"'REO," THE FISHERMAN
'Reo was a short, squat Malayan, with a face like a skate, barring hiseyes, which were long, narrow slits, apparently expressing nothing butsupreme indifference to the world in general. But they would light upsometimes with a merry twinkle when the old rogue would narrate some ofhis past villainies.
He came to Samoa in the old, old days--long before Treaties, andImperial Commissioners, and other gilded vanities were dreamt of by uspoor, hard-working traders. He seemed to have dropped from the sky whenone afternoon, as Tom Denison, the supercargo, and some of his friendssat on Charley the Russian's verandah, drinking lager, he marched up tothem, sat down on the steps, and said, "Good evening."
"Hallo," said Schlueter, the skipper of the _Anna Godeffrey_. "Who _are_you? Where do you come from?"
'Reo waved a short, stumpy and black clay pipe to and fro, and repliedvaguely--
"Oh, from somewhere."
Some one laughed, surmising correctly enough that he had run away from aship; then they remembered that no vessel had even touched at Apia fora month. (Later on he told Denison that he had jumped overboard from aBaker's Island guano-man, as she was running down the coast, and swumashore, landing at a point twenty miles distant from Apia. The nativesin the various villages had given him food, so when he reached the townhe was not hungry.)
"What do you want, anyway?" asked Schlueter.
"Some tobacco, please. And a dollar or two. I can pay you back."
"When?" said Hamilton the pilot incredulously.
The pipe described a semicircle. "Oh, to-morrow night--before, perhaps."
They gave him some tobacco and matches, and four Bolivian "iron"half-dollars. He got up and went across to Volkner's combined store andgrog shanty, over the way.
"He's gone to buy a bottle of square-face," said Hamilton.
"He deserves it," said Denison gloomily. "A man of his age who couldjump overboard and swim ashore to this rotten country should bepresented with a case of gin--and a knife to cut his throat with afterhe has finished it."
In about ten minutes the old fellow came out of Volkner's store,carrying two or three stout fishing-lines, several packets of hooks, andhalf a dozen ship biscuits. He grinned as he passed the group on theverandah, and then squatting down on the sward near by began to uncoilthe lines and bend on the hooks.
Denison was interested, went over to him, and watched the swift, skilfulmanner in which the thin brown fingers worked.
"Where are you going to fish?" he inquired.
The broad, flat face lit up. "Outside in the dam deep water--sixty,eighty fa'am."
Denison left him and went aboard the ancient, cockroach-infested craftof which he was the heartbroken supercargo. Half an hour later 'Reopaddled past the schooner in a wretched old canoe, whose outrigger wasso insecurely fastened that it threatened to come adrift every instant.The old man grinned as he recognised Denison; then, pipe in mouth, hewent boldly out through the passage between the lines of roaring surfinto the tumbling blue beyond.
At ten o'clock, just as the supercargo and the skipper were taking theirlast nip before turning in, the ancient slipped quietly alongside inhis canoe, and clambered on deck. In his right hand he carried a bigsalmon-like fish, weighing about 20 lbs. Laying it down on the deck, hepointed to it.
"Plenty more in canoe like that. You want some more?"
Denison went to the side and looked over. The canoe was loaded down tothe gunwale with the weight of fish--fish that the lazy, loafing Apiannatives caught but rarely. The old man passed up two or three more, tooka glass of grog, and paddled ashore.
Next morning he repaid the borrowed money and showed Denisonfifteen dollars--the result of his first night's work in Samoa. Thesaloon-keepers and other white people said he was a treasure. Fish inApia were dear, and hard to get.
*****
On the following Sunday a marriage procession entered the Rarotonganchapel in Matafele, and Tetarreo (otherwise *Reo) was united to oneof the prettiest and not _very_ disreputable native girls in the town,whose parents recognised that 'Reo was likely to prove an eminentlylucrative and squeezable son-in-law. Denison was best man, and gavethe bride a five-dollar American gold piece (having previously made aprivate arrangement with the bridegroom that he was to receive value forit in fish).
