There were the bananas and the palms. The corral fence was so overgrown that, like the wickiup, it attracted no attention till one was very close to it.
They stepped out of the launch and moored her to the pier. Mr. Hadley noticed that Pearson’s face was gray again. He was losing his nerve. It seemed to him as if the air in this narrow slit in the hills were suffocating him.
“I’ll take the things out,” he said to his companion.
“All right,” said Mr. Hadley. His voice was quiet and even, and, turning, he walked toward the hill.
Pearson stepped back into the launch, cursing himself under his breath for his own lack of self-control, for he was trembling; but taking the things out and carrying them up past the pier steadied him a little.
Then he started to follow Mr. Hadley, and was glancing about wondering if there was any particular choice of spots to pitch camp in, when something on the hilltop caught his eyes. He stopped and stared with his mouth open. Out from among the bushes into an open space came one, two, three, four, five persons, and some of them were children! A sudden weakness came over him. He dropped where he was, and for a moment everything went whirling black. When he came to himself he was sitting on the ground, his knees clasped in his arms, as he rocked back and forth, repeating over and over his wife’s name, “Rose, Rose, Rose, it’s them! O Rose, it’s them! I ain’t killed ’em, Rose! Rose!”
SUDDENLY CAME A CHORUS OF CLEAR YOUNG VOICES
Mr. Hadley had scanned the hillside to no avail as he started to walk toward it, and then he noticed what seemed to be a path leading to a mass of brilliant bloom beyond. He followed in the path. The tracks seemed to be those of deer.
But when he came to the blossoms he was surprised. There were nasturtiums and poppies, a wild riot of them beside a little spring, or shallow, scooped-out well, that was walled with rocks except at one place where stepping-stones led down. And there, sitting half buried in the clear water, shaded by overhanging bloom, was a two-quart Mason jar about half full of oysters.