SOUTH SEA TALES(南海传说)

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SOUTH SEA TALES

by Jack London

SOUTH SEA TALES

THE HOUSE OF MAPUHI

Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in

the light breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just

outside the suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a

circle of pounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in

circumference, and from three to five feet above high-water mark. On the

bottom of the huge and glassy lagoon was much pearl shell, and from the

deck of the schooner, across the slender ring of the atoll, the divers could

be seen at work. But the lagoon had no entrance for even a trading

schooner. With a favoring breeze cutters could win in through the tortuous

and shallow channel, but the schooners lay off and on outside and sent in

their small boats.

The Aorai swung out a boat smartly, into which sprang half a dozen

brown-skinned sailors clad only in scarlet loincloths. They took the oars,

while in the stern sheets, at the steering sweep, stood a young man garbed

in the tropic white that marks the European. The golden strain of

Polynesia betrayed itself in the sun-gilt of his fair skin and cast up golden

sheens and lights through the glimmering blue of his eyes. Raoul he was,

Alexandre Raoul, youngest son of Marie Raoul, the wealthy quarter-caste,

who owned and managed half a dozen trading schooners similar to the

Aorai. Across an eddy just outside the entrance, and in and through and

over a boiling tide-rip, the boat fought its way to the mirrored calm of the

lagoon. Young Raoul leaped out upon the white sand and shook hands

with a tall native. The man's chest and shoulders were magnificent, but the

stump of a right arm, beyond the flesh of which the age-whitened bone

projected several inches, attested the encounter with a shark that had put

an end to his diving days and made him a fawner and an intriguer for

small favors.

"Have you heard, Alec?" were his first words. "Mapuhi has found a

pearl--such a pearl. Never was there one like it ever fished up in Hikueru,

nor in all the Paumotus, nor in all the world. Buy it from him. He has it

now. And remember that I told you first. He is a fool and you can get it

cheap. Have you any tobacco?"

SOUTH SEA TALES

Straight up the beach to a shack under a pandanus tree Raoul headed.

He was his mother's supercargo, and his business was to comb all the

Paumotus for the wealth of copra, shell, and pearls that they yielded up.

He was a young supercargo, it was his second voyage in such capacity,

and he suffered much secret worry from his lack of experience in pricing

pearls. But when Mapuhi exposed the pearl to his sight he managed to

suppress the startle it gave him, and to maintain a careless, commercial

expression on his face. For the pearl had struck him a blow. It was large as

a pigeon egg, a perfect sphere, of a whiteness that reflected opalescent

lights from all colors about it. It was alive. Never had he seen anything

like it. When Mapuhi dropped it into his hand he was surprised by the

weight of it. That showed that it was a good pearl. He examined it closely,

through a pocket magnifying glass. It was without flaw or blemish. The

purity of it seemed almost to melt into the atmosphere out of his hand. In

the shade it was softly luminous, gleaming like a tender moon. So

translucently white was it, that when he dropped it into a glass of water he

had difficulty in finding it. So straight and swiftly had it sunk to the

bottom that he knew its weight was excellent.

"Well, what do you want for it?" he asked, with a fine assumption of

nonchalance.

"I want--" Mapuhi began, and behind him, framing his own dark face,

the dark faces of two women and a girl nodded concurrence in what he

wanted. Their heads were bent forward, they were animated by a

suppressed eagerness, their eyes flashed avariciously.

"I want a house," Mapuhi went on. "It must have a roof of galvanized

iron and an octagon-drop-clock. It must be six fathoms long with a porch

all around. A big room must be in the centre, with a round table in the

middle of it and the octagon-drop-clock on the wall. There must be four

bedrooms, two on each side of the big room, and in each bedroom must be

an iron bed, two chairs, and a washstand. And back of the house must be a

kitchen, a good kitchen, with pots and pans and a stove. And you must

build the house on my island, which is Fakarava."

"Is that all?" Raoul asked incredulously.

"There must be a sewing machine," spoke up Tefara, Mapuhi's wife.

SOUTH SEA TALES

"Not forgetting the octagon-drop-clock," added Nauri, Mapuhi's

mother.

"Yes, that is all," said Mapuhi.

Young Raoul laughed. He laughed long and heartily. But while he

laughed he secretly performed problems in mental arithmetic. He had

never built a house in his life, and his notions concerning house building

were hazy. While he laughed, he calculated the cost of the voyage to Tahiti

for materials, of the materials themselves, of the voyage back again to

Fakarava, and the cost of landing the materials and of building the house.

