The Floating Island (21 page)

“Are they not right?” asked
Frascolin.

“From the point of view of the
proprietors, yes! From the hygienic point of view, no! Since they have become
more decently clothed, the Nuka-Hivans and other islanders have undoubtedly
lost their native vigour, and also their natural cheerfulness. They get weary,
and their health suffers. Formerly they knew nothing of bronchitis, pneumonia,
phthisis
—
”

“And since they have not gone
stark naked they have caught colds,” remarked Pinchinat.

“As you say! And that has been an
important cause of the decay of the race.”

“From which I conclude,” said his
Highness, “that Adam and Eve did not sneeze until the day they wore shirts and
pants, after being chased from the terrestrial Paradise
—
and that has given us, their
degenerate and responsible children, diseases of the chest.”

“It seems to us,” remarked Yvernès,
“that the women are not as good-looking as the men in this archipelago.”

“As in the others,” replied Cyrus
Bikerstaff, “and yet here perhaps you see the most perfect type of the
Oceanians. But is not that a law of nature common to the races which approach
the savage state? Is it not also so in the animal Kingdom, where the fauna,
from the point of view of physical beauty, shows us almost invariably the males
superior to the females?”

“Well,” exclaimed Pinchinat, “we
must come to the Antipodes to make observations of that kind. Our lovely
Parisians would never admit it.”

There are only two classes in the
Nuka-Hiva population, and they are subject to the law of the taboo. This law
was invented by the strong against the weak, by the rich against the poor, so
as to protect their privileges and their goods. The taboo has white for its
colour, and tabooed objects, sacred places, funereal monuments, the houses of
the chiefs, the lower class are not allowed to touch. Hence a tabooed class, to
which belong the priests, the sorcerers or touas, the akarkis or civil chiefs,
and a non-tabooed class, to which are relegated the greater part of the women
and the poorer people. Besides, not only is it not allowed to lift the hand
against an object protected by the taboo, but it is even forbidden to look at
it.

“And this rule,” said Cyrus
Bikerstaff, “is so strict in the Marquesas, as in Paumotu and the Society
Islands, that I would advise you never to infringe it.”

“You understand, my brave Zorn,”
said Frascolin. “Keep a watch on your hands and a watch on your eyes.”

The violoncellist was content to
shrug his shoulders like a man whom these things in no way interested.

On the 5th of September, Floating
Island left its moorings at Tacoahe. It left to the east the island of Hua-Huna
(Kahuga), the most easterly of the first group, of which they only perceived
the distant verdant heights, and which has no beach, its circumference being
formed of steep cliffs. It need hardly be mentioned that in passing along these
islands Floating Island reduced its speed, for such a mass driven at a full
rate would produce a sort of tide that would hurl small craft on to the shore
and inundate the coast. A few miles further was Uapou, of remarkable aspect,
for it bristles with basaltic peaks. Two creeks, one named Possession Bay and
the other Bon Accueil Bay, indicate that their names had been given by
Frenchmen. It was there in fact that Captain Marchand hoisted the flag of
France.

Beyond Ethel Simcoe entered the
regions of the second group, standing towards Hiva-Oa, Dominica, according to
its Spanish designation. The longest of the archipelago, of volcanic origin, it
measures fifty-six miles round. Its cliffs could be distinctly observed, cut in
blackish rock, and the cascades which fall from the central hills covered with
rich vegetation.

A strait three miles in width
separates this island from Taou-Ata. As Floating Island could not find space
enough to pass, it had to round Taou-Ata by the west, where the Bay of Madre de
Dios
—
Resolution
Bay of Cook
—
received
the first European vessels. This island is less easy of access than its rival
Hiva-Oa. Perhaps then, war being more difficult between them, the inhabitants
could not come into touch with one another, and decimate themselves with their
accustomed energy.

