登陆注册
37349100000011

第11章 THE BONES OF KAHEKILI(2)

The sun blazed down.The horses stamped remotely.The fading trade-wind wisps sighed and rustled between longer intervals of quiescence.The perfume grew heavier.The woman brought back the babe, quiet again, to the rear of the house.The monkey-pods folded their leaves and swooned to a siesta of their own in the soft air above the sleeper.The girl, breathless as ever from the enormous solemnity of her task, still brushed the flies away; and the score of cowboys still intently and silently watched.

Hardman Pool awoke.The next out-breath, expected of the longrhythm, did not take place.Neither did the white, long moustache rise up.Instead, the cheeks, under the whiskers, puffed; the eyelids lifted, exposing blue eyes, choleric and fully and immediately conscious; the right hand went out to the half-smoked pipe beside him, while the left hand reached the matches.

"Get me my gin and milk," he ordered, in Hawaiian, of the little maid, who had been startled into a tremble by his awaking.

He lighted the pipe, but gave no sign of awareness of the presence of his waiting retainers until the tumbler of gin and milk had been brought and drunk.

"Well?" he demanded abruptly, and in the pause, while twenty faces wreathed in smiles and twenty pairs of dark eyes glowed luminously with well-wishing pleasure, he wiped the lingering drops of gin and milk from his hairy lips."What are you hanging around for? What do you want? Come over here."Twenty giants, most of them young, uprose and with a great clanking and jangling of spurs and spur-chains strode over to him.They grouped before him in a semicircle, trying bashfully to wedge their shoulders, one behind another's, their faces a-grin and apologetic, and at the same time expressing a casual and unconscious democraticness.In truth, to them Hardman Pool was more than mere chief.He was elder brother, or father, or patriarch; and to all of them he was related, in one way or another, according to Hawaiian custom, through his wife and through the many marriages of his children and grandchildren.His slightest frown might perturb them, his anger terrify them, his command compel them to certain death; yet, on the other hand, not one of them would have dreamed of addressing him otherwise than intimately by his first name, which name, "Hardman," was transmuted by their tongues into Kanaka Oolea.

At a nod from him, the semicircle seated itself on the manienie grass, and with further deprecatory smiles waited his pleasure.

"What do you want?" demanded, in Hawaiian, with a brusqueness and sternness they knew were put on.

They smiled more broadly, and deliciously squirmed their broad shoulders and great torsos with the appeasingness of so many wrigglingpuppies.Hardman Pool singled out one of them."Well, Iliiopoi, what do YOU want?""Ten dollars, Kanaka Oolea."

"Ten dollars!" Pool cried, in apparent shock at mention of so vast a sum."Does it mean you are going to take a second wife? Remember the missionary teaching.One wife at a time, Iliiopoi; one wife at a time.For he who entertains a plurality of wives will surely go to hell."Giggles and flashings of laughing eyes from all greeted the joke.

"No, Kanaka Oolea," came the reply."The devil knows I am hard put to get kow-kow for one wife and her several relations.""Kow-kow?" Pool repeated the Chinese-introduced word for food which the Hawaiians had come to substitute for their own paina."Didn't you boys get kow-kow here this noon?""Yes, Kanaka Oolea," volunteered an old, withered native who had just joined the group from the direction of the house."All of them had kow- kow in the kitchen, and plenty of it.They ate like lost horses brought down from the lava.""And what do you want, Kumuhana?" Pool diverted to the old one, at the same time motioning to the little maid to flap flies from the other side of him.

"Twelve dollars," said Kumuhana."I want to buy a Jackass and a second-hand saddle and bridle.I am growing too old for my legs to carry me in walking.""You wait," his haole lord commanded."I will talk with you about the matter, and about other things of importance, when I am finished with the rest and they are gone."The withered old one nodded and proceeded to light his pipe.

"The kow-kow in the kitchen was good," Iliiopoi resumed, licking his lips."The poi was one-finger, the pig fat, the salmon-belly unstinking, the fish of great freshness and plenty, though the opihis" (tiny, rock- clinging shell-fish) "had been salted and thereby made tough.Never should the opihis be salted.Often have I told you, Kanaka Oolea, that opihis should never be salted.I am full of good kow-kow.My belly is heavy with it.Yet is my heart not light of it because there is no kow-kowin my own house, where is my wife, who is the aunt of your fourth son's second wife, and where is my baby daughter, and my wife's old mother, and my wife's old mother's feeding child that is a cripple, and my wife's sister who lives likewise with us along with her three children, the father being dead of a wicked dropsy--""Will five dollars save all of you from funerals for a day or several?" Pool testily cut the tale short.

"Yes, Kanaka Oolea, and as well it will buy my wife a new comb and some tobacco for myself."From a gold-sack drawn from the hip-pocket of his dungarees, Hardman Pool drew the gold piece and tossed it accurately into the waiting hand.

