A reply was not received until eleven o'clock on the following morning. Elboeuf brought a copy of it up to the bure and, to Gregory's fury, it was anything but satisfactory. Apparently, the old man had not fully explained the situation and its urgency, but had simply asked for troops to be sent owing to his gendarmes being insufficient in numbers to arrest a gang of desperadoes. It was, therefore, hardly surprising that Noumea requested further information before acting.
In view of the way in which Gregory had, not long before, got the better of his one time colleague General Ribaud, he could still not be certain that a personal appeal from him would have the desired effect, so he wrote out a lengthy cable putting matters in a way that Ribaud, as the responsible authority, could not ignore, then made Elboeuf sign it, and sent it off himself.,
Meanwhile, James had gone down to visit the wounded and condole with the relatives of the dead, promising the latter's dependants that he would arrange for their support. This occupied him for the greater part of the day, so Gregory and Manon lunched with Olinda on the yacht and spent an anxious afternoon with her. Soon after five o'clock James came, put to them with a copy of a reply Ribaud had sent to Elboeuf second signal. It read:
Now appreciate situation stop troop carriers on exercise so temporarily unavailable stop am despatching gunboat should be with you Monday.
Again their hopes were dashed. It was already Saturday evening and, from what Hamie had said, Lacost might have all the treasure on board and be ready to sail that night, or at latest the following day: The fact that the gunboat would give chase was small consolation. Even twenty four hours' start would be sufficient for the Pigalle to elude capture for some days. During that time Lacost could anchor off one of the innumerable uninhabited islands between Fiji and New Caledonia, get the treasure and all his stores ashore, and scuttle the Pigalle, so that she would sink without trace. He could then lie low there for a year or more, until he and his companions felt it safe to signal some passing vessel and, under false names, have themselves taken off as the survivors of the shipwreck of a copra collecting schooner; or at least until the more impatient Colons either mutinied or decided to murder him, and that was unlikely to happen for several months.
But with him James brought another document a lengthy epistle in Nakapoan script. It was a letter from Roboumo, and its contents were roughly as follows
Having witnessed his Ratu's fire walk on the previous day, he was much concerned that the ability to perform such a feat would undermine the authority that he had enjoyed for so long; and this might lead to desertion by his followers. Therefore, he proposed a pact. The attack on the Pigalle had, he declared, been doomed to failure because it had been made in daylight. But a surprise attack by night, given overwhelming numbers, could not fail to prove successful. The Ratu's body guard, he assumed, would on their own prove reluctant to face the Colons again, but he could offer reinforcements of twenty seven men, all armed with modern weapons. He was, he admitted, most reluctant to allow the treasure in the Maria Amalia to be salvaged, but this was for him a secondary consideration to losing his status as the great Magic Man of Tujoa.
If the Ratu would give a solemn undertaking to perform no more feats of draunikau, he would send his men to aid in the capture of the Pigalle. But the matter was urgent, because the White Witch had told him that the salvaging of the treasure was near completion, so, if the Pigalle was to be attacked again, it must be that night. If the Ratu was agreeable to treat, arrangements should be made that evening. Since the fire walk, he was not prepared to risk his own followers deserting to the body guard should the Ratu come to his island accompanied by armed men. But if he would come alone, as a guarantee of good faith in the future, they might agree an alliance which would confirm his status and enable the Ratu to secure the treasure.
From this, one thing stood out clearly. Roboumo's proposal did offer a real chance to stymie Lacost at the eighteenth hole. James then declared that, after his triumph, he felt such complete confidence in himself that he no longer had any far of Robouma or his White Witch. He was quite prepared to go alone to a meeting. Smiling at him with pride, Olinda said that evidently it was now Roboumo who was afraid of him, so she was in favour of his accepting.
Having considered for a few moments, Gregory said to James, `To get the better of that swine Lacost I'd be prepared to take very big risks. But I don't like the idea of your going to Roboumo's island on your own. The old devil is obviously more concerned about keeping his hooks on the people than he is about who gets the treasure. He might take a chance on having his boys murder you, so that he would be quite certain of continuing to rule the roost here. And, anyhow, would you be willing to enter a pact that would leave him free to do so?'
`I have no fear that he would harm me,' James replied at once. `He would not dare. Although many of my people have been kept under his thumb, by far the greater part of them are devoted to me. They would rise up in their wrath, invade his island by the hundred and put an end to him and all his
followers. As for the situation should we make a pact, I look at it this way. I would stand by my bargain and let him continue his blackmail as long as he could. But my possession of the gold here would enable me to break his power gradually. If I could start industries here, that would not only ensure a decent standard of living for the majority of my people, but would also open their minds to Western ways of thought, so that they would no longer go in fear of being bewitched.'
`You are right,' Olinda agreed. `All the same, darling, I spoke before without thinking, and I now agree with Gregory, To go, alone to Roboumo's island would be an awful risk to take. Write to him or send a messenger, but I beg you not to go yourself.'
James shook his head. `My love, that would be no use. I know my people and, bad man as he may be, I understand the way Roboumo's mind works. How could he trust me to keep my word in the future unless I show trust in him by placing myself unprotected in his hands?'
`I wouldn't trust him not to try to pull a fast one over me even if we were face to face and I was armed and he was not,' Manon remarked, using such little weight as she had on the side of preventing, if possible, an agreement which would lead to another attack on the Pigalle.
`Nor I,' Gregory agreed. `The issue hinges entirely on how much store James sets on getting hold of the gold. As I have said on several previous occasions, I don't want any of it myself; so, although I'd hate to see Lacost get away with it, I'd rather that than have James run into serious danger.'
'It is not the gold,' James said earnestly. `Not now. It is my people who were killed and maimed last night. Four of my body guard killed and thirteen of them wounded, not to mention the three gendarmes. I would never again consider myself fit to be a Ratu if I neglected any possibility of being revenged upon those murdering Frenchmen.'
There fell a short silence. Obviously James had made up his mind and there seemed no more to be said; but, after a minute or so, Gregory did say, `Very well, then. You will go in alone. But I mean to follow you. I'll keep well out of the way, but shall remain within listening distance of Roboumo's
kraal mar whatever they call it in these parts. And we'll have Aleamotu'a, and some of the other boys, just across the channel, on the mainland. Then, if any treacherous attempt is made on you, just start yelling at the top of your lungs and we'll do our damnedest to get you out.'
James laid his big, brown hand over Gregory's and smiled. `You are a true friend: my father and protector. That's how it shall be, then. And if the attack is to be for tonight the sooner we put Roboumo's honesty to the test, the better.'