BY THE LAKE.

Franklin Times, Volume 10, Issue 836, 25 May 1923, Page 6

BY THE LAKE.

(By L., Kusabs.)

(Copyright.)

A cool breeze swept over the lake and up among the trees that grew in rich loveliness upon its sloping banks. It stirred the fair clustering curls pf a pretty girl as she sal perched high up in the branches of a willow, overhanging the tranquil wafers. With one hand she grasped a book on which she was intent, and with the other she clung to a slender bough- Two slim legs swung negilently. At length she sighed and closed the book with a snap. ‘‘Finished!” she said to herself, yawning and glancing down at the depths below her. She felt a little flurried to think that she had climbed so high. Hpw cold and uninviting the lake appeared, Just then some movement among the bushes on the brink caught her eye. She gave a little gasp of surprise and nearly overbalanced horself* as above the ferns and bracken there arose the bare head and shoulders of a handsome young Maori. He did not see her and even as she w 7 atched there was a flash of bronze and his powerful body bad pierced the surface of the lake in a magnificent dive.. The gir watched him swim with strong practised strokes further and further away. She leaned forward and rest* i her arms across a moss covered branch. Suddenly there was a sharp report and a shrill scream and she wag hurling through space and in a j second was plunged down, down into 1 the eager waters of one of New; Zealand’s deep lakes, little ripples and a piece of rotten branch marking the spot of hdr disappearance. A few moments later her limp body was being carried up the bank in the muscular arms of the Maori an.d deposited with great gentleness among the fernl. When the girl at length opened her blue eyes it vas to find the man gazing down at her with keen anxiety and chaffing her hands with his' own. She struggled to a sitting position, drew her hands away and pushed the dank hair off heir forehead with unsteady *‘ngers. She gave a nervous little laugh and looked at her rescuer. A str.ned towel was draped aroiund his loins, and above towered a. splendid chest and broad shouldersi on which was set a well-shaped head, crowne.d with raven black curly hair. |He returned her gaze intently and she said quickly: “lit was very silly of me,, was nt it ! I am sorry that I put you to all this bother,. That horrid branch collapsing like that !” She was breathless and embarrassed, and wringing her dripping dress feverishly, The man smiled with a. flash of white teeth. “No bother at all for me,” he said. “I think all the discomforture was Perhaps in future you will not venure to such a precarious position ”

The girl realised with? a shock that he spoke in an educated voice and with a musical intonation.. It was more like a white man speaking to her than a Maori she thought. She wondqred whom he could be. >, “Thank you very much for saving me,, anyway,” she said gratefully. She was pale from her fright an.d shivered slightly.

“You must hurry or you will catch cold. That is your camp furt 1 er up the lake, is it rot ?” he asked, and she nodded- vaguely questioning ncrself as to‘how he knew.

“Do you feel equal, to going alone,” he went on. “I should assist you, only ” He glanced down at himself apologetically. The girl, flushed an,d answered —

“Of turned as if to go but the Maori stopped her,. He went to a clump of bushes and returned, with a tweed coat over his arm.

“Take this,” he said ; and ignoring her protestations, put it around her drenched shoulders.

awfully! You have been very kind Mr— Mr —er” she hesitated.

“You can call me Hula,” he said

quietly. “My name is Myrtle—Myrtle Deeiing,” the girl volunteered,., wondering whether she should have told him or not, “iGood-nye—er—Huia 1 Many thanks,” and she vanished among the trees. Left alone the Maori resumed his interrupted swim and when he came out a second time he clutched a sodden red book which had fallen in the shallows, and which after wiping carefully, he put in the sun to dry. Next afternoon Myrtle Der.-ing strolled back to the scene of her mishap, carrying the tweed coat. She found Huia leaning aganst a tree smoking, and to her secret amazement, clothed in immaculate flannels. Evidently Maoris had imitated the white man in more ways than she had thought. She was only out from England a short while; so many things in New Zealand were strange to her. At 'Home one was always andert’ the impression that Maories were rough,, rude savages. The war

had altered, this idea slightly but still it lingered. Certainly there >vas nothing particularly startling about this young fellow. He appeared quite ordinary and even if it were a slight shock to find him grabed conventionally in flannels, they certainly suited him. Myrtle handed him hack the coat with shy thanks and ne held out the swollen red book- She took it with a little laugh. “You should have left it in the

lake, Hum,” she said. “I have finished reading it. You should have left it by any chance.. It is v-”y good!” A smile lit up jHuia's fine dark eyes. “I would like to read it immense-

ly,” he replied. “It is about the only book by this author that I have missed reading. Thank you. Miss

Deering.” Myrtle was conscious of another shock. How educated he must be to have read so much. She did not know that books appealed to Maoris Evidently 'Huia was a good .leal above the ordinary type. ~ After that day their matings became habitual. Myrtle knew that Huia was fascinated by heir, and it

was all very unusual and thrilling. She read the admiration in his liquid brown eyes, in his soft voice when he called her “Golden Hair ” She did not tell, her father of these stol-

en meetings, fearing his anger, and

he,, good man wholly engrossed .in catching rainbow trout, left Myrtle to her own devices. Then came the day when Huia kiss-

ed he!r —on the pink mouth, the golden hair, the forget-me-not blue eyes. I Myrtle felt no repulsion. She did I not think of the difference bet ween . them of race or blood, and only knew that he was young and of dark handsomeness and evidently much in love with heir. One evening as the sun was disappearing over the tops of the wooded hilk touching their verdure lo gold and old rose, and tipping the waters of the lake with vivid splashes of colour, Huia walked pa|rt of the way back to the camp with MrytleThey went hand inhand, the tall aark man and the fair English girl. A little distance from her destination, they parted, and Huia stood watching her slender figure out of sight. Half unconsciously he followed in the way she had gone, his thought full of her. Musing as he walked he heard the sound of voices ahead and one of them was Mrytle’s. ’He peered through the trees and a sharp ex-

clamation of dismay escaped him as he saw her in the airms of a tall fair-headed man.

