LOVE-BM)S IN "Bulkts" award of IHcrii With Compliments from LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE FINGER OF MR. BLEE OH, MR. BIDGOOD ! THE BODLEY HEAD LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS BY PETER BLUNDELL LONDON : JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HIAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXV THE ANCHOK PKEBB, LTD., T1PTBEE, K8HEX, ENGLAND TO A. M. BUTTERWORTH LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS CHAPTER I ILOLINA, want to write a novel, an irresistible, fascinating novel, a novel for readers old and young. I should like to win the approbation of your archdeacons, of your actor-managers. I want my photograph to be exhibited in your shop windows, and a place for me reserved in your Westminster Abbey. I want, in short, to write a novel that will make me famous among you. But several are the obstacles. For one, not the plot. I have a story to tell, a true story, a story that may bring tears to many an eye. It may also call forth blushes the story, not the telling of it. If it does I shall be sorry. Can I little acquainted with the manners and thoughts of English ladies hope to avoid blundering into the region of the better left unsaid ? The boundaries of that region are invisible to the untrained eye of an Eastern woman. I can only tell the truth and hope for the best. But if I tell the truth I shame the devil, so your proverb says. So difficult is the path of the novelist, it seems to me. I feel like a maiden standing shivering on the B 2 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS steps of a bathing-machine with all the ocean in front of her. I will be brave. At Sudora there are no bathing-machines. Farther down stream, where the big, smooth river makes a final bend and sweeps in the grand manner out to sea, bearing on its bosom trunks of palms, nipa husks, torn branches, brown leaves of giant ferns, the debris of forests, on a ribbon of silver sand which the warm clear water laves but never lashes, there certainly is an old bathing pagar. Beside this Europeans are wont to picnic on Saturday afternoons, revelling half-naked in the sea air, the sun and the sand, beating up snipe and plover on the flats, drinking the milk of green coco-nuts obtained from the grove of palms close at hand, where brown-skinned Malay fishermen and their none too timid spouses dwell in huts of yellow reed under the shade, and extend to all a generous hospitality. But the port of Sudora itself knows nothing of such amenities. It is a place dedicated to the great god Work. Mangrove swamps border the immense lagoon on whose edge it lies. A flat and rather uninteresting country is spread out at the back, a country made for the spade, where planters plant, and miners mine, and tin and rubber and gambier and coffee flow like milk and honey down to the water to be shipped. Sudora is the port of shipment. That fact explains its existence and also perhaps its ugliness. For it is ugly. There it lies, a scar on the face of nature, an honourable scar perhaps, earned in the battles of civil- isation, but a scar, nevertheless. And the jungle LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 3 hates it. The jungle daily, ceaselessly, strives to envelop and efface it, sending hosts of matted creepers crawling towards the houses, hordes of white ants tunnelling underground, fleets of submarines in the shape of teredos to undermine and weaken the timber jetties. But so far these efforts have been unavailing. Sudora stands erect, its yellow embankments garnished, its red painted iron godowns smiling hideously on river and on railway station, like the face of the good Queen Bess, arousing respect but not desire. Although no longer young as age goes in a new country the town looks new as ever. Like many of us, it has spread with the passing years. The jungle, far from conquering, has been beaten back, in some places for miles. And at these points have sprung up suburbs where the turf is orderly and trees and palms form bowers, wherein are established certain quiet places of entertainment, at which the youth of the district are wont to assemble of an evening in order to play billiards or listen to the gramophone under the light of the yellow moon. And when I write " youths " I do not mean the red- haired, pale-eyed strangers who flock to my country to seek wealth, but rather the young Eurasians born in the place, whose dark brows, raven hair, pallid, dusky complexions and slight but interesting figures must ever win a certain interest from the traveller who wanders thither. Ferdinand Fernandez ! What a name ! Lovers' blushes, Spanish castles, mantillas, elopements, duellos, cathedrals, united for ever, O my Ferdinand ! Does he know how close to romance his name brings one ? It seemed not that afternoon, at any rate. " You 4 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS may wager your tall hats on thatt," he called out to those in the rickety little bungalow in answer to some remark or other, stopping at the palm-sheltered garden gate and waving his topee. He could not see those within : a huge purple bougainvillaea hid the veranda. But their eyes were on him and he seemed to know it. " Dear Ferdinand," murmured Amy to her mother, putting aside a branch with a plump yellow hand in order the better to observe him. " How his teeth glitter in the sunshine. I hope he won't stay out for tea." " You will be in to tea, won't you, Ferdinand ? " cried Mrs. Fernandez in a voice which, although shrill, accorded well enough with her comfortable person. " You may wager your tall hats on thatt also," he replied gaily with a last flourish of his topee. " What funny remarks Ferdinand makes now some- times," observed the girl, still staring out towards the gate. " He learns every day from his European friends," returned the mother complacently. " I hope, though, his progress in English language will not make him proud." They watched him mount his bicycle and glide off down the road. Business called him to town every afternoon except when there was work in the surrounding countryside to be attended to, an event that occurred but seldom, for the plantations were in the habit of undertaking their own building operations, and Fernandez & Co., Contractors, relied principally on odd jobs given them by the Government in the town for support. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 5 Mr. Fernandez, senior, was the firm, Ferdinand its right-hand man. Youth as yet prevented him from being eligible for a partnership, in the firm's opinion ; but not in Ferdinand's, so his friends gathered. Ferdinand believed, it seemed, in young blood, in up-to-dateness, in discarding the slow, casual methods of the Portuguese half-caste and adopting something a little more American. But Mr. Fernandez, senior, like many other old men, like most old trees, was firmly rooted, difficult to budge, refusing altogether to grow. He would not, for instance, move his office from over that Chinese general store in the main street. Ferdi- nand did indeed manage to get a large brass doorplate put up, similar to those used, so he had heard, by contractors in the Strand, London. But, on the first day after erection, the dazzle and novelty of the thing had caused a pair of Government bullocks to lose their customary calm, and dash along with the lorry they were drawing, headlong into a shop opposite. And, in consequence, the old man insisted on having the plate taken down, in spite of the fact that the firm obtained the contract for the repair of the damaged shops. It must have been galling to a youth of Ferdinand's temperament to be yoked to such unprogressiveness, but to give him credit he seldom showed the world his impatience. A flash of his dark eyes now and then, a faintly sarcastic smile often visible as he looked at the older man, a chance word, meaningless to those not well versed in his affairs, these alone pointed to an inward chafing. It was not, so his friends understood, that he wanted 6 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS the business to expand, that he wanted more work, in short, but rather that he wished to see the firm and the Fernandez family occupy a higher plane in Sudora, that he wanted them to follow him in his flight towards things European. Work ! There was always enough of that to keep him busy going round on a bicycle, to tie the old man for a goodly portion of the day to the large drawing-board which, flanked by formidable T- squares, level, rule, and compasses, occupied a place of honour in the office. Work ! Sometimes the old gentleman himself would com- plain of being tied, declaring a wish to spend the day at the Grotto that was the name of their bungalow in slippered ease. But Mrs. Fernandez, who believed in employment for men, and who possessed an all-com- pelling tongue, would always drive him forth, never- theless, after breakfast into the blinding sunshine. She must have known that the habit of work in an Eurasian is easily broken, and taken her measures very early. At any rate the old gentleman held a reputa- tion for steadiness and industry unique among the Eurasians of Sudora. He was, too, a religious man at bottom, though he swore sometimes after the manner of the Portuguese, which is not a bit English. He dressed neatly in threadbare but scrupulously clean white duck ; and he wore glasses on a nose that might have been Don Quixote's. Ferdinand considered that he was rather too friendly with Si Hock, the Chinese shopkeeper underneath, their landlord. But then Ferdinand did not like Chinese shopkeepers, who seemed always to look through him or past him with their sluggish, penetrating eyes, and smile. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 7 Si Hock, standing at the colonnaded shop front, just out of reach of the hot sunlight, was smiling now as it might have been at the white, dusty street. The sound of a person engaged in an annoyed soliloquy proceeded from the window above, a sound perfectly audible to the entire neighbourhood. Ferdinand, looking shocked, drew up by the curb, that is, on the other side of the large cemented drain that skirts the pathway, a drain into which all the Chinese shopkeepers are accustomed to throw garbage in spite of the warning of the sanitary authorities, stood his bicycle against a brick column, and with a curt nod passed into the shop. He ran upstairs. " Father ! " he said in a pained voice. " I've lost my glasses," explained Mr. Fernandez, who, with head bent, was walking about the little office. " Everywhere have I looked." He certainly seemed to have. Paper, books, and instruments strewed the boarded floor, flotsam after a gale. " Where in the name of the apostles I " began Mr. Fernandez again, mopping his forehead in excite- ment. Ferdinand surveying him, smiling faintly, did not let him proceed. " Keep your hair on, father," he advised, interrupt- ing. " Let me see what I can do for you." And he too, gingerly because of the dust, joined in the search. " I put them on the drawing-board half an hour ago," muttered the old man. " Perhaps the rats have eaten them," said Ferdinand 8 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS rather testily. A hot place this office, calling forth perspiration ! And he had on a clean white suit. Presently he straightened himself, and going to one of the windows unlatched and pushed open the rough plank shutter that covered it. Sunlight at once flooded the room. " We shall see better now," he remarked, blinking. But though the cloistered gloom in which the old gentleman delighted to work was now gone, though every little defect in the office from insect-bored rafters to mouldering floor now stood out, looking brazen and horrible, the search was as fruitless as ever. " What shall we do ? " asked Ferdinand. " I can't stay here all night. I have my engagements. Great Scott and Dickens ! Let us leave the glasses ! To- morrow we will search again." " But I must get them to-day," returned the old man. " I have a letter to read." " I can read that for you, father," pointed out Ferdinand. But this letter seemed to have been mis- laid too, and for quite another minute the old man was busy again. Presently he rescued it from a heap of papers on the floor and handed it to Ferdinand. " It is from Mr. Pawker at the rubber estate, about this new contract, I think," he remarked. :< That is why I was so angry. I wanted to see what was in it, quick. And my glasses had disappeared." " He says he has almost decided to give the contract," said Ferdinand, reading. " And will let you know for certain by hand messenger before six o'clock to-night. This, I perceive, father, from the stamp on the envelope, came by the post." LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 9 " You are quite right." " This will be a long way out at the estate, this work, if we get it," murmured Ferdinand, a shade despon- dently, perhaps. " You have your bicycle." " That is true, father. But my legs have to shove it, and the days are warm ones. I get to feel rag-like after too much bicycle." ' You know our Government work is falling off," pointed out Mr. Fernandez. " We must do some business for our coolies. This new magistrate, Mr. Baylers, seems to be against giving work to contractors. He wants the Government men to do it all themselves. They are all grumbling, I hear. But it always is the same with these magistrates. A new broom makes a clean sweep ! " " I heard somebody call this Mr. Baylers a dirty sweep," said Ferdinand moodily, fingering his downy upper lip. " That was the chief clerk. The chief clerk does not like him. He says he is always shouting and bullying at the office, trying to make people work." " Then he will be very unpopular with the com- munity here," prophesied Mr. Fernandez, beginning to straighten up the office again. Ferdinand did not offer to assist in the task, but stood rubbing one foot to and fro over the dusty floor. After a while he yawned and announced that he had engage- ments elsewhere. ' You will come back here before six o'clock to arrange for the work of this new contract at Mr. Pawker's ? " urged the old gentleman. " I know he wants the work begun without delay." 