Painfully, Jellybrand replied to him.
"There was a Man whom many accounted insane, but Him only do I serve and from Him do I take my authority. And He said: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'."
For a moment nobody moved.
Then Cyprian threw a stone shatteringly into the fire. It lay there unaffected by the ruin of hot ashes.
"These people are not Jews any more than we are. Why should any of us follow the letter of the Jewish Law?"
"Hear how He amplified it to the multitude upon the mountain who were not Jews," said the Padre, and a hectic spot burnt on each cheek-bone as he recited: "'Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.... But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, committeth adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.'"
Cyprian rose disturbingly, trampling the smouldering branches under his feet and kicking the stone back into the cool dewy forest.
"I am going to bed," he said. "I prefer logic to theology. And my logical conclusion is that anyone who applies the word 'sin' to these folks would be quite prepared to try a tiger before twelve good men and true, and hang him, for devouring a human intruder in his jungle."
They heard his footsteps mounting the wooden stairs of the bungalow blurred black against a starry horizon. From the distance stole the sound of breakers on the coral reefs; the children's hammocks were just visible under an ingenious canopy of mosquito-netting.
"And will you also go away?"