We might have thought that he had not heard,or not understood;only that we found ourselves the subject of a constant study.As we sat at meals,he took us in series and fixed upon each,for near a minute at a time,the same hard and thoughtful stare.As he thus looked he seemed to forget himself,the subject and the company,and to become absorbed in the process of his thought;the look was wholly impersonal;I have seen the same in the eyes of portrait-painters.The counts upon which whites have been deported are mainly four:cheating Tembinok',meddling overmuch with copra,which is the source of his wealth,and one of the sinews of his power,'PEAKING,and political intrigue.I felt guiltless upon all;but how to show it?I would not have taken copra in a gift:how to express that quality by my dinner-table bearing?The rest of the party shared my innocence and my embarrassment.They shared also in my mortification when after two whole meal-times and the odd moments of an afternoon devoted to this reconnoitring,Tembinok'took his leave in silence.Next morning,the same undisguised study,the same silence,was resumed;and the second day had come to its maturity before I was informed abruptly that Ihad stood the ordeal.'I look your eye.You good man.You no lie,'said the king:a doubtful compliment to a writer of romance.
Later he explained he did not quite judge by the eye only,but the mouth as well.'Tuppoti I see man,'he explained.'I no tavvy good man,bad man.I look eye,look mouth.Then I tavvy.Look EYE,look mouth,'he repeated.And indeed in our case the mouth had the most to do with it,and it was by our talk that we gained admission to the island;the king promising himself (and I believe really amassing)a vast amount of useful knowledge ere we left.
The terms of our admission were as follows:We were to choose a site,and the king should there build us a town.His people should work for us,but the king only was to give them orders.One of his cooks should come daily to help mine,and to learn of him.In case our stores ran out,he would supply us,and be repaid on the return of the EQUATOR.On the other hand,he was to come to meals with us when so inclined;when he stayed at home,a dish was to be sent him from our table;and I solemnly engaged to give his subjects no liquor or money (both of which they are forbidden to possess)and no tobacco,which they were to receive only from the royal hand.Ithink I remember to have protested against the stringency of this last article;at least,it was relaxed,and when a man worked for me I was allowed to give him a pipe of tobacco on the premises,but none to take away.
The site of Equator City -we named our city for the schooner -was soon chosen.The immediate shores of the lagoon are windy and blinding;Tembinok'himself is glad to grope blue-spectacled on his terrace;and we fled the neighbourhood of the red CONJUNCTIVA,the suppurating eyeball,and the beggar who pursues and beseeches the passing foreigner for eye wash.Behind the town the country is diversified;here open,sandy,uneven,and dotted with dwarfish palms;here cut up with taro trenches,deep and shallow,and,according to the growth of the plants,presenting now the appearance of a sandy tannery,now of an alleyed and green garden.
A path leads towards the sea,mounting abruptly to the main level of the island -twenty or even thirty feet,although Findlay gives five;and just hard by the top of the rise,where the coco-palms begin to be well grown,we found a grove of pandanus,and a piece of soil pleasantly covered with green underbush.A well was not far off under a rustic well-house;nearer still,in a sandy cup of the land,a pond where we might wash our clothes.The place was out of the wind,out of the sun,and out of sight of the village.
It was shown to the king,and the town promised for the morrow.
The morrow came,Mr.Osbourne landed,found nothing done,and carried his complaint to Tembinok'.He heard it,rose,called for a Winchester,stepped without the royal palisade,and fired two shots in the air.A shot in the air is the first Apemama warning;it has the force of a proclamation in more loquacious countries;and his majesty remarked agreeably that it would make his labourers 'mo'bright.'In less than thirty minutes,accordingly,the men had mustered,the work was begun,and we were told that we might bring our baggage when we pleased.
