CHAPTER XI.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2000, 2 May 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XI.

Upon the swelling bosom of tb» sea Como3 an unhoped, uulookcd for boon to rue ' The terroia of that night had their due effect upon the islanders. Next day the lake in front of my little hut was crowded with canoes containing the wholo population, who, however, kept a good distance oft. By my glasss I saw they had Henry and Marambola bound in ono of the large canoes, guarded. Presently an old man came towards my islet, alone in & oanoe, waving a banana loaf — their flag of truce. I advanced to the gateway I had made — now my pier — and also waved a banana leaf. The meßscngfr, in frar and trembling, unfolded hiß mission. The ppople expressed the greatest consternation for what they hatf done the previous night, but urged that they did it in ignoranca, and were incited by Henry and Marambola. They now offered to surrender these men to me, or else to sacrifice them in my presence to their evil doity, Karatara, arid to be in future my humble slaves and subjects. I confess this message troubled me very greatly. What answer to return I knew not. I was between the horns -of a dilemma. I abhorred the idea of shedding blood, even though I knew perfectly well that had I not availed myself of science and protected my life I would have been put to death ere now with the most horrible tortures, and that these very same savages would have danced round my funeral pyre, and that Marambola and Henry would have looked on with grim satisfaction. Further, I knew that if th^se two men were allowed to live in freedom they would in some way compass my death. They deserved their fate, but I could not say the word. E ri\ as Henry had behaved, he was a fellow countryman, and we had been close friends frenn infancy. At one time we had loved each other dearly ; at least, I had loved him. That waß all over now, but still the memories of early days clung to me. It was now, only now, that I discovered the fatal secret of the island — a secret whioh will be to you as terrible a revelation as it was to me. As a way of cutting the Gordian knot, I proposed to the old native, who was very influential and held in the highest respect, that the two men should ba placed in a large canoe, well provided, and set adrift in the , ocean. In fact, at that time I was preparing my°elf to build out of the ship a good seaworthy boat, which would take me to some of the islands where trading vessels called. The reply staggered me, took almost my life away. There was no way out of the island except the gulf on the other side, where the waters that had rushed in by the gulf through which we came swept out under the earth to join the ocean, and which was certain death. "No outlet, no means of leaving this island," cried his listeners in awestricken tones, their faces blanohing and a terrible fear in their hearts. 41 None ; absolutely none," was the calm reply. "On the beetling brow of the cliff through which the gulf cut its way might well bo written : •' Abandon hope of return all ye who enter- here." The coast riftes everywhere over a thousand feet and is sheer and precipitous. The current in the eastern gulf is too strong for even a steamer to breast it. Only a balloon would serve for escape, and the materials are not here even if the skill to make and work it were. Here for their lives must every visitor remain." An awful silence fell upon the little party. Nothing was heard but the gentle lapping of the water at their feet, and the musical play of the fountain. What & fearful prospect these fatal words opened to Herbert and Harry — as for Ebby, he could be happy wherever his friend was ; ho was not ambitious. To them the terrors of a life-long stay in this ißland were unutterable. To Herbett it meant eternal separation from the darling who had won his firat and only love, the cutting short of a glorious career that his wealth and intellect entitled him to, the loss of all the pleasures of civilised and intellectual life : absolute vanity. He shivered as he thought of it. At the moment, perhaps, ho hardly realised its full tragio meaning. There was a hope, as there must be in every young heart, that a way of escape would be found. To Harry it was even a greater blow. What, part from all that made life enjoyable, the pleasures of Melbourne, London, and Paris 1 He hung his bead, and a dark scowl gathered on his face. But even then be did not fail to hope that a mode of escape would be found ; he would compass heaven and earth to find it. " This discovery, which for the time unnerved me," continued the old man, wishing to distract his hearers' attention from their painful position, " rendered one almost incapable of action. I dismissed the ambassador with the reply that I would take time to consider and reply that afternoon. When he was gone I returned to my hut, and for a time remained wrapt in the most painful thoughts. But my agony was not of long duration. After all what had I to lament over, what had I in common with the world that bad tbrust me from it as if I were a lerJer or a wild beast Could I not settle down here and lead a happy and useful life by raising the peoplo to a higher level, and being