THE GARDEN OF GOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18396, 11 May 1923, Page 3

THE GARDEN OF GOD.

• .BY H. DE VERE STACPOOLE. Author of "The Blue Lagoon." "Pools of Silence," "The Reef of Stars.", etc.. etc.

(Copyright.)

BOOK II

THE CHILDREN RETURN.

CHAPTER XXXV. ME DEATH OF A SEA KING

On the morning when Luminal and all his host set out, never to return, Uta Matu, sitting where his women had placed him on the sand of the beach, watched the canoes depart. . It was a glorious morning and the waters of the lagoon, stirring to the first of tha ebb, were sweeping towards the break beyond •which lay the outer sea like a vision of shattered sapphires. He saw the paddles flashing and the sheening foam of the outriggers, he watched the. mat sails take the wmd, gulls followed the canoes, escorting them, wheeling, sweeping and clanging on the wind. Then the gulls passed away and the sails vanished beyond the reef, and Uta found himself alone—alone with the women and children, and the crabs of .the beachhe, who had always led the fight and directed the rowers; and dispensed the laws of Karolin for sixty long years! Alone and useless as the smallest child. Uta had . been a hard and stern ruler, merciless to enemies, yet just [ according to his 1 lights. He had known three gods, him- | self, Nanawa, ; the shark-toothed one, ■ and "San of the.cocoanuts. i; - H a had only worshipped the first. Just as a clever man believes in ghosts without letting the belief interfere -in the least with - his renting a house supposed to be haunted, Uta believed in his Cogods without letting ?■ his belief worry him much.'': . > '* , ■",:'.' Even if the 1 verdict of Le Juan had been against the expedition, it is highly probable that he would have. sent it off all the same his fighting instincts ; had been raised and the death of his grandson, Sru. had vexed his soul. Having sat for a while ■ contemplating the ripples breaking on the sand and the gulls . flighting above the water, the • king of Karolin called to his women to carry him back to his house. That night the. great hot wind from the south ■ blew and whilst Lamina! and his men were slaughtering each other and the i waves were roaring on the reef of Kat'oUn, ] Lb;' Juan, full of kava and tho fear,,fhai I Nanawa had - taken it. into his head to j ply i them some dirty trick, instead of run - j ning straight, was clinging to a tree; be-1 fore the house, of the king shouting that Karolin was * triumphant . and her enemies slain, that Nanawa was riding the great south : wind hastening to fight with the men of Karolin. 1 ' ■„ ! ■'.'■ , Then came the peaceful morning and after; that came the" next day, and : the next, and a week. passed and a fortnight, and still- the men of Karolin did not return, and still another, fortnight. . ' \ Uta would cause himself -to be carried on his litter down to the canoe ; , house* and there, resting and reviewing !things," he would gaze into the great, half-lit interiors of the ,', houses where ;;:the '? long canoes 1 once \ rested;?: He could see . the ridge ; poles an d { the \ thatch ■■ of ■ the roofs, the rollers and the tackle that had once held the canoes. The great' hot wind, broken by a cocoaniit grove, had left the houses almost undamaged,;; but the canoes where were-- they "Of what use are the houses without the canoes" Uta would say to himself/ "Of what use is; life ] without the men who made the life j of Karolin —and my son, ; Laminai, and my:grandsons,iwhere are they!",, j XHe ordered three women to take : a fish-, ing ; canoe and start; for the north, 'find" Palm Tree, and see what they could'see, but - never to ' come back unless they brought news of "the missing ones; and the three women he; chose were the : wives i of Talia, Marua and Leopa, ; the three men who ; had 'v been J, with ';■ Sru; and ;, who had brought" the news of his death to Karolin; The three wretched women started with food enough for; four days, 'and they never came ■ back. Weeks vanished, /the;; days flighting, from east -to west like gorgeous birds,/born in purple dawns and vanish; ing in amber sunsets, but no word came, nothing but the voice of the bearded sea mumbling on the reef and the wind in'tho cocoa palms and . the challenge; of ;the ■ gulls. , .' ; ■/ "'■'■ i "■''■■'i''.' ' . Uta lost touch with life, for days, he would neither speak nor: eat, then, ; one morning.; he 'called for - Le Juan and she came, her knees knocking -together'. ; : '!'".