Fortunately I had several plugs of ship’s tobacco and so secured the friendship of chiefs of high ancestral standing. I held the plugs tightly in my hand and they each in turn bit off the allowance I allotted them. They seemed very proud men and kept saying, “Me great chief,” and giving details of their ancestry, for having no Peerage or Who’s Who they were obliged to remind people, to keep the old names going.
It was a beautiful isle, and next morning I felt glad to be with Milburn there and felt extremely happy; birds sang up in the pandanus-trees, sunlight danced on coral-floored waters, the very fish seemed happy as they leapt in the still lagoons. Milburn said he would like to stay there all his life, and for a while he forgot his sorrows; and well he might, for I knew that if he persevered in trying to get his money back he would have plenty of trouble in store for him. “When I get my deposit back I’ll stop and go cruising these seas,” he said, and I agreed to go with him.
On the slopes by Tembinok’s palace romped the native children, while the Apemama maids sewed dress material into new designs, for the fashion changed and the ridis would be increased by one inch, or reduced, or an extra tassel added. The chief characteristic of Apemama ladies was not modesty, but the bareness of their curved figures served as steel armour to protect their loose virtue; for the rumours of punishments that had been dealt out for amorous crimes made white men and brown men alike regard the maiden bareness with horror.
That day Tembinok and his war council decided to go with a fleet of canoes to Kuria and seek the chief who had aided our skipper in his cruel duplicity. Milburn heard this decision with delight, but, to tell the truth, I must confess that my joy was considerably damped when the council added that we also should go with them to seek and attack the enemy. We did not like to appear afraid, so we asked for a little time to decide, and finally told the high chief to tell Tembinok that we would follow the fleet of canoes in a boat some distance behind!
During the day the sun shone down on the isle in dazzling tropic flame; the whole town lazily lolled and snoozed in the shades of the palms or by the piazzas of their homes, by groves of bananas and pandanus. In the afternoon, to kill time, we went for a row in a native boat across the lagoon and up and down the creeks and shallows of the atolls. The water was as clear as crystal, and we could look over the boat’s side and see numerous brightly coloured fish darting and hovering among the scintillating seaweeds that waved gently over floors of sparkling corals; and as we watched it seemed that we looked through a vast magnifying-glass at forests or worlds far away, as branches shone with rich crimson, green, indigo or blue deep down in those depths that shone like some magic world blazed up by rainbows.
To our delight and relief, for we were both deep in thought over the coming battle, before sunset the sails of a schooner came through the sky-line, and before the stars hung in the darkening blue over the sea she was ploughing toward us, within five miles of the immense island lagoon.
It had been arranged that the High Chief Taku and fifty warriors should put off at dusk to seek the enemy. It all seemed like a dream to me; I had to shake myself to realise the position, for it seemed more like some tale from fiction than reality. But it was real enough, for there stood Milburn in the flesh before me, talking to the natives. I found that their great incentive to help us was Milburn offering to buy cargo for them all as soon as the next trading ship called at Apemama. The cargoes consisted chiefly of trifles, ornaments, old tickless clocks, muzzle-loaders, tobacco and artificial jewellery; the latter adorned the bodies of the whole tribe and was the chief dress of marriageable maids. “What’s the good of this game, Mr Milburn?” I said, as darkness fell and I saw the natives filling their canoes with ammunition—war-clubs, and old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles. “Are you determined to go?” “Most decidedly,” he replied, “and after I have settled with this case I’ll settle with your skipper.” “Right you are,” I answered.
At dusk the canoes shoved off the silver sands and put to sea. Milburn and I, armed to the teeth, in an old ship’s boat, bravely crept behind. It was a clear, starlit night; so bright were the stars that they looked like flowers of flame in the deep, dark blue vault; our shadows glided through the waters that mirrored the heavens as we paddled by. As we passed the schooner, that had anchored at sunset, out came a boat to meet us, and then I saw that Milburn was a careful man and also why he was so brave. He had been aboard and told the skipper all, and arranged for them to watch for us and come and convey our boat across to Kuria. I dare say they all got a good tip from him.
When at length we arrived the natives crept by a lagoon; Milburn and I sat in the boat silent with excitement, as we smoked, kept a sharp outlook and waited results. Taku knew where the enemy lived. The whole horde crept to his hut and discovered him fast asleep, blind drunk; he had just finished up the remaining rum that Milburn had given him on the ship.
As we watched from the boat we saw our army on the shore, struggling along, bearing a burden with them. It was the fictitious king bound and lashed hands and feet. Milburn surveyed him, at first with rage and then with curiosity, and I felt rather sorry for him: he looked so different to what he did when he had scornfully gazed at us on the decks of the Eldorado. He rolled his eyes, slowly realised his position and hung his head, looking extremely pathetic as he blinked his eyes like a whipped dog and looked at us appealingly for mercy. Milburn and I went to his hut, discovered nearly all the cash and came back quickly to the boat. “You killee me?” he said, and looked steadily at us. “I say, Milburn,” I said, “if you take him back to Apemama Tembinok will club him, and you must remember he’s only a native, and after all the skipper’s to blame.” “I know that,” said Milburn; and then I added: “To tell you the truth, I rather admire this old chief, when I think of the clever way he simulated kingship and took us all in.” Milburn relented; indeed I think he would have done so without my saying anything. “Unbind him,” he said. For a while the astonished natives stared, and then they unbound him, and Milburn said: “You can go.” For a moment the chief looked as though he did not understand, then gave us both a glance of real gratitude and walked off majestically, but rather fast, in case we changed our minds.