TUVANA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10783, 3 June 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

TUVANA.

(By Justus Miles Forman.)

• It was at Haapai in the Southern /Tonga group that we learned of the death of poor Air Arthur, Sir Herbert's and lier Ladyship's brother, that might have been Sir Herbert's twin to look •at, but wasn't, being some years younger, and of how his body was brought beak to Tuvana, the island he ruled over, by the brown ineu, and buried there, and the Harvest Moon brought back to Tuvana, the island he been the cause of his death,, and which the Princess Mata wore now, - round her neck, for love and remembrance of him she had hoped to marry, . Sir Herbert decided at once that he must make the pilgrimage to his brother's grave in the cruising schooner we had hired in Auckland. Her Ladyship didn't want to go. I don't quite know why and she couldn't explain. Maybe, knowing that the Harvest Moon was at Tuvana, she was afraid to go 'there. I can't say. For, of course, ever since we had come south of the equator we had all heai'd about that tremendous, great, wicked pearl that had done so much harm and wrecked and killed so many people—every one that had ever had anything to do with It. And now it had smashed poor Mr Arthur, too (or Hayes, as he called himself hereabouts, or Tui Tuavana, as the natives called him). It had smashed him like all the rest, so if her Ladyship felt superstitious about the thing and dreaded to go where it was, I'm sure I don't wonder. But Sir Herbert was a stubborn gentleman once his mind was made up, and he'd got it into his head that it was a kind of solemn duty to visit poor Mr Arthur's grave, so we went. At Haapai we took on board the schooner a brown boy who had been one of Mr Arthur's people, and we got the bearings of the island and set sail. We had a fair south-easterly trade and lifted Tuvana at dawn of the fourth day. It is a high island, but surrounded by a coral reef, as high islands sometimes are in these parts, and we dropped anchor inside the lagoon at sunrise.

It made a very pretty picture, I must say—the blue sky and the blue water of the lagoon, and the strip of yellow .beach with palm trees standing thick and close behind, and the little mountain a-towering up overhead. It was as pretty a picture as you'll often, see, even in the tropics; but I was uneasy and cast down and didn't admire it. No more did her Ladyship, for she seemed to be as. nervous as a cat in a strange garret (though I'm sure I beg her pardon for using such words •of her), and once she said_to Sir Herbert—it was while we were in the small boat going off—she said : "I wish we hadn't come here, Herbert. I'm afraid of something. I'mall creeps." • But Sir Herbert laughed at her and pointed to the shore, where there was a little knot of native people gathering to welcome us. So wc landed at Tuvana, that had been poor Mr Arthur's home and, as you might say, kingdom. The people on the beach, when they saw Sir Herbert's face, that was so extraordinarily like Mr Arthur's, though older, and, if I may say so, a bit harder, began to shriek and carry on, and some of them was all for running away, thinking they saw a ghost, but the brown boy that had come with us made a. kind of oration, explaining who we were, so it apjieared, and then they stopped their noise, but gathered round us, wanting to hold our hands, and grinned and made signs .to .show how glad they were. Some of them could speak a little English—just' single words, like so many of the natives hereabouts, who learn it from the copra traders and sailormen —and these said all the words they knew over and over again, and everybody got down on their knees to Sir Herbert, who didn't like it. and looked very red and uncomfortable.

