South Sea Tales E-Book

Jack London

• Herausgeber: ShadowPOET
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in the light breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outside the suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle of pounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and from three to five feet above high-water mark. On the bottom of the huge and glassy lagoon was much pearl shell, and from the deck of the schooner, across the slender ring of the atoll, the divers could be seen at work. But the lagoon had no entrance for even a trading schooner. With a favoring breeze cutters could win in through the tortuous and shallow channel, but the schooners lay off and on outside and sent in their small boats.

Leseprobe

SouthSeaTales

ByJackLondon

Publisher: ShadowPOET

SOUTHSEATALES

THEHOUSEOFMAPUHI

Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in the lightbreeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outside the suckofthesurf.TheatollofHikuerulaylowonthewater,acircleofpoundedcoral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and fromthreetofivefeetabovehigh-watermark.Onthebottomofthehugeandglassylagoon was much pearl shell, and from the deck of the schooner, across theslender ring of the atoll, the divers could be seen at work. But the lagoon hadno entrance for even a trading schooner. With a favoring breeze cutters couldwin in through the tortuous and shallow channel, but the schooners lay off andonoutsideandsentintheirsmallboats.

The Aorai swung out a boat smartly, into which sprang half a dozen brown-skinned sailors clad only in scarlet loincloths. They took the oars, while in thestern sheets, at the steering sweep, stood a young man garbed in the tropicwhite that marks the European. The golden strain of Polynesia betrayed itselfin the sun-gilt of his fair skin and cast up golden sheens and lights through theglimmering blue of his eyes. Raoul he was, Alexandre Raoul, youngest son ofMarie Raoul, the wealthy quarter-caste, who owned and managed half a dozentradingschoonerssimilartotheAorai.Acrossaneddyjustoutsidetheentrance, and in and through and over a boiling tide-rip, the boat fought itsway to the mirrored calm of the lagoon. Young Raoul leaped out upon thewhite sand and shook hands with a tall native. The man's chest and shoulderswere magnificent, but the stump of a right arm, beyond the flesh of which theage-whitened bone projected several inches, attested the encounter with ashark that had put an end to his diving days and made him a fawner and anintriguerforsmallfavors.

"Have you heard, Alec?" were his first words. "Mapuhi has found a pearl—such a pearl. Never was there one like it ever fished up in Hikueru, nor in allthe Paumotus, nor in all the world. Buy it from him. He has it now. Andremember that I told you first. He is a fool and you can get it cheap. Have youanytobacco?"

Straight up the beach to a shack under a pandanus tree Raoul headed. He washismother'ssupercargo,andhisbusinesswastocomballthePaumotusforthewealthofcopra,shell,andpearlsthattheyyieldedup.

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 startleitgavehim,andtomaintainacareless,commercialexpressiononhisface.Forthe pearl had struck him a blow. It was large as a pigeon egg, a perfect sphere,of a whiteness that reflected opalescent lights from all colors about it. It wasalive. Never had he seen anything like it. When Mapuhi dropped it into hishand he was surprised by the weight of it. That showed that it was a goodpearl. 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 aglassofwaterhehaddifficultyinfindingit.Sostraightandswiftlyhaditsunktothebottomthatheknewitsweightwasexcellent.

"Well,whatdoyouwantforit?"heasked,withafineassumptionofnonchalance.

"Iwant—"Mapuhibegan,andbehindhim,framinghisowndarkface,the

dark faces of two women and a girl nodded concurrence in what he wanted.Theirheadswerebentforward,theywereanimatedbyasuppressedeagerness,theireyesflashedavariciously.

"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 eachsideofthebigroom,andineachbedroommustbeanironbed,twochairs,and a washstand. And back of the house must be a kitchen, a good kitchen,with pots and pans and a stove. And you must build the house on my island,whichisFakarava."

"Isthatall?"Raoulaskedincredulously.