10 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " But you have not got the contract yet, father," pointed out Ferdinand banteringly. Nevertheless he gave the required promise, and having borrowed one dollar from the firm the old man gave it him with- out demur gracefully took his departure. Bicycle beneath him a modern centaur he wended his way through tortuous streets lined with gaily- painted shops. Chinamen standing smoking in the shadow of mottoed doorways viewed him uncon- cernedly, a naked child or so stopped playing to turn and stare after him, pointing with podgy hand, two mangy dogs, braving the sunshine, rushed out into the baked white roadway, barking and snapping. Ferdinand, a thorough master of his machine, kicked at these latter as he went along. They retired, dis- mayed but noisy still, and from the seclusion of the gutter watched the enemy reach the boundary of Chinatown and glide into tree-clad country. At an increased pace and swaying gracefully he pedalled on, a faint smile still on his dark young face. Palm groves and banana plantations engulfed him. When he again became visible he was standing at the gate of a small inn. No, no, no ! It is not a small inn ! It is a very fine hotel ! Gentle reader, I must confess to you. Never before have I written a novel, and so I have hired Mr. Nubkins, the novelist, who knew us all in Sudora and who now, I understand from him, is a celebrity in this your great city of London, to assist me. He calls this place of entertainment, not knowing, a small inn. It is a fine hotel ! It used to be my hotel ! And Ferdinand, that day, he came to see me ! LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS n CHAPTER II HOW very difficult to interest others in one's personality as much as one is interested in one's personality oneself. And yet I must make people be so through this printed page. They cannot see me, they cannot come within my atmosphere. Yes, yes, they can do, but not in the way I should like, not in the way so many have ever since my childhood. For even from the first, so they tell me, and I know it is true, a glance withdrew from me only to return. I was like sweet flowers that the bees revisit, that the moths hover over. A night flower, yes, I, dark-haired, large-eyed. And I was graceful too, even when a child, even in those far-off days, the memory of which more resembles that of a dream than of the actual. The house we lived in was a dream, like a palace marble floors, looking-glasses, long, with gilded edges, gazing into which I used to spend sometimes hours during the heat of the day. And my sister, too, she was there, changing from one gaudy sarong to another, from a silken baju to a linen one, putting on her heavy ornaments of beaten gold and making attitudes in front of the glass. And she would ask : " How do I look?" And I would reply: " Chantek, chantek," or " Bisai," which of course means beautiful. She was a lovely woman with coiled black hair and 12 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS a face round and feline, resembling mine ; I might say like a tigress, but you wouldn't, as we do, think that praise. And she was caged like a tigress in that big stone house. Nothing pleased her for long ; and she had everything her master thought she could desire. Only her freedom was taken from her. Our mother sent her there, giving her me, child of an unknown father, to try and take the edge off her captivity. But she would never submit. She was not one of those fat, town-bred Malay women who mind nothing so long as their stomachs are full. She came from the hills, where streams plash over the rocks, and the Javanese robin sings. And she, a captive, pined. Both" of us hated the owner of the house, who made us hide when he had guests. I never heard his name. Somebody belonging to the bank I believe he was ; and often merchants and other Europeans with their mems came to dinner, and we looked at them through cracks in the doors, hating all, especially the mems. The memory of those days makes me smile rather now, but still my breast heaves when I think of that man. Pig, that visited the coco-nut grove at night ! Coward ! Thief ! Was my sister a sore that you should have hidden her thus ? He accused her of treachery at the end. If she had been treacherous was he the one to blame her, he who taught her habits of stealth and secrecy, he who taught her to hide ? What did she hide from him ? I can only suspect, I was too young to know. But I remem- ber so vividly, so very vividly that last night. Her fierce screaming woke me, and I leapt from the sleeping mat, screaming too. I wasn't more than eight at LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 13 the time, and the darkness and the fear of disaster terrified me. I ran into her room. The electric light was full on, and she was standing under it half- naked. That pig had a whip raised in his hand about to strike. And then from somewhere out rushed Ahmat the syce, with a knife. Ah ! You didn't know that, Mr. Nubkins, when you offered to assist me in writing my novel. You thought doubtless, because I am a staid, respectable woman now, that my past had been one big yawn. It is not too late to withdraw your help if you wish. There are others who will help if you will not ! I can find them. Meanwhile I shall go on writing this chapter myself, and shall trouble no one for help. For this happened to me. Still I can see it, and, seeing, am able to describe. Yes, still I can see the stunned and wounded English- man lying there face downwards, his body half -curled up, his white suit stained with blood. Still I can remember the rush through the house, the packing of the spoil, the hurried journey through the shadows to the sea. Ahmat, my sister, and I fled barefoot. It was a calm, dark night. The tops of the palms were just visible against the sky. Now and again the breeze rustled them. Even that made us afraid. Every sound made us afraid. We feared pursuit, and often through the night, when everything was very still and we walked like ghosts on the velvet turf by the roadside, we would halt as if moved by a common thought, and turning, listening, gaze affrighted into the shadows we haa left behind. But nothing happened. I think it must have been 14 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS that the Englishman was more shocked than hurt and that when consciousness came back to him he decided to forego revenge for the sake of avoiding scandal. I think, perhaps, knowing these people as I do now, that he was drunk when he struck my sister. We embarked unmolested and sailed for Pelung. We landed. Nobody looked at us. Nobody pointed to Ahmat and said : " This is the murderer of a Tuan." All were busy about their own affairs. The place was seething with work. So many people, so many colours, such babel, cries of hawkers through the streets, tinkling of bells of the bullock wagons, rickshaws swaying and twirling hither and thither. Every colour was brightened, every bit of metal on the harnesses, the carriage axles, the dresses of men and women was transformed into a glittering gem by the sun. We were dazed, all of us. Stupid as owlets at noonday we wandered along the pavements, jostled at every step, half -choked by the dust and the close, strange odour of the thronging shops. And then towards evening Ahmat was spoken to by a Malay who said he knew him, and this man piloted us to the Kampong Selim and found us lodgings for the night. I was ill then ; and when I awoke we were poor, all our belongings gone. Yes, very poor, and Ahmat was a great gambler. I was so thin ; it was fever. And my sister had a boy-child in her arms. She was no longer a tigress ; she was tame and very sad. Nearly all her beauty had departed, so much so that when we wandered out through the streets, as we did almost daily, she never covered up her face but merely LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 15 walked with head bent. And no man looked after her, so altered was she, so sallow and so old. The child gave her no pleasure. Ah mat, when he spoke to her at all, reproached her with it, pointing to a dreadful birthmark on its left leg, just above the knee, a mark, so he said, of her shame. He taunted her with being a white man's cast-off, and my sister would sit, her head on her hand, saying nothing in reply. But he seldom troubled to speak, being so much engaged with his gambling. I grew to hate him even worse than I hated the Englishman ; and when smallpox took him away not a tear shed I. But my sister wept, being weak and broken. And the smallpox attacked her too. A Kling doctor came with a hospital cart and took her and her baby away. I never saw her again. The missionaries, praise be to them, found me and rescued me. It was they who taught me to read and write. They christened me Lolina, and they were very kind. They said I was their prodigy, marvellous to learn, marvellous in speaking the English language, so they said, like a European. But as for adventures in that " retreat," well, I was as dull as as a sausage in a grocer's shop. I was glad when they sent me out to service ; I was gladder still when I met my late husband Roga, old as he was. I was glad, for he was very much in love with me an old man's love that gave everything and wanted but little in return. All I wished for I had, comfort and safety. And when, after we had been settled at Sudora for a year or so, the time came for me to close his eyes, eyes that would never look at me 16 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS again, then I cried, for never were two greater friends parted. My enemies have often accused me of being a little inclined to stoutness. I answer them that nothing they can say will worry me. I snap my fingers at them. Even during my widowhood at Sudora, when I was proprietress of the hotel, I was not too thin. I was not much more than thirty when Roga died. My voice, then, as it is now, was a deepish contralto. My face, my hair ? Well, read this novel and learn what others thought of me. No, I will let you under- stand at once, not to keep you in suspense. Often after four o'clock in the afternoon the bar-room at my hotel would be crowded with men, who drank my drinks, paid for them, and went away happy to bed if I so much as threw them a smile. I believe they would have drunk anything had I smiled more. I could have made vast profits, but I was too honest. Only because of my smiles. And there were no other women in the hotel. Now you know something about my looks when I was thirty years old. There were nights, of course, when not so many came. But Ferdinand Fernandez was a regular visitor. He was a youth anxious to improve his knowledge of the world, and he had found that he could do this by talking to me. Often, when he was there, Europeans from the rubber estates adjoining, seamen, and Government warders would come in, and he would talk to them also about the world, especially about London, a place he was very interested in. He used to pick up their expressions. For instance, LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 17 when he appeared on the evening that I (or rather Mr. Nubkins) mentioned in the first chapter, I said in greeting : " Oh, is that you, Mr. Fernandez ? " ' You may wager your tall hats on that," was his reply. Such a stupid saying, because I had not a tall hat so far as he knew, though as a matter of fact my late husband's old one was still by me. But it was a saying all the rage just then among Europeans. Ferdinand looked very well that night, I remember. In spite of his dark complexion he is a handsome boy. And he was always fond of me. I liked him for this fondness, and I used to pretend fondness also. But nothing, of course, in earnest. People engaged at hotel bars must leave their hearts at home. Such a pretty, clean boy, I must say it again ! He was, too, like a young cockerel ; always on the crow and always proud of his appearance, always moulting old clothes and buying new ones. On this particular evening I noticed that he had replaced the blue pugaree on his topee with a white one, following in this respect the last fashion from Pelung. ' You do look spruce to-night, Mr. Fernandez," said I, in fun. " There'll be some broken hearts in Sudora." " What ? " said he, faintly smiling and flushing under his dark skin. " Why this, of course," I said, bending over the bar and tapping the topee on his head. " Oh, that ! You are a noticer, Mrs. Roga." " I like pretty things." C i8 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " That explains the reason to me why you have such a fondness for yourself." " Oh, Mr. Fernandez," said I, surprised at his quick- ness. " Where have you been practising ? You are quite the Londoner ! " I gave him an extra wide smile, shewing my gold eye-tooth, which the ordinary customer never sees. The hotel was empty except for two young Chinese, who were playing billiards at my table near the door. They were strangers, and in any case nobody takes any notice of Chinese. He glanced round and, seeing that he was not observed, leant over the bar, looking very pleased with himself. " One never practises with ladies of your graces, Mrs. Roga," he said, and then drew back, aghast at his own boldness, I suppose. If I had not known he was such a good, harmless fellow I should have drawn back also and started polishing glasses with a duster. But as he was such a boy and was only, I knew, behaving like this because he thought fashionable people did so, in a motherly whim I took off his topee, held it out of his reach, and examined the new pugaree. " It is so neatly put on," I remarked with my head on one side, bantering him. " Who could have taken such trouble for your sake ? I'm sure I would not for any man. Whoever put this pugaree on is a beautiful sewer. What's this on the brim ? The mark of a fallen tear ? Ah no, merely a little dirt." " Give me back it," he demanded shamefacedly, and darted out a hand. But I was ready and held the topee out of reach. