The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-25


law. He knew it. He even
laughed at it, as the trade wind
laughs across the dancing waters of
AIofokai channel. And the woman who
sat at his feet as he worked, half maxi
ed. at the great stern sweep Of his
sampan. to make offing beyond the lee
of the bare, brown face of Diamond
Head, laughed with him.
Full had stolen the wahine from the
house of Nogu, who keeps the coffee
shop just eva of the Beretania avenue
bridge over Nuuanu stream. And the
woman, Ahana-san, had been more
than willing to be stolen. Nogu was
old and grizzled and toothless, with
no merit to win. a woman save the
shine of his hard gold. The appeal of
that had been altogether TO Ahana-
sans mother, keeper of the tea house
on the mountain road between Maya
saki and Moji. OF course the girl had
been obedient enough. after the emil
grafton agent had paid the gold to the
old woman Ahana-san could see no
wrong in being sold to ensure the COM
forts age demands for the old woman.
Her mother had paid suffering for her,
in her time
Also, a land where men could pick
up gold had it's lure for her. She had
her dreams of the charm of far-away
places. And, when she had dried her
tears after the picture hills of Dali
Nippon faded in the west, she was as
gaily chattering as any of the other
women in the steerage of the great
liner, Siberia. She entered as heartily
as any of them into the joke when she
was passed by the custom-house peo-
pie as the~wife of a laborer destined
for a plantation on Kauai. They were
a stupid lot, the custom-house people.
Once landed in Honolulu, she had
gone willingly to the coffee shop, and
the possession of Nogu. It was pleas
ant to sit all day, .cross-legged, in the
sun, enjoying the sight of ones own
prettiness in the little gilt mirrors
hanging all about the place. And one
saw life. Many bright house boys
from the upper part of the town came
in in the evening, and the wrestlers
from the Liliha street theater slipped
their coffee with moro slow enjoyment,
gossiping the while when Ahana-san
served it. One could make eyes, al
though old Nogu watched never SO
closely.
Then, one evening, the girl caught
a glimpse of the muscular limbs Of
Full, half hidden in Powered XII
mono, and looked into his brown eyes,
laughing, as she brought coffee to his
order, and saw the CLEAN of his white
teeth. After that the law of the Bor-
der Line country, which ran that the
woman must remain to the man who
has paid the price for her, became as
nothing to Ahana-san.
And, because this law was become
as nothing, she sat at the feet of Full
while he sculled mis- sampan swiftly
through the blue waters beyond the
barrier reef, and was content to be in
outIawry with him. What does it
matter ithat ones name be spoken
lightly in every coffee-house and Soda
pop shop from. Waikiki to the farthest
confines of Palama. if one but has love
and the lover? She smiled up at Full,
who showed his white teeth in smiling
down at her again, and nodded his lit
tie, round, black head very wisely. For
love is wise to read the heart of the
loved one.
Let the women talk, and the old
man cry for his price," he said, read
ing her thought. ''Who would buy a
woman when he can steal her?"
TT is much more better to steal,''
said Ahana-san. Woman reverts to
the primitive instincts more readily
than man.
Full laughed again, and threw back
his head. He felt the first puff of the
wind sweeping around Diamond Head.
Pulling in his long sweep, sprinkling
its drip as he pulled upon the dress of
and making her laugh
again, he got the wide white sail upon
the boat very speedily. Then, shipping
the tiIler, he fastened the sheet to one
of his bare big toes and sat down and
put his free arm about the waist of his
true love.
The breeze came strong and strcng-
er, the blue seas began to dance and
to throw up little white-crested waves
to meet the boats caressing, and the
sampan, leaning far over. dashed on
across the channel toward the fishing
ground in the lee of Molokai.
There, for two days, lying where
they could see the curiously crooked
ravines that run down in serpentine
lines from the high cliffs on the wind
ward side, beyond which dwell the liv-
ing who are dead. and where they
could mark the white path of the XII
nau and the Mauna L,oa across the
seas that lie on the way to the outer
islands. Full and Ahana-san drew red
and green and blue and golden fishes
Of many curious shapes from the
bright waters, and loved, and were
content in outlawry.
Indeed, as the days drifted on, Ho-
nolulu and the wrath of old Nogu
seemed very far away. Even when a
passing sampan. outward bound for
Bay, Iuffed up to tell them
that a warrant would be sworn for
Full on his return to the city, they
still laughed and loved and were con-
tent. Full had some knowledge of the
law of the haoles, and told himself that
old Nogu would not dare to awaken
that giant. The giant carried a sword
that cut all ways. Full had stolen the
woman. but Nogu himself had bought
her. The American law made the pur-