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South Sea Tales-Part3_JACK LONDON(1876-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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she was right; that patch of red hair could belong to but one man in the



Paumotus. It was Levy, the German Jew, the man who had bought the pearl and

carried it away on the Hira. Well, one thing was evident: The Hira had been



lost. The pearl buyer's god of fishermen and thieves had gone back on him.

She crawled down to the dead man. His shirt had been torn away, and she could



see the leather money belt about his waist. She held her breath and tugged at

the buckles. They gave easier than she had expected, and she crawled hurriedly



away across the sand, dragging the belt after her. Pocket after pocket she

unbuckled in the belt and found empty. Where could he have put it? In the last



pocket of all she found it, the first and only pearl he had bought on the

voyage. She crawled a few feet farther, to escape the pestilence of the belt,



and examined the pearl. It was the one Mapuhi had found and been robbed of by

Toriki. She weighed it in her hand and rolled it back and forth caressingly.



But in it she saw no intrinsic beauty. What she did see was the house Mapuhi

and Tefara and she had builded so carefully in their minds. Each time she



looked at the pearl she saw the house in all its details, including the

octagon-drop-clock on the wall. That was something to live for.



She tore a strip from her ahu and tied the pearl securely about her neck. Then

she went on along the beach, panting and groaning, but resolutely seeking for



cocoanuts. Quickly she found one, and, as she glanced around, a second. She

broke one, drinking its water, which was mildewy, and eating the last particle



of the meat. A little later she found a shattered dugout. Its outrigger was

gone, but she was hopeful, and, before the day was out, she found the



outrigger. Every find was an augury. The pearl was a talisman. Late in the

afternoon she saw a wooden box floating low in the water. When she dragged it



out on the beach its contents rattled, and inside she found ten tins of

salmon. She opened one by hammering it on the canoe. When a leak was started,



she drained the tin. After that she spent several hours in extracting the

salmon, hammering and squeezing it out a morsel at a time.



Eight days longer she waited for rescue. In the meantime she fastened the

outrigger back on the canoe, using for lashings all the cocoanut fibre she



could find, and also what remained of her ahu. The canoe was badly cracked,

and she could not make it water-tight; but a calabash made from a cocoanut she



stored on board for a bailer. She was hard put for a paddle. With a piece of

tin she sawed off all her hair close to the scalp. Out of the hair she braided



a cord; and by means of the cord she lashed a three-foot piece of broom handle

to a board from the salmon case.



She gnawed wedges with her teeth and with them wedged the lashing.

On the eighteenth day, at midnight, she launched the canoe through the surf



and started back for Hikueru. She was an old woman. Hardship had stripped her

fat from her till scarcely more than bones and skin and a few stringy muscles



remained. The canoe was large and should have been paddled by three strong

men.



But she did it alone, with a make-shift paddle. Also, the canoe leaked badly,

and one-third of her time was devoted to bailing. By clear daylight she



looked vainly for Hikueru. Astern, Takokota had sunk beneath the sea rim. The

sun blazed down on her nakedness, compelling her body to surrender its



moisture. Two tins of salmon were left, and in the course of the day she

battered holes in them and drained the liquid. She had no time to waste in



extracting the meat. A current was setting to the westward, she made westing

whether she made southing or not.



In the eary afternoon, standingupright in the canoe, she sighted Hikueru Its

wealth of cocoanut palms was gone. Only here and there, at wide intervals,



could she see the ragged remnants of trees. The sight cheered her. She was

nearer than she had thought. The current was setting her to the westward. She



bore up against it and paddled on. The wedges in the paddle lashing worked

loose, and she lost much time, at frequent intervals, in driving them tight.



Then there was the bailing. One hour in three she had to cease paddling in

order to bail. And all the time she driftd to the westward.



By sunset Hikueru bore southeast from her, three miles away. There was a full

moon, and by eight o'clock the land was due east and two miles away. She



struggled on for another hour, but the land was as far away as ever. She was

in the main grip of the current; the canoe was too large; the paddle was too



inadequate; and too much of her time and strength was wasted in bailing.

Besides, she was very weak and growing weaker. Despite her efforts, the canoe



was drifting off to the westward.

She breathed a prayer to her shark god, slipped over the side, and began to



swim. She was actually refreshed by the water, and quickly left the canoe

astern. At the end of an hour the land was perceptibly nearer. Then came her



fright. Right before her eyes, not twenty feet away, a large fin cut the

water. She swam steadily toward it, and slowly it glided away, curving off






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