The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-09-14
FEAST Of THE MOON.

| ~ AM going 20 the band at the lates,
Dick. said &c my chum after breakfast
one day last March. He nodded, but made
no remark. had known him for some
years however since his great trouble
and we were staying at the Pepu club
lettering away our time In Rangoon after
II long shooting tour in the Straits
Sorrow cannot endure forever, but the
Senth of the girl to whom he was engaged
| through u boating accident at Henley, had
| LETT two strange marks on his character
when the cloud had otherwise lifted at
last. He hated white roses-and indeed
any white iowcrs-and music of every
sort. On the day of her Death the girl he
was to marry was wearing white roses,
and as they were carrying the body to an
inn they passed II house in which violin
ist-a master of his art so Dick told me,
and he was Il good judge and no mean per-
| former hmsolf--was playing an air that
haunted my fiend ever after--the adagio
movement from BCethoven's sonata Pa
| thetique." Z" For these reasons" he said
to me bitterly, IL shall never be friends
again with roses. l shall hate sweet music
my whole life long"
Well, ! went down to the boathousc ard
a
island to read Tennysons "Idylls" and to
dream and listen to the string band of the
-th regiment, then quartered with others
at Rangoon. When got back TO the pegu
club, some three hours later, l went
straight to the reading room, in a corner
of which discovered Dick with look of
quite unwonted animation in his eyes
81 say, Old chap" he began with sup
pressed excitement, 1--WE had the most
extraordinary visitor this afternoon-a
fakir of sorts-who told me things of my
past life that thought nobody knew
laughed. Been tapping your bearer,
1 expect" And the moment after re-
GREETED the remark, when Dick in a low
voice, almost a whisper, said: "He de-
scribed her. what she wore that day, how
she died." and then after pause, "He
said she would be waiting for me tomor-
row night-the Burman's feast of tho
moon-by the sacred tank
Delicately as l could tried to eradicate
from his usually practical, cynical mind
the unreasoning faith in the supernatural
which the fakir seemed to have implanted
there. l suggested the fellow might art
fully have forced his thoughts into a GER
tain channel and then read them in the
form of answers to tacit questions of his
own. Dick got quite angry and said:
At any rate, am going to this sacred
tank. l have found out where it is. -
Next day he showed signs of a bad night
and was strangely preoccupied, but as the
day wore on he pulled himself together.
At breakfast he said, II suppose you
won't accompany me tonight, unbeiever?"
jumped at the chance, for somehow
had misgivings Of foul play of one kind
or another.
"If you don't wish to be alone, of course
l will come, " l said, and so it was settled
After dinner II ticca gari drove us two
miles or so along the kokaing road till we
came to II cart track which led through
the pine jungle to the sacred tank, where
in dwelt the uncanny looking sacred fish
and their attendant turtles, all ministercd
unto by an old wiZened nincola who lived
in one of the few huts scattered in clear
ings round the tank Tonight they were
all deserted. Doubtless the dwellers were
in the city or some neighboring village,
whence lloated the musical ting tong ting
of the gongs, pitched in various keys and
carried by the professions of feasting Bur
mans, clad in many colored silks and
sporting the pretty white temple flowers
in their hair.
We sat down on a fallen tree trunk and
SIDOhGu III SllenCc. llCh scelneu W De
brooding on the past, and was disinclined
to talk and annoyed with myself for a
strange eerie feeling whereof l was begin
ming to be conscious. How long we had
been there know not, but suddenly my
friend started up with cry--a veritable
'cry that shivered to the tingling stars
and strobe forward with arms out
stretched, talking, as thought raving, to
some one could not Sec
Darling, wait one moment. am com
ing; am here" (walking "a few steps for
ward). And then, MY God, there it is
again" Cunning to mel Don't you heaI
it?" And he hum med the opening bars OF
the adagio movement
heard nothing but the distant ringing
of the gongs, but suddenly l caught the
sobbing cadence of that lovely piece OF
harmony; but it seemed an echo only, or,
if you can conceive it, rendering of the
passage in huge bell jar from which the
air had been exhausted magically clear,
divinely sweet and sad, but so faint that
the ear coTld just catch it and no more. II
was only as it died away that the succeed
ing silence convinced me it had been at all
Dick stood like a statue, intently listen
ing, with strained, lost look on his
face. l took him gently by the arm anC
He SuileTcu W lcHu HllH away, llhG I
sleepwalker.
The following day he was down with {
bad go of fever was with him most o.
the day and went to his quarters as soor
as l had finished my dinner. They wer,
empty. His bearer was in the godowns
and when l summoned and interrogatet
him he only looked dazed. l cursed him il
heaps, and, scribbling note to the d. S
p, l sent him off with it, and myself
rushed out with my own boy in quest o.
the absentee.
High and low l hunted, but found NJ
clew. Then returned, weary and dispirit
ed, to the club, where found Curtis, tn,
d. S. p, awaiting me ana any reports
from the surrounding police thanas.
Suddenly an idea struck me; why it hat
not earlier l know not. "Come," l said
and Curtis and l, taking gari as soon a
we could get one, drove to the sacred tank
1t must have been in the morning
when we came upOn him He was lyinl