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 19 "A bit of dirt ! What a desecration ! So near to where those fairy fingers have been at work. Who is she ? Is she pretty ? Must I be jealous ? " Only in fun, you understand. " Give it to me back," he insisted. I could see now that he was smiling only because he thought it was the correct thing to do. Inwardly he was dis- composed and, so his side glances told me, fearful that some of his friends should surprise him. But I am such a tease, even nowadays. " Tell me her name first then," said I, with a laugh, and held the topee just out of his reach. " Tell you her name, missis ! Not much. But I tell you this : you're not the only pebble on my beach," he said. The impudent fellow ! I was sorry I had shown him my gold tooth. Perfectly well I knew who had put on the pugaree. It was his fat sister, Amy Fernandez. And he was trying to pretend otherwise. I gave him his topee. " Did you say you would have your usual lemon- soda, Mr. Fernandez ? " I asked coolly. Selling refreshment was my business, after all, not talking to stupid boys. He nodded and thanked me, looking rather scared at my displeasure. I opened the bottle, poured out part of its foaming contents, and placed the glass in front of him. After a sip or two he began, I saw, to regain confidence. But he got no more gold tooth from me that day. No, I am very stern with impudent people. I left the bar counter and, sitting on my high stool, took up my knitting. The bar counter is semicircular 20 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS and very beautiful. Sometimes sitting on that high stool I used to feel much as a rose-tree in the centre of a garden bed must do. On that evening I felt so. The sun had come down the sky and was looking in at the windows. Our windows out in that hot country are unglazed. Every bottle, every bit of glass, every piece of polished wood about the bar was shining and flower-like. I had on a white satin blouse cut rather low, and I was wearing my necklace of large pieces of red coral strung separate, a necklace that still looks well against my creamy neck. Outside I could see the green lawn, sheltered here and there with palms, where my customers often sat of evenings when the moon was up. It was on my advice that my late husband, Roga, bought the little green tables and iron chairs which dotted it. I was very fond of these tables. They were one of our successes, giving an air to the hotel and, I am sure, tempting Europeans to patronise it. I sat and looked at these green tables that now threw long shadows on my well-kept lawn. Where they stood under shelter sunlight played through the leafage above, over their cold iron tops, in combs and diamonds. The evening breeze was springing up, stirring the fronds of the palms. The air was growing cool. All felt delightful. And the click of the billiard balls soothed me. Such a thing is peace. I looked down at my knitting, and then my eyes it shows how little they wished to look at Ferdinand shut. Some people may say that I was dozing. No, I was merely contented. All my faculties were at rest. The stopping of the click, click at the billiard table LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 21 made me look up. I watched the two Chinamen pay the marker, and then saunter out on to my lawn. They should have paid me, but they were strangers and doubtless did not know my custom. And then I saw them sit down at one of the green tables reserved for Europeans, where no Chinamen, even the richest towkays, are allowed to sit. Such behaviour could not be allowed ! " Tell them to go away," I cried out to the marker, pointing. The uglier of them had just lighted one of those poisonous Chinese cigarettes. The smoke was blowing right in, polluting the whole hotel. The marker (he was a little Malay who had been a long time with me) went out and spoke to them very nicely for a Malay a Malay is always so rough with a Chinaman except when he wishes to borrow money. I heard him tell them that they must not sit at tables reserved for white men only. But they merely laughed and sat on, pushing him to one side. I grew very angry and, jumping off my stool, ran out. "Go at once!" I said. " Orang bangsat ! Babi ! Pigs ! " I can be very angry when I wish, and have often frightened people. Ferdinand, who had followed me, called them also pigs and scoundrels. But they did not appear to mind, so thick-skinned and shameless were they. They sat there with hunched shoulders, grunting out insults, and so at last I got out of patience and, rushing up to one of them, pushed him over on to the ground as he sat on my green chair. " Go, or I will call the police,' I shouted ; and Ferdinand Fernandez ran and cleverly slapped and 22 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS kicked him before he had time to get up, and Mahomet, the marker, flourished a parang and stopped them from attacking us. So at last they went, giving us such displeased looks, and saying that very shortly they would return and demolish us. " They won't come back," said Ferdinand after they had gone. " I gave them too much biffings." We walked slowly to the bar. I was very much out of breath and had lost all my contented feeling. I was not so sure as Ferdinand about the Chinamen not coming back. They might enter the house at night. That was one of the drawbacks of being a widow. She is defenceless. I told Ferdinand of my fears when we reached the bar, and he very kindly offered to stay as long as possible, or, if I wished, to call in the police. But I dislike going to the police. " They will do nothing but live on bribery and blackmail," I said. " My late husband, Roga, paid hundreds of dollars just to keep them from getting us into trouble." " Of course, missis," Ferdinand assented, " every flock has its black sheep to be found in it." " They are awful, threatening me always," I went on to tell him. " But I refuse to pay any bribes. I will not be cheated by these policemen." And then I proceeded to relate how that only a day or so before the Sikh sergeant had come into the hotel and warned me about this new magistrate, Baylers, who had just arrived and was so strict in preventing gambling. " You may bet your tall hats on that," Ferdinand interrupted me. "He is very noted for his stopping of gambling." " I never bet or gamble," I said. " Nor do I allow LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 23 it in my hotel. I told the Sikh sergeant this when he wanted a bribe, but he said that if I would not spend money to prevent rumours spreading it might be that I would get into trouble. He said it would only cost me fifty cents a week." " If it was that tall Sikh with the scar on his face, I should pay it," Ferdinand advised me. " He has the ear of the inspector. I know this from our Chinese landlord, who also pays his portion. My father also pays a little." But I laughed and said that I would never do any- thing of the sort ; for no woman should require to bribe, especially when her hotel was as respectable as mine was. " A Sikh policeman would ask for bribes from his own mother. They are not sex-respecters like we males," Ferdinand returned. We were going on with our conversation when, suddenly, from the door : " Can I get anything to drink here ? " I looked up with a start ; and that was my first sight of Lloyd Guiy. 24 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS CHAPTER III HE was standing near the doorway dressed in a new Chinese-made khaki suit, gazing around in the gentle, helpless way that is so like him. He looked like a sorrowful ostrich, or a reed shaken by the wind. I said he could obtain a drink, and watched him come towards me. He moved as if apologising to every fly on the floor for disturbing it. His eyes were cast down, but, when he reached the counter and raised them to look at me, I saw they were not small and shifty as I had expected, but pleasant, and of a soft, very clear blue. He had a moustache, one of the modern tooth-brush ones. For the rest, he was tall, fair, and slender, and, I should have said, about twenty-two. " What can I get you to drink, mister ? " I asked. " Er can I have a glass of old English ale ? " he inquired. He said " glarse," like so many young planters, not " glas " like the Scotch engineers of steamers, who, I may also remark, seldom drink ale, saying it is bad for the liver, but drink whisky con- tinually. He was a young planter, I decided. But to ask for old English ale at a hotel bar in Sudora ! How many provide it ? None. So new was he to the East. However, by chance I was able to oblige him. I had a bottle of old English ale. It was very old ; left behind by the previous proprietor of the LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 25 hotel when my late husband Roga took it over from him. I had kept this bottle in a cupboard, and now, you see, it became useful. One never knows in the hotel business. We have our triumphs, like conjurors. " I thought it would be so weird, don't you know, to have some old English ale in a tropical place like this," he went on. And then quite by accident he glanced in Ferdinand's direction. That one glance was enough to break the ice. I saw Ferdinand, who is always ready to be sociable with Europeans, pick up his glass and come walking along by the counter. " And how's the old village ? " he inquired with a friendly nod at this new customer. " The old village ? " The gentleman was at a loss : I could see that. " The smoke ! London, mister ! " explained Ferdi- nand. He got out his tin cigarette-case, put a cigarette in his mouth, and tried to light a match on the match- stand with his right hand while offering the case with his left. " Not just now, thanks very much," said Mr. Guiy. " London's looking very well," he went on, " or it was when I passed through. Everybody was very gay, both Houses, of course, sitting, and the chestnuts were out in the parks. I wish I was there now." " So do I," returned Ferdinand, getting his cigarette alight and puffing vigorously. " I didn't know they allowed the chestnuts out in the parks, though. That must be since the present Government got in, wasn't it? " You see, already he was trying to get more informa- tion about London. 