46One day. as the couple was making plans for their home.
Talafaivn spied a big fo' ui tree just outside the royal enclo!'mre
and implored her husband to have it cut down. Telea only shrugged
his shoulders and said they would leave it. The house was built.
a strong fence to safeguard them all was erected around it and
outside the fence grew the fo'ui tree.
Telea spent entire days and nights in amorous dalliance with
his lovely bride but after a time. he succumbed to a common Tongan
urge. the desire to go fishing. Had he been less concerned about
collecting bait and seeing that his lines were in order, he might
have noticed a stranger on the beach. As it was. he and his men
sailed off over the midnight sea with many a j est about the "big
ones" they were going to land.
The stranger was one Lepuha. "a handsome man of Vava'u."
Like the glorified stagecoach robbers of Australia and America.
"the handsome men" were above the law and had no concern with
morals. They shocked the public and the public loved them. What
they stole was not money but beautiful women and Lepuha, since
first he had heard of Talafaiva had known she was one conquest he
must make. To pursue that end, he had. as a matter of fact. been
some time on Euakafa and had made repeated attempts to see the
queen. The guards who watched at the gate of the royal compound
turned him away as if he had been a dog. Like a dog, he ran about
to see what he could find to help him.
He found it. On the night Telea went fishing, Lepuha
lingered on the beach only long enough to see the King's canoe
over the horizon. Then he turned and dodging around to the side