Limekiller!

Jack suggested it might have been a babboon; adding that, locally, this meant a howler-monkey. “But I thought they were noctoreal, John,” she said. John was so impressed by this combination of nocturnal and arboreal, so well worthy of Lewis Carroll, that he did not at once reply. Then he did (noting, also, that she had evidently, for all her to-him-funny speechwavs, done some homework on the local scene; and why not? showed good sense: She was not one of the tourists who asked, innocently, “How about we take a gander at the French and Dutch colonies whiles we’re down here?” and who had to be reminded that this was British Hidalgo, not British Guiana, and that, hence, there were no “French and Dutch colonies,” not for leagues and leagues. Sometimes the penny dropped at once; sometimes the maps had to be shown; sometimes people were very disappointed, God knows why.).

“There aren’t any regular settlements along this part of the coast, Mrs. - Ella. But even when there aren't, here or elsewhere, that doesn’t mean that nobody is ever around — hey, see that sting-ray?”

It lazed along right under the surface, it would not come and rub its back against the boat, neither did it display any alarm; maybe when you’re a sting-ray, you don’t have to; Question, Where does a 3,000-lb. gorilla sit, Answer, Anywhere it wants to (Second Joe Miller, XI, 6–7). The Duckersons conjointly exclaimed Well they Never! and of course they never, not in Cow Pat, Kansas, or Moose Mammaries, Manitoba; that was what they were paying for, wasn’t it? — to see things they had never seen before?

“Well usn’t that unteresting!” she took her last long look at the sting-rav, now lazily tarrying behind; turned back, binoculars in hands. “And what do they do, then, these people who might be over on the shore there, if there’s no regular settlements?”

Sometimes (he explained) they might be hunting game — he had to add game: the word “hunting,” alone, meant scouting out for mahogany trees — sometimes they actually might be scouting out for mahogany trees. although in a different way. “Sometimes the mahoganv logs break loose from the rafts or tugs. And they drift. they drift pretty far, sometimes. And the logging companies, well, anyway the main one, Tropical Hardwoods, they have their own boats, hm, probably only one boat I guess, which goes nosing up and down the coast looking for lost logs. And if someone else finds a log before the Company finds it, it’s usually not too hard to cut the Company’s mark off it. Then, well, maybe they sell the whole stick on the black market, you might call it, or maybe they cut it up and sell the planks or the parts, and maybe even, sometimes, thev make stuff out of it. And sell that."

The Duckersons nodded, neither slvlv amused nor shocked. “I guess then if that was one of them, why, no, he wouldn't be very interested to stick around in plain sight where we could see him. I wouldn’t even know how to make no report, but I guess Take No Chances might be the propriate motto.”

Rum Bogue Cave, a Limekiller property, had not delayed them for long en route, though Ella had said it was lovely. Its golden sands were really tan, what there w.ere of them, to wit: not much. It had a few coconut palms and a few hog-plums trees. Rum Bogue Cave was lovely; Ella was right. And when Ella said, simply, “Too bad one of those storms wrould sweep right across ut,” why, Ella was right about that, too.

Flower Bight had hills behind it, and from the hills, low hills though they were, gushed a number of springs, and formed Flower Creek; it was short and not navigable for far, but, small as Jack’s land was, it included both a piece of coast and a piece of creek: and he navigated it just far enough. A bird he had not learned the name of sang a soft, sweet, mournful song: briefly: was still. Here was the broad-leafed “wild banana,” and the wild papaya, with ant-riddled leaves: a grey-silver monkey with a black pate, dignified and rabbinical, made an appearance long enough for the visitors to observe and enjoy it: there, among the leaves.

“This piece of propittv has no buildings on it, I believe you said, John —” by and by, trees, monkeys, birds, or not -

For he, having tired anyway of both Limeskinner and Limekuller, had begged them to call him John; even at the price of having in turn to call them Ella and Ed. In his own mind they of course remained Mrs. and Doctor. “No,” he said, now; “not even a john. have to go a ways into the bush for that, better to use the boat’s head, though.” He always said this little spiel, some people being shy about the things that all people had to do not merely every day but, if healthv, several times a day. He did not add. Safer. He merely handed out the gum boots, and broke off a stick for each of them.