: i ! i
| When we were alone he said. “That grown up with, and very much in He asked me how I felt and told tired. I was really making an hon- and carrying the anchor shoreward
t |silly squabbling gets on my nerves. |jove with her. We got married just me his name was Abdul Buraala and est fight, old man. She was a spoil- a yard or two at a time. It was
They're none too good, anyhow. before I left for France towards the that he had the honor of being my ed, wilful little animal, however. weird. n
White people are usually unpleasant, latter part of 1914, I had a great host. Then he went on to explainin What did she do but kick the spatus . ‘Cannibals, Jafra whispered.
———— |_p ot" nearly 30 decent 2 Malays. 1/pal-_we were commanders excellent English that the skipper of off her feet peel off her white jack- “Quick! Before we're on the beach.
© onte, Pa., June 19, 1981. ';,ch prefer the latter.” lin the same for » While— ihe Chinese cargo bout had got the et and gather up her sarong so as | Fire and keep firing, while 1 rouse
=== I felt that this was said in a fit who was seconded eventually to per- wind up about a sick white to form bloomers, Away she streak- the crew.
RASTUS' PHILOSOPHY (of peevishness and let it pass. Just manent home duty after having an man aboard, and put me off ed into the sea. She was off like a streak and I
—— . (the same, it stuck in my mind be- eye shot out on the Somme. I here at Banda. | phe, as lke & fish. With pound. |began blazing away at those devil,
De sunflower ain't de daisy, cause I had already noted hisappar- asked him to look after my wife and But there was no longer a ing heart I watched her Sporting | But 1 couldut ace the sights of my
An’ de melon ain't de rose; | ent preference. | take her about a bit. [tal in Banda, so he, Buraala, had in- about. I don't know how long she rifle t was like shooting at
Why is dey all so crazy | Between Astley and myself a real Rather foolish of me, as it turned sisted gen taking me into his | StaYed here, Mili 3p her Bind, shadows. TGV wee swift, I
To be sumiln’ else dat grows? friendship soon oped. We spent out. Just before the armistice I got house. d been there three weeks but finally, having swum close, she doubt if t yny of en but I
|a lot of time together and, at Boia Jouer Om Bar—u Brutally ai wilh 8 bad go of Lyd rose and waded towards me through the hot lead wherever I
Jes stick to de place you're planted. | suggestion, I relinguished the seat al: document—saying she had closed up, Presently doctor—a lit- the shallows. I gasped! The moon. a splash. .
An’ do de bes’ you' knows; 'lotted to me in dining saloon our cottage in Survey and was living tle Eurasian—arrived. He went over light sheathed her in shining metal. With the first roar from my gun,
Be de sunflower or de daisy, jand teamed up with him at his side with this pal of mine. Nothing me and decided that I was all right A gleaming, golden nymph, rising an uproar broke out; the most blood-
De melon or de rose. | table. was said about a divorce. She had ‘and said my recovery was due whol- out of the sea to frolic on the sand! curdling shrieks of rage I ever
, ’ | He piloted me about wherever we simply dropped me and gone to ly to Jafra’s nursing. At the men- She had determined to hold mein heard. The mountainside seemed to
Do't be what You aii | went ashore someone else. ‘tion of her name Jafra smiled and Banda at any cost and she scorned rock with the yelling. Plainly it
Jes YO BE WHEE YU 18, Bali Macassar and so on—all of Women acted that way the curtisied. no weapon that would serve her pur- was alive with headhunters who had
N30 um na wit Y9 a which he knew well. More than war. It shatiered them as y as | That was a wonderful convales- pose. These women are like that. been patient.y waiting and watching
Den yo 15 301 What Wo ‘once I tried to draw him out about it did us. Possibly her seeming cence. I discovered that I was in a The next morning she went with and licking their chops. :
If yo're jess a littie tadpole, ‘himself by remarking on his knowl- cold-bloodedness was intended to smallish palace surrounded by acres me to Buraala while I made a clean Crafty game, wasn't it? Lacking
Don't yo' try to be de frog; ‘edge of these places, but I learned make me feel that I was we|l rid of of flowers and lawns and huge trees breast of everything—I was man canoes on this exposed shore and too
If yo' are de tail ' nothing except that he had lived out (her. Or it might have been her I ted the place out to you enough for that. Jafra was not in cautious to board us in deep water,
Don't yo' try to wag de dog. | this way, which was obvious. | queer, feminine way of hiding wuat terday, the one with a high w te the least ashamed of her conduct or they had figured to ground us, them
| He told me much about the beau- she reaily felt, wall round it, Buraaia, or rather of mine. She was delighted with swarm abroad as the tide fell.