The brown boy that sailed with us from Haapai had slipped away while we were standing about on the beach being made much of. but in a few minutes he came back and made us understand — for he could speak more than a bit of English, too, when he wasn't excited — that the Tua Mata, the Queen or Princess or Chieftainess, or whatever you may like to say tua means, was waiting to see us. . So we went up from the beach and under the palm trees in a kind of procession, and brown people following after. We went along a sort of lane where the sunlight didn't reach the ground, and past little clean thatched native huts with walls made out of plaited fibre, and, at the top of a slope, came to a house like the others, but bigger, and two of its "walls were rolled up like the flaps of a tent. I noticed that the j native people had stopped a few yards away under the trees and I wondered why, but after a moment I stopped wondering altogether and just stared, and I daresay my eyeballs was a-popping out like a frog's or a bulldog's. The Tua Mata was standing in the open wall-of that plaited house, alone except that, some distance back in the shadows, there may have been half a dozen other women. And she was like the marble ladies in the picture galleries if only they were painted a golden brown and had a square of red silk twisted round their, hips so that it fell to the knees or thereabouts. She was far too beautiful, the Tua Mata was, for me to try to describe her. I didn't know brown women could be like that —no, nor white ones neither, though .m my time I have seen a great many ladies as had their pictures in the weekly papers and wore pearls—or even strawberry" leaves—and swept about a house like peacocks with the gift of speech.

She was no more than' a- girl—not" yet twenty, I'll sw.£ar, "but she. stood up be 7; fore Sir Herbert and her. Ladyship like a duchess in a; court train and a coronet, instead of a browii girl in a yard of thin red silk, and a trumpery brass locket hung from lier neck. . I heard her Ladyship give a little cry under her breath, and Sir Herbert he says aloud: "By Jove!" Then the Tua Mata, who had been, gazing very proud and still out oyer our heads, looked down at Sir Herbert's face.

She must hare seen poor Mr Arthur, that called himself Hayes, a-standing there before her as if he had stepped out of his grave, for she Ijegan to shiver all over, and she turned her head away, very slow, and put both her hands up over her face. It was a terrible thing to see, and much worse than if she had screamed or wept or carried ou as

other women might do. I don't mind confessing that it turned me sick for a bit.

Her Ladyship cried out and went a step nearer to where that brown girl stood. She put her arms about the girl's bare shoulders, and she says:

"Oh, my dear! We're his brother and his sister. Won't you welcome us for his sake?" Nobody could ever resist her Ladyship when she spoke like that —not even the Tua- Mata, who turned her face for an instant to be kissed, and then hid it on her Ladyship's bosom.

But presently she stood up straight again, and you would never have known that anything had happened. She said in very good English, But queer-sound-ing, tliat. no doubt Mr Arthur had taught her: "I bid you welcome," and stretched out her hand to Sir Herbert, but she didn't look at him again just then.

I saw Sir Herbert, hesitate as to .what he should do, then he bent over andkissed the Tua Mata's hand—and I was glad. .

I find it isn't nothing like so easy to write, about things as I thought it would be. If I should try to set -down here all that happened iu the ten days Sir Herbert and her Ladyship and I spent on Tuvana it would take me. a month or even more. So I must pick out, if I can, the most important things and. let the others go, though it seems a pitv, for now I Be", able to tell about the feasts, and- the kavadrinkings, and the native dances, (which was very stirring, indeed, and gave you little thrills like soldiers marching: past | to music), and the picnics, and the fish spearing in the lagoon of a starlight night. . ; . '. The first very important thing that happened seems to me to be we made—Sir Herbert and her Ladyship arid the Tua Mata and me arid a. dozen of the uatives —to Mr Arthur's grave-up on the mountainside above the village. And it seems to me important, not on account of poor Mr Arthur—or\ Hayes, if you like—but for another reason altogether. It was a long climb up a rough path, and. we made it in the cool of the day, just before sunset. But when we caine out at last pn the little spur of the: hillside where the grave was, looking over the sea, it was worth' all the heat and the work and more, too. It wasthe finest place to be buried in 1 ever saw or ever shall see.

The grave had a'flat, square mound of shaped stones above it, and two poinsettia trees stood beside, so that there was a great mass of blazing / crimson over Hayes' bones. And on the- flat mound they'd laid, native-fashion, the dead man's belongings —a pipe and a tin of tobacco and a little round Amer rican alarm clock and three pairs of boots and a razor and a leather belt and many other things that I've forgotten. The natives, all but the Tua Mata, hung back among the trees as the rest of us stood about Mr Arthur's grave,, and her Ladyship went down on her knees, and I think said a little prayer. But Sir Herbert and the Tua Mata. stood across from each other, with the grave between them, and the Tua Mata's eyes went from Sir Herbert's face down to the big stones • that covered what was left of the man she'd loved, and back again, and then once more down and back, and, after that, they stayed upon Sir Herbert's face, who didn't notice, I fancy. But I did.

