the former alternative Chester and Keith had little faith. Moniz was a thoroughly unprincipled blackguard, as devoid of scruples as he was soft-tongued when it suited his purpose to be so, but he was not of the kind who allow physical fear to stand in the way of their desires. His very mode of life proclaimed the fact that he was no coward. But he was too clever to run risks unnecessarily when he might achieve the same object by subtle means. The white inhabitants of Tao Tao were relieved at finding he paid them so little attention, but they never lost sight of the fact that he was a brooding menace. The only consolation they had—if consolation it could be called—was that if Moniz was by some means receiving reports concerning the doings on Tao Tao, there had been no rush of good fortune there to tempt him to adopt desperate measures.
The weeks glided by, and Keith settled down to the dolce far niente of island life in the South Seas. The work on the plantation proceeded apace. The man from the Four Winds calculated that if they kept at it in the same manner for another twelve months, and the fruits of their labour were not destroyed by the devastating hurricanes which sweep across those waters periodically, Tao Tao might begin to give promise as a plantation. It would never be a first-rate paying concern, however, because the soil was not only of an inferior quality, but it had not sufficient depth in many places. The
