looked on silently; Kebisu and the Mamooses leaned eagerly forward. Jakara spoke in a droning voice, mapping the bark and explaining his plan clearly and in detail. The night wore on, until Kebisu laughed. The spell was broken, for when Kebisu laughed the hills heard it, and, if he was in a house, the walls boomed. His great hands thumped Jakara’s shoulders, his fine black eyes were rolling in unholy glee. The Mamooses joined in congratulation, while Maros pulled Jakara’s hair in bovine play. Jakara, flushed with the praise and the creation of a plan which was excellent in every detail, smiled up at C’Zarcke, and immediately remembered. Every man present, except C’Zarcke and Jakara, arose and quietly left the Zogo-house. Jakara uneasily realized that C’Zarcke had read his mind, and that a secret sign of the Bomai-Malu had dismissed the others.
“You have something to ask of me, something to give,” insinuated C’Zarcke softly.
Jakara stared, and then leaned forward impressively: “I should waste words in talk with you, C’Zarcke, who can read my very thoughts. I will just say that I crave something of you, and in return I will give you my greatest treasure. I will bring it now, and then you can judge. Afterwards, I pray you to grant me my wish.”
He hurried from the Zogo-house, away through the chilly Wongai grove, then up a hill-side path toward his Lookout. As he climbed, the revelry from the villages fringing the island shores came singing up to him – most of the villages of Mer were right on the sea-shore. Many pandanus torches twinkled deep down among the coco-palms. As he climbed higher still, the voices became indistinct and were lost as the path wound through the dark jungle where flashed and vanished and flashed again blue and yellow diamonds within the gloom. Out on the forest patches the night was open and beautiful: the moon, and clusters of God’s lovely stars: the air sweet and cool and whispering over the grassy slopes: the sea dark and peaceful.
Jakara walked more slowly, for he was about to part with the companion of years. It had shown him the ships of his countrymen; he had drawn a comradeship through the distance until they dimmed away. He remembered the agonized hours of hope while a ship drew slowly near, only to glide by. Several had actually anchored, but the hand of the all seeing C’Zarcke had reached between him and rescue. This sea-battered telescope had been his chief friend. Countless hours had he spent here with his mind abstracted from the island below. Of these passing ships, two had sailed so close that he had actually distinguished their white crew – white men, white men, white men! Jakara sighed; for nothing of value is gained without sacrifice.
C’Zarcke was waiting in the shadows outside the Zogo-house. And Jakara spoke: “C’Zarcke, you know the stars in their courses, you study the heavens, continually seeking guidance of the weather as affecting the fishing-season and the crops. This, my present, will help you. It will show you wonders invisible to our naked eyes-wonders on the sea and upon the land. Much more, this is the eye of a god which will show you worlds in the highest skies.”
He trained the telescope on a cloud whose edges were brightening with molten light.
“There, C’Zarcke, watch the moon as it peeps from behind that cloud. Hold the telescope so. No, this way! Why, I believe you are trembling! Ah, that is right! Now move these ‘tubes,’ as we call them, in or out, like this, until your eye sees perfectly.”
The moon peeped, then rose from the clouds all burnished silver. Majestically it glided up across the sky. Still C’Zarcke gazed on, and Jakara grew impatient. Besides, his fear had given place to a satisfying certainty. He spoke. He spoke again! C’Zarcke took not the slightest notice. Jakara spoke loudly, then with a curious thrill touched one of the big muscles. C’Zarcke might have been a mummy, except that his arm felt warm and firm. Jakara touched the telescope. Instantly he was thrown to the ground, with C’Zarcke’s weight crushing him and the dreadful face glaring into his. Jakara was a powerful man, but the chief priest of the Bomai-Malu simply twisted Jakara’s windpipe; he snarled like a bear as Jakara struggled to gouge his eyes.
Suddenly C’Zarcke’s face changed into something pathetically human, he whimpered like a child, and, running into the Zogo-house, laid Jakara upon the mats. He touched the Au-gud, and a long blue flame shot above the fainting man. Jakara struggled to consciousness with his head pillowed upon C’Zarcke’s arm. Big eyes gazed into his with almost a mother’s anxiety for her child.
“Forgive, Jakara,” he whispered, urgently. “I thought you were going to take the wonderful thing away. But it is mine – and are all its powers intact?” There was a pitiful questioning in his eyes.
Jakara nodded weakly. C’Zarcke sighed, and then smiled warmly. “I was a fool, Jakara, but I knew not what I did. Tell me your wish; it is already granted.”
A great fear slipped from Jakara. He looked up and managed to whisper: “I – want – Eyes of the Sea.” C’Zarcke gazed astounded, then his big head went back and he laughed until the Zogo-house vibrated and the Wongai-trees echoed back the voice and threw it down the little hill-sides. On the beaches below the dancing people halted, amazed. It was the only time in its history that Mer had heard C’Zarcke laugh! He shook Jakara’s shoulders as a playing child shakes a doll; then, sobered: “She is yours,” he said with a smile. “Take her! If you want her to wife, I will marry you now.”
Jakara sat up, coughing but smiling. He grasped C’Zarcke’s hands. “Thanks with all my heart, C’Zarcke! But I must woo her first. We are both Lamars, you know, and it is our custom. Afterwards –”
“Well,” protested C’Zarcke, “surely you want more than that! Pick out any girl, any number of girls! They are yours for the asking. Or if you have seen any maid among our enemies, name her, if it costs the lives of a hundred men.”
Jakara shook his head vigorously. “There is only one that I want, C’Zarcke; just Eyes of the Sea. I have a notion that she will keep me busy, too.”
C’Zarcke was disappointed. Gravely he spoke: “You have given me a wondrous thing, Jakara. You do not understand how I have dreamed of such a thing. I had thought that such knowledge was only the property of the spirit world. And I was partly right, for you are a Lamar, though I know you are no spirit. Your wish is granted. Take Eyes of the Sea whenever you wish, and no man dare say you nay. Can you not ask for something more worthy of this great gift?”
Jakara’s brain worked quickly. He hesitated, then whispered breathlessly: “Give me my freedom, C’Zarcke. When I have won the girl, give me a loaded canoe and let me sail to the first passing Lamar ship.” C’Zarcke’s lips opened to say “Yes.” He thought soberly for a moment, and then said with growing emphasis: “It is granted, Jakara, on one condition, and you can easily grant me that, for you have the knowledge. Tell me, Jakara,” he leaned forward and whispered with a terrible earnestness, “tell me of the Maker of the world! Does He live beyond the stars? Who is He? What are we for? Why does He let us live? What is He going to make of us? To what does the spirit-life lead us? And shall we ever know all? What power made us? Why?”
Jakara stared in incredulous astonishment. C’Zarcke watched him with blazing eyes. Striving for time, Jakara’s wits whispered that he must be very careful. “C’Zarcke,’ he said slowly, “you have asked me questions that the wisest men of the Lamars have striven for thousands of years to answer. I am not a learned man, and I can only repeat what our wise men tell us. To explain would take many nights of talk. Let me go now, and I will think over all these things.”
C’Zarcke stood erect, disappointed. “But, Jakara,” he pleaded, “you know who made the world. Tell me!”
“God,” said Jakara, as if unaware of himself.
Instantly C’Zarcke’s eyes blazed. “God! Who is God? What is He? Where is he?” And Jakara gazed into a face quivering in its lust for knowledge.
