“Cah whoo O Pelé!” shouted Rohana as he stretched his neck and head forward as though he resented such words and that stern gaze at his beloved mistress.
But still Sestrina remained silent. Hawahee’s face softened.
“Sestra, thou hast outwitted the gods and their faithful servant too!—or did I dream some madness in my sorrow last night?”
“One who worships a woman of stone might dream any mad thing!” said Sestrina as she threw a kalos (sweet potato) in the pot and splashed the hot water over her rami and Hawahee as well! But Hawahee was not deceived, he easily saw through Sestrina’s simulated wrath with which she sought to hide her embarrassment—and shame! He heard the tears, the choking sob in the voice.
“Here is the faded flower that you dropped, my wahine.”
Tears were in his own voice as Sestrina placed the flower to her lips and replaced it in her hair.
“Sestra, fear not, the raft is nearly ready. The gods may give us happiness yet,” he murmured. Then, as a sudden burst of passion came to him, he said, “Sestra, beloved wahine, thou art more to me than all the gods of shadowland; we will seek the great waters together.”
The next moment he had strolled across the yam patch and disappeared.
Directly Hawahee had gone, Sestrina lifted her hands in thankfulness to the sky. “O God, I thank thee,” she said. Hawahee’s words had warmed her chilled heart. She had lain in her bed in anguish of mind, thinking that now the leprosy had broken out afresh he would not seek to leave the isle on the raft. “Yet, he has put the flag out again,” she thought. And as she thought she ran to the hilltop and stared toward the shore. True enough, there on the top of the palm, that stood on the promontory’s edge, streamed the old tappa distress flag, calling silently to the skylines for help! For Hawahee, on discovering his fresh leper patch, had put the flag out again.
Sestrina gazed long and with deep misery on that flag as it flew from the dead palm top. “He will still risk the voyage on the oceans! He will not alter his mind, we will float away on the wide waters together and receive the boundless mercy of Him who made the stars.”