26 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " The flowers, you know," explained Lloyd, looking rather mystified. " Quite," said Ferdinand, but I'm sure from the way he said it he didn't understand. And then I heard him make enquiries concerning the Dustbin, the Bent Poker, Willie's, and other strangely named places, houses of entertainment in London, I believe. Apparently Mr. Guiy knew nothing of them, nothing like so much as Ferdinand did, at any rate. Ferdi- nand's knowledge of these London places is astonishing, considering he has never been farther away from home than Pelung. " They've got a new barmaid at Willie's," he told us, tilting his topee over his eyes and flicking the ash from his cigarette. " A man just out from home informed me of the fact last week. His Gracious Majesty, the King, God bless him, has granted the previous barmaid an old age pension. Of course they may not keep such a good selection of wine at Willie's as they do at the Dustbin, but Willie's is more select. Fastidious people prefer it to the Dust- bin. I myself like select places. I myself " " Ah, of course, quite right," said Lloyd Guiy. " About my order : may I trouble you ? " This to me, for would you believe it, I had forgotten all about the old English ale ! I bent down to get it, but twilight had already darkened the shadows and the cupboard was full of bottles. I left the bar in order to fetch a lamp. It was then, when I had turned my back for an instant, that the trouble began. From the kitchen I heard first of all strange voices shouting out numbers, LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 27 satu, dua, sa-puloh, dua-puloh ; then Ferdinand's voice, very shrill and high-pitched ; and after that the noise of tramping feet. I ran back, my heart in my mouth. What a scene for a respectable hotel ! There were six Sikh constables, seven, counting the sergeant. Those two Chinese were there, held by the constables, but not resisting at all. On the floor were scattered cards and dice and counters. Of course it was all arranged, that was apparent to everybody. And the sergeant's cunning, hook-nosed, mahogany face, laugh- ing at me ! I can still see it : and I should like to slap it. All the Sikhs had beards and heavy turbans and puttees. Elephants swathed in khaki, they filled my bar. Their uncleanliness thickened the air. " What is it all about ? " I cried indignantly. I was innocent, and they knew I was. " Lu wish to ask that ? " cried the sergeant in his high, querulous voice, gesticulating and affecting great anger. He said " lu " to me as one does to a Chinese coolie. " Jungle pig, answer my question ! " I shouted loudly. I was furious. " You think you can do as you please and make trouble, but, good, you shall see, you shall be shown, and before very long either, eater of bribes ! " " Look at the floor, look ! If this is not gambling, what is ? " screamed the sergeant. " It's a conspiracy. You shall suffer for this," I replied fiercely. "It is an order of the new magistrate. I fear nothing," he retorted. But the tremor in his voice 28 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS showed me that he did. These Bengalis they call themselves Sikhs giants in body, have small souls. I had intimidated him. " This Tuan shall confront you before the magistrate," I went on. "Do you accuse him also ? How then should such a man newly come to the place know aught of Chinese gambling ? " I pointed to Mr. Guiy, who was standing beside Ferdinand looking very surprised, but, I must say, not in the least alarmed at the turn of events. He noticed I was referring to him. " What's it all about, anyhow ? " he asked, smiling. " They charge this lady with keeping a gambling house," broke in Ferdinand, who was in the grasp of two policemen and had turned very pale. "It's a cheating and swindling by these swine-eating sons of money-lenders. The curse of Mahomet I say, great Scott and Dickens.what do these devils mean by putting their filthy paws on my clean white jacket ? Do you know I have laundry bills to pay ? Is this your boasted civilisation ? Tell me that, you sergeant ? " " I suppose they have a warrant and all that sort of thing ? " Mr. Guiy asked me. " Where's your warrant ? " shouted Ferdinand, taking up the idea at once. " Tuan mau Hat lu puny a warran', defiler of oxen ! " Clearly, like myself, he had forgotten until then that such a document was necessary. In any case I think it was foolish of us to have insisted on seeing it. Had we been content to bluster and bully we might have got the sergeant to leave the premises. I do not think it likely we should have succeeded in doing this, but there was a LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 29 chance. However, we had asked for the warrant and the sergeant who had been talking in his hideous sar, sar, sar (Bengali I believe they call the language), pulled the little piece of blue paper out of his breast and held it under my nose. I looked at it by the light of my candle ; the quickly fallen darkness made that necessary. Yes, everything was in order, so far as I and the others were able to judge. At the bottom the signature, bold and freshly blotted, " S. Baylers." " Good ; you are able to see the magistrate's sign ! " pointed out the sergeant triumphantly. The flicker- ing candlelight rendered his quivering, excited face more evil-looking than ever. The sweat poured off it. As for us, there seemed nothing more to say. " Speak, speak, clever ones," he went on, encouraged by our silence. " You see from this warrant that I can catch all of you. Ya, any one, black or white. Ya, Tuan Baylers isn't like other men. He does not know people's skin. He cares nothing for the colour of it. Even Europeans are the same, I am permitted to catch them." " Tuan Baylers is an ignorant fool," I cried out, be- side myself. " Good, I will carry your remark to him," sneered the sergeant. I bit my lip to avoid a retort. Enough evil I knew instinctively had already been spoken con- cerning me to this new magistrate. " Can you tell me what they intend doing ? " asked Lloyd Guiy. " I do wish I knew the language. You see, I have not much time to waste. I was going down to meet the steamer. There is a lady on board coming 30 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS to stay with our manager at the estate," he explained. " I've been told to meet her. My name is Guiy." (He pronounced it ' Gway ') . " I'm a planter, or will be one day. I must be on the wharf when she comes in." " The steamer's in by this time," volunteered Ferdi- nand. " I observed the signals before I left the town. I also, needless to say, have my engagements," he went on. " But they are all absolutely sat on owing to these sons of Belial I mean, blighted policemens." " But are you sure ? eight o'clock she was timed for." " She has coolies on board and is to be early." " But I shall be late. I must go." Actually he pushed aside the nearest policeman and made for the door. I own I was surprised almost into abuse to see them lay hands on him. I can understand now that his creased, cheap-looking khaki suit may have given them the impression that he was some sort of poor white, a ship's fireman, say. Probably they could not imagine a European of the better class wearing khaki in the evening. Whatever their reasons, the police did lay hands on him, and he, I am glad, glad to say it, struck fiercely the Sikh sergeant. What a row there was then ! How he fought and struggled for such a slightly made fellow ! But three of the strongest overpowered him. They would have hurt him had I not called out. " This is awful," he cried after he had grown calmer. " Isn't there any possible means of getting away ? Shall I offer them money ? " " Come, tell us what you wait for ? " I snapped out LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 31 at the sergeant. " This Tuan has business and must go at once." " What can one do ? " said the sergeant sulkily. " I have already sent a messenger to call the inspector. Everybody must wait till he comes and gives his order. His is the ordering." The fellow's words seem polite enough when put on paper, but his insolent looks brought me almost to the boiling point. Later, when the messenger came back bringing the news that the Tuan Inspector was not at the office or at his house, I was more than boiling. It was shameful that a new-comer such as Baylers should keep us all shut up for hours like this, I told Mr. Guiy. " If they don't let me go, I shall have to make a bolt for it. I simply must get down to the boat," he said earnestly. I believe he meant mischief still. He looked desperate. But with all those big Sikhs around him he would have had no chance in a struggle. They would have taken pleasure in knocking him about. I told him this. " Do you think so ? " said he, looking at them doubt- fully. " I'm quite sure," I replied. " Have a little patience ; you will be released in half an hour." I was not certain about that, but I could not afford to run the risk of having any more struggling and per- haps bloodshed in my hotel. " What does it matter if you are a little late at the steamer ? " I went on. " Being detained like this might occur to anyone. There will be plenty of people to see after your lady." 32 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " It's not only that," he said in a low voice. " Come then, what is it ? " I asked. You may see from the way I put the question that I was half- coaxing, half-comforting him, as I used so often to do when my late husband, Roga, was feeling in the dumps. I am rather clever at coaxing, so they tell me. " As a matter of fact I promised the lady I'd be there. She's a personal friend," he replied. " Dear me," I murmured, looking at him. His face was the colour of a cock's comb. " It is so unfortunate. And in my hotel." I smiled at him in a motherly, comforting way, showing my gold tooth. " You have known the young lady for some time then ? " " Oh yes. For years er at least our families have. Not that I knew she was coming out East. There was no talk of it when I left home and I haven't been here three months yet. Quite a surprise her coming out, to tell you the truth. And she's coming to the same estate as I'm on. I'm on the Bitas Estate. She's to be a governess to the manager's child. A queer coincidence, isn't it ? " " That's Mr. Pawker's estate ? I heard he was getting a governess." " Yes, that's it." " And her name ? Do you think I'm too curious ? " " Not at all." But I believe he did. " Hamilton. Miss Una Hamilton." " Una ! What a pretty name," I remarked. You see, I wanted to please him. " You think so ? "he said uneasily. I said I did. Oh yes, I myself also think that. " It's not to be sneezed at as a name," chimed in LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 33 Ferdinand ingratiatingly. He had evidently managed to catch the last remark. He never does like being left out of the conversation, doesn't Ferdinand. " It's kind of you to say so," said Lloyd Guiy stiffly. " I've got a kind disposition," Ferdinand admitted. " Not that names matter to me. A man of the world has his eye on the face and figure. One can, I appre- hend, get used to a name." Continuing, he remarked that although one might get used to a name or to a face, life was short. He went on to say that Una, though a good name, like most names ending in " a," such as Sarah, Martha, Jemima, and so on, was not in his opinion up-to-date like " Daisy," the name of the bar- maid to whom His Gracious Majesty had just granted an old age pension. So far as I remember, conversation ebbed after that. For a long time we stood silent. There was no breeze that night. Mist had hidden the earth, muffling the sounds of the jungle. The air was thick and polluted with lamp smoke. I felt hot and breathless, oppressed almost to the bursting point. It must have been nearly ten o'clock when the inspector arrived, getting on for twelve o'clock before we were finally released. 34 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS CHAPTER IV MR. FERNANDEZ waited at the office for Ferdinand until six o'clock precisely. When the hour struck (the bells of ships in the harbour heralded its striking) he arose, impati- ently pushed his instruments into their cases, drew to and bolted the creaking, whitewashed shutters, adjusted his topee firmly on his head ; and made his way into the street. His movements were punctual and regular enough for folk to set their watches by. Had the sun set without him appearing on the streets shopkeepers would have blamed the sun. Children welcomed his appearance, connecting him in some vague manner with the evening meal. Public-spirited men, Chinamen in the running for a seat on the Sanitary Board, looked kindly on him as he approached, feeling themselves in the presence of an institution older and more creditable to the community than even the town clock. On this particular evening, however, no one gave other than a casual glance at that frail, bent figure as it plodded on. Folk in Sudora, interested in the strange, are merely approving of the good and beautiful. And the old gentleman with his mahogany coloured face, thin as a hatchet, his big white moustache, his frayed white suit, black kid shoes, and enormous pith topee, had been for years a part of the landscape. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 35 But the observant would have noticed that evening an extra touch of dignity in the old gentleman's stiff but as yet undoddering gait, an intensified expression of pride and annoyance on his aristocratic countenance. He had recovered his eye-glasses, he had received another letter from Mr. Pawker, he had been given the contract to cut the new main drain out at Mr. Pawker's, on the Bitas Estate. This accounted for the pride. Ferdinand was the source of the annoy- ance. Ferdinand had borrowed a dollar and had not come back. Such, the old gentleman must have known, was human nature, and, as a parent, been prepared to submit to in his boy. