She carried me slowly up the zig-zag path, and over the lip of the crater1 to Kalaua's house. Then she laid me down to rest upon a bamboo bed, and went out to fetch me food and water.
What happened next I hardly knew, for once on the bed, I fainted immediately with pain and exhaustion2.
When I next felt conscious, it was well on in the night. I found myself stretched at full length on the bed, with Frank leaning over me in brotherly affection, and an American doctor, hastily summoned from Hilo, endeavouring to restore me by all the means in his power.
At the foot stood Kalaua, no longer grim and severe as formerly3, but, much to my surprise, the very picture of intelligent and friendly sympathy.
"How did you get here so soon?" I asked the doctor, when I was first able to converse4 with him rationally. "You must have hurried up very fast from Hilo."
"I did," he answered, going on with his work uninterruptedly. "Your friend Kalaua fetched me up.
"He happened to be here when that brave girl rescued you from the crater, and he rode down on one of his little mountain ponies5 in the quickest time I ever remember to have known made between Hilo and the summit. He was extremely anxious I should get back quickly to see you at once, and we cantered up on the return journey as I never before cantered in the whole course of my life. I've nearly broken my own bones, I can tell you, in my haste and anxiety to set yours right for you."
"That's very good of you," I answered gratefully.
"Oh! you needn't thank me for it," he replied, with a laugh. "It was all our good friend Kalaua's doing. He wouldn't even allow me to draw rein6 for a moment till I halted at last beside his own verandah."
I gazed at Kalaua in the blankest astonishment7. Could it really be he who had stood so stolidly8 by in the feather mask and devoted9 my head with awful rites10 to the nether11 gods while I lay helpless on the Floor of the Hawaiians? My confidence in his identity began distinctly to waver. After all, I hadn't seen the features of that grim heathen priest while I lay at the bottom. Perhaps I was mistaken. He was Kea's uncle. For Kea's sake, I ardently12 hoped so.
"SHE CARRIED ME SLOWLY UP THE ZIG-ZAG PATH."
They set my leg that very night, and Frank and Kalaua in turns sat up to nurse me. I can hardly say which of the two was kinder or tenderer. Kalaua watched me, indeed, as a woman watches by her son's bedside. He was ready with drink, or food, or medicine, whenever I wanted it. His wakeful eyelids13 never closed for a moment. No mother could have tended her own child more patiently.
"Is the volcano still at work, Frank?" I asked once, in a painless interval14. I could never forget, even on a sick bed, that I was by trade a man of science.
"No, my dear old fellow," Frank answered affectionately. "The volcano, finding you were no longer in a fit condition to observe it, has politely retired15 to the deepest recesses16 of its own home till you're in a proper state to continue your investigations17. The moment you were safely out of the hole, Kea tells me, it sank back like a calm sea to its usual level."
"Pélé is satisfied," the old man muttered to himself in Hawaiian from the bottom of the bed, not thinking I understood him. "She has given up her claim to the victim who offered himself of his own accord upon her living altar."
It was not till next morning that I saw Kea again. The poor girl was pale and evidently troubled. She received all my expressions of gratitude18 with a distracted air, and she hardly appeared at times to be quite conscious of what was passing around her. But she was gentle and considerate and kind as ever—even more kind, I fancied, than we had yet known her.
For the next week, Frank, Kalaua, and Kea in turn each bore their fair share in nursing and watching me. I wondered to myself, after all that had happened, that I wasn't afraid of stopping any longer under the old chief's roof; yet now that it was all over, my staying there for the time seemed somehow quite natural. Indeed, it would have been impossible to carry me further along the rugged19 road that led down the mountain, with my leg in splints, and my general health in a most enfeebled condition. And I wasn't in the least afraid, either that Kalaua would cut my throat in his own house, or otherwise offer me personal violence. Nothing could possibly exceed his personal kindness to me now: and I felt as safe in the old chief's hands as I did in his niece's, or in my own brother's.
