SHORT STORY COMPETITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 242, 12 October 1929, Page 18 (Supplement)

SHORT STORY COMPETITION.

' THE GREATER GIFT (By J. K JAMESON.) , "Again, Simi-simi, again . . .say you it to me again, 'I love you , . . ." "You're, learning f,ast,..;Manu. . . can't beat a bit of' Mission schooling, can '.you? .-. , But I'll bet they ■ don't teach you to say that . . ." "Eehe . . . you laugh at me ... no, no, you teach me to say that . . . you say, 'Manu, I love you' . . . and me. I say, 'Simi-simi, I love you, I love you .too . . .'more than the little teacher. , " %. The''.man laughed, 'stretched a lazy arm, drew the slim body close, kissed her. Vibrant, clinging, she returned it with passion. Youth called him, called them both, and love clamoured for fair dealing. Red 'blood surged behind his eyes, the vivid' lips, clung as if they would never let go again. Lifting the girl to his heart he strode off down the narrow path towards the construction camp. 'Her arms linked closely about his neck, face snuggled into the* pit of his shoulder, a murmurous whisper echoed in his ear, "love you . . . love you . . . you . . ." The moon-shot splendour of the plantation passed, twinkling lights shone out on the river edge. A wave' of harmony pulsed through the night; the Samoan labourers were singing a boating song round a fire near the camp hutments.

Fai la aia, fai la ia Uα lelei le matagi Fai la ia, fai la ia la tataou o malaga taeao. (Make sail, make sail The wind';is fair. Make sail, make sail We shall go a journey to-morrow.) The craft of clandestine lovers, bred in erring humanity. from time immemorial, lent aid. Gently he set the girl down and whispered. "Go up the track past the dam, little one . . . and come down to my house through the cutting ... to the back door." "loe, Simi-simi . . , ia faavave!" ("Yes, Jimmie ... be quick!") Again he kissed her, and hurried through the cantonment of hilts alert to notice that his chief and the over"seers were congregated as usual, iii the big draughting-room. A blasted irai-' sance, these everlasting conferences— but all a man could expect of a superannuated old stick-in-the-mud •fifty years behind the times. Damn it all, he' himself with a couple of good overseers irbm the , old-Arapuni days could do this kid's job'in half the time. Anyhow, he wasn't turning up that night. At last the low bungalow and the wide verandah unobserved. ».'■,,.'••■, y -i- Jimmie Kendall, assistant, engineer,! ■was startled into a mental- quickening f as*a, sudden triune of sounds,- burst upon his expectant silence. Far off bii the Malifa road the native church bell pealed evensong, the labourers broke into a hymn, and a woman's voice hailed him from the access road nearby. Jane! He bit his lip, queerly angry. ,Ye"'Gods! Why pick on 'this night of alt flights in the year . . . and blast these white togs showing a man up in the. gloom. ~ ;•• ■'."Jimmie, hello! May. I come up? Something good to tell you." A something pleading, coaxing, that voice, yet frank with the undercurrent of familiarity born of open friendship. He thought quickly. Better see her, but short and snappy . . . make the conference in the draughting-room an early excuse . . . the kid would hear from the back door and wait till he was free . . . sure, he knew women.

"Hullo, Jane . . . yes, come on up. Riding, aren't you?" "Thanks; no, Tupuola escorted me over from Malifa." To Menu of Lanotoo running swiftly beneath drooping banana palms the distant chimes thundered like an angry god. She was mission-bred, mentally and spiritually; panting, she stopped. Fear and desire rioted within her. What, would the good pastor say if he could see her now ... if ho knew'how Jove was trampling, on all his. faithful teachings. And the little schoolmistress ...... so kind to her, so helpful. If only she was sure about that little white woman . . . that she did not really love her Simi-simi ... it might have been that she.would have waited . . . waited a little while. a hesitant .step and a long, curling mountain vine noosed her anklel'Atavistic dread of darkness pounced'" upon her, terror of mysterious clutching fingers, of weird things that, .walked abroad by night Fingers spayed over her mouth, she snatched knife from the folds of, c her lava-lava, stoopin<* to a slashing cut. Jfeed, she < ran P blindly into the open as,,the ominous bellff ceased their clangour. Suddenly she was brave and laughed, a something tremulous, perhaps, fingering the carven Jbaft of a welcome friend. Young Tupuola of Mulinuu- had made her a present of it when,.fame .overtook him an administration,job as forehand on the big Customs launch;' Deep adoration and clever fingers, had, wrought "Manu" in mission lettering on the scented sandalwood' handle. But Simi-simi had given,.her : love, inscribed forever in her heart. she passed onwards to the high .calling of-it. ''Slenderly-square, fair as' eunlight on a ripened lime, little Jane Conquest pattered up the bungalow steps. Standing no; higher, than, Kendall'e shoulder, her voice twinkled into laughter. "Not moping, Jimmie, surely?—aren't you pleased *o see me? You look just a taite. glum.'* , "Oh, no; just going down to the usual talky-talk. What's the trouble?" "Oh, I should have known you were busy, looking so serious; but I won't keep you a minute, old boy." "Righto, Janie, let's have it." "Two things, Jimmie. First, the Customs boys are taking the, big launch-to Savaii to-morrow , for a ; picnic. They want me to go with some of- the other teachers, and bring, you,' if possibleV It's the first time I've—" • "Sorry, Janie, but it's out of the question for me. \ve are putting in the first unit to-morow, and I'll be on the job all day. Sorry, but—" A eecond of eilence, of sheer disappointment in one friendly little heart. "I^-I—oh, well, bad luck, Jimmie—and now for poor young love%tridken Tupuola. You know, he hasn'£ seen; anything of his -Manu for nearly a*week; They uee4;to;cb6 such great friends;.-.and now sbe/s, always dodging him, or "so he tells me." V.v ■ ;■■„

