Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-10-12

faint culver of the full scarlet lips.
And Kaomao-" He gasped for
breath. ''Kaomao, am going away
going away tonight at shutdown"
Going away?" Kaomao sat up
straight, and leaned toward her lover.
He was faithless, then! He had come
to tell her that he was faithless!
81 am going away" Again he strug-
gled for the breath that formed the
words Forever, Kaomao."
Kaomao's brown hands were crushing
the jasmine petals they held. Her eyes
were intent on his eyes.
"Paliopaleke!" She breathed the
name questioningly, brokenly.
Il have been detained for three
weeks" There was long pause,
his voice grew rougher, harsher, lower.
For three weeks at the Kalihi hos
pital. l go tonight on the Kilauea
Hou-to-night at sundown!" PABLO
paleke's' slow words ended in long
heartbroken sob. His eyes were swept
by torrent of tears.
For an instant Kaomaos eyes grew
wide with horror. Kalihi-the leper
boat! A single shrek like no human
sound burst from her lips. Then,
stretching her arms toward him, she
sprang forward to fling herself on
his breast, but she stumbled heavily
over an obstacle that had been thrust
in front of her, and fell outstretched
on the ground.
Umanunu, who had thrown her down,
crouched low over her, wildly waving
her hands, warding off the man who
now bent over the girl, but made no
move to touch her.
"A leper! A leper! How dare you,
a leper, come near her!" the old bag
screamed. 1--WE killed her, perhaps,
but better a thousand times that she
should be dead so than that you should
touch her!" Shrieks and oaths and
curses filled the air, but Kaomao, stun
ned by her fall, lay inert and STILL
and Paliopaleke bent lower, lower over
the PROSTATE form. Not even the outer
hem of her garment did he touch with
hand or lip.
Farewell, farewell forever" The
words were breathed not spoken
Crashing through the underground, he
rushed down the hill, out into the
sunlit valley, on and on, with never
a backward glance until he found him
self on the boat that would carry him
to the land of the living death.
Umanunu knew we'll enough how to
prolong Kaomao's swoon, and not
until the afternoon was we'll advanced
did the girl move. The shadows
stretched far, the sun sank low, it's red
disk lowering over the blue sea. At
shutdown! The Kilauea Hou! With a
wild shrek Kaomao sprang to her feet,
and rushed down the hill along the path
her lover had traversed. She was fol-
lowed only by the cackling chuckle of
the old woman who, motionless and
speeches., waited where she was for
the girls return.
The upbraidings she expected were
never spoken Like a slender white
ghost Kaomao traversed the moonlit
grove, passed the woman silently, and
silently entered the hut. Never again,
in fact, did Umanunu hear KaomaO's
voice. Mutely the girl listened to the
| from the town. With downcast eyes
and firmly closed lips she heard how
| the attention of the health officers had
! been attracted to Paliopaleke working
| on the wharveS; how he had been sent
| to the Kalihi hospital; how, although
| he had but the faintest faint Of the
| dread disease, he had been ordered to
Molokai for the safety of the islands;
how he had broken from the guards
for his farewell visit to Nuuanu
The days passed and, curiously
enough the girl moved about doing ap-
parently nothing, apparently seeing
nothing, but the curves of her red lips
grew straighter, and in the depths of
her luminous brown eyes was the
shadow of definite resolve
| Heavily perfumed, heavily petaled
| jasmine blossoms everywhere, pink
and white begonias shook their petals
at her. scarlet and crimson and yellow
flowers poured themselves profusely
at her feet, but Kaomao ignored them
all. When she did anything she work
ed automatically, fashioning some leis
| of soft white feathers 1t was q
month after Paliopaleke's departure
when she stood one day in the door
way of her hut, wreath of the soft
| plumes on her dark hair, another
about her neck, hanging far below her
| waist
IF could but see you thus, a bride
my Kaomao." cried her grandmother
and she held small mirror before the
| girls eyes.
| Kaomao, taking the glass in both
hands, looked long at her own ref1ec-
ton, and then she smiled for the first
time in all that month. That night
Umanunu slept profoundly, and in the
morning when she awoke she was
alone in the grass hut under the ban
van tree.
Down on the beach, on the other
side of the hill, Kaomao, gowned in
the elinging white muumuu that Pal
iopaleke loved, was pushing a light