The only thing we had to do was keep the birth a secret for a month. In view of the gullibility of the islanders this was not so difficult as it might have been. Cougaba had only to say the Giant had ordered this or that and it was accepted.

But how relieved we were when we could show the baby to the waiting crowd. All our efforts had been worthwhile.

Even Wandalo had to admit that the color of the child indicated that the Giant was pleased by what was happening on the island. He liked the prosperity.

"And most obligingly," said my mother gleefully, "he has stopped that wretched grumbling of his. It couldn't have been more opportune."

So we emerged from this delicate situation. But in spite of my father's assertion that it was not so very rare for a colored person who had had a white father to produce a light-colored child, I kept thinking of Philip and pictures of him and Cougabel laughing together returned again and again to my mind.

I think my feelings toward Philip changed at that time. Or perhaps I was changing. I was growing up.

Susannah on Vulcan Island

Soon after that I went back to school for my last term; and when I came back Philip was installed on the island.

To be with him again reassured me that my suspicions were unfounded. Cougabel had planted those thoughts in my mind and she had done so deliberately. I remember Luke Carter's saying that the islanders were vindictive and never omitted to take revenge. I had made Cougabel jealous and, knowing my feelings for Philip, she was repaying me through him.

Silly girl! I thought. And sillier was I to have allowed myself to believe what I did for a moment.

The baby flourished. The islanders brought him gifts and Cougabel was delighted with him. She took him up to the mountain to give thanks to the Giant. It occurred to me that, whatever else Cougabel was, she was very brave, for she had deceived her people and yet she dared go to the mountain to give thanks to the Giant.

"But perhaps she was thanking him because she was extricated from this difficult predicament," my mother suggested. "But in fact she should be thanking us."

I was very happy during the months that followed. Philip had become like a member of the family. I was finished with school, and my parents were happier than they had ever been before— except for those rare moments which my mother had once mentioned. I realized now that they were at peace. As time passed danger receded and their big anxiety had been on my account.

Now I knew they were thinking that I should marry Philip and settle here for the rest of my life. I should not be confined as they had been. I should be able to take trips to Australia and New Zealand and perhaps go home for a long stay. The islands were prospering. Soon they would be growing into a civilized community. It was my father's dream. He wanted more doctors and nurses; they would marry, he said, and have children... .

Oh yes, those were dreams he and my mother shared; but it was the fact that they believed my future was settled which delighted them most.

There was another matter. I had noticed one of the plantation overseers, a very tall, handsome young man, was constantly near the house waiting for a glimpse of Cougabel. He liked to take the baby from her and rock him in his arms.

I said to my mother: "I believe Fooca is the father of Cougabel's baby."

"The thought had occurred to me," replied my mother. She laughed. She was laughing a great deal these days.

"You can see how it happened," she went on. "They were lovers. Cougabel probably knew she was with child on the night of the dance. The scheming little creature! Really, one has to admire her. She is bright, that girl. Luke Carter was a shrewd fellow and I think he has passed on some of his attributes to his daughter. It is miraculous the way she has turned this situation to advantage."

So we laughed at Cougabel's deception and, when Fooca came to Cougaba and offered to marry her daughter, we were all delighted.

So was Cougabel.

We were allowed to attend the marriage ceremony as she had lived in our house. She was kept all night in one of the huts with four selected unmarried girls—all virgins—who anointed her with coconut oil and braided her hair. Fooca was in another hut with four young men who tended him. Then in the late afternoon the ceremony was performed in the middle of the clearing. The girls brought Cougabel out of the hut and the young men brought Fooca. Cougaba stood there holding the baby, who was solemnly taken from her by two women and given to Cougabel. The bride and bridegroom held hands while Wandalo chanted something unintelligible to us and Cougabel and Fooca jumped over a palm log together. It was a log which was kept in Wandalo's hut and was said to have been thrown out of the Giant's crater years ago when he had all but destroyed the island. The log had endured as marriage should. It was symbolic.

After that there was feasting in the clearing and dancing, though not of the frenzied kind that took place on the night of the Dance of the Masks.

After we had watched the ceremony of jumping over the log, Philip and I wandered down to the shore. The singing at the wedding had begun and we could hear it in the distance. We sat down on the sandy beach and looked out over the sea. It was a beautiful scene. The palm leaves waved slightly in the balmy breeze which came across the water; the sun, which soon would set, had stained the clouds blood red. Behind us loomed the mighty Giant.

Philip said: "I never dreamed there was such a spot on earth." "Are you going to be content here?" I asked. "More than content," he said and, turning on his side, leaned on his elbow and looked at me.  "I  am so  glad," be went on, "that you and Laura were friends. Otherwise you would never have come to the property and we should not be here together like this. Think of that... ." I said: "I'm thinking of it."

"Oh, Suewellyn," he murmured, "what a tragedy that would have been!"

I laughed. I was so happy.

I heard myself saying: "What do you think of Cougabel?" The suspicion was still lingering, although I almost believed it was nonsense. I wanted to talk of it, though. I wanted to be assured.

"Oh, she's a minx," he said. "Do you know, I wouldn't be surprised if she leads that ... what's his name? Fooca? ... a dance."

"She is considered to be very attractive. These people are often beautiful but she stands out because she is different, you see. That touch of white ..."

"Ah yes, your father was telling me that her father was a man who used to be here."

"Yes. We were shocked when the baby was born. He is even lighter than Cougabel."

"It happens like that sometimes. The next baby may be quite black. Then perhaps she'll have another of a lighter color."

"Well, she has jumped over the log now."

"Good luck to her," said Philip. "Good luck to everyone on the island."

"It's your future now."

He took my hand and held it. "Yes," he said. "My future ... our future."

The sun was low on the horizon. We watched. It always seemed to disappear so quickly. It was like a great red ball dropping into the sea. It had gone. Darkness came quickly. There was no twilight, which I vaguely remembered only from my childhood in England.

Philip sprang up. He held out his hand to help me and I took it.

He put an arm round me as we walked to the house.

I could hear the singing of the wedding party, and I felt that all was well with the world.

A week passed. The ship was due at any time now. My father was looking forward to it. It was bringing the supplies he needed.

It would bring mail too. Not that we received much but Laura was a good correspondent and there was usually a letter to me from her.

I wondered how she was getting on with her love affair and whether she really would be married before I was. I was sure that Philip loved me and would ask me to marry him. I wondered why he hesitated. I had passed my seventeenth birthday but perhaps he still considered me too young. Perhaps I seemed younger than I actually was because I had lived so much of my life shut away from the world. However, although he made allusions to the future, he had not yet asked me to marry him.

That was the state of affairs when the ship arrived.

I woke up one morning and there she lay, white and gleaming, out in the bay. She was about a mile out, for the water round the island was too shallow for her to come closer.

There was the usual excitement but no more than usual and, looking back, I marveled once more that Fate gives one no warning when some great event is going to burst upon one and change one's whole life.

The ship's small boats were being lowered and the canoes were already paddling out to the ship. How they reveled in those days when the ship came in! The noise and babble were tremendous and we could hardly hear ourselves speak.

My parents and I were standing on the shore ready to receive the boats as they came in, when to our amazement we saw someone being helped out of one of the boats which came from the ship. It was a woman. She was climbing down the swinging ladder and being caught by two of the sailors. She settled herself down to be rowed ashore.

"Who on earth can this be?" said Anabel.

Our eyes were fixed on the boat as it came nearer. Now we could see her more clearly. She was young and she wore a big shady hat decorated with white daisies. It was a most elegant hat.

She had turned towards us. She had seen us. She lifted a hand in a rather regal manner, as though she knew who we were.