It would come to four thousand French dollars, allowing a margin for

safety--four thousand French dollars were equivalent to twenty thousad

francs. It was impossible. How was he to know the value of such a pearl?

Twenty thousand francs was a lot of money--and of his mother's money at

that.

"Mapuhi," he said, "you are a big fool. Set a money price."

But Mapuhi shook his head, and the three heads behind him shook

with his.

"I want the house," he said. "It must be six fathoms long with a porch

all around--"

"Yes, yes," Raoul interrupted. "I know all about your house, but it

won't do. I'll give you a thousand Chili dollars."

The four heads chorused a silent negative.

"And a hundred Chili dollars in trade."

"I want the house," Mapuhi began.

"What good will the house do you?" Raoul demanded. "The first

hurricane that comes along will wash it away. You ought to know.

Captain Raffy says it looks like a hurricane right now."

"Not on Fakarava," said Mapuhi. "The land is much higher there. On

this island, yes. Any hurricane can sweep Hikueru. I will have the house

on Fakarava. It must be six fathoms long with a porch all around--"

And Raoul listened again to the tale of the house. Several hours he

spent in the endeavor to hammer the house obsession out of Mapuhi's

mind; but Mapuhi's mother and wife, and Ngakura, Mapuhi's daughter,

bolstered him in his resolve for the house. Through the open doorway,

SOUTH SEA TALES

while he listened for the twentieth time to the detailed description of the

house that was wanted, Raoul saw his schooner's second boat draw up on

the beach. The sailors rested on the oars, advertising haste to be gone. The

first mate of the Aorai sprang ashore, exchanged a word with the one-

armed native, then hurried toward Raoul. The day grew suddenly dark, as

a squall obscured the face of the sun. Across the lagoon Raoul could see

approaching the ominous line of the puff of wind.

"Captain Raffy says you've got to get to hell outa here," was the mate's

greeting. "If there's any shell, we've got to run the risk of picking it up

later on--so he says. The barometer's dropped to twenty-nine-seventy."

The gust of wind struck the pandanus tree overhead and tore through

the palms beyond, flinging half a dozen ripe cocoanuts with heavy thuds

to the ground. Then came the rain out of the distance, advancing with the

roar of a gale of wind and causing the water of the lagoon to smoke in

driven windrows. The sharp rattle of the first drops was on the leaves

when Raoul sprang to his feet.

"A thousand Chili dollars, cash down, Mapuhi," he said. "And two

hundred Chili dollars in trade."

"I want a house--" the other began.

"Mapuhi!" Raoul yelled, in order to make himself heard. "You are a

fool!"

He flung out of the house, and, side by side with the mate, fought his

way down the beach toward the boat. They could not see the boat. The

tropic rain sheeted about them so that they could see only the beach under

their feet and the spiteful little waves from the lagoon that snapped and bit

at the sand. A figure appeared through the deluge. It was Huru-Huru, the

man with the one arm.

"Did you get the pearl?" he yelled in Raoul's ear.

"Mapuhi is a fool!" was the answering yell, and the next moment they

were lost to each other in the descending water.

Half an hour later, Huru-Huru, watching from the seaward side of the

atoll, saw the two boats hoisted in and the Aorai pointing her nose out to

sea. And near her, just come in from the sea on the wings of the squall, he

saw another schooner hove to and dropping a boat into the water. He knew

SOUTH SEA TALES

her. It was the OROHENA, owned by Toriki, the half-caste trader, who

served as his own supercargo and who doubtlessly was even then in the

stern sheets of the boat. Huru-Huru chuckled. He knew that Mapuhi owed

Toriki for trade goods advanced the year before.

The squall had passed. The hot sun was blazing down, and the lagoon

was once more a mirror. But the air was sticky like mucilage, and the

weight of it seemed to burden the lungs and make breathing difficult.

"Have you heard the news, Toriki?" Huru-Huru asked. "Mapuhi has

found a pearl. Never was there a pearl like it ever fished up in Hikueru,

nor anywhere in the Paumotus, nor anywhere in all the world. Mapuhi is a

fool. Besides, he owes you money. Remember that I told you first. Have

you any tobacco?"

And to the grass shack of Mapuhi went Toriki. He was a masterful

man, withal a fairly stupid one. Carelessly he glanced at the wonderful

pearl--glanced for a moment only; and carelessly he dropped it into his

pocket.

"You are lucky," he said. "It is a nice pearl. I will give you credit on

the books."

