They are at the bottom of Molokai Channel, if
not, long since, they have become floating dust of slime, or,
builded into the bodies of the coral creatures dead and gone, are
builded into the coral reef itself. Of men I am the one living who
saw the bones of Kahekili sink into the Molokai Channel."
In the pause that followed, wherein Hardman Pool was deep sunk in
meditation, Kumuhana licked his dry lips many times. At the last
he broke silence:
"The twelve dollars, Kanaka Oolea, for the jackass and the second-
hand saddle and bridle?"
"The twelve dollars would be thine," Pool responded, passing to the
ancient one six dollars and a half, "save that I have in my stable
junk the very bridle and saddle for you which I shall give you.
These six dollars and a half will buy you the perfectly suitable
jackass of the pake" (Chinese) "at Kokako who told me only
yesterday that such was the price."
They sat on, Pool meditating, conning over and over to himself the
Maori death-chant he had heard, and especially the line, "So dusk
of eve came on," finding in it an intense satisfaction of beauty;
Kumuhana licking his lips and tokening that he waited for something
more.
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