Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/252

240 attack. It was from his brain that the suggestion came of battering down the blank wall with heavy logs. And when the heavy crashing of beam on wood reached his ears he knew that an hour of reckoning between him and the planter of Tao Tao had arrived.

His orders had been to kill both men if necessary, but he had declared that anyone who injured the girl was to forfeit his own life, while those who took her captive were to be specially rewarded. Loot was Moniz's chief object—loot, including the pearls which he knew well enough must be hidden away somewhere in the bungalow. If there was a good haul, so much the better. If there were not many they would at least recompense him for the trouble he was taking while passing the island. He had no particular desire to cause Trent's death, but there seemed little alternative. Keith he hoped would be killed anyway.

"Marster Moniz!" It was the voice of Isa near him in the darkness.

"Well, what name?" the Portuguese snapped.

"Um girl she plenty sick," the black announced.

"Sick eh! Carramba! If they have killed her! What about the two white fella?"

"Two white fella plenty ready for kai kai," Isa answered with a ready lie. The shots from the house had ceased, and if the white men had not already been killed Isa knew they could not face