"Um, he's outs, is he? Well; I can't help him.. I've not seen the —'■ . ■ ■ "Oh, but Jimmie, he thinks you can— someone told him he eaw you speaking to her in tie old D.H.P.G. plaatatipa the

The first prize is awarded this month to Mr. J. K. Jameson, 88, Norwood Road, Bayswater, for his story, "The Greater Gift."

and nodded benignly to the' tired overseers. A swim, anything for a ewini— in the languid salt water, warm-and soothing, yet invigorating, life-giving to flesh sweated dry of bodily 6alts; ; A great day —no, a great twenty-four hours— heigh-ho .then for. the outrigger, aiid the Mulinuu reef■■;'ln hie bungalow.Jjininie Kendall, changed, into swimmings togsi wrapping native fashion over,'shoulder;; and chest. Crossing the verandah his-foot struck the handle of a knife. Ah!- Manu's. plaything., ~He kicked it along'the matting: and:-,went down the steps. Ten; minutes-later a slim figure flitted round 'the bungalow, stopped, peered, and listened.: A. low call unanswered, ; and Manu of Lahotoo glided on to the verandah and inside: ■Groping in the darkness, sensitive fingers niet workaday drill, body warm, scattered untidily on the bed with bathing suits and towels. Instantly she knew where to find him—this lover of her very own, and soon, soon he would kiss her again, and take her to hie heart and speak to her of love. On the verandah a glint of light from the gateway arc swept the matting. Manu stooped and picked up the gift of Tupuola. ■:• Paddling easily out to the reef, Jimmie Kendall felt the cool chaste • embrace of an. idle ocean wind, slumberous in his •ears the crooning of an ebb-tide on the coral. Behind, on the white beach, Manu tucked her lava-lava about her narrow waist and slipped into the water. From a jut of coral the man, mother-naked, dived deeply. Coming up, he threshed ■with powerful crawl a fast . hundred yards, then yielded to the friendly reposeful sea. After; a little time, drowsily content, he swam" 1 back to the reef. 'It was steep, and he gripped a shadowy rope of seaweed wreathing gently in the slowmoving air current —"waiting, always waiting. The weed was clammy, slimy, unpleasant to touch, and lie let. go—too late. Lashing in sudden; furylawr'ithin'g tentacle had him fast the leg. Up went his arm to ward "off another ing out of the black water, a scream of dire fear on his lips. Only a bubbling gasp escaped him as the ; thick of his arm; crushed against his moutli, a loathsome coil enfolding head antlVshoulders. It was just loud enough to reach the ean: of thegirl swimmiifg slowly .past inside the reef, searching for her; lover, Simisirni.. Laughter on her lips, love; in her eyes, deep in her heart, she clambered over the reef and found him.