“Fred, you darling!” he heard her

say. “Where did you drop from ? jThe sky ? Dad and I did’nt expect you fop ages yet!”

“I thought I’d surprise you,” returned the man, pinching her cheek. “You are looking exquisite, cheerie. Te*,l me how much you’ve missed me?”

“I've missed you frightfully, old deair!” Myrtle answered, and then voices drifted out of Huia’s hearing, as they strolled over to the camp fire where Mr Deering was; cooking some of his trout and calling to them to come to tea..

Huia dejectedly retraced his footsteps. His heart was filled with pain. The fair English girl had deceived him liorribily. Then the pride in him fiaired up. Was it because of his dark blood that she thought slip could treat him as she had done. ;His brown eyes that could be so soft, flashed angrily. She had trampled on his heart with li.tle careless feet, now he would do something to ctrush her pride, to show her that he did not care much. A plan grew boldly in his mind. Myrtle all unconscious of anything unusual, went down to the shore of the la.ke the next afternoon, to meet him. Huia’s face was sad, but it lighted up as he saw her- He had scarcely thought that she would come again, when her white lover had arrived. His heart contracted as she raised an innocent face which expressed surprise as he made no move towards her.

“Huia,” she said softly, doubtfully“Are’nt you pleased to see meHe answered gently, rather sorrowfully, she thought. “Of course, Golden Hair, I am very pleased,” as indeed he was.- “out things can nevelr be the same again.” “What do you mean?” queried Ivlrytle in amazement. But before he • could reply a gurgle of chbdish laughter broke the stillness of the bush. Huia started violently. Now came the ordeal and he nerved himself to carry through the little episode he had planned- Then before Myrtle’s astonished eyes there appeared a hugely fat Maori woman, with tattooed chin, and two small children clinging to her vivid skirt, and another revealing a tiny dark head above a ragged blanket on he-r back. The woman waddled towards Huia, who was trembling, his fingers nervously twisting a piece of dried grass. To him she spoke in voluoie Maori, not a word of which M/ytle understood, and it was only when -'he pointed a fat hand in her direction an,d the two brown,, half naked ehil-

dren transferred their interest to Huia’s white strides, that a glimmer of the truth struck Myrtle forcibly. Her face was pale as she said hoarsely. ‘iWho is this woman ?”

Huia raised .defiant eyes, buhis voice was strained as he replied stammerngiy,

“My w —wife !” Then remembe’-ing

how she had hurt him, he touched tiie two urchins.

“And these —my children !” A gesture included the baby on the woman’s back.

.For a moment Myrtle felt sick with disgust. The blue lake, the trees and the persons in front of her, ail became mixed up in one coif used blur. His wife ! Good heavens ! fat, dirty, bare-footed Maori woman- These ragged, dribbling gurgling children; —his. Oh how frantically ill she felt! What a fool she had been —what an utter fool ! She

had allowed this man to kiss her, to make love to hdr. What a despicable creature he was, she might have expected it though. He was only half civilised. She forgot that .die had ever thought hi>m educated and superior,. How she despised herself ! She turned and (rushed, blindly,

wildly away an.d collided with the fair-heaed man emerging from the trees.

“What’s all this n What’s the matter ?” he demanded. Myrtle clung to him convulsively. “Take me away!'Fred, take me away firom here at once, or Til go mad!” Rather bewildering!y the man obeyed, putting an arm around >her heaving shoulders and leading ner into the gloom. Neither of them could see that as they disappeared Huia turned violently on the Maori woman, standing with mouth agape and slinging a pound note at her feet said fiercely in quick Maori:

‘lGet out of my sight! Back to your husband ! Anywhere-! Go —at once!” Now that it was all over ha hated himself for his mean deception. He had seen what a blow it had been to the white girl’s pride and somehow the thought of it brought no consolation for his own hurt, but rather the reverse. Whatever had possessed him to carry through this mad scheme, planned in last nignt's frenzy ? He flung himself face downwads on the turf, alone with his egrets. Further into the bush, a nonplussed man was endeavouring to the best of his abiity to find out the cause of Mrytle’s teajrs. “Was that scoundrel annoying you ? I’ll thrash the life out of him if he was! Tell me!” [His voice was heavy with anger. “No ! No ! Nothing like that !” Myrtle said between gasps, After all it was her p/ride that was sufferso seyerely, not her, heart. Ihe man pJatted her arm soothingly. “■Well, then, His!” he pletded, “can’t you tell your old brother the trouble ?”

Poor man, he never knew that it was he himself that was at the root of it all, and Myrtle as well was ignorant as to the real, cause of her humiliation.