"How on earth do you know that?"
"Dem surf boat no lib for beach. Dem paddles no lib for veranda, Okky man no fit for boat boy. So Malla-Nulla Krooboy, dey boat boy for dem Smith in Malla-Nulla surf boat. Savvy?"
"I do clearly. But why the deuce didn't you tell me all this before?"
"Because," said the Krooboy simply, "I too plenty-much frightened o' dem ghosts before you burn 'em."
"I wonder," said Carter thoughtfully, "if I shall ever understand all the workings of the African mind." He went onto the veranda and peered out into the mists. A fleecy blanket covered the sea and blotted out the water, and all things of low elevation that floated thereon. In the distance, between him and the moon, the two black mastheads of an invisible steamer ploughed through the whiteness, but between him and it a whole fleet of canoes and surf boats might have been snugly tucked away from his sight.
Then a sudden pang of coldness came upon him, which made him button up his white drill coat, and step back into the mess-room and huddle into a chair.
"Fever lib," said White-Man's-Trouble looking at him critically.
"I'm in for my usual two days' touch," said Carter, with the listlessness of the malaria already creeping over him.
"You fit for quinine-palaver?"
"I suppose so."