ce a pillar of the church, was degraded from the rank of
deacon and expelled, becoming speedily dissolute and abandoned, opening
his house for forbidden dances, and taking new wives in shameless
succession; and Salesa, her pretty body red with stripes, found no
consolation whatever in her white darling, who ran at her repellingly,
shouting "No, no!" like a lion; and Billy Hindoo, of whom everyone had
tired on account of his light fingers and calumniating tongue, grew
increasingly burdensome to his adopted family, and spent most of his
time in stoning Professor No No from a safe distance and demanding his
wages even to that day, together with a passage at once to the white
country.

During this season no ship at all came to Uvea, though Professor No No
watched unceasingly for one, and likewise Billy Hindoo, and likewise
Malamalama, the chief; and Tanielu prayed and prayed and prayed without
end, "Lord, send Thou speedily a vessel and rid us of these intruders."
The white man, for all his wisdom, was cowardly beyond belief, and so
fearful of Malamalama that the sight of Salesa made him tremble
forthwith with apprehension. And she, repelled by her husband and
dependent on the bounty of those that despised her, became as one lost
to all propriety, and would run at Professor No No and clasp him in her
arms and cherish him, he fighting and resisting with all his might,
crying "No, no!" in a terrible voice. Were he to unmoor his boat, lo!
she was there swimming in its wake and demanding to be taken in, lest
she drown; were he to sit down and quietly look at dead fish through
bits of glass, lo! there also was she beside him in a chair; were he to
slumber in a shady place during the afternoon, he would awake with his
head in her lap or with her kisses against his lips.

So weak, indeed, was his heart, that he was not even grateful for her
assistance against Billy Hindoo, who came constantly, this day and that,
with unfailing regularity, to throw stones at his former master and cry
threateningly, "Hi, yi! give me wages even to this day, and return me to
the white country according to thy covenant." Then it was that Salesa
would throw stones back again, or would hide in the bushes and try to
strike the nigger with a knife, saying in mockery as she sprang at him,
"Hi, yi! take that!" And once she came to him so close that she slashed
him across the breast, and he hastened bleeding before the ancients and
vociferously complained. T