Pass de plate if yo’ |ties of Banda but nothing could Anyway, you can imagine how it Said Abdul Buraala, to give him his herself, , We were still in something of a
Can't exhawt and preach; have prepared me for the breath- hit me. To be let down by the two full title, used to yarn with me by The Said behaved much better jam, for we were in range of their
If yo're jess a little pebble, taking splendor that met my eyes people I thought I could e my the hour. ‘than I had expected. He's a phil- arrows and the air whined with
Don’t yo try to be de beach. when I stepped out on deck early life on! '__ A remarkable old boy the Said. osopher. I was glad I'd told him them for awhile, but we finally got
‘one morning, Through the lifting I managed to get demobilized soon Enormously rich and powerful, This what had sent me A the anchor aboard and our up.
When a man is what he isn't, ‘night mist we were approaching a after peace was declared, but what was only one of several places he I told him that I intended to get Slowly we pulied away.
Den he isn't what he is, | narrow between an im- with nerves pretty shaky from called home. He could talk intel- a divorce and marry Jafra as soon was a brick. She was in
An’ as sure as I'm talkin, ' |mense volcanic mountain and the is- trench life and the shock of this ligently and entertainingly about al- as possible and that if he was still the thick of things every minute,
He's awgine to get his. (land of Banuda Neira. The blueof thing I had no heart to settle down most anything under the sun. At willing I'd head that pearling ex- I've told you all this to show the
|the water was so incredibly Wivig; {oslo 4 0 Biters ous] got first, I was i ga “3 accept- pedition Say. Soaty og Mi ey girl she could be in an
the of the densely verdured to t tality from a man, m no re in Pp which e .
BLACH PEARLS | mills, was so brilliant, the outlines of was always afraid of meeting those but yo feeling soon disappeared were rightly his and hers. Certainly she had saved us from
The moment I saw the man 1 the volcano were so symmetrical, two, and that fear preyed on my completely. I wish you could meet Jafra I sailed to New Guinea those awful savages. Some streak
wanted to know him. Erect and that the very perfection of nature's mind until one day I packed a few him, but he's away now on a trip to 'a fortnight later, with the Said’s of the wild in her had given warn-
bareheaded, a pipe between his teeth, workmanship gave the scene an ap- bags and boarded a steamer bound Mecca. blessing. We carried a Malay crew ing. What I feared most was that
he stood against the rail of the pearance of artificiality. for Colombo. Why I chose colombo Then, too, there was Jafra, The and a diver. For us it was a vo ‘she had been grazed by one of those
steamer as it picked its way, out-| Soon we were steaming through I can't say. loveliest, merriest wild creature, She of supreme delight. The stuffy infernal darts— of course—
ward bound, through the maze of the and ahead I could seea From there I drifted up to Calcut- sat with me in the Said's 'cabin of our schooner was a bower; and I dragged her back into the
shipping at anchor in S Har- white beach, white houses dotted ta, then across to and and taught me Malay. It was a joy this was our honeymoon cabin and lighted a lamp. 7T think
. lam the plantati and a series down
bor—white ocean liners; freighters ong p ons, | Settlements.
| about
with few portholes and many winch-
junks
wind-jammers, too, some of which
were trim and newly painted, others
woefully weather-beaten and looking
as if they had battled all the raging
s¢as since the of time,
Here and there barges were being
laboriously propelled by crews
Chinamen with tic wooden
sweeps; a tho native p
with little red-brown sails
about like insects on a stream. The
warm air was tinged with the pe-
culiar smell of ships,
Somewhere I had read that more
vessels cleared from Singapore than
from any other port in the world. It
seemed likely.
