"That's a lie," contradicted the woman. "I thought he was, but he wasn't. I've just found out that it was Mr. Johnson's nigger girl he was after, and I've come up to tell him so. Ay, and she was sweet on him, too!"
"Impossible; ridiculous!"
"I tell you she was, sir!"
"Hold your tongue," cried Lee, ferociously. "Slade was in love with Zara. I believe he married her first and you afterwards. I have no doubt he murdered her to conceal that first marriage."
Johnson uttered an exclamation, and Mrs. Slade grew a trifle pale. "It ain't true," she said vehemently; "you know it ain't. It was this Bithiah girl, not Zara. Why did she give him one of her pearls if it wasn't? Look here!"
The woman fished a pearl out of a scrap of newspaper and held it up. "I found this in Slade's box!"
"A pearl?" cried Pharaoh, snatching it; "then this proves his guilt. Tera said to-day in court that she gave a pearl to Zara in exchange for her dress. I believe Slade killed Zara and took this pearl from her dead body!"
[CHAPTER XVIII]
RACHEL
While these things were taking place in Mr. Johnson's study, Tera, with Tolai in attendance, returned to Farmer Carwell's. As she had promised her guardian to accept his statement as sufficient for the moment, she made no attempt to question Tolai. The conversation was quite impersonal, and dealt generally with island matters. There were friends and relatives to be inquired after: all sorts of things to ask about--the new banana plantations, for instance; if the old priest of Lomangatini was still alive; and what sort of goods Buli was getting from the traders in return for his copra. To all these Tolai replied in the native tongue. In this grey island of the west, these dusky children of the underworld delighted to talk of their tropical home. The girl was sick with nostalgia.