"INAGUA IS A QUEER LITTLE ISLAND" $5 



feet must perforce in the Bahamas, or at least some of the 

 Bahamas, be stretched out over a multitude of acres. 



Suddenly, from the interior, came a great shouting and 

 thrashing of branches and the sound of running feet. The noise 

 increased continually, intermingled with a terrified squealing 

 until out of the bushes there plunged a scrawny razorback hog 

 holding a sweet potato in its mouth. The hog saw us, swerved 

 careening in its flight and plunged at a tangent into the bushes. 

 After him, carrying stones and clubs, raced two men and a 

 woman who stopped when they saw us. The hog continued on 

 and could be heard blundering away through the vegetation. 



"Dom hogs," said the elder of the two men, "dey gobble 

 eberyting on de place." 



He came forward and extended his hand. The others came 

 forward too and I shook hands in turn. Like the boys they 

 were quite black, typically ragged, but seemed pleasant enough. 

 They introduced themselves as Thomas and David Daxon and 

 Ophelia. OpheHa was a long lanky woman clad in a dress that 

 was vaguely Victorian and she had a bright blue bandanna 

 wrapped around her head. Thomas was a small fellow with a 

 goatee and a round cherubic face that beamed with typical 

 negroid cheerfulness. The other, David Daxon, did not impress 

 me so favorably. He was a great hulking brute with a crafty, 

 almost porcine appearance. 



I told them briefly of the wreck and of our situation. Thomas 

 shook his head sadly. "Dat's a turrible ting for a mon to lose 

 his boat," he said, "and in such a time as dis. I feel fob yo, suh, 

 I feel berry berry hard fob yo, suh. But we help yo, suh, we 

 salvage de wreckage, we salvage lots of boats, suh." 



Somehow the remark that he had salvaged lots of boats did 

 not strike me so favorably, perhaps some inflection or eager- 

 ness in tone, and in some way I must have shown it, for al- 

 though I said nothing, he quickly added that he, Thomas, was 