I looked at the man again. He
was about forty; lean and hard and
deeply sunburned. His white linen
clothes fitted him admirably; a short
mustache and a firm chin gave hima
soldierly appearance. He might have
beta an explorer. x
was starting on a trip throug
the romantic islands of the Dutch
East Titles, Places I had read about
for years had dreamed of visit-
ing. It was all very pleasant de-
Spite the heat that struck through
e steamer’s awning. Cccasicaaily
a puff of cooler air reached up from
the land,
the mi rr Diy sa ed {OF
mos 0)
deck chairs, and their equally stout
wives—all with the a
overflowing at bust and
reading or
troupe of tra
outside the smo
laughing and cha
A tall Armenian paraded the deck
animatedly talking with a bright-eyed
Frenchman and waving a new meer-
schaum pipe from which depended a
vivid green tassel. Malay stewards,
pisturseghe = their native costume,
moved a trays of tea
and ice a a ying y
Soon we passed the last of the big
red channel bouys, and Singapore,
now a streak the sky iine
astern, gradually sank out of sight.
A steward offered tea to the man
who had challenged my interest,
which he accepted with an
smile and a kindly word. I noted
that he spoke to the boy in Malay,
Was no stranger
which told me he
to the East. I decided then and
thee Jo Yet E 3uto conversation with
a opportunity.
But making his acquaintance turn-
ed out to be no easy matter, He
took his meals alone at a side table,
and spoke to none of us except to
returs a salutation. Either
upp! or had some good reason
for keeping to himself. His name
was Philip Astley and he was book-
ed for Banda. That was all I dis-
covered.
Although Astley pointedly discour-
afjed our advances, he was extraor-
narily cordial towards the Malay
stewards and deck hands. Frequent-
ly I noticed him chatting fluently
with one or another of them, that
amazing smile of his occasionally
breaking out to transform his habit-
ual expression of remoteness into
one of warmth and friendliness. A
queer bird,
We were leaving Tanjong Priok,
the port of Batavia. I had pulled out
a pipe and was patting my pockets
in searcn of tobacco when Astley,
from a near-by chair, addressed me
for the first time,
“Care to load up from my pouch?”
he inquired.
I thanked him and repeated the old
story about the Scotchman who con-
fessed that he hated to borrow to-
bacco because he always crammed his
pipe so full that it wouldn't draw.
Astley was kind to laugh and
we fell to discussing pipes and to-
bacco. Sociable stuff, tobacco.
Then we talked of fly-fishing and
sailing and dogs; he bred wire-
haired terriers. We yarned for an
hour after which I ordered a couple
ankle—sat
needlework. A
entertainers stood
ing-room door,
of gin pahits; then we went below of
to change for the evening. He was
on deck when I came up from din-
ner. On a small table at his
stood coffee and
and
glided |
he was
only often and there's no
braiding | \t out lite is like a
sense- | con ve, fragmentary, anticlimatic.
Several times Real drama v.
fidget- | I hope it won
| of medieval fortifications on a steep
»| “Rather good, isn't it?"
I turned at the sound of Astley’s it was now over six months since fond of her, but she was not. Jafra’s
| crisp voice. “Superb!” I agreed.
Rangoon
Siam to the Straits
I was terribly depres-
Eventually, having wandered
through Sumatra and Java—
I'd left England—I awoke to the
“It's the paradise of the East, the fact that I would have to buck up
| Enchanted Isle. And the women of
| Banda—! But you've heard about
| them ?
| “They're famous for their beauty. or Malay I was in a fix.
of They say the decided to go down to
'houris in Mohammed's garden came and try my luck there,
| Always have seen.
|
| youth, created from musk and spices
Wh : stop off a few more than I had left to buy a
yout you : a sage, and second, there was no boat
| going for about three weeks.
days? There's another boat in
‘week and I'll show you around. I'm
‘lonesome as the devil and—I wish
| you would.’
i 1
breaking my trip when I went ashore, cargo steamer RKuviag that evening facts;
‘but Banda intrigued me and Astley’s
arguments eventually prevailed. It
from here—nymphs of perpetual
|sage for me.
and do something immediately. But|
what?
