lawn"
with the tip of our shoe or he'd sing out double-quick: "Keep off that
lawn, d'you hear!" And then ecstatically: "Isn't she a be-au-ti-ful
English lawn?" I strongly suspected that each time the drinks were on
Jose he had discovered a fresh blade of grass.
Jose's
wife was fond of jewelry. She wore so many rings that you had to guess
the fingers. She was pretty in a healthy animal sort of way and loved
to be flattered. However, the grub she provided drove me from the
"Spotted Deer" in less than a week. I fled to the "Diver's Rest."
As
soon as Barbados Jim, the handy man, had set down my trunks in the
corridor, I made haste to unpack and discard my superfluous junk. There
was a tidy heap of it too. The thermometer showed 116 in the shade, the
sweat poured from me, and the sand flies made unpacking a deuce of a
job. Stiff with stooping, I raised myself painfully and looked about. A
long way down the corridor my eyes caught the glance of a pair of
gimlet eyes above some scarlet cretonne curtains.
As
I moved the eyes followed me. Were these the eyes of friend or foe, of
man or beast or bird? I had to know. I picked up the first two things
that came to hand, a much-battered hat—a wide-brimmed Port Said
straw—and a briar so rank that no sailor would have put his lips to it
for a wager. These I held up and beckoned to the Eyes. Slowly the
curtains parted and there stepped out, to my surprise—what was it? the
black polished onyx figure of a Bhinghi female in her own glossy naked
skin!
I
blushed for her and half turned the other way to save her modesty. But
she, unmindful of anything but the proffered gifts, drew timidly nearer
by degrees, just as a squirrel in the park might, to seize a tempting
nut from a friendly man, but even more warily.
Then
the straw hat was seized and clapped slantwise on her woolly head and
the fearsome briar was thrust straightway between her jaws. For one
moment she stood there for me to admire, then grinned, turned and fled.
Next day I hung out my shingle. "Pearl Buyer" was painted
