Page:The Gates of Morning - Henry De Vere Stacpoole.pdf/208

 go any distance from Karolin without Katafa, and he (Aioma) greatly daring, wished to go a long way, even as far as Marua, to see what had happened to the reef.

There you have the whole tangle and you can see how the curiosity and the ambition had grown together whilst lying side by side in his mind.

There was also a scheme.

Katafa would not object to Taori going out in the schooner a little way, and Taori would not mind leaving Katafa for a little time. And, thought the cunning Aioma, once we are out beyond there I will tell him what is in my mind about the gulls and the reef and he will want to go and see; it is not far and the colour of the current will lead us as it always has led the canoes, and the light of Karolin in the sky (ayamasla) will lead us back; besides, I will take with me Le Moan, who can find her way without eyes. Cooking this scheme in his mind he said nothing for some days till one evening, getting Taori and Katafa alone with him, he broached the idea of taking the ayat out a little way and to his surprise there was no resistance to it on the part of Katafa.

She had seen Dick's face light up at the suggestion. His trouble on account of the lost toys had affected her as though the loss had been her own, and she would say no word to mar this new pleasure, she would even overcome her hatred of the schooner and go with him, if he asked her.

But he did not ask her, he knew her dislike of the