A Friend in Deed

Paddling a dugout canoe in the Solomon Sea, two near-naked islanders working for the Allies were carrying a message behind enemy lines to the town of Gizo. Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana had been ordered not to stop, but when they spotted a barge wrecked on a reef, they couldn't resist the temptation to scavenge for clothing. Their disobedient detour might fairly be said to have changed the course of history. According to his family, the ailing Gasa has grown weary of retelling his story. But sitting on the floor of a shaded verandah at his neat home on Kauvi Island,...