“Well!” said Jack, smiling in spite of his disappointment and grief. “This really is a fine surprise!” “Japs,” said the girl, picking up the bowl of chicken, “have an unpleasant habit of ambushing people and shooting them in the back. How about a little seclusion?” “Suits me.” Jack picked up the tray of cakes. “It’s been a long time since I had fried chicken for breakfast. Let’s not be interrupted.” Stew followed them with the coffee as they hiked away. In a shady, well-hidden spot among the palms, the girl spread broad palm leaves for a table. “Now,” she laughed. “Make a long arm and help yourselves.” “Where’d you get that expression?” Jack demanded. “I think,” her brown eyes twinkled, “that it was in Kentucky.” “Kentucky?” Jack exclaimed. “Then you—” “Sure!” she laughed. “You’re getting warm now.” She pulled wads of palm fiber from her nostrils and from under her lips. They had been put there to make her nostrils seem wider and thicker. Then she drew a small bottle from a pocket in her native belt to rub the brown from the backs of her hands. “So you’re an American!” Stew exclaimed. “Just plain Mary Brown from the U. S. A.,” she said proudly. “Great Scott!” Stew exclaimed. “How’d you get here, anyway, and what’s the meaning of the disguise?” “It’s a long story.” She hesitated. “I’d tell it to you now, but first, you tell me if you can, what that shooting was about out there on the water?” “That,” Jack’s face grew tense, “that was a friend of ours named Ted who tried to rescue us.” “And he was shot down by the Germans in the jet plane?” Mary Brown asked. “That’s what we think,” Jack replied soberly. “Why don’t you try to rescue him?” she asked. “Probably he’s past rescuing. Those fiends shot him up while he was on the water.” Jack’s words came slowly. “Besides, we have no boat, no plane, nothing.” “You forget the native canoes,” she said. “Say! That’s right!” Jack exclaimed. “Would the natives help us?” “They’ll do anything I say. Besides, it will be a good thing to put them to work just now.” “Why?” Jack asked in surprise. “I’m trying to keep them from knowing there are Japs on the island,” said Mary. “They hate the Japs worse than snakes. Not long ago a Jap torpedo boat came across a big canoe loaded with these natives and killed every one of them, for no reason at all.” “Come on! Hurry!” Stew exclaimed, swallowing half a cup of black coffee. “Let’s get out there and have a look for Ted. He’s the best pal we ever had, and if those fiends got him—” He did not finish, but the others understood. By the time they had rounded up three stout canoes manned by husky natives and made their way around the end of the island, the large morning clouds had dropped to water level and become rain squalls. “This is terrible!” Jack groaned. “We’ll never find him now.” “You don’t know these natives.” Mary Brown settled back in the stern. “They can find any living thing on the sea.”