I sat down on the wall at the farthest end away from the grave. Soon I would be in my own country, among the commonplace scenes of cities and countryside. I would resume the habits and conventions of my nation, and enter into the struggle for survival and for repute. Those goals shrunk in importance on this strip of coral. Never would I be able to express in myself the joy and heat of life, and the conquest of nature at its zenith of mystery, as had the man whose tenement of clay was so near. Love had been his animating emotion. In all the welter of low passions, of conflicting religions, and commercial standards imported to his island by the whites, he had remained a son of the atoll, brother and father of his tribe, disdainful of the inventions and luxuries offered him for his wealth, but shaping his course adroitly for his race’s happiness.
Deep in this strain of reflection, I was recalled to actuality by a grating sound, a queer crunching and creaking. It came from about the tomb, and was like a hundred rats dragging objects on a stone floor—slithering discordant, offensive. If I could have fainted it would have been relief, for I was seized with mortal terror. I could not reason. The boat from the schooner was nearing fast, and would be at the mole in a minute or two. I must go, but I could not move. Then suddenly a bar of light flung up from the sea, the first of the dawn, and by its feeble glimmer I saw a swarm of creatures about the barrow. They were the robber-crabs who had come out from the groves, and they were pulling the pieces of coral off the burial heap, and digging to pierce the coffin. Scores of the grisly vampires were working with their huge claws at the pile, and, as they rushed to and fro on their tall, obscene legs, they were the very like of ghouls in animal form. This was the “scratching” Nohea had heard when with their back to the grave he and his fellow-watchers dared not turn to see them.
I should have thrown rocks at the foul monsters, have scattered them with kicks and curses, but my deliverance from the supernatural was so comforting I could only burst into nervous laughter and run down the road to the mole. I leaped into the boat, and gave the order to shove off. In half an hour I was aboard the Morning Star and our sails spread for Tahiti and California.
AFTERWARD
A Letter from Exploding Eggs
Atuona, Hiva-Oa, Aperiri, 1922.
O Nakohu.
O au Kaoha tuuhoa Koakoau itave tekao ipatumai to Brunnec; Na Brunnec paki mai iau, tuu onotia Kaoha oko au iave; Atahi au ame tao ave oe itiki iau Aua oto maimai omua ahee taua I Menike ua ite au Ta Panama ohia umetao au ua hokotia au eoe Ite aoe.
Mea meitai ote mahina ehee mai oe I Tahiti ahaka ite mai oe iau Eavei tau I Tahiti etahi Otaua fiti tia mai mei Tahiti Ta maimai oe eavei tau I Tahiti Patu mai oe itatahi hamani nau naete inoa Brunnec.