“Oh, I am a very popular person, you must know.”
Just at that moment one of the men came running up to the balcony.
“What has happened?” cried Tom rising.
“Master. He fall. Jaco … he fall from tree. He lie.” The man lifted his shoulders and shook his head backwards and forwards mournfully.
“Show me said Tom, and we all followed him out to the plantation.
A boy of about twelve years was lying on the ground, crying out in pain. His leg was twisted under him.
Tom held his breath in dismay, and Luke said: “It looks as though he has broken his leg.”
He knelt beside the boy.
“Poor little chap,” he said.
“Painful, is it?”
I don’t think the boy understood the words, but the sympathy in Luke’s voice soothed him a little. He lifted wide frightened eyes to Luke’s face.
“It’ll be all right,” went on Luke.
“I can see to this. I want a stout stick and some bandages.”
“I’ll get those,” replied Tom.
“Stay here with him.”
Luke turned to the boy.
“I’m going to try to move this. It’ll hurt.
I’m going to put it back in place. Tamarisk, put your arm round his shoulders. That’s right. “
I stood there helplessly watching them. Several of the men had gathered around. They were all gabbling together.
Luke had the boy lying flat on his back, and it was obvious that the bone was broken.
“I wish I had something to give him,” said Luke.
“Where’s Tom?”
“He’ll be back soon, I’m sure,” I said.
“Here he is. He’s got the things you wanted.”
I watched Luke as, with deft fingers, he set the leg. I remembered his saying some time before that his training included lessons in first aid. He said at the time that at least he could do something in an emergency.
The boy was obviously in less pain now. He was gazing at Luke with touching gratitude.
“I want to get him back to the mission,” said Luke.
“We’ll get one of the carts to take him,” said Tom.
He stood up and shouted something to the watchers in their native tongue. Several of them immediately ran off and in a short time returned with a cart.
“We’ll have to be very careful not to jolt him,” said Luke.
“We want pillows and something for him to lie on. We must get him safely to the mission. Muriel has had some training in nursing, and she can make a proper job of it.”
“It’s wonderful!” cried Tamarisk.
“I do hope he’ll be all right.”
“If we get it properly set, he will be,” Luke assured her.
The boy was carefully carried to the cart, where he lay stretched out.
Tamarisk sat at his head, I at his feet. She stroked his forehead and murmured comforting words. The boy looked at her in a sort of wonder.
She looked very beautiful with the compassion in her face.
Tom led the donkey, making sure that the passage was as smooth as it possibly could be, and when we reached the mission house, Muriel and John were there to help.
Muriel said the boy should go into her room. She would make herself up a bed in one of the others in the building. She knew exactly what to do and took charge. He had broken his fibula, she said. It was a simple fracture. He was young, his bones would soon heal.
She seemed happy to have something to do and showed an efficiency which I had never seen in her before.
Afterwards Tamarisk and I went home and told my father and Karia what had happened.
“And you think it will be back to normal in time?” asked Karla.
“There should not be any difficulty.”
“That will be wonderful,” said Karla, her eyes shining.
“There was one man who had a fall like that and he’s been a cripple ever since.”
It was that night when the drums started. They were faint at first and then grew louder. The sound of musical instruments came floating over the air.
As we sat at dinner, Karia said: “This will go on all night and tomorrow and the next night.”
“Tom was telling us about it,” I said.
“I think he feels a little uneasy.”
“It’s one of the old customs, isn’t it, Karia?” asked my father.
“Yes. It goes back many years. It’s a sort of war cry, a preparation for attack.”
“But what are they going to attack?” I asked.
“Nothing … now. But at one time there was always fighting tribe against tribe. It’s different now. The islands are at peace. They have been taken over and some sort of order brought in. But in the past they had always to be ready. This is an exercise in readiness … letting the spirits know that they are waiting if attacked.”
“And what about old Olam?” asked Tamarisk.
“He fascinates me.”
“He’s very old. He would remember those days. They all revere him.
He’s rather like the old witch doctor. He has that sort of power. They are all in awe of him and everyone must show due respect. “
“I’d like to see him,” said Tamarisk.
“I doubt you will,” Karia told her.
“His hut is in the centre of the settlement close to the plantation. He doesn’t emerge very often except at times like these. People consult him from time to time if they are in difficulties and he gives them directions which must be obeyed. No one dares cross him.”
“I believe he can be a rather terrifying sight in all his war paint,” said my father.
“Have you seen him?” I asked Karia.
“Oh yes. For ceremonies he has two blue stripes painted across his forehead and feathers on his head.”
“Will he be there tonight?” asked Tamarisk, her eyes speculative.
“You must not try to see him,” said Karia quickly.
“There would be trouble if you were detected. We live here. We must respect these people.”
“Of course,” said Tamarisk demurely.
All through the night I could hear the strains of the instruments and beneath them the intermittent beating of the drums.
There was something hypnotic about them.
I thought longingly of home. I will go, I promised myself. I will talk to my father in the morning. He will understand. He said that love was all-important and he was right. Of course, my father had not led an exactly moral life; but then it was not always easy to know what was right and what wrong.
I could not sleep. I would doze for a few minutes and then wake to the distant murmur of the sea and the throbbing of the drums.
Suddenly I was wide awake. Something was happening outside the house.
I looked out of my windows and saw people there. I hastily put on a dressing-gown and slippers and at that moment Tamarisk came into my room.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve just woken up.”
We went out together. Karia was by this time at the door. As the men saw her they began to shout. I did not know what they were saying, but Karia answered them.
She turned to me.
Trouble at the mission,” she said.
“I must go.”
Tamarisk looked disturbed. She took a proprietorial interest in the mission.
Karia started off and we followed her. We ran all the way to the mission and there was an amazing sight. The torches gave out an eerie light. There was a crowd of men and at the head of them the man who, I knew, was Olam.
He seemed enormous, but that was due to his tall feather head-dress, which gave him the appearance of some fierce predatory bird. I looked at his face which was like nothing so much as a distorted image from a nightmare, for painted across his forehead were the two blue stripes which Karia had mentioned, and there were red lines down his cheeks.
Two tall men stood beside him, their faces painted, though less luridly than that of Olam himself. They were carrying spears and I felt a great fear grip me, for their anger appeared to be directed against the mission.