Brahms takes charge of the _Flibberty_, and Sparrowhawk of
the _Emily_. And we start at one o'clock.'
"My word, it was a tough job lying there in the covering boat. I never
thought doing nothing could be such hard work. We stopped about fifty
fathoms off, and watched the other boat go in. It was so dark under the
mangroves we couldn't see a thing of it. D'ye know that little, monkey-
looking nigger, Sheldon, on the _Flibberty_--the cook, I mean? Well, he
was cabin-boy twenty years ago on the _Scottish Chiefs_, and after she
was cut off he was a slave there at Poonga-Poonga. And Miss Lackland had
discovered the fact. So he was the guide. She gave him half a case of
tobacco for that night's work--"
"And scared him fit to die before she could get him to come along,"
Sparrowhawk observed.
"Well, I never saw anything so black as the mangroves. I stared at them
till my eyes were ready to burst. And then I'd look at the stars, and
listen to the surf sighing along the reef. And there was a dog that
barked. Remember that dog, Sparrowhawk? The brute nearly gave me heart-
failure when he first began. After a while he stopped--wasn't barking at
the landing party at all; and then the silence was harder than ever, and
the mangroves grew blacker, and it was all I could do to keep from
calling out to Curtis in there in the landing boat, just to make sure
that I wasn't the only white man left alive.
Pages:
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211