■ Well," said Uta in a voice suddenly grown strong again',- " What have '•£you done with my men ? ■ What ') have you done with 'Laminai, my son,' with ■:■ his ; son" and . the men who went with him ? Speak!", *■ ',-\. .'• •; \ , >' l , V , ■1 he wretched creature stood without" a word. She had been honest, born of a priestess to Nanawa .and brought up in the faith she had always served faithfully her belief and her god. .' She knew.i, his trickery, his capriciousness; how sometimes he would answer a wish favourably and sometimes he would do exactly the reverse of what was desired. He had let her down now; once and for all. She could ted that by the light in Ufa's • eye which meant death to her.;.: • i: - '■;"■- j But though honest, her heart was wicked, and her wicked heart came now to her assistance, and she found her voire. : " It is .not my fault, 0 Uta," said Le Juan, "nor the; fault of he speaks through me. " Last night in my dreams he revealed his form, and his voice was like the voice of the reef when ' the great waves come in. The men of Karolin are held by Nanawa, the shark-toothed one, nor will lie let them go till a woman of Karolin is given "to him. 0 Kai 0 fai kanaka. ■ (To be staked out on the reef for the sharks to eat.) " .And the name of the woman?" asked Uta. ' "It has not been fold to me jet," replied the wretched creature, fighting for time in the presence of imminent death. But Uta had suddenly failed and lost interest, the spurt of energy had passed and the light of rage had faded from his eyes; perhaps in his inmost heart he knew that nothing -availed, that his men had gone where the dead men go, and that all tL? women of Karolin staked out on the reef for the servants of the shark-toothed one to devour would be a sacrifice offered j in vain. He moved his hand as if dismissing Le I Juan. " Tomorrow," said Uta. Then turning on his side he seemed to forget' things, and Le Juan took her departure, j saved for the moment. But the king's women: had heard; and in an hour there was not a woman of Karolin who did not know that their men I were held by Nanawa and that nothing would free them but the great sacrifice , which might fall to the lot of any one of j them. . ; ; Never for a moment did it occur to any j of the l -* unfortunates that, since Nanawa ! wanted a woman and sine* L* Juan was j a wcraan. the simplest way out would be j to stake Le Juan on the reef. Not a bit. She was sacred, being a I priestess. On Karolin there was not enough morality to divide in two piece*, but there was enough religion of a sort to furnish a world. By sunset, from \a Juan sweating in Iter hut, word went forth that the victim had been revealed to her. Naiia, the wife of Leopti, and, failing Nalia, her daughter Oorna, a half-witted girl of fourteen, * Never was fox cuter than Le Juan. Naiia was otic of the women Kent in the <aiioe to scoot for the lost expedition; she had not come bark, but sh? might still come back, M nothing would If/ done for a while, and in the meantime Uta might die, and Uta once dead she would have no fear of anything. Having sent this pronouncement abroad, L* Juan -set to work whole-heartedly to light a fire and wish Uta dead, and dead quickly. She might have saved her fire. Uta was dying. The king of Karelin's time had.".come",-, and by midnight the fact was known.

