RU, THE DIPLOMAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21144, 30 March 1932, Page 3

RU, THE DIPLOMAT.

By TE MIHARO,

Jane rode her pony barebacked, her unstoekinged feet thrust into sandals, her khaki shorts barely touching her knees, her shirt unbuttoned, her sleeves rolled high. She sang untunefully as she rode, and pulled up short where sho spied Ku lying in the sun. Dismounting, sho let her horse free, knowing he would come at her call. " Ru." sho called sharply, " wake up, Ru. Father will be along in a minute, and you simply haven't cracked one stone ! We'll never have our road metalled. Ru regarded her through one eye, the other being too heavy with recent slumber to open at a moment's notice. "Can't you let a body rest?" ho asked resentfully. " Bringing in cows beforo dawn and milking and cleaning out cowsheds and carting rocks to make roads with, and I can't have one minute's rest." " Yes. Ku, p'haps you've done all that; but I'm afraid it was all 011 other days. You arc incurably lazy, now, that's what you arc." She stood over him till hp was roused sufficiently to begin his task, then she seated herself, her legs either side of a huge flat boulder and, planting stories to to cracked upon it, fell to with a brisk energy that Ru found painful. " Those unemployment people aren't any good," he began, " I didn't put my name down for an every-day job. " I can well believe, that, Ru." " 1 put myself down as a single man for two days' work a week, and this is how I get treated." " Well, you may be on dock for six days, but I should say two days' work covers t lie lot." Ru sighed extravagantly as half-heart-edly ho broke a stone. '1 hen ho rested 011 his laurels and watched .Jane s determined face framed with its clinging damp curls. fie approved of Jane; didn't she do most of his work for him? Shield him from the boss, and didn t she talk to him as if he were another human being, and always bring his luncheon down with her own ? These last few days she had been losing a bit of the laughter from her eyes, and Ru had made it his business to discover why. Well, he knew a thing or two, now, did Ru. Had a quarrel with that doctor feller, had she? H'm! Ru • thought he might, do a bit of meddling. He was quite willing to meddle in anything providing it wasn't work. lie reckoned that people who meddled in work were looking for trouble. l]c was a peacable chap himself! Jane turned severely to him. " Now, Ru, please begin ! " lie slid his eyes around, avoiding her candid f;aze. " I wes lost in admiration," he drawled slyly. " Your terrible energy, I wish I had some of him." * He was rewarded by a flashing dimple and lips that fought to smile. He was full of cupidity was Ru, and undependable; but he could make her laugh, and Jane was grateful to anyone who could do that these days. Besides, Ru was a likeable fellow, but one had to bo firm with him. " Not one bite of luncheon do you get till you have cracked a heap of stones," she said sternly. Ru's arms set off at a gallop. He had proof that Jane was always as good as her word. His busy mind was working and soon he looked up slyly under his diminutive brows; he decided 110 would take a risk in a good cause. " Me, I couldn't eat any luncheon," said Ru. e " Nice meat pies and your favourite sausage rolls and cake." But he shook his head. "My heart," he said, " is broken," and laid a mournful hand very near the pit of his stomach. " Perhaps it has only slipped," Jane suggested flippantly. " My heart," he repeated sternly, " is j broken." j " These stones have to be, too," she j reminded him. For perhaps a quarter of an hour they worked in silence, then Ru began again, fired by his own inspiration. " All I am good for, she says, is dressing up, and being careful not to soil mv ban's." Jane gave him a searching look. She knew Ru too well to suspect that he ever dressed up. However, as regards work, " she " was right- there. Still, it was reminiscent of words that had been said to her; but for all his cupidity Ru could not, know that. " I tell her, I work my fingers to the bone for her." He shook his head sadly, then rested it on the palm of one hand. " And w'en I got this good job, she come along to my whare and plant te flowers and the yaller roses. And w'en the yaller roses were to be in bloom she say we marry. -An' now she gone and won' come back." He cracked a stone or two, mainly far effect, then leaned on his elbow once more. " Her name is Anahera and she lives down beyond the mill folk. They have the good pa down there." > l'a ? " questioned Jane, " I haven't heard of it." " No, you haven't been down that way lately. You haven't been near te mill folk either?" he questioned. She thought she detected