No, certainly not. He had never had any business
to call there. But what of that? He could give Mr. Ricardo as good a
sea-mark as anybody need wish for. He laughed nervously. Miss it! He
defied anyone that came within forty miles of it to miss the retreat of
that villainous Swede.
"What do you think of a pillar of smoke by day and a loom of fire at
night? There's a volcano in full blast near that island--enough to guide
almost a blind man. What more do you want? An active volcano to steer
by?"
These last words he roared out exultingly, then jumped up and glared.
The door to the left of the bar had swung open, and Mrs. Schomberg,
dressed for duty, stood facing him down the whole length of the room.
She clung to the handle for a moment, then came in and glided to her
place, where she sat down to stare straight before her, as usual.
PART THREE
CHAPTER ONE
Tropical nature had been kind to the failure of the commercial
enterprise. The desolation of the headquarters of the Tropical Belt Coal
Company had been screened from the side of the sea; from the side where
prying eyes--if any were sufficiently interested, either in malice or
in sorrow--could have noted the decaying bones of that once sanguine
enterprise.
Heyst had been sitting among the bones buried so kindly in the grass of
two wet seasons' growth.
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