Read Wealth of the Islands for Free Online Page A

Mediterranean. With some success too, she remembered gratefully. But then her father had always been lucky in anything he had touched. They had teased him about it. Lucky in money and lucky in love, they had said with varying amounts of envy. Now, Helen had the money he had made and she wasn ’ t lucky at all!
    Gregory interrupted her reverie by pointing out the copra plantations that fell away behind the little town that had grown up round the harbour.
    “ Before the war, they used to pay the Islanders in gold, ” he told her. “ Now they have to accept paper like everyone else. ” He laughed. “ There ’ s a fortune down there in this ship, if we can ever get it out! ”
    “ Why shouldn ’ t we? ” she responded gaily.
    He looked at her with amusement. “ The ship is pretty badly mauled, ” he warned her. “ And that reminds me, look out for the coral. If you jag yourself on it, it takes a long, long time for the wounds to heal. ”
    “ I ’ ll take care, ” Helen promised.
    By day, the whole island looked different. She had thought she had known what to expect from films and pictures in geographical magazines, but the reality was more alive than any of these. True, it was dingier too, but she so very much preferred it. She particularly liked the older part of the town which they were walking through now: there was still the old tin-roofed trading post, now abandoned, and a whole series o f houses in various stages of dilapidation, with thatched roofs and walls of woven palm leaves. Here and there, a new house shone pale green and gold amongst the dark browns and greys of the older homes, some of which had been long left to decay in their own time where they stood. Children peeked out through holes in the walls and came out laughing when they saw Gregory striding past. Dogs dashed hither and thither about their o wn business, but even they apparently thought it worth while to follow Gregory down to the rickety jetty. By the time they arrived there, Helen felt something o f a Pied Piper, but Gregory showed no signs of even noticing the train of children at his heels.
    He grinned when Helen, clad in shirt and slacks, jumped easily aboard the Sweet Promise, bag in hand, but he said nothing. He swung his own long body up over the bows and squatted down to check the diving equipment that he must have put there earlier.
    “ Look out, pidgins! ” he shouted to the children, and they scattered away from the jetty, running for all they were worth. “ Their parents will kill them if they interfere with my things, ” he added with a smile to Helen.
    “ They weren ’ t doing any harm, ” Helen replied, her voice tinged with disapproval.
    He laughed. “ They talk big round here—bigger than their actions! Killing is only a light tanning, and most of the parents are too gentle even to think of doing that! You don ’ t have to worry about the little beggars. ”
    Helen was annoyed that he had seen through her so easily. “ Where are the rest of the crew? ” she asked to change the subject.
    “ Na-Tinn is just coming. His brother is down below, stowing some of the stuff away that we won ’ t need today. His name is Taine-Mal. ”
    Helen practised both names in her mind so that she wouldn ’ t forget them and, at that very moment, one of the Polynesian sailors she had met the evening before came running along the jetty and leaped on board beside her.
    “ This is Na-Tinn, ” Gregory told her. Helen shook hands with the mountain of a man beside her. When he grinned at her, she saw that his teeth were hideously disfigured by being filed into points, giving him the expression of a shark rather than a man. “ Welcome on board, ” he said warmly.
    Gregory came over to them and stood a few feet off with his hands on his hips. “ She ’ s Michael Hastings ’ wife, ” he drawled .
    Na-Tinn withdrew his hand hastily. “ That pidgin made life bad! ” he said hoarsely, forgetting his precise English in the heat