The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-05
BY Jack London.

| the land breathes over the sea. In the
day the land becomes warmer than the
! sea, and the sea breathes over the land
|. Listen! Here comes the land
breath now, the mountain wind
I could hear it coming, rustling softly
through the coffee trees, stirring the
monkey pods, and signing through the
sugar-cane. On the lanai the hush still
reigned. Then it came, the first feel
of the mountain wind, family balmy,
fragrant and spicy, and cool, deliciously
cool, silken GOODNESS, a wine-like cool
ness-.eool as only the mountain wind
of Kena can be cool.
Do you wonder that I lost nv heart
to Kona eighteen years ago?' he de.
manded. 81 could never leave it now.
| think I should die. 1t woud be ter
rible. There was another man who
loved it more, for he was born here
on the Kona coast. He was a great
man, my best friend, my more than
brother. But he left it, and he did not
die
Love2' I queried. "A womang''
Cudworth shook his head.
Nor will he ever come back, though
| his heart viii be here until he dies. -
He paused and gazed down upon the
| beach-ights of Kai1ua smoked silent
| ~ and waited.
He was already in love
| with his wife Also, he had three
children, and he loved them. They are
in Honolulu now. The boy is going
to college -
Some rash act7 I questioned, after
time impatiently.
He shook his head "Neither guilty
OF any thing criminal. nor charged with
anything criminal He was the sheriff
of Kona.'
/ ''You choose to be paradoxical.'' |
said
suppose it does sound that way. -
ne admitted, "and that is the perfect
hell of it,
He looked at me searchingly for
moment, and then abruptly took up the
| tale.
He was leper No, he was not
born with it-no one is born with it;
it came upon him This man-what
does It matter2 Lyte Gregory was his
name. Every kamaaina knows the story.
He was straight American stock, but
he was built like the chieftains of old
Hawaii. He stood six feet three. His
stripped weight was two hundred and
pounds, not an ounce of which was not
clean muscle or bone. He was the
strongest man [ have ever seen. He
was an athlete and a giant. He was a
god. lie was my friend. And his heart
and his soul were as big and as fine
as his body.
wonder what you would do if
you saw your friend, your brother. on
the slippery lip of precipice, slipping,
slipping, and you were able to do moth
} ing. That was just it. I could do
nothing. l saw it coming, and I could
do nothing. My God, man! what could
| do? There it was, malignant and in
contestable, the mark of the thing on
his brow. No one else saw it. 1t was
: because I loved him so. I do believe
; that L alone saw it. could not credit
: the testimony of my senses. It was
too incredibly horrible Yet there il
was, on his brow, on his ears. I had
. seen it, the slight puff of the ear-lobes
. oh, so imperceptiblv slight. [ watch
ed 1t for months. Then, next. hoping
: against hope. the darkening of the Skin
. above both eyebrows-oh, SO faint. lust
d hike the dimmest touch of sunburn. ]
should nave thought 1t sunburn but thai
), there was a shine to it, such an invisi
= Die shine, like little high-light seer
I Tor moment and gone the next.
q tried to believe it was sunburn, onIv
!, could not. knew better. No onc
e noticed it but me. No one ever noticed
8 1t except Stephen Kaluna. and I dix
a not know that till afterward. But
$ saw 1t coming, the whole damnable. IN
Il nameahle awfulness of it: but I refuse,
T to think about the future. I wa
afraid, I could not. And of nights
, cried over it.
It He was my friend. We fshe,
n sharks on Niihau together We hunte,
wild cattle on Mauna Kea and Mann
IS Loa. We broke horses and brande,
IS steers on the Carter Ranch. We hunt
ed goats through Haleakala He laugh
1t me diving and surfing until was nearl
t, as clever as he, and he was clevere