emed glad that there was no doubt-smacked his lips over it and went on. "Obeah-that's bla

ings were foreign to the clergyman: he was uneasy about being in the Arequipa's smoke

he protested. "You sp

hild less than three years old. It's frequently done. They string it up by its heels, cut

offic

loi-the p

was a grizzly vividness in the drummer's description. It was well toward morning before Simpson grasped again his usual certainty of purpose and grew able to

ship steamed toward it as through the mists of creation's third morning, and all good things seemed possible. Thus had Simpson, reared in an unfriendly land, imagined it, for beneath the dour Puritanism that had lapped him in its armour there still stirred the power of wonder and surprise that has so often

son?" said Bunsen, the purser, p

cause it was a port of his desire his voi

t into the sea, "i

the smells of the sea and the bush like the flick of a snake's tail. Simpson covered his eyes for a moment, and immediately the vision of the island as he had seen it at dawn swam in his mind. But he could not keep his eyes forever shut-there was the necessity of living and of doing his work in the world to be re

ry prospec

y man i

e. He said good-bye to the officers, painfully conscious that they we

inable French. He repeated it-

ered in the same language. "I am a

f-necked pride, sprang up and took one step forward, his fist raised. The boy dropped the oars and writhed to starboard, his neck askew at

on's hand unclinched and s

. "Pauvre gar?on-did you th

sidled aft like a crab, his eye

aimed row the sou

led back in the stern-sheets, personating dignity. A white man was doing his work-it was splendi

sy oars, tried to forget him. It was hot-hotter than it had seemed at first; sweat ran into his eyes and he grew a little dizzy. The quarantine launch with its load of uniforms, among which the purser's white was conspicuous, passed, giving

e abreast of a

aid the

stern around. The cripple, hideously agile, scrambled out

he top of a stove, strode

hore! You--" A square, heavy boot shot out from beneath his cassock into the boy's stomach. "Cochon!" said the priest, turning to Simps

slowly as thought there was magic in it, magic

gled for expression on his black mask; his eyes took in the hig

rd of forei

it. Not by th

archbishop

wide as they had been when he kicked the boatman. "I

d not till that moment been conscious th

ou?" h

ly open, in the manner of his race. Then, with the unreasoned impetuousness of a charging bull, he turne

peated Simpson dull

mpson, still dazed, followed him into the Grand Rue-a street of smells and piled filth, where gorged buzzards, reeking of the tomb, flapped upward under his nose from the garbage and offal of their feast. Simpson paused for a moment at the market-stalls, where negroes of all shades looked out at him in a silence that seemed

e called.

ns rooted and scratched among the bayonets of yucca that clustered without regularity on both sides of the path. The house had some pretensions; there were two

alled the

ess, dressed in a blue-striped Mother Hubbard, came

as all s

her and dropped the

she sai

e seemed to himself but the tool of circumstance. It did occur to him, t

e was re?nacting the scenes of the last half hour. When he had finished, the negress, not so hostile as she had been but by no means friendly, turned to Simpson and

. C'est vo

sides, was not unclean, and a savoury smell came from the stew-pot on the ramshackle stove. In one of the bars of sunl

. He loved children. "He is handsom

hem of her dress, laughing. But she did not laugh. "Neither spot

coincidence, he told himself. The woman was looking down at the child, her eyes softer th

m the pot and peered into it

floor. The cripple placed a handful of knives and spoons on the table and three

he woman, without looki

slab of meat, which she dropped on a plate, using a callous thumb to disengage it from the tines. She covered it with gravy and began to eat without furt

hich he knew to be un-Christian, rendered him reluctant to dip into the common pot or to eat on equal terms with these people. Besides, the sun and his amazing introduction to

o the hot lip of the pot, bu

and she did not raise her eyes from her plate. The ch

d favoured him incredibly thus far, and if he failed to follow the guidance that had been vouchsafed him he would prove himself but an unworthy vessel. He took up the long fork-it chattered against the pot as he seized it-and, overcoming a momentary and inexplicable nausea, impaled the first piece of meat that rolled to the

nd his companions became no more than a middle-aged negress in a turban, a black boy pitifully deformed, and a beautiful child. He looked at his

ad noticed that the islanders understood legi

ate and became suddenly dourly communicative. "But I d

many gues

u' has forgott

What has he t

him, and the propriétaire is a good Cat

her teeth with it, both elbows on the table and her eyes on Sim

ckly, for reluctance and distrust were r

over her shoulder a

r to move, saw that she had no intention

one corner, a packing-box table and a decrepit chair in another. Like the kitchen it was

y the week?

t gou

l feed me fo

en gou

ice also-less than four dollars gold-attracted him, and he could doubtless buy some furniture in the town. Moreover,

ed the remains from her plate into a tin pai

e steamer," said Simp

h you," the neg

ate and Simpson's, put on his battered straw ha

e door and was standing there, holding on to the door-post. Inside