"What do I care about the cost?" he exclaimed in French. "I was afraid and I paid. Me, a good Catholic, I paid that these pigs might serve their devil! But it has gone on long, and now I stop. This dirty Bat will come between me and my employer; he leaves me out. Well, let it be so!" He paused and spread out his hand with a theatrical gesture that Marston thought was meant for the negroes in the canoe. "Now I fight. My trade is my blood. I will kill this Bat!"
Father Sebastian shook his head, but Don Felix turned to Wyndham and resumed in a defiant voice. "You will send back the packages? If not, you must get another agent."
"Very well," agreed Wyndham. "You can tell the boys to unload the goods you don't like."
He gave Don Felix a quick glance and Marston wondered whether he expected him to hesitate, but the mulatto went back to the hatch and gave his orders resolutely. Marston remembered that another lot of fiber packages had been stowed at the bottom of the hold before the agent arrived and were now probably out of sight. Wyndham however, said nothing about these and filled Father Sebastian's glass.
"Our friend is superstitious," he remarked. "You know something about Obeah, and Voodoo magic. I expect the men who teach the cult use cunning tricks. But how much is trickery?"
"Ah," said Father Sebastian, "Who can tell? There are powers that rule the dark. You know it is permitted when you have lived in the gloom. Perhaps Don Felix is superstitious, but he takes a hard path. It is the right path; I think he is brave." Then he paused and smiled. "I am old and have lived in this country long. There is much about Voodoo and other things that puzzles me; but this I know. They who walk in the light need fear no lasting hurt."
"Sometimes one's light gets dim," said Marston.
"That is when we stray into the shadow and our eyes are dull. The light burns steadily; it will not go out."
Don Felix came back from the hatch and stopped for dinner. When he and Father Sebastian had gone, Marston asked Wyndham: "What about the other lot of goods that was already in the hold?"
"Well?" said Wyndham. "Do you see any object for our returning the stuff? For that matter, I don't know to whom it ought to be returned."