March i6, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER 
GHAYA. 
A Romance of the South Seas. 
By H. de Vere Stacpoole. 
Synopsis : Macguari, an adventurer who has spent 
most of his life at sea, finds himself in Sydney on his beam ends. 
He has a wonderful story of gold hidden up a river in New 
Guinea and a chance acquaintance, Tillman, a sporting man, 
about town, fond of yach'.ing and racing, offers to introduce' him 
to a wealthy woolbroker , Ctirlewis, with a view to financing the 
scheme. Macquart also makes the acquaintance of Houghton, 
a well-educated Englishman out of a job, who has done a good 
deal of yachting in his time. Curlewis turns down the scheme, 
ihough Macquart tells his story in a most convincing manner. 
His silent partner Screed believes in it, and unbeknown to 
Curlewis, follows the three men, asks them to his house, and 
agrees to find the ship and the money, on seeing that Macquart's 
hidden treasure map agrees with an Admiralty chart. The 
ship is the yawl " Barracuda." Screed, on the morrow, takes 
Jhe three men over the " Barracuda." with which they are de- 
lighted. Coming away Macquart is overtaken by an old friend, 
one Captain Hull, who hails him as B — y Joe, and accuses 
him of many mean crimes. Macquart gives Captain Hull 
the slip, but unbeknown to him Hull gets in touch with Screed, 
and enlightens him on the real character of Macquart. Just as 
ihe " Barracuda " is about to sail Screed takes Hull on board 
and unexpectedly introduces him to Macquart as a member of 
the crew. The voyage passed with few adventures. Guided by 
Macquart the " Barracuda " arrived at New Guinea, passes 
the coral reefs successfully and anchors in the promised river 
which was in exact accordance with Macquart's chart. 
CHAPTER XIII {continued). 
Although it was so early in the morning, the heat of the 
sun was beginning to have its effect ; the bend of the river had 
partially cut off the breeze from them, and the river itself, 
scarcely stirred by the movement of the air, lay mirror bright 
and blinding between the emerald of the canes and the gloom 
of the forest. 
Four miles or so up from the lagoon they called a halt, 
and tied the boat to a tree root on the forest bank. 
" There's no use kilUng ourselves," said HuU. " This 
ain't no boat-race, and I'm crool stiff from sittin' for a month 
idle in that blessed old bath-tub of a Barracuda. Well, Mac, 
how are the indications goin' ? " 
" The village should be above the next bend," said 
Macquart. " It's on the left bank — that's this one, and it's 
fi.\ed in a clearing among the trees, so that vou can't mistake 
it." 
" You seem to have it all laid down in your head," said 
Hull. " One might swear you'd been here before and taken 
the indications, and yet you only had them laid down for you 
by another chap ; blest if I'd be able to hold aU that in my 
intellects ; but folk varies. 
They rested an hour, and then took to the oars again ; 
keeping close to the bank, they cleared the next vague bend 
of the broad flowing river, and a mile beyond, Macquart, 
standing up in the boat and shading his eyes, gave an ex- 
clamation of surprise. 
"That's the spot," said he, "by all indications; but 
there's a landing-stage — that's something new." 
It was the sound of the oars, perhaps, that brought to 
their view the first human figure sighted by them since leaving 
Sydney. 
• A man had come out on the landing-stage and was 
standing as if watching them, a white man dressed in dingy 
white drill and wearing a battered old five-dollar panama hat. 
Houghton, as they drew close, thought he had never seen 
a more villainous-looking individual. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
WlART. 
HE was unhealthily stout and of medium height ; he 
wore black side-whiskers of the mutton chop 
variety, and his fat white face had such a 
stamp of meanness and debauchery that even 
Hull, who was not an impressionable individual, felt, to use 
ills own words, " put off." 
" Hullo," said the stranger, as they came rubbing up to 
the rotten piles of the stage. " Where have you come from ? " 
" Down the river," said Hull, fastening the painter to a 
stake ; " and who might you be ? " 
" Oil, good Lord ! " said the other. " Ask me something 
else ; I've near forgotten my own name. Who might I be ? 