a shade of anxiety in his voice and wondered at it. She watched him closely as she shook bcr head. " Yes," lie continued in a mournful note, " she planted te yaller roses an' now they are in bloom. And if Igo near to tell her, will sho lis'eii ? Oil, no! Women is like that," he told Jane, " they never listens. They tell you things, oh, yes, but they-never listens! " Jane had done a good bit of listening to someone, sho was remembering, and had not tried to explain away that unjust accusation. By no means had she " told him things," and he had driven away, and had not returned. ller chin was set high, as with a will she went 011 breaking stones. Let him stay away—she certainly would not recall him. " Yes," Ku was saying, " it is a beautiful pa. They car veil te wliares and'grew te kumara, and Anahera, now she say she stay down there, and my heart is broken." jane looked at her watch. "That is just too bad, Ru," sho said unsympathitically, here it is luncheon time, and your heart too broken to eat!" Ru watched her open the bag; he had not realised that time was flying. 1 Jane's large, fresh meat pics, her crisp sausage rolls and fruit cake. looked exceedingly good to him. Things were pretty malicious, Ru thought resentfully. Jane deserved to lose her doctor! " I could eat," he capitulated, " if you would go down to te pa and tell Anahera my message." " What good would that do ? " asked the practical Jane. " Maybe she lis'en to you." Jane grinned and handed him his lunch. " How do ] get there ? " Ru's teeth hit lingeringly into a pie. He intended to have no more misunderstandings over his luncheon. " You go down to the mill manager's place and ho tell you the way. He knows. Me of'en goes down for te korero." Jane only half believed Ru's story; flic had a very shrewd idea that ho merely wanted her out of the way so lie could finish his disturbed nap. Still, she looked down the long winding road, where the heat was rising in shimmering waves; beyond was the deep shade of the bush and the cool mossy path called to Iter. Mavbe she would ride down there for Ru, and if he were only telling her a, tale, she would punish him somehow. He got. away with a good bit, but Jane was determined ho would not gel away with this. On tlie other hand, if it- were true she would like to help Ru and Anahera. No need for them all to be unhappy—and she had certainly seen those " yaller rcses " growing in Ru's patch of garden. Frc-wningly, she (bought around the matter anil came to a decision. " I know, Ru, we will both go." Ru looked up startled. " Mo, too? Oh, no, you jgo alone. T break all these stones. The boss, he bp. along soon." .Jane remained firm. She was quite satisfied now that there was a skeleton

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due to fall from Ru's cupboard, and she determined that it would fall hard. We will both go," sho said* severely, " I have broken enough stones for father to think you have done a good morning's work." " I think we leave it for another day. I think mavbe she not be there to-day." Jane smiled grimly. " Well, we may as well take a ride, Ru. We will go down and have a look at the mill for a while." " 1 stay and break the stones," Ru reiterated uneas'ly. " You are corning, too." " The boss —he be —" " Never mind the boss. We are going riding. Come along." Ru went off from another angle. " W'en people ha'e the quarantine w'at they do to strangers?" " liow do you mean ?" " W'en fever break out in place and the stranger walks in and the place is quarantine, w'at they do to him?" " Keep him there, I suppose." " Make him work ?" asked Ru with one of-his upward slv glances. One can't make people work against their will: look at the battle 1 have with you." Ru's expression began to brighten. He was remembering a doctor had once told him that germs did not affect him ; seemingly he was one of those fortunate people ivlio merely passed them on to 1 her people. His spirits rose. " All right, 1 come. And w'en you see. Anahera, you tell her my message an' I wait in the trees.'' Jane sighed uncertainly. One never ■w with Ru. Now this Anahera was >V ; t likely a fallacy: hut this talk about quarantine, now, where did that lead one ? She shook her head as they set out for the mill, she would not turn back now in any case. As usual Ru began to get talkative. " I reckon 1 deserve the, good holiday," he confided, " I been working hard on them stones. Breaking them day an' night." " What you deserve is rocks to break, under a stern overseer," Jane retorted. " Look at our road, only half-finished and T have cracked more stones than you have." " I share you my wages," Ru offered. " And so you should !" Rll looked startled. Me had not expected an