One day, when Dick had taken the dinghy fishing away beyond the cape, he returned elate and triumphant.
“Katafa!” shouted he as he brought the boat up to the bank. “The big fish have come!”
The girl, lying in the shade of the trees by the house, sprang to her feet. The vision of Karolin flashed before her eyes, destroying everything for a moment; then she came running to the bank.
“Where are they?” cried she.
“There,” replied Dick, pointing to the boat, where a brace of big bream lay, red and silver in the sunlight.
It was like a blow between the eyes.
She sat crouched on the bank, watching him with a dark look on her face as he hauled them on shore. Nan had fooled her nicely, but her animosity was not against Nan but Dick, and next day, when he went off gaily with a single fish spear to the reef, he found that the point had been blunted, the fishing lines began to break without apparent reason, and a lobster hung up one night was gone in the morning.
If he had chewed gum, his gum would have gone into the lagoon after the lobster. It was the same old game she had played with Kearney, and, like Kearney, Dick suspected nothing of what it all meant—or what it portended.
CHAPTER XVII
THE FIGHT ON THE BEACH