Except for Lobu, the madman, who caused some anxiety by his queer behaviour, all hands were pulling together well.
Tari proved to be invaluable. He had a soft, gentle nature and worked like an ox, his disfigured countenance aglow with beaming good temper.
He cooked, he steered, he was ready for everything and toiled away unceasingly with wonderful endurance. The man was untiring in his efforts to please, and Jack especially he seemed to take to.
"You my pleni," he had announced to that worthy in his soft Polynesian tones.
Pleni means "friend," and has a peculiar sentimental significance in the South Seas, and after this announcement Tari waited upon Jack like a slave.
This behaviour seemed to impress the cowpuncher greatly, and about the third day on board he commented on it to the rolling-stone.
"That 'ere Tari, whom you-alls say by his tattooing is a big chief, behaves as if he's your nigger, Jack, an' he shore hungers to please you. You sartinly has his affections roped, tied down, an' with your brand on to 'em that-away. I watches him eyein' you with them big antelope orbs o' his same as if you're some kind o' god, an' it's plumb touchin' as a spectacle."
"That's the custom, Broncho, in the South Seas. The natives are like affectionate dogs, and when a man announces that he is your pleni it means that from then on you are his first consideration in this world," replied Jack. "It's a far, far stronger affection than that which lovers hold to one another in the Society and Marquesas groups, passionate though they are."
"Wall, I reckon a pagan Kanaka shore calls the turn that-away on redskins. Tari's a different breed entire to them yellow snakes. I ain't never seen the redskin's eye I'd trust, but Tari's I'd jest as soon stack upon as any white man's."
"How do you like the Ocmulgee's tobacco?" asked Jack, as he lit his pipe behind his hands.