the first in the house; and while I was still without I saw a
match flash and the lamplight kindle in the windows. The station was a
wonderful fine place, coral built, with quite a wide verandah, and the
main room high and wide. My chests and cases had been piled in, and made
rather of a mess; and there, in the thick of the confusion, stood Uma by
the table, awaiting me. Her shadow went all the way up behind her into
the hollow of the iron roof; she stood against it bright, the lamplight
shining on her skin. I stopped in the door, and she looked at me, not
speaking, with eyes that were eager and yet daunted; then she touched
herself on the bosom.

"Me--your wifie," she said. It had never taken me like that before; but
the want of her took and shook all through me, like the wind in the luff
of a sail.

I could not speak if I had wanted; and if I could, I would not. I was
ashamed to be so much moved about a native, ashamed of the marriage too,
and the certificate she had treasured in her kilt; and I turned aside
and made believe to rummage among my cases. The first thing I lighted on
was a case of gin, the only one that I had brought; and, partly for the
girl's sake, and partly for horror of the recollections of old Randall,
took a sudden resolve. I prised the lid off. One by one I drew the
bottles with a pocket corkscrew, and sent Uma out to pour the stuff from
the verandah.

She came back after the last, and looked at me puzzled like.

"No good," said I, for I was now a little better master of my tongue.
"Man he drink, he no good."

She agreed with this, but kept considering. "Why you bring him?" she
asked presently. "Suppose you no want drink, you no bring him, I think."

"That's all right," said I. "One time I want drink too much; now no
want. You see, I no savvy I get one little wifie. Suppose I drink gin,
my little wifie he 'fraid."

To speak to her kindly was about more than I was fit for; I had made my
vow I would never let on to weakness with a native, and I had nothing
for it but to stop.

She stood looking gravely down at me where I sat by the open case. "I
think you good man," she said. And suddenly she had fallen before me on
the floor. "I belong you all-e-same pig!" she cried.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] Please pronounce _pappa_ throughout.

CHAPTER II

THE BAN

I came on the verandah just before the sun rose on the morrow. My house
was the last on the east; there was a cape of woods and