"I want a house," Mapuhi began, in consternation. "It must be six

fathoms--"

"Six fathoms your grandmother!" was the trader's retort. "You want to

pay up your debts, that's what you want. You owed me twelve hundred

dollars Chili. Very well; you owe them no longer. The amount is squared.

Besides, I will give you credit for two hundred Chili. If, when I get to

Tahiti, the pearl sells well, I will give you credit for another hundred--that

will make three hundred. But mind, only if the pearl sells well. I may even

lose money on it."

Mapuhi folded his arms in sorrow and sat with bowed head. He had

been robbed of his pearl. In place of the house, he had paid a debt. There

was nothing to show for the pearl.

"You are a fool," said Tefara.

"You are a fool," said Nauri, his mother. "Why did you let the pearl

into his hand?"

"What was I to do?" Mapuhi protested. "I owed him the money. He

SOUTH SEA TALES

knew I had the pearl. You heard him yourself ask to see it. I had not told

him. He knew. Somebody else told him. And I owed him the money."

"Mapuhi is a fool," mimicked Ngakura.

She was twelve years old and did not know any better. Mapuhi

relieved his feelings by sending her reeling from a box on the ear; while

Tefara and Nauri burst into tears and continued to upbraid him after the

manner of women.

Huru-Huru, watching on the beach, saw a third schooner that he knew

heave to outside the entrance and drop a boat. It was the Hira, well named,

for she was owned by Levy, the German Jew, the greatest pearl buyer of

them all, and, as was well known, Hira was the Tahitian god of fishermen

and thieves.

"Have you heard the news?" Huru-Huru asked, as Levy, a fat man with

massive asymmetrical features, stepped out upon the beach. "Mapuhi

has found a pearl. There was never a pearl like it in Hikueru, in all the

Paumotus, in all the world. Mapuhi is a fool. He has sold it to Toriki for

fourteen hundred Chili--I listened outside and heard. Toriki is likewise a

fool. You can buy it from him cheap. Remember that I told you first. Have

you any tobacco?"

"Where is Toriki?"

"In the house of Captain Lynch, drinking absinthe. He has been there

an hour."

And while Levy and Toriki drank absinthe and chaffered over the pearl,

Huru-Huru listened and heard the stupendous price of twenty-five

thousand francs agreed upon.

It was at this time that both the OROHENA and the Hira, running in

close to the shore, began firing guns and signalling frantically. The three

men stepped outside in time to see the two schooners go hastily about and

head off shore, dropping mainsails and flying jibs on the run in the teeth of

the squall that heeled them far over on the whitened water. Then the rain

blotted them out.

"They'll be back after it's over," said Toriki. "We'd better be getting out

of here."

"I reckon the glass has fallen some more," said Captain Lynch.

SOUTH SEA TALES

He was a white-bearded sea-captain, too old for service, who had

learned that the only way to live on comfortable terms with his asthma

was on Hikueru. He went inside to look at the barometer.

"Great God!" they heard him exclaim, and rushed in to join him at

staring at a dial, which marked twenty-nine-twenty.

Again they came out, this time anxiously to consult sea and sky. The

squall had cleared away, but the sky remained overcast. The two schooners,

under all sail and joined by a third, could be seen making back. A veer in

the wind induced them to slack off sheets, and five minutes afterward a

sudden veer from the opposite quarter caught all three schooners aback,

and those on shore could see the boom-tackles being slacked away or cast

off on the jump. The sound of the surf was loud, hollow, and menacing,

and a heavy swell was setting in. A terrible sheet of lightning burst before

their eyes, illuminating the dark day, and the thunder rolled wildly about

them.

Toriki and Levy broke into a run for their boats, the latter ambling

along like a panic-stricken hippopotamus. As their two boats swept out the

entrance, they passed the boat of the Aorai coming in. In the stern sheets,

encouraging the rowers, was Raoul. Unable to shake the vision of the pearl

from his mind, he was returning to accept Mapuhi's price of a house.

He landed on the beach in the midst of a driving thunder squall that

was so dense that he collided with Huru-Huru before he saw him.

"Too late," yelled Huru-Huru. "Mapuhi sold it to Toriki for fourteen

hundred Chili, and Toriki sold it to Levy for twenty-five thousand francs.

And Levy will sell it in France for a hundred thousand francs. Have you

any tobacco?"

Raoul felt relieved. His troubles about the pearl were over. He need

not worry any more, even if he had not got the pearl. But he did not

believe Huru-Huru. Mapuhi might well have sold it for fourteen hundred

Chili, but that Levy, who knew pearls, should have paid twenty-five

thousand francs was too wide a stretch. Raoul decided to interview

Captain Lynch on the subject, but when he arrived at that ancient mariner's

house, he found him looking wide-eyed at the barometer.

