“They send-a me back,” Tony said stubbornly. “I stay right-a here!”
“To starve? You’re hungry now, aren’t you?”
“Sure. But in Italy I hungry many times-a too.”
“Tony, we’ll talk about this later,” Penny sighed. “Right now, I want to learn what’s going on here at the island. Know anything about it?”
“Sure,” the boy grinned. “Know plenty.”
“Then suppose you tell me, Tony.”
“I show-a you,” the boy offered.
Avoiding the leafy tunnel, he led Penny in a half circle through another section of dense thicket.
Soon he motioned for her to drop on her knees.
The sickish odor rising through the trees now was very disagreeable again.