第12章 KOOLAU THE LEPER(6)

Koolau forgot where he was, forgot everything, as he lay and marvelled at the strange persistence of these haoles who would have their will though the sky fell in.Aye, they would have their willoverall men and all things, even though they died in getting it.He could not but admire them, too, what of that will in them that was stronger than life and that bent all things to their bidding.He was convinced of the hopelessness of his struggle.There was no gainsaying that terrible will of the haoles.Though he killed a thousand, yet would they rise like the sands of the sea and come upon him, ever more and more.They never knew when they were beaten.That was their fault and their virtue.It was where his own kind lacked.He could see, now, how the handful of the preachers of God and the preachers of Rum had conquered the land.It was because -"Well, what have you got to say?Will you come with me?"It was he voice of the invisible man under the white flag.There he was, like any haole, driving straight toward the end determined.

"Let us talk," said Koolau.

The man's head and shoulders arose, then his whole body.He was a smooth-faced, blue-eyed youngster of twenty-five, slender and natty in his captain's uniform.He advanced until halted, then seated himself a dozen feet away.

"You are a brave man," said Koolau wonderingly."I could kill you like a fly.""No, you couldn't," was the answer."Why not?""Because you are a man, Koolau, though a bad one.I know your story. You kill fairly."Koolau grunted, but was secretly pleased.

"What have you done with my people?" he demanded."The boy, the twowomen, and the man?""They gave themselves up, as I have now come for you to do." Koolau laughed incredulously.

"I am a free man," he announced."I have done no wrong.All I ask is to be left alone.I have lived free, and I shall die free.I will never give myself up.""Then your people are wiser than you," answered the young captain."Look--they are coming now."Koolau turned and watched the remnant of his band approach.Groaning and sighing, a ghastly procession, it dragged its wretchedness past.It was given to Koolau to taste a deeper bitterness, for they hurled imprecations and insults at him as they went by; and the panting hag who brought up the rear halted, and with skinny, harpy-claws extended, shaking her snarling death's head from side to side, she laid a curse upon him.One by one they dropped over the lip-edge and surrendered to the hiding soldiers.

"You can go now," said Koolau to the captain."I will never give myself up. That is my last word. Good-bye."The captain slipped over the cliff to his soldiers.The next moment, and without a flag of truce, he hoisted his hat on his scabbard, and Koolau's bullet tore through it.That afternoon they shelled him out from the beach, and as he retreated into the high inaccessible pockets beyond, the soldiers followed him.

For six weeks they hunted him from pocket to pocket, over the volcanic peaks and along the goat-trails.When he hid in the lantana jungle, they formed lines of beaters, and through lantana jungle and guava scrub they drove him like a rabbit.But ever he turned and doubled and eluded.There was no cornering him.When pressed too closely, his sure rifle held them back and they carried their wounded down the goat-trails to the beach.There were times when they did the shooting as his brown body showed for a moment through the underbrush.Once, five of them caught him on an exposed goat-trail between pockets.They emptied their rifles at him as he limped and climbed along his dizzy way.Afterwards they found bloodstains and knew that he was wounded.At the end of six weeks they gave up.The soldiers and police returned to Honolulu, and Kalalau Valley was left to him for his own, though head-hunters ventured after him from time to time and to their own undoing.

Two years later, and for the last time, Koolau crawled into a thicket and lay down among the ti-leaves and wild ginger blossoms.Free he had lived, and free he was dying.A slight drizzle of rain began to fall, and he drew a ragged blanket about the distortedwreck of his limbs.

His body was covered with an oilskin coat.Across his chest he laid his Mauser rifle, lingering affectionately for a moment to wipe the dampness from the barrel.The hand with which he wiped had no fingers left upon it with which to pull thetrigger.

He closed his eyes, for, from the weakness in his body and the fuzzy turmoil in his brain, he knew that his end was near.Like a wild animal he had crept into hiding to die.Half-conscious, aimless and wandering, he lived back in his life to his early manhood on Niihau.As life faded and the drip of the rain grew dim in his ears it seemed to him that he was once more in the thick of the horse- breaking, with raw colts rearing and bucking under him, his stirrups tied together beneath, or charging madly about the breaking corral and driving the helping cowboys over the rails.The next instant, and with seeming naturalness, he found himself pursuing the wild bulls of the upland pastures, roping them and leading them down to the valleys.Again the sweat and dust of the branding pen stung hiseyes and bit his nostrils.

All his lusty, whole-bodied youth was his, until the sharp pangs of impending dissolution brought him back.He lifted his monstrous hands and gazed at them in wonder.But how? Why? Why should the wholeness of that wild youth of his change to this? Then he remembered, and once again, and for a moment, he was Koolau, the leper.His eyelids fluttered wearily down and the drip of the rain ceased in his ears.A prolonged trembling set up in his body.This, too, ceased.He half-lifted his head, but it fell back.Then his eyes opened, and did not close.His last thought was of his Mauser, and he pressed it against his chest with his folded,fingerless hands.