V ~ THE TAPU OF BANDERAH
The Rev. Wilfrid and Mrs. Deighton were at lunch, talking about thegenial manners and other qualifications of their guests, when suddenlythey heard a rapid step on the verandah, and Blount dashed into theroom.
His face was white with excitement, and they saw that he carried hisrevolver in his hand.
"What in heaven's name is wrong, Mr. Blount? Why are you armed----"
"For God's sake don't ask me now! Our lives are in danger--deadly,imminent danger. Follow me to my house!"
"But, my dear sir," began Mr. Deighton, "I do not see--I fail----"
"Man, don't talk! Do you think I do not know what I am saying? Your twofriends are both murdered. Banderah is now at my house, too exhausted totell me more than to come and save you."
"Dear, dear me! Oh, this is dreadful! Let us, Alice, my dear, seekDivine----"
"You fool!" and the trader seized the missionary by the arm as he wasabout to sink upon his knees. "Stay here and pray if you like--andget your throat cut In ten--in five minutes more, every native exceptBanderah will be here ready to burn and murder. I tell you, man, thatour only chance of safety is to reach my house first, and then theschooner. Come, Mrs. Deighton. For God's sake, come!"
Pushing past the missionary, he seized Mrs. Deighton by the hand anddescended the steps. They had scarcely gone two hundred yards when theyheard a strange, awful cry peal through the woods; and Mr. Deightonshuddered. Only once before had he heard such a cry, and that was when,during the early days of the mission, he had seen a native priest tearout the heart of a victim destined for a cannibal feast, and hold it upto the people.
Suddenly little Mrs. Deighton gasped and tottered as they hurried heralong; she was already exhausted. Then Deighton stopped.
"Mr. Blount... go on by yourself. We have not your strength to run atthis speed. I will help my wife along in a minute or two. Some of themission people will surely come to our aid."
"Will they?" said Blount grimly. "Look for yourself and see; there's nota soul in the whole village. They have gone to see----" and he made anexpressive gesture.
Mr. Deighton groaned. "My God, it is terrible!--" then suddenly, as he sawhis wife's deathly features, his real nature came out "Mr. Blount, youare a brave man. For God's sake save my dear wife! I am too exhausted torun any further. I am too weak from my last attack of the fever. But weare only a quarter of a mile away from your house now. Take her on withyou, but give me your revolver. I can at least cover your retreat for atime."
Blount hesitated, then giving the weapon to the missionary, he liftedthe fainting woman in his arms, and said--
"Try and come on a little; as soon as I am in sight of the house yourwife will be safe; you must at least keep me in sight."
As the trader strode along, carrying the unconscious woman in his strongarms, the missionary looked at the weapon in his hand, and shudderedagain.
"May God forgive me if I have done wrong," he muttered. "But take thelife of one of His creatures to save my own I never will. Yet to savehers I must do it."
Then with trembling feet but brave heart he walked unsteadily alongafter the trader and his burden. So far, no sound had reached him sincethat one dreadful cry smote upon his ear, and a hope began to rise inhis breast that no immediate danger threatened. A short distance away,embowered among the trees, was the house of Burrowes. The door wasclosed, and not a sign of life was discernible about the place.
"Heavens, were they asleep?" He had heard that Burrowes and the Germanhad been carousing all the morning with the captain of the _Starlight_.Likely enough they were all lying in a drunken slumber. "God, give mestrength to warn them," he said to himself; and then with a last glanceat Blount and his wife, he resolutely turned aside and began to ascendthe hill.
But before he gained the summit, Blount had reached the fencesurrounding his house, and Banderah and Taya and her two young brothers,rifles in hand, met the trader.
"Quick, take her!" and he pushed Mrs. Deighton into Taya's arms andlooked back.
"My God! he's going up to Burrowes' house! Come, Banderah," and hestarted back again, "he'll be speared or shot before he gets there."
Just as the missionary reached the door and began in feeble, exhaustedtones to call out, Blount and the chief caught up to him, and seizinghis hands dragged him away again down the hill.
"Don't bother about them, they are all on board," was all Blount said.And there was no time to talk, for now fierce cries were heard in thedirection of the mission house, and Blount and Banderah, looking back,saw black, naked figures leap over the low stone wall enclosing themissionary's dwelling and disappear inside.
"Just in time," muttered the trader, as dragging Mr. Deighton betweenthem they gained the house, and sat the missionary down beside his wife,who with a cry of thankfulness threw her arms about his neck and thenquietly fainted.
* * * * *
For nearly half an hour Blount, with Banderah and the missionary by hisside, looked out through the windows and saw the natives plunderingand wrecking the mission house and the dwellings of Schwartzkoff andBurrowes. A mile away, motionless upon the glassy waters of the harbour,lay the schooner, with her boat astern, and every now and then Blountwould take a look at her through his glass.
"I can't see a soul on deck," he said to Mr. Deighton. "I heard thatPeter and Burrowes went off this morning with the captain, all prettywell drunk. Would to God I knew what is best to do! To go on board wouldperhaps mean that those ruffians would shoot us down before we werealongside. No, we'll stay here and take our chance. Banderah says hefeels pretty sure that he can protect us from his own people. They'dnever dare to hurt him; and I think _that_ will steady them a bit,"and he pointed to the fence, upon which, at intervals, were tied greencocoanut boughs. These had just been placed there by Banderah himself,and meant that the house was _tapu_--it and all in it were sacred.
"God grant it may!" said Mr. Deighton, and looking at the mysticsign, the use of which he had so often tried to put down as a silly,heathenish practice, he felt a twinge of conscience.