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Pawker was a business man and would not permit of work on the new drain being put off because of Ferdinand's intensely human nature. Mr. Pawker wanted the work started first thing next morning. And where was Ferdinand ? There were so many things to settle, they ought to have been settled at the office, but as the right hand hadn't returned, Mr. Fernandez had instructed the mandor or foreman to come up to the bungalow for orders that evening. There were coolies, changkols, picks, shovels, baskets to be sorted out and transferred to the estate. And where was Ferdinand ? Mr. Fernandez put the question at once on his arrival home. " He hasn't been in to his tea," said Mrs. Fernandez. " We thought he was with you down at the office. Do you want him extra specially, father ? " She took her husband's topee whilst Amy poured him out tea from the well-cooled pot which still stood 36 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS on the veranda table. He took the cup and half sat, half lay in a dilapidated long chair, stirring the tea pensively. A cool breeze was swaying the alamanda sprays that had pushed themselves through and over the rail, golden trumpeters of invading nature. The thin hair on his forehead stirred. " Do you want Ferdinand extra specially, father ? " asked Mrs. Fernandez again. " Of course I want him," said the old gentleman. And then went on in tones that betrayed a certain satisfaction : "I have obtained a large contract from the Bitas Estate." " What, you ? " exclaimed both ladies, surprised. " Yes, me," said Mr. Fernandez, looking at them triumphantly. " There is no occasion to be excited." " Your father's got a big contract, Amy," cried Mrs. Fernandez. " Oah, splendid ! And how many coolies will you send ? " " Some twenty, perhaps. But I must talk to Ferdi- nand about it." " Twenty : fine ! " went on the old lady. " We shall have new dresses now, yes, we shall. I'm sure it's time you had a new one. And perhaps we will send you to Pelung. You want a change. You're looking pale." " I think she's looking fat and well, ma," said Mr. Fernandez. He was certainly correct. She did look fat and well, a credit to her parents. Plain to be seen from their gaze that both the parents were proud of her, of her bare yellow arms that filled her sleeves to bursting point, of her ample, curving bust, her broad, sallow face, LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 37 full of countrified good-nature, her jet-black coils of hair, her placid eyes. " She's looking fine. She is just like you were once, mother," pursued Mr. Fernandez, possibly anxious to avoid the subject of dresses. " I can remember twenty years ago, before you " " Ferdinand says," broke in Amy.. " that sometimes on dark evenings or when our backs are facing him he can't tell the difference, didn't he, mother ? " " Ah, that was before I had all this worry and trouble of being married that I was so like you," replied Mrs. Fernandez, looking pleased. " He will be so glad you've received the contract, father," went on Amy, getting up from the table and gathering together the tea-things. She walked from the veranda. The movement shook the whole of the crazy little bungalow, but then even the walk- ings to and fro of the family dog did that. A door shut. " She seems to never end talking about Ferdinand," observed Mr. Fernandez rather testily, as he looked after her. " Well, she's very fond of him, as we all are," said his wife, sinking into a canvas chair, and taking up a brilliant coloured sock that she was in the middle of mending. " He's growing such a nice young man that I'm sure I would do anything for him. So much the gentleman, too ; just like a European. Look at this sock now," she leant over and held it close to the old gentleman's eyes. " The colour of a butterfly's wing ! Such a pretty thing ! " " It is," agreed Mr. Fernandez solemnly. 38 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " You never wore socks like that when you were courting me ! " Mr. Fernandez admitted that he never did. " I can remember you with no socks, in spite of your high descent that you were always boasting of. You used to say that wearing socks in a hot climate was mere conceit and pride." " Never, did I ? " " You did, I assure you, Mr. Fernandez. Yess, yess, and such a worrying thought it was to me, I assure you, although I have never mentioned it until now. All the girls, my young lady friends, laughing continually and saying how easy my life would be, for I should be married to a fellow that would not require me to darn socks for him. If you had worn such socks as these," she went on, flourishing them within an inch of his face in a skittish manner, " I might have died of love for you. Who can wonder that Amy thinks so much of Ferdinand ? " " You think she loves him ? " asked Mr. Fernandez, looking a shade concerned. " How could that be ? She thinks that he is her brother ! " " Well, I wouldn't say that it was love," explained his wife, scratching her arm consideringly. " It's more a sort of stirring, a sort of awakening. At dinner, now, I've noticed her take her eye off the pudding more than once, and look at him." " Ah," reflected the old man. " A mother is quick to see. But she thinks he's her brother." "It's instinct," replied his wife. " We females are wonderful when it comes to instinct." She brushed her husband's thin legs aside and sat LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 39 down next to him on the long chair. " We must talk about this," she went on, in a determined way, tapping him on the shoulder. " Now the two are old they ought to be told. I hope he loves Amy. Perhaps it is a pity for some things that he ever came. Poor little mite as he was ! But we love him as our own, that is so, yess ? " Mr. Fernandez bowed his head in acquiescence. " It was your fault though that he did come," he added, rather maliciously. " My fault ? " said the lady in a heightened tone. " Tell me, then, who it was that insisted on us beginning our married life with economy, that would not buy his rice from the Chinese shop, and was so clever that he bought from those strange natives by the sackful ? Tell me thatt. Was it me or you ? " " Ah, well, it was a long time ago," muttered Mr. Fernandez, smiling reminiscently. " Did I want to measure the rice in the sack before paying or did I not ? Who was the fool who bought the sack by weight ? " One felt from the old gentleman's expression that one would not have to search far for the purchaser. " Weighing it ! Buying it ! Ha ha ! " laughed Mrs. Fernandez tauntingly. " I can see your face now when we heard that squalling during the night, and I held a candle while you shovelled out the rice and then pulled the poor mite out of the sack. Oah, you had such a foolish, foolish face, Mr. Fernandez ! Buying it ! Such an economical as you were, Mr. Fernandez ! " " It was a long time ago," murmured the old man, 40 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS laughing too. " You should have looked at the rice in spite of me. A wife's duty, my dear. And then you would have found Ferdinand." " A wife's duty ! So soon after our wedding. Who thinks of duty during the honeymoon ? And do you remember," she continued, " that Tuan missionary coming to the house next day, and, just as he had wished us happiness and said he was glad we were married, Ferdinand began to cry in the bedroom ? " " Now you mention it, I do," acknowledged Mr. Fernandez testily. " Ah, your foolish face when you were explaining to him " " Not so foolish as yours," put in her husband. " Ah, I was much ashamed," admitted Mrs. Fernan- dez more soberly. " Especially when he went away unbelieving. He might have believed " " But it was a disbelievable explaining," said Mr* Fernandez, wagging his head solemnly. " No, I think we cannot blame that missionary. Who had ever known of a baby in a sack of rice ? " " Wasn't he a nice baby ? " she went on in a vein of reminiscence. " And the mother, whoever she was, had cared for it well. I should have liked to have found out who she was. Would I not have talked to her ! Ah, would I not ? " " Yess, yess, my dear," agreed her husband. ' You would, but why should we care ? We had the baby. He hasn't given us much trouble, and he's a nice lad." "So he is," assented the wife placidly. " And such a gentleman. He's got a darker skin than I like, but, no matter what his colour is, he always looks the LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 41 gentleman. Yess, yess, Ferdinand's made for charming the ladies, I see that. And that's why I want to tell Amy about his birth. Let them know the truth or both may be disappointed." " Shall we tell her ? At supper to-night we can tell them both." " Very well," said his wife, rising. " I will see about supper now. Come with me out to the dapor. This shall be a night of festival. Myself, I will make the sago." She put out her hands and pulled her husband erect ; then putting her arm in his she led him through the whitewashed living-room to the half-decayed wooden steps at the back. On the other side of the small patch of turf, known as the back garden, but in reality the worm-preserve for the household chickens, lay the cook-house. In its brightly lighted doorway the figure of Amy was visible as she bent over a saucepan and stirred the contents. " Such a beautiful girl she is," whispered the old gentleman, as the two of them descended the stairs. " That will be better for Ferdinand if he is lucky," muttered Mrs. Fernandez, pressing his arm. Clearly this youth, a foundling, had managed, in spite of his uninvited arrival, to win a way to the hearts of his adopted parents. But though they may have been fond of him, their manner of watching Amy as she busied herself over the saucepan showed who was the centre of their lives, the apple of their eye. The father, his white head bent, stood against the wooden doorway smoking contentedly, whilst within the daughter, guided by the mother, 42 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS performed mysteries among the pots and pans. The wood fire flamed and crackled, replenished from the store of dried bakau wood on the rack above. Smoke crept up the grimy weather-boarded walls to the blackened thatch. A pleasant smell of cooking filled the air. " Has he come yet, father ? " Mrs. Fernandez would inquire from time to time. " No, not yet," the old man would answer after a glance towards the bungalow. " I do hope that I get this sago done before he comes." But later on this changed to " If he doesn't return soon the sago will be spoilt," a remark to be repeated oftener and oftener in tones eager at first, then dis- appointed, as the shadows outside deepened, as the evening wore on. At last the moment came when the family had to choose between spoiling the whole supper and waiting no longer. They sat down at the table without the truant. All of them ate slowly, rather as if without relish. It was no new experience lately, alas ! for them to sit down to supper without him. And this was to have been an evening of evenings. Anxiously they looked over the veranda towards the road, where the trees and palms stood stiff and eerie in the moon- light. All was very quiet. Occasionally a dog howled, occasionally an owl flew hooting by. It was getting on for midnight when Amy's young ears detected the sound of a bicycle bell. " There he is," she cried, rushing out and leaning over the rail. The garden gate over by the trees swung open. A dim figure clad in white appeared. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 43 " Is that you, Ferdinand ? " she called out eagerly. " You may wager your tall hats on thatt," came back the cheerful voice, as the young Eurasian hopped grace- fully on to his bicycle and sailed through the moon- light up the path. She ran back to her parents with the news, but Mrs. Fernandez was already heaping up the truant's plate. " And I'm very glad we saved a little for him," she said to her daughter. " Nothing to eat since the middle of the day. Why, the boysie must be starving ! " 44 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS CHAPTER V THEY heard him run his bicycle underneath the veranda. A moment later he bounded up the steps and was amongst them, looking very pleased with himself. He tossed his topee to Amy ; it might have been largess from the manner of both of them. She hung it carefully on its wire nail. Her mother turned up the lamp suspended from the smoke-blackened beam that ran across the centre of the unceilinged roof, making the room by this act into a stage for him, the well-beloved. He stood in the centre of the floor for a moment looking from one to the other of them quizzically, the while smoothing the curl on his forehead. " Father waited so long for you at the office," began Mrs. Fernandez in tones indicating curiosity. " But doan't tell us all about where you have been until you've had supper ; tell us just a little only. You must be too faint to talk much. As I was saying to father just this minute : ' Why, the poor boy must be famishing.' " " You doan't look faint, Ferdinand," remarked Amy, drawing out his chair for him. She waited beside the table whilst he sat down, handed him chutney and the bottle of ikan merah as if solicitous to see that he started fair. He did start fair. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 45 " You haven't " began Mr. Fernandez from his corner after a while. " S-s-sh, can't you see he's famished with hunger ? " broke in Mrs. Fernandez warningly. " I'm all right-o, top-hole," said Ferdinand, his mouth full of curry and rice. " I've been playing the deuce, along with a European friend of mine, what, what ! " He waved his spoon playfully at Amy. " Ah, is that all ? " said the mother. " I do wish, Ferdinand, you would not stay so late with your European friends. But that's right : always play with respectable people. I'm glad it's no worse." She walked across and patted the young man's shoulder. " Worse ? " asked Ferdinand, looking round at her, plainly a shade annoyed. " How could it be worse ? The magistrate, Mr. Baylers, said we were the baddest lot of peoples he had ever experienced. And there were six policemen as well as the inspector. It was a regular rough house, I tell you, mother." " Six policemen ! " exclaimed Mrs. Fernandez in a higher tone. She looked at her husband with a mysti- fied air. " I wiped the floor with them," explained Ferdinand easily. " Great Scott and Dickens, they don't love me any more ! You can bet your tall hats on thatt." " Oah, I don't know what he means," wailed Mrs. Fernandez. " You are becoming so much the English gentleman nowadays, Ferdinand, and I'm such a stupid old woman." She shook her head in comical despera- tion. 46 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " Well, you know then, father, don't you ? " asked Ferdinand, in high feather. The old man shook his head. " I hope you haven't been getting into trouble with the Government," said he rather seriously. " Have a banana ! have twenty bananas ! " cried Ferdinand with an air of triumph. He pushed back his plate, produced a handkerchief, wiped his mouth, and then, toothpick in hand, turned and faced them. " You see, mother," he continued, " the police sergeant pinched Mrs. Roga up at her hotel and " " He pinched Mrs. Roga ! " ejaculated the old lady. " What goings on ! Is that where you've been all the evening, Ferdinand, up at that hotel talking to that shameless, fast woman ? And your supper getting cold ! Why didn't you come home before ? You make me angry." " But I was pinched too, mother," explained the young hopeful, winking elaborately at Mr. Fernandez, who did not respond. " You ought to have come away at once, you shame- less boy." " Six policemen pinched me and then I wiped the floor with them." " Six policemen p " " He means that he has been arrested, I am afraid," translated the old man. " That's it ! Ho ho ! Ha ha ! " cried Ferdinand with a delighted nod. " We were pinched, arrested, designated for the lock-up ; under a false misappre- hension, naturally." " You, arrested ! " cried Mrs. Fernandez in sudden LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 47 anger. "Oh, goodness ! I never heard of such a thing ! " She sank into a chair. " Oh, the shame to the family ! " she cried, horrified. " Under a false misapprehension," explained Ferdi- nand, looking at her a shade doubtfully. " There is no need for excitement. In the Strand at London, daily, gentlemen are wiping the floor with policemen s and getting arrested. Every one is proud to know them, I assure you, mother." " Arrested ! Never have we had any arresting in our family before. I don't mind what it was for. And now the neighbours will point ringers of scorn at us, a thing I can never endure from them and never thought I should have to ! " " Doan't cry, mother," Mr. Fernandez urged, coming towards her. " It's no use crying over spoilt milk," put in Ferdi- nand, less jauntily than before. " Spoilt milk ! Yes, that's what you are, you wicked boy, spoilt milk ! " cried the old lady. She rose and paced the small veranda till the frail bungalow shook. "Whatt did I tell you, Mr. Fernandez? Di'n't I say, at the time we found him, that one never got something for nothing in this world ? " " I don't remember it. It is so long ago," quavered the old gentleman. " I've a good mind to give him a good beating, the little wretch ! " she went on, thoroughly upset. " You think you can come to this bungalow and laugh about being arrested. And staying all night with that shame- less woman, when me and Amy were slaving for you at home. You little wretch ! " 48 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS She gave Ferdinand a look of violent indignation. " I will leave him to you, polluted of a police constable. Thank heaven he is no son of mine ! " she cried, and, clutching her daughter, she half-led, half -dragged her from the veranda. A bedroom door slammed. " What's the matter ? " gasped Ferdinand in a scared way. " She is a particular," explained Mr. Fernandez awkwardly. " None of us have ever been arrested in our family. It takes some getting used to. She does not like it." He coughed uncomfortably and, walking away, made a pretence of putting into place a book or two that lay on the table. " But great Scott and Dickens ! " protested Ferdi- nand. " Everybody's doing it in London, so I am in- formed. Many gentlemen are before the beaks, as they call their magistrates there, Monday morning after Monday morning. Not her son ! That's a nice thing to spit out at one's offspring at this time of the evening. She seems to me all sore point to-night ! " " She's a little overwrought," suggested the old man. " Your arresting is a sudden grief to her, especially as she had such plans for you, and now you go and get arrested and seem to like it. As a matter of fact er um you are not her son." " Whatt ! " " You are not her son," repeated the old gentleman, playing nervously with his pince-nez. " And also she is not your mother." " But, great Scott and Dickens, what then am I ? A false start ? An unknown error ? A fancy spring- ing these tidings on to me at this time of night ! " LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 49 " Don't get too excited," said Mr. Fernandez, mopping his forehead. " In this climate it is of no use." He drew up a chair and waited until the young man had seated himself. " Now I must explain : it is nothing," he went on in a low voice, evidently feeling his way. " You are now a man, I think ? " " I suppose I am," admitted Ferdinand. " But what you tell me just now about my birth makes me a bit doubtful. It has produced a dizziness." " I've always thought you a man," asseverated Mr. Fernandez. " And also a cool customer who knows a thing or two." " Oah yess. I'm a cool customer right enough," Ferdinand agreed. He stretched his legs and smiled faintly. " With you being a cool customer, and Amy almost a woman, having in fact arrived at the age of pub pub what is the word ? You know more English than me. What is it ? " " Pub-entry ; that's what you mean, father." Ferdinand, brightening immediately at the flattery, found the word without the least trouble. " You see, father, hotels are called pubs in England, and ' entry ' means the walking in to get drinks. And we also have a law in England that ' children under a certain age cannot be served with drinks.' Therefore the age at which they can be served is known as the age of pub-entry, that is, the age at which one can usefully enter hotels. It is a fine language." " Amy having arrived at the age of pub-entry," the old man went on doubtfully, " the time has come to 50 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS explain to you about your parentage. Putting the matter briefly, you haven't any." " Whatt ! Great Scott and Dickens ! " Ferdinand was in the depths again. " I thought I had at least half my parents ! Are you not my father ? Are even you slipping away from me ? " " Of course you have parents of some kind," admitted the old man comfortingly. " But you are not my father ? " " No, I am not your father," said Mr. Fernandez in a pained sort of way. " I am only your founder." " My founder ! Great Scott and " " I found you under the bed shortly after Mrs. Fernandez and me were married," explained Mr. Fernandez. " Don't get excited," he went on sooth- ingly, putting out a restraining hand. " It is a thing might happen to anyone. Better to be found under a bed than on a doorstep, isn't it now ? Doan't get excited." " But you are telling me so bit by bit," gasped Ferdinand. " Tell me all at once." " Some natives came to the door with a bag of rice and I bought it cheap," whispered Mr. Fernandez quickly. " We put it under the bed. In the middle of the night we heard a fearful squalling. Mother thought the cat had got colic. It wasn't any good arguing ; it never was. She just pushed me out with her feet. I found the noise was in the sack, and crawled under the bed and listened. It was you. We lit the lamp all in a flutter and I pulled you out. When we had dusted you " " Dusted me ? " muttered Ferdinand in a dazed sort of way. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 51 ' Yes, you were all over rice flour. When we had dusted you, we saw you were not white, but Eurasian like ourselves. No marks on linen to find out who you were. You were naked. Only that birthmark on your leg and the amulet you wear on your arm." " Oh, miserable blighter ! " cried Ferdinand in an agonised voice. " It is nothing to worry about," Mr. Fernandez assured him. " Mother didn't mean what she said to-night. She is so very excited. We had already planned to tell you about your birth, and you go and get arrested. We all like you. Your birth doesn't make any difference. But now Amy is older we had to tell you. Don't be downcast," he went on. " Such a thing might happen to anyone. And we are all fond of you. Amy too," he added with, for him, rather a keen look. " Amy too ! " exclaimed Ferdinand, brightening. " In spite of my being without any parents ? And I forgot, Amy is not my sister any more. So she is fond of me. Hum ! " " Her mother will tell her about your birth first thing in the morning," the old man said hastily. " She doesn't know yet. But it will not make a bit of difference to her feelings for you, I am sure." ' Yess, yess, she likes me, I know thatt," murmured Ferdinand reminiscently, looking out into the moon- light and allowing a faint smile to play over his features. He began to walk up and down. " Father," he said, struck by a sudden painful thought, " doan't tell her about my birthmark. I shall be a laughstock more than ever if people get to know I have a 52 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS birthmark. They will say it is a mark of shame. Oh, miserable blighter ! " " You needn't be afraid. Nobody shall know of that. And you mustn't talk either. Nobody in Sudora knows. Nobody will know unless you are stupid." Ferdinand looked reassured. " And nobody shall know. I shall be like an oyster," he said firmly. " As long as people doan't know, what do I care ? Listen," he went on, stopping to wave his arms. " You have given me your family name. I know it is your family name. Amy told me. I will make this name well known in the Strand one day. Mark my words. Oah yess, I will, in spite of my piebald blood." " I don't want you to think wrong about your name, Ferdinand," went on the old gentleman hesitatingly. " We did not er christen you like that. I must tell you this because, if I don't, perhaps mother will when you make her angry. We di'n't christen you Ferdinand. You see, it was in this way." He approached, and grasped the young man's arm, and drew him affectionately nearer. " When we examined you and found no writings to show where you belonged, mother said to me : ' What are we to do with it ? ' And then she wanted me to take you and put you under the missionary's wife's bed, because this lady had no children and was always saying how dearly she would like one. But I said, knowing the pride of even the best of Europeans : ' She wouldn't like a black one, I'm certain of that, anyhow.' And then I said : ' Can you tell me how many children we shall have ourselves, Mrs. Fernandez ? ' She didn't LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 53 know. So I said : ' Mrs. Fernandez,' I said, ' we shall keep this little fellow ; a bird in hand is worth two in the bushes.' So just to oblige me she did keep you, and none of the neighbours ever knew that you were not her own, except the missionary, who said nothing. And we called you Bird-in-hand, afterwards changed to Ferdinand." " Bird-in-hand ! " exclaimed Ferdinand, breaking into sobs and smiting his breast. " Oh, great Scott and Dickens ! " " No one need know that," remarked the old man consolingly. " Don't give way. Amy will think of you as Ferdinand. Only me and your mother know. We are both glad that we kept you instead of giving you away. You are a credit to us. Why, you are almost like a European." " A European ! Ahoo, ahoo ! A European." He looked up. " How can I be a European now ? I have no more heart left for such jobs. Bird-in-hand ! If that rumour was rumoured among the boys I should be a suicider, that's what I