I noticed and watched both then and afterward, and cursed the day that had brought us to Tuvana, and felt as sorry for that slip of &. brown girl with her big troubled eyes as if she had been my own daughter. For it was easy enough to see what was gcing on in her mind. She was as simple and open as a little child. She had loved poor Mr Arthur and she loved him still. No one who wasn't a fool could doubt that. I've never in my time observed a heavier grief than she carried about with her, never. In all those ten days I don't recall seeing lier smile, a proper, gay smile, or hearing her laugh. But here was Mr Arthur come again, risen from the dead, and who was to tell that child, who knew nothing whatever about tha world, that Sir Herbert wasn't the homeless, wandering, gay, young, adventurer that his brother had been. Who was to tell her that? Nobody, and it made me heartsick to see her eyes follow him about and know what was growing'up in her.

I'd have spoke to Sir Herbert about it, if I dared, but I didn't. He wasn't a gentleman as' would have fancied liberties from his servants. It would have been as much as my place was worth. . ,

I think the next important thing that happened was the first look we had at the Harvest Moon, which was one evening when Sir Herbert and her Ladyship and the Tua Mata was sitting on the mats in the big house and I was just outside —for Sir Herbert liked to have me at- hand. I was so near that I overheard every word as was said, and I heard my master come out plum with a direct question about the pearl. The Tua Mata didn't answer him at first, but after a moment she said: "It is 'ere," and put up lier hand to the cheap brass locket she wore hanging by a cord from her neck. "'E al-ways say," says the Tua Mata in her queer-sounding speech that made me think of her Ladyship's maid we'd left behind in Auckland. " 'Ayes always say 'e weesh me to 'ave the 'Arves Moon, an' so, w'en 'e —w'en 'e is dead the boys, Tano an' Sitivi, breeng it to me, and I wear it, like 'e wear it, in the gol' locket. You like to see?"

She took tlie locket off and held it in her hands before her. It must have taken her some little time to open tlie thing, or else what was inside was well wrapped up, for none of them spoke at once. Then, after what may have been a minute or more, I saw their heads go forward, and X heard her Ladyship give a cry, and I;heard Sir Herbert drawin a- very long, deep breath, so that it hissed and whistled between his teeth. How it happened I can't say, not even now, but somehow or other I found myself inside that house, a-crouching behind the three people as sat leaning forward with their heads, together. And I saw what- they were gazing at—what the Tua, Mata held in the palm of her hand over a little square of black cloth. It wasn't like any. pearl in the world, nor it wasn't like any other kind or a jewel neither. I can't find words for it, and I expect there isn't any. It was like smouldering fire with a veil over the surface. No, it was like something ghastly and beautiful and, alive, for I'll swear I sat it-move. 11l swear it breathed —quite regular up and down like you or. me; and, as it breathed those' smouldering fires burned red and faded and burned red. again. It was the most wonderful thing in the world and the horriblest. You couldn't tear your eyes away from it. didn t know what it might change into or make up its beautiful wicked mind to ''The 'Arves Moon," says the Tua Mata in a whisper, and her voice broke the spell I was under, and I tiptoed away before anybody saw me. It didn t break the spell for the others, though : —and especially for Sir Herbert, who sat bending forward with his eyes fastened on the Harvest Moon, and scarce-, ly seemed to breathe at all. I'd never seen him like that before. But- when the Tua- Mata' stirred at last and began to wrap- the pearl up once more in a half-dozen little squares of cloth, Sir Herbert drew another long breath and rubbed one hand across, his face. I thought he looked dazed as if he'd been asleep. He didn't say; anything, but her Ladyship exclaimed about how rang-, nificent the Harvest Mqou was, and how she didn't wonder so : many people bad lost their heads, and their lives as - well, oyer it. - . . And no more do I ! No more do I.

