Lumi's Lagoon.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 238, 5 October 1908, Page 6

Lumi's Lagoon.

By OWEN HALL.

/CHAPTER Xl.—Continued. I led Bill round to the place where I bad forced my way through, but by the time we had got nearly as far as Mauwi, Bob and his party had passed the cocoanut grove and were coming straight towards us. "Bob's got them past the cocoamittrees, pill," I said, looking at him to. see what he thought; Lumi was afraid;' to go near them . - i "And I ain't a-teayin' but what Bob's ! got 'em middlin' well in hand, neither, \ sonny," was the only reply Bill made! as he followed mc. Bob might have them well in hand, J but as I kept my eyes on them 11 thought there were signs that all his ] influence was barely enough to make j them come any farther. One after an- i other lingered and straggled from thej band, and at last it was evident he; could hardly persuade them to advance j a step into the jungle of dense scrub j that still lay between them and the j giant figure. Bob stormed and swore j in English, and in the native language j of which he seemed to be master, and j even threatened them with the little! club which he still carried, but with very little effect; it was evident they 'were even more afraid of Mauwi than thex were of him. At last he seemed to try a new plan. He got them round him in a circle and [ made a speech. I didn't like it, for I! remembered how he had made them! almost mad by talking to them in the j hnit; but of course, we could do no-1 thing. Bill had broken his nut, and j now he stood eating it slowly. He j seemed to be listening for something, j though I couldn't guess what it could be, and he didn't look as if he was i one bit afraid of Bob, or of anything: he could do. j It didn't take Bob long to do it. The.] blackfellows had squatted down when! he began, but as he weot on first onej and then another sprang to his feet,! and looked wildly at Bill and mc. In! five minutes every one of the party was j on his feet leaping about in wild ex- j citement, and every few seconds Bobi would lift his hand and point either! at us or at Mauwi. till I felt almost i sure I knew just what he was saying! to make them rush in and kill us. They j looked ready to do it, too. j At last Bob turned suddenly, and,', pointing at us, be waved his little club, j and dashed into the scrub. The whole j band set up a wild yell at the same j moment, and followed 'him, waving their: spears and clubs over their heads. I "Well, sonny," Bill said, as he threw I away the shell of his cocoanut, and! picked up his heavy club, "I ain't a-say- i in' but what it's time Lumi was a«howin' up wi* them man-o.'-war sailors,] if so be as we ain't to hey a row here." I knew there wasn't time for Lumi to come back yet, and so I gazed rather desperately at the blackfellows pushing j their way through the tangled scrub, and filling the air with yelU that grew wilder every minute, as if they felt it give them courage to go on. Bob seemed to understand that, too, for he kept just ahead of the foremost of them, and every now and then he gave a shout that was even wilder than, their I own, and seemed to encourage them. It w»s needed, too. As they forced their way nearer and nearer to where Mauwi stood, towering out of the jungle, I noticed that they seemed to go slower and slower, and that some of them even stopped. Bob looked behind him and saw it, too, for he shouted at them more Sereely than ever. lie wasn't far from Mauwi by that time, and I saw him shake his fist at him, as if to encourage his men by showing them how little he cared for him. By that time he wasn't more than thirty yards or so away from Bill and mc, and not half as far from Mauwi, and I saw Bill hitch up his trousers, and spit on the hand in which he held the club, as if it was time to get ready. At that moment I was startled by a strange wild scream that came through the air. I had never in my life heard anything just like it beforq, and I stared on every side without being able to see anything. The blackfellows heard it, too, for they gave a rather tremulous yell, and then stood still. I suppose they thought it was Mauwi, but I knew better than that, for the sound came straight up the lagoon, as if it had come from the sea. Then Bob looked behind him and saw them all staring stupidly at Mauwi. I suppose he thought then that perhaps we should beat him after all, for he glared across at Bill like a wild beast; then he snatched a spear from the hand of the blackfellow nearest him with a fierce oath. He looked almost mad, and I expected to see him throw it at Bill, but he didn't. Instead of that he threw up his one arm, as if to show his contempt for the fears of his followers, ami then hurled the spear straight at Mauwi. I saw the spear strike, and then I started. A strange, hissing sound sang through the air overhead, like a hundred serpents hissing together, then there was a crash, and a smoke. Mauwi seemed to rock and reel for an instant, and the next, when I caught sight of him again through the smoke, his head wat gone, and his body was falling over into the jungle. A wild hoarse cry rose above the crash of the splintering stone, and it was followed by shrieks and yells of terror, as the 'blackfellows leaped and tore their way back again through the jungle. It was almost funny to see them; bnt where was Bob? Bill's voice answered the question before it was asked: "Well, now," he said slowly, "I ain't a-eayin' but what that heer Mauwi were o' some use after all, if it were only for to straighten out Bob Stringer —«m' toM y v u, forget it," CHATTER XII. onminil imi "But wliflt was it, Bill?" I utaijj, is soon as I recovered from my surprise. "Well, Bonny, I ain't, a-sayin - but -what it were mostly luck neither—an' don't you forget it." "Yes, Bill; but there must; have been something that knocked Mauwi down, you know." "In course there were, sonny; it were a shell—leastways it behaved itself accordin', if I ain't mistook." "A shell! Oh, then, it was a man o* war, Bill, and Lumi must have told them where to fire." "Well now, I ain't a-sayin , that, soiiny, cot altogether. Leastways it ain't likely as Lumi ain't no great judge o' cannonj though it's likely enough he told them aboard ac theer were niggur*

