A Night on s.s. Navua.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 11

A Night on s.s. Navua.

| The Blood-red Isle.

| . By "Gyro," | ® @

So steep did the sea-flcor slope oft'shoro that, 011 one j-idw of Uie steamer the water was fivo miles deep; on tho other it lvas fathomable. There was a Inoon on tho bow, a ghostly bush-wrapped coast on the beam, and right ahead a red glare in the mists of tho night. Tho look-out man called fivo bells, and added that "all was well," and, turning from the blood spot over the rail ono noticed tho lights going on in the staterooms, and perceived that the passengers were being called. But this is hastening things a little. Two days of the plaintive sweetness of Upolu had passed, and it was the last evening—perhaps 10 o'clock. From avenues in tho trees the passengers were trooping to the little jetties on the waveworn margin of the bay. A haze was on the water, and through this the riding lights of the copra ships and the biazo 01 the steamer came with diminished intensity, yet with softened accentuation, and full of the quality of the mist, i'rom the 'livoli wharf and the International .wharf the boats, as .one could tell by the sounds of the oars, were casting Icose, and after them, in genlle pursuit, the note of the island girls singing. ]low beautiful was the. bay! i; jw beau.liful and how still—so stilt that it was hard to figure that once it had subverted' tall navies; that once, straining and groaning, and tumbling wildly, the Calliope had panted out to sea through that very opening in the annular coral breakwater Yet casting its shadow over the moonlit track of the Navna's boats was tho impress of that day—the hull of the German Adler, her ancient enemy, corroded, lonely, her back broken, lying on her si do among the serene fallows. It rather seemed as if the spirit of the place had healed the hot enmities of old, for, as the boats passed, the little waves laughed and gurgled among her ribs, and the ferns, growing through her jiorts, noctded its a soft goou-bye. . Seaward, where the swell was brimming into the bay, tho torches of the Island fishermen moved on tho reef, a" little murky in the smoke of tho steamer, and landward was tho ono bold noteVeae Mountain, 10110 ft. high, and, 011 it, the grave of the Great Dreamer—Robert .Louis Stevenson—dreaming liis last long dream. On such a night as this—no uouut irom this very'bay—the conception of his soli-written epitaph jnust have come to him: , • Under tho wide and starry sky Dig ve 4 the "rave and let mo lie, Glad did I live, and gladly die, And 1 lay mc down with a will. . These Jje the words that ve grave for me: ' * Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor; home from sea; And the hunter home from tho hill. The ineffective writers in the guide hooks who had described the Blood lied Isle to come —for the steamer was now racing out past all manner of dissolute native craft—had conveyed the impression that the glare could. sometimes he perceived for 80 miles, and the thunder of the-nven island heard nearly as far, and. that tho roll of the white-hot lava into the sen was "at once picturesque and terrible." Some of the, passengers accepted this as successful description, and,, stipulating that they should be called when the view was fully lurid, retired with Ike volcano blazing all across the background of their, dreams. Others sat up on dock, preferring to believe only ' what they should see. As they had nothing else to do, they talked. .One .had feared, at the beginning of the trio, that passenger's to. the Islands might be terrible people, . who dressed for dmnei\ and whose conversation, was full of "Naice little scene!" and "Not ray-ally!" and that such mannerisms might freeze the genial beauties of the place. Or else that there might prevail that killing superiority of experience which will doubtle.ss abash the laterisers at the Resurrection with "Goodness! Yon ought just to liave been here when Gabriel was blowing the Last Trumpet. Indeed, it was not so. There wero •ome on deck who had seen tho Islands jpfore, and, as the last light in the bushdad liaze winked itself out, they said .bat that was Unolu, as it always was. 3ne wlio liad seen the Isles of Greeco renarked that it was like Ithaca. Steadily tho. steamer slid out of the 'haclow of the island into the moonlit •liver of Apolima Strait, heaving a little is though, under the Surface, dumb neamngs strovo to . be. Ahead ome mystery was gathering—a cloud ; t «emed._ Someone si id that he saw a park in it, something .\ ; ke a powder rrain m hot ashes. .As no one else had loticed it he was bantered, but presently lie spark recurred. Soon rone were alkrng or listening—all were eranin>' out ar over the rail. The spuiteriiiiis in he vapour had grown to lt dull red, b"t err definite spot, something like tne pot of blocd which poor "Tess's" landiidy saw spreading over the white eirilng below the upper loom, in Thomas tardy's novel, where murder had been one. A isibly it. errew, absorbing other cirumstanees. The 1110011 —once ve'.low, now ed—glided with theatrical stealth behind the vauours v.sider winch we had omehow sailed without: perceiving it, lid stood for a moment over a forestlad ridge like a ci~ck with its face to he sea. Then it vanished, leaving tho javna steaming valiantly on—a little furive bluck speck 011 a blood-red sea. A opra barque heaved across the horizon, hen put about, and streamed back in he general direction of tlio Eonalor. The gaunt shapes of the 'steamer's moke danced 011 Hie watsr, enjoin? the ividness here and there with 'their [ilindly .shadows. Still the crimson spot Dread, and from it, lights that grew vid ran in skirmishing ord"r down that lasted landscape, and swooshed into the >a, compelling clouds cf steam. At first lere seemed to be only fire of these* lava .reams., then nine or ten, then seventeen -tho whole coast was alight. Doubtless s many more were allow round Hi- capo 11 which the "while horses'," maddened by tliH scalding aggression, were beating in wild rage. ' "Savaii has her fires banked 10-'ii.ght." said one of the engineers, who had seen the eruption more active; "there's nothins in the gauges worth sneaking | about": but he was hardly listened to", for here word was passed flat if the pnssjtiTors pleased they might no up to the bridge. It wa« ghostly there, a ghostly flicker in the binnacle, a ghostly figure at the wheel. But. once detached from this HI tie scene of tame immediateness the volcano resumed its spell over u«. Tt.abolished the more distant narts of the sky in an extraordinary black hue. the profoundest colour in tho world, such a« we had never seen before, and I perceived and was pnzzle.l bv an intermediate copnerv hue—distinct from the crim=rvn of the outbreakthat mingled with all the shadows, and, as it were, held apart the inner brightness and tho outer darkness. Inside these outlying effects the vivid intensity of furious light towered up towards' the zenith, and showed the red children of pain gripping tho shuddering island. And . . . yes . . . we all saw it . . . there was a light, as from a habitation, blinking among the lava streams ... or was it the lit windows of the outbreak burning here and P there n ruddy oraneo. like holes 111 a curlain tint hung before a furnace . . . a would the Navua go much nearer in? f "TTow for have we run by the lot. Mr. t' Williams?" This from the captain. 11 "Forty-three, sir!" "Well, port easy." And (hen, as the ship swung obediently, and the atten- V tunted wisps of moo'.i came out again: "Put her about." ' S< The dark masts wheeled through tho constellations and all next dav the f' steamer lay at Mulifaiimia, under tlio " very breath ef the volcano. cl ' S| T'air American: "How do you like that si college son;; Miss Screcchc.r is simnii"'-" Undergraduate: "Is that a college song? t( I thought it was a college yell.'' c: