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But soon Efaw Kotee reappeared, this time with another man, and Smilax became excited. "Look," he whispered. "Him name Jess. Him bust Smilax head!" It was the fellow who had drawn back when Tommy and Monsieur went to the gambling rooms, but now without his uniform he seemed coarser and more cruel. "That makes ten, all told," I whispered. "Whole lot," was the black's only comment.
Quite off in the background were two small bungalows whose air denoted quality, but the roof of one had been fitted with a skylight which gave me the impression that here Efaw Kotee worked his trade at counterfeiting. Still beyond this was a tower rising above the low trees, perhaps intended for a lighthouse, although there had been no light burning when we came.
"Then Efaw Kotee want to know why kill guard on mainland." "That's so. But, Smilax, suppose we hide the guards?" He thought a moment over this, but finally shook his head. "No good. Then Efaw Kotee say guard run off with Lady, so he come back 'cross prairie same as up and down shore. That make our chance ve'y bad. No. They find men dead, then hunt quick through forest up beach; maybe down beach.
Do you know," she looked at me frankly, "I've never forgiven him for letting them kill my mother! Throughout all of my childhood I used to hold indignation meetings with myself and consign him to every imaginable punishment both for that, and running away without avenging her." She was quiet then. This news of the South American republic showed what an accomplished liar old Efaw Kotee could be.
Whatever else Efaw Kotee had been to her, at least he stood in her memory of father; and however irrevocably she may have turned against him, the very fact that she found it necessary to do so was a grievous disappointment. All that had passed. Strangers had come, and in a few days she was being borne to the other half of the world. To her mother! what did she know of a mother?
Their crafty scheme lay ready to be sprung when Efaw Kotee we will call him that had to kidnap the princess in self-defense.
"You no master of my Lady or me, any more. We go to Great Spirit any time now." A chill ran over me. What, in God's name, did she mean? Was Sylvia dying? Again Smilax touched my arm to caution prudence. Efaw Kotee was, I think, trying to control himself, yet his long arms and veiny hands were swinging, pendulum-like, to and fro across his body.
Running to the nearest cabin we hastily searched it, and ran to the next, and in this way came finally to the old chief's bungalow. Here we halted, as if some horrible magic had turned us to stone. Efaw Kotee, naked to the waist, a few dried smears of blood around his mouth, was there to meet us.
The old fellow sprang around and stared at him, seeming to have grown hollow and gray. "Oh, nothing," Jess grinned. "Just a little idea I had worth keeping in mind, though. It might be healthy for you to see she can't run off, that's all." Efaw Kotee looked at the captain suspiciously, and said: "I'll guarantee she doesn't run off and your other little ideas aren't pleasant.
In an adjoining room we laid Efaw Kotee upon his own bed. The sheet that Tommy got out of a press to spread over him was, I noticed, of beautiful linen, and I felt softened toward the uncouth frame which, in this wilderness, had still demanded the refinements of life.