Now. you may believe it or not. but from'that evening on to the end .my master was another man. altogether. Whether he was bewitched with ; the Harvest Moon I haven't no means of making sure —but I know what I think. You must think what you choose. For one thing, he began to drink more than was good, for him—as he'd done once before, some years back, but had cured himself of —and the drink made him irritable and hard to please. I had to mind my p's and. q's in those days, you may be sure. Nor I. wasn't the only one to suffer neither, for her Lady-hip had many a word out of him that he wouldn't have spoke if he'd been quite himself.

Likewise, he talked in his sleep, as never before, and it was about the Harvest Moon, though that wasn't noways strange, for I'd dreamed of it once myself and woke up fair trembling—the dream having been a dreadlul one. But the worst of all was what you might- call a breaking up of morals which I bewail to see in him. Sir Herbert hadn't never been a ladies man, and I expect that was why he was unmarried at three and forty. He hadn't cared about women of any kind nor degree, and so. when he began to spend all his hours walking or sitting aoout alone with Tua Mata —and her nothing else than an innocent child it meant more than as if he had been another man. The girl, I dare say. thought she was in heaven.

It was e;isv enough to see how she felt about it—too easy. But. 110 good could come of it, and it made mc veiy sad to see Sir Herbert that had led an upright and honorable life, though at times a little hard and unbending, begin at three and forty to play fast ana loose with a brown girl as trusted him and hadn't 110' weapons to fight bade at him with.

■lt wasn't just walking about to ■ see the eights neither. He made out-and-out love to Tua Mata. I saw more than once. I don't know if her Ladyship saw too, but I hope she didn't, f So things went on and got 110 better, but much worse, and it came to ihe evening of the ninth day. Sir Herbert had been the very devil to get on with that day (though I'm sure I"- regret using such language of my master —and him a. baronet), and, when evening came, I was very glad to have her Ladyship ask me to walk with her along the beach, for an hour, to get a breath of cool air, the afternoon having been very hot. So we went, and the night air was cool and fresh and full of the most wonderful swent smells from trees and flowers out of sight in the dark, and the sky wais the deepest purple blue ' that could be, with stars so warm and bright they looked like pearls—but not like the Harvest Moon, which I'd dreamt of again the niglit before —and the sea made soft iittle whispers out Against the reef, and now and then a fish jumped in the lagoon, and, I remember, some of the native men and women were singing together far away at the other side of the village. It seemed a pity riot to stay out in that beautiful night till the dawn came, "but end of an hour or thereabouts her Ladyship said we must go back'to the house.

They'd forgotten us, the two there "iir the lamplight, or else they hadn't expected us so soon. Sir' Herbert was a-sittirig- on oiie of the boxes the Tua "Mata had brought in for her guests; who couldn't sit comfortable 011 the woven mat, and the girl was kneeling at' his 'knees, and they were talking about when thrjr should bo married! Her Ladyship began to tremble as we stood outside, and I was for slipping away, but she caught my arm and held me.

Lovers' talks thcv were talking, though I hadn't thought my master capable of such. And about marriage, which was worse still! I couldn't believe mv ears. Sir Herbert said hoiv he must first go J»ack to England to settle his affairs, and that made the Tua Mat a weep, and she begged him to take her with lnm, saying as she'd die if left behind. Then he had to comfort her about that, and there was more lovers' talk. But when they had been still for a moment and the girl's face was hidden on his knees, my master savs in a very low voice: . 4 "Let- me see the Harvest Moon. Mala!" She reared up her head at £ Joking frightened, and clasped both hands together over the brass locket- that hung on her breast. '.'Why? "\Vliy?" .Why not?" says Sir Herbert in thatsame Jow voice, and, after a bit. she unclasped her hands and opened the locket. They looked at that great pearl together in the yellow lamplight, and her Ladyship and I looked, fop, from the darkness outside, but Sir Herbert's face »yas purplish red, with the veins standing out on his forehead, and his hands, hanging beside him, shook a Irttto