"There must be a sewing machine," spoke up Tefara, Mapuhi's wife."Notforgettingtheoctagon-drop-clock,"addedNauri,Mapuhi'smother."Yes,thatisall,"saidMapuhi.

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 oflandingthematerialsandofbuildingthehouse.Itwouldcometofourthousand French dollars, allowing a margin for safety—four thousand Frenchdollarswereequivalenttotwentythousandfrancs.Itwasimpossible.Howwashetoknowthevalueofsuchapearl?Twentythousandfrancswasalotofmoney—andofhismother'smoneyatthat.

"Mapuhi,"hesaid,"youareabigfool.Setamoneyprice."

ButMapuhishookhishead,andthethreeheadsbehindhimshookwithhis.

"Iwantthehouse,"hesaid."Itmustbesixfathomslongwithaporchallaround—"

"Yes,yes,"Raoulinterrupted."Iknowallaboutyourhouse,butitwon'tdo.I'llgiveyouathousandChilidollars."

Thefourheadschorusedasilentnegative."AndahundredChilidollarsintrade."

"Iwantthehouse,"Mapuhibegan.

"Whatgoodwillthehousedoyou?"Raouldemanded."Thefirsthurricane

thatcomesalongwillwashitaway.Yououghttoknow.""CaptainRaffysaysitlookslikeahurricanerightnow."

"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.Itmustbesixfathomslongwithaporchallaround—"

AndRaoullistenedagaintothetaleofthehouse.Severalhourshespentintheendeavor to hammer the house obsession out of Mapuhi's mind; but Mapuhi'smotherandwife,andNgakura,Mapuhi'sdaughter,bolsteredhiminhisresolve for the house. Through the open doorway, while he listened for thetwentieth time to the detailed description of the house that was wanted, Raoulsawhisschooner'ssecondboatdrawuponthebeach.Thesailorsrestedontheoars, 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. Theday grew suddenly dark, as a squall obscured the face of the sun. Across thelagoonRaoulcouldseeapproachingtheominouslineofthepuffofwind.

"Captain Raffy says you've got to get to hell outa here," was the mate'sgreeting."Ifthere'sanyshell,we'vegottoruntheriskofpickingituplateron

—sohesays.Thebarometer'sdroppedtotwenty-nine-seventy."

Thegustofwindstruckthepandanustreeoverheadandtorethroughthepalms beyond, flinging half a dozen ripe cocoanuts with heavy thuds to theground. Then came the rain out of the distance, advancing with the roar of agaleofwindandcausingthewaterofthelagoontosmokeindrivenwindrows. The sharp rattle of the first drops was on the leaves when Raoulsprangtohisfeet.

"A thousand Chili dollars, cash down, Mapuhi," he said. "And two hundredChilidollarsintrade."

"Iwantahouse—"theotherbegan.

"Mapuhi!"Raoulyelled,inordertomakehimselfheard."Youareafool!"

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.

"Didyougetthepearl?"heyelledinRaoul'sear.

"Mapuhi is a fool!" was the answering yell, and the next moment they werelosttoeachotherinthedescendingwater.

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 goodsadvancedtheyearbefore.

The squall had passed. The hot sun was blazing down, and the lagoon wasonce more a mirror. But the air was sticky like mucilage, and the weight of itseemedtoburdenthelungsandmakebreathingdifficult.

"Have you heard the news, Toriki?" Huru-Huru asked. "Mapuhi has found apearl. Never was there a pearl like it ever fished up in Hikueru, nor anywherein the Paumotus, nor anywhere in all the world. Mapuhi is a fool. Besides, heowesyoumoney.RememberthatItoldyoufirst.Haveyouanytobacco?"

AndtothegrassshackofMapuhiwentToriki.Hewasamasterfulman,withala fairly stupid one. Carelessly he glanced at the wonderful pearl—glanced foramomentonly;andcarelesslyhedroppeditintohispocket.

