There were at least twelve islands clustered round Vulcan. My father believed that one day they would be a prosperous group. The coconut industry would be developed and they might even set up others. Perhaps then the ship would visit the islands more than once every two months; but his great aim was to discover the source and treatment of island fevers and this he was determined to do.
The beating of the drums had started. Cougabel was shut in her room. I knew that she, like all the girls and men who were to take part in the ritual, was working herself into a frenzy of excitement.
Everywhere we went we could hear the drums. They were quiet... like a whisper during the first hours, but it would not be long before the noise began to swell.
I lay in my bed and thought of Cougabel coming in to tell me she was jealous. I had seen a look in her eyes then which alarmed me. For a second or so I should not have been surprised if she had brought out one of those lanceolate daggers the islanders used and plunged it through my heart. Yes, she had really looked murderous, as though she were planning some revenge for my neglect of her.
Poor Cougabel! When we were children we had scarcely noticed that we were different. We had been the best of friends, blood sisters, and we had been happy together. But it had had to change. I should have been more tender towards her, more considerate. I did not guess that she was so deeply affected by me, but I should have known because she had gone to the mountain-top when I was to go away to school.
The beat of the drums kept us awake all night and we were an uneasy household: my father angry that they should revert to this primitive custom, my mother anxious for his sake and myself faintly worried about Cougabel and at the same time excited by my mother's hints about Philip.
I looked into the future that night and it seemed to me that there was a good possibility of Philip's joining us. It would change everything. And was it really true that he was in love with me and wanted to marry me and share our island life?
It was a pleasant prospect and one which must certainly be shelved for a while. I had another year at school to do yet.
How I wished they would stop beating those drums.
All through the next day they continued. Now we could smell the food cooking in that open space where Wandalo had his dwelling. We were waiting for the dark and the sudden cessation of the drums which was every bit as dramatic as the beating of them.
Silence at last.
It was very dark. I pictured it all, though I had never seen it.
We should stay in the house, my father had always said. He did not know how they would react at seeing a stranger among them and in spite of the fact that we had lived so long among them we were strangers on a night like this.
We tried to go about our normal ways but this was not easy.
Laura came into my room.
"It's so exciting, Suewellyn," she said. "I've never had a holiday like this."
"You have given me some good ones on the property."
"Properties are commonplace," she said. "This is so strange ... so different from anything I have ever seen before. Philip is absolutely wild about the place." She looked at me, smiling. "It has so many attractions. Promise me something, Suewellyn."
"I'd better hear what it is before I answer."
"You'll invite me to your wedding and I'll invite you to mine. No matter what happens, we'll go."
"That's easy," I said.
I spoke lightheartedly. I had little idea how very momentous that promise was going to prove.
"I shan't be going back to school."
"It's going to be deadly without you."
"This time next year it will be your turn to leave."
"What luck it was meeting you! There's only one complaint. You should have been born a year later and then we could both have left school together. Listen."
The silence was over. The drums had started to beat again.
"That means the feasting is over. Now the dance is beginning."
"I wish I could see it."
"No. My father saw it once and so did my mother. It was dangerous. If they had been discovered heaven alone knows what would have happened to them. My father is certain—in fact old Wandalo hinted at it—that they would be very angry. They would discover that the Grumbling Giant was displeased and something dreadful would happen. G.G. would command it-through Wandalo of course." I looked round. "Where is Philip?"
"I don't know. He said he was going to the hospital."
"What for? It's not ready for work yet."
"He just loves to be in the place and plan all sorts of things. Yes, that was where he said he was going."
Fear came to me. Philip was very interested in old customs. Could it be that he had gone to look at the dance? It was dangerous. He didn't realize how dangerous. He had not lived with these people. He had only seen them gentle and eager to please. He did not know the other side of their natures. I wondered what they would do to anyone they found spying at their feast.
"He would never have gone there," said Laura, reading my thoughts.
"No, of course," I agreed. "My father did explain that it would be dangerous."
"That wouldn't stop him," said Laura. "But if he thought it would displease your father he would not go."
I was satisfied.
We sat together for some time. We heard the drums reach their crescendo and then there was silence.
This meant that the clearing would be deserted of all but the old people; the young ones would have now disappeared into the woods. The silence created a greater tension than the noise. I went to bed but I could not sleep.
Some instinct made me get out of bed and go to the window. I saw Philip. He was coming from the direction of the hospital; quietly, stealthily he came.
I felt sure he had been watching the dancers. I could understand that he had found it irresistible in spite of my father's warning.
Cougabel awakened me next morning. She was in her native girdle, wearing the shells and amulets about her neck.
She was different. She had been to the feast last night.
Laughing, she came close to me and whispered: 1 know I have the Giant's seed within me. I have Giant's child."
"Well, Cougabel," I said, "for that we must wait to see."
She squatted on the floor and looked at me in my bed. She was smiling and her faraway expression indicated that she was thinking of the night just past.
Cougabel had moved into womanhood. She had had the great experience of the Mask, and she believed, as I suppose all the women did until they knew they were not pregnant, that she carried the Giant's seed within her.
Cougabel was certainly confident. She kept looking at me as though she had scored some triumph.
Later in the day I saw Philip alone and I said to him: "I saw you come in last night."
He looked embarrassed. "Your father warned me," he said.
"But you went," I said.
"I should hate your father to know."
"I shall not tell him."
"It was something I just could not miss. I want to understand these people. And how could one understand them better than on a night like the one just gone?"
I agreed. After all, my father had watched a Night of the Masks. And so had my mother. They had hidden themselves successfully. My father had said: "They are really too absorbed in what they are doing to look for spies."
Philip went on: "I'm coming back, you know."
"Oh, Philip, I'm glad," I answered fervently.
"Oh yes, I've made up my mind. I'm going to work with your father. I have a year to do in the Sydney hospitals first though. By that time, Suewellyn, you'll have done with school."