My conversations with the American doctor too reassured20 me greatly in this curious matter. A day or two later, I told him the whole strange and romantic story, in far fuller detail than I have told it here (for all the incidents were then fresh in my memory), and he listened with the air of a man to whom such marvellous recitals21 of savage22 superstition23 were hardly anything out of the common.
"I shouldn't be surprised if it really was Kalaua," he said to me confidentially24, when I had finished my narrative25. "The fact is, the old man has always been more or less suspected of persistent26 Pélé worship. Beliefs like that don't die out in a single generation. But you needn't be afraid on that account that he'll do you any bodily harm now. Pélé cares nothing for unwilling27 victims. She takes those only who go to her willingly. You fell in of yourself, and therefore Kalaua wouldn't pull you out. To have done so would have been to incur28 the severest wrath29 of Pélé. But now that you've once got safe out again, every good old-fashioned heathen Hawaiian will hold to it as a cardinal30 article of faith, that you're absolutely inviolable. The goddess had you once in her power, and of her own free will she has let you go again. If she liked, she might have eaten you, but she let you go. That shows you are one for whom she has a special concern and regard. The moment you got up in safety to the brink31 once more, the lava32 fell back. To Kalaua, that would be a certain sign and token that Pélé relinquished33 all claim upon your body. She may take some other victim, unawares, in your stead: but you yourself, the Hawaiians believe, are henceforth and for ever next door to invulnerable. You are Taboo34 to Pélé.
"Well, I've been very nearly dipped in Styx," I answered, smiling, "so I ought to be inviolable. But you don't think, then, I run any risk by remaining under this roof till my leg gets well again?"
"Quite the contrary," the doctor replied with perfect confidence. "I should think you would nowhere be treated with greater care, consideration, and courtesy than here at Kalaua's. Whatever it may have been a very few days ago, these people regard you now as Pélé's favourite. If you were to ask politely for a White Elephant, they'd import one for you direct, I verily believe, by the first mail steamer in from Burmah."
"That's lucky," I said, "though after what I saw in the crater the other day, I confess I feel a little nervous at times about our personal safety."
As the doctor was just taking his leave, he turned and said to me in a very serious tone, "If I were you, do you know, Mr. Hesselgrave, I think I wouldn't say anything at all in public while you remain in Hawaii about the scene in the crater."
"No?" I said interrogatively.
"No," he answered. "You see, it's impossible to prove anything. After all, when one looks the thing squarely in the face, what did you really see and feel sure of? Why, just five natives looking down at you in the crater, on the very eve of a serious outbreak of the volcano. Well, nobody's bound to risk his life to rescue a stranger from the jaws35 of an eruption36. As to the mask, the less said about that the better. People won't believe you: they'll say it's impossible. I believe you, because I understand Hawaiians down to the very ground: I know how skin-deep their civilization goes: but folks who don't, will think you're romancing. Besides, Kalaua wouldn't like it, of course. It's bad form to be a heathen in Hawaii. Whatever the natives may be in their own hearts, in their outer lives they prefer to be considered civilized37 Christians38. There's nothing riles your true-born Hawaiian like a public imputation39 of cannibalism40 or heathendom."
"All right," I answered. "You may depend upon my discretion," For Kea's sake indeed I should have been sorry to bring disgrace upon her stern old uncle, however richly the old chief might have merited it. I was profoundly grateful to her for her gallant41 rescue; it would have been an ill reward indeed to repay her kindness by betraying the terrible secret of her family.
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1
crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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2
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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3
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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5
ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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6
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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7
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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8
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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10
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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13
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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14
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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15
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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recitals
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| n.独唱会( recital的名词复数 )；独奏会；小型音乐会、舞蹈表演会等；一系列事件等的详述 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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29
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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30
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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33
relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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34
taboo
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| n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止 | |
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35
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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37
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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38
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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39
imputation
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| n.归罪，责难 | |
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40
cannibalism
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| n.同类相食；吃人肉 | |
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41
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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