"Let me keep it, Mata !" says ho at last in a very oucor* hoarso voicv*. "Lot me keep it. I'lLsell it—sell it in England and you shall bn rich —do vou liear? Rich?" But the gi rl gave a sharp cry and stumbled up to her feet, hacking away from hint across the floor. She stuffed the pearl back into the locket with the little .square of cloth, and backed awav still farther crying out: _ "No ! Xo! No! It was ';'s —yes's. Xo! .Nevvairc. ' My master had got to his feet and followed a step after her, shakin" all over. " "Give it lome!" savs he in tliat queer voice. "It was Arthur's. I've a right to it. Don't be a fool. Cine it to me!'' And then he stopped short, for tlie_ girl was facing him witli licr eyes wide open and her hands spread out. and 011 her face the most dreadful look of horror and understanding and anguish that 1 have ever yet seen, and, God willing, ever shall see. She had to fight for breath to speak. "So it was—that!" says die when her • voice came. .. "It was —the 'Arves' Moon! not ine —no! No, not me you wanted—the 'Arres' Moon!" She gave the most terrible loud, strangling cry. and, hard upon it, toro the brass locket from her neck,- the rotten cord snapping in two, and threw it straight into Sir Herbert's face. 'Take it!" the Tua Mata says. "Take it! Take it!" And dropped down,upon the floor to her knees and bowed herself over them with her face hidden.- ■ We-ran into the room together, her Ladyship and I, and Sir Herbert turned half about to meet us His face was as white as paper, and his eyos were staring. He looked like a man ill some kind of trance. The HarvestMoon in its cheap brass locket lay at ibis feet- on the floor, and he stood, partly stooped over it, with his hands out- before him. .So the three of us faced one another without a word for, I should think, half a minute. Then her Ladyship screamed, very sharp and sudden, and "ointed to where the brown girl lay in a heap,-bowed over upon her knees. I looked and a pool of blood was spreading out from where she lay —-quite black in the lamplight. She'd stabbed herself with the knife she wore stack in the twist of her pareo. I ran to where she was, though my legs- were .weak under me. and began to liffc her, but Sir Herbert brushed me aisido as. though I had been a chair, and caught the girl up in his arms. The horror of the thing had sobered him—shocked him out of that trance or whatever it. had been. He held her against his breast, calling upon her. -''Mata? Mata! For God's sake! Mata! Mata!" And there was real agony and, I like to believe, real love in his voice. He held her close and her blood streamed over them both—a dreadful sight. The girl was almost gone, for she'd struck deep and true and near the heart with her strong little hands, but there was life in her still—a little. She opened her eyes and saw his face. Her mind must have been a little clouded, for she seems to have thought. he was her old lover that held her against liis breast. She said in a very weak whisper: , " 'Ayes!—'Ayes!—Kiss!" And she 'smiled. I saw her smile.

Sir Herbert kissed her, and her head fell, and she died. Then lie Tald her down -upon the floor again, and bowed himself over her, and fell to sobbing like a little child. AVe buried her at sunset of the next day, high up on the mountain alongside Mr Arthur's grave, that' had called "himself Haves. It was a sad' day for Tuvana and a sad day for the three of us as had come there, meaning no harm. But it was a :'rand occasion for the Harvest Moon, which I think must have laughed itself almost to death and clapped its hands for iov. I bad hnd a dreadful night with Sir Herbert, who was quite unstrung and broke down and hysterical over the Tua Mata's death, and wept and called himself a murderer, and said lie should never forgive himself, nor God wouldn't neither, and carried on in a shocking wav. and couldn't sleep until very late indeed, when lie dropjvl off into a sort of doze. Her Ladyship sat up all through the night with the oilier women beside the Tua Mata's body.

