east and north, but the place we stood on was shut in by a black
wood of teak and blue ebony, and, save for the rustling of the great
leaves, we couldn't hear a sound. As for the path through the
plantation, that was covered with long, rank grass, and some pit or
other--I don't know what it was--gave a pungent, heavy odour which
didn't suit a seaman's lungs. I was set against the place from the
first--didn't like it, and told the lad as much.

"Dolly," said I, "the sooner we have a ship's planking under our feet
again the better for our constitutions. If there's a house in this
locality, the ladder is the road to it, unless one of Peter Bligh's
countrymen built it. Put your best foot foremost, my lad. We'll dine
early if we don't lunch late."

With this I struck the path through the wood and went straight on, not
listening to the lad's chatter nor making any myself. The shade was
welcome enough; there were pretty places for those that had eyes to see
them--waterfalls splashing down from the moss-grown rocks above; little
pools, dark and wonderfully blue; here and there a bit of green, which
might have been the lawn of a country house. But of dwelling or of
people I saw nothing, and to what the boy fancied that he saw I paid no
heed.

"You're dreaming it, young gentleman," said I, "for look now, who
should be afraid of two unarmed seamen, and why should any honest man
be ashamed to show his face? If there are men peeping behind the trees,
well, let them peep, and good luck go with them. It doesn't trouble me,
and I don't suppose it will take your appetite away. You aren't afraid
of them, surely?"

It was an unkind thing to have said, and the lad rightly turned upon
me.

"Why, sir," cried he, "I would never be afraid while I was with you."

"Proudly put, my boy, and a compliment I won't forget. What sort of men
did you say that they were?"

"One was old, with a goat's beard. He wore ragged breeches and a
seaman's blouse. I saw him directly we entered the wood. The others
were up in the hills above the waterfall. They carried rifles."

"Come, come, Dolly," exclaimed I. "Put them in Prussian blue at once,
and fly the German ensign. Rifles in a place like this--and two unarmed
strangers against them! Why should the rogues hide their beautiful
faces? If they would know all about us, what's to prevent them? Do we
look like highwaymen or honest fellows? Be sure, my lad, that the young
lady I am going to see wouldn't