should be. I should be a laughstock. Now I give up life as bad jobs. I don't care if my trousers go baggy at the knees. They can bag, and bag, and bag, I tell you ! Bird-in-hand ! " " Don't take it too much to heart," urged Mr. Fernandez. But the wailing began again. Ferdinand was not to be comforted, and after a while the old gentleman lay down in his long chair and waited for the sobs to cease. When at last they did so, he changed the subject by inquiring about the arrest and when Ferdinand was to appear in court. " Why, I don't appear at all," stuttered the youth in 54 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS a voice hoarse with tears. " Didn't you understand that ? The magistrate dismissed us altogether ; it was nothing at all, nothing. We are all friends. I was so happy coming home thinking what a good thing it was to be able to tell you that I had been one of the boys like they do in London. I shall never be one of the boys again. Ahoo ! ahoo ! Bird-in-Hand ! " " Now, now, now," cried Mr. Fernandez with a final pat. " Don't be stupid. Go to sleep, and tell all to us about it at breakfast in the morning. You'll feel better in the morning. I will speak to mother ; she does not unnerstan' that the arrest was about nothing or she wouldn't have been so angry." And by dint of pushing and patting he managed to get Ferdinand of! to bed. Somebody indeed must have whispered to mother during the night, for morning found her at the table wreathed in laughter. She had done her thick iron- grey hair with more than accustomed neatness, and wore a clean linen wrapper. Everything that morning in the bungalow seemed brighter, and the sun looked in, as its habit was, and bathed them all in one large golden smile. There was Mr. Fernandez in his white suit, appearing pleased with life, as became a healthy man at breakfast time ; there was Amy, dark and blooming, sweet as a tuberose, eyeing Ferdinand when he wasn't looking her way and eyeing her plate when he was. She too was evidently in the know. The found- ling himself was talking all the time, ostentatiously gay like an india-rubber ball, but slightly self-conscious, it seemed, under the eye of his lost relations. And as befitted the male bird under observation of what might LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 55 turn out to be a prospective mate, he endeavoured to wear as bright a plumage as possible. Every incident in the story of the arrest became, as he told it, a feather in his cap. What a kicking, to be sure, he gave to the enormous Chinaman who probably had several knives concealed on him. Extraordinarily clever too what he had said to Lloyd Guiy ! He had abused the Sikh sergeant, apparently, and would have assaulted him but for the presence of a lady, and the inspector had quailed under his eye, as also, to tell the truth, had the dreaded Baylers. " I told him that for two halfpence I would investi- gate his legal position, oah yess, I did. I was not going to stand his nonsense, I assure you. And this young fellow, Guiy, he did what he could also, but of course he was more timid that I was, being new to the country. And when this Baylers said that he could not have this sort of thing occur in his district, I would have asked him how he would have looked were I to bring the whole of his constabulary before the British Speaker at West- minster Abbey, but I found it was not necessary to do so, because already this Baylers had called Mrs. Roga to one side, and they were having a fine convers- ing together, oah yess ! and laughing too. I di'n't hear what they said, but she did a bit of hoodwinking a greenhorn, I apprehend, for in the end of it he gave the sergeant a good hauling over his coals, and said we might retire to our couches provided we came up for judgment if in future we were caught again." " What is he like, this great Tuan Baylers ? " asked Mrs. Fernandez, skinning her morning banana. " Oah, he is like any other Tuan," returned 56 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS Ferdinand. " But he is a long, big man, with a square jaw that looks as if it should be shaved very often for a clean appearance, a nose like a mussel shell, and he has elephant's eyes. I don't like him, and neither does Mr. Guiy." " Was he wearing a very large white topee, and a grey flannel suit with a collar ? " asked the old gentle- man. " Yes, he was ; how did you know, father ? " " I saw this gentleman on my way home yesterday ; he was driving in a carriage. I thought it was some new passengers from the steamer. He had a lady with him. She was a very fair young lady, so young, with a big white sun umbrella, and she was laughing. She seemed so pretty, but I had not my glasses on." " Perhaps his wife," suggested Mrs. Fernandez, very interested. " There was some luggage on the box beside the syce," remarked her husband doubtfully. " I wonder who she was," muttered Mrs. Fernandez, and, irritated perhaps by a pang of unsatisfied curiosity, she flung the banana skin at an old hen which, after the custom of the fowls of the Fernandez household, had wandered on to the veranda in search of food. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 57 CHAPTER VI IT is true that Una Hamilton was laughing as she passed Mr. Fernandez in the carriage. Who would not feel pleased on landing, a stranger in an unknown country, to find the resources of that country placed at one's service ? Who would not feel well disposed towards its king ? And so she leaned on the cushions beside Sidney Baylers, and laughed at his witticisms, and smiled at the passing natives, and was very bright indeed. Nevertheless all the while in her inmost heart she had a feeling that she would never forgive Lloyd Guiy for his failure to meet the steamer. She felt extremely annoyed with him. He always was a casual sort of individual, she knew that, but to fail a girl who had come some ten thousand miles was being casual in the superlative degree. Casual wards in workhouses were built, so she told herself, for supercasuals like Lloyd Guiy. In saying this she merely repeated a remark made by her stepmother, a lady who was in the habit of saying extremely cutting things out loud. It had been speeches of such a kind, made very loudly in his hearing by her stepmother, that had, she knew, driven Lloyd Guiy out of the village and out of England. She had felt at the time that out of the village would have been quite far enough. It was rather trying of him to go right away like that, but she could 58 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS understand his character sufficiently to know that, when he began to move, he was liable to go on for ever out of sheer forgetfulness. Another grievance too was he had not written to her, although she had gone so far as to ask him on his departure, calling him, of course, Mr. Guiy, to let them all know how he got on. To be sure she had asked him in a very detached way. But she had asked. Why had he not written ? She knew well enough that men of his class did not go to an outlandish colony because they were successes at home. And sometimes she knew they strayed and went to the bad because of pride, and never wrote to anyone any more. Well, Lloyd was poor enough and proud enough. She had thought of him very often after he had left, far more often perhaps than she had done before. Re- trospection had convinced her, firstly, that he had qualities which none but she could properly appreciate, and, secondly, that she had not been too kind. Not that he had asked anything of her. But there had been a gentle air of expectation about him when visiting the house which her stepmother had taken every opportunity to damp, and which she might, she knew, have fanned into something more definite. She felt vague, big regrets that she had not behaved differently. This was the sum of her conscious sentiments about him. But she made a practice of dwelling on these sentiments daily and enjoyed the sensation rather. Later on she heard that Lloyd was tarrying on his downward path somewhere in the Malayan Archipelago. An intense longing for foreign travel visited her. She ate bananas because of the local colour, and was LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 59 frequently to be found in the palm-house at Kew. And she waited, waited hard. And, of course, every- thing comes to the person who waits, provided that person waits hard enough. Very possibly her temperamental history as outlined above is much the same as that of many girls in the early twenties. One may imagine there comes a time when every one of them wants to spread her wings, giving the discomfort of the nest, the attractions outside of it or a hundred other reasons for the wish. And nowadays parents very sensibly allow them to fly. Stepmothers have always encouraged them to do so. No obstacle was placed in Una's way when she decided to accept an engagement offered through an advertise- ment and go out to Sudora as governess on a rubber plantation. For one brief week she was the heroine of the village, much like an Indian widow before suttee. They decked her out for the journey at the local store, and what with the excitement and her very good looks she did the store and the village, her parents and her country credit on the way out, and made the captain of the mail steamer wish he was young again. Then at Colombo she had received a letter from Lloyd Guiy announcing heavens ! that he had just received an appointment on the very rubber estate she was going to. That is the worst of these stories of real life. In a romance she would never have heard of him until pirates had captured her and borne her off to Kams- chatka, say ; and then Lloyd, who is absolutely un- fitted for any job of the kind, would have had to have taken off his coat and tackled the business of rescuing her. Here she was just dropping into his arms like 60 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS a ripe fruit, or, as some bachelors out East would put it, like a bolt from the blue. It had been a bolt from the blue to her, this letter at Colombo. She had experienced on reading it a feeling of irritation and shame which still clung, for she could not but reflect on what her family's verdict would be on receiving the news of this strange coincidence, on hearing that instead of her merely settling in the same continent as Lloyd, she had, in ignorance, accepted a position on his very doorstep. She could almost hear her stepmother reading the letter aloud at breakfast and announcing an obstinate disbelief that such a meeting could ever happen except by arrangement. " You ought to have called her Diana, not Una, Mr. Hamilton. Why ? Well, of course Diana was a mighty huntress ; but whether Diana would have bothered about such a thing as Lloyd Guiy Ten thousand miles, too ! " And then the shrug. Slights, unlike objects, often seem larger when con- sidered from a distance. Had she been at home her blushes, although deeper, would not have lasted. As it was the coincidence rankled, and although she arrived at Sudora genuinely pleased at the idea of seeing Lloyd Guiy again, she was, it must be con- fessed, vexed at him for daring to be there. The fact that he had not really dared but was there by accident only made matters worse. It seemed to her something like flabbiness. But when, as the steamer drew in alongside, winches going, lines splashing in the clear green water, and she, leaning on the bulwarks beside the others, scrutinised LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 61 the group of white-clad, helmeted figures standing on the shadeless wharf and found he was not amongst it, then she knew how much really she had looked forward to seeing him again, and how glad she was to have one friend they were nothing more than that,even unofficially in this strange land, this land of strangers. Whilst the steamer, drawn in broadside on by strained and dripping ropes, bumped against the wharf to the accompaniment of the shouting of a multitude of natives, she had wondered which of this group of lily-white Europeans was Lloyd Guiy ; and then, seeing he was not there, which of them had come, in his place, to meet her. Was it the tall one with the blue pugaree ? He looked nice enough. Or that stoutish, pimply person ? She hoped not devoutly. They all of them had stared hard. No guide this, to be sure ; most men and many women when they saw her looked again. She wished sometimes that nature had made her more sparrow-tinted, had given her dark hair instead of the coils of golden-brown tresses she possessed such a fearful nuisance in hot weather had broadened her figure, sallowed her complexion, lengthened her face. Somebody had told her once that she reminded him of Romney's " Perdita." Examining the picture afterwards she could not help admitting that there was some justice in the com- parison. Her eyes were brown like Perdita's, and although taken feature by feature her face was not beautiful like that of the Regent's victim, it had Perdita's straight nose, full chin, and firm, soft lips, and it was, though she did not know this, in the habit of wearing a similar expression of kindliness. 