"You are lucky," he said. "It is a nice pearl. I will give you credit on thebooks."

"Iwantahouse,"Mapuhibegan,inconsternation."Itmustbesixfathoms—"

"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 willgive you credit for two hundred Chili. If, when I get to Tahiti, the pearl sellswell,Iwillgiveyoucreditforanotherhundred—thatwillmakethreehundred.Butmind,onlyifthepearlsellswell.Imayevenlosemoneyonit."

Mapuhi folded his arms in sorrow and sat with bowed head. He had beenrobbed of his pearl. In place of the house, he had paid a debt. There wasnothingtoshowforthepearl.

"Youareafool,"saidTefara.

"You are a fool," said Nauri, his mother. "Why did you let the pearl into hishand?"

"WhatwasItodo?"Mapuhiprotested."Iowedhimthemoney.HeknewIhadthe pearl. You heard him yourself ask to see it. I had not told him. He knew.Somebodyelsetoldhim.AndIowedhimthemoney."

"Mapuhiisafool,"mimickedNgakura.

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 Nauriburstintotearsandcontinuedtoupbraidhimafterthemannerofwomen.

Huru-Huru,watchingonthebeach,sawathirdschoonerthatheknewheaveto outside the entrance and drop a boat. It was the Hira, well named, for shewasownedbyLevy,theGermanJew,thegreatestpearlbuyerofthemall,and,aswaswellknown,HirawastheTahitiangodoffishermenandthieves.

"Have you heard the news?" Huru-Huru asked, as Levy, a fat man withmassive asymmetrical features, stepped out upon the beach. "Mapuhi hasfound a pearl. There was never a pearl like it in Hikueru, in all the Paumotus,inalltheworld.Mapuhiisafool.HehassoldittoTorikiforfourteenhundredChili—I listened outside and heard. Toriki is likewise a fool. You can buy itfromhimcheap.RememberthatItoldyoufirst.Haveyouanytobacco?"

"WhereisToriki?"

"InthehouseofCaptainLynch,drinkingabsinthe.Hehasbeenthereanhour."

And while Levy and Toriki drank absinthe and chaffered over the pearl, Huru-Huru listened and heard the stupendous price of twenty-five thousand francsagreedupon.

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 thatheeledthemfaroveronthewhitenedwater.Thentherainblottedthemout.

"They'll be back after it's over," said Toriki. "We'd better be getting out ofhere."

"Ireckontheglasshasfallensomemore,"saidCaptainLynch.

He was a white-bearded sea-captain, too old for service, who had learned thattheonlywaytoliveoncomfortabletermswithhisasthmawasonHikueru.Hewentinsidetolookatthebarometer.

"Great God!" they heard him exclaim, and rushed in to join him at staring at adial,whichmarkedtwenty-nine-twenty.

Again they came out, this time anxiously to consult sea and sky. The squallhadclearedaway,buttheskyremainedovercast.Thetwoschooners,underallsail 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 shorecouldseetheboom-tacklesbeingslackedawayorcastoffonthejump.The

sound of the surf was loud, hollow, and menacing, and a heavy swell wassetting in. A terrible sheet of lightning burst before their eyes, illuminating thedarkday,andthethunderrolledwildlyaboutthem.

TorikiandLevybrokeintoarunfortheirboats,thelatteramblingalonglikeapanic-stricken hippopotamus. As their two boats swept out the entrance, theypassed the boat of the Aorai coming in. In the stern sheets, encouraging therowers, was Raoul. Unable to shake the vision of the pearl from his mind, hewasreturningtoacceptMapuhi'spriceofahouse.

He landed on the beach in the midst of a driving thunder squall that was sodensethathecollidedwithHuru-Hurubeforehesawhim.

"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 LevywillsellitinFranceforahundredthousandfrancs.Haveyouanytobacco?"

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 spectaclesandstaringagainattheinstrument.

