P. S.
Have a heart
and do not burn this board
because smooth ones are
HARD TO GET.
He laughed aloud, for the paint was perfectly fresh. She had flown home and painted this thing since she left him.
But the words were not all. Above them was a sketch of a humming-bird with wings outspread. Yet she could not possibly have seen into the thicket where he and the little jewel had winked at each other. But now he thought of it, he knew what her motions reminded him of. The Indians had named her the humming-bird, and here was a challenge to come and find her in her own nest.
Chapter 32. Germanium
He would certainly accept the challenge, but first he must try to make himself presentable. He shaved. He washed his hand as well as he could, though he could not remove quite all the soil from the minute valleys of that peninsula. He put a fresh glove on Pat, remembering how utterly unaware of Maisie’s ugly clamp she had seemed. He combed his hair and knelt on the rock to inspect the reflection in liquid diamond, but could see no good reason why a girl should like his looks.
Then he rowed over to the American shore, and landed near a great rock against which every swell from the steamers broke and fled away. It was of the same texture as the island, elegant acid stuff with a grain almost as smooth as that of obsidian. He changed Maisie for Pat and climbed up on the rock.