Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE HUT IN THE PALMS: NIGHT He had taken but a few steps, and those dizzily, when the stranger's voice called after him, clear and commanding. " Wait a bit!" The man in white stood looking down from the doorway, with an altered countenance. " We' re all fools, if it comes to that. I mean to say, if you'd lived here by your lonesome, like me, till you felt ready to beat your dog for not answering — why, 't would have given you a start. A man with your face and build is no beachcomber, of course, and I beg pardon. You gave me something like a jump, you know, and your story was a bit of a shocker. Wasn't it, now, to be fair?" David stood there in doubt, sulking. " I don't see anything in my story," he retorted, "to shock any man with an open mind, or" — he paused; then could not help adding — " or a clear conscience." His rival in the doorway laughed — a pleasant, easy laugh, which was good to hear, and which gave his face a look of captivating mischief. "Dear chap," he cried, "I haven't either, upon my word! Mv mind's a perfect nest of suspicions, as yours would be if —" He broke off and laughed again. "And conscience — mine's about as clear as mud. Come back here! I like the way you took this." But David, not to be cast off and whistled back so easily, turned to go. On the flat path his feet stumbled as if among hummocks; his eyes were dry and leaden in their sockets; and round him the slim trunks swayed and blurred. " Easy now!'' coaxed a friendly voice. " Pins a little wobbly? Hold hard!" David could not tell whether he had fallen or not, but at all events he was now leaning on the Englishman's shoulder heavily, and somehow without compunction. ''Steady a bit! Only a step or two —" What followed David never could recall, except that the s...