They waited
inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol goes by. And on the 23rd,
when the mail had left for Sydney, when the eyes of the world were
withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a period of weeks into her
original island-obscurity, Becker opened his guns. The policy was too
cunning to seem dignified; it gave to conduct which would otherwise have
seemed bold and even brutally straightforward, the appearance of a timid
ambuscade; and helped to shake men's reliance on the word of Germany. On
the day named, an ultimatum reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had
retired months before to avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars
and an _ifo_, or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of the
Emperor's birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be "paid quickly"
for thefts from German plantations in the course of the last four years.
"It is my opinion that there is nothing just or correct in Samoa while
you are at the head of the government," concluded Becker. "I shall be at
Afenga in the morning of to-morrow, Wednesday, at 11 A.M." The blow fell
on Laupepa (in his own expression) "out of the bush"; the dilatory fellow
had seen things hang over so long, he had perhaps begun to suppose they
might hang over for ever; and here was ruin at the door.
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