'Reo's wife's relatives built the newly-married couple a house onMatautu Point, and 'Reo spent thirty-five dollars in giving the bride'slocal connections a feast. Then the news spread, and cousins and secondcousins and various breeds of aunts and half-uncles travelled up toMatautu Point to partake of his hospitality. He did his best, but in aday or so remarked sadly that he could not catch fish fast enough ina poor canoe. If he had a boat he could make fifty dollars a week,he said; and with fifty dollars a week he could entertain his wife'shonoured friends continuously and in a befitting manner. The relativesconsulted, and, thinking they had "a good thing," subscribed, and boughta boat (on credit) from the German firm, giving a mortgage on a pieceof land as security. Then they presented 'Reo with the boat, with manycomplimentary speeches, and sat down to chuckle at the way they would"make the old fool work," and the "old fool" went straight away tothe American Consul and declared himself to be a citizen of the UnitedStates and demanded his country's protection, as he feared his wife'srelatives wanted to jew him out of the boat they had given him.
The Consul wrote out something terrifying on a big sheet of paper, andtacked it on to the boat, and warned the surprised relatives that anAmerican man-of-war would protect 'Reo with her guns, and then 'Reo wentinside his house and beat his wife with a canoe paddle, and chased herviolently out of the place, and threatened her male relatives with alarge knife and fearful language.
Then he took the boat round the other side of the island and sold it fortwo hundred dollars to a trader, and came back to Apia to Denison andasked for a passage to Tutuila, and the German firm entered into andtook possession of the mortgaged land, whilst the infuriated relativestore up and down the beach demanding 'Reo's blood in a loud voice.'Reo, with his two hundred dollars in his trousers' pocket, sat on theschooner's rail and looked at them stolidly and without ill-feeling.
* * * * *
Denison landed the ancient at Leone Bay on Tutuila, for he had takenkindly to the old scoundrel, who had many virtues, and could give pointsto any one, white or brown, in the noble art of deep-sea fishing. Thislatter qualification endeared him greatly to young Tom, who, when he wasnot employed in keeping the captain sober, or bringing him round afteran attack of "D.T.'s," spent all his spare time in fishing, either atsea or in port.
'Reo settled at Leone, and made a good deal of money buying copra fromthe natives. The natives got to like him--he was such a conscientiousold fellow. When he hung the baskets of copra on the iron hook of thesteelyard, which was marked to weigh up to 150 lbs., he would call theirattention to the marks as he moved the heavy "pea" along the yard. Then,one day, some interfering Tongan visitor examined the pea and declaredthat it had been taken from a steelyard designed to weigh up to 400 lbs.'Reo was so hurt at the insinuation that he immediately took the wholeapparatus out beyond the reef in his boat and indignantly sunk it infifty fathoms of water. Then he returned to his house, and he and hiswife (he had married again) bade a sorrowful farewell to his friends,and said his heart was broken by the slanders of a vile Tongan pigfrom a mission school. He would, he said, go back to Apia, where he wasrespected by all who knew him. Then he began to pack up. Some of thenatives sided with the Tongan, some with 'Reo, and in a few minutesa free fight took place on the village green, and 'Reo stood in hisdoorway and watched it from his narrow, pig-like eyes; then, being of amagnanimous nature, he walked over and asked three stout youths, who hadbeaten the Tongan into a state of unconsciousness, and were jumping onhis body, not to hurt him too much.
About midnight 'Reo's house was seen to be in flames, and the owner,uttering wild, weird screams of "_Fia ola! Fia ola!_" ("Mercy! Mercy!")fled down the beach to his boat, followed by his
wife, a large, fatwoman, named appropriately enough Taumafa (Abundance). They dashed intothe water, clambered into the boat, and began pulling seaward for theirlives. The villagers, thinking they had both gone mad, gazed at them inastonishment, and then went back and helped themselves to the few goodssaved from the burning house.
As soon as 'Reo and the good wife were out of sight of the villagethey put about, ran the boat into a little bay further down the coast,planted a bag containing seven hundred dollars, with the best of thetrade goods (salved _before_ the fire was discovered), and then set sailfor Apia to "get justice from the Consul."
The Consul said it was a shocking outrage, the captain of U.S.S.Adirondack concurred, and so the cruiser, with the injured, stolid-faced'Reo on board, steamed off to Leone Bay and gave the astounded nativestwelve hours to make up their minds as to which they would do--pay 'Reoone thousand dollars in cash or have their town burnt. They paid sixhundred, all they could raise, and then, in a dazed sort of way, satdown to meditate as they saw the _Adirondack_ steam off again.
'Reo gave his wife a small share of the plunder and sent her home to herparents. When Tom Denison next saw him he was keeping a boarding houseat Levuka, in Fiji. He told Denison he was welcome to free board andlodging for a year. 'Reo had his good points, as I have said.