It would have been against protocol for the Ratu to remain. A generous portion of the best food was set aside to be taken up to his bure. Walking slowly and with great dignity between the rows of kneeling Elders, he took his departure, followed by Gregory and Aleamotu'a.
Thee ceremony had lasted just over an hour; so when they came out from the shade of the Meeting House the midday sun blazed down upon them from almost directly overhead. Reluctantly Gregory' faced the stiff walk uphill back to the bure, and before he had taken fifty paces he had broken out into a sweat. Glancing over his shoulder to speak to him James noticed it, halted and spoke to two big warriors who were kneeling respectfully beside the path until he had passed. They came grinning to their feet add advanced on Gregory as James said to him
`My poor friend, you are not conditioned to exert yourself in this heat. These two men will carry you.'
`No; no!' Gregory protested. `Although I may look on the thin side, I weigh a good twelve stone.'
`Don't worry,' came the airy reply. `Some of our Nakapoan beauties weigh nearly as much as that, and they are always carried from the boats to the shore. These men will take it in turns and find it no hardship. Later they will beat their broad chests and tell their families with pride how they were given the honour of carrying their Ratu's friend up to the bure.'
Feeling rather a fool, Gregory submitted to being picked up like a baby, but he was relieved at not having to trudge up the steep hill. When he had been safely deposited at the top, both men, without a trace of shyness, extended hands for him to shake, then gave him friendly pats on the shoulder.
Back in his room he stripped, then decided that in such surroundings there was, after all, something to be said for a shower. Stepping into the bath, he turned on the spray above it and allowed the needles of cold water to reinvigorate his tired limbs. Nevertheless, within ten minutes of his having dried himself and lain down on his bed, he was fast asleep.
At five o'clock he was still sound asleep when James came in. The dignified calm that the young Ratu had shown earlier in the day had now deserted him. With unconcealed anxiety he said:
`I have just been informed that the Resident intends to call on me here at six o'clock. Do you think that means that he has received an order to have me arrested?'
Gregory yawned and knuckled the sleep from his eyes. `It is quite possible. But you told me this morning that your people would not let you be arrested. Has nothing come in from Ribaud?'
`No. I sent orders to the telegraph operator that should any communication come in for Dantès it should be sent up to me immediately by runner. But no message has so far arrived. It looks as though Ribaud has decided to ignore your threat and do his best to get us.'
`It's early yet to be sure of that. As you have been away for two months, the Resident may be coming to see you on some other matter. Anyhow, if he does cut up rough, you can tell him to go to hell. Before troops can be flown in and deployed we should still have plenty of time to get out to another island.'
Reluctantly Gregory got up and dressed. James took him out to the swimming pool and fortified him with a long drink, of well iced passion fruit juice laced with rum. Then they awaited with considerable anxiety the arrival of the Resident.
A little after six o'clock they caught the sound of the labouring engine of an evidently elderly car coming up the steep drive. Five minutes later Kalabo led Commandant Elboeuf round from the front of the bure. He was a small man, bronzed from living for many years in the tropics. His hair was white, he had a drooping, grey moustache and in his right hand held a thick stick, upon which he leaned heavily as he advanced towards them.
Appropriate greetings followed. The Commandant was happy to accept a neat cognac in a tumbler, he suggested, because one could better appreciate the bouquet. When he had been furnished with a triple ration they settled down to talk not of any serious matters, but whether James had enjoyed his visit to Noumea, of the price of copra, of the prospects of the yam crop, and of the weather.
At length, with apparent casualness, the elderly Frenchman asked, `Tell me, Ratu. In accordance with ancient custom, you are permitted to retain a private body guard of fifty warriors. In the event of serious trouble here you are under obligation to order them to support my small force of gendarmes. But say it was simply a matter of enforcing law and order, so that the administration of justice could be carried out in peaceful conditions, would you be prepared to use them in that way or, if ‘the matter in question was against your interests, order them to ignore the obligation to assist my men?'
This, thought Gregory, is it; for he took the question really to mean should an attempt be made to arrest James, would he submit and order his body guard to quell a rising of the townsfolk to protect their Ratu, or use his men to defy the gendarmes? Although James' spy in the telegraph office had failed to inform them of it, a signal must have come in. Possibly it had been graded `Top Secret and Personal to the
Resident'. Anyway, it looked as though, whatever the risk to himself, Ribaud meant to get them if he could.
James evidently thought the same, for he replied with caution, `Commandant, it all depends on the circumstances in which you requested the assistance of my warriors. Perhaps you would enlighten me further by putting a hypothetical case.'
At that moment Kalabo arrived at James' elbow with a buff envelope on a salver. With a murmured `Excuse me, please', the Ratu tore the envelope open, read the flimsy it contained, then passed it to Gregory. The telegram was addressed to Dantès and read:
Replacements on way. Request return compatriots earliest. For security reasons instruct communicate with no one and report direct to me. Grateful for execution of promise. Regard transaction as completed. Unnecessary inform Lorraine. Ribaud.
Gregory smiled across at James. After all, the shrewd Ribaud had decided to accept the handsome bribe rather than risk an ignominious end to his career. They had won, and had no more to fear from James' brainstorm act of having thrown do Carvalho out of the window.
The Commandant remarked, `Good news, I see,' then went on, `This is no hypothetical case, but trouble that we have been faced with during your absence, Ratu, which may occur again. It concerns the gold that is said to lie in the wrecked Reina Maria Amalia. Ten or twelve days ago a party of ex Colons from Algeria arrived here, in an old tub named the Pigalle. They were headed by a man named Pierre Lacost. Ahead of them they had sent a professional diver, who had been here for several weeks and brought with him salvaging apparatus, so it was clear to me that they intended to attempt to get the gold up from the wreck.'
Under his heavy eyelids the Commandant gave a swift glance at James
`As I informed you, Ratu, when you were here towards the end of January, for a salvaging operation a licence is required. Long before Lacost arrived here I had been notified by my superiors in Noumea that such a licence had been granted to the Brazilian millionaire Maua de Carvalho. I therefore went out in my launch to the wreck and ordered Lacost to take his apparatus back to harbour.
`He proved extremely truculent. He and his companions were armed and they defied me. Naturally, I was loath to expose my gendarmes to a gun battle. But the following day he did bring his gear back to harbour. Apparently his visit to the wreck had been only for his professional diver to carry out a reconnaissance. As I understand it, one man could not possibly remove the heavy beams in the wreck that obstruct the passage leading to the place where the treasure is believed to be. Lacost had counted on the assistance of a dozen local Tujoa divers for this, but they all refused their services. Why, I do not know; but without such help he was forced to suspend his operations. Even so, he and his friends continued to linger on here, hoping, I suppose, to persuade our divers to change their minds.