"The price,"says he;"the price!You do not know the price?""It is for that I am asking you,"returned Keawe."But why are you so much concerned?Is there anything wrong about the price?""It has dropped a great deal in value since your time,Mr.Keawe,"said the young man stammering.
"Well,well,I shall have the less to pay for it,"says Keawe.
"How much did it cost you?"
The young man was as white as a sheet."Two cents,"said he.
"What?"cried Keawe,"two cents?Why,then,you can only sell it for one.And he who buys it -"The words died upon Keawe's tongue;he who bought it could never sell it again,the bottle and the bottle imp must abide with him until he died,and when he died must carry him to the red end of hell.
The young man of Beritania Street fell upon his knees."For God's sake buy it!"he cried."You can have all my fortune in the bargain.I was mad when I bought it at that price.I had embezzled money at my store;I was lost else;I must have gone to jail.""Poor creature,"said Keawe,"you would risk your soul upon so desperate an adventure,and to avoid the proper punishment of your own disgrace;and you think I could hesitate with love in front of me.Give me the bottle,and the change which I make sure you have all ready.Here is a five-cent piece."It was as Keawe supposed;the young man had the change ready in a drawer;the bottle changed hands,and Keawe's fingers were no sooner clasped upon the stalk than he had breathed his wish to be a clean man.And,sure enough,when he got home to his room,and stripped himself before a glass,his flesh was whole like an infant's.And here was the strange thing:he had no sooner seen this miracle,than his mind was changed within him,and he cared naught for the Chinese Evil,and little enough for Kokua;and had but the one thought,that here he was bound to the bottle imp for time and for eternity,and had no better hope but to be a cinder for ever in the flames of hell.Away ahead of him he saw them blaze with his mind's eye,and his soul shrank,and darkness fell upon the light.
When Keawe came to himself a little,he was aware it was the night when the band played at the hotel.Thither he went,because he feared to be alone;and there,among happy faces,walked to and fro,and heard the tunes go up and down,and saw Berger beat the measure,and all the while he heard the flames crackle,and saw the red fire burning in the bottomless pit.Of a sudden the band played HIKI-AO-AO;that was a song that he had sung with Kokua,and at the strain courage returned to him.
"It is done now,"he thought,"and once more let me take the good along with the evil."So it befell that he returned to Hawaii by the first steamer,and as soon as it could be managed he was wedded to Kokua,and carried her up the mountain side to the Bright House.
Now it was so with these two,that when they were together,Keawe's heart was stilled;but so soon as he was alone he fell into a brooding horror,and heard the flames crackle,and saw the red fire bum in the bottomless pit.The girl,indeed,had come to him wholly;her heart leapt in her side at sight of him,her hand clung to his;and she was so fashioned from the hair upon her head to the nails upon her toes that none could see her without joy.She was pleasant in her nature.She had the good word always.Full of song she was,and went to and fro in the Bright House,the brightest thing in its three storeys,carolling like the birds.
And Keawe beheld and heard her with delight,and then must shrink upon one side,and weep and groan to think upon the price that he had paid for her;and then he must dry his eyes,and wash his face,and go and sit with her on the broad balconies,joining in her songs,and,with a sick spirit,answering her smiles.
There came a day when her feet began to be heavy and her songs more rare;and now it was not Keawe only that would weep apart,but each would sunder from the other and sit in opposite balconies with the whole width of the Bright House betwixt.Keawe was so sunk in his despair,he scarce observed the change,and was only glad he had more hours to sit alone and brood upon his destiny,and was not so frequently condemned to pull a smiling face on a sick heart.But one day,coming softly through the house,he heard the sound of a child sobbing,and there was Kokua rolling her face upon the balcony floor,and weeping like the lost.
"You do well to weep in this house,Kokua,"he said."And yet Iwould give the head off my body that you (at least)might have been happy.""Happy!"she cried."Keawe,when you lived alone in your Bright House,you were the word of the island for a happy man;laughter and song were in your mouth,and your face was as bright as the sunrise.Then you wedded poor Kokua;and the good God knows what is amiss in her -but from that day you have not smiled.Oh!"she cried,"what ails me?I thought I was pretty,and I knew I loved him.What ails me that I throw this cloud upon my husband?""Poor Kokua,"said Keawe.He sat down by her side,and sought to take her hand;but that she plucked away."Poor Kokua,"he said,again."My poor child -my pretty.And I had thought all this while to spare you!Well,you shall know all.Then,at least,you will pity poor Keawe;then you will understand how much he loved you in the past -that he dared hell for your possession -and how much he loves you still (the poor condemned one),that he can yet call up a smile when he beholds you."With that,he told her all,even from the beginning.
"You have done this for me?"she cried "Ah,well,then what do Icare!"-and she clasped and wept upon him.
