JUNGLE NIGHT 265 



dollars, a month's wages, and he had promised 

 to get married — white-fashion — in another 

 month, and that would consume several times 

 five dollars. I did not offer to help him decide. 

 His Akawai marriage ceremony seemed not 

 without honor, and as for its sincerity — I had 

 seen the two together. But my lips were sealed. 

 I could not tell him that a recementing of the 

 ritual of his own tribe did not seem quite the 

 equal of a five-dollar suit of clothes. That 

 was a matter for individual decision. 



But tonight I think that we both had put all 

 our worries and sorrows far away, and I mem- 

 ory as well; and I felt sympathy in the quiet, 

 pliant gait which carried him so swiftly over the 

 sandy trail. I knew Nupee now for what he 

 was — the one for whom I am always on the look- 

 out, the exceptional one, the super-servant, 

 worthy of friendship as an equal. I had seen his 

 uncle and his cousins. They were Indians, noth- 

 ing more. Nupee had slipped into the place 

 left vacant for a time by Aladdin, and by Satan 

 and Shimosaka, by Drojak and Trujillo — all 

 exceptional, all faithful, all servants first and 

 then friends. I say " for a time," for all hoped, 

 and I think still hope with me, that we shall 