I was in Surabays at the time, and |
|being unable to speak either Dutch |
Australia |
But two
things bobbed up to crab that idea.
First, I discovered it would cost
pas-
| However, through a half-caste tal- |
‘ly clerk I happened to know, I
| for Amboina. a pas-
From Amboina 1'
‘and
to be with her;
led she was so cheerful
understanding.
I had assumed she was a member
of Buraala's household, he was so
father had been a man of some con- |
Sedfience, a trusted employee of the
's, and the old fellow looked af-
ter
Oriental treasures, when I
was fit enough to move
He was silent for a moment;
then, after apologizing for seeming
pry into my business he asked if
I'd mind telling him what had brought
g
had no serious intention of learned there was a small Chinese me out there. I gave him the bare
nerves on edge after the war
—wandering about the East at a
loose end, broke, making my way
(was indeed a slumbrous paradise, an figured I could pick up a trip on on spec. down to Austrelia,
(island of memories, and its history
‘was both quaint and Cc.
Once it had supplied the world
with nutmegs and mace-—the busi-
ness was a monopoly then and -
ously guarded by the Dutch. No
| fertile seeds were permitted to leave
the shores and the plantations
fabulous profits. Those bold Dutch
planters lived in state and luxury: |
| circus.
they built mansions; there were ban-
quets and balls and gayety.
Remains of the old houses are
still standing, their marble floors Chinese,
and stairways cracked their bronze & word
of gates blackened and broken, their mine,
Sn pol i ori fled,
e monopoly prosperity
but the stout stone forts, the under-
ground passages used for centuries
fish below hatches. It
{It didn’t do the least bit of good
shut the
the
| carried,
|some trading schooner
| say, Thursday
| win.
The boat I went
|a thousand live pigs
|for'ard deck and full
bound for,
Island or Port Dar-
appalling! |
the door,
Breakfast
t
language nor they of
gestures and
were jolly chaps,
to please.
About seven of us sat down at
| smiles.
friendly
[table and a steward promptly serv-
He was so concerned that I
to regret having mentioned it. It
when one had re-
from a severe illness. He
me if I'd consider re-
Banda for a time. He
a temptation but
under my skin and—I feared
she was | to care for me.
All the same, the mention of employ-
ment piqued my curiosity.
The Said, oddly enough, seemed to |
regret having spoken and it was
as protection to women and children ed each of us with a small bowl some time before I could get out of
‘against marauding Portuguese and containing a banana. From the him just what he had in mind.
Arabs still remain. The whole place
|amused chatter and the self-con-
Several years before, it seemed,
(dozes now, dreaming or heroic days scious glances in my direction I saw Jafra’'s father while on a trip along |
when hardy merchant
for their nutmegs and r ladies.
Those ladies were indeed lovely,
from all accounts, for adventurers
like these could and did
themselves witl nothing less than
the choicest of eevrything, Many of
them imported European women—
famous beauties who lived extrava-
gantly until they tired of their sur-
ro and returned home.
Needless to say, the blood of Ban-
da was badly mixed. The present
inhabitants, predominantly Malay,
had inherited characteristics peculiar
not alone to the Dutch, but also to
the other strains so oddly
them and . hat golden
stamped them with a certain beauty
‘all their own.
the women of Banda my friend
promised to tell me one. Her name
was Jafra. He pronounced it soft-
ly; a light glowed in his eyes. He
had never told it to anybody, but as
a writer I might be interested.
When I assured him that I was in-
terested, he asked if I'd mind get-
ting up early the next morning and
‘going with him. IT readily agreed,
It seemed I was to make the ac-
'quaintance of this lovely Jafra.
We put up at a quaint hotel a
rambling affair with vast, airy rooms
and a Juzriant garden. The half-
caste proprietor knew my companion,
as did many of the Arab store-
keepers and others. All greeted him
with smiles and salaams.
We roamed about together most of
that day snd the spell of the place
fairly drugged me. That evening
we lay on long chairs and languidly
watched Banda by moonlight. Never
do I expect to see an more
heavenly. Here was enchantment.
