The Three Sirens Read Online Free PDF Page B

use of the word “culture” that first put my mind on anthropology, and your request of a decade ago. However, my conscious mind was still on Mr. Trevor.
    “It is my job,” I said.
    “Have you considered what your job will lead to?” Courtney asked. “Your associates in Canberra will send surveyors. They will approve of the terrain. Your friends will then seek permission of an outside government that owns Polynesian colonies or holds mandates. They will appeal to France, Great Britain, New Zealand, the United States, and other nations who possess islands and bases in the Pacific. What will be the result of their inquiries? Consternation. If no outside power is even aware that this minor island exists, how can they claim it? No discoverer ever waded ashore. I shall have to fight the cause of these people in some international court, to prove their independence. Suppose I even win my case? All will still be lost, for the Sirens would have become a romantic public cause. Its present society could not be preserved. And suppose I lose my case, and some foreign government is awarded claim to this place? The French, let us say. What will happen then? The French administrators and petty bureaucrats will come, followed by your business friends with their freighters. They will unload their bulldozers and prefabricated buildings and drunken laborers. And when the field is ready, the commercial airplanes will fly in and leave daily with their jabbering, gawking tourists. The island will be a public terminal. What do you suppose will happen to the Sirens tribe?”
    “They will no longer be savages. They will become civilized, enjoy improvement and progress, become part of the living world. Is that so bad?”
    Courtney turned to Moreturi. “You heard the Professor, my friend. Is that so bad?”
    “We will not permit it,” said Moreturi in perfect English.
    I fear that I gaped at him.
    “You see, they are not savages,” said Courtney. “In fact, they have more to offer your so-called civilization than you have to offer them. But if your exploiters and commercial drummers appear, they are lost to us forever. Why is it so important for you to destroy them, Professor? What are you getting out of it? Are you a part of that Canberra company?”
    “No. I am merely a merchant, and my vocation has made me a student of the South Seas. I have affection for all these people, and their ancestral ways. Nevertheless, I know they cannot continue to hide from progress.”
    “Then progress is your motive? Or is it money?”
    “A man must live, Mr. Courtney.”
    “Yes,” Courtney said, slowly, “I suppose that is so. You must have your pieces of silver, in the name of progress, and a most remarkable, a most wonderful tiny culture must die.”
    I could no longer repress my curiosity. “You keep praising these people. What is so remarkable about them?”
    “Their mode of life,” said Courtney. “It is like none on earth. Compared to the way you and I have lived, this life is near perfect.”
    “I’d like to see for myself,” I said. “Show me the village.”
    Moreturi turned to Courtney. “Paoti Wright will not allow it.”
    Courtney agreed, and addressed me. “It is impossible. I cannot speak for your safety if I take you there. You must accept my word that the preservation of these people is more important than any money you may earn from that syndicate. You must go back with Captain Rasmussen and keep your silence.”
    “Suppose I do go back now,” I said. “How do you know you can trust me? What if I speak of this to Canberra—or to others?”
    Courtney was quiet a moment. “I cannot say you will suffer more than a bad conscience. Yet, I cannot guarantee that alone. You have met the Captain’s copilot, Richard Hapai? He is one of us, one of the Sirens. If you break the tribal tabu, ruin his people, then it is possible that he, or one of his kin, may one day hunt you out, and kill you. This is not a threat. I am in no