Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/110

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98
JOAN OF THE ISLAND

called: "You pig of a Yankee! I'll get even with you for this!"

Still muttering curses, he walked down the path to the beach, and climbed aboard his boat. Keith watched until the Portuguese pushed off, and then he entered the bungalow where Chester was busy again with his interrupted breakfast.

"Come along before the coffee goes cold," Chester said lightly. "Never let a little thing like that interfere with your meals in the South Seas. Why, man, you look worried about something. Forget it, and sit down."

Keith sat down, but he was far from forgetting what had happened.

"I am worried," he said. "Moniz knows that when I came to Tao Tao I swam here."

"Well, what of it?"

"Why, nothing much, but for the life of me I don't see how he found it out."

Keith did not say so, but his chief concern was how much the Portuguese had learnt, and not how he had learnt it.

"Why shouldn't he?' Chester asked, helping himself to another fried plantain. "There's no secret about it. Every nigger on the place must know it, and niggers will talk."

"Well, for instance, which niggers?" Keith said. "Think a minute."

"There are two of my divers he collared. I've