After sighting to the eastward
Motane, a sterile island, without shelter, without inhabitants, the Commodore
moved on towards Fatu-Hiva. This in truth is but an enormous rock, where the
birds of the tropical zone swarm, a sort of sugar-loaf measuring three miles in
circumference.

Such was the third islet in the
south-east, of which the Milliardites lost sight in the afternoon of the 9th of
September. In conformity with its itinerary, Floating Island then steered
south-west for the Paumotu Archipelago, and passed through the centre of that
group.

The weather continued favourable,
this month of September corresponding to that of March in the northern
hemisphere.

In the morning of the 11th of
September the launch from Larboard Harbour picked up one of the floating buoys,
to which was attached one of the cables from Madeleine Bay. The end of this
copper wire, of which a sheath of gutta-percha assured the complete insulation,
was connected with the instruments in the observatory, and telephonic
communication established with the American coast.

The council of administration of
the Floating Island Company was consulted concerning the shipwrecked crew of
the Malay ketch. Would they authorize the governor to give them a passage to
the Fijis, whither they could return to their country quickly and cheaply?

The reply was favourable.
Floating Island even received permission to cruise to the New Hebrides, so as
to land the crew there, if the notables of Milliard City considered that it
would not be inconvenient to do so.

Cyrus Bikerstaff conveyed this
reply to Captain Sarol, who in the name of his companions begged the Governor
to transmit their thanks to the administrators at Madeleine Bay.

Really
the quartette would have been guilty of revolting ingratitude to Calistus
Munbar if they had not thanked him for having, somewhat treacherously perhaps,
brought them on to Floating Island. What mattered the means employed by the
superintendent to make them the welcome, petted, and handsomely paid guests of
Milliard City! Sebastien Zorn never ceased from sulking, for you can never
change a hedgehog with his prickly spines into a cat with soft fur. But Yvernès,
Pinchinat, and Frascolin could not dream of a more delicious existence. An
excursion with neither danger nor fatigue across these wonderful waters of the
Pacific. Taking no part in the rivalry between the two camps, accepted as the
island’s soul of song, welcomed always by the Tankerdons and the chiefs of the
Larboard section, as they were by the Coverleys and most distinguished families
of the Starboard section, treated with honour by the Governor and his
assistants at the town hall, by Commodore Simcoe and his officers at the
observatory, by Colonel Stewart and his militia, giving their services at the
temple and at the ceremonies in the cathedral, finding good friends in both
ports, in the workshops, among the functionaries and servants of the State,
could our compatriots, we ask any reasonable person, regret the time when they
were travelling from city to city of the Federal Republic, and who is the man
who would be sufficiently his own enemy not to envy them?

“You will kiss my hands!” the
superintendent had told them at their first interview.

And if they had not done it, if
they would never do it, it was because it is never necessary to kiss a
masculine hand.

One day Athanase Dorémus, most
fortunate of mortals as he was, said to them, “I have been two years on
Floating Island, and I am sorry it is not to be sixty, if I could be certain
that in sixty years I shall still be here.”

“Won’t you have too much of it,”
asked Pinchinat, “if you are to become a centenarian?”

“Ah! Monsieur Pinchinat, be sure
that I shall attain the century! Why do you want people to die on Floating
Island?”

“Because they die everywhere.”

“Not here, sir, no more than they
do in the celestial paradise.”

What could be said to that?
However, there were from time to time a few ill-advised people who took upon
themselves to die even in this enchanted island. And then the steamers took
away their remains to the distant cemetery at Madeleine Bay. Decidedly it is
written that we cannot be completely happy in this world below.

But at the same time there were a
few black spots on the horizon. It must even be admitted that these black spots
were gradually taking the form of electrified clouds, which before long would
bring storm and tempest. Disquieting was this regrettable rivalry between the
Tankerdons and the Coverleys
—
a
rivalry which was approaching an acute stage. Their partisans made common cause
with them. Were the two sections to fight each other some day? Was Milliard
City threatened with troubles, outbreaks, revolutions? Would the council of
administration have an arm energetic enough, and Governor Cyrus Bikerstaff have
a hand firm enough to keep the peace between these Capulets and Montagues of
Floating Island? We can hardly say. Everything is possible with rivals whose
self-esteem is apparently boundless.

