S6 I N A G U A 



a very respectable person, in fact he was a minister of the Gos- 

 pel. I raised my eyes at this, for the Negro looked like anything 

 but a minister of the Gospel. He was wearing a shirt of faded 

 blue denim, an even more faded pair of pants with the seat and 

 knees sewn with off-color patches, and he possessed a huge pair 

 of bare horny scarred feet that appeared never to have had ac- 

 quaintance with a pair of shoes. The hulking David was in- 

 troduced as a deacon of the church. He looked the part even 

 less than the smaller and more kindly appearing Thomas. How- 

 ever, I allowed the matter to pass without comment and made 

 arrangements for their labor and the use of their boats which 

 were drawn up on the beach near by. 



While the Inaguans were getting their vessels ready I drew 

 aside and sat down in the shade of a palm tree to rest and think. 

 In the meantime a number of other Negroes had made their ap- 

 pearance and were helping with the launchings. I noticed that 

 the big David had drawn a couple of these aside and was whis- 

 pering to them. I did not like this air of secrecy and made a 

 mental reservation to be on my guard. However, nothing fur- 

 ther occurred to cause any suspicion and in the rush of getting 

 the boats in the water I forgot the matter. 



Nearly three hours later just as the sun was setting, tingeing 

 the rock with orange and yellow, we sailed into the Lagoon 

 Christophe. Two boatloads of us. Thomas and I in a small 

 sloop with a ragged sail that threatened every moment to part 

 from its boom, and David Daxon with some nephews and 

 other relatives in a larger craft that had every appearance of 

 disintegrating before our very eyes and plunging to the bot- 

 tom. We hesitated near the sparkling reef outside the lagoon, 

 sparred for an opening, and then with a rush slipped through 

 a tiny coral-bordered channel. As we entered, two large green- 

 back turtles swept out of the weed that lined the bottom, 

 circled for a moment or two and then dashed with long curling 



