigeons were all poisoned.
We kep the other nigger alive an told him that if he would tell us what was a-goin on wed let him off, and set him ashore, free.
At dawn to-morrow, says he, Baian (the fat old chief) thought to find you all dead, because of the poisoned pigeons sent to you. And then he meant to take all the good things you have here, and set up your heads in his duk duk house.
Before daylight came, Docky Mason an Star an me hed fixed up things all serene ter give Baian and his cannibals a doin. Fust ev allto show our prisoner that we meant business, Tia held up his right hand, an Docky sent a Winchester bullet through it, an told him that he would send one through his skull ef he didnt do what he was told.
Then we took two empty one gallon colza oil tins, and filled em with dynamite, tamped it down tight, and then ran short fuses through the corks, and carried em down to the place where our prisoner said Baian and his crowd would land. It was a little bay, lined on each side by pretty high, ragged coral boulders, covered with creepers. We stowed the tins in readiness, and then brought our prisoner down, and told him what to do when the time came. I guess thet thet nigger knew thet ef he didnt play straight he was a dead coon. Tia sat down jest behind him, and every now and then touched his backbone with the muzzle ev her pistoljest ter show him she was keepin awake. At the same time he wasnt unwillin, for he hed told us thet he and his dead mate were not Baians menthey were slaves he had captured from a town he had raided somewhere near North Cape, and they were liable to be killed and eaten at any time if Baians crowd ran short of pig meat or turtle.
A little bit higher up, Docky Mason, Star an me, planted ourselves with our Winchesters, an one of our boats whalers bomb guns, which fired four pounds of slugs and deer shot, mixed upthe sorter thing, boss, thet you an me may find mighty handy here in this very place, if we get rushed sudden. We made a charcoal fire, and then frayed out the ends of the dynamite fuses so thet they would light quickly.
When daylight came, we caught sight of nigh on fifty canoes, all crammed with niggers, paddlin like blazes to where we was cached, but making no noise. Even if they hed we would not hev heard it, fur the wind and the surf beatin on the reef would hev drowned it.