Since the scene at the crossing
of the line the two millionaires had been avowed enemies. Their friends
supported them. All communication had ceased between the two sections. When
they saw each other from afar they avoided each other, and if they met, what an
exchange of menacing gestures and fierce looks! A rumour had spread that the
old merchant of Chicago and a few of the Larboardites were going to found a
trading business, that they were asking the company for permission to build a
huge establishment, that they were going to import a hundred thousand pigs, and
that they would slaughter them and salt them and sell them in the different
archipelagoes of the Pacific.

After that it can easily be
believed that the house of the Tankerdons and the house of the Coverleys were
two powder magazines. It wanted but a spark to blow them up, and the island
with them. Do not forget that the island was afloat above the deepest depths.
It is true that this explosion would be only an explosion in a figurative
sense, but the consequences would probably be that the notables would clear
out. That proceeding would compromise the future and the financial position of
the Floating Island Company.

All this was full of menacing complications,
if not of actual catastrophes. And who knows if the latter were not to be
feared?

In fact, if the authorities of
the island had been less asleep in deceptive security, they might have done
well to keep a watch on Captain Sarol and his Malays. Not that these people had
said anything suspicious, being but slightly loquacious, living apart, keeping
themselves clear of all connections, rejoicing in a state of happiness they
would regret in their savage New Hebrides. Were there any grounds for suspecting
them? Yes and no. But a more watchful observer would have noticed that they
were exploring every part of Floating Island, that they were constantly making
notes of Milliard City, the position of its avenues, the situation of its
palaces and its houses, as if they were making an exact plan of it. They were
met with in the park and the country. They were frequently either at Larboard
Harbour or Starboard Harbour, observing the arrival and departure of the ships.
They were seen to take long walks exploring the coast, where the custom-house
officers were on duty day and night, and visiting the batteries at the bow and
stern of the island. After all, what could be more natural? These out-of-work
Malays could not employ their time better than in such walks, and what was
there suspicious in that?

The Commodore gradually moved
towards the southwest at reduced speed. Yvernès, as if he had been transformed
since he had become a Floating Islander, abandoned himself to the charm of the
voyage. So did Pinchinat and Frascolin. What delightful hours were passed at
the casino during the fortnightly concerts and the evenings when the crowd
struggled for admission at prices that could only be paid in gold. Every
morning, thanks to the newspapers of Miliard City, provided with fresh news by
the cables and with facts a few days old by the steamers, they were informed of
everything of interest that was happening in both continents in society,
science, arts, and politics. And from the last point of view it was noticeable
that the English press of all parties never ceased to complain about the
existence of this moving island which had chosen the Pacific as the theatre of
its excursions. But such recriminations were treated with contempt at Floating
Island as in Madeleine Bay.

Let us not forget to mention that
for some weeks now Sebastien Zorn and his comrades had been reading under the
heading of foreign intelligence that their disappearance had been mentioned by
the American journals. The celebrated Quartette Party, so well received in the
States of the Union, so expected by those who had not yet had the pleasure of
listening to them, could not vanish without a good deal of fuss being made
about their disappearance. San Diego had not seen them on the appointed date,
and San Diego had raised a cry of alarm. Inquiries had been made, and it had
been ascertained that the French artistes were on Floating Island after being
carried off from the coast of Lower California. As they had not protested
against their capture, there had been no exchange of diplomatic notes between
the Company and the Federal Republic. When it pleased the quartette to reappear
on the scene of their successes they would be welcome.

It goes without saying that the
two violins and the alto had imposed silence on the violoncello, who would not
have been sorry to be the cause of a declaration of war which would have
brought about a contest between the new continent and the Pearl of the Pacific.