Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 20, 1896 - Travels and excursion, Volume III

THE BEACH OF FALESA
after he was gone lit out for cover as lively as you
would want to see, and went the rest of the way
home under the bush, for I didn't trust him sixpence-
worth. One thing I saw, I had been ass enough to
give him warning, and that which I meant to do I
must do at once.
You would think I had had about enough excite-
ment for one morning, but there was another turn
waiting me. As soon as I got far enough round the
cape to see my house I made out there were strangers
there ; a little farther, and no doubt about it. There
was a couple of armed sentinels squatting at my
door. I could only suppose the trouble about Uma
must have come to a head, and the station been
seized. For aught I could think, Uma was taken
up already, and these armed men were waiting to do
the like with me.
However, as I came nearer, which I did at top
speed, I saw there was a third native sitting on the
verandah like a guest, and Uma was talking with
him like a hostess. Nearer still I made out it was
the big young chief, Maea, and that he was smiling
away and smoking. And what was he smoking?
None of your European cigarettes fit for a cat, not
even the genuine big, knock-me-down native article
that a fellow can really put in the time with if his
pipe is broke — but a cigar, and one of my Mexicans
at that, that I could swear to. At sight of this my
heart started beating, and I took a wild hope in my
head that the trouble was over, and Maea had come
round.
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