It
seemed to me as if a very strong cord at the rear of my belt were
jerking me back toward the inglorious safety of camp. Fortunately
there came to me a vision of the three umbrellas and of Mr. Tubbs
heroically exposing his devoted bosom to non-existent perils, and I
resolved that the superior smiles with which I had greeted Aunt
Jane's recital should not rise up to shame me now. I fingered my
automatic and marched on up the hill, trying not to gasp when a
leaf rustled or a cocoanut dropped in the woods.
There was little undergrowth between the crowding trunks of the
cocoa-palms. Far overhead their fronds mingled in a green thatch,
through which a soft light filtered down. Here and there the close
ranks of the palms were broken by an outcropping of rock, glaring
up hot and sunbeaten at a distant patch of the sky. The air of the
forest was still and languid, its heat tempered like that of a room
with drawn blinds.
I gained the summit of the ridge, and stood upon a bare rock
platform, scantily sheltered by a few trees, large shrubs rather,
with a smooth waxy leaf of vivid green. On the left rose the great
mass of the peak. From far above among its crags a beautiful foamy
waterfall came hurtling down. Before me the ground fell away to
the level of the low plateau, or mesa, as we say in California,
which made up the greater part of the island.
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