It was the night before the new moon, a hot breathless night, and round ; the king's house the air was filled with. the piping and whistling of little 'shells, tiny varieties of the conch, blown to keep away - evil spirits; the surf on the reef sounded low and its respirations were long-spaced , like the breathing of the dying man. ;, Not a soul was in.the house with him,-, though the whole population of i Karolin, .„ every woman and every child, -was seated outside in rows and rings beneath the ' ■ stars. ; r , ~ ■ ■■• , The chief wife sat by the right doorpost listening, waiting to signal the fact : of death, and though not a breath of wind stirred, a vague whispering came , and went like the sound the sand makes ; when the wind blows over it. It was ; the whispering of the women. • ;; All Ufa's life : was running about that . . night outside his house from lip 'io lip,'; ..,; from memory to memory. The battles he had fought, the children he had begotten, the men he had executed with his own hand or caused to be killed. The ;, ' fight with the Spanish ship people and 1 the people of the Paumotus. •■ Katafa's ? name was mentioned, the child • whom ho -,« had saved from Laminai, and who had ■.;; . been drowned and devoured by ■ the ; sharks. And as they whispered and talked, the lagoon water whispering "on tho beach seemed telling also of the deeds " of the departing one, and ■■ in the far rumble of the reef the voice of the outer sea seemed joining in. : , If Uta had never loved.a' human being, ! he had loved the sea as the gulls love it, s and the fish. ; It was part of him. •:' v ' Then suddenly the whispering ceased. ; 1 The chief wife had. risen and was stand- . i ing. erect and motionless like;: a brown. ['■ statue by the door. '/;. . k Deceived by a cessation of the breath-, :< ing in the house, she gave; the signal that ;; her lord and master was i dead, but scar- '' cely had she raised her arm to lower it ■ again ; when a voice from the house, made ; here jump; as though she' had received a slap behind. ,',-,- The King of Karolin ; was not the man to depart from this world like a sickly;;' | child; he who had entered it shouting 81 -; ' years ago, was not the man to leave it without saying good-bye., i He was calling for' his women, calling ;;:' them ;to carry him down to the ■■'water's - '. edge v ; "It is not here," cried Uta. "1' wish to be -cool. - I want the wind." There was no wind, but they carried ,o him, four women, one at each shoulder ... and one ;at each thigh, and ;, IoT .as they reached the lagoon edge and placed him -,; on the sand facing ! the V water " and propped ;in arms, ~ the air < stirred with a breath that shivered the star re- ' flections on the lagoon. v > ; The wind of : dawn had begun to blow, : and ,', in the east v beyond :tho break, tho dawn "itself showed a dubious Kght ■■. that • brightened a"nd burned -as .though% day ;. were hurrying to greet • Uta - and crown him ■.; for ■ the last time, with - the only crown he' had over worn. With the strengthening light the.tide could be seen * ! sweeping .;into the lagoon,'; it had turned ■■'■'- half an nour ago, and was coming strong,.■' : sweeping past the coral piers from the dim violet sea, above ; which -'. the j high, flying ':■■ gulls showed bright with \ the i day. ..;; :■■: •'-■*: Uta; watched. He wnis . not the man to [■< go out with the tide, the full flood was ' tho time for him when,' bravely swimming, ■ ; his soul might go fearless to tho God who ;; made the sharks, l and ; the gulls". and the':' '■ kings': and peoples of tho &ca. ':. ;: :;'; ,; -;/v He /;watched; the,:' light break on the 1; I water, and' the brow of the sun * rise from ')-■ the-ocean; then, as; the morning Ht the ■ , lagoon in the whole of its 40-mile stretch, Uta*, v straightening in the arms of the women, gave a shout. ' " They coma!" , • ' Past the; piers of the break they : Avcro coming,■ the whole ifleet; of Ivarolin, willing against the wind, and with all 'the ; ; paddles flashing, guWs wheeling ; and ' crying : above them.;and the flood .tide,boiling in;.their .waku." ■ ' : ; liaising like a young man and swift v as 1 a boy, be ran, curving inwards, •:■ they made to beach on tho cream-whito sand. Laminai shouting his name, sprang on the out rigger • gratings to meet him -- and as he' sprang on board "arid;-they' . grasped each other, • the great canoe, turn- ,r'ing, shot up into tho eyes of the sun. ; *^, But the women saw; nothing of this, nothing but the monstrous dead l body of Uta, : that - had fallen . together supported'■'■■ , i in the arms of his wives, ' . «■!: _":':. :'".