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he was happy there for a long time. He saved two-thirds of
his salary every month without stinting himself because he
lived so simply, and as the money grew it became his salva-
tion. You're not a man with responsibilities, so perhaps you
won't understand that."
"Oh, but I do," she said on a caught breath. "If only I'd
known him - really known him."
Before she was aware it was happening, tears fell down her
cheeks. She bent forward, her fists to her eyes, her knees
raised against them, and wept uncontrollably yet with little
sound. Simon sat up quickly, slipped an arm round her and
lifted her head so that her face pressed against his shirt. For
a long moment he just held her there, his hand hard over
her hair.
Then roughly he said. "For God's sake stop it. I'm not
used to this!"
She stilled automatically, pushed away from him and took
her handkerchief from her pocket. "Sorry," she said thinly.
"I just couldn't help it."
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I- "Itls a11 right'" ^y-
ijl With a gesture that was friendly yet non-committal he
grew her back to lean against him, kept a hand over the
jjbone of her shoulder.
| "Now you've learned a bit about your father you may be
to understand why I care so much what happens to the
jponey he collected with such diligence," he said quietly "If
succeeded while he still had good health he'd have come
gome to you, but the recurrent fever affected his heart and
gie did what he considered the next best thing. He took me
|mto his confidence, and we invested the money for the best
possible return."
" J, "I . . . I'm very grateful, Simon. I mean, for what you did
|for my father."
f ^"y^P in i^y Position would have done the same."
j "Still," she said unsteadily, "it was rather special treatment
f- from you. You told me when we first met that you didn't
Relieve in love, but you've proved that you practise it. I
JI know you meant love between the sexes, but it's all bound
together, really. You're not such a hard case as you'd like
jeveryone to believe."
| "Oh, yes, I am," with a faint smile in his tones. "I've just
pone soft for an hour, that's all. I don't want you to be
;unhappy about what I've told you, little Kate. Just let it sink
in a bit, so that when we do talk the thing out you'll under-
stand my angle as well as your own."
Katie drew a small sigh, but felt relaxed. She would have
liked to tell him the whole truth of the matter: of Lorina's
need, and Charles Kain, and even perhaps of her own ebbing
mterest in the Morbay guest farm. But allegiance to Lorina
was strong. And at the back of Katie's mind lay the convic-
tion that this was merely an interlude; once they were back
in the car Simon would revert to his erstwhile inflexibility
But this was ... heavenly. She could feel him at her back
us chin was close to her hair, and the strong hand was on her
" houlder, the thumb absently moving in a semi-circle over the
?one. She could have turned her head and touched her lips
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to his fingers; he could have moved just a few inches and
kissed her cheek. Neither happened, of course, but Katie
hoarded the long, intimate moments.
The' sun was going down in a thick lilac haze, the sea
scarcely murmured. But far out a breeze rippled across the
carelessly moving water, and a canoe which had been static
began to bounce.
"It's going to rain in a few hours," said Simon. "Let's hope
it doesn't miss the island."
The magic was over. He pulled her to her feet, picked up
the picnic box and led the way back to the boat.
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CHAPTER VI
THE rain came towards dawn next morning, heralded by a
burst of thunder that rocked the hotel and a brief squall that
hurled tiles into the distance and left the garden coyered with
nuts and branches. The wind cleared, thunder and lightning
passed over towards the sea, but the rain stayed, a contin-
uous roaring torrent into which no one ventured.
As if the storm itself were not enough, Lorina awoke with
a badly-relaxed throat. She had mentioned the night before
that her throat ached abominably, but this morning, she said,
i she felt choked.
"No heat or soreness," she said with difficulty. "It simply
seems to have closed in. I had it in England once."
"Yes, I remember," said Katie anxiously. "What were
those tablets you took for it?"
"Penicillin lozenges, I think, but I'm not sure. In any case,
we can't get anything here. I shall have to suffer till the rain
is over."
'Til make enquiries," Katie said, and she slipped on a
jacket and went out into the steaming terrace.
In the hotel lounge several of the residents were sitting and
staring out of the windows at the grey deluge and flooded
lanai. Uncle Jake was in a corner, looking disconsolate.
"Good morning, Mr. Dorfling," Katie said. "Are we im-
prisoned till it's over?"
"I'm afraid so, young lady. The education officer has gone
off in his wagon, but it's tricky driving. Lack of visibility is
worse than the condition of the road."
"Are the other cars all right?"
"They've been pushed under the port. You and your cousin
can come here with your books or sewing."
Katie shook her head. "Miss Carew has a bad throat. Have
you a medicine chest?"
"Nothing much. First aid and aspirins, that's all. A bad
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throat, you say?" He looked serious. "Always have to treat
a throat quickly here. I can give you some antiseptic for
gargling."
"Will you, please? Perhaps that will relieve Lorina till I
can get in to Kohti."
But the antiseptic was no good. The bottle, Katie surmised,
had been,used once and left standing for years. The liquid
smelled unpleasant, and Katie poured it down a drain. She
returned to Lorina and made her a gargle fluid of powdered
aspirin. Lorina did her best with the stuff, but after a few
tries she sank back on her bed, pale and shaking. A sweat
had broken out across her cheekbones and to Katie it made
her look pathetic. She felt panic rising within her.
Lorina said, almost inaudibly and slowly, "I'll have to have
something to help me, Katie. Dr. Willis could put this right
in a few hours."
Katie nodded. "I'm going to see him. Just keep covered,
and I'll be as quick as I can."
"Katie, I can't let you. I've no temperature; he'll think
I'm bluffing."
"If he does," Katie said firmly, "I'll tell him what I think
of him. Don't worry about me - I can make it."
"I'm sure you can . . . but I do think we ought to wait
till the rain eases."
"If it were anything else, yes - but not a throat. I may be
gone more than an hour. Will you be all right?"
"Will you get me some ice water? Sips of it do help."
Katie complied quickly. She looked out the waterproof she
hadn't yet used on Numeh and got into it, pulled the hood
up over her head and tied the tapes under her chin. She
took another look at Lorina, saw her lying back with closed
eyes that appeared horribly dark in the subdued light, and
hurried out into the terrace. There she hesitated. If she passed
through the main part of the hotel there would be questions
and exclamations and someone might try to stop her. By
crossing the garden she could reach the thatched car port
and get the car going before anyone would know.
Uncle Jake had been right. Tricky was a mild adjective to
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describe the conditions this morning. Even with the car beams
full on she could see nothing through the rivers which ran
over the windshield but the straight grey rain, and whenever
a tyre found a large rock it slipped, and jerked the steering
wheel. But one grew accustomed to it, plugged on and pre-
sumably covered the miles between Mondulu and Kohti. It
seemed a long, long while, though, till Katie saw the islan-
ders' dwellings on the outskirts of the town.
The town was deserted; the shops and houses shuttered,
bamboo screens fastened over upper windows, a cart here
and there derelict and rotten or shrouded with tapa. There
were no cars at all, not even in the side streets. The town
teemed with imprisoned humanity of which there was, uncan-
nily, hardly a sign.
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