"Twenty-nine-ten,"saidRaoul."Ihaveneverseenitsolowbefore."

"I should say not!" snorted the captain. "Fifty years boy and man on all theseas,andI'veneverseenitgodowntothat.Listen!"

They stood for a moment, while the surf rumbled and shook the house. Thenthey went outside. The squall had passed. They could see the Aorai lyingbecalmed a mile away and pitching and tossing madly in the tremendous seasthatrolledinstatelyprocessiondownoutofthenortheastandflungthemselves furiously upon the coral shore. One of the sailors from the boatpointed at the mouth of the passage and shook his head. Raoul looked and sawawhiteanarchyoffoamandsurge.

"I guess I'll stay with you tonight, Captain," he said; then turned to the sailorandtoldhimtohaultheboatoutandtofindshelterforhimselfandfellows.

"Twenty-nine flat," Captain Lynch reported, coming out from another look atthebarometer,achairinhishand.

Hesatdownandstaredatthespectacleofthesea.Thesuncameout,

increasing thesultriness ofthe day,while thedead calm still held.The seascontinuedtoincreaseinmagnitude.

"Whatmakesthatseaiswhatgetsme,"Raoulmutteredpetulantly."Thereisnowind,yetlookatit,lookatthatfellowthere!"

Milesinlength,carryingtensofthousandsoftonsinweight,itsimpactshookthefrailatolllikeanearthquake.CaptainLynchwasstartled.

"Gracious!"hebellowed,halfrisingfromhischair,thensinkingback.

"Butthereisnowind,"Raoulpersisted."Icouldunderstanditiftherewaswindalongwithit."

"You'llgetthewindsoonenoughwithoutworryin'forit,"wasthegrimreply.

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, theold man's efforts being especially painful. A sea swept up the beach, lickingaroundthetrunksofthecocoanutsandsubsidingalmostattheirfeet.

"Way past high water mark," Captain Lynch remarked; "and I've been hereelevenyears."Helookedathiswatch."Itisthreeo'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 trailed infrom 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 theinformationthatherhousehadjustbeensweptintothelagoon.

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,thenativeshadgathered.

"There are twelve hundred men, women, and children here," said CaptainLynch."Iwonderhowmanywillbeheretomorrowmorning."

"But why don't it blow?—that's what I want to know," Raoul demanded."Don'tworry,youngman,don'tworry;you'llgetyourtroublesfastenough."

EvenasCaptainLynchspoke,agreatwaterymasssmotetheatoll.

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, wadingperturbedlyinthewater,asbycommonconsent,withflightandscrambletookrefuge on the roof of the captain's house. A Paumotan, with a litter of new-born puppies in a basket, climbed into a cocoanut tree and twenty feet abovethe ground made the basket fast. The mother floundered about in the waterbeneath,whiningandyelping.

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. Hecoveredhisfacewithhishandstoshutoutthesight;thenwentintothehouse.

"Twenty-eight-sixty,"hesaidquietlywhenhereturned.

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 amongthewomenwiththeadvicetopickoutatreeandclimb.

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 andheadingoffshore,andheregrettedthathewasnotonher.Shewouldgetawayat 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 andtogethertheywentin.

"Twenty-eight-twenty," said the old mariner. "It's going to be fair hell aroundhere—whatwasthat?"

The air seemed filled with the rush of something. The house quivered andvibrated,andtheyheardthethrummingofamightynoteofsound.Thewindows rattled. Two panes crashed; a draught of wind tore in, striking themand making them stagger. The door opposite banged shut, shattering the latch.The white door knob crumbled in fragments to the floor. The room's wallsbulged like a gas balloon in the process of sudden inflation. Then came a newsound like the rattle of musketry, as the spray from a sea struck the wall of thehouse. Captain Lynch 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 light buildingtilted, twisted, quarter around on its foundation, and sank down, its floor at anangleoftendegrees.