answer of that calibre. "Mostly," he sighed, " they go on instalments. Five bobs to this one and five bobs to that oiip, and sometimes, I don' have any left." " You will have even less when you have paid 1110 my half!" Ru began to feel vindictive. Jane wasn't such a good sort after all, when one analysed her. And here he. was, taking her down to the quarantine village where they needed nurses and where her doctor feller was. Ru knew that they couldn't work shoulder to shoulder saving those fever-ridden people, and not make up. that silly quarrel; and here was ho, Ru, jeopardising Ms life, for all sho knew, and instead of paying him handsomely, here she was claiming half his wages! " Place looks funny somehow," Jane remarked as sho dismounted outside the manager's house and went in. Ru let the horses go and lay down 111 the sunshine. lie had begun his welldeserved rest It was a nasty jar to hear Jane's furious voice a few minutes later. " Get up out of that," she almost shouted, " get our horses and let us get away from here!" Ru drew himself to a sitting position. "Up you get!" commanded Jane. "Me?" expostulated Ru incredulously, " me ?" " Yes, you!" she stormed. " You got us into tliis, now you get us out before th<«V know we are here." v " But this village," he reproved, " is quarantine; we mus' stay here now!" Jane advanced on him, her hands in a clutching attitude. Ru rose hastily ; the position was entirely against him. In vain did he turn and twist and assure Jane that he had the plague. His very best groans left her unmoved. Bitterly lie followed her to the houses. " Were you lying about Anahera ?" she demanded of him as she jerked her bridle free. Ru found it impossible to lie to those candid eyes, and equally impossible to look away. Jane had a strong glance! " Well. I dream of her," he sighed, " one day, maybe, she come along, an' she see me an' we—" " I see," interrupted Jane in an ominous calm. Ru began to feel uneasy. His welldeserved rest was fading away. "This village," he began again, "is quarantine—" " Never mind all that nonsense," Jane's voice was beginning to rise. "We leave here this minute!" "Why—Jane!" said an incredulous voico behind them. " Have you come to help lis?" She caught Ru's sly upward glancein a lightning moment sho understood what he had done; that talk about dressing up and never soiling one's hands—it had been too apt! Shifting her scornful glance she caught a gleam of her bare knees. Ru had certainly done his work well ! Even in her moment of confusion her quick brain realised that. She was certainly not " dressed up" and her hands were still grubby with stone-dust. " Yes," Ru was answering happily, "she camo to help. 7 She say to me: ' Ru,' sho say, ' they need nurses down at the '." " I did nothing of the kind," Jane cut in sternly. " I had no idea there was any illness here!" She turned and faced the doctor. " I looked in the manager's house," she explained, " and now I am busy escaping." "But you cannot do that," ho said, " you cannot leave here now. ' " No." put in Ru, " this village is quarantine —" 'Bo quiet!" Jane shouted over her shoulder to him. Then she spoke to the doctor again. "Do you mean to tell mo 1 cannot go homo again ? •' r am afraid not." ho answered, and added, " we need extra nurses, Jane." Sho swept her hands tip beforo him. " They look a bit too soiled for nursing," sho remarked. Behind her Ru grinned encouragingly. " Only seldom sho have clean han's," ho explained, his interest in the proceedings refusing to let him remain quiet, "sho work too much; day and night she always work." Jane's dimple flashed. She crushed an urgent desire to laugh. " Wo have plenty of soap and water," the doctor remarked, " T knew I was wrong—Jane." " She good nurse." Ru volunteered. '' she bind up my elbow once." Slowly Jane turned and studied him. His happiness was childlike. lie was bubbling over with good feeling. There, was no cupidity in this, ho was glad for her, because even Ru could not mistake the way the doctor had spoken her name. Hut there was 11ft lessening of sternness in her voice as she gave him his last order. " YOll look aftei our horses now, Ru, and if I catch you neglecting them—you look out!" " 1 groom them," Rll promised, " 1 shine their coats and soon von think they are Ihe sun." He watched them go side by side, and soon he, noticed Iho doctor had found .lane's dusty hand. Then Rll turned back to the horses. Maybe, one day, he would shine them up just to show Jane lie had really meant it! In the meantime there was his disturbed day dream; he lay down in a patch of daisies and closed his eyes. Jarre would not, rouse him again to-day; her gratitude had shone on him from her soft young eyes! i