Evening star., 1924-04-20

4
from the seed of ALPHA Nailetat--
ALPHA who died In the sea! He was
q great chief Of Samoa, and Samoans
are not towards"
"Samoans are not cowArds. but thou
knowest what white folks say Of
them? They are quit-ters," returned
Gordon, bitterly. They Will not tight
They quit! They cannot cary through
anything, even in their own defense
And so it is with Thea. who
art no. Samoan. What art thou? Only
fishman and a fool. Only swimming
and joking and idling while thy
/ blood-enemy goes unslain and unpun-
ishedr'
1T is not for . Samoan to have a
blood-enemy. It Is not the custom Of
the country to slay anybody"
cit is the custom to ask justice!
Only as nearest OF kin you must ask
Henry, let me take your case" plead
ed Gordon I'VE can so easy prove
| that Joranson did it, and we can
leave the killing to the English judge.
He will ave Joranson 'anged by the
| neck. And then you can marry Tito
and Joranson's cutter and all that
is Joranson's will be yours!- he added
| eagerly.
Henry lay back on the beach again
with one arm thrown over to shade
| his brow. But while he regarded the
importunate visitor. in the pooled
depths OF his eyes ran a tiny flicker
| ing light which might have recalled
which did recall-the temper OF that
able Scotch trader. his father.
| Gordon Shoesmith," he said, slow
| ~, "go away. You are smart-man and
lawyer-man. You are thinking II
! anything 'appens to me you will be
next to own vitongo-eh? Any any
! 'ow if you stir up bloody row you
make me fight to keep Vitongo for
you-eh? List'n, l am maybe fool
but am not-fool, Go away. Gordon
Shoesmith."
HENRY of Vitongo was that curious
modern product-seldom noticed
the man midway east and west, whose
heritage swings between two pasts as
wide apart as the poles. 1t was a re-
! rnarkable share in the heritage, and
the worlds indirect tribute to a noble
| native race, that as a half-caste of
Samoa he need never be ashamed of
! it.
! Pride or race is so rare with mixed
bloods; still rarer when granted by
white to dark. Only among descend
- x.sy
tribes of the Maoris and kindred
Polynesian branches through the is
| lands, will you find such pride held
and acknowledged. And this was
Henry's
| Not but he knew well enough the
ways of a saddle-tinted society-Iike
Gordon and Gordon's womenfolk, who
anxiously aped the manners of a
money making middle class.
| To these striving relatives OF Hen
rvs many things seemed essential !;
! invitations at Government House,
| land and profits and the tricks Of
commerce. To Henry nothing in life
seemed important except the living.
| 1t always had been 50 with him.
Since his orphaned boyhood he had
been a scandal to his kind In his
school days at the Marist Mission he
had offered a sad problem to those
earnest saints who shed pale cast of
culture on the riotous tropics. When
Brother Leo used to catch him play
| ing truant with garlanded madcaps
at the jumping would shake
an angry finger at the elfn face and
explode a six-barreled German word
which signified, in approximate mean
| ing, a throw back
THAT is what you are, Henry Shoe
smith. You belong a gentleman-no?
with fine home and a trading
store. And you act as little pagan
Ach, such conduct displeasing to the
good God; you should blush for your
self"
| Brother Leo had hit the truth. Hen
~ of Vitongo was born pagan.
| To ride the breaker. to chase the
rainbow fish, to beguile the hours,
nourished at natures ripe breast and
| sleeping there without doubt or care
no books had taught him this; no
books could teach him better. Ac-
cepting the white mans religion and
| the white mans deadly contact, but
| still he was at heart unchanged since
a golden, olden age; neither laboring,
owning nor coveting; harming none,
| envytng none and hating nobody
these Henry loved, too. and lovingly
| understood
All Of which was harmless enough, to
! be sure-all of which involved nothing
worse than the talk and the scandal
aforesaid-to the fateful moment
when he learned that he loved, and
| hopelessly loved, pretty Tito Jor2n-
son
"A beautiful girl is Tito, tho daugh-
ter of Joranson the Dane. Every night
he beats her with a bamboo stick. She
only waits for a strong man"
| Well, whatever any one might say
or think of it, Henry certainly had
done his best to qualify.
Had he not enlarged Vitongo store
at reckless cost? Had he not plunged
with a bold financial gesture on three
trading ventures to Savail? Had he
not mortgaged and borrowed right
and left in order tn gamble disas-
trously in copra and cocoa-all at
Joranson's own cunning suggestion.
and all for tho single purpose of
proving himself 4 strong man and a
gentleman by every half-caste stand
ard and q worthy candidate for = SON
in-iaw?
His effort had failed It had worse
than failed. for Joransoo vas enmin1
this very night to demand q settle
ment. Henry dreaded It How ter
rfbiy he dreaded 1t, only one could have