“One for his napper!” breathed O’Hara, as he recovered his balance and we rushed across the plantation. We were safe! There stood Tapee’s bungalow to the left of us. All would have gone well had not O’Hara stumbled as he leapt across the stream. He gave a yell of pain, and fell crash on his face.
Fae Fae gave a cry. Then she and I, breathing heavily, picked our comrade up. He groaned as I examined him. I was relieved to find that he had done no more than sprain his ankle. At this moment a figure emerged from the shadows—it was Tapee.
“You all right?—where’s Fae Fae?” said the old man, as he peered into the jungle depths around us. Fae Fae, who was hiding behind the dwarf coco-palms, heard Tapee’s voice, and revealed herself. On sighting the girl, the old idol-worshipper grinned from ear to ear.
“You clever wahine to run way from palace with kind white mans.”
It appeared that O’Hara had acquainted the chief that he was going to get Fae Fae to elope with him from the palace that night. Tapee was delighted to be of assistance to O’Hara, for he had some grudge against Tautoa, the chief who was to marry Fae Fae. He was also pleased to annoy Pomare, who had refused to allow Tapee to attend the palace festivities.
When I informed Tapee that the gendarmes were already on our track, he simply rubbed his hands and grinned as though the trouble was over. Seeing O’Hara standing on one leg and holding the other off the ground, Tapee and I escorted him into the bungalow hard by. He groaned as we laid him down on the bed mats. On pulling off his boot I saw that he was quite out of action so far as walking was concerned—his ankle was swollen to the size of an orange, a lump on the off-side.
Fae Fae, noticing the injury, gave a wail of despair. Then Tapee, to my surprise, looked up and said:
“Oh, Messieurs, what shall we do? The popy priest am waiting to marry Fae Fae and Papalagi O’Hara all this whiles down in Papeete.”
This was the first intimation I had received that O’Hara had made the necessary preparations to have a Christian marriage with Fae Fae. It was just like him, for, notwithstanding his being a scallawag, he was ever ready to do the right thing at the right moment.
“Go, quick, and let the priest know that the marriage is put off till another night,” moaned O’Hara. And so Tapee went off to postpone the wedding. Fae Fae lifted her hands to the roof and wailed out, “Saprista! Aloe, tua” and “Mon Dieu!” (Fae Fae spoke broken French as well as English). I was more than glad to see that wedding postponed. I felt it was quite enough for one night’s work to abduct the maid in readiness for the wedding, and, moreover, Fae Fae was trembling like a leaf and appeared very neurotic. She was a very high-strung girl. Indeed I saw how artful-hearted Tapee had played with ease on the girl’s romantic, sensitive temperament.