At last, although the white men hated the very sound of the words, they began to talk more and more of “the government” and “regulation.” Then finally came engineers who looked shrewdly not at one part of the River, but at the whole. They measured snow and rain, and the depth of streams. They surveyed; they calculated with many figures how high the levees must be and how wide the channels between. Gradually even the fiercest fighters among the white men came to see that the River (which was always the whole River) was too great for any man or any company of men. Only the Whole People could hope to match the Whole River. So, after many years of disaster, the white men began to live in a truce with the River.

The terms of the truce are these. Around the cities and around the best lands shall be the highest levees, and in times of flood men may even pile sand-bags to raise these levees higher. Around other lands shall be lower levees; these lands can be farmed in ordinary years, but in time of high flood they must be overflow-basins and their levees shall not be raised. Finally, broad stretches of land shall have no levees at all; into these great overflow basins the River can pour, exhausting its fury, and through them as by-passes it can reach the Bay. The land of these by-passes may serve as pasture of sheep and cattle which can be driven behind the levees in time of flood.

It is a truce, but no real peace. Year by year, the white men work upon their levees; also they build dams in the mountains to cut off the full burst of the River’s power. Year by year, too, the River frets openly and in secret against the levees, and sometimes still it pours forth over its ancient flood-plain.

FIFTH DAY

1

To the crew of the Byzantion, clinging to their battered ship, feeling the wind take her and the waves strike like solid masses—to that crew, hour by hour, the storm had been an all-engulfing reality. The Eureka had come and stood by, and the very sight and company of her had cheered them, what with the wind and sea beginning to fall also. Things were patched up now. The old tub was sound and no leaks, the jury rudder-controls were working, the Greek’s shoulder was back in place, and they were heading south for Honolulu and repairs. Best of all, the storm had blown itself out, and there was only a stiff cold breeze from the north and a choppy, tossing sea.

To the crew the storm had been simple and real, and now was gone. But actually, from hour to hour, what was that storm?