A long prahu, manned by a score
of Souliss each armed With a short
spade- paddle, awai us when
we walked down to the dock after an
‘early breakfast The water, as
(Jeuply blue as any cornflower, was
| with a ripple.
| Astley and I found seats under a
small grass a astern; then,
| with short strokes, in time to a sort
from first one, then
another, our boatmen propelled us
across the bay. On every side was
side scenery which no poet in his most
i t moments of inspiration
[could Squat. Astley began)
i 's a ( ’
Oe i Sey, vogun),
that, isn't it? In-
happen only in books—
I scarcely know .
to
Back in the old NAY 1 Suayss
Yoo was engued a girl Td
content
mingled in |
their make-up—Franch, Spanish,
Greek, Arabian. There was fire in
age had,
If I cared to hear a story about
an English breakfast for my benefit.
I tried to show my appreciation by
| nodding and
Next came weak tea; and then
(three boiled eggs for each of us. Of
course, there were no spoons. Iwas
stumped, until tne tain solved the
problem for me a off the
‘top of an egg and sucking it. In-
stantly there came the sounds of
hearty vaccuum cleaning on all sides.
The eggs were beastly strong and
my stomach turned handsprings but
I couldn't offend those johnnies—
they were doing their best for me,
What with food and the smells
heavy seas
bad as could
fourth morn-
headache. |
tongue felt as
was in for
i much more—
‘delirium set in quickly—but I can
recollect that the captain and one of
his officers came in to see me and
that their voices reminded me of
turkey gobblers. They gave me some
‘water and, after a while, I recall
being carried down the
§
‘a long chair.
Next toing I knew I was in bed in
a large room, without the
‘notion why, how, when or where. I
was looking at my surroundings and
/trying to put two and two together
‘when I noticed a girl,
ly lovely creature, sitting at one of
the open windows, sewing. Prob- |
ably it was her chocolate-colored
iskin—more gold than brown—that
put me on the track of for
it came back to me then that I was
somewhere in the Dutich Indies and
(that I'd been carried ashore from
'a Chinese freighter loaded with
| squealing pigs.
Finally I remembered the war,
(and the man and woman who'd be- |
haved so rottenly, But somehow
'those things seemed unimportant.
|All IT wanted was to lie quietly and
watch that girl for the rest of my
life.
She looked up finally, Her eyes
were enormous and fringed with the |
longest lashes I had ever seen. She!
dropped her sewing and hurried over
{to my bed. Then she ran out of
the room.
Almost immediately a man ap- |
peared-—a figure right out of some
book of old Eastern tales. He was
(tall, powerfully built, dark-skinned:
{he wore a rich purple-and-orange |
sarong. He was a little past mid- |
dle age; he had a big head a cur- |
ved nose, a broad chin, and tangled |
eyebrows that gave him an aspect of |
fierceness. But when he spoke I |
was struck by the gentleness of his |
low-pitched voice.
prinees fought they were doing their best to put on the west coast of Dutch New Guinea
had bought a number of large and
valuable black pearls, He had sur-
mised they'd been found by New
Guinea natives and he came back to
Banda much excited. The Said had
outfitted a lugger and sent him back
to prospect those waters, with the
understanding that they would share
equally in the profits of his discover-
ies. He had never returned. Nor
had Buraala ever received a hint as
to his fate.
More concerned about clearing up |
the disappearance of the old man
‘than in solving the mystery of those
pearls, the Said had equipped two
other boats and sent them after the
first one. Neither had ever been seen
or heard of again. All these expedi-
tions had carried experienced crews
and divers too. A thoroughly baf-
fling affair.
Buraala wondered if I might wish |
to carry on. The profits, if any,
would go three ways: a third to
him, a third to me and a third to
Jafra, |
We discussed the matter for an
hour and it fascinated me, but actu-
ally I had come to the point where I
girl—If I'd been a free man—
but I wasn't. Eventually I made
to risk the venture.
