Chapter 44

"And I too. Listen, for there is something in my mind. First of all, know that Rairi is not a stranger on this land of Iriatai. His mother was a woman of the island--one of the wild people the French soldiers came to take away. And when he was a boy he came here to labor at the copra-making with the woman who lived here before Seroni's coming. There are true words! Knowing all this, I have tried to put myself in his place. He has our pearls--pearls of great value, for which a man would endure hardships and long mon…