Why, I'm the trader here. Rubber getting, that's my business 
Wiart's my name. — Got any lush in that boat of yours ? 
A faint odour of gin and the manner and speech of the 
trader told their tale. 
" Not a drop," said Hull, scraml)ling on to the stage 
whilst the others followed liim. " We're a teetotal picnic. 
That your house ? " 
On the bank to the right hand of the stage stood a frame- 
wood house Umewashed as to the walls, beyond the house, and 
in a great clearing amongst the trees, lay a native village 
deserted except for a few goats and a stray dog or two. 
" Yes, that's my house," said Wiart. " Come up and 
have a drink ; that's the village, people are mostly at work- 
come 'long." 
He led them to the front of the house, which was situated 
away from the river, and then into the main room, a place 
barely furnished with native mats and cane chairs, and 
wearing such a look of neglect and sordidness and so littered 
and dirty that the soul of Houghton turned against it. 
An old beer crate, long emptied of its contents and 
filled with rubbish, stood in one corner. On the table stood 
a bottle of squareface, a tumbler of thick glass and a water- 
pitcher ; a rifle hung on the wall opposite the door and in 
another corner lay a pile of old newspapers many months old. 
There were chairs for all, and they sat down refusing the 
ofl'er of drink whilst Wiart, taking his seat at the table, 
poured himself out a stimulant. 
Then he rolled cigarettes and smoked them whilst they 
talked. 
Macquart did the questioning for Wiart, after the first 
few remarks, seemed to have lost all interest in the origin of 
the new comers, accepting them as though they were old 
acquaintances. 
" There used to be a Dyak village just here," said 
Macquart. 
" There is still," said Wiart, " but the Dyaks have nearly 
died out. Mostly Papuans now ; they do the rubber getting. 
There's not more than twenty Dyaks left ; rum lot they are, 
won't work ; there's an old woman, she's the chief of them, 
and her daughter, she's a peach, and ten or twelve chaps 
and their wives and children. Their village hes in the trees 
there to the left of the Papuan village — they fish mostly 
and hunt, and they're a holy terror to the other natives— 
Gosh, yes — they use blow pipes and go about with stabbing 
spears. And they take heads. You wouldn't beUeve it, but 
it's true. The young chaps before they get married go off 
and make a quarrel with some Papuan village somewhere 
near, and lay for one of the niggers, and kill him, and take 
his head. A Dyak girl won't look at a man unless he brings 
her a head. 
" How long has this trading station been here ? " asked 
Macquart. 
" O, seven years or so," replied Wiart, wiping his mouth 
with the back of his hand. " There was a chap called John- 
stone here before me ; he was here four years and died of 
something or another. He was frightfully thick with the 
Dyaks ; they used to talk to him in English ; the old woman's 
daughter isn't a full Dyak either, mixed blood ; she can talk 
a lot of EngHsh ; I've talked to her, told her not to tie her 
boat to my steps and she sauced me back ; that was after 
she refused to have any truck with me. D— d montybank 
of a nigger girl talking back at me like that." 
" What's her name ? " put in Houghton. 
" Chaya, same as the old woman ; she's the daughter, 
and the Lord knows who was her father ; but she's a peach, 
all the same, there's no denying that." 
Houghton glanced at Tillman. 
" Do you make much money at this here business ? " 
asked Hull. 
" A mug's game," repUed Wiart. " There's no money 
in it e.'ccept maybe for the Company, and they have dozens 
of posts hke this ; even then we're done out by the chaps that 
can use niggers as they ought to be used in the other rubber 
districts ; this is a Dutch company, a lot of — fools ! " 
His head began to droop, and his lower lip to turn down, 
his cigarette had gone out. Gin had him like a nurse and 
was lulling him to sleep ; he started awake again and begged 
pardon ; ht his cigarette, talked a bit more and then relapsed 
again, and during that relapse the others filed out softly into 
the clean air of the natural world. 
" He's been drinking hard, that chap," said Hull, " and 
he'll have the jim-jams if he's not careful. I don't ever want 
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