I understood! My brain seemed bursting within my skull. It
appeared to me that God, in his own way, had made me a blind instrument
to do his work. The big Maori on the wharf at Levuka knew of the hell
upon the Isle of Tears. The Maori had warned Toni, the little Fijian,
but fear of what might happen to any one possessing the knowledge had
made Toni deny that he was the companion of the Maori when he was
questioned before and after he had reached _The Waif_. In a burst of
confidence he had confessed the truth to me on the afternoon after I had
saved him from being washed overboard, but the confession had been made
in the presence of Soma, and, as Kaipi asserted, it had cost Toni his
life. Leith, alias Black Fernando, had ordered the big Kanaka to put the
possessor of such important information out of the way.
I repeated over and over again the words which the Maori had addressed
to his woolly headed pupil on that hot day at Levuka. They raced madly
round in my mind, as if exultant because I had found the reason why they
persisted in storing themselves in the cells of my brain.
Pages:
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287