But at dawn my master awoke, looking very ill. and the first thing he did was to take two very .stiff drinks oi < whi.-kv with no food to go with it. L ventured 10 urge him not to, but he looked up at me, under his eyebrows, and savs: ■Jioild your tongue!" Which I did. Afterward lie walked up and do I .* n i'nr :m hour, muttering to himself, then slept a little more and then took another nip. So he went on through most Oi tiie day. Her Ladyship, very white and deathly, tried once or twice to speak to him. but he cut her off as savage as an angry dog, and so she let hiin alone. . Once, toward noon, he went into the big house where the women were kneeling around the body of their dead Princess, and drove them away, and stayed there idone for half an hour or so. When ho- came out lie was sliiverin" and unsteady on liis feet. But he lav down and slept for st long while. Jfc came to be time to carry the Tua Mata up the mountainside to lier grave, which the young men were to do and her. Ladyship -spoke to Sir Herbert,, whom she hadn't said a word to since morning. She spoke very grave and serious and short, without any cringing I —the first time ! ever knew her to stand up to liimwithout fear, as you might say. She says-: "When Mata is buried the Harvest Moon is to be buried with her. I'hope you understand that." And Sir Herbert answered: 1 "Yes,-that's right. That's right." And she went away.: One last look I had at the poor child before they wrapped her up in. the precious woven mats to carry her to the grave.- There was flowers about her and in her hair and -her little \ hands were crossed, and her beautiful face was quite calm —not smiling nor frowning,: just calm and as peaceful as peace itself.

And lying 011 her breast was the cheap brass locket tied by its bit of dirty string. I must say it made mv heart heat fast to see it there, and to think that at last, after so much wickedness and despair and treachery and bloodshed, the Harvest Moon was to be lost to the world —buried away forever where it couldn't bewitch and ruin and kill people any more. It was the only thing to do, I knew that right enough. It was like burying a horrid disease where it couldn't never harm the world again, but, for all that, it made my heart beat. fast. It was like seeing a great fortune thrown deliberately into the sea or burnt. I don't quite know whether I was sorry or not, but I was very much excited. I confess that. So we buried her beside her lover, looking out over the quiet sea, and the young men who had been up there on the mountainside all day, making ready, piled the big stones over her in a flat, low heap like over Hayes' grave, and the Women scattered flowers and wept and sang. The sun went down behind the western sea and we came away. The same evening Sir Herbert and lier Ladyship and me went on board the schooner. I ■ won't. say as we thought it was dow'nright unsafe to stay at Tuvana, for the natives was

civil ui) to the last minute —not having any clear idea of how we were responsible for Mata's death—but there was

sure to be a good deal of x)alm-wine drinking that night, and- so on, and Ave felt as it was just as well to get away : —Sir Herbert in particular. So we went on board, and there was just a breath of air blowing to carry us outside the reef into the three-knot current that flows past, then the breeze dropped altogether and we drifted ou the current. In an hour the few low lights along the island beach was out of sight and we was done with Tuvana —almost. Sir Herbert had been , drinking through the day arid wasn't himself. That must have been why he invited the skipper and the mate to sit down with him in the bit of a saloon and crack a bottle (we were out of the lagoon then and drifting, so there was no work for them on deck). Her Ladyship was for going off to her cabin at that, but Sir Herbert took offence, and to liuinor him she stayed while the skipper and the mate, very red and uncomfortable, pretended to drink what Sir Herbert poured out for them.

I wasn't there. I was on deck, but I could see and hear all that went on through the saloon skylight that was •open, to let in the air. Besides me there was only the Kanaka at the wheel, tile others of the crew being below having their supper.

