“‘A bit rocky!’ said I, feeling disgusted at such an insinuation from my comrade, who had lowered my prestige in that village by his drunken behaviour the night before. But I said nothing. I saw how the wind blew. And it says something for Deny that he was enough ashamed of himself to try and make out that I was as bad as he.
“I won’t go into all the details as to how we finally got to know where the girl was to be found. It will be sufficient to say, that Deny gave two natives plugs of tobacco and promised them another drink from his rum-flask if they’d lead us to the den where the girl resided. For I must tell you that we had found out by the merest chance that the girl did not live with her parent, but dwelt at the other end of the village, where the high chiefs resided.
“As the natives led us across the cleared village space, we wondered what the girl would think to see us so eager to seek her presence. At last we stood outside a thatched den, just on the outskirts of the village.
“‘She in there, Marama, savvy?’
“In a moment Deny and I made up our minds and entered the hut. The first thing that I did was to upset a cradle wherein lay two whitish-looking kiddies.
“‘Look like damned half-caste kids,’ said Deny, as we cursed and made a swift attempt to pick them up before the distracted mother appeared. They opened their reddish mouths like two young crows, and made terrific caw-like sounds. Deny put his hand over one’s mouth!
“Suddenly we felt a draught, the tappa-curtain was flung aside, the white girl stood before us, her eyes blazing as we both held the kids! She really did look like a wild girl, as she stood there before us with her mouth open, in déshabillé, an old torn sulu dangling to her thighs. For a moment I felt embarrassed as I looked at her bare bosom. Then I swiftly realized that she did not understand the novelty of the sight,—a girl of our race dressed like that, showing so much of what should have been her secret toilet, to say the least.
“Perhaps she saw the romantic light in Deny’s eyes as she stared up at our flushed faces. Anyway, she cooled down, and asked us into her homestead.
“Then she looked up at us in a startled way, and said, ‘You be killer; go way! go way!’
“That was the first thing she said, as we got out of earshot of the sly-looking old hags who were leaning against the palms smoking cigarettes.