Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/71

Rh Hitherto she had rarely interfered with his plans, especially so far as business was concerned. His judgment, except during recent months when he had been drinking, had always seemed to her admirable. But now she saw him in danger of grasping at a shadow and losing the substance. Moreover, there appeared to be a very real risk to life and limb in grasping at the shadow which had hypnotized him.

"I saw you looking at the damage the storm had done to the trees," the girl said. "Now be reasonable. We both agree, don't we, that the plantation will look like a wilderness in no time after last night's havoc, if some pretty hard work isn't put in on it?"

"It looks as though there had been a good deal of damage, certainly," Chester agreed reluctantly; but plantation work was not uppermost in his thoughts just then.

"Well," Joan persisted, with cold logic, "another storm on the top of that last night would just about reduce Tao Tao to a desert unless we get things straight again before it comes. And in that case you must realize we should be ruined, and we could also reckon that we had wasted all these years of work."

"'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,'" observed Chester, smiling and waving his hand toward his sister.