But Davis, undaunted and deaf to all protests, drove him steadily back amongst the trees and then made him sit down to hear reason.
“That chap would wipe the deck with you,” said Davis. “There’s more ways of killing a dog than by kicking him. What we’ve got to do is lay low and wait our chance, get him ashore off his ship, and leave the rest to me.”
“Well, if I can get my fists on him, that’s all I want,” said Harman. “I don’t want more than that.”
“I do,” replied the other. “I want those pearls. Now skip down to the house and fetch up all the grub you can find. We’ve got to keep hid till things develop. That’s our strong point: him not knowing we’re here.”
“And do you mean to say the Kanakas won’t tell him?” asked Harman.
“Well, suppose they do, suppose they say there are two white men on the island, how’s he to know it’s us? The Kanakas don’t know our names or where we’ve come from. Now, skip!”
Harman went off, and returned laden. They made their camp under a tree by a spring, covering the food over with bread-fruit leaves to keep the robber crabs from getting at it, then they settled themselves down to watch and listen.
They heard the anchor go down, and Harman, who climbed the tree to a point where a view of the harbour could be glimpsed between the leaves, reported that the Douro was at anchor two cable-lengths from the shore and swinging to the tide, that the canoes were all round her, and that a chap in white was leaning over her rail.
“Looks like Clayton,” said he. “Now he’s left the rail, and they’re swinging out a boat. He’s comin’ ashore. Now he’s in the boat. Yes, that’s him sure enough; know him anywhere by the way he carries himself, crawled over into the boat like a cat, he did. Yes, it’s him; I can see his face now, all but his b’iled gooseberry eyes. Comin’ ashore, are you? Well, I’ll be there to meet you.”
He came swarming down only to be received into the arms of Davis, that is to say, Reason.