I didn't sleep much that night. It
galled me to play the weakling be-
a bewildering- fore my host. I felt sure I'd fallen ing hills of
in his esteem.
there was an
Nor could I believe
roman. * Tow. chums ad prom
en se, chaps prob-
ably made a tidy haul and run out. |
Or carelessness had wrecked them. |
I said nothing to Jafra about |
leaving but the Said must have told
her. She was hurt, bewildered,
Nevertheless, she was sweeter than
ever; more alluring; more madden- |
ing.
he night before I was to sail we
went for an after-dinner stroll. I
couldn't resist one last hour alone
with her. The moon was full, asit |
was last night. 1 always come back
to Banda for this month's moon.
At the far end of the beach we
pat own. " My Malay was passable
en—it's an y 1 , you
know-—and we talked, ton her
about that pal of mine and my wife.
Softly she laid her hand on mine
and—I fished out a handkerchief as |
an excuse to avoid her touch—She
had eyes like a deer, I couldn't |
bear to face the reproach in them. |
But I didn’t know the women of |
Banda. Jafra had some of that old, |
wild blood in her veins. And the |
reckless courage of those Dutch
planters, too. |
After a while she said she wanted
to swim. She insisted. We had
{
i
gi
She was marvelous, really.
. woman, wife, sweetheart, siren,
| watchdog, slave. And as contented Ban prospecting near the shore—no
I can't describe what a thrill I
'got when we anchored off the New hardly tell you
Guinea coast and the diver got
dressed and went over the side. I
glued my eyes to his life line and
when, after about half an hour, he
came to the surface with three
shells in his string bag, I nearly fell
overboard with excitement. I pounc-
ed on m and opened the
in a jiffy. But there were no pearls
in them.
disappointment was terrific.
k me some time to get over
ting to find a handful of gems
every shell I ough the
ox
t
5
was not wise, he told me, to travel Said had told me that only one per-
lands without money, es- cent of them contained anything Sway from the shore, the tender and
more than a blob of messy flesh.
Conditions were ideal for 1-
fishing: clear water and light winds.
our way north,
We were working
picking up a t of shell as we
went. What with this fascinating
job—and Jafra—I'd never been so!
happy in my life.
At last I found my first pearl.
That was a big moment, ‘Then I
came across others. A couple of
them were fairish, but most of the
stuff, the diver told me, was bar-
oque. However, we kept plugging
away.
One evening we found ourselves in
water too deep to anchor in.
could have pulled close inshore but
I didn't want to do that because of |
the risk of a sudden squall. So I
kept on sailing and looking for a
safer spot.
But for miles and miles along that
coast it was the same 5
yond two or three hundred yards
from shore the water dropped away
abruptly to some amazing depth—
we co! 't get bottom at all. At
last I dropped anchor so that the
men could get their sleep and be fit
for work the next day.
I was a bit uneasy, so I arranged
for the crew to take watches and to
report instantly if they saw any sign
of a bolw,
It had been a 1 day and I
dropped off to sleep like a log. Ja-
fra was a queer, restless little thing;
She slept as lightly as some wild
animal, and lucky for us she did. I
felt her tugging at my arm, and
awoke to find her standing at the
cabin indow Mating E out, She
whispe 0 me an lea rom
the bunk. ia
At first I could make out nothing
and I wondered why she clutched me
so fiercely and laid her hand upon
my lips. Then I rubbed my eyes
wider open.
It was glassy calm; a thin haze
gangway on dared not trust myself longer near lay on the water. What attracted
my attention was the fact that in
spite of that haze the shore looked
foggiest the excuse that I was still too weak much closer now than it had when I
had turned in.
Yes, and
it precisely
It was closer.
we were moving towards
as
m were magnets
which drew EE a At
first I thought my eyes were play-
ing tricks, but J was whispering
excitedly. She thrust a rifle into
my hand and, silent as a cat, she
pulled me out of the cabin after her.
There was no doubt about it, as I
saw when we reached the deck.
That jungle was scarcely a stone's
throw distant. I observed, too, that
the schooner was headed straight in
that direction and moving steadily,
if almost imperceptibly.
From somewhere in the gloom
there was a stir; a stealthy move-
ment, a faint extraordinary stirring
‘of the waters. The night was alive
—It was incredible; it was spooky.