their ruler and their father ? Could I not here study the problems of life and mind and science that had had so much fascination for me in the past, without the disturbing influences of the world's am- \ bitions and unhallowed pleasures? Hero, at least, the demon alcohol, to which I owed my degradation, and the other fiend, gambling, could not enter. As for earthly passions, I was comparatively free of them. I roso after a while in a far more con ten ted, if not happy, framo of mind. But I had not yet decided how to act towards the two men whoso presence on that island waa incompatiblo with my schemes, who would inevitably fill it with onmo and sin and bloodshed. It appeared to me that I must decide between the turning of the island into a hell, and my ultimate cruel death and the destruction of theso men. At last, after a long study, I decided to make a compromise for the present. In the afternoon I again signalled for the old chieftain, and informed him that the people were 'to seleot the smallest of the islets and build round it, after cutting down every tree, and leaving it quite bare, a palisading sufficiently high to keep these men prisoners, and that watch wai to be kept over them day and night by several canoes so that they would not escape. I said I required some time to consult the Great Power as to what I would do, and in the meantime the criminals would remain in prison. The chicftian bowed his head and said I wai wise and merciful. The prison was made, for these people understood the art of building with wood to a certain extent. In the meantime the prisoners were kept in close confinement on the canoe. The day when they were to be placed in their prison came ; a glorious, sunshiny day, auoh as is so often vouchsafed in this land, where storms are kept away by our guardian coast. I wft'n rowed in » oanoe to witness the solemn

uereoiony, for, us I knew the pcoplo were itnpreadod mainly by forma and symbols, I had invented a special ceremony for the occasion, and provided scientific eff^ctd that would add to the irapresaiveness of tho scene. The islet on which the prisoners were to b<j placed waa one of those near tho dread gulf by which we entered, of which there was a view from it. Prior to beginning tho ceremony, a native camp with an imploring message from Hsnry that I would pp?ak to him before he was shut up with his fellow prisoner. I had a strange yearning for my once darling friend and fellow countryman, the only man of my blood on the island, and I consented. I will not weary you by describing that painful and humiliating scene. Every art of persuasion that Henry possessed he tried upon me to obtain a reversal of the decree. He implored me to kill him at once rather than condemn him to a living death. Ho conjured me by tha happy, innocent days of our youth. Hn urged me that we had sinned together, and that together we would repent and lead new lives. He drew an eloquunt picture of how happily we could live together, and what A sad fate mine would bo without companionship. But though I nearly relented once or twice, I steeled myself against him. I had come to know his nature now bo well that I knew amendment was impossible for him. So I closed the interview by telling him I simply intended the prison for probation, and that if I found him really changed I would redtore him to my companionship, and I presented him with a copy of the Bible, earnestly entreating him to make it bis study. Ho could not, I said, but be made hotter by reading the life of Christ, even if he did not believe in his divinity. He seemed penitent and thankful enough, but after I turned away I chanced to look back, and saw upon his face all the passions of hell. At that monQent I became aware of a great commotion among the fleet of canoes, and heard a loud shout of " Mooroflgooroo, Mooroogooroo." Looking towards the gulf, I saw to my infinite astonishment a light boat dancing on the waves, coming towards U 3, impelled by the rush of the water. A strange hope sprung up in my breast. Had God in His mercy sent me a companion worthy of the name to mitigate my punishment. lat once ordered my rowejs to make for the boat, fearing it would be dashed against the islets — all the other canoes fled from it. As they felt safe when I was with them, they obeyed. My friends, how oan I describe my sensations when we reached the boat, to find that lying on the bottom, apparently dead, was Stella. For the moment a terrible despair seized me. But when I sprang into the boat and took the wasted form in my arms, and found ahe still breathed, my joy almost made me faint away. Only for a moment did I give way ; then I set to work frantically to revive the dear girl. I succeeded, but ahe was too faint and dazed to understand anything. I put my ear to her lips and heard her in the delirium murmur the name of her brother. Transferring her gently to the canoe, I ordered the rowera to make for my islet as if their lives were at stake, and shouted to the old chieftain to place the criminals in prison, and to go through the ceremony himself, aa an angel had come to me, and I must entertain her. How the ceremony went off I could not tell ; I was oocupied in nursing with the tendered care the darling in whom all my hopes centered,