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90 that only on certain parts of the Tao Tao were the trees showing a passable promise of good returns, but Trent had turned a deaf ear to all such protestations, misjudging Taleile's judgment and expecting nature to perform miracles. Chester's knowledge of planting, apart from what he had picked up on Tao Tao, was limited to what he had learnt on an Englishman's place at Loruna, three hundred miles to the west of Tao Tao. Having absorbed a rudimentary idea of the work in a year spent at Loruna, he had taken this island of his own and sunk the remainder of his capital in the enterprise. At first youthful enthusiasm had carried him a long way toward making something of a success of it. That there were very decided limitations to the possibilities of planting on Tao Tao, however, was painfully apparent to Keith.

"What's the matter, you disgruntled old heathen," he said when Taleile's pessimism was beginning to irritate him. "What for you say him no good, eh?"

The black poked a stick into the shallow hole where an uprooted two-year-old tree had stood, and showed that there were but a few inches of soil.

"Him plenty soon blow down again," he said. "Him plenty soon die."

"Well, stick him up and let him die if he wants to," snapped Keith sharply.

It was not Chester Trent's troubles on the subject