■■.-,;■'.;•:'-'f '■'■ '.'■>'' •'■■-."■': -■■... .■-.:-■ ■:■:'■;:'':: '»-'■■■' • CHAPTER XXXVI. • THE CLUB , 01? Jf A. - ; '" Taori !" * ■':'.': .; / . ' '' ' -Thet>birds were twittering on the, . branches above, arid tho first sunbeams, : , breaking through the leaves. . /;"',' Taori!'',/ whispered Katafa, her arm '■' around the neck of tho: sleeper, and her .*:;* lips close to ' his ear.. ■ >iHe ; stirred, raised himself on his ; erbow • rind-sat up, sleep dropping from him sud- ■ denly, like 'a cloak. "Listen," said -,-.^--.;::.:'..;; : ':: . Awakening with the first bciftri of light,. she had heard vague, i arid far away sounds, sounds caught and repeated by trie echoes of the hated, woods—the woods that had •' imprisoned : her once,' that seemed 'in lcaguo against her again, the woods eho had always-hated; - that had, always hated her, barring : her -from; the freedom she. craved, for, and the wide spates that were part of her soul. , '. i; Karolin was calling arid ;. tho; sea was. ) open arid:the boat■ was there ready, no-' thing was wanting - but the dark of :• the " next night, and just .in .'that first: clear j minute of , waking from .sleep with ..her arm around .>■ the: man she loved, came a sense of oppression,'' imprisonment, and \'; : evil—the woods. * The vision of the copra traders and the great; canoe guarding the lagoon was ' almost forgotten the V sense :: of hate ; and imprisonment came from the trees and >') maybe in that waking moment her, mind : had glimpsed the core; of things, for :it /'- was the j trees. that .had ■''• brought . the ' : tra'dera. ■ ,', r ■ : 'Then came the far-away sounds; shouts arid vague, indefinite noises heard through the movement of the wind in the leaves, now dying to; nothing, now : more clear ;; i and purposeful; almost like the sound of ; pursuit- it was the sound of search. ; The; copra traders were combing the groves. '1 he remains of the canoe broken ;, on the beach hrrd giv,*n them .pause,be- - ,? for taking full possession of the place, > and they wished to fceo what might pos- '■' sibly be lurking amidst the trees. .•. " : Even as Dick listened, the sounds grew x clearer. They would die away as though, i finished and done with, and then they :"; would break out iof a sudden cYotcr. - There is nothing more deceptive than the trees, with ' their dense patches,, ;tbe|ir winding run-ways, their echo'-ha'onbJd - ■■'■:■ dells, their draughts and atillnejjge!!. ■ I Hound enter* here like : a runner and gets „•' lost, and goes far or fails;- or drops dead, . according to the road in takes, according '"•*' j to the wind it meets, or the absence nl \ wind. 1. .- - ■. :-:": ~ : ■.■■'-';'' A shout cimn from the sward. Dick j parted the leaves, arid there; running ) across the sward towards tho house, wan'•'' '■ a man. a rt-d-bearded man, gun in hand. .'-.: \ Four others came after him, brown and ! naked, with frizzy, black beards, and Dick, whose piercing eyes noted Vvery- *•'■'■• I thing, saw the mark* on their bodies, ! marks of old wounds and ring-Worm sore*. . He stooped and picked up the coralhesded club he had found _that '; day on j the Eastern beach, and reefing bis hVnds j rightly on it, continued Id watch. They made for the house and surrounded Jit whilst the jed-U-MM roan, wen! in. • Dick could see him inside, looking here and - there at the shelves, at'the walls, and ,-; round on the floor, as if starching for trace of the owner* < then he came nut, and th»; whole party disappeared into the ; grove to the left. Ten minutes later they reappeared, re crojsed the sward, and entered the woods again, making, evidently, for the eastern beach again. -' ■" - .. ■, ' "They are'gone," said Katafa. "hot le us »til! keep hidden, for they raay- . return.' '■■'. Dick, without answering, stood Inter*. ing. " No," said he. " they are gone, but the\ - will not return yet." (To be continued daily.) ', .-.•--