I remember that there, were two huge sharks a-circling round the schooner — and I could see them in the starlight—and as I was watching these I didn't pay attention to all that went on in tho saloon below, but presently the skipper, for some reason, began talking al>out the Harvest Moon and about what. a wicked thing it was, but all the same it seemed dreadful to a poor man like him to bury anything so valuable away from the world. Thousands and thousands of pounds it must be worth, lie says, and lie says he was sure he couldn't have done it —moaning put away the pearl under the ground.

At that Sir Herbert began to laugh, a queer, nasty, tittering sort of low laugh, and kept oil laughing like he couldn't stop. But finally he says:— "Neither could I, friend Schwartz. Neither could I." And he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the Harvest Moon and laid it on the table before him!

My heart came into my mouth and I near tumbled into the open skylight, where I was crouching to see. Well, it's no good wondering and explaining and, making excuses now, though I like to believe lie couldn't have done it if he had been himself. 1 like to think he was bewitched, and I know he was drunk, or near it. But, when all's said and done, the man who would rob a dead -girl, as had come to her death through his own doing, is a scoundrel and a blackguard and dirty dog, and those words I stick to, though the man was my master and a baronet.

And, though she found other words, such as a lady might use, it wns just about- those same things that her Ladyship said to her brother after she had given one loud, dreadful scream at sight of the Harvest Moon, and got to her feet, trembling all over, and stood facing him with her back against the. saloon bulkhead. And she said he was never more anv brother of hers, and she wished she might die without seeing bis face again. Then she went away to shut herself into her own cabin. But Sir Herbert sat where he was, breathing a bit hard, and very purple as to his face. And presently the other two, the skipper and the mate, as had l got up when her Ladyship began to carry on,'sat down again, and 1 all three of them stared at that wonderful wicked pearl as if they couldn't leave off. From .where I was 011 the deck overhead I could the mate's face plainest, and it was twitching and his eyes was standing out. It frightened me, the mate's face did. It was terrible. Once he put out his big red hand toward the pearl, as if to turn it over, but Sir Herbert says very sharp: "Don't touch it!" And lie drew his hand back. He savs in a kind of whisper: "Thousands and thousands of pounds!" And after a time he -says it again, and his face was dreadful. *

Tile old skipper went away presently, slinking jiis head, but the .other two. Sir 'Herbert and the mate, tjiey stayed on, quite still with, the pearl between them, oiid,,after a bit,. I couldn't bear it anv longer. The sight of the Harvest Moon began to Ret on my nerves and to play tricks with my eyes. I went away and watched the two sharks circling about again, and while .1 watched them I thought of 'that poor murdered (yes, murdered) and tricked'' and robbed brown girl in her grave on the mountainside, and ■ I was- fair shiverine with black rage at my master, and I didn't see how,l could possibly go on a-serving him. He came up on deck presently, witli the mate close after, arfd began to walk up and down, none too steady on his feet; but -I couldn't bear to be near hirp and went below. I remembered afterward that I'd left just the three on the schortjior's deck—Sir Herbert, the mate, and the Kanaka boy at the wheel. .

I think I must have dozed off in my cabin, so I don't know how long afterward it was that I heard feet running about overhead and the mate's voice bellowing:

"Man overboard! Man overboard!" I hadn't undressed, and I ran up at once. Tile skipper and the mate was there, talking very excited, and the crew wa.s beginning to turublo out oi the fo'ca.stle companion. Sir Herbert was gone! Gone! Quite gone! iiim that I had served for seven years. Him as I liad seen, half an hour back, sitting alive and staring at the Harvest Moon. Gone out of the world forever! Like a. smashed fly. _ ) " -'Ee must 'ave missed 'is footing," the mate was saying. " 'lie must 'ave missed 'is footing, being unsteady-like with the drink, and pitched straight over the side. I'd sent the .bqy below to get 'is supper, and I was. at the wheel meself.. The .first thing I knew I hears a splash,' and' then a little shout, like off . the loo'ard, and then a great whopping splash where tlfe sliqut came from, and nothing more. That'll 'ave been ono o' them sharks, sir, 'as got 'im."

