Hiwa swam under water for fifty yards, and then, having risen to breathe, took another long swim beneath the surface. So she kept on, alert and invisible. As she neared the hut of Eaeakai, the fisherman, and raised her head, she heard loud voices, shrieks of terror, and a cry as of some one in death agony. She crept up under cover of the river-bank and looked. Aa’s men were dragging Lilii and Manoa away in the direction of the town, and Eaeakai lay on the ground with a spear-thrust through his body.
Beneath caste and religion, which put an immeasurable gulf between them, Hiwa had a woman’s heart. Besides, she remembered the fisherman had been the means of saving her life. Then she was beginning to think it possible that Lilii was her mother’s as well as her father’s daughter, and, if so, Manoa, being of the blood of the gods, was a fit mate for Aelani. As soon, therefore, as Aa’s men were at a safe distance she went to Eaeakai and bent over him. But the moment he saw her he shrank from her in fear, and, with his last remaining strength, turned and buried his face in the dust.
“I do not want to live,” he moaned, “for they have taken the joy of my heart and the life of my life. But why do you come—a vision to me—oh, goddess? Leave me to die alone!”
Then Hiwa spoke very gently to him, and tears stood in her eyes. “You shall die in peace,” she said, “and your body shall be buried in the ground as becomes your degree. I cannot save your life, my poor fellow; I would if I could. It may not be given me to rescue those you love, but this much I promise you, I will try.”
“Goddess,” murmured the dying man, “I thank you with my face in the dust.”
“One thing more!” cried Hiwa, and her voice grew stern, and her eyes flashed. “I swear to you that Aa, who did this thing, shall die a pig’s death, and his bones shall not be hidden in a cave, but shall be put to open shame!”
Again the fisherman murmured his thanks.
“But why did he take them?” inquired Hiwa, her suspicion becoming almost a conviction that he had a deeper motive than the mere possession of a young and beautiful woman.
“I do not know,” replied Eaeakai.
“Who is your wife? Who was her mother?” Hiwa demanded, for she saw that the man’s life was fast ebbing away.