was twelve miles long and eight miles wide,
with the shape of an oyster. The coconut plantation covered the
west side. From the white beach the palms ran in serried rows
quarter of a mile inland, then began a jungle of bamboo, gum-tree,
sandalwood, plantain, huge fern, and choking grasses. The south-east
end of the island was hillocky, with volcanic subsoil. There was
plenty of sweet water.

The settlement was on the middle west coast. The stores, the drying
bins, McClintock's bungalows and the native huts sprawled around an
exquisite landlocked lagoon. One could enter and leave by proa, but
nothing with a keel could cross the coral gate. The island had
evidently grown round this lagoon, approached it gradually from the
volcanic upheaval--an island of coral and lava.

There were groves of cultivated guava, orange, lemon, and
pomegranate. The oranges were of the Syrian variety, small but
filled with scarlet honey. This fruit was McClintock's particular
pride. He had brought the shrubs down from Syria, and, strangely
enough, they had prospered.

"Unless you have eaten a Syrian orange," he was always saying, "you
have only a rudimentary idea of what an orange is."

The lemons had enormously thick skins and were only mildly
acidulous--sweet lemons, they were called; and one found them
delicious by dipping the slices in sugar.

But there was an abiding serpent in this Eden. McClintock had
brought from Penang three mangosteen evergreens; and, wonders of
wonders, they had thrived--as trees. But not once in these ten
years had they borne blossom or fruit. The soil was identical, the
climate; still, they would not bear the Olympian fruit, with its
purple-lined jacket and its snow-white pulp. One might have said
that these trees grieved for their native soil; and, grieving,
refused to bear.

Of animal life, there was nothing left but monkeys and wild pig,
the latter having been domesticated. Of course there were goats.
There's an animal! He thrives in all zones, upon all manner of
food. He may not be able to eat tin-cans, but he tries to. The
island was snake-free.

There were all varieties of bird-life known in these latitudes,
from the bird of paradise down to the tiny scarlet-beaked
love-birds. There were always parrots and parrakeets screaming in
the fruit groves.

The bungalows and stores were built of heavy bamboo and gum-wood;
sprawly, one-storied affairs; for the typhoon was no stranger in
these waters. Deep