widely, to continue to
the other clearing where were the fruit trees, to cross the jungle to the
main path, to proceed down the main path toward the village till he came
to the great banyan tree, and then to return along the small path to
Nalasu and Nalasu's house. All of which Jerry would carry out to the
letter, and, arrived back, would make report. As, thus: at the nest
nothing unusual save that a buzzard was near it; in the other clearing
three coconuts had fallen to the ground--for Jerry could count unerringly
up to five; between the other clearing and the main path were four pigs;
along the main path he had passed a dog, more than five women, and two
children; and on the small path home he had noted a cockatoo and two
boys.

But he could not tell Nalasu his states of mind and heart that prevented
him from being fully contented in his present situation. For Nalasu was
not a white-god, but only a mere nigger god. And Jerry hated and
despised all niggers save for the two exceptions of Lamai and Nalasu. He
tolerated them, and, for Nalasu, had even developed a placid and sweet
affection. Love him he did not and could not.

At the best, they were only second-rate gods, and he could not forget the
great white-gods such as Skipper and Mister Haggin, and, of the same
breed, Derby and Bob. They were something else, something other,
something better than all this black savagery in which he lived. They
were above and beyond, in an unattainable paradise which he vividly
remembered, for which he yearned, but to which he did not know the way,
and which, dimly sensing the ending that comes to all things, might have
passed into the ultimate nothingness which had already overtaken Skipper
and the _Arangi_.

In vain did the old man play to gain Jerry's heart of love. He could not
bid against Jerry's many reservations and memories, although he did win
absolute faithfulness and loyalty. Not passionately, as he would have
fought to the death for Skipper, but devotedly would he have fought to
the death for Nalasu. And the old man never dreamed but what he had won
all of Jerry's heart.

* * * * *

Came the day of the Annos, when one of them made the invention, which was
thick-plaited sandals to armour the soles of their feet against the
poisoned thorns with which Nalasu had taken three of their lives. The
day, in truth, was the night, a black night, a night so black under a
cloud-palled sky that a tree-trunk could not