Читать книгу Men Against the Sea – Book Set. The Greatest Maritime Adventure Novels: The Bounty Trilogy, Lost Island, The Hurricane, Botany Bay, The Far Lands, Tales of the South Seas… онлайн

251 страница из 953

“And now you and the others are settling on Tahiti to remain among us?” Vehiatua asked.

“For a long time, at any rate,” I replied. “It is possible that when the next British ship arrives, in two years or three, King George may send word that one or all of us must go home.”

“Aye,” said the old aristocrat, “one must obey one’s king!”

Presently Tehani came ashore, her breakfast over and her toilet made, very different from the young tomboy who had beaten me at diving so short a time before. Her beautiful hair, dried in the sun, combed out and perfumed, was dressed in the Grecian fashion, low on the nape of her neck. Her mantle of snow-white cloth was draped in classic folds, and she walked ahead of her little band of women with an air of dignity few English girls of sixteen could have assumed. The chief gave me a nod and rose to his feet.

“Let us go to the house of my kinsman,” he said.

A stout muscular fellow crouched before Vehiatua, hands braced on his knees. The chief vaulted to his shoulders with the ease of long practice, and the human horse stood upright with a grunt. Vehiatua, Teina, and two or three other great chiefs of those days were never permitted to walk, for the touch of their feet rendered a commoner’s land theirs. Wherever they went, save in their own domains, they were borne on the backs of men trained to the task.