Evening star., 1925-02-01

more or less alalesSly about the 90
mile white beach that was Manaia-
The shadows thrashed about on the
sand as the palm fronds, 80 feet
| above. thrashed in the merciless
southeast On Manaia, as on many
hundred other low" islands, you
were never out of touch of the inevi-
table coConut. There was only a mar
row strip of tidal beach each side Of
the long, belt-shaped island over
which the tenuous, restless shadows
did not fall.
The palm gives no true shade. No
house-and-hearth association clings
about it's rocketing white stem and
insubstantial ygreen star of
crown, as about the tanned and hui
manized personalities of the fig tree
and the vine. Flag Of the wanderer,
Of forgotten dwellers out back, of the
man who was and the man who will
never be-the palm frond holds no
sentiment of home.
1t may be that Lockharts trader
| understood all this, or 1t may be that
his thoughts ran on slightly different
lines UnConscfouSly, for many years
of island wandering he had felt the
palm shadow rest upon his life. It
had been put into words for him. He
felt it consciously now. So much the
more did it weigh.
sun go down upon the empty sea-
where never-almost never-a sail
went by, and never any funnel at all
Not one of the biggest or the most
important of the pearling islands is
Manaia, but it turns out it's tale of
black and gold-lip shell, of ba
rogue blister, button and the fine
pearl year by year. The lagoon is 90
miles long. The she'll Is easily got by
naked divers. 1t is- almost inexhaust-
ible. Like everything else on Ma
naia, it seems as II it had never be-
gun and never would cease to be.
!: x :: x
T OCKHARTS trader - his name
- was down on the books of the
firm as Jones, a name somewhat over
worked among the islands, like Smith
and Brown and JohnSon-shut the
store, though 1t was not yet dusk,
and went to look for the other trad
ers. He had a mind TO take a holiday
next day, and in the out back islands,
when you feel like holidayinR, you
appeal to your brothers and rivals In
trade to Join you honorably, and holi-
day, too. Jones was well aware that
this longing for unearned vacations
and for endless loafng was a shade.
leaflet from the many-leaved
shadow Of the palm. SO was sleeping
after lunch. SO was ncglecting, not
caring, to read papers from home.
Tonight he wanted talk as other
men wanted drink. He had to have
it-and for the same reason. The
traders gave it to him.
Through the flood of conversation
Lockhart's trader learned some star
Ting things. DIR. Glascott was trying
$50 the traders said) to make pearls.
Had been trying for IL years. OF
course he would not find out how.
No one ever had. Glascott's daughter
Zones, of course, had heard he had
one-the only white woman on
Manaia. except the 'missionary's Wife)
was a pretty young girl and a real
lady. No mother. Brought up here
since a little kid, the missionary and
his wife educating-with help from
Glascott himself. Wouldn't look the
same side of the beach as any white
man on Manaia, but they all thought
her bonner, for all that. Age? Nine
teen to a week
Lockhart's trader, name of Jones,
went home feeling that Manaia prom
ised to be interesting. He felt that
there might be a long. interesting
love story ahead of him. A young
and beautiful girl-a professional
father, wrapped up in science, but
doubtless resolved to see his daughter
mate worthily; secret meetings, per-
haps Gina gination jibbed a little here,
for there was not one secluded spot
on the whole of Manaia's so miles
of glaring sand and palms,, hand
some trader with a sad story in the
pasta romantic girl who loved for
loves sake only. 1t would be like
something in a book or on the stage.
The man named Jones saw a year
or two very pleasantly passed away
in his dreams-with "take-her- and
be-happy" scene at the last and tin
large size-of Swift & Arran's
cake, groaning beneath the tin
opener.
Beneath the shadow all things are
leisurely, nor is anything of much
account = save one. That thing is
swift, that thing counts, outweighs
all other things, turns rules into
exceptions, and its own huge. dark
exception to a rule. 1t is Death.
Lockhart's trader was busy next
morning-as much as he, or any
one, was ever busy-shutting things