"What do you read it?" Captain Lynch asked anxiously, rubbing his

SOUTH SEA TALES

spectables and staring again at the instrument.

"Twenty-nine-ten," said Raoul. "I have never seen it so low before."

"I should say not!" snorted the captain. "Fifty years boy and man on all

the seas, and I've never seen it go down to that. Listen!"

They stood for a moment, while the surf rumbled and shook the house.

Then they went outside. The squall had passed. They could see the Aorai

lying becalmed a mile away and pitching and tossing madly in the

tremendous seas that rolled in stately procession down out of the northeast

and flung themselves furiously upon the coral shore. One of the sailors

from the boat pointed at the mouth of the passage and shook his head.

Raoul looked and saw a white anarchy of foam and surge.

"I guess I'll stay with you tonight, Captain," he said; then turned to the

sailor and told him to haul the boat out and to find shelter for himself and

fellows.

"Twenty-nine flat," Captain Lynch reported, coming out from another

look at the barometer, a chair in his hand.

He sat down and stared at the spectacle of the sea. The sun came out,

increasing the sultriness of the day, while the dead calm still held. The seas

continued to increase in magnitude.

"What makes that sea is what gets me," Raoul muttered petulantly.

"There is no wind, yet look at it, look at that fellow there!"

Miles in length, carrying tens of thousands of tons in weight, its

impact shook the frail atoll like an earthquake. Captain Lynch was startled.

"Gracious!" he bellowed, half rising from his chair, then sinking back.

"But there is no wind," Raoul persisted. "I could understand it if there

was wind along with it."

"You'll get the wind soon enough without worryin' for it," was the

grim reply.

The two men sat on in silence. The sweat stood out on their skin in

myriads of tiny drops that ran together, forming blotches of moisture,

which, in turn, coalesced into rivulets that dripped to the ground. They

panted for breath, the old man's efforts being especially painful. A sea

swept up the beach, licking around the trunks of the cocoanuts and

subsiding almost at their feet.

SOUTH SEA TALES

"Way past high water mark," Captain Lynch remarked; "and I've been

here eleven years." He looked at his watch. "It is three o'clock."

A man and woman, at their heels a motley following of brats and curs,

trailed disconsolately by. They came to a halt beyond the house, and, after

much irresolution, sat down in the sand. A few minutes later another

family trailed in from the opposite direction, the men and women carrying

a heterogeneous assortment of possessions. And soon several hundred

persons of all ages and sexes were congregated about the captain's

dwelling. He called to one new arrival, a woman with a nursing babe in

her arms, and in answer received the information that her house had just

been swept into the lagoon.

This was the highest spot of land in miles, and already, in many places

on either hand, the great seas were making a clean breach of the slender

ring of the atoll and surging into the lagoon. Twenty miles around

stretched the ring of the atoll, and in no place was it more than fifty

fathoms wide. It was the height of the diving season, and from all the

islands around, even as far as Tahiti, the natives had gathered.

"There are twelve hundred men, women, and children here," said

Captain Lynch. "I wonder how many will be here tomorrow morning."

"But why don't it blow?--that's what I want to know," Raoul

demanded.

"Don't worry, young man, don't worry; you'll get your troubles fast

enough."

Even as Captain Lynch spoke, a great watery mass smote the atoll.

The sea water churned about them three inches deep under the chairs.

A low wail of fear went up from the many women. The children, with

clasped hands, stared at the immense rollers and cried piteously. Chickens

and cats, wading perturbedly in the water, as by common consent, with

flight and scramble took refuge on the roof of the captain's house. A

Paumotan, with a litter of new-born puppies in a basket, climbed into a

cocoanut tree and twenty feet above the ground made the basket fast. The

mother floundered about in the water beneath, whining and yelping.

And still the sun shone brightly and the dead calm continued. They

sat and watched the seas and the insane pitching of the Aorai. Captain

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SOUTHSEATALES1SOUTHSEATALESbyJackLondonSOUTHSEATALES2THEHOUSEOFMAPUHIDespitetheheavyclumsinessofherlines,theAoraihandledeasilyinthelightbreeze,andhercaptainranherwellinbeforehehovetojustoutsidethesuckofthesurf.TheatollofHikuerulaylowonthewater,acircleofpoundedcoralsandahundredyardswide,twentymilesin...

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