round, an' where there's niggers—specially niggers that's a-howlin'—shells ain't hardly ever far wrong." There was no longer anything to hinder us going where we pleased. The party of natives who had followed Bob had fled in the wildest terror, and were now visible on the hillside grovelling on their knees and faces. We had never seen the other party whose cries I had heard, and most .likely they had turned hack for want , *)! a leader who was not afraid of Mauwi. Bill had forced his way through the scrub to examine the fallen Mauwi, but nothing would have made mc go with him then. He came back after a few' minutes' absense, and, in answer I suppose to a question in my eyes, he remarked quietly: "No, I ain't a-sayin' as how Bob were a beauty, not at the best o' times; but ■what I says is that he ain't improved— leastways not much, by that there Mauwi's head a-fallin' on him, neither, an' don't you forget it, sonny." Bill went into .no particulars, and I didn't ask any questions, but only begged Bill to come with mc to the lagoon and wait for Lumi. "Eight ye was, sonny," was Bill's reply; "nor I ain't a-sayin" but what you've done Lumi a good turn, neither — leastways Mauwi did, when he throwed his head at Bob. I reckon them niggurs'll be glad to get Blacky for chief, now Bob an' Mauwi's both on 'em gone under." Of course they would; and Lumi would gilt back his people and his island again of which Bob Stringer had robbed him. Nobody must tell Lumi but mc, for, after all, he was my friend and not Bill's. We hadn't long to wait when we got to the top of the bank. I was looking round, and wondering what Lumi had dons with Mauwi's box when he went oif to the ship, for now that Bob was dead t had grown as anxious as ever to know what was in it, whon my ear caught the sound of oars coming up the lagoon, and in another minute Luini's canoe shot round the point. I think Lumi saw mc first, for Bill was sitting on the bank, and I saw his face light up with that look that v.'as almost a smile; then he caught sight of Bill, and next moment he started up in the canoe and almost shouted: "Mauwi! Where Mauwi gone?" "Mauwi gone dead," I answered, in the first words that came to mc. "Mauwi all gone pieces plenty quick. Alawa go too—all same time." Lumi was still staring as if he couldn't underetasd. when the man-w'-war boat, crowded with men, swept round the point. An officer stood in the stern holding the tiller ropes in his hands, and at his word of command the six oars rose like one from the water, and in an instant more she grounded on the beach. "Hallo!" the officer shouted to ittll, "Are you the man this native said was in danger of being murdered by the savages —you, and a boy, he saidT" "Well, sir" —and Bill's voice seemed to fill the lagoon, and echo back from every side as he answered—"l ain't a-sayin' but what it was sonny here an , mc as he meant; no more I ain't altogether sure, but for luck, and that theer shell as ye sent on ahead to say .is ye were comin", as theer'd 'a been none too much on us left for to pick up by ibis time—an , don't you forget it neither." "What do you mean by that, my man?" the officer shouted in reply, looking with some admiration, I thought, at Bill's great figure standing on the top of the bank. "I suppose our shell frightened the natives a bit, didn't it?" "Well, I ain't a-sayin* just how much it frightened 'em; though 1 ain't a-aayin' as it was altogether soothin , neither —but as luck would have it it knocked over a thundcrin' great idol as were a-atandin-hercaway, and flattened out a chap as were a sort o' white niggur, and a bad un at that." "Oh, he's dead is he? The native that came off said he was at the bottom of the trouble. He said you and the boy were shipwrecked too. What vessel did you belong to?" "The brig Nancie Belle, of Brisbane, bound for 'Frisco. Ban on a sunken reef four nights ago, and sunk in less than twenty minutes, if I ain't mistook. I were eecond mate, and the boy and mc were the last aboard when she went down.'* "Ah! And what became of the re3t of the crew, my man?" "Well, now," Bill said, dropping back into his usual deliberate drawl; "I ain't a-sayin* as I knows; nor I ain't sure-as it matters much, seem' as how they was in too much of a hurry for to pick up this boy here afore they left." While this conversation was going on Lumi had got out of his canoe, walked to the end of the beach, and unearthed the little metal box from behind a rock. .He did it so quietly that nobody seemed to take' any notice of him till he brought it back and held it out to mc. Then another officer, who was standing beside mc, noticed it. "Whafs that?" be said, stepping forward, as I took it from Lumi, anl looking at it with great interest. "Belong-a Mauwi long time. Mauwi dead —belong-a white boy. Him find!" Lumi replied with dignity. "Let mc look at it, will you?" the efficer asked mc, as he bent over to get a nearer view of it in my hands. I held it for him to look at, but was careful not to let it go out of my hands again. "You found this, did you? Where did you find it, my boy?" He spoke in an excited tone that startled mc, and attracted the attention of the others. "Hallo, Doctor; what's that you've come across? I didn't think anything outside of India would have interested you so mneh." The doctor never raised his head as he bent over my treasure, which he was now eagerly examining through a glass tie tad produced from his pocket* "Well." lie rcud, "I*m not w> -very sure jp jj * "™ ~~" ~""" there once." us, even the sailors staring over each otVa eUiMera, wliilo lllfi iMlbftAtlt peered at it closely. "It looks like gold, Doctor," he said, after a short inspection. "Where did it come from?" "I found it, sir, at the foot of the. statue of Mauwi." "You found it, did you, youngster. let's barve a. look: at the place." We climbed the bank, and Bill and I, with the Lieutenant and the Doctor, followed the track whicu Bill and I had made till we reached the spot where 1 had fallen almost at Mauwi's feet. I pointed to the hole, and the overturned stone beside it, and the doctor went on his knees to examine it, while the rest of us looked at the huge figure of Mauwi himself, note lying prostrate and splin-

