Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/101

Rh There was something so unexpected about this that they both burst out laughing. "Let him go on in peace for the present," Joan said. "If it is true that he is only finding seeds he isn't doing much harm. By the way, do you believe that?"

"I think for once he spoke the truth," Keith said. "He's like a tiger that's tasted blood, though, and he wants as much more as he can get. If he'd found anything big he wouldn't have been so desperately anxious to let us in on it."

For a while Keith forgot Moniz and the pearls. The problem of putting the plantation in order was quite sufficient to keep him busy for the moment, and the blacks needed firm handling. More than a thousand young trees on the western side of the island had been uprooted in the storm, and many of these could be saved with judicious handling. Taleile, however, was no optimist. He was willing enough to see that the orders of the new "white marster" were carried out, but he was woefully lacking in enthusiasm. "Him no good," he would say from time to time, shaking his head, and turning his eyes to Keith as if appealing to him for confirmation. Taleile's experience on other plantations had made him an expert of sorts. He had many times tried to show Chester Trent that much of the land was not worth the trouble of working. He knew well enough