At last the work of plunder was over, and then Blount saw a swarm ofblack, excited savages, led by two or three "devil-doctors" or priests,advance towards the house. At the same moment Banderah, looking seaward,saw that the boat had left the schooner and was pulling ashore. He wasjust about to point her out to the trader when, for some reason, hechanged his mind, turned away, and joined his white friends at the otherend of the room.
Following the lead of the "devil-doctors," who, stripped to the waist,and with their heads covered with the hideous masks used in theirincantations, looked like demons newly arisen from the pit, the yellingswarm of natives at last reached the fence outside Blount's house;and Mr. Deighton, with an inward groan, saw among them some of his petconverts, stark naked and armed with spears and clubs.
Leaping and dancing with mad gyrations, and uttering curious gruntingsounds as their feet struck the ground, the devil-doctors at last camewithin a few feet of the gate in the trader's fence. Then, suddenly, asthey caught sight of a branch of cocoanut leaf twisted in and around thewoodwork of the gate, they stopped their maddened whirl as if by magic;and upon those behind them fell the silence of fear.
"Thank God!" muttered Blount, "we are safe. They will not breakBanderah's _tapu_."
Then, rifle in hand, and with quiet, unmoved face, Banderah opened thetrader's door and came out before them all.
"Who among ye desires the life of Banderah and those to whom he hasgiven his _tapu?_" he said.
The smaller of the two priests dashed aside his mask, and revealed theface of the old man Toka, who had struck Baxter his death-blow.
"Who indeed, O chief? If it be to thy mind to make _tapu_ this house andall in it, who is there dare break it? To the white man Challi and hissons and daughters we meant no harm, though sweet to our bellies will bethe flesh of those whom we have slain and who now roast for the feast.But more are yet to come; for I, Toka, lost my son, when thou, Bander
ah,lost thy brother; and the gods have told me that I shall eat my fill ofthose who stole him."
The savage, bitter hatred that rang through the old man's voice, andthe deep, approving murmur of those who stood about him, warned bothBanderah and Blount that the lust for slaughter was not yet appeased;so it was with a feeling of intense surprise and relief that he and themissionary saw them suddenly withdraw, and move rapidly away to the rearof the house among the thick jungle.
"That's d----d curious!" said Blount, turning to Banderah and speakingin English; and then the chief took him by the arm and pointed towardsthe shore--the boat, pulled by Schwartzkoff and Bur-rowes, with CaptainBilker sitting in the stern, had just touched the beach. Then it flashedacross his mind in an instant why the natives had left so suddenly--theywere lying in ambush for the three men!
"By God! bad as they are, I can't let them walk to their deaths," saidBlount, jumping outside, so as to hail and warn them. But before hecould utter a sound, Banderah sprang upon him and clapped his hand tohis mouth.
"Challi," he said, "they must die. Try to save them, and we all perish.For the sake of thy daughters and of thy sons, raise not thy voice northy hand. Must all our blood run because of these three dogs' lives?"
Even as he spoke the end came. Staggering up the beach in drunkenhilarity, the three whites did not notice, as they headed for the path,a file of natives, armed with spears and clubs, walk quietly alongbetween them and the water's edge. There they sat down and waited. Butnot for long, for presently from out the thick, tangled jungle in frontcame a humming whirr of deadly arrows and in a few seconds the threewhite men were wallowing in their blood. Then came that bloodcurdlingshout of savage triumph, telling those who heard it that all was over.Before its echoes died away the bleeding bodies were carried to where athick, heavy smoke rising from the jungle told the shuddering missionarythat the awful feast was preparing. When he looked again not a nativewas in sight.
Standing apart in the room from the others, Blount and Banderah spokehurriedly together, and then the trader came to the missionary.
"Mr. Deighton, if you wish to save your wife's and your own life, andescape from this slaughterhouse, now is your time. As God is my judge Ibelieve we shall never be safe again, and I would gladly go with you ifI could. But my daughter Nelly is at Lak-a-lak, and--well, that settlesit. Banderah here will tell you that he dreads your staying, as thepriests may plot your death at any moment. I implore you, sir, to thinkof your wife. See, there is the boat, drifting along the beach withthe tide. For God's sake be advised and get on board the schooner, andwhatever port you do reach, send a vessel to take me away!"
Then, before the missionary and his wife could realise what washappening, Banderah had run to the beach, swam to the boat, seized thepainter, gained the shore again, and pulled her along till oppositethe trader's house, just as Blount and Taya, supporting Mrs. Deightonbetween them, were leaving the house to meet him.
In twenty minutes more they were close to the _Starlight_, and saw thather crew were weighing the anchor. On the after deck stood the mate andsteward with rifles in their hands.
"What in the name of God is wrong?" said the mate, as the boat ranged upalongside, and the missionary and his wife were assisted on deck.
"Don't ask now, man. Get your anchor up as quick as you can and put tosea. Your captain and the two passengers are all dead. Clear out at onceif you don't want the ship to be taken."
"I thought something was wrong when I saw the native dragging the boatalong. Lend us a hand to get under weigh, will you?" and the mate sprangforward.
In another five minutes the _Starlight's_ anchor was up, and then Blountand Banderah, with a hurried farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Deighton, spranginto the boat and pushed off.
"May God bless and keep you," called out the missionary to Blount, "andmay we meet again soon;" then sinking on his knees beside his wife, heraised his face to heaven, and the trader saw that tears were streamingdown his worn and rugged cheeks.
Blount never heard of the missionary and his wife again. Long,long afterwards he did hear that some wreckage of a vessel like the_Starlight_ had been found on Rennel Island, and that sovereigns werediscovered among the pools and crevices of the reef for many yearsafter. Whether she ran ashore or drifted there dismasted--for a heavygale set in a week after she left Mayou--is one of those mysteries ofthe sea that will never be solved.
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