Raoul went out first. The wind caught him and whirled him away. He notedthat it had hauled around to the east. With a great effort he threw himself onthe sand, crouching and holding his own. Captain Lynch, driven like a wisp ofstraw,sprawledoverhim.TwooftheAorai'ssailors,leavingacocoanuttreetowhich they had been clinging, came to their aid, leaning against the wind atimpossibleanglesandfightingandclawingeveryinchoftheway.

Theoldman'sjointswerestiffandhecouldnotclimb,sothesailors,bymeansof short ends of rope tied together, hoisted him up the trunk, a few feet at atime, till they could make him fast, at the top of the tree, fifty feet from theground. Raoul passed his length of rope around the base of an adjacent treeand stood looking on. The wind was frightful. He had never dreamed it couldblow so hard. A sea breached across the atoll, wetting him to the knees ere itsubsided into the lagoon. The sun had disappeared, and a lead-colored twilightsettled down. A few drops of rain, driving horizontally, struck him. The impactwaslikethatofleadenpellets.Asplashofsaltspraystruckhisface.Itwaslikethe slap of a man's hand. His cheeks stung, and involuntary tears of pain werein his smarting eyes. Several hundred natives had taken to the trees, and hecould have laughed at the bunches of human fruit clustering in the tops. Then,being Tahitian-born, he doubled his body at the waist, clasped the trunk of histree with his hands, pressed the soles of his feet against the near surface of thetrunk, and began to walk up the tree. At the top he found two women, twochildren,andaman.Onelittlegirlclaspedahousecatinherarms.

FromhiseyriehewavedhishandtoCaptainLynch,andthatdoughtypatriarch waved back. Raoul was appalled at the sky. It had approached muchnearer—in fact, it seemed just over his head; and it had turned from lead toblack. Many people were still on the ground grouped about the bases of thetrees and holding on. Several such clusters were praying, and in one theMormon missionary was exhorting. A weird sound, rhythmical, faint as thefaintest chirp 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 heknewthattheyweresinginghymns.

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; buthe 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 thechurningwhiteofthelagoon.Thenextinstantthat,too,hadvanished.Other

treesweregoing,fallingandcriss-crossinglikematches.Hewasamazedatthe power of the wind. His own tree was swaying perilously, one woman waswailingandclutchingthelittlegirl,whointurnstillhungontothecat.

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 hadbeen torn from its foundations, and wind and sea were heaving and shoving ittoward the 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.Thesubsidingwaveshowedthemontheground,somelyingmotionless, 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,remindinghimforalltheworldofaNoah'sark.

He looked for Captain Lynch's house, and was surprised to find it gone.Things certainly were happening quickly. He noticed that many of the peopleinthetreesthatstillheldhaddescendedtotheground.Thewindhadyetagainincreased. His own tree showed that. It no longer swayed or bent over andback. Instead, it remained practically stationary, curved in a rigid angle fromthewindandmerelyvibrating.Butthevibrationwassickening.Itwaslikethat of a tuning-fork or the tongue of a jew's-harp. It was the rapidity of thevibration that made it so bad. Even though its roots held, it could not stand thestrainforlong.Somethingwouldhavetobreak.

Ah, there was one that had gone. He had not seen it go, but there it stood, theremnant, 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 lookingin Captain 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 did notfalltotheground,butdrovethroughtheairlikeapieceofchaff.Forahundred yards he followed its flight, when it struck the water. He strained hiseyes,andwassurethathesawCaptainLynchwavefarewell.

Raouldidnotwaitforanythingmore.Hetouchedthenativeandmadesignstodescend to the ground. The man was willing, but his women were paralyzedfrom terror, and he elected to remain with them. Raoul passed his rope aroundthe tree and slid down. A rush of salt water went over his head. He held hisbreathandclungdesperatelytotherope.Thewatersubsided,andintheshelterofthetrunkhebreathedoncemore.Hefastenedtheropemore