So, very swift .and awful and imlooked foK : Sir Herbert came to ;_his end. Perhaps lie deserved it. Yes, I : dare -£ay he did, but it rwas an -unusual, terrible end to come to, and I was sorry for the words I'd said about hiin—even .though they was to myself with no one to hear. I don't think the skipper believed,a. word of the • mate's story—except perhaps about the sharks at the end, and 1-know I didn't, for, even-ill-the dim glow from the binnacle lamp .I'd caught sight of red on the mate's right hand, which he tried to hold behind him, and,, as soon as might be, scrubbed off, but there was no witness and. no way of proving anything, .and the skipper was an old man that .stood in terror of his own mate. So nothing, was done. The worst (if all was telling l)er Lady- ) ship, which I had- to do. . She took it i like a man, and I think it didn't come so hard on her as it would have done a fortnight before. If lie had lived, her Ladyship would never have forgiven him nor lived in his house again, I'll swear. And that night- I dreamed about the Harvest Moon." The mate was holding it between his hands and starting at it —a great fiery, glowing, shining thing, as big as his head, and it thr%w up a red light against his face, as was all twisted about, like it might have been a lantern he was holding. Twice I dreamt that dream and woke up after it trembling. And the next night I dreamt it again. But not the next night, for during the third night a dreadful thing occurred. The mate disappeared like Sir Herbert had done. Vanished. And in the morning there was blood 011 the deck nearby the taffrail. So he hadn't gone willing nor of his own accord.

The skipper examined all the crew, one by one, singly, in his cabin, but couldn't find out anything. And ho searched them, too, and the fo'castle, and even'the hold, but lie .didn't find the thing which he knew somebody must have killed the mate for. Then 011 the next day we reached Suva in the J?ijis, which,"at Sir Herbert's death, her Ladyship had told the skipper to make for, and there we left the schooner and paid it off. By great good luck there was a steamer from the north—a. liner—calling at Suva 011 its way to Australia on the next day after we landed, and her Ladyship went 011 board very glad and thankful. Of course-she expected me to sail with her, but I didn't. "I said my nerve was gone and that I wanted to lie up in the sun and rest and take a holiday, and besides, she didn't truly need me. Her Ladyship was sorry, but didn't urge me long. She wanted to give me a present of money, but I wouldn't take that, saying as I had quite enough laid by from inv wages to get me back to England after a bit. • AVhich was true. So she sailed away and I was glad to see her go, though she was. one of the best and kindest and pleasantest ladies I have ever met with and always thoughtful of her servants. I'm sure 1 wish her happiness and 110 more trouble, and if things had been different in some ways I shouldn't have dreamed of leaving her until she was sale in England once more.

Then when her Ladyship's vessel was out of the harbor and far away I came up here to my room in Mother M'Donald's Hotel, and I locked the door and let down the window shutters, and I took the Harvest Moon out of the little bag the mate had kept it in and laid it on the table before me. The red fires within it burned up and died out and burned crimson again, and it seemed to me as if the Harvest Moon began to swell and grow bigger until it was as big as my hand, as big as my head, as big as that little room, as big as the world —a great, gigantic, shining, breathing thing that filled up all the space there is and left me shivering on mv knees before it. It is always like that. It has gotinto my head and my blood and all of me. It lias bewitched me like it did the others. I see it in the air before 1110 by day and by night I dream of it. There's just me and the Harvest Moon in all the world now. For all that, when I get back to London I mean to sell the pearl. I know a man as knows a place where it can be done. Then I shall be as rich as a. lord and never work any more, and so will be my children and grandchildren as will read this tale of how I come by my fortune. That is. if I ever get back to Lugland at all. Twice to-day it .seemed to me like I was being followed, as 1 walked down-the bcacli road, and yesterday a seafaring man as I was drinking with iu one of the bars near the harbor asked some very odd questions. I wonder if tliey know anything!