CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11756, 11 September 1901, Page 3

CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

WHO ROBBED THE SACKED TREE? • [by luciax sorrel.] Ha.vs Biederman'S" had been some six weeks in the little island of Reva. in the Pacific, and had scarcely done enough trade to keep him in tobacco. Pondering this fact one evening, he managed to evolve a very simple yet pretty little scheme. He shut his store earlyhe might, have kept it shut all day without being much the worse off in pocket— waddled over to see Gilbert Dennison, the rival trader. He was busy enough; the store was packed with natives bartering copra and similar produce of the island for cloth, cutlery, and such other tilings as they required. " Hullo, Mr. Biedermann," said Jack Dennison, the trader's son. a little surprised at the unusual visit. " We're a bit busy tonight, but we'll be closing in a minute or two. Come inside." " Dank you, dank you," said Biedermann, puffing and blowing after his walk. Mr. Dennison nodded cheerfully to him, though he was as surprised as "his son, and motioned him to a seat. The stout Gorman trader sat down and waited, for the store to close. "Well, now I'm at liberty," said Dennison at last, when the last native had departed. "How do you do? Trade -eity brisk, eh? We haven't seen very much of you lately." As a matter of fact it was Biedermann's first visit since the schooner Lizzie had planked him down, a queer, forlorn-looking object, with a still queerer paraphernalia of luggage, oil the beach at Reva. Mr. Dennison had taken pity on him, though it was evident he was a rival trader, and had asked him home to dinner. He had told him frankly enough, however, that there was not much room for another store on the island. " It's a little speck of a place, you see," he had explained, " and though I've been here some time I haven't made my pile yet. You come from Voea?" " Yes," said Biederman, " but dat was not no goot. Dis is besser as Voea." He did not think it worth while to explain that Yoea had been made too warm for him. "Well, one can only try one's luck. As long as all's fair and square trading I won't grumble." The German had gone away after having drunk a good deal of Mr. Dennison's liquor, and since that day the English trader has seen little of him. " Trade is not vair goot; not so much besser as Voea," Biederman now explained. "To-day I close early; I tink to come and see mein friendt; it —what you call it?— lonely mit oneself." " Well, I am glad to see you." said Mr. Dennison, who, though his rival's ill success was to his interest, felt a little sorry for the man. "You'll stay and have something to eat with .us? The servants are getting it ready. Excuse me just a minute." "Dank you vair' mooch," said Biedermann, either for the invitation, or else because Definison proposed to leave him alone for a few minutes in the room. It looked like the latter, because directly the trader had crossed the threshold his visitor got up from his seat, stole, as softly as 16 stone of solid flesh and fat could steal, to the door, and closed it with a chuckle. Then he peered about, as if to try his hand at some other kind of stealing. His little pig-like eyes lit on a small knife which Dennison was in the habit of using in the store. It was a thing of triflng value, but Biedermann's plump fingers closed round it as lovingly as if it had been a crown jewel of fabulous worth. Anyone watching him might have thought that he wanted a souvenir of his dear friend and rival, for the Englishman used the knife more frequently, perhaps, than anything else in the store. Or possibly murder was in Biedermann's heart? At all events, lie gave another deep chuckle as he pocketed the knife. He had just stowed it away and resumed his seat when Dennison entered. " Well," he said cheerily, " the table's set; and now, 'ladies and gentlemen, come to supper,' as the children say in dear old Come alone, Mr. Biedermann. Jack! Hurry .up! You can leave those things till afterwards." The three sat down to an excellent meal, and Mr. Biedermann, in spite of trade depression, proved very good company, telling them no end of yarns about the various islands of the Pacific which he had visited. Jack noticed that he drank less than he had done before, though he had the same rolling gait and the somewhat incoherent utterance when he left them in the evening with one of Mr. Dennison's fat cigars between his lips. The Englishman and his son watched him for a few minutes as he rolled down the moonlit road towards his store. " Seems to keep his pecker up very well, in spite of bad trade, don't he, dad?" said Jack, as the two closed and barred the door. They would have been more surprised still if they could have seen Biedermann two minutes later, doing a little shambling wardance in the road, with his face turned towards their store. When he had finished it he retraced his steps a few yards, with a very different motion from the semi-drunken gait he had at first assumed. A path led from this point of the road into the forest, and he followed it for some miles, pushing on briskly enough, in spite of his size, though every now and then he was obliged to rest. At last he reached an open space, where a solitary palm tree, covered with cocoarmts, was growing. He rested at the foot of it, puffing like a grampus, for a few minutes. Then, with the aid of stones and a long coil of twine, which he produced from one of his capacious pockets, Hans Biedermann carried out act two of his simple yet pretty plot. n. The next day there was intense excitement ill Reva. Two natives, passing early in the morning through the forest, stole softly by the clearing and the lonely palm trefe, saw something which opened their eyes and mouths', and raised their matted hair with horror; and, flinging down their burdens, raced at full speed through the tangled path towards the sea, " We must tell the king!" gasped one, as he ran. "And the priest!" said the other. "You to the priest, I to the king," said the first. "No, 110; both the king first, then the priest ; but both of us together." As they reached the wide road, natives tried to stop them, but they ran on, yelling "To the king, the king!" "What's the excitement about, dad?" asked Jack, as he watched them running down the road, and the chattering crowd which followed them. " Oh, I suppose they've seen some fresh bogey in the forest," said Mr. Dennison, laughing. "They're always getting frightened out of their wits, these people." > Biedermann was in his store as they passed, and watched them from a window. He rubbed his hands and chuckled. " Now we snail see what we shall see," he muttered. The two men flung themselves, panting, at the gates of the king's palace. At a few words to the half-naked guards they were admitted. The curious crowd waited and chattered without. After some time messengers rushed out, and fetched the priest from his hut in the forest. There was another long wait; then the king and the priest came out, with the two natives and a swarm of guards and palace officials. They made for the winding forest path, and the crowd tailed on behind at a respectful distance. " There's evidently something up in the forest," said Mr. Dennison to Jack, watching them as they turned off the main road. " We shan't have many customers this morning. Well, it's lucky we have plenty indoors to keep us going." In about three-quarters of an hour the crowd of natives reached the clearing, and their shrill chattering gave place to whispering as they pushed their way through the thick jungle-growth which fringed it. Suddenly a cry of horror, terror, and rage rose from all of them. The clearing was holy ground, the palm tree sacredforbidden to all save king and priest. Yet on the ground lay here and there nuts which had been gathered by a ruthless hand; .the tree itself was scarred and torn and damaged, and offerings which had lain at the foot of it had been sacrilegiously disturbed! The priest and ting advanced amid a deathly silence; the priest, his face working strangely, opened his mouth to speak. He had not uttered half a dozen words, when he stopped suddenly, his eyes resting 011 something which glistened in the sunshine at the foot of the tree. Ho advanced to-