To a bachelor who wanted six dollars for new leggings, tobacco, and spurs, three dollars were given; the same to another who needed a hat; and to a third, who modestly asked for two dollars, four were given with a flowery-worded compliment anent his prowess in roping a recent wild bull from the mountains.They knew, as a rule, that he cut their requisitions in half, therefore they doubled the size of their requisitions.And Hardman Pool knew they doubled, and smiled to himself.It was his way, and, further, it was a very good way with his multitudinous relatives, and did not reduce his stature in their esteem.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 九衍轮回劫

    九衍轮回劫

    当赤阳西悬,至亲鲜血浸漫。当墨云临空,挚爱命陨眼前。当雷霆撕裂苍穹,少年一袭红袍逆天而上,当生灵尽数跪伏,还有谁能踏着万千亡魂唱响新的战歌!
  • 彼岸花开二十一

    彼岸花开二十一

    颜妍:“冥界的彼岸花是什么颜色的?”摆渡人:“红色的。”颜妍:“可,为什么我看到是红白相见的。”摆渡人:“终有一天,你们会再次相见”颜妍:“什么?”摆渡人:“该上路了。”。。。一次相遇,无数次的轮回,颜妍与白罗一世又一世的爱恨情仇,也渐渐地拉开了世界不为人知的一幕。白罗:“无论你在哪里,我都会找到你,守护你。”
  • 被偏执大佬宠成了小作精

    被偏执大佬宠成了小作精

    前一世傻白甜的虞楚楚,在被恶毒的继母炸死之后又回来了。这一世她学会抱紧左医生的大腿,作天作地作空气,直接把白莲花妹妹和狗渣男一起作死,顺带收服咱们左医生的心。坊间传闻左太太实在太作无下限,根本配不上我们的天才左医生。左医生手中的手术刀闪出一道银光,“谁敢再说我老婆半句坏话,手术刀伺候。”
  • 尊武圣道

    尊武圣道

    龙魂剑魄势,封魔神之瞳。一代龙太子,因叛乱之势,形势迫百姓。叛军如若不手刃,定会引起苍生恨。等到攻破你城墙,必定让你泪两行。阎奇为夺回属于自己的一切,经历世间之喜、怒、哀、乐是否会夺回属于自己的一切,只看今朝新人新书,请点击【收藏】啊~~~
  • 三世爱恋,凤染三界

    三世爱恋,凤染三界

    “你,还爱我吗?”这句话仿佛说了千万遍,她又会如何选择。当经历了三生三世之后,这份爱还可靠吗?黎星大陆即将开启,你准备好了吗。
  • 缘来农家

    缘来农家

    将军家的大小姐勿心,因为将军夫妇双双去世,受不了打击疯啦!在将军夫妇的葬礼后,带着弟弟就不知去向。有人说她死了,有人说她疯疯癫癫的被关在疯人院!……。青山脚下五里村有人来找茬,阿狸直接拎着狼牙棒,将找茬的人打得弃械投降,某男在一旁很得瑟,“嗯,看到没?这是我娘子!再敢来,就不是让你们缺胳膊少腿了。”这死男人又在瞎讲了!阿狸拿着狼牙棒指着某男:“谁是你娘子,在说一遍,你个卖身抵债的,还不快麻溜的去刷碗。”某男:“娘子啊!別生气,生气对身体不好。”阿狸白了他一下,某男笑嘻嘻的,“我这就去,就去。”待青:“……”他家主子是被谁给换了蕊子了,以前那高冷范的哪去了?
  • 魔韵劫天

    魔韵劫天

    曾经他桀骜不驯、放荡不羁,然而他奋力担负起与仙界实力相差悬殊的魔界的复兴,他抛却生死为了天下苍生只身一人三进三出仙界天宫,他被困冥界一百多年却因祸得福修行大增。后来有的仙人评论他:他根本不是人,他天生就是魔尊之质!魔人评论他:他更不是魔,他早已经成神!而我认为,他只是一个人,一个男人,一个普通的男人,因为他见了美女也会神魂颠倒、想入非非!绚丽和诡异,陷阱与阴谋并存,且看一个凡间的小子如何与仙魔纠缠!
  • 无辰大帝

    无辰大帝

    宗门天才,无情驱逐。世界之大,何处容身?一柄斩皇,一套印决,十年觉醒。强大的力量,铸造了全新的自我。坎坷的生平,唤醒了灵魂的悸动。那来自心灵深处的咆哮:你不是人!是神!
  • 工作再苦也要笑一笑

    工作再苦也要笑一笑

    这是一本让你从心理走向成熟和强大的读物。如果你能够笑看职场风云,笑对人际纷争,那么你不仅能够做到真正的超然物外,而且还能获得意想不到的成功。《工作再苦也要笑一笑(最新实用版)》总结了让职场人士感觉痛苦的八个来源。并分别给出了解决的方案和正确应对的方法:职业规划缺失带来的痛苦、求职技巧匮乏带来的痛苦、职场经验不足带来的痛苦、薪酬待遇不如意带来的痛苦、不善于应对人际关系带来的痛苦、职场“过劳”带来的痛苦、跳槽转型带来的痛苦、维护工作权利带来的痛苦
  • 巨人消逝

    巨人消逝

    人类生活的世界,魔法代替了科技,城市被高墙和强大的结界保护着,虎视眈眈的巨人族时刻想毁灭人类……