I felt my hair rise and my
creep. I thought of those other
pearling schooners, lost—
But Jafra gave me no time to
think. She drew me towards the
bow of the boat. For a moment I
could make nothing out of what I
saw except that a school of por-
poises were at play.
showed itself and again several;
almost soundlessly they rose and
sank. I could hear them fill their
lungs. Then I realized they were
men. Naked men with black bodies
and shocks of fuzzy hair.
There must have been a dozen of
| swum often but I said T was too them; they were swimming down |
We |
if those black, scowl- P
flesh |
Now one
was when I had finally sat-
isfied myself.
Well, we kept all the rest
| Next morning we came in and be-
(diver could have gone down in the
deep water farther out—and I need
that we kept a keen
look out for visitors. Towards mid-
day I found a black pearl—a beauty,
My eyes simply bulged when I open-
ed that shell and saw that gorgeous
thing near the lip, all wet and shin-
ing and almost alive.
That made me concentrate on this
| particular bit of coast and my guess
| turned out t, for while there
amt much , what there was
an unusually high average
(of pearls. And the shells had black
‘pearls in them more often than the
‘other kind.
Every day at sundown we sailed
I turn about to skipper the
boat through the t. I was con-
| vinced now that J 's father and
| Buraala’s vanished luggers had met
{with the gruesome end which we
(had so narrowly escaped.
| Eventually, when stores ran low,
'T headed back for Banda. The mem-
|ory of that trip will always be with
me: the satisfying feeling of some-
| thing accomplished; warm, lazy
days; flaming sunsets; moonlight
'nights—and Jafra at my side.
The Said was frightfully pleased to
See us. He asked Jafra to join us
in a threesome dinner although, as
you know, Malay women are ex-
| pected to take their meals after the
men. And what a dinner we had!
Afterwards we went to the Said's
own sanctum for liquers and I con-
tinued my report of the trip, Jafra,
in a blue sarong and blue ornament
in her hair, looked almost too lovely
to be real. I could hardly take my
eyes off her.
Buraala was geniunely suash hati
for those poor chaps who'd gone to
their deaths. Jafra he praised for
her good work and he gave her, as
a memento of the affair, 3 fold sig-
aret case with an eme catch.
She was delighted.
Afterwards when we came to the
pearls and the shell, he was awfully
generous; insisted on retaining only
a third interest. The rest was for
us. Then he asked if I'd care to go
into partnership with him to work
the New Guinea coast on a bigger
scale, and I Jodrpea at it. The de-
tails were quic arranged—
Astley paused for a while and ap-
peared to find something of interest
in the toe of his shoe, He looked
up finally and said, “Every day I
became more devoted to that girl.
Perhaps you won't believe that a
human being can be perfect, but she
was. Not only was she unbelievably
beautiful, she had the disposition of
an angel as well. She had courage,
health, a good mind, everything. I
was 80 happy with her that—well,
such things are too good to last.”
It was clear to me now why Ast-
ley was so partial to Malays and so
rejudiced against people of his own
color, but I was puzzled about this
trip to Banda Lontar. Did he keep
Jafra hidden away here? Had some
terrible illness left her red?
‘Had she borne a brood of children
of whom he was ashamed?
“Half a dozen times,” he said,
breaking in on my speculations, “I
offered to go back home and get a
divorce but she wouldn't permit so
long a separation. So we went on
as we were our hearts and minds
and bodies in complete harmony. It
‘all seems ages ago now, and yet—"
My companion stopped abruptly as
we headed towards a strip of white
beach. Presently we grounded in
shallow water. Two of the crew
leaped out and carried us ashore om
their backs.
I could see no sign of habitation,
but as we made our way back over
the clean sand and pebbles I caught
sight of a hut from which a shrivel-
ed old man emerged, FEe hurried to
meet us and we paused to exchange
flowery Malay greetings; then Astley
moved on again.
Where the beach ended and the
dense jungle began we went through
a narrow gap and along a moss-
grown path. Suddenly this emerg-
‘ed into an exquisite garden, and my
|companian halted. That
| covered about a quarter of an acre:
(Continued on page 7, Col. 4.)