wards it slowly, picked it up and examined it, and held it out to the king. Five minutes later, 'with loud cries for vengeance, the natives retraced their steps through the forest. "They're hack again," said Jack, as at last the crowd emerged oil to the broad road. " I say, father, something exciting' happened. They're brandishing their weapons —and. by Jove! they're coming towards the store." Mr. Dennison was a man used to decided action. "Get the Winchester, Jack." he said, "and keep them covered while I parj ley with them. Don't- let 'em see you. and i don't fire unless it's absolutely necessary. | Something's happened, and they're evidently i in a dangerous mood." Jack pointed his rifle through a loophole in the store while his father advanced to speak to the king. "Good morning, Nakaeia," he said, pleasantly, "you have come to trade?" " To trade with steel," answered the king, grimly. "To trade for blood, to wash out j the defiling of our holy place. Why have you done this thing?" "I have done nothing. O Nakaeia," said the trader. "You know me; I have been I your friend." j "But this is yours?" lie held out the i knife which the German had purloined. i " That is mine. Someone must have taken j it; I have missed it. You know me, Na- ! kaeia. If you kill me you will kill your friend, and our big fire-ships will come and destroy you." The king drew back and talked for a few minutes with the priest. "We will speak lof this in council," he said at last. " Come, | my people." j The next day, when the stores opened, j Biedermann's was crowded with natives J and Dennison's empty. The king had put | tapu, as it is called, on the English trader— signifying that not a native- was to be. allowed to have intercourse with him. The crafty German did another little war-dance that evening, as he thought how well his plan had succeeded. in. For several days the boycott continued. Then the trader Janet lay in R-eva Bay, and Jack Dennison boarded her and told the story of the tapu to some old friends of his among the officers. " I think that fellow Biedermann's' at the bottom of it," he said, " but there's no proof, so we can't do anything but twiddle our thumbs and see him j scooping in all the trade." " You ought to find some way of scoring off him," said Dick Prescott, one of the apprentices, who was Jack's particular chum. He thought a few minutes, then whispered a plot to some of the younger officers which sent them into peals of smothered laughter. I "That ought to fetch him he's so jolly pleased with himself he gets drunk every ! evening now, and couldn't tell black from : white." "Right you are,, then. Don't breathe a word to anyone, and be on the beach at eight sharp to-night." At eight o'clock a curious boatload of " natives" armed with knives, knobkerries, and guns landed on the beach. Strangely enough, they carried on a conversation with Jack, who was waiting for them, in perfect English. " Yon wait here, Jack," ens of them said ; " we'll soon ferret him out." A quarter of an hour later a half-drunken man came wobbling down the road at panic speed, with several "natives" brandishing clubs and knives at his heels. Curiously enough, they seemed to take care not to run fast enough to overtake him. Jack sprang out in the moonlit road. "Help, help!" screamed Biederman. " They'll murder me." " Why, what's wrong," said Jack. " Here, jump in the boat, and tell me while we're pulling to the ship. Look sharp, they'll have you." Biedermann rolled into the boat, and, half tipsy as he was, pulled for dear life. Ha told his story in gasps. The natives, he said, had found out that he had desecrated their sacred place and stolen Dennison's knife, and had threatened him with death unless he was off the island in five minutes. Luckily he had managed to secure his money, but Mr. Dennison might have his stock of copra as compensation, and in recognition of Jack's aid. For a good round sum Captain Stokes, of the Janet, agreed to carry Biedermann to the next island. Jack said good-bye to him, and pulled back to the shore, where several savagely-armed men, with fairly white faces, but dirty watermarks round their necks, were waiting for him and the boat. Next morning there was no sign either of the Janet or of Biedermann. The natives decided that the spirits must have found out that the German was the culprit and chased him from the island; and. when tapu was raised, Mr. Dennison did the biggest day's trade since landing in the island. —Chums.