62 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS Sometimes, naturally, it lost this expression, as for instance when the gentleman of pimply complexion, whose nose she felt would not have been out of place on a rockery, had come up the steamer's gangway and approached her with an air of great determination. Her newly-assumed expression of veiled horror had given way to one of relief when he had walked straight by. One by one the others had filed up after him, one by one they had passed her and disappeared through the same doorway with business-like briskness. Look- ing round she had discovered herself standing before the entrance to the steamer's bar. She had moved away. Now all the group on the wharf had vanished. Was nobody here to meet her ? It was alarming ! Even he of the nose, provided he came armed with proper credentials, would have been better than no one. What was she to do ? She had been in the act of considering whether she ought to consult the captain as to her predicament. She had, in fact, been looking up at the bridge. " Miss Hamilton," had said a voice beside her and she had turned. It was Mr. Baylers. She had not taken to him at first glance, and even now, when she was driving in his carriage and he was doing what she felt was his best, she liked him no better, although she wanted to. He had, so it seemed to her, a habit of trying to make mirth of other people's misfortunes strong enough to prejudice anyone. He laughed, and would have her laugh with him, at a starved looking Chinese coolie who had slipped under his load, at an elderly Eurasian (it was Mr. Fernandez) who had not LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 63 heard the approach of the carriage, and had therefore been compelled to hop aside in undignified haste. On the other hand it was pleasant and gave one a feeling of importance to be driving, through obviously obsequious streets, in the first carriage of the country. All along the way natives were lifting their right hands in salute, and, on the wharf, on the steamer even, sufficient evidence had been given her that to be magistrate of Sudora was to be a gentleman of the utmost importance. The purser, who had come up to her with him to make the introduction, had, in spite of himself, shown that he, the purser, was, marvellously enough, in the presence of his superior. The captain had hurried down from the bridge. Coolies under the direction of two Indians in gorgeous red uniforms had handled her somewhat shabby luggage with becoming rever- ence, placing it in a neatly appointed bullock-cart. The glittering carriage and pair had moved forward to the foot of the gangway down which she had des- cended through the sunshine, with the three Europeans, besides a number of natives, in attendance. She had at the moment a glimmering of what it was like to be a queen. They bowled through the streets, past gaudy shops, reed huts, tiny bungalows, each in its small square compound. The mellow light of sunset toned down every crude colour. The countryside had an air of welcome, so she said. "It's a hole, an absolute hole, Miss Hamilton, as compared with Pelung," returned Baylers. " Delight- ful to me, of course, this afternoon though." She read admiration in his small grey eyes. As she 64 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS had already noted to his disadvantage, these eyes had a habit of vibrating for a moment before coming to rest. They never rested long. She noted also his hand on the carriage side a bloodless, hairy hand with an old gold signet ring on the little finger. It looked sinister, like a spider. " We have so very few European ladies here," he went on. " I am only a new arrival myself, but people in the service are used to being moved about, and I'm already quite settled down. I may tell you that I did not exactly bless H. E. for sending me here. But now well, I think I'm very much to be envied." He finished the speech with unmistakable emphasis. " Are there many European ladies here ? " she asked hurriedly, gazing straight ahead where now was to be seen the open road, empty but for a clumsy buffalo cart. Giant mimosas interspersed with betel palms lined the green hedges and formed a canopy. The sun was getting low. " Is it necessary to talk about them ? " he asked banteringly, turning in his seat as if anxious to face her. " You will get to know them. I believe they are all very pleasant, but at the moment I'm not at all interested in them. I think, Miss Hamilton," he proceeded in a hard, clumsy way, " without being at all conceited, you can guess the reason." " But I should like to know about the ladies," she returned, flushing with annoyance. She spoke perhaps a shade acidly. She really would have valued the information. He flashed a glance at her and then looked down, smiling unpleasantly. " I'm sure I don't know," he said with an equally LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 65 short inflection. " They've all been down to the Residency I give At Homes there, don't you know. Very worthy people I thought them in the lump, but if you were to ask me about any one of them individu- ally, well, really, I should be puzzled. Now there was Mrs. er what is the name of the rubber estate manager where you are going ? " " Pawker." ' Yes, that's it." He looked at her in open amuse- ment. " Fancy my forgetting ! It only shows how your presence robs me even of my memory, does it not ? " She did not reply but, her breast heaving slightly, looked away. The evening breeze blew gratefully on her flushed face. A clump of dead bamboos by the roadside rustled like paper. The shadow of a kite flitted across the white road by the side of the carriage. " Do you believe in Fate ? " he went on with elephantine playfulness. " I believe in Mrs. Samuel Pawker," she laughed, successfully composing herself. " Dear me, fancy talking about Fate on a day like this ! Tell me some- thing interesting ; your work I should like to hear about that ! " " I don't like talking shop," he returned, looking annoyed. " Well then, describe to me Mrs. Samuel Pawker," she said lightly. " I think you said, or were going to say, that she was at your At Home. You must remember something about her. Is she tall or short, stout or slender ? Come." " She's tall and thin, rather gaunt looking, so far F 66 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS as I remember," he replied shortly. " She looks as if she has a lot of fever ; I expect " And then he turned away suddenly, and shouted out an order to the syce. The carriage stopped beside a small dog-cart which was drawn up at the bend of the road under the bamboo hedge. A heavily built Englishman, dressed in a khaki uniform, came up, saluted, and spoke for some time in a whisper. Baylers' reply was inaudible to Una. The man saluted again and the carriage drove on. " The local police inspector," explained Baylers in a half -sneering voice, as he settled back in his seat. " A specimen of the material they send us out to be hammered into shape." " He looked a fine figure of a man," she ventured. The incident, slight as it was, illustrating once more the respect in which Baylers was held, duly revived her lessening awe of him. She became again pressingly conscious of an atmosphere of power and mystery. Seeing him show signs of impatience at her comment on the inspector, she said rather meekly : " I was so interested about Mrs. Pawker." " Ah yes, that was what we were talking about," he returned with a slight start. His thoughts, she saw, had been elsewhere. " The inspector had driven her out of my head. The fact is this is in strict con- fidence, Miss Hamilton I've just had intelligence of a rather important arrest." " Is that so ? I am sorry I mean glad." " The effect of the news is that I shall have to put you down at the Pawkers' bungalow and hurry back," he explained with a laugh. " So I shall take it you LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 67 mean the former, though perhaps you mean the latter. I wonder ? " He stared straight at her, rather insolently. She lowered her eyes. " You have been so exceedingly kind," she murmured awkwardly. " I feel most grateful. What should I have done with nobody to meet me ? " He shrugged his shoulders slightly. " Another five minutes," said he, " and you will be rid of me." " But I don't want to be ; you've been very kind," she burst out. And then : " Oh, you must come and see us, Mr. Baylers, that is if governesses are allowed to be seen in the East. You have, I'm sure you have, been very kind indeed. And I'm sure Mrs. Pawker will say so too. What is this plantation ? " she went on hurriedly. " Are these rubber trees ? How interesting ! I've never seen anything like it before." He had kept on looking at her fixedly and smiling faintly all through her last speech, intent apparently on noting her distress, and now he nodded. " Yes, Miss Hamilton, here is your home," he said. " The great Bitas Estate." Trees and hedges were now absent from the well-kept roadways. As far as the eye could reach on either side, the red clay soil, bare of all weeds, had been planted with small rubber plants. Soldiers in green, vivid and alert, they stood in regular lines, an illimitable army. Life was incarnate in every shining leaf of them. Charred and blackened tree-trunks lay thick between their ranks, the bones of the slaughtered forest. 68 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " How interesting ! How enormous ! " she cried, half rising in enthusiasm. The magistrate conceded that the place was well enough in its way, and she sank into her seat again. The carriage advanced through plantations of increasing size. Bibits became saplings, saplings trees. They entered a forest of smooth, grey-brown trunks, into twilight. They passed a ragged group of huts, and Una received an impression of dingy black folk living with mangy yellow dogs and fowls in a state of intense untidiness. Then came a large open space, in the middle of which stood the bungalow. " Well, encouragement or not, Miss Hamilton," said Baylers as they drew up, " I insist on being allowed to come and call at the very first opportunity." She was as warm as need be in her reply, and in her seconding later of Mrs. Samuel Pawker's hospitable urging. They seemed a very likeable couple, did her new employers, in spite of the lady's absurd round face and equally absurd get-up. And she felt even after one minute's acquaintance that they were going to like her. It was comical to see the fuss they made of the somewhat supercilious Mr. Baylers : to observe Mr. Pawker, a short, puffy gentleman with blue eyes, a sandy moustache, and a head from which the worries of management had already shorn the hair, hover round the carriage plaintively insisting on the quality of the Bitas Estate whisky, to notice his good lady, when once their distinguished visitor had been persuaded on to the veranda, take his solar topee and almost bow him into the best long chair. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 69 ' You must stay to dinner now we have got you, Mr. Baylers." He couldn't possibly. Some other evening. He explained the reason. " Oh, bother ! " cried Mrs. Pawker, standing over against him, a horribly thin figure in home-made yellow, one anxious eye at his service, the other intent on the deportment of the white-clad Chinese " boy " whose duty it was to serve the whisky-soda. " Bother," she cried, waving her fan. " Let it wait till to-morrow." But as he continued to shake his head she went on, Una thought with relief, to remarks on his kindness in ooking so well after their new arrival. " I suppose you left the young fellow I sent down to meet you to come on with your luggage, Miss Hamilton ? " inquired Samuel Pawker, who had taken unto himself a whisky-soda, and was now also seated. " Was there anyone to meet me, then ? " " Was there ? Why, of course there was ! " cried Mrs. Pawker. " Didn't you see him ? Then he must have missed you. There ! " She gave her husband a look that spoke volumes. " We sent a young fellow named Lloyd Guiy down," said that gentleman, seriously enough. " He was very keen to go. He told me he knew you." " He promised to meet me ; he wrote to Colombo," said Una, speaking quietly ; she felt herself growing red. " He is an old friend I mean, that is a family friend." " What name did you say ? " asked Baylers, looking at her keenly. 70 LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS " Lloyd Guiy, one of our new assistants," replied Samuel Pawker. " Then I'm sorry to tell you, Mr. Pawker," said Baylers in a hard voice, getting up, " that this new assistant is in trouble. The inspector informs me that a person of that name has been taken into custody for gambling in a gambling den." " Gambling ! " cried Una. " Lloyd Guiy ! Oh, Mr. Baylers ! " He stared at her for a moment. " I will do what I can for your friend," he said. " Goodnight." And catching up his topee, he turned abruptly and left the veranda. A moment later she heard the carriage drive away. LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO-NUTS 71 I CHAPTER VII