'Tom Wallis, you ought to have been born a Red Indian or a Samoan,' said Mrs. Casalle, laughingly.
'That's what my father has often said, Mrs. Casalle. And I believe he was right.'
CHAPTER XVIII
TOGETHER AT LAST
One afternoon, after more than two weeks had passed, the whaling barque still lay quietly at anchor in Singavi Harbour, ready for sea again, and waiting only for a breeze. For, soon after the repairs were finished, the trade-wind had flickered and died away, and a 'furious calm,' as Mr. Burr, the chief mate, called it, had set in, and seemed likely to continue. The captain had started off early the previous morning to walk to the mission house at Alō, and spend a day or two shooting with Tom and Maori Bill, for the natives had assured him that there was not the slightest chance of anything more than the very lightest airs from the eastward for many days to come, and he decided that it was better to be lying at anchor instead of drifting away to the westward. And so, although Mr. Burr and his fellow-officers, to whom an idle day was an abomination and a vexation of spirit, grumbled exceedingly, they had to admit that the 'old man' was right after all. The two damaged boats had been repaired, and were now, as well as the one obtained from Tom and Bill, fit to be lowered again, should whales be seen whilst the ship was at anchor. Look-outs had been stationed on two of the highest points of the island, and a series of smoke-signals arranged, so that if by good luck a whale or whales should be sighted from the mountains, the boats would know where to look for them, if they were not visible from the ship.
The day had been intensely hot, and at five o'clock Mr. Burr and the second mate, as they sat under the awning on the poop deck, were eating oranges and pineapples with a steady determination to do some kind of work.
Presently a canoe came off from the beach and brought off the shore look-outs, who duly came aft and reported.
'See anything, you fellows?' asked the mate, stabbing a pineapple through with his knife and drawing it to him.
'Saw 'bout nine or ten finbacks close in under the south point 'bout an hour ago,' drawled one of the look-outs.
'Finbacks is pizen, and ain't fit to be mentioned to a decent man. Snakes and finbacks air a curse to humanity. But if we hev to lie here and rot much longer, and one of them comes foolin' around, I'm going to put an iron into him, and let him tow me all around this island for forty days and forty nights. See any blackfish?'