“Pirate’s Cove”, Casino Island.  Unloaded cargo of Cigars for “Shanghai Sadie’s”, and she said she’d gotten some mail recently I might be interested in. Looking over the letter, with an enclosed picture of a well dressed rabbit couple & their three happy looking children,  took me back some years ago to when I’d first laid eyes on Bruce Bounay.

I was moored wharf side at South Island when I saw a rabbit approaching wearing a white linen “tropics” suit, a wide Panama hat, and a monocle (accompanied by the well known native guide, Rimu Raga). He introduced himself as Mr. Bruce Bounay (of the Boston Bounays!) and was interested in chartering REDWOLF & me for a little moonlight sail to the backside of Main Island, “No questions asked”! Given that we’d be in for a hard beat until we rounded Plantation Point, I suggested we’d want to shove off pretty early in the morning if he wanted to see the west side of Main Island by evening, & maybe he’d be better off with a power launch or regular seaplane ride. He seemed taken aback for a moment, then grinned good humoredly & admitted he’d forgotten to consider wind direction & currents in making his plans, & how he’d sailed enough himself in small boat regattas to have known better! Still, for what he wanted, it was a sailboat or nothing, so he was still game if I’d accept the charter. Rimu Raga added that “He tell boss rabbit, this Capt. Gary be best damn sailorman in islands—can get you where no other sailorman can go. Plenty quick, plenty quiet!” I suppose I saw something in the overdressed lad that I liked, or maybe that I was about due to REDWOLF’s annual haul-out and bottom painting, so some extra money would come in handy. Anyway, I agreed to the trip & not to ask him any questions about it, & set a time for him to be there for early the next morning.

Just as he was about to leave, Bounay turned & said that he had to pick up a few items he’d need, & that Rimu had recommended a Chinese outfitter called Lau Phat. Would I recommend him too, or would there be somewhere better on the island for outfitting a jungle expedition? I chewed this over for a moment, while behind the kid’s back Rimu Raga was shaking his shaggy head “no” as well as he could without his employer catching him at it. Finally I just said, “There’s a saying in the South Seas about Chinese Merchantiles: If the Chanaman don’t have it, it’s not to be had!” That seemed to satisfy him, and with a relieved Rimu trotting behind him, off he went.

I spent the rest of the day getting the REDWOLF  in order & checking over my charts of the waters around the Main Island. About 3AM the next morning my passengers arrived. Rimu Raga was his usual self, but this time had a long machete in his loincloth, & a bamboo spear in his hand. Mr. Bounay was decked out as if for an African Safari in kahki bushjacket & jodhpur trousers, a pith helmet, high boots, & a large pistol in a Sam Brown belt & holster! After we’d set sail, he told me that he had to admit Rimu & I were right about Loa Phat’s having everything he needed. He even showed be the special “Jungle Bullets” he’d sold him along with the pistol “…special made with the bullets lodged well inside the brass casing where there’s no chance they can get wet!” Remembering I’d promised not to ask questions, I just took this all in & kept my muzzle shut.

When we’d reached the southeast point of Main Island, I cut into the tricky passage between the island & its outlying reefs, where the current flowing eastward off the Nimitz Sea would be less, & where the morning breeze flowing off the land would hopefully get me around to the west side of the island before the prevailing westwinds grew too hard in our faces. It seemed to have worked, as I dropped anchor in a small bay just before dark. Past the thin beach, the tropical jungle looked thick & uninviting, & smoke curled up from the crater of a smallish volcano a few miles distant. From somewhere in there, a faint beating of drums could be heard. Not the sort of place I’d pick for a shore leave…no rum or decent cheeseburgers for miles! Still, my two passengers got into a little inflatable raft they’d brought with them, & took off. I was to keep the ship where she was, & be ready to sail out fast when they got back.

