He said, moreover, that he was sometimes employed to come round to the
bay, and engage fruit for ships lying in Nukuheva. In fact, he was now
on that very errand, according to his own account, having just come
across the mountains by the way of Happar. By noon of the next day, the
fruit would be heaped up in stacks on the beach, in readiness for the
boats, which he then intended to bring into the bay.
Jimmy now asked Toby whether he wished to leave the island—if he did,
there was a ship in want of men, lying in the other harbour, and he
would be glad to take him over, and see him on board that very day.
“No,” said Toby; “I cannot leave the island, unless my comrade goes
with me. I left him up the valley because they would not let him come
down. Let us go now and fetch him.”
“But how is he to cross the mountain with us,” replied Jimmy, “even if
we get him down to the beach? Better let him stay till to-morrow, and I
will bring him round to Nukuheva in the boats.”
“That will never do,” said Toby; “but come along with me now, and let
us get him down here at any rate”; and yielding to the impulse of the
moment, he started to hurry back into the valley. But hardly was his
back turned, when a dozen hands were laid on him, and he learned that
he could not go a step farther.
It was in vain that he fought with them: they would not hear of his
stirring from the beach. Cut to the heart at this unexpected repulse,
Toby now conjured the sailor to go after me alone. But Jimmy replied,
that in the mood the Typees then were, they would not permit him to do
so, though, at the same time, he was not afraid of their offering him
any harm.
Little did Toby then think, as he afterwards had good reason to
suspect, that this very Jimmy was a heartless villain, who, by his
arts, had just incited the natives to restrain him, as he was in the
act of going after me. Well must the old sailor have known, too, that
the natives would never consent to our leaving together; and he
therefore wanted to get Toby off alone, for a purpose which he
afterwards made plain. Of all this, however, my comrade now knew
nothing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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