Bart entered the place soon after he had come to the determination,
bringing an Indian basket of fruit--the pleasant little grapes that grew
wild in the sunny parts, and the succulent banana. These he placed upon
the stone table in company with a bunch of flowers, where they looked
like some offering made to the idol upon whose altar they had been
placed.
Humphrey hesitated with the words upon his lips, and checked himself.
If Dinny had been overheard and were imprisoned or watched, what good
would he do? Better wait and bear the suspense.
"Your gift?" he said, aloud, taking up the flowers and smelling them,
for the soft delicate blooms of the forest orchids suggested a room in
Saint James's Square and a daintily-dressed lady who was bemoaning his
absence.
"Mine? No. The captain picked them himself," said Bart, bitterly.
Humphrey laid them down and took up one of the long, yellow-skinned
fruits, Bart watching his action, regarding the fruit with jealous eyes.
Humphrey turned sharply round to hide his face from his jailer, for he
had changed colour. A spasm shot through him, and for the moment he
felt as if he must betray himself, for as he turned over the banana in
his fingers, they touched a roughening of the under part, and the next
instant he saw that the fruit he held had been partly cut away with the
point of a knife, so that a figure had been carved in the soft rind, and
this could only have been the work of one hand, and intended as a signal
to him that he was not forgotten. For the figure cut in the rind was
that of a shamrock--a trefoil with its stalk.
He hastily tore off the rind in tiny strips and ate the fruit, but the
soft, creamy pulp seemed like ashes, and his throat was dry, as he
completely destroyed all trace of the cutting on the rind and threw it
aside.
Noting that Bart was watching him narrowly, he hurriedly picked up one
of the little bunches of grapes and began eating them as if suffering
from thirst. Then forcing himself to appear calm he lay down upon the
couch till Bart had finished his customary attentions and gone.
Night at last--a moonless night--that would have been dusk on the open
shore, but there in the forest beneath the interlacing trees it was
absolutely black; and after watching at his window for hours, with every
sense upon the strain, he reluctantly came to the conclusion that no
attempt would be made, Dinny either not being prepared--though his
signal seemed to be to indicate readiness for the night though suitable
for concealment, being too obscure for his purpose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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