Hawaii - James Michener [229]
Nevertheless, the little missionary pleaded with his patients, "If you go into the water, you will die."
"I want to die, Makua Hale," they replied.
Jerusha and Amanda saved many lives by forcing their way into huts where they took away babies without even asking, for they knew that if the fevered infants continued their piteous moaning their parents would carry them to the sea. By wrapping the children in blankets and dosing them with syrup of squill, thus encouraging the fever to erupt through skin sores, as it should, the women rescued the children, but with adults neither logic nor force could keep them from the sea, and throughout Lahaina one Hawaiian in three perished.
In time the measles reached even Malama's walled-in compound, where it struck Keoki, who welcomed it, and his baby son Kelolo.
Here the Hales found the shivering Kanakoa family, and Jerusha said promptly, "I will take the little boy home with me." And there must have been a great devil near Abner's heart, for when his wife had the dying child in her arms he stopped her and asked, "Would it not be better if that child of sin ... ?"
Jerusha looked steadily at her husband and said, "I will take the boy. This is what we have been preaching about in the new laws-- All the children." And she carried the whimpering child and placed him among her own.
When she was gone, Abner found that Keoki had escaped to the seashore where he dug a shallow grave into which salt water seeped, and before Abner could overtake him he had plunged in, finding relief at last. Abner, limping along the reef, came upon him and cried, "Keoki, if you do that you will surely die."
"I shall die," the tall alii shivered.
Compassionately, Abner pleaded, "Come back, and I will wrap you in blankets."
"I shall die," Keoki insisted.
"There is no evil that God cannot forgive," Abner assured the quaking man.
"Your God no longer exists," Keoki mumbled from his cold grave. "I shall die and renew my life in the waters of Kane."
Abner was horrified by these words, and pleaded, "Keoki, even in death do not use such blasphemy against the God who loves you."
"Your god brings us only pestilence," the shivering man replied.
"I am going to pray for you, Keoki."
"It's too late now. You never wanted me in your church," and the fever-racked alii splashed his face with water.
"Keoki!" Abner pleaded. "You are dying. Pray with me for your immortal soul."
"Kane will protect me," the stricken young man insisted.
"Oh, no! No!" Abner cried, but he felt a strong hand take his arm and pull him from the grave.
It was one-eyed Kelolo, who said, "You must leave my son alone with his god."
"No!" Abner shouted passionately. "Keoki, will you pray with me?"
"I am beginning a dark journey," the sick man replied feebly. "I have told Kane of my coming. No other prayers are necessary."
The incoming tide brought fresh and colder waters into the grave, and at that moment Abner leaped into the shallow pit and grasped his old friend by the hands. "Keoki, do not die in darkness. My dearest brother . . ." But the alii drew away from Abner and hid his parched face with his forearms.
"Take him away," the young man cried hoarsely. "I will die with my own god." And Kelolo dragged Abner from the grave.
When the pestilence was ended, Abner and Jerusha brought the baby Kelolo, now healthy and smiling, back to the palace, where Noelani took the child and studied it dispassionately. "This one will be the last of the alii," she predicted sadly. "But it may be better that way. Another pestilence and we will all be gone."
Quietly, Abner said, "Noelani, you are