The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-24
The Deed to Paki--A Hawaiian Tale

&sxSzzS azxsE2B nzEz@ azzAzSz@ @aszzzsssN
pers are 10 see that your lands are
cared for while YOU are living. and that
they 90 to Kali when you are dead.
You don 7 want the lands 70 he fought
over in court after You die. and have
the lawyers get all Of them, and Kali
nothing
The old man wavered, and LAM
heard him humble to himself Then he
said:
Where is Kali1 don I like to sign
anything when he is not here
He went 10 the mountains this
morning. lied Paki, ''to hunt for
some cattl, that had strayed 1t will
he useless to wait for him. The lawyer
has come all the way from Kailua 20
settle this matter. He can not wait -
LAM STAYED to hear no more So
this was the man she had thought she
loved,
What was it that he wanted old
Mana to sign? Why had he lied about
Kali? She did not know; she did not
care. But she was sure of one thing
that Kali must be summoned at
once
All her old regard for him, latent
through these months in which Paki
had reigned, came back; and in a flash
she knew that il was Kali all the time
that she had loved-good, patient, plod
ding Kali--and not Paki. after all.
And she was glad, glad; especially
since now il had so befaIlen that she
might help him in this crisis.
III.
She brust painting from the thicket
out upon the dazzling white sands of
the beach. There was Kali. Just across
the little arm of the bay, poised on
rock, his brown body. clad only in a
scarlet breech-eloth, glistening in the
sun. She called his name again and
again, funneling her hands over her
mouth to speed the sound. But the
surf broke all around him, and he did
not hear.
What should she do? It was too far
around the bay to reach him in time;
the papers would be signed, and the
lawyer gone to Kailua, before they
could get back to the house. The little
bay was narrow at its mouth, and at
times the tide ran swiftly, but she
must chance it. She must swim to
him.
Quickly her long holoku dropped
from her shoulders, and. clad only in
her loose white muumuu, she dashed
into the surf. 1t was a short swim
barely a couple of hundred yards
Every now and then she thought. with
a shudder, of the sharks which infested
the whole of the Kona coast and some
times entered the bays alongshore. But
all went well. Presently she drew her
self up on the rocks beside the astonish-
ed Kali, and gasped out the story to
him.
''You have done this for me, Lamb"
he said, when she had finished, taking
her hand and trying to look into her |
eyes. You have done this for me?
thought | had lost you, l thought |
you loved Paki, and my heart was |
very sore. Tell me why you have come |
to me. Tell me-
"Oh, we must not stop, talking, |
here the girl cried, sudden panic |
Selling her as she gave a furtive glance |
into the ardent eyes of Kali. owe |
must hurry, hurry! The papers will be !
signed, and your land will be gone for
ever
81 don care half so much for my |
land as I do for you, sweetheart, -
said Kali, and be drew her to his side |
''Tell me why you came to me"
81 think-it was because-I love
you, KALI said the girl Then, with !.
a sudden. quick smile into his eyes, she !,
leaped from the bare brown arms that i
would have encircled her, and plunged
into the sea.
He was beside her in second, and |
together they Glove their way through
the tram parent waters, shoreward. In
the middle of the channel Kali paused |
to look back; and, as she forged ahead,
LAM heard him cry out sharply. east |
err. faster!' he cried. GA shark"
Over her shoulder she saw, coming
swiftly after them, the black TRAN
gular fin of a man-eating shark, cutting
the surface of the bay like the bow
of a racing canoe, and sending little
ripples of water either side. The first |
crossing of the channel had been easy
for LAM. but she was already a bit |
out of breath from the fast swimming.
Now, with this new and deadly peril