all haste
with the wedding feast. The news of this soon reached Jinaban, who soon
after made his appearance at Palmer's house accompanied by many old men
of his clan and a young and beautiful girl named Sepe. Trembling with
suppressed rage and excitement, he addressed the trader with all the
eloquence he could command. He was, he said (and with truth), the
greatest of the three brothers in rank and influence, but had yielded
to the white man's desire to live in Ailap under the protection of his
brother Jelik; but neither he (Jinaban) nor his people would put up with
the additional insult of the trader espousing an Ailap girl. And then,
pointing to the girl who accompanied him--a handsome creature about
eighteen or twenty years of age--he earnestly besought Palmer to make
her his wife. Before the trader could frame a reply Letane, accompanied
by a number of her young girl friends, walked into the room, and,
sitting down beside him, put her hand on his shoulder, and, though her
slender form trembled, gave her uncle and the girl Sepe a look of bold
defiance.

Palmer rose to his feet, and placed his hand on the head of the girl,
who rose with him. "It cannot be, Jinaban. This girl Letane, who is
of thine own kin, shall be my wife. But let not ill-blood come of it
between thee and me or between thee and her; for I desire to live in
friendship with thee."

Without a word Jinaban sprang to his feet, and, with a glance of bitter
hatred at the trader and the girl who stood beside him, he walked out of
the house, accompanied by his old men and the rejected Sepe, who, as she
turned away, looked scornfully at her rival and spat on the ground.

In a few weeks the marriage took place, and Palmer made the customary
presents to his wife's relatives. To Jinaban--who refused to attend
the feasting and dancing that accompanied the ceremony--he sent a
new fishing-net one hundred fathoms in length, a very valuable and
much-esteemed gift, for the cost of such an article was considerable.
To Jelik, his wife's guardian, he gave a magazine rifle and five hundred
cartridges, and to Rao, the other brother, presents of cloth, tobacco,
and hatchets.

That night, whilst Palmer slept with his bride, Jinaban came to the
house of his brother Jelik. His black eyes gleamed red with anger.

"What right hast thou, my younger brother, to take from the white man
that which I coveted most? Am not I the greater chief, and thy master?
Give me that gun."