I tered amongst .the .dense scrub. Bill showed the Lieutenant where the head lay that had killed Bob, but I stayed at the doctor's side. " : "Look here, boy," he saijl at last, looking up at mc, "I believe you've hit on something by accident I'd have given years of my life to find. Do you see these marks on the rock here?" I stooped, and then I could make out strange scratchings on the stone into which the box had ftted. "Well," the doctor went on, "I don't say I can read them, but I know the marks are very ancient Indian letters. I mast have ihis stone to take with mc that I may find out what it means. But, look here; have you any idea what there is in the box?" "No, sir," I said; "Bill only got it out for mc just before the black-fellows came to kill us, and we've had no time to get it open since then." "Come along, then, and we'll open it now," he said. . "We may as well do it here where it lay hid so long." . - I' handed him the box, and watched him as he produced his knife and began to scrape gently along the side where the lid seemed to join the rest of the box. It was very slow work as he did it, for he treated it as tenderly as if it had been a wounded man, and I let my eyes wander to the band of black-fellows who seemed to be getting over their first alarm. I could see that they were creeping back, little by little, as if to see what the white men were doing who .had arrived so unexpectedly, and I saw that Lumi wenc part of the way to meet', them, and then stood still and beckoned' them to come forward. At first they evidently hesitated; then one after another they crept forward, till they got near him. Then they fell on their faces and dragged themselves along the ground to his feet. Then Lumi began to speak to them. I couldn't hear him. but I could see him j raise his hand and point to the place where Mauwi had stood, and then to the sea, as if he were telling of the fate of Mauwi, and the coming of the white man's ship. Then, all at once there was a shout that rose and swelled, and then ! echoed and re-echoed from the hill and j the shores of the lagoon. The shout was, !"Lumi! Lumi!" My friend had come to his kingdom at last. The doctor couldn't open the box with his knife after all, but that evening, when we had said good-bye to Lumi, and I had seen him watch us from the beach, as we went off to the Firefly, Bill and I were sent for to tne Captain's esj>in to have it opened. The Doctor had got the dirt rubbed off the box, and it looked like real gold at last, with strange figures that seemed to stand out all over it. The Captain and some of the officers were there watching the doctor slowly cutting away the solder that held the lid to the i box, and I think we were all excited when at last the lid moved, and began to come off. The inside seemed to be full of some very soft kind of cloth, with strange coloured figures woven into it, and I wondered if that could be all. The Doctor motioned to mc to take it out, and when I had done I could feel that there was something hard inside the cloth. My hands trembled a good deal as I began to unroll it, for now I should know what it was that Mauwi had taken such care, of all these ages. Perhaps it was my trembling that did it; but, at any rate, when I got to the end, two things that looked like big marbies rolled out on the.table. Was that all? I believe I should'have cried if I hadn't been so big, or if all these men hadn't been looking at mc. The Doctor stared at them for a minute without speaking; then he picked up first one and then the other, and looked at them closely through his glass. Then, with a kind of gasp, he said: "Yes, I thought so." "What are they, Doctor T" the Captain asked, bending to look at them as they lay on the table. "A ruby and a diamond, Captain," the Doctor said. "My young friend here will have reason to remember his'visit to Maiapu Island; these stones must be worth many thousand pounds." Bill laid his big hand on my shoulder as he remarked: "And what I says is this, Sonny: I ain't got no fault to find wi' that there Mauwi chap, after all. Though, mind ye, I ain't a-sayin' as ho were handsome, neither, an' don't you forget it." (The End.) *■**&&-