The Bahaman’s eyes widened.
“Lordy!” he ejaculated. “You don’ is tellin’ me true, Chief?”
Sam’s childlike simplicity and his utter innocence were irresistible, and I burst into a roar of laughter.
“I was just speaking figuratively,” I explained. “But honestly, Sam, wouldn’t you like to sail up alongside a ship, leap over her rails with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other, and murder her crew and take her treasure?”
Sam shook his broad-hatted, kinky head decidedly.
“No-o, sir, Chief!” he declared. “Ah’s a man o’ peace, Ah is, an’ Ah’s no desire for to do nothin’ that’s like what yo’ says. An’ ah’s tellin’ yo’ true, Chief, if Ah sees a man wif a gun or pistol approachin’ me, Ah don’ mek to remain to argify. No, sir! Ah jus’ says to mah feet, ‘The Lord put you on mah laigs for to run, an’ now you obey the Lord.’ ”
Truly, Red Lithgow’s blood had turned to water in his descendant’s veins!
But now St. John was close aboard, and there were other matters to engage attention besides jollying good-natured, harmless old Sam. Rugged and bold the coast-line loomed above the beating [[66]]surf. Behind the beetling cliffs and ragged, needle-pointed rocks of the shore rose the rich green hills and mountains, and, like glimpses of fairyland between the outjutting fangs of rock, were cream-white beaches rimmed with turquoise, shaded with nodding palms, and backed by luscious green.
Almost like a continuation of St. Thomas seemed the island, with only the narrow sound three miles in width separating its western tip from its sister isle; while, beyond, Mingo, Grass, Lovango, and Congo cays looked from the distance like low-lying connecting land.
But if the two islands were separated by a thousand miles of sea, there could not be a greater difference in their appearance. St. Thomas—dry, barren, denuded of trees—reminds one of a gray-haired man oppressed with the weight of years; it is as though sere autumn made its abode there. But St. John—fresh, green, forest-clad—is perpetual youth, everlasting summer epitomized in sunshine, sparkling streams, and luxuriant verdure.