Island Nights' EntertainmentsStevenson, Robert Louis
General
Island Nights' Entertainments
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Short stories
But Kalamake held up the lantern. “Look rather at my face!” said he—and
his head was huge as a barrel; and still he grew and grew as a cloud
grows on a mountain, and Keola sat before him screaming, and the boat
raced on the great seas.
“And now,” said the wizard, “what do you think about that concertina?
and are you sure you would not rather have a flute? No?” says he; “that
is well, for I do not like my family to be changeable of purpose. But I
begin to think I had better get out of this paltry boat, for my bulk
swells to a very unusual degree, and if we are not the more careful,
she will presently be swamped.”
With that he threw his legs over the side. Even as he did so, the
greatness of the man grew thirty-fold and forty-fold as swift as sight
or thinking, so that he stood in the deep seas to the armpits, and his
head and shoulders rose like a high isle, and the swell beat and burst
upon his bosom, as it beats and breaks against a cliff. The boat ran
still to the north, but he reached out his hand, and took the gunwale
by the finger and thumb, and broke the side like a biscuit, and Keola
was spilled into the sea. And the pieces of the boat the sorcerer
crushed in the hollow of his hand and flung miles away into the night.
“Excuse me taking the lantern,” said he; “for I have a long wade before
me, and the land is far, and the bottom of the sea uneven, and I feel
the bones under my toes.”
And he turned and went off walking with great strides; and as often as
Keola sank in the trough he could see him no longer; but as often as he
was heaved upon the crest, there he was striding and dwindling, and he
held the lamp high over his head, and the waves broke white about him
as he went.
Since first the islands were fished out of the sea, there was never a
man so terrified as this Keola. He swam indeed, but he swam as puppies
swim when they are cast in to drown, and knew not wherefore. He could
but think of the hugeness of the swelling of the warlock, of that face
which was great as a mountain, of those shoulders that were broad as an
isle, and of the seas that beat on them in vain. He thought, too, of
the concertina, and shame took hold upon him; and of the dead men’s
bones, and fear shook him.
Of a sudden he was aware of something dark against the stars that
tossed, and a light below, and a brightness of the cloven sea; and he
heard speech of men. He cried out aloud and a voice answered; and in a
twinkling the bows of a ship hung above him on a wave like a thing
balanced, and swooped down. He caught with his two hands in the chains
of her, and the next moment was buried in the rushing seas, and the
next hauled on board by seamen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account