For a second primal atavistic -terror took her—dread of darkness, of mysterious \clutching fingers, of weird things walking abroad by night; she turned to flee, but Love remained—that selfless love than which no man, or woman, may give in greater abundance. Flashed then a knife, long-bladed, keen of cutting edge. One swift stroke sheared through the thinner end of the tentacle grasping the man's leg. It dropped off as another snaky length rippled out of the water and took the other leg.- Hacking, cutting, with frenzied strength, the girl threw herself on Jim Kendall • Heir breath came in gasping sobs ofr^fear , . ',; The giant cephalopod, lurking.'ghoulishly: between land and water, uncdiled ■ a .fourth' tentacle that wavered gropingly-about them. Another flicked suddenly about the waist of the girl. The fight was on, grim, desperate,, sense-benumbing in .the dim-felt ■realisation of approaching doom. Slicing riving, .ripping through •' the leatheiy flesh, went the faithful,knife, The beast monstrous, powerful-as only, three thou-. sand pounds of cold, .implacable livinghorror can be, .strained slightly on the anchoring arms below the surface. Struggling, fighting for foothold, the : two humans were drawn closer to the water's edge.

But the crippled sinews of the long tentacles were losing'their strength, the adhesive .suckers were mere shredded strips, of flesh on three of those mighty arms. Suddenly the loathsome. : coil fell away from the man's head and' shoulders. Partially freed, he fell witti the girl on top of him. The wounded devilfish threw up a last dripping feeler and g"PPed[the man's ankle. Beneath the water the remaining arms slowly coiled upon themselves. Like a feather the girl was plucked from the body of Kendall by the unwounded tentacle about her waist. instinctively she threw the knife to her lover.. Dazed almost to unconsciousness, it was sheer mechanical bram-force that impelled him to grasp it to sever the tightening coil about his foot. In the same instant the monster gave up the fight. Convulsively the riven tentacles, bereft of gripping power writhed from beneath the helpless man turning him,, over with sudden violence He crashed' face downwards upon' the coral. A swirl of black water, a broken bubbling scream, and then—no moire than the quaint crooning threnody of an ebbing tide. It was the big Customs launch, homing from seaward Savaii, whose merry picnickers found'him. Merry. All but one. Jane Conquest, tears in her heart, sat alone in." the .how.';: Alone but if or her faithful-.escort, Tupuola, of Mulinuu, forehand., Hβ it was who saw, the stark body mellowed;.in moonlight, who tenderly-in hisVsuperb young strength, wrapped the blue lava-lava' about it and lifted it aboard. Tupuola, too, it was whoj stood peering at something, glittering on the'■rock,' till^Jane and "the others hurried hini on with his burden. When he went back to look again.it was gone.

Other evening. He was quite keen _when I asked. him to' escort me over here to-night, for he thinks you might know which of her countless relations she is visiting. Manu's a, heartless little thing, teasing the poor boy like this; but I'll call Tupu in and you can case his troubled mind, Jimmie." "Blast it all, Jane, I'm not the girl's keeper. I haven't the ghost of an idea where she is. You tell that stupid Tupu not to come bothering me about his girl friends, damn him—" .■ . "Jim, Jim, please—at isn't a bit necessary to get peeved about it. You — you hurt me being so angry over euch a little thing." A tense and silent interval hurried by, no more than it took a slim form to glide from the gloom into a half-open door. Softly it closed behind a trembling girl, beset with lovely-fear and longing. Swift noiseless steps, arid each saw and heard the other in the same split second of time. "Jimmie!" "Simi-simi!" One'fled, knowledge of the Tree of Life, a grim and bitter fruit, despoiling her ashen lips. The other stayed, laughing, Love triumphant, and Youth. Well, nothing really mattered, blast it. Jim Kendall —surely he knew women— lifted Manu of Lanotoo high upon his heart and kissed her. Unheeded a longbladed knife slipped and fell to the matting. And out on the reef towards Mulinuu the ebbing -tide' crooned a nightly threnody, the while a wreathing shadow beat time to the wash of the water—waiting, always waiting. Up in the narrow Vaisigano Valley the first turbo-generator rested secure in its cement bed. Good work, good work, said his chief to assistant-Engineer Kendall,

For many days Jim Kendall lay in Malifa hospital with a fractured, skull. A weltering brain fever followed, shocking the memory cells for all time, but the knowledge of his work never left that clever head. When the - Vsdsigaho. jtfb was finished and old'stick-in-the-mud vanished southwards, Jim took over. And because another woman also loved him greatly he married her, though he remembers Manu of Lanotoo quite well and wonders, like others, whither she has so mysteriously fared. He recalls, too, going for a swim on the reefs towards Mulinuu—but nothing more than :that. Only his wife shudders once in a ivhile and weeps silently when Jim is absent. She has been looking, for the thousand and first time, at her hidden secret. Glittering, rank-smelling, slime-covered, she found it in a crevice on the reef the night Tupuola carried, her husband, near to death, aboard the big Customs launch.

And wrought in Mission lettering upon the scented sandalwood haft is the name of another woman, but one who has also loved abundantly.