My anchor seemed to be holding well, and everything else was properly shipshape, so I settled down to a quiet nap in the cockpit. Along about dawn I was woken up by the sounds of loud voices & gunshots! I soon saw my two passengers, along with a third, small figure, running out of the jungle towards the raft. As they were getting out into the bay, a large group of natives ran onto the beach, waving spears and warclubs! Reaching the water’s edge, they began shooting arrows towards the raft, though none seemed in any danger of hitting it by then. I saw Bounay snap off a few last shots in their direction, & then they were aside the REDWOLF! I helped the three aboard & set a course out of there & to the northeast around the island, then took a good look at my new passenger.

The newcomer was a native girl, also a rabbit, wearing some seashells around her neck, a short grass skirt around her hips, & nothing else unless you count the flower behind her ear. She drew back, her eyes wide & afraid when she saw me, but Bounay was quick to reassure her I was a friend & no one to be afraid of! I told Rimu to tell her the same thing…that I wasn’t going to do anything to upset her..and she calmed down & gave me a thankful little smile. Mr. Bounay introduced her as “Princess Sou-Sou”, and that she was shy and couldn’t speak much English. A few days ago, Rimu Raga had shown up at his Hotel with an old native woman whose innocent  young daughter was scheduled to be thrown into a volcano as a pagan sacrifice. As the authorities would not do anything to upset native customs on the island, she was looking for an adventurous young hero who could save her daughter! I complimented him on what looked to be a fine job of rescuing, & suggested he take Sou-Sou below & stay there with her, as I’m sure they both had a rough night of it. Rimu Raga could stay up top with me to help handle the sails.

An hour or so later, when a peek belowdecks showed both of the rabbits sound asleep, I closed the hatch & lit my pipe & gestured for Rimu to sit down beside me in the cockpit.

“OK, Rimmy. I promised your boss I wouldn’t ask him any questions about this little ride, but I didn’t say anything about you. Now this seems a bit more than your usual ‘Best Part of Island’ tour! And as for ‘Princess Sou-Sou’ down there who’s so ‘shy & can’t speak much English’; as I recall, the last time I saw Susie waiting on tables over at Shanghai Sadie’s, she was able to say ‘Hello, Sailor’ in at least seven languages!”

Rimu knew me better than to try & bluff his way past me, so he dropped the “primitive native” act and told me the true story. Apparently Susie’s mother had a large passel of daughters on her hands (rabbits tending towards large families) and there just weren’t enough native boy rabbits available to marry them off to. So she’d gotten the idea of finding off-island husbands for the rest of them. At first she thought having them land jobs in the resorts where they’d be able to meet eligible tourists would be enough, but found that the social barrier between resort staff & any tourists wealthy enough to vacation in the Spontoon Islands was too great to lead to any marriage proposals. So, she hit on the idea of arranging a little “South Seas Island Adventure” with the selected tourist in the role of Hero & one of her girls as Heroine, & then letting nature take its course! Her village was happy to go along, as it sounded like great fun as well as helping out one of their own. Rimu, who in his “native guide” business was in a position to pick out properly “adventurous” tourists, agreed to carry out his own important part, and the local Chinese merchant, Lau Phat (for a reasonable mark-up) would make sure the would-be heroes were properly outfitted—with nothing but blanks! Usually the “adventure” went overland through suitable jungle terrain, but this time the selected “hero”, a sailor of sorts himself, thought that approaching the “evil native village” by sea would be better to “take them by surprise” as well as insure a faster & safer getaway. There was no time for setting things up with someone in on the gag, so the best they could do was to steer Bounay over to me as being a sailor likely to keep his thoughts to himself, & hope for the best.

I knew Susie was a good girl, and Shanghai Sadie had a good reputation for keeping her girls out of trouble, so I figured that Mr. Bounay could do a lot worse in finding himself a girlfriend. Besides, the charter paid well & I didn’t have to do anything risky with my ship for it, so I assured Rimu Raga I saw no reason for me to be bothering his boss about matters maybe not being exactly as he thought they were. However, the next time one of the Rabbit Girls’ would-be “rescuers” wanted to take a boat ride, I’d appreciate knowing about it in advance!

                             G.